From: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: israel & hamas
Date: 30 Dec 1992 07:50:06 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
Distribution: world
Reply-To: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.23.70

In article 1624@epas.toronto.edu, bkatz@epas.utoronto.ca (Bernard Katz) writes:
>In article <1hm7f4INNmvi@manuel.anu.edu.au> bdm@cs.anu.edu.au writes:
>>In article 19859@nysernet.org, astein@nysernet.org (Alan Stein) writes:

>>>Whatever Arabs left Israel during the '48 War, with very few
>>>exceptions, left of their own free will in response to pleas from the
>>>invaders to get out of the way to make the destruction of Israel
>>>easier.  They voluntarily gave up their homes, despite the pleas of
>>>the Jews that they remain, expecting to return in a few days to not
>>>only reclaim their homes, but the homes of their dead Jewish
>>>neighbors.

>>Yeah, yeah, we already know you believe that stuff.  You probably
>>believe in the tooth fairy too; the evidence is stronger after all.
>>It proves nothing, but here's a little quote for you:

>>   "I don't suggest that we should trample on others' rights, but 
>>   one must call a spade a spade: Zionism and rights don't always go
>>   hand-in-hand.  The very establishment of this state is an affront
>>   to the Arabs' rights.  Arabs lived in Jaffa.  They didn't leave;
>>   they were expelled.  We went into the villages and said 'Get out.'
>>   And they got out.  Yes, it's important for me and others that 
>>   this state be a democratic one, but you still have to consider
>>   the difference between ourselves and the {ther countries and
>>   remember that democracy is not an end in itself but rather an
>>   instrument.  Zionism takes precedence over everything."
>>   -- Limor Linyat, member of the Likud Central Committee,
>>      Tikkun, Sep/Oct 1991, p14.

>>You see, practically everyone knows what really happenned in 1948.
>>The old mythology, created more for the US market than anything,
>>still has its blind adherents though, doesn't it Alan? 

>I don't think things are as cut and dry as Brendan supposes. In any
>case, here are some additional quotes, this time from informed Arab writers,
>that he might find instructive.

I never said matters were cut and dried.  I said Alan's simplistic
explanation was wrong.  Any single-cause explanation is necessarily
wrong, because there were many different reasons in different 
circumstances. 

>	In his memoirs, Khaled al-Azm, Prime Minister of Syria in 1948
>and 1949, writes:

>	"Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees
>	to their homes.  But we ourselves encouraged them to leave.  Only
>	a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to
>	the United Nations to resolve on their return."
>		---_Memoirs_. vol. I, pp.386-87, Beruit.

Firstly, unless you translated this from the Arabic yourself you should
state your source.  How do we know we can trust the translation and
the context?  As a matter of fact, the Syrians played a part in two
parts of the Arab exodus:  the decision of the remaining Arabs of
Haifa to leave after the city was overrun by Jewish forces (very many
had fled from the fighting already), and the exodus from the eastern
Galilee.  In the latter case the Syrians sent trucks to take away Arabs
that in many cases had already left their villages.  Either or both
of these could explain your quote.  It only represents a fraction of
the total flight, and even for that fraction does not address the
reasons behind the flight (from the refugees' viewpoint).

>And Abu Mazer, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, writes:

>	"The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians
>	. . . but instead they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and
>	leave their homeland . . . ."
>		---Article in _Falastin al-Thawra_.  March 1976.

This does not support Alan's claim.  It says that the Arab armies did
not protect the Palestinians against the need to flee from the Jewish
armies.  For the Syrian case, see above.  For the Jordanian case,
Abdullah's orders for the Arab Legion to remain out of the part of
Palestine allocated to the Jewish state by the UN are very well
documented.

>It would seem that it is Brendan who is under the spell of some new myths.

Here are the figures from an analysis made in June 1948 (about half-way 
through the Arab exodus) by the Haggana/IDF Intelligence Branch:
 
     Cause of flight                              Percentage
 
  Haggana/IDF operations and their influence(*)       55
  Irgun/Lehi operations                               15
  Orders from Arab leaders                             5
  Jewish 'whispering' campaigns                        2
  Expulsion orders by Jewish forces                    2
  Fear of retaliation after Arab attacks on Jews       1
  General fear                                        10
  'local factors'                                    8-9
 
(*) split into direct attacks on Arab villages, and panic caused by
    attacks on nearby villages; numerical split not given
 
[B. Morris, The causes and character of the Arab exodus from Palestine,
 Middle Eastern Studies 22 (1986) 5-19]

>	Bernard Katz

Brendan.




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