In article <HM.93Apr24130647@angell.cs.brown.edu> hm@cs.brown.edu (Harry Mamaysky) writes:  >From _Myths and Facts_, by Leonard J. Davis, Near East Research Inc., >1989:  Great, someone will be posting from 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' next  >    "Unlike the PLO's almost exclusive focus on civilian targets,  At this time the PLO did not exist and would not for the next 20 years. You knew that didn't you? Perhaps you might want to add up all the Jewish civilians killed during the 48 War. I'll opt for the massacre at Deir Yassin. Which do you think is the greater?  >In 1983, however, Eric Silver of _The Guardian_ (Britain) >interviewed a survivor, Mophammed Sammour, who testified that 116 out >of a population of 800-1000 were killed.  While we are talking about this man I have included more of his testimony that Harry naturally does not use nor does Myths and Facts. I wonder why. No doubt he was lying right Harry?                  "The reason was mainly economic. That is                  to capture booty in order to maintain                  the bases which we had then established                  with very poor resources. The main idea,                  despite this, remained the conquest of                  the village by force of arms, something                  which was then unknown in the country,                  and became a turning point in Jewish                  military operations"                   Yehuda Lapidot, Jabontinsky Archives Testimony                   "Apart from the military discussion, the                   Lehi put forward a proposal to liqui-                   date the residents of the village after                   the conquest, in order to show the Arabs                   what happens when the IZL and the Lehi                   set out together on an operation, and for                   another main reason - it would cause a                   great uproar throughout the land and                   would be an important turning point in                   the course of the battles. The clear aim                   was to break the Arab morale and raise                   somewhat the morale of the Jewish commu-                   nity in Jerusalem, which had been hit                   hard time after time, especially recenctly                   by the desecration of Jewish bodies which                   fell into Arab hands"                    Yehuda Lapidot, Jabotinsky Archives                   testimony as quoted by Yisrael Segal in                   "The Deir Yassin File", published by                   Koteret Rashit 19th January 1983  So it wasn't like the Holocaust more like Lidice - a warning, a punishment. Collective and inflicted on unarmed innocents just not as through.                   "When it comes to prisoners, old people                   and children, there were differences                   of opinion, but the majority was for                   liquidation of all the men in the village                   and any other force that opposed us,                   whether it be old people, women or children                    Benzion Cohen                   Commander of the attack on Deir Yassin,                   (J.A.T.)  Let me put in some words here                 a. premeditated                 b. murder What do you say about the eyewitness testimony of the man in command?                   "We had prisoners and before the retreat                   we decided to liquidate them. We also                   liquidated the wounded, as anyway we could                   not give them first aid. In one place                   about eighty Arab prisoners were killed                   after some of them had opened fire and                   killed one of the people who came to give                   them first aid. Arabs who dressed up                   as Arab women were also found, and so                   they started to shoot the women also who                   did not hurry to the area where the                   prisoners were concentrated"                    (J.A.T.)  Shooting prisoners, the wounded, as a warning to hurry? Sounds VERY familiar to me, how about you? Heard of other people other places doing these things?                   "In one case - the Zahran family - only                   one out of twenty five survived. In                   another house they caught the sixteen                   year old son Fuad. His mother was holding                   him. They killed him with a knife. The                   mother spent twenty years after that in                   a mental hospital. A young woman and her                   two year old baby were shot in the                   street. Their bodies were left there.                   They moved to the centre of the village                   and started to kill everybody they saw or                   heard, as soon as anybody opened his                   door. They were using bombs [grenades],                   machine-guns, submachine-guns. My cousin                   escaped with bullet-holes in his clothes.                   One of the officers put his machinegun                   through a window and started shooting                   outwards, killing everybody who moved.                   They killed my uncle, Ali Hassan Zeidan,                   and my aunt Fatima. She heard him call                   'help me'. She ran to him and they killed                   her. Another neighbour Haj Yarah,                   heard some voices and came out. They killed                   him too. His son Muhammad, who was                   about seventeen, heard his father call                   him and went to the same place. They                   killed him. His mother heard her son cry                   for help. She ran out and they killed                   her. That was near my house. I saw this"                    Muhammad Arif Sammour  Funny how 'Myths and Facts' does not see fit to include this too - after all if he is reliable enough to report casualties why not the actual events? What do you say about this Harry?                   "In the exchange that followed four men                   were killed and a dozen were wounded..                   ..by noon time the battle was over and                   the shooting had ceased. Although there                   was a calm, the village had not yet surrendered.                   The Irgun and Lehi men came                   out of hiding and began to 'clean' the houses.                   They shot whoever they saw, women                   and children included, the commanders did                   not try and stop the massacre...I                   pleaded with the commander to order his                   men to cease fire, but to no avail. In                   the meantime twenty five Arabs had been                   loaded on a truck and driven through                   Mahane-Yehuda and Zichron Yosef. At the                   end of the drive, they were taken to                   the quarry bvetween Deir Yassin and Givat                   Shaul, and murdered in cold blood"                    Meir Pa'il, interview with Yediot Ahronot 4|4|1972