Q&A: The history behind Israel's Gaza strikes

Bingo, Melissa, thanks for remembering the truth.  I was present and counting in 1967 and it's my recollection that the three arab states attacked israel first, including with bombers in addition to amassing troops.  That having defeated the ARAB ATTACK, Israel kept the land it felt it needed for it's self defense.  That Israel has returned ALL of the land it kept from it's victory in 1967 to achieve peace, but the terrorist arabs keep attacking and still deny the israeli right to exist. 

It's also my recollection that arabs attacked israeli settlements, killing men, women and children curing the 50's and 60's, yet, what we hear is only that Palestinians fled?  We are also told here that Israel attacked less than a week after the end of the cease fire but there is no mention of the rockets being launched repeatedly first  by the Palestinians into Israel or Israeli casualties before Israel's COUNTER attack.  What kind of anti semitism, yellow, lying journalism is this?

The writer of this piece should don a burkha.

The MSNBC storyline on 1967 is most misleading as you both point out.  Egypt and Syria were poised to strike and wipe Israel off the face of the map. Jordan allied with them.  The exact sequence of events then was:  1. Israel attacked Egypt and destroyed their air force; 2. Jordan attacked Israel from the ground; 3.  Israel defeated both Egypt and Jordan; 4. Israel attacked Syria and approached Damascus; 5. A UN ceasefire ended the war in 6 days.  Israel overwhelmingly defeated each opponent and often the Arab armies were their own worst enemy.

This article is ridiculously biased against Israel. In addition to the obvious bias stating Israel initiated the 1967 war, there are subtle biases such as "the cease-fire lapsed less than a week before Israel's massive crackdown" (Israel is mentioned first in the sentence order, even though sequentially Hamas was first to break the cease fire with rocket attacks), and "Hamas has been launching rockets into Israel and mortar attacks on Israeli army border posts". You've got to be kidding me - no mention that Hamas by its own admission targets civilians? Israel shows unbelievable restraint that none of the countries criticizing them would show. If and when Hamas gets the ability, they will kill every last Israeli man, woman and child. Israel makes huge efforts to avoid civilian casualties - does anyone doubt Israel has the ability to kill far more than 400? Israel should have attacked the bomb-school Islamic university when it was full of students and bombs, instead of warning them in advance and bombing it only at night. Israel needs to clear a one-mile strip of Gaza ground next to Egypt free of any structures or tents, declare it no man's land, and NOT ALLOW any more tunnels. The tunnels are where the missiles from Iran and Syria and Russia are brought in.

This article is a classic example of media bias.  Paragraph one squarely puts the blame for this latest round of violence on Israel by stating, " Israel began a massive assault on the Gaza Strip...  It is not until paragraph seven that the reader is informed (as a side note) that this "assault" was in response to dozens of rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. 

Journalists are entitled to their own opinions as are the rest of us.  But they should limit thier opinions to the op-ed page.  And they should quit writing news articles that slant the news to favor their opinions. 

this comment is really for vina: you show your commplete ignorance  in many ways. but my biggest pet peave is when people say arabs are anti-semitic. take a minute and look that word up to see what it really means. arabs are included under the umbrella of semitic people. so technically arabs would have to hate themselve in order to be anti-semitic. but, as  usual, the jews take something and twist it around so much to where they have the world believing it. kinda like how them hitting that boat the dignity was an "accident."

This article and the some of the comments above are bastardized history. 

Read what Albert Pike wrote about 3 World Wars in the 1800's.

There is absolutely NO balance when it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict.  Our Government and our media are slanted to the Israeli perspective 100%.

The simple truth.  Jews stole the land with a barrel of a GUN. The are keeping the Palestinians under a ruthless military occupation as they annex more land every day. Ethnic cleansing is what is happening.

Apartheid was wrong for South Africa and its wrong for the Holy land. 

Our Congress and the media are controlled by Israel 100% we only get 1/2 the story, even though we pay the entire bill.

What is so difficult to understand? Israel forcefully evacuated its own citizens from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Philanthropists like Mortimer Zuckerman paid millions so that the farms, greenhouses and factories would be handed intact to the Palestinians. The result was that these businesses were destroyed. They had autonomy in the area and they launched missles by the thousands into civilian areas. During the "ceasefire" some 200 missles were launched. What you have Israel do? Sit and do nothing? The Gazans brought this on themselves

The difficulties being faced in the region are far more complicated than the authors of the article would leave its readers to believe.  In examining the conflict, one must look beyond the establishing of the State of Israel in 1948.  In addressing the conflict holistically, the careful observer must look at the historical context surrounding the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early part of the 1900s, the influences exacted on the region by the British Empire, such colonial influences as the Balfour Decleration of 1917 which promised Palestine to Israel by the British, although the British did not control the land, as well as the subsequent conflicts that arouse from said decisions.  This conflict is directly tied to the decisions made by the former colonial powers.  In understanding the violence, you must look beyond the formation of the State of Israel to how it was allowed to form and why.  This historical context is often missing from the debate, although it is vital to the understanding of the conflict.   

Typical report. Trying to condense decades into a few paragraphs. What about the November 4th attack into Gaza by the IDF. The excuse was to stop the digging of a tunnel out of Gaza to an IDF post. If they knew that someone was digging a tunnel out of Gaza into Israel all they had to do is wait. When people come out of the tunnel the IDF captures them and get newspaper coverage. Instead they chose to break the cease fire and go into Gaza on a day the world was focused on the Obama-McCain election. The story is buried.

I have to say that I'm infuriated by reading comments from ignorant Americans brainwashed by our media and governement.  The Palestinian people are being persecuted to extinction by the Israelis who deny them basic needs such as food, water, sanitation, etc.  The Israelis have illegally built walls (walls that continue to encroach on Palestinian land daily) and forcibly taken land from the Palestinian people using "terrorism" as their excuse.  The current rocket attacks were in response to Israel refusing to allow food or aid to enter Gaza.  Jobs are scarce and they are denied the right to find work outside Gaza.  Gazans are desperate because the Israelis made them so.  Homemade rockets do far less damage than the Israeli army has inflicted on these helpless people.  Look at the statistics on how many Israelis have been killed vs. Palestinians.  It's incredilbe the devestation and destruction Israel has inflicted on the Gazans who only cling to Hamas because they are desperate for hope.  Desperate for change.  Desperate to live.  Shame on all of you who blindly support Israel in the genocide they are performing in front of your very eyes.  They are treating the Palestinians as the Nazis treated them and it is shameful and disgusting how humans who should know better abuse/bully others as they were abused.  Anyone in support of Israel who has not been to the Middle East and seen what they are doing first hand should be ashamed of themselves.  Closing the Gazans behind walls (as they continue to illegally steal land and homes from the Palestians) and refusing to allow food and aid to enter while people slowly starve to death sounds like terrorism to me.  The Israelis are the real terrorists and we Americans believe anything the media or governement tells us to do as we support them murdering innocent people.  God help us all.

You think you understand the depth of suffering of the Palestinian people.

2008 marked 100 years of utter despair for them. God's wrath decended on them. They are just at the wrong time and at the wrong place.

They live like animals in these smelly and discusting camps. They are constantly under embargo, constantly denied of any opportunity to prosper. After 100 years, that takes a massive negative huge toll on any group.

Remember that Gaza has been under embargo too, and just like all Palestinians, being slowly choked to death. Israel is commiting a crime of the century, like the Holocaust Slavery and yes, the massive slaughter of the American Indians.

Shame on all humans who support and surrender to this gutter level of morals. 

Hamas has its counterpart in the Israeli government. Both groups claim to be for their own people while continuing to provoke violence to secure their power. Get rid of the power-mad on both sides to obtain peace. Simply removing Hamas would only make the leaders in Israel bolder in their mistreatment of the entire Gaza population. 

if we just did away with this whole idea that it is the "Holy Land" and we stopped all the religious hocus pocus nonsense that is the root of all of this, we'd see peace in the region and the world - so sick of all these stupid wars and people dying each in the name of their own God...how ridiculous!

or that Jordan was created as the Palestinian Homeland at the same time as Israel was as the Jewish homeland.  Why no outcry against Jordan refusing to be the Palestinian homeland?

Unless you know the ACTUAL history, shut up. Israel wants peace and a right to live in their land, which has been theirs all along. The Muslim extremists want every single Jew dead. Just like Hitler, except the Muslims want also every American dead.

I read the articles but I don't see anything about the terrorist acts of Hamas on innocent people. Not as collateral, or because someone was using them as human shields. 100% intentional, with all the evil desire to kill and exterminate.

FREE ISRAEL!!!

The intent of all muslim controlled arab nations is the total destruction of all Jews as demonstrated by history and, as well, conversion by the sword of the world to belief in Islam, for that is the real meaning of peace to a Muslim. The article is at best an Arab leaning reformation of the true state of affairs in that region. If anyone doubts the intention of Mulims worldwide, simply read the Koran and the commentaries of the Muslim prophets. If anyone doubts the intent of the PLO or Hamas read the articles that established the PLO. It calls for total extermination of the Jewish state and all Jews in the region. There is a saying somewhere that reads basically that those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat its failures. Don't believe what some writer with an agenda says. Go study history and learn the truth.

Thank God for intelligent people who remember what really happened in 1967 and 1973. History will and does repeat itself.

I read with interest the counter-points about the walls that the Israelis built to protect themselves.  During the first 20 some odd years of existence is it not true that arabs and other lived fairly peacebly inside Israel?  Only after the 67 and 73 wars and the increase coverage in the media of the plight of the Palestine people did this become a problem.  Terrorism was popularized by the press.  They got their 15 minutes of fame. 

Why didn't the PLO look to form a nation?  They spent money only on weapons to destroy Israel.  If Arafat had been honestly looking to form a nation then real infrastructure would have been established.  But then that would have meant working together with other nations which would have included Israel.  Today instead of having camps, there would have been cities with such things as electricity and water.

That is what the nation of Israel did.  Compare what they have today with what is in place in Egypt.  All things being equal, which country would you rather live in?  Israel or Eygpt?  Since its inception USAID has given more money to Egypt than any other country.  Now which country has used that aid more wisely?  It is pretty obvious.  Add that to the fact that the Suez was under the control of Egypt for some of that time.

Now maybe there has been an infusion of other money into Israel to help with things like infrastructure.  Where did that come from?  Perhaps willing donors from around the world?  I don't have an accounting for that, but if it did, have any Arabics tried to better the plight of either the Gaza Strip or the West Bank?  No, most of that money has gone into weaponry.  AK-47s are great for shooting into the sky and showing that one is a 'man', but don't feed a family very well.

More Arabic money has been spent trying to overtake Israel militarily and failed.  All that has happened is that 1) Israel is still around with a strong military and 2) more importantly, its standard of living and economy are doing quite well.  No one is trying to leave that country.

 There will never be peace in Islam, as long as they keep teaching the children to hate all non Muslims, When they teach the children to hate, they now have cursed that Generation, for they have planted the seed of Evil...

boo, the real truth is they don't want anyone moving in on their territories. your snit picking and thats not kool....

You are absolutely correct.  This article was so slanted in the favor of the Palentine view it is disappointing. 

God Gave All the land to Abraham and his decendent " Isaac " ! Not to the Palistians ( what's the bloodline there ) He ( God ) gave the land to the JEWS ! It's their land ! Quit lobbing rockets at them !!

Hey Sweetie, before 1947 there were no JEWS living in what is Israel, if it wasn't for the USA there still would be no Jews living there, so don't preach the BIBLE.  It isn't your land, never was your land....The Arabs lived there for years before all of the Jews that survived WW2 were moved there....sorry to bust your bubble nice try.....

Elsid, Go and read some booked before starting preaching garbage. Do you need biblographic list ? There were always Jews in Palestine 3 generations back my family and 650,000 more lived there. by the way my parents had Palestinian passport, I an an Israeli,those who today claim to be Palestinians were jordanians and Egyptians, but these are only facts so do not bother to stick to it. It is 100 years that we face the Muslim terrorism, during the last years an average of 35 missiles a day were launched against the "poor" people of Gaza. they have elected to be refugees, proof- there were millions of refugees after WW2 none exist today as a refugee , only Pallestinians has elected to stay refugees leaving on welfare from UNRWA and making kids, more refugees. they are not the victims, they have elected Hamas terror organisation to lead them , now they are paying the toll.

sweetcheeks, god gave the land to jews before they killed his son. come over to the light.

Elsid you need a history lesson ! I'm not preaching , I'm stating facts !

petunia57 I found the light , his name is JESUS !

God gave me your home.  I have it written down right here! 

When can I Kick you out?

And how many thousands of years ago did he do that ? What  book you have that written in ?  Grow up !!!

Hey sweetiecheeks,

God also punished the jews and the punishment was to leave the land and live with others. Look it up its true.

Next if you don't even know that the thousands of rockets killed only a few Israelis and the rockets are home made and that Israil has killed thousands of Palestinians then you need to read some more.

Watch this and then think of the Mexicans or the Canadian doing this to Americans what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.

Israel has every right to defend themselves. But occupying Palestine is wrong, controlling Palestinian lifes and building Israeli settelments in their country is wrong. Destroying their homes is wrong. This is no longer defense but a taking over of another country.

Read the Bible and The Scriptures I've Quoted ! Don't call me a whack job ! READ !!!!!

sweetiecheeks,

you must be one of those stupid americans who thinks that christianity is the only religion in the world. and yet you idiots call yourself a "secular" state... maybe you shld use your head instead of what every scripture tells you... you are indeed whack job... you are in the 21st century... use your brains .i.e. if you have any left after all the brainwashing...i pity you in a way... you seemed to have missed a century in evolution... oh wait, you don't believe in evolution do you

people like you make me sick in my stomach that i almost puke. I am religious too but I would never justify religion over a single loss of life. maybe you need to read your bible again to see where that is justified

God doesn't exist to "gift" land to anybody you idiot. That's not what any religion teaches so maybe you need to revisit what the bible really teaches you

It is really shocking all of those who think Israel can kill as many Palestinians as they want or take their land simply because they were God's chosen people or Israel was once "The Promised Land."  Israel does NOT "want just peace" as referenced above.  Israel wants all the land for themselves and believes it can systematically eliminate the Palestinians by continuing to persecute/attack them.  Do not forget that the Gazans are forced to live behind walls and Israel has cut off all food and aid from entering the Gaza strip.  That's why the missile attacks started.  Israel is letting innocent people starve to death everyday and the Zionists posted here seem to not care about that just as much as Israel doesn't.  No matter what, God does not approve of theft or murder or oppression of anyone.  Don't preach about God's love or His plan when you obviously have NO idea what the love of Christ really means or looks like.  Do you honestly think if Jesus was in Israel today he would approve of the way the Israelis are treating their brothers, the Palestinians?  D you think he would say, “sure, lock all your enemies behind a wall and give them no means to survive.  Go ahead and take this man’s land and live in his house and shoot him if he doesn’t give it to you” ??  And don't talk about Israel defending itself.  That is an excuse Israel uses to take exactly what they want and ignore the laws telling them to withdraw from Palestinian territory.  Look at the statistics of Israeli vs. Palestinian casualties.  Look at how much land Israel has taken and occupied illegally.  There are too many people posting who have NO idea what is really going on.  Go to Middle East and witness it for yourselves. 

Green BA,

You have posted the most ignorant comment possible. The people of Palestine suffer because their actual brothers, other Arab nations, refuse to either aid them or take them back. The blockade of Israel is for Israeli goods. What about Egyptian, Jordanian, and other Arab goods? Other than providing guns and explosives to kill innocent civilians, these nations care less for their own refugees, wrongly called "Palestinians". 

You see, they have the command from Allah to exterminate the Jews, just like Hitler did. Their extremism is the root of the conflict. Israel was given a small percentage of the land that is rightfully theirs and has been for over 3700 years. Still they continue to yield land as a token of peace, but the way a Muslim sees peace is only when the infidels are all dead.

Palestinian civilian casualties are beneficial for the agenda of Hamas and other terrorist groups, they don't care for those lives. That's why the use them as human shields and as a goverment, have done nothing, even with international aid from the UN, to improve their life standards.

Take them back??? Why should they have been forced to leave in the first place?  My husband's father was a boy when the Israeli army marched into his town with guns and gave everyone 2 hours to collect whatever they could carry and meet back in the center of town.  If they refused, they were told they would be killed.  The townspeople complied because a week before, their neighbors in a town nearby were massacred by the Israeli army for refusing to leave their homes.  Christian and Jewish Palestinians were bussed to one refugee camp and the Muslim Palestinians were bussed to a far worse camp.  When his father and grandfather returned to their homes months later, they found Jewish families living in the homes our family had built with their bare hands.  These families were sleeping in their beds, using their china and silverware when they ate their meals, and indignantly proclaimed that the homes and everything inside belonged to them.  My husband's grandfather died of what the family believes was a broken heart shortly thereafter.  Israel occupies land (and continues to confiscate land daily) that is in violation of lawful agreements made. They are also in violation of many UN resolutions.  The International Code of Justice found the Israeli built wall in Gaza was in violation of international law because it infringed on the rights of the Palestinian people.  The wall they continue to build claims more land than legally granted to them and Israel's own supreme court has ordered the wall be moved or removed in many instances.  If Israel has yielded any land it was only land they were illegally occupying in the first place.

There is nothing peaceful in Israel’s actions.  Just yesterday, the UN halted aid into Gaza (food, medicine, etc.) because the Israeli army was firing on them and killing their drivers.  Israel built this wall illegally, forcing its inhabitants to live in squalor with no hope of a future (as they deny them the right to find jobs outside Gaza) and have completely cut off aid to the area, not just from Israel itself as you claim, as people continue to die of disease and starvation.  When you claim that the other nations are providing guns and explosives, you conveniently ignore the drastic difference in arms and power between both sides.  Wouldn’t they be giving them arms that were far more powerful than homemade rockets made out of fertilizer?  Al Qaeda and the extremists in Iraq have far superior weapons than the Gazans who are trapped behind a wall.  Israel's firepower eclipses that of the Palestinians.

You come across as completely heartless as you stereotypically blame all Muslims for the conflict and violence currently taking place and completely ignore the actual issues or seem to care at all for the dead women, children, and innocent civilians killed by Israel this week or at all in this entire conflict.  Not all Muslims are violent or hate-filled, as not all Christians are legalistic and hate-filled as some posters seem to be.  Most Muslims are peaceful and do not support murder or terrorism.  Only the fanatics or radicals get the attention, yet they are a very small percentage.  For the record, I am a Christian, as is my husband and his Palestinian family for many generations.  I am not a liberal and as conservative as they come.  I once believed Israel was completely justified in the terror they inflicted on the Gazans as I foolishly and ignorantly believed all Palestinians were future terrorists as the US media and government would have us believe.  However, when I saw what Israel has been doing, when I saw the map of the wall they’ve built and how much land they’ve confiscated illegally (as based on international agreements), when I saw the statistics on causalities between both sides, seen how bad Gaza really is and how Israeli occupation continues to destroy that once great land, and heard the stories from these amazing people and what they’ve had to endure all these years, I was ashamed of myself for ever having believed what I was told by the media without seeing it for myself.  I do not support Hamas or terrorist acts against any people, regardless of who they are.  If you cannot recognize the desperation of the Palestinian people and why they would turn to Hamas in the first place, and blindly support Israel because they believe in the same God you do, you only contribute to hate.  Murder, theft, oppression, and violating the law of the land is wrong in God’s eyes and His Word.

Thank you for your post, Green BA.  This is the story as I heard it 5 years ago from a unified group of Palestinians and Israelis.  When both sides call an article biased and no one's story matches, it is difficult for those who are trying to make sense of it.

We must all consider the source of this story - the BBC - British Broadcasting Corperation.  The Brits are historically pro Arab and anti Israel.  Don't forget the great injustice by Britain after WWII against the Jewish People and then the fledgling state of Israel.  But when they wanted fighters during WWII they knew where to get them and it was't Muslims that the Brits recruited.  I support Israel - they have a right to defend themselves from mortat and rocket attach.  I do not know of any truce or cease fire that the Palestinians have ever honored.

Katherine, you got it wrong BBC is pro-Israel have you seen the news report on this conflict lately? maybe it's not  too pro-israel based on Fox News standard

For your info Palestinians during the Oslo agreement 1993-2000 did abide not to resist the occupation and what did they got? Israel troops pulled out of the palestinian towns & citiies, so instead they set up hundred of check points thruout the West Bank & Gaza. At the same time Israel built more illegal settlements occupied by over 200,000 Jews.

yes I call it a fair trade 

Amen to that! :)

except it was not written by MSNBC - this is the problem - half you people read articles on a site and then spout off about bias (especially the right wingers rant about all media except Fox News being liberally biased) even though the articles reported on ALL the sites are the EXACT same written by members of the AP. 

So, nmbg - you should probably inform yousrself before you start informing others.

Lets flip the question over and ask this....  Why when Isreal makes concessions and abides by the most part to them, that they are considered the aggressors.  Every peace treaty, truce, etc... that is negotiated is eventually violated by Hamas, PLO, and various other groups.  Isreal responds and gets condemmed.  Another peace treaty, truce, etc... is negotiated with Isreal already having abided for the most part by the previous one and now told they'd have to give up more.  The Palistinian groups didn't live up to the first treaty, truce, etc... , would you really expect them to live up to the new one?  All I can say is it's people like you, who don't pay attention to what's going on and base your judgement on soundbites and half truths, that fall right into the mindset that they want you to have.  And that is to condemn Isreal and make them into the bad guys.  And by the way,  don't pay attention to the agreements we didn't live up to, just condemn Isreal.

To me, the Palistinians aren't blameless, they voted Hamas into power knowing what their views were.

Israel abides for the most part??? Not acceptable....if I showed up  to work most of the time do you think I would still have a job?? face it both sides are certainly not innocent and should not be supported by the United States or any other country. In fact they should be expelled from the United Nations until which time they can take responsibility for themselves and their citizens. "Shameful" is the only word I can think to describe this situation. And of course who suffers the most? - innocent people old and young! Yes, let's keep the facts straight but also let's ask ourselves what is the bottom line. Are we really interested in peace between Palestine and Israel or just knit-picking? And more importantly are they interested in living in a peaceful world? Apparently not......

Ok, if you want to put it that way.  Would you want to be blamed by your boss if both of you are on a project with someone else and he doesn't do his part?  Ok, they sign a treaty.  Israel starts doing it's part. Palistinians either do it half-heatedly or nothing at all.  Violence erupts.  Another treaty or agreement is signed.  Same thing happens.  You get the drift of what is happening here?  Israel gives up more and more due to world condemnation and the Palestinians just laugh their butts off at the stupidity of the rest of the world.  All they need to do is provoke a response and  the world rushes to jump on Israel.  If civilians die,  then it goes better for them.  Better press, more propaganda, and more recruits.  All handed to them by the media and people who don't pay attention to what is going on.  The current conflict is stated  to be over the blockade.  Lol, it's a line of BS the media is feeding you.  The blockade was put into effect when the rockets started flying again.  Let's see here....   Why did the rockets start flying again, you ask?  Oh, Israel "assassinated" 6 people...   Why were they assassinated?  Because they were digging a tunnel under the Israeli border and they were killed by a patrol while digging it...  Get the picture?

Lol,  I'm interested in peace, but if both sides aren't ready for it then it isn't going to work out. And we'll have the same crisis every few weeks or days.  I waited for my response  till after I saw what Israel would do.  They rightly rejected the first EU cease fire, and rightfully ignored the Arab version.  But they said they'll agree to one based like the Lebanese border and Egypt border where it is monitored by groups for compliance.  Hamas is now in a corner...  If they agree to compliance groups, they will be shown to be the aggressors.  If they don't, they will be revealed as not interested in peace but in dragging the fighting out.  Israel won't have to sign empty treaties that are worth less then the paper it's on.  If they can get the corruption under control in Fatah and Hamas, and a treaty that is complied with on BOTH sides, then peace will have a chance.

You dont see Jews calling on the destruction of people of a different religeon - only extremist muslims do that.

It's too bad nobody read your post before they wrote their comments here.  You forgot Christians, though.  I feel really badly about sounding so sarcastic, but the irony cannot be overlooked.

"History" is written by the victors.

And that would be ?

Jews never told Palastinians to leave. Egypt, Syria and Jordan told them to get out because they would destroy the Jews, and then would be able to return.

Fair Minded that is absolutely false.

There is an old Zionist tale, constantly and indefatigably repeated down the years since 1948. It is the story that the Palestinian people lost their homeland because they followed their leaders’ orders to get out. They left to clear the way for the invading armies of the Arab States. After the Arabs had finished off young Israel, they hoped, all the people could come back and share in the spoils of victory.

We can well understand the attractions of such a theory for its proponents. It shifts the blame for Palestinian dispossession from the Israelis to the refugees themselves. According to the theory, they left their homes as part of the Arab invasion plot, which was genocidal in intent. Who can have much sympathy for those who intended genocide, even if they are shivering in squalid refugee camps? And who can blame Israel for not wanting them to come back again?

In other words, the Zionist conquest of Palestine, violent as it was, and as ruinous as it was to the indigenous population, involved no guilt whatsoever. Israel conquered a national territory out of the purest, most righteous instinct of self-defence.

Unfortunately, the story has not held up well over time.

"It is not at all clear, as maintained by a conventional Israeli myth, that the Palestinian exodus was encouraged by the Arab States and by local (Palestinian) leaders. Benny Morris, (historian, Ben- Gurion University) found no evidence to show ‘that either the leaders of the Arab States or the Mufti ordered or directly encouraged the mass exodus’. Indeed, Morris found evidence to the effect that the local Arab leadership and militia commanders discouraged flight, and Arab radio stations issued calls to the Palestinians to stay put, and even to return to their homes if they had already left. True, there were more than a few cases where the local commanders ordered the evacuation of villages. But these seem to have been tactical decisions taken under very specific military conditions; they did not respond to an overall stategy either of the local Palestinian leaders or of the Arab States."

(Shlomo Ben-Ami, SCARS OF WAR, WOUNDS OF PEACE, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 43)

Shlomo Ben-Ami, an Oxford-trained historian, is the former Foreign Minister of Israel. His book is praised by Dennis Ross, US diplomat and lobbyist for Israel.

Zionist debaters can still be found who are always ready to produce a quote from the Mufti or some other demonized Arab leader, suitably bloodcurdling, calling for evacuation. This is a time-honored practice of "hasbara," Israeli propaganda.

"To support their claim that Arab leaders had incited the flight, Israeli and Zionist sources were constantly ‘quoting’ statements by the Arab Higher Committee--NOW SEEN TO BE LARGELY FABRICATED-to the effect that ‘in a very short time the armies of our Arab sister countries will overrun Palestine, attacking from the land, the sea and the air, and they will settle accounts with the Jews"

(Simha Flapan, THE BIRTH OF ISRAEL: MYTHS AND REALITIES, New York: Pantheon, 1987. p, 86. Much of the third section of his book is devoted to debunking the theory.)

Over time the story has largely lost its credibility, except to historical illiterates. Israel’s "new historians," who won access to declassified IDF, Zionist, and Israeli state archives in the 1980’s, are usually credited with refuting it. There was a great outcry but it eventually subsided. Israel had a breeze of glasnost and moved on.

(cf. Shabtai Teveth, "Charging Israel with Original Sin," COMMENTARY Sept. 1989; Benny Morris, "The Eel and History: A Reply to Shabtai Teveth," TIKKUN 5.1 Jan-Feb 1990)

Sophisticated supporters of Israel have moved beyond the myth. Howard M Sachar, author of a highly sympathetic HISTORY OF ISRAEL, not at all a "new historian," discounts the "orders from above" (cf. Benny Morris film, Al-Nakba). Walter Lacquer, conservative historian, author of the standard, HISTORY OF ZIONISM, also declines to endorse it. He admits that Israel springs from a kind of "original sin," but does not think it affects its legitimacy as a nation state. (TLS 4/21/06 p.8). Jean Daniel, editor of LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR and one of France’s top journalists, Jewish and a supporter of Israel, frankly admits that Israel is built on "confiscated land."

(Adam Shatz, "The Jewish Question," NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, 9/22/05 p. 53)

In fact, the "orders from above" theory did not have to wait for the Israeli "new historians" in order to be debunked. Two scholars, a Palestinian historian and an Irish journalist, exploded it as long ago as the late 1950’s. The "new historians" only confirmed what others already knew.

Zionist propaganda often claimed that the exiled Mufti and other Arab leaders sent evacuation orders over radio. The problem was that the claim could actually be checked.

Erskine Childers, writing in the 12 May 1961 edition of THE SPECTATOR (London), explained his results:

"I next decided to test the undocumented charge that the Arab evacuation orders were broadcast by radio--which could be done thoroughly because the BBC monitored all Middle Eastern broadcasts throughout 1948. The records, as companion ones by a U.S. monitoring unit, can be seen at the British Museum"

(Childers, "The Other Exodus," in Walter Lacquer and Barry Rubin, eds. THE ARAB-ISRAELI READER, Penguin, 1987 p.146).

Childers found only repeated appeals, "even orders, to the civilians of Palestine to stay put." (loc. cit).

Walid Khalidi, a Palestinian American, working in radio archives, independently confirmed the same finding:

"There are in fact two monitoring collections for 1948: one compiled by the BBC, the other by the CIA, both from Cyprus...Both collections give detailed daily coverage of broadcasts from Arab capitals and of such Zionist radios as Haganah Radio (in Hebrew, English and Arabic), the Free Hebrew Station (Stern) and the Voice of Fighting Zion (Irgun). I was pleased to see that the researches of Mr. Childers in the British Museum confirm my own findings. I can report now that the complete CIA collection here in Princeton also overwelmingly confirms and elaborates the results that Mr. Childers and I have arrived at independently of each other...There are countless broadcasts by Zionist radios which indicate deliberate psychological warfare against the Arabs. There is not one single instance of an Arab evacuation order or hint of such an order. There is an impressive stream of explicit Arab orders to the Palestinian Arab civilians to hold their ground and remain in their towns and villages..."

(Walid Khalidi, ed. "The SPECTATOR Correspondence , 12 May-4 Aug. 1961," reprinted in JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES 18. 1.4 (1988) p. 57)

The story of voluntary flight, though, is not at all plausible to begin with. Why would the Arab leaders order a mass evacuation likely to block the invasion routes? Why would great masses of a conservative rural population leave behind vital possessions and take to the roads at the summons of far away leaders, who had no power on the ground?

In fact, there is no mystery at all about the fact that Palestinians left because of the military pressure that the Zionists brought against them. Israel owes its birth, not to evacuation orders issued by Arab leaders but to an ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by the Zionists, led by Ben-Gurion.

Plenty of eyewitnesses saw it at the time. Novelist Arthur Koestler, a committed Zionist living in Haifa in 1948, wrote in PROMISE AND FULFILLMENT that Haganah radio and Haganah loudspeaker vans promised the city’s Arabs escort to ‘Arab territory’, and hinted at terrible consequences if their warning were disregarded."

(Koestler, PROMISE AND FULFILMENT, p. 207. )

We know that Ben-Gurion and the Zionist leadership had an urge to expel. We even know of actual expulsion orders, directed against unarmed and innocent Palestinian families.

"The Arabs of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age," signed Yitzhak Rabin, 12 July 1948.

(Benny Morris, THE BIRTH OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE PROBLEM: 1947-9, Cambridge University Press, 1989. p.207)

The Palestinian villagers and town-dwellers were largely unarmed and leaderless, with just a sprinkling of weapons, since the British had kept them disarmed while Israel built the nucleus of an army. In 1948 the IDF attacked villages with shells, etc., or marched people out at gunpoint. Once a village was vacant, the army would demolish all the houses to prevent a return: an early version of "creating facts." They would shoot on sight unarmed peasant refugees trying to go home.This conduct is documented multiple times and is reminiscent of Balkan ethnic cleansing in the 1990’s.

Ethnic cleansing was pursued to create the Israeli "national territory," not to defend Israel against the Arab states. Ben-Gurion expressed support for mass expulsion as early as 1938: "I believe in compulsory transfer. I don’t see in it anything immoral." Israel took the initiative in the 1948 war and was the stronger party. The Arabs states intervened reluctantly, ineffectively, and largely defensively, after the ethnic cleansing was well under way. The strongest Arab state militarily, Jordan, had an army under British command. Britain certainly did not seek Israel’s destruction and its client, the king of Jordan, was all too eager to cut a deal to divide Palestine with the Jewish state, with whose leaders he had long enjoyed secret contacts. The whole story of 1948 is shrouded in myths which manipulate terrible memories of the Nazi Holocaust. They invert the truth about who was the victim and who the victimizer.

(cf. Avi Shlaim, "Israel and the Arab Coalition in 1948, " in Avi Shlaim and Eugene Rogan, eds. THE WAR FOR PALESTINE, Cambridge University Press, 2001 esp. pp.80-81. Also in Shlaim-Rogan ed., Benny Morris, "Revisiting the Palestinian exodus of 1948’. Ben Gurion quote on p. 44. cf also Flapan, THE BIRTH OF ISRAEL: MYTHS AND REALITIES )

It is ironic that the "orders from above" theory should enjoy a kind of afterlife in the U.S. The Zionist community here is actually rather insulated from the complex public debate about Zionism in Israel. Our U.S. pro-Israel crowd looks a little backward when they keep repeating these myths. They are still digging out the same debating points they used thirty and forty years ago. They are perhaps more an embarrassment than a help to Israel’s cause.

To deny the reality of the ethnic cleansing is an insult to the Palestinian people and morally repugnant, like Holocaust denial. One does not have to equate the two events to see that this erasure of history is wrong. It is a denial of the very humanity of the victims, who did not deserve their suffering. And those who go down this road have no business accusing others of racism.

The very latest professional research does even more to extinguish the myth of Israel’s "innocence." Little by little, the true nature of the injustice done to the native people of Palestine is being brought to light.

(cf. Ilan Pappe, THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE: Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2006. Pappe is Professor of History at Haifa University).

oneStarman.  I would like to take a moment to try to change your misconception about this idea.  I will try to ask you a simple question that will defeat your theory of "Muslim hates everybody".  If Muslim hates everybody, how do you explain all the churches and prayer places that Muslim kept without destroying when they were ruling the world from the 12th till the 18th century?  How you explain all the Christians living in peace during this area and all this historical non Islamic chapels around the Muslim countries?  Now how do you explain that after Christian took over Spain from Muslims in the 14th century they expelled all the Muslims who were living there?

If Muslims hates everyone as you mentioned, how you can explain them helping the west go out of its dark ages? If you know history you can tell that without Muslim preserving the Greek and roman cultures and sciences and adding to it, Europe now would not exists.

I would suggest you read or watch the series titles "Islam, The Empire of Faith" to have more historical perspectives about the facts, if you live in US it is available in the public library system.

Thanks

Mohamed, some of what you said was true.  Europe may not of exited the dark ages without Muslim sciences and culture added to it.  But more cultures and sciences were in the mix as well as Muslim and it may just of turned out a little bit different without it.  Christianity at the time was barbaric, power hungry, and pretty much controlled by Cardinals who answered to no one except the pope.  Jews at the time were protected in Muslim states, cities, or kingdoms due to ongoing persecution in Europe.  But by the time of the Crusades, Muslim culture was sliding down the same paths Christian countries were. Fatwa's (? not sure of the spelling)  were being issued in almost every city contradicting each other, infighting for power was increasing, and mullah's fought to become leaders of the faith over all others.  The timing of the crusades stopped most of the infighting and united most of the Muslim again onto one goal, and Europe was almost captured because of it.  But rivalries surfaced again, and Muslim countries fought more against each other then Christian and Pagan countries.  One thing came out of it,  the European culture got stronger as the Muslim countries faded.  Art, science, and culture were still predominate in Muslim countries, but they were a pale shadow to what  Europe and Christianity were accomplishing.  Muslim turned inward and the view of expanding the faith and protecting it took precedence over almost all other concerns.  As a result, Europe took the reigns of science, culture, and exploration until recently.

My beef with the ongoing stories about the fight between the Israel and the Palestinian is this.  Back when the UN mandate was issued, two countries were supposed to be formed from stateless lands taken from the Ottoman Empire.  Palestine and Israel.  When the mandate was issued, 73% of the land and most of Jerusalem was supposed to be in Palestine, and the 27% was supposed to be Israel.  But the surrounding Muslim countries annexed the Palidtine parts into their own countrys, warned all Muslim citizens to move away, and invaded Israel.  They thought they were going to push Israel into the sea.  Instead they lost big time.  And with each attack by Muslim countries (only one started by Israel in 67 I think, and that was pre-emptive to another attack) more land was captured.  Palestine did not exist and never existed except in the mandate of 46 or 47 which was ignored when Muslim countries annexed the land.  The only time Palestine truely existed was from the peace accords in the 90's, which in truth is only a piece of paper.   The "Palestinian" refugees abandoned the land during the first war.  And the idea of a Palestinian state was only resurrected with Arafat.  If the media reported the full facts of the recent history of the area, then Hama's would be revealed as what they truly are...  a bunch of crazy, power-hungry nut jobs.  If Israel ceased to exist tomorrow, then they will find another target to focus their sights on for "past wrongs"  Israel was never the "knight in shining armor" in all of this, but being surrounded by hostile countries that called for destruction and groups murdering (yes, I did say that) their citizens, I don't blame them one bit for taking a hard line on all of it.

Islam is a decentralized religion.  They don't have a pope to make announcements for them.  Ask your Muslim friends what they think of violence.  You do have some Muslim friends, right?

oneStarman, There is a big difference between the actions of people and the rules of the Religion.   For examples, during the crusades time, we cannot say they did that because they were Christians, obviously Christianity condemn killing of innocent as does Islam.

Unfortunately the state of the Islamic world now is shameful, this is because we have let our traditional education system in which we were learning to be guided by Quran ( the book of revelation from GOD ) and Sunnah ( the action of the prophet Muhammed ).  The reason why traditional Islamic empire lasted for more than 12 centuries in peace with its neighbors and in flourishing economic and scientific advances is the traditional education system.

After the colonization and the imperial age:), what imperialism tried to do is to get Muslim away from their tradition education system, because they know how powerful is it in making Muslims civilized.  The colonization did not want that in order to achieve it goals ( for obvious reasons )

If you want to see what Islam is really about, you can listen to Hamza Yusef (Mark Hanson), he is an American convert who studied through the traditional education system and his lectures are amazing.  He is one of the best contemporary scholars, and has many lectures that talks about Islam and the west; In which he condemn any terrorist acts.

Check him out on YouTube, his lectures might show you the real truth of Islam.

Mohamad, I'm starting to like you  lol, but I don't agree with everything you pointed out.  So please don't take offence.  The Muslim "empire" was almost constantly at war on it's fringes for almost all of those 12 centuries.  The central areas may of been at peace, but due to treaties, alliances, and plain greed, they supplied armies and supplies to the outer regions.  Thus the Muslim religion spread to all points of the compass.  But I agree, it all can't be blamed on religon alone.  Greed and potential power played a major role as well.  And those are human failings.

After the colonization and the imperial age:), what imperialism tried to do is to get Muslim away from their tradition education system, because they know how powerful is it in making Muslims civilized.  The colonization did not want that in order to achieve it goals ( for obvious reasons ) post 12.2

This was done by both religions based on the beliefs of the time.    Christians believed anyone not educated in the Christian way were savages, Muslims believed those not Muslims were infidels and pagans and worthy of death. I generalized, I apologize but I based it on the most extreme views that usually make the history books, passive conversion usually only get one line, if even that,  in history books.  The extremes weren't always followed as you can see with African, American Indian, Hindu, etc. religions still followed today.  But there were many areas where efforts were made to forcibly erase the past culture (Spanish, English, Turks, etc...) and that's what stands out the most.  But to blame colonization for the collapse of Muslim culture is a bit far fetched.  It was starting it's decline beforehand, with the emergence of different fatwa's and teachings, and the infighting over which was the true path.  Christianity almost took the same path, when many new views and new churches formed.  Persecution of those were rampant for centuries and lingers on in some areas today.  Though now it's a fight usually with words at it's harshest, and bullets and killing getting rarer.  Muslims, of certain outlooks, can't seem to accept views other then their own, and continue to dominate the news giving others of the same religion (but different teachings) a bad name.

@12.3 

Muslims, of certain outlooks, can't seem to accept views other then their own, and continue to dominate the news giving others of the same religion (but different teachings) a bad name.

Another perspective is to realize that that complete and unconditional tolerance is a rather new western value.  It is in direct conflict with the Eastern value of honor and truth.  I am certainly not condoning violence (far from it), but it stands to reason that advocates of tolerance must take a more patient perspective.  It is the west that must learn to appreciate the Eastern values.  It is difficult for the followers of many different religions to understand the tolerance of the west.

Very Well stated !! here here !

If you don't know what's going on, then shut up. Obviously, you two again have no idea what these people go through. Go live there yourself (like me) and boy, would your opinion drastically change. May Allah forgive your comments, and ask Muslims about violance. There answers will be that's it's horrible.

Muslims are not racists like so many of you believe. Only al-queda and some hamas. Once again, your brains have been warped by the media, and obviously your basing this on what you want to happen or not, not facts. Oh, and if you read the Quran, there is nothing about Allah saying to go kill everyone, so go screw yourselves and do some reading before deciding what's right.

I don't ned allahs forgiveness ! I already received that ( forgiveness) From Jesus Christ ! I don't do the media , or by the way " myself " This is America , we'll say what we want ! If you don't like it , TOUGH !

Yes, your response is lengthy, well written and accurate.

I read it all.  I agree with everything you said.

NateBHM

Thank you for your historically accurate and intelligent comment.  It is a relief to see this information exposed in response to all the propaganda and bias exhibited by the professional news media.

NateBHM

Thank you for your historically accurate and intelligent comment.  It is a relief to see this information exposed in response to all the propaganda and bias exhibited by the professional news media.

In response to "Historically, there has NEVER been a country called Palestine."

Then why can I find maps printed in the 1700s and 1800s of Palestine?

A quick google search will pull many up

Becouse it was a providence of the Ottoman Empire and the maps you pull up show the outline set by the Romans when they ruled the area.

I don't understand your comment, the Ottomans and Romans were two different groups.

And whether it was considered a state or a country, Palestinians called the place home.

*sigh*  With an answer like that, I definitely know you know practically nothing about the area and have yet to really think about it besides a couple of quick google searches. 

Then why can I find maps printed in the 1700s and 1800s of Palestine?

The region known on Palestine on pre-19th century maps was due to the fact of it was considered the "holy land of Palestine"and that comprised of all of Israel and parts of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.  Being central to 3 religions made it a focal point and a reason to be on maps even though it was a providence/state on another country/empire.  I can go into a lot of the history, but it would be a rehash of items you can find out on the web or in the many books that are out there.  Needless to say,

http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=636#graph1

Needless to say, after the WW1 breakup and partitioning.  Jews began emigrating back to "Palestine", going from 7% of the population to 29% from 1917-1947.  The areas they settled in were mainly in Jerusalemwhich was already overwhelmingly Jewish.  With the UN Mandate of 1947, the area was divided by population with the Arabs getting 73% of the area for a country called Palestine, and the Jews getting 27% for a country called Israel.  The boundaries were made based on the where the main populations lived and part of Jerusalem that had a majority Arab base was given to Palestine even though it had to include Jewish population centers to connect it to the rest of the future Palestine.  But it was not to be...  The land that was suppose to be Palestine was annexed by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.  No protests were made...  Arabs were told to leave by those said countries because they were going to push the Jews into the sea.  That created the Palestinian refugees when they settled in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and parts of Lebanon.  Israel declared itself a country based on the UN mandate using the boundaries set by the UN, and was attacked on all sides.  The rest is history.  In defeating the Arab countries, Israel doubled it's size.  And in every war afterwards, continued growing.  In all but one of those wars, Israel was attacked first.  For any more on this, just read posts by myself and many others on this and other seeds.  The information is out there.  Most of the census charts I see online are from 1917 on, when the British took control of the area, but I will find a link that I have from the University of Illinois scanned from Ottoman Empire ledgers showing the decline of Jews and Christians from 1870-1917 due to expulsion by the Ottoman Empire.  The documents show a decline of almost 70% of the Christian and Jewish populations.  I can't say a firm figure since I need to find the link and back it up with facts.  When I find the link, I'll post it here for you...  

Sorry about my tone on this post, looking over it.  I do seem a little blunt.  But it's been a bad day at work, I'm back at school for my Master's, and everything has made me a little testy today...  :)  Add to it a full time job + wife and kids + normal every day duties+ trying to keep up on my reading, and I've stretched myself out a little thin.

I don't understand your comment, the Ottomans and Romans were two different groups.

The land was known by two different Jewish names before being conquered by the Romans.  Following a revolt, Jews were expelled from Jerusalem by the Romans and the land was renamed Palestine.  Following another revolt, most Jews were moved to other parts of the empire as a defeated people and slaves, which was a custom.  Within a few years, the Jewish population started to return.  When the Roman Empire fell, the land was conquered and ruled by other nations and empires.  In the 1500's, The area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and remained a part of it until 1917.  So if you think of the Palestinian people, that name covers Jews, Arabs, and Christians though the area never was a country of that name.  But the name Palestine was never a country, just providences of other empires/countries.

death to hamas pigs!

Lol,  a rambling incoherent "How not to write a comment" piece of crap.

Please don't compare the America Indians to the Palistians !! There is No Comparision ! Hebrews were the original people there !

ya and so were the american indians.

Yes they were !

sweetie that was 2000 years ago, most of the jews went to Europe. In 1913 Palestine was mostly occupied by Arabs Muslim (80%) and shepharic Jews (10%) and Arab christians (10%)

Look we could go back and forth on this issue. the crox of this problem is that Palestinians have been under israel oppressive occupation for the past 41 years and they have a right to resist to end the occupation

The "American Indian" was preceded by the Clovis culture around 13,000 years ago.  It is not likely that they were the ancestors of the "American Indian cultures."

So, who came first?   Real difficult to discover as the "modern" indian tribes claim Clovis sites as ancient burial grounds, not subject to excavation or discovery.

marinegrunt66 Two Thousand Years ago ? The word of GOD is Forever ! He ( The Creator ) gave the land to the Jews , so they scattered and left for a while , it's Still their land ! The Palistinians ( who no other Arab people want ! ) moved in ? The land would not grow anything ,or could not be cultivated , until the Jews came back and worked the land , and the land brought forth her fruit . That's a fact , even Mark Twain visited in the 1800's and said it was a worthless barren land , FUNNY how that's changed in the last 60 years !

The bible was written by humans.  It is not historically accurate.

sweetie cheeks, do have to mention that the bible was changed by humans so it could fit your needs? It's not accurate, because it was changed by humans, those aren't those words from god. would you enjoy someone kicking you out of your home land.

Learn the facts, not listen to your ignorance.

It's the TRUE WORD of GOD ! No I would not like to be kicked out of my homeland ! That's why the Jews are kickin butt right now . They don't like being shoved out of THEIR HOMELAND !!!!!