The New Hysteria, Benny Morris and the New Historians

Sometimes a notion so exactly fits the demand for it that it can create a new paradigm though hardly anyone has actually read the book or reviewed the arguments. Such it was with the idea that Israel had been formed in Original Sin. The Zionists had always planned to expel the Muslim Palestinians and were Goliath to the Davids of the locals and the armies of the surrounding countries. This was totally counter to the existing myths but fit perfectly in the new international academic post-this and critical-that and intersectional-whatsits.

  • The official version said that Britain tried to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state; the New Historians claimed that it tried to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
  • The official version said that the Palestinians fled their homes of their own free will; the New Historians said that the refugees were expelled or fled.
  • The official version said that the balance of power was in favour of the Arabs; the New Historians said that Israel had the advantage both in manpower and in arms.
  • The official version said that the Arabs had a coordinated plan to destroy Israel; the New Historians said that the Arabs were divided.
  • The official version said that Arab intransigence prevented peace; the New Historians said that Israel is primarily to blame for the "dead end".

Benny Morris, the "revisionist enfant terrible" historian who made his name attacking earlier Israeli historians explains the events succinctly:

In fact, what actually happened was this: The Arab states and the Palestinian national leadership, headed by Haj Amin al-Husseini, opposed the partition of Palestine, claiming all of Palestine for the Arabs. When the General Assembly voted in favor of partition, on 29 November 1947, the Palestinian leadership rejected the resolution and the Palestinian militias launched hostilities to abort the emergence of a Jewish state. They were aided by money, arms and volunteers from the Arab states. In the course of this first, civil-war half of the 1948 War (roughly from 30 November 1947 until 14 May 1948) the Palestinian militias attacked Jewish traffic and settlements for four months. But eventually the Jewish militias, chiefly the Haganah, went over to the offensive (in early April) and routed the Palestinians, and some 300,000 were displaced from their homes and lands. On 15 May 1948, the day after the Zionist leaders declared the establishment of the State of Israel, the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq invaded Palestine, in defiance of the will of the international community, as embodied in the partition resolution, and attacked the Jewish state. The army of Jordan, the fourth invading army, occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the core of the territory earmarked in the partition resolution for Palestinian Arab statehood. (The Palestinians failed to declare statehood, and Jordan did not allow the Palestinians to establish a state and subsequently formally annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Egypt emerged from the war in control of the Gaza Strip.) During the weeks and months after 15 May, the Israeli army contained the invading armies and eventually drove them out of most of Palestine. Another 400,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in the course of the fighting: Some were expelled by Jewish troops (for example, from Lydda and Ramle in July 1948), some were advised to leave or ordered out by Arab leaders and officers (for example, from Haifa in April 1948 and Majdal in October). But most of the 700,000 simply fled out of fear of being caught up and harmed in the fighting. In summer 1948 the Israeli government decided not to allow the displaced Arabs-most of whom ended up in refugee camps in other parts of Palestine, i.e., the West Bank and Gaza-to return to the area of the State of Israel, deeming them inimical (they had just assailed the Jewish community and tried to destroy the Jewish state) and a potential Fifth Column.

  • An enlightening and extensive 60 year series of sourced quotes by Arab leaders referrring to Israel is available here.

* How many Muslims left Israeli controlled territory in 1948? Arab sources claim up to 750,000. In August of 1948 Count Folke Bernadotte, the U.N. Mediator in Palestine, reported 330,000 refugees numbered. By October, 1948 the number reported was 500,000. In October, 1950 the U.N. settled on 711,000.

There is a startling number of books written about these events, which without their geo-political ramifications, would be a rather minor conflict by historical standards. The two "sides" might as well come from different planets - I'm obviously from the planet Bella Judaica. I find the works of the "New Historians" from the more nuanced books to the Manicheism of Illan Pappé unconvincing except as a necessary corrective to the Leon Uris vision of Israel's founding. Unfortunately Israel has now become the defining ethical and moral question of our time according to the political Left and any realistic account will not come from that direction - but some books I've found helpful include:

  • It will also be said that the Arabs of Palestine have proved themselves weak and impotent; that no sooner had the first bombs fallen than they fled in utter rout, evacuated their cities and their strongholds, and surrendered them to the enemy on a silver platter, that a large number of them had fled even before the battle and had taken refuge in the other Arab countries and in remote regions of Palestine
    The explanation of the victory which the Zionist have achieved-and only a person who deceives and blinds himself can deny the victory-lies not in the superiority of one people over another, but rather in the superiority of one system over another. The reason for this victory is that the roots of Zionism are grounded in modern Western life while we for the most part are still distant from this life and hostile to it. They live in the present and for the future while we continue to dream the dreams of the past and to stupefy ourselves with its fading glory. - Mena al-Nakbah The Meaning of the Disaster by Constantine K. Zurayk, August 1948
  • If ultimately the Palestinians evacuated their country, it was not out of cowardice, but because they had lost all confidence in the existing system of defense. They had perceived its weakness, and realized the disequilibrium between their resources and organization, and those of the Jews. They were told that the Arab armies were coming, that the matter would be settled and everything return to normal, and they placed their confidence and hopes in that. Moreover, they had before them the specter of Deir Yassin - The Message of Palestine, Musa Alami, The Middle East Journal, Volume 3, No. 4, October 1949, pp. 373-405
  • The Meaning of the Disaster - Constantine Zurayk
  • The Lesson of Palestine - Musa Alami
  • Promise and Fulfilment: Palestine 1917-1949 - Arthur Koestler
  • This is Israel - I.F. Stone
  • The Mufti's Islamic Jew-Hatred - Andrew G. Bostom
  • One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate - Tom Segev
  • Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine - Mallmann et al
  • The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The 1948 War - Efraim Karsh
  • Fabricating Israeli History - Efraim Karsh
  • 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War - Benny Morris
  • The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947—1949 - Benny Morris
  • The Mufti's Islamic Jew-Hatred - Andrew G. Bostom
  • Promise and Fulfilment: Palestine 1917-1949 - Arthur Koestler
  • One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate - Tom Segev
  • Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine - Mallmann et al
  • The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The 1948 War - Efraim Karsh
  • Fabricating Israeli History - Efraim Karsh
  • 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War - Benny Morris
  • The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947—1949 - Benny Morris