...I also believe that the emergent Jewish state, in 1947-1948, having been assaulted by the Palestinian Arab militias and, subsequently, by the armies of the Arab states, had no choice, as a matter of self-defense and survival, but to attack the villages and towns that served as the bases of their militias. And before and during these attacks, most of the inhabitants fled; some were expelled; others were ordered or advised by their own leaders to flee. Subsequently, Israel decided not to allow the refugees to return, rightly viewing those who had just attacked the Jewish community as a potential fifth column and enemies. They launched the war (which the Jews believed aimed at their annihilation); they suffered the consequences.
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And thank you for this:
"And I also believe that had all of Palestine's Arabs crossed the Jordan River eastward in 1948 and established their own state in Transjordan, alongside a Jewish state west of the Jordan, the history of Israeli-Arab relations would have been more tranquil and both Jews and Arabs would have suffered far less during the following six decades."
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