Nazi Insinuations

For Gideon Levy, Zionism was like Nazism, sort of.

Photo: Flash90

He has a new column up defending, but, of course, Mahmoud Abbas.

Here's the lead in:

"Not one Israeli statesman today intends to apologize for the Nakba – not for the ethnic cleansing, nor for the exiling. But Abbas had no choice but to apologize for his Holocaust remark"

Let's count the ways Abbas needed to apologize:

a. The Mufti was a partner in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust with Hitler and a supporter of Nazi ideology (not to mention the killing of Jews in Eretz-Yisrael in the previous years).

b. Abbas' doctorate is a classic Holocaust denial and revisionism tract.

c. As I noted already, he has apologized previously for the same content but keeps on saying the same things.

But did Jews bomb Berlin cafes, Hamburg supermarkets or Bavarian beer halls in an effort to dislodge Germans from their property, land and possessions to "deserve" gas chambers? Did Zionists term Arabs ideologically as untermenschen?

There is no comparison. Even if Levy adds:

The fact that the Holocaust was much more horrific than the Nakba doesn’t legitimize denial of the other’s disaster, which is never-ending.

The Nakba is not the Holocaust.
But there was ethnic cleansing, of Jews by Arabs during 1920-1948, from hebron, Gaza, Shchem, Jenin, Jericho and Jerusalem. Jews were exiled from Jaffa.

But for Levy, Zionism is, well, sort of, Nazism.

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Nakba Victim of Satirical Poster

That's a picture of Abd Khader El-Husseini, Jerusalem area 1948 commander of local Arab irregular forces engaged in killing, murdering, raping and robbing Jews, killed at the Qastel.

The headline reads:

Happy Nakba Day!

and the sub-title is a play of the traditional Maimuna greeting but reads:

Flee and Poof! Get blown away!

Nakba Knockout - Upper Left Hook

...In recent debates about the Palestinian "Nakba," the claim has been made that there are two "narratives," an Israeli one and a Palestinian one, and we should pay attention to both of them. That, of course, is true: Alongside the Israeli-Zionist claims regarding the Jewish people's connection to its historic homeland and the Jews' miserable situation, there are Palestinian claims that regard the Jews as a religious group only and Zionism as an imperialist movement.

But above and beyond these claims is the simple fact - and it is a fact, not a "narrative" - that in 1947, the Zionist movement accepted the United Nations partition plan, whereas the Arab side rejected it and went to war against it. A decision to go to war has consequences, just as it did in 1939 or 1941.

The importance of this distinction becomes clear upon perusing the op-ed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently published in The New York Times. Abbas mentioned the partition decision in his article, but said not one single word about the facts - who accepted it and who rejected it. He merely wrote that "Shortly thereafter, Zionist forces expelled Palestinian Arabs."

That is like those Germans who talk about the horrors of the expulsion of 12 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe after 1945, but fail to mention the Nazi attack on Poland, or the Japanese who talk about Hiroshima, but fail to mention their attack on Pearl Harbor. That is not a "narrative," it is simply not telling the truth. Effects cannot be divorced from causes.

Professor Shlomo Avineri


Nakba knockout.

Avineri, a lecturer of mine, is a firm leftist, but of the old Mapai version.

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Why 1948 and Not 1967 Asks Benny Begin

From Josh Hasten:-

...[Minister Benny] Begin makes an original point. If the Arabs living in Israel (including those in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza), truly became hostile as a result of the so-called “occupation,” then why is their “Nakba” or “devastation” marked annually on May 15th the date on which the State of Israel was established in 1948? Why don’t they commemorate he asks, their “Nakba” during the second week in June, marking the 1967 return of Jewish control over Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan, and Jerusalem?

Actually, we've been pointing that out for decades.

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The 1936 Jewish 'Nakba'

Due to Arab violence and terror, the long-time Jewish residents of the "Muslim Quarter" in Jerusalem's Old City, many of whom owned their property outright, were forced out, expelled and accompanied by British forces during the summer of 1936:

That was ethnic cleansing. Done by Arabs.

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Naqba Crap

It's this

versus

this

which is the anti-Naqba poster of Im Tirzu which advertises a booklet revealing the truth about the claim of Naqba: "Naqba Crap" - they attacked; they left; they expelled; they lost.

Here:

As Palestinians in the West Bank and Arab Israelis inside the Green Line plan to commemorate “Nakba Day” on Sunday May 15, the right-wing student group Im Tirtzu has launched a campaign to discredit what it says is a narrative of myths and lies dealing with the teaching of the founding of the State of Israel.


At the center of the campaign is a 70-page booklet entitled Nakba Harta – or Nakba BS – which is meant to reveal “a lie that threatens to drown us like a tsunami.”

Nakba – Arabic for “catastrophe” – is the day when Palestinians commemorate the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Several Palestinian groups have called for major demonstrations in several Israeli Arab and mixed Israeli cities in honor of Nakba Day.

The booklet, written by film director Erez Tadmor, one of Im Tirzu’s leaders, and Arel Segal, a columnist for Ma’ariv, presents what it describes as a growing campaign to delegitimize Israel through the framing of the foundation of the State of Israel as being linked to a wholesale ethnic cleansing or deportation of the native Arab population.

And read this by Eli Hertz.

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Who Else Shot Live Ammo at Nakba Rioters?

Besides Israel.

Egypt:

Egyptian riot police have fired tear gas and live ammunition overnight to disperse thousands of protesters outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. A security official says at least 240 people were hurt, mostly from smoke inhalation but some also sustained bullet wounds.

The rally followed calls on Facebook for Arabs to march on Israel on Sunday in support of the Palestinians.

The protesters set fire to an Israeli flag, chanted anti-Israeli slogans and called for the expulsion of Israel's ambassador and the closure of the embassy.

The official says one protester is in critical condition after the violence early Monday.

And the Al-Jazeera report.

Is that why we have a peace treaty with Egypt?

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Syrians Have Better Things To Do - In Damascus

Just received:

For Immediate Release 15 May, 2011 15:20

IDF Spokesperson Update

A short while ago thousands of Syrian civilians breached the Israel-Syria border near the Israeli village of Majdal Shams.IDF forces opened fire in order to prevent the violent rioters from illegally infiltrating Israeli territory, a number of rioters have infiltrated and are violently rioting in the village. From initial reports there are dozens of injured that are receiving medical care in a nearby hospital.

You'd think their sacrifices would be more appreciated in Damascus.



Knock, knock.


Who's there?


Nakba.


Nakba who?


Don't ask us, we're Arabs.


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Jews and Zionists Marking The Nakba

The HARIF (Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa) invites you to The Jewish Nakba: remembering Jewish refugees from Arab Countries.

As Palestinians and their supporters mark 63 years since their Nakba, the world forgets that the largest single group of refugees arising from the Arab-Israeli conflict was Jewish.

Although Jewish refugees were soon absorbed in Israel and the West, Arab states have never recognised their responsibility for some 800,000 Jewish refugees. Neither have they offered compensation for Jewish suffering and losses. The current turmoil in the Arab world presents a golden opportunity for Arab peoples to start afresh in their relationship with the Jews of the region, whose near-extinct communities predate Islam by over 1,000 years, and to re-evaluate the rights of non-Muslim minorities in their midst.

We shall hear testimonies from individual Jewish refugees. Media commentator and Middle East expert Tom Gross will be presenting an award to a person who helped in their rescue. In addition, you will learn of new ideas for raising awareness of this very important issue, which we believe is the key to peace and reconciliation between Israel and the Arab world.

Details:

Sunday 15 May 2011
Central London venue, W2
5.30pm
FREE but donations welcome. Refreshments. First 50 to register get free copy of The Forgotten refugees film.

Pre-registration essential
Website: www.harif.org

Jews from Arab lands looked just like this in many cases:

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The Naked Nakba Truth

In a "Nakba" story, the BBC quotes one former Jerusalem resident saying:-

"I don't want to throw anyone out on the streets but I have to have people recognise the right to my property...This is my home - and I go out as a stranger. Why? I need someone to explain to me."

Why?

Because your people followed its leadership into a war to eradicate the Jewish state - and lost.

What's so complicated?

The Jewish people were granted the right by an international body, the League of Nations, to reconstitute its historical homeland but first, TransJordan was put off-limits and then in 1937-39, a series of Partition proposals were made which the Jewish leadership was willing to accept in part but rejected by the Arabs.

In 1947, the UN recommended another partition which the Arabs, as noted, rejected.

You don't fool around like that and not expect to pay for your mistakes.

That's the naked Nakba truth.

Propaganda Disguised as "Facts"

I found this here and will deconstruct:-

Ten Facts about the Nakba

1. The Nakba is a root cause of the Israeli/Palestinian problem.

It is marked on May 15, the day after Israel declared its independence in 1948.

Comment:

The root cause of the "Israeli/Palestinian problem" is actually multiple. In 1917 when the Balfour Declaration was made and in 1920 when the San Remo Conference decided to 'reconstitute the Jewish national home' in "Palestine", was there a "Palestinian people" who were exclusively Arabs or were there only Southern Syrians or even just Arabs? If 1948 is connected to the root cause, why did the Arabs kill Jews and pillage them starting in 1920?

2. This traumatic event created the Palestinian refugee crisis.

By the end of 1948, two-thirds of the Palestinian population was exiled. It is estimated that more than 50% were driven out under direct military assault. Others fled as news spread of massacres committed by Jewish militias in Palestinian villages like Deir Yassin and Tantura.

Comment:

The Arab refugee crisis for the UN resolution spoke of "Palestine refugees" not "Palestinian" because the term included thousands of Jews made refugees by Arab aggression. "Exiled" is misleading. Many Arabs displaced due to their attempt to kill Jews and prevent a UN Resolution from being fulfilled moved no more than a few kilometers from their homes and unfortunately, unlike many hundreds of thousands of Jews made refugees from Arab countries, were not rehabilitated or absorbed into their new locations. And the Tantura incident as presented was proven false based on incriminating academic actions taken by Tedy Katz.

3. Jewish leaders saw "transfer" as an important step in the establishment of Israel.

Jewish leaders spoke openly of the need to use military clashes to expel as many Palestinians as possible before other Arab countries could come to their defense. The Haganah militia's Plan Dalet was the blueprint for this ethnic cleansing. Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, said "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." (See what other leading Israelis have said about transfer.)

Comment:

All misleading quotations and in any case, "transfer" was first adopted by Arabs when they attempted to destroy the Jewish community of Tel Hai in March 1920 and the next month, attempted the same in Jerusalem and in May 1921, in Jaffa.

4. Hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed.

Jewish forces depopulated more than 450 Palestinian towns and villages, most of which were demolished.

Comment:

Ethnic cleansing was an Arab innovation and initiative and Jewish villages and communities likewise were destroyed and in Gush Etzion, mass-murder took place by Arab forces.

5. Palestinian property and belongings were simply taken.

The newly-established Israeli government confiscated refugee land and properties without respect to Palestinian rights or desires to return to their homes.

Israeli historian Tom Segev reported that: "Entire cities and hundreds of villages left empty were repopulated with new [Jewish] immigrants... Free people - Arabs - had gone into exile and become destitute refugees; destitute refugees - Jews - took the exiles' places in the first step in their lives as free people. One group [Palestinians] lost all they had while the other [Jews] found everything they needed - tables, chairs, closets, pots, pans, plates, sometimes clothes, family albums, books radios, pets...

Comment:

When you start a war of extinction, don't cry when you lose.

6. Some Palestinians stayed in what became Israel.

While most Palestinians were driven out, some remained in what became Israel. Although citizens of the new state, they were subject to Israeli military rule until 1966. Today, Palestinian citizens of Israel comprise nearly 20 percent of Israel's population. They have the right to vote and run for office, but more than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. Nearly one-quarter of Israel's Palestinians are "internally displaced" persons, unable to return to the homes and lands that were taken from them.

Comment:

First of all, in 1948, almost 500,000 "Palestinian citizens" also became citizens of Israel quite willingly - the Jews of the Mandate. Arabs can vote, serve in the army, etc., something Jews cannot do in Jordan, oops, Jews can't even reside in Jordan even though it was part of the original Mandate territory scheduled to become the Jewish national home.

7. There are still millions of Palestinian refugees dispersed around the world.

Today, there are 4.4 million Palestinian refugees registered as such with the United Nations, and at least another estimated 1 million who are not so registered. Thus a majority of the Palestinian people, around 10 million persons, are refugees.

Comment:

No they aren't. They can call themselves 'exiles' if they want but not refugees.

8. Refugees have internationally-recognized rights.

All refugees enjoy internationally-recognized rights to return to areas from which they have fled or were forced out, to receive compensation for damages, and to either regain their properties or receive compensation and support for voluntary resettlement. This right has been explicitly acknowledged in recent peace agreements in Cambodia, Rwanda, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and Darfur. This right was affirmed for the Palestinians by the United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948. Israel, however, does not allow Palestinian refugees to return, although a Jew from anywhere in the world can settle in Israel.

Comment:

There is no such right.

9. Justly resolving refugee rights is essential to Middle East peace.

An overwhelming majority of Palestinians believes that refugee rights must be fulfilled for peace between Palestinians and Israelis to endure. And according to an August 2007 poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, nearly 70 percent believe that refugees should be allowed to return to "their original land".

Comment:

But that is just a ploy. The UN resolution also spoke about resettling and why should the Pals. be the only group to demand only one solution?

10. The Nakba has implications for Americans.

Israel's ongoing denial of Palestinian rights - and unconditional U.S. financial and diplomatic support for Israel - fuels anti-American sentiment abroad. A 2002 Zogby poll, conducted in eight Arab countries showed that "the negative perception of the United States is based on American policies, not a dislike of the West." The same poll showed that "the Palestinian issue was listed by many Arabs among the political issues that affect them most personally." Resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue would undoubtedly improve America's international image, by proving that the U.S. government supports the consistent application of international law.

Comment:

Sure it does as does many other aspects of the conflict.

Talk About Ethnic Cleansing

Notice anything missing from this map?

Yes, except for 'mixed-cities', Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv/Jaffa, Haifa, Safad & Beer Sheba, there are no Jewish localities, not even big places like Netanya. You would think that a few could be included for geographical balance.

But if you read closely, you'' be able to know that 6 villages were depopulated "on orders of Arab forces". Well, six is a start.

The Pals.' Nakba Nightmare: A Jewish State

The Nakba, the term the Arabs use to describe their failure to establish a state in 1948, has become of monstrous destroyer of the local Arabs ability to function as a people and to set themselves on the path of healing and reconstruction.

I found two comments I agree with, both from the left and centrist camp.

First, Professor Shlomo Avineri:

...As Jews and Israelis we cannot be indifferent to this pain, as it is clear the Nakba is directly tied to the founding of the State of Israel. But maybe it could be expected that the Palestinians recognize that their behavior - their refusal to accept the UN partition plan and the decision to respond to it with force - is part of the reason for what happened to them. None of this appears in the Palestinian narrative, which contains only the injustice committed against them.

It could all have been different. Had in 1948 the Palestinians accepted the partition plan as did the Jews (albeit grudgingly), two states would have been born and hundreds of thousands of people would not have been uprooted from their homes and become refugees. Arab and Palestinian literature and public relations completely lack this self-criticism. Even today, when the idea is raised of matching Israeli recognition of a Palestinian nation state with Palestinian recognition of Israel as the home of the Jewish people, the moderates in the Palestinian Authority respond with unqualified refusal. This is not a tactical rejection, it is deeply rooted in Palestinians' unwillingness to recognize that in 1948 they made an enormous, tragic mistake; even today they are unable to accept the principle of partition.

The Palestinians are willing to talk about two states, but not for two nations, since that would imply recognition of the Jews as a people. Maybe it is too much to ask the Palestinians to demonstrate awareness of the other side's rights.

The second by Dr. Alexander Yacobson:

The Palestinians reject the demand that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state. They cannot be forced to accede to this request. The Palestinians are right when they say the diplomatic custom is to recognize a country, not its regime. Of course, our situation is more complex.

The matter of a Jewish state is not only a question of regime - it is the very reason for partitioning the land into two states. The partition alone is far from a reason to celebrate. The Palestinians and the right wing have always had good reasons not to divide the land - there is no justification for dividing it unless it is necessary to grant national independence to its two peoples.

The 1947 United Nations committee that recommended partitioning the land into "a Jewish state" and "an Arab state" cited the presence of two peoples, Arab and Jewish. In contrast to the well-known claim that the Jews were a religious community and not a nation, the committee determined that there were two peoples, and that only by means of partition could both achieve their conflicting national aspirations and take their places as independent nations in the international community.

The Palestinian Arabs rejected this principle and went to war, and are now demanding that Israel take responsibility for the war's outcome. If indeed they have come to terms with the principle of partition, it would be very helpful in fostering an atmosphere of trust if they would specifically state what should be obvious: The two-state solution means two states for two peoples.

And, once again, let me emphasize that none of the nations who dealt with the question of the Palestine Mandate in all the world's legal forums considered that the reconstitution of the country was other than to permit to rise of a Jewish national home and in fact, all the other residents and future citizens of that country who were not Jews were not defined as Arabs or any other national description but in religious, or ethnic-religious terms: as non-Jews:

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine...

Definition by the negative was not unintentional. It was simply the easiest way to sescribe the two types of persons: Jews - and everyone else, but on one else in particular. And certainly not something called the "Palestinian Arab", because nothing like that existed. There were Southern Syrians at the most. In March 1920, the General Syrian Congress proclaimed independence of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Transjordan with Prince Faisal as King.

That independence was a bit geographically imperialistic:

In March 1920, the Syrian national congress in Damascus, headed by Hashim al-Atassi, adopted a resolution rejecting the Faisal-Clemenceau accords. The congress declared the independence of Syria in her natural borders (including Palestine), and proclaimed Faisal the king of Arabs. The congress also proclaimed political and economic union with neighboring Iraq and demanded its independence as well. A new government headed by Ali Rida ar-Rikabi was formed on May 9, 1920.

In other words, Arabs had no intention of permitting to any other minority the 'natural' right they demanded for themselves. Very exclusionist were they. And they still are in refusing to recognize a "Jewish state" concept.

Too bad. For them.

New York Times Misses An Identity

This apeared in a NYTimes story:-

The gunman, who was killed at the scene, was thought to be either a Palestinian or an Israeli Arab living in Jerusalem.

But the Israeli Arabs who adopted Nazi imagery in their demonstrations earlier this week identify themselves as "Palestinians of Israel" so, please, don't take the word of the NYT on this matter.

There is a major Palestianization of the Israel Arabs and that may lead to another nakba.

I Agree

The flap over the introduction of the term "nakba" into 3rd grade history books (by the way, this in itself is amazing for me. most Israeli high school pupils I meet seem to know only 3rd grade history so maybe there's hope here for improvement) is not the term itself (althoug I will admit that it has taken on a life of its own besides its regular meaning) but what you teach about it.

The Jerusalem Post got it right:-

...it is important that Israeli Arab children learn real historical facts, not just propaganda designed to foster hatred and rejection of the state in which they live. The way to do this, we would suggest, is not necessarily to reject all use of the term "nakba," but to define it more accurately.

The Arab catastrophe was not the fact of Israel's creation, but the Arab rejection of it. If the Arab world had accepted the UN partition plan and decided to live in peace with Israel, both Israel and Palestine would be celebrating their 60th anniversaries next year. All the wars and the refugee problem would not exist, and the unfathomable price imposed in blood and treasure for the failed Arab attempt to destroy Israel would have been saved.

One State; One Population or a Catastrophe

As the NYT reports,

The education minister, Yuli Tamir, of the left-leaning Labor Party, told Israel Radio that there were two populations in Israel, Jewish and Arab, and that “the Arab public deserves to be allowed to express its feelings.”

How to express?

Israel’s Education Ministry announced Sunday that it had approved a textbook for use in the state’s Arab schools that for the first time described Israel’s 1948 war of independence as a “catastrophe” for the Arab population

Well, Professor Yuli, the problem with you is that there should be only one population, one that includes everybody who wants to be Israeli. Following my mentor, Jabotinsky, one needn't necessarily be Jewish to be Israeli (although it helps) but we are not talking about a bi-national state. Jabo didn't approve of that as he wrote:

In our case it means: should we Jews be condemned forever to remain a minority in Palestine, even a minority protected by the best imaginable kind of bi-national constitution, when Palestine will eventually become in its entirety an Arab national state, gradually but inevitably obliterating all the essential expression of our own Jewish individuality?

If, on the contrary, we Jews become the majority in Palestine (in which case, no doubt, it will be a matter of pride for us to endow our country with the most perfect of all bi-national constitutions), the tendency will be in the opposite direction, towards a Jewish national State ever more pronounced and complete ; and with every oncoming year that tendency will grow stronger because a Jewish majority will mean an open door for further Jewish immigration.

True, the "national" prospect for the Arabs under a Jewish majority would be much brighter than the "national" prospect for the Jews in an Arab majority state. The reason is obvious: Palestine is situated in the middle of several countries whose civilisation is, and will remain, Arabian. The Arabs of Palestine will always enjoy the advantage of easily accessible Arab influences across the border; not so the Jews.

Furthermore: should Palestine be allowed to crystallise as a state with an Arab majority , that would only be the beginning of further Arabisation. The next step would be for that state to join an Arab or pan-Arab federation; which would mean that the Jews, even if they formed a "considerable" minority within Palestine as such, would sink to the status of a very small percentage within the greater state.

To sum up the bi-national state trick is worthless. The crux of the problem remains the same old one: Jewish majority or Arab majority. For the Jews to agree to a minority status under the aegis of a bi-national regime would be suicidal. Nor can Arab nationalism be expected to welcome the opposite prospect.

That was written in 1930. And Yuli Tamir is stuck back in some visionary idyllic "peace".

And where will Israel be with this educational program?

A catastrophe.

The Pictures of How Israeli Arabs "Celebrate" Independence day

The following three pictures are from a set that were taken on Israel's Independence Day in a national park south of Meggido and near the main Meggido-Hedera highway.

The other citizens who see "celebrating" are Arabs marking the day of Nakba, calamity, with PLO flags, et al. Jews were threatened, intimidated and the property damaged.





And they say that Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East.

UPDATE

And in Jaffa:-

A group of five Jews was attacked in Jaffa (Yafo) on Saturday night near an ice cream shop. The five, four women and one man, are all IDF soldiers, but they were not wearing their uniforms or carrying weapons. They stopped for ice cream after a day at the beach, they said, and were set upon by ten Arab youths with sticks.

The Arabs began hitting the front windshield of their car and attempted to forcibly drag one person from the car. The Jewish victims managed to drive away, but not before their vehicle sustained damage from the attack.