Phil's post is refreshing in rehearsing the controversy between Benny Morris and interpreters of his work. Norman Finkelstein and Shlomo Ben Ami both agree that Benny Morris, for whatever reason, personal or scholarly , chose not to draw self-evident conclusions from his own diligent work with Israeli sources and his discussions of 'plan Dalet' which set out military plans that closely if not exactly resembled what happened.
I find Benny Morris' response to Mearsheimer and Walt disingenuous. He says 'He faulted them, among other things, for...falsely accusing Israel of adopting a policy of expelling Arabs in 1948...'. True, there was no public stated policy that Explicitly adopted transfer of Arab populations. However, it is rather interesting how the pre-independence hostilities achieved the goal that Ben Gurion and a majority of Zionists factions had hoped for: the creation of a Jewish national home with a homogenous Jewish population, the solution to the so called 'demographic problem.
In my opinion, given what I know about the tremendous diplomatic and martial skill Ben Gurion, Sharett and the rest of the Israeli policy apparatus demonstrated at this time I have concluded that in the pursuit of expansion of territory beyond the partition plan, the Yeshuv and the Zionist provisional government set out to create facts that would inevitably result in large migrations of refugees. Given the scope of their command of the situation, and their Machiavellian orientation to state craft they hid their true intentions behind the 'fog of war' dodge. In short, Benny Morris prefers to believe the myth rather than his own lyin' eyes.
Whatever one thinks about the 'exoteric' policy Ben Gurion adopted there is no question that the policy rejecting the return of refugees was consciously and publicly pursued. This was inhuman and indefensible under any standard reading of international law or the standards of human decency. Israelis like Ben Ami, and Simha Flaphan see the refugee problem as the key to the problem of Israeli security. There will be no peace without justice.
Laura would do well to find new perspectives and get closer to the truth of Israel's birth in 1948. Read Simha Flapan's masterpiece deconstructing gross misconceptions about Israel's formation: 'The Birth of Israel, Myth and Reality'.
Phil's post is refreshing in rehearsing the controversy between Benny Morris and interpreters of his work. Norman Finkelstein and Shlomo Ben Ami both agree that Benny Morris, for whatever reason, personal or scholarly , chose not to draw self-evident conclusions from his own diligent work with Israeli sources and his discussions of 'plan Dalet' which set out military plans that closely if not exactly resembled what happened.
I find Benny Morris' response to Mearsheimer and Walt disingenuous. He says 'He faulted them, among other things, for...falsely accusing Israel of adopting a policy of expelling Arabs in 1948...'. True, there was no public stated policy that Explicitly adopted transfer of Arab populations. However, it is rather interesting how the pre-independence hostilities achieved the goal that Ben Gurion and a majority of Zionists factions had hoped for: the creation of a Jewish national home with a homogenous Jewish population, the solution to the so called 'demographic problem.
In my opinion, given what I know about the tremendous diplomatic and martial skill Ben Gurion, Sharett and the rest of the Israeli policy apparatus demonstrated at this time I have concluded that in the pursuit of expansion of territory beyond the partition plan, the Yeshuv and the Zionist provisional government set out to create facts that would inevitably result in large migrations of refugees. Given the scope of their command of the situation, and their Machiavellian orientation to state craft they hid their true intentions behind the 'fog of war' dodge. In short, Benny Morris prefers to believe the myth rather than his own lyin' eyes.
Whatever one thinks about the 'exoteric' policy Ben Gurion adopted there is no question that the policy rejecting the return of refugees was consciously and publicly pursued. This was inhuman and indefensible under any standard reading of international law or the standards of human decency. Israelis like Ben Ami, and Simha Flaphan see the refugee problem as the key to the problem of Israeli security. There will be no peace without justice.
Laura would do well to find new perspectives and get closer to the truth of Israel's birth in 1948. Read Simha Flapan's masterpiece deconstructing gross misconceptions about Israel's formation: 'The Birth of Israel, Myth and Reality'.