19 Comments
User's avatar
Alex Stein's avatar

“What would be the Arab proportion of the population of Israel had Arabs not run away when neighbouring armies attacked?” I don’t have the precise figures in front of me but at least half had already left before the invasion (I think it might be as high as three quarters but I would need to check).

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

But did they leave in anticipation of the invasion? If yes, then I would ask what the proportion of Arabs would be if they had not left in anticipation of the invasion because there would have been no anticipation of an invasion.

Then the question becomes how would things look if they had not left?

Expand full comment
Alex Stein's avatar

The vast majority didn’t leave because they anticipated the invasion. They were mostly either expelled or they fled the fighting. Read Morris for more details.

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

My question is how many Arabs would live in Israel if they had not left or fled or been expelled if they were expelled. Whether or not they were expelled or fled is not the question here and Morris revised his conclusions later. If you can read, you know that I was asking a what-if question, a thought experiment

Expand full comment
Alex Stein's avatar

Ok but in your article you didn’t write “how many Arabs would live in Israel if they had not left or fled or been expelled.” You wrote: “What would be the Arab proportion of the population of Israel had Arabs not run away when neighbouring armies attacked?” This is a false description of what happened, and you should revise it.

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

You should keep up with the literature rather than tell me what I should revise.

https://www.camera.org/article/did-benny-morris-change-his-views-on-alleged-zionist-ethnic-cleansing-plan/

Expand full comment
Alex Stein's avatar

Nothing in the link you have shared backs up your original argument that the Palestinians fled in anticipation of the Arab invasion. It deals with other issues.

Expand full comment
Alan, aka DudeInMinnetonka's avatar

STATE OF "PALESTINE” QUIZ

???

1. WHEN WAS THE COUNTRY OF "PALESTINE" FOUNDED AND BY WHOM?

2. WHAT WERE ITS BORDERS?

?

2.

CO

3. WHAT WAS ITS CAPITAL?

4. WHAT WERE ITS MAJOR CITIES?

5. NAME AT LEAST ONE "PALESTINIAN LEADER" BEFORE ARAFAT.

6. WHAT WAS THE LANGUAGE OF THE "COUNTRY OF PALESTINE"?

7. WHAT WAS THE PREVALENT RELIGION OF THE "ANCIENT COUNTRY OF PALESTINE" ?

8. WHAT WAS THE NAME OF ITS CURRENCY?

9. CHOOSE ANY DATE IN HISTORY AND TELL WHAT WAS THE APPROXIMATE EXCHANGE RATE OF THE "PALESTINIAN" MONETARY UNIT AGAINST THE US DOLLAR, GERMAN MARK, GB POUND, JAPANESE YEN, OR CHINESE YUAN ON THAT DATE.

10. SINCE THERE IS NO SUCH COUNTRY OF "PALESTINE" TODAY, WHAT CAUSED ITS DEMISE AND WHEN DID IT OCCUR?

11. WHY DID "THE PALESTINIANS" NEVER TRY TO BECOME INDEPENDENT UNTIL AFTER THE DEVASTATING DEFEAT OF INVADING ARAB STATES IN THE 1967 SIX DAY WAR?

Expand full comment
E. E. Negron (Emerald)'s avatar

I am so tempted to make some stuff up—but I won’t. I like these questions as they are great talking points with people who insist that Israel “created Hamas” and thereby deflecting the lack of answers to your quiz!!

Expand full comment
Kevin Miner's avatar

The ultimate irony of the concept of "Palestine" is that - if events somehow happened to allow for this state to occur or to be declared - there would be nobody competent to run and maintain it. It would be swallowed up by surrounding forces in a heartbeat.

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

Exactly

Expand full comment
HP's avatar

Great points, but we can be honest with each other here. There is plenty of blame to go around, and the Israelis ought to accept their share. No one, I mean no one, can fuck things up to this extent alone. It takes a village :)

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

I agree. Our greatest mistake was not declaring our sovereignty over Gaza, Judea, and Samaria as we did with the Golan way back in 1967. Another horrendous error was when Moshe Dayan ordered the soldiers to remove the Israeli flag from the Temple Mount and handed the keys to the mosque to Jordan.

Expand full comment