Zionism: the progressive declassification of archives changes the way historians look at the processes associated with its implementation
This article is based on public references (about fifty) covering several fundamental aspects associated with Zionism, aspects that are still little known to the general public.
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Abstract = The progressive declassification of archives around the world is bringing new light to these processes associated with Zionism, from its origins:
It was already known that, well before 1947, the International Community (read: the West) was in favor of the creation of a refuge state for the Jews of the world who wished to do so. And this was concretized in 1947 by the UN resolution creating two democratic states excluding all discrimination against their minorities. At the same time, several Western states guaranteed the continuity of the refugee state.
We now understand that, in reality, and since well before 1947, the same ‘International Community’ was creating and consolidating the conditions that would lead to the creation of a Jewish state. With the corollary of the displacement of certain indigenous populations, and the structural establishment of discrimination for certain populations.
The article therefore brings another light that contrasts with the lighting we are used to.
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image : Flowers on the side of Monviso — (image by JPCqd)
In 1902, Theodor Herzl sought the support of Cecil Rhodes (a British champion of colonial expansion), and he wrote to him, explaining: “(…) my program is a colonial program (…) an outpost of civilization to counterbalance barbarism (…) a bastion of Western culture.” (2) Theodor Herzl is often presented as the theorist of Zionism (ref. His book Der Judenstaat — 1896). In fact, the idea was already circulating long before he became actively involved in the subject: the Christian Evangelical William. E. Blackstone developed the concept of Zionism between the years 1878 (ref. his book “Jesus is Coming”) and 1888 (ref. His trip to the Holy Land).
In 1919, the Report of the King-Crane Inter-Allied Commission, in its introduction, was direct: “The Report exposes the evils of secret treaties. It clearly shows the striking contrast between the solemn commitments of the European nations to the nations to the peoples of the Near East and their imperialist course.” (14) Thus, for example, the sacrosanct principle of the right to self-determination of peoples is everywhere brandished in the West; which, at the same time, makes sure that it cannot be applied here or there (14).
I intend to address successively the following themes & processes : Introduction /// The Uganda Project /// After 14–18 and the King Crane Commission /// The appropriation of land /// the Principle of Partition of Palestine /// the Principle of Population Transfers /// Preparation for Transfers of Populations /// the Transfers of Arab Populations /// Violences /// Transfer of Jewish Populations /// Borders /// The International Community
>> INTRODUCTION
From even during his lifetime, Theodor Herzl’s project and his ideas were often been misrepresented not only by his opponents, but also by his supporters. Yet, a careful and non-selective examination of Herzl’s texts, and of his Diary in particular, leaves no doubt as to his true intentions.
The young Ben Gurion was not mistaken, and he said, at Herzl’s death: “No more such an extraordinary man will arise (…) It is only once in thousands of years that such a wonderful man is born! “ (1)
At death of Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann took up the torch. Speaking Palestine, he wrote to the Manchester Guardian in 1914: “If Great Britain would encourage a Jewish settlement there, we could have a million Jews there within twenty or thirty years, perhaps more; they would develop the country, bring civilization back to it, and constitute an effective protection for the Suez Canal.’’ Quoted by John B. Quigley, Professor of Law (16)
The Russian Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky created the Revisionist Zionist Party in Paris (1925). He will influence the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The journalist Henri Alleg quotes an extract from the essay “The Iron Law” (1923) by Jabotinsky: “Zionism is a colonial adventure and, consequently, it will succeed or or fail depending on the question of the armed forces.” (2)
As for the “natives” of the colonized country (Jabotinsky did not deny their existence), he cared very little about them: the only thing worthy of to be taken into consideration was the interest of the Jewish colonists and the success of the colonial adventure.
It is noteworthy that even Israeli heroes of the Six-Day War explain that “the general public fails to recognize that we are that we are occupiers. (…) That our oppression has desensitized us; we see human beings as objects, and that “the occupation has corrupted us from within by making us the masters. (…) I don’t want my children and grandchildren to live in this country” (ref. Interview with Colonels Yossi Langotzky and Reuven Gal in an Article in Haaretz, in June 2017) (31)
>> THE UGANDA PROJECT
At the first Zionist Congress in 1897, the officially declared objective was to create a home for the Jewish people, which would be legitimate in law. From this point on, Herzl began to to seek support from important leaders to have “a land that is ours”. Some options were considered in various countries. Without success.
Theodor Herzl was received, at the beginning of 1903, by the British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, shortly after the pogroms of Kishinev, in Russia. The objective was to find an urgent refuge for the Jews of Europe who were in imminent danger from violent anti-Semitism.
Joseph Chamberlain proposed a territory of some 15,000 km2 with a temperate climate located in present-day Kenya. This was the “Uganda Plan” Uasin Gishu. In August 1903, the Foreign Office declared that it welcomed the proposal to establish a Jewish colony there. Immediately, Theodor Herzl presented the plan to the Sixth Zionist Congress Zionist Congress, which did not, however, meet with the hoped-for approval.
At seventh Zionist Congress (1905), the “Uganda Plan” was definitively rejected. The Jewish National Home could therefore only be the ‘Land of Israel’. However, some of the participants did not accept the decision of the Congress, and left the Zionist movement. Zangwill was one of them.
Later Theodor Herzl would later write in his correspondence: “My heart is for Zion, my mind for Uganda.” (2)
Thus, from 1905, Israel Zangwill advocated the search for a land for the Jews, whatever it might be: “There are wild beasts in East Africa, but in Jerusalem there are even wilder creatures. even more savage creatures. There are religious fanatics both Muslim and Christian, (…), and no matter where we go we will not find a absolutely safe proposal” (3)
Speaking the hypothesis of settlement in the “Land of Israel”, and the problem of the people who live there, Zangwill already advocated to transfer the Arabs of Palestine to the neighboring Arab countries. (4)
>> THE AFTER 14–18 and the KING-CRANE COMMISSION
At the end of the First World War, a Peace Conference was held in Versailles in early 1919. For what concerns the Arab provinces of the former Ottoman Empire, the American President Wilson wanted a commission to go and investigate the wishes of the populations concerning their future. This principle of self-determination of the people corresponds to one of the points of the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 (The Consent of the Governed). However, the English and the French had their own ideas for the future of these lands…
Thus, in 1919, President Wilson dispatched a Commission of Inquiry to Palestine, known as the King-Crane Commission.
“For or Against Zionism” is the title of a chapter of the confidential annex to the Report which the King-Crane Commission Commission submitted to the President of the United States in 1919 (15).It will not be known until 1922 for the others.
>For : In the face of the Commission, Zionism’s supporters point out that Palestine once belonged to the Jews. The Jews of today are far too numerous to be gathered in Palestine. However, they have a right to have somewhere a state where those who are oppressed could take refuge. The supporters of Zionism also point out that there will be no need to displace the present populations currently present in Palestine.
> Against: The natives, including Christians, oppose Zionism. The Arabs explain that they were in Palestine before the Jews, who came as immigrants, and that they remained there comparatively short time before being expelled by the Romans. The Arabs conquered the land 1300 years ago, and have remained there ever since. They are at home. They will resist to the end the establishment of a Jewish government.
John Quigley, professor of law at Ohio State University, explains that the King Crane Report also reported on information the Commission had gathered closer to the ground, which confirmed the fears of the Arabs: “The Zionists hope to dispossess the present non-Jewish inhabitants almost completely.” (17)
The American President Woodrow Wilson nevertheless leaned towards Zionism. The King-Crane Report was buried.
The Versailles Conference of 1919–20, Art. 22, formalized that the Palestinian people of the time were not yet able to rule themselves. (18).
Some decades later, the Permanent Commission of the Mandates made it clear that that the Mandate powers have no sovereign rights, and that the people under mandate have sovereign rights… The wishes of the people should have been respected. (19)
>> THE APPROPRIATION OF THE LAND
We remember the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 (“… on the clear understanding that nothing shall be done which would prejudice the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities existing in Palestine …”). This is one thing.
But, at the same time, the British officials understood perfectly well that Zionist colonization meant taking land and resources from the Palestinian Arabs. Thus, Balfour said: “In Palestine, we do not propose to go through the formality of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country.” (20)
The Balfour’s logic for ignoring the rights of the Palestinians was that “Zionism, whether right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in millennial traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, which are of far greater importance than the than the prejudiced desires of 700,000 Arabs who currently inhabit this ancient land.” (20)
In 1938, Ben Gurion understood perfectly well that the Arabs’ perception of the consequences of Zionism had determined the Arab revolt: “We are the aggressors, and they are defending themselves.” Ben Gurion developed the idea by explaining that, for the Arabs, Palestine “is theirs because they live there, and from their point of view, we want to dispossess them of their country.” (21)
The purchase of land by the Jewish National Fund was not random: it was a matter of building a chain of villages on a continuous area (= cit.: General Yigal Allon). The objective of the Fund was indeed to buy back the land of Palestine to make it an inalienable possession of the Jewish people. As early as 1891, the Zionist leader Ahad Ha’am wrote that the Arabs understand very well what we are doing. The indigenous Jews of Palestine reacted negatively to Zionism. (24)
>> PRINCIPLE OF THE PARTITION OF PALESTINE
Following the great Arab revolt of 1936, the ‘Royal Palestine Commission’ was entrusted to William Peel. A number of meetings took place. Winston Churchill’s testimony to the Commission was remarkable for a certain state of mind that was quite common at the time, which nevertheless left its mark on the general direction that the Peel Report took.
In her book “War Talk” (35), the eminent writer Arundhati ROY quotes Winson Churchill as evoking Aesop’s fable “The Dog in the Crib” in his introductory sentence.
For form, let us quote the text of this fable: “A dog was lying in a manger; he did not touch the barley and prevented the cattle, which could eat it, from eating it.”
Churchill, therefore, told the Peel Commission, “I do not think that the dog in the manger has a right to the manger, even if he has been there a long time. I do not admit of that right. I do not admit, for example, that a great wrong has been done to the Indians of America or to the black populations of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these peoples because a stronger race, a race of higher rank, a race more aware of, a conscious race, so to speak, has come and taken their place”. (35)
The JPCA (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) article quotes the same speech by Winston Churchill (expunged from the first sentence), noting that Churchill recognized that the case of the Jews was different. The article goes on to explain that it is for this reason that the first chapter of the Peel Report focuses on the historical connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, and that the Peel Commission had emphasized that it is only in Palestine could the Jewish people find political freedom, for the Jewish people are indigenous to the land of Israel/Palestine. 36)
The Report of the Peel Commission, of more than 400 pages, was produced in July 1937. I “summarize” it in two sentences:
“The disease is so deeply rooted that we are firmly convinced that the only hope for a cure lies in a surgical operation.” (22)
“The division seems to offer at least a chance for final peace. We see none in any other plan.” (23)
Loy Henderson, of the U.S. State Department, in charge of Middle Eastern Affairs Middle East Affairs, recommended to Secretary of State George Marshall to approach the issue of the Peel Report’s positions with caution. He wrote that the Partition Plan “ignored self-determination and majority rule”, and stated that “The Balfour Declaration and the Mandate did not provide for a Jewish state, but for a Jewish National Home.” (25 )
At twentieth Zionist Congress (1937), the idea of rejecting the partition of Palestine was put forward by Rabbi Berlin, who stated: “We should be prepared to accept difficult conditions and even war if that is what is necessary to inherit the entirety of Biblical Eretz Israel. (…) We believe that Eretz Israel belongs to us, in its entirety.” (4) Map of Biblical Israel in (5)
In 1944, the American Zionist Convention called for the formation of a “Jewish Democratic Community” in the ‘the whole of Palestine, undivided and undiminished. (…)’’
By the newly created Arab League deplored “the horrors and sufferings which the European Jews have endured” and added that their situation should not be resolved by inflicting “another injustice at the expense of the Arab Palestinians”. The League considered it unjust “to make the Arabs pay for German crimes.” (26)
>> THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION TRANSFERS
Alain Cypel (ORIENT XXI) recalls that “The subject of the “transfer” of the Palestinian population out of the future Jewish state was discussed at length at the Zionist Congress in Zurich in 1937, but these discussions were kept secret (they remained so until the 1990s). And when the ethnic cleansing was carried out in 1948–1950, it appeared sufficiently dishonorable to the Zionist leadership that they denied it (by accusing the victims of being the cause of their own misfortune).” (6)
The Ben Gurion’s Diary “(…) helps to dispel certain persistent myths surrounding the creation of the State of Israel, particularly that of the voluntary departure of the Palestinians (…)” (7)
Young Jewish Zionist, Naeim Giladi (1929–2010) later emigrated to the United States and gave up his Israeli nationality. He eventually came to oppose Ben Gurion’s policies. In his own words, he considered the Zionist program was criminal from the start, because the Zionist leaders knew that, in order to establish a Jewish state, they would have to expel the Palestinians and import thousands of Jews (8).
“Publicly atheist, Ben Gurion peppered his speeches with quotations from the Old testament. The sacred book indeed offers a mythological legitimization for the presence of Jewish settlers in Palestine. (…) Ben Gurion openly envisages the deportation of Palestinians from his territory (…)” (7)
In an interview with the daily Haaretz on January 09, 2004, Israeli historian Benny Morris explained: “A Jewish state could not have been created without uprooting 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them.” This is the implacable logic of this type of Zionism.
However as David Ben Gurion, the founder of the State, repeatedly state: “We did not expel a single Arab”. The Israeli national narrative was that Palestinians left voluntarily. (6)
A this point, for the sake of argument, let us quote Georges Balandier, a reference in Political Anthropology, on the colonial question: “Each of the sectors of colonial society assume the domination in a precise domain (political, economic and, almost always, spiritual) (…) It rests, as we have pointed out several times, on an ideology, a system of pseudo-justifications, rationalizations; it has a more or less racist foundation.’’ (29)
However, today the image of Israel has remained an image of the official discourse of the past: “(…) people did not realize what Israel had become, especially after 1967, a state of colonization.” (30)
>> PREPARATION OF THE POPULATION TRANSFERS
The Israeli historian Ilan Pappé points out that the expulsion of the Palestinians was not a consequence of the war, but the result of a well thought-out plan. He relies on a host of archives from the Armed Forces, Ben Gurion’s diary, etc. (9) (10)
The Israeli historian Benny Morris also cites the diary of Yosef Weitz Director of Land for the Jewish National Fund, of December 20 1940: “It must be clear that there is no place for two peoples in this country (…) and the only solution is the Land of Israel without Arabs (…) There is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighbouring countries (…) Not one village should remain, not one Bedouin tribe.” (11) (10) (34)
In 1940, the young historian Ben-Zion Luria, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, proposed to the Jewish National Fund the establishment of a study of all Arab villages because “it would greatly help in the redemption of the land”. The elaboration of the file is immediately launched: topographers, aerial photos, agents on the ground…
The historian Ilan Pappé specifies: “the access roads, the quality of the land, the sources, the main sources of income, sociological composition, religious affiliations, the names of the muktars, the relations with other age of male inhabitants (16 to 50 years old) and many other things” (12) (10)
There was also “an index of hostility [to the the Zionist project], based on the level of the village’s participation of the village in the 1936 revolt.
In 1943, Ezra Danin will systematize the whole file. From then on, the files included “detailed descriptions of family ties, crops, number of trees in the plantations, the quality of each orchard (and even of each tree), the average amount of land per family, the number of cars, the owners of businesses, the members of workshops, and the names of the artisans in each village with their skills. Later on, meticulous indications of each clan and its political affiliation, the social stratification between notables and simple peasants, and the names of the officials of the mandate government were added.”
The closer the end of the British mandate came, the more “the information became explicitly military: the number of guards (most villages had none) and the quantity and quality of the weapons at the village’s disposal (generally archaic or even absent.)” (12) (10)
Igaal Yadin, the future deputy prime minister, recognized that “It was this detailed knowledge of what was happening in every Palestinian village that allowed the Zionist military command in November 1947 to conclude that ‘the Arabs of Palestine had no one to organize them properly’’ (12) (10)
For the record: The often mentioned Plan Daleth was a military defense plan. I am not linking it directly to the theme of this paragraph (the preparation of population transfers) although it includes a certain expulsion dimension. Elaborated in March 1948, the essence of Plan Daleth was “to drive out all hostile and potentially hostile forces from within the future territory of the future territory of the Jewish state, to establish a territorial continuity between the main concentrations of the Jewish population, and to ensure the security of the future borders before the expected Arab invasion.” immediately after the end of the British May 15, 1948 (13) (10)
>> ARAB POPULATION TRANSFERS
Theodor Herzl, the architect of Zionism, thought that this could be done by social engineering. In a June 12, 1885 article in his his paper, he wrote that Zionist settlers should “push the penniless population beyond the borders by providing them with work in the countries transit countries, while denying them employment in our own country.” (28) quoting (32)
Israeli historian Benny Morris explains that “Ben Gurion clearly wanted as few Arabs as possible to remain in the Jewish state. He hoped they would leave. He told this to his colleagues and assistants in meetings in August, September and October. But no policy of expulsion was ever enunciated, and Ben Gurion always refrained from issuing clear or or written expulsion orders; he preferred his generals to ‘understand’ what he wanted them to do. He wanted to avoid being reduced in history to the as the “great expeller” and did not want the Israeli government to be involved in a morally questionable policy.”
“Uri Mileshtin, an official historian for the Israeli Defense Force, has written and spoken about the use of bacteriological agents. According to Mileshtin, Moshe Dayan, then a divisional commander, gave orders in 1948 orders in 1948 to remove the Arabs from their villages, to bulldoze their homes, and to render the water in the wells unusable with typhus and dysentery bacteria.” (27) Quoted by (28)
The New York Times of October 23, 1979 reported on the “Lydda and Ramleh operation”, which took place on July 12, 1948. The article quoted David Ben Gurion’s instruction to Igal Allon and Yitzhak Rabin: “Expel them!” The forced evacuation of 70,000 Palestinian civilians from the two cities was accompanied by summary executions and looting.
Naeim Giladi, an Iraqi Zionist, explains that “During the 1948 war, Jewish forces emptied Arab villages of their population, often by threats, sometimes by simply shooting half a dozen unarmed Arabs as an example to others.” (28)
The statement by David Ben-Gurion in the Council of Ministers on June 16 June 16, 1948, saying that he wanted to avoid “at all costs the return of refugees’’, does not seem to be an empty phrase but seems to correspond to a concrete political program. (10)
“David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, said at a Zionist conference in 1937 that any proposed Jewish state would be obliged to “move the Arab population out of the area, if possible of their own free will, or if not, by coercion”. In 1948–49, after the exodus of 750,000 Palestinians and the confiscation of their land, Ben Gurion had to turn to Muslim countries to find Jews as cheap labor. “Emissaries” were allegedly smuggled into these countries in order to “convince” the Jews to leave through deception or fear.” (28) citing (33)
“These Palestinians who are being expelled are being robbed of their property at the same time. (…) The Law on “abandoned properties” — intended to make it possible to seize the property of any “absent” person — legalized, the “confiscation” in December 1948.” (10)
The writer Arundhati ROY pointed out the attitude of the leaders of the Israeli state towards the Palestinians: “In 1969, Prime Minister Golda Meir said, “The Palestinians do not exist.” Her successor Levi Eshkol said: “What are the Palestinians? When I came here [in Palestine] there were 250,000 non-Jews, mainly Arabs and Bedouins. It was the desert, less than underdeveloped. Nothing.” Prime Minister Menachem Begin called the Palestinians “two-legged beasts.” Prime Minister Yizhak Shamir called them “locusts” that could be crushed. This is the language of heads of state, not common people,” concluded Roy (52).
>> VIOLENCES
From 1978 onwards, Israeli archives relating to these troubled times gradually began to appear. They have been a useful raw material for historians. They are little known.
The Israeli historian historian Benny Morris notes: “What the new materials show is that the Israelis committed many more massacres than I had previously thought.” (13) (10)
The journalist Allan Kaval comes to the same conclusion: “The darkest moments of the creation of Israel, namely the the massacres of “Arab” civilians, the crimes committed (…) by radical Zionist elements are not omitted by Peschanski, although they are evoked with a certain discretion.”(7)
Little by little, the lid is lifted on more violence perpetrated. Following the publication of his book “Preventing Palestine” in September 2018, and as a complement to her 2012 New York Times article, researcher Anziska presents New Revelations about the Sabra and Shatila massacres. He explains that the new declassified documents from the Kahane Commission in Israel made it possible to highlight the “clear signs of coordination between Israelis and Phalangists before they entered into the camps” where the massacres took place. The idea was “that a massacre would push the Palestinians to flee Lebanon.” (55)
In the Israeli press today, there is talk of the summary executions, of the Jewish militia in 1948, which are still censored after 70 years. (37) And a group of Jewish terrorists from the 1980s is cited, who are to be found today in the corridors of Power. (38)
>> TRANSFERS OF JEWISH POPULATIONS
:: :: :: :: :: The example of Iraq :: :: :: :: :::
Naiem Giladi (1926–2010) was an Iraqi Jew. His ancestors were settled in Iraq for 26 centuries (Babylonian diaspora). He came from an important family. The Jews were then part of the elite in government and business. He always spoke Arabic at home. As an active young Zionist, he explains: “I was disillusioned with what I found in the Promised Land, disillusioned personally, disillusioned with institutionalized racism, disillusioned by what I began to learn about the cruelties of Zionism.” (28)
Becoming American citizen, he secured the cancellation of his Israeli citizenship.
“Ben Gurion needed the “Orientals” (i.e. Arabs’) to cultivate the thousands of acres of land abandoned by Palestinians who were driven out by Israeli forces in 1948.” (28)
“In attempts to portray Iraqis as anti-American and to terrorize Jews, Zionists planted bombs in the US Library Information Service and in synagogues. Soon leaflets began circulating, urging Jews to flee to Israel…. “ (28)
Former Senior CIA Officer Wilbur C. Eveland said: “The Iraqi police provided our embassy with evidence that the campaign of attacks on the synagogues and the library, as well as the anti-Jewish and anti-American leaflets, was the work of an underground Zionist organization. People were made to think that Arab terrorism had motivated the flight of Iraqi Jews, that the Zionists “saved”, when in reality the plan was to increase the Jewish population of Israel.” (39)
In 1955, Giladi reported that “laboratory tests in Iraq had confirmed that the anti-American leaflets found at the US Library bombing had been typed on the same typewriter and duplicated with the same stencil machine as the leaflets distributed by the Zionist movement just prior to the April 8 bombing.” (28)
The terrorist actions of 1950 and 1951 had resulted in the death of three Jews and the injury of over thirty. The ensuing exodus of Iraqi Jews had been massive.
Giladi concluded, bitterly: “An ancient, cultured and prosperous community was uprooted and its members were transplanted to a land dominated by Eastern European Jews, whose culture was not only alien to them, but even hostile.” (28)
:: :: :: :: :: The example of Morocco :: :: :: :: :::
There were Jews in ‘Morocco’ as early as the second century B.C. They were still 170.000 in the 60s. They are barely 5,000 today.
The Tribune Juive evokes the role of Mossad in the departure of the Jews from Morocco, and reports the words of Israeli historian Yigal Bin-Nun, in an interview given to the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. He indicates that Mossad agents were sent to Morocco in the early 1960s, with the aim of to emigrate Moroccan Jews to Israel. The historian cited statements by Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir, during a governmental council, who “insisted on the imperative of to carry out an operation in Morocco that would cause a shock.”
The historian Yigal Bin-Nun recounts (among other things) two operations that massive exoduses and ‘emptied’ Morocco of its Jewish population:
> First, the death under police torture of three Moroccan Jewish radical who collaborated with the Mossad, which was skilfully used to feed an anguished propaganda. This also allowed King Hassan II to be forced to sign an agreement with Israel: an agreement facilitating the departure of the Jews.
> Next, the historian also cites the dissemination by Mossad of false communiqués attributed to the Jewish community of Morocco, inciting to the Great Departure. In the end, 160,000 people left the kingdom (40).
Since we are talking about Mossad, the book “By Way of Deception” by a former Mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky is worth mentioning. (41) He insists that his book was written to mark his loyalty to his Zionist ideal.
In October 1990, the book of the former Mossad agent, is the №1
Best Sellers on the New York Times list, category “Non-Fiction” category. He criticizes the lack of respect for human life. He cites several operations or attitudes towards allies of Israel, which he considers highly questionable. Two examples are summarized in (42).
The content of the book has been criticized as containing fabrications.
However, the motive used by the State of Israel to try to stop the book publication (in vain) was that of “endangering Mossad agents in their field of operations’’. This was the only case in the United States of a state seeking to block a book.
Rabbi Fischmann (Jewish Agency for Palestine), stated (July 1947) to the UN Commission of Inquiry that “The Promised Land extends from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, and includes parts of Syria and Lebanon.”
This statement echoes the description of the extent of the Jewish state by Theodor Herzl, in his Diary: he said “from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates”. This expression repeats what the Bible says (Genesis 15:18): “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river of Euphrates”. (43)
The United Nations resolution 181 (II) of November 29, 1947 proceeds to the partition of Palestine into two states and defines its borders in its Part 2.
The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel took place on May 14 1948. In the final version of the text, the provisional government decided to abandon the inclusion of the subject of the state’s borders. On the same day a (non-binding) covering letter was sent to the President of the United States, which stated that the proclamation of independence had taken place “within the boundaries approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution of November 29, 1947” The link to this letter is given in (44)
The Constitution of Israel was to be promulgated in the following months, along with the borders. The Constitution was never promulgated.
Naeim Giladi relates a discussion with Ben Gurion about the absence of a constitution. Giladi replied: “If we had a constitution, we would have to define the borders of our country. (…) Where the IDF arrives, there will be the border”. (8) This is reminiscent of what Jabotinsky said in 1923. The ideas of the European Zionist movement show, here too, a great deal of constancy over time. Moreover, it is noted that the presence of tensions serves expansionist plans.
In February 1982, an article appeared in the Israeli newspaper ‘Kivunim’ (Directions), signed by an obscure journalist (more probably a pseudonym), which put forward two powerful ideas:
A > Israel’s survival requires that Israel become a regional power.
B > To do this, the Arab states of the region must be “fragmented” into smaller/more numerous states. Each one having a certain ethnic or religious homogeneity.
This will be followed soon, coming essentially from the United States, by a certain number of “Plans” to redraw the borders in the Middle East. Let us quote:
(2004 — George W. Bush’s Greater Middle East Initiative >> to export the democratic model to the Arab and Islamic world)
(2006 — New Middle East >> American plan to redesign the borders according to ethnicity/culture)
(2009 — A Clean Break >> outlines Israeli strategy for a strong Jewish state)
(2013 — Plan Wright >> provides for changes and splits in Syria and Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, …)
(2016 — Plan “B”) John Kerry mentions the fragmentation of Syria as one element of a plan “B”.
(2020 — Plan for Peace) D. Trump -
All this is in perfect harmony with points A and B of 1982. The actions accompany the Zionist project. It is already happening underway for Jerusalem and for the de facto colonization-annexation of the West Bank (even if a pseudo-state-protectorate were to be created). This is thanks to the unwavering support of the US. Point B is underway for the State of Israel, thanks to the effective contribution of the allies in the destabilization of the region. In addition, Israel has several hundred nuclear warheads: no one can reasonably threaten it seriously (apart from the bellicose rhetoric). Moreover, the West is the guarantor of its existence.
The Sunni-Shiite hostility is also an asset for point A, whereas one would have thought that Shiites and Sunnis were potentially “natural allies” from the point of view of their common long-term interests in the Middle East.
As for the Palestinian state, Netanhyahu’s party and government are now saying explicitly what has long been implicit: It rejects the idea that the Palestinians can have a state of their own, and enforces the extension of Israeli law over the West Bank. 45)
It seems to me to be a given that the occasional declarations of interest for the Palestinians are just rhetoric in the West, if one considers only the factual. More surprisingly for me, the Palestinians do not figure among the important issues of the Middle East, mentioned by the participants in the Mediterranean Dialogues Conference. (57)
In in any case, the idea of “Greater Israel” is not unanimous in Israel. Some react to the fact that some American Jews are also financing the dream of Greater Israel (a far-right dream, they say), and they are adamant that this affair must stop immediately. (58)
>> THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY (summary)
“In Palestine, the latent conflict between Arabs and Jews imposed many precautions.” (De Gaulle — Memoirs of war — 1954)
1919 — The King Crane Report, as we have seen, left no doubt as to what was happening in Palestine. Nor on the fact that the natives understood it very well.
1937 — The Peel Report, noting the rottenness of the situation proposed a desperate ‘surgical operation’: partition. In the hope that this might be a long-term solution.
1939–45 — The world conflict is the cruelest in history, in terms of the number of deaths. (51). Its impact on the Zionist Project was nil according to some, or major according to others. Thus, the renowned journalist Allan Kaval explains how Ben Gurion perceived the impact of the Shoah on public opinion, and immediately deployed a triple action: diplomatic, political, and military. (53) See also the Declaration of Independence of Israel. (54)
1947 — At the United Nations, the Commission in charge clearly warned the General Assembly in a recommendation on September 3, 1947: “Furthermore, serious consideration must be given to the definite resentment and strong opposition of the Arabs of the entire Middle East to any attempt to solve, at their expense, the Jewish problem, which they consider to be the responsibility of the international community.” (46)
The 25 November 1947, the ad-hoc committee approved the partition plan, with a majority just short of the 2/3 required for the matter to go to the General to pass to the General Assembly.
The Arab states, in a last-minute compromise and major concession, proposed a federated government of Palestine (47).
It seems that this proposal was not even seriously considered. considered.
Indeed, the General Assembly proceeded to vote for the partition plan on the 29th. The 2/3 majority having finally been obtained after adequate US pressure on several states (to change their vote), had produced the expected effect on the spot.
The UN resolution thus created two democratic states for all citizens in each state, without any discrimination (+ the Jerusalem area). The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel used the same terms.
On day after the vote, the Jewish Agency called all young people from 17 to 25 years of 25 years old for military service in Haganah. Indeed, the outcome was predictable, foreseen, inescapable.
Perhaps it could have been avoided if the international community had not rejected the Arab proposal for a federated government of Palestine out of hand. But it appears that this solution would have frozen the borders. Moreover, the European Zionist movement had, as we have seen, quite different plans from those displayed.
Moreover, the Westerners (including most of the leaders of the European Zionist movement) did not consider that the ‘Arab’ populations of Palestine were at their level. We saw this with the contrasts between barbarism and civilization mentioned in the early 1900s. It continued with the lack of consideration given to ‘Arabs’ in international processes. And it has also been so at the level of the heads of state of Israel.
Today, the new Nation-State law reserves National Rights (and the self-determination that goes with it) to an ethno-cultural category, while denying them to others. Moreover, this Law, in Point №7, states that “The State considers the development of Jewish settlements as a national value and will act to encourage and and shall act to encourage and promote their establishment and strengthening.”
The Minister of Justice of Israel also stated that “individual rights are important, but not when they are disconnected from our national goals, our identity, our history, our Zionist challenges.” She added that “Zionism should not bend to a system of individual rights interpreted in a universal way.” (48)
It should be noted that the left-wing Israeli opposition (Zionist Union) protested that “the protection of human rights is the essence of Judaism and an integral part of Israel as a Jewish democratic state.” (49) Obviously, the same words do not always convey the same concepts.
A similar message is carried by American Jews: the General Assembly of the Jewish Federation of North America is meeting in Tel Aviv. They declared that they were seeking to “agree on a Zionism Project that we can all support.”
They want to send the message that the relationship of a large segment of Diaspora Jews with Israel needs to be reworked. The reason being that they feel that Israeli policy is in complete contradiction with Jewish values. They cite: the settlements in the West Bank, the treatment of asylum seekers, the escalation of the Gaza border, a stalled peace process,… (50) Towards another new dead end?
Ambassador Aboussouan anticipated this as early as 1968: “The West, protector of an expansionist and sectarian Israel, could one day wake up to the tragic consequences of its cruel partiality.” Camille Aboussouan — former ambassador Ambassador of Lebanon to UNESCO.
And the Palestinians remain “on the side of the road”. Can’t we find for them, somewhere in the world, a place where they could live as equals, where they could feel at home?
No, I don’t propose to ‘park’ them in some kind of ‘reserves’, since they are already there.
The “Palestinian problem” allow us to perceive that an important part the problem does not lie there, in front of our eyes, but just behind , in our brains : Morals and Ethics.
JPC qd
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: NOTES :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
….. (1) — Cité dans : Theodor Herzl, Une nouvelle lecture — Georges WEISZ — 2006
….. (2) — L’URSS et les Juifs — Henri Alleg — 1989
….. (3) — ‘The Jews’ in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Culture : Between The East End and East Africa — Eitan Bar-Yosef & Nadia Valman — 2009
“There are wild beasts in East Africa, but Jerusalem there are wilder creatures. There are religious fanatics, both Mohammedan and Christian, and wherever we go we shall find no absolutely safe proposition.”
….. (4) — Article de Orthodox Union / Jewish Action (Spring 2008/5769 — Vol
68, N° 3) : https://jewishaction.com/jewish-world/history/whats_the_truth_about_the_uganda_plan/
….. (5) — Note that the scope of Biblical Israel can be understood different ways: for example: Genesis 15:18 — Biblical Boundaries Map :
https://theisraelbible.com/biblical-boundaries-land-israel/
….. (6) -
Article “How the occupation has imposed the colonial mentality on Israeli society “ ORIENT XXI — Alain Cypel — July 13, 2017
….. (7) — Diary of David Ben Gurion, 1947–1948, The Secrets of the Creation of the State of Israel” — Allan Kaval — Keys to the Middle East , article December 13, 2012
….. (8)- Ben-Gurion’s Scandals : How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews — Naeim Giladi — 1992 « Giladi now considers the Zionist program to be criminal from the beginning, because Zionist leaders knew, that in order to establish a Jewish state, they had to expel the indigenous Palestinians and import hundreds of thousands Jews (first 232,00 from Soviet satellite states and then 547,000 from the Arab states). Vladimir Jabotinsky frankly admitted that such a transfer of population could only be brought by force and fear. »
….. (9) — The Making of the Arab-Israel Conflict, 1947–1951 — Ilan Pappé (Historien Israélien) — 1992
….. (10) — Comment Israel expulsa les Palestiniens (1947–1949) — Alternatives International — Dominique Vidal et Joseph Algazy — 2008
….. (11) — 1948 and After — Benny Morris (Historien Israélien) — 1990
….. (12) — The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine — Ilan Pappé (Historien Israélien) — 2006
….. (13) — The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem — Benny Morris (Historien Israélien) — 1988
….. (14) — Introduction of the King-Crane Commission Report — August 28, 1919
« The Report exposes the evils of the secret treaties. It makes clear the glaring contrast between the solemn pledges of the European nations to the peoples of the Near East and their imperialistic course. » (…)
« President Wilson proposed that a joint allied Commission (…) ascertain the true conditions, and escpecially the desires of the peoples concerned (…). This, be it remembered, was in the days when the prinnciple of “self-determination” (…) still retained a degree of sanctity. (…) the other three members of the “Big Four” agreed ‘’in principle’’. “In principle” is a venerable and invaluable diplomatic phrase, in this cas as so often, it meant the opposite of “in practice”. »
….. (15) — For and Against Zionism — Summaries of Arguments Presented to the Commission — Confidential appendix of the King-Crane Commission Report — August 28, 1919
(Extracts)
« The arguments in favor of Zionism as presented by its supporters have often been stated and need not now be presented in detail. The cjief elements are that Palestine belonged once to the Jews, and they were driven out by force ; for two thousand years they have been longing and praying to come back ; while Jews of the world are now far too numerous to be collected in Palestine, they are entitled to have somewhere a state which can be a refuge to the oppressed among them, and an expression of their continuance and unity ; (…) there is no need of displacing the present population, for with the afforestation, lodern methods of agriculture, utilization of water-power, reclamation of waste land, scientific irrigation and the like, the land can contain several times its present number of inhabitants. »
(…)
« The native Arabs and Christians, who so unitedly oppose Zionism, urged the following principal considerations : The land is owned and occupied by them ; Arabs were there before the Jews came ; the Jews were immigrants, (…) and who remained a comparatively short time ; (…) they were expelled by the Romans and formed permanent residence elsewhere 2,000 years ago ; the Arabs conquered the land 1,300 years ago, and have remained ever since ; it is their actual home, (…) Christians and Moslems, they can honor all the holy places, whereas the Jews can honor only their own ; (…) the Jews (…) will soon buy out and manoeuvre away the present inhabitants ; the Arabs are friendly toward the Jews long resident in the land who use the Arabic language ; they will resist to the uttermost the immigration of foreign Jews and the establishment of a Jewish government. »
….. (16) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
« Should Britain encourage a Jewish settlement there, as a British dependency, we could have in twenty or thirty years a million Jews out there, perhaps more ; they would develop the country, bring back civilization to it and form a very effective guard for the Suez Canal “‘ »
….. (17) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
« In 1919, Wilson dispatched a fact-finding commission to Palestine. Known as the King-Crane Commission, its report to Wilson confirmed Arab fears. It said that “the Zionists looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants (…).” »
….. (18 ) — Palestine and Israel. A Challenge to Justice — John B. Quigley — 1990
« Versailles Conference 1919 : Art 22 of the covenant characterized the peoples of the formar German and Ottoman colonies as “not yet able to stand by themselves under the trenuous conditions of the modern world.” … the States administering them should promote the “well-being and development of such peoples.”, bearing a “sacred trust of civilization.” »
….. (19) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
« The League of Nations’ Permanent Mandate Commission, which oversaw mandate administration, said that mandatory powers had no right of sovereignty but that the people under the mandate held ultimate sovereignty. …. the wishes of the population were to be a key factor … »
….. ( 20) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
« British officials understood that Zionism colonization would take land and resources from Palestine’s Arabs. “In Palestine”, Balfour said, “we do not propose to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country.” Balfour’s rationale for disregarding Arab rights was that “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires of prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.” »
….. (21) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
In a 1938 speech to the Workers Party of Eretz Israel (Mapai), of whih he was founfer, Ben Gourion acknoledged the Arab perception of Zionism that had led to the Arab revolt. “We are the aggressors, and they defend themseles.” By that time, Ben Gourion was the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, and he acknoledged that for the Arabs Palestine “is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.”
….. (22) — Palestine Royal Commission Report (Peel Report) — July 1937 — Part II — The Operation of the Mandate — Chap XIX Conclusions and recommedations — p. 368
« The disease is so deep-rooted that, in our firm conviction, the only hope of a cure lies in a surgical operation. »
….. (23) — Palestine Royal Commission Report (Peel Report) — July 1937 — Part III — The Possibility of a lasting Settlement — Chapter XX — p. 376
« Partition seems to offer at least a chance of ultimate peace. We see none in any other plan. »
….. (24) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
« Land was not acquired in a random fashion. The effort, wrote General Yigal Allon, was “to establish a chain of villages on one continuous area of Jewish land” » (…) « The aim of the Fund was “to redeem the land of Palestine as the inalienable possession of the Jewish people. » (…) « As early as 1891, Zionist leader, Ahad Ha’am, wrote that the Arabs “understand very well what we are doing and what we are aiming at.” » (…) « The indigenous Jews of Palestine also reacted negatively to Zionism. »
….. (25 ) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
« Loy Henderson, the US State Department official responsible for Middle East Affairs, advised Secretary of State George Marshall to approach the matter cautiously. He said the partition plan ignored “self-determination and majority rule.” (…) “The Balfour Declaration and the Mandate … provided not for a Jewish State, but for a Jewish national home.” »
….. (26) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
« In 1944, the American Zionist at their Atlantic City convention called for a “free and democratic Jewish Commonwhealth” in “the whole of Palestine, undivided, and undiminished.” (…) »
….. (27) Article by Sarah Laybobis-Dar in the Israeli Hadashot of August 13, 1993, referring to various interviews with Israelis who had knowledge of the use of the use of bacteriological weapons in the 1948 war; which mentioned Milesthin’s statement about the use of bacteria to of bacteria to poison the wells of every village emptied of its Arab of its Arab inhabitants.
….. (28) — Ben-Gurion’s Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews — Naeim Giladi — 1992 /// Article The Jews of IRAQ, How the British and Zionists caused the exodus of 120,000 Jews from Iraq after 1948 — Naeim Giladi — Alterinfo — Sept 2006
….. (29) — Georges Balandier, “La situation coloniale : approche théorique”, Cahiers internationaux de sociologie 2001/1 (n° 110), p. 9–29. DOI 10.3917/cis.110.0009
….. (30) — Is another Israel possible? Interview with Dominique Vidal by Michèle Küntz / Mediapart — 2012
….. (31) — Quotes of the Article “The Officers Who Began the Occupation Fear for Israel’s Future” by Haaretz correspondent Anshel Pfeffer (June 03, 2017) : http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/six-day-war-50-years/1.793085
Indeed, Langotzky and Gal, two six-days war veteran colonels say it straight in a Haaretz article :
<< Yossi Langotzky never had much patience for the religious settlers, but he wasn’t much of a peacenik either. “For 2,000 years the whole world screwed us, and the Arabs still want to destroy us,” he says, in his blunt way, “and we should do everything to stop them. But that doesn’t justify the way they [the settlers] are acting, against all the teachings of the prophets on how we should treat the non-Jews among us fairly. They don’t understand how their settlements have corrupted us from within by making us the masters. All because of their idiotic messianic belief that we are a Chosen People and God will protect us. As if you can believe in a merciful God after six million were burned to death.”>>
<< The settlers “are repeating the mistakes of the Second Temple, when religious fanatics with a direct line to God decided to rebel against the Romans and brought upon us destruction and 2,000 years of exile,” he says. “Religion may have preserved us in exile, but there wouldn’t have been Zionism if people had waited for God. I don’t believe they can destroy Israel, but they’re transforming it into a bullying state where I don’t want my children and grandchildren to live”.>>
Reuven Gal adds : << ”I’m worried about the future of Israeli society — an entire public that can’t recognize we are occupiers and the negative and immoral aspects of ruling over our neighbors for so many years. Our oppression of them has desensitized us. We see human beings as objects and are passing that onto our children.”>>
….. (32) — « The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl » (Les Journaux complets) — Herzl Press — 1960 — vol. 1, page 88.
….. (33) — Rapport du Congress of the World Council of Paole Zion, Zurich, 29 juillet — 7 août 1937, pp. 73–74.
….. (34) — Journal de l’Historien Israélien Benny Lorris du 20 décembre 1940
….. (35) — “War Talk” — Arundhati ROY — 2003 P. 58
« In 1937 Winston Churchill said of the Palestinians : “I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.” »
….. (36) — Article “The Peel Commission Report of 1937 and the Origins of the Partition Concept” — Shaul Bartal — jpca.org (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) — Nov. 14, 2017
« The case of the Jews differs from the above, as Churchill admitted. This is the reason why the first chapter of the Report gives a detailed review of the Commission’s findings with regard to the historical connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. The Jewish nation was presented as the only nation linked to the land by a historical presence and religious connections. The Commission argued that it was only in the land of Palestine that the Jewish people could achieve political freedom. The Report notes that the Jewish people are indigenous to the Land of Israel/Palestine because of their historical presence in the land. For example, the Commission described in detail the flourishing and influential Jewish community in Safed in the Sixteenth Century. »
….. (37) — Article “Why Is Israel Still Covering Up Extrajudicial Executions Committed by a Jewish Militia in ’48 ? “- Haaretz — Ofer Aderet — 07 juillet 2018.
….. (38) — Article “How a Group of Jewish Terrorists Ended Up in Israel’s Halls of Power” — Haaretz — Allison Kaplan Sommer — 05 Juillet 2018.
….. (39) — Ropes of Sand : America’s Failure in the Middle East — Wilbur Crane Eveland — NY — Norton — 1980 — pp 48, 49 )
….. (40) — The role of Mossad in the departure of Jews from Morocco” — Tribune Juive — October 28, 2013
….. (41) — Article “Mossad : “From Zion to Gehenna” — Los Angeles Times — Dec. 8, 1997 /// “BY WAY OF DECEPTION The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer” — Victor Ostrovsky and Claire Hoy — 1990
….. (42) — Ostrovsky insists that his book was written to mark his loyalty to his Zionist ideal. “How could could I remain silent? I am a patriot!”
He tells that Mossad knew essential details for a plan of suicide bombing plan for a suicide bombing against American soldiers in Beirut in 1983, but that in Beirut in 1983, but that Mossad only communicated to its allies only vague information. 241 US soldiers dead. And 58 French.
The Mossad agents planted communication systems (called “Trojans”) that allowed “Trojan”) that allowed to make believe to Israel’s own allies of Israel (USA, France,…) that Libyans or Iraqis were communicating were communicating with each other in order to plan terrorist terrorist or other actions. This in order to manipulate the Allies and and incite them to react on the ground.
…. (43) — Theodor Herzl, « The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl » (Les Journaux complets) — Herzl Press — 1960 — Vol. II — page 711
“From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.” →>> Voir aussi la note (5)
….. (44) — Lettre de “The Jewish Agency for Palestine” au Président US Harry Truman, du 14 mai 1948.
(Public Domain)
….. (45) — Article : There is no Status Quo, Only Greater Israel — 972 Magazine — Edo Konrad — 03 janvier 2018.
….. (46) — United Nations — Report to General Assembly A/364–3 september 1947 — Chapter V — Section B — Recommendation XII — © : « Further, serious account must-be taken of the certain resentment and vigorous opposition of the Arabs throughout the Middle East to any attempt to solve, at what they regard as their expense, the Jewish problem, which they consider to be an international responsibility. »
….. (47) — The Case for Palestine : An International Law Perspective — John B. Quigley — 2005
« As a last minute compromise, and as a major concession, several Arab states proposed a plan for a federated government in Palestine. (…) »
….. (48) — Article “The Justice Minister Versus Democracy” Haaretz Editorial — 30 aupt 2017
<<She said that individual rights are important, but not when they are “disconnected from our national goals, from our identity, from our history, from our Zionist challenges.” And finally, she issued a threat : “Zionism should not — and I’m saying here that it will not — continue to bow its head to a system of individual rights interpreted in a universalist manner.”>>
….. (49) — Article “Justice Minister Slams Israel’s Top Court” Haaretz — Revital Hovel — 29 aug 2017
<<protecting [human rights] is also the essence of Judaism and part of Israel’s values as a Jewish and democratic state.>>
….. (50) — Article ‘We need to Talk …” — Jerusalem Post — Opinion — Doug Seserman — 22 octobre 2018
….. (51) — WW2 The Second World War was the most deadly war in deadliest in history: about 70 million total human losses (civilian and human losses (civilian and military) (median wikipedia figures), of which (median wikipedia figures), of which nearly 40% were in the Soviet Union alone. Soviet Union alone.
The world civilian losses have been estimated at 46 million. The Asian countries suffered the heaviest losses (more than 20 million suffered the heaviest losses (more than 20 million civilians in total). Civilians in the Soviet Union were 14.6 million (still in median figures wikipedia). Poland alone 5.4 million civilians were killed, including 2.9 million Jews.
In Europe, the Jewish losses alone are estimated at about 6 million people, about half of them in the camps.
The unimaginable barbarity of the genocide (Shoa), perpetrated by Europeans on Europeans Europeans, sometimes almost annihilated certain targeted populations: 90% of the Jews of Poland, for example.
….. (52) — Article The Guardian 30 Sept. 2002 by Arundhati ROY ( Not Again ).
“”That set the trend for the Israeli state’s attitude towards Palestinians. In 1969, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said : ‘Palestinians do not exist’. Her successor, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, said : ‘What are Palestinians ? When I came here [to Palestine] there were 250,000 non-Jews, mainly Arabs and Bedouins. It was desert, more than underdeveloped. Nothing’. Prime Minister Menachem Begin called Palestinians ‘two-legged beasts’. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir called them ‘grasshoppers’ who could be crushed. This is the language of heads of state, not the words of ordinary people.””
….. (53) — “David Ben Gurion’s Diary, 1947–1948, The Secrets of the Creation of the State of Israel” — Allan Kaval — Keys to the Middle East , article December 13, 2012
“Ben Gurion understood (…) that the German defeat and the discovery by international public opinion of the horrors of the Shoah gave the Zionist movement a historic opportunity to achieve its ultimate goal: the foundation of a Jewish state in Palestine. “He then led a triple action, both diplomatic (assistance from the Soviet Union to the UN), political (unification of Zionist movements) and military (delivery of military equipment from Czechoslovakia) of which the archives presented testify.
….. (54) — Declaration of independence of Isael — May 14 1948 — (extract)
“The Shoah, which annihilated millions of Jews in Europe, demonstrated once again the urgency of remedying the absence of a Jewish homeland by re-establishing the the re-establishment of the Jewish state in the land of Israel (…)”.
….. (55) — Article Nouvelles révélations sur les massacres de Sabra et Chatila — ORIENT XXI — de Seth ANZISKA (Enseignant-Chercheur à University College — London — 26 octobre 2018. — https://orientxxi.info/lu-vu-entendu/nouvelles-revelations-sur-les-massacres-de-sabra-et-chatila,2688
….. (56) — The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem — Benny Morris (Historien Israélien) — p. 292/293–1988
….. ( 57 ) — Article on MED (Mediterranean Dialogues) Conference — Rome, by A. Pfeffer & D. Lerner : « Netanyahu’s Vision for the Middle East Has Come True » — HAARETZ — Nov. 25, 2018
« From Qatar to Iran, none of the countries participating in the MED2018 conference seemed really interested in the Palestinians. »
….. ( 58 ) — Article “American Jews Are Funding the Far-Right Dream of Greater Israel. We Have to End This — Now” — HAARETZ — Simone Zimmerman — Oct. 21, 2018
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Original Article in french by JPCiron / JPCqd (nov. 2018)
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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