This contains some upsetting scenes, but is an ultimately uplifting short film.
Chas Newkey-Burden
Chas Newkey-Burden is a journalist and celebrity biographer from Windsor, UK.
Recent biographies: Amy Winehouse, Adele, Brangelina and Tom Daley
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It’s a good video. Have you seen this, Chas? 2009 was the worst year for antisemitism since the Holocaust. And in Britain the Community Security Trust recorded more antisemitic incidents in the first six months of 2009 than it has done in any previous entire year. There are still people who say there is no antisemitism here.
With its music and images I can understand why you might find this video uplifting. But it’s also inexcusably disingenuous.
For example, it says:
This is a reading of history that hardly any historian teaching at University level – including almost all Israeli historians at Israeli universities – would subscribe to.
As historian (and former Israeli Foreign Minister) Shlomo Ben-Ami notes:
Moreover, there are some clear instances of Arab civilians being intentionally expelled or attacked during the war:
We can be honest and critical about Israel’s history while continuing to support and identify with the country. I do, and it frustrates me that many people suggest otherwise, as though to support the country one has to accept and propogate a reading of history at variance with the facts uncovered by archival research. This video implies the same. It’s a shame.
Apologies for all the italics above… I think I need to improve my use of HTML…
We can be honest and critical about Israel’s history while continuing to support and identify with the country.
I agree with this principle and I agree that that particular part of the video was a little simplistic. Overall however I think it’s a powerful and great effort.
Theedgeofwhere, it’s you who’s being simplistic. Yes, Arab civilians were encouraged or told to leave their homes to get out of the way so the real fighting could begin. I know this because my father was there as a member of the Hagana. It’s also true that there were terrible abuses by Israeli soldiers, killings of Arab civilians, and that there was a sentiment of “drive them out” among many.
But Mutek, it was a war, a war started by the Arabs, quite petulantly after the UN didn’t give them everything they wanted, i.e. all the land “from the river to the sea.” As my old dad always says “if you start a war you better win it.” You know why?? Because when you start a war, pledging constantly, as the Arabs did, to rape and pillage and exterminate the Jews you find, you will arouse rage and a self-protective instinct. You will kill, creating deaths that call out to be avenged. This is what four Arab nations did in 1948. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t broadcast 24 hours a day on radio, gleefully, pornographically delighting in what you say you are going to do to “the Jews” and then have them greet you at the door with a nice handshake.
As the bard said, “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!” He who lets slip the Dogs of War has to take some responsiblity for what happens next.
Correction: “If you start a war you better be prepared to win it” is the way my dad puts it. The word “prepared” is important.
edgeofwhere: does your reading include Benny Morris’s 1948?
I think I need to improve my use of HTML…
It’s not the HTML that’s the problem unfortunately
@ Stephanie Guttman
Thanks for calling me ‘mutek’.
But metuka, you shouldn’t be so hasty to call me ‘simplistic’ You say:
It’s nice to know your father was there, like my grandfather, in 48 as part of the Hagana. I really mean no disrespect to him, however, when I say that I rate the evidence uncovered by the years of archival research by Benny Morris and other historians above his single piece of testimony about what the Arab leaders told their civilians. (Especially since his is the testimony of someone who was neither an Arab leader or an Arab civilian). And that research has overwhelmingly tended to undermine, not support, the claim you make ‘that Arab civilians were encouraged or told to leave their homes to get out of the way so the real fighting could begin’.
@lynne T
As it happens, I went to a seminar given by Benny Morris only yesterday, and it was fantastic.
As it happens, I went to a seminar given by Benny Morris only yesterday, and it was fantastic.
Doesn’t exactly answer her question but sounds interesting…
Edgeof. Whatever the ratio of Arab threats to Jewish threats was, and we both admit there was some of both, you’re still ignoring the context. Which is that it was a war started by surrounding Arab countries and that before that war started the Arab states made VERY CLEAR via their media what they would do to Jewish Palestinians (they weren’t Israelis yet) once they got to them. The hysterical radio broadcasts were pretty chilling, I hear. And read Amos Oz’s book “Of Love and Darkness” for a very good account of what life was like for Jewish Palestinians before the ’48 war. It included plenty of random murder of Jewish civilians by Arabs.
The biggest question here is why is Israel held to a higher standard? It was a war. Once the dogs of wars are loosed terrible things happen. Look at the conduct of the allies in War II. What’s most telling about the character of a nation and a people is not that there are war crimes AT ALL, EVER, (otherwise every single country in the world should just hang it up) but how those war crimes are dealt with. The Hagana was pretty ruthless with Irgun and eventually subdued them.