Wonderful article, Steve. I admire the way you humanize things. Others above have said pretty much all that needs to be said, so I will just make a few additional comments on Dr. Kaufman’s observations: He is correct when he asserts that “the Arabs of the region sided with Hitler during WW II and told him they would kill the Jews in the Middle East.” What he neglects to say is that other Arabs, for example the King of Morocco, made a point of sheltering Jews. They had read Mein Kampf and knew that they were next on Hitler’s list.

Dr. Kaufman is correct when he asserts that “essentially no other country in the ‘civilized world,’ including the United States, would give them shelter, cost six million Jewish lives in the Holocaust.” We Americans should remain ashamed of this for all time.

Dr. Kaufman is correct when he says that “the Arabs told their people to leave Israel and then kept them in camps.” What he neglects to say is in 1948, at the beginning of their Independence War, the Arab strategy of blockading Israeli cities and settlements was working and the Jews were facing defeat and the very real and horrible prospect of annihilation. In response, they implemented “Plan D.” As Benny Morris describes it in his Spring 2009 article in The Quarterly Journal of Military History (MHQ), “1947-1948 lashing back: Palestine’s Jews responded to the Arabs’ first attempt to wipe them out with a fierce, all-out war,”

“From early April, although Haganah leaders did not agree on or institute a blanket policy of expulsion, an atmosphere of ‘transfer’ took hold among them as margins of safety narrowed and as the prospective pan-Arab invasion loomed. Facing a war for survival, the Yishuv took off the gloves.

“(Arab and pro-Arab chroniclers, like Walid Khalidi and Ilan Papper, were later to define Plan D as the “master plan” for expelling the Palestine Arabs–but it was not, although in putting the plan into effect, commanders depopulated large chunks of Arab territory.)”

“… So, for different reasons, was a second incident during Nahshon (the first operation of Plan D): the conquest of the village of Deir Yassin by Irgun and Stern Gang troops (marginally assisted by Haganah) on April 9. In the course of the fight, four Jewish soldiers were killed and several dozen were wounded. One hundred ten of the villagers, including women and children, died, some massacred after the battle. The survivors were then trucked to Arab East Jerusalem where they told horrific tales of Jewish atrocities, some of them true. These were subsequently broadcast by Arab radio stations–who exaggerated the number of Arab dead–in the hope of persuading other Arab villages to fiercely resist conquest.

“Instead, the broadcasts had a boomerang effect and triggered mass Arab flight around the country. The Haganah Intelligence Service defined Deir Yassin as “a major accelerating factor” in the mass exodus that was set off by the Haganah shift to the offensive. Between 250,000 and 300,000 Arabs left their homes from April through June 1948, becoming displaced persons.”

In other words, men, women and children fled for their lives, or believed they were fleeing for their lives.

It is important for Dr. Kaufman and the rest of us to get the history right if we are going to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is also important to understand that nobody has a monopoly on good or bad in that conflict.

“The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews vs. New Afrikaners” by John J. Mearsheimer, the Hisham B. Sharabi Memorial Lecture, Palestine Center, Washington, D.C., 29 April 2010, in the Monthly Review’s MR Zine, April 30, 2010, http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/mearsheimer300410.html

The article is remarkable in that Beinart for many years was editor of the New Republic, which has published many articles supporting Israeli government positions. In the article Beinart describes demographic and ideological trends in the Israel that I suggest Dick factor into his prediction that future Israeli governments will not be myopically Likud.”

The above said, perhaps if Netanyahu continues on his “right is might” path things could change, but Beinart’s in depth analysis does not point in that direction.

I hope to see you and other classmates at our “mimi-reunion” October 15-16.

Best,

Steve Buck

What is particularly appalling is that the Israel authorities were stopping goods such as crayons, because these would somehow promote “terrorism.” GISHA, an Israeli non-profit organization founded by an Israeli woman Yale grad – B.A. ‘93, LLB 96, has petitioned the Israeli government to provide the list of goods it prohibits from entering Gaza, so far with no success.

One can get information from GISHA by emailing newsletter@gisha.org

I paste their latest newsletter below -

Gisha Response to the Interception of Ships Bound for Gaza

Gisha expresses sorrow at reports that dozens of civilians have been killed or injured during the Israeli military’s interception of boats bound for the Gaza Strip, carrying humanitarian assistance and hundreds of foreign and Israeli activists, including elected representatives.

This incident is proof that despite claims to the contrary, Israel never “disengaged” from the Gaza Strip but rather continues to control its borders – land, air and sea.

Gisha notes that Israel cannot maintain such control while at the same time renouncing responsibility for its effects on the 1.5 million human beings whose access to the outside world has been cut off nearly hermetically for the past three years. International law requires Israel to permit the kind of access necessary for Gaza residents to live normal, dignified lives.

It would be better for all concerned – Israel, Palestinian residents of Gaza, and those seeking to visit Gaza – if Israel would allow the regular and free passage of people, raw materials for industry, building materials, and export goods in and out of Gaza, subject only to concrete, individual security checks.

For a position paper about Israel’s refusal to reveal information about the transfer of goods into the Gaza Strip (despite a Freedom of Information Act petition brought by Gisha), click here.

For a position paper on Israeli legal obligations in Gaza, see Gisha, Disengaged Occupiers, January 2007.