An abrupt about-face by left-wing revisionist historian Benny Morris continues to play a central role in news commentary. Morris, whose goal was to promote the idea that many Arab refugees acquired this status as a direct result of Israel's military actions and that Israel's soldiers and leaders were not totally blameless, now adopts a different viewpoint. In an interview last month with Ha'aretz - the subject of a recent New York Times editorial - Morris said he has no trust in the PA's claims that they seek peace; that Ben Gurion should have expelled all the Arabs from Judea and Samaria in 1948-9; and that the relatively few Israeli "atrocities" were a direct result of the Arabs' attempt to liquidate the Jewish presence.
In light of the Arabs' continuing efforts to portray the creation of the refugee problem as Israel's fault, the following quotes play an important role in proving that it was actually the Arab leaders themselves who cajoled their brethren to leave. "As early as the first months of 1948," according to The Research Group for European Migration Problems, 1957, "the Arab League issued orders exhorting the people to seek a temporary refuge in neighboring countries, later to return to their abodes ... and obtain their share of abandoned Jewish property."
Joan Peters, in "From Time Immemorial" (p. 13), quotes a research report by the Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut finding that "the majority" of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled, and that 68% left without seeing an Israeli soldier.
Arab League Secretary-General Habib Issa said in 1951 that his predecessor, Azzam Pasha, "assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade ... and that all the millions the Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean ... "
In light of the Arabs' continuing efforts to portray the creation of the refugee problem as Israel's fault, the following quotes play an important role in proving that it was actually the Arab leaders themselves who cajoled their brethren to leave. "As early as the first months of 1948," according to The Research Group for European Migration Problems, 1957, "the Arab League issued orders exhorting the people to seek a temporary refuge in neighboring countries, later to return to their abodes ... and obtain their share of abandoned Jewish property."
Joan Peters, in "From Time Immemorial" (p. 13), quotes a research report by the Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut finding that "the majority" of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled, and that 68% left without seeing an Israeli soldier.
Arab League Secretary-General Habib Issa said in 1951 that his predecessor, Azzam Pasha, "assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade ... and that all the millions the Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean ... "