(Karsh)
Yes, the Palestinians are to blame. And this is true not only because
they rejected Ehud Barak's generous offer but also because they are unwilling
to come to terms with Israel's existence here. They want to throw [the Jews]
into the ocean, and anyone who holds a different opinion is mistaken. These are
the words of the Historian.
Were The Palestinians Forced to Leave?
One has to go back in time thirteen years in order to understand how
surprising [Morris'] statements are. Morris - a Jerusalem Post reporter at the
time, a Cambridge University Ph.D, and a Kibbutz and [Israeli Defense Force]
Paratroopers veteran - published his book The Birth of The Palestinian Refugee
Problem in 1988. His book created an immediate outburst [of an acute debate in
Israel].
Up until then, it was generally assumed that 700,000 Palestinians left
their homes voluntarily during the 1948 War of Independence, following promises
by their leaders that they will be able to return and plunder Jewish property
when the war was over. According to what Morris wrote in his 1988 book, that
never happened; these stories are nonsense. The leaders of the Yishuv [the
Jewish Zionist community in pre-state Israel] believed in a transfer, and in
their actions contributed much to the fleeing of the refugees. Some ran away to
escape the battles, others left after the Jews made their lives difficult, and
still others were simply expelled. [According to Morris' 1988 book], the
Palestinians did not leave and did not run away, these words are too soft. They
were also not expelled - that word is too harsh. The Palestinians "were driven
out.
[After the book was published,] Morris became [Israel's] public enemy
number one, and the price he paid was considerable. He was fired from The
Jerusalem Post and he had a hard time finding a job in Israel's academia
despite the success of his book outside of Israel...
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