Reply #84: "For the record" by Benny Morris, The Guardian, January 14, 2004 [View All]

[furman]

This article written by Benny Morris in 2004 about the publication of "Birth Revisited" backs up my statement.
I said that there were expulsions committed by the Israelis, but the majority of Arabs fled for other reasons.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1122425,00.html

For the record
In 1948, thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in what is now Israel, and became refugees.
Both sides have blamed each other ever since. But new documents show neither is entirely innocent, argues Benny Morris
January 14, 2004
The Guardian

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Birth Revisited describes many more atrocities and expulsions than were recored in the original version of the book. But, at the same time, a far greater proportion of the 700,000 Arab refugees were ordered or advised by their fellow Arabs to abandon their homes than I had previously registered. It is clear from the new documentation that the Palestinian leadership in principle opposed the Arab flight from December 1947 to April 1948, while at the same time encouraging or ordering a great many villages to send away their women, children and old folk, to be out of harm's way. Whole villages, especially in the Jewish-dominated coastal plain, were also ordered to evacuate. There is no doubt that, throughout, the departure of dependents lowered the morale of the remaining males and paved the way for their eventual departure as well.

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the problem wasn't created by the Zionists but by the Arabs themselves, and stemmed directly from their violent assault on Israel. Had the Palestinians and the Arab states refrained from launching a war to destroy the emergent Jewish state, there would have been no refugees and none would exist today.

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See also this Google cache of MEMRI's Special Dispatch No. 310 (I can't find a link to it on MEMRI's site)
The Arabs Are Responsible. Post-Zionist Historian Benny Morris Clarifies His Thesis
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"Morris had different plans. He knew exactly what was in store for his audience: a surprise, a big surprise. he told them that the Palestinians have been obstinately refusing to accept any compromise since the 1930's. They refused to accept the 1937 Partition Plan of the Peel Commission (a Jewish State on 20% of the Sharon and Galilee regions of territorial Palestine), they rejected the 1947 UN partition plan (an Arab state on 40% of the territory), they did not even want to hear about Sadat and Begin's <1979> Autonomy Plan (which was a part of the Camp David Accord and which was never implemented), and they rejected Bill Clinton's generous offer (which included 95% of the West Bank). To make a long story short, the Jews always agreed whereas the Arabs always refused to accept them, and the blame falls squarely on the Palestinians. They have been making historic mistakes for seventy years now, and there is a price for historic mistakes…"

"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 into the ocean, and anyone who holds a different opinion is mistaken. These are the words of the Historian."
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