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In "From Dove to Hawk" in Newsweek, May 8 (thanks to Paul Green), Newsweek finally notices what Israeli historian Benny Morris, who has rejected leftist views for realism, has been saying for years: that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about land, but is fueled by a religious imperative:
...Contrary to current historiographic discourse I believe there is such a thing as the Truth—what, why and how things happened—and I've always sought it in my research. If I've since come to a much bleaker opinion about the possibility of reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians—many would now call me a hawk—it is also because of that research.During the 1990s, as the Oslo peace process gained momentum, I was cautiously optimistic about the prospects for peace. But at the same time I was scouring the just opened archives of the Haganah and the IDF. Studying the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict—in particular the pronouncements and positions of the Palestinian leadership from the 1920s on—left me chilled. Their rejection of any compromise, whether a partition of Palestine between its Jewish and Arab inhabitants or the creation of a binational state with political parity between the two communities, was deep-seated, consensual and consistent.
Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian national movement during the 1930s and 1940s, insisted throughout on a single Muslim Arab state in all of Palestine. The Palestinian Arab "street" chanted "Idbah al-Yahud" (slaughter the Jews) both during the 1936-1939 revolt against the British and in 1947, when Arab militias launched a campaign to destroy the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine. Husseini led both campaigns.
So when Yasir Arafat rejected Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's two-state proposals at Camp David in July 2000, and then President Clinton's sweetened offer the following December, my surprise was not excessive. Nor was I astounded by the spectacle of masses of suicide bombers launched, with Arafat's blessing, against Israel's shopping malls, buses and restaurants in the second intifada, which erupted in September 2000. Each suicide bomber seemed to be a microcosm of what Palestine's Arabs had in mind for Israel as a whole. Arafat's rejectionism and, after his death, the election of Hamas to dominance in the Palestinian national movement, persuaded me that no two-state solution was in the offing and that the Palestinians, as a people, were bent, as they had been throughout their history, on "recovering" all of Palestine.
[...]
It has become clear to me that from its start the struggle against the Zionist enterprise wasn't merely a national conflict between two peoples over a piece of territory but also a religious crusade against an infidel usurper. As early as Dec. 2, 1947, four days after the passage of the partition resolution, the scholars of Al Azhar University proclaimed a "worldwide jihad in defense of Arab Palestine" and declared that it was the duty of every Muslim to take part.
[...]
For all its economic, political, scientific and cultural achievements and military prowess, Israel, at 60, remains profoundly insecure—for there can be no real security for the Jewish state, surrounded by a surging sea of Muslims, in the absence of peace.
Posted by Robert at May 11, 2008 3:32 PM
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It was heartening to read this article and to know that there are Leftists who are capable of coming to their senses. Let's hope this signals the beginning of a larger trend among Leftists, as opposed to Newsweek's simply pulling a one-off just to be able to demonstrate how "fair and balanced" it is.
I wonder how CAIR is going to respond to the article, if at all.
Posted by: Eastview![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 11, 2008 4:08 PM
"A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality."
Posted by: BunrattyBill at May 11, 2008 4:32 PM
Evidence of intelligent life on earth.
Posted by: joeblough at May 11, 2008 4:34 PM
I bet Benny Morris stayed up late every night reading Robert's books and the JW website. But that's okay, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Posted by: jewdog at May 11, 2008 5:24 PM
For the past 30 years as a so-called "revisionist" Benny Morris did a lot of damage. He was never as crazed or wicked as Ilan Pappe and that crew, but he does have something to answer for. I hope he doesn't pretend that he has all along been perfectly consistent, because he hasn't been. And he could now do some good by pointing out the error of his past ways, and how he managed -- like so many Israelis -- to avoid noticing Islam as the prompt, Islam as the origin, Islam as the explanation, for the permanently fixed hostility toward Israel that, however, is perfectly manageable if the Israelis fully grasp that, see in what ways the Slow Jihad differs from the Fast Jihad and explain to themselves, and to the world, why those differences are inconsequential, and proceed, intelligently and relentlessly, to begin to undo the last 40 years of Arab propaganda, beginning with simply refusing to use that loaded phrase "Palestinian people" any more, but always taking care to refer to "the Arabs" or the "Palestinian Arabs" or "the local Palestinian Arabs." Just keep it up, in every speech, every diplomatic demarche, every writing. Eventually, the undoing of the "Palestinian people," and the ripping off of the "legitimaterightsofthePalestinianpeople" stuff, to reveal the Jihad that was there all along, will have its effect -- and will have its effect because now, for those with eyes to see, the entire Western world is threatened with the same thing, prompted by the same texts and tenets.
Bennny Morris can now help undo what he helped do. And he should.
Posted by: Hugh at May 11, 2008 5:27 PM
It is not everyday a "smart" person wises up. One down, several Million more to go.
Posted by: flowerknife_us at May 11, 2008 5:47 PM
Thanks for opening your eyes! Now if only he could convince the UN, EU, liberals and conservatives in the USA, we would go somewhere.
The sooner people realize that this is a religious war, the sooner people will take measures.
at May 11, 2008 6:02 PM
Hugh,
Your intellect is astounding. I wish that G-D had given me half as much. I am enthralled, and so glad that you are on our side!
ABS
Posted by: Drewbenstein at May 11, 2008 6:26 PM
Posted by Joeblough: Evidence of intelligent life on earth.
Let's hope it's infectious. It's interesting that Benny Morris writes:
Studying the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict—in particular the pronouncements and positions of the Palestinian leadership from the 1920s on—left me chilled. Their rejection of any compromise … was deep-seated, consensual and consistent.
Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian national movement during the 1930s and 1940s, insisted throughout on a single Muslim Arab state in all of Palestine. The Palestinian Arab "street" chanted "Idbah al-Yahud" (slaughter the Jews) both during the 1936-1939 revolt against the British and in 1947, when Arab militias launched a campaign to destroy the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine. Husseini led both campaigns.
If these facts "chill" Morris, they shouldn't surprise him... unless Morris believes it is a "vast right wing conspiracy" that Al-Husseini raised legions for Hitler, personally received lavish funding from the Nazi government, and received the honorary title of "Fuhrer of the Arab World" from European Muslim leaders during his WWII stay in Nazi Germany.
at May 11, 2008 6:32 PM
He still doesn't get it:
I don't like that "wasn't merely a national conflict between two peoples over a piece of territory but also a religious crusade against an infidel usurper."
First of all: jihad is not a crusade.
Second: the Jews are not infidel usurpers but the legal heirs to the land of Israel.
Third: he still doesn't seem to understand that Muslims have a religious mandate to ensure that land, once conquered for Islam, must never fall back to the infidels, especially not the hated Jooozz.
So while Morris may have had a dose of reality, a wake-up call, if you will, his thinking is still not clear and his views clearly muddled.
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at May 11, 2008 6:50 PM
And will there ever be time when the self-appointed "mainstream leaders of the Jewish-American community" gather courage to rise to the level of this Israeli recovering leftist? When they will stop resisting demands to add exibit on the Muslim role in the Holocaust in the Holocaust Museum, from Hajj Amin al-Husseini to the Bosnian Muslim Waffen SS Handjar division to Kosovar Albanian Waffen SS Skanderbeg division and "Vulnetari" Einsatzgruppen mass-murder squads?
Or is avoiding "offending" the Muslims more important to those cowards than allowing the full truth about the Holocaust to be spoken?
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
Posted by: Enragedsince1999 at May 11, 2008 7:51 PM
So, Benny Morris has finally figured it out. Holy hell, what took him so long? I have to wonder if he will now apologize for deliberately mistranslating David-Ben Gurion into English. Probably not.
In any case, Morris could be Exhibit Number One of how Left-Think corrodes the mind of people with even above average intelligence. Better late than never, but this guy has done real damage. Damn him.
Posted by: Wellington at May 11, 2008 10:09 PM
I posted these two links to current Jerusalem Post articles, in earlier threads, but I will re-post them here. The first is an interview with Benny Morris himself - headed, by JPost, 'Jihad, 1948'.
I should add that the editor of JPost, some time earlier, also interviewed Morris, and published the results of the conversation under a headline that read thus: "It Always Was a Jihad".
So one might say that the Jerusalem Post is breaking the 'jihad' barrier.
The second linked article, since it deals with Bosniak Muslim jihadis who rushed off to help the Islamosphere attack Israel in 1948, should interest 'Ruslan', if he didn't follow the link in my previous posting of it.
Here is the Morris interview.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627033137&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
And here is the story about Bosniak jihadis.
Seth Frantzmann, 'Strange Bedfellows', Jerusalem Post May 7 2008: - http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627033435&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
It's summarised thus: "Muslim Bosnians trained by the Nazis later volunteered to fight against Israel in 1948."
There were about 900 of them.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at May 11, 2008 11:44 PM
Hugh -
you could always write Letters to the Editor to the 'Jerusalem Post', and Newsweek, making the same points you have just made here.
The rest of us can do the same.
A flood of brief, informed, lucid letters should deluge the editor of Newsweek, applauding Morris's enlightenment and briefly explaining WHY he is on the right track, while laying out clearly, as Hugh as done, those points and principles that remain to be grasped.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at May 11, 2008 11:51 PM
Take a deep breath and repeat after me: "There is no Palestine."
Really fed up with these wandering nomads and their delusional claims on land that never belonged to them in the first place.
Posted by: Madame Vengier at May 11, 2008 11:52 PM
Better late than never.
Posted by: MP at May 12, 2008 9:51 AM
Thank you, dumbledorsarmy.
The English war criminals released from POW camps and shipped to the war zone hundreds of Nazi Germans, Nazi Ustasha Croats, Nazi Handschar Bosnian Muslims and Nazi Skanderbeg Waffen SS Kosovar Albanians to join the Islamo-Nazi Arabs (who now call themselves "Palestinians") and 5 Arab countries in their all-out effort to murder the newborn state of Israel in its cradle, with its entire population. Many English army officers joined German officers as advisers, Nazi English and Nazi Germans shoulder-to-shoulder. The English provided one hell of weaponry to the murderers. They were certain that by using every Jewish man, woman and child in the Middle East as human sacrifices, they will earn the Muslims' gratitude greatly advancing the interests of their Empire. But their intended victim, the miraculous infant nation Israel stood up in her cradle and delivered powerful blows to the enemy, shattering the evil horde to pieces. The English, on the other hand, lost their Empire for which they were so eager to sacrifice the Jewish people.
The English, the French, the Germans, the Austrians, the Croats and the Russians sank into total immorality in their emperial "Great Games" and genocidal racist campaigns. The result of their combined century-long efforts is that they brought the Islamic Jihad into Europe and put their own survival into peril. The English are now under attack by the Muslims in their own country.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
Posted by: Enragedsince1999 at May 12, 2008 8:23 PM
This post is curious. You say write that Benny Morris was once a leftist, but I've read most of the books and articles that he's written and can detect no liberal views. He has, it is true, called te displacement of the Palestinians in 1948 (his words) an 'ethnic cleansing,' but in at least one interview he gave that I have read, he went on to say that this ethnic cleansing was a good thing. What, exactly, are these leftist views that he say he once held?
Further, you introduce the post saying "... that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about land, but is fueled by a religious imperative." The lines you cite, however, incuding the very ones you highlight, say quite the opposite, that "... the struggle against the Zionist enterprise wasn't merely a national conflict between two peoples over a piece of territory but also a religious crusade against an infidel usurper." (Morris)
This last sentence of Morris's that you quote saays quite clearly that the struggle WAS in fact a struggle over territory. He is merely saying that there was another factor involved as well.
at May 13, 2008 4:52 PM
"The English, the French, the Germans, the Austrians, the Croats and the Russians sank into total immorality in their emperial "Great Games" and genocidal racist campaigns. The result of their combined century-long efforts is that they brought the Islamic Jihad into Europe and put their own survival into peril. The English are now under attack by the Muslims in their own country."
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
Posted by: Enragedsince1999
Very good point. I think something similar happened when the long standing feud between the Byzantines and the Persians weakened them to the point where they were not able to resist the encroachment of Islam when it swept out of the Arabian desert. Either of these empires could easily have crushed Islam in these formative years if they hadn't been so fixated on destroying each other that they recognized the threat too late to deal with it. As Santyana said, "Those who refuse to learn from history, etc..."
Posted by: Eastview at May 13, 2008 6:52 PM
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