Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: 1948

Showing posts with label 1948. Show all posts

Monday, May 29, 2023

75 years ago: Jordan maliciously destroys the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem

Hurva synagogue in 1864

The Palestine Post, May 28, 1948, reported on the gleeful and deliberate destruction of the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The secondary story on the right column describes the many times that this synagogue had been destroyed by Muslims, or attempted to be destroyed, and how it had always been rebuilt.

Israel complained to the world about this destruction, to no avail (May 29).

The following month, a delegation of rabbis inspected the Jewish Quarter to see the destruction.

In the end, Jordan destroyed over 50 synagogues in the Old City, over 19 years, to the deafening silence of the world.

Only Jews can protect Jewish heritage. Which is why Jews rebuilt the Hurva synagogue.

And this is why Jews are restoring the Tiferet Yisrael (Nissim Bek) synagogue which will resume being he highest domed structure in the Old City.

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75 years ago: Jordan imprisons Jews, calls them "prisoners of war"

From the Palestine Post, May 25, 1948:

These prisoners, for the most part, weren't fighters. They were workers at the electric plant.

Which means they were hostages, not prisoners of war.

And at least some of them remained hostages until a prisoner swap the end of the year. From December 1:

I don't know if there were any Arab workers at the Palestine Electric Company, but if there were, they sure didn't become hostages. Only the Jews.

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Jews acting like adults while Arabs act like babies - in 1948

The time between May 1 and May 15, 1948, was a strange time in British Mandate Palestine.

Many British bureaucrats had already packed up and left ahead of their official departure on May 15. But the Jewish state couldn't be declared yet.

Normal governmental functions still needed to be done. And who did them?

The Jews, of course.

Palestine Post, May 3, 1948:

May 4:

Someone has to keep the lights on, collect the garbage, deliver the mail, approve permits. It takes mature people to step in and do the work needed for the good of all.

This is leadership.

And what about in the Arab sector? They were busy doing a run on their banks (May 2):

The wealthy Arabs ran away in December, but their political leaders in Jaffa and Haifa were the first to leave, not the last, when those cities were taken over by the Haganah. (May 4)

This is the difference between leadership and the abdication of leadership.

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Recent "Nakba" memes

The Israel haters are making a big deal over Nakba Day, which will be officially marked at the UN. So I've been making some memes to describe the truth about the Nakba.

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Pogroms, bombings, concentration camps: How Egypt treated its Jews in 1948

AP reported on the Egyptian and other Arab states' reaction to Israeli independence in 1948: "The weekly Akhbar el Yom said 600 persons, mostly Zionists, were rounded up and sent to concentration camps."

Yes, only three years after the Holocaust, Jews were being rounded up again. Reports of Jews in Egyptian and Iraqi concentration camps trickled into the media during 1948.

In August, 18 French Jews who were interned started a hunger strike after efforts by France to free them were fruitless. At the time it was estimated that 3,000 Jews were imprisoned in these camps. British Jews in Egypt were also arrested without charge. (The French internees were finally released in September.)

In November:

A large number of Jews, most of whom were born in Egypt and whose families have lived there for generations, were ordered to leave the country this week-end or “face the alternative of imprisonment in desert concentration camps,” the American Jewish Committee reported in a telegram to Acting Secretary of State Herbert C. Hoover, Jr.

The Committee disclosed that leaders of the Jewish Communities of Cairo and Alexandria “have already been placed in concentration camps.” At the same time, it reported that the property of Jews in Egypt has been seized as “enemy property” and placed under the custodianship of the Egyptian government.

And that wasn't the worse thing for Egypt's Jews. They were being murdered in the streets.

22 Jews were killed in a June bombing in the Karaite Jewish quarter of Cairo. 19 more were murdered by another bomb in the main Jewish quarter of Cairo in September. Four Jewish-owned department stores were bombed in July and August.

JTA reported this horrific testimony:

The situation of the Jews in Egypt was termed today as "highly alarming" by a Frenchman who returned from Cairo and gave the first detailed and uncensored report of the pogroms, mob violence, mass looting and terrorism which is now taking place throughout Egypt against the Jewish population.

Egyptian mobs, he revealed, killed three rabbis by splitting their throats, after dragging them into a Cairo slaughter house. He estimated that at least 150 Jews had either been killed or had "disappeared" in Cairo incidents during the last four weeks. A substantial number of Jews had been wounded, he said. The pogroms and anti-Jewish terrorism are tacitly encouraged by the passive attitude of the Egyptian Government, he charged.

The gravest single incident, he reported, occurred on July 20 at one of Cairo’s chief street car junctions, in Malika Farida Placo. An organized group of Egyptians ejected all the European passengers from several trolleys. All passengers suspected of being Jews were savagely killed on the spot, and many had their eyes pierced or were knifed, while non-Jews and Europeans were robbed of all cash and belongings. The police made no effort to intervene, the French visitor emphasized.

Of the large number of Jews in Cairo who have been wounded, he continued, 120 are now undergoing treatment in the Jewish hospital there and an unannounced number are in government or private institutions. Scattered incidents of knifing of Jews are repeatedly reported in various parts of the Egyptian capital, he said. The killing of three rabbis in the slaughter house took place on July 21, he reported.

I haven't seen verification of the specifics, but there are many reports of pogroms in Egypt against Jews and scores were known to have been killed.

Then, as now, the excuse given for antisemitism was "Zionism." Yet then as now, they were attacked because they were Jews.

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Egypt dropped Hebrew flyers to try to demoralize Jews in 1948 - quoting the Quran

In 1948, Egypt dropped flyers to Jews in the Negev in an attempt at psychological warfare.

At 4:00 PM on May 15, 1948, Egyptian planes dropped leaflets in Hebrew on the Jewish communities in the Negev.

An actual flyer has just been published in Arabic media. They note that this flyer was a major failure, as the propagandists had no idea of how Jews think - so they wrote as if they were Muslim, including two quotes from the Quran.

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful

God said: 'And if they incline to peace, incline to it, and put your trust in God. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.'

With these sacred words from the Qur'an, I address the inhabitants of the settlements (in the Negev), and pledge to treat them according to these sacred words. Our aim is to bring about quiet among you, provided that you act in peace, to save your lives, your property and your children.

Our goal is not to start a war. Only in the case of resistance, which will be useless, and will not last long, and will result in the demolition of the stores and food you have.

So we call on all residents to quietly lay down their arms, to raise a white flag. And that you hand over all the ammunition from mines and every combat means, and collect them in one place without destroying them.

Please execute these commands within one hour of the arrival of this post.

After an hour anyone who does not comply with these orders will be considered an enemy and will want to fight.

God said: 'When he attacks you, attack him. And know that God is on the side of the righteous. --Quran

God honors truthtellers.

I didn't know about this. But I did see that Israel also dropped flyers on the Syrian border in May 1948 as well, and they might have been more effective:

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75 years ago: Eleanor Roosevelt urges the world to allow Jews in Palestine to get arms

From The Palestine Post, February 20, 1948:

From JTA, February 19, 1948:

New York City’s effort on behalf of the $250,000,000 national United Jewish Appeal campaign was launched today by 2,500 community leaders at the annual Women’s Division rally held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Speakers included Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, former Governor Herbert H. Lehman, Max Lerner, and Mrs. Jerome I. Udell, chairman of the Women’s Division in the 1948 campaign.

Mrs. Roosevelt, a member of the American delegation to the United Nations, told the gathering that “we must ask our government to allow the importation of arms into Palestine and to raise its embargo.” The added that “the Arab leaders have done themselves a great harm in saying that they would fight a decision of the United Nations.”

I cannot find the transcript of her speech to the United Jewish Appeal. However, she also spoke there in 1946, where she described the conditions of Jews in the displaced persons camps of Europe, and said:

On the day that I was in the Jewish camp, the main meal was some powdered eggs—scrambled eggs. The people have such a longing to create a sense of home that they would take the powdered eggs from the kitchen and take them back to the one little room that they might have.

You feel a kind of desperation about the dignity of the individual, the right to some privacy. They have done such pathetic things. The remnants of the families try so hard to make a home. I looked at these powdered eggs that were going to be carried back, and I thought, "Oh, Heavens, how horrible—the eggs will be cold when they get them back to their rooms." And yet, they would take them back, simply because—even though you ate and you slept and you sat in the same little place—that little place was home.

There is a building in this camp where children are kept who have wandered in off the road and have no older people with them. One little boy sang for me; he sang a Jewish song. Of course, these children are much smaller than they should be for their age. This little, tiny, curly-haired thing was ten years old, but he didn't look much more than six or seven. The director told me that this little boy had just wandered in with a younger brother one day, and they had been at the camp ever since. He said that this little boy always sang for them. They called him their "singer" in the camp. But he had all the appearance of a worried, old man, because the care of his younger brother and himself weighed on his shoulders.

What those children have gone through is just indescribable.

There was one old woman there whom I don't think I will ever forget, because you looked at her and you felt that this was the end of life, and that life must have been so terrible to bring one at the end to what this poor old thing faced.

It is true they want to go back to Palestine. They want to go back because that represents to them some roots.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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I want to become a member of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine. Where do I sign up?

On August 1, 2022, the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine issued its 76th report to the UN.

Seventy-sixth report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine

In paragraph 2 of its resolution 76/77, the General Assembly requested the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine to report to the Assembly as appropriate, but no later than 1 September 2022. The Commission recalls its report of 10 August 2021 (A/76/282) and observes that it has nothing new to report since its submission.

The UNCCP was created as part of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 in 1948. It has had nothing to report for over twenty years.

During the 1980s, it still pretended to try to implement UNGA 194. Well, not really: from the 1960s to the 1980s, it pretended that UNGA 194 had only the first part of one paragraph, Paragraph 11, that supposedly gives Palestinians the "right of return" to Israel.

It ignored most of the other part of Paragraph 11, which urged the UN to find permanent homes for Palestinians in other Arab countries: "Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation." The UNCCP indeed worked with Israeli authorities to document and calculate the value of properties that had been owned by Arabs before 1948 but it had not, since the 1950s, tried to resettle Palestinian Arabs nor help them with social rehabilitation in Arab countries.

Another paragraph the UNCCP has ignored since its early years (if even then) was Paragraph 7 that is meant to guarantee access to holy places by all. That isn't even mentioned in its 1951 reports.

Despite decades of inactivity, the Commission still exists.

Which, I suppose, one can say about the UN altogether.

In fact, it is one of only seven Commissions that report to the General Assembly - two of which have "Palestine" in their titles.

What would it take to become a member? I'd love to have a full time salary, with benefits and pension, for doing literally nothing for the next few decades.

I cannot figure out how many members it has now - the UN isn't very transparent about this - but by definition a commission must have more than one member, right? How hard can it be to join? What possible disqualifications do I have to copy and paste last year's report to this year's?

I have great plans for the UNCCP. I would create a Twitter account for it, and proudly report on that accomplishment. I would email to the PLO and Jordan asking how they are implementing Paragraph 7. I would ask Lebanon and Syria how they are resettling Palestinian "refugees."

I would do more in an hour than the UNCCP has done in 22 years.

If any existing members retire or die, I want to be at the top of the list. Who can I talk to?

(h/t Irene)

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75 years ago: Palestinian Arabs delight in murdering Jews

From the Palestine Post, January 19, 1948:

This is not just killing a Jew. This is taking delight in murder. This is a ritual. Not just stabbing him to death, but burning his body afterwards - they didn't want to merely murder but to quench a bloodlust of hate for Jews.

Notice also that the victim was not a "European invader." He came from Yemen, spoke Arabic - supposedly one of the Jews whom Arabs were not prejudiced against. But on the contrary, Menahem Manmuni was deliberately subject to mutilation because he was supposed to be a meek, weak dhimmi and didn't play the role assigned to him by Muslim supremacists.

The next day, other Jewish civilians were murdered as well.

Here is an interesting Arab analysis of the future of a Jewish state in the region, and the Arab prediction that eventually, terror attacks will wear down the Jews.

Which remains the strategy of Palestinian terror groups today, 75 years later, to the detriment of their own people.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

01/18 Links Pt2: Moshe Dayan’s Tragic Blunder; Mahmoud Abbas’ Dissertation; Why Israel’s enemies will hate the Louvre; No room for anti-Israel bias at Kennedy School

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: Moshe Dayan’s Tragic Blunder

There is an argument to be made for permitting wider access and the right to pray for Jews at the site of the biblical Temples. In part, this argument charges that defense minister Moshe Dayan, in electing not to fully realize Israel’s sovereignty over the Mount immediately after its breathtaking capture in the 1967 war, helped facilitate the resonant Palestinian lie that the Jews have no connection to our ancient homeland—for surely, if the Temple Mount was historically ours, religiously ours, we would not have handed it back to them.

Dayan self-evidently thought otherwise. Anxious to avoid a full-on confrontation with the entire Muslim world, and utilizing the halachic argument that Jews should not set foot on the Mount for fear of defiling the sacred ground where the Temple and its Holy of Holies once stood, he allowed Jordan’s Muslim Waqf to continue to administer the compound’s holy places.

Netanyahu, Horovitz continued, had “wisely” adopted Dayan’s approach previously, but now the prime minister had “sanctioned” an act of “potential pyromania.” Horovitz’s account leaves out the fact that the decision of the ardently secular Dayan was founded on total disregard for what the Temple Mount meant to religious Jews.

After his paratroopers broke through Jordanian lines in 1967 and reached the site, Mordechai Gur exultantly exclaimed that “the Temple Mount is in our hands.” Dayan, in contrast, infamously reflected, “What do I need this Vatican for?” As the Israeli journalist Nadav Sharagai has documented, Dayan’s actions were based in the presumption that the Temple Mount is not of any religious significance to Jews at all:
Dayan thought at the time, and years later committed his thoughts to writing, that since the Mount was a “Muslim prayer mosque,” while for Jews it was no more than “a historical site of commemoration of the past…one should not hinder the Arabs behaving there as they do now and one should recognize their right as Muslims to control the site.”

But of course the Temple Mount is more, for Jews, than a commemorative locale of the past: It is the holiest site in Judaism, the one toward which Jews pray all over the world, because they believe that God dwells there in a special way. Dayan’s decision did indeed facilitate Palestinian claims, rampant today, that no Temple ever stood in Jerusalem and that the entire Jewish connection to Jerusalem is a fabrication. This is why more and more religious Jews are realizing that visiting the site is essential. It is not only far-right figures who are visiting the Mount. Entering certain sections of the Mount in a manner sanctioned by Jewish law is becoming more and more mainstream among Orthodox Jews. And that is why opposition to Jewish access to the Mount is growing more and more frantic by the day.

All this points to a profound irony. The return of Netanyahu has been met with the journalistic gnashing of teeth and the rhetorical rending of garments by writers and public figures about the danger that the (democratically elected) government of Israel poses to democracy. And yet it is these very critics who are often so dismissive of the most elemental of democratic injustices: denying Jews in Israel the right to visit, and to pray at, Judaism’s holiest place. Perhaps, when it comes to the history of the democratic liberties of mankind in the eyes of those who piously intone on the subject, it is only the rights of religious Jews that do not matter.

Mahmoud Abbas’ Dissertation

On Feb. 1, 1972, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union issued a directive “On further measures to fight anti-Soviet and anti-communist activities of international Zionism.” The social sciences section of the Soviet Academy of Sciences soon established a permanent commission for the coordination of scientific criticism of Zionism, to be housed at the academy’s prestigious Institute of Oriental Studies. Over the next 15 years, the IOS would serve as an important partner in the state’s fight against the imaginary global Zionist conspiracy that Soviet security services believed was sabotaging the USSR in the international arena and at home. In 1982, the IOS would grant the doctoral status to one Mahmoud Abbas, upon the defense of his thesis The Relationship Between Zionists and Nazis, 1933-1945.

Abbas’ dissertation has been a subject of considerable interest over the years. The thesis isn’t publicly available: By all accounts, it is kept in an IOS special storage facility requiring special authorization to access. But if one visits the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, one can easily get the Palestinian leader’s so-called avtoreferat—an extended dissertation abstract. Written to the standards of the Soviet State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles and authored by the candidate, the 19-page document outlines the dissertation’s relevance, methodology, main arguments and unique contribution to the field. It also provides a literature review and lists the individuals and institutions that were involved in shepherding the work through to completion. It therefore offers a peek not only into Mahmoud Abbas’ academic accomplishment, but also into the system that produced it.

Using the social sciences to support political and ideological agendas set by the Communist Party was a matter of course in the USSR. Entire academic disciplines had been established to grant scholarly legitimacy to the state’s guiding ideology. “Scientific atheism,” for an example, was tasked with proving scientifically that God did not exist and that religion was the opiate of the masses. “Scientific communism” was supposed to supply scientific proof that communism was the superior stage of social and economic development and would supersede both Soviet socialism and global capitalism. When, instead, capitalism superseded Soviet socialism and the cushy budgets that sustained these disciplines vanished, they, too, quietly dissolved.

As a field, “scientific anti-Zionism” never took root in the Soviet academy as broadly as the other two subjects. Like them, it died as soon as its primary client—the Soviet state—disappeared. Soon a million Soviet Jews resettled in Israel and the newly independent former Soviet states restored diplomatic relations with the country.

I grew up in Akademgorodok—a suburb of the Siberian city of Novosibirsk that was home to the Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences. Adults around me lived and breathed science—real science, like physics and biology. It was well-known that portions of the academy were corrupted by ideological agendas. The antisemitism in its math division and elsewhere was a fact of life. Humanities and social sciences in particular were ruled by ideological priorities. But seeing the intellectual corruption that is evident in the story of Abbas’ dissertation is disturbing nonetheless.

Why Israel’s enemies will hate the Louvre

The Palestinian Authority and its supporters have a new enemy: the Louvre.

The world’s most-visited museum, the famous French institution that holds some of the greatest works of art and antiquities, is likely to find itself on anti-Israel boycott lists around the world.

This is because among the Louvre’s storied collections is a slab of stone with an inscription that affirms the ancient connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

The stone, known as the Mesha Stele, was first discovered in 1868 near the Dead Sea, but its inscription, written in the language of the ancient Moabites, was only partially understandable due to centuries of wear and damage. The inscription recounts a war between King Mesha of Moab and the Jews—the same conflict described in the third chapter of the Book of Kings. In addition, the words “House of David” appeared to be included in the inscription, but damage to the artifact meant this could not be proved conclusively.

Linguists and historians associated with a University of Southern California research project recently analyzed the artifact with a new technology called Reflectance Transformation Imaging that “takes digital images of an artifact from different angles and then combined to create a precise, three-dimensional digital rendering of the piece,” according to an article by two of the researchers, André Lemaire and Jean-Philippe Delorme, in the latest issue of Biblical Archeology Review.

This allowed the damaged section of the stele to be read. As was long suspected, it indeed referred to the “House of David.” So, once again, archaeological discoveries have affirmed what was already written long ago in the Hebrew Bible.

Do you know what is not mentioned in the inscription? “Palestine” or “Palestinians.”

To understand today's antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism, look to the past

An independent report was released last week looking at allegations of pervasive antisemitism at the National Union of Students (NUS) in the United Kingdom.

The antisemitism is closely linked with anti-Zionism, where Jewish students are lightning rods for students' hate against Israel.

As Spiked Online summarizes the report:

Written by barrister Rebecca Tuck, the report depicts an NUS that views anti-Semitism as a second-order problem, the scale of which is exaggerated by Jewish students. Too many NUS leaders seem to believe that anti-Semitism is far less important than other forms of discrimination.

Tuck’s report is damning. ‘For at least the last decade’, she argues, ‘Jewish students have not felt welcome or included in NUS spaces or elected roles’. Indeed, many Jewish students feel that the NUS treats them as pariahs. In numerous instances, leading NUS members have consciously downplayed the significance of instances of anti-Jewish hate.

Typically, complaints of racism are taken very seriously by the NUS, and in higher education more broadly. The mere hint of racial harassment on campus causes universities to denounce themselves as ‘institutionally racist’. That is, unless the complaint is about an incident of anti-Semitism. Often, the report shows, Jewish students were told that what they saw as anti-Semitism was merely legitimate criticism of Israel. When Jewish students pointed out, to the contrary, that they had been vilified for being Jewish, not their political beliefs, their complaints were downplayed or dismissed.

As Tuck persuasively argues, the NUS has persistently deflected these complaints because of its pro-Palestine stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, in recent years, it has seemed that some leaders of the NUS hold Jewish students answerable for the actions of Israel. This has resulted in an environment that is deeply hostile to Jews.

The offenders always argue back that they are simply pro-Palestinian, not antisemitic (and the Jews should stop being so touchy.)

Once again, history provides us with the answer to that charge.

75 years ago, on January 15, 1948, the Palestine Post had these three small articles on page 3 out of 4.

Just as in the UK today, the objects of attack are all Jews - Jews assumed to be guilty by association with Zionism. It is obvious antisemitism.

Yet also just as in the UK today, all of these episodes would have been dismissed by the anti-Zionists of the time as a normal reaction to the evils of Zionism and having nothing to do with Jews as Jews.

From the perspective of 75 years later, no one can seriously argue that the episodes in Mexico, Syria and Beirut were not pure antisemitism. The attackers at the time didn't even to pretend to distinguish Zionists from Jews - only their apologists did that.

But can anyone doubt that the "anti-Zionist" aggression we see today on campus and elsewhere doesn't have the exact same sources, the same motivations and the same mental processes behind them as those in these three articles?

The only thing that has changed in 75 years is that the modern antisemites try to be more careful in their language to avoid explicitly saying that Jews are their target. (The Soviets turned that into a science.) But the vitriol is the same, the boycotts and marginalization are the same, the threats are the same, and the hysterical hate against a minority is the same.

Sadly, the reactions from the authorities in charge (the President of AUB willing to discuss the demands of antisemites as if they had validity) are the same, too.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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From famed journalist and historian Jon Kimche, writing for the Palestine Post, January 14, 1948:

A leading Arab personality, close to leaders of the [Arab] Higher Executive, who has just returned from a tour of most of the Arab capitals, yesterday gave me a picture of the Palestine situation as top Arab leaders see it.

... Conflict in Palestine was unavoidable, he thought , and it would be accompanied by the close economic blockade of thc Jewish State , which would go on until one side or the other was prepared to surrender unconditionally.

The Arabs would call off the fight, he said, if the Jews abandoned the Jewish State and immigration. No other terms would be acceptable.

The Husseinis, he said , were confident that in the long run - perhaps three or four years—they could break the Jewish State and force the submission of Palestine Jewry though this might cost the Palestine Arabs an enormous number of casualties. The Arabs had a great advantage, as they held life cheaply and had little to lose in Palestine in contrast to the Jews.

Discussing the military line-up inside Palestine, he estimated that in the opening phases, the Jews would have an actual striking force of about 10,000 men, and that the striking force available for the Arabs would be about 5,000 active guerrillas . He calculated that the incidence of fighting and terrorist actions against nonparticipating Arabs will gradually draw into the conflict Arabs who at present are opposed and unwilling to join in the battle, and this wonkl become a constant source for the reinforcement of Arab strength.

He also banked on changes in the international situation which would create great difficulties in the long run for the Jewish State, which would have to draw its resources and food supplies largely from overseas.

"This is how we see it," concluded this Arab personality. "We do not underrate the strength of the Jews, and we think that the issue will be decided not so much by pure weapon power, but ultimately on the decision of who will crack first politically, psychologically and morally. On that we place all our cards. It will be a long struggle and it will require taut nerves."

The highlighted text is more telling than it seems. He is saying that Palestinian Arabs did not have as emotional a tie to the land as the Jews do, so they had "little to lose" - they could go elsewhere in the Arab world if necessary. The Jews don't have that luxury.

The Arab thinking is that the Jewish regard for human life would demoralize them and force them to flee, but they had nowhere else to go. That is why this analyst had it exactly backward - the Arab fighters had little incentive to risk their lives, while the Jews had no choice but to stand and defend their land.

An analogy could be made to Ukraine today - one side is fighting for their homeland, and while the other side also claims the same land, its fighters don't care much about it, even though they seem to have far more military assets available. And just like the Arab world at the time, the Russian side is happy to play the long game, thinking that they will force the other side to surrender by running out of resources and food.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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Read all about it here!

75 years ago: Another forgotten massacre of Jews

From The Palestine Post, January 11, 1948, referring to events from the previous Friday, January 9:

Eleven Jews were killed in a planned massacre when Arabs attacked a party of 23 unarmed agricultural workers on Friday morning as they went to work in Jewish orange groves near Sukreir village .

After killing the Jews, the Arabs stripped them of their clothing and decapitated one of the bodies.

The dead so far identified are all of Rishon Le Zion ; Zvi Hayn, 33; Yechiel Danziger, 23; Yoel Weisseltier , 22 ; Michael Abrahamov, 18; Josef Okashi, 18; Pinhas Kaufman, 22 ; Zeharia Tabib, 18 ; and Avraham Feldklein, 18 . The bodies of the other three men are still missing.

During Friday night, well motors in four Jewish orange groves near Sukreir were blown up .

It looks like the dead were not orange grove workers but a Haganah patrol. There is a garden in Rishon LeTzion in their memory (sign above.)

In Benny Morris' Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, he reports that the Haganah leveled the village of Sukreir (Suqrir) on January 11 in retaliation after the entire village evacuated.