Israel/Hamas War Superthread

[Dill]

(01-01-2024, 03:34 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: First, kudos for the reference to Benny Morris and "The Origin of the Palestinian Refugee problem". I am familiar with Benny and the "New Historians" and think this is a good wellspring for our conversation. (For anyone reading this who is unfamiliar here is an online excerpt: https://ismi.emory.edu/documents/Readings/Morris,%20Benny%20Origins.pdf. It is worth the read!). I would also caution that Benny's views are as complex and as evolving as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself. In other words, some views and terms that he wrote about 35 years ago may not be the same views he holds today (see 
http://larryjhs.fastmail.fm.user.fm/The%20Birth%20of%20the%20Palestinian%20Refugee%20Problem%20Revisited.pdf) . But you are probably already aware of that.

Fantastic post, B. Above and beyond the call of duty.  

It'll take me a day or two to respond to all this. Most of it seems to me a darn good review of the conflict/issue.

Meantime a comment about Morris and the New Historians--Morris I have relied on frequently in forum discussions here and elsewhere, though mostly from his more recent (2009) 1948: The First Arab Israeli War https://archive.org/details/1948historyoffir00morr. His politics have become unapologetically Zionist (as you hint), but we judge his works on the quality of his research, right? As for other Israeli historians, for this period in Arab-Israeli history, and addressing US audiences, I also rely on Illan Pappe's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and The Biggest Prison on Earth, Tom Segev's 1949: The First Israelis, as well as Avi Shlaim's The Wall. 

If people reading our exchange are curious about the "New Historians" reference, it is to a group of historians (and also some sociologists) whose work emerged from the opening of Israeli military and government archives in 1980. Much of what they found conflicted with national myth, making their work controversial in Israel at the time, though now it is the basis of an international consensus among historians. E.g. no professional historian thinks Palestinians in '48 were called to evacuate to allow Arab armies to operate; there was a Plan Dalet to remove Arab populations, etc.

If people are coming to this subject to first time and interested in gaining foundational knowledge the conflict, though, I recommend beginning with brief but comprehensive introductions like this one from the Oxford "very short introduction to" series. https://www.amazon.ca/Palestinian-Israeli-Conflict-Short-Introduction-Introductions-ebook/dp/B00DZIB5XK/ref=sr_1_36?crid=R8C46VVS77HN&keywords=arab+israeli+conflict&qid=1704161484&s=books&sprefix=arab+israeli+conflict%2Cstripbooks%2C274&sr=1-36. So many books out there are really propaganda than history.