Morris on Israel

Anyone who's interested in the problems in the Middle East - and they affect all of us - should read this.

It's an article about Benny Morris's lonely quest for an objective assessment of what really happened in 1948.

Morris attempted to write an objective history of what happened in 1948, letting the blame fall as it may, based on all the written evidence and no particular agenda. His book has recently been revised, based on documents from Israeli archives released under the '50 year rule'.

The reason he's now changed his views on what was justifiable or not, is based upon the happenings since 2000.

In the 1990's, when he published the first edition of his book, it was possible to believe that Palestinians would shortly accept Israel's right to exist. It's not possible now.

Morris does not deny that 'ethnic cleansing' occurred in 1948. Not organised, not widespread, but it did occur, and he can prove it, no matter what Zionist fanatics can say.

The difference is, that now he sees that there either had to be an ethnic cleansing of Jews, or of Arabs, solely because the Palestinians cannot currently live alongside Jews. The Israeli Jews, and Israeli Arabs (Bedouin etc) are willing. The Palestinians are not, and have shown this repeatedly since 2000.

I'm not completely sure he's correct. How much of the Terrorism against Israel has broad-based popular support, and how much is an artifact of Arafat and Co? And if it does have widespread support, how much of that is an artifact of 50 years continuous propaganda in brainwashing the Mob? Living together may have been possible in 1948 (though given the terrorism in the 30's, and the many instances of Arab Xenophobia expressed in pogroms against Jews, this is dubious), and hopefully it may be possible some time in the future. But I don't see that it's possible now.