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IDF Bans Speaker For Calling Dir Yassin A Non-Massacre
Arutz Sheva ^ | 12-10-02

Posted on 12/10/2002 4:01:00 PM PST by SJackson

The IDF has decided that former Lechi fighter Ezra Yachin will no longer be allowed to lecture to soldiers as part of the army's educational seminars. Meretz MK Naomi Chazan complained that Yachin tells his audiences that Lechi soldiers did not carry out a massacre in Dir Yassin in 1948. Yachin himself, who took part in the Dir Yassin battle, says that the decision to keep him away from soldiers "astonishes" him. He says that just as there was no massacre in Jenin, there was none in Dir Yassin.

A work by ZOA National President Morton A. Klein, entitled, Dir Yassin: History of a Lie, brings to light important documents disproving the claim that 250-300 Arab civilians were massacred by Jewish fighters in the Jerusalem-area village. The study finds that Dir Yassin was actually a legitimate military target overlooking the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, from where Jewish traffic was regularly attacked.

Arutz-7's Nissan Ratzlav-Katz reports that Hazen Nusseibeh, an editor for the Palestine Broadcasting Service's Arabic news in 1948, once told BBC the true origins of the "Dir Yassin massacre." Nusseibeh said that in consultation with Hussein Khalidi, then-Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, "we wrote a press release stating that at Dir Yassin children were murdered, pregnant women were raped. All sorts of atrocities." When residents of the village protested this portrayal of events, Nusseibeh said, they were told that the lies were necessary to incite Arab armies to help fight the Jews, and that Khalidi said outright, "We have to say this so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews."

===================================================

Deir Yassin: History of a Lie March 9, 1998

Introduction

For fifty years, critics of Israel have used the battle of Deir Yassin to blacken the image of the Jewish State, alleging that Jewish fighters massacred hundreds of Arab civilians during a battle in that Arab village near Jerusalem in 1948.

This analysis brings to light, for the first time, a number of important documents that have never previously appeared in English, which help clarify what really happened in Deir Yassin on that fateful day.

One is a research study conducted by a team of researchers from Bir Zeit University, an Arab university now situated in Palestinian Authority territory, concerning the history of Deir Yassin and the details of the battle. The researchers interviewed numerous former residents of the town and reached startling conclusions concerning the actual number of people killed in the battle.

The second important work on this subject that has never previously appeared in English, and which was consulted for this study, is a history of the 1948 war by Professor Uri Milstein, one of Israel's most distinguished military historians. His 13-volume study of the 1948 war includes a section on Deir Yassin based on detailed interviews with the participants in the battle and previously-unknown archival documents. Professor Milstein's meticulous research has been praised by academics from across the political spectrum.1

Another document used in this study is the protocols of a 1952 hearing, in which, for the first and only time, Israeli judges heard eyewitness testimony from participants in the events at Deir Yassin and issued a ruling that has important implications for understanding what happened in that battle.

This study is also based upon a unique collection of testimonies concerning the battle of Deir Yassin, by participants and eyewitnesses, which are on file in Israel's Metzudat Ze'ev Archives and have never before appeared in English.

The documents cited in this study were located in Israeli archives by a team of researchers and legal scholars, with additional research in the United States by Chaviva Rosenbluth.

...VERY BIG SNIP--CLICK THE LINK FOR ARTICLE-LONG....

Conclusion

It has been said that a lie can travel halfway across the world before the truth can catch up with it. The lie that Jewish fighters massacred Arab civilians in Deir Yassin has gone halfway across the world and further over the past fifty years. The original "massacre lie" has been embellished upon with additional false accusations, and then recirculated by an array of harsh critics of Israel and careless historians, the Deir Yassin lie has taken on a life of its own, making its way into authoritative texts such as encyclopedias, where it is being passed on to the next generation as established fact. The truth has struggled to catch up, but, step by step, it has gained ground. First there was the Israeli judicial ruling in 1952, an official recognition, by the very parties that had charged massacre, that the battle was, in fact, a legitimate military operation against enemy armed forces. Then came the Israeli Labor government's 1960 pamphlet describing Deir Yassin without any reference to the supposed massacre. Next, the Labor government's 1969 reversal, acknowledging the errors that Labor officials had made in 1948 and officially clearing the Jewish fighters of the charge that they committed atrocities. Finally, in 1987, the Bir Zeit University study--Arab researchers confirming that one of the central claims of the accusers, the death toll of 254, was a wild and reckless exaggeration. Taken together, these developments and revelations have exposed, once and for all, the lie of the Deir Yassin "massacre." It has taken fifty years, but the truth has finally caught up.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Israel
KEYWORDS: whogivesadamn

1 posted on 12/10/2002 4:01:00 PM PST by SJackson
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Alouette; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
2 posted on 12/10/2002 4:01:23 PM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson
PC meets IDF. Yuccch!
3 posted on 12/10/2002 4:05:02 PM PST by Lent
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To: Lent
Yup. The Extreme Left in Israel has the absolute power to ban non-Leftists from contradicting the PC version of history and they don't hesitate to make it felt.
4 posted on 12/10/2002 4:06:38 PM PST by goldstategop
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: goldstategop
The sad thing is, the IDF is not even keeping current of the exposing of the anti-Zionist/New Historian versions of history such as in Shabtai Teveth, Efraim Karsh, etc. Even the more reputable New Historian Benny Morris (i.e., he's not in the same category as the repugnant Finklesteins and Shahaks of the world) has quit seeing things through rose-colored palestinian and anti-Zionist glasses.
6 posted on 12/10/2002 4:18:43 PM PST by Lent
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To: SJackson
The left has controlled the Israeli military every since Yitzak Rabin blew the Altelena out of the water in 1948.
It is past time to reform Etzel.
7 posted on 12/10/2002 4:19:56 PM PST by rmlew
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To: goldstategop; Lent; rmlew; LindaSOG
This makes no sense to me. There's nothing on the IDF website about it, though I suppose there wouldn't be. I can't help but wonder if there's some other issue, this wouldn't seem to be the time to be getting PC about something like this.
8 posted on 12/10/2002 4:34:21 PM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson
I have been reading Martin Gilbert's history of Jerusalem in the 20th century. He mentions Deir Yassin several times. It was a village which happened to overlook the main road from Jerusalem to Jaffa, which was the lifeline for Israeli conveys and civilian traffic. Although it appears that the longterm Arab occupants were innocuous, snipers and artillary from the Arab Legion often used Deir Yassin as their base of operations. In the course of the Israeli War of Independence, the shelling and sniping from Deir Yassin became intolerable and the Israelis decided to evacuate the town and neutralize the Arab guerrillas there. An Israeli loud speaker truck was sent in to announce (in Arabic) that the residents should evacuate, but the snipers prevented the truck from getting close to the village.

After a very ugly battle for the town, which concluded with the Israelis taking the Arab captives through Jerusalem in trucks, the Arabs started the story about a massacre. At the time the Israelis were too preoccupied with the war to do much investigation, so they prompted conceded to the widespread propaganda and started apologizing profusely.

Only very recently has anyone bothered to do a serious investigation that shows that the "massacre" was much exaggerated.

9 posted on 12/10/2002 4:53:35 PM PST by DonQ
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To: rmlew
The left has controlled the Israeli military ever since Yitzak Rabin blew the Altelana out of the water in 1948.

It took 47 years, but Rabin finally paid for his actions.


10 posted on 12/10/2002 5:01:41 PM PST by archy
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To: DonQ
After a very ugly battle for the town, which concluded with the Israelis taking the Arab captives through Jerusalem in trucks, the Arabs started the story about a massacre. At the time the Israelis were too preoccupied with the war to do much investigation, so they prompted conceded to the widespread propaganda and started apologizing profusely.

That's about how the linked article describes the battle.

11 posted on 12/10/2002 5:03:05 PM PST by SJackson
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To: archy
That is an ugly scenario in there archy
12 posted on 12/10/2002 5:12:44 PM PST by Radix
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: Radix
I call it karma.
14 posted on 12/10/2002 5:32:34 PM PST by rmlew
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To: Lent
PC meets IDF. Yuccch!

This insanity is akin to Historian Steven Ambrose having been forbidden to speak to American troops about the Battle of Midway because Maxine Waters said that it was a racist massacre of peaceful Japanese civilians who were using carriers and destroyers to go fishing.

This is not PC. This is evil. Pure and simple. This Meretz MK should be verbally assaulted and pelted with tomatoes everywhere she speaks or appears until she resigns. She is a traitor to Israel and a dangerous Arab agent in their midst.

I cannot understand how Sharon can possibly allow this to go forward. The Defense Minster (who was formerly IDF Chief of Staff) must reverse this obviously ignorant low-level decision.

15 posted on 12/10/2002 5:35:22 PM PST by montag813
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To: SJackson
Here's pretty much how it works:

Five Palestinian militants hiding behind women and children open fire on Israeli soldiers. A gunbattle ensues over the course of which all the militants are killed and three of the innocents they were using for human shields with them.

The Palestinian spokes-terrorists will claim that all the casualties were civilian, because, after all, they weren't wearing uniforms. They will multiply the death toll by a factor of ten, and viola, eighty civilians were massacred by the IDF.

The UN will condemn Israel and demand an investigation. They will send in a team. The press in the US will report the massacre, except Fox which will report the Palistinian claims AND the Israeli counter claims to the effect that casualties were much lower and mostly armed militants.

When the investigators from the UN can't find any evidence (nor can anyone else, for that matter) of a massacre, nothing will be heard about it except for the occasional belated repetition of accusations by the spokes-terrorist because he didn't get the memo yet. Oh, and Fox will report that the IDF didn't massacre anybody this time, either. The UN will not withdraw its condemnation of Israel or mention the incident again because they really, really wanted it to be true so they could bash Israel for a true transgression and are really disappointed that there wasn't one.
16 posted on 12/10/2002 9:39:19 PM PST by calenel
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: SJackson
For what looks to me like a more balanced account of Deir Yassin, see:

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2082/2_63/72435149/print.jhtml

Note that it's largely based on the testimony of Jewish troops that were on the ground, executing civilians in order to cause terror in the overall Arab population as well as achieve vengeance for previous attacks by Arabs.

Demanding truth, even if it conflicts with one's ideology, is not political correctness.
19 posted on 12/11/2002 1:27:21 AM PST by Deathmonger
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To: Deathmonger; SJackson
Demanding truth, even if it conflicts with one's ideology, is not political correctness.

That's a rather pompous assertion. But to do the subject-matter credit, Hogan's collaborative refutation of the ZOA article can be found here:Anatomy of a Whitewash: A Critical Examination and Refutation of the Historical Revisionist "Deir Yassin: History of A Lie," Issued By the Zionist Organization of America (Mar. 8, 1998)

It can also be found in several other Arab Islamic sites which like to whitewash their own involvement in precipitating the hell of war.

Couple of points about the alleged refutation of the ZOA article.

Hogan and McGowan do not refute the figure of dead arrived at by the ZOA article nor, it appears the original source for the false and bloated figures (an Arab). Secondly, while they complain about the source material (the very reputable Uri Milstein largely), and assert the lack of other sources, in point of fact Milstein bases his work on numerous interviews and other primary source information. It turns out their criticism is vacuous. As the ZOA article quotes from Benny Morris (by the way a New Historian and anti-Zionist),"Benny Morris, dean of Israel's leftwing "new historians," has written that Milstein's study "will most likely turn out to be the definitive military history of the 1948 war...No one is likely to surpass the sheer breadth, depth, and scope of this work...Israeli military history has now been pulled up to a new, higher and refreshing plane." (Morris, "'Pre-History' vs. 'History', Jerusalem Post, 9 May 1989, p.40). "

By the way, you will note that in the Hogan article you gave the link source to, Hogan himself relies on Milstein numerous times. Arguably a case of picking and choosing the material which lends itself to Hogan's thesis and rejecting the contrary material.

Finally, the "demanding truth" assertion is only accomplished by having MORE than ONE position advanced. That is exactly the point of the criticism in this article and the above postings. To that end your criticism is itself self-contradictory.

20 posted on 12/11/2002 1:09:40 PM PST by Lent
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