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The Debate about 1948

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Avi Shlaim
Avi Shlaim
Affiliation:
Alastair Buchan Reader in International RelationsUniversity of Oxford and a Fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford, U.K.
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Extract

“Conquerors, my son, consider as true history only what they themselves have fabricated.” Thus remarked the old Arab headmaster to young Saeed on his return to Haifa in the summer of 1948 in Emile Habiby's tragicomic novel The Secret Life of Saʿid, the Ill-Fated Pessoptimist. The headmaster spoke about the Israelis more in sorrow than in anger: “It is true they did demolish those villages … and did evict their inhabitants. But, my son, they are far more merciful than the conquerors our forefathers had years before”.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , August 1995 , pp. 287 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

NOTES

1 Habiby, Emile, Al-Waqāʾiʿ al-Gharība fi Ikhtifāʾ Saʿīd Abī al-Naḥs al-Mutashāʾil (The Secret Life of Saʿid, the Ill-Fated Pessoptimist) (Beirut: Dār Ibn Khaldūn, 1974), 37Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., 35.

3 Flapan, Simha, The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities (New York: Pantheon, 1987), 8Google Scholar.

4 ibid., 10.

5 Morris, Benny, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

6 Pappè, Ilan, Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948–51 (London: Macmillan, 1988)Google Scholar.

7 Shlaim, Avi, Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement and the Partition of Palestine (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

8 Baer, Israel, Bitahon Israel: Etmol, Hayom, Mahar (Israel's Security: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow) (Tel Aviv: Amikam, 1966).Google Scholar

9 Cohen, Gavriel, “Hamediniyut Habritit Erev Milhemet Ha'atzma'ut”, in Hayinu Keholmim (We Were as Dreamers), ed. Wallach, Yehuda (Givatayim: Massada, 1985)Google Scholar.

10 Shimoni, Yaacov, “Ha'aravim Likrat Milhemet Israel-'Arav, 1945–1948” (The Arabs and the Approaching War with Israel, 1945–1948), Hamizrah Hehadash 47, 3, (1962)Google Scholar.

11 Pail, Meir, “Hafqa'at Haribonut Hamedinit shel Filastin miyedei Hafalestinim” (The Expropriation of the Political Sovereignty over Palestine from the Palestinians), Ziyonut 3 (1973)Google Scholar.

12 Gabbay, Rony E., A Political Study of the Arab–Jewish Conflict: The Arab Refugee Problem (Geneva: Librairie E. Droz, 1959)Google Scholar.

13 Yisra'eli, A. (Moshe Machover and Akiva Orr), Shalom, Shalom—ve'ein Shalom: Yisra'el-Arav, 1948–61 (Peace, Peace—and There is No Peace: Israel and the Arabs, 1948–61) (Jerusalem, 1961)Google Scholar.

14 Israel State Archives and Central Zionist Archives, Political and Diplomatic Documents, December 1947–May 1948, ed. Yogev, Gedalia (Jerusalem: Israel Government Press, 1980);Google ScholarIsrael State Archives, Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel, May–September 1948, vol. 1, ed. Freundlich, Yehoshua (Jerusalem: Israel Government Press, 1981);Google ScholarDocuments on the Foreign Policy of Israel: October 1948–April 1949, vol. 2, ed. Freundlich, Yehoshua (Jerusalem: Israel Government Press, 1984);Google Scholar and Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel: Armistice Negotiations with the Arab States, December 1948–July 1949, vol. 3, ed. Rosenthal, Yemima (Jerusalem: Israel Government Press, 1986)Google Scholar.

15 Iraqi Government, Taqrīr Lajnat al-Taḥqîq al-Niyābiyya fī Qaḍiyyat Filastịīn (Baghdad, 1949)Google Scholar.

16 See the references in Khalidi, Walid, “The Arab Perspective”, in The End of the Palestine Mandate, ed. Louis, William Roger and Stookey, Robert W. (London: I. B. Tauris, 1986)Google Scholar.

17 For a review of this literature, see Sela, Avraham, “Arab Historiography of the 1948 War: The Quest for Legitimacy”, in New Perspectives on Israeli History: The Early Years of the State, ed. Silberstein, Lawrence J. (New York: New York University Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

18 Morris, Benny, “The New Historiography: Israel Confronts Its Past”, Tikkun 3, 6 (11–12 1988)Google Scholar. This much discussed article is reprinted in Morris, Benny, 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

19 One historian of Zionism, Anita Shapira, was prompted by Menachem Begin's claim to embark upon a reexamination of the defensive ethos of Zionism throughout the pre-state period. Segev, Tom, “The Anguish of Poor Samson”, Ha'aretz, 16 10 1992Google Scholar. Shapira, Anita, Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881–1948 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), viiGoogle Scholar.

20 Teveth, Shabtai, “Charging Israel with Original Sin”, Commentary, 10 1989, 33Google Scholar.

21 Ibid., 25.

22 Ibid..

23 Morris, , Ha'aretz, 9 05 1989;Google Scholaridem, “The Eel and History: A Reply to Shabtai Teveth”, Tikkun 5, 1 (January–February 1990);Google Scholaridem, 1948 and After, 27–29Google Scholar.

24 See my letters to the Editor, Commentary, 02 and 07 1990Google Scholar.

25 Pappé, , Britain and the Arab–Israeli Conflict;Google ScholarShlaim, , Collusion across the Jordan;Google Scholaridem, “Britain and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948”, Journal of Palestine Studies 16, 4 (Summer 1987)Google Scholar. On the theory that the British wanted to reduce the Jewish part of Palestine to a “rump state”, see Louis, William Roger, The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), 372–79Google Scholar.

26 Flapan, , The Birth of Israel, Myth Six, especially the table with three different estimates of troop numbers on p. 196;Google ScholarMorris, , 1948 and After, 13–16Google Scholar. A study based on privileged access to IDF sources supports the revisionist line by showing that the United Nations arms embargo hurt the Arabs much more than it hurt IDF: Amitzur Ilan, The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Arms Race (forthcoming).

27 Morris, , The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 286Google Scholar.

28 In addition to the articles in Ha'aretz and Commentary, Teveth published “The Palestine Arab Refugee Problem and Its Origins”, Middle Eastern Studies 26, 2 (04 1990)Google Scholar.

29 Morris, , Ha'aretz, 23 04 and 1 05 1992Google Scholar.

30 Sela, , Ha'aretz, 4 and 11 10 1991Google Scholar.

31 See, for example, Palumbo, Michael, “What Happened to Palestine? The Revisionists Revisited”, The Link 23, 4 (09–10 1990);Google ScholarKhalidi, Rashid, “Revisionist Views of the Modern History of Palestine: 1948”, Arab Studies Quarterly 10, 4 (Autumn 1988);Google ScholarAbu-Lughod, Ibrahim, “The War of 1948: Disputed Perspectives and Outcomes”, Journal of Palestine Studies 18, 2 (Winter 1989);CrossRefGoogle ScholarMasalha, Nur, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political Thought, 1882–1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992)Google Scholar.

32 al-Tall, ʿAbdullah, Kārithat Filasṭīn: Mudhakkirāt ʿAbdullāh al-Tall, Qāʾid Maʿrakat al-Quds (The Palestine Catastrophe: The Memoirs of Abdullah al-Tall, Leader of the Battle for Jerusalem) (Cairo: Dar al-Qalam, 1959)Google Scholar.

33 Baer, , Bitahon IsraelGoogle Scholar.

34 Schueftan, Dan, Optzya Yardenit: Israel, Yarden Vehapalestinim (Jordanian Option: Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians) (Yad Tabenkin: Hakkibutz Hame'uhad, 1986);Google ScholarBar-Joseph, Uri, The Best of Enemies: Israel and Transjordan in the War of 1948 (London: Frank Cass, 1987)Google Scholar.

35 Israel Defense Forces, Toldot Milhemet Hakomemiyut (History of the War of Independence) (Tel Aviv: Ma'arachot, 1959)Google Scholar.

36 See, for example, the author's interview with Yigael Yadin, acting chief of staff in 1948, in Shlaim, , Collusion across the Jordan, 236Google Scholar.

37 Teveth, , “Charging Israel with Original Sin”, 28Google Scholar.

38 Sela, Avraham, “Transjordan, Israel and the 1948 War: Myth, Historiography and Reality”, Middle Eastern Studies 28, 4 (10 1992): 627CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Ibid., 680.

40 Shlaim, Avi, The Politics of Partition: King Abdullah, the Zionists and Palestine, 1921–1951 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

41 Ibid., viii.

42 See, for example, Shlaim, Avi, “The Rise and Fall of the All-Palestine Government in Gaza”, Journal of Palestine Studies 20, 1 (Autumn 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Flapan, , The Birth of Israel, Myth Seven;Google ScholarShlaim, , Collusion across the Jordan;Google ScholarMorris, , 1948 and After, 22–27;Google Scholar and Pappé, Ilan, The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947–1951 (London: I. B. Tauris, 1992), chaps. 8–10Google Scholar.

44 Shlaim, Avi, “Husni Zaim and the Plan to Resettle Palestinian Refugees in Syria”, Journal of Palestine Studies 15, 4 (Summer 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Ben-Gurion, David, Yoman Hamilhama (War Diary), ed. Rivlin, Gershon and Orren, Elhanan (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1982), 3:993Google Scholar.

46 Rabinovich, Itamar, The Road Not Taken: Early Arab-Israeli Negotiations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), viiiGoogle Scholar.

47 For a detailed critique of Rabinovich see Morris, Benny, “A Second Look at the ‘Missed Opportunity’, or Smoothing Out History: A Review Essay”, Journal of Palestine Studies 24, 1 (Autumn 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.