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From: eshneken@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu (Edward A Shnekendorf)
Subject: Re: Deir Yassin
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1993 05:11:16 GMT
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rj3s@Virginia.EDU ("Get thee to a nunnery.....") writes:

>First of all, Harry, I am not so uninformed about Irgun's
>TERRORIST activities.  I'll give you a few quotes from a book
>by Charles D. Smith in his Palestine and the Arab Israeli
>Conflict [1988, 1992]

Ah - Palestine and the Arab Israeli conflict.  Sounds interesting.

>"Begin directed the Irgun to bomb only civilian [that's right,
>CIVILIAN] installations linked to the mandatory authority, not
>military sites."  

This is misleading.  I supposed Charles D. Smith characterizes the bombing
of the King David Hotel as a civilian installation too.  Any installation 
attacked by Etzel was linked to some sort of official function of the 
Mandatory government.

>and of course, there is the LEHI splinter group, which included
>such notable Israelis as Yitzak Shamir...  the LEHI [fighters
>for the freedom of Israel} "resumed its assassinations of
>British officials, CIVILIAN, and military".

What kind of CIVILIANS?  I assume Charles D. Smith means completely innocent
people who were intentionally targeted, right?  Please provide examples.

>and there is of course, Dair Yassin, where 250 men, woman and
>children were killed,...  perhaps I'm sure for strategic
>reasons, yet what ever happened to the non aggression pact with
>the Hagana?  I have references for that if you'd like.  It
>seems to me like blatant scare tactics that Begin himself
>admits to having been very useful in scaring off the
>Palestinian Arabs.  [i do have references!... The Revolt(los
>angeles 1972)] 

Nice strawman.  In _The Revolt_ Begin does state that the *myth* of a massacre
at Deir Yassin may have had the effect of scaring some Arabs into fleeing.
However, nowhere does he claim that this was the result of any specific policy
of the Etzel.  Thus, if it did happen, it was not so intended.  I think Arab 
calls for Palestinians to leave and fear of a war started by Arab hands had 
a greater effecton Arab migration than Deir Yassin.

In fact these jewish TERRORIST groups managed
>all in all to scare off 300, 000 Arabs by may 15 1948.

Really.  Nice use of caps.  I like it.  Very effective.  Actually, according to 
many sources, including American diplomatic officials, the greatest encouragment
for Arabs to leave their villages came from Arab leaders.

>This certainly might be all a matter of semantics however.  You
>might say that the Hagana did this for war...  but like I said
>before, how do we not know that the Palestinian conflict isn't
>equatable with a war?  If Israel never got her state, the
>Hagana's activities would be lost in history, categorized as
>tewrrorism for sure because it could not be identified with the
>cause of a state.  I do take this seriously Harry...  I
>sincerely think the Palestinians are being discriminated
>against in this case because, perhaps, everyone thinks their
>cause is bogus.  

>Anyway...  just some stuff to ponder over.
>Over and out.

>Ramiro

Ed.

