Posted on January 14, 2009

• During the Israeli war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006, the Israeli chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, said to the New York Times that he wanted to deliver :

  "a clear message to both greater Beirut and Lebanon that they've swallowed a cancer and have to vomit it up, because if they don't their country will pay a very high price." (NYTimes July 15th, 2006)

• Moshe Dayan (a former Israeli  Defense Minister)  wrote in the 1955 regarding the collective punishments imposed on Palestinian civilian population by the Israeli Army:

  "The only method that proved effective, not justified or moral but effective, when Arabs plant mines on our side [in retaliation]. If we try to search for the [particular] Arab [who planted mines], it has not value. But if we harass the nearby village . . . then the population there comes out against the [infiltrators] . . . and the Egyptian Government and the Transjordan Government are [driven] to prevent such incidents because their prestige is [assailed], as the Jews have opened fire, and they are unready to begin a war . . . the method of collective punishment so far has proved effective." (Righteous Victims, p. 275-276)

• And in the 1950s Dayan also stated on the same subject :

  "We could not guard every water pipeline from being blown up and every tree from being uprooted. We could not prevent every murder of a worker in an orchard or a family in their beds. But it was in our power to set high price for our blood, a price too high for the [Palestinian] Arab community, the Arab army, or the Arab governments to think it worth paying. . . . It was in our power to cause the Arab governments to renounce 'the policy of strength' toward Israel by turning it into a demonstration of weakness." (Iron Wall, p. 103) The "too high" of a price Dayan is referring to is the collective punishment such as house demolition, uprooting trees, ..etc.

• Yitzhak Rabin (a former Israeli Prime Minister & the champion of breaking bones of the stone throwers) wrote in his diary soon after Lydda's and Ramla's occupation on 10th-11th of July 1948:

  "After attacking Lydda and then Ramla, .... What would they do with the 50,000 civilians living in the two cities ..... Not even Ben-Gurion could offer a solution .... and during the discussion at operation headquarters, he [Ben-Gurion] remained silent, as was his habit in such situations. Clearly, we could not leave [Lydda's] hostile and armed populace in our rear, where it could endangered the supply route [to the troops who were] advancing eastward.garush otam in Hebrew]. 'Driving out' is a term with a harsh ring, .... Psychologically, this was on of the most difficult actions we undertook". (Soldier of Peace, p. 140-141 & Benny Morris, p. 207) .

  Later, Rabin underlined the cruelty of the operation as mirrored in the reaction of the soldiers, he stated during an interview (which was censored in Israeli publications) with David Shipler from the New York Times on October 22, 1979:

  "Great Suffering was inflicted upon the men taking part in the eviction action. [They] included youth-movement graduates who had been inculcated with values such as international brotherhood and humaneness. The eviction action went beyond the concepts they were used to. There were some fellows who refused to take part. . . Prolonged propaganda activities were required after the action . . . to explain why we were obliged to undertake such a harsh and cruel action." ((Simha Flapan, p. 101)

• A Palmach (the Israeli strike force) report, written by Yigal Allon soon after Operation Dani in the first half of July 1948, stated that the expulsion of the Lydda and Ramle Palestinian inhabitants, beside relieving Tel Aviv of a potential, long-term threat, had:

  "clogged the routes of the advance of the [Transjordan Arab] Legion and had foisted upon the Arab economy the problem of "maintaining another 45,000 souls . . . Moreover, the phenomenon of the flight of tens of thousands will no doubt cause demoralization in every Arab area [the refugees] reach . . . This victory will yet have great effect on other sectors." (Benny Morris, p. 211 & Israel: A History, p. 218)

• A month after the Nazi pogrom against Germany's Jews, famously known as Kristallnacht, Ben-Gurion (the 1st Israeli Prime Minister) provided an interesting mathematical formula for saving German Jewish kids. He stated in December 1938:

  "If I knew it was possible to save all [Jewish] children of Germany by their transfer to England and only half of them by transferring them to Eretz-Yisrael, I would choose the latter----because we are faced not only with the accounting of these [Jewish] children but also with the historical accounting of the Jewish People." (Righteous Victims, p. 162) Obviously, a person who cares this much about Jewish Children would care about Palestinian Children!

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