On the same day,
The New York Times published
an article recycling Israeli President Shimon Peres’s narrative of
the period:
"Israel, mathematically or tangibly,
should not have been established…prior to the War of Independence, there
was no chance. We were 650,000, they were 40 million. They had seven
armies, we had barely 5,000 soldiers… So tangibly we were on the brink
of collapse, but we won anyway, thanks to hidden powers. Ever since, for
all of my life, I have tried to understand those immeasurable powers."
The founding Zionist myth, reflected here by Peres’s words, echoes the
American mantra of "manifest destiny" and fits perfectly into the
Evangelical Christian narrative: Israel’s creation was a miracle brought
about by divine intervention.
But this narrative doesn’t fit the facts. Had editors of The New York
Times read their own reporting from the time, they too may have
thought twice before uncritically reprinting Peres’s chimerical story.
In an article entitled "Palestine Jews Minimize Arabs: Sure of
Superiority Settlers Feel They Can Win Natives By Reason or Force," the
Times
Then, in a 1948 feature story about the Zionist militias entitled, "The
Army Called ‘Haganah,’" the Times reported about the Haganah:
[It] has a nucleus of 30,000 men who
served in the British forces. Three thousand of them served in the RAF,
including more than forty pilots. More than 300 served in the Commandos
and 4,000 in the Jewish Brigade in action in Italy. The British estimate
Haganah's active membership at anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000.
In fact, throughout the war, the Zionist forces outnumbered the combined
forces of the Arab armies who were under-armed, undertrained and
decentralized in comparison. Prior to the start of the war, the Zionists
had mapped out the Arab villages throughout Palestine and amassed a
data collection effort that was far ahead of the military
intelligence capabilities of any Arab state at the time.
If anything, given the realities of history and the disparity of power,
it would have been something of a miracle if the Zionists had not been
victorious.
This was not the outcome of a divine intervention or mysterious "hidden
powers," as Peres puts it. Rather, this was the expected triumph of an
economically and militarily superior state-like Zionist force over a far
weaker, disorganized native population with little means of defending
themselves.
Peres, of course, should know better. He was one of the tens of
thousands of Haganah members
The New York Timess wrote about 64
years ago. In fact, among other things, he was responsible for arms
procurement! Whatever "hidden powers" Peres is talking about were not so
hidden to the journalists of the day.
So why perpetuate this myth? Why tell a fairytale about the foundation
of the state of Israel?
The answer is simple: challenging the foundational myths of Zionism
shakes it at its core. For this reason there are two main Zionist
interpretations of this history. There is that of Peres and others who
might call themselves "liberal Zionists," who bask in the mythology
because acknowledging the truth is too troubling. Then there is that of
Benny Morris, who knows the history all too well, and is happy to
justify
it.
Peter Beinart writes, "Acting ethically in an age of Jewish power means
confronting not only the suffering that gentiles endure but the
suffering that Jews cause."
This tenet, a central part of the "liberal Zionist" awakening
exemplified by Beinart and others, is meaningless unless it can also be
applied to the events of 1948, breaking through the Zionist mythology
which advances a dogmatic and false Israeli "David and Arab Goliath"
dichotomy.
Only at that point can we begin moving forward. ;
The repressive actions of the State of Israel today toward some of its
own citizens who bravely challenge this mythology only highlights its
unwillingness to come out of the proverbial cave.
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