My Promised Land - The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit

God bless the NY Times.  They never disappoint; if they can stick it in the eye of Israel you can count on them to do so.  This time it was the review of Ari Shavit's book, "My Promised Land - The Triumph And Tragedy Of Israel" reviewed by Leon Wieseltier.

Okay, so what was the tragedy of Israel?  As reported by this review, it was that "(t)here was another people living on the same land. 'The miracle is based on denial.'  … 'Bulldozers razed Palestinian villages, warrants confiscated Palestinian land, laws revoked Palestinians' citizenship and annulled their homeland.'  Shavit's narrative of the massacre and expulsion of the Arabs of Lydda by Israeli forces in the war of 1948 is a sickening tour the force, even if it is not, in his view, all one needs to know about the war or the country."

If you know nothing about Israel's history Shavit's words as reported and amplified by Wieseltier, paint a horrific picture of Jewish behavior.  Since I am not a historian, I had to do a bit of research.  The facts are these:  Lydda (now Lod) sat at the intersection of east-west, and north-south roads.  The quickest and easiest way for the Jews to supply their fellow Jews who were fighting the Jordanians in Jerusalem was to travel the road through Lydda.  But, that was not possible because local Arabs and Jordanians had taken up positions in Lydda.  To support the Jews fighting off the Jordanians in Jerusalem, the Jews had to find an alternate route.  This was the one referred to as the Burma Road because of the difficulty in traveling on it.  To defend themselves the Jews ultimately had to clear out Lydda.

But, was all this necessary?  Not if the Jews and the Arabs had accepted the division of land as determined by the UN.  And, the Jews had accepted the UN's division of the land (as ridiculous as it was), but not the Arabs.  The Arabs made it clear that if the Jews declared a Jewish state, they would "drive the Jews into the sea."  And so it was that the Jews facing forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq (have I left anyone out?) had to fight back and fight back hard.  With some Jordanian forces sitting in Lydda, the Jews had no choice but to clear out this city.  If this is "sickening" then perhaps it's war that's sickening.  And, Israel certainly did not want war.

People should realize that the Middle East is no Switzerland.  It's not a place were people speaking different languages have d learned to live together.  Without question, displacement is difficult on the displaced.  Jews know this because as soon as the UN voted for the creation of a Jewish state, Arab nations rushed to expel their Jews, Jews who had lived in places like Egypt and Iraq for generations.  By some great irony, the number of Jews made refugees by the Arab nations numbered essentially the same as the Arabs who fled or were displaced by the Jews.  I might add that the Arabs fleeing of their own accord outnumbered by far those who were forced out.

It didn't have to be that way.  There would have been enough land to go around.  Palestine was no Singapore or Hong Kong teaming with people.  It was pretty much as Mark Twain had described it on his travels.  It didn't have to be; but it was.  And, I might add that despite Arabs living in relative comfort in Israel, Abbas has announced that no Jew will be allowed to live in a Palestinian state.

(I trust the reader of this piece will be sufficiently informed to understand that before the State of Israel was founded, everyone on that land was Palestinian including the Jews.  It changed only afterwards.  It must be understood that if one state declares war and then loses that war, it must pay a price.  No price was paid by the Egyptians.  No price was paid by the Jordanians.  Only the Syrians paid a price.  Their loss of the heights from which they fired on the Jews below must remain forever Jewish.  I would further point out that the Druze who lived there, now live at peace as Israelis.

Footnote:
On C-SPAN Book TV, on November 24, I saw Ari Shavit, along with the author of "Lawrence In Arabia," Scott Anderson.  A question posed to Ari Shavit at the end of the program showed him not to be quit as leftist as reading Mr. Wieseltier would suggest.  The question by someone from the left was essentially this:  Do you, Mr. Shavit, see any hope that someone more peace oriented than Netanyahu will emerge who can finally make peace with the Palestinians?

Mr. Shavit replied as follows:  Israel on three occasions reached out to the Palestinians, on each occasion, they were met with either rockets from Gaza or seeing Jews blown up in Israeli buses.  Israelis, based on their experience, see little reason for holding out hope for a peace with the Palestinians.