OP/ED: The Truth Behind Israel's Wars: The Sharett Diaries

'Hot button topics' don't come any hotter than Israeli security. A thread I started on ATSNN about Iranian President Ahmadinejad's calling for Israel's destruction is now currently in ATS's Top 100 Most Replied Threads list. In this Op/Ed I seek to stimulate interest in correcting the prevailing popular belief that Israel is a hapless victim of Arab aggression. This Op/Ed doesn't even pretend to be comprehensive, it should be treat as a teaser to this very expansive topic. The main tenet of this Op/Ed is that Israel has instigated and harassed its Arab neighbours as a concerted effort to facilitate its expansion and suppression of Palestinians since the creation of Israel.


I bring a revelation that a few here will already know, a smaller few will now accept and that the vast majority will furiously and hysterically reject:

Israel has deliberately instigated every single war it has engaged in.

The Israeli political /military establishment never seriously believed in an Arab threat to the existence of Israel. On the contrary, it sought and applied every means to exacerbate the dilemma of the Arab regimes after the 1948 war. The Arab governments were extremely reluctant to engage in any military confrontation with Israel, yet in order to survive they needed to project to their populations and to the exiled Palestinians in their countries some kind of reaction to Israel's aggressive policies and continuous acts of harassment. In other words, the Arab threat was an Israeli-invented myth which for internal and inter-Arab reasons the Arab regimes could not completely deny, though they constantly feared Israeli preparations for a new war.

[...]

The Israeli political/military establishment aimed at pushing the Arab states into military confrontations which the Israeli leaders were invariably certain of winning. The goal of these confrontations was to modify the balance of power in the region radically, transforming the Zionist state into the major power in the Middle East.

[...]

The use of terror and aggression to provoke or create the appearance of an Arab threat to Israel's existence was summed up by the then "number two" of the Zionist state's hierarchy:

"I have been meditating on the long chain of false incidents and hostilities we have invented, and on the many clashes we have provoked which cost us so much blood, and on the violations of the law by our men-all of which brought grave disasters and determined the whole course of events and contributed to the security crisis".

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM

However, the prevailing popular belief runs contrary to the truth. We are told by our politicians, our teachers, our newspapers and our history books that Israel has been forced into protecting its national security from acts of unprovoked Arab aggression. This is a lie that has been fabricated for more than half a century.

The majority of the information I am basing this Op/Ed on comes from a book by Livia Rokach on the personal diaries of Israel's Second Prime Minister; Moshe Sharett

Sharett became Prime Minister following the retirement of Ben-Gurion. Considered to be a moderate, he advocated diplomacy with neighbouring states, but was quickly displaced again by Ben-Gurion.

Moshe Sharett served as Foreign Minister (1956), and then became the Chairman of the Jewish Agency until 1960.

Moshe Sharett Wiki

The Personal Diary, which Moshe Sharett wrote from October 1953 to November 1956 covers the last years of his political activity as Israel's first foreign minister, including the two years in which he replaced Ben Gurion as the prime minister. It then extends over the first fifteen months of the tormented inactivity following his political demise. Moshe Sharett stopped writing his diary in the middle of a phrase on November 29, 1957. His last notes identify one of his previous collaborators, considered a close personal and political friend, as one of the conspirators against him. The Diary, a 2,400 page document in eight volumes, contains the daily notes and aide-memoires in which Sharett recorded current events: personal, family, and party happenings, as well as national and international meetings of prime importance, conversations with his wife or other members of the family alongside administrative questions regarding his ministry and comments on cabinet meetings. The intimate nature of the Diary, together with the exceptionally authoritative position of its author, constitutes a rare guarantee of credibility. Unlike other memoirs which have come out of Israel in recent years, and which were written for publication, Sharett's Diary hardly can be suspected of distortion, self glorification or subjectively polemic intentions. It is not surprising at all, therefore, that Sharett's son and his family were subjected to immense pressures to refrain from publication, or at least to submit the document to Labor Party censorship. Sharett's son Ya'acov finally decided to publish the complete writings.

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM

It is important to note that the publication of Sharett's diary was almost suppressed by his family. The contents of the diary calls into serious doubt the intentions of Israel's government. Not only does the diary prove that Israel's founding fathers lied to the international community but it clearly defines the logic contained in the Zionist government's actions.

I highly recommend ATSNN members research his diaries and I cannot stress enough that this Op/Ed is merely an entrée, and by no means pretends to be a full synopsis of Israel's pretexts for war.


1948 Arab-Israeli War

Other versions or approaches to the facts have more often than not been ignored. For example, recent disclosures by Nahum Goldmann (Le Monde Diplomatique, August 1979) have gone practically unnoticed. Goldmann, who for more than thirty years headed the pro-Zionist World .Jewish Congress, charges that the Arabs were not consulted about the partition of Palestine in 1947, and further that their willingness to negotiate a political compromise that might have prevented the 1948 war was vetoed and undermined by Ben Gurion before May 1948.

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM

The first war Israel ever faced, which Israel calls "The Independence War" could of been avoided. According to Ben Gurion and the Zionists, the war was a necessity. Without a war the fledgling state of Israel would of been hand-tied and confined to the relatively small tract of land granted to them by the UN. If the World perceived Israel to be suffering unprovoked attacks from its Arab neighbours, Israel would be free to acquire neighbouring land all under the auspices of safeguarding Israel from Arab aggression.

To ensure a climate free from the "moral brakes" that surround peace time the actions of the Israeli army had to be intentionally inflammatory towards the Palestinians and Arabs at large. The following is an excerpt from an Israeli soldiers account of Israeli occupation of a Palestinian village (it contains graphic content):

Killed between 80 to 100 Arabs, women and children. To kill the children they fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one house without corpses. The men and women of the villages were pushed into houses without food or water. Then the saboteurs came to dynamite the houses. One commander ordered a soldier to bring two women into a house he was about to blow up. . . . Another soldier prided himself upon having raped an Arab woman before shooting her to death. Another Arab woman with her newborn baby was made to clean the place for a couple of days, and then they shot her and the baby. Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered "good guys". . . became base murderers, and this not in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination. The fewer the Arabs who remain, the better.

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM


1956 Suez War

In discussing the backgrounds of the 1956 war, Nadav Safran of Harvard University, in a work that is fairer than most, explains that Nasser "seemed bent on mobilizing Egypt's military resources and leading the Arab countries in an assault on Israel." The Israeli raid in Gaza in February 1955 was "retaliation" for the hanging of Israeli saboteurs in Egypt-it was only six years later, Safran claims, that it became known that they were indeed Israeli agents. The immediate background for the conflict is described in terms of fedayeen terror raids and Israeli retaliation. The terror organized by Egyptian intelligence "contributed significantly to Israel's decision to go to war in 1956 and was the principal reason for its refusal to evacuate the Gaza Strip" (Israel- The Embattled Ally, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978).

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM

Israeli secret agents carrying out sabotage operations on Egyptian soil was an act of war, an act of war initiated by Israel. When Egypt found these saboteurs they hung them. Israel then used the hangings as a pretext to attack Egypt, along with Britain and France.


1967 Six Day War

The occupation by Israel of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 has been described, and is still widely understood today, as an Israeli defensive action in the face of Arab threats. Sharett's Diary offers unequivocable evidence that the occupation of Gaza and also of the West Bank was part of Israel's plans since the early fifties. American Zionist leaders were informed about these plans in 1954, In 1955, Jewish and Arab lives were sacrificed in a series of provocative attacks undertaken to create a pretext for the occupation of Jordanian territory. The chief obstacle postponing this occupation was Britain's residual presence in Jordan upholding the Hashemite throne.

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM

The Israelis cited a build up of Egyptian and Syrian troops on their borders with Israel as why a pre-emptive strike was necessary. However, the Sharett diaries show that Israel had plans as early as the 50's to instigate a war whereby Israel could claim the Sinai and Gaza from Egypt, the Golan from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan.


1970 War of Attrition

Following unsuccessful diplomatic efforts from all sides and Israel's failure to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 242 which demanded Israel return the Sinai peninsula to Egypt, Egypt launched an offensive to retake its land.

The first shots of the War of Attrition were fired by Egypt when they began shelling Israeli forces on the Eastern bank of the Suez canal. Israel's response to this was to completely destroy Egypt's main electricity supply with helicopter dropped commandos. The Israeli attack plunged Egypt into months of black outs.

What Sharett tells us now is that a major war against Egypt aimed at the territorial conquest of Gaza and the Sinai was on the Israeli leadership's agenda at least as early as the autumn of 1953, almost a year before Nasser ousted Neguib and consolidated his leadership. It was agreed then that the international conditions for such a war would mature within a period of about three years. The Israeli military attack on Gaza in February 1955 was consciously undertaken as a preliminary act of war. A couple of months later a government decision to commence a war to conquer the Gaza Strip met with the strenuous opposition of the foreign minister, whose political liquidation was thereupon decided by the supporters of the war policy, headed by Ben Gurion. Had the prospect of the tripartite aggression not appeared on the horizon in later months, Israel would have gone on to attack Egypt according to its own plans, and, moreover, with U.S. consent.

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM


1973 Yom Kippur War

With Israel still retaining control of the Sinai peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights, the Yom Kippur War resulted. Israel's occupation of Egyptian and Syrian land was unacceptable to both countries and inevitably sparked the war.

Retention of this desert peninsula was solely intended to fuel further conflict with Egypt and the wider Arab community. The long standing Israeli doctrine of baiting the Arabs as a cassus belli for expansion still remained on track.

Ben Zvi raised as usual some inspired questions ... such as do we have a chance to occupy the Sinai and how wonderful it would be if the Egyptians started an offensive which we could defeat and follow with an invasion of that desert. He was very disappointed when I told him that the Egyptians show no tendency to facilitate us in this occupation task through a provocative challenge on their side. (11 October 1953, 27)

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM

Following the UN ceasefire that ended the Yom Kippur war Israel gained recognition from Egypt and further divided the Arab world.


1982 Lebanon War

With Egypt now neutralized by the Israeli/Egyptian peace treaty which they signed to regain the Sinai, Israel was now free to implement its long-standing plan of expanding Israel northwards to capture Lebanese water supplies. Following Israel's invasion of Southern Lebanon, the Israelis took control of the Litani river from Lebanon.

The 1982 "operation," as well as its predecessor, the "Litani Operation" of 1978, were part of the long-standing Zionist strategy for Lebanon and Palestine, which this transition of the Sharett diary illuminates. In fact,that strategy, formulated and applied during the 1950s, had been envisaged at least four decades earlier, and attempts to implement it are still being carried out three decades later. On November 6, 1918, a committee of British mandate officials and Zionist leaders put forth a suggested northern boundary for a Jewish Palestine "from the North Litani River up to Banias." In the following year, at the Paris peace conference, the Zionist movement proposed boundaries that would have included the Lebanese district of Bint Jubayl and all the territories up to the Litani River. The proposal emphasized the "vital importance of controlling all water resources up to their sources."

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM

According to Sharett's diaries, Israeli plans for Lebanon included capturing the Southern Lebanese water supplies for Israel and for instigating a Lebanese civil war. Israel would back a Christian faction of the Lebanese civil war and facilitate them to create a "free Lebanon" under Christian control with which Israel could ally itself with.

Israel helped fund and arm the Christian militia of Major Sa'd Haddad who fought against the Lebanese government.

But the Zionist proxy "mini-state," which was set up in a border strip six miles wide and sixty miles long, was repudiated by the world community. A United Nations force, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), was mandated to help re-establish the authority of the central Lebanese government in the South. Israel, however, defied the relevant United Nations resolution (which was supported even by the Carter administration) and persisted in its support of Haddad. After a March 1981 agreement by the Syrian and Lebanese presidents to reassert - in cooperation with UNIFIL - the authority of the Beirut government in the South, Israel and Haddad's militia bombarded a UNIFIL position, killing three Nigerian soldiers (March 16, 1981).

ISRAEL'S SACRED TERRORISM

Israel was ordered out of Southern Lebanon by the UN to which their response was to attack UN troops. None of this gels with the prevailing notion of Israel as the embattled survivor of repeated Arab aggression and attempts to destroy their state. To put it quite simply, it has been the goal of Israeli leaders ever since the creation of Israel to foster a climate of conflict with their Arab neighbours and to paint them as aggressors.

Our media and politicians either have succumb to these falsehoods or they are scared into not questioning them. But don't take my word for it, please read the article I quoted in this Op/Ed. It is truly shocking to read the words of an Israeli Prime Minister describing what the Arabs have long maintained: Israel is, and always will be, the aggressor.

Fantastic post Subs, you have my WayAboveVote for this one.

It is nice to see someone bother to dig deep into the issue, to find the route of the problem and than move the 'blame' onto the 'true' parties involved in it all.

The only way to help solve the Middle East Crisis is to allow for the truth to come through to the west.

Excellent man, glad to see this undeniable evidence being posted. Unfortunately subz you will quickly be labeled a biggot, racist anti-semite in a few hours and will be forced to endure harsh critisicm.

It is difficult to see any future where Israel may truly want peace with its neighbors, especially when it is always backed by the U.S. Perhaps later generations of Israelis that grow tired of corruption will rise up in hopes for peace. I pray that they do.

More Bread for sopping up that anti-Israel Gravy?

To be quite frank, I find it near-frustrating, if not ironic, how many people seem to have their biases confirmed by anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, the self-hating Jew, Noam Chomsky's writings, and then to treat his writings as though they were a definitive source for that very reason. The same holds true for the likes of Livia Rokach and the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc. [AAUG Press].

The problem here is that no matter the amount of credible sourcing used, the information is stained with an unequaled, biased, anti-Israel slant, as is this OP/ED and it's intended goal and/or aim. A mish-mash of selected quotes and pulled out of historical context half-facts to weave and/or paint a portrait that would only subjectively suit one particular perspective, which incidentally, does not create or present anything remotely and objectively credible to the other half of the spectrum. Objectivity is where, exactly? In self-interpretation?

A slant and a bias are simply just that, no matter who the story teller is.







seekerof

[edit on 10-11-2005 by Seekerof]

Oh come on Seekerof.

How is Chomsky 'Anti-Jewish'?
How is he a 'self-hating jew'?

As a self-professed college/university student, Odium, let legitimate and unbiased research be your guide?
They do still require that on the higher academic plains of learning?





seekerof

[edit on 10-11-2005 by Seekerof]

Originally posted by Seekerof
As a self-professed college/university student, Odium, let legitimate and unbiased research be your guide?

Everything is biased. Every book is from one persons view point. Every Op/Ed is from one persons view point.

I was always told to gather up as much evidence as I could and from their form my own opinion. That is what I try to do...

Originally posted by Seekerof
They do still require that on the higher academic plains of learning?

seekerof

[edit on 10-11-2005 by Seekerof]

whatever they require, it seems as though I do a good enough job there.

Not willing to answer the questions I asked of you?

How is he a self-hating Jew? Last I checked, Zionism was a political ideology and not something you have to agree with to be Jewish.

Originally posted by Seekerof

They do still require that on the higher academic plains of learning?

seekerof

[edit on 10-11-2005 by Seekerof]

And even academic PLANES im sure, as well.

However, leaving grammar out of the context of this OP/ED, Subz I think you've done a great job as far as a start into research of causes behind the current state of affairs of Israel versus the Arab world (or so it seems).
My advice, if i were asked to give it, would be perhaps to delve further into this research perhaps with the formation of the Haganah (the now IDF) and the Irgun; how some very interesting people were early members of the former (ie., Ariel Sharon, Moshe Dayan, and believe it or not even Dr. Ruth Westheimer); their relationships with the British (i should point out typically negative relationships); a clandestine organization in the early years Special Night Service; and perhaps with a profile of David Ben-Gurion himself.
Seems to me that anyone having been deported from a country (namely Palestine) at any point in their lives, might well hold animosity toward that country whether it be spoken or not, and perhaps fuel aggression.

Thanks Odium, Dypes,

What Seeker is saying is that we should use slanted and biased sources that paint the opposite picture, i.e. Israel is constantly the victim. Thats showing true research techniques! Believe the crap from one side over the slanted, biased, untruths from everyone else! Why? "Because" damnit!

I noticed how you seized upon Noam Chomsky Seeker, you might notice I didnt even quote him and that the only link to my Op/Ed is that he wrote the foreword to the article. Not entirely something to base a critique of my Op/Ed on. Also are you going to tell me that Moshe Sharett is also a self-hating Jew and a fervent anti-Zionist?

[edit on 10/11/05 by subz]

Subz,

The Suez affair you mentioned was known as the Lavon Affair. The Lavon Affair involved a secret Isreali unit known as Unit 131 which conducted a false flag operation in Egypt by bombing US and British targets to generate an anti-Nasser sentiment

Originally posted by subz

I highly recommend ATSNN members research his diaries

I higly recommend YOU read Moshe Sharetts diaries – ( the book is more than 2.400 pages in hebrew, and we do not have vowels!) - as far as I know it is translated into english language.

Sit down and read it, subz. Afterwards, you know the reason why nobody in Israel wanted to publish Liviah Rokachs worthless work of disinformation and propaganda........but of course, today you can find her version on sources like the Zuendel-site or the so called 'palestine-encyclopedia'-site .....
You should think about that.

Livia Rokach was the daughter of Israel Rokach, Minister of the Interior in the government of Moshe Sharett. She moved to Rome, indentifying herself not as a Jew, but as of “Palestinian origin“ and has been found dead in a hotel room in n the 1980s.

However, her 63-pages small book has been published then by the by the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (some other titles they published are: "Israel’s Global Role: Weapons for Repression", "Politics of Liquidation: The Reagan Administration", “U.S. Strategy in the Gulf: Intervention Against Liberation"....just to show the intention of this true “true Israel and U.S. lovers“)


Once again, there are those who seek to rewrite history, but the facts are clear.

I already wrote a quick summary of some of the major events leading up to the Six-Day War (providing 3 different sources in that single post)

But maybe you are more intersted in an pure arabic information?

Ok, here we go.......

let’s see the official Jordan government's account of the problems that led to the war




Seems as if the Hashemites in Jordan never read Rokachs 63-pages small book?!?

.

[edit on 10-11-2005 by Riwka]

Originally posted by FredT
Subz,

The Suez affair you mentioned was known as the Lavon Affair. The Lavon Affair involved a secret Isreali unit known as Unit 131 which conducted a false flag operation in Egypt by bombing US and British targets to generate an anti-Nasser sentiment

Thanks for that FredT

Riwka, you're all bluster im afraid. You mentioned nothing to refute what I wrote. For too long people have taken Israel's word for granted and with the same token accepted Israel's demand that we ignore what the Arabs were saying. Those days are over as far as I am concerned. The white washing ends now!

The name is Seekerof, subz

And as 'a' typical, what you have continued to present as fact is not consistant with objective research, subz.

Does the fear of legitimate and objective research pose such a threat to your preconceived notions of what you believe to be truth? "White washing" may well end where it began, with your sources and the questions that they raise within themselves, not about what they are saying, but the reasoning behind why they are saying what they are. Be assured, it has nothing to do with your self-proclaimed end to "white washing". Bet. A spade is a spade, no matter the guise it may fall under, subz.

Deny ignorance fits into this scheme of objectiveness of research on your part where, exactly?






seekerof

With all due respect Seekerof,

Objectiveness doesnt really need to play a large part in an opinion editorial.

Originally posted by Seekerof
The name is Seekerof, subz

Wow, are you really that offended by this article? I'll remember never to contract your nickname in such a friendly manner again

Originally posted by Seekerof
And as 'a' typical, what you have continued to present as fact is not consistant with objective research, subz.

Dont assume to know what I've researched or what I know, you have no idea and your baseless assumptions are unwelcome Seekerof.

Originally posted by Seekerof
Does the fear of legitimate and objective research pose such a threat to your preconceived notions of what you believe to be truth? "White washing" may well end where it began, with your sources and the questions that they raise within themselves, not about what they are saying, but the reasoning behind why they are saying what they are. Be assured, it has nothing to do with your self-proclaimed end to "white washing". Bet. A spade is a spade, no matter the guise it may fall under, subz.

Deny ignorance fits into this scheme of objectiveness of research on your part where, exactly?

I suppose you're denying ignorance with your sterling contributions to this thread. A contribution that has amounted to nothing more than wordy swipes at my integrity, knowledge and research capability. I must say though I am not surprised that, in the face of concrete testimony from Sharett, that the counter argument to my Opinion/Editorial would consist purely on personal attacks on the writer. *sigh*

Originally posted by subz
. For too long people have taken Israel's word for granted and with the same token accepted Israel's demand that we ignore what the Arabs were saying.

Interesting - That is funny.

You provided one so called 'study' on an Israelis diaries -

I provided the official Jordanian government site. (www.kinghussein.gov.jo...)

And your answer is... one should not ignore "what the Arabs were saying" ?


[edit on 11-11-2005 by Riwka]

Originally posted by Riwka
Interesting - That is funny.

You provided one so called 'study' on an Israelis diaries -

I provided the official Jordanian government site. (www.kinghussein.gov.jo...)

I really have no idea why you quoted that source as it does your cause absolutely no good. Have a read of what you quoted:

"Israel launched a major attack"
"rounding up villagers and destroying their houses"
"allowed Israel to launch a surprise attack"
"In response to the Israeli attack"

So your glorious country launched attacks that they had already planned in the 50's and destroyed villagers houses. Yeah I can see the defensive nature of those actions. Are you deliberately bolstering my argument or are you completely out of your mind?

Originally posted by Riwka
And your answer is... one should not ignore "what the Arabs were saying" ?

Quite, you should probably try reading what they say rather than assuming they back up your Zionist standpoint.

Originally posted by subz

I really have no idea why you quoted that source.

Because I thought the official Joradanian governmet site - an arabic voice - a clear proof that the Arab World provocated the Six-Day-War - would be of interest.

hmmm...BTW...Did you research official Egypt sources?

Originally posted by Riwka
Because I thought the official Joradanian governmet site - an arabic voice - a clear proof that the Arab World provocated the Six-Day-War - would be of interest.

hmmm...BTW...Did you research official Egypt sources?

Why were the fedayeen raiding Israel, Riwka? For the fun of it? Or does it have something to do with Israel confiscating Palestinian's homes and carrying out ethnic cleansing. Also seizing land that was'nt part of the UN agreement?

Originally posted by subz

Why were the fedayeen raiding Israel, Riwka? For the fun of it?

Once again,





[edit on 11-11-2005 by Riwka]