to make the slaughter easier and faster but also to take control

Submitted by sara (United States), Jul 27, 2009 at 19:34

Vladimir,

Although it may not make sense to you or I, the mindset at the time was that of a vast Arab army coming in and taking over the land in a victorious bloodbath of the Jews. Therefore they wanted the arabs out of the way so they could carry out their 'mission' more efficiently. It is a mentality akin to the big macho thug saying to the damsel, step out of the way, I'll take care of this for you. Typical grandstanding (think of Saddam Hussein with his mother of all battles threats as he was fleeing Bagdhad)

Unfortunately, they had a serious failure of imagination to contend with when the ragtag Jewish fighters outsmarted, outfought, outlasted and outflanked the 5 mighty armies and they fled. The nascent govt repeatedly offered the local arabs to stay, those who had not been so foolish as to leave when instructed, and they are the Israeli arabs of today, people with more rights and political voice than any in the dictatorship arab countries surrounding tiny Israel.

I would also assume that the attacking arab countries would then fight over their spoils, take control of the territories won, and then be in the power position of dictating terms to those arabs returning to homes after the war. So it was a seemingly shrewd political maneuver to get ahold of the area control and take over the local communities.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".