Moshe Sharett Quotes
When the Jewish state is established - it is very possible that the result will be transfer of Arabs.
Sharett, Moshe. Speech to the Jewish Agency Executive, 1937. Quoted in Masalha, Nur. Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948. Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992, p. 70.
David Ben-Gurion was the Zionist leader in Palestine and became the first Israeli Prime Minister. In 1948 the United Nations Partitioned Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. But over a dozen Arab Armies invaded the Jewish area to take it by force. They were repulsed by a much smaller, poorer armed, Zionist population of desperate Jews. In some areas Palestinian Arabs at the request of the outside Arab leaders attacked their Jewish neighbors and where they did or they had helped the Arab armies, the civilian population was ejected. Arab leaders and demagogues told Arab Civilians to go to the West Bank behind the front lines so that the Arab armor could advance unimpeded. They were told that they could return the following week after the victory. When the victory never came, the Israelis would not allow the Arabs to return and this was the origin of the Refugee problem. About the only thing that the Jewish and Arab leadership agreed upon was that the Arab civilian population should leave the front and go to the West Bank.
The Defense Secretary opposed U. S. support for the founding of the state of Israel. See Clemenceau for an earlier expression of oil being a critical factor in foreign policy.
This statement hardened the Israeli population away from anything that would bring Hamas more power. The PLO leader had, for ALL the Palestinian people, recognized the right of Israel to exist {633062}. The Israelis observe that this is a de facto declaration of war, and hence treat Gaza and Hamas as an enemy force to be reckoned with. See {635341} for another alarming reneging of the recognition of Israel.
When the United Nations partitioned Palestine into a Jewish and a Palestinian State the Arab Countries all jointly attacked the fledgling Jewish State of Israel. Despite the Israeli’s being overwhelmingly out numbered in man and weapons, they beat back the invaders. However while many Arabs stayed on their Israeli land and some helped the Jews defend against the Arab Armies some abandoned their homes and land and went to neighboring Arab Counties. This is what they had been asked to do by the Arab governments who wanted to be able to attack communities without worrying about killing Arabs. To spur the evacuation the spread false propaganda about Israeli atrocities and frightened them into leaving. As a motivation to leave they were told that they could move into the Jewish lands and property when the Jews had been driven out. To make matters worse, some Israeli radicals repeated the lies to induce the Arabs to abandon their lands. In at least one case Arabs who stayed were subjected to violence. After the defeat of the Arabs, the Israelis had a dilemma in that they could not tell which Arabs were residents who had just been frightened and which had fought on the Arab side or helped the invaders. The result was that with few exceptions, the Arab refugees were not allowed back. Meanwhile, the Arab countries would not allow the refugees to settle and become citizens of the Arab countries (except for Jordan). The Palestinian refugees were a particularly fertile population and were cared for by the United Nations and have multiplied to many times their original size maintaining a continuous festering problem.
When the United Nations partitioned Palestine into a Jewish and a Palestinian State the Arab Countries all jointly militarily attacked the fledgling Jewish State of Israel. Despite the Israeli’s being overwhelmingly outnumbered they beat back the invaders. However while many Arabs stayed on their Israeli land and some helped the Jews defend against the Arab Armies, some others abandoned their homes and land and went to neighboring Arab Counties. This is what they had been asked to do by the Arab governments who wanted to be able to militarily attack communities without worrying about killing Arabs. To spur the evacuation the Arab leadership spread false propaganda about Israeli atrocities and frightened them into leaving. As a motivation to leave they were told that they could move into the Jewish lands and property when the Jews had been driven out. To make matters worse, some Israeli radicals repeated the lies to induce the Arabs to abandon their lands. In at least one case, Arabs who stayed were subjected to Jewish violence. Each side has since railed about what the other side did at that point in time and each fails to mention how they contributed to the refugee problem.
Mehmet Talaat Pasha. This document is one of the coldest writing in the history of humanity. In modern times, only the German Nazis would exceed this evil in brazen purpose. The Christian Armenians, a minority in Turkey and its lands, were discriminated against like other non Muslim minorities in the Ottoman Empire. But during the Turkish War with Russia and WWI, some Armenians defected and served on the Russian side. Many Turkish citizens took revenge on Armenians by means of murder and torture. Soon, the extermination of the Armenians became the official “Young Turk” government policy. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed outright, and about an equal number were “deported” to special areas. Many died of malnutrition along the forced march of Ethnic Cleansing. Others were murdered as they were deported. No one knows exactly how many Armenians were killed with estimates ranging from ½ million to 4 million. This was the first genocide of the 20th century. Modern Turkish leaders however, are in denial about the Armenian deaths. They claim that there was a war and food was scarce; the only Armenians killed, the claimed were proven Russian agents. They further claim that the Armenian behavior was in large part responsible for the forced deportations because of their lack of patriotism and unwillingness to help the Turkish authorities identify the Russian agents. Most Turks today are unaware of the Armenian Genocide as nothing is taught about the massacres in schools or other institutions. It is against the law in Turkey to even have an intellectual study of the Turkish behavior towards the Armenians, much less publish anything about it.
Most Arabs blamed only the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel and ignored what they did or did not do since 1949.
Moshe Sharett was the second Prime Minister of Israel (1954–55), serving for a little under two years between David Ben-Gurion's two terms. He continued as Foreign Minister (1955–56) in the Mapai government.
