It is nice to know that you people know enough about your history not to disagree and dispute the quotes as spoken by Israeli leaders and officials confirming the horrendous accounts of Israeli looting and pillaging that took place as the Palestinians were stripped of their goods and valuable and refused the universal right of return. Indeed it was a dark and embarrassing period in the history of Israel but I trust that these disenfranchised Palestinians, many of whom still live in refugee camps because of the establishment of the modern state of Israel, will be compensated in the near future under a final peace treaty which will result in the foundation of the independent state of Palestine.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3917911,00.html

Firstly, Shimon is absolutely correct in his assertion we are not ethnically, Arabs. I will not contended that mingling of populations did not occur, but not to the extent you would have everyone believe. Intermarriage was not an uncommon practise and the Jews tended to keep to their own communities. As per speaking Arabic, that's not entirely true. Many spoke judeo-arabic, ladino, spanish, italian, berber dialects, and other languages. To portray Mizrahim as uniform clump is misleading, and especially when you pretend it was "Arab" culture the Jews assimilated into. Arabs conquored many nations, and we all know that the Arabs adopted foreign cultural norms as well. Your claim is as naive as saying Hellinism when it conquored the east remained the same. Actually hellinism easternized and became a mix of Greek values and eastern ones. The same applies for this "Arab" culture you refer to you that you seem to believe the Jews adopted. Relationships are never truly one way. You made a comment to someone about how could the Jews both be simultaneous rich and live squalor? I can answer that one. Many did live in poverty, but there were some who were successful. As I said in my first post, sometimes times were good, somtimes they were bad. As per your claims of looting, and so forth in the start of the state, it is not as one-sided as you frame it. You're confusing cause and effect. Arabs weren't as innocent as you'd love to portray it. There were back and forth raids. As per Haifa, it has a HUGE Arab population, so don't distort relaity. ANyone whose been there or lived there can attest to that. Do two wrongs make a right? An eye for an eye is part of our religion.

Thanks for the reply. Your comments however show a fundamental lack of understanding of the Middle East. Jews, Kurds, Armenians, Turks etc all live in many Arab countries and have done for hundreds of years. These groups are not Arabs and never had been. Clearly you have never spoken to a Jew in an Arab country! I love the Arabic language and the food etc. I am not an Arab I am a Jew. Where are all these Jews in Arab countries. Aden Libya, Saudia , Jordan etc are all ethnically cleansed of Jews. Bagdad was once 25% Jewish it now has less than 10 Jews. You are imagining! BTW in this situation two wrongs have made a right and there will be two states for two peoples .

…and planes ‘em badly! It’s been an informative few days, Matty, logging on and reading your dialogue here, especially with the unsigned poster - I hope you don’t stop replying to that nameless individual. It’s been a bit of a laugh, too, reading some of the Ynut comments here… Ms. Basinger at #53, the teacher from Fairport who suspects you may have been one of her difficult students! Dear, oh, dear! Or the poster at #44 pretending to be a Palestinian and trying to write bad “engleze”! Hahaha. And the angry, noisy post at #51 with “WHY” followed by, hang on... ten question marks! Great stuff! Informative, and amusing, too. Keep it up, everyone!

#1PETER Hebron is the Jew's second holiest city-a place where Jews have resided for centuries and whose residence there has only been broken by massacres and the ethnic cleansing.,by the British,after the last massacre.The troops are there to protect the Jewish community .Who should the Jews depend upon to defend them?Who defended them in Europe during the thirties and forties.?.who rounded them up and delivered them to the Nazies in Holland?We defend ourselves now.

The vast majority of Arabs in 48 that did not flee are in fact still in their houses in Israel. If ever you are in Israel go to Haifa, Jaffa, Ramle, Akko or any other town knock on an Arabs door and ask how come he is in the house and why his neighbour ran. You will get an interesting reply. Indeed I do not expect you to believe anything I say so I refer you to the Mukhtar (village chief) of Dir Yassin's account of what happened. He reported that the lies spreas of women and children being massacred causes fear and pandemonium amongst the Pleastiniand who ran in fear thus aiding the Zionists. This is true read the Palestinian accounts

While the term ‘Arab Jews’ may sound like a contradiction in terms it is in fact quite accurate. The one and only commonality that unites *all* ‘Jews’ in a collective identity is the belief in Judaism, on the other hand the term ‘Arab’ does not denote a singular commonality to a singular religion. With this in mind it is quite reasonable to use such terms as ‘Arab Jews’ just as it is to use terms such as ‘Arab Christian’ and ‘Arab Muslim’. Likewise you can use the terms ‘Persian Jews’ or ‘Kurdish Jews’. It is a simple formula: ethnic/cultural group + sub-religious group. While you may argue that “we are not ethnically, Arabs” I would argue otherwise on the following points: 1) Collectively ‘Jews’ are nowadays a genetically diverse collection of people. 2) ‘Religious identity’ is only one part of a panethnicity, other factors would include: linguistics, cultural/social memes, genealogical make up, political beliefs, geographical location, etc. 3) Any individual/group of people who spend enough time in a given culture can be identified by that specific culture regardless how much they try to ‘isolate themselves’ eg: American Mormons. In short ethnocentrism, particularly nowadays, is always in flux. Such terms as ‘English Muslim’, ‘Chinese Jew’ and ‘Russian Christian’ are all acceptable. It is purely a matter of terminology, you say ‘Mizrahim’ I say ‘Arab Jew’. I agree and like I said ethnocentrism is always in flux. After rereading I will concede this point, I mistakenly read this as saying that ‘a large percentage of the original Arab population remained in Haifa/Jaffa after 1947’, which is of course untrue, you are quite correct to say that Haifa currently has a large Arab population. Alas this is a large part of the problem, adherence to beliefs which date from more primitive times is a prime cause for the inability of certain cultures to recognize the fact that we are all from the same stock and well all look the same when we are pushing up daisies.

The Arabs launched a war of destruction against the Jews in 48. They lost there was an equal poulation transfer of Arabs who left homes and Jews who were expelled. It's over. Just as the Germans lost their war of agression and many left cities they had been in for hundreds of Years. Do you think Germans should return to Breslau, Konigsberg, Stettin, Siberia, the Volga or Danzig? I guess your blind support of the 'Palestinians' is because of your opinions of Jews not due to any common sense at all. The Germans will never return to Breslau, Danzig atc. and your friends the Palestinians will remain in Jordan etc for ever. This is how it goes. Two wrongs in this case have made a right. We are quits

Hello/peace Matty, Is not so simple. English is not so good to forgive. Israel not steal from us nothing.We dont have nothing in 1948 naqba.We die less & more kid to be born from us in good health arab army tell us to go. we dont have nothing with us when we go to egypt & transjordan only clothes & paks (packets?). we run because Arab army come. Jews let let us stay in Palestine not kill us. Jews take nothing from us. nothing. we have nothing to have. what you tell death march ? no. you know nothing what happened there. Friend you muct teach (learn) history for yourself then say stupid things. Taibe. ( an Arab village in the triangle-Israel)

Salaam, Matty. It’s not as simple as you make out. [My English is not so good, so please forgive me.] Israel stole nothing from the Arabs living in Palestine because in 1948 we had nothing to steal - nothing at all. Since 1948 Jews have helped us prosper, we live longer, have more children, have better health. We fled our homes when the Arab army invaded Israel. The Arab army told us to leave because they wanted to kill the Jews. We had nothing with us when we fled to Egypt and Tran Jordan, only our clothes in suitcases. Then they put us in refugee camps and used us as pawns against Israel. The Jews let us stay in Palestine, and did not kill us. The Jews did not steal from us - we had nothing to steal! What do you mean by “death march”? No. You know nothing about what happened. Mate, you need to learn some history so you don’t say stupid things.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Thanks for the translation Birdi I didn’t realize it was a comedy piece. Its quite funny really, just shows that Ynuts have a sense of humor.

Thanks for the translation it is quite humorous. With all these claims that the Palestinians had “noting in 1948 naqba” you’d have to wonder where Sidney Zabludoff got the figure of $4 billion (in 2007 dollars) which was his estimate of what the Palestinians losses were as a direct result of the Nakba.

You are welcome Matty, now you owe me !!

Oh come on Matty, of course you know who penned post # 43. I sure do. (know)

To peter from amst - No, the soldiers are there to protect about 500 Jewish illegal settlers. In Hebron the soldiers are also supposed to escort Palestinian children to school - to protect THEM from the settlers. Most of the time they don't show up (the soldiers) so international peace keepers must escort the children. Just thought you should know.