Avi Shlaim on "New Historians", "Cruel Zionism", and the "Genocide in Gaza"

The "New Historians" and Revisionist Israeli History

• 💡 The "New Historians" or "revisionist Israeli historians" challenged the traditional Zionist narrative of Israel's founding and the 1948 war.
• 🔑 Key figures like Benny Morris, Ilan Pappé, and Avi Shlaim used Israeli documents to debunk myths surrounding the birth of Israel and the Palestinian refugee crisis.
• 🎯 Benny Morris's work demonstrated that Israel was largely responsible for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, contradicting the narrative that they left voluntarily.
• 💥 Ilan Pappé's research suggested that Britain worked behind the scenes to prevent the birth of a Palestinian state, rather than a Jewish one.
• 🤝 Avi Shlaim's research challenged the idea of a monolithic Arab coalition against Israel in 1948, revealing collusion between Zionist movements and King Abdullah of Transjordan to partition Palestine.

The "Dual Exodus Theory" and Arab Jews

• 🧐 The "dual exodus theory" posits that Palestinians fled Israel and 850,000 Jews were driven out of Arab lands due to antisemitism, creating an equal population exchange.
• 📚 Shlaim's research on his own experience as an Arab Jew indicates that the Zionist movement, not endemic antisemitism, was responsible for the exodus of Jews from Arab lands.
• 💣 Evidence suggests the Mossad may have been behind bombings in Jewish premises in Iraq to precipitate an exodus to Israel, a controversial claim termed "cruel Zionism."

British Colonialism and the Zionist Project

• 🌍 The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is framed as having been "made in Britain," originating with the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
• ⚖️ The declaration granted national rights to Jews, who were 10% of the population and owned 2% of the land, while denying rights to the Arab majority.
• 🚩 Britain's support enabled the Zionist movement's systematic takeover of Palestine, a process that continues today with Israel controlling all of historic Palestine.
• ✊ The British army brutally suppressed the 1936 Arab revolt, and the mandate ensured no democracy until Jews became a majority, achieved through ethnic cleansing.
• 🔗 The war in Gaza is presented as a direct result of the Balfour Declaration and the ongoing support from Western imperial powers like Britain and America, who are seen as active partners in war crimes.