Israeli General Son on Three Important Israeli Myths

This video isn't even particularly contraversial or untrue. This is like basic 1980s New History stuff.

If you silence posters like glynch with accusations of anti-semitism because of his pro-BDS stance, you create a space in which the only people who "can" criticize Israel actually are anti-semites or at least guys like George Galloway who have no problem pretending to be one for his political benefit.

There's a flip side to this, which is the same odd standard about saying anything critical about the Muslim population in Europe. Because it's so taboo and anyone is immediately branded an Islamophobe or a bigot for mentioning something like that 70% of France's prison population is Muslim, you surrender the topic to nationalists like Marine Le Pen, who gain in the polls and voting booth.

But back to Israel, both Israelis and Palestinians have their own national myths, and like most national myths, stand on old claims that don't stand up under scrutiny, particularly by academics. The Naqba certainly did happen, and Israeli army in 1948 did in many cases use force to expel people from their homes, but it wasn't an official policy or an organized effort to do so, at least not that anyone can prove.

Considering that this whole topic became new in the 1980s it should have invited more acaemic inquiry, especially by someone who is a native Arabic speaker and would be able to better read old records from that time. This is one of the major criticisms of historians like Benny Morris, who simply ignored a lot of primary sources because he couldn't read them. But because it's still so contraversial that historians are afraid to go into these reasearch areas because you risk being labeled a political subversive and you upset the applcart of not just one, but two national narratives. As we speak, right-wing activists are trying to go after Ben Gurion University for daring to challenge the apsects of the national mythos. I get very upset when zealots go after scientists and historians because they don't like new evidence challenging their own internal narratives.

Anyway, basso, ATW and glynch...keep posting, just try to avoid going ad hominem on each other, because when the thread starts moving that way, I feel less inclined to make an effort to contribute. In this instance, glynch deserves a better response than accusations of being an anti-semite. If you really think the claims made in the video are untrue, please try to find compelling evidence (not old hasbara talking points) to the contrary. And good luck with that. You'll be walking down a rather worn trail full of dead ends.