Book Review: Ten Myths about Israel," by: Ilan Pappe
The “ten myths” mentioned by Ilan Pappe include:
- Palestine was an empty land
- The Jews were a people without a land
- Zionism is Judaism
- Zionism is not colonialism
- The Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland in 1948
- The June 1967 war was a war of ‘No Choice.’
- Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East
- The Oslo Mythologies
- The Gaza Mythologies
- The two-state solution is the only way forward
In "Ten Myths about Israel," Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian, examines the contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel. The Middle East remains a subject of increasing examination and debate, with the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians seeming to be receding. In 2018, Israel's ruling Likud Party unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for the annexation of West Bank settlements, marking the latest step by Likud to distance itself from the internationally backed idea of establishing an independent Palestinian state as part of a future peace agreement.
On the 50th Anniversary of Israel's Occupation
Pappe's book, written on the 50th anniversary of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, examines the most contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel. He explores the claim that Palestine was an empty land at the time of the Balfour Declaration, the formation of Zionism, whether the Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland in 1948, and whether June 1967 was a war of "no choice."
Historical disinformation, even of the most recent past, can-do tremendous harm to the Palestinians' moral right to the land. Pappe challenges these myths, which appear in the public domain as indisputable truths, and argues that they are distortions and fabrications that can be refuted through a closer examination of the historical record.
The First Myth
The first myth confronted is the Zionist claim that Palestine was an empty land, with a consensus among scholars that it was the Romans who gave the land the name "Palestine." The Ottoman period began in 1517 and lasted 400 years, with a predominantly Sunni Muslim and rural society.
The Jewish population in Palestine before the rise of Zionism is unknown, but it likely ranged from 2 to 5 per cent. According to Ottoman records, a total population of 462,465 resided in 1878 in what is today Israel/Palestine. Of this number, 87% were Muslim, 10% Christian, and 3.5% Jewish. Official Israeli sources would view Palestine as mainly Jewish, with commercial life concentrated in Jewish communities. However, many Israeli scholars have challenged this false narrative, showing that Palestine was a thriving Arab society over the centuries.
At the end of the 19th century, Palestine had a sizeable population, with only a small percentage being Jewish. Those Jews who lived in Palestine at this time were opposed to the ideas promoted by Zionism. Instead, Palestine was part of a rich and fertile eastern Mediterranean world that underwent processes of modernization and nationalization. Its colonization by the Zionist movement turned this process into a disaster for the majority of the native people living there.
The second myth
The second myth considered is that the Jews were a people without a land. Shlomo Sand's "The Invention of the Jewish People" shows that the Christian world adopted the idea of the Jews as a nation that must one day return to the holy land. Theological upheavals of the Reformation produced a clear association between the idea of the end of the millennium and the conversion of the Jews and their return to Palestine.
Zionism was a Christian project of colonization before it became a Jewish one, with a powerful theological and imperial movement emerging that put the return of the Jews to Palestine at the heart of a strategic plan to take over Palestine and turn it into a Christian entity. Lord Shaftesbury, a leading politician and reformer, campaigned actively for a Jewish homeland in Palestine in the 19th century.
There has been much speculation about whether the Jews who settled in Palestine as Zionists were really the descendants of the Jews who had been exiled 2,000 years ago. Arthur Koestler's theory that the Jewish settlers were descended from the Khazars, a Turkish nation of the Caucasus, has been debated by Israeli scientists.
Israel's claim to represent all Jews is not the historical accuracy of those claims, but rather the state of Israel's insistence that everything it does is for their sake and on their behalf.
The Zionist movement, which sought to convert Jews into a nation belonging to Palestine, was initially a minority opinion among Jews. It was born out of two impulses among Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe: a search for safety within a society that refused to integrate Jews as equals and a wish to emulate other new national movements in Europe at the time.
The early Zionists put forward two new ideas: the redefinition of Judaism as a national movement and the need to colonize Palestine. These ideas became more popular after a brutal wave of pogroms in Russia in 1881, which transformed them into a political program propagated by a movement called "The Lovers of Zion," who sent a few enthusiastic young Jews to build the first new colonies in Palestine in 1882. This first phase of Zionism culminated with the works and actions of Theodor Herzl, a journalist and an atheist with no connection to Jewish religious life.
While these ideas gained some support in countries such as Russia, prominent rabbis and leading figures in those communities rejected the new approach. Religious leaders dismissed Zionism as a form of secularization and modernization, while secular Jews feared that the new ideas would raise questions about the Jews' loyalty to their own nation-states and thus increase anti-Semitism.
Reform Judaism rejected the Zionist idea and proclaimed that Judaism was a religion of universal values, not a nationality. Later, it reconciled itself to the Zionist idea. The older Reform philosophy has been kept alive by the American Council for Judaism, which reminded the world that Zionism was still a minority view among Jews and remained loyal to the old Reformist notions about Zionism.
In 1885, another Reform group declared that they considered themselves no longer a nation but a religious community, and they did not expect a return to Palestine or sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron. In 1897, the Bund, a socialist Jewish movement in Russia, believed that a socialist revolution would be a far better solution to the problems of Jews in Europe than Zionism. Orthodox Jews also criticized Zionism, viewing it as meddling with God's will to retain the Jews in exile until the coming of the Messiah.
Ethnic Cleansing
Pappe's book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" debunks the myth that Zionism is not colonialism, arguing that the land of Palestine was not empty when the first Zionist settlers arrived in 1882. The Zionist leaders were aware of this fact even before the first Jewish settlers arrived, and their leaders told them that the locals were not natives and had no rights to the land. Pappe argues that Zionism was a settler colonial movement, similar to the movements of Europeans who had colonized the two Americas, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
Pappe argues that Palestinian resistance was initially motivated by hate for Jews, but the diaries of early Zionists reveal how settlers were well-received by the Palestinians, offering shelter and teaching them how to cultivate the land. By 1945, Zionism had attracted over half a million settlers to a country with a population of about 2 million. The settlers' only way of expanding their hold on the land and ensuring an exclusive demographic majority was to remove the natives from their homeland.
The Israeli government has long promoted the idea that the Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland in 1948, either through agreement or by force. However, more recently, Zionist historians have accepted that their heroes, the leaders of the Zionist movement, seriously contemplated transferring the Palestinians. David Ben-Gurion, in 1937, told the Zionist assembly that it would be impossible to settle without transferring the Arab fellahin.
In his book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," Pappe examines the development of a master plan for the massive expulsion on the Palestinians. The Israeli government maintains the claim that Palestinians became refugees because their leaders told them to leave, but Pappe argues that this is a myth created by the Israeli foreign ministry. Israel's master plan, Plan D, included clear references to the methods to be employed in the process of cleansing the population, such as destruction of villages, search and control operations, and expulsion outside the borders of the state.
Pappe argues that the Israeli actions in the Palestinian countryside are a war crime, committed by the leadership of the Zionist movement, which became the government of Israel. Ethnic cleansing is an indictment with far-reaching political, legal, and moral obligations. The author points out that not all Jews in Israel have absorbed all these lessons, and those who are not are currently a small minority, but one which makes its presence felt.
The Only Democracy
Other myths confronted by the author include the June 1967 War being a war of 'No Choice,' "Israel Is The Only Democracy In The Middle East," "The Oslo Mythologies," "The Gaza Mythologies," and "The Two-States Solution Is The Only Way Forward." Pappe believes that the takeover of the West Bank was a Zionist aim even before 1948, fitting the logic of the Zionist project as a whole. After the occupation, the new ruler confined the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an impossible limbo: they were neither refugees nor citizens—they were inmates of a huge prison in which they have no civil and human rights and no impact on their future.
Pappe points to Israel's claim to be the only "democracy" in the Middle East, but even before 1967, Palestinians lived under military rule based on draconian British Mandatory emergency regulations that denied any basic human or civil rights. Local military governors were the absolute rulers of the lives of these citizens, and only in the late 1950s did a strong Jewish opposition to these abuses emerge, which eventually eased the pressure on the Palestinian citizens.
The state of "military terror"
The state of "military terror" under which Palestinians lived is exemplified by the Kafr Qasim massacre in October 1956, when the Israeli army killed 49 Palestinian citizens.
Israel's Law of Return grants automatic citizenship to every Jew worldwide, but it is criticized for its undemocratic nature and rejection of the Palestinian right of return. Palestinian municipalities have received far less funding than their Jewish counterparts since 1948, with more than 90% of the land owned by the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Landowners are not allowed to engage in transactions with non-Jewish citizens, and public land is prioritized for national projects, leading to new Jewish settlements being built while there are hardly any new Palestinian settlements.
Amnesty International documents the nature of the occupation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where Israeli forces committed unlawful killings of Palestinian civilians, including children, and detained thousands of Palestinians who protested against or opposed Israel's continuing military occupation. Torture and other ill-treatment remained rife and were committed with impunity. The authorities continued to promote illegal settlements in the West Bank and severely restricted Palestinians' freedom of movement.
Oslo Fakes
The Oslo Accord, signed on September 13, 1993, was not a fair and equal pursuit of peace, but a compromise agreed to by a defeated, colonized people. As a result, the Palestinians were forced to seek solutions that went against their interests and endangered their very existence. The debates concerning the 'two-state solution' offered in Oslo should be seen for what it is: partition under a different wording.
In the original Accords, an Israeli promise that the three issues that trouble the Palestinians most—the fate of Jerusalem, the refugees, and the Jewish settlements—would be negotiated when the interim period of five years came to a successful end was stalled by the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, followed by the victory of Likud, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996. Netanyahu opposed the Oslo Accords, and the process came to a halt.
Pappe believes that the declaration that "The two-state solution is the only way forward" is another myth, as it is based on the idea that a Jewish state is the best solution for the Jewish problem. This notion is also close to the hearts of anti-Semitism, as Israel insists that what it does, in the name of Judaism, is the same.
What will happen as Israel abandons the two-state solution remains a subject of much speculation. It is important for the world, particularly Jews, to understand what has occurred in Palestine in historical terms.
Israel, a nation in the Middle East, faces a dilemma in resolving the conflict between its colonized people and the Jewish people.
Pappe's book argues that a just solution to the issue requires addressing the mythologies that perpetuate the conflict. He argues that the Jewish people have homelands, and the Palestinian state is not a viable option.
However, since Pappe's book was published, Israel has moved away from a two-state solution, with the Likud Party's central committee approving the annexation of West Bank settlements in 2018. Prime Minister Netanyahu no longer speaks of a Palestinian state, and the idea of a Palestinian state is rejected by Israel's current government. Pappe's book is a crucial first step towards a more hopeful future.
Israel faces the worst 4 options in Gaza
A report by "American Times" magazine stated that Israel's declared goal is to eliminate Hamas as an armed group and political force in the Gaza Strip. He pointed to the opinions of experts who say that Israeli officials are not thinking strategically enough about long-term plans for Gaza while they study what is expected to be a costly ground attack in the Strip.
Michael Milstein, a professor of Palestinian affairs at Reichman University in Israel, commented, “We are calling for the collapse of the Hamas regime, but these are just slogans. As Israelis, we really need to dig deeper and understand what the implications of this step are.”
The magazine identified 4 possible options for Israel towards Gaza, based on conversations with experts who say each of them has its own challenges. “They're all bad, and there's no good alternative,” Milstein says.
The first option: Israel does not launch a ground attack
Because it will lead to more deaths for both sides. The Israeli army will face a type of urban warfare that it has not witnessed in 9 years since the last ground invasion in 2014, which lasted 50 days and claimed the lives of 72 Israelis and 2,251 Palestinians. This time, the presence of about 220 hostages may complicate matters further.
“The hostages will likely be dispersed,” says Alex Plitsas of the Atlantic Council think tank. “Given the lack of medical evacuation support or the ability to easily insert rapid reaction forces to support those working on the ground, it will be difficult to conduct simultaneous covert hostage rescue missions in multiple locations across Gaza.” .
The second option: reoccupying Gaza
In this scenario, Israel may reoccupy the Gaza Strip and become responsible for governing the Palestinian territories.
Milstein says this scenario would be among the worst possible options for Israel. US President Joe Biden also warned in a previous interview that “it would be a mistake” for Israel to reoccupy the region, exposing Israeli forces to violent resistance.
Option Three: Eliminate Hamas and leave Gaza
In this scenario, Israel would seek to destroy Hamas, but would refrain from getting involved in the messy business of governing Gaza.
Milstein warns that in this case the Strip could easily descend into further chaos and violent conflict as different groups compete to fill the power vacuum created by Hamas's absence.
He says, "It may seem like the new regime that America tried to establish in Iraq after the fall of the Baath regime in 2003."
Fourth option: Bringing a new player to rule Gaza
In this case, Israel may seek to search for other local factions inside Gaza and try to enter into a partnership with them to create a new ruling party.
“This could mean tribal leaders, NGOs, mayors, or even senior figures in Fatah, the political movement that controls the Palestinian Authority,” Milstein says.
