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Show (24 nightly visitations soon made themselves felt throughout the Arab hinterland. They caused great disturbances and started an exodus from the areas lying near to Jewish districts,"(51) Then came Dair Yassen. Wrote Kimche: "Dir Yassin was one of the few Arab villages whose inhabitants had refused permission for foreign Arab volunteers to use it as a base for operations against the Jewish life-line into Jerusalem; they had on occasions collaborated with the Jewish Agency, On Friday, April 9, 1948, a commando force composed of Irgun and Stern soldiers raided the village. There wa3 no obvious occasion for them to do so. What happened afterwards has been the subject of conflicting versions, explanations and excuses by the terrorists; but nothing they have said has explained, or can explain away, the murder of some 250 innocent Arabs, among them more than a hundred women and children. No less disgusting was the subsequent publicity parade by the Irgun of a number of poor Arab prisoners through the streets of Jerusalem, "The massacre of Dir Yassin was the darkest stain on the Jewish record throughout all the fighting. It is historically important because it was to become the beginning of a second legend with which the terrorists sought to serve their cause and justify their deeds. Just as they had claimed credit for the British decision to leave Palestine as being the results of the terorists* attacks on British troops, so later they justified the massacre of Dir Yassin because it led to the panic flight of the remaining Arabs in the Jewish State area." (52) The evidence that the flight of the Arabs of the Jewish State was the direct outcome of systematic, planned, ruthless terrorization - massacres and atrocities by terrorists gangs, and looting and torture by regular forces - which took place weeks and even months before the Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the lives of the inhabitants of txhe "Arab State", this evidence is overwhelming, and cannot be outweighed by the groundless, unproven, indeed ridiculous, allegation that the Arabs left of their own choice and at the behest of their leaders. Nor did the so-called "moderate" leaders of Zionism show any dissatisfaction with the accomplishments of their forces and their terrorist auxiliaries. On the contrary. Even Dr. Weizmann - he who had realized that the world would judge the Jewish State by what it would do with the Arabs - (53) expressed satisfaction, if not elation, at this development. The first U. S. Ambassador to Israel, a staunch supporter of Zionism, writes: "Dr. Weizmann, despite his ingrained rationalism, spoke to me emotionally of this 'miraculous simplification of Israel's tasks.' " (54) And Ben Gurion wrote: "For decades we collected pennies to buy a scrap of earth. N0w we have millions of dunams to dispose of . . . The unforeseen has happened. • • the Arabs fled the country and it was virtually emptied of its former owners."(55) Neither the President nor the Premier of Israel seen to have found reason to restrain their jubilation over this "miraculous" and "unforeseen" development, nor for its having been accomplished by those very methods of terrorism which the3r had, prior to 1947, professed to dislike and condemns Zionist leadership, always quick to "condemn" extremism and terrorism in public, wa3 also quick to accept and rejoice over the achievements of extremists and terrorists! V |
