The shortest way

From General Sir Horatius Murray Sir: I think there is an aspect of affairs in Palestine in the early part of 1948 that needs to be stated. I was commanding the 1st Division in the southern half of Palestine during 1948, until May when we relinquished the Mandate, and withdrew into Egypt.

Mr Prittie quotes an article in the Economist (October 2, 1948) where an 'eyewitness' gave an account of the mass exodus from Haifa. This exodus undoubtedly took place but the Arabs were halfcrazed with fear, and their only desire was to get across the bay to Acre.

My experience in the south was different. Soon after the massacre of Deir Yasein the Jews commenced a systematic mortar bombardment of Jaffa from the security of Tel Aviv. They continued to do so in spite of repeated warnings. We had no option but to shell Tel Aviv with a battery of 25-pounders, and also deployed a squadron of tanks. This had the desired effect from the purely military point of view, but it followed so closely upon the Deir Yasein massacre that the Arabs came to the conclusion that, when we departed, they would be left naked to their enemy, and decided to go while the opportunity to do so existed. There were a number of other occasions in Southern Palestine where a few mortar bombs would be dropped by night into unsuspecting Arab villages with the same result.

There is little doubt that many Arab leaders outside of Palestine made inflammatory speeches which did not help. Nevertheless, when we pulled out in May of 1948, we were convinced that the mass evacuation by the Arabs of the Palestinian Plain was caused by the effectiveness of a campaign of terror by the Jews, which was too well organised and directed to have happened by chance. The Arabs had no means of defence against this offensive.

Horatius Murray Home Farm House, Madehurst, Arundel, Sussex Sir: Now that he has come out from under his seventeenth century wraps F. R. Mackenzie reveals the sources on which his misinformation and misrepresentation are based. They are worth looking at. However before doing so it should be remembered that in the latter half of 1969 the Arab propaganda machine opened a smear campaign consisting of torture stories in order to damage Israel's image.

First source — Western journalists: a number of journalists reported hearsay evidence of torture, but no Western journalist who had checked the facts has ever corroborated this (see David Pryce Jones in the Sunday Telegraph, December 21, 1969).

Second source — the Red Cross: the condemnation of Israel by the Red Cross was due to some astute lobbying in Geneva by its Arab members as part of their official government smear campaign, and had nothing to do with bona fide reports from actual Red Cross workers in the field.

Third source — Amnesty: the Amnesty report of April 1970 merely repeated a number of these torture stories, and asked for their investigation. It had not checked them, and did not allege that they had taken place. The four people who made the allegations were subsequently offered a safe-conduct to go to Israel to prove their cases. They all refused.

Fourth source — the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights: this is a communist front organisation.

Fifth source — The United Nations Commission on Human Rights: this is composed of the re presentatives of Yugoslavia, Ceylon and Somalia. Yugoslavia and Ceylon do not have diplomatic relation with Israel, and Somalia is technically at war with Israel. Hardly an unbiased commission!

Above all, the flight of the fedayin in July of this year from Jordan to seek refuge in Israel, emphasises in a way that no words can the spurious nature of the whole torture story campaign. So much for torture and the attempt to compare Israel with Greece. Now let us look at the attempt to compare Israel with South Africa. This, a constant theme of Soviet as of Arab propaganda, also will not bear close scrutiny. Arabic is an official language of the State of Israel, and Arab deputies sit in the Israeli parliament. One of these deputies is a deputy minister and has a Jewish wife. One could hardly imagine a Bantu deputy minister with an Afrikaner wife in the South African government! So much for the claim that Israel is an exclusive society.

As for the quotes from Count Bernadotte and others, these merely support the Israeli contention that it was Arab propaganda that caused the refugees to flee. The fact is that Israel is a one man one vote multiparty democracy, and has raised the standard of living of the Arabs of the West Bank above that which existed under Jordanian rule. This is a constant reproach to the Arab states which are nearly all oneparty military dictatorships. Arab propaganda, of which judging from his letter Mr Mackenzie is an avid reader, often purports to quote Jewish and Zionist sources. The assumption is that the reader will have neither the time nor the opportunity to check the source. Should he do so, he would find that the original writer has in ninety per cent of the cases been quoted out of context. An important point that all Arabs and their supporters would do well to remember is that disinformation as a standard policy has served their cause ill. The best illustration of this was during the Six-Day War when Arab boasts of glorious victories were believed by the Russians for the first three days, resulting in Soviet diplomatic inaction. When the Russians finally woke up to the fact they were being lied to, it was too late.

Sidney L. Shipton

46 Brent Street, London NW4

Sir: In your issue of August 21, 1971, Mr Israel Amos produced quotations from two obscure rabbis (Rabbi M. Shneurson and Rabbi Yehuda Oershuni) and a Dr A. Zafroni in order to traduce Israel as some sort of raceconscious society. What should be taken into account however are the serious students of affairs, are the realities of Arab-Jewish relationships in Israel as against isolated comments.

The essential credo of Jewish life right through the ages has been the brotherhood of man. Israel has, in fact, been true to this in every way: certainly in its policy towards the Arabs. Thus it is that visitors to Israel will see Jew and Arab mixing together in complete equality and harmony. All over Israel the enlightened hand of the Israeli 'administration is evident. Every street sign, for example, is written in Arabic as well as Hebrew. In the Knesset there is Arab representation as well as, I might add, an Arab Deputy Speaker. In Arab farming areas, Jewish experts are imparting their technological and agricultural know-how to their fellow Arab citizens. In Arab villages right throughout the country, Jewish( Institutions have established clubs' creches, hospitals, and technical training schools. And in Mr Amos's Jerusalem itself, Arab women, for the first time ever, have been given the chance to vote in municipal elections. All this I would suggest is of greater significance than the minor utterances of minor people.

A quotation by Rabbi Shneurson (whoever he is) was also used by Mr Amos as a means of attacking Israel on the Arab refugee question. And in a previous issue (August 14, 1971) Mr MacKenzie produced quotations from Count Bernadotte, Sir John Glubb and a Mr Nathan Chofshi in order to indict Israel as the party responsible for the flight of the Arab refugees during the wars of 1947-48 and 1967. All this needs proper examination. Some credence might be attached to Rabbi Shneurson's comments (although none at all to Mr Amos's propagandist claims that Rabbi Shneurson is a close friend of the President of Israel and numerous ministers, generals, etc.). No credence however, can be attached to the evidence that Mr MacKenzie puts forward.

For example, Count Bernadotte's report to the UN, when read properly, made no allegations against Israel, but only referred In general terms to the Arab exodus being caused by panic and rumours. The same can be said of the quotation Mr MacKenzie produces from Sir John Glubb's book A Soldier with the Arabs. This made no specific accusations against Israel. As regards Nathan Chofshi, no one has ever heard of this person; but even if he does exist (and it is not unusual for propaganda machines to " create " people) the isolated comments of one person surely do not add up to an indictment. Certainly, the fact that Mr MacKenzie had only the above " evidence " to produce, indicates the shallowness of his claims.

As against all this there is clear, documented and authoritative evidence of some Arab responsibility for the flight (and plight) of the Palestinian Arabs In 1947 and 1948. To give but one example: ' The fact that there are these ref ugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab States in opposing partition and the Jewish State. I he Arab States agreed on this policy unanimously and they must share in its solution.' (Emile Ghoury, Secretary of the Higher Palestine Committee, Lebanese Daily Telegraph, September 6, 1948.) The precise responsibility for the creation of the Arab refugee problem is indeed very hard to gauge. What is undoubtedly true, however, Is that not one single Arab refugee would be in existence today if it had not been for the Arab attempt to settle the Palestine issue by force both in the late 1940s and 1967.

The Arab attitude indeed would appear to be to howl for war and other people's blood, and then to howl again when their plans go wrong. Similarly, Arab sympathisers, such as Mr MacKenzie, take on themselves the right to express the most outrageous opinions on Israel (in the most outrageous language) and then complain when others react in a forceful way.

Morris Gershlich 29 The Drive, Westcliff-on-Sea. Essex