You may be interested in my answer to a friend:

You are asking me if Bennie Morris’s criticism of Israel’s success in the war of Independence is valid.

I do not believe most of what I read unless the source is:
1: Well known and reliable,
2. It is corroborated with info from other, independent sources,
3. It makes common sense to me based on my own experience.
I study issues by looking, over time, at many diverse sources, not the unique view of an individual.

I have known for some years that Benny Morris is anti Israeli and works for years to discredit the facts of the 48 war.
My brother Dr. Pinhas Ginossar was a historian of the period at the same university for a long time and edited a serious and highly respected yearly publication on the very issue- Israel independence: IYUNIM BITKUMAT ISRAEL-- Studies in Zionism, the Yisuv and the State of Israel. My brother reviewed also materials we do not have access to- Pinhas told me to disregard most if not all that Morris has been saying.

I was there during the war and so were most of my friends; we were in the right age to fight and die, and they told me many of their experiences.

The facts are:
The majority of Palestinians escaped because: First, their leaders told them to leave because they would destroy Israel, drive us to the sea quickly and then they could return and take our empty homes. I saw their propaganda against us. It reminded me of the Nazi propaganda, you must see it to realize their attitude.
Also, some Palestinians knew that if they caught us they would murder us, and therefore believed that we would do the same to them. They ran in fear. But the Israeli’s rarely killed innocent people. In a few places we encouraged them to leave, and I am glad we did. During the war you look to secure your positions and do not have the leisure of being magnanimous.

You also have to be realistic about war and your country.
Almost all countries that gained freedom in the 20th Century gained their freedom by force, by might, by fighting. So did Israel. Don't start feeling guilty about it.

Israel is without a doubt a legally internationally recognized country. The Arabs disregard this reality.
We won our country by our wars against the British and the Arabs.
Land is held by those who have the dedication and strength to win the wars.
Israel won it several times from Arab attackers. It is ours and any discussion trivialized the 23 thousands Israeli dead the Arabs murdered during the different wars they imposed on us.

I do not care what the Arabs are saying about their rights, like they do not care how much proofs we can submit to them about our rights.
The one with strength wins. And that is the way life is for thousands of years.

Kol Tuv.

Matania

I recently returned from Israel to be with my family there after my brother passed away in Jerusalem. He was one of the initial member of the Lechi underground who fought the British Government to liberate Israel.

He lived a difficult life hiding most of the time, both from the British and most Israelis too like the other memebers of Lechi. The British arrested him and sent him to African detention camps. When he returned to a liberated Israel Pinhas served as an officer in the Israeli Army.

With much energy and dedication my brother Dr. Pinhas Ginossar increased markedly the literary knowledge about the struggle for the creation of Israel.
He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Ben-Gurion Research Center in Sede Boker and Editor of Iyunim Bitkumat Israel; Studies in Zionism and the creation of Israel.

He was a Mentch, and I am very proud of him and the way he conducted his life.

The Jerusalem edition of Yediot Achronot had a four page spread about Pinhas interesting life.

Matania

Once again, Palestinian terrorists, their hatred carefully nurtured by their leaders, savagely murder innocent Jews in a religious school in Jerusalem.

This follows on the news that the usual bunch of suspects (Christian Aid, Amnesty, Cafod, etc) have blamed Israel for the sufferings of the inhabitants of Gaza. They fail to condemn those really responsible - Hamas - and even call on Israel to engage with that rabid organisation.

Just to put their claims that the Palestinians are suffering terribly - one might think more than anyone else in the whole wide world has ever suffered since time began - here is an interesting article from the admirable Sandmonkey.

In other words, Palestinians are about in the mid-average range for
third-world countries, and rank almost the same as Mexico (the USA's
bordering country and trade ally) on the poverty index. Interesting.

For some perspective

Human Poverty Index (HPI-1) 2004
Palestinians have a better time than:

Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia

Probability of not surviving past age 40(%)2004
Palestinians have a better time than:

Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia

Adult illiteracy rate (%ages 15 and older)2004
Palestinians have a better time than:

Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia

People without access to an improved water source (%) 2004
Palestinians have a better time than:

Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia

Children underweight for age (% ages 0-5) 2004
Palestinians have a better time than:

Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Africa and most of South Africa, Central America and Asia

Zionists! *shakes fist in the air*

I just wrote this letter to the editor of our regional newspaper in response to their article on Palestinian civilian casualties.

What will we do if San Diego is attacked almost daily, for years, by rockets from Mexico?
Obviously we will use all the military power we need to stop them and not wait so long as the Israelis have been mistakenly doing.

One of the main goals of all terrorists, Hamas included, is to kill as many civilians as they can, both their own brothers and their enemies. Hamas, like Hizbullah did in Lebanon, shoots it rockets from civilian population centers to slow Israelis response.

This merciless approach to their own civilians is used by all Arab terrorists. We see it daily also in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Israelis have been sacrificing their own civilian and soldier lives to reduce Palestinian civilian casualties. Israel can demolish Hamas forces easily from the air alone, but it does not do so because it is against the Israeli mentality to kill innocent people.
But there is a time when response is mandatory.

No country can allow its civilians to be killed, communities to be attacked, and not respond. In the Middle East, lack of significant response leads to escalation of terrorism.

Matania

Palestinian Christians live in constant fear according to this rare article about their plight in Gaza. And no, it's not fear of the Israelis.

Here with an item from last week's news that you might not have heard about: Unidentified gunmen blew up the YMCA library in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning. While no one was hurt, two guards were temporarily kidnapped while the offices were looted, a vehicle stolen and all 8,000 books destroyed. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Fatah accused Hamas of being behind it. Hamas, for its part, strongly denied any responsibility and condemned the attack. Meanwhile, confidential sources in Gaza told the Jerusalem Post that the attack was in response to the reprinting of the Muhammad cartoons in Danish newspapers last week.

The supposed motivation for the attack, and the fact that it was not big news, illustrates the dire situation faced by many Christians living in the Palestinian territories.

So where are all the protests by Church leaders, Christian Aid, Caritas, Christian Peacemakers, etc? Admittedly, they might hear little about this problem, because of absence of freedom of the press in Gaza, and control of information for propaganda purposes by Hamas. But surely they have some awareness of it - could it be that they don't really care?

Even if the reporters came, what would they be told? It is well known that Christian Palestinians who have been subject to firebombings, seizures of homes and businesses, assaults and death threats still tell foreign visitors that they have excellent relations with their Muslim neighbours. After the foreigners go home, these Christians must remain, and are loath to give any reason for jihadist extremists to think that they are stirring up trouble.

Occasionally, though, the truth is told in articles like this one, but they make little impact. The usual protesters about the defence barrier and the inconvenience it causes to Palestinians (mostly Muslim) in the West Bank, seem to take little notice. Which is why some of us suspect that prejudice underlies their behaviour. They seem so willing to condemn the Jewish state for any problems it might cause its largely Muslim neighbours, and unwilling to speak up for fellow Christians suffering oppression by those same Muslims. As for the Christian Arabs, apparently largely abandoned by Christian organisations which seem to take little interest in their plight:

It is an awful way to live. It is more awful still that so few know, or care about it.