From: hm@cs.brown.edu (Harry Mamaysky)
Subject: Re: Deir Yassin
In-Reply-To: rj3s@Virginia.EDU's message of Mon, 26 Apr 1993 23:43:31 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Brown University
Lines: 35

In article <1993Apr26.234331.7303@Virginia.EDU> rj3s@Virginia.EDU ("Get thee to a nunnery.....") writes:

   This is such Bullshit.  Deir Yassin was an unprovoked attack on
   the part of the Jews, and a massacre defines it best in my
   opinion.  The village of Deir Yassin had had a pact with the
   Jews, a peace pact, but the Irgun purposely broke this
   agreement in order to scare off the Palestinians.  I might
   grant that this village housed armed Arabs [I doubt it] but
   nothing in the archives and available literature indicates that
   this was a motivating force amongst the Irgun.  The Deir Yassin
   MASSACRE was part of an over all strategy to intimidate the
   Palestinians to flee the Jewish Homeland.,...and contrary to
   your belief, many civilians were killed.  Deir Yassin was later
   advertized by the very Jews who perpetrated it because it was
   useful in getting many Palestinians to leave.  The Palestinians
   were rightfully scared off, because they did not want another
   Deir Yassin.  
	   I'm not necessarily condemning the Israelites here;
   atrocities were aslo committed on the part of the Arabs.
   Israelophiles should just be careful in thinking that they are
   and were the good guys in the middle east.  Both Arab and Jew
   suck equally.

rj3s, you say that there is no evidence that what motivated the Irgun
to attack Dir Yassin was its strategic importance. In fact, Begin,
who was in charge of the Irgun, wrote that Dir Yassin was attacked for
its military significance.

Dir Yassin was merely a battle in the War of Liberation. People died.
But the thing was never intended to be a masacre. That this hapenned
is a tragedy of war - not a crime of the Irgun.

Harry.