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by Peter A. Belmont / 2009-01-22
© 2009 Peter Belmont
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See the brass plaque in the sidewalk on the south side of E. 60th Street, Manhattan, just east of the “R” subway station on 5th Avenue.
Plaque (see picture below) says: “1945 - 1948
This building sheltered the clandestine mission of the “Haganah”, Israel’s pre-state defense forces, which labored unceasingly for Israel’s independence and survival.”
Note the assumption (or pretense) that Israel already existed in 1945-1948 so that Haganah was not waging a (terrorist) aggression to steal the land of Palestine but merely seeking survival for an already existing entity (as it indeed was—in Zionist imagination) and its survival (threatened by—what? the British whom the Zionists expelled before expelling the Palestinian Arabs?).
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Please don’t be shocked. Or ‘shocked, shocked’. New York City celebrates a group of terrorists with a big brass plaque in the sidewalk on E. 60th Street. That is (to follow the US’s definition of terrorism), it celebrates and memorializes an armed non-state group which uses (or at the time used) illegal violence to bring about a political result.
Of course, the city does not celebrate all terrorists. This is New York City, after all, whose mayors regularly travel to Israel to show their qualifications to rule this city. And whose current mayor felt impelled to travel to Israel during Israel’s recent destruction of Gaza. You were wondering which terrrorists were memorialized, were’nt you. This is a hint.
Perhaps Miami has a brass plaque to celebrate anti-Castro terrorism. Each city makes its peace with terrorism in its on way. In New York City, we celebrate Israeli (or Jewish) terrorism.
And, of course, all of America celebrates the founding fathers who, from a purely British viewpoint of the time, were probably terrorists. (We’re all friends now!)
The E. 60th Street plaque celebrates the fund-raising center of the Hagana, Israel’s pre-state military, a group which took part in Menachem Begin’s massacre of the villagers of Deir Yassin in April 1948, before the State of Israel was officially created. The Haganah leaders admitted that the massacre “disgraced the cause of Jewish fighters and dishonored Jewish arms and the Jewish flag.” They played down the fact that their militia had reinforced the terrorists’ attack, even though they did not participate in the barbarism and looting during the subsequent “mopping up” operations.
They also played down the fact that, in Begin’s words, “Deir Yassin was captured with the knowledge of the Haganah and with the approval of its commander” as a part of its “plan for establishing an airfield.”
Ben Gurion even sent an apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But this horrific act served the future State of Israel well. According to Begin:
Arabs throughout the country, induced to believe wild tales of “Irgun butchery,” were seized with limitless panic and started to flee for their lives. This mass flight soon developed into a maddened, uncontrollable stampede. The political and economic significance of this development can hardly be overestimated. See here.
For more about the Zionist threat in 1948, and more about Deir Yassin, see the letter by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and many others, denouncing Begin’s party.It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.
Attack on Arab Village
A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants ? 240men, women, and children - and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed,
It’s really quite something, isn’t it, to contemplate that there are some things even the mighty USA, the world’s sole superpower (to hear the zealots crow), cannot do. Things even Israel cannot do.
Neither the USA nor Israel can manage to engage in terrorism. Because (as we define it) terrorism is a non-state activity. We and Israel can make war, but we simply cannot engage in terrorism.
Good to know.
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