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Would anyone out there like to have a chat on Zoom?  It is now the end of November, 2023 and I just passed 50,000 total downloads so I am thinking I should do something to honor that event.  What beter thing than to talk to those of you who helped make that number possible.  And I almost never get feedback from you so I really don't know who you are. 

We could talk about whatever you want.  The War in Gaza, American Politics, Politics in your country, podcasts that you particularly liked, or didn't. Questions that you have, your favorite book, how your life is going, or how your cat is doing. 

You get to set the agenda. 

How about 2:00 Eastern Standard Time on Saturday December 2.  That will be the evening for anyone in Europe or morning for anyone on the West Coast.  For those of you in Asia or the Pacific, you may have to scramble a bit but you are very welcome if you can make it. 

Please send me an email at  my university account:  [email protected].  I will send you a link later this week.  

I hope to see you. 

[email protected]

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What happened after the armistice in January of 1949?  

Of course, the major consequence was the Palestinian refugees.  Thinking only of what we consider the internationally recognized boundaries of Israel, probably 80% or more of all the Palestinians inside of that area  on January 1, 1948 were gone by December 31, 1948.  This is the real “catastrophe,” or nakhba,  as the Palestinians call it.  The Israelis were insistent that none of these refugees would be allowed to return.  

I am very sorry I can’t deliver an hour-long talk on the refugee situation.  I am just not sure how to make it work.  Still, I have tried to incorporate key points into this talk and into the previous talk on the Palestine War of 1948.  And again, I invite you to go to Deep Blue (see that previous podcast if you are unclear) where I have posted my briefing document on The Palestinian Refugees of 1948.  As of April, 2021 this document has nearly 13,000 downloads from around the world.  It is a very thorough summary of the data on the refugees, of the recent research on the topic, of the personal stories of what happened, and of the argumentation.  For those interested in this subject, it is a valuable source.  

If you would like to read a short novel consider Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar.  The author was a noted literary figure (Yizhar Smilansky) who concealed his true identity so he could tell what happened when his unit took control of a Palestinian village in 1948.  It was translated into English in  2008.  It shocked many Israelis to realize that a person of such literary stature had experienced these things.  

I mentioned the mayor of El Bireh, a Palestinian town just 10 miles north of Jerusalem.  His name was Abdul Jawad Saleh.  I met him in Amman in 1987.  He was one of the most respected of the Palestinian leaders and was later put in charge of the PLO  treasury because everyone trusted him.    He told me that one evening he had a knock at the door and two soldiers told him the governor wanted to talk to him.  This was not unusual so he went without resistance.  But they took him to the Jordan border (I think in the southern desert) and pushed him into Jordan.  They then announced on the radio that he had been expelled.  The Jordanians rushed units into the area to find him before he died of thirst.  I met him in his apartment.  His daughter was visiting and his grandson.  He was the person who made the map of the dead cities and villages of Palestine.   I asked him why they had expelled him (which is a violation of international law, by the way). He said they never tell you why they are expelling you or detaining you  but he thought it had to do with the fact that the city was erecting a “mother statue.”  It depicts a mother lifting her child  to reach for a goal. It is obviously a metaphor for the Palestinian situation.  He thought it was just too symbolically powerful for the Israelis.  

When the archives were opened by Menachem Begin in the late 1970s,  Israeli scholars plunged in.  By the late 1980s, they produced a new wave of histories that went beyond wartime hero narratives but relied heavily upon primary source materials: diaries and journals and memos.  They were called the New Historians.  Their research exploded myths about how the Palestinians had fled of their own will, for example or that the military maintained a “purity of arms.”  Ilan Pappe and Avi Shlaim and Simcha Flappan were three of these.  Tom Segev’s book, The First Israelis, focusing upon 1949, after the fighting was over, brings surprising new perspectives to the issues.  These historians are hated by those on the Israeli right. 

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It has occurred to me that there is great interest in the background to the current conflict.  Here is a discussion of the Palestinian Refugees of 1948.

This is an extremely important topic surrounded by false narratives and inflammatory rhetoric.  I have put off preparing a podcast for some time, but not because it is sensitive.  I deal with quite a few sensitive topics.  It goes with the territory.  But in this case, a reason for my hesitation is that I have a written briefing document that is the basis of this podcast.  It is very thorough and is fully available to anyone through Deep Blue.  (See the separate podcast on how to access Deep Blue).  It has the same title as this podcast.  But I have thought for some time that transferring that written document to a podcast would be a good thing.  My hesitation is that I will be reading and improvising from a printed text into the spoken word.  I am worried about jumps and stops and stumbles along the way.  I hope those who listen to this will find it useful. It will certainly introduce some information that is new to most of you. And if you also want to download the document from Deep Blue that is good given that it has additional information in it. 

 https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/110670

Note that there are previous podcasts on The Palestine War of 1948, and The Palestinians After 1948.

Some People in order of being mentioned:  Menachem Begin, Simha Flappan, Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim, Tom Segev, Joseph Weitz, Herbert Hoover, David Ben-Gurion, Abba Eban, Samuel Katz, Meir Pa-el, Mordechai Ra’anan, Yigael Allon, Yitzhak Rabin, Gold Meir, Abu Iyad, Aharon Cizling, Moshe Sharrett, Nahum Goldman, Walid Khalidi. 

Some terms, places, organizations  in order of being mentioned: The Partition Plan of 1947 (181), Haganah, Irgun, Stern Gang, Plan D/Plan Dalet, Peel Commission of 1937, Deir Yassin, Haifa/Jaffa, Absentee property and the Present Absentees law, “transfer.” 

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This is the second podcast on this war. 

I have posted it a second time because Buzzsprout had technical problems andthe first posting may not have reached everyone. 

It was written November 1. 

It is written in the early stages of the Israeli invasion. 

Much of it has to do with implications and reactions. 

As I post this update on November 5, there are close to 10,000 Palestinian fatalities.  Perhaps 40% of them are children. 

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This was written November 1.  

Much of it deals with the reaction to the war and the implications of the war. 

Note:  There are approximatley 10,000 casualties.  40% are children. 

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On October 7, 2023, the anniversary of the 1973 War, Hamas began a massive missile barrage at key Israeli cities.  Hamas soldiers crashed through the barriers that enclosed Gaza and struck at 22 different Israeli cities.  They also attacked a Music Festival going on just near the Gaza border.  By the time they were driven back, over a thousand Israelis had been killed.  Perhaps a hundred and fifty were taken into Gaza as captives. 

This was the sixth Hamas-Israel combat.  Most had left large numbers of dead Palestinians, many civilians, and few dead Israelis, mostly soldiers.  This was different.  It Was a deep psychological trauma for Israelis.  How did this happen?  Why did our intelligence agencies not anticipate this?  

After two days, I am offering my thoughts on the issues involved.  On an almost hourly basis more information is being revealed so by the time you listen to this it may be dated.  But I have tried to focus on some issues that are more long-term.  I hope you find it of use. 

Thanks for listening. 

Glitch:  The Easter Rising was 1916, not 1915.  (I knew that.  Why did I say 15?) 

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1973 October War, 50th anniversary October 6.  

October 6, 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the 1973 October War.  This war lasted three long weeks and took the great powers (the US and the USSR) to the brink of  nuclear war.  It also cleared the sinuses, so to speak.   Nixon and Kissinger realized that unless there was progress in working out some kind of resolution of the 1967 war, the US was going to get dragged into a major war.  

Let me clarify the term “The Year of Decision.”  My lecture got a bit distracted on that.  In 1972 Sadat spoke to his parliament and said “This is the Year of Decision.”  The Egyptians knew what that meant.  They cheered hysterically.  The Israelis also knew what that meant. They mobilized their reserves and prepared for the attack.  That mobilization cost a lot of money.  But as the joke goes, what if you gave a war and nobody came?  In fact, there was no war in 1972.  Then in 1973, Sadat delivered another speech.  “This is the Year of Decision.”  Again, the Egyptians were hysterical with excitement.  But Golda Meir decided she had been snookered once and would not be snookered a second time.  Alas, for her, this time the war came.  And Israel was not prepared.  This  decision wrecked Golda Meir’s credibility.  She was driven from office and replaced by Yitzhak Rabin (who was elected a second time in 1992).   The Israelis still argue over who was responsible for that decision not to mobilize.  

Let me also note that the Israelis thought it was a bit of dirty pool that the attack came on Yom Kippur Eve when many  Israeli soldiers had been given home leave.  Of course it also came during Ramadan so it was a religious holiday for both sides.  We Americans also remember that George Washington attacked the British at Trenton on Christmas Eve when he knew the British army would be drunk.  As Harvey unwisely said in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, “there are no rules in a knife fight.” Or a war.  

This was a class lecture and there were a few glitches along the way:  paper rattling, the zoom fading.  And also the laptop microphone not as good as the quality one I now hae.  I hope that is not too distracting. 

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Today (September 28) I watched the first hearing of the impeachment investigation (or whatever they are calling it) of Joe Biden.  Not that this podcast  on what the Founders meant by impeachment  will be of much use to the Republican Caucus  Even their three  expert witnesses told them there were no grounds for their investigation.  Unless they just wanted to investigate for the sake of investigation.  Which I suspect is their purpose.  Fox News had two experts  discuss what they had just seen.  They said that this would probably last until next August, and  not turn up anything.  As one noted, this is similar to what they did to Hillary with the Benghazi investigation, which produced absolutely nothing.  But it drove her ratings down, as one person said.  

Back in 2021 I posted my very first podcast.  Ironically, it had to do with impeachment.  That is, what out founders meant by impeachment.  It occurred to me that some of you might be interested in what they were thinking, back in Olden Times. 

This is based on a class briefing lecture. 

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Why I Killed Gandhi  by Nathuram Godse 

Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.  In most movies, the assassin is portrayed as a deranged bearded scary-looking fanatic. (In one, Horst Buchholz played the role.  His character was closer to the real assassin).  Some of those words might well be justified, but we are never told that the assassin was an exceptionally well educated, well-read reformer, someone who hated the caste system and looked forward to a modern India.  His name was Nathuram Godse.  He was tried for Gandhi’s murder and hanged.  He knew from the beginning that he would be executed for his action, but he did it anyway.  He saw himself as a patriot for his people.  

During the year or so that he was waiting for his trial, he wrote a lengthy statement discussing his life and his philosophy and his reasons for what he did.  During his trial, he was allowed to read a shortened version of that longer text.  This is the text I am going to read for you during this podcast. 

I hope you will forgive my bad pronunciation of some of these Indian names.  They are new to me, and all I can do is pronounce them in a phonetic way, phonetic as I understand them.  Below are a few of the names and terms but there were others – for example intellectuals and political leaders – that I did not include.  I suspect if we read their writings we would understand much more than we understand now, but that will have to wait for another time. 

My students considered this a shocking document.  It was not shocking because this person killed Gandhi – we knew that --  but because it was logical.  

Some of you know from another podcast, my Rules of Good Studenting.  In a class where we deal with political movements and ideologies that may offend, two of the most shocking Rules are these:  

“Until you can understand an argument well enough to explain it to the satisfaction of someone who holds that view, and defend it from its critics, you do not understand it well enough to know if you agree or disagree. “  Well, that excludes maybe 90 % of the people who get into arguments.  But my students found it liberating, that they were allowed to understand arguments that offended and terrified them. 

A second Rule is this one:  “If you were there, you would be there.”  Or as I put it to my students, every single thing we will encounter in this class, no matter how shocking or offensive, you would quite possibly do if you were in the condition of the person who did it and had experienced all the things that person had experienced.   Again, that is distressing.  You would kill and even participate in a massacre?   Yes, you would.  And if you think you would not you are not thinking deeply enough.  

I recommend you listen to that podcast:  The Rules of Good Studenting.   Don’t expect to like it.  

My students considered this one of the most disturbing things we read during the whole semester, that the person who assassinated the saintly Gandhi  was a thoughtful intellectual who made sense (even if we disagree with him). 

Some terms

Hindutva --  Hindu nationalist ideology.  Linked to the BJP party of Prime Minister Modi. 

Mahatma (term of respect for Gandhi)

Moghul Empire (Muslim conquerors of India)

Satyagraha:  Gandhi’s philosophy of active, non-violent resistance

Hindi and Hindustani   A “real” language and a bastard language created to mollify Muslims

Mohammed Ali Jinnah – founder of Pakistan

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India

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Falling Man:  A story of September 11

Let me be a Time Traveler and take you back to that terrible day.  

For those of us who remember September 11, the image of the “Falling Man” is iconic.  As the flames engulfed the upper stories of the towers, there were several people who decided they would not wait to be burned alive.  They jumped to their deaths.  Some even held hands with friends as they fell.  One person on the ground was killed when hit by a falling body. 

The noted American novelist Don De Lilio took the theme and used it to write a novel about two people who escaped from the towers and later connected.  

This is my discussion of some of the events of that day, as well as a discussion of  that novel, and some of the memorable lines from it. 

Even if you were not born when that event occurred, you are still a survivor.  We are all survivors.  We will be forever survivors.  We are always falling, eternally falling. 

Note:  The young woman who told about her experience as a child was of Arab heritage. 

Note 2:  I once posted the Pulitzer Prize winning photo of that “falling man” on Facebook.  It was covered up with a warning that it might be upsetting to some viewers so they would have to click on the image to see it.  I thought to myself, this is the most traumatic event in American history and you are covering up the most iconic image with a warning because it might upset people.  Upset is a word that falls far short of how we reacted to that event.

Note 3: I have two other  podcasts on September 11, one focusing on what happened that day, the other focusing upon what happened after the event, including two talks I delivered.  I think you would find both of those worth your time.