Fateful Triangle

Israel and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds187investigation of the refugee flight, W. W. Harris estimates that of a prewarpopulation of about 1.4 million, approximately 430,000 left theirhomes from June to December 1967 (most of them in June), withconsiderable variation among regions (over 90% of the 100,000 peoplein the Golan Heights fled, but less than 20% of the 400,000 residentsof the Gaza Strip, with other local variations). High population losses insome areas resulted from “a legacy of assorted fears,” for example, inthe vicinity of Qibya, where Israeli forces commanded by Ariel Sharonhad conducted a major massacre in 1953 (see chapter 6, section 6.3).Israeli hawks on occasion threaten a new expulsion if the Arabs do notmind their manners, as when Defense Minister Sharon warns that “thePalestinians should not forget 1948.” “The hint is clear,” AmnonKapeliouk comments, citing Sharon’s statement. 22In the U.S., it is commonly argued that the annexation of the WestBank by Jordan was illegitimate. The argument has merit, but then it isdifficult to see why it does not apply with equal force to Israel’s annexationof half of the designated Palestinian state—though this question is,in fact, academic, and has been since 1949. The argument alsooverlooks the fact that Israel and Jordan were acting in accord with asecret agreement to partition Palestine in 1947-8, both of themregarding the Palestinian leadership as a primary enemy. Yoram Periobserves that Ben-Gurion’s “tacit understanding with King Abdullah ofTransjordan, which allowed the latter to move into the territories west ofthe River Jordan, which had been allotted by the 1947 UN PartitionPlan to the Arab Palestinian state,…was not revealed either to theCabinet nor to the military command,” leading to internal conflict whenthe Southern Commander, Yigal Allon, was prevented from launching anexpedition into the West Bank by Ben-Gurion in October 1948. It hasbeen argued further that the entry of the Arab states into the war was inpart motivated by opposition to the ambitions of King Abdullah andClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky