Fateful Triangle

Israel and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds296a man who murdered several dozen Arab civilians under guard in anundefended Lebanese village during the land-clearing operations ofOctober 1948; he was immediately amnestied after receiving a sevenyearprison sentence, then granted a second amnesty which “denies thepunishment and the charge as well” and later granted a lawyer’s licenceby the Israeli Legal Council on the grounds that his act carried “nostigma.” 205As noted earlier, the self-defense forces based in the labor movement(the Haganah) also engaged in terrorist violence, though to a morelimited extent than the outright terrorist groups—against Arabs, and alsoagainst dissident Jews, including a religious Jew organizing among thelargely anti-Zionist native Jewish inhabitants of Palestine who wasassassinated by two Haganah agents “as he left the small synagogue inthe ‘Shaarey Tsedek’ hospital” in June 1924. The official history of theHaganah describes this “special activity” matter-of-factly, justifying theorder “to remove the traitor from the land of the living” on the groundsof the “pathological character” of his anti-Zionist activities (furthermore,he was alleged to be a homosexual, the history reports). As one proof ofthe inveterate evil of the Palestinians, or perhaps all Arabs, David Pryce-Jones, the New Republic specialist on this topic, cites the fact that KingAbdullah of Jordan “was killed while leaving Friday prayers in theMosque of Omar in Jerusalem.” So different from the Zionists, with theirfabled “purity of arms” and “sublime” moral sensibilities, much laudedin this journal. 206The record is long and bloody, as in the case of most nationalistmovements; in the single month of July 1938, for example, the Irgunkilled 76 Arabs with bombs in market places and the like. 207 The officialhistory of the Irgun makes little pretense that these actions wereretaliatory, as is often alleged, referring proudly, for example, to themurder of 27 Arabs to prevent celebration over the British White PaperClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky