To: tejek who wrote (155657 ) 12/4/2002 9:03:45 AM From: hmaly Read Replies (1) | Respond to Ted Re..Because two different entities made the same proposal does not mean it was a fair one. First, the Partition Plan was pushed onto the UN by the British at the last minute. Why would the UN start to make changes at that point? Secondly, there were considerable politics that went into that plan. The Zionists had better control of those politics than the Palestinians and actively participated in the crafting of the Plan. You make it sound like the British were accountable to a higher authority. To the contrary, they were the higher authority. They had the mandate to do what they wanted. To single out one year is to not get the full picture. The concept of ethnic cleansing was a major topic of conversation among the Zionists well before 1947. However, they really did not put their plan into effect until 1948. When Israeli statehood looked imminent, the neighboring Arab countries told the Palestinians to flee Palestine since the Arabs anticipated attacking and defeating the fledgling state of Israel. The Palestinians complied. As you suggested earlier, it looked like Israel would be easy pickings. The neighboring nations and the Palestinians were sadly mistaken. Israel turned out to have far more firepower than the surrounding nations. The Arabs were handily defeated. Clearly, the Palestinians sided with the wrong people but really, they did not have much choice in the matter.
