Israel Palestine conflict is perhaps the most enduring high profile conflict of Middle-east of our times. On the face of it, most take it for granted that Palestinian nationalism is the driving force of the Palestinian movement. Prima-facie Palestinian crisis appears as a movement against occupation, freeing of occupied land, and attainment of statehood. Few question it, or ever try to check its veracity. No wonder many in this world believed that the heinous, depraved, inhuman crimes committed by Hamas fighters and many ordinary Gazans on 07th October, 2023 followed by firing of hundreds of rockets from Gaza across Israel was in pursuance of above objective and many even tried to justify them on the above ground.
How things panned out post October 7, 2023
Post October 7, 2023 Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to hunt down and bring to justice all those responsible for the worst carnage in Israeli history. Keeping his promise IDF successfully eliminated the heads of terror organisations like the Hamas & Hezbollah, liquidated almost all top and middle level commanders of their military wings, destroy their elaborate tunnel systems , stockpile of rockets , arms storage etc. Mr Netanyahu also proved wrong the assessments of most military expert by giving a devastating blow to Hamas and Hezbollah and dismantling their terror infrastructure which the experts hand felt impossible. Other Shia militias groups supported by Iran’s Ayatollah regime in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, partner in this conspiracy and conflict against Israel, were also given heavy blows rendering them ineffective. Israeli actions became the major contributing factor for the fall of decades old brutal Basher al Assad regime as well. All of this has changed the power equation completely and re-drawing the map of middle east once again.
A year and a half long intense military campaign saw many ups and downs with high human cost and large-scale destruction. 
Despite being the victim and the one who was under attack from seven sides simultaneously, Israel experienced the highest international pressure ever brought upon it by UN, ICJ, western governments and above all by the Biden Kamala administration in US. All this pressure tried to dilute or deny Israel’s right to response commensurate to what in its own assessment were its security needs. Notwithstanding all pulls and pressures, Israel did succeed in neutralizing the formidable multi-layered ring of fire created around it by Iran in the last 4 decades investing millions of Dollars with the sole aim to destroy Israel.
However, if we keep the many controversial details of the above war, its collateral, its regrettable immense humanitarian cost, 
the regional geopolitics surrounding it, and also try to keep aside the details of the day after arrangements on conclusion of this conflict, one issue that is likely to continue troubling all neutral minds for a long time to come, is the moral dimensions of the conflict.
It may be recalled that most Iranian proxy Islamic jihadi forces in the region had come together post October 7th under the leadership of Iran to launch a simultaneous attack on Israel from seven fronts with a clear intent to destroy it. Israeli retaliation to counter this existential threat was massive and forceful. This conflict has therefore brought to the forefront the pertinent question – which side holds the higher moral ground than the other and whose actions are more condemnable than the other? This is the moral dilemma, that will continue to bother the conscience of all right-thinking people and many obviously seek a credible and logical answer.
Considering above, this article confines itself to this very moral dimension and try to put few records strait to reach a fair and reasonable conclusion, based on facts and figures, without getting carried away by the emotionally charged one sided anti-Israeli media campaign unleashed by vested interests as part of the pro-Palestinian strategies associated with this war.
Recent history of the conflict
It is often said that October 7 did not take place without a context and that it did not all start on October 7. That is true. Therefore, without going too far into history, if we confine ourselves to the modern era, Palestinian conflict, as we see it today, has a 75 years old post WW-II history. 
Unfortunately, circumstances leading to the birth of Israel in 1948 by dividing a narrow stretch of Arab land[1], between the native Palestinian Muslims and the native Palestinian Jewish communities, have been distorted by a deluge of mis-information and deliberate tampering of facts. There is a dangerous trend to misrepresent the events of past in a manner that suits only one ideological narrative. The narratives are designed to whip up emotions for one of world’s most controversial, and so to say privileged refugee group in history.
The above problem is impossible to understand without understanding the irony residing at its core. The most intriguing aspect of this irony is that it does not seek world’s sympathy to rehabilitate displaced Palestinian refugees in peace and dignity which could have been done easily long back. Unfortunately, the extraneous Islamic Jihadi Muslim Brotherhood ideological umbrella under which this movement operates is stubbornly glued to the sinister agenda of destruction of Jewish state in the Islamic heartland.
Beyond the rehabilitation of the displaced Palestinian refugees, which is by all means, a legitimate and achievable objective, problem begins, when the demand for complete destruction of the state of Isreal is insisted upon. The fact that Israel is a sovereign state of 9.2 million people and its destruction would mean genocide of 7.2 million Jews, is ironically and immorally ignored by pro- Palestinians western supporters. What is stated is not a conjecture, opinion or speculation. Though many Arabs , including the Palestinian Authority (PA) have finally conceded the Israel’s right to exist under various bilateral peace treaties, however, in complete negation of above, most Arab signatory states have worked covertly against this spirit. Destruction of the state of Israel still remains the non-compromising ultimate official objective of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran even today.[2] Nothing less than complete destruction of Israel is acceptable to these Islamist Jihadi elements under whose influence Palestinian eco-system operates. Unfortunately, even well informed western supporters of Palestinian cause are completely oblivious of this reality. Most erroneously believe this conflict is about land, occupation, colonization, apartheid and about rehabilitating and giving Palestinians their rightful statehood.
To justify the immoral objective of complete destruction of Israel, a huge cache of literature based of distorted historical facts have been infused in the pro-Palestinian narrative that pollutes the minds of less informed specially the millennials. Millennials are the easiest prey for social media manipulations. Burning example of this is what we see in the pro-Hamas, pro-Palestine, pro-Jihadi Islamic rallies in western universities characterised by donning the keffiyeh and shouting slogans like “River to sea, make Palestine free” and shouts of “Intifada” “Intifada” “Make it Global Intifada”. Youth of west and many other parts of the world, for whom such slogans appear fashionable, have no clue what kind of extreme violence, extreme immorality, and unconscionable genocidal intent such bizarre propositions carry within it. Terms like “Genocide” “Ethnic cleansing” “Occupation” and “Apartheid” are being inappropriately used indiscriminately based on media optics and manipulated perceptions rather than hard facts and hard evidences on ground.
The Perception Manipulation
Last few decades in the western academic circles saw selective amplification of many Pro-Palestinian narratives in West Asian literature and social media. Certain events of this narrative, like ‘NAKBA’ [3] the “Deir Yassin incident”[4] and activities of “Stern Gangs” are exaggerated beyond proportion to use them as the foundational causes of Palestinian displacement and victimhood. These tumultuous events, in which unfortunate violence took place from both sides, had large number of casualties not just one but on both sides. These incidents are reported in minute detail in newspapers & print media of that time. Facts and figures of these events are easily accessible and verifiable in the literature researched and authored by neutral historians till 1960s. Hence, it becomes incumbent upon the neutral observers to look at pro-Palestinian narrative at little more closely and critically without taking everything said by them at their face value.
How the narratives got skewed and inverted
This article explains how facts were twisted to suit the jihadi agenda and how anti-Jew narratives were inserted into the academic literature. Today many antisemitic versions are being propagated in many western universities by the scholars of “West Asia Study Centers” across the world. These study centers were set up in last few decades in world’s leading Ivy League Universities of Europe & America by Gulf countries mostly by Qatar. Lured by easy access to Qatari funds, these universities fell into the trap just as they had inadvertently fallen into the trap of proliferating the “Confucious Study centers” and its many dubious research projects funded by China. [5] Activities of West Asia study centers are alleged to be linked to Qatar, Al-Jazeera and Iran’s academic community. Some analysts also speculated that covert agenda of these agencies had been to subvert the western societies from within . As a result, they today constitute a classic example and a superb case study into the efficacies of the “Grey Zone Warfare” techniques and tactics[6].
Myth created & propagated by pro-Palestine scholars through their worldwide study centers are –
Myth no -1 – Jews are White Europeans who occupied the Arab Land
Over a period, Palestinian scholars have created an impression that all Jews of today’s Israel had migrated from Europe. The fact that nearly a 1.5 million Jews were already living in Palestine and in the adjoining Muslim states as indigenous native Arab Jews in the modern eras and even today 1/3rd of all Israeli citizens are 100 % indigenous , native Arabs , a good part of them native Arab Muslims is deliberately suppressed by the Palestinian scholars to build a false narrative. The 3000 yrs old Biblical connection is dismissed as Dinosaur’s claim to its prehistoric habitation. They insist that in today’s context, Jews are virtual aliens who came from Europe, invaded Palestine, drove the natives out of their homes and occupied their land to colonize it.[7] This Narrative is far from truth and a total distortion of facts on ground.
Hence branding Jews as Europeans, is one of the many popular myths created by pro-Palestinian scholars that misleads the young impressionable Palestinian minds as well as the minds of less informed western supporters who take it for granted to be true without verifying the facts. The fact is that Jews not only have deep connection to the Israeli land for more than 3000 years but even in modern times i.e. in 1948 itself native Jews constituted 32% of the total population of Palestine even before the state of Israel was born.[8]These 32% native Arab Palestinian Jew minority had full right to self-determination and self-rule which the hostile majority Muslim population had the history of denying to their minority for ages. 
There is also a long history of persecution of Jew minority by majority Muslim in this area going back to hundreds of years. Another Fact suppressed by these scholars is that nearly 3.5 million Israelis out of 9.2 million , living in Israel today constituting one third of all bonafied Israeli citizens are pure native Arab jews, Arab Christian, Arab Muslim and Arab Druze . Hence calling Israelis whose 1/3rd population are native Arabs as foreigners and aliens is a gross distortion of fact. Reality is that bulk of European Jew had migrated Israel only after 1948 to a sovereign independent state of Israel , hence it is business of none to question what kind of ethnic composition a free sovereign state chose to have.
To substantiate the above aspects, the Jewish connection to their ancestral land is explained under three time periods
- Biblical era
- Between 1890-1948
- After 1948-till date
Biblical Era As per Biblical accounts, Jews have the lineage of Abraham, his son Isaac, and grandson Jacob dating back to 17th century BCE. It is the same lineage of Prophets, Christianity and Islam both trace their origin too. Also Documents found in Mesopotamia, dated 2000-1500 BCE, mention Jews as nomadic tribe of this region. The Book of Genesis states that when a famine occurred in Canaan[9], Jacob (Israel) his family of 12 sons migrated to Egypt, where their descendants were reduced to slavery and pressed into forced labour with the Pharos. 400 years later the Israelites were led to freedom from this bondage by Moses. Moses, who according to the biblical narrative, took his people out of Egypt and back to the Land of Israel between 13th-12th centuries BCE.[10] After 40 years of wandering in the Sinai desert Israelites cemented themselves as a nation with Commandments of Torah (Pentateuch) and a monotheistic faith.
The exodus from Egypt in 1300 BCE left an indelible imprint on the national memory of the Jewish people. It symbolizes their quest for liberty and freedom . Every year Jews celebrate Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost) and Succot (Feast of Tabernacles), commemorating events of that time. During the next two centuries, the Israelites conquered most adjoining land and their first king Saul and his successor King David established a strong kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital .
King David ruled from the Red Sea to the banks of the Euphrates and his authority was recognized by Egypt . David was succeeded by his son Solomon 965-930 BCE who further strengthened the kingdom and built the first Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as the center of the Jews national and religious life. 
Muslim invaders Abd al-Malik destroyed this Jew temple and built over it the Dome of Rock now called the Al Aqsa Mosque over it to seal his victory over jews and Christians faith in the 7th century CE. The term Yehudi (old name of Jews) has been mentioned at least 72 times in Bible and 43 times the term Israel and Israelites mentioned in Quran.[11].
Kingdom of Israel later split into two called the Judea and Samaria and its power gradually diminished in the centuries that followed, ultimately getting destroyed by the successive invasions of Assyrian, Babylonia and Roman empires between 5th century BCE and 1st century CE. During this period , due to heavy persecution, Jews started leaving their land and dispersed world over. As the persecution intensified during the Muslim conquests of the area in 7th centuries CE, it drove more Jews away from their home land. Yet more than a million Jews remained embedded in this land and in the adjoining Muslim countries as native Arab Jews.
Another noteworthy fact is that, post destruction of the Jewish empire by the 1st Century CE, this area was re-named by the Romans as Philistia to strip it of its Jewish identity. However , never there after, this area saw the rise of any indigenous kingdom to acquire the status of a sovereign state again . The area remained the conquered territories of distant Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, and British till it was divided between the 67 % Muslims and 32% Jewish population by the UN in 1948 to prevent frequent riots and blood shed taking place between the two communities.
Thus, Jews not only had a strong ancient connection to Jerusalem and the Jewish land since Biblical times but the fact of modern era is that one third of all Israeli citizens today are pure native Arabs, born and brought up in Arab land for last many generations hence legitimate sons, and daughters of the soil. Therefore, Pro-Palestinian analogy of “Dinosaurs claiming their prehistoric habitation” argument is misleading as nearly a million and a half Israelis had remained imbedded in the Arab Muslim society in Palestine and neighboring Muslim states entitling them an absolutely in-alienable right to be and live on their ancestral land.
Status of Jews between 1870-1948 – After the decline of the Jewish Kingdom in the 1st century onwards this region could not attain the stature of an independent kingdom or a sovereign state till the modern times . The coastal Palestine remained part of various powerful distant rulers and acted as a trade center/route of those empires. It therefore, remained a land of migrating merchants and settlers. No wonder bulk of the people whom Palestinian scholars call Palestinians are original ethnic Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrian, Jews, Christians, Druz and tribal Bedouins who have been co-habiting and sharing this land for ages. Hence the case of Palestinian Muslim’s unjust claim for the entire land of Palestine “from the river to sea” suffers from some serious infirmities, as no one community can have the exclusive right over the entire land of Palestine, all for themselves. Exclusive Muslim Palestinian national identity, as claimed by the pro-Palestinian scholars, under these circumstances is hard to established in terms of one ethnicity, language, religion, culture, kingdom, dynasty under any exclusivist ideology. At the same time, demographic shifts and migration are not very uncommon process in the evolution of human history, specially on lands that fall between the cross roads of more than one dominant civilizations.
Allegation of invasion and forced Occupation –
Fact Check – This is a False allegation. There had been no invasion or forced occupation of Palestinian land by the Jews till the declaration of the formation of an independent state of Israel in 1948.
Data shows that under Ottomans and later British rule, substantial demographic shifts in Muslim and Jews population had already taken place in Palestine much prior to the birth of Israel. These shifts were very gradual in nature and spread over six decades by means of legal migration of Jews, legal purchases of barren, un-inhabited land complying to all the existing rules by the Jewish settlers trickling down from various parts of Arab sub-continent and other parts of world. 
There was no use of force, violence, or coercion. Hence by no stretch of imagination this process can be called ‘invasion’ ‘occupation’ or ‘colonization’.
Did Jew steal the Land ? Most land purchased by Jews were bought from landowners. Of the land that the Jews bought, 52.6% were bought from non-Palestinian landowners, 24.6% from Palestinian landowners, 13.4% from government, churches, and foreign companies, and only 9.4% from fellaheen (farmers). It is worth noting that prior to 1948, only 35% of total Palestinian land was habitable. Rest was dessert and no agricultural activities was possible due to severe shortage of water in the region. Noteworthy is that bulk of Jew purchases of land in Palestine were mostly in these inhabitable areas away from traditional population centres hence no displacements were involved. As a result, due to purely legal, non-violent transactions explained above, Jews population and settlements constituted 32 % of the total Palestinian society much prior to 1948 [12] 
Initially in 1885 Ottomans allowed Jews to purchase land and settle down anywhere within the Ottoman empire with some restriction around Jerusalem but such restrictions got relaxed/diluted at the later stages of Ottoman and British colonial rules. As a result the Jews settlers became legitimate , peaceful native legal owners of Palestinian land as colonial subjects of Ottoman and later the subjects of British Empire at par with other native Muslims & Christian colonial subjects.
There was no invasion, no forced occupation and no exploitation. Hence calling the native population of jew settlers and colonial subjects living in Palestine since 1885, all of a sudden in 1948 as invaders, occupiers and colonizers is misrepresentation of fact.
After 1948-till date – Therefore, it can be seen from above that till 1948, there was no Jew invasion, or illegal occupation as alleged by the Palestinians. However, in 1948 when five Arab armies imposed a vicious genocidal war on Israel, Israeli people fought back bravely as their very survival and existence depended on it. They fought with bare hands, improvised weapons and whatever limited means they had at their disposal . Some timely shipments of used WW -II vintage small weapons purchased from Czechoslovakia and Poland saved the day for Israel. Despite heavy casualty of 5800 on the Jew side, Jew people inflicted double that casualty on the invading forces and miraculously succeeded in pushing the Arab armies far beyond the borders delineated by the UN resolution 181. Actually when Arab armies decided to attack Jewish settlements to wipe them out completely, they were not expecting much resistance from Jewish civilians. However they got a shock and quickly lost their appetite to take more attrition fighting an adversary absolutely determined to fight to finish. Thus, Arab armies decided to fall back, and thus Israelis gained control of 25 % more land in this war then what the UN gave them. This additional land became Israel’s spoils of war, which was brought under Israeli control over and above the UN mandate. 700,000 Palestinian Muslims who fled the war zone and other Jew controlled areas during this conflict became the Palestinian refugees who took shelter in the neighboring Arab Muslim states. Endless cycle of Israel Palestine conflict would not have existed today had the neighboring Arab Muslim states played a constructive role and resettled the displaced Muslims in the UN mandated Palestinian areas or in their own territories like the 61 million WW-II displace refugees who were peacefully resettled by their ethnic neighbors in Europe, Germany, Austria, Hungry, Czechoslovakia, Poland, India , Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam and Korean during the same period under much similar circumstances. However , the Muslim states did not do that. They chose to follow a policy of deliberately not letting the Palestinian refugees settle down, instead kept provoking, arming, financing, and instigating them against Israel with a ultimate unfinished agenda of destroying Israel. 
The Arab Muslim states and the Palestinians , as a result, have attacked Israel nearly 15 times since 1948 with a single objective to destroy it. In all these attempts Israel was able to defeat its adversary and invariably ended up controlling some specific land features vital for its security. They included Sinai, Gaza Strip and West Bank and the Golan heights taken away from Egypt, Jordan and Syria after defeating then in the Six Days War in 1967. (Sinai and Gaza was restored back to Egypt and Gazans in 1982 and 2005 respectively to buy peace ) Technically only such areas still under control of Israel can be termed the occupied land but unfortunately, Palestinian scholars like to project and treat the entire Israeli area including the one mandated to Israel by the UN resolution 181 in 1947 as the Israeli occupation and use the term occupation as a slur for Israel.
Myth no 2 – There was only one NAKBA
Fact Check – False . The truth is that, in 1948 there were not one but two NAKBAS. the first Nakba was the Jewish Nakaba in which 800,000 Jews were displaced from the Muslim majority areas of Palestine and those driven out of their homes by the Muslims from the Muslim states in the neighborhood. Second Nakba was the Muslim NAKBA that had displaced 700,000 Muslims in Palestine who had fled on their own or forced to leave the war zones during this conflict.
Why NAKBA narrative so important for Palestinians ? – Nakba (Catastrophe) is the foundation around which the Palestinian victimhood argument and narrative has been built up. So let us see how far this narrative and argument is tenable? The 1948 war between five Arab armies and newly born Israel had caused large scale displacement of both Jews and Muslim population. Approximately 800,000 native Arab Jews living in the territories of five Muslim countries participating in this war as well as Jews living in the Muslim majority Palestinian territories earmarked by UN for Israel were displaced. Of the above 800,000 Arab Jews, 200,000 took refuge in Europe but nearly 600,000 Arab Jews took refuge in newly born Jewish state of Israel. On the other hand, 700,000 Palestinian Muslims who got displaced or voluntary left their homes for fear of their lives and safety from the Jews controlled areas under similar circumstances at the same time, took refuge in the neighboring Muslim states as refugees in 1948. This is what the Palestinian scholars call the Palestinian Muslim NAKBA.
It is of utmost importance to note that despite severe scarcity of resources in new born Israel, 600,000 Arab Jew refugee victims of “Jewish NAKBA” , were sheltered, rehabilitated, absorbed, and assimilated by the Jewish state of Israel seamlessly. They today no longer complain like their counterpart Palestinians. They did not turn to terrorism nor like to call themselves refugees, or make ridiculous demand that their children and grandchildren continue availing the benefits of refugee status from UN as the Palestinian Muslims refugees do. On the other hand, it is quite intriguing to note that even after a laps of 75 years of lavish UN support and unlimited funding, these 700,000 Palestinian refugees decline to get settled on the part of land allocated by UN resolution 181 to them or get absorbed in the neighboring Muslim states on whose instigation and support they had attacked the Jewish settlements in 1948 but failed on all fronts in face of stiff Jews resistance.
Who Started It ? Even though newly born state of Israel comprising minority Jewish community of Palestine accepted the UN Partition , it is inconceivable that without any regular army, any elected government, scarce supply of arms & ammunition, a resourceless Jewish population that was by all reckoning a vulnerable defenseless minority would have any motivation to wage an all-out war on the hostile Muslim majority supported by strong neighbors. On the other hand, Muslim majority of Palestinians, supported by strong regular armies of Muslim Arab neighbors forming themselves as one Arab League had all the motivation to attack . They had opposed the partition in all along and rejected outrightly the UN resolution 181 on partition in 1947, had a long tradition of Jew persecution and now all the more incentive to attack the minority Jews to stop this process and were full of confidence to crush, slaughter and wipe jews out of the map of Arab within a matter of few days. 
That is exactly what the five Arab armies attempted to do as soon as the British colonial army started to withdraw. 
The well-equipped army of five nations with artillery, big guns, even supported with air power of the neighboring Arabs no wonder attacked the new born state of Israel simultaneously from all sides and were successful in slaughtering as promised 5800 Jews 
in a matter of few days. 
This has been extensively reported by the newspapers of that time.
Fact of the matter is that this region had a long history of Muslim attacks on Jews going to several centuries in past. However, violent attacks by Muslim on secluded Jewish settlements, and incidents of bloody clashes between the two community had intensified since 1920 onwards. It had become common for Armed Muslim gangs to attack & loot remote Jewish settlements. In return Jews had also started organizing armed militias to protect themselves and jews retaliations had also become common by 1948 through the activities of violent hawkish Jewish IRGUN and STERN GANGS[13]. Between 1920 and 1948 approximately 40 such violent attacks , clashes and massacres were recorded to have taken place between the Palestinian Muslims on the Jewish community. Isolated Jewish settlements away from population centers located in deserts and swampy lands where mostly migrant minority Jews had settled were the prime targets
Apart from the broad obvious reason for which Arab Israel conflict took place in 1948 , there are a host of very complex minor issues and incidences preceding this war leading to two way NAKBA which are not discussed here. Despite overwhelming circumstantial evidences suggesting that it was natural for the new born Israel to try to secure its new drawn borders delineating Muslim neighbors, the Palestinian Muslims supported by neighboring Arab states wanted to deny their Jewish minority their right to self-determination and formation of an independent Jewish state , hence tried everything in their power, including adoption of blockades , massacres , cutting of supply routes to starve isolated Jewish communities etc to prevent that from happening. However, Palestinian scholars try to paint a picture that Muslim genocide and ethnic cleansing took place in this war only from Israeli side and only the Palestinian Muslims were the victims. Fact that demographic division on ethnic lines and such vicious bloody wars invariably have casualties and devastations on both sides , is the aspect played down to amplify only Palestinian sufferings. Palestinian one sided narrative gives an impression that out of 61 million displaced refugees that WW-II had generated during the same period globally in Europe , Poland , Germany, Czechoslovakia, India, Pakistan, Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam etc of which Palestinian refugees were just a minuscule part, suffering and injustice was endured only by the Palestinians giving them the right become terrorists.
Myth no. 3 – Allegation of Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing –
Fact Check – False – Violence was perpetrated from both sides -Second very popular allegation that Palestinian scholars level against Israel in respect of NAKBA is that, Jews carried out genocide and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in 1948. Fact is that of the statistics of total reported killed during this conflict, 5800 were Jew and 12000 were Muslims. Hence calling it a one-sided Genocide is a clear exaggeration and misrepresentation of fact.
Many Palestinian supporters in the west are not be aware that Nakba was not a one-way affair as already explained above. The fact that NAKBA took place both ways, and more than equal number of Jews compared to Palestinian Muslims were ethnically cleansed by the Muslims, driven out of their homes, displaced, and made refugees in the same year in the same area, is a fact that is suppressed by the Palestinian scholars who project that only the Palestinian Muslims were the victim of this conflict,
Myth no. 4 – Jews forced Muslims to flee their Houses during NAKBA .
Fact Check – False – Circumstantial evidence and facts on grounds does not support this hypothesis – This question is hard to answer as testimonies of eye witnesses on record have multiple versions depending which side the witness belonged. All that can be said is that abrupt division of demography on ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural lines is always problematic, mostly accompanied with violence and invariably causes big upheaval and trauma in all societies. History has shown that such division all over the world, have always led to large scale violence and casualties. The humanitarian and the appalling number of human losses suffered during the India-Pakistan partition that took place in the same year is testimony to this fact. Since extremist and violent elements exist in all societies, claiming that violence took place from only one side in Palestine and that only one side is to be blamed , is wrong. The number of casualty (Jews dead – 5800, Muslims dead 12000) clearly indicates that both sides had resorted to severe forms of violence. Higher casualties on the losing side does not make Palestinians victims and absolves them of causing 5800 Jew death. Had Palestinians been victorious, the number could have been opposite.
Considering the above, following facts in this conflict are relevant to assess the culpability –
- 64 % Muslims were the majority party, while the 32% Jews were the minority party. 4% Christian and Druze were minor players
- 64% Muslims were backed by Five regular armies of hostile Arab Muslim states who had rejected the formation of Jewish state of Israel and formed an Arab league with the sole aim to deny Jew their statehood and destroy Israel.
- 32% Jews had no regular army, no credible supply of arms and equipment. They also did not have credible backing of any local or European nations.
- 32% minority fighting forces were terribly ill-equipped compared to Arab armies as they comprised of resourceless, rag tag Jews families including women and children determined to fight their existential battle, all by themselves.
While the profile of New born Israel in 1948, hardly fits the Palestinian narrative of a powerful wicked and wily Zionist foreign colonial power invading the poor defenseless people of Palestine, the paras that follow should clinch the argument that neither in intent and action nor in impact – Israel intentionally carry out ethnic cleansing as the Palestinian scholars tirelessly accuse Israel of.
- Contrast in Intent – In contrast to Arab league’s objective of total destructions of the Jewish state of Israel in Palestinian land echoed even today in the covenant of Hamas, Hezbollah and the foreign policy objective of the Islamic state of Iran, Israel very declaration of Independence and preamble of the constitution states that – State of Israel will uphold the “social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed or sex” and will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture.” It further pledges to “safeguarding of the sanctity and inviolability of shrines and holy places of all religions.”
- Contrast in action – While the Arab armies are on record to advise Muslim Palestinians to clear the war zone where large scale slaughtering of Jewish population was planned , in contrast the first Prime Minister of Israel, Mr Ben Guerin is on record to have made fervent appeals on Israeli radio appealing to all Palestinian Muslims, Christians and other non-Jews living in the Jew majority areas not to leave their homes and assured the safety of their lives and property.
- Contrast in impact – Impact of two different approaches were also visible. It is for all to see that while 700,000 Palestinian Muslims did not trust Ben Guerin, instead took the advice of Arab Armies and left their homes to take refuge in neighboring states, 1.5 million non-Jews, who trusted Mr Ben Guerin assurance and stayed back in the Jewish majority areas , their life and property were protected by the Jewish communities and are safe and intact even today. Maximum casualties in this conflict were reported in Muslim majority areas.
1.5 Million non-jews who chose to stay back Jew majority areas were native Arab Muslims, native Arab Christians, native Arab Druz and others. Moreover, the Islamist scholars never mention in their narratives that, these 1.5 million non-jews were not only given full protection of their lives and property by the Israeli government in 1948, but population of this category of Israeli citizens within Israel have since multiplied to nearly 2 million. In contrast it is impossible to imagine a Jew family live in Gaza or west bank among the Palestinians where they are taught from their very childhood to kill the Jews at first sight and first opportunity.
These non-Jews are today respectable equal Israeli citizens of a democratic Israeli society, enjoying equal political and voting rights, studying in same Israeli schools and colleges alongside Jewish children, free to practice their own religion, enjoy same high standards of Israeli civic facilities and serve Israel as doctors, engineers, politicians, professors, IDF soldiers and successful and prosperous business persons in Israel. Ask this non-Jew population if they will like to leave Israel and move to any Arabian or Palestinian territories like Gaza and West bank and the answer will be an emphatic NO. The respect, dignity, peace, prosperity, and secure future for their children enjoyed by them within Israeli democracy is simply not available anywhere outside Israeli territory in entire Arabian land. This alone proves the blatant lie and deception of the pro-Palestinian scholars & propagandist when they accuse Israel maliciously for “Apartheid” , “Racism” and “Ethnic Cleansing” . Can there be a more burning example of pro-Palestinian lies only to demonize, vilify and delegitimize Israel? Therefore, if the Islamist narratives about forced eviction of non-Jews are to be believed, the mystery of existence of 2 million natives Arab Muslims and other non-Jews within Jewish society needs an explanation from the Islamic scholars?
Myth no. 5 Dichotomy of the Principle of Right to Return – Principle of the right of such displaced persons, both Jews and Muslims in Palestine, to return to their abandoned homes was laid down by UN resolution 194 in December 1948. It is also of immense importance to note that the five aggressor Muslim Arab League states, purportedly fighting on behalf of Palestinian Muslims, most amusingly voted against this resolution. Answer to this strange action why they did so is not difficult to find. 
Hostile anti-Jew Muslims were afraid that using this resolution the one million native Arab Jews forced driven out of their homes by the Muslims from Muslim controlled area and the neighboring Muslim states during this Jew NAKBA would claim their right to return or seek compensation of their properties left behind. It is clear that while Palestinian scholars even today wish to invoke the right of 700,000 displaced Palestinians to return to their homes for which they justify Palestinians to take to terrorism, they clearly want to unjustly deny and prevent 1 million displaced Jews from returning or claiming compensation to their legal ancestral homes from where they were driven away by their hostile Muslim population. Another strong motive was to prevent the sensible among the displaced Palestinian refugees who may like to return to the Israel controlled territories to their abandoned homes, acquire Israeli citizenship, and start leading a peaceful and prosperous life of respect and dignity like the other 2 million non-Jews living and prospering in the Israeli democracy. Because the true objective of the Arab League had never been the settlement of the refugees in peace and reconciliation but to use the refugees as an instrument and weapon to achieve their ultimate objective for the destruction of Jewish state of Israel stuck like a dagger in the Islamic heartland. For this keeping the Palestinian refugee crisis and keeping the Palestinian refugee status alive was vital till the destruction of Israel was achieved. Prolonging the Palestinian suffering in this process for achievement of this unreasonable and impractical objective, had never been a concern for the Islamic forces. Even though many leading Suni states in Arab like the Saudis, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, and Jordan have moderated their strategy, the Shia Iran picked up the thread where the Sunnis in the region left to create situation through its terror proxies that prevents solution to the Palestinian refugee problem through any kind of peaceful settlement unless it is accompanied by the total destruction of Israel. That is , perhaps, also the reason why the two state solution that existed in 1948, 1956, 1967 failed and when revived in 2000 & 2018, it was rejected by the Palestinians and when an independently administered state of Gaza was created in 2005 and existed till 7th October 2023, it did not work.
Myth no. 6 – Israel is a Racist and Aparthied state .
Fact Check – This is a brazen mis-information –
Israel is often accused of being a “racist” and “apartheid state” established by the colonialist racist white European Jews meant only for white Jews in which non-Jews and colored skin have no place. This pro-Palestinian narrative is a blatant lie, mischievous, deceptive & distorted. Fact is that out of today’s 9.2 million Israeli citizens 2 million plus i.e. roughly 1/4th of the total population are non-Jews. Reality is that Israel is a vibrant multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-religious, plural democracy where all citizens, irrespective of their ethnicity, race , color , language and religion are treated equally by Israeli constitution and Israeli law and Israeli institutions.
Look at this Pie chart carefully. It clearly indicates that 18% of total Israeli population constituting a huge chunk, are not jews but Arab Palestinian Muslims, Christians, Druz and other non-Jew denominations. In addition, dark skinned African American Jews in Israel number at least 25,000 [14] and a large community of Black Hebrew Israelites numbering at least 5,000 people, who originally immigrated to Israel from Chicago in the 1960s also form integral part of Jewish society. It is important for those holding negative perception about Israel to know that 2 million Arab Muslims, Christians, Druz and other non-Jewish people are living in Jewish societies as respectable equal Israeli citizens. They have access to education institutions , highest medical care and equal opportunity in government jobs and private business. They are successful, peaceful. Doctors, engineers, lawyers , Judges, professors teaches, soldiers and millionaires and elected Knesset members within Israeli society.
Myth no. 7 Israel Steals Palestinian land
Fact Check – This is a Miss-presentation – Though it cannot be denied that Israel is in possession of some land that originally belonged to Palestine as per UN resolution 181 and some land like Golan Heights (and now Mt. Hebron) that belonged to Syria but they are result of the circumstances and strategic security reasons, not due to any deliberate expansionist policy of Israel. For example in 1948 Israel had accepted UN resolution 181 and agreed to settle with the part of land allocated to it. However, the Palestinians represented in the UN by the Arab League rejected it. Not only that Arab League rejected to UN resolution, five Arab armies attacked the new born UN mandated Israel and tried to evict Jews from Palestine claiming the entire territory for the Arab Muslims. Arab not only lost that war and failed to evict Israel out of Palestine, but lost some territories too. Similarly in 1967 war, Israeli forces ran over the entire Sinai Peninsula, west bank and Golan Heights from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria respectively. Under peace agreements signed with Egypt and Jordan, Sinai was restored to Egypt and territorial disputes in respect of West Bank was settled with Jordan under the peace Agreements that followed.
Conclusion – Demographic data indicate that as on today, 3 out of 9 million Israeli citizens, or to say, one third of the total Israeli population of Israel, are pure native Arabs who were living with equal rights in Arab land prior to the birth of Israel. Islamists suppress these numbers as they do not fit into their theories of foreign invasion, occupation, and colonization. Since use of these terms are vital for building victimhood narratives for Palestine, Islamist scholars use them indiscriminately without any justification. However, they fail to explain why by their own logic the 3 million native Israeli citizens in 1948 should not have had full & equal right over Palestinian land like any other Palestinian Muslims and why they should not have the right for self-determination and entitled to their own state? This debunks the Palestinians unreasonable claim over entire Palestinian land from ‘river to sea’ all for themselves. How can the right of self-determination of 32 % Palestinian Israelis minority already living on the same land for many decades as Ottoman and British Subjects can be overlooked, ignored, or trampled upon. Considering all above, especially the Palestinian minority Jews right for self-determination, the world community through a UN resolution decided to split the Palestinian land into two parts between native Muslims and Jews to avoid continuation of riots and blood shed between the two communities. Jews accepted the UN resolution 181, 1947, but the Muslim majority supported by neighboring Muslim states following their age-old tradition of denying the Jew minority among them any kind if rights, outright rejected it. As soon as the British forces withdrew from Palestine and Israel declared its independence in line with the UN resolution, five Arab Armies, namely Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon attacked the new born Israel simultaneously to annihilate Jews and claim the entire land for the Arab Muslims. When the Arab armies were defeated and pushed back by the Israeli forces, the same five Arab states refused to accommodate and assimilate the Palestinian refugees who were displaced due to their wrong policies.
Therefore, it can be safely concluded that Palestinian problem is basically a post WW-II refugee problem that resulted due to the demographic partition of multi ethnic society of Palestine. This refugee problem persist even after the laps of 77 years because unlike what happened in Europe, Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bosnia, India, Pakistan , Cambodia, Vietnam and Korea where similar refugees were resettled in the countries of their refuse with same ethnicity / religion and assimilated in those societies on humanitarian ground, the neighboring Arab Muslim states with same ethnic nationality played a negative role by not settling and granting their Muslim brothers citizenship in their own countries. As a result Palestinian refugee problem has been kept alive in middle east deliberately under a deeper collective Islamic objective of using these refugees as tools and weapon to destroy the Jewish state of Israel whose existence is not acceptable to the Muslims in the Islamic heart land due to deep religious prejudice against Jews residing at the heart of Islam.
[1] A trade route crossing the coastal area referred to in colonial records as Philistine by its multiple occupiers and colonizers since 12 Century BCE i.e. the Egyptians, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Syrians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and British till United Nations decided to partition it to form two independent states of Palestine and Israel.
[2] The first version of the charter, adopted by Hamas in 1988, begins with a preamble – “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” (The Hamas charter was later amended in 1917, but the above remains the driving force of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and Iran even today)
[3] Israeli historians call it their war of independence while the pro-Palestinian scholars call it “NAKBA” i.e. The Catastrophe.
[4] Among the most infamous event cited by “NAKBA” proponents against Jews is their attack on the Arab village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948 in which 100 Palestinians were alleged to have been killed by the Jewish Stern Gang members. News of this massacre by Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang forces spread widely and inspired both panic and retaliation. It was also cited in the UN as justification of their simultaneous attack on the just born state of Israel. Days later, Arab forces attacked a Jewish convoy headed for Hadassah Hospital, killing 78 jews.
[5]How Qatar is paying US institutions $1.3 billion to gain ‘dubious influence’ , China: With Nearly All U.S. Confucius Institutes Closed, Some Schools Sought Alternative Language Support | U.S. GAO
[6] Grey zone warfare is a covert disinformation operation conducted by a hostile state/non-state actor against a country/society to destabilize it by planting and propagating carefully crafted disruptive false information and false media feeds to cause confusion, incite unrest with an intent to exploit existing fissures and fault lines in the societies to weaken the unity and demoralize the collective will of the people to protect their core national interests. Such hostile acts against the targeted country are kept below the use of kinetic military force to achieve political objectives. Unprotected digital environment and free media, including social media, in open societies are vulnerable to such activities.
[7] Hamas Charter 2017 , article 14 states that –“The Zionist project is racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist”
[8] Palestinian scholars suppress this fact.
[9] Region present location of Israel was called the Canan.
[10] Moses by Michelangelo, San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome Exodus and Settlement
[11] Interestingly they do not have any reference of Palestine in any of their texts.
[12] Israel-Palestine population by religion 0-2000 | Statista
[13] These were the Jewish armed Militia groups who were also waging a war of freedom against the British Colonial rule in Palestine and indulgencing in extremist acts of sabotaging the colonial administrative machinery
[14] Cohen, Shaul. “African Americans in Israel (in Hebrew)”: 138.
