387:
Jordanian army at the
Israelis. The distinction between these two conceptions is indeed fine, but significant nonetheless. In military terms, the goal of the coalition was to liberate as much Palestinian territory as possible and to weaken, if not defeat, the enemy. In political terms, however, its purpose was to prevent the partition of Palestine between Israel and Jordan by forcing Amman, first, to make war against Zionism, and, second, to refrain from cutting a deal with the enemy without the authorization of Cairo. ... In addition, they had no choice but to capture the moral high ground of Arab politics by advocating a policy of no compromise, even though they realized that compromise would be a very likely outcome of the conflict. Calling for the liberation of Palestine, and behaving in a manner consistent with the call, were essential components of the Egyptian project, but they did not constitute its central objective. Thus, partial failure on the battlefield would not constitute a failure of the entire operation, if the maneuver were to result in driving a wedge between King Abdallah and the Zionists. If Cairo stopped short of destroying Zionism and yet still succeeded, say, in creating a Palestinian state sandwiched on the West Bank between Jordan and Israel, then it would have achieved its fundamental goals of preventing the expansion of Jordan and thwarting the creation of an Amman– Tel Aviv axis.
155:. The emissaries stated that there was no doubt that a Jewish state would be established and requested that the Arab states accept the consequences and cooperate. They were willing to give cast-iron guarantees against any form of Jewish expansionism. Azzam Pasha, in his capacity as Secretary General of the Arab League, suggested that the Zionist project be abandoned, and that the Jews could integrate themselves into Arab society on the basis of autonomous entities. He argued that it was pointless to appeal to
100:
married to seven wives (that is, he is the
Secretary of seven Arab states), each one fearing her fellow wife, competing with her and trying to undermine her. He can see fit to support partition on two conditions: If one of the Arab states will find the strength and the courage to take the initiative and to propose the matter at a meeting of the League, and if the British will request that he follow this line.
358:". McKay shared his discovery with Jewish-American pro-Israel researcher David Barnett, who then published a paper on his discovery together with Karsh. Karsh nonetheless accused McKay of failing to share it 'with the general public' on Knowledge (XXG), 'so as to keep Arab genocidal designs on the nascent Jewish state under wraps', which McKay called 'quite a distortion'.
59:, titled "Arab countries prepare for war" (ar: البلاد العربية تستعد للحرب) in a section titled "War of extermination..." (ar: ...حرب إبادة), which included the quote, with the added words "Personally, I hope the Jews do not force us into this war, because it would be a war of extermination and momentous massacre
248:
A Jewish Agency memorandum, submitted on
February 2, 1948, to the U.N. Palestine Commission, tasked with the implementation of the partition resolution, and yet again to the U.N. secretary-general on March 29, 1948, referred to the Azzam Pasha quotation, citing the October 11, 1947, article in Akhbar
94:
to lobby for partition in
Palestine. He proposed a deal where Egypt would convince the Arab states to accept partition and in return the Jewish Agency would lobby on behalf of the Egyptians to persuade the British to transfer their troops on the Suez Canal bases to the new Jewish state. Surprisingly,
401:
This fight will be distinguished by three grave issues; faith, since all fighters believe that his fight for
Palestine is the short road to heaven. Second it will be a chance for looting on a grand scale. Third, no one will be able to stop the zealous volunteers who will come from all over the world
369:
Tom Segev, also an historian, disputes this interpretation, saying that "Azzam used to talk a lot" and pointing to another statement from May 21, 1948, in which Azzam Pasha declared his desire for "equal citizenship for Jews in Arab
Palestine". In response to Segev, Karsh wrote that while it is true
256:
The "practical and effective means" contrived and advocated by the Arab States were never envisaged as being limited by the provisions of the
Charter; indeed, the Secretary-General of the Arab League was thinking in terms which are quite remote from the lofty sentiments of San Francisco. "This war,"
99:
In his view there is only one solution and that is: partition. But collective debates and discussions are required in order to arrive at this solution. As the
Secretary of the Arab League, he cannot appear before the Arabs as the initiator of this suggestion. His position is very delicate. He is
692:
Jewish Agency for
Palestine, Memorandum on acts of Arab aggression to alter by force the settlement on the future government of Palestine approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations, Submitted to the United Nations Palestine Commission. Lake Success, New York. February 2, 1948. A copy
284:
memorandum to the United
Nations Palestine Commission in February 1948. During the next few years, the same partial sentence appeared in its correct 1947 setting in several books. However, by 1952, many publications, including one published by the Israeli government, had moved its date to 1948,
386:
The flimsy alliance that the Egyptian authorities pretended to let King Abdallah lead into battle was, at one and the same moment, an anti-Israeli and an anti-Jordanian instrument. Cairo viewed the coalition not as a weapon for destroying Zionism but, rather, as a catapult designed to hurl the
216:
I personally wish that the Jews do not drive us to this war, as this will be a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Tartar massacre or the Crusader wars. I believe that the number of volunteers from outside Palestine will be larger than Palestine's Arab
397:
Personally I hope the Jews do not force us into this war because it will be a war of elimination and it will be a serious massacre which history will record similarly to the Mongol massacre or the wars of the Crusades. I think the number of volunteers from outside Palestine will exceed the
353:
to an October 11, 1947, article in the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar al-Yom, titled "A War of Extermination", which included the quote with the added words, "Personally, I hope the Jews do not force us into this war, because it would be a war of extermination and momentous massacre
413:
I warned the Jewish leaders whom I met in London about continuing their policy, and I told them that the Arab soldier is the strongest in the world. Once he lifts his weapon, he does not put it down till he fires the last bullet in the battle, and we will fire the last
398:
Palestinian population. I know that we will get volunteers from India, Afghanistan and China to have the glory of being martyrs for Palestine. You might be shocked if you knew that many British have shown interest in volunteering in the Arab armies to fight the Jews.
409:
The Arabs in the desert love to go to war. ... I remember once while fighting in the desert I was called to make a peace and the Arabs asked me why do you do that? How can we live without a war? The Bedouin finds enjoyment in war which he does not find in
163:
had been. His Zionist interlocutors read this statement as a fascist declaration, unable, according to Henry Laurens, to see that, as with the Jews of Europe, emancipation from enslavement for the Arabs was seen as requiring recourse to force.
272:
At the time of the utterance, according to Segev, the Arab–Israeli conflict was raging also in the media of the day, as either side sought to show the other side was agitating for war. Azzam had, he concludes, 'supplied the Zionists with a
239:
In early December 1947 Azzam told a rally of students in Cairo that "The Arabs conquered the Tartars and the Crusaders and they are now ready to defeat the new enemy," echoing sentiments he had expressed to a journalist the previous day.
405:
Moreover, the Arab is distinguished from the Jew in that he accepts defeat with a smile, so if the Jews win the first battle we will win in the second, third or the last. On the other hand a single defeat of the Jews will destroy their
50:
The quote was universally cited for decades as having been uttered on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the Arab states several months later. The source of the quote was traced by the computer scientist
74:
has disputed Karsh's interpretation, saying that "Azzam used to talk a lot" and pointing to another statement from May 21, 1948, in which Azzam Pasha declared his desire for "equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine".
610:, Knopf, 1972 p.494, gives October the 14th. This date however is not that given by Abba Eban himself. See A. S. Eban, 'Note of Conversation with Abdel Rahman Azzam Pasha,' London, Sept. 15, 1947,' in Neil Caplan,
417:
In the end I understand the consequence of this bloody war, I see in front of me its horrible battles, I can imagine its victims but I have a clear conscience since we were called to fight as defenders and not
323:"Azzam actually said that he feared that if the people of Palestine were to be forcibly and against all right dispossessed, a tragedy comparable to the Mongol invasions and the Crusades might not be avoidable.
128:, the majority plan would only lead to an outbreak of generalised violence, as clearly unjust to the Arabs, whilst the minority plan was inapplicable since it assumed a prior accord between Jews and Arabs.
120:. Though the Jews had accepted the majority plan, the Arab countries were unanimous in their negative reactions to both plans, and openly spoke of taking up arms were either of these proposals enacted. For
212:, ran an interview he had obtained from Azzam Pasha to report on the outcome of the summit. The article was entitled "A War of Extermination", and in one passage contained the following words.
448:
125:
434:
159:
when the whole Zionist project demonstrated the efficacy of will-power. There was no option but war. The Zionists, he argued, would be thrown out in the future, just as the
183:
Upon being informed of the meeting, Ben-Gurion, who had previously called Azzam the "most honest and humane among Arab leaders", and who had earlier ordered the
105:
109:
441:
299:
Whatever the outcome, the Arabs will stick to their offer of equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine and let them be as Jewish as they like.
171:"We shall try to defeat you. I am not sure we'll succeed, but we'll try. We were able to drive out the Crusaders, but on the other hand we lost
529:
942:
309:
1020:
308:
Until 2010, the source of the quotation has been commonly claimed to be a press conference in Cairo on May 15, 1948, one day after the
257:
he said, "will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongol massacres and the Crusades."
1035:
1002:
225:
You might be surprised to learn that hundreds of Englishmen expressed their wish to volunteer in the Arab armies to fight the Jews.
277:
that serves Israeli propaganda to this very day,' and some 395 books, and roughly 13,000 websites cite this excerpt to this day.
327:
The reference to the Crusaders and the Mongols aptly describes the view of the foreign Zionist invaders shared by most Arabs."
886:
AH Joffe and A Romirowsky (2010). "A Tale of Two Galloways: Notes on the Early History of UNRWA and Zionist Historiography".
402:
to revenge the Palestinian martyrs because they know that the battle is an honor for all Muslims and Arabs in the world...
350:
52:
199:
in Lebanon, the League decided to employ all available means to ensure the independence of Palestine as an Arab state.
217:
population, for I know that volunteers will be arriving to us from India, Afghanistan, and China to win the honor of
31:
from 1945 to 1952, in which he declared in 1947 that, were a war to take place with the proposed establishment of a
144:
286:
1030:
653:
24:
1045:
576:
84:
112:. Recommendations to this effect were made in September of that year. The majority plan proposed a distinct
366:
Karsh, together with his co-author David Barnett, consider the Azzam Pasha quotation a "genocidal threat".
814:
319:
An Egyptian writer in 1961 maintained that the quotation was "completely out of context". He wrote that:
1025:
191:"As we fought against the Crusaders, we will fight against you, and we will erase you from the earth."
36:
187:
to prepare for a war, summarized Azzam's position in a meeting with members of his political party:
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179:. It may be that we shall lose Palestine. But it's too late to talk of peaceful solutions."
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that Azzam was prepared to allow survivors of the destroyed Jewish state to live as
280:
Azzam's quoted first sentence, without its initial caveat, appeared in English in a
840:
829:
340:
209:
121:
67:
32:
678:
Margaret Pope (December 1, 1947). ""Will Fight to Finish," Says League Official".
899:
560:
The Holocaust, Religion, and the Politics of Collective Memory: Beyond Sociology,
742:
707:
176:
28:
798:
274:
172:
152:
995:
Pan-Arabism before Nasser: Egyptian Power Politics and the Palestine Question
140:
71:
376:, in his view "this can hardly be considered an indication of moderation".
160:
44:
218:
196:
184:
136:
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the Egyptians were very receptive to this offer. Sasson reported back:
372:
950:
331:
In 2010, doubt over the provenance of the quotation was voiced by
91:
921:
Benny Morris (July–August 2010). "Revisionism on the West Bank".
70:
considers this quote a "genocidal threat". The Israeli historian
285:
specifically to May 15, 1948, shortly after the outbreak of the
195:
At the pan-Arab summit of 19 September 1947, which convened at
313:
975:
Mustafa Amin (11 October 1947). "The Arabs prepare for war".
131:
On September 15, Azzam Pasha, who was held in high esteem by
658:
The Birth of Israel, 1945–1949: Ben-Gurion and His Critics
382:
offered a different view on Azzam's goals. In his opinion:
55:
to an October 11, 1947, article in the Egyptian newspaper
629:
A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time
530:"The makings of history / The blind misleading the blind"
449:
The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man
39:
and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the
83:
In August 1946, the head of the Arab department of the
670:"British Institute Gutted; Demonstration near Cairo".
16:
Arab leader's 1947 comment on war with a Jewish state
618:, vol. 2 p. 680 n. 103 for additional bibliography.
435:
A land without a people for a people without a land
346:In 2010, the source of the quote was traced by the
108:was set up in May 1947 to develop proposals for
614:Frank Cass, 1986, Vol. 2, pp. 274–76; Laurens,
321:
312:, which some versions say was broadcast by the
297:
251:
214:
189:
169:
230:Mustafa Amin, Arab countries prepare for war,
797:Israel Office of Information (January 1952).
106:United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
8:
869:The Egyptian Economic & Political Review
940:'Haaretz: The Paper for Thinking People?,'
355:
324:
262:Jewish Agency memorandum, February 2, 1948
253:
222:
60:
934:
932:
660:, University Press of Florida, 2000 p.79
608:Europe leaves the Middle East, 1936–1954
523:
304:Quotation source and authenticity debate
521:
519:
517:
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511:
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507:
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484:David Barnett and Efraim Karsh (2011).
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477:
475:
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442:There was no such thing as Palestinians
295:quoted a further declaration from him:
268:The uses to which the quotation was put
167:In Horowitz's account, Azzam declared:
151:who were accompanied by the journalist
775:Fulfillment: the epic story of Zionism
962:
546:
7:
778:. World Publishing Company. p.
631:, Knopf, May 15, 2007, pp. 285, 333.
562:Transaction Publishers, 2012 p. 176.
139:delegation in London, consisting of
825:. Granada Books. pp. 400, 597.
793:. Philosophical Society. p. 6.
749:. Schocken Books. pp. 164–165.
310:Israeli declaration of independence
979:(in Arabic). Cairo. pp. 1, 9.
14:
147:, both liaison officers with the
581:Fayard, Paris 2002, vol.2 p.593.
23:was part of a statement made by
27:, the Secretary-General of the
674:. December 3, 1947. p. 5.
116:, the minority plan foresaw a
1:
867:"The Toynbee-Herzog debate".
747:I saw the Battle of Jerusalem
202:On October 11, the editor of
900:10.1080/00263206.2010.504554
875:(3): 6–9, 20–30. March 1961.
714:. Boni and Gaer. p. 21.
997:. Oxford University Press.
764:. Alfred A. Knopf. p.
289:. As the war got underway,
1062:
851:. Alfred A.Knopf. p.
528:Tom Segev (Oct 21, 2011).
486:"Azzam's genocidal threat"
221:for the sake of Palestine
110:the partition of Palestine
727:. Penguin Books. p.
592:La Question de Palestine,
126:British Foreign Secretary
25:Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam
1036:Quotations from military
791:The Arab Refugee Problem
577:La Question de Palestine
244:Jewish Agency Memorandum
993:Doran, Michael (1999).
708:Stone, Isidor Feinstein
888:Middle Eastern Studies
772:Learsi, Rufus (1951).
627:Howard Morley Sachar,
428:Phrases and quotations
420:
389:
329:
301:
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35:, it would lead to "a
1021:1948 Arab–Israeli War
923:The National Interest
616:Question de Palestine
490:Middle East Quarterly
395:
384:
362:Interpretation debate
287:1948 Arab–Israeli War
97:
21:Azzam Pasha quotation
953:, December 16, 2011.
604:Howard Morley Sachar
37:war of extermination
965:, pp. 153–154.
819:Lapierre, Dominique
800:The Arabs in Israel
380:Michael Scott Doran
951:New English Review
945:2013-02-09 at the
834:Palestine Betrayed
787:Schechtman, Joseph
672:The Times of India
348:computer scientist
292:The Jerusalem Post
234:, October 11, 1947
114:two-state solution
79:Historical context
41:Mongolian massacre
847:Righteous Victims
760:Cairo to Damascus
754:Carlson, John Roy
695:UN document S/710
612:Futile Diplomacy,
558:Ronald J. Berger,
157:political realism
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938:Efraim Karsh,
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894:(5): 655–675.
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836:. p. 209.
815:Collins, Larry
806:
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724:I choose peace
712:This is Israel
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66:The historian
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682:. p. 2.
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68:Efraim Karsh
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33:Jewish state
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693:appears in
496:(4): 85–88.
392:Translation
29:Arab League
1041:Prediction
1015:Categories
963:Doran 1999
547:Doran 1999
456:References
418:attackers!
337:Romirowsky
275:sound bite
153:Jon Kimche
908:147251065
821:(1982) .
640:Laurens,
414:bullet...
219:martyrdom
161:Crusaders
141:Abba Eban
72:Tom Segev
943:Archived
925:: 73–81.
843:(1999).
789:(1952).
756:(1951).
745:(1950).
721:(1949).
710:(1948).
423:See also
260:—
249:al-Yom.
228:—
135:, met a
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