{Originally posted to the MIDA website}
Imagine if Germans today would annually mourn that Nazi Germany lost World War II and call it “disaster” that it failed to wipe out all Jews during the Holocaust. This is exactly what Arab extremists and their global supporters do when they annually equate the failure to wipe out the Jewish state in 1948 with “Nakba” or “disaster”. The Arab nationalist historian George Antonius originally coined the term “Nakba”in the 1920s. Ironically, it debunks the myth of a historical “Palestinian” nation by lamentingly referring to the separation of Arabs in the British Palestine Mandate from their Arab brothers and sisters in French-controlled Syria.
Throughout history, losing wars was always unpleasant. This is particularly true for losing aggressors. Post-1945 Germany and Japan paid a heavy price for their failed aggressive assault on humanity. Nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing countless Japanese civilians. Berlin and many other German cities were in ruins. Several million German soldiers and civilians were killed during World War II. Twelve million Germans became refugees and fled or were expelled from much of Central and Eastern Europe. While these national experiences were traumatic for Berlin and Tokyo, post-1945 Germany and Japan were nevertheless forced to take responsibility for their past aggression.
By contrast, the “Nakba” myth does exactly the opposite. Seven decades after the pan-Arab aggression failed to wipe out reborn Israel, the global “Nakba” cult is the only case in human history where a failed genocidal aggression is equated with “victimhood.” While losing their aggression against Israel in 1948 was painful for the Arabs, it pales in comparison to the price that post-1945 Germany paid for losing World War II. While millions of Germans were killed in Europe, around 10.000 Arabs were killed during the Arab-Israel War 1948. The majority were Arab combatants, killed while seeking to kill Jews. The Jewish people also paid a heavy price for regaining its national independence. Six thousand Jews were killed during Israel’s War of Independence, constituting approximately one percent of the fledgling Jewish state’s total population. Around 500.000 to 600.000 Arabs became refugees after the war. Arab leaders encouragedlocal Arabs to leave and those Arabs who refused were called “traitors.”
The Orwellian “Nakba” narrative is false on numerous levels. It denies 3000 years of uninterrupted Jewish history in Israel while at the same time inventing the Arab Neverland “Palestine.” Secondly, it inverts reality by presenting the Arab aggressors as “victims” while demonizing Jews defending their national freedom as “aggressors.” The Arab refugee issue did not happen in a vacuum but was a direct result of the Arab side’s failed annihilationist policy against the Jewish state. At the time, Arab leaders openly threatened to wipe out Israel. In May 1948, the Arab League’s first secretary-general Abdul Rahman Azzam boasted that the establishment of a Jewish state would lead to “a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades.” The Arab genocidal threats against the Jews in Israel were not merely empty words. In addition to anti-Jewish attacks by local Arab militias, five Arab armies invaded the newly proclaimed state of Israel with the explicit goal of wiping the Jewish state off the map.
Meanwhile, around 800.000 Jews fled or were expelled from the Arab world. Unlike the Arabs who became refugees because of failed Arab aggression, peaceful Jews became refugees because of lethal Muslim Arab Jew-hatred. Most of the Jewish refugees were absorbed by Israel. Some resettled in America and in Europe. By contrast, Arab leaders cynically continue using generations of Arab “refugees” as pawns in order to perpetuate the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Why are Arab refugees fleeing failed Arab aggression considered a “disaster” while Jewish refugees fleeing Muslim Arab antisemitism are largely ignored? While Israel emptied some hostile Arab communities, peaceful Arab communities remained and became Israeli citizens. Israeli Arabs have benefited greatly from freedom and opportunity in the Jewish state. As a result, the Arab population in Israel is today ten times larger than after the 1948 war. By contrast, the Muslim Arab world is virtually Jew-free.
Anti-Jewish history revisionism increasingly insists that the Arabs were “secondary victims” of the Holocaust, “paying the price” for the Nazi crimes against the Jewish people. It has also become increasingly popular to equate Israel with Nazi-Germany. This immoral narrative is patently false. It ignores that Arab leaders including the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini praised Nazism and encouraged Nazi Germany to extend the Holocaust to the Middle East. The “Nakba” propaganda ignores systematic Arab aggression against Israel and repeated Arab rejection of a peaceful two-state solution. It pretends that a distinct local Arab nation somehow existed prior to Israel’s rebirth. Above all, it infantilizes Arabs by uniquely exempting them from facing the universal consequences of failed aggression. Israel’s unfinished War of Independence will only be decisively won when the Arabs are forced to take responsibility for their failed aggression against the Jewish people.