Uri Milstein Livres

In the pre-dawn hours of April 9, 1948, men of the nascent Israeli state s underground defense organizations Etzel and Lehi converged on the Arab village of Deir Yassin. By the end of the day, many were dead, Deir Yassin was in Jewish hands, and the epic lies about the so-called massacre that happened there had begun. Deir Yassin is the most infamous episode of Israel s War of Independence. A basic founding myth in Palestinian culture, it serves as grounds for the claim that the Jews undertook genocide and mass deportation against the Palestinians in 1948. The continued Palestinian unwillingness to make peace with Israel stems in no small measure from the place that Deir Yassin holds in contemporary Palestinian consciousness. The Deir Yassin affair is also a founding myth of the new Israeli left, which casts doubt on the justification for the establishment and continued existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish national state. It is therefore not only a historic episode, but a very contemporary one. This meticulously researched book, based on archives and abundant eyewitness interviews, shows that there never was any massacre in Deir Yassin, explains the motivations of the various parties for the blood libel that sprang up around this affair, and probes its consequences. Uri Milstein brings to his exposition of the facts a lifetime of experience in Israeli military history and a keen eye for the truth.

This book, based on newly classified material, describes the Jewish defense actions in the 1948 War of Independence. Milstein discloses the internal frictions among the Jewish commanders; the subsequent elevation of Ben Gurion to supreme command; and all the events--political and military--of the first month of war. The book is singular in its critical method, in the vast number of documents consulted, and the thousands of interviews with people, many of whom have passed away. Instead of generalizations, the book analyzes in detail the determinant events during that first month. It is intended for scholars, students, and the general public.