Page 10-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, October 24, 1985
M-T
inion
Expects book will cause heated debate
exammes
:       ■.; By SHELDON KIRSHNER
TORONTO -
. Simha Flapan. an Israeli peace activist, writer and scholar, has just completed his latest book on the Arab-Israeli dispute. Flapan, a diffident, soft-spoken man, fully expects it to cause a heated debate, if not actually a row, in Israel and the Diaspora.
In The Birth of Israel — Myths and Reahties, Flapan deals with an extremely sensitive period in Israel's history, 1948 to 1952: He contends that "only by understanding what really happened ..in those years, particularly with regard to relations between Israel and the Palestinians, do wc have any hope of re.solving the Middle Eastern conflict today." . ■
In the. book, which he is presently revising for anticipated publication in 1986, Flapan examines what he describes as "the seven myths of Israel." Myths, he said in an interview the.other afternoon, "are a way of diverting public opinion from what really happened into what is.said to have happened. John F, Kennedy hit the nail on the head when he .said that 'the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and di.shonest — but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."
Flapan's work, which Is based on ofFicial and semi-official Israeli, British, American and Arab primary sources,.is an attempt oh his part to present the historical record accurately, "faithfully and objectively."
A formerkibbutznik, Flapan Wrote much of the book while he was a fellow of Harvard University.'s Center For International Affairs and , a visiting.scholar at its Center for. Middle East Studies. University publishers in the U.S. and Britain have, expressed an interest in his manuscript, but Flapan said he wants the book to.be published by a commercial house so that is it accessible to the general public.
The founder of New Outlook, the Tel Aviv-ba.sed Middle East monthly, Flapan received . several grants, including a Ford Foundation grant, that made it pb.s.sible for him to carry out the rigorous research that is at the heart of The Birth of Israel.— Myths and Realities.
The first myth, in Flapan's view, is that the Zionist movement, having accepted the 1947 UN partition plan, abandoned its concept of a Jewish state in the whole of f'alestine and recognized the rights of the Palestinians to a state of their own in their part of Palestine.
"My research .suggests that Israel's acceptance of the UN plan was actually a tactical move in a strategy aimed first at thw'arting the creation of a Palestinian state, and second at increasing
Simha and Sara Flapan made peace a family affair.
the territory assigned by the UN for the J'ewish state. These goals were achieved by the military conquest of Arab areas, and by a secret agreement with Trans-Jordan for it.s annexation of the rest of the Arab areas designated by the UN. for a Palestinian state."
Myth two is that the flight of the Palestinian Arabs from Israel; before and after its establishment, resulted from a call, by the Arab leadership and occurred despite efforts by Jewish officials to, persuade them to stay. •
Flapan: believes that the flight was really stimulated by Jewish political and niiliiar>- figures who felt that Zionist colonization and statehood necessitated the transfer of the. Arab population from Israel to the surrounding Arab states, v
The third niyth is that the Palestinians totally rejected the 1947 partition plan and launched a war on the Jewish community to kill the idea of
a Jewish state. In the face of this onslaught, the Jews had ho choice but to depend exclusively on the military option.
Despite the Mufti's call for a holy war against Israel, Flapan thinks that the majority of Palestinians "were ready to accept partition as irreversible," He points out that hundreds of Arab villages entered into noh-aggression pacts with tliejr Jewish neighbdrs and that "many Palestinian leaders" and groups initiated contacts with the Jewish Agency, the Histadrut and Jewish Socialist parties in search of a solution without war. Reconciliation efforts were futile, Flapan founds because David Ben-Gurion, Israel's Prime Minister, was intent on preventing the iemergehce of a Palestinian state.
Myth four, revolves around the thesis that the Arab stales unanimously agreed to invade
Shipwrecks in ancient harbor of Do]
Itorm uiieovers
:   ■. BV-
CARL ALPERT
JERUSALEM -
Two years ago a great, winter storm raged off the northern and central coast of Israel. The winds h./wled, the breakers beat upon the shores, and the swirhng waters.formed vast whirlpools which threatened disaster to any ships which had not been forewarned to:stay away; From his waterfront home in Kibbutz Nachsholim. Kurt Raveh watched with.enormous satisfaction. For nine long years he had been Waiting for sucha storm.
In the morning he donned his diving equipment and descended to the shallow depths of the an-. cient harbor of Dor, not far from Caesarea, and found what he had long been expecting. The storm had shifted millions Of tons of underwater sand and had uncovered the wrecks, of at least three ancient ships, one dating back to Canaanite. times, almost 3,500 years ago.
For six days Raveh and his colleague, Ehud Galili; hauled up to the surface preciolis historical treasures froni the three ships, in a race against timeand sand. Before the week.was over the rolling ocean waves had once again covered up the sites, but the exact locations have at least been pinpointed
The amazing finds are today the hottest show in Israel, and thousands of Israelis and tourists are streaming to the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem to see what the underwater ar-cheologists brought up. Example: They foujid a huge ceramic jug, too heavy to move. They broke it open, and out poured half a ton of old bronze coins!
Not everything was taken to Jerusalem, and
Raveh, who is director of the.Centre for National and Regional Archeology, as well as an official underwater inspector for the Israel department of antiquities, took us around his own riiuseum at the kibbutz, housed in a former Rothschild: •glass factory which is a museum in itself.
Amazingly, the heavy blanket of sand .served to pf'otect the cargos from deterioration and oxidization far better than if the relics had been.on land. Wooden timbers are in a remarkably well preserved .state. Raveh showed us a-batch of honey which had been crystallized 1,500 years, ago. '
The finds have opened up entirely new approaches to our knowledge of life in those distant years. Raveh explains: "The. sinking of each ship was very much like the volcanic engulfment of Pompeii. It was a sudden tragedy. There was no time or place to flee with.valuables, or to hide them. Everything remained just as it was/'
Around the picturesque old glass factory on shore is a remarkable garden, not of vegetation, but of ancient stone anchors, some as: much as 3,000 years old, and fished.up.from the same site in recent years. A Napoleonic cannon, dumped there by the French troops during their retreat from Acco, has a fascinating tale of its own. It will take at least 20 years just to study, and classify what has already been brought up, and that is only a beginning.
Bearing in mind the hundreds of millions of dollars in gold recovered from-the Spanish galleon.off the Florida coast,, we inquired about similar valuables here.
"The treasure hgrc is history," replied Raveh,: -a former Dutch airline pilot and adventurer, who settled at the kibbutz in J973. To him the huU ■
of a Phpenician ship is more precious than gold. Shelley Wachsman, who together with Raveh is government inspector directly responsible for discovering, recording and protecting Israel's nautical heritage, agrees.
Alongside the kibbutz are the parallel land excavations of Tel Dor, directed by Ephraim Stern of the Hebrew University archeology ' department. Dor, which was the only port of the ancient kingdom of Israel, covers ah area twice as big as Megiddo, and the remains thus far uncovered give promise of more excitement in the archeological world, If the preseilt staff engaged in this work continues with unabated vigor, they will need about 500 years to uncover it all!
The kibbutz operates a comfortable guest house which offers its clientele,: in addition to the usual seashore and resort amenities, opportunity to witness the digging.s at first hand, and pjerhaps even participate in them.'
Raveh shifts his gaze back to the sea.. Orily about. 150 metres from the shore, at a depth of no more than 3 metres, are the remains of those three ships. His dream: To build an underwater wall around those thre;e ships to keep out the shifting sands, and to transform the area into a subsurface aquarium, where visitors can descend, and from behind glass .see the ships, which stand almost upright. "There is more to see here than jus.t looking at the tropicarfTsh in the undexwater aquariums in Eilaf," he sjiy^s. _^Raveh continues to study the. finds he brought Up during tho.se hectic six days, and each day. brings new.discdveries. As winter approaches, he keeps his eye oh the horizon. There may be-^ another great storm, be says with gleeful and . hopeful anticipation.
Palestine after Britain's withdrawal in order to liquidate the newly-created Jewish .state.
According to Flapan, the goal of Arab intervention was to prevent the implementation of a secret agreement between the provisional Jewish government and the rulier of Trans-Jordan, the Emir Abdullah.
Under the agreement, Trans-Jordan would not interfere with the establishment of a Jewish state as long as the Jews did not annex Arab areas designated for a Palestinian state. "Although the Israeli agreement with Abdullah did not prevent bl(X)dy clashes between Israel's forces and Trans-Jordan's.Arab Legiph, it was respected in the 1948 war to a degree which amounted to military ■ collusion,".' Flapan said. .
The fifth myth, Flapan argues, is that the Arab invasion of Israel made the War of Independence inevitable.
"The current research suggests that the 1948 war was not inevitable, and that it could have been avoided by postponing the proclamation of Jewish statehood."
Flapan,' whgWas nationaf secretary of the Mapam. Party from J 949 to 1952. clainrs that war could have been forestalled had Israel accepted a last-minute American truce prop(;isal. In his opi-. nion, postponement of Israeli independence ■ could have brought the Arab governments to a gradual acquiescence to the new reality of a Jewish state in the Middle East."
The sixth myth, Flapan said, is that Israel was at a grave military disadvantage in its struggle with the Arabs.
In fact, Israel possessed an edge over the Arabs in terms of militarily-trained and experienced manpower, as well as in heavy artillery, sophisticated arrhs, aircraft, and nayal vessels. Israel also was superior in strategic planning, discipline^ morale and determination to win.
The seventh and last myth explored by him is that Israel hewed to a strict policy of non-alignment vis-a-vis the U^S, and the Soviet Union, since both supported the UN partition plan . and Israel was aware of the global nature of the Jewish people.
"Rather than non-alignment and friendship with both super powers, Israeli policy was skillful exploitation of the Cold War and U.S.Soviet rivalries in thejVliddle East, for the sake of Israel's own territorial expansion and its economic and military consolidation," Flapan said. ■
Asked whether he had been.surprised by his findings, Flapan .said yes. He,-too,, had more or less taken for granted the validity of the historical •record,
. Flapan readily admitted that parts of his book make for "painful reading," but he considers self-criticism as a source of strength rather than weakness:
He does not want to leave the impr^ion that Israel bears responsibility for the escalation of the Middle Eastern conflict. "The Arabs conducted wrong and fallacious policies,'* he stated bluntly. "They were the victims of belligerent propaganda."
He said that some Arab scholars are beginning to examine Arab policies "in the same spirit" as he approached his subject. Flapan said it was not his intention, in The Birth of Israel, to study Arab policy per sc;
Flapan. author of Zionism and the Palestinians:. 1917-1948, said his ";point of departure" was that if past errors.are recognized, their recurrence can be prevented.
Born in Poland in 19M, he immigrated to Palestine together with his bride, Sarah, in 1930. Joining Kibbutz Can Shmuel, which.he left a few years ago to live inTel Aviv, Flapan was actively involved in.the.Hasbomer Hatzair youth movement, .
Inspired by the advice of philosopher Martin Buber, he established New Outlook, which remains a voice of liberalism on the Israeli scene. . Flapan edited the magazine for hiore than 20 years, iintil 1982, and he also directed Mapam's Arab affairs department. (Mapam was in the ruling coalition government until the defeat of the Labor Party in th^ 1977 election). .,
Flapan also founded the Jewish-Arab Institute in Givat Haviva.and the International Centre for Peace in the Middle East, in Tel Aviv.
The father of three children, all married, Flapan iis optimistic that the Arab-Isiraeli dispute can be resolved peacefully. "Both sides have to recognize that Palestine is for t\vo people, Jews and Arabs," he said..
In brief, he believes that the conflict can be defused by the creation of a West Bank-Gaza Strip Palestinian state, with suitable security guarantees for Israel.
Although he will be 75 sooui Flapan has ho doubt that the problem will be solved within his lifetime. "There is no other solution," hie said, with all the conviction of a person who knows he is right.