A new exodus for the Middle East?

Famed Israeli (revisionist) historian Benny Morris has written a controversial piece in today's Guardian. Ian Katz prefaces it with these comments:

The radical Israeli historian who did more than any other to force his country to face up to its responsibility for the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the 1948 war now believes the Middle East might be at peace if David Ben-Gurion had expelled all the Palestinians.

In an about-turn that will horrify his former Iiberal allies, Benny Morris argues in the Guardian that "perhaps, had [Ben-Gurion] gone the whole hog, today's Middle East would be a healthier, less violent place, with a Jewish state between Jordan and the Mediterranean and a Palestinian Arab state in Transjordan". He adds: "Perhaps it was the very indecisiveness of the geographic and demographic outcome of 1948 that underlies the persisting tragedy of Palestine."

Mr Morris's remarks will be highly controversial, both because of his stature as one of Israel's leading so-called "new historians" and because the idea of "transfer" - expelling all Palestinians - has recently gained currency among Israeli rightwingers.

According to American Samizdat, the two articles "make it clear that Zionism has always argued for the destruction and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. I don't see how the Jews can say that Hitler's ethnic cleansing of the Jews was an abomination while the Jew's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians would make for a better world. There is no difference. Both are unacceptable."

Highly charged, abrasive remarks, for sure. Be sure to read both the Katz and Morris pieces above.