Lest we forget...

[Coyote]

Why would a hill overlooking the major highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv NOT be a military objective during the siege of Jerusalem?

One reason would be that Deir Yassin had had a pact with both Haganah and Givat Shaul and there is no evidence given that they violated it.

The designation of whether or not a particular place is of military value is not the existence of a peace pact between two nearby villages.

Deir Yassin was of military value because it could serve as a potential base for attacks on the main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The INTENT of the Arab forces was to cut off supplies, military reinforcements and the majority of the Jewish population from Jerusalem. Deir Yassin, and other nearby locations had, in fact, been used to attack convoys of supplies in the previous days and months. It was also considered, by the Jewish forces, as a place to build an airstrip. Thus it was important to ensure it did not fall into the hands of enemy forces.

Thus the peace pact. Aren't such pacts themselves military tools to ensure such locations wont' be a problem? A pact of non-aggessin? It was no longer a military target because the pact took care of that, unless the pact was violated.

And we know that enemy forces were attempting to do just that -- use it as a base to attack the highway to Jerusalem. That is part of the reason the peace pact was made in January in the first place -- the agreement spelled out that those from Deir Yassin would not permit Arab forces to set up shop there. There is a general agreement that no Arab forces were within the village at the time of the attack -- but there is no dispute that Arab forces had been in the village in the days prior to and had requested repeatedly to set up shop there. There are police records of the villagers of Deir Yassin calling the police forces to rid themselves of the Arab forces.

So they quite clearly were honoring the pact then.

Further to that, there are the winds of war. The intent of the peace pact between the two neighboring villages was to avoid conflict. Once they realized conflict was upon them and likely unavoidable the villagers of Deir Yassin made preparations for that -- including gathering weapons and training and digging ditches and creating a town watch. They may have wanted to avoid the war (as the residents of Gival Shaul did), but that may not have been possible.

My point being that the peace pact alone does not unmake the value of military objective. Your claim that the village held NO military objective is proven false.

Did you want to argue this specific point further, or shall we move on?

I don't agree. The peace pact should have removed it from being a legitimate military objective. I will agree that it would once have been a military objective but at the time of the massacre was no longer. We shall have to agree to disagree on that one.

 

[flacaltenn]

The myth of the Dier Yassin massacre

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwj_wILZ_YbMAhXFkoMKHfghCL4QFggcMAA&url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12304&usg=AFQjCNGaT9A8Dlhj1On_1ymbTb34wAkrjQ&sig2=zD7LAppz9VklKyB2duXSHQ&bvm=bv.119028448,d.amc

Quote

For 64 years, since 1948, the recollection of the so-called "massacre" of the Arab village of Deir Yassin has been a crucible and a formative experience in Arab Jewish relations, in Israel in particular, but also throughout the whole Arab world.

The massacre story has been an important factor in establishing the idea of a Palestinian nation.

The so-called massacre has also been exploited by Israel’s left to undermine acceptance of and confidence in the Zionist state.

Now, Dr. Uri Milstein, one of Israel’s most pre-eminent historians, has published a book that appears in English, "The Birth of a Palestinian Nation - The Myth of the Deir Yassin Massacre" by Gefen Publishers, which marshals the facts to prove that there was no massacre in Deir Yassin after all.

The Story

The Arab village of Deir Yassin no longer exists, but in 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence, Deir Yassin was situated on the western edge of Jerusalem near the Givat Shaul neighborhood.

Although according to what became the accepted version, Deir Yassin was a peaceful Arab village, Dr. Milstein explains that this was really not so. Among other things Arab attacks against Jewish transportation in western Jerusalem emanated from Deir Yassin in 1948 and it was therefore necessary to take measures to take over the village.

The Jewish effort against Deir Yassin originated as a joint plan of the two underground groups, that existed before the declaration of the Jewish state,, Irgun and LEHI, also known as Revisionists, The scheduled date was 9 April 1948.

Milstein shows that Jerusalem’s Hagana commander David Shaltiel was informed of the operation and gave his approval. The Hagana also cooperated with Irgun and LEHI in planning the operation. The Palmach also actively participated in the fighting at one stage.

The joint Irgun-LEHI operation at Deir Yassin began at 4:30 AM on 9 April 1948. The Jewish fighters met serious resistance.

Yehoshua Zeitler, one of the fighters, wrote: “From every house and from every window gunfire was directed against us, and we threw grenades. The inhabitants had Sten guns rifles and pistols. Our men stormed forward from house to house while throwing inside explosive devices. We thought either them or us. For us it was a question of life, if he will live, I will die…”

The fighting in Deir Yassin did not conclude until the next day 10 April 1948. One of the outcomes of the battle was the transport of around 700 village residents to neighboring villages.

How Many Were Killed?

Eyewitness claims of the number of Arab casualties in Deir Yassin following the difficult battle were not high, and most were the Arab fighters disguised as residents - some even disguised as women.

But, strangely, there was a simultaneous Jewish effort to cite a larger number. This, the author shows, emanated from both public relations and political motives.

Mordechai Raanan, the Irgun commander in Jerusalem said: “On that day I did not know, and I could not know how many Arabs were killed. No one had counted the corpses. People estimated that a hundred or 150 people were killed I told the journalists that 254 were killed so that they would publish a large number, and so that the Arabs would be shocked not only in the area of Jerusalem but all over the country, and this objective was achieved…”

Amos Kenan, a former LEHI commander who fought at Deir Yassin, said in a 1996 interview: “My comrades told me the matter of a massacre is a complete lie. There was no massacre. There was a lack of organization…

The Consequences

Shimon Monita, a Hagana agent, relates: “After Deir Yassin I returned to the Palmach and took part in attacks on Arab villages. Most of the inhabitants fled before we arrived, and the villages were captured without fighting or after a short battle. Not only peasants fled from their homes but also urban Arabs from Jerusalem and also from other areas. In that same month the Hagana took control over Haifa. The Intelligence Service reported that the fear of a fate similar to that of the inhabitants of Deir Yassin was one of the factors in breaking the Arab inhabitants of Haifa and causing them to flee.”

Yisrael Bar, a senior Hagana commander wrote: “In the short term, Deir Yassin brought advantages and contributed to the flight of masses of Arabs.”

Milstein soberly reflects: “Without the myth of Deir Yassin, it is doubtful whether the Jews would have succeeded in defeating the Arabs of Palestine by the time of the Declaration of Independence Without this defeat, it is doubtful whether the State of Israel would have succeeded in coping with the attacks of standing armies from outside and attacks of irregular armies from within.”

Milstein, however, explains the other reason for the Jewish side's inflating the number killed, showing how the number was used cynically for political purposes by the left, which knowingly exaggerated and used the myth of the Deir Yssin "massacre" to discredit the two underground movements, Irgun and Lehi, which if was afraid would undermine its efforts to rule the new state of Israel unopposed. It managed to defame the two groups of brave underground fighters, their leaders including Irgun leader Menachem Begin, but thereby also encouraged the Arab use of the myth to villify the Zionist enterprise and seek revenge.

Monita said: "The dissidents [Revisionists] wanted to brag and scare the Arabs. The Hagana and Jewish Agency wanted to smear the dissidents and scare the Arabs. The Arabs wanted to smear the Jews. The British wanted to smear Jewish terrorists. They all latched on to a number invented by Ra’anan. We loaded 30 bodies onto the truck. That was the main group. There were about another 30; all told - about 60 bodies."

Arab Revenge For No Massacre

Four days after the Jewish occupation of Deir Yassin, there was a devastating Arab ambush on a convoy of buses in which Jewish doctors and nurses were traveling, en route to Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus, where they treated Arabs.

The convoy had to travel through the Arab Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and this is precisely where the Arabs set their deadly trap.

Yitzhak Levy head of Jerusalem Intelligence wrote:

“The explosions and the gunfire against the convoy in Sheikh Jarrah were like the outbreak of a volcano. I understood that something dreadful had happened…”T

There were unmet expectations that British forces stationed in Sheikh Jarrah would come to the rescue of the convoy. Then the Jerusalem based Hagana forces themselves were blocked by the British and failed to enter the picture and save the Jewish doctors and nurses from imminent destruction.

Milstein concludes the tragic episode: “At 1:00 PM the attackers approached the two busses, assaulted them and set them on fire. Some passengers had fled before then to the two armored cars and the ambulance…Remember Deir Yassin. Avenge Deir Yassin. The Arabs shouted.”

Seventy four civilian Jews were murdered in Sheikh Jarrah that day.

The Last Word - and The Longterm Consequence

From Milstein’s insightful conclusions:

“This book has tried to answer the question of how the Palestinian nation was created during the sixty plus years of Israel’s existence.

“It was by means of the blood libel of Deir Yassin which the Jewish left perpetrated against the Jewish right. Five weeks before Israel proclaimed its independence, the leaders of the Yishuv and the leftist elite gave the Palestinian Arabs their seminal myth – the so-called Deir Yassin massacre, which has become the basis for and the symbol of the Nakba that overtook the Arabs of Palestine in 1948.

“In addition to being the first in a series of such actions attributed to Israel, the Deir Yassin massacre has additional importance – it was the direct cause of the flight of most of the Arabs who were living in the territories that became the State of Israel. The fact that instead of fighting, the Arabs ran away from Jaffa, Haifa and Tiberias, even before the State of Israel was established, asserting as they fled that their destiny would be that of Deir Yassin, weakens their claim that they were a nation before 1948.”
End Quote

Wiki says it's a thing.

>> The killings were condemned by the leadership of the Haganah—the Jewish community's main paramilitary force—and by the area's two chief rabbis. The Jewish Agency for Israel sent Jordan's King Abdullah a letter of apology, which he rebuffed.[1] Abdullah held the Jewish Agency responsible for the massacre, because they were the head of Jewish affairs in Palestine.[5] He warned about "terrible consequences" if more incidents like that occurred.[6] <<​

Now why would they send such a letter of apology for a myth that never happened?

Your link OTOH is an OpEd. Says so right in the header.

Fact -- opinion. Know the difference.

Once you have Haganah and the Jewish Agency apologizing for it --- you really don't have excuses for such an event -- do you? It happens when "no-state" or "new state" authority doesn't really have control over militias and insurgencies.. It happened in a period of chaos and change. And it IS just as ugly as some of the over-reaches that happened in America during the Indian wars. EXCEPT that --- the US didn't have the excuse of being "state-less" or "new-state" disorganized.

 

[Coyote]

Why the emphasis that the Palestinians should "forget" this massacre, the insistence that it didn't happen? It happened. And there are no valid excuses for it.

 

[fanger]

We damn sure should forget

the whole story line is one huge pile of BS

Not one shred of coroberated evidnec ehas been offiored

thw whole thing is a corsk co shit

 

[Boston1]

The only account of this event seems to have been written decades later. With reference to some secret papers recently made available. Except they aren't available and when challenged no one can find them.

The whole thing looks like a scare tactic exactly as the Arab Muslims said it was.

Its a story, nothing more, designed to incite, both sides played the PR game and its gone on long enough that now we have people who actually think it wasn't all just a lie.

Sorry but I'm not buying it.

Show me these recently released papers LOL and then maybe we can get to the bottom of it all.

 

[Coyote]

The only account of this event seems to have been written decades later. With reference to some secret papers recently made available. Except they aren't available and when challenged no one can find them.

The whole thing looks like a scare tactic exactly as the Arab Muslims said it was.

Its a story, nothing more, designed to incite, both sides played the PR game and its gone on long enough that now we have people who actually think it wasn't all just a lie.

Sorry but I'm not buying it.

Show me these recently released papers LOL and then maybe we can get to the bottom of it all.

There are many accounts, including books and pictures that include the bodies, statements by eye witness', and the Israeli's themselves and an apology for it.

 

[Boston1]

Yes and many of those eye witnesses claim it never happened

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...QoWmZ6cW13OqiZlMzOw2ow&bvm=bv.119028448,d.amc

Quote

In this interview with the BBC he admits that in 1948 he was instructed by Hussein Khalidi, a prominent Palestinian Arab leader, to fabricate claims of atrocities at Deir Yassin in order to encourage Arab regimes to invade the expected Jewish state. He made this damming admission in explaining why the Arabs failed in the 1948 war. He said "this was our biggest mistake", because Palestinians fled in terror and left the country in huge numbers after hearing the atrocity claims.


Nusseibeh describes an encounter at the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City with Deir Yassin survivors and Palestinian leaders, including Hussein Khalidi... 'I asked Dr. Khalidi how we should cover the story,'. He said, "We must make the most of this.So we wrote a press release stating that at Deir Yassin children were murdered, pregnant women were raped, all sorts of atrocities"


In the video clip Abu Mahmud, who was a Dir Yassin resident in 1948, told the BBC that the villagers protested against the atrocity claims: We said, "There was no rape. But Khalidi said, We have to say this, so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews."


This false press statement was released to New York Times correspondent, Dana Schmidt leading to an article in the New York Times on April 12, 1948, claiming that a massacre took place at Deir Yassin that was reprinted worldwide and cited even in Israel as proof of Israeli atrocities

End Quote

 

[Challenger]

Yes and many of those eye witnesses claim it never happened

...and many more claim it did, including Haganah soldiers and intelligence officers



See around 28:15-29:23 for accounts that contradict you.

 

[Boston1]

Best We Forget

All the BS and political posturing that terrorist supporters love to sing.

The simple fact is that the incident most likely never occurred. here it is 65 or so years later and the best our poor dear terrorist apologists can do is drum up a few self hating Jews to sing their songs.

Sorry but no one is buying it other than the ignorant and weak minded.

BEST WE FORGET

Next

 

[docmauser1]

This Saturday was the 68th Anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre. As no-one's opened a thread about it I thought I would."The ma ssacre came in spite of Deir Yassin resident's efforts to maintain positive relations with new Jewish neighbors, including the signing of pact that was approved by Haganah, a main Zionist paramilitary organization during the British Mandate of Palestine." Palestinians mark 68th anniversary of Deir Yassin massacre

Yeah, 68 years since the "massacre", that never was, of course. Tell the lies long enough, and folks may, actually, start believing them, indeed.

 

[Challenger]

I think people tend to add mass "rape" claims...

I agree, the consensus view from all sides is that the mass rape claims were exaggerations in the case of Deir Yassin, but that does not mean to say they didn't happen, perhaps not at Deir Yassin, but elsewhere. Why would Ben-Gurion devote part of his dairy to rape cases reports if he wasn't concerned about the problem. Also it should be remembered that many Eastern European Jewish people in Palestine had served in the Red Army, which was notorious for the way it treated captive women.

The truth behind The Rape of Berlin

 

[RoccoR]

docmauser1, Challenger, Boston1, et al,

Our friend "Boston1" makes a good point. At some point in time, both sides are going to have to lay these wars of the 20th Century to rest.

All that the dredging of these past events will get us is the recurrence to the incitement of even more violence. But I suspect that is too much to ask. I know from personal experience that my mind will never suppress what I feel towards the Vietnamese, the Iraqis, the Afghans, or the Yemenese. However, at least in my family, it is not generationally passed on.

In my family, I am the warrior to engage. With my death, the family will be cleansed of it misgivings.

All the BS and political posturing that terrorist supporters love to sing.
The simple fact is that the incident most likely never occurred. here it is 65 or so years later and the best our poor dear terrorist apologists can do is drum up a few self hating Jews to sing their songs.
Sorry but no one is buying it other than the ignorant and weak minded.

This Saturday was the 68th Anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre. As no-one's opened a thread about it I thought I would."The massacre came in spite of Deir Yassin resident's efforts to maintain positive relations with new Jewish neighbors, including the signing of pact that was approved by Haganah, a main Zionist paramilitary organization during the British Mandate of Palestine." Palestinians mark 68th anniversary of Deir Yassin massacre

Yeah, 68 years since the "massacre", that never was, of course. Tell the lies long enough, and folks may, actually, start believing them, indeed.

(COMMENT)

As I've said before, the Arabs of Palestine (especially HAMAS and the Islamic Jihad) do have an active infection program of their next generation. It is so effective, that they think of themselves as "refugees" from the 1948 War. It has been 68 years!

The video opens with the idea that Gaza is the home of 1.4 million Palestinians, "most of whom are refugees from what became the land of Israel." And this is how we pass hatred on generationally. Of course we know intellectually that it is impossible to be true. In 2015 the age structure only ≈ 2.67% of the Gazans (male 20,667/female 29,155) could have been alive as a baby at the time of the 1948 War. The rest have never been residents of Israel.

Even as we talk today about the events in the last decade, after the withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) from Gaza (2005), Israel uses air strike and ground incursions to counter Hostile Arab Palestinian rockets and mortars into Israel. And that plays right into the hand of the provocateurs. The one concept that has been passed-on from generation to generation is the pledge that the Jews would never be defenseless again.

No matter what the ambitions were in 1948, today --- both sides must learn (first) how not to poke the bear on the other side.

The video pointed out that Israelis have demonstrated a remarkable achievement in the direction of Nation Building. There is no nation in the entire Arab League that presents today a level of human development superior to that of Israel; no Arab Nation even close. The Arabs of Palestine are actually trashing the greatest opportunity they have t move forward in the 21st Century since the time of the last Sultan.

Most Respectfully,
R

 

[Challenger]

EXCEPT that --- the US didn't have the excuse of being "state-less" or "new-state" disorganized.

Neither did Zionist Israel. By the time they declared statehood they had fully a functioning state infrastructure and military high command. The Haganah units themselves were well trained and in several cases composed of WW2 veterans from all the allied armies. All they lacked were heavy weapons and ammunition and aircraft, which arrived in the first weeks of the war. After the first truce, the Zionists were constantly on the offensive.

 

[Challenger]

Best We Forget

All the BS and political posturing that terrorist supporters love to sing.

The simple fact is that the incident most likely never occurred. here it is 65 or so years later and the best our poor dear terrorist apologists can do is drum up a few self hating Jews to sing their songs.

Sorry but no one is buying it other than the ignorant and weak minded.

BEST WE FORGET

Next

Standard Hasbarist response when your argument falls apart, resort to insults. Next.

 

[Challenger]

The video pointed out that Israelis have demonstrated a remarkable achievement in the direction of Nation Building...

Well so has Germany since 1945, but does that mean we should forget the Holocaust? Turkey has also made remarkable progress, so hey, let's forget about the Armenians. Russia? lets forget the Holdomor, Britain? Don't mention Jillianwala Bagh. I can probably go on.

We memorialise these events for a reason, in part they help us come to terms with the fact that none of us is perfect and encourage us to try to ensure that these things don't happen again (they do, but that shouldn't stop us trying).

Sweeping them under the carpet, the "best we forget" approach only means that they will continue to be repeated, again and again.

Oh, forgot... MyLai, anyone?

 

[Shusha]

I don't agree. The peace pact should have removed it from being a legitimate military objective.

Well, no. It remains a military objective. The peace pact was simply a tool for managing a military objective. And remember, the peace pact was between the two neighboring villages and not a pact between the general forces of either the Arabs or the Jews. Thus it had limited effectiveness. (Which explains why it remained on the Jewish "military objectives" list and also why the villagers of Deir Yassin took additional steps to protect the village, including building of ditches, creating a watch and stockpiling weapons).

The general military objectives at the time, and this is well-documented, was to ensure the supply route and access from Tel Aviv and the majority of Jewish-held land to Jerusalem. The larger operation which took place was aimed at ensuring that convoys from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem were not attacked. This was a concern because it had, in fact, been happening. (Thus the continued "request" that the village of Deir Yassin be used as a base by Arab forces).

So, if you are attempting to contend that Irgun and Lehi picked a village at random because they were in the mood to massacre some Arab women and children, I'd suggest you have fallen prey to the same "Jews are evil" mythology which causes some of our members here to claim that Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza.

Now, if you are suggesting that this particular village was not a military priority, I would agree. As did Haganah, whose response to the suggestion of taking Deir Yassin was: well, its not exactly necessary at the moment, but its on our list of things to do eventually, SO if you think you can hold it, go ahead".

It also seems clear that at least one military commander had a personal investment in attacking Deir Yassin having to do with his own personal history and animosity due to conflict between his village and Deir Yassin in the mid 1930's.

There are also several indications that a massacre was not the intent, though, yes, it was suggested. The idea was vehemently rejected (by Begin, if memory serves). Thus, the truck with the megaphone, while ineffective due to unforseen circumstances, was present and demonstrates intent to allow the villagers to flee. There are other indications as well.


The next question is whether or not the Jewish forces encountered resistance.

 

[Boston1]

I think people tend to add mass "rape" claims...

I agree, the consensus view from all sides is that the mass rape claims were exaggerations in the case of Deir Yassin, but that does not mean to say they didn't happen, perhaps not at Deir Yassin, but elsewhere. Why would Ben-Gurion devote part of his dairy to rape cases reports if he wasn't concerned about the problem. Also it should be remembered that many Eastern European Jewish people in Palestine had served in the Red Army, which was notorious for the way it treated captive women.

The truth behind The Rape of Berlin

Very interesting

lets review

Quote

I agree, the consensus view from all sides is that the mass rape claims were exaggerations

End Quote

So at last you agree with my original claims thats great, lets read on.

Quote

but that does not mean to say they didn't happen, perhaps not at Deir Yassin, but elsewhere.

End Quote

So now that we can be reasonably assured no incidence of mass rape or even a single rape at all ever occurred at DY you are simply going to move your accusation on to some unknown conflict in some unknown land ? Brilliant argument, those debating skills failing you again.

I'd move on but there's really nothing of substance to warrant further review.

The simple reality obvious within your post is you base your claims off, nothing. Its pure conjecture meant only to incite further hatred among those ignorant enough to buy into it.

Best We Forget

 

[flacaltenn]

EXCEPT that --- the US didn't have the excuse of being "state-less" or "new-state" disorganized.

Neither did Zionist Israel. By the time they declared statehood they had fully a functioning state infrastructure and military high command. The Haganah units themselves were well trained and in several cases composed of WW2 veterans from all the allied armies. All they lacked were heavy weapons and ammunition and aircraft, which arrived in the first weeks of the war. After the first truce, the Zionists were constantly on the offensive.

That's the way states evolve.. You think it happens like a Bernie Sanders TV commercial??

EXCEPT that --- the US didn't have the excuse of being "state-less" or "new-state" disorganized.

Neither did Zionist Israel. By the time they declared statehood they had fully a functioning state infrastructure and military high command. The Haganah units themselves were well trained and in several cases composed of WW2 veterans from all the allied armies. All they lacked were heavy weapons and ammunition and aircraft, which arrived in the first weeks of the war. After the first truce, the Zionists were constantly on the offensive.

This is way states are born. You think it happens like a Bernie Sanders TV Commercial? USUALLY requires have a military organization as a top priority. Don't you know this??

There was no organized Israel when this happened. It's the kind of "stateless" action that the world has to grapple with DAILY now because of 47 different stateless (or proxies to Iran/Saudi etc) Muslim Militant groups. And they answer to HISTORY.. Not to any of their allies.

 

[Coyote]

I don't agree. The peace pact should have removed it from being a legitimate military objective.

Well, no. It remains a military objective. The peace pact was simply a tool for managing a military objective. And remember, the peace pact was between the two neighboring villages and not a pact between the general forces of either the Arabs or the Jews. Thus it had limited effectiveness. (Which explains why it remained on the Jewish "military objectives" list and also why the villagers of Deir Yassin took additional steps to protect the village, including building of ditches, creating a watch and stockpiling weapons).

The general military objectives at the time, and this is well-documented, was to ensure the supply route and access from Tel Aviv and the majority of Jewish-held land to Jerusalem. The larger operation which took place was aimed at ensuring that convoys from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem were not attacked. This was a concern because it had, in fact, been happening. (Thus the continued "request" that the village of Deir Yassin be used as a base by Arab forces).

So, if you are attempting to contend that Irgun and Lehi picked a village at random because they were in the mood to massacre some Arab women and children, I'd suggest you have fallen prey to the same "Jews are evil" mythology which causes some of our members here to claim that Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza.

Let's back up one step here and consider WHO Irgun and Lehi were at that time before assigning a "Jews are evil" motivation.

Here is a list of attacks attributed to Irgun: List of Irgun attacks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The list shows a good many attacks that were certainly not aimed at military targets but civilians (market places, etc). Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang) was one of the more extreme Jewish paramilitary groups who followed a fascist ideology and sought alliance with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in return for transfering European Jews to Palestine and widely diverged from mainstream Jewish groups.

In addition, according to this article, the reason's that Deir Yassin was chosen was not for it's value as a military target but to make a point:

But militants from both Irgun and the Stern Gang were uninterested in joining forces at al-Kastal. They wanted to make a statement of their own, for two reasons: by mounting an independent operation against a high-visibility target of their choosing, they’d be entering the war against Arabs in earnest—grabbing a piece of the vistory pie they were betting on—and lifting their own profile in what was then seen as the Jews’ battle for independence. As such, Irgun and the Stern Gang’s agendas would get a lift, too—or so they hoped. (This would be Irgun’s and the Stern Gang’s first joint operation since 1942.)

Their second aim was more sinister, but not a secret, as it fell in line with Irgun’s Revisionist beliefs, which opposed either the partition of Palestine or its sharing with Palestinians: killing residents of the village they’d choose for their target—those residents who did not flee—as a means of terrifying the country’s other Palestinian residents, and inducing them to take flight as well. The Haganah approved—and agreed to provide covering fire during the operation.​

Given the above, it's reasonable to assume that targets chosen by those groups were not necessarily legitimate military targets but targets chosen to send other messages through the murdering of civilians and stating that has nothing to do with "Jews are evil" but with what was going on at the time with the different militias who each had a slightly different agenda and differing degrees of willingness to kill people for their cause.

Now, if you are suggesting that this particular village was not a military priority, I would agree. As did Haganah, whose response to the suggestion of taking Deir Yassin was: well, its not exactly necessary at the moment, but its on our list of things to do eventually, SO if you think you can hold it, go ahead".

It also seems clear that at least one military commander had a personal investment in attacking Deir Yassin having to do with his own personal history and animosity due to conflict between his village and Deir Yassin in the mid 1930's.

Agree with the latter.

 

[Coyote]

There are also several indications that a massacre was not the intent, though, yes, it was suggested. The idea was vehemently rejected (by Begin, if memory serves). Thus, the truck with the megaphone, while ineffective due to unforseen circumstances, was present and demonstrates intent to allow the villagers to flee. There are other indications as well.


The next question is whether or not the Jewish forces encountered resistance.

I think the evidence that a massacre was not the intent is weak, for several reasons. One is Irgun/Lehi's intent to terrify the Arabs and make a strong statement in the process. A massacre is the most effective means of doing so and indeed, it was one of the biggest drivers in pushing the Palestinians to flee their homes elsewhere.

Begin may have rejected the idea, but Irgun, under Begin's leadership, conducted some of it's most viscious attacks against civilian targets where previously, attacks had been more against military and police targets.

From the same article I quoted from before:

Were people warned to leave by loudspeaker?


Much space has been wasted on a truck, covered pickup or armored car with a loudspeaker, that either did or did not warn villagers about the impending attack. For example, see ZOA study, 1998: The first of the Jewish fighting units to reach Deir Yassin was led by a truck armed with a loudspeaker. An Iraqi-born Jew, who spoke fluent Arabic, called out to the residents to leave via the western exit from Deir Yassin, which the attackers had left clear for that purpose. Soon after entering the town, however, the truck was hit by Arab gunfire and careened into a ditch. 51


No reference is given in the ZOA study. All other references insist that this truck never got into the village.,51 According to Milstein, “The armored car with the loudspeaker left Givat Shaul a few minutes before 5:00 AM as planned, and by then the battle had already started.” So it was not leading the first unit in this account. Moreover, according to Milstein, the truck never got into the village at all: Ezra Yachin related, “After we filled in the ditch we continued travelling. We passed two barricades and stopped in front of the third, 30 meters away from the village. One of us called out on the loudspeaker in Arabic, telling the inhabitants to put down their weapons and flee. I don’t know if they heard, and I know these appeals had no effect. We alighted from the armored car and joined the attack” 52


There is no mention of being fired upon as the reason for stopping, as in the ZOA report.


An Arab witness in the BBC/WGBH documentary film on the Israel-Palestinian struggle stated that he heard the loudspeaker. So we must assume that at least some people heard this truck. However, the fact is that no Arabs were ever allowed to return to Deir Yassin. Warning people to evacuate there homes forever is not a humanitarian gestures, but a psychological warfare scare tactic.


The whole question is beside the point. It was either a humanitarian gesture that failed, or a device to scare the defenders into leaving. But if the village was peaceful, and had a pact like Abu Ghosh, it could have been taken peacefully like Abu Ghosh, as the Haganah apparently planned. The importance of the truck is that Menachem Begin said, in a radio broadcast soon after the event, that the truck was a great humanitarian gesture, and he repeated that that villagers had been warned by the truck in his book “In the Underground,” 53 though by that time he certainly knew it was not true.​

They would have encountered some resistance - after all, the village was being attacked despite a pact of non-aggression. But given the lack of experience, poor equipment and organizational abilities of the attacking forces, it's amazing only 5 attackers were killed by the villagers.


Deir Yassin: The Massacre

On April 9, 1948, one month before Israel declared itself a nation, a force of about 120 members of Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL) and the Lehi, or Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin and massacred up to 130 Palestinians, most of them women, children and older people.

The village was not undefended. Villagers killed five attackers and wounded 30 others. As Israeli historian Benny Morris wrote, “Deir Yassin is not remembered as a military operation, but rather for the atrocities committed by the IZL and LHI troops during and immediately after the drawn-out battle: Whole families were riddled with bullets and grenade fragments and buried when houses were blown up on top of them; men, women and children were mowed down as they emerged from houses; individuals were taken aside and shot. At the end of the battle, groups of old men, women and children were trucked through West Jerusalem’s streets in a kind of ‘victory parade’ and then dumped in (Arab) East Jerusalem.”​