Summary: Reading Time: 13 minutesIn <a href="http://www.theendofhistory.net/most_recent/complete-balanced-guide-israeli-palestinian-conflict-chapter-7-palestine-partition/">yesterday’s post we looked at the Civil War</a> that preceded the declaration of the State of Israel. A lot of commentators and historians mistakenly include this civil war as part of the overall 1948 Arab Israeli War. This is incorrect though. There were different fights, motives and causes of the Civil War when we compare it to the Arab Israeli War that we will look at today.<br> <br> Deir Yassin<br> The Civil War in Palestine would eventually draw to a close not by way of truces or treaties but by being swallowed up in the next series of events in the history that overwhelmed the fighting between Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews. In the final phase of the Civil War however I noted earlier how much of the fighting had degenerated into massacre versus counter massacre. Both sides were guilty of this – Palestinian and Jew. I think it is important to visit one of these more infamous massacres however simply because it played well into what was about to occur in Palestine.<br> <br> Deir Yassin is a small Palestinian city west of Jerusalem. Its strategic value in the fighting was minimal. In fact, had it not been for the atrocities that took place here Deir Yassin would probably have been remembered to history as simply a subplot to the more important battles taking place in nearby Palestinian cities in the fighting between the Palestinian Jews and Arabs. Prior to the infamous attack most of the Arabs in Deir Yassin lived at peace with their Jewish neighbors. A peace pact had even been signed between them earlier that year.<br> <br> In April 1948 the Irgun and Lehi (another unofficial militant organization belonging to the Zionists) attacked Deir Yassin. The reported motives for the attack remain unclear to this day. Some say it was to keep supply roads open to the Jews fighting in Jerusalem. Others believe it was a deliberate terrorist attack meant to inspire fear in all of the Palestinian Arabs. Whatever the reason might have been, Deir Yassin was one of the fear offensive attacks of the Palestinian Jews during the Civil War. Most of their fighting had been defensive in nature up to this point.<br> <br> The attack on the small city, some might call it a village, of Deir Yassin is significant for the level of violence and atrocities that were carried out. Unfortunately, this is also where the story of the conflict between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine (soon to be Israel) becomes very complicated because facts become contested at every turn and muddled by controversy. The Irgin and Lehi quickly and easily conquered Deir Yassin. Death counts among the Arabs ranged from 100 to more than 300 depending upon whose count we believe. Women and children were among the victims. Grenades were thrown into homes of people who did not even know what the fighting was about. Decapitated and disemboweled Arab corpses were found in the aftermath and at least one well respected Israeli historian has reported that accounts of rape by Irgun and Lehi fighters are also included in the post battle accounts.<br> <br> For the entire day of April 9, 1948, Irgun and LEHI soldiers carried out the slaughter in a cold and premeditated fashion…The attackers ‘lined men, women and children up against the walls and shot them,’…The ruthlessness of the attack on Deir Yassin shocked Jewish and world opinion alike, drove fear and panic into the Arab population, and led to the flight of unarmed civilians from their homes all over the country. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679720987/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=jbshreve-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0679720987&linkId=76f7ef004e41a6dea12edd1fde66a0b0">Simha Flapan The Birth of Israel</a><br> <br>
