From historian Seth Frantzman:
Sixty-two Jews were murdered by Arabs in the first week after the
UN partition plan was passed, and by May 15, 1948, a total of 1,256
Jews had been killed, most of them civilians. These deaths were
caused by Arab militias, gangs, terrorists and army units which
attacked every place of Jewish inhabitation in Palestine.
The attacks succeeded in placing Jerusalem under siege and
eventually cutting off its water supply. All Jewish villages in the
Negev were attacked, and Jews had to go about the country in
convoys. In every major city where Jews and Arabs lived in mixed
neighborhoods the Jewish areas came under attack. This was true in
Haifa’s Hadar Hacarmel as well as Jerusalem’s Old City.
Thirty-nine Jews were killed by Arab rioters at Haifa’s oil
refinery on December 30, 1947. On January 16, 1948, 35 Jews were
killed trying to reach Gush Etzion. On February 22, 44 Jews were
murdered in a bombing on Jerusalem’s Rehov Ben-Yehuda. And on
February 29, 23 Jews were killed all across Palestine, eight of
them at the Hayotzek iron foundry.
Thirty-five Jews were murdered during the Mount Scopus convoy
massacre on April 13. And 127 Jews were massacred at Kfar Etzion on
May 15, 1948, after 30 others had died defending the Etzion Bloc.
“A 2 year long [Jewish] ethnic cleansing campaign” is a poor description of this.
“politically we are…”
I agree. Do you?