r all. If Ben-Gurion had carried out a large expulsion and cleaned the whole country - the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion - rather than a partial one - he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations.
This quote is alarming to me because it exposes how Morris reframes ethnic cleansing as a missed opportunity rather than a moral catastrophe. His use of the phrase “cleaned the whole country” echoes the language of purification, suggesting that national stability requires erasing an entire people. The casual tone of this claim masks the immense violence it implies, turning forced removal into a tool for order and progress. What stands out most is how Morris’s reasoning reveals the deep moral corrosion of nationalist logic. By viewing human lives as obstacles to political stability, he reveals how easily the pursuit of a “state” can eclipse empathy, justice, and coexistence. The statement made me pause because it shows the historian abandoning his role as a truth-teller to become a defender of cruelty disguised as necessity. It challenges readers to confront how historical narratives can be weaponized to legitimize oppression and how the line between documenting history and endorsing it can dangerously blur.