question 4 source questions Arab Israeli conflict

It was a published in an Arab newspaper just before the war so I think its purpose is very clear. It has been published just before to reflect the public hatred of the Jews in order to ‘rally the troops’ in other words to make sure all the public were doubtless of the armed forces objective of abolishing Israel and everything it stood for before they went to war.

Source G is an aggressive statement of destruction against Israel making it very clear what they think of Israel referring to Israel as an ‘error’ or a ‘disgrace’. It also states ‘Our goal is very clear – to wipe Israel off the map.’ This if obviously making its message very clear as this was a broadcast by the President of Iraq again reflecting public opinion and rallying the joint hatred amongst the Arab states against the Israelis. Again this was broadcast just before the war again reassuring the Arab people that they were going to win the war and regain Palestine.

This is correct compared to my own knowledge as the Arab nations did make very aggressive threats before the war and were adamant that they would win back their previous territory and regain Palestine. They were also very confident in there numbers as they had the whole of the surrounding Arab countries supporting the war effort and the campaign to recover Palestine. They also believed that the Israelis would never attack and were very confident in making these threats without any retaliation from the Israelis.

I think that Source G is more reliable to give us evidence of Arab attitudes towards the Israelis because the President of Iraq would not have broadcast this very bold statement to the Iraqi public if it did not reflect the Arab public opinion and attitudes towards the Israelis. Although this could have been propaganda that the President would have made this statement in order to rally his people. Source B is less reliable because it comes across as being a very mocking portrayal showing a very stereotypical Jewish character in a very cartoon form which would not be found in any history book or formal document. This makes me think that is just a propaganda article published in an Arab newspaper to ‘rally the troops’ by mocking and undermining the Israelis.