It seems that they kind of did, performing false flag operations in neighbouring Arab countries to "encourage" Jews to move to Israel: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230619-undeniable-proof-....

This link you are sharing is an example of low quality journalism or propaganda - whatever you want to call it.

I'll give you some context - in 1948 Egypt declared war on Israel, which ended with a cease fire in 1949. From this context, it should become obvious that Israeli espionage operations in Egypt in early 1950s are warranted.

Even Avi Shlaim referenced in your article admits that it was mainly Arab nationalists who were driving the Jews out. These reactions are very similar to modern day shootings at Jewish schools in Canada or airport pogrom in Dagestan - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67258332

Pro-Palestinian crowd is unable to admit that they have imperfections and blames all these events on Israel / Zionists as well (I read a lot of forums from both sides). A common reference is "they made us do it" / "it was a Zionist school / plane". Drawing parallels between today and 1950s, it becomes very clear that it's old propaganda playbook trick. I would go even further and say it's a millenia-old antisemitism, where people would blame everything on Jews / witches / etc.

Now, back to the article you shared - "undeniable proof" - is an interview of a 89-year old man, who did not even hold the leadership role in an underground Jewish cell and did not claim first-hand participation in any of the events. More so, his interview is full of contradictory statements, including dates and attributions of who did what - I encourage you to do more research on that.

So on one hand, you have this "undeniable proof", and on the other hand you have many well documented actions of Arab nationalists and Iraqi government. And you choose to believe (even contradictory to Avi Shlaim) that it's all Zionists.

Next, thinking logically, there was no need for Mossad to do false flag operations, because there were enough actions by Arab nationalists and before 1950 there was a policy in place by Iraqi government banning Jews from emigrating to Israel - like if Jews didn't want to emigrate, why would they ban this? Once they lifted the policy, everybody left. This is very similar to USSR where millions of Jews left in early 1990s after the fall of the USSR. Probably propagandists will soon be explaining that this was Mossad false flag operations or some other Zionist tricks - I wouldn't be surprised.

My understanding of this history is that the Arab Jews weren’t exiled in the same manner as Palestinians from Palestine. But rather these were mostly a series of voluntary exoduses with post-hoc discrimination (though some were no doubt pushed out under threat of violence). As I understand it Iraq banned Jewish emigration in an effort to prevent Zionists from getting an ethnographic majority in the newly independent Israel. It was this ban on emigration which stripped the Arab Jews of their possessions as well as their citizenship. A human rights violation without a doubt, but not the same crime as the terror campaign Israelis did against Palestinians in the Nakba nor the same crime of exiling a large part of the population and not granting them the right of return.

However unlike Israel, these neighboring countries have all reversed their discriminatory policies, and I think some have even offered reparations (I think all offer the right right of return; but few have taken the offer)[1]

1: https://archive.is/2VdrP

You are very, very wrong. Egypt tortured and dispossessed its Jews, forcing them out at gunpoint while holding their family members hostage so they wouldn't speak to the press. Syria made it illegal for Jews to buy property, own a telephone, or even drive. Even Palestinians in Ramallah can do more than that! To this day if you're Jewish in most of these countries your life is in serious danger, which is why almost none of them have any Jewish population to speak of, despite once having millions of native Jews — who were ethnically cleansed and fled to Israel. Meanwhile, the last living Jew in Yemen is currently detained and being tortured by the Houthis (and has been for years) — the Houthi official slogan includes the phrase "a curse upon the Jews."

I suspect you are no great defender of the WW2 American internment camps for Japanese Americans, and stripping them of their rights and properties — and that you don't blame Japan for those abuses, despite Japan attacking Pearl Harbor. Blaming Israel for the Arab countries' horrendous abuse of Mizrahi Jews is similar, except more absurd: Israel didn't even attack those countries, it simply existed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_the_Musli...

The Wikipedia article you posted confirms my understanding of this, that there were indeed people pushed to leave because of violence and discrimination, but most people still left voluntarily.

Note that the article I posted is an example of a person who’s family was pushed out, but returned recently many decades later.

This is very different from the terrorism and expulsion of Palestinians out of Palestine, which was exclusively a violent affair.

Again, you're wrong. Many Palestinians stayed peacefully in Israel, and form 20% of Israeli society and e.g. vote, serve in government, etc — in fact, the pre-Bibi administration less than five years ago was a three-way coalition between a left-wing Jewish party, a secular right-wing Jewish party, and a Palestinian party: the idea that there are enough Mizrahi Jews remaining anywhere in the Middle East other than Israel that could accomplish the same thing is a fantasy. You are referring to the Palestinian refugees who live in the West Bank and Gaza, which isn't part of Israel (and until 1967 were ruled by Egypt and Jordan, and since the 90s have been self-governed). While there were violent expulsions they were less universal than those of Mizrahi Jews who were effectively entirely depopulated from the Middle East, and many Palestinians similarly left voluntarily as they believed the invading Arab armies would swiftly crush the Jewish state, and wanted to avoid being caught up in the war.

That doesn't mean the violent expulsions of the Palestinians were right, or that they didn't happen. They happened and were bad, and should be condemned. But you are wrong that the Mizrahi expulsions were less widespread or severe, or that the situation is uncomplicated. And they very obviously aren't about race, which was my original point! Mizrahi Jews and Palestinian Muslims are the same "race" by any meaningful definition, and are not genetically distinct. They are just different religions.

And not to be pedantic but you started off claiming the Mizrahi expulsions didn't happen and were "largely voluntary," and are now claiming you're "right" because some Mizrahi Jews left voluntarily: you aren't right, and denying their forced ethnic cleansing only strengthens Mizrahi resolve not to trust anyone like you — the Mizrahi, after all, are the base of the Israeli right wing for exactly these reasons (Itamar Ben-Gvir, for example, is Mizrahi; and 60% of the Mizrahi vote on average goes to the right-wing parties — the Ashenazi Jews are the opposite, and nearly 65% vote for the left-wing bloc, but the Ashenazi Jews are a minority [1]). You also invented out of whole cloth that Arab countries have paid "reparations" to Mizrahi Jews — although Israel has sought them as recently as 2019, to my knowledge no reparations have ever been paid, and certainly not on any scale like you implied.

1: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/282545/1/cesifo1_wp1...

On the contrary, the expulsion from Arab countries was much more of forced exercise, after many pogroms and anti-semitic restrictions of right of Jews across the Middle East. By contrast the Palestinians were not expelled but in most cases displaced by war (yes, with crimes/bad stuff on both sides...) but promised by the leaders that if they leave to enable the 1948-1948 invasion by Arab countries, then they will return to a greater Palestian once they won.