Israel - the Facts, the Fictions and the Outright Lies
© David Burton 2019
Israel - the Facts, the Fictions and the Outright Lies© David Burton 2019 |
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Fair-minded people should ignore the misunderstandings, myths and outright lies being perpetuated against the State of Israel and Jews. Instead, honest people need to understand and appreciate: “(a) Israel’s sixty-seven-year-long quest for peace and security; “(b) the real dangers faced by Israel, a country no larger than New Jersey or Wales, two-thirds the size of Belgium, and one percent the size of Saudi Arabia, in a tumultuous, heavily armed neighborhood; “(c) Israel’s unshakeable commitment to democracy, including free and fair elections, smooth transfers of power, civilian control over the military, freedom of speech, press, faith, and assembly, and an independent judiciary — all unique in the region; “(d) the common thread of the threats of extremism and terrorism faced by Israel, the United States, “(e) Israel’s impressive, indeed pathbreaking, contributions to world civilization in such fields as science, medicine, technology, agriculture, and culture — contributions that are even more remarkable given the country’s relative youth and its heavy defense burden, but that, regrettably, are often neglected in the preoccupation with reporting on conflict and violence. “No country’s historical record is perfect, and Israel, like other democratic nations, has made its share of mistakes. But acknowledging fallibility ought to be seen as a national strength, not a weakness. And Israel’s record can be compared favorably against that of any other country in the region, indeed well beyond the region, when it comes to dedication to democratic values. [Emphasis mine] “Israel has a proud record and the country’s friends shouldn’t hesitate to shout it from the rooftops. And it began long before the establishment of the modern state in 1948. FACT: “The Jewish people’s link to the land of Israel is incontrovertible and unbroken. “It spans nearly four thousand years. “Exhibit A for this connection is the Hebrew Bible. The Book of Genesis, the first of the five books of the Bible, recounts the story of Abraham, the covenantal relationship with the one God, and the move from Ur (in present-day Iraq) to Canaan, the region corresponding roughly to Israel. The Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Bible, includes the following words: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying send men to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people.” This came during a forty-year-long journey of the Israelites in search not simply of a refuge, but of the Promised Land — the land we know today as Israel. FACT: {Islam and the Arabs cannot make any such historical claim.} “And these are but two of many references to this land and its centrality to Jewish history and national identity. “Exhibit B is any Jewish prayer book in use over the span of centuries anywhere in the world. The references in the liturgy to Zion, the land of Israel, are endless. FACT: “The same strong link is true of the connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem. "It dates back to the period of King David, who lived approximately three thousand years ago, and who established Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Ever since, Jerusalem has represented not only the geographical center of the Jewish people, but also the spiritual and metaphysical heart of their faith and identity. No matter where Jews pray, they always face in the direction of Jerusalem. Indeed, the relationship between Jerusalem and the Jewish people is entirely unique in the annals of history. “Jerusalem was the site of the two Temples—the first built by King Solomon during the tenth century B.C.E. and destroyed in 586 B.C.E. during the Babylonian conquest, and the second built less than a century later, refurbished by King Herod, and destroyed in 70 C.E. by Roman forces. “As the psalmist wrote, ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither; let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of thee, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.’ - - - “And for over three thousand years, Jews at the Passover Seder have repeated the words: ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’ “Though in forced dispersion for nearly nineteen hundred years, Jews never stopped yearning for Zion and Jerusalem. It is written in the Book of Isaiah: ‘For the sake of Zion I will not be silent; for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still….’ FACT: “In addition to expressing this yearning through prayer, there were always Jews who lived in the land of Israel, and especially Jerusalem, [Emphasis mine] though there were often threats to their physical safety. Indeed, since the nineteenth century, Jews have constituted a majority of the city’s population. For example, according to the Political Dictionary of the State of Israel, Jews were 61.9 percent of Jerusalem’s population in 1892. LIE: “. . . some Arabs seek to rewrite history and assert that Jews are ‘foreign occupiers’ or ‘colonialists’ with no actual tie to the land. Such attempts to deny Israel’s legitimacy are demonstrably false and need to be exposed for the lies they are. FACT: They also entirely ignore the ‘inconvenient’ fact that when Jerusalem was under Muslim (i.e., Ottoman and, later, Jordanian) rule, it was always a backwater. It was never a political, religious, or economic center. For example, when Jerusalem was in Jordanian hands from 1948 to 1967, virtually no Arab leader visited, and no one from the ruling House of Saud in Saudi Arabia came to pray at the Al-Aksa Mosque in eastern Jerusalem. [Emphasis mine] FACT: “Zionism is the quest for national self-determination of the Jewish people. “Although the yearning for a Jewish homeland dates back thousands of years and is given expression in classic Jewish texts, it also stems from a more contemporary reality. "Theodor Herzl, considered the father of modern Zionism, was a secular Jew and Viennese journalist who became appalled at the blatant anti-Semitism fueling the infamous Dreyfus case in France, the first European country to extend full rights to the Jews, as well as in his native Austro-Hungarian Empire. He came to the conclusion that Jews could never enjoy full equality as a minority in European societies, since the sad legacy of centuries of anti-Semitism was too deeply embedded. Therefore, he called for the establishment of a Jewish state, which he set out to describe in his landmark book Der Judenstaat (‘The Jewish State’), published in 1896. {Unfortunately, the virulent anti-Semitism of Herzl’s times have returned to France, Europe and elsewhere in the world of the 21st century.} "Herzl’s vision was endorsed by the British foreign secretary, Lord Balfour, who issued a statement on November 2, 1917: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. FACT: “In 1922, the League of Nations, entrusting Britain with a mandate for Palestine, recognized ‘the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine.’ “The rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi ‘Final Solution,’ spearheaded by Germany and its allies — and facilitated by widespread complicity as well as indifference to the fate of the Jews throughout much of the world — revealed in tragic dimensions the desperate need for a Jewish state. (Apropos, Haj Amin el-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, was among the most enthusiastic supporters of the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people.) “Only in such a state, the Zionist movement — and its non-Jewish supporters — believed, would Jews not have to rely on the ‘goodwill’ of others to determine their destiny. All Jews would be welcome to live in the Jewish state as a refuge from persecution or as a fulfillment of a ‘yearning for Zion.’ Indeed, this latter point fired the imagination of many Jews who settled in what was then a generally desolate Palestine, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, out of idealistic convictions, and who laid the foundation for the modern State of Israel. FACT: “Speaking of the desolation, the American author and humorist Mark Twain visited the area in 1867. This is how he described it: “… [A] desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent mournful expanse…. A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action….We never saw a human being on the whole route…. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. {This is how the Arabs in Palestine treated the land and is a vivid example of how little regard they had for the 'Holy Land'. For the Arab peoples, prior to the return of the Jews, Palestine and Jerusalem were utterly unimportant. Only when the Jews appeared and started to reclaim the land of their ancestors did the Arabs begin to invent the lies and myths concerning their so-called attachment to Palestine and Jerusalem.} “To fast-forward for a moment, any visitor to Israel can see the miraculous transformation of the land, as forests were lovingly planted, the soil was irrigated and tilled, and cities and towns were built. FACT:“Israel’s adversaries to this day maliciously twist the meaning of Zionism—the movement for self-determination of the Jewish people — and try to present it as a demonic force. Moreover, they seek to depict the area as well-developed by the local Arabs, who were somehow shoved aside by the arriving Jews. Their larger goal is to undermine Israel’s raison d’être and isolate the state from the community of nations. - - - FACT: “. . . this recurring attempt to brand Zionism as racism is a telling example of the pot calling the kettle black. The Arab nations formally define themselves by their ethnicity, i.e., Arab, thus excluding non-Arab ethnic groups, such as Berbers and Kurds. The same is true for religion. Islam is the official religion in all but one of the Arab countries (Lebanon), thus perforce marginalizing non-Islamic faiths, particularly Christian minorities. “In this vein, it’s well worth remembering the comments of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., on anti-Zionism: “And what is anti-Zionism? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friends, because they are Jews. In short, it is anti-Semitism.… Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews — make no mistake about it. FACT: “It is also important to stress that non-Jews have not been excluded from Israel’s nation-building. To the contrary. Today one-fifth of Israel’s citizens are non-Jews, including approximately 1.7 million Arabs, and Arabic is an official national language. Moreover, Israel’s Jewish population has always reflected enormous national, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity, which became even more pronounced in the 1980s, when Israel began rescuing tens of thousands of black Jews from drought-stricken Ethiopia who were dreaming of resettlement in Israel. The eloquent comments at the time of Julius Chambers, the director-general of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, bear repeating: “Were the victims of Ethiopian famine white, countless nations might have offered them refuge. But the people dying every day of starvation in Ethiopia and the Sudan are black, and in a world where racism is officially deplored by virtually every organized government, only one non-African nation has opened its doors and its arms. The quiet humanitarian action of the State of Israel, action taken entirely without regard to the color of those being rescued, stands as a condemnation of racism far more telling than mere speeches and resolutions. FACT: “The Arab-Israeli conflict was avoidable. “Shortly after its founding in 1945, the United Nations took an interest in the future of mandatory Palestine, then under British rule. A UN commission UNSCOP, (or the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine) recommended to the General Assembly a partition of the land between the Jews and the Arabs. Neither side would get all it sought, but a division would recognize that there were two populations in the land — one Jewish, the other Arab — each meriting a state of its own. “On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly, by a vote of 33 in favor, 13 opposed, and 10 abstaining, adopted Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan. “Acceptance of the Partition Plan would have meant the establishment of two states, but the surrounding Arab countries and the local Arab population vehemently rejected the proposal. They refused to recognize a Jewish claim to any part of the land and chose war to drive the Jews out. This refusal has always been at the heart of the conflict—then and now. [Emphasis mine] “(Indeed, some Arab countries and Iran, not to mention Palestinian terrorist organizations like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, still do not recognize Israel’s very right to exist, whatever its final borders, even sixty-seven years after the state’s establishment.) On May 14, 1948, the modern State of Israel was founded. “Winston Churchill captured its significance: “The coming into being of a Jewish state … is an event in world history to be viewed in the perspective not of a generation or a century, but in the perspective of a thousand, two thousand or even three thousand years. “Years later, President John F. Kennedy offered his perspective on the meaning of Israel’s rebirth nearly 1,900 years after its last sovereign expression: “Israel was not created in order to disappear—Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom. “On the subject of peace, Israel’s Declaration of the Establishment of the State included these words: FACT: “We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land for the common good of all. [Emphasis mine] “Tragically, that offer, like others before it made by Jewish leaders in the months prior to the state’s creation, was ignored. “On May 15, 1948, the armies of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria attacked the fledgling Jewish state, seeking its destruction. “In the course of this war, launched by Arab nations, civilian populations were affected, as in all wars. Controversies continue to this day about how many local Arabs fled Israel because Arab leaders called on them to do so or threatened them if they did not, how many left out of fear of the fighting, and how many were compelled to leave by Israeli forces. Importantly, hundreds of thousands of Arabs ended up staying in Israel and became citizens of the state. [Emphasis mine] FACT: “But the central point must not be overlooked—Arab countries began this war aiming to wipe out the 650,000 Jews in the new State of Israel, and in doing so, these nations defied the UN plan for the creation of both Arab and Jewish states. FACT: “There have been two refugee populations created by the Arab-Israeli conflict, not one. [Emphasis mine] “While world attention has focused on the Palestinian refugees, the plight of Jews from Arab countries, hundreds of thousands of whom became refugees as well, has been largely ignored. Indeed, many experts believe that the size of the two groups was roughly comparable. But there was one profound difference — Israel (and other Western countries) immediately absorbed the Jewish refugees, while the Palestinian refugees were placed in camps and deliberately kept there generation after generation as a matter of calculated Arab policy—and with the complicity of the UN. [Emphasis mine] Think about this: Israel withdrew entirely from Gaza in 2005, but there are still eight UN-run refugee camps there. Why? Gaza is under Palestinian, not Israeli, control, yet it seems that dismantling the camps would mean abandoning a hallowed symbol of Palestinian ‘resistance’ and replacing it with the normality of everyday existence. “There is no comparable situation in the world today where a refugee population has been cynically exploited in this way. FACT: “Until now, only one Arab country — Jordan — has offered citizenship to significant numbers of Palestinian refugees. “The other twenty Arab countries, with their vast territory and sharing a common language, religion, and ethnic roots with the Palestinians, have refused to do so. Sadly, they appear to have little interest in alleviating the plight of refugees living in often squalid camps. Rather, they want to breed hatred of Israel and thus use the refugees as a lethal weapon in the ongoing struggle against Israel. [Emphasis mine] “. . . And, difficult as it is to believe, Lebanon, for decades home to several hundred thousand Palestinian refugees, has legally prevented them from working in many designated professional sectors. “Unfortunately, the story of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries is not often told. “When the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries is raised, Arab spokesmen often feign ignorance or strenuously assert that Jews lived well under Muslim rule (unlike Jews in Christian Europe). Sometimes, they disingenuously argue that Arabs, by definition, cannot be anti-Semitic because, like Jews, they are Semites. “It is true that there was no equivalent of the Holocaust in the Jewish experience in Muslim lands, and it also true that there were periods of cooperation and harmony, but the story does not end there. Jews never enjoyed full and equal rights with Muslims in countries under Islamic rule; there were clearly delineated rules of behavior for Jews (and Christians) as second-class citizens. Violence against Jews was not unknown in the Muslim world. [Emphasis mine] “To cite but one illustration of the fate of Jews in Arab countries, Jews lived uninterruptedly in Libya since the time of the Phoenicians, that is, many centuries before the Arabs arrived from the Arabian Peninsula, bringing Islam to North Africa and settling—occupying?—lands already inhabited by indigenous Berbers, among others. “The vast majority of Libya’s 40,000 Jews left between 1948 and 1951, following pogroms in 1945 and 1948. In 1951, Libya became an independent country. Despite constitutional guarantees, the Jews who remained in the country were denied the right to vote, hold public office, obtain Libyan passports, supervise their own communal affairs, or purchase new property. After a third pogrom in 1967, Libya’s remaining 4,000 Jews fled, permitted to leave with only one suitcase and the equivalent of $50. In 1970, the Libyan government announced a series of laws to confiscate the assets of Libya’s exiled Jews and issued bonds providing for fair compensation payable within fifteen years. But 1985 came and went, with no compensation paid. “At the same time, the government destroyed Jewish cemeteries, using the headstones to pave new roads, as part of a calculated effort to erase any vestige of the Jewish historical presence in the country. There were an estimated 750,000 Jews in Arab countries in 1948, the year of Israel’s establishment. Today, there are fewer than 5,000, the bulk of whom live in Morocco and Tunisia. “Where was the Arab sympathy for the Palestinian population from 1948 to 1967? FACT: “With armistice agreements ending Israel’s War of Independence, the Gaza Strip was in the hands of Egypt. Rather than consider sovereignty for the local Arab population and the Palestinian refugees who settled there, Egyptian authorities imposed harsh military rule. Meanwhile, the West Bank and the eastern half of Jerusalem were governed by Jordan. Again, there was no move to create an independent Palestinian state. To the contrary, Jordan annexed the territory, a step recognized by only two countries in the world, Britain and Pakistan. [Emphasis mine] FACT: “It was during this period, in 1964 to be precise, that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded. Its aim was not the creation of a state in the lands under Egyptian (i.e., Gaza) and Jordanian (i.e., West Bank) authority, but rather the elimination of Israel and the founding of an Arab Palestinian state in the whole of Palestine. “Article 15 of the PLO Charter clearly articulated this goal: “The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national duty to repulse the Zionist, imperialist invasion from the great Arab homeland and to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine. FACT: “In the ensuing years, PLO-sponsored terrorism took its deadly toll, focusing on Israeli, American, European, and Jewish targets. Schoolchildren, Olympic athletes, airplane passengers, diplomats, and even a wheelchair-bound tourist on a cruise ship were among the murdered targets of the terrorists. “How did Israel come into possession of the West Bank, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the Old City? MYTH:These days, some people reflexively refer to the ‘occupied territories’ without ever asking how they fell into Israel’s hands in 1967. Once again, there are those in the Arab world who seek to rewrite history and impute expansionist motives to Israel, but the facts are clear. Here’s a quick summary of some of the major events leading up to the Six-Day War: FACT: “On May 16, 1967, Cairo Radio announced: ‘The existence of Israel has continued too long. The battle has come in which we shall destroy Israel.’ On the same day, Egypt demanded the withdrawal of UN forces that had been stationed in Gaza and Sharm el-Sheikh since 1957. Three days later, the UN, to its everlasting shame, announced it would comply with the Egyptian demand. [Emphasis mine] “On May 19, Cairo Radio said: ‘This is our chance, Arabs, to deal Israel a mortal blow of annihilation…' “On May 23, Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser declared his intention to block the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, thus effectively severing Israel’s vital trade links with East Africa and Asia. Israel replied that under international law this was a casus belli, an act of war. [Emphasis mine] “On May 27, Nasser said that ‘our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel.’ “On May 30, Jordan’s King Hussein placed Jordanian forces under Egyptian control. Egyptian, Iraqi, and Saudi troops were sent to Jordan. “On June 1, Iraq’s leader added his thoughts: 'We are resolved, determined, and united to achieve our clear aim of wiping Israel off the map.’ “On June 3, Cairo Radio hailed the impending Muslim holy war. “On June 5, Israel, surrounded by far more numerous and heavily-armed Arab forces likely to attack at any moment, launched a preemptive strike. “Within six days, Israel defeated its adversaries and, in the process, captured land on the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian fronts. FACT: “Israel had made strenuous — and documented — efforts, via UN channels, to persuade King Hussein to stay out of the war. Unlike Egypt and Syria, whose hostility toward Israel was unremitting, Jordan had quietly cooperated with Israel and shared concerns about the Palestinians’ aggressive designs. Years later, King Hussein publicly acknowledged that his decision to enter the 1967 war, in which he lost control of the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, was one of the biggest blunders he ever made. “Shortly after the Six-Day War, Israel signaled a desire to exchange land for peace with its Arab neighbors. While Israel was unprepared to relinquish the eastern half of Jerusalem — which contained Judaism’s holiest sites and which, in blatant violation of the terms of the Israeli-Jordanian armistice agreement, had been entirely off limits to Israel for nearly nineteen years (while Jordan desecrated fifty- eight synagogues in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the world remained silent) — it was eager to exchange the seized territories for a comprehensive settlement. But Israel’s overtures were rebuffed. An unmistakable response came from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, where Arab leaders gathered to issue a resolution on September 1, 1967, announcing the three noes: ‘no peace, no recognition, and no negotiation’ with Israel. [Emphasis mine] "In November 1967, The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242. “This resolution, often cited in discussions about the Arab-Israeli conflict as the basis for resolving it, is not always quoted with precision. The resolution stresses ‘the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every [emphasis added] State in the area can live in security.’ “Further, it calls for ‘withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict,’ but deliberately omits use of the word ‘the’ before the word ‘territories.’ The U.S. ambassador to the UN at the time, Arthur Goldberg, noted that this was intentional, so that any final settlement could allow for unspecified border adjustments that would take into account Israel’s security needs. [Emphasis mine] . . . “The resolution also includes a call for ‘termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.’ “And, not least, it ‘affirms further the necessity (a) For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area; (b) For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem [Author’s comment: Note the absence of specificity as to which refugee problem, allowing for more than one interpretation of the intended refugee population.]; and (c) For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones.’ “On October 22, 1973 — during another Arab-launched war, which came to be known as the Yom Kippur War because it began on Judaism’s holiest day — the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 338. The measure called for a cease-fire, implementation of Resolution 242 in its entirety, and the onset of talks between the parties concerned. Resolutions 242 and 338 are normally cited together in connection with any Arab-Israeli peace talks. “Yes, the settlements have been a contentious issue. “No question, but, like just about everything else associated with the Arab-Israeli conflict, there’s more here than meets the eye. “After Israel’s victory in the 1967 war, and once it became clear that the Arabs were not interested in negotiating peace, Israel, under a Labor-led coalition, began encouraging the construction of settlements, or new communities, in the captured lands. This practice was accelerated under Likud-led governments after 1977. “Whatever one’s perspective on the settlements, it’s important to understand Israel’s motives in moving ahead on this front: (a) Israel contended that the land was disputed — both Arabs and Jews laid claim to it — and since there was no sovereign authority, Israel had as much right to settle there as the Palestinians (who, it should be remembered, had never had a state of their own); (b) there had been Jewish communities in the West Bank long before 1948, for example, in Hebron and Gush Etzion, both sites of twentieth-century massacres by Arabs in which large numbers of Jews were killed; (c) the West Bank, according to the Hebrew Bible, represents the cradle of Jewish civilization, and some Jews, driven by faith and history, were eager to reassert that link; (d) the Israeli government believed that certain settlements could serve a useful security purpose, given the importance of geography, and especially topography, in this rather confined area; (e) a number of Israeli officials felt that building settlements, and thus creating facts on the ground, might hasten the day when the Palestinians, presumably realizing that time was not necessarily on their side, would talk peace. “. . . At the same time, polls have consistently found that a majority of Israelis agree that any peace agreement with the Palestinians will necessarily entail dismantling many, though not all, of the settlements.” FACT: “Those settlements which are today quite substantial cities, and which are nearest to Jerusalem and other areas adjacent to the 1967 line, are certain to be retained by Israel in any peace accord. [Emphasis mine] Importantly,” FACT: “the 1967 border was never an internationally recognized boundary, but rather only an armistice line marking the positions held at the end of Israel’s War of Independence in 1949. [Emphasis mine] FACT: “The United States recognized this critically important fact when President George W. Bush wrote to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, on April 14, 2004, that ‘it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of the final-status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.’ “The possibilities of peace. “In 1977 . . . Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat {made} his historic trip to Israel . . . An extraordinary peace process ensued . . . “In September 1978, the Camp David Accords were adopted, containing a framework for comprehensive peace, including a proposal for limited self-government for the Palestinians. (FACT: The proposal was rejected by the Palestinians.) Six months later, a peace accord was signed, and the thirty-one-year state of war between Israel and Egypt came to an end. - - - “But every other Arab country, except Sudan (under far more moderate leadership then than now) and Oman, severed diplomatic ties with Cairo to protest the move. And in 1981 the Egyptian leader was assassinated by members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, who would later become brothers-in-arms of Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network. “For its part, Israel yielded the vast expanse of the Sinai approximately 23,000 square miles, or more than twice the size of Israel proper), which had provided a critical strategic buffer zone between itself and Egypt. Israel also gave up valuable oil fields which it had discovered in the Sinai, a big sacrifice for a country with no other natural resources to speak of at the time. . . . It closed important air force bases that had been constructed. And . . . it dismantled {Israeli settler} enclaves in Sinai. FACT: “In doing so, Israel demonstrated its unquenchable thirst for peace, its willingness to take substantial risks and make sacrifices, and its scrupulous commitment to fulfilling the terms of its agreements. [Emphasis mine] “Israel and Jordan reached an historic peace agreement in 1994. “This was a much easier negotiation than with Egypt, since Israel and Jordan already enjoyed good, if quiet, ties based on overlapping national interests vis-à-vis the Palestinians. (The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was just as fearful of Palestinian territorial ambitions as Israel.) Israel once again demonstrated its deep yearning for peace and readiness to take the steps necessary to achieve it, including border adjustments and water-sharing arrangements called for by Amman. [Emphasis mine] - - - “Another opportunity for peace was spurned by the Palestinians in 2000-01. “When Ehud Barak became prime minister in 1999, he announced {that} he would attempt to reach an historic end to the conflict with the Palestinians within thirteen months, picking up where his predecessors had left off, and building on the momentum of the 1991 Madrid Conference, the first peace talks since the Camp David agreement, and the 1993 Oslo Accords, which established a Declaration of Principles between Israel and the Palestinians. As it turned out, he went beyond what anyone in Israel might have thought possible in his willingness to compromise in the interest of peace. [Emphasis mine] “With the active support of the Clinton administration, Barak pushed the process as far and as fast as he could, and, in doing so, he broke new ground on such infinitely sensitive issues as Jerusalem, for the sake of an agreement. But alas, he and Clinton failed. FACT: “Arafat was not ready to engage the process and make it work. [Emphasis mine] “Rather than press ahead with the talks, which would have led to the establishment of the first-ever Palestinian state, with its capital in eastern Jerusalem, he walked away, after preposterously trying to persuade President Clinton that LIE: there was no historical Jewish link to Jerusalem and dropping the bombshell demand of a so-called ‘right of return’ for Palestinian refugees and their generations of descendants. FACT: Arafat surely knew that this was an instant deal-breaker, since no Israeli government could ever conceivably allow millions of Palestinians to settle in Israel and thus totally undermine the Jewish character of the state. - - - Tragically, Arafat revealed himself incapable or unwilling, or both, of pursuing peace at the negotiating table. Instead, he returned to a more familiar pattern — on occasion talking peace while consistently encouraging terrorism. [Emphasis mine] - - - “. . . Much of the media, many European governments, and the majority of human rights groups played right into {Arafat’s} hands. It was only after his death in 2004 that some, though not all, of them finally realized they had been duped by the wily, corrupt leader whom they had inexplicably chosen to trust, if not romanticize. - - - “. . . the United States stood by Israel, recognizing and exposing Arafat for who he was and refusing to have any further dealings with him. “When Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Arafat, there was some hope that, despite his long association with his predecessor and a doctoral dissertation that smacked of Holocaust denial, he might offer a more promising approach to peacemaking. . . . “Regrettably, however, Abbas has proved a disappointment, especially when he walked away from a trailblazing two-state offer by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008. The Israeli proposal went even further than Barak’s . . . And so, yet another chance for peace, based on two states, was lost. - - - “. . . {Ongoing} jihadist attacks in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East will help the world grasp the true nature of the terrorist threat Israel has been facing . . . - - - FACT: “{Many} in the West who {in the past have} criticized Israel for its tactics in dealing with terrorism are now {being forced to adopt} those very same methods, including enhanced intelligence, surveillance, penetration, and preemption due to growing {realization} in Europe about radical Islamist {terrorism} activity, including thousands of ‘foreign fighters’ returning from battle zones in Iraq and Syria. “One oft-discussed aspect of Israel’s policy {against Palestinian terrorism} has been its defensive fence or security barrier, which opponents falsely call a ‘wall.’ FACTS: “Three things in particular should be kept in mind. First, the barrier, the initial segment of which was completed in 2003, has not eliminated terrorism . . . but it has limited the ability of Palestinian terrorists to enter into Israeli population centers and create havoc. Second, the barrier was built only as a result of repeated terrorist activity — an estimated 25,000 attempted attacks against Israelis by Palestinian groups and individuals between 2000 and 2005 alone. And third, barriers can be moved in any direction, or even dismantled, but the lives of innocent victims of terror can never be regained. “Gaza has been a test case of Palestinian intentions. “Israel’s total disengagement from Gaza in 2005, the brainchild of Prime Minister Sharon, not only provided a potential new start to the peace process, but also gave the Palestinians, under the leadership of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, an historic opportunity for self-governance. Would they begin to establish a peaceful civil society without the widespread corruption, violence, and anarchy so endemic in the past? Or would Gaza end up as an essentially lawless area, hospitable primarily to terrorists and their friends? Would the Palestinians aspire to build a model state living quietly alongside Israel, or would they use Gaza as a new platform for firing missiles and organizing attacks against neighboring Israel? A decade later, tragically, the answer is in. Abbas and his allies were violently ousted from Gaza by Hamas, which took over complete control of the area in 2007. Abbas has not been to Gaza since. Hamas, recognized as a terrorist group by the U.S. and E.U., has received support from Iran, diverted supplies to military purposes, launched countless rockets at Israel, built infiltration tunnels, repeatedly angered neighboring Egypt, and denied residents the chance to pursue serious political, social, and economic development. [Emphasis mine] “{A} key test for the leadership of President Abbas has been the challenge posed by terror groups operating within Palestinian society. Without firm and consistent action in confronting the enemies of an accord, including Hamas with which Abbas forged a coalition in 2014, the chances for moving ahead successfully on the peace front diminish dramatically. Moreover, the Palestinian Authority can never establish its centrality if armed groups have the luxury of operating both as political factions and separate militia groups. “There’s one other important point. If, after the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority had begun to introduce the values of tolerance and coexistence into the school curriculum, perhaps the generation of young terrorists we have witnessed in recent years might have acted differently. But instead they were fed a steady diet of incitement, hatred, vilification, and demonization of Jews, Judaism, Israel, and Zionism. They were led to believe that there could be no higher calling for Arabs and Muslims than so-called martyrdom through the killing of as many detested Jews — the ‘sons of monkeys and pigs,’ as some spokesmen regularly refer to the Jews — as possible. [Emphasis mine] “And this teaching has been reinforced by the drumbeat of hatred pouring out of mosques during Friday sermons, the popularity of notoriously anti-Semitic books like Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the use of Palestinian media as a mouthpiece for incitement. When Palestinian schools, the media, and the mosques stop this outpouring of anti-Semitism and anti- Zionism, then chances for building a foundation of true peace will increase. [Emphasis mine] - - - FACT: “Israel is a democracy and thinks and behaves like a democracy. [Emphasis mine] - - - FACT: “. . . Israel has a multiparty political system, and that these parties include every viewpoint from extreme left to extreme right, from secular to religious, from Russian Jewish to Arab. Apropos, Israeli Arabs currently hold approximately fourteen percent of the Knesset seats (and a few of these parliamentarians have openly identified with Israel’s enemies in conflict situations). “. . . Israel enjoys a free and inquisitive press. “. . .Israel has an independent judiciary that occupies a respected place in the nation’s life and that has not hesitated to overrule government, even military, decisions which are deemed to be inconsistent with the spirit or letter of Israeli law. “. . . Israel has a thriving civil society and numerous human rights monitoring groups. FACT: “Israel protects freedom of worship for all religious communities, indeed has gone so far as to limit the access of Jews on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, specifically to avoid tension with Muslim worshipers at the two mosques built there much later. In fact, since the 1967 Six-Day War Israel has ceded authority for the area to the Waqf, the Muslim religious authority. Could anyone imagine the reverse happening if it were in an Arab country? . . . [Emphasis mine] - - - “. . . democracy is a rare commodity in the Middle East. The dramatic events that began in Tunisia in December 2010, and subsequently spread to several other Arab countries, led some to believe that the advent of democracy was finally at hand, hence the name ‘Arab Spring.’ But with the exception of Tunisia itself, other nations, from Libya to Syria to Yemen, were plunged into chaos, violence, and disintegration, with little to show for overcoming the democracy and human rights deficits at the root of social problems. FACT: Syria’s late President Hafez el-Assad dealt with Islamic fundamentalists, killing an estimated 10,000-20,000 in Hama and leveling the city as an unmistakable message to other fundamentalists in the country. . . . Assad’s son . . . has taken state-instigated violence to an entirely new level in his country. “. . . Iraq’s former President Saddam Hussein handled the Kurds {by} using poison gas to kill thousands and destroying hundreds of Kurdish villages. “. . . Saudi Arabia reacted to Yemeni support for Saddam Hussein during the 1990-91 Gulf War. Overnight, the country expelled an estimated 600,000 Yemenis. “. . . Egypt has dealt with its own Islamic radicals, thousands of whom have either been killed or locked up in jails without due process, both before and after the Muslim Brotherhood took power from 2012 to 2013. Apropos, this has also translated into Egyptian cooperation with Israel in confronting Hamas in Gaza. After all, Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. - - - FACT: “Israelis . . . want peace. [Emphasis mine] “At the same time, peace at any price is no peace. “Israelis want to stop worrying about suicide bombers, attackers wielding knives, cars being aimed at pedestrians, etc. They want to put an end to burying their children, victims of terror or military engagements. In short, they want to lead normal lives, and they have demonstrated their willingness time and again to endorse far-reaching, even potentially risky, compromises in the quest for peace. “Israelis, however, have learned the painful lessons of history. Peace without secure and defensible borders can be tantamount to national suicide. And who knows better than the citizens of Israel, who include Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as refugees from communist lands and Arab extremism, how dangerous it can be to let one’s guard down too quickly, too easily? “Are Israelis simply to ignore, say, Iran’s repeated calls for Israel’s annihilation and its ambition, sooner or later, to acquire weapons of mass destruction; Syria’s chaos, death toll, and collapse as a unitary state; Hezbollah’s arsenal of tens of thousands of missiles in southern Lebanon capable of reaching most of Israel; and the blood-curdling calls heard in Gaza and the West Bank for ‘martyrs’” to attack Israel? “Our world hasn’t been terribly kind to the naïve, the credulous, or the self-delusional. . . . “Israel lives in a particularly rough neighborhood. [Emphasis mine]. . . - - - FACT: “Israel is . . . a country of Nobel Prize winners in literature and chemistry, of Olympic medalists, of concert pianists, and rap stars. There are more scientists and engineers in Israel per capita than anywhere else in the world. Newspaper readership and book publishing are also among the highest in the world. Tel Aviv is one of the most LGBT-friendly cities on the planet. The number of high-tech start-up companies and patents issued are astonishingly impressive for a country of just over eight million inhabitants {now, in 2019, over 10 million}. Medical advances, technological and communications breakthroughs, and agricultural innovations have not only benefited Israel, but also millions of other people around the world.” (Ref. 2) FACT: Israel cannot rely on its friends to always be there. Russia has changed from a supporter of Israel to a supporter of Israel’s enemies and supplies many of them with weapons and technology. Under Charles De Gaulle, France reversed course and stopped supplying needed arms to Israel and, instead, supplied them to Israel’s Arab enemies. The list of broken friendships is long and even includes, Israel’s strongest ally, the United States. With friends like that, who needs enemies? - Definition: Something that you say when someone you thought was your friend treats you in an unpleasant way. Look at the treatment that America’s supposedly best friend and most steadfast ally in the Middle East received from the Obama administration! Israel refused to join President Obama in surrendering to the Islamic fanatics that rule Iran. For opposing an agreement that could mean the extermination of the State of Israel and the 8 or 9 million people that live there, Obama treated Israel’s newly re-elected prime minister with contempt and disrespect. President Obama was willing to wage a political war with a friend and ally, and, at the same time, didn’t have the guts to stand up to a mid-east bully who almost daily has been shouting “Death to America!”[3]) Under Barak Obama, America’s once-special relationship with Turkey only empowered Recep Tayyip Erdogan to undermine democracy and promote an intolerant Ottoman Islamism. Isolating Israel brought no dividends. Engaging Iran and dropping sanctions has ensured its nuclear status and the alienation of America’s former allies in the Sunni Arab world. The U.S. policy with regard to Egypt was a disaster. The pivot to Asia was a toothless gesture.[4] Though formal peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel have been frozen for some time, and despite the diplomatic campaign that the Palestinian Authority has long waged against Israel at the UN and other international institutions, the situation on the ground often tells another story. FACT: “The Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister, Hussein al-Sheikh, for example, recently announced {2014} that an understanding had been reached with Israel to provide 5,000 Gaza residents with Israeli work permits. While over 100,000 West Bank Palestinians work in Israel and in the Jewish settlements, Israel {had} not allowed Gaza Palestinians to work in Israel for some 15 years. “The last Gazans to work for Israeli employers were farm hands employed in the Jewish settlements in Gaza until they were dismantled by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he pulled all Israeli presence out of Gaza . . . Ever since, occasional reports have appeared of Gaza residents, desperately seeking work, trying to steal across the border into Israel to find employment. With unemployment at 40 percent or more, it’s not surprising that some {were} willing to take the risk. Most {were} caught. Some are killed. “In addition to the . . . renewal of work permits, the crossings from Israel to Gaza {were} also being expanded to allow large-scale shipments of construction material to rebuild the enclave, parts of which were devastated by the summer war with Israel. An initial cargo of building supplies entered Gaza from Israel . . . on 15 trucks. In the coming weeks Israel {would} facilitate the export of agricultural goods from Gaza to the West Bank. . . - - - “. . . during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice at the beginning of October, Israel granted travel permits to senior citizens from Gaza to visit East Jerusalem and pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. For the first time in years, Israel also approved meetings and mutual visits of family members from Gaza and the West Bank. - - - “Economically, the border between Israel and the West Bank has been wiped out in recent years. When a West Bank Palestinian working in Israel - legally or not - makes about three times as much as he would in the West Bank, no walls or barriers will stop him. Indeed, tens of thousands of Palestinians from Nablus, Hebron, Ramallah and Tulkarem find a way to cross the border without permits. “The same goes for the passage of goods. The principle is clear: economics are stronger than any politics or diplomacy. Keeping in mind that 350,000 Jewish settlers - Israeli citizens - live in the West Bank, and 200,000 more in the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem - we can see Israel’s 1967 borders fading. On the political level, the sides can keep talking about a two-state solution. But on a practical level, there is one economy. It has taken hold already in the West Bank, and may do so in Gaza, as well.” (Ref. 5) FACT: In 2018, the “US condemned the attacks out of Gaza and called for an urgent meeting of the UNSC. US Ambassador Nikki Haley said the Security Council (UNSC) 'should be outraged and respond’ to the largest attacks emanating from Gaza since 2014, which she said are ‘directed at innocent Israeli civilians.’ “Haley said ‘the Palestinian leadership needs to be held accountable for what they’re allowing to happen in Gaza.’ - - - “The European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief . . . called for an immediate halt to the rocket and mortar fire. “ ‘Indiscriminate attacks against civilians are completely unacceptable under any circumstances.’ - - - "{The} British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa . . . condemned Hamas and the Islamic Jihad terror groups. “ ‘Indiscriminate attacks against civilians, especially those that risk killing or injuring children, are completely unacceptable under any circumstances.’ “France condemned ‘these unacceptable attacks, which are targeted at civilians' . . . "{The} Canadian Prime Minister . . . likewise condemned the attacks, saying ‘Israel has every right to defend itself against these deplorable attacks by the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.' . . . “. . . Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs . . . ‘strongly’ condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza at Israel.” (Ref. 6) FACT: “With the breakdown in relations between the United States and Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Abbas has taken a hissy-fit and shown his true colors to the world. Abbas is and always has been an anti-Semite. His doctoral dissertation, which he later published as a book, is a Holocaust denying screed. “Abbas engages in antisemitic incitement on a daily basis, both directly and indirectly. It was Abbas who called for his people to kill Jews, claiming that {they} pollute Judaism’s most sacred site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, with {their} ‘filthy feet.’ The Palestinian media and school system which he controls with an iron fist both regularly portray Jews as evil monsters, deserving of physical annihilation. “Abbas’s PLO and his Palestinian Authority engage as a general practice in glorifying terrorist murderers. As has been widely reported . . . , his PA and PLO also incentivize and underwrite terrorism to the tune of $300 million a year, which is paid, in accordance with PA law, to convicted terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons and their families. “And that’s just the money we know about. - - - “. . . Abbas himself has proven, repeatedly, that he will never support a peace deal with Israel. Abbas opposed Israel’s peace offer at Camp David in 2000. He rejected then-prime minister Ehud Olmert’s peace offer in 2008. He rejected then-president Barack Obama’s peace offer in 2013. Since then, Abbas made no sign of moderating his position. FACT: “. . . {In truth, any deal that Abbas} would accept, would endanger Israel’s very existence. So in the unlikely event that he reaches ‘the deal,’ his achievement will imperil Israel, rather than protect it. - - - “Hamas’s {2017) policy document departs not one iota from the Muslim Brotherhood group’s devotion to the goal of destroying Israel. “In adopting its new document, which calls for Israel to withdraw, first and foremost, from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, Hamas has adopted the PLO’s wildly successful strategy of engaging in a dual campaign against Israel, waging terrorist war against Israel on the one hand while winning the support of the West on the other. “Hamas’s document is a restatement of the PLO’s 1974 phased plan for destroying Israel. “The PLO’s plan – which it continues to implement today – involves accepting limited territorial gains from Israel. The territory that Israel cedes in each phase will not become a Palestinian state. Rather it will serve as a launching ground for a new war against Israel. [emphasis mine] “Under the phased plan, the PLO adopted the ruse that it is interested in territorial compromise with Israel, in order to advance its actual goal of destroying Israel piece by piece. - - - “Just as the Hamas document neither contradicts nor abrogates its genocidal pledge to eradicate Israel boldly asserted in its covenant, so the PLO’s phased plan and its subsequent embrace of the ‘peace process’ neither contradicted nor superseded its founding charter that calls for Israel’s destruction. “PLO leaders simply stopped discussing their founding documents in their dealings with gullible Westerners keen to win peace prizes.” (Ref. 7) “Regrettably . . . Abbas has proved a disappointment, especially when he walked away from a trailblazing two-state offer by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008. The Israeli proposal went even further than Barak’s in 2000-1, as Palestinian spokesmen acknowledged as recently as the fall of 2015. And so, yet another chance for peace, based on two states, was lost.” (Ref. 2) MYTH: Islam is often called the religion of peace and tolerance. Unfortunately, many adherents of the religion behave in a fashion that is inimical to these concepts. Also unfortunate is the failure of more moderate and liberal Muslims to come forward to rescue their religion from the fanatics that have co-opted the religion and given Islam such a bad name in the Western world. Until moderate and liberal Muslims come forward to gain control of their religion, the non-Muslim world cannot trust Islam or put any faith in their claims that Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance. FACT: “The Pakistani Taliban aroused the ire {of civilized people} round the world with their latest horror, an attempted assassination on a teenage girl for {promoting the education of} girls. They recently beheaded a 7-year-old girl and nobody noticed.” (Ref's. 8, 8a) FACT: “When, on 9/11/2001, President Bush was asked why these Islamists hate us, his answer was: ‘They hate us for our freedoms,’ which was greeted with derision by ‘intellectuals.’ They found this comment far too simplistic . . . remember the pitch of the Islamists that turned modernizing Iran into a smothering Islamic Republic. It was indeed those very freedoms that alarm Islamists. They obfuscate by going after the ‘sexual looseness’ of Western Women when the real target is western culture altogether. “Many assume that these fanatics are just misogynists, insisting that women be invisible in the street (under burqas), wear rubber soles so that they cannot be heard walking, and never laughing or (horror) singing in public. If these men could figure out how to produce babies without women, they would gladly do so. But this is only part of the story. “Women asserting themselves, after centuries of fierce suppression, is the threat to their entire system, religious and cultural. Women are the sharp edge of the wedge in the most divisive of all issues: tradition vs. modernization. This struggle is going on in Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and in every Muslim-majority country. The attack on the Pakistani teen reflected the utter terror of Islamists that they could be overrun by the seductive Western culture of movies and television, individuality, gender equality, participatory government, and replacement of a medieval religion by science and education. “Apologists for Islam blame all this loathing of women on culture, not religion. This is not so. The nastiest of Muslim practices (honor killing, enforced marriages of underage girls, and the decapitation of apostates or enemies) can be justified somewhere in the traditional Muslim texts. If it were just Arab custom, why are these practices also in non-Arab Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia? Bad practices are contagious, and when supposedly ‘moderate’ Indonesian fanatics bomb a nightclub full of young Australians, they defend their actions in court as justified by Islam and Allah. “We were not ruthless enough (nor could we be) during our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan to extirpate medieval Islam and replace it with modern culture. We were over our heads; the Russians were ruthless enough, but we aborted their efforts prematurely in the name of anti-Communism. How does one deal with an enemy that car-bombs a marketplace and the next day bombs the funeral for the dead civilians? Even the Mafia sends wreaths to the funerals that they caused, but not Islamists. “When a young girl defies Islamists by insisting on the right for girls to be educated, she is taking on a number of institutions of long tenure: keeping girls ignorant and obedient, marrying them off before their first menstruation (this model is in the Koran itself), and keeping them producing stupid and hapless boys who will sacrifice themselves as suicide bombers. What would the Taliban do without these baby factories? “The spate of demonstrations roiling the Muslim World today are the latest salvo on which way Islam will be going. Overturning secularizing dictators who failed to really change their societies has opened up the floodgates to chaos. Just under the surface of these recent modern nation states are centuries of sectarian, tribal, and ethnic hatreds. This is even true for Saudi Arabia, which is not the bedrock of stability we imagine. “Most Muslim states are overpopulated, undereducated, corrupt, and make nothing to sell that anybody wants. They do hate us for the very freedoms they most need but reject. Their religion and culture are bringing about their demise. “The sooner we recognize that this is a civilizational war with global implications, the better prepared we will be to fight it.” (Ref. 9) FACT: Islamists do not fight only against non-Muslims – they just as easily fight among themselves, and no less fiercely than against “infidels”. The major internal conflict arises between the Sunnis and Shias. While the internal war has significant ramifications for all of Islam, it also has important meaning for the West and all and for non-Muslims. “Once upon a time, Arab nationalism ruled the Middle East. Its doctrine saw Arab identity as the key to political success. Some regarded Islam as important; others were secular. Yet there was no doubt that national identity was in charge. “All Arabs should unite, said the radical nationalists who ruled in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, to destroy Israel, expel Western influence, and create a utopian single state in the region. “Instead, of course, the period was characterized by battles among the radical Arab states for leadership. The less extreme ones sought survival through a combination of giving lip service to radical slogans, paying off the stronger regimes, and getting Western help. “That era is over {Emphasis mine}. We are now in the era of Sunni Arab identity and especially of Sunni Arab Islamism {Emphasis mine}. With the liberals so weak, except possibly in Tunisia, the three main choices are between the Muslim Brotherhood; the Salafists; and conservative-traditional forces (as in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan) that will have some Islamic flavor but not seek to be destabilizing and aggressive in the region. “Sunni Arab Islamist identity’s primacy has important implications for both national and regional politics. “First,tolerance for other groups is low to zero {Emphasis mine}. The future of Christians in the Middle East is dim. Already, most have been driven out of Iraq and the Gaza Strip. If Christians in Syria and Egypt – comprising more than 10 percent of the population in each country – could find somewhere to go, it is quite possible that hundreds of thousands will be leaving in the coming years. Were the rebels to come to power in Syria, the Alawite minority – which has largely ruled the country for the past four decades – also faces serious threats to its existence. “Second, the regional ambitions of Turkey’s Islamist regime will come to nothing. There is a deep resentment against Turks among many Arabs and especially the Islamists. . . “Third, this situation is a severe setback for Iran. A few years ago it was possible to believe that Tehran had a shot at achieving regional hegemony. But the Sunni Arab Islamists generally despise Shias, and the new Arab leaders don’t feel warmly inclined toward {the Shia} Persians, either. In Iraq, circumstances – including a military defeat and minority status – have forced the Sunnis to accept a Shia-dominated government. That won’t happen anywhere else. - - - “Within the Sunni Arab Islamist world, the groups that we call Salafist for convenience – smaller organizations that demand full revolution now – compete with the Muslim Brotherhood, but the two can also work together. Their goals are the same. . . “The Brotherhood leadership, in Egypt and potentially in Syria, will have an important decision to make. They will definitely not become moderate. There is no doubt that they will institute repressive regimes at home, harass Christians, and reduce the status of women. They will also daily trumpet their hatred of the United States and Israel. - - - “We are not just talking here about theological differences but a battle between individual leaders, organizations, and states for power and primacy. Of course, though, they will compete in proving that they are the true leaders in the anti-Israel struggle. And the same point applies regarding opposition to the United States. (Ref. 9) There are many well-meaning eternal optimists in the world that simply accept at face value the claim that Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance and the “myth” that the religious and murdering Islamic fanatics practicing global jihad constitute a miniscule Muslim minority. On the other hand, there is mounting evidence that that both claims are untrue. One sceptic writes that, “It is simply false to declare that jihadists represent the ‘tiny few extremists’ who sully the reputation of an otherwise peace-loving and tolerant Muslim faith. In reality, the truth is far more troubling — that jihadists represent the natural and inevitable outgrowth of a faith that is given over to hate on a massive scale, with hundreds of millions of believers holding views that Americans would rightly find revolting. Not all Muslims are hateful, of course, but so many are that it’s not remotely surprising that the world is wracked by wave after wave of jihadist violence. “To understand the Muslim edifice of hate, imagine it as a pyramid — with broadly-shared bigotry at the bottom, followed by stair steps of escalating radicalism — culminating in jihadist armies that in some instances represent a greater share of their respective populations than does the active-duty military in the United States. “The base of the pyramid, the most broadly held hatred in the Islamic world, is anti-Semitism, with staggering numbers of Muslims expressing anti-Jewish views. In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League released the results of polling 53,100 people in 102 countries for evidence of anti-Semitic attitudes and beliefs. The numbers from the majority-Muslim world are difficult to believe for those steeped in politically correct rhetoric about Islam. A full 74 percent of North African and Middle Eastern residents registered anti-Semitic beliefs, including 92 percent of Iraqis, a whopping 69 percent of relatively secular Turks, and 74 percent of Saudis. - - - “The next level of the pyramid is Muslim commitment to deadly Islamic supremacy. . . “Moving beyond Islamic supremacy to the next step of the pyramid, enormous numbers of Muslims are terrorist sympathizers. It is still stunning to see how popular Osama bin Laden was early last decade, and even as his popularity plunged (as he grew weaker and more isolated), his public approval remained disturbingly high. “But what about ISIS — the world’s most savage and deadly terror organization? The latest polling data show that while a majority of Muslims reject ISIS, extrapolating from the populations of polled countries alone shows that roughly 50 million people express sympathy for a terrorist army that burns prisoners alive, throws gay men from buildings, and beheads political opponents. . . - - - “It is from this fertile soil that jihadists grow. And here the numbers decisively belie the ‘few extremists’ rhetoric. In Iran alone, the Revolutionary Guard represents a proportionate share of the population similar to the combined strength of the active-duty Army and Marines here in the United States. Between Boko Haram, the Al-Nusra front, ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Yemeni militias, Libyan militias, and many others, the number of active jihadists numbers in the hundreds of thousands; some estimates indicate that 100,000 are fighting in Syria alone. “To give a sense of proportion, the United States is a nation that honors military service, respects its veterans, and engages in a massive military recruiting effort that includes offering soldiers generous salaries, pensions, benefits, and the best military equipment in the world. Even then, only about 0.4 percent of the American population engages in active-duty military service at any given time. “Jihadists, by contrast, have low life expectancies, second-rate gear, low salaries, and often have to break domestic laws and journey across battlefields to join terrorist insurgencies, but still they join. In Britain, for example, more Muslims join ISIS than join the British army. [Emphasis mine] - - - Islam has a problem. It is Muslims’ responsibility to reform their own faith. It is America’s responsibility to defend itself and its citizens. Neither goal is advanced by telling convenient, politically correct lies. After 14 years of war, can we finally tell the truth?” (Ref. 10) FACT: The annals of modern history are filled with tales of the brutal and unbridled hatred that has been exhibited toward Jews and the Jewish nation. History also bears witness to the failures of those who have so behaved toward the Jewish people and to the disasters that have befallen those who have opposed and oppressed the Jewish people. The word anti-Semitism is often used to describe these haters of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish nation, but anti-Semitism is a misnomer. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word Semite refers to, “a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs as well as a descendant of these peoples.” Anti-Semitism describes “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group”, and not to other Semitic peoples. Rather than use the word anti-Semitism to describe hatred of and belligerence toward Jews, anti-Jewish or anti-Jews are much more accurate descriptions of such behavior. Some remarks about Jews and Israel from a few well known historical figures are as follows: Winston S. Churchill: "Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.” John F. Kennedy: “Israel was not created in order to disappear- Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.” Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: "Energy is the basis of everything. Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal... It is the most perpetual people of the earth..." John Adams: "I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews." Leo Tolstoy: "What is the Jew?...What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish. What is this Jew whom they have never succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast aside the faithfulness of his ancestors?! The Jew - is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear. The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity." Mark Twain: "...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. “The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?" “The Jew-haters, anti-Semites and Israel-bashers, along with the ignorant know-nothings of the world have long been spitting out their hateful screed that LIE: Israel is an Apartheid state. FACT: Nothing could be further from the truth! Israel is and has been - since its establishment in 1948 - the only totally tolerant and democratic nation in the Mid-east. Rather than listening to the outright lies and untruths being vomited by Jew-haters and the anti-Israel propagandists, ask the minority groups who actually reside in Israel if Israel is an Apartheid state. Go ahead and ask the same question about the other countries in the region. “ ‘In Israel, the majority of the population, or their parents, were born in other countries. Though most Israeli immigrants are Jewish, they are extraordinarily disparate in their origins and cultures. Not all Israelis are immigrants. Roughly one million people, many of whom are Arabs of Muslim faith, come from families who lived in Israel before it was formally declared a state in 1948. . . “ ‘The nation’s experiment in ‘Jewish pluralism’ has been remarkably successful, particularly given the extraordinary challenges facing the nation from outside its borders. . . . Israel has managed to develop, at least among its highly diverse Jewish majority, a thriving, pluralistic democracy and a strong economy. And it has achieved a relatively high standard of living for most of its people—even for Israeli Arabs, if one compares them with their Palestinian, Egyptian, and Jordanian neighbors. . . .’(Ref. 11) FACT: From its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel has always respected the rights of all peoples residing within its borders. “Israel's declaration of independence guarantees that the government will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed and sex.” (Ref. 12) FACT: “Even without the declarations of equality and tolerance for all by the current State of Israel, Jews have had a Biblical imperative dating back thousands of years to be tolerant of and kind to all peoples living in their midst. I refer readers to the following: ”Do not ill-treat a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in Egypt” (Exodus 22:20); “Do not oppress a stranger; you yourselves know how it feels to be a stranger, because you were strangers in Egypt” (Exodus 23:9); ”When a stranger lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The stranger living with you must be treated as one of your native- born. Love him as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33–34); ”For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are strangers, for you yourselves were strangers in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:17–19). How many nations or peoples throughout the world can make such a claim to national and religious tolerance?” (Ref. 13) FACT: “In keeping with Israel's democratic principles, the Arab citizens of Israel are afforded all the rights and privileges of Israeli citizenship. . . . “Today, Israel's Arab citizens are accorded full civil and political rights, entitled to complete participation in Israeli society. They are active in Israeli social, political and civic life and enjoy representation in Israel's Parliament, foreign service and judicial system. In the 1996 Israeli elections, nine members of Israel's Arab parties were elected to the Knesset.” (Ref. 13) In 2016, that number rose to seventeen. LIE: Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslim countries allow freedom of religion. FACT: Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslim do not practice nor allow religious freedom. At the start of August 2019, “The Jordanian Waqf, the Islamic trust in charge of Muslim holy sites in Jordan as well as the Temple Mount in erusalem – Judaism’s holiest site and Islam’s third holiest – announced the closure of Aaron’s Tomb on Thursday after Israeli tourists had entered the site and prayed there, according to several Hebrew-language media, citing Sky News in Arabic reports. “The site is located at the top of Mount Heron, west of Petra City in southern Jordan.” (Ref. 14) There are innumerable other instances of Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic religious intolerance wherever the Muslim faith is practiced. MYTH: Palestine was always an Arab country FACT: The word Palestine is derived from the Philistines, - an Aegean people, not Arabs - who settled along the coastal plane of Palestine in the 12th century B.C.E. In the 2nd century C.E., the Romans first applied the name Palaestina to Judea (the southern part of what is now called the West Bank) to unsuccessfully minimize Jewish identification with the Land of Israel. The Arabic word Filastin for Palestine is derived from this Roman (Latin) word. The Israelites entered the land (of Canaan) about 1300 B.C.E. But, remember Abraham and his descendants were there many centuries before the Israelites return from Egypt. The Israelites (Hebrews) established Jerusalem as the capital of the Land of Israel around 1000 B.C.E. and built the first Temple there shortly afterward. The Hebrews were driven from their homeland in 135 C.E. by the Romans. If not for foreign conquest, Israel would be more than 3,300 years old today.[15] Palestine had essentially no Arabs among its population until well after Islam came to the Arabian Peninsula with the Prophet Mohammed in the 7th century C.E. Israelites had already been there for about 2,000 years, following their exodus from Egypt. LIE: The Palestinians are descendants of the Canaanites and were in Palestine long before the Jews. FACT: “Palestinian claims to be related to the Canaanites are a recent phenomenon and contrary to historical evidence. The Canaanites disappeared from the face of the earth three millennia ago . . .” (Ref. 15) FACT: Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country. There was no major Arab presence in the country until the Muslim invasion of the 7th century C.E. No independent Arab or Palestinian state has ever existed in Palestine. Prior to partition (1947), Palestinian Arabs never viewed themselves as having a separate identity. [15] “Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-World War I phenomenon that did not become a significant political movement until after the 1967 Six-Day War and Israel’s capture of the West Bank.” (Ref. 15) LIE: Zionism is racism. FACT: Non-Jews are eligible to become Israeli citizens “under naturalization procedures similar to those in other countries. More than 1,000,000 Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, Baha’is, Circassians and other ethnic groups are represented in Israel’s population. Also included in Israel’s population are “Black Hebrews” from America, and dark-skinned Jews from Ethiopia, Yemen and India. Zionism does not discriminate against anyone[15] LIE: When Israel was in control of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Arab refugees were forced to remain in refugee camps. FACT: “During the years that Israel controlled the Gaza Strip, a consistent effort was made to get the Palestinian {Arabs} into permanent housing. The Palestinian {Arabs} opposed the idea because the frustrated and bitter inhabitants of the camps provided the various terrorist factions with their manpower. . . . To this day, the PA {and subsequently Hamas} has not used a dime of the billions of dollars in foreign aid it has received to build permanent housing for the refugees.” (Ref. 15) LIE: Palestinian Arab “refugees” have been treated like all other refugees. FACT: Palestinian Arab refugees have not been - and still are not being – treated like all other refugees have been treated throughout history. Israel immediately opened its doors to all the Jewish refugees driven out of Arab/Muslim countries. But, with the exception of Jordan, the Palestinian-Arab refugees were never accepted by their Arab/Muslim brothers. To this day, – some seventy years later - “the Palestinian {Arabs} are the only displaced persons to have become {permanent} wards of the international community.” (Ref. 15) MYTH: All Palestinians are Arabs. FACT: Since the Romans gave the name Palaestina to the historical Jewish homeland in 70 C.E. and which later became Palestine, all persons residing in Palestine were knows as Palestinians. Palestinian Arabs did not consider themselves “Palestinians” until after the State of Israel was established. Then, suddenly they were “Palestinians”. Under the British mandate, all residents in the mandate were Palestinians - Jews, Christians, Muslims, Arabs and all others. I have seen an identity card form the British mandate period that identifies its Jewish holder as a “Palestinian”. The term “Palestinian” has been redefined by the forces aligned against Israel as another myth and propaganda tool. Unfortunately, the useful idiots in the West have bought into the myth. MYTH: The United Nations is unbiased with regards to Israel. FACT: You’ve got to be kidding! MYTH: All the refugees created by establishment of the State of Israel were Palestinian Arabs. FACTS: The change in the Jewish populations in Arab/Muslim countries between 1948 and 2001 is as follows:
LIE: Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens. FACTS: Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights with Israel Jews. Israel is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote. Arabs hold seats in Israel’s Knesset. Israeli Arabs hold various government posts. Israel has had an Arab Supreme Court justice. Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel. The sole legal distinction between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel is that the Israeli-Arabs are not required to serve in the Israeli army. [15] LIE: Jerusalem is an Arab city. FACT: Jews have been living in Jerusalem continuously for the last two millennia. Jews built and lived in Jerusalem during the previous two millennia. “Jews have constituted the largest single group of inhabitants thee since 1840 . . . Jerusalem was never the capital of any Arab entity. In fact, it was a backwater for most of Arab history. Jerusalem never served as a provincial capital under Muslim rule nor was it ever a Muslim cultural center. For Jews, the entire city is sacred, but Muslims revere a site – the Dome of the Rock – not the city. ‘To a Muslim, there is a profound difference between Jerusalem and Mecca or Medina. The latter are holy places containing holy sites.’ Besides the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem has no major Islamic significance.” (Ref. 15) MYTH: Jerusalem must be the capital of a Palestinian State. FACT: Five times day, Muslims pray while facing Mecca. FACT: Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Islamic province, country or people – even during the centuries when Jerusalem was under Islamic control. From 1948 until 1967, when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian occupation, it was not an Islamic capital. Only after Israel reunited Jerusalem in 1967, did the Arab/Islamic revisionists decide that Jerusalem had to be the capital of an imaginary Palestinian State. On the other hand, Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel for more than 3,000 years starting with the rule of King David. Jerusalem has always played a central role in Jewish existence. Three times a day, for thousands of years, Jews have faced in the direction of Jerusalem and prayed “To Jerusalem, thy city, shall we return with joy.” For thousands of years, Jews have repeated the Psalmist’s oath: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.”[15] MYTH: The Islamic Waqf has been careful to preserve the archeological relics on the Temple Mount. FACT: “The sacred plateau in Jerusalem referred to as the Temple Mount by Jews and Haram al-Sharif by Muslims is . . . under the control of the Islamic waqf. The southern retaining wall of the mount {has developed} a precarious bulge as a result of the {illegal} construction of the Marwani Mosque atop the {Temple Mount and} archaeologically rich debris {from the mosque construction site was hurled into a dump} in the Kidron Valley.” (Ref. 16) MYTH: Israel has no right to be in the West Bank and Israeli settlements are illegal. FACT: Jews have lived in Judea and Samaria – now called the West Bank – since Joshua led the Hebrews across the Jordan River after the exodus from Egypt. The only time Jews have been prohibited from living there was during Jordan’s occupation from 1948 to 1967.[15] MYTH: West Bank settlements are an impediment to peace. FACT: The settlement issue is a red herring. Prior to 1948, there were no “West Bank” and no “settlements” – there was no peace. From 1949 to 1967, Jews were forbidden to live in the “West Bank” and there were no “settlements” – there was no peace. In 1978, Israel froze settlement building for 3-months hoping for peace – there was no peace. In 2000, Prime Minister Barak offered to dismantle dozens of settlements – there was no peace.[15] FACT: The Palestinians have openly declared that if they are given control of the West Bank, Jews will not be allowed there. The Palestinian West bank will be an Apartheid entity and Juden frei. MYTH: Western media coverage of the Arab world is equal to that of Israel. FACT: “The journalistic community regards the Arab/Islamic world as the ‘arc of silence.’ The media in these countries is strictly controlled by totalitarian governments. By contrast, Israel is a democracy with one of the most free-wheeling press corps in the world.” (Ref 15) MYTH: Israel discriminates against Israeli Arabs. FACT: Development of intergroup relations between Israel’s Arabs and Jews has been hindered by deeply-rooted differences in religion, values and political beliefs. However, over the years they have come to accept each other, acknowledging the uniqueness and aspirations of each community and participating in a growing number of joint endeavors. In Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel, Jews and Arabs mix freely and increasingly live in the same neighborhoods. Arabs serve in Israel's parliament, in its army and on its Supreme Court. And though discrimination in Israel, as in America, remains a scourge, there is no imposed segregation. Go to any Israeli mall, any restaurant or hospital, and you will see Arabs and Jews interacting. As evidence of the growing achievements of Israeli’s Arab sector, a report published by Israel’s Council for Higher Education (CHE) showed that the number of Israeli-Arab doctoral students rose from 355 in 2008 to 759 in 2018. In addition, there was also a 90% increase in the past decade in the number of Arab students studying towards a master’s degree. The increase in the number of Arab graduate students mirrors the growth of Arab students who are studying for an undergraduate degree. Between 2010 and 2017, the percentage of Arab students studying for a first degree rose by 58 percent, from 26,000 students to 47,000 students, representing approximately 16 percent of all first-degree students in Israel. [13] MYTH: The Palestian-Arab leaders in the West Bank and Gaza want to come to a 2-state peace agreement with Israel. FACT: The Palestinian-Arabs that control the West Bank and Gaza do not want to come to a 2-state peace agreement with Israel. They want to impose a 1-state solution with no Jews in any part of that state. More than 70-years of incontrovertible evidence has shown the truth to this statement. This evidence has shown that the Palestinian-Arab leaders are despotic Islamic terrorists who condone the murder of civilians, lie to all, do not respect agreements they enter into, and seek only to kill Jews and all other “infidels” and destroy the State of Israel. These Palestinian-Arab leaders in the West Bank and Gaza have kept their own brethren hostage since 1948, leaving them mired in poverty and misery, while encouraging them to become martyrs in their never-ending war with Israel. MYTH: Palestinian-Arabs have suffered ever since Israel won the 1967 War. FACT: Whenever Palestinian-Arabs have been under the jurisdiction of Israel they have greatly benefitted. For instance, Israeli medical expertise has even benefitted the Palestinian-Arabs living in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Life expectancy among West Bank Palestinian-Arabs under Jordanian rule in 1967 was only 48.6 years. Under Israeli control since 1967, West Bank life expectancy has exploded to 75 years.[17] Israeli medicine has proven to be highly beneficial for the Arab population in Israel itself. The lowest infant mortality rate among Arabs, as well as one of the highest birth rates, is that of Arabs living in Israel. In the same way, the highest life expectancy among Arabs is found in Israel, 10 years longer than in the most developed Arab countries.[7][17] LIE: Israel has been indiscriminately killing innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip. FACT: “Israel is engaged in a war for its very existence. The war was not brought about by Israel – it was started and has been continued by the Arab terrorists in control of Gaza and elsewhere. Israel has the right to defend itself and has the right to destroy those who have vowed to eliminate the State of Israel. In spite of what the useful idiots of the world may say, Israel is not to blame for the civilian casualties – the Arab/Islamists who use civilians as human shields, who fire rockets at civilian targets in Israel, who have declared war on Israel, who refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist – they are the ones to blame for the civilian casualties in Gaza. To you useful idiots of the world and jihadist dupes, I say ‘Stop blaming the victims!’ Israel is no more to blame for the civilian casualties in Gaza than the United States was for the civilian casualties in Germany or Japan in World War II. Adolph Hitler and his murderous Nazi criminals were responsible for causing Germany’s destruction in World War II and for causing the civilian casualties there. Today, Hamas, and not Israel, is responsible for causing the destruction in Gaza and for causing all the civilian casualties there.” (Ref. 18) MYTH: Israel has fought against the Arabs in order to acquire more territory. FACT: Israel has never shown any aggressive expansion aspirations. To the contrary, in 1979 Israel returned to Egypt the Sinai Peninsula, an area nearly three times the land area of Israel that contains oil, gas and mineral deposits. Early on, Israel granted autonomy to the Arabs in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Israel later withdrew entirely from the Gaza Strip. As a matter of historical fact, Israel has voluntarily withdrawn from territory captured in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, and 2006. Israel captured and controlled the entire Sinai Peninsula after three wars with Egypt. Under the Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Israel withdrew from all of the Sinai Peninsula except the contentious territory of Taba, which was also returned after a ruling by a commission of arbitration in 1989. From 1948 onward, Israel has repeatedly suffered numerous provocations from Lebanon that have included attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers, kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldiers, and the firing of thousands of rockets into northern Israel. In response, Israeli forces entered Southern Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 and pushed the anti-Israel terrorist organizations away from Israel’s northern border. Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1985, but kept control of a 12-mile security buffer zone. In 2000, Israel withdrew to its side of the Israel-Lebanon border. However, Hezbollah continued cross border attacks intermittently over the next six years. Hezbollah kidnapped Israeli soldiers in 2004 and again in 2006 which ignited the 2006 Lebanon War. In spite of the continuing provocations by Hezbollah, Israel has not reoccupied Southern Lebanon. Prior to 1967, Syrian forces repeatedly shelled Israeli farmers and infiltrated terrorists into Israel from the Golan Heights. Syria even instituted a project to divert water from the Jordan River, which supplies a major portion of Israel’s scarce water resources. However, at the conclusion of the 1967 “Six Day War” Israel was in control of the Golan Heights. Six years later, Syria, along with Egypt, attacked Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, and attempted to capture the Golan Heights. After several days of fierce fighting, Israel was able to repulse the invaders. The IDF was then able to force a Syrian retreat and begin a march forward toward Damascus, which, by then, was essentially defenseless. With the initiation of a U.N. Sponsored cease-fire, Israel pulled back out of Syria and returned the border town of Kuneitra to Syria. In spite of several wars, innumerable provocations, and deadly attacks, Israel returned all conquered territory to the attacking nations – the one exception being the Golan Heights, which was formally annexed by Israel to prevent any further attacks by Syria on its farmers and to preclude any possibility or Syria ever again attempting to divert the Jordan River. On top of this, Israel voluntarily removed all Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip and turned complete control of that territory over to the “Palestinians” in a “land for peace” attempt that has disastrously backfired, on both Israel and on the unfortunate Arabs living in Gaza under the oppressive yoke of the terrorist organization, Hamas. MYTH: If Israel would only acquiesce to the demands of the “moderate Palestinians”, then all the world’s problems with Arab, Muslim and Palestinian extremists would go away. FACT: This statement is total fantasy! The Arab-Israeli conflict is not the issue nor is it at the core of the problem. It is nothing but a smoke screen for the real objective of all Islamic fundamentalists and that objective is the conversion (peacefully or by force) of the entire world to Islam, as they and they alone define Islam! Those politicians, so called scholars, and the sheep that blindly follow them are blind to reality, stupid, or simply closet anti-Semites.[17] MYTH: If Israel would agree to Palestinian-Arab’s “Right of Return” the Palestinian-Arabs and the Israelis would come to a peace agreement. FACT: “Very simply, It ain’t going to happen! This is and has been an irrational demand from Arab and Muslim extremists who: a) want to see the end of Israel; b) want to make demands that can guarantee no peace agreement between Israel and those Palestinians who simply want to live in peace and are the real victims and pawns in this charade; and, c) want to provide a propaganda issue for anti-Semites, Israel detractors, empty-headed bleeding-heart liberals, and Arab sympathizers.” (Ref. 19) MYTH: Any peace-partition plan must be based upon the pre-1967 Borders. FACT: “A Peace-Partition Based Upon Pre-1967 Borders is a Non-Starter.” “Fagedaboutit! These line were set in 1949 after Israel defeated the Arab armies that had attempted to destroy the newly established Jewish state. Israel gained control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights after again being attacked in 1967. The pre-1967 borders have no meaning, except as an Arab propaganda tool. Any Palestinian state that might come into existence will have its borders established by negotiations between Israel and a peaceful Palestinian entity. The borders agreed upon will not jeopardize Israel’s security and will not force established Israeli towns and cities to be demolished simply in order to make the new Palestinian state Judenfrei.” (Ref 19) MYTH: The establishment of a Palestinian State will bring peace to the Middle East. FACT: “A Palestinian State is very unlikely to bring peace to the region for two simple reasons: 1) a critical mass of Arabs does not want Israel to exist and, 2) there is significant doubt about the ability of the two separated areas that would comprise the Palestinian State to be economically viable. ” (Ref 19) MYTH: Arabs have always loved the land of Palestine. FACT: Nothing could be further from the truth. For nearly 1400 years, the Arabs allowed the near total decline of Palestine to take place. Until the Jews returned to the Land of Israel, the Arabs showed absolutely no love of the land. Rather, Arabs, “contributed effectively to its devastation. Starting in the thirteenth century, with the entry of the Mamluks, all the instruments of ruin were at work almost continuously. The process went on under Ottoman misrule. Bedouin raiders, plundering livestock and destroying crops and plantations, plagued the life of the farmer. Bedouin encampments, dotting the countryside, served as bases for highway attacks on travelers, on caravans carrying merchandise, and on pilgrim cavalcades. “Over the nearly 1,400 years when Arabs lived in and/or controlled the historic and biblical homeland of the Jewish people, they allowed much of the land to become a desert and other areas to become fetid swamps. Palestine, under Muslim control, became a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated and widely-neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts and malarial marshes.” (Ref. 20) For the nearly 1,400 years that the Arabs controlled Palestine, they let Palestine die. They are trying to do the same once more! On the other hand, in the century or so since the start of the return of the Jews to their homeland, they have turned it once more into the land of milk and honey - an ecological, technological, and economic wonder of the world. MYTH: Palestinian-Arabs love their children the same as you and I. FACT: Hate is more important to many Palestinian-Arabs than Paternal/Maternal love. In truth, they practice filicide – they teach their own children to commit suicide and they send them out to be killed. They cloak this foul practice with the mantle of “martyrdom”, but the inescapable truth is that they are filled with such hatred and inhumanity that they train and send their children to be suicidal victims. These are not the marks of a civilized people! The “prescribed textbooks for Palestinian first to fourth graders who attend school in east Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem . . . teach little ones . . . a skills set which the Palestinian Authority (PA) deems crucial: the alleged glory and virtue of becoming a ‘martyr.’ - - - “. . . Palestinian children are ‘taught to be expendable.’ The messages they receive from their educators include catchphrases like ‘the volcano of my revenge,’ ‘the longing of my blood for my land,’ and ‘I shall sacrifice my blood to saturate the land.’ - - - “. . . {The} textbooks glorify the concept of martyrdom. ‘Children are expected to become martyrs’ . . .” (Ref. 21) MYTH: Palestinian-Arabs would have a viable state if only Israel would end the “occupation”. FACT: Israel isn’t - and has never been - the reason the Palestinian-Arabs cannot succeed in having their own state. The Palestinian-Arabs themselves are the root-cause of their failure to attain statehood. The Palestinian-Arabs allow themselves to be controlled by the terrorists who are in power in the West Bank and Gaza and the consistent inability of Arab/Muslim people to select and keep in power truly democratic and peace-loving leaders. As a result, without “outside support, an independent Palestinian nation cannot succeed economically. This is true in large part because of the current leadership in the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas has made Gaza a basket case with inadequate infrastructure, no economic development and the use of foreign aid to fund its terrorist activities. Unemployment in Gaza is rampant and the economy would implode without UNRWA and foreign contributions. The West Bank is in somewhat better shape, but barely so. Many of the employed there are public employees. West Bank products are noncompetitive in world markets. Today, ‘it’s all about donors’ willingness to keep the Palestinian Authority afloat.’ While West Bank and Gaza leaders call for statehood, the fact is that their economy is so bad, they can’t even pay salaries in the public sector. Weaning West Bank and Gaza Arabs off of foreign assistance will be like successfully detoxing a drug addict. “Because of Hamas, Gaza’s jobless rate is among the most severe in the world. About half of Gaza’s population depends upon UNRWA for housing and food allowances. The Hamas run government is considered to be totally corrupt and is believed to be siphoning off much of Gaza’s foreign aid to maintain itself in power. “To succeed as an independent entity the West Bank and Gaza will have to depend upon foreign aid and an economy that operates cooperatively with one or more of its neighbors, i.e., Israel, Jordan and/or Egypt. Under current leadership in the West Bank and Gaza, that’s impossible.” (Ref. 22) MYTH: In modern times, Islam has made many important contributions to our world. FACT: Islam and the Arab/Muslim world are unlike Jews and the modern State of Israel in this regard. “For the past several hundred years, with the exception of oil, the Arab and Moslem world has contributed little if anything to the rest of the world. It has produced essentially no technology, medicine or anything else in the world of science. It has almost no contributions to world literature, art or to intellectual development. “But, In one respect, a part of the Moslem/Arab world has contributed much more to our modern world than has the State of Israel – the radical fundamentalist segment of the Moslem/Arab world has gifted us with terrorism, destruction, rape and slavery. “The number of terror attacks by radical Islamists throughout the modern world are now too numerous, too horrendous and too well-known to bear repeating here in their entirety. “Islamic gifts to the modern world include rape, sexual abuse, slavery and forced marriage. While many of these ‘gifts’ have been primarily bestowed on other Moslems and the black population of Africa, other of these ‘gifts’ are being conferred upon the rest of the world.” (Ref's. 23, 23a) MYTH: Islamic terrorists target only “Infidels”. FACT: Islamic terrorists attack anyone opposed to their extremist form of radical, fundamentalist Islam – other Muslims, included. “The militant activities of the Islamic State (IS) and its counterparts have contributed to the rise of moderate Islam in the Islamic world. The fact is that it is Muslims, of all sects, who have suffered the most at the hands of these groups. A 2012 US National Counterterrorism Center report revealed: ‘In cases where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97% of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years.’ The violence has created among Muslims a general feeling of solidarity with the non-Muslim minorities in the Middle East and Westerners who fell prey to these groups. - - - “ ‘Moderate’ Arab/Moslem leaders and governments are now painfully aware that the excesses of Islamic fanatics threaten not just ‘infidels’ but themselves as well. These ‘moderates’ have seen that Muslims are being butchered and abused by fanatics across the Middle East and elsewhere.” (Ref. 24) MYTH: 19th and 20th century returning Jews displaced the Palestinian Arabs then living in Palestine. FACT: “In reality, returning Jews reclaimed the land and created jobs that attracted Arabs to Palestine where they could find work. Other Arabs came to Israel to escape the slave-like labor of building the Suez Canal. The ancestors of most of the present-day Arab population actually migrated to the land only after Jewish pioneers began to restore Palestine to its original condition as the ‘land of milk and honey’. “ (Ref. 25) MYTH: UNRWA has been a big help to the Palestinian “refugees”. FACT: “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established some six plus decades ago to help Palestinian refugees. Since then, it has done just the opposite. UNRWA is perhaps the one organization in the entire world most responsible for preventing peace between Israel, the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors and UNRWA has done more than anyone else to keep the people it was founded to help in abject poverty, misery and despair. “UNRWA has morphed into a huge UN bureaucratic machinery dedicated to keeping Palestinians in the camps it operates. “Unlike the millions of refugees around the world who are the concern of the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), only the Palestinians have their own dedicated UN agency. While other refugees (including Jewish refugees from Arab lands) are successfully integrated and absorbed into other countries, why do Palestinian refugees still exist over 60 years after Israel’s creation? . . . “UNRWA’s definition of the refugees to whom it devotes its time and attention are well beyond the original 900,000 Palestinian refugees who were identified in 1950. Today the number served is over 4.5 million. Why? Because UNRWA has defined its mission to serve the descendants of the original 900,000. This means grandchildren or even great-grandchildren of the original Palestinian refugees are the focus of UNRWA’s attention in refugee camps located in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. (Some might ask: Why haven’t the Saudis, with all their oil money, contributed to finding homes for the great-grandparents, parents, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original Palestinian refugees over these 60 years?) "UNRWA has become a decidedly negative force in the quest to improve the status of the original Palestinian refugees and their descendants. It is also a major obstacle in the search for peace. Members of Hamas and other potential terrorists have been on the UNRWA payroll; Anti-Semitic and anti-Israel textbooks have been in use in UNRWA-sponsored schools; UNRWA spokespeople have issued anti-Israel statements.[26]” (Ref. 27) MYTH: Mahmoud Abbas is a peace-loving moderate. FACT: “Mahmoud Abbas has clearly shown that he is no peace-loving moderate. He is quite simply another Arab terrorist who happens to be - for now - the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its militant wing (Fatah) which control the West Bank. He openly condones Arab terrorism and the murder of innocent civilians to his Palestinian subjects while tepidly denouncing the same acts for the benefit of western media whenever their condemnation becomes too strong – he speaks with a very forked tongue. But, his goals remain fixed - kill or drive out all the Jews in Israel and destroy the State of Israel.” (Ref. 28) MYTH: We can rely upon Iranian and Arab leaders to live up to the agreements they enter into. FACT: Iranian and Arab leaders believe that any agreement they enter into, if it is detrimental to their cause, can be unilaterally abrogated at any time that it is convenient to them. They base this position upon what they say is sanctioned in the Koran, where it is recorded that Mohammed justified lying and subterfuge in his struggle to conquer the Arabian peninsula. “The Western concept of demanding that a leader subscribe to a moral and ethical code does not resonate with Iranians or the Arab world in general. . . . ‘One coming from a position of strength will only make a concession if he is absolutely sure that doing so will consolidate and therefore increase his power. If one believes that his adversary will gain even the slightest advantage through such a measure, he will never concede an inch.’ The attitude, quite simply, is: ‘rule-or-be-ruled.’As such, compromise, as we understand the concept, ‘is seen as a sign of submission and weakness’ that brings shame and dishonor on those -- and on the families of those -- who concede.” (Ref. 29) “According to sharia, in certain situations, deception – also known as 'taqiyya', based on Quranic terminology, – is not only permitted but sometimes obligatory.” (Ref. 30) MYTH: As opposed to the Jews, Christians are treated with respect by radical Islam. FACT: “Christians are persecuted around the world due to the spread of Radical Islam. In many Middle Eastern countries Christians are forced to keep their religion undercover and outwardly act as Muslims to avoid attention and personal attacks. “Radical Islam does not embrace freedom of religion. Christians are brutally tortured, kidnapped, and beheaded for no other reason than their faith and belief in Christianity. “In Iraq, a Christian community that used to have one million followers has dwindled. Across Baghdad terrified Christians remaining in Iraq celebrate Easter while under protection. Today, most of the worshipers are women and children, as many Christian men have either been kidnapped, or worse, killed. - - - “In the West Bank, Christian villages have been set ablaze by Molotov cocktails thrown by Muslim neighbors. Predominantly Christian cities such as Bethlehem have become Muslim dominated. Christians have left due to severe and violent persecution. Christian leaders remaining in Bethlehem have dodged multiple assassination attempts. “Today, it is illegal to openly practice Christianity, or establish a place of non-Muslim worship in Saudi Arabia. - - - “Persecution based on faith is a threat to religions around the world. Where Radical Islam is spreading Christian communities are threatened with violence and struggle to maintain a distinct identity and practice.” (Ref. 31) MYTH: If only Israel would disappear, there would be no further problems with fundamental Islam. FACT: “This is simply a lie and a fantasy. Israel is just a ‘red herring.’ The real and ultimate objective of Radical Islam is not the destruction of Israel – it is the subjugation or death of every person on this globe that does not follow their Radical Islamic version of the ‘religion of peace.’ They view this objective as their mission from Allah. Israel is just a convenient tool in this grand plan. Radical Islam uses Israel as the scapegoat to foment the Muslim masses that otherwise might revolt against the oppression of the radicals that direct the movement. Israel is used by Radical Islam, as well as by anti-Semites and bleeding-heart liberals, to direct attention away from the atrocities of Fundament Islam and onto the purported apartheid behavior of the Jewish state. For the Muslim Radicals, condemnation of Israel serves to deflect attention of the non-Muslim world away from their terrorism. For the anti-Semites, hatred of anything Jewish takes precedence over any and all atrocities committed in the name of Allah or the Prophet Mohamed. To the bleeding-heart liberals of the world, Israeli check-points and security walls are more objectionable than Islamic suicide bombings, the murder of innocent civilians by Islamic fanatics, forced conversions of non-Muslims, and even modern-day slavery practiced in some Muslim controlled regions of Africa.” (Ref. 32) MYTH: Israeli Archaeologists excavated the Western Wall Tunnel in an attempt to undermine the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. FACT: Palestinian-Arabs have been induced to riot and murder by deliberate lies, falsehoods, rumors and innuendo. Such is the case with the Western Wall Tunnel. In September of 1996, a new exit was opened to the tunnel in Jerusalem. Work on this tunnel had been proceeding for years with protestations from no one. However, the opening of the new tunnel exit set off a Palestinian-Arab protest in Ramallah, which, at the time, was under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The protest spread and escalated through the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian-Arab rioters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails and PA police joined in by firing on Israeli civilians and soldiers. Israeli soldiers fired back, first with rubber bullets and then with live ammunition. Some 73 people were killed and 1,500 injured (mostly Palestinian-Arabs) by the time Yasser Arafat called for a halt to the violence. To Arafat, the numerical discrepancy between Palestinian-Arab and Israeli casualties was more a source of pride rather than of regret. A week earlier, he had told the Palestinian police that, “our blood is cheap for Jerusalem.” Later, Arafat was to admit that he had started the protests and riots over the tunnel in order to fight against, “the Judaization of Jerusalem.” In fact, the Western Wall Tunnel is outside the Temple Mount. It threatens no religious sites. The al-Aqsa mosque is at the other end of the Temple Mount, as far away as you can get. The tunnel incident points to the gullibility, if not pure stupidity, of the Palestinians in allowing themselves to be goaded into violent protests and riots that lead to their deaths and injuries by a deliberate falsehood without any apparent attempt on their part to ascertain the validity of the rumors and lies being spread among them.[33][34] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- References:
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| 4 October 2019 {Article_379; Israel_43} |