A Half Truth is a Whole Lie

This sympathy for Palestinians and criticism of Israel resonates on both  the left and right. Anti-Semitism is especially widespread once again in  Europe. The Holocaust has for many become a distant memory or no memory at  all and what we are seeing today is a violent resurgence of post-Holocaust anti-Semitism
 
 And the big lie is how well the Arabs and Jews got along until the Jewish  state was declared. This story is utterly false but it keeps on being told  and I think there are even Arabs who believe it but many on the Left also  believe it. It is only a half truth. And a half truth is a whole lie.  There were times when the Jews lived with Arabs better than they did in  Christian countries but they were always second class citizens and at  times they were very severely oppressed.
 
 Arabs also learned about nationalism late long after they already got  their state in Jordan. Jordan is a Palestinian state.

 Then there is the consistent false claim that they were there first. The  Arabs in the region that was set aside for the "Mandate" by the League of  Nations was always Jewish and the Arabs came and went in nomadic waves  just as they did throughout the region. When you have so many deserts and  so much of it is barren survival of nomadic tribes is easier when when moving from oasis to oasis.
 
 When Jews started to re-develop the "land" as farmers, and Jewish money  brought industrialization to the area it also attracted in-migration of  Arabs from other Arab territory. But not because the area was Palestine  nor because of any sense of nationalism.

Telling the lie, which becomes the meme that Jews came there because of  the Holocaust reveals a deep misunderstanding of history. Jews always  lived there sometimes more than at other times but they were always there  and many Jews never left. But that part of it really doesn't matter to  their present claim. If it did no one could or would own or live anywhere.

People always have moved. Everyone is a settler somewhere.

This dispute is tribal. Arab tribes fighting modernism against modern Jewish tribes.
 
 "There was never a "Palestinian Arab" nation. To the Arab people as a  whole, no such entity as Palestine existed. To those Arabs who lived in  the neighborhood, the land was always a suitable object for plunder and  destruction, whether Arabs from other tribes or Jews lived there. Those few Arabs who lived there had an affinity for their village and they executed wars on nearby villages, for their clan to have the right of  local tax-gathering on the village or the town..." (Samuel Katz,  "Battleground" page 116 (73))

They were not however, conscious of any relationship to a land, per se,  and even the townsmen would have heard of the existence as a land as a  separate entity, if they heard of it at all, only from such Jews as they  might meet. Samuel Katz writes that "Palestine is mentioned only once in  the Koran..." (ibid)

And when it is, it is mentioned as the ancient homeland of the Jews.
 
 "Arab officials have fabricated a historical narrative that has gained  wide acceptance. It justifies Arab aggression, even terror, as an  understandable response to cruel Israeli "occupation" and to the "stealing  of Palestinian lands." The charges often stick, even though they are based  on falsehoods." ("Palestinian Lies, Western Duplicity, (8/21/2002) By Daniel Doron)
 
 "....there is a basic lesson that the Jewish people, whether in Israel or  in the Diaspora, has not yet faced up to. And that is, that antisemitism -  dangerous, militant, violent, pre-holocaust-style anti-Semitism - is in  vogue in large sections of the modern civilized world." (Berel Wein, "The  real danger" - (05-18-2001) - Jerusalem Post)

 Wein says in the Post that when Syrian President Bashar Assad uttered his  foul anti-Semitic words in Spain and later to the Pope, "The anti-Semites  must have gained great comfort from the fact that neither the monarchs of  Spain nor the pope of Rome found it necessary to contradict or even comment on Assad's incendiary hatred."
 
 "The Muslim world, even countries that are thousands of kilometers away  from the Arab-Israeli struggle, are educating their young to hate and even  to kill Jews. Not Israelis - Jews. All of the ancient canards and lies  have been revived in the public arena of communication and education. The  cultivation of hatred of Jews in the Muslim world is enormously worrying,"  he writes. Israel has done a better job of protecting Muslims in Israel  than Muslim countries have done protecting Jews in Muslim countries.

In fact Arab countries have a history of expelling and murdering Jews.  Israel on the other hand welcomes Arabs and other people to become  citizens of the state when they are sincere and those who do not threaten  Israelis and those who do not intend to do Israelis harm can and do become  citizens of the State of Israel. They even stand for election to the  Knesset(Israel's parliament) and some Arabs are even members of the  parliament in Israel.  There are no democracies in the Middle East except for Israel. A democracy  is rule of the majority while it also protects the rights of minorities.  In Israel there is no constitution, but the Israeli Declaration of  Independence provides as it also insures that the rights of non-Jews will  be protected and they are to the extent that non-Jews may participate in  the electoral process and government and are free to make choices which  will better benefit them.

You cannot say the same about any Arab-Muslim  country.
 
 "The Declaration of Independence affirms that Israel will foster the  development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; that it  will be based on the foundations of liberty, justice and peace; that it  will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all of its  citizens, irrespective of religion, race or sex; and that it will  guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and  culture. Furthermore, two Basic Laws guarantee the basic rights and  liberties of all citizens. Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom (1992) purports to protect human dignity and freedom in order to anchor the  values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. It  maintains that a human being's property must not be harmed; that every  person is entitled to the protection of his or her life, body and dignity;  and that no person's freedom may be taken or restricted by arrest,  imprisonment, or extradition, or in any other manner. In turn, Basic Law:  Freedom of Occupation (1992) holds that every citizen or resident of the  state is entitled to engage in any occupation, profession or line of work, and that every governmental agency must respect the freedom of occupation  of every citizen or resident." (Raphael Cohen-Almagor, "The Delicate  Framework of Israeli Democracy During the 1980s: Retrospect and Appraisal"  - from "Israel: The First Hundred Years, Volume III, Efraim Karsh (ed) -  Raphael Cohen-Almagor is Chairperson of Library and Information Studies at  the University of Haifa.)
 
 "Formal law is of course not enough. There is still room for hard work to  eliminate existing prejudice in Israeli society against non-Jews as well  as against Jewish cultural minorities, most notably Russian and Ethiopian  immigrants." (ibid) Z I O N I S M is not a dirty word...
 
 Zionism is not a term to be defiled by Anti-Semites. Zionism is the  "National Liberation Movement" of the Jewish people. It is a philosophy of  self-determination and self-preservation and holds that Jews, like anyone  else are entitled to have a place of their own, a homeland where they can  feel safe and can live in harmony with their neighbors. If Jews do not  deserve Israel and do not have rights in Israel then there is no country  and no people anywhere that should have those rights. Jews, in fact, have  a greater right, having been on the land (and from that land) for  thousands of years. And there is no nation of people that deserves it  more; a people who returned to the land when it was a backwater, desolate,  and undeveloped waste land and paid exorbitant prices to reclaim much of  the land, drained the swamps and made them into agricultural gardens and  built factories and towns and infrastructure which made it an attractive place not just for a Jewish homeland but for Arabs to find jobs and live better than they did in the countries they came from. And Israel also has the right won by a war against the Jews. The Jews have the right of  Eminent Domain which is the same power used by every country in the world for establishing its sovereignty. Zionism is "affirmative action" for the Jews.
 
 Recently I listened to an audiocast (podcast) called "Never Again" produced on the anniversary of the Shoah, the Nazi Final Solution, as part of the Holocaust memorial and Ellie Wiesel was interviewed. He spoke of  something that I had forgotten about all these years until mentioned by him because while he heard it from a friend I remember hearing it from people around me in the Gentile world of my youth. He said a Christian  friend of his who went to prestigious WASP boarding school during WWII when the students and faculty hearing at an assembly, how Hitler had exterminated Jews, they cheered. And some said to him that in spite of war and Hitler being the enemy at least he was getting rid of the Jews. And it jarred my memory also because I too remember as a kid (from 14 to 16 years old) in military school, where I was only one of three Jews there, and this was in the early 50s - I heard how Hitler was both hated and admired and the thing my school mates (who undoubtedly heard these things from their parents) liked about Hitler was that he got rid of Jews.
 
 The world has always found a reason to hate the Jews. There is a war against the Jews and that is the reason we say, "Never Again!"
 
 When Israel was more socialist than it is now it was still a pariah on the broader left in spite of Israel's unique socialist collectives, a left wing labor government, and a democracy which includes everyone, i.e. religious and atheist Jews (black and white), Christians, Bahai, Druze and Muslim Arabs who live within the borders of Israel (but not the territories, which is still disputed territory).
 
 What is at stake is (1) Israel's survival and (2) survival of the Jewish people because this insidious and ubiquitous hatred of Jews which has been timeless and changes shape; it ransmogrifies easily into a virulent hatred for Israel.
 
 Christians and Muslims despise Jews because the Jews would not convert. And all kinds of anti-Jewish myths have been invented to demonize Jews. Jews are blamed for the death of Jesus. You would have to be deaf and dumb not to realize that Anti-Semitism is a FACT of this life.
 
 I have witnessed it. I experienced it. Jews witness it almost everyday. It is everywhere.
 
 In spite of Palestinian terrorism, George Bush and Tony Blair favor a Palestinian State, even one which is hostile to Israel. This sympathy for Palestinians and criticism of Israel resonates on both the left and right. Anti-Semitism is especially widespread once again in Europe. The Holocaust has for many there become a distant memory and what we are seeing today is a violent resurgence of post-Holocaust Anti-Semitism.
 
 It is estimated that the 13 million Jews in the world today would total  from 32 to 36 million Jews if not for the Holocaust. But no one would save the Jews. Zionists saved 60,000 Jews but at least 6 million perished.
 
 "Listen to the pronouncements and comments that are coming from Europe. The newly found European sympathy for the Palestinians is couched in vaguely disguised anti-Jewish phrases. The young Socialists in Norway speak again of Israeli (read Jewish) "intransigence," "excesses, " "exploitation." The vocabulary of 19th- and 20th-century anti-Semitism   resonates again in Europe. To the Left we are "exploiters" and "settlers"  and to the Right we are again "violent" people. To the Arab papers and  media we are "atheistic" and "occupiers," while to the Europeans we are "ultra-religious" and `chauvinist messianics.'" (Berel Wein, "The real  danger" - (05-18-2001) - Jerusalem Post)
 
 "Much of this criticism simply reeks of hypocrisy. Vladimir Putin, the president (now PM) of Russia, whose regime is justly suspected of anti-Jewish activity in Russia and elsewhere, sharply condemned Israel for the use of "excessive force." This from a man whose army in Chechnya has killed tens of thousands of civilians, and who brands all Chechnyans as
 terrorists. Russia has deflected all world criticism and condemnation over its brutal war against the civilian population in Chechnya. And now it  piously lectures us about "excessive force." For shame!" (ibid)
 
 Does anyone really think that an Israeli withdrawal from the "territories" and the establishment of a Palestinian state will result in peace and tranquility? Does anyone really think that the withdrawal from Gaza has resulted in tranquility and peace? Does anyone really think that the Anti-Semitic invectives will end and there will be no more suicide bombers?
 Does anyone really believe a Palestinian state will solve the problem of  anti-Semitism anywhere?
 
      Hank Roth
 
 

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