Let’s get a few facts straight: Israel has NEVER committed war crimes or genocide. On the other hand, Hamas is guilty of both.
Just because “Palestinians” say something is thus and so, doesn’t mean that it actually is. “Palestinian” is a case in point: During the Mandate period, anyone and everyone who lived within the Mandate was a “Palestinian.” That included Jews and Arabs allike. Then the 1948 war happened, and “Palestinian” dropped out of favor. It wasn’t until 1964, with the birth of the Palestine Liberation Organization, that “Palestine” was conceived as a an Arab thng. And it wasn’t until 1967, shortly after the “Six Day War” that Arab residents began calling themselves “Palestinian.”
History and archaeology carry weight. It happens that every part of the biblical account, beginning with David, is absolute fact. Prior to David it’s all a bit unclear. For example, with an event as big as the Exodus, one would assume there would be an historical account in the carvings on temples, buildings and monuments in ancient Egypt, but there is none. So we have archeological evidence for David, but nothing for Moses. On the other hand, archaeology is not even close to uncovering all the secrets of ancient Egypt, so the jury is out.
Let’s look at some other assumptions that Jew haters on the left and the right have made:
APARTHEID: Apartheid has some specific meanings. It’s based on race. Another feature of Apartheid is that the subject group is not allowed into certain professions, such as being Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, and government officials, to name a few. Arab citizens of Israel (Arab-Israelis) are employed in all of these professions. They even serve in Knesset, and one or two are members of Israel’s Supreme Court. Under Apartheid, that could never happen. The other, more obvious truth about Apartheid: It is discrimination based on race. But Jews and Arabs belong to the same race.
OCCUPATION: The area known as Samaria/Judea (aka, “The West Bank”) prior to the 1948 war was a Jewish part of the Mandate. Every square inch had been (decades) earlier purchased by the Jewish National Fund from Arab land owners. During the 1948 War Jordan took it over, including about half of Jerusalem) and Jewish residents and owners were displaced. For 19 years, this was the case. Jordan occupied Samaria/Judea. In June 1967, Arab nations launched yet another war against Israel, only Israel was a lot stronger this time. The IDF liberated Judea/Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem, and it was thus restored to it’s pre 1948 owners. Countries do not “occupy” land that was theirs in the first place.
Now, admittedly, Israel has made some really bad decisions in regards to Judea/Samaria., and continues to make bad decisions. You don’t poor gasoline on a fire and expect it to go out. The whole security wall was a huge error, and the check point system is a travesty. The whole division of that area into “A,” “B,” and “C” makes no sense to me at all. I have friends and relatives living there, and tell me that it is a pain in the a** just to navigate around – for Jews and Arabs both. A lot of this is Bibi’s doing. They really need to rid themselves of him, the “Trump of the Levant.”
SETTLER COLONIALISTS with no historical ties to the land of Israel and no right to reside there. The truth: The Jewish presence in Israel precedes the arrival of Islam by 1,600 years. Dozens of kings of Israel, beginning with Saul, David and Solomon reigned in these areas from 1050 BCE on. Even after the Roman defeat of the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE, which led to the dispersion of Jews throughout the Mediterranean, Jews continued to live in Jerusalem and environs. The Arab armies spreading Islam by force didn’t arrive until the seventh century CE.
GENOCIDE/ ETHNIC CLEANSING: If this has any validity at all, then Israel is incredibly bad at it. The fact is that if it were true, the Arab population would show a significant reduction between 1948 and 2023. The fact of the matter is that the Arab population of Eretz Israel has grown. The 1947 census of Mandatory Palestine reveals a population of 1.37 million Arabs. In 2021, that number had grown to 4.923 million.
All war involves murder (yes, any killing of innocents is murder). You start a war and it’s going to result in some murders. It doesn’t matter if the protagonists are Israeli or Hamas or Russian or Ukrainian or anyone else. The first shot fired is unacceptable and results in the loss of human life and/or emotional and physical suffering. Yes, it all sickens me. No, there is no excuse for it, on either side. OTOH, I don’t know what other course Israel could take. Hamas committed an atrocity. They needed to be held responsible.
But — what is Israel to do? You’ve got a group of people whose leadership has been offered land to build their own country in, and time after time after time after time those leaders turned down every offer. They had a chance between 1948 and 1967 to actually create Palestine out of Samaria/Judea. Why didn’t that happen?
On another note: In 1946 the British took 2/3s of the Palestine Mandate lands, and handed them over to the Arabs. This area became Jordan. Now, under the Balfour Declaration, the entirety of Mandatory Palestine was to be given to the Jews as their homeland. So if you think clearly about this, the two state solution: dividing Mandatory Palestine into a territory for the Arabs and another for the Jews, happened when the Brits spun off Jordan. Jordan is the Arab state, Israel is the Jewish state. This has been hiding in plain site for 78 years.
For more of my insights regarding Israel and “Palestine,” click HERE.
