"Stop blaming Israel and wake up: The black flag of jihad is the REAL threat to the world"

[Expat1 971]

And in Today's News: The poor, oppressed, peaceful Israelis take advantage of the lull in fighting to scoop up some more "abandoned" West Bank Palestinian land (that same West Bank that they withdrew from years ago ahem wink wink).

I am quite sure that they will be "acting in self-defense" someday to keep it.

Israel converts West Bank land to state-owned

August 31, 2014 2:40pm

The Israel Defense Forces Civil Administration announced that it would recognize nearly 1000 acres of land in the Gush Etzion bloc as state land.

The Gva’ot settlement in the western area of Gush Etzion is located on the land, adjacent to the Alon Shvut settlement. Gva’ot was built without zoning permits from the military.

Gva’ot originally was established as a military base in 1984.

The announcement could create a contiguous boundary from Gva’ot, through the settlements of Kfar Etzion and Beitar Illit, to the Green Line, according to Peace Now, which in a statement called the declaration “unprecedented in scope.”

“By declaring another 4,000 dunams as state land, the Israeli government stabs President Abbas and the moderate Palestinian forces in the back, proving again that violence delivers Israeli concessions while nonviolence results in settlement expansion,” the Peace Now statement said.

The organization in the past revealed that the Ministry of Housing had an initial plan to build 15,000 units to establish a city in Gvaot.

Ten families currently live on the site and more than 500 housing units currently are under construction.

The IDF said there is no Palestinian claim on the land, but objections against the decision can be filed for the next 45 days.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/08/31/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/israel-converts-west-bank-land-to-state-owned#ixzz3C0yRzU7a

Edited August 31, 2014 by Expat1

[Karee 4,189]

“By declaring another 4,000 dunams as state land, the Israeli government stabs President Abbas and the moderate Palestinian forces in the back, proving again that violence delivers Israeli concessions while nonviolence results in settlement expansion,” the Peace Now statement said.

I'd say that sums it up. Israel doesn't want peace and never has. They want land. All of it.

[OriZ 3,157]

Who here is blaming all Jews for the actions of the Israeli government?

Somewhere in the 5000 essays you've pasted here?

I'm asking you for your opinion

Like I said the full detail answer can easily be found in what has already been posted. Even though I don't tend to repeat myself, I will give it to you in short.

Criticizing the Israeli government is, of course, like criticism of every gov legitimate, and I do it myself. However, when does it blatantly turn into more than that? Well, for one when you have people claiming they are protesting Israel but they are attacking Jews. Propaganda wise, it is when people distort the truth, twist the facts, vilify, demonize, portray the IDF as the new SS, ignore historical context of any wrongdoing by Israel that they choose to put out there in an attemppt to single it out, ignore the fact that Israel does alot more good than harm and no less harm than most countries in the world, deliberately spread libel, etc etc...if you want an example look no further than Expat, there's your ultimate answer.

Edited September 1, 2014 by OriZ

[rlogan 2,036]

Criticizing the Israeli government is, of course, like criticism of every gov legitimate, and I do it myself. However,

"However"... lol.

Not while you are busy killing thousands, no. That would not be a thing you would criticize. Like I did with Viet Nam. Like I did with Iraq. Like I did with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, etc.

You are so rude to people with this conveyor belt of ad hominems that people are stupid, Jew-hating liars if they aren't for genocide on Palestinians.

[OriZ 3,157]

"However"... lol.

Not while you are busy killing thousands, no. That would not be a thing you would criticize. Like I did with Viet Nam. Like I did with Iraq. Like I did with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, etc.

You are so rude to people with this conveyor belt of ad hominems that people are stupid, Jew-hating liars if they aren't for genocide on Palestinians.

Rude? Who me? I'm only rude to people that demand being rude to.

[OriZ 3,157]

So the Israelis come in at #50 on that list. They're not quite as good at massacring civilians as Nicaragua, but a bit better at it than the North Vietnamese. Not sure if I'd run around singing their praises the way you do.

You completely missed or ignored the fact it is not the Israelis that come in at 50 but the conflict as a whole, as the numbers include the total casualties and not only those caused by Israel but also dead Israelis. Also you ignored the fact the most of those deaths are due to Arab state attacks and are state to state and army to army fighting and not "massacring civilians". But what's new, to make Israel look bad everything is legitimate. This kind of attitude and these kind of actions will never promote peace in the region. All it does is make it worse.

Also, I forgot to mention before that while people tend to assume terror organizations were created due to Israeli occupation cause all they are is freedom fighters, they completely ignore the fact the PLO(Palestine Liberation Organization) was created in 1964, 3 full years before the Six Day war in which Israel occupied the west bank, with the goal of destroying Israel.

Hamas was created over 20 some years later, when Israel started talking to the PLO. Hamas was and still is against any talks with Israel, and that was one of the main reasons for its creation.

[OriZ 3,157]

Time to talk Apartheid.

Two weeks ago the editor of the largest newspaper in South Africa, The Sunday Times, wrote an article

saying that Israel applies apartheid to Palestinian Arabs. In this scandalous accusation, he joins Jimmy

Carter and others who have defamed the Jewish state.

The apartheid label is very dangerous. If it sticks, Israel’s ability to defend itself diplomatically and

militarily will be severely weakened. International pressure on South Africa’s apartheid government

eventually played a major role in ending its power. The apartheid label is calculated to break the resolve

of the Israeli people, who are called upon to make terrible sacrifices for our Jewish state. Who wants to

die for apartheid?

As Jews, we must fight this kind of mass defamation of our people. Israel’s security and Jewish lives all

over the world depends on it, ” To say that Israel is an apartheid state is as wildly outrageous as the blood libels of Europe.

To answer the editor of South Africa’s Sunday Times, I wrote an article which he kindly published in last

week’s newspaper. Here follow its arguments:

To accuse Israel of apartheid is to diminish the victims of the real apartheid — the men, women and

children of South Africa, who suffered for centuries under arrogant, heartless colonialism, and then for

decades under the brutal policies of racial superiority, oppression and separation inflicted by the National

Party. If everything is apartheid, then nothing is apartheid.

In the State of Israel all citizens — Jew and Arab alike — are equal before the law. Israel has none of the

apartheid legislative machinery devised to discriminate against and to separate people. It has no

Population Registration Act, no Group Areas Act, no Mixed Marriages and Immorality Act, no Separate

Representation of Voters Act, no Separate Amenities Act, no pass laws or any other of the myriad

apartheid laws.

On the contrary: Israel is a vibrant liberal democracy which accords full political, civil and other human

rights to all its people, including its one million-plus Arab citizens, many of whom hold positions of

authority throughout the Jewish state — including that of cabinet minister, Knesset member and judge at

every level of the judiciary, the Supreme Court included.

All citizens vote on the same voters’ roll in regular, multiparty elections, and there are Arab parties and

Arab members of other parties in the Knesset. Due to Israel’s proportional representation system, Arab

voters, although a minority, have often been partners in various coalition governments and influenced

major long-term decisions affecting the country.

Arabs and Jews live and work together, share all public facilities, including, importantly, hospitals and

schools, and also malls, buses, cinemas and parks. Israel protects religious freedom and has been very

sensitive and respectful in its management of the holy sites of all religions, granting easy access to

everyone.

Arab Israelis, like all their compatriots, can express themselves and act freely as members of a transparent

and open, democratic society, where criticism of the government in an aggressively free press is the norm.

In fact, Israeli Arabs enjoy more freedom and rights than do any other Arabs in the Middle East, where

autocratic governments suppress democracy and freedoms, such as freedom of expression and of

association, including outlawing labor unions. Israel is the only truly free democracy in the Middle East.

If there is apartheid in the Middle East, then it is the apartheid in Arab states against Jews, Christians and

women, who are all denied the most basic human rights and treated as second-class citizens.

Most Arab governments do not even allow Jews to visit, let alone live. In fact, more than 800,000 Jews

have been expelled from Arab countries over the last five decades, where they lived peacefully for

centuries, albeit with inferior status.

In 1967, as a result of a defensive war thrust upon it, Israel captured the territories known today as the

West Bank and Gaza. Since then the status of these territories and their occupants has been unclear. It is

incorrect legally, factually and even morally to speak of an occupation, which implies there was once a

Palestinian entity in these territories, and that this is now occupied by Israeli forces.

Before 1967 the West Bank was controlled by Jordan, and Gaza by Egypt. We should not speak of the

“occupied territories,” but more accurately of “disputed territories.”

There has never been a Palestinian state in all of history. By contrast, the State of Israel is the third Jewish

state on the same land, the first dating back 3,280 years to when Joshua led the Jewish people into the

land of Israel. Furthermore, Israel has strong claims to the West Bank, which is part of the biblical Israel

that the Jews have always lived in. One of the holiest sites of Judaism is there – Hebron, where the

founding fathers and mothers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah, are buried.

Apart from the city of Jerusalem, the ancient capital of the Jewish people from the times of King David,

the West Bank and Gaza were never annexed, pending the resolution of their status. For decades Israel

tried to negotiate with various parties to permanently resolve the future of the disputed territories, but is

still in search of a genuine peace partner to represent the Palestinian Arabs.

Yasser Arafat demonstrated his inability to relinquish his dream of destroying Israel when he rejected

prime minister Ehud Barak’s incredibly generous offer at the Camp David talks in 2000 – a rejection

which even Prince Bandar, the official representative of Saudi Arabia at the talks, described as a crime.

And now Hamas, which states in its founding constitution its aim of destroying Israel completely, is the

democratically elected majority party of the Palestinian people.

As an example of what they are talking about, the apartheid accusers point to Israel’s security fence and

checkpoints, which limit the movement of people from the disputed territories into the internationally

recognized borders of the State of Israel. In this they are also wrong.

After the collapse of the Camp David talks, Arafat and other Palestinian groups dispatched suicide

bomber after suicide bomber into Israel, targeting Jewish civilians. In the past eight years, terrorist attacks

have led to more than 1,300 civilians being murdered and 10,000 wounded by the human guided missiles

of the Islamic suicide bombers.

Given Israel’s relatively small population, proportionately, such carnage in South Africa would mean

more than 10,000 murdered and more than 80,000 injured. What would we South Africans do if so many

of our fellow citizens were blown up by suicide bombers? Appreciate for the moment what this would

mean in the context of the US, where the murder of about 3,000 people at the World Trade Center

bombings led to the invasion of two countries. Proportionately, had the US sustained similar causalities to

those suffered in Israel, almost 80,000 Americans would have been killed and about 600,000 injured.

The trauma inflicted on the Israeli people from the relentless barrage unleashed by the Palestinian

leadership, enjoying widespread support from its people, is indescribable. Israel erected a security fence

to shield it from the attacks launched from the disputed territories across its internationally recognized

borders. Every sovereign country is legally and morally entitled to erect a fence to defend its people from

attacks launched from the outside.

The fence has been remarkably successful and has reduced successful suicide bombings by up to 90

percent. Israel relies on the most fundamental moral and legal principle – the right to self-defense. Never

before in recorded history has any nation endured such civilian casualties and responded with such

restraint.

The security fence is a defensive instrument, and the most humanitarian one possible in a situation where

the alternative is heavy military action which would result in the death of thousands.

None of this has anything to do with apartheid, and everything to do with an ongoing war over the

disputed territories, and over the very existence of the Jewish state. After nearly 2,000 years of exile,

persecutions and genocides, the Jewish people are surely entitled to a tiny strip of country to call their

own.

If there is an analogy to the South African situation, it is that Israel is like the African National Congress,

which was forced into the armed struggle because it had no partner for peace. As soon as the National

Party came around to wanting genuinely negotiations, the situation was resolved. Our South African

experience has taught us that you cannot make peace unless both parties to the conflict wish to resolve it.

When the Arab world is ready to make peace, Israel will be there. Let us all pray to God that this happens

soon so that the misery and suffering of all can be brought to an immediate end.

http://reclaimingtruth.info/chief-rabbi-dr-goldstein-israel-not-apartheid-state/

Edited September 1, 2014 by OriZ

[OriZ 3,157]

South Africa’s Deputy Minister Ebrahim has been discouraging South Africans from visiting Israel. I sent him the following open letter, calling for his resignation.

Dear Mr Ebrahim

You are a minister of the South African government, appointed to advance the interests of the Republic and the people of South Africa in an impartial and rational manner. As a citizen and as a national religious leader of South Africa, I object to the way in which you are abusing your high office to promote your own personal agenda. You obviously have a ‘blind spot’ when it comes to Israel; you lose your sense of objectivity and rationality when dealing with the Jewish State.

Most recently you have used your platform and title in an active campaign to prevent South Africans – and especially members of government – from visiting Israel. This is but one example of your irrational obsession with Israel to the detriment of the proper execution of your governmental duties. You have acted in breach of your government’s own foreign policy, in terms of which South Africa and Israel have full diplomatic relations.

Your actions hark back to apartheid-style control of information and censorship. Why would you try to prevent South Africans from travelling to Israel and seeing the situation for themselves? Do you think, Mr. Ebrahim, that the South African people are not as clever as you are, that they cannot think for themselves and that they need to be protected from the facts?

Maybe you are afraid – and rightly so – that if people go to Israel and see the situation for themselves their perspective will be completely different. Are you worried that they will see that, in fact, there is no apartheid in Israel? South Africans visiting Israel will find a multi-racial, multi-ethnic vibrant society where more than 1.5 million Arabs live as full and equal Israeli citizens, vote as part of a single national voters’ roll and have full legal rights in all areas of society. Are you concerned that when South Africans travel on buses, visit parks, malls, hospitals and university campuses, attend the Israeli Parliament and the Supreme Court they will find Jews and Arabs living and working together in complete equality?

Maybe you are afraid that South African Christians will find that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where they can practice their religion freely without fear; that South African women will find that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where they can be fully equal citizens; that South African trade unionists will discover that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where there are legal and active trade unions which protect workers’ rights; that South African journalists will see that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where freedom of expression is properly upheld.

Are you worried that our fellow South Africans may learn that successive Israeli governments have supported the establishment of a Palestinian State as part of a negotiated peace agreement? Are you concerned that South Africans may speak to Ehud Barak, the dovish former Prime Minister of Israel who desperately tried at the Camp David and Taba negotiations to create a Palestinian State, only to be rebuffed by the Palestinian leadership? Are you concerned that South Africans might hear for themselves directly from the current Israeli government how it seeks to return immediately to the negotiating table without preconditions, and that it is the Palestinian leadership that refuses to do so?

Maybe you are worried that our fellow South Africans may discover that the so-called “separation wall” is actually a security fence, that prior to its being erected waves of suicide bombers killed over 1,300 Israelis and wounded over 10,000, and that since its erection these attacks have stopped. Maybe you are afraid that South Africans might speak to members of Hamas, who openly call for the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of all Jews and around the world.

Mr Ebrahim, your personal bias against Israel prevents you from fulfilling your legal and ethical duties as Minister of International Relations, who, with impartiality and sound judgment, is supposed to further peace, justice and South African strategic interests in the world. Your actions to discourage South Africans from travelling to Israel are but one manifestation of your extremist views. In so doing you are jeopardizing South Africa’s international credibility and strategic interests. It is indeed the ideological allies of Hamas and Hezbollah – Israel’s sworn enemies – who have also launched a terror campaign against Christian communities throughout Africa.

In recent months scores of churches have been burnt and hundreds of Christians have been murdered because of their faith. Nigeria, one of our key African partners, has borne the brunt of some of the worst attacks. As a leading African nation, South Africa must condemn these attacks and express support of and offer assistance to its fellow African governments in Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and elsewhere. To South Africa’s shame, you have remained silent. You have been too hesitant and weak in condemning Syrian President Assad’s actions which have resulted in the deaths of more than 20,000 of his citizens and the displacement of nearly 150,000 refugees.

These are but a few examples of how your prejudice precludes you from fulfilling your role as a minister of this government. You seem to forget that your mandate is to serve the interests of the people and the government of South Africa and not your own personal allegiances. A judge who is biased or perceived to be so is legally and ethically required to remove himself from the case, in the interest of integrity, justice and truth. These same values require that you do the same and resign. Especially during such turbulent times, how does a minister of international relations discourage people from travelling and seeing for themselves? Why do you repeat the sins of the apartheid regime and shun dialogue with and understanding of the “other”?

Peace cannot be achieved by withdrawal and isolation; as the Book of Psalms (34:15) says: “Seek peace, and pursue it.” The dream of peace will only become a reality when people pro-actively pursue it, and move beyond their prejudices and preconceptions and truly understand the complex realities of the Middle East in an open-minded and balanced way. Your actions support the forces of extremism, hatred and violence, and undermine the forces of tolerance, freedom and peaceful negotiations. For the sake of peace and justice, we need more information, not less; we need more dialogue, not less; we need more connections with other societies, not less.

You clearly do not believe so, and hence you are unfit to hold public office. Do the honorable thing: resign.

Sincerely,

Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein

Time for some more TuTu!

Dear Archbishop Desmond Tutu,

I write to you with a heavy heart. You are a revered leader in South Africa, and, recently,

have added your iconic voice to the campaign for sanctions against Israel.

Archbishop, I feel compelled to write because I believe that you are making a terrible

mistake. Without truth there can be no justice, and without justice there can be no peace. The

Talmud says, “The world stands on three things: justice, truth and peace.” These three

values are inseparable. Archbishop, I am convinced that the sanctions campaign against Israel

is morally repugnant because it is based on horrific and grotesquely false accusations against

the Jewish people.

The truth, Archbishop, is that Israel is not an apartheid state. In the State of Israel all citizens

– Jew and Arab – are equal before the law. Israel has no Population Registration Act, no

Group Areas Act, no Mixed Marriages and Immorality Act, no Separate Representation of

Voters Act, no Separate Amenities Act, no pass laws, or any of the myriad apartheid laws.

Israel is a vibrant liberal democracy with a free press and independent judiciary, and accords

full political, religious and other human rights to all its peoples, including its 1 million-plus

Arab citizens, many of whom hold positions of authority including that of cabinet minister,

member of parliament, and judge at every level of the judiciary, including that of the

Supreme Court of Israel. All citizens vote on the same roll in regular, multi-party elections;

there are Arab parties and Arab members of other parties in Israel’s parliament. Arabs and

Jews share all public facilities, including hospitals, and also malls, buses, cinemas and parks,

and, Archbishop, that includes universities and opera houses.

The other untruth is the accusation of the illegal occupation of Arab land. Like the apartheid

libel, this is outrageously false. There is no nation on earth that has a longer, deeper and more

profound connection to their country than the Jewish people have to the land of Israel and the

city of Jerusalem.

Archbishop, you and I as religious leaders always turn to the Bible as a source of truth. What

does it mean that Israel is the “promised land”? It means, as we both know, that it was

promised by G-d to the Jewish people as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This

promise was delivered upon by G-d, more than 3300 years ago when Joshua led the Jewish

people into the land of Israel. Since then there has been an unbroken Jewish presence in the

land of Israel, albeit small during the exile. All the books of the Hebrew Bible – Joshua,

Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah etc – describe the deep connection between Jews

and the land of Israel, including the West Bank, whose biblical names are Judea and Samaria,

the area that contained the great cities of the two previous Jewish commonwealths, such as

Jericho, Shiloh, where the Tabernacle stood for hundreds of years, Bet El, where Jacob had

his vision of the ladder, and Hebron, where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are buried together

with their wives Sarah, Rebecca and Leah.

Three thousand years ago great capitals of today did not exist. There was no London or

Paris, no Washington or Moscow, no Pretoria or Cape Town but there was a Jerusalem, a

Jewish city, capital of a Jewish state. “If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget

its cunning … if I fail to elevate Jerusalem above my foremost joy.” Those words from

Psalms are recited by Jews at every wedding; at every funeral the statement of comfort to the

mourners refers to Zion and Jerusalem. Jews pray for Jerusalem three times a day and also in

the grace after meals.

Archbishop, the Arab/Israeli conflict is not about a struggle against apartheid or occupation.

It is a century-long war against the very existence of Jews and of a Jewish state in Israel.

There have already been seven major Arab/Israeli wars since the birth of the modern state of

Israel. Today the war front includes an alliance between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, the latter

now with 40 000 rockets aimed at Israeli cities. Iranian officers train Hezbollah forces, while

Iran pursues nuclear weapons and openly declares its aim of wiping out Israel. Hamas, the

Palestinian government in Gaza, sides with Iran and Hezbollah in rearming with the declared

aim of destroying Israel.

Since 1967, one aspect of this century-long conflict has been the demand for a Palestinian

state. In spite of the deep historical and religious roots of Jews in all of Israel, generations of

Jewish leaders have been prepared for the sake of peace to give up ancestral and covenantal

land to establish a Palestinian state. So why has there not been peace? The ANC taught us

that you can’t make peace on your own. No matter how much the ANC was committed to a

peaceful resolution of the South African conflict, until the National Party was prepared to

accept that Black South Africans had a place in their own country, there could be no peace.

And so too until the Arab/Muslim world accepts that Jews have a right to a state of their own

on their ancestral land of Israel, there will be no peace. Jews accepted the United Nations

Resolution establishing a Jewish state and a Palestinian state in 1948 but the Arab world

rejected it and 5 countries invaded Israel to destroy it. After that, the West Bank and Gaza

were in Arab hands until 1967. There was an opportunity then – every day for almost twenty

years – to establish a Palestinian state. It never happened. And since then there have been

numerous opportunities – each rejected by Arab leaders. Why? Because this war has been

more about the destruction of the Jewish state than about the establishment of a Palestinian

state. Even today so-called moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas denies Israel’s right

to exist as a Jewish state.

In 2000, the Palestinian leadership launched a massive war of suicide bombers into Israel,

leading to more than 1300 Israeli civilian deaths and 10 000 injuries. Proportionately such

carnage in South Africa would mean more than 10 000 killed and more than 80 000 injured.

Israel erected a security fence with checkpoints to shield it from the attacks launched from

the disputed territories. Archbishop, you compare these checkpoints to apartheid South

Africa. But they are not about pass laws, which don’t exist in Israeli law. They are on the

border between sovereign Israeli territory and the disputed territories of the West Bank and

Gaza in order to protect civilians from being murdered, and have been very successful in

doing so. These checkpoints – like those which are found at all airports, where people

undergo careful security scrutiny, and often invasive searches – are there to prevent suicide

bombers from blowing up innocent people.

Archbishop, do not bestow respectability on the immoral sanctions campaign – an affront to

truth and justice, which prevents peace and prolongs the terrible suffering of people on both

sides of this painful conflict. Archbishop, let us pray for an end to all this agony, and for the

fulfilment of the verse in the Book of Isaiah, “And the L-rd G-d will wipe away the tears

from all faces.”

Yours sincerely,

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein

[OriZ 3,157]

The Refugee Issue.

The Refugee issue in the Israeli Palestinian conflict is one of the central issues in the negotiations between all sides involved. It is also one of the most misunderstood and poorly explained issues.

When considering the Refugee issue, first and foremost one must recognize that the Palestinian Refugees are not alone. The Arab-Israeli conflict created over 850000 Jewish Refugees from the Middle Eastern Arab countries. One may ask, where are these refugees? They have been absorbed into Israel. They have been given the opportunity to build a life with in a sovereign state, which provides them with their basic needs.

The Palestinian Refugees have been treated very differently. Out of the estimated 700000 refugees, 150000 accepted Israel’s offer to return and now have full citizenship rights within Israel. The rest remained in the land of the various surrounding Arab states. These Refugees were not absorbed into these Arab states, as the Jewish refugees were absorbed into the Jewish state. They were not given citizenship of the Arab countries. They were denied practicing many professions. There were restrictions on their owning land, as well as their movement. They were denied healthcare and health services. Where is the real Apartheid now?

When asked about the Palestinian Refugee problem Sir Alexander Galloway, the former Director of UNRWA, stated “…the Arab nations do not want to solve the Arab refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore…as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die” (April 1952).

Gamal Abdel Nasser, the former President of Egypt 1956-70, went even closer to full disclosure “If the refugees return to Israel, Israel will cease to exist” (Sept 1960). This statement give one a real indication as to the benefit of using the Palestinian refugees as pawns in the greater Arab ploy, to destroy Israel.

Another important question to ask is when did this Palestinian Nationalism come into being and did these people always have this desire to make a sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza. The answer comes from the Article 24 of the National Covenant of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) which was held in 1964. This stated that, “This organisation [PLO] does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, in the Gaza Strip or the Himmah area”. This means a few things, firstly it took 16 years since the end of the 1948 war for the “Palestinians” to develop any sort of identity or nationalism. Secondly, they never considered the land of the West Bank or Gaza as their rightful territory and had no desire to establish a state of their own, while in other Arab hands. It was only after 1967 and the Six Day War, when Israel won these lands in a defensive war, did this “Palestinian Nationalism” spontaneously materialise and Article 24 was conveniently removed. Why did the refugees not complain before 1967? Why was there no outcry while under Jordanian and Egyptian rule?

The United Nations has been intricately involved in perpetuating the refugee problem. The primary method is through having 2 distinct organizations dealing with refugees. The first is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which deals with every refugee crises in the world except for the Palestinian problem, which is dealt with by a second organization the Unites Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

One would think a refugee is a refugee, but the United Nations doesn’t think so and UNRWA has very distinct definitions of Palestinian refugees and indeed has a different goal. This organization has almost single handedly perpetuated the issue in the following ways:

• The UNRWA as opposed to the UNHCR transmits refugee status from generation to generation. Practically this means that instead of the original 500000 refugees, there are 4,9 million. It means that a baby born today in Gaza, which would be part of a Palestinian state in any conceivable 2 state plan, is considered a refugee.
• The UNHCR removes the status of “refugee” from a person, once they become the citizen of a country. The UNRWA does not take away the “refugee” status. Many Palestinains though not the majority, as it was not allowed, gained citizenship in certain Arab countries and exile countries elsewhere, yet their refugee status was not rescinded and they and their descendants are still considered refugees.
• The UNHCR has the aim of resettling refugees in other countries or integrating into their host countries. The UNRWA does not do this. It provides continual financial support to this growing population of refugees as opposed to finding a permanent solution to their condition. The UNRWA was established in 1949 before there was any form of Palestinian nationalism. The reality is that the refugees should have been settled long before the PLO was established in 1964. The Arab countries refused to settle these refugees as they knew the power this would give them over Israel in the future. These host countries were Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
• The United Nations spends 3 times more on Palestinian refugees than it does on refugees in other areas and in fact employs 3 times the staff for this problem.

It is possible to see that the Refugee problem in the Israeli Palestinian conflict is not as simple as it seems. The Israeli refugees cannot and must not be forgotten. Their example should rather be used, as to how a country that strives to help her own people, can make the effort to assimilate refugees in her own population. Sadly we can also see why it is not in the Arab countries interest to solve the Palestinian Refugee crises. It is the most powerful weapon they have.

In order to solve the problem and stop perpetuating lies and double standards, the United Nations needs to treat all refugees as equals. It is counterproductive to have 2 organizations dealing in 2 different ways with what is essentially the same problem, a refugee issue.

http://reclaimingtruth.info/the-truth-2/the-truth/

[OriZ 3,157]

More about the Apartheid

The definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute: “Inhumane acts … committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime”. This is the policy that was instituted in South Africa from 1948-1994. There is no such policy in Israel, this is a libelous claim!

These are just a few of the reasons among copious more:

• 1.5 million Arabs live in Israel – Israeli Arabs constitute about 20 percent of Israel’s population. Every single one of these Israeli Arabs shares equal rights with all other Jewish citizens of Israel and always has.
• Israeli Arabs have the right to vote.
• Israeli Arabs can serve in parliament.
• Israeli Arabs own property, businesses and working professions alongside other Israelis
• Israeli Arabs use the same public transport, the same parks and other public facilities
• Israeli Arabs have access to the exact same world renowned hospitals in Israel
• Israeli Arabs benefit from Affirmative Action laws – meaning that they actually enjoy more rights than many Jews in Israel. This is because Israeli Arabs are a minority group

These are but a few examples of Israeli Arabs in prominent positions in Israeli society:

• Reda Mansour – Israeli Ambassador (Druze)
• Israeli Arabs can become judges (Salim Joubran). In fact, one of these judges, sentenced an Israeli Jewish president to jail.
• Walid Badir – international soccer star on Israel’s national team
• Rana Raslan – former Miss Israel
• Ismail Khaldi– Deputy Consul of Israel in San Francisco
• Khaled Abu Toameh – major journalist Jerusalem Post
• Galeb Magadla – until recently minister in Israeli govt.

According to the IDC Israel Institute for Policy and Strategy survey in 2006, ”…the rate of Arab Israelis who believe that Israel is better than most other countries (77%) is among the highest in the developed world with regards to this measure. Notably, the number of Arabs who are proud of the welfare system (53%) is three times higher than that among Jews (17%)”[1].

Not only is Israel not an apartheid state, Arabs in Israel are freer than any other Arabs in the Arab world. No Arab in any Arab country has the civil rights and personal liberty that Arabs in Israel have that’s because Israel is a pluralistic liberal democracy – the only one in the Middle East.

A Survey by Freedom House [2] on the Civil Liberties afforded to populations of countries in the Middle East:

The rating system is 1 = most free to 7 = least free

But what about Palestinians living in Gaza and West Bank? Aren’t they treated differently?

Of course they are, because they are not citizens of Israel, they’re governed by either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. The only control Israel has over these people’s lives takes place when they want to enter Israel. Then they are subjected to long lines and strict searches because Israel has to weed out potential terrorists. Until there is a peace agreement, or at least as long as Israel’s citizens remain under threat of attacks from the West Bank and Gaza, Israel will see roadblocks and similar measures as necessary for self-defence. Furthermore, like any other sovereign state does, Israel has the right to monitor who and what enters her borders.

The Security Barrier

The security barrier was built to stop unrelenting terrorist attacks; the Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the state in many cases to reroute it to minimize unreasonable hardship. Road restrictions get more intrusive after violent attacks and are ameliorated when the threat is reduced. Since the security barrier was erected in 2002 during the second intifada when Palestinian suicide bombers where regularly murdering Israeli civilians in buses, in streets and restaurants, terrorism in Israel was reduced to almost zero. Another commonly skipped over fact about the Security Barrier is that over 90 percent of it is a fence, not the high wall that routinely makes the news.

Israel is not alone in having borders with other countries. Most countries have border controls with neighbouring states/lands. America has built a wall between itself and Mexico. Why has there been no outcry? South Africa has strengthened its border with Zimbabwe. Again no outcry. Saudi Arabia built a reinforced wall between itself and Yemen in the south (in fact built 7 km into Yemeni territory) and between itself and Iraq in the north east. There are many other examples.

Then why is Israel targeted?

These are continuous attempts to try to delegitimize Israel and hope to persuade uninformed people that Israel has no right to exist just as apartheid South Africa had no right to exist.

The Injustice of this Libel

Those who falsely label Israel as an Apartheid state, are doing an injustice certainly to Israel but also to the true victims of Apartheid in South Africa. This libel diminishes and trivialises their hardships, struggle and suffering at the hands of a vicious and evil regime. It takes the 27 years which, Nelson Mandela served in prison and reduces their meaning. The way the term Apartheid has been commercialized in an Israeli reference, has only served to dilute the true meaning of that term.

Israel has been accused the world over as being the prime violator of human rights. Israel has been accused of heinous crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The following will clarify why such accusations are absurd:

• Israel is the only country in the Middle East that operates under the rule of law.
• Its record on human rights compares favorably to that of any country in the world facing comparable dangers.
• Its Supreme Court is among the best in the world. It has repeatedly overruled the army and the government and made them operate under the rule of law.
• One of the very few High Courts in the world prohibiting the use of applying physical pressure (non-lethal torture) as a means of interrogation.
• Professor Michael Walzer of Princeton University, a strong critic of Israeli “occupation” has noted, “in battle, the Israeli army has regularly accepted risks to its own men in order to reduce the risks it posed on the civilian population”.
• Israel will do anything in its power to reduce civilian casualties. An example of such is during Operation Cast Lead (Operation in Gaza) in 2008/2009, when the Israel Defense Force (IDF), amongst many other modes of advanced warnings, dropped a total of 2.5 million leaflets of various kinds in the Gaza Strip in Arabic. Some of these warned civilians to distance themselves from military targets, while others directed residents to leave a particular location within a defined period of time in order to minimize civilian casualties.
• The IDF implements far reaching efforts to ensure that the humanitarian needs of the enemy’s civilian population are met, for example, in the Gaza Operation, the IDF-

1. Ensured continuous supply of humanitarian aid through the crossing points such as food, medical supplies and fuel.
2. Co-ordinated evacuations and other humanitarian movements within the Gaza Strip and between Gaza and Israel.
3. Unilaterally suspended military operations to enable re-supply of the population and humanitarian relief activities.
4. Ensured the functioning of essential infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

• The training received by IDF soldiers includes an ethical code, which is incorporated into the training of every IDF soldier. This ethical code can be found in a document called “The Spirit of the IDF” and it outlines the following:

1. The concept of Purity of Arms, which states that an IDF soldier will use force of arms only for the purpose of subduing the enemy to the necessary extent and will limit his use of force so as to prevent unnecessary harm to human life and limb, dignity and property.
2. Soldiers are required to put their own lives at stake in order to avoid harming non-combatants. An example of such is in April 2002 following hundreds of suicide bombings that culminated in the Passover massacre of 29 Jewish civilians, the IDF entered the Jenin Refugee Camp, which had become a bomb-making factory and terrorist center. Instead of bombing the terrorists’ camp from the air as the US did in Afghanistan and Russia did in Chechnya, with little risk to their own soldiers but much to civilians, IDF infantrymen entered the camp going house to house in search of terrorist and bomb-making equipment which they found. This placed IDF soldiers in tremendous danger, and the losses were large, while the Palestinian losses totaled 52, and almost all of them were militants. This has been regarded by many as a model of how to conduct urban warfare against terrorists hiding amongst civilians.
3. IDF soldiers are required to respond with “proportional force”. It requires that every soldier act “out of a recognition of the supreme value of human life” and commands them to “do all in [their] power to avoid causing harm to [noncombatants’] lives, bodies, dignity and property; and refrain from obeying blatantly illegal orders.”

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

I'd say that sums it up. Israel doesn't want peace and never has. They want land. All of it.

Wait wait... Which of the groups *do* want peace?

[OriZ 3,157]

According to them ALL the Palestinians want peace, including Hamas, all they want is the land occupied in 1967 "back"(completely ignoring the fact there was never an independent state on those lands) and Israel is evil for not just withdrawing and giving it to them and then there will be nothing but ever lasting peace. This seemingly minor error in the understanding of the situation is what causes the deep hatred for Israel and its policies. Here is something interesting, but I betcha no one is going to bother reading it, instead they will complain about a wall of text, cause that's easier than actually trying to open your mind:

Posing as a German investigative reporter named ‘Toby’ during a trek through Palestinian Authority areas, a noted playwright and polymath author told Israel’s Channel 2 News that he’s exposed a toxic brew of Jew hatred in Palestinian society, masquerading behind purported human-rights activities.

The Tel Aviv-born Tuvia Tenenbaum spent time with the various left-wing Israeli and foreign agitators in the West Bank and asked them to educate him about the plight of the “Palestinians,” according to Prof. Seven Plaut, of the Faculty of Management at the University of Haifa, speaking with The Algemeiner.

Tenenbaum ”turned the results into a book, ‘Catch the Jew,’” a “hilarious and at the same time highly revealing [account] of the sorts of propagandists operating to undermine Israel and provide disinformation to the media. A chapter of his new book is reprinted in this past weekend’s Makor Rishon,” newspaper, Plaut noted.

“Much of the chapter deals with Tenenbaum’s meetings and travels about the West Bank with Rabbi Arik Ascherman, head of the ‘Rabbis for Human Rights,’” group, which Plaut characterized as ”a far-leftist anti-Israel propaganda NGO.”

In a parallel video report aired on Israel’s Channel 2 News Friday evening on the book, Tenenbaum said, ”The Europeans aren’t really familiar with the Middle East dispute and they do not investigate. They are coming out of every hole here. They don’t want to help, but rather to catch the Jew doing something bad. It comes from hatred.”

Translating from the report, noted pro-Israel blogger, Carl in Jerusalem, of Israel Matzav, wrote, ”From the beginning, ‘Toby’ joined a group of young Italians who learned about the dispute in Shechem (Nablus) and in Israel, with funding from the European Union. But the Israeli guide, Itamar Shapira – the brother of the pilot Jonathan Shapira who refused orders and became an extreme Leftist activist – presented himself to the group as a ‘former Jew’ and said harsh things against Israel.

“During a tour of Yad Vashem, Shapira chose to focus specifically on stories of the massacre at Dir Yassin [the Jenin lie of the 1948 War of Independence. CiJ] and told the young Italians that it’s necessary to impose boycotts and sanctions on Israel because ‘we have to stop an additional Holocaust.’ Shapira was fired in the past from Yad Vashem after he compared the Holocaust to the Naqba [the Palestinian characterization of the creation of the State of Israel as a catastrophe. CiJ], but today he leads private groups there.

“The Palestinian guide who accompanied the group was Ataf Abu Rob, a Palestinian journalist and investigator for B’Tselem who is responsible for several stories published by the [extreme Leftist Haaretz] journalist Gideon Levy. Abu Rob told ‘Toby’ that the Holocaust is ‘a lie. I don’t believe it.’

“The senior Fatah commander Jibril Rajob also opened his door after he heard about the book that ‘Toby’ planned to publish and told him: ‘Israel is racist and fascist, it will be isolated like South Africa.’ Rajoub’s close confidantes whispered to Tenenbaum ‘We are all German, but the only problem is that we know that General Rommel did not succeed in coming here.’

“Tenenbaum’s book Catch the Jew will be published this week, and he will then not be accepted as a prodigal son in the Palestinian Authority once his cover is blown, the narrator of the video report said, summing up.

“In response, Yad Vashem said in a statement that, ‘Yad Vashem is careful that the subject of the Holocaust will be presented in detachment from any political agenda. Itamar Shapira was employed in the past as a guide in Yad Vashem and was not careful about these norms, and therefore it was decided about five years ago to terminate him [after he had worked there for three and a half years! CiJ]. Today, we allow outside guides, but we are considering changing this policy.’”

For their part, B’Tselem said that they condemn “any expression of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. The matter will be clarified with the investigator with the full necessary seriousness.” Journalist Gideon Levy added: “I traveled to the territories a number of times over the course of the years with Atef Abu Rob. I never conducted political discussions with him and I am not aware of his views. I very much hope that Holocaust denial is not one of them.”

Watch the video report below:

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/31/undercover-israeli-playwright-exposes-palestinian-holocaust-denial-rank-jew-hatred-anti-israel-agenda-video/

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Good god.

[Expat1 971]

I'd say that sums it up. Israel doesn't want peace and never has. They want land. All of it.

And why not? They are "entitled to it". Not by purchase, or hard work, or earning, but by declaring it as "ownerless" and taking it or worse cheating someone out of it. Speaking against these things is, of course, anti-Semitic but here are some (soon to be 'blockaded' by walls of posts) just a few examples of various aspects of Jewish law. Here is what I think - if you write things like this down then practice them in real life and someone speaks up about it then the feedback is fairly earned.

Declaring property "abandoned" and "ownerless" and taking possession of it is RIGHT out of the book and EXACTLY what was done by the original settlers. The double standards in the Israeli legal system gets highlighted by everyone, no need to post walls of examples (unless needed).

"Rule of Law" indeed.

"The Mishnah. . .declares that if a Gentile sue an Israelite, the verdict is the for defendant; if the Israelite is the plaintiff, he obtains full damages."

God "outlawed" Gentiles at Mt. Sinai and their property rights were now Israel's. The Rabbis by their own decree could at least declare the property of Gentiles to be ownerless. The Jewish Encyclopedia (p. 621) summarizes:

All retaliation or measures of reprisal are based on the Jewish legal maxim of eminent domain, 'the judicial authority can annul the right to the possession of property and declare such property ownerless.'

Choschen Ham spells out some of the ground rules for exploiting non-Jews:

If a Jew is doing good business with an Akum [Gentile] it is not allowed to other Jews in other places to come and do business with the same Akum. In other places, however, it is different, where another Jew is allowed to go to the same Akum, lead him in, do business with him and to deceive him and take his money. For the wealth of the Akum is to be regarded as common property and belongs to the first who can get it. If a Jew is doing business with an Akum and a fellow Israelite comes along and defrauds the Akum, either by false measure, weight, or number, he must divide his profit with his fellow Israelite, since both had a part in the deal, and also to help him along.

Edited September 1, 2014 by Expat1

[Karee 4,189]

Wait wait... Which of the groups *do* want peace?

I'd say the folks running things in the West Bank (Fatah) have tried to work towards peace with Israel. What have they gotten in return. Zip, zilch, nada. Not only that, Israel has continued to expand the illegal settlements in the West Bank. Continued the military occupation etc. etc. That's what happens when you try to have peace with Israel, you're rewarded with more theft of land. I'm sure the folks in Gaza saw this, and now there's Hamas to deal with.