My Letter to Benjamin Netanyahu

To The Right Honorable Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister of Israel

Dear Sir,

"The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth."
Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)

I implore you to cease and desist immediately the use of the word "border" in your speeches and discussions and refer to the correct historical term "Ceasefire Lines".

As an excellent spokesman for the State of Israel, with an extensive knowledge of English as though a native English speaker, you can comprehend the correct use of one word in the minds of the American public and the rest of the English speaking world. I have seen and heard you use this knowledge of the English language on countless occasions. This is why Mr. Prime Minister I implore you to correct this fallacy forthwith!

The connotation of the use of "1967 borders" is not "our" statement as you well know and we must stridently campaign to correct this misnomer! It is the Falestinians and their proponents, as I term them HOIZ's (Haters of Israel and Zion), who have used the term "1967 borders" in their mis-information campaign against Israel to brand Israel as an "Occupier". No borders have been established or recognized by the parties. Armistice lines do not establish borders and as specifically stated (at Arab insistence) in the 1949 Armistice Agreements, they were not creating permanent or de jure borders.

I strongly suggest that you expedite the use of this correct word usage, and it's connotations, to our immediate political advantage.  WORDS DO MATTER!!  You sir and ALL Israeli representatives must STOP using THEIR terminology of; "West Bank", "settlements" and "Settlers"!!! Use the REAL terms!!! Judaea and Shomron, residential neighborhoods, towns, kibbutzim and villages and returning residents!
You must take away the momentum of this fallacy from our opponents! 
I recommend that you begin by reiterating the true historical fact that Israel never had borders, only a "Green Line" or an "Armistice-Cease-fire- Line agreed upon at the 1949 Rhodes ceasefire agreement!

Additionally you should emphasize, as shown in the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, that only through true negotiations of give and take with painful compromises by both parties will a real and lasting peace be finally achieved with the Palestinians.


We must stress that Israel is attempting to arrange a true Peace Treaty with the establishment of actual borders! As a historian it must be re-emphasized to the entire world that Israel has shown itself time and time again willing to make painful compromises in land for peace. What is in utmost importance that must be stated repeatedly loudly and clearly is the historical fact that prior to the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, Israel never had any "borders".

I would furthermore like to remind you and the readers that when the Palestinian Mandate was written the Jews were recognized with "cestui sue trust" of the political rights to the area by the San Remo conference and embodied in the Treaty of Sèvres (Section VII, Art 94-97). This was finally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922.

It must also be emphasized again and again that the West Bank area was in fact "liberated" in 1967 from Jordanian Occupation. That the area of the so-called West Bank was a section of the League of Nations Mandated territory that was intended for a "Jewish Homeland". In the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, the area became designated for the Palestinian State. The fact that the "Arabs of the Mandate" relinquished their right to the area by agreeing to Jordanian occupation from 1947 until 1967 is never mentioned anyway in the world press. And why is it that no pro “Falestinian” commentator has ever been able to explain why these so called “Arabs of the mandated Areas” did not claim the area allocated to them from Jordan and establish their country Palestine in the whole West Bank and Gaza immediately after the 1949 Rhodes cease fire agreement.

Mr. Prime Minister, Peace must be reached but not at the price of our existence. We want the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the Jewish State, yet we must also acknowledge their existence. You and the Foreign Office must use the world press to counter the mass of Palestinian mis-information and speak directly to the world audience. The time has come for brave steps but it has to be emphasized to President Obama and the world that peace can be resolved tomorrow by two steps.

The first get rid of UNWRA by cutting off all monetary aid forthwith.
Secondly have the Arab world stop the lie of the "Arab Refugees" and deal with their mistake.

Just as Israel absorbed 900,000 Jews of Arab lands and absorbed them and made them citizens of Israel. So must the surrounding Arab countries must admit their complicity in the "Nakhba" and do justice by absorbing the Palestinian refugees.


Most sincerely yours,

Yakov M

The Truth Is NOT Out There

"The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth." Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)

Every free morning when I am not in a rush to go to work, I have a ritual of preparing a leisurely morning cup of coffee and then opening my computer. Once the computer is booted I open my email in-boxes. Through these portals to the world I receive items from around the world daily. The items I receive range from personal items and Blog comments to the usual bills and advertisements. As I read through the items I pause and ponder, "Is it worth while for me to reply or to elaborate my personal point of view in a Blog?" I wonder. "Is my Blog entry readable or even interesting to those whom I send my reply to?" What will my words do? Will they have any effect? Will the reader agree with me?"

Then when I open Facebook there is always the space where you enter your comment as to "What's on your mind?". It stares at me and I always stare at the space and think to myself "Gawd I sure as hell would like to say all that is on my mind!" I sit and ponder upon the minions of things that flow through my brain from the personal to the political and from the trivial to the intricate. I think about all the news that is occurring daily in the world and of course on those news items concerned with Israel. I am reminded of the saying. "All the news that is fit to print".

Next I open the news pages of the leading Israeli dailies in English; Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post and Yediout Achronout to read the latest in news headlines. I especially like trying my mental patience by occasionally reading the writings of Mr. Gideon Levy and MS. Amira Hass. These two consistently profess their self-hating delusions of how the Israeli leadership and the religious and extreme right control the feelings of ALL Israelis. They never dare to criticize the "Palestinians" for their flagrant use of violence it is ALWAYS Israel's fault. Their personal views are those of the Shenkin crowd tainted by self hating Homosexual-Lesbian Jewish anarchist leftist – read old time communist thought who hide in the Greater Tel Aviv area and never venture in the peripheral areas of Israel.

As I read through the news articles and commentaries I also read the Talkbacks to these articles. Occasionally the editorial staff of Haaretz slip up and allow a positive Talkbacker reply such as; "If those Turks, who died, had been peaceful like those on the other five ships of the "flotilla" they would have received no harm and would have arrived back home safely as the others." Wow! you mean we are humans?

So very many times these comments against Israel are so far fetched and based on totally absurd facts that it appears that common sense/knowledge are thrown out the window. Many of the Talkbackers are frequent commentators who readily leave their vile lies and false accusations for the gullible non-informed to read on a daily basis in any Talkback that they can. The fact that their totally depraved ranting's and raving's are accepted and printed in the free democratic press of Israel is lost by them and overlooked by the left-wing "humanitarian" camp. These same critics of Israel are totally silent should they even dare to insinuate any trivial wrong doing in one of the neighboring Arab countries.

As I read these "Talkbacks" I am consistently amazed at those who thrive on absurd pro-Palestinian hatred who visit these Israeli English web sites to spread their comments gleaned from their personal hatred of Jews and Israel. These "readers' comments" are veritably filled with such virulent "pro-Palestinian" and anti-Semitic hateful propaganda rantings that the effort to read them can range from the tedious to the laughable.

As someone who has studied history in an American University I was taught by my professors to base statements and writings on researched historical fact. As someone who has lived in the Middle East and has experienced first-hand many of the historical events over the past 37 years here I am astounded by the amount of historical documented fact that is literally ignored and distorted by these pro-"Palestinian" Talkbackers. On most occasions these anti-Israel rantings that are made have absolutely nothing to do with the article that they ascribe to comment about! The majority of these HOIZs-"Haters of Israel and Zion" are so despicable in their replies one wonders, what exactly is the purpose behind their publication by the "mediators" of the talkbacks? I also wonder how much do these pretentious and preposterous lies affect the naïve "least knowledgeable" readers? The Talkback section of Haaretz is specifically heinous for not only its own "left-wing" commentaries but for it's predominance in truly notoriously spiteful and hate filled "pro-Palestinian" "Talkbackers".

To these "Talkbackers" who appear on a regular basis, Israeli IS an Apartheid State, the IDF means the IOF or Israeli "Occupation" Force, Israel IS a racist state thereby associating that ALL Jews are racists and all who serve to defend Israel in the IDF ARE blood thirsty murderers of innocent women and children.

Israel's lack of counter propaganda – the relaying of facts and truths are left for the volunteers whose knowledge of Judaism and the pro-Zionistic concepts vary from the extreme right to the middle. The Israeli left and especially the far left are on a mode of self-destruction and appeasement. The average secular Israeli Sabra is too busy thinking of himself/herself and the daily routine of his/her family to care about what the world thinks.

Let us look for a moment at where this "pro-Palestinian" propaganda mis-information campaign originated.

In Arafat's visit to Viet Nam during the height of the war in Viet Nam, North Vietnamese General Giap, advised Arafat and his subordinates to redefine the terms of their struggle. Giap told Arafat to learn from their struggle in Viet Nam and to work in a way that would concealed the organizations stated goals in it's charter for the elimination of the Jewish State through strategic deception.
Giap advised Arafat to reflect an image of moderation and to publicly deny that the PLO wishes to annihilate Israel. Giap told him to turn the PLO terror war into a struggle for human rights. That once you had distanced yourself and the PLO from acts of violence then you will have the liberal left wing Europeans and Americans eating out of your hand.
General Giap and the KGB advisors told Arafat to develop proxies that he could command to perform terrorist missions but be distanced enough from to shuffle off blame to. The best example of this is the Black September organization made infamous for their attack and murder of the Israeli Olympic Team members in 1972.

Muhammad Yazid, who had been minister of information in two Algerian wartime governments had also advised Arafat:

Wipe out the argument that Israel is a small state whose existence is threatened by the Arab states, or the reduction of the Palestinian problem to a question of refugees; instead, present the Palestinian struggle as a struggle for liberation like the others. Wipe out the impression …that in the struggle between the Palestinians and the Zionists, the Zionist is the underdog. Now it is the Arab who is oppressed and victimized in his existence because he is not only facing the Zionists but also world imperialism.

The new "pro-Palestinian" propaganda approach has been wildly successful since its inception in the wake of the expulsion of the PLO by Jordan to Lebanon in 1970 and the infamous United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted on November 10,1975 that "determines[d] that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination"

Ever since the 2001 UN Durban Conference on Racism and in the aftermath of the construction of the "Security Wall", this virulent hatful "pro-Palestinian" propaganda approach was refined, focused and amplified. Throughout the world in all of the "leftist" camp Israel is now presented as not only denying Palestinians their rights, but as doing so out of racism. The false analogy with South African apartheid, which has become espoused especially by the moderate "Left", are now calling for similar actions that caused the fall of the South Africa against Israel. These actions include; de-legitimization, boycotts, divestment, etc.

In addition to the potent element of racism the "HOIZS" and their pro-"Palestinian" lackys have added the slanderous "labeling" of Israel with the colonialist theme. They do so through the repetitious use of the term "Settlements" to denote the Jewish villages and towns established in the areas of Mandated Territory that was previously occupied from 1948 – 1967 by Jordan. The unique historical fact that the area of the "West Bank" was designated as the historical Jewish Homeland guaranteed in the Mandate for Palestine and ignored in UN Resolution 181 is conveniently forgotten.
What is also forgotten is that Jews had been living in the area of Judea and Shomron for hundreds of years. The fact that the Arabs ethnically cleansed the Jews out of their homes in Hebron in a massacre in 1929 is never mentioned nor is the ethnical cleansing of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem in 1948. Let us not forget the massacre and liquidation of the four kibbutzim (communal settlements)of the Jewish Gush Etzion Block in 1948. In the Six day war of 1967, the old City Jewish Quarter and the rest of Jordanian occupied Jerusalem and Mandated Territory East of the 1949 Rhodes Armistice agreement ceasefire "Green" line was finally liberated by Israeli forces. It is very important to note here that there is NO documented historical reference to a border since the "West Bank" was a Jordanian Occupied area from May 1948 until June 4, 1967. This slanderous lie of branding Israel as an "Occupier" through the omission of documented historical fact has achieved great results among the youth of Europe. This accusation has been especially heinous especially in the US, where those "Liberal" leftist supporters who had generally supported the somewhat socialist state of Israel in the past have now began to work in earnest against Israel.
It must be remembered that the "Palestinians" chose war in 1948 and they were not united to form a pseudo government to accept the transferral of their assigned part of the Mandated area from the United Kingdom -the Mandatory Power - so they ended up as refugees under a Jordanian occupation. The area of the "West Bank" and Jerusalem which HAD a Jewish presence was ethnically cleansed by the Jordanian Legion.
My question to these HOIZs and the world is; Why do the Palestinians wish to remove Jewish "settlements"? Why do they not accept the Jews as we in Israel have Arab citizens with their villages and citizens? The denial of a Jewish presence is the true face of the Palestinians as reflected in their Charter. If the Palestinians are true believers in peace the new "Palestinian State" must accept Jews as equal citizens just as we in Israel accept OUR Arab neighbors!


The brunt of the full liberal "leftist" camp's discontent towards the Israel settlements or "Occupation" has brought Israel’s enemies to make anti-Zionism almost a religious experience on the Left, especially on college campuses. What has consistently been ignored by these "Palestinian" HOIZ sympathizers is the Palestinian Charter itself which calls for; "an armed struggle, to deny the legitimacy of the establishment of Israel, to deny the existence of a Jewish people with a historical or religious connection to Palestine, and to label Zionism a racist, imperialist, fanatic, fascist, aggressive, colonialist political movement that must be eliminated from the Middle East for the sake of world peace.

The extent of the absurdity of these "Haters of Israel and Zion" "Talkbackers" in their quest for the deligitimatization of Israel has recently led them into the realm of the absurd. They are now utilizing fantasy and outright lies to further their claims that Israel has never existed. They have contorted historic fact to show that only they are the rightful heirs to the land as true descendants of the Canaanite people!(?)
As part of the "Palestinian Charters" plan, the HOIZS and their pro-"Palestinian" followers accuse Israel of being an illegitimate country established on the lands belonging to the native Arab inhabitants. To usurp the "Jewish Biblical" claim they have recently embraced the whimsical claim that the "Palestinians" are the descendants of the Canaanites and not the "Philistines=Palestine".
The reason for this change of "national origin" comes from their "enlightened" discovery that the source of the term "Palestina", as used by the occupying forces of the Romans and the British, comes from the Hebrew biblical term "Plishtines" or "Invaders". The archaeological finds in the area of Ashkeleon and Gaza, of the Biblical area held by the Philistines, reveal a source from the Greek island culture of the Minoans who fled in the wake of the Thera or Santorini catastrophic volcanic eruption which is estimated to have occurred in the mid second millennium BCE.
The HOIZS and their pro-"Palestinian" have embraced this "Canaanite" heritage farce in order to further their claim that All Israelis are "Settlers" and we are ALL blood thirsty land grabbing religious fanatics.

Please note that these absurd claims, as mentioned, are part of the plot of the "Palestinian Charter" to; "deny the existence of a Jewish people with a historical or religious connection to Palestine.". These "Hater's of Israel / Zion" have recently discovered that by calling themselves "Palestinians" in the past they are themselves the usurpers to the land and not the Jews/Israelis!

So where does this "Palestinian" business begin? I will now quote historical fact.

Herodotus the Greek historian called the eastern coast of the Mediterranean "Philistine Syria" using the Greek language form of the name. The Emperor Hadrian wanted to blot out the name of the Roman "Provincia Judaea" in AD 135after putting down the second major Jewish revolt against Rome led by Bar Kochba. So he renamed it "Provincia Syria Palaestina", the Latin version of the Greek name and the first use of the name as an administrative unit. The name "Provincia Syria Palaestina" was later shortened to "Palaestina", from which the modern, anglicized "Palestine" is derived.

The Christian Crusaders employed the word "Palestine" to refer to the general region of the "three Palestines." After the fall of the crusader kingdom, Palestine was no longer an official designation. The name, however, continued to be used informally for the lands on both sides of the Jordan River.

The Ottoman Turks, who themselves were non-Arabs but religious Muslims, ruled the area for 400 years (1517-1917). Under their Empire the "Palestine" region was attached administratively to the province of Damascus and ruled from Istanbul. At the Versailles Peace conference the Christian fundamentalist leadership decided to use the Roman term "Palaestina" to identify the land conquered from the former Ottoman Turkish Empire and assigned to the Mandatory power the "United Kingdom".

In the draft of the Mandate for Palestine, which was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations and came into effect on 26 September 1923, the indigenous Arab population is referred to in Article 22 simply as the "existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine". (Please note here that they are not referred in this often quote historical document as "Palestinians".)
Awni Abd al-Hadi (1889-1970) born in Nablus testified in 1936 before the Peel Commission, "There is no such country [as Palestine].... Palestine is a term the Zionists invented.... Our country was for centuries part of Syria."
It was not until after the debacle of the Israeli War for Independence in 1948 did the "indigenous Arab" people who had fled as refugees were suddenly officially referred to as "Palestinians" by the United Nations. This occurs when UNWRA –the United Nations Work Relief Agency was established following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War by the United Nations General Assembly under resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949. Where it states that;

"The sole beneficiaries are those who had lived in the British Mandate of Palestine for at least two years before fleeing and must have lost both their home and livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, or be the descendant of someone who had."

I wish to point out here that if one reads this definition closely it does not refer to Arabs it refers to," sole beneficiaries". May I point out that UNWRA is thereby discriminating against the Jewish inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter and the Jewish settlement Bloc of Kfar Etzion in the area of Judea who "lost both their home and livelihood".

Awaking to their dilemma after the failure of the Arab countries to destroy the infant nation, those "indigenous Arab inhabitants" choose to identify themselves as the legitimate descendants picked the name "Falastin, as their nation's supposed ancient name. The irony of it all is that the name "Falastin" – "Palestine" is not even an Arabic name/term is purposely overlooked by the Arabs, as I mentioned previously.

In January 1964 at the first summit of the Arab League, held in Cairo, Egypt, and attended by all thirteen member states of the Arab League. The "indigenous Arab inhabitants" are referred to as the "Palestinian fedayeen". Gamal Abdel and the Arab states in attendance gave a mandate to the "Palestinian fedayeen" to initiate contacts aimed at establishing a "Palestinian entity". It was at this meeting that Ahmad al-Shuqayri (1908 - 1988), was chosen to become the first chairman of the "Palestine Liberation Organization".

The rest is all history but hey if you’re a HOIZ then the "Truth is NOT out there!"

Politics, Democracy And Israel

During the past 37 years of my life here in Israel I have served through six national elections as a representative of the Labor Party at a local polling station. During my tenure as a member of the polling stations I have witnessed that democracy in Israel is a real true democracy, the type of democracy that the world press now exalts in the "democratic uprisings" that have only recently occurred in the Arab world. I have witnessed that the democratic right to vote by secret ballot in Israel was beyond reproach for its totally free and democratic format. In the polling station where I sat, both Jews and Arabs, from our joint municipality Ma'alot-Tarshicah, voted in a quiet and a disciplined manner. The process of voting rivaled only my own voting experience in the United States.

Some seventeen years ago the elections that brought the Labor Party and Itzhak Rabin back into office also brought a wave of optimism in Israel that arose from the first real positive real steps towards peace in the Middle East. This optimism of the "left" and the secular majority was shattered by the political murder of Itzhak Rabin z"l and the subsequential betrayal of Arafat to the Oslo Peace accords. Arafats instigation of the "Intifada" with its terrible wave of suicidal murderous attacks on innocent Israeli citizens hardened the Israeli publics view on the plight of the Palestinians and brought a right wave backlash.
The resulting effect has been the total lack of apathy of the secular centrist voters in comparison to those on the extremes – both left and right. The dilemma we face in Israeli politics today is a direct outcome of the failure of the Palestinian leadership to cease the use of violence and their mulishness to deal directly with Israel. The resounding refusal of the surrounding TWENTY-TWO Arab countries to resolve their complacency in the tragedy of the "Palestinian" refugees is also a factor that influences the Israeli electorate.

The continuous negative image shown by the world media of Israel in the outside world has no influence on the vast majority of Israeli voters. Many Israelis have grown immune to the world's constant myopic one-sided condemnations and criticisms since the infamous United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted on November 10, 1975 that "determine[d] that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination".

The same heinous accusation of Israeli "racisms" from this infamous vote has been incorporated into the new anti-Israel lies since the building of the security wall, which by the way the cause for its construction is never mentioned by those I term "Haters of Israel". Here are some REAL facts;
From 1967 until the beginnings of the second Intifada in September 2000 the population of Israel and the West Bank were free to move without any inhibitence and to have free commerce.

I personally can remember that when I first came to Israel, in September of 1974, I used to take an East Jerusalem bus company bus to Jerusalem via Jericho from the kibbutz and back. We used to go shopping and to eat in Jenin there was no hatred and no road blocks there was freedom of movement. Thousands of "Palestinians" had jobs in Israel until 1987 when the first "Intifada" –Uprising began.

With the instigation of the Second Intifada, which was a gift from Arafat for signing the Oslo "Peace" Accords, the "Palestinians" carried out 73 suicide attacks, murdering 293 Israeli civilians'; men, women and children and wounding 1,950.
Between August 2003 and the end of 2006 "Palestinian" terrorist organizations operating from Samaria, the northern part of the "West Bank", carried out another wave of 12 suicide bombing attacks, killing 64 Israeli civilians; men, women and children and wounding 445.

What these liars and purveyors of mis-information fail to mention is that a "Peace" agreement was signed on the front lawn of the White House overlooked by President William Jefferson Clinton , Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat and that the agreement was never honored by the "Palestinians" is forgotten and ignored. The "Palestinian" commitment to non-violence and "Peace" brought nothing but wave after wave of suicide bombings, striking throughout Israel, killing scores of civilians and soldiers.

Mousa Abu Marzouq , deputy chairman of Hamas's political bureau in Damascus , was asked by a group of Egyptian intellectuals and politicians why the suicide bombing activity had decreased during since the Hamas government came to power. He said that “ [carrying out] such attacks is made difficult by the security fence and the gates surrounding West Bank residents ” 2 (Abd al-Muaz Muhammad, Ikhwan Online, the Muslim Brotherhood Website, June 2, 2007 ).

Since the August 2003 completion of the first section of the security fence and buffer zone, the so called "Apartheid" Wall there has been a drastic reduction in the number of mass-murder suicidal attacks carried out in Israel to ZERO. So for us Israelis is the world's condemnation and scorn bothering us over the discomfort of the "Palestinians"? As a father I will answer with a resounding NO to Roger Water's accusations.

The continuous murderous attacks of the Palestinians /Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians has turned Israeli public opinion to that of hatred, distain and total apathy to the plight of the Palestinians.The resulting UN sponsored Goldstone Commission Report of the actions of Israel in the "Operation Cast Lead" is a resounding example of negative imagery based on one sided lies and distortions of truth. The simple fact that the world press totally ignored the reason for the operation, which had made life on the Israeli side of the separation line from Gaza unbearable is inexcusably one-sided. The Goldstone and HRW reports which have belittled the effect of more than 9000 Kassam rocket attackslaunched from UNOCCUPIED Hamas controled Gaza together with the plight of Cpl. Gilad Shalit has further distanced Israeli public opinion.

Let me now present some important factors in the history of Israel that form the background on Israeli political history.

The first movement for the return to Zion was established in the early 1880s. It was manifested in the Lovers Of Zion or Hovevei Zion (Hebrew: חובבי ציון‎). It was composed of Jews from Eastern European countries whose sole aim was to promote Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. Their primary objective was to found agricultural settlements.

The socialistic values, of the equality of the workers to have a decent income with proper and convenient lives based on fair wages, was once the standard of the Histadrudt Labor Union from before the creation of the state. These socialistic and even communistic beliefs were brought to "Eretz-Yisrael" by the second group of Jewish pioneers, who came to settle the land during the end of the 19th century 1870 -1925.
The members of this later wave of Zionistic immigration came from the Haskalah - Educational Enlightenment movement. The word HasKalah is derived from the Hebrew word sehkel, “the intellect,” and it refers to the attitude of attraction to general knowledge, secular learning, and Western culture. The "Haskalah" movements aim was for the broadening the intellectual and social horizons of the Jews to enable them to take their place in Western society away from the strict adherence to Orthodox beliefs.

The followers of the Haskalah movement were called "maskilim"; from the word meaning “the wise,”or "men of wisdom" taken from the Book of Daniel 12:3: “And the intelligent [hamaskilim] shall shine as the brightness of the firmament”, The original "Mitnagdim" or "rejectionists" believed that by renouncing Orthodox Judaism and by adopting Secular appearance the Jews would be accepted in the wider society.
When they arrived in "Eretz Yisrael" these Jewish Pioneers became known as the Bilu'im, from the Hebrew acronym Bilu: ביל"ו whose goal was the agricultural settlement of the Land of Israel. "Bilu" is based on a verse from the Book of Isaiah (2:5) Lekhu Venelkha ("House of Jacob, let us go [up]- בית יעקב לכו ונלכה ).

Herzl the "father of modern Zionism" was moved to create the "Zionistic" Movement by the cries of anti-Semitism at the disgracing of Captain Louis Dreyfuss during the court martial and in the terrible anti-Semitic outburst in Russia known for the infamous pogrom of Kishnev in 1905.
The wave of pogroms of 1881-1884 and anti-Semitic May Laws of 1882 introduced by Tsar Alexander III of Russia inspired the young enthusiastic pioneering Jews of Eastern Europe to go to Eretz Yisrael. They came to escape anti-Semitism and to build a new-old national homeland out of the swamplands and desolate desert regions of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. One of the first examples was the founding of Rishon LeZion ("First to Zion") as an agricultural cooperative on land purchased from the Arab village Ayun Kara.
The original pioneering period was glorified in the foundation of the collective settlements "communes" of the Kibbutz movements through the Kibbutzim and Moshavim. This period of relative peaceful Jewish resettlement in Eretz Yisrael died in 1929 with the Arab Revolt and with the imposition of the "White Paper" by the British and the "Arabs of the Mandated Territories".
The riots of 1929 as in the post Oslo period changed the attitudes of many Jews who had once advocated for a binational state. The famous Israeli writer Shai Agnon wrote about Jewish-Arab coexistence;

"I do not hate them [the Arabs] and I do not love them; I do not wish to see their faces. In my humble opinion we shall now build a large ghetto of half a million Jews in Palestine, because if we do not, we will, heaven forbid, be lost."

With the creation of the "White Paper" free Jewish immigration was severely limited. Jews wishing to flee Europe could not and Hitler instituted the "Final Solution" that resulted in the systematically planned genocide "Holocaust" of European Jewry.
The Jews of the "Yishuv"- Jews living in the Palestinian Mandated Areas- volunteered to serve in the allied armies to liberate their relatives in Europe, as well as prevent their own destruction by the Axis armies that were encroaching on Egypt and Iraq.

With the fall of Nazi Germany in May of 1945 the extent of the destruction of European Jewry became known. Those Jews that remained basically had nowhere to return to. Their homes and property had been confiscated. Their families murdered. Those Jews who dared to return were murdered by their neighbors. So where could they go? Many of these survivors looked to the west but for many there was only Palestine, the promised Jewish Homeland.

Though the Arabs and the British tried to keep the doors closed these survivors of the horrors of the Holocaust persisted and their persistency brought the UN to vote for partition in November 1947. Many of the Holocaust survivors who served in the "Lechi" and "Etzel" units were conditioned to oppression by their experiences in the "Holocaust". (The “IZL” or Irgun Tzvai Leumi BeYisrael (National Military Organization in Israel), was led by the later Prime Minister Menachem Begin, from the Likud Party, and the “LECHI”- Acronym for Lohamei 'Herut Yisrael - Freedom Fighters of Israel was led by another later Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Likud Party.)

Just before the Partition went into affect on May 15, 1948 Jews were murdered by the roaming gangs of Arab marauders such as in the infamous attack on the Hadassah Convoy. The butchery and barbarity of these attacks hardened the hearts of the Jewish fighters who had survived the Holocaust. The responses of these "hardened" fighters were never in any way comparable to those of the barbarity of the marauding Arabs.
The archives of The Palestine Post, now known as The Jerusalem Post, reported that sixty-two Jews were murdered by Arabs in the first week after the UN partition plan was passed, and by May 15, 1948, a total of 1,256 Jews had been killed, most of them civilians. The attacks succeeded in placing Jerusalem under siege and eventually cutting off its water supply. All Jewish villages in the Negev had been attacked, and that Jews had to go about the country in convoys. In every major city where Jews and Arabs lived in mixed neighborhoods the Jewish areas came under attack. This was true in Haifa's Hadar HaCarmel (The middle section on the northern slope of the Carmel mountain), Safed, as well as Jerusalem's Old City. Every place of Jewish inhabitation in Palestine was attacked by marauding militias, gangs, terrorists and units from regular Arab armies of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Massacres (of Jews) were not uncommon.
Thirty-nine Jews were killed by Arab rioters at Haifa's oil refinery on December 30, 1947.
On January 16, 1948, 35 Jews were killed trying to reach Gush Etzion.
On February 22, 44 Jews were murdered in a bombing on Jerusalem's Rehov Ben-Yehuda.
And on February 29, 23 Jews were killed all across Palestine, eight of them at the Hayotzek iron foundry.
Thirty-five Jews were murdered during the Mount Scopus convoy massacre on April 13.
And 127 Jews were massacred at Kfar Etzion on May 15, 1948, after 30 others had died defending the Etzion Bloc.

The Arab (Palestinian) apologists on the other hand have accused Israel for the infamous massacre at "Deir Yassin" which was contradicted by an Arab eye-witness in a 1998 BBC interview. Hazem Nusseibeh, an editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service's, admitted that on the instructions of Palestinian notable Dr. Hussein Khalidi, he fabricated a false press release stating that the supposed atrocities that were committed included the murder of children and rapes of pregnant women. Another interviewee in the same program, Abu Mahmud, emphatically denied the atrocity and rape stories. Nusseibeh, told the BBC that the fabricated atrocity stories about Deir Yassin were "our biggest mistake," because "Palestinians fled in terror" and that "They had left the country in huge numbers after hearing the atrocity claims."

As to the lies of the Arab (Palestinian) apologists that all Israeli attacks on Arab villages were unprovoked, I strongly recommend that they visit Arab villages, which remained neutral in 1948 such as the flourishing village of Abu Ghosh. Mohammed Abu Ghosh was quoted as saying;

"What we did, we did for Abu Ghosh, for nobody else. Others who lost their land, hated us then, but now all over the Arab world, many people see we were right. If everyone did what we did, there'd be no refugee problem . . . And if we were traitors? Look where we are, look where they are."

With the creation of the state of Israel there were two real major political parties. There was the Mapam-Labor Party which had been created by the mainly Ashkenazic socialist secular Jews. Many formidable members of the Labor Party were from Kibbutzim and the descendants of the Biluim. They were the leaders of the Haganah and the Palmach. They were voted out of power in that election of 1978 for the populist free economy and materialistic views inspired by the descendants of the "Second Aliyah" who were the shop owners and small business bourgeoisie that had arrived in the 1920's to Israel. They had founded the Liberal Party based on their capitalist views. They later merged their party with Menachem Begins "Herut" or Freedom party to create the Likud. They Herut Party was directly descended from the pre state Irgun who believe in the "Greater Israel" philosophy of the Revisionist movement started by Zev Jabotinsky

Over the years I have witnessed the animosity and hatred that has deepened within Israeli society through the eternal blindness and fixed myopic world view possessed by the old Ashkenazic Jewish Orthodoxy against the secular mainstream and the birth of the "Eretz Yisrael HaShlema"-"the Greater Israel - movement.
Those members of the old Ashkenazic Modern Orthodox camp, the "knitted Kipas" of the National Religious Party know as "Mafdal", that since the creation of the State ruled together with the Labor Party, have diminished in power and both parties have basically vanished from the political spectrum of Israeli politics due to the issue of control over the "Occupied" areas.

The Ashkenazic Haredi Orthodoxy, which for years attempted to increase it's numbers by allowing certain select Sephardim to learn in their Yeshivot, helped to inspire the rebirth and revitalization of religion among young Sephardic Jews. In the historical 1978 elections the leaders of the Liberal Party movement manipulated the "crowd"-(HaSifsuf), a derogatory term to describe lower class primarily Sephardic Jews to vote out the old and despised and corrupt Labor Party Coalition.
The abject failure in the election of 1978 of the "Old" Labor Party elite can be directly associated with the rejection of the values that had been once imposed by the Eastern European "Ashkenazic"on the nation. By 1978 these "Ashkenazic" values were no longer in step with the needs of the larger population of "Sephardic" youth who were now coming of age. These descendants of Jewish immigrants from Arabic lands had only recently expressed their outrage in their demonstrations for equality in Israeli society in the "Sephardic Black Panther" movement.

The new found pride brought by the "Sephardic Black Panther" movement together with the Sephardic religious movement together evolved into the relatively new phenomena in Israeli society the (SHAS) political party. Since the birth of the party "SHAS" has played a dominant role in the position of "King Maker". The SHAS party leadership has determined through political negotiations just who would serve as Prime Minister and therefore rule Israel.

The original pioneering Zionism that brought forth the rebirth of the Jewish state ended in that election of 1978.

I have witnessed the lack of leadership of "honest" politicians and real political leaders in Israel I believe that this lack is due to the fact that political leaders are chosen from party hacks. Real leaders who grow up within a political landscape as in America where you have a truly representative democracy is lacking here in Israel.
To be an honest politician is to be someone with popular support and the backing of the people that means electoral as well as financial. An honest politician is one who will not need to depend on "big business" corporate money. However this is not possible in today's modern world unless the educated mass of voters do not stop their mundane lives and get out of there homes and become active themselves.

Here in Israel for the last thirty years after the signing of the peace accords with Egypt there has been a terrible wave of apathy caused by the intransigence of the Palestinians to truly seek peace. The two shinning moments of the Israeli democracy were after the election of Itzhak Rabin z"l. Under Itzhak Rabin's government peace with Jordan was made and the attempt to seek peace with the Palestinians in the Oslo Accords was made. The total rejection and return to terror by Arafat and his Palestinian minions brought the religious right in Israel to inspire the "smiling assassin" to commit his cold blooded act. The act of this madman and those who inspired him together with the resounding stupidity of the Palestinians, to abide by their signed obligation to cease acts of terror, sealed the fate of hundreds of innocent lives. The resounding answer of Israel's apathy towards the Palestinian hatred has resulted in the construction of the "Security Wall".

As negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are still dragging on to bring forth a Palestinian state which will recognize Israel as a Jewish State and will be willing to live side-by-side with Israel in peace. The most difficult point to be resolved is the Arab refugee issue. The major question is why should Israel take in ANY of the so called Palestinian refugees? What about the rights of the 900,000 Jews of Arabic lands? They cannot just as the Jewish Holocaust survivors cannot go back. Their former property and homes are gone. So why not require the surrounding Arab Nations ( 22 in all) simply provide citizenship to the grandchildren of the "refugees". And as to the settlements those that are near the Line of Armistice from the 1949 Rhodes agreement should be absorbed into Israel. We could give some Arab Villages also on the armistice line such as Umm Al Fahm over to the Palestinian Authority in trade since they are so vocal in there displeasure of life in Israel.

So now what? We will have to wait for the next elections since it appears everyone here is simply tired of all the issues and all we Israelis really want is to live our lives in peace.

Democracy, the Mass media and the Arab World

The term democracy has suddenly entered the daily lexicon of journalists and news broadcasters who cover the Arab world as an after effect of the recent demonstrations throughout the Middle East. The true form of democracy that all Americans are familiar with from the beginnings of the United States is a relatively new idea in the Arabic / Moslem world. The inherent freedom in a true democracy, such as that in the United States, has become the new battle cry of millions in Tweets and on Facebook. This apparently spontaneous democratic outbreak has come as a response to those oppressive totalitarian regimes that have been controlling the lives of the people. It has inspired millions to go out on the streets and into the city squares throughout the Arab world to demonstrate at the risk of losing their lives to bring change. Will it bring real true democratic and hopefully secular change away from Islamic Fundamentalism? We in Israel most certainly hope that it will.

During the past few weeks the world mass media has been covering the outbreaks of "democracy" that have burst forth on the streets of the Arab countries of the Middle East. Magically the world press and the so called Human "Right" organizations' who have been preoccupied by the myopic view instigated by the Pro-Palestinian lobby, have suddenly discovered "Gross Human Rights Violations" in Arab countries far out strip those "alleged" violations by Israel. Even the infamous HRW or "Human Rights Watch" finally came out to condemn the Hamas for its recent rocket attack on the Israeli city of Be'er Sheba, an attack on a purely civilian target. Their web page states:

Hamas has failed to take any meaningful steps to hold anyone accountable for rocket attacks against Israeli population centers during the 2008-09 conflict, which Israel called "Operation Cast Lead," when it fired hundreds of rockets that killed three civilians.

Journalists who were based in Israel and were exposed to Israeli democratic freedom of the press consistently used negative sources and Palestinians to give Israel "bad press". Suddenly when rushed by their media bosses to the "new democracies" these same journalist found themselves beaten, raped, shot at and incarcerated. Has news coverage of Israel changed?

What has happened is that the blame for all the woes of the Arab war lords and dictators is being blamed on the Jews and Israel. The Palestinians are working overtime to drag the spotlight of the world on their "plight". Meanwhile in Libya just how many thousands have been murdered, Mr Goldstone? and How many refugees are there being treated by UNWRA? Oh I forgot! UNWRA is the organization still 62 years on paying for the upkeep of the grandchildren of ONLY Palestinian "refugees"!

There are many who wonder, "Where has this sudden impetus for democracy come from?" and "Why has it so suddenly appeared now throughout the Arab world?" It is my belief that these somewhat spontaneous revolutions for democracy that we are witnessing today are the direct outcome of the effect of modern mass media, in particular by influence of the newest forms of social interaction and communication on the Internet and cellular phones.

Most "baby boomers" can remember when the first television broadcasts began and how as youths in America this led to changes in our lifestyles. The massive use of television to spark materialistic values through televised advertisements changed America forever. These same advertisements, sponsored by major US corporations' were also used as capitalistic tools to counter Communism and undermine its influence on the captive populations behind the Iron Curtain. These advertisements utilized images of the total freedom symbolized by their consumption or reveled in their use. They emphasized small yet individual freedoms unknown to those of totalitarian regimes yet inherent in the western democracies.

In the 1950's, through the use of mass entertainment in TV programs, Hollywood writers wrote controlled scripts intended to inspire and educate the youth of America in "wholesome" American values, "good" white hats versus the "bad" black hats. Through the viewing of TV programs the American public, especially the youth, were subtly taught against the evil wrongs of Communism and to value the freedoms of democracy. The early syndicated TV programs taught moralistic values of good triumphing over evil yet they shied away from controversial items such as sex, drugs and racial relations. It was not until the McCarthy hearings that the extensive control of the mass media by the anti communists was revealed.

After the assassination of President Kennedy and the rise of the Civil Rights era of the 1960's the use of reality in American television became more critical towards government influence and censures. In the mid to late 1970's there was a growing demand for more realism in TV series. The three major networks rushed to incorporate more realism in their programming in the intense competition for their slice of the advertising market. These changes in the scripts and plots of the new shows were made possible from the massive revenues gleaned from advertisements of the large multi-national corporations.

The last attempted use, by the US Government, of the television industry's news broadcasts as a propaganda device was in the big three networks evening news broadcasts shown during the early years of the war in South East Asia. The US Government attempted to use its control of access to the battlefront to manipulate the news coverage. War stories by all forms of news correspondents together with the revelations of returning veterans created a backlash against the war in Viet Nam. The revelation of government manipulation of the coverage of the war brought on an immediate impact against the US Government. The major networks evening broadcasts beamed film footage of the horrors of the conflict taking place directly into the homes of all Americans. The dramatic footage of the traumatic experiences of young American draftees thrown into a conflict half way around the world directly affected American public opinion. The democratic effect was immediate President Lyndon B. Johnston decided not to seek reelection and the nation voted in Richard M. Nixon. The growing unpopularity in the mass media further inspired more and more young Americans to join the peace groups opposed to the war and to push for a resolution. However it was the total dissatisfaction and loss of willingness by the entire US population - both conservative and liberal that led to the final discontinuation of the war in Viet Nam.

The next step in the evolution of the mass media occurs in the 1970's with the creation of the independent cable TV network of WTBS owned by Ted Turner. The term "cable news" originated from the initial form of transmission televised news for a fee by cable to the subscriber. However with the advent of improved satellite reception provided by private telecommunication providers the expensive and cumbersome cable systems have all but been replaced.
Turner's revolutionary vision of an independent 24 hour Cable News Network supplied by satellite feeds directly from the source brought on the beginnings of actual uncensored breaking news. News incidents were no longer taped for later broadcast. News was now being covered live and uncensored as they occurred. News incidents were now broadcast directly to the household of the consumer without any form of restriction or censorship. No longer was television the sole proprietorship of the top three American national news networks it was no longer under the control of any government or national news networks censorship. CNN in essence became the first real global news network by the use of satellite relays of live coverage whenever it occurred in the world. The awesome influence of live televised uncensored news on the entire world was now basically in the hands of a private individual and his news division.

Throughout the 1980's the Western democracies with their taunted freedom of the press were now being put to the supreme test of the true freedom of the press. The effect of the CNN "Global News" approach was so effective that English Prime Minister Thatcher prohibited there access to the fighting in the Falklands Island war. On October 3, 1990 the zenith of the coverage of an event was that which given to the bringing down of the Berlin wall. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification and its effect resulted in the coverage of the final downfall of the Communistic regime in the Soviet Union in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin seized power in the aftermath of a failed coup that had attempted to topple reform-minded Gorbachev.
Today the term Cable News itself has become something of an anachronism but it is still in common use. Since its inception many European news channels have scrambled to enter the new competitive 24 Hour news; BBC World News, BBC News, Sky News, Al Jazeera, ABC News 24, France 24, STAR News, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Press TV, Russia Today, teleSUR and ABC News Now. Some news channels specialize even further, such as ESPNews (sports from ESPN), CNBC, Bloomberg Television and Fox Business Network (financial).
Televised news experienced another evolutionary step through enhanced computer functionality from cumbersome desktop to laptop computers to cellular phones and "pads". The improved functionary capacities together with remote direct satellite Internet access have brought the effect of the free press to millions of viewers who until now were restricted to the censored press of the regimes that controlled their home countries.

Democracy in real democratic countries, such as the United States, is something that is occasionally abused and ignored until post election results come in. The major difference is that in REAL democracies the population is accustomed to the advantage of a limited term office that allows for new elections. That REAL democracy has checks and balances to protect the rights of all men to be free.

Since the US invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein in Operation Iraqi Freedom launched on March 20th, 2003, the people of the world and especially the educated secular Arabs have finally come to envision their lives in freedom. Freedom from tyrannical despots and freedom from the death that Islamic extremism has wrought upon them and their families is slow to emerge. The urge to live lives as free individuals without the terror that their religious extremists have brought them is something which should be encouraged especially by all those émigrés who have fled to the west. That extreme hatred and blind obedience to backward philosophies that are being taught by Moslem clerics have brought nothing but misery upon them. It is time that the people of Arabic lands return to those ideas and ways of life that once made the lands of the Middle East places of enlightened education and learning and not that of ignorance and death.

Stupid Is As Stupid Writes

As an Israeli and as an American I found the comments made by Mr. William North (Your View, February 5th, 2011) not only offensive but full of incorrect information. He tries to equate the demonstrations for democratic change in Egypt to those that have occurred in Tunisia. The farthest couldn't be the truth. The revolution in Tunisia against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was a revolt by the people of Tunisia to dispose a totally corrupt politician who manipulated his office to enrich his family and associates. So to have him kicked out was a Tunisia affair of state.

The fact that Algeria and Tunisia have been lead by despots who robbed their citizens and deprived the people of their respective countries the benefits of modern capitalistic lives is a common thing in the Arab world. It is important to note that the ex French North African holdings of Algeria and Tunisia are more "Western" in their outlook than Yemen. These ex French colonies have been educated in the western values of Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité exuberated by the French. The prosperity that the bourgeoisie city dwellers have experienced is not a common thing as in Yemen. The great majority of the populated coastal city areas of Algeria and Tunisia are very westernized with educational opportunities mixed with capitalistic values. Islam to the majority of them is their religion but they prefer to be like secular Europeans. From the majority of the reports from Algeria and particularly Tunisia the issues of the revolt were based on social and economical change.

The massive demonstrations in Egypt against the Hosni Mubarak regime that he refers to are the cries for release from the dreaded mukhabarat (secret police) and his 30 year regime of repression of social and economic development of the middle classes.

Egypt which had a long history of English occupation, is very western in its make up just as with the ex North African French colonies. Egypt suffers from a tremendously vast gulf of difference between the social classes. It too has an upper middle to high class population of extremely wealthy secular Moslem individuals. Many of whom are from what could be termed "old money" and they openly identify themselves more with Europeans than with their Arab brothers.

Nearly 60 million impoverished and uneducated Islamic lower class Egyptians attempt to eke out meager livings from farming the country side near the banks of the Nile River. Over a million of Egypt's extremely poor live off the refuse of the garbage dumps of Cairo.

In Egypt you have the members of the low to middle classes who are hard working petty bureaucrats, university graduates and professionals who do not receive wages anywhere near those of their counterparts in American or Europe. Some are making less than $100 a month. The young Egyptian middle class still live well below the wealthy Egyptian elite and this has created the wave of animosity and resentment that we have seen in Tahrir Square (Liberation Square).

Several statements, made by the thousands of participants in the demonstrations flooding Tahrir Square, that sound loudly are those of the members of the medical profession, educators and lawyers who are paid ridiculously low salaries. University students who can foresee no positive future after their years spent studying for a diploma are at the forefront of the movement. These are young Egyptians who are fed up with the futility of looking for a job that will allow them to improve their status in life and provide for their family.

We Israelis also wholeheartedly hope that 2011 will be the year in the Middle East and North Africa where the brutal and corrupt autocracies and fanatical Moslem Islamofascists regimes are swept away and replaced by responsive and democratic systems.

As to the relationship between the Egyptians to the "Palestinians", I ask, just when have the Egyptians people stood by the Palestinian people? It is a historic fact that the Egyptians never had any affection for the "Palestinians". Did Egypt attack the newly founded State of Israel in 1948 for the "Palestinians"? If so the why did the Egyptians imprison the "Palestinian" refugees in the Gaza strip from 1948 until 1967? Why did they govern the Gaza Strip population under an iron hand? Why has the Egyptian government consistently prevented "Palestinians" from the Gaza Strip from moving to Egypt and receive Egyptian citizenship?

As to the cessation of construction in Judea and Shomron and Jerusalem at the request of President Obama, I ask, "Where were the "Palestinian" negotiators during the preceding 10 month long moratorium on construction to promote peace negotiations? Why have the "Palestinians" consistently missed an opportunity for peace? The real slap in the face to the American people has definitely not been Israeli intransigence but that of the "Palestinians". We Israelis have given enough such as the painful withdrawal of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. We have received more than 8000 80mm Qassem and 122mm Grad missiles in return as signs of gratitude from the Hamas.

Mr North states that the United States has sustained Israel with massive economic and military assistance since its founding. This is a blatant lie since it is a historical fact that the major supplier of military arms to Israel until 1967 was France. This is revealed, for example, in Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearings held on June 9, 1967:

"It is a fact, is it not, that neither Soviet Russia nor the United States has given any material amounts of arms to Israel, and, if that is true, are they not relatively independent in their thinking at this point?
US Secretary of State Dean Rusk (from 1961-1969):
No, we have provided tanks and Hawk missiles and certain other kinds of equipment to Israel, but their principal arms supplier has been France... The Israeli air force is almost all French supplied."

The US had gained the needed leverage on Israel by 1975 by its resupply of badly needed military supplies and equipment through the air-lift. The Yom Kippur war made it clear to Israel that the scale of military engagements in the Middle East had altered radically since 1967, and that it could therefore no longer be independent militarily. The dramatic lesson that was learned by Israel in the intensive fighting of the Yom Kippur War was that the quantities of arms and materiel consumed in just a few days of fighting demanded an industrial capacity that could not be provided by the Israeli military industries. The technological innovations that were needed at that time were beyond the capabilities of Israel.

Kissinger may have persuaded Nixon to resupply the Israelis in 1973, however Kissinger then used this leverage purchased by resupply to push for Israeli withdrawals in Sinai. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was apparently the only one who had read the Middle East policy map correctly. He understood that if he could move Egypt into the American orbit and offer a "diplomatic horizon" for peace, he would be able to get back the Sinai Peninsula.

For the standard anti-Zionists of all kinds, it is very convenient to point to the large amounts of foreign aid given to Israel as Mr. North alludes to. Of course, that aid is given to ensure that Israel will remain compliant with US wishes, and prevent a repetition of the Six Day War scenario, as mentioned above in the Senate hearings, which was a nightmare for the US State Department. Israel's appearance as an independent regional player in 1967 showed that it was in a position to dictate the course of it's own affairs. This was in direct contradiction to what an imperialist power could allow.

It is a historically documented fact that Israel paid cold hard cash for all military equipment it received up until the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Israel does purchase fighter aircraft made in America by American workers at the cost of billions of US tax dollars. What Mr North and other "Haters of Israel" fail to mention is that the billions in US aid given to Israel allows Israel to use the “credit loans” or monetary aid funds to purchase military supplies and equipment made in American factories by American Working men and women thereby creating a need/market to keep Americans at work!
What is also not mentioned is that Israel's purchases of new equipment, light arms ammunition, shoes and clothing in the US has been done at the expense of the closure of Israel businesses and industries. This has caused the lost of jobs for thousands of Israelis many of whom were from financially depressed "Development Towns".

Another item Mr North and the "Haters of Israel" consistently fail to mention is that the "Palestinians" receive billions in “humanitarian aid" which goes into private Swiss accounts of corrupt "Palestinian" Authority officials or it goes to buy Russia, Chinese and North Korean weaponry. Neither do they mention that the Arab countries around Israel have consistently ignored the plight of their "Palestinian" Arab brothers and have kept those displaced in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence in squalid UN (read hundreds of millions in US funding over the past 62 years) refugee camps.
Has any one EVER pointed out or asked WHY the Arab countries; Lebanon, Syria and Jordan that these "refugees" live in, forcibly keep them in the camps and NEVER allowed them to become viable citizens of Arab countries? Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph published on Sept. 6, 1949, stated:
"The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agree upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem.”

Wafa Sultan an Arab-American psychiatrist stated in an interview that was aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 21st, 2006
Wafa Sultan:
"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete."

Al-Jazeera TV moderator:
"I understand from your words that what is happening today is a clash between the culture of the West, and the backwardness and ignorance of the Muslims?"

In conclusion:
Here in the Middle East the only way to create a stable, peaceful environment is that All of Israel's Arab neighbors pledge to honor Israel's right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people and to live in peace. It will be a tragedy for the "Palestinians" if they continue to demand "all or nothing" as they have until now. They need to accept what lands Israel is willing to cede to them now for peace and they must reject the continual acts of senseless unprovoked "Palestinian" violence.

Enough is Enough!

The title of this entry is "Enough is Enough"; or as it should be entitled the cynical misuse of the term "Holocaust". This misuse is being purposely carried out by the pro-Palestinian propaganda machine and their anti-Zionistic Jewish lobby in their combined effort to vilify and delegitmize Israel. These "Haters of Israel" are accusing Israel of the "ethnic cleansing of Palestine". They are also attempting to equate Israel's "Occupation" of "Palestinian territory" to that of the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis during World War II. 
For anyone who is somewhat educated and has a knowledge of historical documented fact, this incredulously insensitive, fraudulent and abusive use of the term "Holocaust", reveals the true depth of hatred these "Haters of Israel" possess. Just the thought of associating a term that has come to represent the systematically planned total extermination of the Jewish people to what is occurring to the "Palestinians" is beyond credible thought.

As for the "anti-Zionistic" Jews, who suffer from IDS, Israel Derangement Syndrome. They blindly wallow in contaminated pools of murky material from biased, non-factual unreliable and unsubstantiated sources. These mindless, blinkered and myopic followers wholeheartedly believe the lies and dis-information they have been fed evidently due to a form of acute mental dysfunction. They are allied with the "Falestinians" in the spreading of  the grossest lies and untruths.

I truly believe that the reason why Israel is so hated by them is that our true acts of real humanitarian aid, as in Haiti and with the case of Dafur, reveal their shortcomings as totally naive human beings. These anarchists and bleeding hearts cannot bring themselves to admit their mistakes due to lack of intelligent thought and first hand knowledge. 
They have consistently turned a blind eye to the most outrageous acts of terrorism and barbarity by Palestinian "Militants", yet they are ever ready to jump on every falsehood to ridicule and attack Israel. The very actions of these "Liberal Minds" reveal their true insensitivity to cherish real Jewish life time and time again. It is so hypocritical that one should hate ones own being so much that one should use this self hatred to besmirch others.

When I think of them I am reminded of the famous dialogue between Otto Kahn, [ A famous banker and convert to Christianity born and raised in the city of Mannheim, Germany 1867–1934] and a hunchback in front of the Episcopalian Church on Fifth Avenue;
Otto Khan: "I belong to that church.”
“I know,” said the hunchback.
Otto Kahn: “I’m very active in the church; I’m one of the vestrymen,”
the hunchback:“I know.”
Otto Kahn:“I used to be a Jew,”
“I know,” said the hunchback; “I used to be a hunchback.”

I would like to elaborate my feelings on this issue that I firmly believe has reached the point where we in Israel should shout out "Die" which in Hebrew means "Enough!" A fellow pro – Zionist Bloggist who goes by the title, "BlueTruth", has recently sent out a mailer concerning a series of events on US university campuses entitled "Never Again for Anyone". 
The talk which is being hosted by; BAKA - Students United for Middle Eastern Justice is sponsored by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, with Sara Kershnar, as their representative. The American Muslims for Palestine and the Middle East Children's Alliance. The series of events wishes to brain wash innocent and naïve American university students into equating the Israeli "Military Occupation" in the West Bank with a fictiticious "Holocaust".

Dr. Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley lecturer and chairman of the American Muslims for Palestine. Bazian has instigated "The "Never Again for Anyone" lecture tour. Dr. Hatem Bazian is well known for his call for "intifada" in America. His organization, American Muslims for Palestine, recently circulated a libelous article accusing Israel of all things of creating; "unusually fierce and aggressive dogs that terrorize the West bank".

Also taking part on the panel of this "Tour" is an Auschwitz survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer the author of a book in Dutch entitled Het einde van het Jodendom (The end of Judaism) published in 2003, which accuses Israel of abusing the Holocaust to justify crimes against the Palestinians.

For hundreds of years, the word "holocaust" was used in English to denote massive sacrifices and great slaughters or massacres. After World War II, the word was used to describe Nazi atrocities regardless of whether the victims were Jews or non-Jews.
According to the Webster English dictionary the word Holocaust is defined simply as originating from the Greek word ὁλόκαυστος holókaustos: hólos, meaning both "whole" and kaustós, "burnt" – a sacrifice consumed by fire or a thorough destruction. There is absolutely no reference in the dictionary definition to its more recent sinister connotation the planned "final solution" or genocide of European Jewry.

To the Jewish people and particularly to the Jews of Israel the "Holocaust" is referred to as "The Shoah" from the Hebrew word- השואה, HaShoah, which simply means "calamity". In Yiddish the term is more meaningfully correct חורבן Hurban, since it is derived from the Hebrew for "destruction".

With the discoveries of the horrors of the Nazi factories of death at the end of World War II and the total extent of the actual genocide and very real "ethnic" cleansing by the Nazis. There was a very short lived world-wide empathy for the Jewish people until the rise of Communism. It was this wave of revulsion at the ghastly horrors inflicted on the Jewish people and the strident attempts make to exit Europe for Palestine that brought forth the eventual passing of the UN vote for the partition of Palestine.
It was not until much later in the middle 1960s after the trial of Adolph Eichman that the whole non-Hebrew speaking world began to use the word "Holocaust" to refer exclusively to the extermination of Jews in Nazi occupied Europe. It was also during the 1960s that the world had finally begun to admit their complicity of silence during the "Holocaust" and because of this we Jews have become sensitive to the use of the term.

So how does the Israeli "Occupation" compare to the very real and documented treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust? Allow me to take you back to the historical facts and truth of what real ethnic cleansing is Nazi style and just how the disease of anti-Semitic hatred stills continues to burn.

It is a historical fact that Adolph Hitler had planned out his policies to eradicate the Jews in his 694 page manifesto "Mein Kampf" or My Struggle (which was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926). Hitler's hatred of the Jews had begun early in his life and became exacerbated with the downfall of his beloved adopted homeland Germany after its defeat and disgrace in the aftermath of World War I. In "Mein Kampf" Hitler refers to his master plan for the "final solution" of the Jews in the passage, "…that if 12,000–15,000 Jews were gassed, then "the sacrifice of millions of soldiers would not have been in vain".
With his ascension to power in 1933 as the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He had begun his policy to curtail Jewish life in Germany immediately and Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and anti-Semitism that there was a rapid growth in German legislation directed at Jews.

In 1935 the Reichstag approved the Nuremberg Laws or Nürnberg Laws (German: Nürnberger Gesetze) which were anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The Nuremberg Laws were basically an incorporation of the 25 Point Platform of the Nazi Party (adopted in February 1920), which demands that only "Aryan" Germans be allowed to publish newspapers and own department stores, places a ban on Jewish immigration, expels all Ostjuden (Eastern Jews; i.e., Jews from Eastern Europe who had arrived in Germany since 1914) and strips all German Jews of their German citizenship. The lack of a clear legal method of defining who was Jewish had, however, allowed some Jews to escape some forms of discrimination aimed at them. The enactment of laws identifying who was Jewish made it easier for the Nazis to enforce legislation restricting the basic rights of German Jews.

During the period 1933 -1942 the youth of Germany were exposed to the writings and speeches of earlier volkisch leaders such as Wilhelm Marr, Georg Ritter von Schönerer, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Karl Lueger, all of whom routinely called Jews a "disease" and "vermin." Nevertheless, Hitler cites all of them as an inspiration in Mein Kampf and he passed this vision into the propaganda films such as the infamous The Eternal Jew.

The Eternal Jew was a "movie produced in the style of a documentary, the central thesis being the immutable racial personality traits that, according to Nazi doctrine, characterize the Jew as a wandering cultural parasite. Throughout the film, these supposed traits are contrasted to the Nazi state ideal: while Aryan men are shown to find satisfaction in physical labor and the creation of value, Jews are depicted as finding pleasure in money and a hedonist lifestyle. While members of the Aryan race live healthily, rich Jews are shown as living in bug-infested and dirty homes, even though they could afford better. The footage to convey this was actually captured in ghettos, where living conditions were very poor and unsanitary surroundings were virtually inevitable. While Germanic/Nordic man has an appreciation for Northern culture and imagery, Jews are alleged only to find satisfaction in the grotesque and decadent." The Nazi Party monthly publication Unser Wille und Weg was also used to voice the party line of anti-Semitic hatred and defamation of the Jewish people.

On May 25, 1940 Heinrich Himmler sent a memorandum with proposals to Hitler regarding the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". In the memorandum, Himmler rejects genocide under the grounds that one must reject "...the Bolshevik method of physical extermination of a people out of inner conviction as un-German and impossible." He goes on to argue that something similar to the "Madagascar Plan" be the preferred "territorial solution" to the "Jewish Question". The Madagascar Plan was a plan to ethnically cleanse Europe of all of it's Jewish population to this island that was a French colony. The island had come under Vichy French control in the aftermath of the surrender of France in the armistice of 25 June 1940. SS Leader Heinrich Himmler, in his "Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East", declared: "I hope that the concept of Jews will be completely extinguished through the possibility of a large emigration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony."The failure of the Madagascar Plan, and the eventual logistical problems of deportation in general, ultimately lead to the conception of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." Meanwhile the Warsaw ghetto was completed and opened in October. Expulsions of Jews from German territory into occupied Poland continued again from late autumn 1940 to spring 1941.

Okay let us review, the Nazi's first enacted restrictive laws called the Nurmeberg Laws. Secondly Jews are stripped of citizenship and deprived of their, jobs, homes and wealth. Meanwhile the Nazi propaganda machine labeled the Jews as "Under Munchen" sub-humans, a quality that would supposedly make it easier for the Germans participating in the mass extermination campaign to feel that they were "cleansing" and not murdering. Now what happens next? What happened to the Balfour Declaration and its call for a Jewish Homeland? What was the reaction of the Arabs in the "Mandated Territories"?

Until the official beginning of World War II on September 1, 1939 Jews where encouraged to leave Greater Germany by Hitler, however no matter how hard they tried most of the doors of the countries of the world where closed. Even the Palestinian Mandated areas designated as the homeland for the Jewish people under British control was limited to a meager migration due to the enactment of the "White Paper of 1939."
"It was recommended in the Peel Commission Report of 1937, was abandoned in favour of creating an independent Palestine governed by Palestinian Arabs and Jews in proportion to their numbers in the population by 1949 (section I). A limit of 75,000 Jewish immigrants was set for the five-year period 1940-1944, consisting of a regular yearly quota of 10,000, and a supplementary quota of 25,000, spread out over the same period, to cover refugee emergencies. After this cut-off date, further immigration would depend on the permission of the Arab majority (section II). Restrictions were also placed on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs (section III)"

This "White Paper of 1939" was in direct violation of Article 15 of the Mandate for Palestine which states: "No person shall be excluded from Palestine on the sole ground of his religious belief."

According the British White Paper of 1922 to Sir Alec Kirkbride, the British representative in the area, Transjordan was:

... intended to serve as a reserve of land for use in the resettlement of Arabs once the National Home for the Jews in Palestine, which [Britain was] pledged to support, became an accomplished fact. There was no intention at that stage of forming the territory east of the River Jordan into an independent Arab state.

So now the British and the Arabs have forced the doors of Palestine to be closed and the anti-Semites have closed all the other doors what do the Nazis do?

So now that the Jews had no where to go and Poland with it's massive Jewish population under their control what do the Nazis do? They begin by using the SS Einsatzgruppen (Task Forces) death squads who followed the Wehrmacht during the Operation Barbarossa invasion of the USSR in June 1941. The initial extermination method of shooting people in burial pits proved logistically and psychologically inefficient, so in late 1941, the Nazis established camps specifically for mass extermination via gas chambers

All of this changes at the Wannssee Conference of January 20,1942. At the conference Reinhard Heydrich of the Schutzstaffel (SS) chief executor of the "Final solution to the Jewish question" informed administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jew sand the laid out the systematic state-sponsored extermination of the Jewish people. Concentration camps were built and then turned into extermination camps the most famous of which included Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The inmates of the concentration camps died through deliberate maltreatment, disease, starvation, and overwork, or were executed as unfit for labor. Now with the introduction of the Wannssee conference "Final Solution" construction of the extermination camps on the hubs of rail lines prisoners were transported in inhumane conditions by freight railcars, in which many died before reaching their destination. The prisoners were confined to the railcars for days or even weeks, with little or no food or water. Many died of dehydration in the intense heat of summer or froze to death in winter. Concentration camps also existed in Germany itself, and though they were not specifically designed for systematic extermination, many of their inmates perished because of harsh conditions or were executed.

Of approximately nine million European Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust more than six million were exterminated. And why was this? Simply because we Jews had NO homeland with open gates that would have as I mentioned previously to go to. It is extremely important to remember here that the Nazis had opted to expel the Jews from Europe. But there was NOWHERE to go! Arab hatred inspired by British indifference and broken promises not only closed the gates to a promised Jewish Homeland in "Palestine" it gave the Nazis the green light to carry out the "Final Solution". It was the complicity of the British by making pledges to both sides and then reneging on them that turned the Jews and Arabs against one another and denied the millions of European Jews their lives.

Here are two prime examples of Arab hatred and complicity in the murder of the Jews of Europe in letters. The first letter is from The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini to Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop Foreign Minister of the German Reich from 1938 until 1945.

Berlin July 25, 1944

To His Excellency

Joachim von Ribbentrop

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Berlin

Your Excellency:

I have previously called the attention of your Excellency to the constant attempts of the Jews to emigrate from Europe in order to reach Palestine, and asked your Excellency to undertake the necessary steps so as to prevent the Jews from emigrating. I had also sent you a letter, under date of June 5, 1944, in regard to the plan for an exchange of Egyptians living in Germany with Palestinian Germans, in which I asked you to exclude the Jews from this plan of exchange. I have, however, learned that the Jews did depart on July 2, 1944, and I am afraid that further groups of Jews will leave for Palestine from Germany and France to be exchanged for Palestinian Germans.

This exchange on the part of the Germans would encourage the Balkan countries likewise to send their Jews to Palestine. This step would be incomprehensible to the Arabs and Moslems after your Excellency's declaration of November 2, 1943 that "the destruction of the so-called Jewish national home in Palestine is an immutable part of the policy of the greater German Reich" and it would create in them a feeling of keen disappointment.

It is for this reason that I ask your Excellency to do all that is necessary to prohibit the emigration of Jews to Palestine, and in this way your Excellency would give a new practical example of the policy of the naturally allied and friendly Germany towards the Arab Nation.

Yours,

Haj Amin al-Husseini

The Mufti of Jerusalem.

The second letter is from The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini asking Hungary to "send Jews" to Poland -meaning full well "extermination"

Rome

June 28, 1943

His Excellency

The Minister of Foreign Affairs for Hungary

Your Excellency:

You no doubt know of the struggle between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine, that it has been and what it Is, a long and bloody fight, brought about by the desire of the Jews to create a national home, a Jewish State in the Near East, with the help and protection of England and the United States. In fact, behind it lies the hope which the Jews have never relinquished, namely, the domination of the whole world through this Important, strategic center, Palestine, In effect their program has, among other purposes, always aimed at the encouragement of Jewish migration to Palestine and the other countries of the Near East. However, the war, as well as the understanding which the members of the Three-Power Pact have of the responsibility of the Jews for its outbreak and finally their evil Intentions towards these countries which protected them until now - all these are reasons for placing them under such vigilant control an will definitely stop their emigration to Palestine or elsewhere.

Lately I have been informed of the uninterrupted efforts made by the English and the Jews to obtain permission for the Jews living in your country to leave for Palestine via Bulgaria and Turkey.

I have also learned that these negotiations were successful since some of the Jews of Hungary have had the satisfaction of immigrating to Palestine via Bulgaria and Turkey and that a group of these Jaws arrived In Palestine towards the end of last March. The Jewish Agency. which supervises the execution of the Jewish program, has published a bulletin which contains Important information on the current negotiations between the English Government and the governments of other interested states to send the Jews of Balkan countries to Palestine. The Jewish Agency quoted, among other things, its receipt of a sufficient number of immigration certificates for 900 Jewish children to be transported from Hungary, accompanied by 100 adults.

To authorize these Jews to leave your country under the above circumstances and in this way, would by no means solve the Jewish problem and would certainly not protect your country against their evil influence - far from it! - for this escape would make It possible for them to communicate and combine freely with their racial brethren in enemy countries in order to strengthen their position and to exert a more dangerous influence on the outcome of the war, especially since, as a consequence of their long stay in your country. they are necessarily in a position to know many of your secrets and also about your war effort. All this comes on top of the terrible damage done to the friendly Arab nation which has taken its place at your side in this war and which cherishes for your country the most sincere feelings and the very best wishes.

This is the reason why I ask your excellency to permit me to draw your attention to the necessity of preventing the Jews from leaving your country for Palestine: and If there are reasons which make their removal necessary, it would be indispensable and Infinitely preferable to send them to other countries where they would find themselves under active control, for example, in Poland, in order thereby to protect oneself from their menace and avoid the consequent damages

Yours,

Haj Amin al-Husseini

The Mufti of Jerusalem.

Source: The Arab Higher Committee. Its Origins, Personnel and Purposes. Documentary Record Submitted to the United Nations, May 1947, by the Nation Associates. An a Sequel to This Request 400,000 Jews Were Subsequently Killed

Now as to the accusations of the "Haters of Israel" that are accusing Israel of the "ethnic cleansing of Palestine" and the equalization of Israel's "Occupation" of Palestinian territory to that of the treatment of the Nazi's of the Jews during World War II.

Let me begin by saying here and now that I am no friend of all the "Settlers" nor do I readily approve of the "Occupation". The euphemism used to describe the settlement of Jews in the area termed the West Bank. I would like to point out that there is absolutely no such thing as a "Peaceful" or benign occupation. On this point I wish to clarify. I know that there will be many who read this from all sides who will find issue with my words but as the famous French philosopher of the Enlightenment Voltaire once said; "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it." Originated in "The Friends of Voltaire", 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre.

Now please allow me to quote the conveniently forgotten historical and documented FACTs as radically opposed to ARAB LIES AND MISINFORMATION.

HISTORICAL FACT: Ever since the truly outstanding Israeli triumph in the DEFENSIVE war known as the "Six Day War" in that fateful June of 1967, Israeli forces crossed the 1949 Rhodes agreement "Green" ARMISTICE lines and "liberated" the "West Bank".

HISTORICAL FACT: Few of these out spoken critics recall that the "West Bank", is in historical fact the biblical Jewish Kingdoms of Judea and Shomron of Eretz Yisrael.

HISTORICAL FACT : Most interestingly of all is the that this area was part of the Versailles agreement appointed British "Mandate for Palestine". An area designated for a Jewish Homeland in Palestine.

HISTORICAL FACT: Even fewer of them remember that the area of the "West Bank" was captured and "OCCUPIED" by the Arab Legion of Jordan in 1948.

HISTORICAL FACT:That the Palestinians did not utilize this period of an Arab "Occupation" from 1948 till 1967 to create a Palestinian state is a totally forgotten.

HISTORICAL FACT: The pre 1967 view of Israel as the "Little David" fighting for it's very existence, against a massive build up of Arab military forces from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon. Jordan and Iraq with the daily televised demonstrations that called for the annihilation of Israel have faded from the collective memory of the world. Few remember the overwhelming desire of Israel to achieve peace in the aftermath of the war and the resounding reply of the Khartoum Resolution of September 1, 1967 in what became known as the "Three 'No's": "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it."

Now as to the accusations of the "Haters of Israel" that accuse Israel of the "ethnic cleansing of Palestine" where were your voices in 1948?

Why did the world once again stand aside when the "Jordanian Legionnaires" conquered and "OCCUPIED" Jerusalem, with its ancient Jewish Quarter and the Kotel –the Western Wall. Where were these hypocrites when the entire Jewish population of the "Old City" and the Gush Etzion Block were ethnically cleansed and their homes were either destroyed or occupied? Why is this real true historical fact totally ignored?
How many remember the total destruction and desecration of the two Jewish Synagogues the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael? The destruction and desecration of the Jewish graveyards on the Mount of Olives, whose tombstones where used to pave the trenches of the Jordanian Legionnaires?

The well minded totally naïve "liberal idealists" who are now so outspoken against Israel's "Occupation" fail to remember that Israel had attempted to end the "Occupation" BEFORE the establishment of the first "Jewish settlement" in Sebastia in 1978.

That for nearly 20 years prior to the Intifada in 1987 the Jews of Israel and the Palestinians had known a period of relative quiet and commerce.Thousands of Palestinians worked daily within the "Green Line" in Israel. Thousand of Israelis would cross over the "Green Line" into the West Bank to do shopping, visit historical religious sites and eat meals in restaurants. In the "Old City" life was pleasant Jews, Arabs –Moslem and Christian alike moved among each other in tranquility.
Let me add here that there were acts of Terror and murder but on the whole life went on in a much more open manner.

HISTORICAL FACT: Israel has attempted to make peace multiple times but they have always reverted to acts of violence and terrorism. As in the Oslo Accords of 1993 in which the PLO would acknowledge the state of Israel and pledge to reject violence, and Israel would recognize the (unelected) PLO as the official Palestinian authority, allowing Yasser Arafat to return to the West Bank. After the signing of the Accords, the attacks against Israel did not stop but instead they intensified. There are those Palestinian apologists who accused Palestinian rejectionist organizations as committing the acts of violence to thwart the peace process. In essence it was latter found in documents seized in the buildings of the Palestinian Authority had no interest in stopping these attacks and Arafat was instead endorsing them.
A point in case is the "Al-Aqsa Intifada." which began in late September 2000 Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti admitted to Al-Hayat (29 September 2001) one of the leading daily pan-Arab newspapers:

I knew that the end of September was the last period (of time) before the explosion, but when Sharon reached the al-Aqsa Mosque, this was the most appropriate moment for the outbreak of the intifada....The night prior to Sharon's visit, I participated in a panel on a local television station and I seized the opportunity to call on the public to go to the al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning, for it was not possible that Sharon would reach al-Haram al-Sharif just so, and walk away peacefully. I finished and went to al-Aqsa in the morning....We tried to create clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that emerged with others in the al-Aqsa compound at the time....After Sharon left, I remained for two hours in the presence of other people, we discussed the manner of response and how it was possible to react in all the cities (bilad) and not just in Jerusalem. We contacted all (the Palestinian) factions.

The Arafat inspired "Intifada" civil uprising led to the wave of incredibly terrible acts of suicide bombing and murders that caused Israel to reply by building the "Security Wall" which has deprived the Palestinian terrorists their free access to commit atrocities. The fact that the Israeli "Security Wall" was brought on as a reaction to Palestinian inspired violence is lost on the critics of Israel. The fact that the "Security Wall" has caused hardships on the Palestinians is the price that the Palestinians chose to bring upon themselves alone.

Over the past few years; the pro-Palestinian propaganda machine, and their Anti-Zionistic Jewish lobby of moronic, morally brainwashed and idiotic self-hating Jewish lobbyists, have not only defamed the sanctity of the cherished memory of the martyred millions of Jews. They have consistently ignored and denied historical fact that the Israeli Military "Occupation" measures have been brought on by violent acts of terrorism by the Palestinians against Israeli civilian targets.

After the Geneva Peace Conference with Arab countries (21 December 1973) Abba Eban, the father of Israeli statesmanship, former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States and United Nations, was quoted is stating that; "Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." The Jerusalem Post (18 November 2002). He is also quoted as stating; "Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss".To defame Israel by the use of the term "Holocaust" in its actions in the "West Bank" is ludicrous as is the claim of "Ethnic Cleansing". What in reality should be asked is why the Arabs themselves expelled more than 900,000 Jews of Arab lands from their homes?