I AM A JEW (PART XI - The Israeli Propaganda Machine)

As the title shows this is the 11th part (actually the 12^th, if you count the Special Bulletin) of the series. If you haven’t read the other parts I urge you to do so. They are, after all a continuum. Easy access to the others can be obtained by clicking on the titles: "I AM A JEW (Part I)," "I AM A JEW (Part II)," "I AM A JEW (Part III)," "I AM A JEW (Special Bulletin)," "I AM A JEW (Part IV - The Torah & The Talmud)," "I AM A JEW (Part V - Gaza Is A Huge Prison)," "I AM A JEW (PART VI - The Palestinians)," "I AM A JEW (PART VII - A Defense of Israel’s Policies and a Rebuttal)", "I AM A JEW (PART VIII - Hamas & Likud)" ,"I AM A JEW (PART IX- The Palestinian Diaspora & The Right of Return)" and "I AM A JEW (PART X - The Abject Poverty of the Palestinians)."

As I write these articles I become increasingly aware of how uninformed and misinformed we are about the nature of the Israeli government, its aims and its crimes.

This was brought home to me when in response to my post "I AM A JEW (PART IX - The Palestinian Diaspora & The Right of Return)" one of my subscribers, Ernest Hauser of the Bronx, NY, wrote:

The Arab refugee problem is indeed sad and difficult.

In 1948 the Arab neighbors Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan] urged the Arabs to flee and return after the Jews were driven into the sea. Well, that did not happen.  

Israel took in about a half million Jews who were persecuted in the Arab world, but none of the Arab lands gave citizenship to any of the Palestinian refugees.

They prefer to keep then in camps as a thorn to Israel.

This brought home to me just how effective Israeli propaganda has been and continues to be.

The vast majority of Americans and particularly American Jews probably believe the statement by Ernest Hauser, yet it is demonstrably false. I myself may have believed it, until I did the extensive research required for this series. Yet, even in the face of facts contradicting Hauser’s assertion, the myth lives on.

My response to Hauser is set forth below:

You are simply repeating the standard line from Israeli propaganda sources. Before you mindlessly repeat things you ought to take the time to research the matter to determine the facts.

Or at least read my posts.

In "I AM A JEW (Part II)” I wrote and I quote:

There has long been a debate about whether Arabs left Israel out of their own free will, at the urgings of their leaders or were driven out by Israeli forces conducting ethnic cleansing. After extensive research I have concluded that both are true. What has come to be known as the Deir Yassin massacre is instructive.

I quote from Wikipedia:

The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when around 120 fighters from the Irgun Zevai Leumi and Lohamei Herut Israel Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian Arab village of roughly 600 people. The assault occurred as Jewish militia sought to relieve the blockade of Jerusalem by Palestinian forces during the civil war that preceded the end of British rule in Palestine.

Around 107 villagers were killed during and after the battle for the village, including women and children—some were shot, while others died when hand grenades were thrown into their homes. Several villagers were taken prisoner and may have been killed after being paraded through the streets of West Jerusalem, though accounts vary. Four of the attackers died, with around 35 injured. The killings were condemned by the leadership of the Haganah—the Jewish community's main paramilitary force—and by the area's two chief rabbis. The Jewish Agency for Israel sent Jordan's King Abdullah a letter of apology, which he rebuffed.

The deaths became a pivotal event in the Arab–Israeli conflict for their demographic and military consequences. The narrative was embellished and used by various parties to attack each other—by the Palestinians against Israel; by the Haganah to play down their own role in the affair; and by the Israeli Left to accuse the Irgun and Lehi of violating the Jewish principle of purity of arms, thus blackening Israel's name around the world. News of the killings sparked terror within the Palestinian community, encouraging them to flee from their towns and villages in the face of Jewish troop advances, and it strengthened the resolve of Arab governments to intervene, which they did five weeks later. (Emphasis added)

And in an article by David Remick in The New Yorker, entitled: "Blood and Sand - A revisionist Israeli historian revisits his country’s origins” published on May 5, 2008, he writes:

"In 1988, Morris published “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949,” which revolutionized Israeli historiography and, to a great extent, a nation’s understanding of its own birth. Relying less on testimony than on the newly available documents, Morris described how and why sixty per cent of the Palestinians were uprooted and their society destroyed. It was a far more complex picture than many Israelis were prepared to accept. The book features a map that shows three hundred and eighty-nine Arab villages, from upper Galilee to the Negev Desert. Morris revealed that in forty-nine of these villages the indigenous Arabs were expelled by the Haganah and other Jewish military forces; in sixty-two villages, the Arabs fled out of fear, having heard rumors of attacks and even massacres; in six, the villagers left at the instruction of Palestinian local leaders. The refugees, who probably expected to return to their homes in a matter of weeks or months, went to Gaza and the West Bank, and also to surrounding Arab countries—Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria—where, to this day, they have never been fully absorbed."

You can also take a look here and I quote, e.g.

Various quotes have been attributed to Monsignor George Hakim, Greek Catholic Bishop of Galilee, such as “The Arabs were urged to flee by their own leaders" and "The refugees were confident their absence would not last long, and that they would return within a week or two”. Childers investigated this claim:

"Another stock quotation down the years has been that, supposedly, of the Greek-Catholic Archbishop of Galilee. For example, Israel's Abba Eban told the U.N. Special Political Committee in 1957 that the Archbishop had "fully confirmed" that the Arabs were urged to flee by their own leaders. I wrote to His Grace, asking for his evidence of such orders. I hold signed letters from him, with permission to publish, in which he has categorically denied ever alleging Arab evacuation orders; he states that no such orders were ever given. He says that his name has been abused for years; and that the Arabs fled through panic and forcible eviction by Jewish troops. 

As for the comment: "but none of the Arab lands gave citizenship to any of the Palestinian refugees. They prefer to keep then in camps as a thorn to Israel”, it is true that none of the Arab lands gave citizenship to any of the Palestinian refugees, but it is not true that they did it so to keep the camps as a thorn to Israel.

Unlike the myth that Arabs are “one people” they consist of very diverse tribes, with many different forms of Islamic religions and ethnicities. The Arab countries are poor and struggling to survive themselves. The refugee camps are an enormous burden, and trying to assimilate, a foreign poverty-stricken group into their society, is very difficult. In fact in Jordan, they are considered a threat to the monarchy.  In Lebanon the Christians don’t want more Muslims. Egypt today is more attuned to Israel than to Hamas.

There is zero evidence that it is a plot against Israel.

So before you make glib statement without doing your homework, you should make it a point to truly ascertain the facts.

But why is there such universality of misconceptions? There can be little doubt that the Israeli propaganda machine in the US is extremely powerful. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations lists 51 organizations. Most of these are charitable and have no political agenda.

But the most prominent among them, are at the forefront of the defense of Israel, the shaping of public opinion and the lobbying of our government. They defend and advocate Israeli government policy as faithfully as the Communist party did in days of yore and its most faithful adherents believe and propagate these views as faithfully as members of the Communist party once did.

Wikipedia describes “The Israeli lobby” as

...the diverse coalition of those who, as individuals and as groups, seek to influence the foreign policy of the United States in support of Zionism, Israel or the specific policies of its government. The lobby consists of Jewish-American secular and religious groups. The most famous and visible group within the Israel lobby is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC and other groups within the Israel lobby influence American public policy in a variety of ways such as through education, responding to criticism of Israel, and putting forth arguments in support of Israel. The Israel lobby is known for its success in encouraging U.S. lawmakers to support the policies that it supports.

AIPAC is probably the second-most powerful lobby in the US, second only to the NRA. 

October 19, 2014 – NBC News headline: “Obama speaks at AIPAC conference”

March 2012 (during the primary campaign for the Republican nomination for President) The Washington Post headline “GOP hopefuls blast Obama at AIPAC” and to quote from the article: “Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich on Tuesday dismissed Obama’s promises and accused the White House of weakness in trying to thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.”

How many other organization, and particularly lobbies for foreign governments get such overwhelming attention form the country’s leaders and aspiring leaders?

But AIPAC is not alone among the Israeli lobby. There are the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the American Friends of Likud. Any media criticism of Israel will quickly bring a response from any of these by column if possible, by Letter to the Editor if needed. They influence public opinion and they influence our government.

To a large extent this explains the extensive misconceptions and misinformation of the American public that I am, in my small way, trying to correct.

I welcome comments, but will not publish any, unless they have a unique relevance to the segment under discussion, until this series is complete. 

I AM A JEW (PART X - The Abject Poverty of the Palestinians)

As the title shows this is the 10th part (actually the 11^th, if you count the Special Bulletin) of the series. If you haven’t read the other parts I urge you to do so. They are, after all a continuum. Easy access to the others can be obtained by clicking on the titles: "I AM A JEW (Part I)," "I AM A JEW (Part II)," "I AM A JEW (Part III)," "I AM A JEW (Special Bulletin)," "I AM A JEW (Part IV - The Torah & The Talmud)," "I AM A JEW (Part V - Gaza Is A Huge Prison)," "I AM A JEW (PART VI - The Palestinians)," "I AM A JEW (PART VII - A Defense of Israel’s Policies and a Rebuttal)", "I AM A JEW (PART VIII - Hamas & Likud)" and "I AM A JEW (PART IX- The Palestinian Diaspora & The Right of Return)."

I am forever struck by how American Jewish liberals are at the forefront of the fight against poverty in the United States. They are at the forefront in fighting for the right of minorities from discrimination, be they African-Americans or Hispanics, and yet they seem to be tone deaf to the plight of the Palestinians, the discrimination practiced against them, their permanent status as refugees without permanent homes, rights of citizenship, and dire poverty.

Right now the focus is on Gaza, for a temporary end to hostilities there has brought about once again an International effort to raise money to rebuild that which Israeli bombs, shells, and other explosives destroyed. We keep hearing the same old mantra, that all that Israel did was defend itself, but in fact it was the Gazans, (and it matters not at all, whether we call them Gazans or Palestinians) who erupted after years of blockade, entry and exit permits, and once again the mass arrest and incarceration of many of its members, in response to the murder of three Israelis.  Israel has far from abandoned its policy of collective punishment.

What is the arrest and incarceration of 500, without trial because they belong to an organization some of whose members committed a heinous crime, except collective punishment?

Some rockets are lobbed at Israel in bitter retaliation and the whole of the Gaza population is punished, thousands killed, many more wounded, old men, young men trying to support their families, women, children. Israel tell us they were just collateral damage and Hamas is to blame - they put them in harm's way. But where were they to go? Israel propaganda, which is too often echoed by the American apologists for Israel, tell us they dropped warning leaflets. What a joke! Rockets were falling everywhere and leaflets told them to go somewhere else when bombs where dropping everywhere. Children killed on the beach. Were there bombs hidden under the sand?

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas of the world. See this Washington Post article. According to Info Please it is the fifth-densest population area in the world, but, of course, in the others the people are not trying to escape bombardment.

According to the BBC this is what Gaza looks like:

The BBC reports “International donors have pledged $5.4bn (£3.4bn) for the Palestinians at a conference in Cairo.”

Will that bring back the thousands of lives lost? Will that end the poverty?

Here is another photo from the BBC:

It’s all rubble. And how long before another incident, or plain desperation will start the cycle all over again?

Does anybody have any idea what kind of suffering has been imposed on the Palestinians? What kind of abject poverty they have been reduced to? Here is an article in Haaretz, or try here.

Allow me to quote from its beginning:

Life has never seemed so grim for the Mustafas, a family of seven cramped into a shabby two-room hovel in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp.

 Seven years into an Israeli blockade and ten months into a crippling Egyptian one, Gaza's economic growth has evaporated and unemployment soared to almost 40 percent by the end of 2013.

Opposition to the Hamas militant group which runs the Gaza Strip has led its neighbors to quarantine the enclave, shutting residents out of the struggling Mideast peace process and leaving them with plenty of parties to blame.

 Living on U.N. handouts of rice, flour, canned meat and sunflower oil, with limited access to proper health care or clean water, families like the Mustafas - seemingly permanent refugees from ancestral lands now part of Israel - have no money, no jobs and no hope.

 "We're drowning... We feel like the whole world is on top of us. I turn on the television and I see the lifestyles on there, and I think, God help me leave this place," said Tareq, 22.

The Mustafas often must pick up and move when rain floods their low-lying home - even on a sunny day, it's lined with slick, smelly mildew. They stand in the dark, as 12-hour power cuts are now the norm throughout Gaza due to scant fuel.

 "There's no money for university or to get married. There's not even enough to spend outside the house so we can escape a little. What kind of life is this?" Tareq asks.

Well over half of Gaza residents receive food from the United Nations, and the number is on the rise.

What about the West Bank?

Reuters reported in September of 2012:

(Israeli) restrictions on movement, faltering aid flows, a paralyzed private sector and a chronic fiscal crisis cloud the horizons," UNCTAD declared. Amid persistent high unemployment, it added, "one in two Palestinians is classified as poor."

 The report, for an UNCTAD meeting in Geneva later this month, said the impact of the Israeli occupation since 1968 on the productive base of the Palestinian economy, and especially its once-flourishing agriculture, "has been devastating."

 The economy has lost access to 40 per cent of West Bank land, 82 percent of its ground water, and more than two thirds of its grazing land.

A Beirut Lebanon newspaper reports: 

BEIRUT (Ma'an) -- Around 160,000 Palestinians are living below the poverty line in refugee camps in Lebanon, the ambassador to Beirut says.

 Nearly 13,000 Palestinian refugees are living in extreme poverty in Lebanon, Ashraf Dabour told Ma'an.

 Palestinian refugees are banned from entering 75 professions in Lebanon. "Practicing any of these careers is considered a breach of Lebanese law," Dabour said.

 The Lebanese parliament amended a law restricting Palestinian refugees' access to work. "However, the Lebanese cabinet has not put that amendment into effect," the Palestinian ambassador said.

 "We hear sweet talk from Lebanese officials about the Palestinian refugees' right to work and live in dignity, but in reality nothing is translated into action."

I could go on country by country, because the story is the same everywhere.

But what about in Israel proper?

From The New Yorker of June 4, 2013

… in May, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released a report showing that, of the world’s thirty-four economically developed countries, Israel is the most impoverished. With a poverty rate of twenty-one per cent, Israel has a higher percentage of poor people than Mexico, Turkey, or debt-ridden Spain and Greece. The report’s findings made front-page headlines in Israel, and officials there scrambled to sound both indignant and unconcerned. They had some explaining to do: How does a nation with double the average growth rate of other countries in the developed world have a fifth of its population living in poverty?

 … twenty-eight percent of Arab Israeli(s) (are) children receiving an education that is below that of many third-world countries, …

And finally from the British newspaper The Guardian:

Aid alone won't help the desperate Palestinians A UN reports links all of the Palestinian economy's dire problems to the Israeli occupation and associated constraints. Aid from the EU and others is merely a sop for political failure.

And referring to a report released by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) the paper goes on to say:

A quick look at the report's section headings gives an immediate picture of how desperate the situation is: aid-driven, jobless economic growth, with an eroded productive base; erosion of manufacturing capacity; broad economic divergence between Gaza and the West Bank; high levels of poverty and food insecurity; high and persistent unemployment undermines the quality of human capital; separation barrier deepens isolation from global markets; heavy dependence on trade with Israel, and a worsening trade deficit; fiscal vulnerability remains high, despite austerity measures; withholding [Palestinian Authority] customs clearance revenue aggravates fiscal instability; indirect imports from Israel and lost Palestinian revenue.

 An idea of the desperation facing the Palestinians is given by a 2010 survey conducted by the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, which says: "Palestinian people have used various strategies to cope with poverty and food insecurity under prolonged Israeli occupation. These strategies have included – in addition to borrowing – receiving food support from family and friends, restricting food to adults in order to feed children, reducing health and education spending, running down savings, and selling off jewellery, furniture and productive assets. The top three coping strategies used are deferring payment of utility bills, lowering the quality and quantity of food intake, and borrowing."

 The litany of problems appears endless. While it is tempting to reel off the plethora of depressing statistics provided in this report, it is perhaps better to reflect on the salient theme – Israel and the occupation. No attempt is made to describe the problems facing the Palestinian economy without reference to the continued occupation and associated constraints.

 Unemployment (at 30%, and 43% for under-30s), manufacturing and agricultural decline (despite a recent upturn), large-scale revenue losses, "dire" humanitarian conditions, worsening socioeconomic indicators – all these issues and more are linked explicitly and repeatedly to the political situation.

How much longer will the liberal American Jewish community make excuses and defend the indefensible? Where is Christian charity?

I ask no more of my Jewish and Christian brethren but that they live by the words of the Bible, Isaiah 49:6. and to demand that Israel be a “light unto the nations” instead of one that leads us into darkness.

I welcome comments, but will not publish any, unless they have a unique relevance to the segment under discussion, until this series is complete.

I AM A JEW (PART IX - The Palestinian Diaspora & The Right of Return)

As the title shows this is the ninth part (actually the 10^th, if you count the Special Bulletin) of the series. If you haven’t read the other parts I urge you to do so. They are, after all a continuum. Easy access to the others can be obtained by clicking on the titles: "I AM A JEW (Part I)," "I AM A JEW (Part II)," "I AM A JEW (Part III)," "I AM A JEW (Special Bulletin)," "I AM A JEW (Part IV - The Torah & The Talmud)," "I AM A JEW (Part V - Gaza Is A Huge Prison)," "I AM A JEW (PART VI - The Palestinians)," "I AM A JEW (PART VII - A Defense of Israel’s Policies and a Rebuttal)" and "I AM A JEW (PART VIII - Hamas & Likud)."

In talking about a disposition of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict it has consistently been made to appear that the sticking point to a resolution is the Right of Return of Palestinians to Israel, thereby endangering, if not totally destroying, the character of Israel as a Jewish state. It is a phony issue!

To be sure United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, which was adopted on December 11, 1948 sets forth in paragraph 11:

…that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible; Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations;

It has been argued that if all the refugees who fled the area that is now Israel and their descendants, now numbering “more than 1.5 million individuals” were to return to Israel, which according to the The Jewish Virtual Library has a total population of 8,252,500 (See here) it would destroy the character of the Jewish state. But would it? Of those 8,252,500, 6,186,100 are Jewish. Only 1,709,900 are Arabs. So that even if all the Arab refugees were to be allowed to return, the Arab population of Israel would still only amount to a little over 2,200,000, just over a quarter of the Jewish population, hardly a threat to the Jewish character of the Israeli state. The problem obviously becomes much greater if we accept the UN definition (See here) that:

…the legal status of refugee (is) something that can be inherited

which means that:

today it classifies more than 6.6 million Palestinians as refugees.

which makes the possibility of resettlement in Israel impossible. But of course if we limit the Right of Return to Israel as being limited only to those who in fact fled, excluding their descendants, we would be looking at an elderly easily manageable population.

But the fact is that most Palestinian Arab refugees do not want to return to Israel. According to an article in Time magazine (See here) in 2003 a:

…researcher managed to broach the subject, interviewing 4,500 refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. Only 10% said they would live in Israel if given the option, while 54% opted for monetary compensation and a home on the West Bank or Gaza. The other third said they would prefer to live in other countries, or rejected the terms described.

So the issue of the Right of Return is at best a theoretical one, and at worst a straw man, easily knocked down.

The Israeli government makes it appear that his is the main stumbling block to a settlement, but as can be seen it is not really a problem, nor is it a legitimate bone of contention.

Furthermore, Israel rejects the UN resolution of 1948 as being a manifestation of the UN’s anti Israel bias, but its very existence stems from that same body's resolution 181 of November 1947 on which the very establishment of the Israeli State was founded. How can Israel base its legitimacy on the one hand on the UN resolution and on the other reject another passed soon after. It is difficult to avoid calling that chutzpah, or to give its rejection any credence.

While speaking about the legitimacy of Israel within the 1948 borders stemming from the 1947 resolution, it is difficult to find legitimacy in the generally accepted 1967 borders, which the UN never sanctioned. Israel’s claim to these borders stem from military conquest, albeit defensive wars. It is argued that territory acquired in defensive wars may be legitimately kept, (See here) but that is true, according to this concept, only until a peace treaty is agreed upon, and does not justify it’s arbitrary and unilateral permanent annexation. If defensive wars were a justification for the occupation and annexation of territory, then Germany would have been justified in its occupation and annexation of France, for it was France that declared war on Germany. Furthermore, the Allies set the precedence on the acquisition of territory after the end of a victorious war, by not taking any territory from the defeated nations, settling instead for a period of occupation, while helping the defeated nations rebuild. That precedence should be binding on Israel.

But the problem of the Palestinian diaspora is real and cannot be ignored by the International community or by Israel.

It is not acceptable either for Israel or the International community to ignore the plight of the Palestinian diaspora, which is far worse than the Jewish diaspora, before the advent of the Nazis ever was. Jews in Germany for example were fully assimilated, and lived full and prosperous lives, and while anti-Semitism there and in other countries including the US was ever present, the plight of Jews in their diaspora was never as desperate as those of the Palestinians.

The fact is that most of the displaced Palestinians have been denied the normal lives of people everywhere and are forced to live in refugee camps without permanent homes and without the right of citizenship.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is trying to take care of these refugees but they are underfunded and understaffed. They provide assistance and protection for
 some 5 million Palestinian refugees. (See here)

I quote from their website:

Palestine refugees are defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” 

UNRWA services are available to all those living in its area of operations who meet this definition, who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance. The descendants of Palestine refugee males, including adopted children, are also eligible for registration. When the Agency began operations in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, some 5 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services.

 Nearly one-third of the registered Palestine refugees, more than 1.5 million individuals, live in 58 recognized Palestine refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

A Palestine refugee camp is defined as a plot of land placed at the disposal of UNRWA by the host government to accommodate Palestine refugees and set up facilities to cater to their needs. Areas not designated as such and are not recognized as camps. However, UNRWA also maintains schools, health centres and distribution centres in areas outside the recognized camps where Palestine refugees are concentrated, such as Yarmouk, near Damascus. 

The plots of land on which the recognized camps were set up are either state land or, in most cases, land leased by the host government from local landowners. This means that the refugees in camps do not 'own' the land on which their shelters were built, but have the right to 'use' the land for a residence. 

Socioeconomic conditions in the camps are generally poor, with high population density, cramped living conditions and inadequate basic infrastructure such as roads and sewers.

 UNRWA's responsibility in the camps is limited to providing services and administering its installations. The Agency does not own, administer or police the camps, as this is the responsibility of the host authorities.

UNRWA has a camp services office in each camp, which the residents visit to update their records or to raise issues relating to Agency services with the Camp Services Officer (CSO). The CSO, in turn, refers refugee concerns and petitions to the UNRWA administration in the area in which the camp is located. 

In the aftermath of the hostilities of June 1967 and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ten camps were established to accommodate a new wave of displaced persons, both refugees and non-refugees.

 The remaining two thirds of registered Palestine refugees live in and around the cities and towns of the host countries, and in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, often in the environs of official camps. While most of UNRWA's installations such as schools and health centres are located in the Palestine refugee camps, a number are outside; all of the Agency’s services are available to all registered Palestine refugees, including those who do not live in the camps.

Unlike the Jewish diaspora, where Jews were usually citizens of the countries in which they lived, Palestinians are living in refugee camps and are living in them generation after generation. (For a list of the camps and their populations see here)

Israel along with the International community has an obligation to end their refugee status and to allow them, and in fact help them, to resettle in permanent homes with rights of citizenship in their own sovereign country.

Jews the world over, Americans of all persuasions, and the world community cannot settle for less. The endless land grabs by Israel and the endless occupation must end. NOTHING LESS WILL DO.

I welcome comments, but will not publish any, unless they have a unique relevance to the segment under discussion, until this series is complete.

I AM A JEW (PART VIII - Hamas & Likud)

As the title shows this is the eighth part (actually the ninth, if you count the Special Bulletin) of the series. If you haven’t read the other parts I urge you to do so. They are, after all a continuum. Easy access to the others can be obtained by clicking on the titles: "I AM A JEW (Part I)," "I AM A JEW (Part II)," "I AM A JEW (Part III)," "I AM A JEW (Special Bulletin)," "I AM A JEW (Part IV - The Torah & The Talmud)," "I AM A JEW (Part V - Gaza Is A Huge Prison)," "I AM A JEW (PART VI - The Palestinians)" and "I AM A JEW (PART VII - A Defense of Israel’s Policies and a Rebuttal)"

In my previous postings, and particularly in I AM A Jew (Part II) I pointed out that the party of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Likud, is the successor to terrorists, i.e.Irgun, and has in its charter, which it has never revoked, an absolute rejection of a two state solution: I quote once more from the charter:

The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting….

The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan River. (emphasis added)

So that its posturing about negotiating with the PLO about recognizing a Palestinian State is just that, posturing, as is their denouncing Hamas for mot being willing to recognize Israel’s right to exist, a demand that they (Israel) be granted that which they will not grant in reciprocity.

And Likud today has become a “moderate” party compared to its coalition partner, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, a member of the even more radical party, Yisrael Beiteinu, which takes a strong line towards the peace process and the integration of Israeli Arabs, characterized by its 2009 election slogan "No loyalty, no citizenship." (Loyalty oaths –shades of Joe McCarthy)

This led to a clash with Ariel Sharon, no great liberal himself, who condemned Lieberman's statements, that only those Arab Israelis who migrated from the area to within Israel's new borders and pledged loyalty to Israel would be allowed to remain Israeli citizens. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned Lieberman's statements, stating "We regard Israeli Arabs as part of the State of Israel. See here.

But allow me for the purpose of this post to go back to 1948 when the Likud Party was in its infancy and Menachim Begin, later associated with the peace treaty with Egypt, but nevertheless, a man who represented and still represents the essence of Likud and its history, which I don’t think we can afford to lose sight of.

I set forth in full a letter to the New York Times signed by such leading intellectuals as Albert Einstein, Sidney Hook and Hannah Arendt:

TO THE EDITORS OF NEW YORK TIMES:

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.

Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin's behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.

The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.





Attack on Arab Village



A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants (240 men, women, and children) and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.

The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.

Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.

During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.

The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.





Discrepancies Seen



The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a "Leader State" is the goal.

In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin's efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.





The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.





ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ,

HANNAH ARENDT,

ABRAHAM BRICK,

RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO,

ALBERT EINSTEIN,

HERMAN EISEN, M.D.,

HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D.,

H.H. HARRIS,

ZELIG S. HARRIS,

SIDNEY HOOK,

FRED KARUSH,

BRURIA KAUFMAN,

IRMA L. LINDHEIM,

NACHMAN MAISEL,

SEYMOUR MELMAN,

MYER D. MENDELSON, M.D.,

HARRY M. OSLINSKY,

SAMUEL PITLICK,

FRITZ ROHRLICH,

LOUIS P. ROCKER,

RUTH SAGIS,

ITZHAK SANKOWSKY,

I.J. SHOENBERG,

SAMUEL SHUMAN,

M. SINGER,

IRMA WOLFE,

STEFAN WOLFE.

New York, Dec. 2, 1948



This does not leave the successors to this group in much of a position to complain of terrorism.

At the same time we find that the claim that Hamas refuses to recognize a Jewish state is no longer valid.

The British newspaper The Global Mail reported days ago:

Hamas is endorsing Mr. Abbas’s plan for establishing a state within the so-called “1967 borders” that delineated the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In effect, Hamas now accepts Israel’s existence and the previous agreements arrived at between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. See here.

I do not condemn the present Israeli government coalition as not being worthy of being a partner to honest negotiations toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would encompass Gaza and most of the West Bank. I cite these items of history only to illustrate that this government is in a poor position to denounce as terrorists other necessary parties to successful negotiations. Hamas is not the problem! It is, and must be part of the solution.

Furthermore the collective punishment of the Palestinian people for the perceived sins of their leaders, is not to be tolerated. The killing of untold innocent civilians is not to be tolerated. In its most recent count, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that 2,104 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, including 1,462 civilians, among them 495 children and 253 women. Those U.N. numbers would mean that 69 percent of the total killed were civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that Israeli forces­ had killed “approximately 1,000 terrorists,” See here. To believe that, one would have to suspend disbelieve.

Let us look at the figures. A little over 2,000 were killed. Of those 495 were children and 253 were women. That equals roughly 750., leaving roughly 1,250 many of whom may very well have been elderly.  So that among the men, according to Netanyahu, all but 250 of the men killed were terrorists. And that defines all Palestinian combatants as terrorists, rather than combatants. Is this credible? Hardly!!!

But it is a convenient way to define all opposition to the Israeli blockade, the Israeli pass laws and the Israeli policy of keeping Gaza a prison. Gazans have a right to resist.

And in the meantime the unrelenting expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem continues, constantly shrinking the areas open to negotiation. From the Jerusalem Post of October 2, 2014: See here.

The United States expressed concern on Wednesday about reports that Israel had moved forward plans for settlements in east Jerusalem, warning the move would call into question Israel's commitment to peace with the Palestinians.

Furthermore, after announcing the end of the destruction of the homes of families of suspected malefactors as long ago as February 18, 2005, which I referred to in my post "I AM A JEW (Part IV - The Torah & The Talmud)" Israel appears to have resumed this barbaric practice.

Yahoo News reports: 

Hebron, occupied West Bank - Sobbing, Ghada Qawasmeh stares at her destroyed home, a two-story stone villa the family built over the course of nine years. The mother of seven is inconsolable, thinking of her husband, Hussam, who is now in an Israeli prison. "This is collective punishment," she says. "What did I or my children do?"

Before dawn on Monday, Israeli troops destroyed the Qawasmeh family's house in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Israeli officials said the demolition was carried out as punishment for Hussam Qawasmeh's alleged involvement in the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli settler teens in June, and came after Israel's supreme court gave its approval.

How much longer will American Jews of conscience, tolerate these nationalistic, jingoistic, intolerant and inhumane polices of the Israeli government? Was Hussam Qawasmeh even tried or convicted before his family’s home was destroyed. Is this the behavior of a land of law and justice?

We would never tolerate such behavior from our own government.

I welcome comments, but will not publish any, unless they have a unique relevance to the segment under discussion, until this series is complete.