What would you do if you lived in a geographic area somewhere, and one day an influx of people from some particular ideological, religious, or political group began to move in? Maybe you don’t like them too much. Maybe they don’t like you too much. Maybe you’d fought for many hundreds of years – maybe since the beginnings of documented history.
Then one day, this new population of people declare themselves a nation. The largest and wealthiest country in the world decides to support them and make them the number one largest receiver of foreign aid. They build a massive and ruthless army. When you and your neighbors protest the new nation, they beat you down. They then take even more of the land.
The authorities of the world mandate areas of your state that will be yours, so that both of you can co-exist. The newcomers take the rest. After the war they take more. Then, over the years, the new people build settlements on *your* parts . Their newly proclaimed government gives them subsidies to do so. In fact, they’d pay their people to invade your land and build homes.
Your people become increasingly angry. When your people riot, the new people send in bulldozers and tanks. They take away your land in the name of national security. It seems the world can not understand what right you have to be angry or resist – especially the newcomer’s rich friend (who’s very existence stakes it’s claim upon freedom from tyranny…)
They show the world what a terror you have become. They show the world their lush agriculture – developed in the desert. They show the world how civilized and technologically advanced they are. They show their wounded on TV. To the US consumer of news, at home in their easy chairs – you come off an indignant and dangerous pest. The world doesn’t see scenes like: this or this. Most US citizens know almost nothing of your history. How is it possible for the free press to be so biased?
The Arab world takes your cause seriously – Even through a small percentage of your population are in fact Christian. The most vicious and fundamentalist Islamic forces like Hamas and Hezbollah find admiration from your people. – perhaps the same way a neglected child finds “friendship” or protection in the arms of a violent gang, or worse. The newcomer’s violence has spawned more violence. Isn’t it a shame the newcomer and her rich friend wouldn’t take your moderate PLO seriously? Your people have nobody else because the world powers and media ignore them. Unfortunately, your allies in the Arab world sometimes fight with each other – brutally – over the right way to handle the problem – adding even more fuel to the newcomer’s propaganda machine against you.
The most rational of human beings on both sides – the newcomers, and your people both want peace. All they ask for is that the newcomers recognize their state and agree to the mandates that were prescribed over the years instead of constantly violating them – in the name of “security”. Many of the newcomers and the world at large support the existence of your nation within the previously established borders. Most rational and intelligent observers see this as the only hope at peace in the region. It is not a question of religion. It is the matter of a fascist and land hungry right-wing minority with huge power and US money proliferating a campaign of violence and propaganda to win land and eliminate or neutralize any threat or resistance.
This is a very simplified description of the Israeli-Palestinian tragedy. It is something I feel increasingly compelled to investigate – and a cause that is growing nearer to me everyday. It is one of the fundamental sources of hatred toward the United States throughout much of the world.
This shows maps of the loss of Palestinian land to the Israeli’s over the years since 1946 – including the original mandates, modified agreements, and eventual outcome…
This shows the number of DEAD on all sides. Palestinian dead are mostly civilians…
Some final facts:
Israel is a nuclear power with nuclear weapons. Israel has an army of over half a million. Israel has over 3500 tanks. Israel receives an annual sum in the BILLIONS of dollars per year from the United States tax payer. She is the number one recipient of US aid.
All of Palestine’s supposed crimes against humanity stem from a desire to defend her right to exist. Attacking innocent people (or *any* people) is never right. Ever. But an objective scholar of history will soon learn that *none* of us are free from blood on our hands – and desperate people assume desperate measures in desperate times.
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