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A Hateful Reply
Yesterday I forwarded the article in the TIMES OF ISRAEL regarding “Current Lord Balfour says Israel failing to live up to 1917 declaration” to an American Christian man who has been following my articles for quite some time, probably all 441 of them, and who has frequently written long replies.
On the matter of Israeli-Palestinian matters, he is definitely pro-Palestinian accusing Israel of alleged multiple crimes of murder, rape and genocide. In a recent e-mail he had informed me of the number of rapes he alleged were committed by Israeli soldiers on Palestinian women in 1948 while forcing them at gun point out of their homes. And he included the number of murders of Arab civilians committed by Jewish soldiers.
I am aware of the terrible tragedy of the Deir Yassin massacre, one of our greatest errors, but I have never kept count of the number of alleged rapes and murders committed by us on Arab civilians.
Regarding the article on the Balfour Declaration of 1917, specifically to the clause that “nothing shall be done to harm the non-Jewish population residing in Palestine….”, he replied with what I consider to be a hateful response. I am sending his reply word for word and I believe that none of you, like me, can agree.
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“I read it (the article). A young Israel decided that rape, massacre, ethnic cleansing and the destruction of hundreds of villages was appropriate to insure an instant majority. Israel snatched the Sinai. They took the Golan Heights from Syria. Which Bibi would love to annex today; he has hinted at it enough and is allowing settlers there. Then 70 years of slowly eroding the little land the Palestinian people had by cutting it up and keeping a majority of the arable lands. Finally, not sure you know that Israel has also attempted to take 50 miles of the southern border of Lebanon. Had the Christian minority won and Hezbollah not repelled the Israeli forces, another successful land grab. All of this is in the Israeli archives. Israel has itself a pretty successful time at this type of behavior.
The armies that attacked Israel did not include a Palestinian one. That was largely militia. Israel, in the name of security, while really a land grab, has been the clear aggressor. You don’t take the Sinai, the Golan, the Occupied Territories, and Lebanon while screaming about a security problem that Israel created on her own.
I get it though. Can’t be a good citizen and believe the Arabs have the right to self-determination. Nationalism trumps morality. You and every other Israeli Jew would be picked apart. The slippery slope is one of admitting one’s own culpability. An admission of crimes against humanity. And what is being done to the Palestinians is a crime against humanity. Israel exists. It is a nuclear power. There is no existential threat. It’s all made up as a cover to take more land. Terrorism while a danger is not even in the top 20 causes of death.
3 generations now have never known freedom. Every human being deserves dignity. Every human being deserves freedom. To be protected. What Israel has done and continues to do to the Palestinian people is a crime. Justifying it out of fear of being labeled a traitor changes nothing. Again, if anyone treated their Jewish citizens the way Israel has against the Arabs… the bells against anti-Semitism would be ringing from all corners of the earth with Israel right in the middle. Because they are Arabs no one cares. What a sad reality. You don’t want to be a person of color in the world today. Ethiopian Jews know this well”.
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After reading his reply I responded very briefly.
“I must cease our correspondence. You should get a position working for the Palestinian Information (mis-information) Services. I disagree with your remarks as both a Jew and a proud citizen of the State of Israel. We will never see eye-to-eye on this century-old conflict. I understand that you are planning to join a church tour of Palestine, the West Bank and Jordan. It’s a pity that you won’t stop off in one of Israel’s magnificent cities. Perhaps you might even see Arabs and Jews living side by side in Jaffa, or Haifa, or even in our mother Jerusalem. You have eyes but do not want to see or to read the truth. You have ears but you close them so you will not have to hear the truth. The truth will destroy all your false beliefs. You once mentioned to me that the TIMES OF ISRAEL had banned you from sending blogs. You never told me why. But I do totally understand. We need good friends, not people with poisoned minds.
I have removed your name from my contacts list and will not write nor reply to you again. Long live the Jewish State of Israel”.
I e-mailed a copy to a dear friend, a retired Professor of Near East and Judaic Studies at a major American university. In reply, he wrote that the writer of the letter does not deserve a response. One cannot argue with anti-Semites. Interestingly, the writer is not an anti-Semite. He is a student of history, has several Jewish friends and praises the Jewish people for their accomplishments. Simply put, he believes in the Palestinian cause. With him it’s all about ancient history. With him, it’s political, not religious.
How can one really distinguish between the two?
