Just some answers to common claims

1) “The reason for Operation Protective Edge was the killing of an Arab by Jewish extremists.” NO! This was not only preceded by the kidnapping and murdering of three Jewish Jeshiva students, but by more than ten thousand rockets from Gaza since Hamas took control of the Strip.

2) “The economic and humanitarian situation of the Palestinians is unbearable. That is why they have to defend themselves.” NO! According to a Gallup poll (Jan. 2014) just 17% of Gaza inhabitants agreed to the statement “I suffer.” Unemployment and poverty are caused by Hamas leaders who pocket international financial aid and abuse it for weapons. 70% of electricity and 40% of water demand in Gaza are met by Israel. There is no population on earth getting more financial aid per capita than the Palestinians.

3) “Israel wants to control and oppress the Palestinians. They did not get the chance of setting up their own community.” NO! Israel abandoned the Gaza Strip voluntarily in 2005 and evacuated about 9,000 Jews in order to enable the Palestinians to establish and develop their own community in peace. In 1994 and 1995 Israel handed several towns over to the Palestinians, as for example Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron.

4) “Israel seals the borders to Gaza totally off!” NO! Egypt closed the border crossings in 2007 after Hamas took control of Gaza. Of course Israel – for security reasons – has to control what´s going on at the border crossings and sent thousands of trucks with nutrition, petrol, medicine etc. into Gaza, for instance more than 281,000 tons of building materials in 2011 – abused for the construction of the terror tunnels.

5) “Israel is stealing water from the Palestinians.” NO! The Israelis deliver more water than they committed to do by the Oslo Accord of 1995, even at subsidized prices.

6) “The Palestinians need land. In the Gaza Strip there is one of the world´s highest densities of population per square km.” NO! The Arab countries of the Middle East are 690 times as large as Israel, but they refuse to integrate the Palestinians. And at least in Singapore the density of population is double as high, in Cairo ten times and in Calcutta twelve times as high…

7) “Israel caused the refugee problem and did not take action to dissolve the refugee camps.” NO! In 1948, expecting a triumphant victory over the baby-State of Israel, the Arab leaders ordered their people to leave the country. The UN established refugee camps and did not shut them down in spite of Israel´s insistence. They want to keep an open wound for tactical reasons against Israel.

8) “The Palestinians are a genuine people!” NO! From 1922 to 1948 Palestine (an area 24% west of the Jordan river and 76% east of it) was inhabited by Jews, Muslims and Christians. When the Jewish State was founded, there was no Palestine any more. It was only in 1969 that Arafat created the term “Palestinians” in order to lay claim to the whole area from the Jordan river to the Mediterranian. As a matter of fact the “Palestinians” have never been a genuine people, they never had their own culture or language or religion. They are Arabs like other Arabs (and admitted that several times.)

9) “The Palestinians strive for a a state side by side with Israel.” NO! Several articles of the PLO Charter call for the total destruction of Israel, and they were never revoked. The Hamas leaders said they would never give up one single centimeter of their “homeland”, meaning the “Zionistic entity”.

10) “Abbas and the Fatah are moderate. And only a small percentage of the Palestinian population are in favor of terror.” NO! There are no moderate terrorists! Abbas said he will never accept the “unprecedented crime” of the foundation of Israel and called the salvo of rockets during the Gaza war “a blessed operation”. According to a recent poll 88.9% of the Palestinians support the terror against Jewish cities.

11) “If and when the Israeli-Palestinian problem will be solved there will be quiet in Middle East!” NO! Think of the massacre in Syria, the tumults  in Iraq and the euphemistically called “Arab Spring” in general which have nothing to do with how Israel is treating the Palestinians.

12) “The IDF is guilty of war crimes, acted against human rights and acted in a disproportionate manner.” NO! There is no other army in the world that strives to minimize civil damage as the IDF does. The Jews sanctify life and even treat injured Palestinians, but Hamas glorifies death and aims at maximizing damage and casualties. Hamas got guilty through every single rocket directed against innocent Jewish civilians and committed war crimes by using their own women and children as human shields. The larger number of casualties in Gaza as compared with the lower number of Jewish victims is the result of deliberate sacrificing of civilians by the Palestinians who even celebrate the “Martyrdom” of their people.