Much of the terminology used to discuss the conflict in
the Middle East is misleading or just plain wrong.
First: The word 'occupation' is constantly misused.
Israel is not 'occupying' the disputed lands. In order for that to be true,
Israel would have to have taken them from people to whom they belonged. The fact
is that Jordan occupied these lands for 20 years (from 1947 to 1967) but they
never became part of Jordan (because the other Arab countries refused to
recognize Jordan's annexation.) Therefore, they could not be considered occupied
today; instead they are 'reclaimed lands' as they were always part of the Jewish
Homeland in the British Mandate that became Israel.
Second: There are no 'palestinians'! It is a made-up term for the sole purpose
of giving political validity to a group of Arabs who have neither specific
culture nor even ancestral ties to Israel. It is used to negate the very fact of
the State of Israel so that Arabs, when referring to the land, can use terms
like 'zionist entity' and 'occupied palestine'! By accepting their terminology,
people accepting, either knowingly or unknowingly, their claims of legitimacy.
But too many people actually accept the Arab mythology and refer to 'palestinians' as separate from 'Arabs'.
The phrase: "... the Palestinians and their Arab friends..." is as
common a mislabel as 'occupation'.
It is the ARAB culture and the Islamic faith (which can usually be used
interchangeably) that propagates the ideas that 'suicide bombing' is a
form of martyrdom and allows people to push their children to consider such barbarism as an
honorable goal.
People easily forget that the biggest 'palestinian' in the entire Arab world -- Yasser
Arafat -- is
from Egypt!!
Third: The idea of the Arabs being 'humiliated' at all. Most of the Arabs who
lived in the disputed territories, lived under the authority of the Palestinian
Authority (a
misnomer in itself). These Arabs did not have the 'humiliations' of curfews or
checkpoints or the like until AFTER the start of the Intifada. No other country
sees 'humiliation' in the use of checkpoints; they are a nuisance, granted, but
humiliating, no. Every time someone goes on an airplane, it is necessary to pass
a security check (and these security checks are much more rigorous now that the Islamic
fundamentalists have taken their terror directly to America.). After the rash of
school shootings in the US, very stringent security procedures were adopted at
schools throughout the country. These included passing through security
checkpoints and no one who 'submitted' to their bags being searched complained
of being humiliated! Even if they did feel 'humiliated', the public
reaction would have been, "Tough luck!" Yet people consider the Israelis use of checkpoints on a known enemy population
to be 'humiliating'.
The Jews in Palestine (when there WAS a Palestine) under British OCCUPATION
suffered enormous amounts of 'humiliation'. What's more, the usual consequence of
the British catching a Jewish Palestinian with arms was to be 'dumped' in some
Arab village where a Jew's chance of survival were slim to none! But even the Stern Gang or Lehi didn't resort to senseless
blowing up of innocent people in Pizza parlors, buses, and
similar places because of their 'humiliation' from British OCCUPATION!
No one has seen any evidence of the Blacks in South Africa reacting to their genuine
humiliations by blowing themselves up along with any others they could. It is
also certain that any Black man who supported such methods would NOT have found
sympathy and even approbation from even his own people, let alone people all
over the world. Yet, the Arabs who blow up Israeli children are excused
because of their 'humiliation'!
Some words have the power to take lives. Please don't continue to give
legitimacy to these terms; the consequences can be dire. Before anyone
supports a group which claims to be in support of 'peace', they should
check just exactly what the term 'peace' means to the people using it.
Never forget that the sign over the main gate of Auschwitz translates to
"Labor Brings Freedom", but the only 'freedom' that was achieved by
nearly all the Jews who entered was death! The 'freedom-fighting' Arabs
want the same goal for today's Israelis.