If an Arab
identifies himself (or herself) as a 'palestinian', they are openly endorsing
the 'palestinian cause’. The PLO Charter states what this is very
succinctly; it is nothing less than the total destruction of Israel. There
is no room for compromise in that document; the founding document of the PLO
does not even leave room for the possibility of two states side by side!
So many people seem to be so determined to be 'fair' to both
sides of the conflict that they automatically deny good things about the Jews
and dismiss any distasteful information about the Arabs.
They refuse to admit that both sides are NOT equally committed to Western
philosophies of ‘fair play’; in fact, the entire concept is foreign to the
Arab culture.
When the Jews came to Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th century, they
found it exactly as backward and neglected as every other place under the
Ottoman Empire. The Turks did not build hospitals, major roadways, or
sewage systems anywhere! In fact, it was the British who established these
things throughout the Middle East, but the first hospitals that they built came
many years after Hadassah Hospital was established.
It is not widely appreciated that when the Jews established Hadassah Hospital in
Jerusalem, it was the first and for many years the ONLY hospital in the entire
Middle East; indeed, some people have expressed outright disbelief that this is
a historical fact. However, an analogous situation, such as the establishment of
SSM DePaul as the first hospital west of the Mississippi River would not meet
with any skepticism from the reader at all. http://www.ssmdepaul.com/internet/home/depaul.nsf/Documents/40FF5C697F96249086256BD400602151?OpenDocument
The major reasons that the Jews were welcomed in Palestine by the British AND
the Arabs was because they brought money and skills -- and improved health care
-- to an area that was grossly deficient in every modern aspect of those things. This
was not uncommon; many rulers throughout the centuries had welcomed Jews because
their money and skills were desirable (at least until later rulers expelled
them.)
The Arabs themselves only began to have a national
identity -- separate from the Turks and Europeans -- in 1903 (please note that
this was AFTER the Zionist Conference in Basle, Switzerland!) Territorial
borders within the Ottoman Empire were very fluid; just as they were in Europe.
For example, the border between Egypt and what became the Palestine Mandate was
determined when the British sent forces to occupy Taba and much of the Sinai in
1906. At that time, of course, the British were very much involved in empire
building in the Middle East, as well as everywhere else. (The exact dates
for that bit of Middle East history may be found at: http://www.bartleby.com/67/1347.html).)
Indeed, recitation of these basic facts about the important early Jewish
contributions to the Middle East is often met with disbelief. The skeptics do
not realize that their disbelief is a direct result of the Arab propaganda
campaign against Israel. In fact, the Arab propaganda machine has been so
successful that their enemies as well as their supporters accept many of their
historical myths for both themselves and the State of Israel. .
There is a strong tendency among fair and reasonable people to
project their sense of fairness and reason to others, so that when presented
with shocking facts about Arab aims and intentions, they will dismiss the facts
as mere interpretation. Widespread acceptance of Arab mythology also results in
favorable writings about Israel often being dismissed as exaggerated Zionist
propaganda.
However, no one has to 'interpret' what the Arabs’
intentions are; THEY STATE THEIR OBJECTIVES OUTRIGHT! When someone who is
considered to be pro-Israel states that total destruction of Israel was the
reason that the PLO was established, indeed that it is the very purpose for it
existence at all, too many people assume that such a statement is, at best, an
exaggeration made out of ‘loyalty’. Nevertheless, the PLO spells out
their philosophy very clearly and succinctly in the PLO Charter as well as
thousands of documented statements. It would be a good idea for everyone
to read the PLO Charter -- which was 'ratified' at the Rabat Conference in 1974
--before disregarding ‘pro-Zionist’ information; a good site for the actual
document is: http://www.iris.org.il/plochart.htm
(BTW, this might be an Israeli website site but the document was taken in its
entirety from the Palestine Research Center in Beirut.) Moreover, the ONLY
reason that the other Arab rulers -- especially Jordan's King Hussein -- agreed
at the Rabat Conference to give over the West Bank to Arafat and the PLO was to
have a base to destroy Israel, and Arafat convinced them that he could do it.
(The collective Arab armies had failed to do so just the previous year, when
they attacked Israel on Yom Kippur.) That is why the PLO charter is
written the way it is; to convince the Arab rulers of the PLO's
potential force (it didn't need the approval of the Arab people
themselves.) For more statements by the PLO and its followers, please see:
http://www.iris.org.il/quotes.htm.
Two excellent sites where one can learn exactly what the Arabs are teaching their children,are: http://www.serve.com/lordgovernor/children/
and http://www.pmw.org.il/.
As an important contrast to these sites would be one which contains a poll of
what Israeli teenagers want out of life that is found at: http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/The_True_Face_of_Israeli_Youth.asp
The Arab rulers have never been interested in the fate of the masses of
Arab people; they still are not! (For that matter, most of the world is
not interested in what happens anywhere when Jews are not involved.) Yet
people all over the world accept these improbable statements without question
– that the Arab rulers were suddenly so concerned with the most despised Arabs
of all -- those who lived in 'Palestine' --
that they decided to
establish a new country just so the ‘palestinians’ could be ‘liberated’.
These rulers did not even make that claim at the conference; it was not until
they put the idea before the UN that they dressed up their plan in
pretty-sounding words. Unfortunately for Israeli victims of continued
‘suicide bombings’, the fact that the words that they give to the Western
media are directly contradicted by their continued terrorist actions – as well
as their own documented statements -- makes no difference in people’s
willingness to believe the Arab propaganda and to reject any contradictory
statements if they are perceived to be ‘pro-Zionist’!
It is not as if any 'palestinian' leader has been looking out for the welfare of
the Arabs in the disputed territories. In fact, part of the Rabat
Conference 'deal' was that Jordan would continue to pay for municipal works and
civil servants; this went on until 1988 when ISRAEL AND THE UN took over the
expenses of keeping up the infrastructure. (Unfortunately, Arafat and his
cronies have pocketed most of the money.)
In the early 70's, the refugee 'camps' still resembled other small communities
in Israel (although they are like slums -- not concentration camps -- today.)
Residents did NOT live behind barbed wire and no one needed to get permission to
go in or out (this was true until two years ago when the latest intifada
started.) In fact, they were a lot better than the Jewish refugee
settlements (a great many Russian Jews were arriving then) because the Arab
administrators of the camps received outside money -- a LOT of money -- from the
UN to keep them going. In fact, they were a lot better than many American
slum neighborhoods. Instead of spending the money on the resident Arabs,
though, the money was spent on guns and bombs. That is the reason that the
Arabs in the disputed territories live in such miserable conditions; their own
leaders are cheating them! It is NOT because of the Israeli
‘occupation’!
I will be glad to provide further corroborating evidence for any of my
statements both in this letter or any other of my writings. All anyone has
to do is ask. However, please do not assume that I am just saying these
things out of 'loyalty to the Zionist cause'; I find that assumption highly
insulting both to the quality of my research and the integrity of my
scholarship.