The following documentary provides accurate details and statistics of the concrete wall that has been erected around the West Bank, Palestine.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The Origins of the Middle East Crisis
Although there are many complex issues between the Arabs and Jews that date back to Biblical times, both co-existed peacefully for hundreds of years on the same land. Synagogues, Mosques, and Churches were built side by side in the Holy Land and people managed to live together in harmony, exchanging culture and traditions. The ongoing atrocities we see today between Arabs and Jews goes back almost 70 years with no end in sight, and has culminated in the longest-standing conflict the world has seen in modern history.
What historic events shifted the landscape so drastically?
The pundits who claim to understand the situation in depth start their history clocks from the moment the state of Israel was established in 1948. Taking the situation out of context, statistics started emerging claiming that "the largest number of wars declared on Israel have been by the Arabs".
Nothing could be further from the truth if we assume that the issues existed because of a "lack of Arab tolerance towards the Jews", especially considering both races lived together without declarations of war called upon one another for centuries.
Ultimately, to look at the root of the situation, we would need to go further back in time.
At the outbreak of World War I, an emerging movement became prominent throughout Europe and was thriving economically. Many of the Jews of Europe excelled in trade, usury and public relations.
Two of its significant leaders, Dr Weizmann and Baron Rothschild, helped fund Britain’s victory in their European campaign during the Great War. They had only one request in return for the favour they bestowed on the Commonwealth for its victory, and that transpired in the form of the historic Balfour Declaration which was written to Rothschild in order to hand over one of the regions in the Middle East to establish a Jewish-only state.
This declaration was in direct contradiction to the promise Britain gave the Arabs to play a significant part in Britain's establishment of monarch-lead nations following their help in dismantling the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I.
When Britain claimed Palestine and its surrounding territories as part of it's agreement following the War, a "British Mandate" gave permission for mass Jewish immigration which continued in to the 1930's. That caused great unrest throughout the entire region.
The populous began growing at such an alarming rate and in such a small area of land that it had caused confrontations which resulted in the British government's subsequent decision to halt Jewish immigration. This did not stop however, and lead to a large scale illegal Jewish immigration following a bitter conflict with the British Mandate.
The simple fact that there was no room for the influx of European Jews had caused Arab farmers to be driven out of their land with tractors, pushing out the indigenous people. Violence broke out and neither party looked back ever since.
The problem became too big for Britain to handle and handed the situation over to the UN to draft a resolution that was never resolved.
But even then, and for the sake of argument, you cannot fault the common Jewish settler for these consequences once they found themselves treading on Arab toes.
The Hebrew essayist Ahad Ha-Am, after paying a visit to Palestine in 1891, made the following statement:
Many argue that the reason for this mass migration was because of the treatment given by the Nazi regime on the Jews of Europe. But even the Jews know that is not true. They have always religiously prophesied their return to the "Promised Land".
Concrete planning to make this dream a reality actually began in the late 1800's, with the birth of Zionism.
The problem, however, was that the founder of this ideology, Theodor Herzl, had a very secular view about the methodology on how the Promised Land should be "returned" to the children of Israel. Such a cultural and nationalistic ideology began breaking away from the traditional teachings of the ancient Jewish belief, and it had ultimately abandoned the purity of the original Jewish dream.
Subsequently, what resulted was a series of radical beliefs from the very founders who defined and shaped the Zionist movement.
The following profound statements illustrate how such a radical phenomena eventuated in not only damaging Arab livelihood, but in affecting the Jewish dream as well:
Quotes from the founders of Zionism
One may come to the conclusion that there would be very little room to negotiate a UN Resolution for a "two-state" solution which has recently been so commonly used as a slogan for the idea of peace, rather than a true commitment towards peace.
One notable comment to make about the statements mentioned above is the geographical location of the borders defined for the "Greater Israel", namely the Nile to the Euphrates.
The land between the Nile river in Egypt and the Euphrates river in Iraq, as shown in the map above, engulfs the entire region of Palestine, all of Lebanon, all of Jordan, half of Syria, half of Iraq, a portion of Saudi Arabia, a portion of Egypt, and even a section of Turkey.
Intimidation overwhelmed the region and as a result radical organisations emerged from the Arab world as a result of a lack of confidence in their government's ability to ensure their safety and security.
Some Jews would go on to explain that this map does not depict the true borders of the Greater Israel, and that the fulfilment of their Promised Land is "only" the entire region of Palestine which at the time included Transjordan (today known as Jordan).
Recent history however, has proven that claim to be false with one notable event: the "six day war" of 1967. A total of four countries had been invaded by the very people who implemented the Zionist idea in only a matter of days under the guise of a "premptive" strike, which is really just a marketing ploy to describe an instigated attack.
By then most of Palestine was seized either by annexation or occupation, Egypt's Sinai was taken, the Golan Heights in Syria, and later the south of Lebanon was occupied. This resulted in a serious economic crises that began to spread. There were subsequent battles carried out on all fronts to retake the land that was originally confiscated but without any real success, leaving most of these regions labelled "demilitarized zones".
In subsequent years, neighbouring Arab's voices have been silenced by very powerful government regimes that swept the entire region after the 1970's. All they could do was watch in horror while their neighbours suffered persecution and confiscation of land. Israel stood uncontested with ongoing settlement expansion, home demolitions, systematic deportations, civilian displacements, violent checkpoint misconduct, water resource reallocation, residency revocation, border blockades, airspace "no-fly" zones, and maritime seaport isolation resulting in the displacement of 4 million Palestinians... the largest population of refugees on earth scattered on the borders of Jordan, Syria and Egypt.
Today, some Jews view the Greater Israel as a religious symbol rather than as a political obligation, and as such have detested the establishment of Zionist-Israel while performing many demonstrations in the streets of Jerusalem, conceding that the state has hijacked their religion.
Bringing this into context, the modern-day myth that Arabs want to wipe out the Jews is completely fabricated.
Whether the ideology was originally meant to be founded on good intentions or not, what Zionism has become is the very thing that Arabs want removed. The similarity is mirrored when the Western Alliance wanted Nazism and Communism to be eradicated, rather than Germans or Russians respectively.
Mainstream Arabs who understand the situation do not have anything against the Jewish people, but rather the cancer that has plagued their land since the inception of Zionism, and there are many Jews who also share the same sentiment.
When the reach of the Zionist arm goes beyond the borders we see today, how do we expect the Arabs to live with that?
Would any of us live with that in our own homeland?
What historic events shifted the landscape so drastically?
The pundits who claim to understand the situation in depth start their history clocks from the moment the state of Israel was established in 1948. Taking the situation out of context, statistics started emerging claiming that "the largest number of wars declared on Israel have been by the Arabs".
Nothing could be further from the truth if we assume that the issues existed because of a "lack of Arab tolerance towards the Jews", especially considering both races lived together without declarations of war called upon one another for centuries.
Ultimately, to look at the root of the situation, we would need to go further back in time.
At the outbreak of World War I, an emerging movement became prominent throughout Europe and was thriving economically. Many of the Jews of Europe excelled in trade, usury and public relations.
Two of its significant leaders, Dr Weizmann and Baron Rothschild, helped fund Britain’s victory in their European campaign during the Great War. They had only one request in return for the favour they bestowed on the Commonwealth for its victory, and that transpired in the form of the historic Balfour Declaration which was written to Rothschild in order to hand over one of the regions in the Middle East to establish a Jewish-only state.
This declaration was in direct contradiction to the promise Britain gave the Arabs to play a significant part in Britain's establishment of monarch-lead nations following their help in dismantling the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I.
When Britain claimed Palestine and its surrounding territories as part of it's agreement following the War, a "British Mandate" gave permission for mass Jewish immigration which continued in to the 1930's. That caused great unrest throughout the entire region.
The populous began growing at such an alarming rate and in such a small area of land that it had caused confrontations which resulted in the British government's subsequent decision to halt Jewish immigration. This did not stop however, and lead to a large scale illegal Jewish immigration following a bitter conflict with the British Mandate.
The simple fact that there was no room for the influx of European Jews had caused Arab farmers to be driven out of their land with tractors, pushing out the indigenous people. Violence broke out and neither party looked back ever since.
The problem became too big for Britain to handle and handed the situation over to the UN to draft a resolution that was never resolved.
But even then, and for the sake of argument, you cannot fault the common Jewish settler for these consequences once they found themselves treading on Arab toes.
The Hebrew essayist Ahad Ha-Am, after paying a visit to Palestine in 1891, made the following statement:
"Abroad we are accustomed to believe that Israel is now uninhabited desert and whoever wishes can buy land there as he pleases. But this is not true. It is very difficult to find in the land cultivated fields that are not used for planting."What really needs to be considered is what influenced the initial immigration, and how it originated. For that we need to go even further back.
Many argue that the reason for this mass migration was because of the treatment given by the Nazi regime on the Jews of Europe. But even the Jews know that is not true. They have always religiously prophesied their return to the "Promised Land".
Concrete planning to make this dream a reality actually began in the late 1800's, with the birth of Zionism.
The problem, however, was that the founder of this ideology, Theodor Herzl, had a very secular view about the methodology on how the Promised Land should be "returned" to the children of Israel. Such a cultural and nationalistic ideology began breaking away from the traditional teachings of the ancient Jewish belief, and it had ultimately abandoned the purity of the original Jewish dream.
Subsequently, what resulted was a series of radical beliefs from the very founders who defined and shaped the Zionist movement.
The following profound statements illustrate how such a radical phenomena eventuated in not only damaging Arab livelihood, but in affecting the Jewish dream as well:
Quotes from the founders of Zionism
One may come to the conclusion that there would be very little room to negotiate a UN Resolution for a "two-state" solution which has recently been so commonly used as a slogan for the idea of peace, rather than a true commitment towards peace.
One notable comment to make about the statements mentioned above is the geographical location of the borders defined for the "Greater Israel", namely the Nile to the Euphrates.
The land between the Nile river in Egypt and the Euphrates river in Iraq, as shown in the map above, engulfs the entire region of Palestine, all of Lebanon, all of Jordan, half of Syria, half of Iraq, a portion of Saudi Arabia, a portion of Egypt, and even a section of Turkey.
Intimidation overwhelmed the region and as a result radical organisations emerged from the Arab world as a result of a lack of confidence in their government's ability to ensure their safety and security.
Some Jews would go on to explain that this map does not depict the true borders of the Greater Israel, and that the fulfilment of their Promised Land is "only" the entire region of Palestine which at the time included Transjordan (today known as Jordan).
Recent history however, has proven that claim to be false with one notable event: the "six day war" of 1967. A total of four countries had been invaded by the very people who implemented the Zionist idea in only a matter of days under the guise of a "premptive" strike, which is really just a marketing ploy to describe an instigated attack.
By then most of Palestine was seized either by annexation or occupation, Egypt's Sinai was taken, the Golan Heights in Syria, and later the south of Lebanon was occupied. This resulted in a serious economic crises that began to spread. There were subsequent battles carried out on all fronts to retake the land that was originally confiscated but without any real success, leaving most of these regions labelled "demilitarized zones".
In subsequent years, neighbouring Arab's voices have been silenced by very powerful government regimes that swept the entire region after the 1970's. All they could do was watch in horror while their neighbours suffered persecution and confiscation of land. Israel stood uncontested with ongoing settlement expansion, home demolitions, systematic deportations, civilian displacements, violent checkpoint misconduct, water resource reallocation, residency revocation, border blockades, airspace "no-fly" zones, and maritime seaport isolation resulting in the displacement of 4 million Palestinians... the largest population of refugees on earth scattered on the borders of Jordan, Syria and Egypt.
Today, some Jews view the Greater Israel as a religious symbol rather than as a political obligation, and as such have detested the establishment of Zionist-Israel while performing many demonstrations in the streets of Jerusalem, conceding that the state has hijacked their religion.
Bringing this into context, the modern-day myth that Arabs want to wipe out the Jews is completely fabricated.
Whether the ideology was originally meant to be founded on good intentions or not, what Zionism has become is the very thing that Arabs want removed. The similarity is mirrored when the Western Alliance wanted Nazism and Communism to be eradicated, rather than Germans or Russians respectively.
Mainstream Arabs who understand the situation do not have anything against the Jewish people, but rather the cancer that has plagued their land since the inception of Zionism, and there are many Jews who also share the same sentiment.
When the reach of the Zionist arm goes beyond the borders we see today, how do we expect the Arabs to live with that?
Would any of us live with that in our own homeland?
Monday, January 17, 2011
Quotes from the forefathers of Zionism
The following unaltered quotes were made by the very founders and implementers of Zionism. The main emphasis here is that these statements came from the very people who have defined and shaped the Zionist ideology.
[Vladimir Jabotinsky, The Iron Law, Selected Writings (South Africa), p.26.]
These quotes were made by the founders, Presidents, Prime Ministers and political officials, so any counter quotes to illustrate any subsequent comments made by radical organisations - whether anyone officially recognizes them or not - will not really add value towards justifying these extracts.
Regardless of any argument, these quotes have had a serious impact on the livelihood of the Arab people, and one may wonder how any other race would react if it was their own land that was being considered.
Incidentally, these quotes have been presented to a number of avid Zionist supporters who have simply argued that they are out of context.
If all these quotes can actually be put into context to clarify the "misconceptions" of a "perceived truth", then it might actually change the Arab's pespectives on the intention that has lasted for more than a century because of such a profound ideology... the greater fear is that no one would be able to do so...
The founders
"There can be no voluntary agreement between ourselves and the Palestine Arabs. Not now, nor in the prospective future... Zionist colonization must either be terminated or carried out against the wishes of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, be continued and make progress only under the protection of a power independent of the native population - an iron wall, which will be in a position to resist the pressure to the native population... This is our policy towards the Arabs..."[Vladimir Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism (precursor of Likud), The Iron Wall, 1923.]
"iron law of every colonizing movement, a law which knows of no exceptions, a law which existed in all times and under all circumstances. If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison for the land, or find some rich man or benefactor who will provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else - or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempt to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not difficult, not dangerous, but IMPOSSIBLE!... Zionism is a colonization adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important... to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot - or else I am through with playing at colonizing."[Vladimir Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir, Lenni Brenner (London, Zed Books, 1984), p.78.]
[Vladimir Jabotinsky, The Iron Law, Selected Writings (South Africa), p.26.]
"Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."[Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895]
"Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal if the Arabs are in this small country. There is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to neighboring countries - all of them. Not one village, not one tribe should be left."[Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department in 1940. From "A Solution to the Refugee Problem"]
"There are some who believe that the non-Jewish population, even in a high percentage, within our borders will be more effectively under our surveillance; and there are some who believe the contrary, i.e., that it is easier to carry out surveillance over the activities of a neighbor than over those of a tenant. I tend to support the latter view and have an additional argument:...the need to sustain the character of the state which will henceforth be Jewish...with a non-Jewish minority limited to 15 percent. I had already reached this fundamental position as early as 1940 [and] it is entered in my diary."[Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department. From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5.]
"If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"[David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister) quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121.]
“We must expel Arabs and take their places."[David Ben Gurion, future Prime Minister of Israel, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.]
"We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never do return... The old will die and the young will forget."[David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.]
"The present map of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfill -- From the Nile to the Euphrates."[Ben Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel]
"...we should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Transjordan, and Syria... The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai."[David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff - Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.]
"A Christian state should be established [in Lebanon], with its southern border on the Litani river. We will make an alliance with it. When we smash the Arab Legion's strength and bomb Amman, we will eliminate Transjordan too, and then Syria will fall. If Egypt still dares to fight on, we shall bomb Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo... And in this fashion, we will end the war and settle our forefathers' account with Egypt, Assyria, and Aram"[David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff - Noam Chomsky, A Fateful Triangle, Published 1999]
"...if people become accustomed to the large figure and we are actually obliged to accept the return of the refugees, we may find it difficult, when faced with hordes of claimants, to convince the world that not all of these formerly lived in Israeli territory. It would, in any event, seem desirable to minimize the numbers...than otherwise."[Israeli official Arthur Lourie in a letter to Walter Eytan, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry (ISA FM 2564/22). From Benny Morris, "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-49", p. 297.]
"It lies upon the people's shoulders to prepare for the war, but it lies upon the Israeli army to carry out the fight with the ultimate object of erecting the Israeli Empire."[Moshe Dayan (Israel Defense and Foreign Minister), on February 12 1952. Radio "Israel."]
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."[Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969.]
Successors
The previous quotes have resulted in many other radical statements that followed with the succession of authority:"Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet. 'We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters'"[Uri Lubrani, PM Ben-Gurion's special adviser on Arab Affairs, 1960. From "The Arabs in Israel" by Sabri Jiryas.]
"If the General Assembly were to vote by 121 votes to 1 in favor of "Israel" returning to the armistice lines-- (pre June 1967 borders) "Israel" would refuse to comply with the decision."[Aba Eban - the Israeli Foreign Minister. New York Times June 19, 1967.]
"How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to."[Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.]
"There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed."[Golda Maier Israeli Prime Minister June 15, 1969]
"The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war."[Israeli General Matityahu Peled, Ha'aretz, 19 March 1972.]
"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."[Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.]
"The only solution is Eretz Israel [Greater Israel], or at least Western Eretz Israel [all the land west of Jordan River], without Arabs. There is no room for compromise on this point ... We must not leave a single village, not a single tribe."[Joseph Weitz, Director of the Jewish National Fund, the Zionist agency charged with acquiring Palestinian land, Circa 194. Machover Israca, January 5, 1973 p.2.]
"We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, 'What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out' "[Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.]
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."[Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum" - Cited in Lustick, Ian, Arabs in the Jewish State, University of Texas Press, Texas, 1980.]
"We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves."[Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983.]
"We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours."[Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983.]
"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle."[Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.]
"The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls."[Isreali Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988]
"Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories."[Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, tells students at Bar Ilan University, From the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.]
"The past leaders of our movement left us a clear message to keep Eretz Israel from the Sea to the Jordan River for future generations, for the mass aliya [immigration], and for the Jewish people, all of whom will be gathered into this country."[Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declares at a Tel Aviv memorial service for former Likud leaders, November 1990. Jerusalem Domestic Radio Service.]
"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them."[Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.]
"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...."[Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000.]
"There is a huge gap between us (Jews) and our enemies? Not just in ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience. They are our neighbors here, but it seems as if at a distance of a few hundred meters away, there are people who do not belong to our continent, to our world, but actually belong to a different galaxy."[Israeli president Moshe Katsav. The Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2001]
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."[Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.]
Philosophers
Great philosophers have had this to say about the tragedy of the situation:"Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our time is the emergence in the newly created State of Israel of the Freedom Party (Herut), a political party closely akin in its organization, method, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties."[Albert Einstein, Hanna Arendt and other prominent Jewish Americans, writing in The New York Times, protest the visit to America of Menachem Begin, December 1948.]
"We will have to face the reality that Israel is neither innocent, nor redemptive. And that in its creation, and expansion; we as Jews, have caused what we historically have suffered; a refugee population in Diaspora."[Martin Buber, Jewish Philosopher, addressed Prime Minister Ben Gurion on the moral character of the state of Israel with reference to the Arab refugees in March 1949]
"When we [followers of the prophetic Judaism] returned to Palestine...the majority of Jewish people preferred to learn from Hitler rather than from us."[Martin Buber, to a New York audience, Jewish Newsletter, June 2, 1958.]
"Hitler's legal power was based upon the 'Enabling Act', which was passed quite legally by the Reichstag and which allowed the Fuehrer and his representatives, in plain language, to be what they wanted, or in legal language, to issue regulations having the force of law. Exactly the same type of act was passed by the Knesset [Israeli's Parliament] immediately after the 1967 conquest granting the Israeli governor and his representatives the power of Hitler, which they use in Hitlerian manner."[Dr. Israel Shahak, Chairperson of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, and a survivor of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, Commenting on the Israeli military's Emergency Regulations following the 1967 War. Palestine, vol. 12, December 1983.]
These quotes were made by the founders, Presidents, Prime Ministers and political officials, so any counter quotes to illustrate any subsequent comments made by radical organisations - whether anyone officially recognizes them or not - will not really add value towards justifying these extracts.
Regardless of any argument, these quotes have had a serious impact on the livelihood of the Arab people, and one may wonder how any other race would react if it was their own land that was being considered.
Incidentally, these quotes have been presented to a number of avid Zionist supporters who have simply argued that they are out of context.
If all these quotes can actually be put into context to clarify the "misconceptions" of a "perceived truth", then it might actually change the Arab's pespectives on the intention that has lasted for more than a century because of such a profound ideology... the greater fear is that no one would be able to do so...
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Introduction
Dear readers,
This site is dedicated to show information that would generally not be shown in mainstream media. Although a lot of it may be bias to the fact that I am Egyptian and therefore Arab, that does not necessarily mean that the information I post is not based on fact, or without a viable source of reference to validate my arguments and political points of view.
Therefore, I wouldn't describe situations from the perspective of what an Arab would say about the situation, or even what I myself would think about it (although I may quote extracts of reactions given by certain Arabs to maintain context), rather I would illustrate the situation from an argumentative approach to clarify and explain it based on reports and sources that usually get filtered out on our regular T.V., radio, and newspaper channels.
I live in a Western country and the information I am provided with is quite shameful to say the least. During the historical events of the Egyptian revolution that unfolded recently (arguably one of the biggest events this century will witness), Australian T.V. and newspapers focused on describing the trauma that Australian tourists experienced due to the fact that they had to be temporarily flown to Germany. Mainstream media preferred to report on mediocre accounts of our tourist's inconveniences rather than the stories unfolding in Tahrir Square where human beings were standing their ground weaponless against a brutal police force that had oppressed the people for three decades.
Australian media showed they really couldn't care too much about it when they dedicated five minute segments to such a large scale political upheaval that had the entire world tuning in to CNN and Aljazeera for hours on end.
Another example was the massacre of 1,300 innocent men, women and children in the small strip of Gaza in January of 2009 which was described as a "war" on two fronts, and many of the reports claimed that there was a "defensive" strategy imposed while illegal white-phosphorous chemical weapons were sprayed into densely populated areas such as schools and hospitals..
My main aim is to balance out the information that is fed by Western media to depict a truth behind the situations in the region, and not a perspective that would hope to give as many clicks or views on the site.
I hope with an open mind, you will be able to make up your own decisions about what is happening in the region because it actually does affect us all in one way or another, even though you may have been told otherwise.
This site is dedicated to show information that would generally not be shown in mainstream media. Although a lot of it may be bias to the fact that I am Egyptian and therefore Arab, that does not necessarily mean that the information I post is not based on fact, or without a viable source of reference to validate my arguments and political points of view.
Therefore, I wouldn't describe situations from the perspective of what an Arab would say about the situation, or even what I myself would think about it (although I may quote extracts of reactions given by certain Arabs to maintain context), rather I would illustrate the situation from an argumentative approach to clarify and explain it based on reports and sources that usually get filtered out on our regular T.V., radio, and newspaper channels.
I live in a Western country and the information I am provided with is quite shameful to say the least. During the historical events of the Egyptian revolution that unfolded recently (arguably one of the biggest events this century will witness), Australian T.V. and newspapers focused on describing the trauma that Australian tourists experienced due to the fact that they had to be temporarily flown to Germany. Mainstream media preferred to report on mediocre accounts of our tourist's inconveniences rather than the stories unfolding in Tahrir Square where human beings were standing their ground weaponless against a brutal police force that had oppressed the people for three decades.
Australian media showed they really couldn't care too much about it when they dedicated five minute segments to such a large scale political upheaval that had the entire world tuning in to CNN and Aljazeera for hours on end.
Another example was the massacre of 1,300 innocent men, women and children in the small strip of Gaza in January of 2009 which was described as a "war" on two fronts, and many of the reports claimed that there was a "defensive" strategy imposed while illegal white-phosphorous chemical weapons were sprayed into densely populated areas such as schools and hospitals..
My main aim is to balance out the information that is fed by Western media to depict a truth behind the situations in the region, and not a perspective that would hope to give as many clicks or views on the site.
I hope with an open mind, you will be able to make up your own decisions about what is happening in the region because it actually does affect us all in one way or another, even though you may have been told otherwise.
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