Letters to the Editor
aVulcan
Published Letters: 160
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@hiker and refugees in both directions
[Read the article: On armies, war and an aging Israel]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yours is an argument that Zionists often make to dismiss the Palestinian refugee problem and the right of return.
The main difference between Palestinian refugees and Jewish immigrants to Israel from Arab countries is that Palestinians were forced out of their homes to create an exclusive Jewish state. Jews, on the other hand, immigrated primarily because of the appeal of Zionism and because of the economic opportunities in the newly formed state of Israel. i.e. they were not deported but wanted to leave to follow the Zionist dream.
As Israeli historian Benny Morris notes Palestinians were driven out with massacres and physical force as part of an elaborate ethnic cleansing campaign,
According to your findings, how many acts of Israeli massacre were perpetrated in 1948?
"Twenty-four. In some cases four or five people were executed, in others the numbers were 70, 80, 100. There was also a great deal of arbitrary killing. Two old men are spotted walking in a field - they are shot. A woman is found in an abandoned village - she is shot. There are cases such as the village of Dawayima [in the Hebron region], in which a column entered the village with all guns blazing and killed anything that moved.
"The worst cases were Saliha (70-80 killed), Deir Yassin (100-110), Lod (250), Dawayima (hundreds) and perhaps Abu Shusha (70). There is no unequivocal proof of a large-scale massacre at Tantura, but war crimes were perpetrated there. At Jaffa there was a massacre about which nothing had been known until now. The same at Arab al Muwassi, in the north. About half of the acts of massacre were part of Operation Hiram [in the north, in October 1948]: at Safsaf, Saliha, Jish, Eilaboun, Arab al Muwasi, Deir al Asad, Majdal Krum, Sasa. In Operation Hiram there was a unusually high concentration of executions of people against a wall or next to a well in an orderly fashion.
"That can't be chance. It's a pattern. Apparently, various officers who took part in the operation understood that the expulsion order they received permitted them to do these deeds in order to encourage the population to take to the roads. The fact is that no one was punished for these acts of murder. Ben-Gurion silenced the matter. He covered up for the officers who did the massacres."
http://www.counterpunch.org/shavit01162004.html
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@cedric and Native Americans
[Read the article: On armies, war and an aging Israel]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The main differences are that today Native Americans have equal citizenship rights, they can vote if they so desire, they can travel on the same roads as everybody else and cannot be killed with impunity.
Occupied Palestinians, on the other hand, do not have Israeli citizenship (although most of them have been under the control of Israel for most of their lives), they cannot travel, or even cross, the "for Jews only" road network in the West Bank and their land and resources continue to be stolen to build colonies for Jewish fanatics coming from all over the world because they think God "gave" them the land! Worst of all, Palestinian civilians can, an often are, murdered by the Israeli army with impunity.
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To the Zionists on this forum
[Read the article: On armies, war and an aging Israel]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is so much spin when it comes to the history of Palestine/Israel about how the Arabs "attacked", how the Palestinians did not exist as a state or how they rejected generous peace offers etc.
To get past the spin to core of the conflict consider the following basic facts:
1- The Zionists' goal was to create a Jewish state
2- In 1917, Jews were less than 7% of the population
3- The only way to create a Jewish state - as even Zionist Israeli historians such as Benny Morris have documented - was to expel the Palestinians.
4- Since people don't normally leave their homes voluntarily the only way to do it was using massacres and intimidation.
You can say all you want to try to justify and whitewash what happened. The bottom line is Israel was created as a result of a campaign of pre-planned ethnic cleansing. Benny Morris expressed regret that the ethnic cleansing wasn't completed in 1947-48 (even though 700,000 Palestinians were expelled and over 400 towns and villages were destroyed) and indicated while Israel couldn't continue this campaign today (because the world wouldn't allow it not because it was wrong!) it would perhaps do this at a more opportune time!
This is the ideology and country you defend!
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The Israel Lobby has created an environment of fear...
[Read the article: Are the Jews good for Barack Obama?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]where politicians who are not supportive of the fascist right-wing Likud party are viewed with suspicion.
This is why we have been subjected, in recent weeks, to the sad spectacle of Obama bending over backward to show his devotion to Israel.
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Israel is a democracy if you are a Jew
[Read the article: Are the Jews good for Barack Obama?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have to take issue with those who claim that American support of Israel is rooted in its being a democracy and sharing American values.
In the land that has been controlled by Israel for the past 40 years, 50% of the population are Palestinian. The Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship are second class citizens. Those who don't have Israeli citizenship live under a brutal military regime that practices apartheid openly. They are not allowed to travel or even cross (without risking being killed) the "for-jews-only" roads that connect Jewish colonies built on their land. 1.5 million of them are subject to collective punishment, including sonic booms that make children cower in terror and wet their beds at night, in the world's largest open door prison in Gaza. This is some democracy!