The truth is out there

Letters

Editor: Several items in the recent Jewish Western Bulletin, July 19, would be helped by an injection of reality. I refer especially to the justifications in support of the full-page advertisement in the Georgia Straight sponsored by the Canada-Palestine Support Network, as reported by Pat Johnson. ("Critics maintain stance") Several of those who endorsed the advertisement tended to blame Israel, essentially ignoring that Israel is in a struggle for its very existence.

Svend Robinson's involvement is to be expected, period. Patsy Kolesar, concerned for "the plight of women around the world" and their "liberation," strangely chooses to ignore the sad plight of women in much of the Arab world. David Cadman, active in Vancouver civic politics, chooses to perpetuate the myth that Ariel Sharon's visiting the Temple Mount was responsible for triggering the intifada in September 2000. The reality is threefold: a) Sharon had every right to visit that area which is under Israeli sovereignty; b) the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians had made major progress at that juncture – so triggering an intifada as Yasser Arafat did, is mighty peculiar; and c) there has been substantiation from the Palestinian side that Arafat and his friends were looking for a pretext to explode into a destructive mode. An intifada – which is really war – only makes sense if Arafat's real objective all along has been to destroy Israel.

It should seem clear to any unbiased person that Israel has leaned over backwards in what it has offered in exchange for a so-far elusive peace. The reality is that the Palestinians and their Arab friends have been unrelenting in their efforts, since well before 1948, in united attempts to wipe out Israel. The recent terrorist suicide bombings, the killings of innocent civilians in shops or restaurants or buses, hardly represents any form of peaceful gesture designed to meet Israel's main concern regarding security for its people. Israel's deal with Egypt clearly defines a willingness to exchange land for peace. The Oslo agreement involved substantial moves from the Israeli side towards Palestinian sovereignty but with a key proviso: total renunciation of Palestinian violence. The Palestinian Authority represented significant self-government with more in sight; but with the violence, Oslo is meaningless.

Arab propaganda and the media have done an amazing job in obscuring Israel's essentially decent and humane approach on so many fronts. As an example, Israel's restrained incursions into Jenin, Ramallah, etc., occurred only after severe terrorist bombing outbreaks. Note how the world press propogated the myth of a "massacre" in Jenin in regard to the deaths of some 50 Palestinians, mostly militants, connected with the suicide bombings. One may recall, in contrast, how the Jordanians in "black September 1970" killed 20,000 Palestinians who threatened the sovereignty of the Jordanian kingdom. This killing of 20,000 Palestinians was hardly an issue in the rest of the world. Nor was the slaughter of some 150,000 in Lebanon's internal war through the 15 years of strife in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet the 50 deaths in Jenin, rather appropriate considering the horrors faced by Israelis almost daily, rates headline attention as a "massacre"!

For a sense of perspective, it is useful to look at a map of the Middle East. There is the tiny sliver of land that is Israel - surrounded by roughly 100 times its land area, occupied by various Arab entities. Israel was able to absorb some 700,000 Jewish refugees forcibly displaced from some of those Arab lands, but the Arab nations couldn't do the same for their fellow Arabs, who were urged to step aside while the armies of these Arab nations tried to wipe out the newly formed Israel. This seemingly heartless behavior, which resulted in the rather dismal refugee camps, had a purpose. One might also note that no Arab country was willing to take in the 20 or 30 militants for whom the United States mediated a release out of the Church of the Nativity.

Put all this together and it becomes overwhelming: Israel is a democratic beacon of light in a rather sadly repressive and unenlightened part of the world. How sad that our efforts dedicated to the re-building of a Jewish homeland after almost 2,000 years has to contend with such hostile surroundings.

Ralph Barer
Victoria

^TOP