As we read, debate, write, and wring our hands, the media, and the public’s awareness is being impressed with the headlines. In this issue, there is no such thing as ‘bad ink’ for the Palestinian advocates. The headline is the message.

An advertising effort, which focuses on slogans to counter the theme of this week might have an impact. I suggest “Israel Apartheid Week, the (Annual) Festival of Distortions and Lies.”

It’s important to examine the cause and effect of Arab actions and the questionable Arab narrative to get to the root of the humanitarian issues in the West Bank. In short, their narrative is that a unique and historically distinct people called Palestinians had their homeland stolen by Zionist Jews who use their power to oppose the Palestinian legitimate struggle against occupation. It rests on multiple modern fabrications.

Palestinians:
The statement “There is no such country as Palestine and no such people as Palestinians,” often results in accusations of racism. There is no such thing an Arab or Palestinian race. Consider that this was the official position of Arab spokesman at the Paris Peace Talks, Peel Commission, League of Nations, UN Partition Committee, and in numerous media before Israel’s rebirth. Their purpose was to dissuade authorities form allocating a portion of former Ottoman land, considered by them to be Southern Syria, for a Jewish state.

There have been a people who identified themselves as Palestinian and recognized as such by the entire world. The designation was a description of where they lived similar to calling someone a Texan or Virginian. Consider that with a few exceptions, every Israeli president and prime minister was officially Palestinian according to their birth certificate and/or passport. This didn’t make them a distinct and historically unique people but rather identified their official status.

Palestinian Land:
Jacobsen’s closes with a call for peace starting with a more nuanced view of our rights vis-à-vis those upon whose land we are building and occupying. There is no such thing as “Palestinian land” and there never has been! The West Bank and Gaza are the last remnants of the defunct Ottoman Empire without sovereignty. The last universally recognized head of state for that area was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. For four hundred years this was Ottoman land. Arab claims to it rest of their imperialistic invasion, ethnic cleansing, and colonization of an area occupied by Christians and Jews.

Occupied Land:
What is the “occupied land”? To us it usually means the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan. Without regard to the legal meaning of the term “occupied” regarding these lands, it’s important to note that this is NOT the occupation referred to by Arab leaders. All maps, textbooks, websites, etc. depict every square inch of Israel as occupied Palestine.

All legal Jewish communities are built either on state land or purchase land. Arab claims to small portions of land are brought to court in the same manner as other real estate disputes do here.  There are a few illegal unauthorized settlements which should be removed. The Arab call for all the “settlements” to be dismantled before peace can occur is the true apartheid. They demand that no Jews be allowed to live where Arabs govern. (They must think this is Saudi Arabia, Jordan or other Arab countries where this policy of religious apartheid is strictly enforced.) While over a million Arab Muslims are Israeli citizens, Arab Muslims demand that for peace to occur that not even one Jew be allowed to live in a future Arab state of Palestine. The United States has millions of legal non-citizen residents. Why can’t a future state of Palestine have Jewish residents who can openly practice their religion and live without fear of attack? 

These historic facts, not someone’s perspective of the conflict, undermine the validity of the Arab narrative and raises fundamental questions as to the real motivation for their unrelenting violence against Israelis.

Cause and Effect:
We need to acknowledge that because of different perspectives one man’s terrorist fighter can be another man’s freedom fighter. It’s not perspective but the aforementioned documented indisputable historical facts which undermine the current Arab narrative and relate to Jacobsen’s humanitarian concerns. Israel’s security measures are in place to save lives. Without exception, whenever they are removed death and injury to innocent civilians from Arab terrorism increases. They are the consequence of failed Arab attempts to exterminate the Jews who had the mordacity to re-establish their homeland on land which was once under Islamic rule.  It’s the undesirable side effects of Israel’s life saving security measures to which many of us express concern. They are, however, temporary while death and maiming from terrorism is permanent.

When judging the actions of either Israel or its adversaries, one must not overlook that the Arab-Muslim leadership speaks of peace only to gullible western powers. Peace is rarely, if ever, mentioned in speeches spoken in Arabic, school curriculum, religious institutions, and media. One would be astounded by researching the Phased Plan for the Liberation of Palestine. Most of the Arab-Israeli conflict current events become clearer if one is to believe the actual words and deeds of Arab leadership. Supporting them emboldens them and prolongs the misery and suffering of their people and the Israeli victims of their genocidal intentions.

If the Arab goal to establish another state on the West Bank and Gaza all they have do is NOTHING. No terrorism. No use of resources for their war against Israel instead of improving Arab standard of living. No teaching a love of martyrdom incitement against Jews. NOTHING! They had what they now claim from 1948 until 1967 and claimed it wasn’t Palestine. The last eight Israeli governments have agreed to a two state solution but as the late Abba Eban said, “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

With this information people like Jacobsen can indeed “take a look at what is right and fair” sans misleading Arab fabrications.

To be sure, I am at odds with most here, but we had no more right to hold on to Palestian land than the USA would have had to hang on to Okinawa, for example.  What if the US had sent two million Americans to take up the land there, and had denied the residents the rights to water on their land?  And had made roads between our settlements, but denied the Japanese people the right to drive on those roads?

I am visiting now in Edmonton, AB, where the local campus has one of these events this week.  I listened to local radio whist driving into town on Monday and heard a report about how we have also abused water rights.  The Canadian Broadcasting System radio had a special about water fights between Israel and the Palestinians.  I did not think of it before, but the REAL reason we are holding on the Golan Heights is that is the source of some water flow that we have diverted away from the Palestinians.  Same for the Jordan River.  The reporter was taking a tour of the West Bank and there were A LOT OF LARGE WATER PIPES pumping to Israeli settlements along the West Bank, but NOT allowed for Palestinians anything bigger than six inches in diameter.  Also, Palestinians are not allowed to drill wells on their own land.  What kind of sense does that make?

If we are ever going to achieve a lasting peace, simple things such as water abuse have to stop.  We cannot just brush aside these complaints with the defense of anti-Semitism, since this is something that has nothing to do with bias.  Our peace has to start with a more nuanced view of our rights vis-à-vis those upon whose land we are building and occupying.

School curriculum is a window to discover the true intentions of Arab leadership for the future. The curriculum portrays a future with Israel and all Jews being exterminated and replaced with another Arab Muslim state. Contrast all this with the role of Arab Muslim citizens in Israel. And don’t neglect to study conditions for minorities in former apartheid South Africa and Arab countries like Saudi Arabia.

I wonder which side of the looking glass some college students live. It would be more appropriate for them to form Students Against Arab Religious Apartheid organizations to protest the medieval mentality and practices of many Muslim Arabs against other religions.