Jewish editor sacked for publishing article*

Finding the truth is one’s own responsibility. However there are right wingers in every group who simply deny anything contradictory to what has been dished out to them.  A friend said he sent this first article to his Jewish friend in Canada, who wrote response, both are posted here to just take a look at how two Jews see the history in a different way, just as Muslim, Christians, Hindus or others do.  

The question is not what to believe, it what is the truth. We have to dig it in.  Personally in the last two days two Jewish men were telling me that “"Jewish Israelis do not do that too Muslims" what the Palestinians are doing to Israel.  I responded him back  that, I wish that were the case and asked him to look up Jerusalem post, Haaretz and the writings of Jewish humanitarians, you will find a different story.

We have to find peace and I urge you to read my commentary written in the panel of this blog – http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/

Mike Ghouse
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This article was sent to *Debbie Ducro*, an American-Jewish journalist with the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. She published it, and was fired the next day.

*Quest for justice

By Judith Stone

I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return to

Palestine. It was the right thing to do.

I've heard about the European holocaust against the Jews since I was a small child. I've visited the memorials in Washington, DC and Jerusalem dedicated to Jewish lives lost and I've cried at the recognition to what level of atrocity mankind is capable of sinking.

Where are the Jews of conscience? No righteous malice can be held against

the survivors of Hitler's holocaust. These fragments of humanity were in no position to make choices beyond that of personal survival. We must not

forget that being a survivor or a co-religionist of the victims of the European Holocaust does not grant dispensation from abiding by the rules of humanity.

"Never again" as a motto, rings hollow when it means "never again to us

alone." My generation was raised being led to believe that the biblical land

was a vast desert inhabited by a handful of impoverished Palestinians living with their camels and eking out a living in the sand. The arrival of the Jews was touted as a tremendous benefit to these desert dwellers. Golda Meir even assured us that there "is no Palestinian problem".

We know now this picture wasn't as it was painted. Palestine was a land

filled with people who called it home. There were thriving towns and

villages, schools and hospitals. There were Jews, Christians and Muslims.

In fact, prior to the occupation, Jews represented a mere seven per cent of

the population and owned three per cent of the land.

Taking the blinders off for a moment, I see a second atrocity perpetuated by the very people who should be exquisitely sensitive to the suffering of

others. These people knew what it felt like to be ordered out of your home

at gun point and forced to march into the night to unknown destinations or face execution on the spot. The people who displaced the Palestinians knew first hand what it means to watch your home in flames, to surrender

everything dear to your heart at a moment's notice. Bulldozers levelled

hundreds of villages, along with the remains of the village inhabitants, the

old and the young. This was nothing new to the world.

Poland is a vast graveyard of the Jews of Europe. Israel is the final

resting place of the massacred Palestinian people. A short distance from the memorial to the Jewish children lost to the holocaust in Europe there is a levelled parking lot. Under this parking lot is what's left of a once flourishing village and the bodies of men, women and children whose only crime was taking up needed space and not leaving graciously. This particular burial marker reads: "Public Parking".

I've talked with Palestinians. I have yet to meet a Palestinian who hasn't

lost a member of their family to the Israeli Shoah, nor a Palestinian who

cannot name a relative or friend languishing under inhumane conditions in an Israeli prison. Time and time again, Israel is cited for human rights

violations to no avail. On a recent trip to Israel, I visited the refugee

camps inhabited by a people who have waited 52 years in these 'temporary' camps to go home. Every Palestinian grandparent can tell you the name of their village, their street, and where the olive trees were planted. Their grandchildren may never have been home, but they can tell you where their great-grandfather lies buried and where the village well stood. The press has fostered the portrait of the Palestinian terrorist. But the victims who rose up against human indignity in the Warsaw Ghetto are called heroes. Those who lost their lives are called martyrs. The Palestinian who tosses a rock in desperation is a terrorist.

Two years ago I drove through Palestine and watched intricate sprinkler

systems watering lush green lawns of Zionist settlers in their new

condominium complexes, surrounded by armed guards and barbed wire in the midst of a Palestinian community where there was not adequate water to drink and the surrounding fields were sandy and dry. University professor Moshe Zimmerman reported in the Jerusalem Post (30 April, 1995), "The [Jewish] children of Hebron are just like Hitler's youth."

We Jews are suing for restitution, lost wages, compensation for homes, land, slave labour and back wages in Europe. Am I a traitor of a Jew for

supporting the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their birthplace and compensation for what was taken that cannot be returned?

The Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the

Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion said, "Let us not

ignore the truth among ourselves...politically, we are the aggressors and

they defend themselves...The country is theirs, because they inhabit it,

whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country...".

Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. Its

cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of God. We must recognise that Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fait accompli realized through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. The UN missions directed at Israel in attempting to correct its violations of have thus far been futile.

In Hertzl's 'The Jewish State' the father of Zionism said: "We must

investigate and take possession of the new Jewish country by means of every modern expedient." I guess I agree with Ehud Barak ( 3 June 1998) when he said, "If I were a Palestinian, I'd also join a terror group." I'd go a step further perhaps. Rather than throwing little stones in desperation, I'd

hurtle a boulder.

Hopefully, somewhere deep inside, every Jew of conscience knows that this was no war; that this was not G-d's restitution of the holy land to it's

rightful owners. We know that a human atrocity was and continues to be

perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people.

We cannot continue to say, "But what were we to do?" Zionism is not

synonymous with Judaism. I wholly support the rally of the right of return

of the Palestinian people.

Contact *Independent Catholic News* tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7267 3616 or email

# # #

Apparently the author of this article swallowed palestinian propaganda whole.

The "right of return" of the palestinians, should it ever become a reality, would mean the end of Israel, precisely because of Israel's democratic system.

During most of the rule by the Ottoman Empire, which had occupied most of the Middle East, including the territory of present day Israel and the surrounding areas, the land was mostly a desolate wasteland extremely sparsely populated by a few Bedouin tribes.

Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW1, the British were given the mandate to govern this territory.

Jews began to move back to the land and created economic opportunities nonexistent before.  Arabs from the surrounding countries of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, etc. followed to take advantage of the opportunities created by the Jews and the British.  They are definitely NOT the ancient inhabitants of that land, save for a very few of them.  There was no Palestinian people then whatsoever.

Once the United Nations declared the creation of the State of Israel, and even during the years leading up to this momentous events, the Jewish leadership assured the arab population that they wished to live in peace with them and there was no need to evacuate or flee the newly created country.  The arab leadership exhorted all the arabs to leave, assuring them it will be only for a short time, until the Jews were pushed into the sea.  Most of the arabs fled and some stayed.  Those who stayed have full and equal rights and citizenship, which is more than arabs can claim in the rest of the arab countries.

However, it didn't work out that way.  Israel prevailed and flourished despite repeated aggression from the arabs.  The vastly larger and richer arab countries refused to resettle the refugees they created in order to hold them against Israel forever.

There were many millions of refugees all over the world following WWII.  They were all resettled, and their subsequent offspring became full and productive citizens of their adopted countries.  It is only the so-called palestinians who are stuck forever for generations to come in refugee camps upheld and condoned by the UN and most of the world.  WHY?

There were roughly 700,000 arabs who fled Israel upon her creation.  About the same number of Jews expelled from arab countries with only the shirts on their backs were absorbed by a fledgling Israel totally poor and devoid of resources.  Do you think they will ever be compensated?

You will find below a brief and concise essay describing the nature of things concerning this issue.  Perhaps you have seen it before, perhaps not.  If yes, it bears repeating.

The British Mandate in Palestine was established temporarily in 1919 after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in WWI.  In 1935 the Peel Commission, investigating riots that were to plague the region between the years 1936-39, were calling for an end to the Mandate and to partition the land into an Arab and a Jewish state. While the Jews had accepted this partition, the Arabs rejected it, refusing to accept it as a solution. The plan was later abandoned and the arab leader Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi told the commission "There is no such country as 'Palestine'; 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented! Palestine is alien to us".

In 1947 the United Nations voted 33 to 13 (10 absentees) passing Resolution 181 proposing a Jewish and an Arab State.  (By the way, this makes Israel THE MOST LEGITIMATE country in the world—NO OTHER COUNTRY was established by the UN but rather by conquest and occupation, including yours, the USA.)  This was accepted with jubilance by the then Jewish Population of Palestine. The Arabs refused. The delegates from the six Arab nations stormed out of the session, threatening not only war, but the annihilation of the Jewish state.  They vowed to resist the partition, demanding the entire country for themselves.  Haj Amin Al Husseini – Mufti of Jerusalem said

“I declare a holy war; my Moslem brothers, murder them all!"

The 14th of May, 1948, the State of Israel was finally born and President, Harry S. Truman signed the following memo; “This government has been informed that a Jewish State has been proclaimed in Palestine and recognition has been requested by the provisional Government thereof.  The United States recognizes the provisional Government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.” The fledgling state was attacked by its Arab neighbours’ within hours of its independence, and Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the League said: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades”

However, tiny Israel fought against the six arab countries attacking and prevailed against all odds.

In 1967 Israel was again fighting for its survival. On May 15th Egypt moved troops into the Sinai, and by May 25th, urged by Egypt, the armies of Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia moved their troops to Israel's borders.  Egyptian president Nasser didn’t mince his words when he said "Our basic goal is the destruction of Israel". Far from being destroyed, Israel emerged victorious capturing the Sinai, Gaza, The West Bank, parts of the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. Israel offered immediately to negotiate the return of the occupied territory.  The Arab conference summit held in Khartoum in September of that year issued the following statement:  "No Recognition of Israel, No Peace with Israel, No Negotiations with Israel."

In the meantime, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw on March 31, 1977, declared:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan." 

  

In 1976 Jimmy Carter won 19 out of 31 primaries, defeating Gerald Ford to become The United States 33rd President. In 1979 he would preside over the Egypt-Israel Peace accord which was signed at Camp David. Part of the negotiations involved the Palestinians and the future of the West Bank and Gaza." A five-year period of "transitional autonomy" was proposed. The Palestinians were offered this autonomy by Israel in exchange for peace. This would have eventually led to full statehood.  However, the Palestinians were not willing to recognize Israel and Yasser Arafat said “Let them sign what they like. False peace will not last."

The 1993 Oslo accords, Camp David under Clinton in 2000, Ehud Barak’s magnanimous offer in 2001, in which he offered 95% of the so-called West Bank and Gaza to the arabs -- all these negotiations had one purpose: to give the Palestinians a state.  And guess what happened?  Yep, they refused.

In view of all this, it is pretty hypocritical to constantly blame Israel for everything, though sadly, that will not be a deterrent.

I hope this makes things a bit clearer.