Palestinians Vent Their Anger

Now that Israel has left the Gaza Strip, more and more freedom is opening up for the Palestinians to set up their long-awaited country. In fact, there is evidence that the Palestinians are slowly and steadily moving towards their goal, such as the burning down of remaining synagogues in the Gaza Strip. Clearly Jews do not pray there anymore, but if the Palestinians were smart, or were able to subdue their so-easily ignitable (Arab) anger, then they would turn those synagogues into houses, or at least into Hamas or Jihad strategical centers.

But the Palestinians (Arabs) hate Jews, which we can determine from their burning down the synagogues. When you burn down a church, it means that you hate Christians, if you destroy a mosque, it means that you hate Muslims, but if you burn down a synagogue, you hate Israeli's, right? In this case, the hate even supercedes logic, for the space that the syangogues took up could have been used for logistical purposes, something more beneficial than a burned pile of rubble. But Jew-hatred has long been the motivating force behind Palestinian independence, so what makes the situation any different when all the Jews have left?

According to an article from the Jerusalem Post, a man named Abu Ahmed said, "They [Israelis] destroyed our homes and our mosques, today it is our turn to destroy theirs." Revenge? Arabs? Islam? No way!

But for Arabs, hate is symbolic; by destroying the synagogues post-pullout, it is as if the Palestinians are making a statement, emphasis on the words "as if." The only statement that the Palestinians are making is that even the pullout did not stop the hatred that they had for the Israeli's beforehand. There were those that said, before the pullout, that pulling out will stop the Palestinian hatred of Israeli's. But the key in understanding what's going on right now is that the phrase "will stop the Palestinian hatred of Israeli's" is an oxymoron, for Palestinians cannot stop hating Israeli's because, in their mentality, Israel should not exist. As long as Israeli's are Israeli's, the Palestinian hatred of them cannot stop.


The Fragile Arab Mind - Handle with Care

The Arab mind is like that of a child, when it does not get what it wants, even if (and especially) its wish is a destructive one, it snaps, and when speaking in terms that refer to children, it's a temper tantrum. The only difference is that these children are equipped with nail-laden bombs and mentally-obstructed-laden political goals.


The End of Violence

A few weeks ago, we all know that Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip, and is now beginning pullouts of the West Bank (not forgetting that half of Jerusalem is in the West Bank). Now the critics are happy, but some critics, namely Palestinian ones, are still not happy; should this come as a shock to anyone?

A couple of years ago, when Israel began pulling troops and settlers out of the West Bank in order to create breathing room for a Palestinian state, the Palestinian terrorist reaction was attacks on Jews and more suicide bombings. Why in the world would a rational person do such a thing? The answer is that the people that did this were not rational people, at least not rational in regards to what the West considers rational.

The answer lies within the culture of the Palestinians, but it doesn't lie. Put simply, the Palestinians did not want the Israeli's to come off as if they were peacemakers, for that would end their logical reasons for the attacks, so they actually detonated themselves in order to force Israel back into the occupation; Israel's prime reason for continued occupation is terror attacks. Once that would happen (which it didn't), then they would continue the attacks with the hope that they would push Israel out. The key here: the Palestinians want to oust "their oppressors" from their land rather than "their oppressors" to make a gesture of peace. The irony becomes most apparent here, because no matter how dedicated a peoples are, it is impossible to remove an oppressor from one own's back. Consider the Jews under Roman occupation -- no amount of (sometimes violent) resistance to the Roman occupation of Israel ever caused the Romans to leave Israel. It wasn't until the Byzantines took over that Rome fell, a few hundred years into its existence.

Technically, if the Palestinians ousted their oppressor Israel, it would make them the most unique peoples of all history, the first to actually remove their oppressor from their land, to cause them to leave. Let the Palestinians believe that if they want to while they run around firing guns into the air, but the Israeli's left because they could not afford the occupation; not the exact behavior of an occupying force. Had the Romans in the 1st century, for example, been faced with a resistance on par with the Intifada, they would have not been concerned with such notions as "not being able to afford an occupation;" for the Israeli's do not want to pay the price of being an occupier, for the Romans would have simply commenced in carrying out a full-scale slaughter of Jews (which they did). They would not had to worry about such things as international opinion and a general assembly, because there was no United Nations in the 1st century. The world's squeamishness for bloodshed was not publically manifest in the 1st century, which allowed Rome to get away with a degree of genocide. No matter how badly the Palestinians want to believe that Israel is an occupier, it does not, and is not allowed to, fit into that category. Either way, how often have we, in human history, heard "an occupier" voice concern over the well-being and moral cost of dominating a population for the simple point of ethics?

Some of you might be saying right now, "Yaniv, that's a load of crap, you are just projecting your negative biases on the Palestinians and your positive biases on Israel."

If that's true, then why did the Palestinian terrorists continue the terrorist attacks on Jews as they were pulling out of the West Bank, something that the Palestinians have "been dreaming" about for a long time? If I am projecting negative biases, then we lack a reason for their actions.

However, this time around, the same thing happened, there were terrorist attacks on Jews as they were leaving the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian critics had the real answers as to why the Palestinian terrorists were taking such actions. One of them said that the Israeli government didn't bother negotiating with the Palestinian government before sending troops to remove settlers, which caused civil unrest among the terrorists, and they reacted with shootings and suicide, excuse me, homicide bombings. Shimon Peres, the dove that pooped on Israel, said himself that the Israeli government and Palestinian Anarchy -- I mean "Authority -- had plenty of talks.

What we see here is that the Arabs are an incredibly xenophobic people that display a type of "allergy" to anything non-Muslim, especially to things Jewish. About fifty years ago we could have said that their civilization and society was at a low point for explainable reasons, but almost half a century later they have made little or no progress. At a point in time, everybody needs to show a little responsibility for their problems. Instead we have, "End the occupation! End the occupation! What? You are ending the occupation? Resume the occupation so that we can kill you and drive you out of our land, you filthy infidel oppressors!"

To quote from an article written on August 30th, 2005 by Justin Dyer, "In an interview with the Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was simply the fruit of persistent Palestinian violence: 'We feel now that the sacrifices we made were not in vain.'"

The sacrifices, of course, refer to Palestinian deaths by way of suicide bombing and shooting attacks (not Jewish deaths).

"Regarding a possible two-state 'solution,' al-Zahar said, 'We do not and will not recognize a state called Israel… This land is the property of all Muslims in all parts of the world… Let Israel die.'"

In the words of Mohammad Daif, Hamas fugitive bombmaker, "Today you are leaving hell. But tomorrow we promise you that all Palestine will be hell for you," and then invoked the name of G-d.

But I have to be fair now, this isn't just limited to the Palestinians. For anybody that knows anything about Muslim history in relations to other peoples and land ownership, it is a known fact that one thing that you simply just do not do is to be anything other than a Muslim and to take over "Muslim lands," especially if you are Jew. This act is the taboo of taboo's, and if you do it, you are likely to feel the swift vengenance of Islam upon you. Jews happen not to be Muslim and to be taking over Muslim lands, so they are prime candidates for this swift vengenance.

Yet through the Palestinians we don't see the Islam; we assume that since the supposed nationalism and welfare of the Palestinians is at stake, that Islam, and it's drive to conquer, is not a primary factor in effect here. Is it just my overactive political imagination, or are the Palestinians really Muslim conquerers in disguise (even if they don't know it)? Remember, the "Palestinian struggle for independence" was brought into existence after the 6 Day War of 1967 after Israel seized the West Bank (Jordan's land) and Jordanian Arabs fell under Israeli rule. Yasser Arafat (Rahman al-Qudwa), who had been resisting Israel since its inception (and employing homicide bombings since 1964), jumped on the opportunity and began constructing the Palestinian independence myth. In 2005, these Palestinians are on the way to getting their own country.

It's hard for many people to recognize that the present is history; just like the people living in the 7th century didn't believe that the 7th century would one day be viewed as "past," it's very easy for us to get caught up in seeing the present day as "now," and "now" being divorced from "back then." "Yeah sure, that kind of stuff happened back then, but we live in the 21st century and it doesn't work that way anymore."

Apparentally it does.

Don't forget that Israel is only fifty six years old, and nothing that Israel could have done differently would have abated the Muslim pattern of trying to crush anybody non-Muslim trying to rule in Muslim lands. The Muslims could have pulled together and dealt with the growing number of Jews in a tenable way, but instead, they defaulted to their "oust mode." Just read about the history of the dhimmi's, who were non-Muslims that lived under Muslim rule in Muslim countries. Their "natural place" was to be a dhimmi, a people of protected status under Islam, albeit lacking in civil rights, and when dhimmi's didn't agree that they were dhimmi's, Islam went into "smack you up mode," and if that didn't work, it went into "oust mode." The (European) Jews were "invaders" because they didn't rise up from under Islam, they came in from the outside. However, the Jews of the Arab countries, the Mizrachi Jews really did get the smack up, because they were dhimmi's that acted up. The overwhelming majority of them ended up leaving and going to Israel; they ousted themselves.

Equally ironic, and a tad funny, half of the Israeli population is made up of Jews that came there from Arab countries; by expelling almost 100% of their Jewish populations, the Arab countries left those Jews homeless, and where else did those Jews go other than Israel? If the Muslims had acted smartly, they would have let the Jews stay in their homes, possibly delivering a powerful kick to the future of the State of Israel. Instead, they helped to populate it.

What does this have to do with today? Everything. What makes anybody think that Islam has shown any signs of resigning the position that Jews are not free to, well, be free? Keep watching the developments of the Middle East with regards to developments in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and you will notice that history is upon us today.

** An interesting factoid. In 1956 there was a war with Egypt that Israel won and in which it seized the Gaza Strip during infighting. Israel was pressured to pull out of the Sinai and it gave the Gaza Strip back as well. In the 6 Day War of 1967, Israel recaptured the Gaza Strip as well as the entire Sinai Peninsula (which doubled Israel's size). In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (a right-winger) met for talks, in which Israel gave back the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. This was the second time that Israel gave Gaza back and we have just witnessed the third (under Ariel Sharon, also a right-winger). It's not hard to imagine that there will be a war sometime in the next decade or so with the Palestinians, although G-d willing, there won't have to be.