GeckoInf

http://www.cfoi.co.uk/facts02.html



Myth # 1

“Jews stole Arab land.”


FACT

• From the beginning of World War One, much of the then Palestine's land was owned by absentee landlords who lived in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut .
• About 80% of the Palestinian Arabs were debt-ridden peasants, semi-nomads and Bedouins.

• Jews went out of their way to avoid purchasing land in areas where Arabs might be displaced.

• Land was largely uncultivated, swampy, cheap and most important without tenants. After Jews had bought up all the uncultivated land, they began to purchase cultivated land. Many Arabs were willing to sell the land.




Myth # 2

“The British changed their policy after World War II to allow the survivors of the Holocaust to settle in Palestine ”



FACT

• During the War, the gates of Palestine were closed stranding thousands of Jews in Europe, many of whom became victims in the Holocaust, Hitler's ‘Final Solution' for the Jews of Europe.
• After the war, Britain refused to allow Holocaust survivors to find sanctuary in Palestine .

• Some Jews were smuggled in by Jewish resistance fighters.





Myth # 3

“ Israel usurped all of Palestine in 1948.”



FACT

• 80% of historic land of Palestine and the Jewish National Home, as defined by the League of Nations, was severed by the British in 1922 and allocated to what became Transjordan. Jewish settlement in Transjordan was banned.
• The United Nations partitioned the remaining 20% of Palestine into two states.

• With Jordan 's annexation of the West Bank in 1950, Arabs controlled approximately 80% of the territory in the Mandate, while the Jewish State had 17.5% ( Gaza , the remaining 2.5% was occupied by Egypt ).




Myth # 4

“Resolution 242 requires Israel to return to its pre-1967 boundaries.”



FACT

• The most controversial clause in Resolution 242 is the call for the "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict." This is linked to the second unambiguous clause calling for "termination of all claims or states of belligerency" and the recognition that "every State in the area" has the "right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
• The resolution does not make Israeli withdrawal a prerequisite for Arab action. Moreover, it does not specify how much territory Israel is required to give up.

• The Security Council did not say Israel must withdraw from "all the" territories occupied after the Six Day War. This was quite deliberate.

• The resolutions clearly call on the Arab states to make peace with Israel. The principal condition is that Israel withdraw from "territories occupied" in 1967. Since Israel withdrew from approximately 93 percent of the territories when it gave up the Sinai and portions of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, it has already partially, if not wholly, fulfilled its obligation under 242.

The question, then, is whether Israel has to give up any additional territory; peace agreements have been signed with Egypt and Jordan. Israel has withdrawn to the international border with Lebanon, the only remaining territorial disputes are with the Palestinians (who are not even mentioned in 242) and Syria (the Golan Heights).




Myth # 5

“ Israel ‘occupies' the West Bank ”



FACT

• The misuse of words applying to the Arab-Israeli conflict has shaped perceptions to Israel's disadvantage.
• The term "West Bank," the word "occupation" has been hijacked by those who wish to paint Israel in the harshest possible light.

• It also gives apologists a way to try to explain away terrorism as "resistance to occupation," as if the women and children killed by suicide bombers in buses, pizzerias, and shopping malls were responsible for the plight of the Arabs.

• The more accurate description of the territories in Judea and Samaria is "disputed" territories.

• Occupation typically refers to foreign control of an area that was under the previous sovereignty of another state.

• In the case of the West Bank, there was no legitimate sovereign because the territory had been illegally occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967. Only two countries - Britain and Pakistan - recognized Jordan's action. The Palestinians never demanded an end to Jordanian occupation and the creation of a Palestinian state.

• While fending off the assault and driving out the invading Jordanian troops in the 1967 War, Israel came to control the West Bank.

• Since Oslo, the case for tagging Israel as an occupying power has been further weakened by the fact that Israel transferred virtually all civilian authority to the Palestinian Authority.

• Israel retained the power to control its own external security and that of its citizens.

• 98 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza came under the PA's authority.

• The extent to which Israel has been forced to maintain a military presence in the territories has been governed by the Palestinians' unwillingness to end violence against Israel.

The best way to end the dispute over the territories is for the Palestinians to fulfill their obligations under the Oslo agreements, reform the PA, stop the terror and negotiate a final settlement.




Myth # 6

“ Syria has done everything possible to prevent terrorists in Lebanon from threatening regional peace”



FACT

• Hizbullah receives financial support and arms from Iran, usually via Damascus. Hizbullah - which had initially confined itself to launching Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israel and ambushing Israeli troops in the security zone - has in recent years stepped up its attacks on Israeli civilians.
• The Syrian-backed Lebanese Army has yet to take action against Hizbullah, or other terrorist organisations, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) or Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), which have bases in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon .

• Syria uses terrorists as surrogates to maintain a level of violence against Israel and put pressure on the Israelis to negotiate over the Golan Heights.





Myth # 7

“The Jews created the refugee problem by expelling the Palestinians.”



FACT

• Had the Arabs accepted the 1947 UN resolution, not a single Palestinian would have become a refugee. An independent Arab state would now exist beside Israel. The responsibility for the refugee problem rests with the Arabs.
• The beginning of the Arab exodus can be traced to the weeks immediately following the announcement of the UN partition resolution.

• Less affluent Arabs from the mixed cities of Palestine moved to all-Arab towns to stay with relatives or friends. By the end of January1948, the exodus was so alarming the Palestine Arab Higher Committee asked neighboring Arab countries to refuse visas to these refugees and to seal their borders against them.

A plethora of evidence exists demonstrating that Palestinians were encouraged to leave their homes to make way for the invading Arab armies.




Myth # 8

“ Israel refused to allow Palestinians to return to their homes so Jews could steal their property”



FACT

• Israel could not simply agree to allow all Palestinians to return, but consistently sought a solution to the refugee problem.
• The Israeli government was not indifferent to the plight of the refugees; an ordinance was passed creating a Custodian of Abandoned Property "to prevent unlawful occupation of empty houses and business premises, to administer ownerless property, and also to secure tilling of deserted fields, and save the crops...."

• Some refugees were able to return

• Israel offered to take back a substantial number as a condition for signing a peace treaty.

• In 1949, Israel offered to allow families that had been separated during the war to return, to release refugee accounts frozen in Israeli banks (eventually released in 1953), to pay compensation for abandoned lands and to repatriate 100,000 refugees.

• The Arabs rejected all the Israeli compromises. They were unwilling to take any action that might be construed as recognition of Israel .

• Repatriation was made as a precondition for negotiations, something Israel rejected. The result was the confinement of the refugees in camps.




Myth # 9

“ Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens.”



FACT

• Israel is one of the most open societies in the world.
• Out of a population of 6.7 million, about 1.3 million - 20 percent of the population - are non-Jews (approximately 1.1 million Muslims, 130,000 Christians and 100,000 Druze).

• Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote.

• Arabs currently hold 8 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Israeli Arabs have also held various government posts, including one who served as Israel 's ambassador to Finland .

• Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language in Israel .

• The sole legal distinction between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel is that the latter are not required to serve in the Israeli army. This is to spare Arab citizens the need to take up arms against their brethren.




Myth # 10

“ Israel is stealing water from Arabs in the territories. Israel allows Jews to drill wells, but prevents Arabs from doing so.”



FACT

• In the years immediately following the 1967 War, water resources for the West Bank improved considerably, more than 60 towns in the West Bank were given new water supply systems, or had antiquated ones upgraded by the Israeli administration in the territories.
• Israel has not cut the amount of water allocated to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and is planning to examine the possibility of increasing it despite the cut in water allocations within Israel and the requirement of supplying considerable amounts of water to Jordan as mandated by the peace treaty.

• The water issue for the Palestinians actually has little to do with Israel.

• According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, “The West Bank and Gaza suffer from a chronic water shortage, preventing sustained economic growth and negatively impacting the environment and health of Palestinians.

• The little water available is inefficiently used.” The analysis adds that “Palestinian ground water supplies have increasingly become polluted as a result of inadequate sewage treatment and over-pumping of wells. Untreated sewage is dumped in valleys and the Mediterranean Sea, decreasing the quality of the already inadequate groundwater supply, and polluting the soil, sea, and coastline.

Myth # 11

“Israel 's treatment of Palestinians is similar to the treatment of blacks in apartheid South Africa.”



FACT

• Today, within Israel, Jews are a majority, but the Arab minority are full citizens who enjoy equal rights.
• Under apartheid, black South Africans could not vote and were not citizens of the country in which they formed the overwhelming majority of the population.

• Laws dictated where they could live, work and travel.

• In South Africa , the government killed blacks who protested against its policies.

• Israel allows freedom of movement, assembly and speech. Some of the government's harshest critics are Israeli Arabs who are members of the Knesset.

The situation of Palestinians in the territories is different. The security requirements of the nation, and a violent insurrection in the territories, forced Israel to impose restrictions on Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that are not necessary inside Israel's pre-1967 borders. The Palestinians in the territories, typically, dispute Israel's right to exist whereas blacks did not seek the destruction of South Africa , only the apartheid regime.




Myth # 12

“Israel is pursuing a policy of genocide toward the Palestinians that is comparable to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews.”



FACT

• The Nazis' objective was the systematic extermination of every Jew in Europe. Israel is seeking peace with its Palestinian neighbors.
• More than one million Arabs live as free and equal citizens in Israel.

• Of the Palestinians in the territories, 98 percent live under the civil administration of the Palestinian Authority.

While Israel sometimes employs harsh measures against Palestinians in the territories to protect Israeli citizens – Jews and non-Jews – from the incessant campaign of terror waged by the PA and Islamic radicals, there is no plan to persecute, exterminate, or expel the Palestinian people.




Myth # 13

“The ‘al-Aksa Intifada' (2000-2005) has helped win support for the Palestinians and forced Israel to capitulate to their demands.”


FACT

• The Palestinian uprising has brought nothing but sorrow to the Palestinians and Israelis.
• After four years of violence, 1,017 Israelis were killed, 70 percent of whom were civilians.

• Nearly 5,600 Israelis were injured, 82 percent of them civilians.

• During this period, Palestinian terrorists perpetrated 13,730 shooting attacks and 138 suicide bombings.

• More than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in confrontations with security forces defending Israel 's citizens from the terror onslaught

• Palestinian terrorists deliberately target the innocent while Israeli forces seek to avoid civilian casualties.

• The Intifada has also been devastating to the Palestinian economy

• Thousands of Palestinians made their living by working in Israel , but the violence made it impossible for Israel to allow them into Israel because too many engaged in terrorism.

• Ongoing fighting between Palestinians and Israelis has made commerce in the PA difficult and, sometimes, impossible. The Palestinian unemployment rate has skyrocketed.




Myth # 14

“ Jerusalem is an Arab City ”


FACT

• Jews have been living in Jerusalem continuously for nearly two millennia. They have constituted the largest single group of inhabitants there since the 1840's. Jerusalem contains the Western Wall of the Temple Mount the holiest site in Judaism.
• Jerusalem was never the capital of any Arab entity

• Jerusalem never served as a provincial capital under Muslim nor was it ever a Muslim cultural centre

• For Jews, the entire city is sacred, but Muslims revere a site — the Dome of the Rock— not the city.




Myth # 15

“Palestinians are justified in using violence because the peace process has not allowed them to achieve their national aspirations.”



FACT

• The premise from the beginning of the Oslo Peace Process (1993) was that disputes would be resolved by talking, not shooting.
• The Palestinians have never accepted this most basic of principles for coexistence. The answer to complaints that Israel is not withdrawing far enough or fast enough should be more negotiations, more confidence-building measures and more demonstrations of a desire to live together without using violence.




Myth # 16

“The Palestinians have never been offered a state of their own.”


FACT

The Palestinians have actually had numerous opportunities to create an independent state, but have repeatedly rejected the offers:

• In 1937, the Peel Commission proposed the partition of Palestine and the creation of an Arab state.
• In 1939, the British White Paper proposed the creation of an Arab state alone, but the Arabs rejected the plan.

• In 1947 , the UN would have created an even larger Arab state as part of its Partition Plan .

• From 1948 to 1967 , Israel did not control the West Bank . The Palestinians could have demanded an independent state from the Jordanians.

• The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace negotiations offered the Palestinians autonomy, which would almost certainly have led to full independence.

• The Oslo Process that began in 1993 was leading toward the creation of a Palestinian state before the Palestinians violated their commitments and scuttled the agreements.

• In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to create a Palestinian state, but Yasser Arafat rejected the deal.




Myth # 17

“Yasser Arafat rejected Ehud Barak's proposals at Camp David and the White House in 2000 because they did not offer the Palestinians a viable state. Palestine would have been denied water, control of its holy places, and would have been divided into cantons surrounded by Israelis. Israel would have also retained control of Jerusalem and denied refugees the right to return.”



FACT

• Israeli Prime Minister Ehud BArak offered to withdraw from 97 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip.
• He agreed to dismantle 63 isolated settlements, in exchange for the 5 percent annexation of the West Bank, Israel would increase the size of the Gaza territory by roughly a third.

• Barak also made previously unthinkable concessions on Jerusalem, agreeing that Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem would become the capital of the new state.

• The Palestinians would maintain control over their holy places and have "religious sovereignty" over the Temple Mount .

• Refugees would be able to return to the Palestinian state and reparations from a $30 billion international fund that would be collected to compensate them.

• Israel also agreed to give the Palestinians access to water desalinated in its territory.

Israel offered generous concessions, and that Yasser Arafat rejected them to pursue the Intifada that began in September 2000 – prevailed for more than a year. To counter the perception that Arafat was the obstacle to peace, the Palestinians and their supporters then began to suggest a variety of excuses for why Arafat failed to say "yes" to a proposal that would have established a Palestinian state. The truth is that if the Palestinians were dissatisfied with any part of the Israeli proposal, all they had to do was offer a counterproposal. They never did.




Myth # 18

“Palestinians are driven to terror by desperation.”



FACT

• The situation many Palestinians find themselves in is unfortunate and often quite severe. Many live in poverty, see the future as hopeless, and are unhappy with the way they are treated by Israelis.
• None of these are excuses for engaging in terrorism.

• Many of the terrorists are not poor, desperate people at all. The world's most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, for example, is a Saudi millionaire.

• Terrorism is not Israel's fault. It is not the result of "occupation."

• Terrorism is not the only response available to the Palestinians' discontentment.

• Palestinians have chosen to pursue a war of terror instead of a process for peace, rather than negotiations and nonviolence

Israel has proven time and again a willingness to trade land for peace, but it can never concede land for terror.




Myth # 19

“ Israel is building the security fence as part of a land grab to control the West Bank and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.”



FACT

• The purpose of the security is the prevention of terror.
• The route has been carefully plotted to maximize the security it provides to the citizens of Israel and minimize the inconvenience and harm to Palestinians.

• The route of the fence must take into account topography, population density, and threat assessment of each area. To be effective in protecting the maximum number of Israelis, it also must incorporate the largest communities in the West Bank .

• The Israeli Supreme Court ruled the government had to more carefully balance security concerns and harm to the Palestinians, the route of the fence was adjusted to run closer to the “Green Line.”

• When completed, the fence will now incorporate just 7 percent of the West Bank — less than 160 square miles — on its “Israeli side,” while 2,100 square miles will be on the “Palestinian side.”

• The fence is a temporary, non violence measure against Palestinian terrorism .




Myth # 20

“ Israel is provocatively settling Jews in predominantly Arab towns, and has established so many facts on the ground territorial compromise is no longer possible.”



FACT

• Built-up settlement area is less than two percent of the disputed territories.
• 80 percent of the settlers live in what are in effect suburbs of major Israeli cities such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

• Strategic concerns have led both Labour and Likud governments to establish settlements.

• The objective is to secure a Jewish majority in key strategic regions of the West Bank , such as the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem corridor, the scene of heavy fighting in several Arab-Israeli wars. Still, when Arab-Israeli peace talks began in late 1991, more than 80 percent of the West Bank contained no settlements or only sparsely populated ones.

• 225,000 Jews live in roughly 150 communities in the West Bank.

• The overwhelming majority of these settlements have fewer than 1,000 citizens and several have only a few dozen residents.

• 80 percent of the Jews could be brought within Israel 's borders with minor modifications of the Green Line.




Myth # 21

“ Anyone who defends settlements is rationalizing the perpetual occupation of the Palestinian people and their land.”



FACT

• The Israeli government also acknowledges that Palestinians have legitimate claims to the area and that a compromise can be reached through negotiations.
• Israel has valid claims to title in this territory based not only on its historic and religious connection to the land, and its recognized security needs, but also on the fact that the territory was not under the sovereignty of any state and came under Israeli control in a war of self-defense, imposed upon Israel

• In 2004, Ariel Sharon proposed a plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. That proposal also would lead to the removal of a number of settlements.

• Sharon has made clear that large settlement blocs will remain intact. An estimated 80 percent of the settlers live in what are in effect suburbs of major Israeli cities such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Virtually the entire Jewish population believes Israel must retain these areas to ensure its security, and that they could be brought within Israel's borders with minor modifications of the 1967 border.

• Sharon singled out four specific settlement blocs that, by consensus, will ultimately be incorporated into Israel.

• Ariel (30,000)Maale Adumim (40,000), Givat Zeev (10,500), and the Etzion bloc 15 communities with an approximate population of 20,000). These four blocs include more than 40 percent of the total Jewish population of the West Bank.

It is inconceivable that Israel would evacuate such large cities, even after a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

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politicoaware

Conservative Friends of Israel. That's the name of the website. In other words, "NEOCON.com". Thanks for your "reliable" source.

Pook

It's a convoluted mess over there, and there are so many facts supporting all sides it's hard to really weed through everything and get a real fix on that situation. Sometimes, the more I read, the more confusing it gets.
I do personally believe every nation has a right to exist, and before we as Americans start about other people stealing land, look what we did to the Native Americans.
I think this planet is big enough for all of us, anyway. Some may need to practice perhaps a little more patience and tolerance toward their neighbors, and strive for peaceful co-existence a little harder.
Purrs,
Pookie

http://www.politicalhotwire.com/sign...sigpic73_1.gif

GeckoInf

Sorry, I should have gone to 'unbiased.com'

Invayne

How about www.drunkenblabberingmelgibsonhatesjews.com :lol:

ilikeGW

Stop changing the subject!

Trip

Excellent post. Also, every bit of information he posted is easily backed up by information in recorded and filed documents. Look it up.

mdmx96

Check any unbiased source, and you will find that what Gecko posted is true.

lakeman

Ad hominem attacks are not useful. If there is something incorrect then pick it out and state why it is wrong.

It does not matter who says something it only matters if what they say is right or wrong.

That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.
-James Madison-

lakeman

Oh, and I would think that freinds of israel would have different biases than neocons.

That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.
-James Madison-