I refer to articles about Gaza by Imam Mohammad Elsadi and Louis Cilia (August 15). While Cilia says the EU welcomed April’s announcement of a unity government of Fatah and Hamas, the EU regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation although it has said it will work with it provided it recognises Israel’s right to exist.
Cilia says the three murdered Israeli teenagers were kidnapped by unknown persons, accusing Israel’s government of fanning public emotions to fever pitch. In fact, a known Palestinian operative, Hassam Qawasmah, has been arrested for their murder and he admitted obtaining funding from Hamas.
He refers to the murder of a Palestinian boy but fails to say that three Israelis have been arrested for the crime. Israel’s Prime Minister telephoned the boy’s parents and several hundred Israelis visited the family to express their sympathy. In Gaza, the murder of the Israelis was greeted with celebration.
Cilia says rockets launched into Israel made little impact other than terrorising Israeli citizens — as if they should be tolerated. To defend its citizens, Israel built a protective shield called Iron Dome.
The Palestinians elected Hamas, a government that used multi-millions in US and EU aid to acquire missiles and build sophisticated tunnels to terrorise Israel.
Israel responded by sending troops into Gaza to destroy the tunnels and rocket launchers. Hamas deliberately hid the launchers behind civilians in schools, mosques and hospitals.
Israel protects its citizens behind its weapons. Hamas hides weapons behind its civilians.
The good imam talks of Israel wanting Palestine’s territory, of carrying out a holocaust of war crimes and genocide.
While Israel could overrun Palestine it prefers peace.
It unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005; since then, Hamas has fired 11,000 rockets indiscriminately into Israel. Five million Israelis live under threat of rocket attack.
With every ceasefire, Israel stops its actions in Gaza but when Hamas restarts launching rockets Israel rightly continues its efforts to eliminate them.
Israel warns targets of its impending bombing by phone or leaflets, thereby endangering its forces by telling the enemy their whereabouts. Hamas discourages evacuation, preferring the publicity of shocking pictures in next day’s media.
After investigation, Israel disproved accusations it bombed UN sanctuaries. Hamas rockets did the damage but explanations the following day do not get the same publicity.
Israel acts defensively to stop rocket attacks on its citizens. Hamas acts offensively by firing rockets indiscriminately into Israel in pursuance of their charter calling for the destruction of Israel.
The imam suggests Palestinians and Israelis live in one State, as in South Africa, so their children can enjoy peace.
Palestinians should first stop brainwashing children into hating Jews and Israel and glorifying suicide bombers as martyrs who blow themselves up to kill innocent people.
Cilia mentions Israel’s shaky foundation in 1947. Shaky? The United Nations voted for a Jewish State and a separate Palestinian State in the areas most occupied by each of them. Israel accepted and built a flourishing country despite hostile neighbours. The Palestinians refused, demanding the entire territory for themselves.
His reference to “consistent British backing for Israel” is not true. Before World War II, Britain sought the support of the larger Arab populations and needed their oil. In appeasement, they curtailed Jewish immigration while no control was imposed on Arab migration.
If Israel falls, terrorism will spread ferociously into the West
After Israel became independent in 1948, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Libya declared war on it.
The Palestinians call it Naqba, the catastrophe. The Jews call it a miracle because they prevailed against all odds. Israel cannot afford to lose a war as it knows it will be annihilated. Consequently, it has built exceptional armed forces and security organisations.
While the surrounding Arab countries denied Israel’s right to exist, in 1979, Egypt, and, in 1994, Jordan, signed peace agreements that have been respected ever since. Israel surrendered the Sinai, with its oil wells, to Egypt in exchange for peace.
Despite UN recognition, Israel still had to fight a war to defend its independence in 1948. How else is sovereignty acquired? This is why I say Israel is one of the most legitimate countries on earth.
Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, 2,000 years before the rise of Islam. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have held dominion for 1,000 years and always had a presence there.
Who are the Palestinians?
Arab refugees began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967. They include 650,000 who fled Israel in 1948. Their number has increased to nearly five million whom we now know as the Palestinian refugees.
Shortly after Israel’s independence in 1948, many Arab countries exiled their Jewish citizens. They withdrew their citizenship and forced them to surrender their assets before leaving. Some 750,000 Jews were affected. Many migrated to Israel. They learnt Hebrew and were absorbed into a country whose population was less than two million, including many refugees from the Holocaust. Estimates suggest they were coerced into surrendering assets worth $100 billion.
By comparison, 280 million Arabs have done little to help their Palestinian brethren, preferring to leave them as an obstruction to peace with Israel. The Palestinians could have a sovereign State anytime but, not unreasonably, they must recognise Israel’s right to exist first.
There are 1.2 million Israeli-Palestinians with full civil rights, members in Israel’s Parliament and a High Court judge. They enjoy more human rights than in any Arab State. If there were one State for Palestinians and Jews, as the imam suggests, Jews would be a small minority putting their lives in danger.
The world Jewish population is 13 million, including eight million Israelis. Every Jew is entitled to Israeli citizenship and Israel’s Constitution charges it with the security of Jews worldwide.
Israel is among the countries most threatened by terrorism. Its intelligence and resoluteness has enabled it to contain the problem probably better than many countries facing a lesser threat.
Ironically, it suffers the world’s opprobrium for doing so.
If Israel falls, terrorism will spread ferociously into the West. The challenge Israel faces needs to be fully understood and needs the support of all free-thinking people, in their own interest.
Chosen people does not mean preferred but having a responsibility to mankind to make the world a better place for all. Jews discourage proselytisation and require a genuine religious desire to convert. I would love to hear the imam disavow forced conversion, which the Koran advocates and which causes so much intolerance.
While we are a peaceful people, history has taught us the importance of defending our security at all costs. No one else will. Our tiny number makes us vigilant and mighty in protecting the small country that is ours once again.
I am proud to say I am a Jew.