By Noach Milgram
You portray the three million Palestinians as underdogs being
deprived of their legitimate right to statehood by five million
Israelis. However, there are a few things you may not have entered
into your equation.
First, Palestinians are supported by over 150 million Arabs who
care nothing for them personally but wish to eliminate the Jewish
state and have said so all along.
Secondly, the Palestinian Authority has stated in every
religious sermon and in every school textbook that Israel has no
right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state. When I say they reject
Israel in every statement, I mean just what I say, but of course
these statements are in Arabic.
Thirdly, Palestinians already have a state, it is called Jordan
and it occupies over 70 percent of the original Palestine land
freed from Turkish control after World War I. Why should there be
two Palestinian states side by side? Keep in mind over 75
percent of Jordanian citizens are Palestinians. If Mexicans crossed
the border into Texas to kill Texans because they wished to
establish a Mexican State, you would not suggest they first be
allowed to establish a state and then boycott both states equally,
the United States and the new Mexican state? You would say a
Mexican state already exists and Texas belongs to the United
States
Lastly, we Jews live in the Middle East, where militant
Islam is driving Christian Arabs out of Lebanon and the Copts (six
million in number, the oldest Christian sects in the world) out of
Egypt. Arafat, when he is not busy inciting his people to kill
Israelis, is driving the Christian residents out of Bethlehem. More
than half have already left Bethlehem since he came into power. If
he isn’t stopped, you will find only a few token Christians
there the next time you come to celebrate Christmas or Easter in
the Holy Land.
I have cited four facts one can ignore or interpret any way they
like, but they are facts with which we in Israel are willing to
live. It is difficult, however, for us to live with a fifth fact:
many well-intentioned Americans condemn Israel because they do not
know these facts.
It is even more difficult to live with a sixth fact: 60 years
after the deliberate murder of six million Jews in Europe by
Germany and its willing accomplices in other European countries,
physical attacks upon Jews and wholesale condemnation of Israel
throughout Europe have been commonplace. Racist hatred of Jews is
alive and well in Europe. That is the saddest fact of all.