Looking Occupation Full in the Face

Sarah Tuttle-Singer wrote a longish status about the word “occupation” yesterday. Except none of what she wrote has anything to do with occupation, the concept. Rather, she created a new definition for a word that already has a perfectly good definition as well as a well-defined legal meaning, as put forth by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

This is a predictable tactic, one favored by the left. They throw tons of ordure at the fan knowing some of it is bound to stick. And when I say ordure, I mean lies. They shoot out so much of it all at once that you cannot unpack it all without looking like a pedant. And their followers drink it in and regurgitate it back into the world like the sheeple they are, even though none of it makes any sense.

Here is a screenshot of the status:

The text:

After a break-out session at #ZionismV3 at the Oshman Family JCC, where I said the “O word” — Occupation — a woman came up to me and told me she prefers the term “Disputed Territories.”

Maybe some of you do, too, and since we know words are important, I’ll explain why the word “Occupation” is important:

When I use the term “Occupation” I’m not talking about land. I’m talking about people.

Specifically, over 2 million Palestinians living in Areas A, B, and C who are the mercy of our Minister of Defense.

And what does that mean?

It means that if the IDF is ordered to raze someone’s house because their brother’s kid stabbed someone, then an entire family is homeless.

It means that the IDF can kick down their doors in the middle of the night – because maybe someone has a brother who was planning a terror attack.

It means that freedom of movement is restricted and that you can’t get from point A to point B without a check point.

It means that water can be redirected away from Palestinian villages and toward the settlements if there’s a water shortage.

It means that there are children living 30 minutes from the beach who have never seen the sea.

It means that just because things are quiet in Israel does not mean they’re well, because over the Green Line there are a lot of people who are living under the control of our government – a government they had no say in choosing.

This is occupation. And that is not in dispute.

And I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that all of us living in Israel and dealing with all the various complexities of what that means — from sleeping in bomb shelters with our babies to sipping cappuccinos on Shenken to wailing over the open grave of our friend killed in a terror attack to swimming in warm sea water at midnight — need to look this full in the face without turning away.

Definition of Occupation

For the record, let us take a look at the first sentence of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which defines “occupation.”

Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.

What we are speaking about here is a belligerent nation that invades another country and forcibly transfers people to the area in an effort to create facts on the ground in order to strengthen its claim to the territory.

This does not in any way shape or form describe Israel’s relationship to Judea and Samaria. For one thing, Jews lived in Judea and Samaria before there was an Arab people and before Mohammed was a gleam in his mama’s eye. Use archaeological artifacts, Josephus, or the bible. You’re still going to happen on that unassailable truth.

The Real Occupation

In fact, it was the Muslims who occupied Judea and Samaria, expelling the Jews and installing Muslims in their stead. Of course, they weren’t the only people to occupy Judea and Samaria. The territory was occupied time after time in history by the following empires: Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mamluk, Ottoman, and British.

But the Jews never lost hope that they would return. They prayed for rain in Israel during Israel’s rainy season. They prayed they’d have next year’s Passover Seder in Jerusalem. They said to themselves, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning.”

The Quran calls the Jews, “Yahud,” meaning the people of Judea. Which is also what “Jew” means, by the way. The Quran refers to the Jews as Bani Isra’il, the sons of Israel, or Bnei Yisrael, as we say in Hebrew. The Quran makes no claim to these territories, but rather describes the ingathering of the Jewish exiles:

To Moses We did give Nine Clear Signs:

As the Children of Israel: when he came to them, Pharaoh said to him:

“O Moses! I consider thee, indeed, to have been worked upon by sorcery! Moses said,

“Thou knowest well that these things have been sent down by none,

But the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye-opening evidence:

And I consider thee indeed, O Pharaoh, to be one doomed to destruction!”

So he resolved to remove them from the face of the earth:

But We did drown him and all who were with him.

And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel,

“Dwell securely in the land (of promise)”:

But when the second of the warnings came to pass,

We gather you together in a mingled crowd. (2314)

surah 17:101-104 Al Isra’ (The Night Journey)

But back to the Geneva Convention and Article 49. The language is clear. It describes a forced population exchange. Nothing of the sort happened in Judea and Samaria. Jews are not alien to the land. No one forced settlers to move there. No one was living in the areas settled at the time the settlements were created. The Arabs live in the valleys, the Jews live on the hills. It’s the way it is. Look at a topographical map and know this as fact.

Between 1948 and 1967, Jordan held Judea and Samaria. Only two UN member states saw this as a legal occupation: Great Britain and Pakistan. When Israel took possession of Judea and Samaria in 1967, it was no invasion, Habibi. She was fighting off FOUR Arab armies. She was fighting for her life.

Not Occupation: Let Me Count The Ways

So, to sum up, let’s list the way Israel is not an occupier. Israel:

• Is not an invader, but rather, was forced to fight a defensive war against four armies
• Didn’t force people to move to Judea and Samaria, they volunteered
• Didn’t kick Arabs out of their homes to create settlements, but built on barren hilltops
• Didn’t transfer a non-native population into Judea and Samaria, rather the Jews are the indigenous people of the territory with their presence in Judea and Samaria actually predating the Arab people.

Now Tuttle-Singer thinks she can get around all that by prefacing her remarks with this statement:

When I use the term “Occupation” I’m not talking about land. I’m talking about people.

But that doesn’t mean anything. It’s nonsense. It’s like someone saying, “When I say ‘car’ I’m not talking about a vehicle, I’m talking about people who drive,” or, “When I say ‘butter’ I’m not talking about a dairy product but about people who dine.”

It’s a meaningless construct. And rather than explain the logic behind this assertion that even she can’t see, she mounts a soapbox and spouts several anti-Israel lies. Beginning with this:

Specifically, over 2 million Palestinians living in Areas A, B, and C who are the mercy of our Minister of Defense.

Tuttle-Singer does two things with this statement:

1) She gets in a dig at Avigdor Liberman, Israel’s Minister of Defense,  because to her he’s über right when actually he’s no different than any other politician and waffles like the best of them when necessary. He has no compunction ordering the demolition of a Jewish home just because.

2) She lies about Area A being under Israel’s thumb. Area A has had full Palestinian Authority autonomy in Arab villages and towns since the year 2000. Arab villages and towns in Area B are also under the PA, but Israel and the PA do joint patrols here. Finally, Area C remains to be negotiated and well, that’s up to the Arabs. Israel (unfortunately, in my opinion) remains open to negotiate at any time, with no preconditions.

Really, the Arabs could have just about anything they want, if they’d just stop acting like behemoths, stop the terror, and behave like human beings.  But back to Tuttle-Singer.

It means that if the IDF is ordered to raze someone’s house because their brother’s kid stabbed someone, then an entire family is homeless.

Seriously? So teach your children not to stab people. Teach them that knives are for eating steak, and not for murdering peace activists taking bus rides—peace activists like Richard Lakin, for instance.

Don’t blame the reaction to terror, the defense. Blame the CAUSE.   Blame TERROR.

And anyway, these relatives of terrorists aren’t so homeless. They get a warning. They take their stuff out. They cry to the EU, or to their neighbors and someone builds them a newer, nicer house. Also, they get a monthly stipend for being related to someone who murdered a Jew.  And they’re lauded as heroes.

When a Jew’s home is demolished, on the other hand, he’s not allowed to rebuild, no one gives him money to buy a new home, and rather than receive a monetary reward, he’s out a couple of hundred thousand shekels with no new home on the horizon. And that’s by his JEWISH government, regarding a home that sits in Jewish indigenous territory!!

A Case Study: Israeli Demolitions

After Mohammad Nasser Tra’ayra, 17, of Bani Naim, murdered 13 year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her sleep, stabbing her multiple times, his parents’ home was slated for demolition as a deterrent measure against terrorism.  The IDF Spokesman’s office released this film clip of the demolition.

However, this doesn’t tell the real story.

What really happened was this: the IDF knocked down just a few walls and this only after the family received advanced warning and were able to remove their furnishings and belongings. The family also managed to carefully remove and preserve the windows and faucets for future restoration of the home.

Arab youth pretending sorrow for the camera

They took down just a few walls, leaving the house mostly intact, and easily restored.

In the inimitable words of Allen Sherman: “And they knocked a hole in the wall. That’s all. No wall.”

Contrast and compare to these before and after photos of the demolition of the home of Jewish settler, Choni Kaniel of Maale Rahavam, on May 7, 2014.

Before

One day, the Israeli courts decided to redraw the blue line and rule his home illegal. The home was demolished.

After

But this was not a symbolic demolition as in the case of the family home of the Arab terrorist who murdered a 13 year-old girl in her sleep. It was not a show for the public.

Large machinery was brought.

The home was smashed to smithereens.

No walls were left intact.

Choni now lives in a tent on the spot where his home once stood.

Choni's new "home."

Choni created this meme to illustrate the disparity between the demolition of a terrorist’s family home and that of a Jewish home.

Un. Fricking. Real.

Tuttle-Singer writes:

It means that the IDF can kick down their doors in the middle of the night – because maybe someone has a brother who was planning a terror attack.

Well, again. Whose fault is that? Israel remains in a permanent state of war from 1948, when it declared statehood. The Arabs refuse to end the state of war, no matter how much land we give them, no matter what we do. And they murder us. They murder young girls sleeping in their beds. They murder whole families on quiet Shabbat evenings. They murder us on buses and in the streets. They murder us wherever they find us. Wherever and whenever we fail to stop them, fail to defend ourselves. We expelled roughly 10,000 of our own people from their homes in the name of peace, and still, they hunt us down and murder us. They did it before 1948, such as in Hebron in 1929 and 1936. And they’re still doing it now.

We have every right to follow the leads that may prevent the murder of someone’s mother, someone’s sister, someone’s son. That is what war means: the war they force on us by refusing to make peace, by refusing to be peaceful, by their nonstop terror. If they won’t sign a treaty, then we damned well WILL kick down the doors of potential terrorists to stop them from doing their horrible, ugly, violent deeds.

That Tuttle-Singer sings her song of woe on behalf of the violent and against her own people betrays the blackest of souls.

She writes:

It means that freedom of movement is restricted and that you can’t get from point A to point B without a check point.

This too, is the result of constant Arab terror against the Jews since way before the British Mandate. Don’t like having your freedom of movement restricted? Don’t. Murder. Jews.

Don’t like checkpoints? Don’t. Murder. Jews.

Why is her concern for the murderers and not for their victims and potential victims? Because she hates us.

Tuttle-Singer writes:

It means that water can be redirected away from Palestinian villages and toward the settlements if there’s a water shortage.

This is just a lie. One that’s been debunked.Over and over again. A burst water pipe is not a water “redirected” and has nothing to do with any water shortage. Israel has actually increased the water supply to Arab villages and towns.

Some footage of the bursted water line that is now repaired by #COGAT Civil Administration. pic.twitter.com/nclwCaOwBR

— COGAT (@cogatonline) June 15, 2016

Tuttle-Singer writes:

It means that there are children living 30 minutes from the beach who have never seen the sea.

This has nothing to do with Israel, but everything to do with democratically elected terrorist Arab leaders who keep their people imprisoned in camps and refuse to make peace with Israel. Does she really want to say this has anything at all to do with Israel?? Okay, yeah. It’s Israel’s fault because Israel EXISTS.

Since Israel exists, these people remain political pawns, held in place by their democratically elected terrorist leaders. So clearly Tuttle-Singer is working toward the eradication of the Jewish State because instead of doing anything meaningful to fight against the injustice, she blames the injustice on the wrong party, and backs those responsible for the injustice, instead. And those who are responsible for the injustice have vowed not to do justice, not to let their people out of the prison camps, until Israel is Judenfrei, with the Jews in the sea, the same one Arab children apparently are so desperate to see.

Which begs the question: why is Tuttle-Singer here in Israel with her children? By her/their presence, they perpetuate the refugee status of the Arab people who remain behind barbed wire, unable to see the sea. She could actually make a difference if she’d just get on a plane and LEAVE. (I know plenty of people who’d be happy to buy her a one-way ticket back to LA.)

Tuttle-Singer writes:

It means that just because things are quiet in Israel does not mean they’re well, because over the Green Line there are a lot of people who are living under the control of our government – a government they had no say in choosing.

But things are not quiet in Israel. We are right now experiencing an uptick in terror. And if it’s not quiet, it’s because the Arabs are not quiet. So as the “new media director” of the Times of Israel, someone who works for a NEWS OUTLET, what the Hell is she talking about?

What she is trying to say (but doing a poor job of it) is that Arabs are ruled by a Jewish government but don’t get to vote for that government. But this too, is a lie.

Israelis Arabs can vote. And there are Arabs in the Knesset.

The Arabs who don’t have Israeli citizenship are welcome to apply for Israeli citizenship if they live in areas under Israeli autonomy. Once granted citizenship, they can vote in Israeli elections.

Arabs who don’t live under Israeli autonomy can vote in PA or Hamas elections, depending on where they live. And if Abbas wants to serve way past his term, and not hold new elections, that’s not on the Jews, that’s on the Arabs who voted for him.

Tuttle-Singer writes:

This is occupation. And that is not in dispute.

“This” whatever “this” means, is NOT occupation. And that is absolutely no longer in dispute, seeing as I have now unpacked and refuted her every word on the subject.

Occupation is not anything but what it actually is, and there is no Israeli occupation of Arab land. Arabs who don’t have freedom of movement, don’t have it because of Arab terror, and because they vote for terrorists to lead them: terrorists who will never negotiate peace with Israel.

Tuttle-Singer writes

And I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that all of us living in Israel and dealing with all the various complexities of what that means — from sleeping in bomb shelters with our babies to sipping cappuccinos on Shenken to wailing over the open grave of our friend killed in a terror attack to swimming in warm sea water at midnight — need to look this full in the face without turning away.

I do know what the solution is. Everyone does. It’s simple: stop the murder machine. Stop the terror. Accept that Jews have a state on their indigenous territory. Accept that the Jews expelled their own people to give you land. Accept that Israel gives you arms (the better to shoot you with, my dear), autonomy, and citizenship. Accept that Israel offered you housing, gives you money, free electricity, tons of aid, medical care, places in the government, and on our Supreme Court.

Deal with it. Compromise! Lay down your arms, your knives, your car rammings, rocks, and firebombs. Live and love in peace. Give your children a better future.

This is not at all complex. This is what Tuttle-Singer needs to look full in the face, without turning away.

This is the solution.

And only this.

SPECIAL MESSAGE about Shuja'iya in Gaza

h/t Barry Shaw via Real Jerusalem Streets. 

Shuja'iya in Gaza has been identified by the IDF and Shin Bet intelligence as an area rife with Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror hideouts. These terror groups store weapons in Shuja'iya, launch rockets from Shuja'iya, and dig tunnels to be used for terror attacks from underneath Shuja'iya.

The IDF warned the residents of Shuja'iya to leave for several days. Leaflets were dropped, thousands of phone calls were made, and text messages were sent, telling the residents to evacuate the area. While thousands of residents managed to get out, others were prevented from vacating the area by Hamas. Hamas prevented civilians from leaving the area because, like the residents themselves, Hamas knew that the IDF intended to target and eradicating several years worth of stockpiled weapons and the significant terror infrastructure they have built in this heavily populated urban neighborhood.

Shuja'iya: Neighborhood for civilians, fortress for Hamas terrorists. pic.twitter.com/HUhAKvDuWN
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 20, 2014

It is from Shuja'iya that hundreds of rockets have been launched into Israel.

Hamas asked for and received a humanitarian ceasefire, a lull in the fighting in Shuja'iya. Israel agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire of two hours, from 1:30-3:30 PM. During this time, Hamas brought in the foreign press corps to tell them about the "genocide" in Shuja'iya. Many civilians were killed and wounded because Hamas prevented them from leaving. The press reported the so-called "genocide" without mentioning that several dozen terrorists were the real targets and were among the many killed and wounded. 

The humanitarian ceasefire gave the terrorists an opportunity to treat and evacuate the wounded and to move their weapons and explosives from the area, ahead of the serious fighting expected to take place in this neighborhood later today. It is believed that ambulances were used both to remove the wounded AND the weapons stockpile from Shuja'iya during the ceasefire period.

Post by Israel Defense Forces.

The ceasefire was still meant to be in effect when Gaza launched rockets into Israel, at 2:15 PM. These rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system. IDF artillery responded shortly after, shooting several rounds of shells into Gaza.

This report has been confirmed by Reuters.

This is the third ceasefire in the current conflict hat Hamas has failed to honor.

It’s Not Your Land Chimp Bitch

Simmering in my head, all day long are these words: “It’s not your land, chimp bitch.”

(photo credit: Craig Lymm)

Five days ago, a well-meaning American friend invited me to an event called “I Stand with Israel.” She meant to show me that American Jews are standing in solidarity with Israeli Jews during this critical time of war. I decided to decline the invitation as irrelevant. When asked to offer a reason for not attending, I could not tamp down the cynic in my breast and wrote, “Um. I stand IN Israel.”

“Um. I stand IN Israel.”

I forgot all about that event and my pithy response until this afternoon. There was a siren and a boom. I stayed in the safe room for as long as I could stand it which wasn’t very long. I was FURIOUS.

I was furious at my government for not going in to Gaza with a ground incursion. I paced with furious speed inside my safe room, pounding the walls with my fist and screaming the f word over and over and over again, until I just couldn’t stay inside those four walls anymore.

I came out of the safe room to send a message to my mother to let her know that all was well. I tried to breathe.

I wrote just one line: We are fine.

I Clicked Send

When I clicked send, I saw that my inbox was overflowing so I went to clear out some of the messages before getting back to my work. Among those messages was a rant on that event page for standing with Israel. The comment was apparently directed toward my response. Something twisted about Zionism and secular Judaism. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Normally, I would not have answered him. Clearly, the guy’s a nutcase. But I was feeling reckless after the siren and after all these days of waiting, waiting, waiting, for Israel to go in and do what it needs to do to stop these endless rockets, sirens, and misery. Maybe I needed a small battle to contend with the larger one: the one I cannot control.

I was feeling anxious and emotional. So I ventured a few lines just to clarify that I live in Israel because the Torah commands me to live in Israel and not because of this or that political ideology. I told him that I live in Israel because it is my land.

(photo credit: Ministry of Tourism; www.goisrael.com)

And he wrote: “You can disagree all you want. I see fact for what it is. Genocide, starvation, apartheid, murder, =racism…

It isn’t your land chimp bitch. Stolen property does not belong to the thief.

That is common law around the world.

And you are a liar, or too fuckiing [sic] stupid to understand your own Torah.”

Too Stupid

His name is Don Leonard. Feel free to report him for hate speech. I did.

I was just struck dumb by that phrase, “It isn’t your land chimp bitch.”

I repeated it over and over again to myself, sometimes aloud. I found it had a certain ring. It evolved for me until it became, “IT’S NOT YOUR LAND CHIMP BITCH.”

My husband giggled.

But while I was acting all tough and saying, “It’s not your land chimp bitch,” inside I was feeling wounded and hurt, anxious and angry. All of that emotion just churned inside me. I couldn’t wrap my mind around my work project; the work that pays our rent.

Then the fury boiled up and spilled over and I did something I’d been threatening to do for days. I quit a long-held volunteer position with a Jewish organization for the simple reason that not a single one of my co-volunteers had inquired after the well-being of my family since this whole thing escalated. My son is called up three days after he is engaged to be married. I am calming down frightened children in bomb shelters and hearing sirens, but NOPE. Not one word. I’ve been with that org for more than a decade.

Photo by Cpl. Shai Wagner, IDF Spokesperson's Unit

They all voted for Obama, all of them, at least the Americans. They sold me out: me and my people, their OWN PEOPLE.

The President-elect and Vice President-elect meet with the Supreme Court Justices. (Photo by Pete Souza)

They knew their votes would put Israel in a precarious situation, all 70 damned percent of them. And they did it anyway. They were so much more worried about who would sit on the damned Supreme Court. They don’t care about a million of their brethren suffering PTSD in Southern Israel and now dying from Arab
terror.

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

They don’t care. They only cared about Romney going all Big Love on them. They cared about minor domestic issues that didn’t even affect them personally. Women my age often aren’t even menstruating for goodness’ sake. They’re not getting pregnant. Abortion is NOT their issue. But ISRAEL IS.

None of them are GAY. But they ARE Jewish. So why is gay marriage more important to them than Israel? I’m sorry. I just don’t buy their frigging excuses ANY MORE.

Can you tell I’m angry?

President Barack Obama listens to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, Sept. 1, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The Arabs started this latest escalation as a direct response to the election results. And don’t any of you Americans think otherwise. This is ON YOUR HEADS.

Anger talking. Sure. But there it is. It’s what’s inside me. It’s how I feel.

So I wrote the guy above me at that org, “I quit effective immediately. Best of Luck,” and felt relief suffuse me. It felt good. I also called out, “IT’S NOT YOUR LAND CHIMP BITCH,” one more time for good measure. That was amazingly powerful because it just made me laugh. Laughter is better than fury and helplessness.

The phrase makes me laugh because I have a deep-seated belief that Israel belongs to me and my people. That makes the phrase seem utterly ridiculous, even absurd! I said it a few more times:
IT’S NOT YOUR LAND CHIMP BITCH.

Then a friend posted this Oliver North clip:  http://video.foxnews.com/v/1978528038001/


I stopped laughing. North said that President Obama is threatening Netanyahu behind the scenes, telling the Israeli prime minister that should Israel go ahead with a ground incursion, the U.S. will block all airplane part replacements.

Well, I figured all those oh-so-supportive-of-Israel statements Obama was issuing right and left were a bunch of horse-pucky. Like anyone thought he’d support Israel? So I was inclined to believe Ollie North.

The fury just built inside me. If we don’t do this ground incursion, that’s it. Nothing left to talk about. I can’t bear it. I just can’t bear it.

The whole thing is falling apart.

Israel will still be here. The land won’t go anywhere. But it will become more and more dangerous for Jews to live here. We’ll have lost control of the entire venture.

I will not be afraid. I will not be afraid.

(photo credit: Kewima; http://www.flickr.com/photos/kewima//)

My fury knows no bounds. I want to break something, smash something.

And now the rumors start to flow about ceasefire declarations.

My anguish is so enormous I have no more words.

Can You Cure David? (Or: Can You Draw Thumper?)

y friend Bernie Newman likes to argue. He likes to argue with anyone who has a modicum of debating skills. He sends me these emails intended to "engage" me on topics he knows will arouse my ire.

The other day, Bernie sent me an email with the subject line: "This is pretty interesting." The email contained a link to the following article: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/failure-american-jewish-establishment/

He knew this article was a shoo-in for pissing me off.

But he was wrong.

This article was filled with so many spurious untruths that I didn't think it worth my time. I looked to see Bernie's source—the original sender of the link—and saw it had been sent to him by an acquaintance, I'm guessing a relative, named David Newman. Through the wonders of Facebook, I had read David's ranting liberal responses to Bernie's libertarian-leaning-to-conservative views. Aha! I thought. No wonder.

Bernie sends me these links with no comments. Sometimes I bother to waste my time refuting the crap he sends me, other times, I just click delete. The ideas contained in this particular article were those espoused by someone who has no interest in the truth—someone who buys propaganda hook, line and sinker—someone whose guilt has been aroused because he has been hypnotized by Jew-hating propaganda and thinks that the only way to assuage said guilt is to malign his own people. I can't do anything about David's "condition."

So, I told Bernie: "This is so filled with bullsheet I can't possibly begin to respond, nor do I wish to waste my time doing so."

Bernie tried some subtle flattery about my writing skills, having my finger on the pulse being so close to the source as I am in Israel, told me I sell myself short, and so forth.

My BS meter began to tick. It was LOUD. At last the light went on. Bernie wants me to refute David so he can rub my rebuttal in his face.

I wrote Bernie, "It occurs to me you want to have my rebuttal so you can rub it in David's face."

Bernie responded, "We-ell, I wouldn't put it just like that, but…EXACTLY!"

I'm sorry to disappoint you Bernie, but David is not interested in the facts and will blow them off and respond with more and more numerous statements from Jew-hating Jews citing these statements as though they were truths. The only way to combat this crap is to keep pointing out the lies, one at a time, as they pop up, to be vigilant and persistent. This is a national Jewish psychosis. Psychosis requires psychoanalysis, maybe drugs. Facts don't cure this malady, but can keep others from coming down with the disease.

Anyone who wants to love Israel can find ample reason to do so. But the desire has to come from inside. I can't make David love Israel. His Jewish spirit, his "neshama," is ill.

I can't cure David.It would take me maybe 20 years to sift fact from lies in that article. Still, I don't want to leave Bernie with no ammunition whatsoever. I didn't want to leave him naked in the face of his opponent or with that much egg on his face. A friend is a friend. So, I will devote just a bit of time to this. Not much. It's not worth it.

Of course, instead of picking my brains, Bernie could have done what I did and remembered that GIYF (Google is your friend). But never mind.

Let's start with this statement: "In the words of Hebrew University political scientist Yaron Ezrahi, “After decades of what came to be called a national consensus, the Zionist narrative of liberation [has] dissolved into openly contesting versions.”"

GIYF. I knew that Israeli elections are close and split right down the middle. So, I googled election history and found a site where you can see the election results for all of the elections in the history of the State of Israel: http://www.knesset.gov.il/description/eng/eng_mimshal_res.htm

If you look at the election results, you see that starting in 1977 the votes are split and the results are close. This is even more striking in the results of the 1981 elections and the pattern continues and is consistent until the most recent election of 2009. The electorate is split right down the center and whatever issue is huge at the point of election sways the vote by a few points and decides the outcome.

But even then, if the elected party can't form a majority government, the vote goes to the other party. That's what happened in 2009. Livni won, but couldn't form a government. So, Netanyahu won by default. Elections are cutthroat and close. Jews answer a question with a question, so why would anyone think there would ever be a consensus in Israel? Yes, that's a question, too.

There is no consensus in Israel. True. But it's not recent and it's not even about liberation. What does that even mean? Liberation. That's not an issue. Liberate WHOM?? This statement assumes someone is being oppressed. But there is no oppression. More propaganda. I will treat human rights and so-called oppression in the State of Israel further down the page…but meantime:

I admit it: there IS a consensus in Israel. We all want peace.

The lack of consensus is only about disagreement on how to arrive at peace. Does anyone in this day and age believe that half of the Israeli people DON'T desire peace?? C'mon…do you think we enjoy being blown up and so forth?? It's about HOW TO GET THERE. How do you arrive at peace?

Land for Peace? Didn't work, doesn't work. But half of the people are still willing to try, while others say we've gone above and beyond proving that Land for Peace is a stupid idea. We threw our own people out of their homes in Gaza, now it's a launching pad from which Arabs can target Jews and the Arabs still won't give our state recognition.
What about this statement: "Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included."

This statement implies that Zionism precludes respecting the human rights of Palestinians when nothing could be further from the truth. Israel has bent over backwards to give Arabs the same human rights it bestows upon its Jewish citizens. Instead of spouting bullcrap, David should better take a look at the truth of how Palestinians are treated in the Zionist state. I googled and found the following (David could have done the same, but doesn't care enough to do so): http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html


Here's another really cute idea with no basis in fact, but must give David paroxysms of orgasmic delight: "Morally, American Zionism is in a downward spiral. If the leaders of groups like AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations do not change course, they will wake up one day to find a younger, Orthodox-dominated, Zionist leadership whose naked hostility to Arabs and Palestinians scares even them, and a mass of secular American Jews who range from apathetic to appalled."

The late Rabbi Meir Kahane once said, "I don't hate Arabs. I love Jews."

You see, David, It's not about hostility, it's about being prudent. I get onto a bus in Israel and I check under my seat for suspicious objects and report them to the driver if I find them.

Fact: Arabs travel without fear on Egged buses, Egged being the Israeli bus company, but Jews do not DARE travel on the Arab-owned bus lines because they fear for their lives.

Fact: Arabs blow up buses. I am not hostile to Arabs, but I am a mother of many and a wife and I value my own life. I will let Arabs on my buses, but I will check to make sure they don't leave bombs under my seat.

I will try to avoid the social company of Arabs wherever possible because they have a known track record for violence. But I will not deny them the use of our public transportation, even though this makes taking the bus a nightmare. It also causes a disparity in who will die as a result of bus bombings. The rich have cars, so they are safe. The middle class and poor people are forced to use buses and so they are canon fodder.

And now, dear Reader, I leave it to you to continue the argument. To be frank, I have a lot to do today: laundry, cooking, and living my life as a mom, not an Israeli monster of mythic proportions. If any of you want to make the effort to use Google because David and Bernie have not, feel free!