What to say, what to say Part II

Picking up where we left off the other day on how to handle the accusations from the fools who call themselves "peace-activists" - but first, another unbelievable photograph from one of these rallies...this one in Manhattan, New York...



As ridiculous as the whole thing is...while a sign proclaiming death to all Jews doesn't seem all that liberal to me to begin with...what's most insulting is that this idiot...this absolute IDIOT had the nerve to write in pen "Zionist" in between "TO ALL" and "JUICE" - as if his stupid afterthought somehow justifies his obvious Nazi-esque hatred. Oh but don't worry, it's not ALL Jews he hates, just the half that live in Israel and the 2/3's of the rest who support them. Or maybe he was at the wrong rally and he just hates watered down grapefruit juice...who the hell knows.

You just can't make this stuff up folks...

So what do you say to these clowns when they accuse Israel of "disproportionate force," "collective punishment," "apartheid" or "ethnic cleansing" ?

Here's a handy guide on how to shut these people up.

Disproportionate Force:

This is always the first thing our supposed peace-loving friends (that's right Nicky Sarkozy, I'm talking to you!) throw around when Israel does anything other than turning the other cheek.

If the Palestinians throw rocks, how can Israel respond with guns? If the Palestinian shoot bullets, how can Israel respond with artillery? If the Palestinians shoot little tin-can rockets how can Israel respond with thousands of tons of bombs?

On the surface it seems like a legitimate question. If the Palestinians pose no existential threat to Israel, why respond with such overwhelming force? Israel has access to tremendous military might. The Palestinians do not. It seems like a classic David VS Goliath scenario. However, it is, like all of these accusations - nonsense.

The first thing you need to know is that the idea that this is a conflict between big bad Israel (population: approximately 7 million) and little tiny Gaza (population: approximately 1.5 million) is a ridiculous notion to begin with. Hamas is sponsored by Iran, and the Palestinian leadership has been the beneficiaries of hundreds of millions of dollars of support from countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Dubai, Qatar and the rest of the Arab world. Since we now know what that money is used for...



Source: Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2008

We can then extrapolate that it's not just Israel VS the poor, abused Gazans...it's the entire big, bad Middle East VS little, tiny Israel.

But let's even pretend that we were willing to concede the point that Israel has an organized, well-funded, well-trained Goliath military and the Palestinians are just a disorganized rabble of barbarians. Imagine the following analogy:

You are pulled into a fight with someone half your size who was armed only with toothpicks while you have a baseball bat already in your hands. Now at first, this fight starts with your opponent pricking you in the arms with the toothpick. You maintain your composure because hey after all, it's just a toothpick! Yeah sure it hurts, but it's not worth beating someone up over. Then your opponent starts poking you in the face. Again. And again. And he starts screaming about how much stronger he is than you. How he's going to kill you and your family. But you still maintain your composure because hey, it's just words and it's just toothpicks. Then he starts trying to stab you in the eye with his toothpicks, but you keep swatting his hands away because he can barely reach you. Still you do not retaliate because it's not worth beating someone up for this, no matter how annoying it may be. Finally, your opponent realizes he will not be able to defeat you in this way he tells you he wants to stop and be friends, he even shakes your hand.

As soon as you turn your back to him he rushes over with his toothpicks and stabs your wife or husband in the eye. You turn around just in time to see him do the same to your daughter or son.

What do you do? Are you going to toss him a baseball bat to make sure he has a "fair" chance...or are you going to do everything in your power to put a stop to it immediately? Would anyone fault you for reacting in the most efficient way you can think of to put an end to this threat once and for all? Probably not...unless you're wearing a yarmulke. Use that analogy next time some French guy tells you that Israel's response is "disproportionate."

Collective Punishment:

How can Israel lay a "siege" to Gaza that hurts innocent civilians in addition to the terrorists? (Or militants. Or peace-activists. Or same thing.) Why do the innocent women and children who have no access to food and supplies as result of this "blockade" of Gaza deserve to suffer for the actions of their governing body?

First of all, let's not forget why Gaza is ruled by Hamas today. In the first "democratic" election in the Palestinian territories (certified by no less an authority on democracy than EU Foreign Affairs Chief, Javier Solana himself!) the wonderful, peace-loving Palestinians elected Hamas, an organization sworn to destroy the state of Israel, by a landslide. NOTE: the Hamas charter does not say anything about freedom and liberation, nor does it say anything about settling on pre-1967 borders...it says DESTROY ALL OF ISRAEL. It says NO SOLUTION FOR THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION BUT JIHAD. It says INITIATIVES AND PROPOSALS ARE A WASTE OF TIME. But more on the Hamas charter later in the "apartheid" chapter. For now just remember that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians voted for these guys and the sitting government, the "more moderate" Fatah party willingly stepped aside, saying that Hamas was the "will of the people."

Every single Gazan that willingly voted for Hamas bears some responsibility for this nightmare. They all have blood on their hands...every single one of them.

Next, did you ever wonder who powers Hamas offices, Hamas terrorist training camps and the homes of Hamas leaders? Did you ever wonder who gives Hamas the very fuel they use to transport their weapons, rockets and fighters? Did you ever wonder who provides water to the toilets that these jerks sit on after firing off a few rockets into an Israeli bus stop? That's right, the JEWS!

Think about that for a minute. You're at war with another country...a country whose democratically elected, internationally-recognized government has vowed to destroy you...whose government that along with controlling the electricity, water and fuel supplies you give them is engaged in active attempts to kill your women and children...whose government is TAKING THE ITEMS YOU ARE GIVING THEM AND USING THEM TO TRY AND KILL YOU. Pretend for a minute that it was you. Not some Jews you don't really know or care about, who live 6,000 miles away from you. It's you. You are physically handing someone gasoline that he then pumps into his car and tries to run you over with. You personally. Not some people you've never met and will never meet. YOU. Does that make sense? Would any sane individual even consider doing something like that? And yet that's exactly what Israel has done for the past three years! Enough already!

And you know what, apparently Hamas didn't get the message when Israel used these NON-VIOLENT methods...so guess what? It's war time.

Apartheid:

How can Israel be so unfair and racist to the Palestinians by restricting their movements in the West Bank with checkpoints and keeping them from entering Israel-proper for work? How can they strangle the Palestinian "economy" with their military occupation? Of course the Palestinians are upset, who wouldn't be?

Most important to remember about this nonsense is that there is NO LAW that states who can and cannot be an Israeli citizen. Not only are Arabs eligible for Israeli citizenship, several members of the Israeli Parliament are Arabs! Note in that video the language used by the Arab members of the Parliament - they flat-out call the Israeli actions a war crime and aside from some shouting, what's the penalty? Trial for treason? Execution? Jail? NOTHING. Because Israel is a DEMOCRACY. It's a DEMOCRACY where even a non-Jewish Arab who is anti-Israel can be elected to public office! I'm not so big on the concept of apartheid but somehow I don't think that would fly in South Africa. Or Iran. Google how many Jews are in the Palestinian government today. Or Iran. Or any other Muslim-ruled country. I'll give you a hint, it's less than one.

As for the Palestinians who live under "occupation" in the West Bank...where were all these protesters and sympathizers before 1967 when the Jordanians ruled the West Bank and the Egyptians ruled Gaza and barred Jews and Christians from visiting their holy sites in Jerusalem? Why don't they speak out about the awful things that are broadcast over Palestinian government-run television?

And to bring up the earlier analogy about supplying your enemy with the fuel to kill you - if you are at war with the ruling body of a separate territory, and that ruling body regularly sends suicide bombers into your country to kill thousands of your citizens over the course of 60 years...why would you allow them to continue? If you could seal that territory up and prevent these people from breaching the border, wouldn't you do that? Not only does this protect your own citizens, it keeps you from having to go after these people in their own territory where they hide behind innocent civilians and use them as human shields. So not only are you saving your own civilians, you're protecting theirs. But sure, it's totally racist.

Finally, let's go back to that Hamas charter I brought up earlier. Here are a few selected quotes from that document:

Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps.

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."

Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.

Arab and Islamic Peoples should augment by further steps on their part; Islamic groupings all over the Arab world should also do the same, since all of these are the best-equipped for the future role in the fight with the warmongering Jews.

I think it pretty much speaks for itself...but just in case you need to point this out to a "peace-activist" who SUPPORTS Hamas, make sure when they complain to you about checkpoints and discrimination you ask them what Hamas has to say about the Jews.

Ethnic Cleansing:

Why does Israel kill so many Palestinian civilians? They must be trying to get them all to leave the West Bank and Gaza...or worse, kill them all just so more of those greedy, land-stealing Jews can move in.

This is probably the most ridiculous accusation of all. On the one hand, we're meant to believe that Israel has this unstoppable, juggernaut military that can lay waste to the pathetic Palestinian rock-throwing brigades in 10 seconds flat...but on the other hand it's not even capable of putting an end to this conflict for over 60 years. Despite trying everything possible to do so?

Huh?!?!?!

Well, there is one accurate part of that - the Israeli military could put an end to this conflict very swiftly and very painfully. You only need to turn on the news see the might of the Israeli Air Force. Israel rules the skies over Gaza and they ruled the skies over Lebanon in the 2006 war. They essentially destroyed the entire Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian air forces in the 1967 war before they managed to even get a single plane off the ground. And yet, they continue to show restraint, continue to put soldiers in harm's way by using ground forces in an attempt to minimize civilian casualties. Whether you believe the reasons for this are because of Israel's higher moral code (I do) or just because of some fear of international retaliation is irrelevant - the bottom line is that Israel has the power to ethnically cleanse most of the Middle East and doesn't do it. It's just NOT happening.

Furthermore, Israel has a much bigger problem than some Palestinians in Gaza. If current trends continue, Israeli Arabs - who again, are full Israeli citizens - may outnumber Israeli Jews by the year 2020...that's 11 years from Thursday. Might be time to speed the process up a little there, huh guys?

So why all the dead Palestinian civilians?

I heard a quote from Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday that I think summed it up almost perfectly:

Responding to accusations that Israel was committing war crimes, coming mainly from the Arab world, but also from Israel's ally Turkey, Netanyahu said Hamas "commits a double war crime: Attacking [Israeli] civilians and hiding behind [Palestinian] civilians."

Take a look at this video, direct from the Israeli Air Force:



Pay close attention to the footage. Note the buildings surrounding what appears at first to be a nondescript patch of land. If you're like me, you put your face up to the monitor and wondered which building was going to be targeted when suddenly there's an explosion and a small missile goes spiraling out of this empty space off into a field somewhere.

More video from the IDF

Because you see, Netanyahu is right. Hamas digs holes in the ground surrounded by residential buildings and fires missiles at innocent women and children. And that's when they're not firing from on top of apartment buildings. They do this, because they know that Israel will think not twice, not three times, but possibly SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS before retaliating. They cheat. They DELIBERATELY put Jews and Arabs in harms way. Israel tip-toes around and jumps through hoops to do all it can to both defend its citizens while minimizing civilian casualties on the other side.

Civilians by the way, who voted overwhelmingly for a party that swears not to rest until Israel is destroyed.

Now compare this to the other side.

The Palestinians DO engage in the following:

- Unprovoked suicide bombings against innocent men, women and children on buses, in cafes, pizza parlors, restaurants, hotels, etc, in heavily populated urban areas that are DELIBERATELY designed to kill as many civilians as possible (disproportionate force, collective punishment)

- Unprovoked rocket attacks fired from inaccurate launchers with no guidance systems that rain down on kindergartens, bus stops and playgrounds in an attempt to cause as much chaos, panic, death and terror and eventual evacuation of all non-Arabs from all cities within their firing range (collective punishment, ethnic cleansing)

- Bans of non-Muslims from visiting holy places such as Temple Mount (the holiest place in all of Judaism) including violence against innocent civilians who dare to break this decree (apartheid, disproportionate force)

Please note by the way that the attack on the kindergarten happened in 2004! FOUR YEARS AGO!

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Really, I could spend years talking about all the deliberate murders of innocent people by these Hamas killers and never run out of material. All in attacks that SPECIFICALLY target innocent people, including children. Yet it is ISRAEL that is criticized when it responds to these murders and takes all the care in the world to try and prevent civilian tragedies.

Maybe "Death to Juice" isn't the most ridiculous thing I've seen today after all...

So please, the next time one of these supposed "peace activists" throws these stupid catch-phrases at you, use the information you've read here to put them in their place.