The New Mexican published an op-ed by Ruth Moss on July 2, 2016 entitled, “What really went on in Israel.” This was in response to Jeff Haas’ My View from April 3, 2016 (“Why don’t the Palestinians ‘go gentle into that good night?'”). Members should note:
- If you see an op-ed, letter to the editor, or news article that is biased against Israel, it’s never too late to write a rebuttal, as is evident in Moss’ publication, which is commenting on another item in the New Mexican from back in April.
- TAKE ACTION: WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR THAT SUPPORTS MOSS’ VIEWPOINT. Details for writing to the New Mexican can be found here.
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Reader View: What really went on in Israel
In response to Jeff Haas’ My View (“Why don’t the Palestinians ‘go gentle into that good night?’ ” April 3): I live 57 seconds by rocket from Gaza, and I will “break the silence” of just who is responsible for the Palestinians’ dire plight. I will lead any interested reader to names and brief descriptions of what Palestinian leaders did to their own people so that, perhaps, the real villains can be outed.
Led by their leaders in 1948 when the Jews were willing to accept less than they felt they were entitled to of their ancestral homeland, within eight hours of the Declaration of the State of Israel, five Arab nations attacked the fledgling nation in a call from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, to drive the Jews into the sea. The Palestinians were told to leave, that they could return in 15 days and reap all that the Jews had left behind.
Now, 68 years later, they are still held in squalid conditions in decrepit refugee camps while the Jewish refugees who came to Israel were quickly integrated into the Israeli society. Why didn’t the Palestinians, instead of invading, declare the State of Palestine and, as the U.N. Partition Plan stipulated, “share railroad and postal services,” and why not, also, technology, commerce and education? Where would the Palestinian people be today if its leaders had accepted the U.N. Partition Plan and established the State of Palestine?
Azzam Pasha, secretary-general of the Arab League, announced in a cablegram dated May 15, 1948, to the secretary-general of the United Nations, “It will be a war of extermination. It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.” Jamal Husseini, a member of the Arab Higher Committee in Palestine, in response to the British High Commissioner Sir Alan Cunningham’s concern for the welfare of the ordinary Arab population, replied that he was prepared to die. Jamal Husseini, certainly, had not conferred with the average Palestinian about sacrificing his family in jihad.
Then, in 1967, the Six-Day War. After three weeks of buildups from nine Arab countries, Israel was surrounded by 500,000 troops, 5,000 tanks and 1,000 fighter planes. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser blockaded the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, an act of war under international law. By mid-afternoon of the first day, the air forces of Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Egypt had all been demolished. The Six-Day War was decided in six hours.
These are not all the causes of the horrendous conditions in which the Palestinians find themselves and for which they blame the Israelis. A 2003 60 Minutessegment detailed the billions of dollars Yasser Arafat stole from the Palestinian treasury. He created monopolies in commodities and gasoline, which he put under the control of his cohorts in return for kickbacks.
Take a look at the causes of the Palestinians’ terrible living conditions today. Contrast them with the high standard of living of the Israeli Arabs, Arabs who cringe at the thought of, and demonstrate against, lands that they live on going back to the Palestinians.
Ruth Moss lives half the year in Santa Fe and half in Be’er Sheva, Israel. Moss is an author and teacher, and has served as a volunteer in the Israeli army and the U.S. Peace Corps.
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Footnote
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