“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” -President John Adams
With the vicious October 7th massacre by the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which has resulted in 1200 Israeli civilian casualties, and ignited a war in Gaza, the debate regarding the Israeli-Palestinian Arab “crisis” is all over the halls of government, the mass media, and social media alike. Yet, time and time again, the anti-Israeli doofi (plural of doofus), make the same deliberate and ridiculously incorrect statements regarding what are the plain facts about this conflict.
These incorrect assertions need to be corrected. Again.
The Facts:
1. Palestinian Leaders are Terrorists; the Israeli Leaders are Not: The Palestinian leadership – both Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas – are all terrorists. Certainly, anyone paying attention the past few days should understand this, regarding Hamas, which conducted the attack and which the U.S. has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Meanwhile, the former ‘President’ of the PA, Yasser Arafat, who introduced the world to airplane hijackings, was probably the most recognized terrorist in the world, and the current ‘President,’ Mahmoud Abbas, was Arafat’s deputy. Abbas helped fund and organize terror attacks, including the Munich Olympic massacre, where a hostage was castrated. Israeli leaders, like Benjamin Netanyahu, are not terrorists.
2. Israel is Not an “Apartheid Regime”: This charge is especially stupid because “apartheid” involves “race”, and there is no “race” implicated here – the Jewish population includes a number of different ethnic and racial communities, which includes Jews of European stock, Jews of Middle Eastern or Spanish descent, who are often physically indistinguishable from most Palestinian Arabs, and black Ethiopian Jews. Therefore, calling Israel an “apartheid nation” simply shows a dismal lack of understanding of race and the English language. Further, even assuming that the Palestinians were a separate race, Israel is not an apartheid state. Apartheid was a racist, repressive system, by which South Africa’s white minority enforced its domination through a systematic framework of legislation, including barring non-whites from voting. Israel is a democracy which has a core value – the equality of all its citizens, including Palestinian Arab citizens, before the law. They are not barred from voting or serving in any office. Now, there are distinctions made between Israeli citizens and the Palestinian Arabs who are not citizens, but this is because Israel has legitimate security needs that require these restrictions.
3. There is no “Genocide” of the Palestinian Arabs: Genocide is an internationally recognized crime where one party acts with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. There is absolutely no evidence that Israel intends to destroy the Palestinians, in whole or in part. Those Palestinians who have been killed by Israel are either terrorists or non-terrorist Palestinians who are collateral damage (and often have been placed in jeopardy by Hamas). Further, the number of Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and Gaza continues to increase. So, if the Israelis were actually attempting to commit genocide, then they are doing so in a spectacularly incompetent manner. Meanwhile, Palestinian groups, including Hamas, routinely call for an actual Jewish genocide.
4. There is no “Occupation” of Gaza: The relevant Merriam-Webster definition of “occupation” is: “a: the act or process of taking possession of a place or area: SEIZURE; b: the holding and control of an area by a foreign military force; OR c: the military force occupying a country or the policies carried out by it.” As everyone knows, Gaza has not been “occupied” by Israel, according to the actual meaning of the word, since 2005.
5. The True Number of Palestinian Civilian Casualties is Unknown, and Using Hamas Numbers Just Makes You a Tool for that Terror Group: Over and over again, the mainstream media echoes the Gaza Ministry of Health’s running totals of Palestinian “civilian casualties” in the fighting. (We are currently at 15,000.) The problem is, that Ministry is controlled by Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization, which has a vested interest in maximizing the number of Palestinian civilians killed or wounded in the conflict, and blaming Israel for all of these casualties. It also is an organization that is known for its flagrant dishonesty. Just one example will suffice – Hamas deliberately and falsely claimed that Israel bombed the Al-Ahli hospital, resulting in 500 casualties. Hamas also has a tendency to blame Israel for the Palestinians Hamas kills in the fighting, and it likes to pretend that its terror soldiers are “civilians” who should be included in the casualty count. Meanwhile, after a lengthy investigation, the Israelis actually reduced the number of Israeli deaths from the October 7th attack.
6. The Israelis Don’t Need to be Lectured about Palestinian Civilian Casualties: Ad nauseum, the mainstream media and foreign government officials lecture the Israelis about avoiding excessive (but see above) Palestinian civilian casualties. This is done primarily to cater to biased anti-Israel populations. It is not done because Israel actually needs this lecture, because the Israelis do not unnecessarily endanger Palestinian civilians. In fact, as Colonel Richard Kemp, the former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan has said in the past, the IDF “does more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare” and as a result, the IDF is the “world’s most moral army.” In this particular conflict, Colonel Kemp has also said, “Israel is taking the most effective possible steps to minimize civilian casualties.”
Now, I am under no illusions that the anti-Israel doofi will accept anything that I say here, however many links or facts I provide. To them, I am just another evil Zionist, out to control the world. (Speaking of which, where is my share?) But, however much they muddy the waters, facts are incredibly stubborn things, and the arguments they are making are simply not based on the facts.
In reality, the anti-Israel types are peddling nothing more than ‘big lies.’ Let’s not buy into their propaganda.
Adam Turner is a foreign policy expert and national security professional, with two decades of experience on Capitol Hill and in Washington DC.
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