There is a difference between opposing a government and legitimate criticism and opposition to a government and its policies, and seeking the destruction of a people. There are over seven million Israelis that are Jewish. They are not going to disappear because many of the people, organizations and countries that oppose Israel want them gone.
The world has already witnessed where dehumanization and demonizing leads. Demonizing and dehumanizing led to the holocaust, genocide against Armenians, genocide in Rwanda, genocide in Darfur in the Sudan, genocide by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, genocide, rape and enslavement of the Yazidis, and more. There is a new genocide occurring right now against the people of Darfur while the world at large remains silent.
Genocidal people and their supporters use all kinds of justifications to support their murderous goals. In regard to Israel, one argument is that the Jews of Israel are not indigenous people and therefore deserve to be murdered. Even though the assertion itself is incorrect in that Jews have been indigenous and living continuously in what is now Israel and throughout the middle east and North Africa for thousands of years, indigenous becoming grounds for murder is applied only against the Jews of Israel in a world full of non indigenous people and settlers.
The justification used to murder the Jews of Israel while often pretending not to be anti-Jewish is that the Jews of Israel are not indigenous while the Arabs called Palestinian are, and therefore the indigenous population has the right to murder and ethnically cleanse the nonindigenous population. It is the height of hypocrisy and perversity to hear this argument from people living comfortably in the west and elsewhere on lands where the true original indigenous people were ethnically cleansed and oftentimes slaughtered. The United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, to use just a few examples, were 100 per cent populated by indigenous people before the invasion by Europeans. No one argues that indigenous people have the right to attack and murder non-indigenous Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians or others. Indigenous or not is never used as an excuse to murder except when it comes to attacking the Jews of Israel.
Jews have lived in what is now Israel and throughout the middle east, North Africa and other parts of Africa for thousands of years. Europeans colonized and settled foreign lands, but so did Arabs, Turks and others. North America, South America, Australia, places throughout Africa, the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere were lands where there was, and in some places still are, invasion, conquest, colonization and settlers. If murdering non-indigenous people and their descendants, no matter how much time has passed, was universally accepted, that would mean the legalization of murder by indigenous people against most of the world's population in most of the countries of the world.
Just as there are Jews that migrated to what is now Israel in search of a better life, so too did Arabs that came from what is now Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Sudan and elsewhere in search of a better life. Indigenous is not always clear as to where a people originated, and it certainly should not be used as an excuse to murder. Indigenous or not, murder is no one's right.
The history of many of the Jews of Israel includes escaping from or suffering persecution, ethnic cleansing, murder, rape and genocide. The effort to destroy Israel and wipe out its Jewish population is nothing more than a continuation of the long standing, demented war against the Jews.
Unfortunately there are many weak minded people in the world that need a scapegoat, a target to hate, blame and demonize. The Jews, even though they are a majority in the small country of Israel, are a tiny minority population in the Middle East and world at large. Minorities often have not, and do not, fare well at the hands of majorities. Many have made the conflict not only about who is indigenous, but more so about religion and the intolerance many have for religions different than those practiced by majority populations. The Jew has been the world's longest standing target of hate, blame, demonizing and scapegoating. Recently in the Middle East, it was the Yazidis, a defenseless minority that follow a different religion than the majority, that were the target of hate, demonizing, murder, rape, enslavement and genocide. The only reason the Jews of Israel have not shared the fate of what happened to the Yazidis, or to the mass extermination, rape and torture of the Jews that were under the thumb of Nazi Germany and their allies, is that the Jews of Israel are not defenseless.
There are many writers and so called journalists, political and religious figures pandering to their audiences, along with governments, media outlets and others that make sure there is endless incitement against Israel.
This is a tactic by many to keep all eyes away from themselves. One country, and its government controlled media, for example, with its enormous oil wealth, exploits workers from developing countries while endlessly demonizing Israelis. Many of the workers in that country are housed in substandard living conditions, with poor working conditions and wages. Many of these workers are treated as slaves. Many workers have died in avoidable work related accidents. Vulnerable foreign women workers in that country are far too often raped. Keeping the conflict with Israel inflamed keeps their own corruption, cruelty and decadence from being scrutinized.
Another motive this wealthy government and its powerful media outlet has in its endless incitement, demonizing of Israel and portrayal of Israelis in the worst possible light, is not because it wants reform, or change for the better, but because it wants no Israel. It knows full well that untold millions support genocide against the Jewish population of Israel, which it encourages by its constant dehumanizing and demonizing of Israelis. It also knows that demonizing Israel provides a large, profitable worldwide following. Other medias and media figures follow this profitable playbook. Inciting, demonizing and dehumanizing Israeli Jews or Jews in general is profitable, and attracts large followings. It is what helped bring the deranged Hitler to power in one of the most advanced countries in the world. The end of that road led to mass murder, the holocaust, a destroyed Europe, world war, the death of over 50 million people with millions more permanently maimed and crippled, physically and emotionally, for life.
Israel is used by many not only to deflect from their own deficiencies, but as a way of recruiting, mobilizing and controlling people by having an enemy to hate and demonize.
Demonizing a people makes murder and genocide against the demonized much easier. It also erases all possibilities of peace and reconciliation.
Many are those that support Palestine not out of love or concern for Palestinian Arabs, but out of hate for the Jewish people. Arabs and others have been slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands, even millions, in places like Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Mali, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere, with barely a voice raised in that if there is not a way to blame or condemn Israel, there is little to no concern.
The majority Jewish population of Israel are Jews that originated from the Middle East and North Africa, where many were ethnically cleansed. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab majority countries that fled to Israel is a greater number than the number of Arab refugees that fled from Israel. After Israel became a UN recognized country in 1948, a number of Arab countries declared war and attacked the newfound state. Israel won the war and absorbed the Jewish refugees from Arab majority lands, while many of the Arab refugees and their descendants were not absorbed by the Arab nations that attacked Israel, and live in refugee camps to this day.
Palestinian Arabs and Israelis both have legitimate grievances. But no grievance, no injustice from the past or present, large or small, not with this conflict, not with any conflict in the world, ever justifies any person, organization or country deliberately attacking, harming or murdering civilians.
Deliberately attacking civilians is not legitimate. It is not resistance. Deliberately harming and murdering civilians is never legitimate resistance, no matter the time, no matter the place. No political, religious or other justification erases the fact that deliberately attacking and killing civilians is murder. This applies to all people everywhere in the world, with no exceptions.
There is a world of difference between opposing a government and its policies, opposing the actions of some of the citizens of that country, and seeking the total annihilation of the country and the destruction of its people. Many of the enemies of Israel do not hide the fact, in fact many declare it loudly, that their goal is the complete destruction of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of its Jewish population.
Seeking to destroy Israel and wipe out its Jewish population is not armed struggle and it is not resistance. It is nothing more than an effort to commit genocide.
All that war causes is a new history of injustice, tragedy, death and misery, without changing anything for the better. Unfortunately, many people to this day glorify war and violence.
It is impossible in this day and age to wage war without civilian casualties, especially due to how advanced weapons have become and how densely populated is much of the world. Many are those that encourage war and violence, or turn a blind eye to it, and then scream the loudest when civilians on the side they care about are harmed. Those that encourage war and violence, or turn a blind eye to it, share responsibility for civilian casualties on all sides. The only way to prevent unintentional civilian casualties is to not encourage or wage war, violence and terror in the first place.
Those that attack civilians and then run and hide in their own civilian populations, must be held accountable for the harm they bring not only upon their enemy, but also to their own civilians. Those that support or defend those that murder civilians and then go hide behind their own civilian populations are also culpable. Those that express anger about civilian casaulties only from the side they support, with no concern for civilian casaulties on the other side, do so out of their own biases and hate, not out of moral outrage, even though they may think otherwise.
Children are always civilians, unless they are exploited by adults and used as child and underage soldiers that take up arms. In that case, armed children and teenagers are just as deadly as adult soldiers, and are equally dangerous. The deaths of child and underage teenage soldiers rests on the demented adults that recruited them in the first place. The indoctrination of children to hate and kill Jews, or to hate and kill another people anywhere in the world, is a crime against humanity that unfortunately is far too often accepted.
Many are the people, unfortunately, that want this conflict kept inflamed. They want hatred, incitement, demonizing, violence, death and misery to continue unabated.
Decent people, regardless of their political or religious leanings or preference for one side or the other, must be at the forefront of the complete rejection of ethnic cleansing and the deliberate targeting and harming by anyone, anywhere, of civilians. Israelis and Palestinian Arabs are stuck with one another on a relatively small piece of land. Whether this ends up being a two state solution, a one state solution, or something else, is for both Israeli and Palestinian Arab to decide through peaceful negotiations and significant compromises on both sides. They both must do everything they can to calm down the violence, and learn to live with one another. What is needed more than anything, in this conflict and in all conflicts, is for each side to see the other as fellow human beings. Jew and Arab on that small piece of land are married to one another whether they like it or not.
The world is faced with enormous environmental problems that threatens the existence of all of humankind. Nuclear weapons also threaten human survival. The only war people should be fighting is the one to save the planet, not wars against each other. The fight for a Jew free Palestine condemns the people of all sides to endless war, violence, suffering and misery.
