Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Terror
From: Nathan Wajsman <belgiangator@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 11:19:17 +0100 (BST)

Alan,

I have so far largely stayed out of the public debate,
preferring to exchange off-line e-mails with some
LUGgers. But your quote below puts me over the top. I
simply cannot let this stand uncommented. I have the
highest respect for the BBC and consider it the best
TV in the world, and I cannot believe that Jim Muir
really made such an apalling statement. Some facts:

1) The State of Israel was founded in 1948 based on a
UN resolution which partitioned the then British
mandate of Palestine into two states, a Jewish one and
and an Arab one. The resolution was passed by a
majority of the General Assembly which included all
civilised countries, even the Soviet Union. So how can
anyone say that Israel has occupied Palestinian land
for 5 decades in defiance of UN resolutions?????

2) The surrounding Arab countries did not accept the
resolution and immediately attacked the new state. As
a result of that war many Palestinian Arabs fled to
Jordan and Syria, partly egged on to do so by their
fellow Arabs. Later on those Arab governments killed
more Palestinians than Israel ever will. Arab
governments do not give a damn about the suffering of
the Palestinians; they simply use them to promote
their long-term goal of pushing the Jews into the
Mediterranean.

3) Israel acquired the currently occupied Palestinian
territories as a result of the pre-emptive war in
1967. It later gave back the biggest chunk--the Sinai
peninsula--to Egypt in exchange for peace.

4) UN resolutions 242 and 338 call on Israel to
withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Under the
previous Labour governments Israel demonstrated a
willingness to do that--if the Palestinians would
guarantee Israel's right to live in peace, not only
through English-language speeches by Arafat tailored
for western consumption but through deed. The current
terrorist campaign by the PLO and the other
Palestinian terrorist groups was Barak's reward for
having been prepared to make the most wide-ranging
concessions to the Palestinians by any Israeli prime
minister. The Palestinian people are indeed suffering
but they have only themselves and their leadership to
blame.

As a civilised human being I feel proud of what Israel
has accomplished since its founding in 1948, and as a
Jew I feel more secure in this world knowing that
there is a strong Jewish state, armed to the teeth,
which will ensure that Jews will never again be herded
to their death like cattle.

This is my first and last post on this topic here on
the LUG.

Nathan


 --- Alan Hull <hull@telia.com> wrote: > > Quote from
the URL below from Jim Muir of the BBC.
> The fact is that for more than five decades, in
> defiance of countless UN
> resolutions and of international law, the
> Palestinians' land has been
> occupied and their rights ignored by Israel, with
> full diplomatic cover and
> open-ended financial and military backing from
> Washington
> End of Quote
> 
>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1540000/1540364.st
> m
> 

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