COUNTERPOINT TO Raoul Lowery Contreras’ December 12, 2012 commentary:

Arab Cowardice, Israeli Patience

http://www.hispanicvista.com/HVC/Columnist/rcontreras/112912_Raoul_Lowery_Contreras2.htm

Does Israel want peace or supremacy?

By Lamont Phemister

Today, righteous Jewish scholars and dissidents show us we are deceived about past and present acts of Zionists, and their ambitions for future.

Mikko Peled, son of famous Israeli General Mattityahu Peled, he was deceived about Zionism and says Zionists should go down on their knees and beg forgiveness from the people they have so blatantly wronged. JStreet members are repelled by Israeli behavior and regard it as self-destructive.  JStreet founder, Jeremy Ben-Ami says JStreet represents 70% of Jewish Americans.

The 1918 book "Eretz Israel" by David Ben-Gurion, says Palestinians are largely descendants of Jews who lived in the Holy Land since return from Babylon about 539BC.  Early Arab conquerors did not force conversion.  Some forced conversions occurred hundreds of years later, but Jews were generally protected, and Jews fleeing Christian persecution were given refuge in Muslim lands.  Jews prospered highly under Islam.  Israel's noted demographer Sergio DellaPergola reports only 2,000 Jews in the Holy Land in 1690.   Muslims are largely not late arrivals in Palestine.

Some Jews immigrated to the Holy Land in late 1800's but became a flood after Great Britain conquered Palestine in WWI.  Ben-Gurion's memoir reports Zionist Jews wrote as early as 1878, of concealed ambition to seize the land.   Ben-Gurion wrote of his zeal for the forced "transfer" (expulsion) of Palestinians in the 1930s.  His 1937 letter to his son declares intentions to conquer all of Palestine. Israel began expelling Palestinians in 1947 and expelled 200,000 before Arab nations attacked Israel on May 15, 1948.   Second prime minister of Israel, Moshe Sharett's 1950s diary reveals Israel sought a pretext for more war for conquest.

Zionists claim rights for Jews to live anywhere in the Holy Land. Perhaps, but their willingness to kill and expel Palestinians who never left is immoral and unjust.  It foreits any claim on land.

Surely, both sides have committed ugly atrocities.  But the magnitude of Zionist violence makes Palestinian acts shrink in comparison. Zionists are the invaders since the declaration of 1897.   Invaders forfeit the right of self defense.

Israel has a history of deceiving Americans.  It denied bombing US libraries in Egypt in 1953.  Israel continues to deny intent when it killed 34 US sailors 6/8/1967 when its jets and torpedo boats tried to sink our USS Liberty ship to prevent American radiomen learning how far Israel had pushed Egypt. False information from Israel helped promote the false claims of WMDs in Iraq.   Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was recorded boasting of manipulating America and derailing Oslo agreements.  Israel is under the influence of belligerent settlers who want more conquest.

The good of mankind demands that Israelis must be able to live in peace and security within the borders before the 1967 conquests. Palestine and the Arabs offer peace to Israel when it abandons conquest and withdraws from the Occupation.   Until Israel does this, we will know peace negotiations are only a stalling tactic.   A just peace with Palestine is the only way Israel can achieve legitimacy. America has caused Muslim nations to hate us because we enable Israel to behave with impunity.   When America recognizes Free Palestine it will help heal antagonism and show Israel that it must act justly.

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Lamont Phemister may be reached at: llpmtv@gmail.com