Sunday, June 07, 2009

Arab Propaganda: Slick, Sly and Slimy

Found here:

Even before 1967, the Israeli army had been carrying out routine incursions
into the West Bank,
destroying poor people’s homes and killing innocent civilians, very much like what Israel has been doing in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Lebanon recently.

Yes, there were incursions. But they weren't routine.

They were responses and reprisals for Arab fedayeen and later, PLO/Fatah, terror raids against Israeli civilians. That is the only similarity with today: routine Arab terror attacks.

Background:

(1)

This wave of attacks on Israel became more organized in the form of
Palestinian Arab terrorist groups, called "fedayeen" (peasants who were deemed
"Men of Sacrifice" or "Suicide Fighters"), who began to conduct raids against the Israeli civilian population by 1951. The fedayeen operated from bases in the territories surrounding Israel: Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. They were trained and
equipped, primarily by Egyptian Intelligence, to engage in hostile action on the
border and infiltrate Israel to commit acts of sabotage and murder. The fedayeen
operated mainly from locations in Jordan, so that Jordan would bear the brunt of
Israel's retaliation, which inevitably followed.

In the period 1951-1956, hundreds of fedayeen attacks were carried out against Israel; over 400 Israelis were killed and 900 injured. The IDF reacted in a series of "Reprisal Operations" many of which were carried out by infantry units, paratroopers and the special anti-terrorism Unit 101.

The fedayeen acts of terror, supported by the Arab countries led, eventually, to the outbreak of the Sinai Campaign.

The fedayeen terrorist attacks violated provision of the UN-brokered
1949 Armistice Agreement
that prohibited the initiation of hostilities by
paramilitary forces. The Arab countries were never condemmed by the UN for their
acts -- it was only Israel that was condemned by the UN Security Council for its
counterattacks.



(2)

According to the Jewish Agency for Israel between 1951 and 1956, 400 Israelis were killed and 900 wounded in fedayeen attacks. Dozens of these attacks are today cited by the Israeli government as "Major Arab Terrorist Attacks against Israelis prior to the 1967 Six-Day War".

No comments: