Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Replying to a Critic

Someone I know received an e-mail containing this:-

The Jews of Brooklyn who went to Israel have much to answer for, keeping Israel at the state of war,... for what. Move back to Brooklyn and let the true Israelis get on with their lives. You are ignorant fanatics and are causing great pain to the Jewish and Arab people of the middle-east, and are putting all of us at risk of Armageddon.

Shame on you.


So, I suggested this reply:

Dear ------,

I well know that Jews have a habit of being the most vociferous and demeaning critics of what other Jews do, and so, your remarks didn't upset me as much as perhaps you intended although I will admit, I never thought of myself as ignorant whereas I may be a bit fanatic – fanatically committed to the truth of the Arab-Israel conflict and the truth of the Jewish connection with this Land.

By the way, there are no "true Israelis". All of Israel's population is immigrants or children of immigrants. To say I am not a true Israeli or my children or grandchildren is a bit strange. Jews have been coming to Israel ever since Abraham left Ur and later, when Moses left Egypt, with a few friends and family members. Actually, in every century, whether we had political sovereignty or not, Jews always came here. And "here" is Jerusalem, Bet-El, Hebron, Shiloh as well as Tiberias and Safad. Tel-Aviv, you probably know, was established only in 1909.

We are causing "pain"? We? We who sometimes can't eat in pizza parlors or travel on buses because there may be an alert of yet another suicide-bomber on his/her way?

We are putting "all at risk of Armageddon"? We? Or that fanatic in Teheran?

And I can here you saying, "doesn't she understand, it's those darn 'settlements' that are the cause of it all." All of what the Jews have done here in the past 200 years or so is considered by the Arabs as 'settlements', no matter which side of the Green Line they happen to be. In 1922, we compromised on the territory guaranteed to us by the League of Nations (and that's how Jordan came about). In 1937, the World Zionist organization under that fanatic Chaim Weizmann agreed to another Partition scheme but that fell through. In 1947, we agreed again to a partition of our Land, although I wouldn't have agreed if I was around then, and the Arabs launched a war because they wanted all or nothing – and the still do.

In 1957, we 'returned' Sinai & Gaza to the Egyptians who used them to launch terror attacks (remember the Fadayen?). Between 1948 and 1967, Israel wasn't occupying anything nor did it establish those "illegal settlements" you get hot about. Yet in 1967, the Arab armies again amassed on our borders. After the Yom Kippur War we 'returned' to Egypt the Sinai gains and in 1981, we surrendered all of it to Egypt. And now, big Egypt can't prevent the puny Hamas from smuggling in to Gaza arms and ammunition. Nice peace that was, eh?

I won't go on. I am sure you're clever enough to get the true picture.

3 comments:

Hasbara With Attitude said...

"...וקבצינו מארבה כנפות הארץ"

I guess this schmuck just leaves that part out of the davening every day, since obviously it has no meaning or bearing on his life, or worse, he simply mouths the words without kavanah or even comprehension of what he's saying.

YMedad said...

He may not necessarily be religiously observant but that doesn't mean that your Hasbarah always has to be religiously tinted.

And, btw, the word is spelled ארבע

Hasbara With Attitude said...

I also left out "יחד".. Haste makes errors in posts.

My point was that it's something that we and the hundreds of generations before us aspired to, prayed for. Now that we can with freedom there are so few who do, an now this person suggests we abrogate our rights to live where we please? Do they think that if all Brooklyn (or Long Island) olim abandoned Israel to the "indigenous" Israelis, that the surrounding Arab countries would simply let the "Jewish and Arab people" work it out amongst themselves?