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If I could only send one email for the rest of my life on  the subject of the Middle East, it would be this one. 
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Speaking Truth to the Powerless:  An Open Letter To The People Commonly Called "Palestinians" 

 This letter is an outstanding piece of writing from a man in  New Zealand  who claims to be an agnostic. I could only hope that every  Jew, Christian  Muslim (and agnostic) throughout the world understood the  issues as well  as he does!  PLEASE - read it - print it out - keep it for future  reference - forward  it to everyone you know! 

 
Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 

 Speaking Truth to the Powerless:  An Open Letter To The People Commonly Called "Palestinians". 

 Greetings to any Palestinian who may be reading this. My name is David  White. I am a citizen of New Zealand, a small, Western, nominally  Christian country in the South Pacific Ocean. I am not Jewish, or  Christian, I guess I'm vaguely agnostic.  Writing this letter is a good way for me to discuss the  horrible mess in  the Middle East, spell out as many relevant points as possible  concerning the state of the Palestinian people, and to see what can be  made of them I don't speak Arabic, so I can only communicate with  English-speaking Palestinians. There aren't many here in NZ,  though, and  I haven't yet met any. I don't know how many will ever see  these words,  but, here's hoping someone does.  I have a post-graduate university education, and I suppose I could be  called an intellectual. Unfortunately, many such people have supported  abhorrent ideologies such as Nazism, and continue to support  Communism,  so I refuse to describe myself in this way. I don't want to considered  as just another "trendy leftie" academic, as we would say in NZ. So,  unlike many university-educated types, I am  anti-totalitarian, pro-peace  up to a point, pro-democracy, pro-capitalism (except the capitalists  running Enron), and skeptical about the "cult of victimhood."  I'm quite  safe here in New Zealand, and no-one I know has been killed by a  Palestinian.  My perspective of Palestinians is something like this -  you're Arabs (of  course), mostly Muslim, but with a Christian minority. Many  of you live  outside Gaza/West Bank, mostly in Jordan and other Muslim countries,  with some groups living in Western countries as well. You  feel that you  have been wronged by Israel and are fighting to destroy them.  As for my perspective on Israel, I see them like this. They  are a mainly  Jewish, small, free-market democracy with a large Arab minority  surrounded by hostile Arab dictatorships. They have an ancestral claim  to Israel, their state was created as a refuge from persecution, they  have a right to exist, and, having survived a holocaust in  Europe, they  should not have to sit still and wait for another one in the Middle  East. 

A Down Under Overview.

 Over the last few months, the conflict in the disputed territories of  Gaza and the West Bank has turned into a war between the Palestinian  people and Israel. (I will not apologise for using the term  "disputed",  as I believe it reflects a rather complicated situation more  accurately  than "occupied").  Your interpretation, as far as I can tell, seems to be something like  this: You have no state of your own, and you are fighting a  war against  those you call "Zionist oppressors" and "colonial imperialists", in  order to create a Palestinian state.  Accusations of massacre and human rights violations by the  Israeli Army  are being tossed around like confetti. Your leader, Yasser  Arafat, vows  to "martyr" himself rather than "surrender", and that bungling and  incompetent organization, the United Nations (again, no apologies  for venting personal opinions), is trying to do what it is  constitutionally  incapable of doing, i.e. "saving future generations from the  scourge of war".  The Israelis see things differently, of course. For them,  it's a simple  battle for survival. They offered you a state, and you attacked them  instead. They have occupied Palestinian towns, have fought it out with  various armed groups, and desperate attempts are being made by the US,  other Arab countries and the UN to break the so-called "cycle of  violence". As a result, the Palestinian situation at the moment  generally, can be explained by putting it into New Zealand idiom.  Put bluntly, the Palestinian people are buggered. Munted. Stuffed.  Rooted. (American equivalent=screwed. British equivalent: done over).  It's like this: Yasser Arafat turned down the Israeli offer of a  Palestinian homeland in Gaza and the West Bank. You want, or Arafat  claims that you want, a Palestine "from the river to the  sea;" in other  words, "all or nothing".  There is one insuperable obstacle to this- Israel. No matter how  eloquent your arguments or numerous your martyrs, no matter how many  European diplomats are angered by, or UN resolutions are  passed against,  Israel, the Israelis are not going to pack up and leave. The  only way you  will get the Palestinian state you want is to destroy Israel.  This is what you have been trying to do since 1948, and the current  "intifada" launched in 2000 is your latest effort. However,  the Israelis  are not standing there and letting you kill them. They are fighting  back, and if they have to choose between their own survival  and yours,  guess which choice they'll make. 

 A Vast Wringing Of Hands, A Great Fluttering Of Diplomats. 

That has been the overall response to the disaster you have created  for yourselves. You, the Palestinian Arabs, are obviously hoping for  some kind of international intervention to save you. As we in New  Zealand would say, "Get Real!".  The European Union and the UN have demonstrated on numerous  occasions in  the past their incompetence and total incapacity to take any sort of  firm action without American leadership. Ask your Muslim brothers of  Bosnia-Herzegovina, about how effective the EU and the UN were in  protecting them without American intervention. In spite of  the impression  that American diplomatic efforts have created, the US will  not take sides  against Israel, and will eventually abandon its futile attempts at  evenhandedness. If they do join forces militarily with Israel in their  war against terrorism, your fighters will be snuffed out like candle  flames.  As for your "beloved Arab brothers" in the Middle East, they make a  great deal of noise about your "liberation struggle", and have sent  money and arms, but have not sent a single tank to save you. Their  diplomatic proposals are ones that could have been offered at  any time,  and are aimed at benefiting them, not Palestinians. The Egyptians  themselves will not declare war on Israel unless they receive $100  billion to cover their costs.  Do you really believe that the rest of your Arab Muslim brothers think  you are worth that much? Do you really believe they will put your  interests ahead of their own? Although your friends and Arabs  in Europe  are passing sanctions and burning synagogues in your support, not a  single EU warship has sailed to your aid, and not a single  NATO aircraft  has dropped a single bomb on your "Zionist oppressors".  I have noted that large numbers of people, including  university educated  intellectuals support the Palestinian cause. Don't be misled  by this. No  matter how many western intellectuals, news media and international  organisations may support the Palestinian struggle, none of  this matters  because America stands by Israel. 

 The Unbearable Burden of Life 

How did you get into such a mess? As you yourselves would say and have  indeed said on many occasions, it isn't your fault. It's always the  "Great Satan" America, and it's "Lesser Satan", Israel, that you blame  for all your woes. Everything that you do, such as your "martyrdom  operations", are described as the products of your "rage" at being  "dispossessed of your land", and of your "helplessness" in the face of  "Zionist" might.  There are only 300 million Arabs against over 5 million Jews! How  unfair! How unjust, that so many can do so little against so few!  A number of Western commentators have put Arab failures down  to numerous  cultural factors, not the least being Islam. Your religious beliefs in  martyrdom and jihad, coupled with a total inability to accept  any blame  for your own predicament, have combined to do you great and lasting  damage.  Look closely at why Western countries such as Israel have  succeeded, and  Muslim countries have not. Western countries are free-market  democracies. Muslim countries (other than Turkey) aren't. Surely that  should tell you something. 

 Why I Stand With Israel 

As I said, I do not, and I will not, support the Palestinian  cause. Why  not? I have a number of reasons, and here they are: 

 1.) You have made it clear beyond any shadow of doubt that  you intend to  destroy Israel and kill or drive out its Jewish population. This is  genocide, pure and simple. You justify this by saying that Israel has  committed many crimes against your people, and that you seek  "justice".  I say this in response - NOTHING WHATSOEVER is an acceptable  justification for genocide. Loss of land, humiliation at  being militarily defeated -  others have suffered these and moved on to create new nations and  opportunities for themselves.  Examples abound- the Germans thrown out of East Prussia in  Europe, 1945,  the Nationalist Chinese who fled to Taiwan in 1949, to name but two.  Germans and Taiwanese have coped with military defeat and the loss of  land. They haven't warred with their neighbours, nor have  they launched  terrorist attacks upon them. Both countries have more wealth than any  Arab nation. Why can't Palestinians cope? Are Germans and Chinese  better able to deal with adversity than Arabs? 

2.) You have accused the Israelis of "genocide" against you. Here's a  question for you: Israel has atomic bombs and powerful  military forces.  If they really, truly wanted you all dead, they could easily  do it. Why  haven't they? If the Israelis went all-out, you would be, as  we say in  New Zealand, "dog tucker". Why did they spend so much time  negotiating  with your leaders? Because Israel wants peace and secure borders. You  refuse to give them even that. You plan genocide and accuse  Israel of the  same crime. Prove it! 

3.) The use of terrorism. Killing people for being Jewish is  despicable.  Terrorist attacks on innocent civilians are also despicable. (At this  point, I'd like to pause and get a question of nomenclature  cleared up,  regarding those Palestinians who kill themselves and others with  explosives strapped to their bodies. You call them "martyrs". Western  media sources and academics debate the precise term to use in  describing them. Others, including the Israelis, call them  terrorists.  I have a better, more appropriate term. I prefer to use the word  "kamikazes". The original kamikazes appeared in 1944, in the  war in the  Pacific. They were Japanese Navy and Army pilots, organised  into "Special  Attack Units" with orders to crash their planes into American  warships,  in the hope of destroying them - "one plane, one ship". Their initial  impact was similar to that of the Al-Quaeda attacks on New  York and the  Pentagon- shock and horror. (I noted that many Palestinians  appeared on  Western TV celebrating the September attacks). Note: The American  response, in both cases was not the one  hoped for.  Once the shock had worn off, the US set out to destroy the kamikazes,  and terrible destruction was rained down on Japan, ending only with 2  atomic bombs. You know what is happening right now in  Afghanistan to the  Al-Quaeda group). 

4.) Using children as suicide bombers. Anyone who teaches children to  kill themselves in suicide attacks is not worth supporting under any  circumstances. For you to do this to your children is an  abomination. A  commentator on a Web magazine said that if the Palestinians laid  down their arms, they would get peace and land. If the Israelis laid  down their arms, they would be killed. You know that is true, even  if most of Europe doesn't. Your cause is evil, because it seeks  destruction at any price. Genocide is not justice.  Sacrificing your own  children for the sake of your leader's personal ambitions is wicked.  That's why I cannot support you. That's why I stand with Israel. 

 Palestinian Past or Future?

 The Second World War in Europe ended with Hitler's suicide. He was  replaced by Admiral Doenitz who quickly made peace with the Allies.  Japan's leader, Emperor Hirohito, decided on surrender rather than see  his nation destroyed.  If Arafat chooses surrender, though, will the rest of the Palestinians  go along with it? If he dies, will the war end? If the answer  to both of  these questions is No, then the Palestinian people are doomed. Do you  really prefer death as a people?  Do you fully comprehend what you are doing? If you are indeed  aware that  the path you have embarked on leads to destruction, and if you have  freely chosen to walk in that direction, then as a people you  are truly  beyond hope.  Are Palestinians really going to be a "Kamikaze Nation"? Are  you really  going to give Israel no other option except your destruction? If they  must choose, then as Israeli historian Martin Van Creveld  said, "better  a terrible end than terror without end".  Do not think that kamikaze tactics can get you what you want. The  Israelis can tell you all about Masada, if you ask them. Remember what  happened to the Japanese at places like Okinawa and Iwo Jima.  Palestinians deserve better than the current mess you are in now - but  before you can be given anything, you must offer a sincere peace, you  must stop teaching your children to hate, you must stop believing that  "victimhood" justifies everything and - above all other  things - GIVE UP  ISRAEL! Accept that you will never go there again except perhaps as  workers or tourists. Accept that Jews are human beings. Accept the  verdict of 1948 and learn to live with it.  Invest in banks, not bombs. Build computer chips, not Kalashnikovs.  Teach science and mathematics, not hate. Look to the future, not the  past. Stop blaming Americans and Jews for all your problems, and take  responsibility for your own actions. Read those parts in the  Quran about  living with the "peoples of the Book".  Golda Meir, the former Israeli Prime minister, is quoted as saying "  there will be peace in the Middle East only when the Arabs love their  children more than they hate Israel ". Every time I see pictures of  Palestinian children waving guns and  wearing dummy explosives, then I can only say she is right. The  alternative to peace is not victory but death.  Think about it - before it's too late. 

 From an Infidel to Those Who Submit, and are living in the Holy Land

-  May God grant you steadfastness in the face of things that cannot be  changed, the capacity to cope with those that can be changed, and the  wisdom and the ability to tell the difference.  David White  Auckland, New Zealand