I think that most of what you write is true, but that does not give Israel an excuse to do some of the things it has done in the Occupied Territories, especially as regards their policy towards certain settlers in Palestine.

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I hope that makes sense to someone!

Thanks for all the sensible comments received thus far.

To answer your colonial point, your simplistic paradigm of colonial oppressor v native victim simply does not fit. To talk of ‘occupation’ without taking into account the Arab rejectionism of Israel – that caused the aggression that caused ‘the occupation’ in the first place – is futile .The colonial paradigm does not take into account the unique case of the Jews, an ancient people who survived against all odds in order to return to their ancestral homeland. Genetically, religiously, linguistically, the roots of the Jews are in the Middle East. To talk of the Jews as colonialists is propaganda – half Israel’s Jews never left the Middle East but were driven out of ‘Arab’ countries which the Arabs conquered 1,000 years after Jews first settled in the region.
If Israel is a colonial invention, so is Lebanon, which was created by France to protect the rights of Maronite Christians; Iraq was created out of three Ottoman provinces, Jordan a convenient fiefdom for the Hashemies expelled from Saudi Arabia. Why do anti-Zionists question Israel’s legitimacy, yet do not question the Gulf states – a few tribes with their own UN seat and armies, whose countries were built by millions of disinfrenchanchised South Asians, treated little better than slaves.
If you want to fight colonialism you should be fighting on behalf of indigenous Middle Eastern peoples for self-determination and political rights – the rights of Copts, Assyrians, Berbers, Kurds – and Jews. This includes the right to speak their own non-Arab languages and in most cases practise a religion other than Islam .
If you were really concerned with human rights you would be fighting for minority rights, women’s rights, religious freedom, and freedom of expression in the ‘Arab world’.
That’s what Margolis was trying to say – that so much criticism of Israel smacks of lack of context and double standards.

The fact that Jews from Arab countries escaped with their lives while one third of European Jews validates the creation of Israel as a safe haven for Jews – and that is what Israel is. Just because things were worse in Europe does not mean that persecution was tolerable in the Middle East. Most of that persecution took place after 1948, but historically non-Muslims were always considered inferior to Muslims and suffered from humiliating and institutionalised discrimination. I don’t need to tell this to you, a Hindu.

I would defend the right of anyone to criticise Israeli government policy – but so much of the criticism one hears is unfair. You can criticise Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, but take into account the context: Israel has had to bear eight years of indiscriminate rocket fire; Hamas has a genocidal charter seeking the death of every Jew; and Hamas cowers amongst civilians. By all means criticise Israel’s policy in the ‘occupied’ territories, but what would you do if suicide bombers were coming in to blow up your civilians on a daily basis? Bearing in mind this important context let’s hear some constructive criticism – WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ISRAEL DO?

The Iranian president Ahmedinejad is misquoted, he said that ‘the regime occupying Jerusalem must be wiped of the pages of history’, nothing about nuclear weapons. Need I remind you that there is only one country who has ever used atomic weapons of mass destruction of civilians, the United States. The Iranian president is far from welcomed around the world. His presence sparks mass walkouts whenever he speaks. Some of his criticisms of Israel are legitimate yet fall on deaf ears because of previous idiotic statements he has made. However should we fight idiots with idiocy?
I would like to ask you a question. Do you believe that the Palestinians deserve their own state? Should east Jerusalem be part of that new state? What are your views on illegal settlements? Do you accept that significant crimes have been committed against the Palestinian people from 1919 to now? My point of view is that the Israelis and Palestinians have lost the ability to broker peace themselves. Both countries have strong nationalistic identities and there is too much baggage and pain that distorts decision making. Similarly the USA has too much domestic pressure to be able to effectively ensure that Israel behaves responsibly and doesn’t flaunt international law. When the people of Gaza elect a government which has an armed wing, Israel can pressurize the people to do otherwise.
However who regulates Israel? Sure we can rule that the wall around the occupied territories is illegal and a crime of apartheid, sure we can say that further settlement growth is illegal and Israelis should be pulling out of the territories that have been occupied since 1967, not making further moves to annex them, but who can enforce this? If a country like Israel wants to be part of the globalised community and trade with the rest of the world, it needs to conform to global standards. In that way Israel will gain respect, protection and prosper.

I would like to ask you to consider why, of all the massacres and other terrible things that happen in the world, in Tibet, China, Africa, the former Soviet Union, South America etc etc, the world concentrates most of its attention on a tiny state that is hardly visible on a map of the region.

I have family, living in Ashdod, where rockets have fallen, a couple of blocks from their apartment. What do you think any other government would do, faced with daily rocket attacks ?

How do you make peace with people who have been brought up to hate you ? Are you aware of the virulent antisemitism taught throughout the middle east, and even available in Arab bookshops in London.

In France there has been a huge wave of antisemitism recently by Moslems, and it is becoming more accerptable to voice it, even in this country.

Did you know that during the 2nd World War, there was a specifically Moslem force in the SS, and that the Palestinian leader, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, spent much of the war in Germany, as a guest of Hitler.

It is as a direct result of Israel WITHDRAWING from Gaza that they have the problem of rocket attacks, NOT because they are currently occupying it.

You should remember that the Palestinians were kept locked into the Gaza Strip between 1948 and 1967 by Egypt, and even now the Egyptian border is kept closed, yet Israel is blamed for the hardships currently being endured.

Did you know that the 1967 war was brought on, not by Israel, but by the Arabs, and that Israel sent Golda Meir on a secret mission to see King Hussain, to ask him to stay out of the war, but he refused, no doubt fearing assassination, like his father before him, if he sided with the Jews.

Have you forgotten that Arafat was offered a very good deal by Clinton, but he turned it down. Why, because he knew that he too might be assassinated if he made peace.

I have two suggestions for you, firstly try to see Brecht’s play Arturo Ui, or at least read it. It chronicles the rise of fascism, and ends with the chilling prophecy that it will return.
THe second is to visit Israel, and see for yourselves the conditions, and the geography.

It is approximately 10 -15 miles from the West Bank to the Med. To allow a Palestinian state there, until one is certain thatr they really want peace, would be suicidal, and I regret that the Israelis stiull remember the Holocaust, and have no wish to repeat it.

Finally, may I draw your attention to the fact that not only the present president of Iran, but also his predecessor, Rafsanjani, have openly declared their intention to wipe Israel off the face of the map, with nuclear weapons.

No other country has, in recent memory, been so threatened, and yet the world does nothing meaningful to condemn it, and the Iranian president is welcomed around the world.

Can you blame Israel for wanting to rely on its own strength, and not on meaningless rhetoric from the UN etc ?

Shalom/salaam