There are no two sides here
No, there are no “two sides”. And no, it’s not the “occupation”. And no, it’s not that “they don’t have a political outlook”…writes Ben-Dror Yemini.
These illusions and false claims will not decrease the level of terrorism. On the contrary, they will encourage it to increase. And the fact that there are many useful idiots who belong to the enlightened and progressive circles in the world, including Israel, who make these excuses for terrorism – does not make all of these people right.
There is no “cycle of violence”. There is a Palestinian side, which is pro-Iranian or jihadist, which has no interest in reconciliation and in peace but rather in the destruction of the Jewish state. The mythical leader of the Arabs of Palestine was a Nazi Islamist, the Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who preached the extermination of Jews. His legacy still lives on. Hamas and Jihad are his successors and continue in his footsteps. The incitement to hate Jews continues. The EU threatens to stop the funding, but these are only threats.
And there is another side; the side of the Jews who were persecuted in almost every country in the world and who fled or were expelled from Europe or from Arab countries. They received the right to self-determination and established a state. The Arab refusal to compromise and to division led to a double Nakba: both Palestinian and Jewish. Throughout the years of the conflict, the Jews have repeatedly extended a hand for peace, with a willingness to make far-reaching concessions. The outstretched hand was repeatedly rejected. And when the Palestinians prefer Jihad and terrorism – Israel must respond. When the Americans killed the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden – no one condemned “both sides”. So I say thank you to the Pope for condemning the violence in his weekly address on Sunday. But all the violence belongs to the side that supports terrorism, educates its children about hatred, and identifies with messages of anti-Semitism and racism.
The problem was never a “political outlook” or “hope for a better life”, because the perpetrators of terrorism, those who send them, those who support them, those who encourage them – do not want any political outlook and no hope for a better life. They want a dark world made by the “Muslim Brotherhood”. After all, their role model is the Mufti. And their last leader, and that of all the “Muslim Brotherhood” in the world, was Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who called on Muslims to “complete Hitler’s work”. His disciples are the ones who control the Palestinian television programs, where the call to exterminate Jews continues.
Shall we try to say then that the problem is the occupation? When masses of young people from Europe, hundreds or thousands from each country, left the fleshpot to join the Islamic State, it was not because of the occupation or for a “political outlook”. Among them were doctors and engineers and professionals. They were brainwashed through social networks, preachers in mosques, and incitement channels like Al-Jazeera. Some of them engaged in beheading.
“The greatest threat to the US is the UK”, claimed the magazine “New Republic” when the extent of the support of young Muslims in the UK in al-Qaeda was revealed. This was in 2006. The article sparked a debate. When later thousands of Britons volunteered for ISIS, it became clear that these numbers were not merely opinions and polls. And when the American army was mobilised to defeat them – no one said that “the cycle of violence should be stopped.” Just as when there is a rapist and there is a woman that was raped by him, no normal person would say that “the cycle of violence between them should be stopped.” Those who prefer the Jihad over peace and reconciliation – they are the problem, even if they are portrayed as the weak side. Those who refuse all the proposals of the international community to lift the blockade from the Gaza Strip and prefer rockets to welfare – they are the problem.
Until you start talking about Israel.
At this point, the madness reaches new heights. The Muslim Brotherhood’s “Al-Jazeera” channel and the BBC both published the same headline: “Nine Palestinians killed in Jenin”. This is brainwashing. Because nine jihadists were killed in Jenin, in addition to one woman, who was caught in the crossfire. They planned to carry out a terror attack on Israel, which responded with a preemptive strike. The “New York Times” took this even one step further and claimed that the killing was an outcome of the new right-wing government. Did the previous government not operate in Jenin? And does the American government not fight jihad? The language that is being used determines the effect on the mind of the public.
Israel is a democracy, and after all, Israelis themselves spread the propaganda of lies and excuses in the service of terrorism. Most time, they have good intentions. They want to help the weak. They strive for a peaceful solution. But nobody has an exemption from facts. And when basic facts are ignored, the impact on the mind of the public is determined accordingly. In the international media, this is deemed to be yet another Israeli aggression as part of the occupation, and the Palestinians are forced, oh poor little things that they are, to respond with their own killing spree.
It was only a few days ago that there was a suicide terror attack in a mosque in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan. Muslims murdered Muslims. At least 92 dead and the numbers are still rising. The real enemy of the Muslims and the Palestinians is terrorism, Jihad and Hamas, and not those who fight them. This does not mean that everything the West has done as part of the war on terror was justified. And there is no need to justify each and every Israeli soldier, one in a hundred, who harmed a Palestinian without justification, nor the establishment of the outposts, which only harm security. But we must not forget: the Israeli war against terrorism, Hamas and Jihad is a necessary and justified struggle. There is no need to give it up because of the madness that provides it with excuses and justifications.
Ben-Dror Yemini is a researcher, speaker and senior journalist with the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot. During the last ten years, Yemini conducted much research on anti-Israeli propaganda. His latest best-seller, “INDUSTRY OF LIES”, was published in Nov. 2014 (Hebrew, by YEDIOT SFARIM) and (English, 2017, by ISGAP, Portuguese and French – 2020). Yemini gives lectures at a lot of leading universities and parliaments. His articles are published in many leading newspapers around the world.
Yemini was a peace activist for many years and supported all peace initiatives. Yemini argues that the anti-Israeli propaganda is becoming a real threat to free thought and to the freedom of speech and one of the biggest obstacles to reconciliation and peace.
W need more like you, Ben-Dror Yemini, to speak out in such a direct, passionate and succinct way with the facts of the matter. Rhetoric and propaganda hold sway and this is so easy to embrace by those who wish to project themselves onto it.