Yasser Arafat and his PLO - part 1

 It is nowadays no surprise if somebody who is as far away from peace as a cat from veganism is awarded Nobel peace prize, yet among many controversial figures Arafat is possibly one of the most surprising or so one should thought. A terrorist, a soldier, a founder of terrorist organization, a wannabe destroyer of two countries and almost successful destroyer of the third one. That is no record of pacifist for sure. Nevertheless it is interesting and significant person for the history of Middle East in general and Israel (and Jordan and Lebanon) in particular.

Born in Cairo in 1929 he was a son of Egyptian father and Palestinian mother. All his youth is connected to Egypt. His engineering studies on Cairo university were for some time suspended when - radicalized at the university - he took part along Muslim Brotherhood in the war of 1948 trying to prevent establishing of Israel. One thing has to be admitted - he read a lot and made himself acquainted with lots of political literature, Zionist included.

 After 1956 war against Israel (in which he also took part, however marginally), and after being refused Canadian or Saudi visa he went to Kuwait and that is where he started organizing his Fatah party dedicated to organizing Palestinian state through fighting Israel. He was - as will be shown - not really dedicated to the first cause but deeply devoted to the second. Later he left for Syria, where (with the backing of Arab League) he created Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1964. And this is the first interesting moment I want to describe as you may read about Arafat on your own, but few moments are so significant in view of today's situation that they need to be reexamined.

So, the year is 1964. In 1947 Jews accepted the UN proposed division, the Arab refused it. In 1948, 24 hours after Israel declared her independence 6 Arab armies attacked her. In one of them young Arafat was fighting. In 1964 Gaza still belonged to Egypt and housed training camps for fedayeens who attacked Israel, West Bank of Jordan was still in Jordan, Jerusalem, which was to be under international control was illegally occupied by Jordan and Golan Heights were in Syria and were constantly used to shell Jewish villages with fire. All the territories that today many so called politic activists consider "occupied" were not in Israeli borders. So what did Arafat want to liberate and from whom? Did he want to liberate Gaza from Egypt and create Palestinian state? No. Did he want to establish Palestinian state in parts of southern Lebanon or Syria where many Arabs who previously lived in Israel were living now? No. Did he want to liberate Jerusalem from Jordan? No. Did he want to liberate Palestinian refugees from refugee camps they were sent to in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt alike? No. He wanted to liberate Palestine by destroying Israel (much smaller then), murdering Jews and possibly giving the territory to neighboring countries as he was still under the strong influence of pan-Arab-ism. Therefore those who, after 1967, claimed PLO was a response to some occupation of land by Israel obviously miss the significance of those 3 years before what they call occupation took place but the movement created by Arafat, that later claimed it is against "occupation" was already acting towards destroying Israel.

Let me know please if the topic of Arafat and discrepancies of what he (and many activists today) claimed and continue to claim and what really happened is of interest to you and should I continue with it. In the meantime here is the picture of Hurva synagogue blown up by Jordanian forces in 1949 when the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem started and no Jews (no matter what passport they held) could enter this holy city.

 

 

How Israel used nuclear bomb 😉 the legend from other serious time

It is a very difficult time nowadays, both in Israel and everywhere else. Lots of attention was recently (and for good reason) concentrated on possession and possibility acquiring and using of the atomic weapon. So I decided to tell about the single time when Israel was suspected and accused of using one.

The year was 1948 and the British troops were getting ready to leave mandate. The more or less intense civil war was raging in the territory for the previous half a year, and since the November voting in UN that has proposed partition of the remaining mandate territory between Jews and Arabs was rejected by the latter (accepted by Jews) everybody expected matters to get worse.

In Safed (Tsfat), the unofficial capital of Galilee, British troops were getting ready to abandon the town. Safed is an old town, with significant importance to religious Jews, as a place connected to development of Kabbalah. Strong, uninterrupted Jewish presence dates there back to ancient times. However, in 1948 this was predominately religious, Mizrahi community consisting mostly of elderly people. There were between 1,500 and 2,500 Jews and between 9,000 and 11,000 Arabs in Safed right before the British withdrawal.

British, absolutely convinced about Arab force superiority in town, offered Jewish community evacuation to avoid massacre, however Jews refused. On May 16 British troops left the town for the last town leaving in Arabs hands all the most important military points: the Citadel, the Government House, and the police post on Mount Cana’an. This is very important, since Safed is built on the mountain and the streets are very steep. All the significant points were on the top of the hill giving those holding them significant advantage. 

 Jewish quarter was under siege and people were slowly running out of food and water, on top of being constantly shot at. Palmach (Haganah elite forces) managed to sneek into the city on Friday April 23. Chief rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Avraham Zeida Heller, ordered the congregants in shul the next morning to go home and cook for the ravenous fighters on that Shabbat Day. Although very little food was available because of the Arab blockade, they were able to use the flour that remained from Pesach.

Two Jewish attack that followed - on April 30 and May 6 - remained unsuccessful and the situation was dire. On May 6, after meager Jewish forces had to retreat from unsuccessful trial to capture the fortress, they were caught under heavy shelling for 24 hours. Additional small forces of Palmach brought to the town news about infamous  mufti of Jerusalem gathering forces to take Safed and a homemade mortar - Davidka. Such mortars only started to be used at the time. They were inaccurate, didn't do much damage, but they were extremely noisy. On May 10 Jews started to use Davidka in Safed. The damage to Arab quarter was relatively small, but the impression made by noisy mortar was tremendous.

That afternoon it rained. It is extremely rare to witness rain in Israel in May. It is even said that between Pesach and Sukkot one should not pray for rain as it is leading Lord to temptation. This time, however, it started raining heavy, though for a short time. The Jewish commanders started rumors among the very uneducated Arab population that they have an atom bomb, and obviously, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, everybody read that it always rain after the nuclear explosion.

The noise from Davidka, the completely unexpected rain, and the rumors spread had combined huge effect. Almost whole Arab population fled in panic certain that Palmach forces have somehow acquire nuclear weapon and are actually using atom bomb on Safed. Thus is how the battle for Safed ended and I hope we will never witness more serious use of nuclear weapon than this one. 

Below city of Safed (Tsfat) today 

 

 

The story of Gaza

 The eyes of many nowadays are directed towards Gaza. Some are terrified for a terror danger to Israel, some are sorry for Gazans, few accuse Gazans for supporting terrorism, many accuse Israel for genocide. Very few bother to remember origins of the story. So let's try to tell it starting in 1948.

After the war of independence,  when 24 hours after the creation of Israel it was attacked by 6 Arab armies, Gaza fell under Egyptian rule. It was mostly settled by Arab refugees from the recent conflict. 

After 6 day war provoked by Egypt Israel took over Gaza, together with Sinai Peninsula. For subsequent years, during war of atrocity, both territories belonged to Israel treated as occupied territories. During 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Israel was suddenly attacked by Egyptian (together with Iraqi forces in some numbers) and Syrian armies Sinai Peninsula was the main battleground between Egypt and Israel. Israel kept its borders as per end of 6-day war. Few years later, in famous Camp Davies Accords, Egypt and Israel negotiated peace (formally achieved in 1979) in a formula land for peace. This time it worked and Egypt recognized Israel and Israel, in accordance with treaty returned Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982 as a demilitarized zone. The questions few ask today: why Israel returned Sinai Peninsula and not Gaza taken at the same time? The answer is simple and important: Egypt never wanted to retrieve Gaza. They had enough problems with its inhabitants between 1948 and 1967.

 During 90ies and Oslo accords time there were some understandings between Israelis and Gazans, and Gazans often worked in Israeli kibbutzim near border. However, after first and second intifada Gaza became too much to take care of and control and in August 2005 Israel, by decision of then PM Ariel Sharon, unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. The hope was that it will be land for peace and that Gazans left to their own devices will turn to peaceful coexistence with Israel (love or friendship were not expected).

Nothing could be further from truth. Israel during withdrawal dismantled  21 settlements in Gaza taking all inhabitants (many unwilling) into Israel. The interesting story make the fate of Bedouin village of Dahaniya placed in no-man zone. Bedouins might choose where they want to live, yet treated by Gazans as traitors, because they were friendly coexisting with Israelis they asked to be resettled to Israel and so it happened - they were taken to Arad.

Israelis left some number of greenhouses and EU provided money for infrastructure and Netherlands provided seedlings. However, partially because of Israelis destroying some greenhouses, partially because of Palestinian looting after Israeli withdrawal lots of the economic power that could be used was lost.

Fatah took control over Gaza, but next year during elections Hamas won. Fatah did not recognize the elections results and in subsequent year battle of Gaza took place. Hamas members were throwing Fatah officials from high buildings and finally Hamas took power. Elections were never held again.

Hamas introduced reign of terror. Palestinians not sympathizing with it were persecuted, corruption achieved new high and most of international help (the highest per capita) were either transferred to private accounts or used for tunnel digging and weapons supply. 

In June 2006, still under Fatah rule, Hamas captured and kidnapped from Israel corporal Gilad Shalit, who spent next 5 years in Gaza and was released in October 2011 in exchange for over 1,000 Arab prisoners, among them Yahia Sinwar, sentenced for numerous murders (2 Israelis and 4 Palestinians). Sinwar was the brain behind October 7 attack. 

Between August 2005 and October 7, 2023 Hamas fired over 20,000 rockets on Israel. And however they were not able to cover long distance and - due to bomb shelters and precautions - few Israelis were killed, they made living in Gaza neighborhood miserable. During particularly heavy shelling few times IDF intervened but subsequently always retrieve to the Israel proper.

In response to constant fire from Gaza Israel imposed partial blockade in 2007, at the same time Egypt did the same.  While UN, many countries and at least 19 NGO organizations protested against Israeli blockade not one ever protested against the - exactly the same - Egyptian one.

Talking about occupation is very doubtful, as there are no Israelis in Gaza. It is forbidden for them (of course with exception of wartime) to enter Gaza. 

In years leading to October 7  both Qatar and Iran were - with silent agreement from PM Netanjahu - arming Hamas.  The rest of the story we see with our own eyes.

Yet hearing about open air prison I never cease to be amazed at it since Israel for many years was supplying Gaza for free (they were technically obliged to pay, but never did) in electricity and water, Israel was providing free of charge specialized treatments in its hospitals (people from near border kibbutzim often were volunteers driving ill Gazans to hospitals. Same people were murdered on October 7).

Moreover, the same type of restrictions as Israel put against Gaza put Egypt - minus electricity, water and help.

Please see some pictures from Gaza from before last war. Does it look like prison? 

 

Why radical anti-Israelism is in fact old fashioned antisemitism

 Israel is under attack. Day after day I am despairing for my friends there. And day after day I see more untrue articles and comments full of antisemitism and hatred towards Israel. Mind you - normal critique of the country's policy or its government is not anti-anything except anti some politicians and there are very few politicians I care for, and even with them it is part of the job to be criticized. As one Israeli diplomat put it long ago: don't try to compete with Israeli press in criticizing Israeli government. You have no chance of winning. 

But sharing false and extremely cruel and hurting stories about a country or nation, wishing death upon all members of a nation or ethnic group, condemning the whole group for actions and omissions of some of its members or - even worse -  somebody totally different or even non-existent (when the occurrence is false) is something totally different. It is at best hatred and discrimination and at worst incitement to abuse. And in today's western world everybody understands it (even if they don't apply it) if it concerns any other group but Jews and Israelis. 

When something awful happens in the world (and it looks like it does every day) at least mainstream media try to usually  blame individual perpetrator in case of criminal activities. A group of individuals in case of organized activity against law (e.g. gangs), organizations, usually proudly advertising their activities when it is terror activity (e.g. Boko Haram) or at least governmental entities in case it is on state level (even in democracies, critics of Hungarian PM Orban say/ write he or his administration passes classified NATO information to Russia and not Hungary; the same for the threat to attack Greenland, territory of other NATO member, it was said it is President Trump, sometimes Republican administration, not the USA). When terrorist attacks happen in Europe - on the Christmas markets or train station and the perpetrator in Muslim immigrant usually it is accompanied by statements, obviously true, that not all immigrants/ Muslims are terrorist and they cannot all share responsibility for what has happened.

Not in the case of Israel. This one state is treated more often than not as a single-minded democracy (something that doesn't exist) with high capabilities in telepathy and, what's more, agreeing on everything one of the government (or even of Israelis) does before doing anything. Of course only if the message is (true or untrue) showing Israel as a villain. 

What is most, every Jewish person is treated as accomplice of what is (usually falsely) to be perceived as Israel's fault. When Jewish school students, small children, were attacked on the bus in London, Palestinian question was brought. When synagogue in Belgium was fired at, Palestinian question was brought. When supporters of soccer team were hunted in Amsterdam by people with weapons, Palestinian question was brought. When some police officers refused to protect them, the Palestinian question was brought. When rabbi in France was shoot, the Palestinian question was brought. When few demonstrators in Colorado were attacked with fire weapon, yes, you guessed it...

Would it be all right if protesting against occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco people would start attacking Moroccans? Or even EU citizens, since EU is paying Morocco for fishing rights on Western Sahara's waters, therefore legitimizing occupation few Europeans even know about.

Would it be all right to attack children of Russian emigrants leaving somewhere because we don't condone Russia's politics (OK, Russia is no democracy, still, EU from former example is, and many Russians support Putin).

Would it be all right to name every citizen of Emirates a murderer since many Philippine and Indonesian workers were murdered while building sport venues for soccer games? Apparently not, since UEFA and many Europeans and American tremendously enjoyed these games.

Would it be all right to hold not only every Saudi but also every Muslim responsible for Osama bin Laden's conduct and the murder of Khashoggi? 

Would it be all right to hold every American responsible for fate of Afghanistan (regardless of their state of affairs)?  This is probably the closest example I can think of, and I will write about it more. Later.

You see the pattern? 

You see the pattern? So why Israel and Jews are exceptions for so many people from individual responsibility and subjected to the group one, but only for real or imagined evil deeds. The good ones (plenty of them) are either classified as false news (if possible), or dismissed as unimportant, or ridiculed at.

In my opinion there are only two possible answers, and as it happens, I believe both to be true.

One is well rooted, sometimes viscous and brought to a very high level, antisemitism with its fantasies about omnipotent, thinking as one and always evil Jews, starting from children at school in London, finishing on IDF soldiers throwing leaflets with warnings and orders to evacuate (the only army in the world that routinely does so).  

The other is contempt for Palestinians, who evidently - in the opinion of Israeli enemies - are completely unable to plan long-term, pursue dialogue, keep promises (as Oslo ones), refrain from falling on pure terror and organize their state or its beginnings on Gaza strip, even with all tremendous help they got. Apparently small and not very smart children. This is the quintessential colonial mindset with all its paternalism and feeling of superiority. Sometimes this contempt of do-gooders and excuse-makers for Palestinians would have been funny if not so racist (the attribute usually subscribed to Israel by those people) and so deadly.

 

Pictures in Riga, Latvia

 There is a small museum of Jewish history in Riga, the capital of Latvia. It is in a beautiful old house, in few spacious rooms, but it is still a very confined space for a museum. 

I have visited it recently. Jewish minority in Latvia, present there for centuries, and taking vital part in this country's establishing after I WW, almost totally perished during Shoah. I have visited also the place where Riga's ghetto used to be, but that is for another time and occasion. 

The place was quiet, the audio-guide excellent and the whole story fascinating.

Yet, before I even entered the museum the exhibition of some art work caught my attention. It was dedicated to the horrible massacre of last October when Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis.

Thinking about Western students demanding intifada, shouting for the next Holocaust i watched with tears in my eyes these pieces of art showing empathy and understanding of what really happened. They might not be the best paintings I have seen in my life, but they are striking and full of pain of what happened to men, women and children.

Let me share some with you:

The above one is titled "Something horrible is about to happen" and shows the peaceful kibbutz Kfar Aza right before the attack. The kibbutz where people were concentrated on supporting Palestinian rights and helping those living in Gaza, often times volunteering for them.

Here is the series of another 3 pictures from Kfar Aza, showing massacre, child's bedroom (middle) and those who left in for eternity...
 

 

The Bibas family were not the only children taken hostage. Enough is to remind little Abigail, just 3 year-old, taken hostage after her parents were murdered, her dad while he was holding her in his arms. There were so many children, babies, murdered, wounded, orphaned, kidnapped. Yet we know nothing about the fate of Bibas family kidnapped in entirety: dad, mum and their two small children, Kfir, the younger, not even one year old... If he is alive he spent his first two birthdays as a hostage in Gaza.

 

 

People were hiding in safe rooms hoping for rescue, but safe rooms were designed against rockets, not against terrorists, they were not hidden and rarely allowed for the doors to be locked from inside. Nobody expected what came. Little Abigail's siblings after the murder of their parents hid inside for 14 hours, alone. They were 6 and 9.

People danced and had joy on the Nova event until they had to run for their lives. Over 360 didn't make it. Young, beautiful, diverse, peaceful people...

The dove of peace was murdered that day...

As the last one I wanted to show you the picture that was specially touching for me. It was painted by Merav Shinn Ben-Alon, titled "Bring her home". In the observation point on the Gaza border a group of teenage soldiers were stationed. Female, unarmed. They were observers. Some were murdered in the cold blood, some were taken hostage. I have seen, as probably did you, horrible scenes with terrorist laughing that these are the women they will get pregnant. Horrible. Among captives was Naama Levy showed in the pictures, her hair held by the terrorist, with wounded ankle, hands tied behind her back and bloodstained pants. Bring her home! She was only eighteen!

Many years ago, during Shoah, Latvian Modernist artist, Alexandra Belcova, was one of the very few souls outside of Jewish community, who was horrified by the fate of Latvian Jews in real time, when the ghetto was created. She carried the packs to her music teacher and other friends to the Riga's ghetto and finished drawing tens of sketches depicting horrors of the time, never completely finished, feverish and backed by horror. Nevertheless there are also few of her finished paintings illustrating her emotions. Below find one of the, very moving, that is the personification of shame, guilt, despair, hopelessness and still humanity, deprived, humiliated but humanity when confronted with proud and open cruelty and hate.

Shall we recognize ourselves in this portrait when observing students from cream of the cream Western universities calling for genocide of Jews again?

Christian (?) pastor who gave up Bible for politics

The former pastor of the US president Barack Obama says Jesus was Palestinian!
Apparently he does not know the Bible or does not care about it. Jesus's visits to the Temple, His living as a pious Jew, His statements about coming to the lost sheep of Israel, His citing of Old Testament and rabbis, it is all not worth mentioning and unimportant for this 'pastor'. What counts is political agenda - so, according to him, Jesus was Palestinian, presumably Arab, nothing to do with Judaism or God, I am even inclined to think that for this 'pastor' Jesus was the liberator of Palestinians from Jews, don't you think? (forget the Romans occupying the country, Jewish country!)

So - there are some more things to be learn from this former President's spiritual guide as for example how bad it is for the US and the whole world to be capitalistic, never mind there is feudalism in Arab countries in the gulf - it is better (or is communism? I got lost).
There is freedom of speech and  one may believe Jesus was Palestinian Arab, US is the worst country and Jews are to be blamed for everything (however this is called racism) and say it allowed (well at least in the US, try saying bad things about Islam in Islamic country or criticize Kim or communism in North Korea or communism in China, all your problems will be resolved once and for ever) yet the fact that a person speaking in such a way with such a hatred was spiritual guide to the US president, the fact that such a person, who talks as if he never read Bible calls himself 'pastor' deserves to be known.   

Financing the terrorism by Palestinian Authority

The nearly only income of the Palestinian Autonomy authorities is money received from NGOs, governments and EU. Israel is financing their electricity (I have written about it here), water and medical aid and lots of financing comes from the US and specially EU plus some Islamic countries.

Some of this money (including the one coming from European tax payers) goes to the convicted terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons. It has been long known but here are some new facts and findings.

So, my dear fellow tax payers - like it or not you are paying for things like suicide bombings, explosives or stabbings (as lately) whose innocent civilian victims beg for help and are spat upon.

Do you really support it?