Proposition of the Palestinian Constitution

 Recently the draft of the proposed Palestinian constitution was published in the internet.

I decided to check what is inside. So, I read it so you don't have to. Of course you may. I will share my opinion here. Share yours!

It has 162 articles, was drafted by the committee, whose members advertise proudly their names. Let's check what's inside....

Preamble excerpts:

1) "It arrives at a delicate stage where our people in the homeland face policies of displacement and ethnic cleansing, and where settlement expansion and genocide continue in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while the dream of return remains alive in the hearts of Palestinians everywhere, generation after generation." This states that there is genocide (which is blatant lie and accusation) in the preamble to constitution, document usually accepted for years and expresses the wish to return (where to? not Gaza or West Bank. We will return to it).

2) Art. 1 "Palestine is part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian Arab people are part of the Arab nation" Does it mean that non-Arabs may not be citizens? May not be residents? It definitely looks that way. And if nation is Arab why none of 22 Arab nations (one nation?) wants some more Arabs?

3) Art. 3 "Jerusalem, religious nature, historical identity 1. Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Palestine, and its political, spiritual, cultural, and educational center, as well as its national symbol. 2. The state is committed to preserving its religious character and protecting its Islamic and Christian sanctities, as well as its legal, political, and historical status. 3. Any measures to change its character or historical identity are considered null and void according to international law." So, the capital of non-existent country is in the other country's capital (no even mention about East Jerusalem). The state is to be religious but apparently there is place for only 2 religions. No mention of Judaism (or any other religion for that matter).  And complete denial of any connections between Jerusalem and Judaism (however even Quran states so).

4) Art. 4 " Islam, Sharia and Christianity 1. Islam is the official religion in the State of Palestine. 2. The principles of Islamic Sharia are a primary source for legislation. 3. Christianity has its status in Palestine, and its followers' rights are respected." Just to make things clear. No mention of Judaism. Or any other religion except Islam and Christianity. Whereas Muslims have full rights in the State of Israel Arafat, and later Abbas (not to even mention Hamas which just wants to kill all the Jews) told public on many occasions that not a single Jew could live in Palestine if it is created. Yet it is Israel that is accused of being racist and apartheid on international forum (UN, universities, some European countries, not to mention such people as Francesca Albanese. So, in case Palestine is created we have another Sharia state, which is predictable. The real problem is not that it will be intolerant, Sharia etc. but it wants to destroy and supersede the Jewish state and states it even in its constitution proposal. And it is good to remember that ancient Jewish diasporas were destroyed by Arab countries in 1948.

5)  Art. 11 "Palestinian Liberation Organization The establishment of the State of Palestine does not diminish the status of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." There were countries described as "democracies with one party system". They were never democracies. If the sole legitimate representative is PLO than it implies everyone (Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, doesn't really matter) who opposes what PLO does or states may be put to jail or trial or maybe just be deprived of any political rights. Or murdered. It does not come as a surprise, but here the discussion regarding the legal and political system in potential new state may be finished. It will be just as democratic as Assad's Syria or ayatollahs' Iran.

6) Article 12 – "Unity of land, diaspora The State of Palestine works toward the unity of the land and the people in the homeland and the diaspora, and is committed to achieving independence and ending the occupation and ensuring the right of return for refugees according to international legitimacy resolutions." This is one of the most significant - and ominous - articles. Palestinian Authority issues passports since the 90s. They are recognized. Their owners travel to and from the West Bank mostly through Amman (and no, it is not because Israel does not allow them to fly from Ben Gurion, though there were trouble from time to time, it is because Palestinian Authority forbids it).So they can go and come back. So who are these "refugees" and where should they "return"? Due to particular system of designating being refugee permanently to descendants of Palestinian Arabs (the only such case in the world) we have Palestinian "refugees" with American, British or French passports (among others). But the so called "right of return", which is responsible for breaking any talks about creation of the Palestinian state as described here. Obviously the "right of return" equals to destroying Israel and if you have any doubts (what about the people who were refugees in 1948 etc.) just remember about circumstances when they left or were removed (the war started by them), the Jews thrown from Arab countries, and if you still harbor any doubts think what would happen if descendants of Pakistanis thrown from India would like to return to India, or the descendants of Indians thrown from Pakistan to Pakistan, or descendants of Russians from last 3 generations to Finland (say, from the time of regaining independence by Finland) or Estonia or Latvia and so on and so forth... This is the real plan to destroy Israel, written into the proposed constitution.

7) Article 24 – "Families of martyrs, victims of genocide The State of Palestine and the relevant national institutions work to provide protection and care for the families of martyrs and the wounded and prisoners and those released from the occupation prisons and the victims of genocide and to pursue the perpetrators of these crimes before the judiciary." This is yet another accusation of genocide and continuation of pay-to-slay program. 

These are just some of the most obvious "interesting" statements of the proposed document. For those of you with passion for reading legalize you may find more here

I have seen my share....

Francesca Albanese - the face of the UN

 On May 1, 2022, the position of UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories was assumed by Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese. The title itself carries a prejudice, if not a lie – there are no Palestinian territories that anyone, including Israel, could occupy. While historically one could speak of Jordanian or Egyptian territories under Israeli occupation (more or less like the Western Territories under Polish occupation, as they fell under Israeli rule as a result of wars initiated by those countries, but at least there are arguments), what about the Palestinian territories? But that's not the subject of today's post.

A position is a position. Let's take a look at the person who represents what some still consider a reasonable, international body, the UN.

 

The appointment itself was intriguing, smacking of nepotism. Ms. Albanese, who has had a long professional relationship with UN agencies, was appointed by a UNHCR advisory group in March and received a mandate on May 1, 2022, which was never voted on. 

 

She has never been neutral (one of the requirements for this role) and has repeatedly expressed her pro-Palestinian sympathies over the years, with particular emphasis on the most radical currents among Palestinians. Moreover, she had a long history of working at UNRWA, which I wrote about earlier.

 

Nevertheless, although no one probably expected neutrality and impartiality (theoretically required for her position), no one probably expected such unbridled spread of extreme forms of antisemitism.

After her recent appearances, when she spoke on the same press panel in Qatar as Hamas leaders and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi, and when, during her speech, she described Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide" and called Israel "the common enemy of humanity," France and Germany demanded her resignation. The UN is defending its neutral, impartial, and diplomatic envoy. Aren't those very balanced words?

 

 Ms. Albanese, like all propagandists and politicians caught making particularly nasty statements that were meant for a specific audience but somehow slipped out, is excused by "taking the words out of context." The context standing next to her—a representative of the Iranian government, currently committing a crime against humanity against its own citizens, and representatives of a terrorist organization that has repeatedly committed crimes against humanity (including Khaled Meshal)—clearly ignores this.

 

Let's take a look at some of this lady's other statements, as they make for interesting reading:

 

1.  Just 10 days before her last, scandalous speech, in which she declared Israel the "common enemy of humanity" (I don't know what humanity thinks about this, but as a part of it, I recommend Ms. Albanese to change her medication and see a psychiatrist quickly, even though it may be too late), she stated that "Hamas should not be perceived as 'murderers, people armed to the teeth, or fighters'" and that it was a political force that won the 2005 elections. I wrote about those elections here, and Ms. Albanese is probably still crying for the murdered, yet beautifully elected Mussolini (for whom else, I'm afraid to ask).

 

2.  In an open letter posted on Facebook in 2014, Albanese (a senior UN official) claimed that "the Jewish lobby has enslaved America"—and therefore "condemns the oppressed" Gazans, not Israel. She also criticized the BBC's coverage of the fighting, accusing the British broadcaster of "clearly the Israel lobby is in your veins and system." The BBC was already pro-Palestinian at the time, but apparently, that wasn't enough for the UN official.

 

3. In 2015, she juxtaposed two photos: a Nazi German soldier with a dog on a leash over a fallen man, and an Israeli soldier, also with a dog and also over a fallen man. She deemed it appropriate to compare the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from Israel in 1948, with the Holocaust. Of course, she didn't hesitate to mention the start of the 1948 war by Arab states, the program to drive Jews into the sea, or the 900,000 Jewish refugees from that war who were expelled from their homes in Arab countries.

 

4. And she rightly concluded that she had done nothing wrong, because after this statement, she was promoted to UN Special Rapporteur, heading the commission of inquiry into Israel's conduct towards the Palestinians. Upon accepting the position, she declared that she "does not hold views or opinions that could prejudge the matters" under investigation. Well, let's move on.

 

5.  Following the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo, Ms Albanese shared information from an Iranian state-owned newspaper that "the Mossad and the CIA were behind the attack on Charlie Hebdo."

 

6. In 2022, it proclaimed Hamas's right to exist and operate, despite the fact that in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and, of course, Israel, it has been recognized as a terrorist organization for years (the UN did not agree with this, they like Hamas, and twice the motions to condemn it were voted down).

 

7. In November 2022, addressing a group of… terrorists, she shamelessly claimed they had the right to “resist the occupation.” Regardless of whether it was an occupation, Ms. Albanese apparently believes that the people of Western Sahara have the right to murder Moroccans, Cypriots have the right to murder Turks, residents of (still formally occupied) Germany have the right to murder Americans, French, British (or Russians, it’s unclear), Georgians and Moldovans have the right to murder Russians, and Kashmiris have the right to murder anyone, just in case. It would be interesting to ask her about this.

 

8. After the October 7th massacre, Ms. Albanese dismissively said that "this crime must be put into context," clearly agreeing with the UN Secretary-General (the General Secretary is eager to hear this), who said the same thing. Instead (still in 2023), she expressed grave concern for the safety of Palestinians, calling for an immediate ceasefire. After all, in her opinion, only one side has the right to kill, and only one has the duty to die. Isn't that the very essence of a Special Rapporteur's impartiality?

 

9.  Albanese denied that October 7 was the worst anti-Semitic attack since World War II (if the facts do not match the views and propaganda, so much the worse for the facts). She still denies any sexual atrocities and crimes committed by Hamas.

 

10.  In 2024, Albanese compared Israel to the Third Reich three times.

 

In addition, she denied Hamas's crimes, spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories reminiscent of the Black Hundreds, and even associated the Los Angeles fire with Israel. If you have the time, energy, and desire for more of this literature, a list of some of her statements (in English) is available here.

 

When France and Germany (why only now?) demand her step down from a highly lucrative position she was never voted into, she's talking about taking words out of context. I'm not entirely sure which words, but I do know that even by the pathetically low standards of the UN, which has glorified more than one terrorist, this woman is exceptional. She's not the only one. Fifty years ago, after the Munich massacre, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (in an October 1972 article) similarly shamelessly defended the Black September terrorists, arguing that terrorism was the only weapon available to the "poor and oppressed" and that the attack demonstrated the need to solve the so-called Palestinian problem. This line of reasoning is strikingly similar to UN chief António Guterres's recent statement that the Hamas attacks "did not occur in a vacuum."

 

 Ladies and Gentlemen, with no views or opinions that could prejudge the Palestinian issue, the highly paid, impartial, elite, educated and neutral Francesca Albanese:

 

 

Who was Jesus? Cultural appropriation

The answer to the question in the title depends obviously on who is answering it.

For believing Christians the first answer will be God or savior.

For searchers, agnostics, many historians and so on: the person who taught new approach to religion some 2000 years ago in historical Israel who (or whose disciples) established a new religion.

Some declared atheists and self-willed and contrary people may insist he did not exist at all.

But what would you (regardless to which group you belong, and it may be a totally different one from the enumerated above) say if somebody told you he was a Roman soldier under governor Pilate? or Egyptian priest? or even better Hindi sadhu? or Viking warrior? You are totally understood and justified if you had just burst out laughing. Regardless of our personal belief in Jesus as God's son and savior (or lack thereof), and even if we harbor doubts if he lived at all, we all know he was (really or in his 2000 years old story) Jewish. Or do we?  

Here is a picture from Times Square, New York, from Christmas 2025:

This is obviously addressed to believers (of what, later on) as the present time suggests we are not talking about realities of ancient Israel under Roman occupation. Yet what does this extraordinary message really tries to say, to whom and who is its author. These are important and significant matters.

Let's start with what does Christianity say. I believe (prove me wrong if I am) that each and every Christian denomination present in XXI century believes Jesus to be both God and human (historically there was a difference of opinion, but that approach was established really centuries ago). I will leave out His divine nature in this post, but as a real human he had some real qualities. He was a man, He was rabbi, and first and foremost He was Jewish. He taught Torah, He was rabbi, He was educated in Law, he was sacrificed in the Temple as the first born son (the story in the Gospels), He had His bar-micva at the age of 12 (the story about his teaching in the Temple and getting lost), He was even rebel against the Romans.

For so many centuries Christianity, very anti Judaism, very anti Semitic and very much concentrated on Jesus's divinity tried to stay away from the simple truth who Jesus the human was, but finally it was stated loudly.

In 1973 Geza Vermes, a Reader at Jewish studies at the University in Oxford, written on the Dead Sea Scrolls, published his book: "Jesus the Jew: A historian's reading of the Gospels. Vermes made the case that Jesus was not just Jewish, but he was thoroughly Jewish. He strikes out at the Christian depiction of Jesus which is theological, rather than anything remotely connected to the historical figure. he sees Jesus as a carpenter, a healer, an exorcist, teacher and miracle maker. He views Jesus as part of the Galilean historical and cultural background.That will be the topic of my other entry, but the Jewishness of Jesus, so evident when we look at Gospels, is fascinating.

And then comes 2025 and at Times Square, in the middle of New York, a big Christmas banner declares Jesus to be Palestinian.

In His time Arabs were in Arabia (today's territory of Saudi Arabia, very roughly).

In His time Islam did not exist, and wouldn't have existed for subsequent almost 7 centuries.

In His time Israel was a Jewish state under Roman occupation.

He was a Jew, knowing Scripture (Torah), citing law (mostly Deuteronomy and Psalms), wandering rabbi engaged in debates about Judaism of His time.

Some 100 years after His death Romans, as a repercussion after Bar Kochba's insurrection renamed Israel Palestine (after Biblical Jewish adversaries Philistines) and Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina. 

Who is Palestinian? 

Is it somebody whose ethnicity is Arab? Jesus was definitely NOT an Arab. 

Is it somebody whose religion is Islam? Jesus was definitely NOT Moslem.

Is it somebody who is against Israel? Jesus was Israeli.

So who was this circumcised Jewish rabbi, teaching scripture, saying to Samaritan women that it is bad to feed puppies before children when talking about Jews and Samaritans? Who was saying that He will not change one letter of the Moses Law. Who, when His disciples were gathering ears of grain on Sabbath responded by comparing them to David's warriors eating sacred show-bread when being pursued by Saul's people. This was political statement showing Jesus as Israeli patriot and Roman opponent. This also explains why He was sentenced to Roman capital punishment reserved for political rebels. 

Yet in this age and era when "cultural appropriation" on the left side of political spectrum is regarded as crime the same people who often would oppose (or did oppose) using music, fashion, hairstyle or dress as "cultural appropriation" (Beyonce in Mumbai, Wes Anderson and Japanese culture, Zac Efron and dreadlocks etc.) see nothing wrong in appropriation of Jewish rabbi regarded as God by Christians to be posed as antisemitic figure on Christian holiday. Would they depict Mohammed as defender of Israeli cause? Of course not. 

Thus everything here screams loudly: respect me while I have all the right to destroy, offend and humiliate you. Well, un-dear  authors of this despicable performance. You did it on purpose to offend, humiliate and enrage. Understood. And I hope Karma returns to you, with or without cultural appropriation. 

 

 

Pay to slay or what are you paying for with (some) of your taxes and why is Israel accused for withholding taxes from PA

 OK, nobody likes taxes. But being honest we know that there are lots of issues in our communities, local, regional and statewide, wherever we live, that need to be taken care for and that.... mean taxes.

People usually complain about badly spent or wasted tax money ( I am no exception). But much as we disagree about what is wasted tax money I hope we all agree that paying for terrorism, murders or attempted murders is singularly bad spent tax money (to put it extremely mildly). And probably most of us believes our respective governments are not doing anything like that. Well, you might be wrong (specially if you live in any country financially supporting UNRWA or Palestinian aid).

Since the Peace Process in 90s Palestinian Authority passes law, rarely dealing with trivial matters of education, healthcare, infrastructure, and so on. For example the 2003 Amended Palestinian Basic Law guarantees the right of “martyrs, prisoners of war, the injured and the disabled,” to “education, health and social insurance.” A series of other laws from 2004 and 2013 mandate payments to terrorists and/or their families with the amount determined according to the severity of the crime.

Each of these laws—Law No. 14 (2004), Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19 (2004), and Decree No. 1 (2013) on the Amendment of the Prisoners and Released Prisoners Law No. 19 (2004)—defines a prisoner as “anyone incarcerated in the occupation’s prisons for his participation in the struggle against the occupation,” meaning involvement in terror attacks against Israel. Significantly, these laws reward only terrorists who killed or injured Israelis or attempted to do so. Persons convicted of other crimes, like theft, do not receive similar rewards.

The rewards to these terrorists include monthly salary and other benefits, such as tuition fees at state universities and priority job placements at state institutions upon release from prison, with seniority determined based on the length of the prison term. Likewise, pursuant to PA Government Decision No. 23 of 2010, the amount of the monthly salary is fixed based on the length of the prison term.15 Thus, the more serious the crime, the longer the prison sentence and the higher the salary.

Thousands of Palestinian prisoners currently serving or having served time in Israeli jails for terror-related offenses receive salaries and benefits from the PA. Despite a financial crisis in 2019 which led to cuts in the salaries of the PA’s actual public employees, PA salaries to terrorists increased. 

Of course, since many of the PA expenses are paid directly from international aid this is (sometimes) money received from democratic countries.  Not intentionally, but for the lack of supervision, lack of reaction and lack of care the money is paid for slaying the Jews by quasi-state entity so wildly recognized by Western government during previous 2 years of was this entity has started. Now tell me murder and war don't pay. Literally....

Look at the Article 22 of the Basic Palestinian Law. I know it sound innocently, but what it means is paying for terror acts: shooting, stone throwing at passing vehicles, attacking with knives or axes, ramming with car people waiting on the bus stops and so on. As of 2018 the pay-for-slay budget amounted to 7% of Palestinian budget. Look at main positions in Western budgets: healthcare (where it is public), judiciary system, education, military. By any standards 7% of the budget is a HUGE amount of money. That tells all we need to know about PA priorities. Abbas, in his 20th year of his 4 year term in office is not interested in welfare payments, infrastructure, healthcare or pension system, but pay-for-slay? Yes, of course.

To be honest last month he tried to finally comply with US and Israeli demands to stop pay-for-slay system. He issued a decree creating Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution which was to create the system of stipends based on economic need basis and not the basis of the gravity of crime. The result? The West Bank erupted in protests. Below you will find some quotes from what protesters said:

“We reject the decision to treat the prisoners as welfare cases,” a young woman said at a rally in Tulkarm. “We will not resort to the Tamkeen  (PNEEI) institution. They [the prisoners, the wounded, and the families of the martyrs] lost their lives for the homeland.”

“The prisoners represent the essence of our national cause. We will not give up our rights, and we will not remain silent.”

“These are the unalienable rights of the prisoners, and they cannot be subject to political blackmail.”

 “Transferring this national issue to a body that deals with it as welfare cases is a dangerous insult to our national dignity and a blatant distortion of the sacrifices of those who fought for our people’s freedom and rights.” (this is by Tawfik Tirawi, the Fatah official).

As you can see murdering innocent Jews on bus stops decides about dignity of Palestinians. Interesting, isn't it?

To be true the US tried to stop the system by passing in 2018 the  Taylor Force Act, in honor of the US soldier, Taylor Force, a native of Texas, who served tours of duty in both Afghanistan and Iraq. After completing his service, Taylor entered the Vanderbilt University to study for an MBA. He was murdered (stabbed to death) in Israel in 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist. At the time of his murder, he was visiting Israel as part of a study group examining global entrepreneurship. The US stopped paying aid and UNRWA donations for some time but it started again, so in a way you may say the US is rewarding terrorist who killed their distinguished soldier who was fighting in two US wars. Isn't it interesting?

From the same 2018 Israel is withholding part of taxes which she collects from Palestinians on behalf of Palestinian Authority (since peace process) and passes to it. The part the equals the paid as pay-to-slay stipends. It started in Israel in 2016, after the murder, by 17-year-old from West Bank of 13-year-old girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, in one of the settlements. He entered her house at night and stabbed her to death. Is this dignity? I wouldn't say so, but it was rewarded with a pay-to-slay stipend to his family after he was killed by the guard on the place of his crime.

Up to now the Israel is withholding the exact amount of taxes paid by Palestinians as pay-for-slay fund before passing the money to Palestinian Authority. Of course it is labeled by Fatah, Hamas and their supporters (notably from quite a few pro-Palestinian Western organizations) as theft. But imagine if your country would be collecting money from people who, as a national group, want to slay you, your family and your children, regardless of your opinion about the conflict, and if some of them would receive money just for performing terrorist acts would you like your government to react? I suppose you would. 

Here are the pictures of Hallel Yaffa Ariel and Taylor Force, whose murderers didn't know anything about any of them, murdered them just because they were Jews or they were thought to be Jews (Taylor), and were rewarded by PA with a stipend.

 

 

 

 

 

UNRRA and UNRWA

The Europe of 1945 was in ruins. It might be a trivial statement but that was a bitter truth for those who lived in Europe at the time. 

In Eastern Europe and Germany devastation was most significant. In Poland on average 30% buildings were destroyed with major cities destroyed sometimes between 80-90% (Warsaw, Gdańsk - German Danzig,  Wrocław - German Breslau). Even worse if possible was destruction in Western Soviet Union - today's Ukraine, White Russia and occupied Baltic States. Germany was no different with Berlin, Dresden, Lipzig, Hamburg virtually non-existent. One could not even say where the streets were before the war.

Still, also London was hurt, so were cities of France, Netherlands, Belgium.

Infrastructure was just as devastated as the buildings with railway, water system, wast management hardly present if at all.

Famine reduced Dutch in 1945 to eating tulip bulbs. In Germany a kilogram of sugar was worth golden necklace or a fur coat. Fields were full of mines, Dutch dams destroyed allowing salt, sea water into the fields lying below sea level (it will take next 40 years to fully regain them).

Many countries lost significant percent of their citizens, up to 20-30%. European Jewry was reduced by 90% due to genocide and even up to today, 80 years later, there are less Jews worldwide than in 1939 due to Shoah.

Women were seen as a kind of loot or embodiment of nations. Rapes were predominant and very brutal, especially in Eastern Europe under Soviet occupation. In some places hardly a girl or a woman was not raped, usually multiple times (East Prussia, Hungary, German cities).

Survivors were trying to return home, usually on foot, defending themselves, starving.

As Keith Lowe writes in his brilliant Savage Continent: "Imagine a world without institutions. No governments. No school or universities. No access to any information. No banks. Money no longer has any worth. There are no shops, because no one has anything to sell. Law and order are virtually non-existent because there is no police force and no judiciary. Men with weapons roam the streets taking what they want. Women of all classes and ages prostitute themselves for food and protection."

Something needed to be done. Into this wasteland came UNRRA -  United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. UNRRA was created in November of 1943 from the USA's initiative in anticipation of need to help struggling peoples and nations of Europe and Asia after the war. The primary benefactors were: the USA and Great Britain; the primary recipients were Poland and China, but for a long time many European countries relied on UNRRA's help. UNRRA provided food, clothes, medicines, cod-liver-oil etc. Few songs were referring to UNRRA's help. In 1945 UNRRA was included in United Nations structure becoming later UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). The crucial time when much of devastated Europe depended on UNRRA was between 1945 and 1947. In 1947 UNRRA almost or totally (depending on the country) finished its activities in Europe.

In 1947, a day after the UN resolution dividing the remaining (after diminishing by 80% in 1921 to create Transjordan) British mandate in Palestine, a civil war between Jews and Arabs started. It transformed into an international war in May 1948 when, a day after it was created, the new State of Israel was attacked by 6 Arab armies. The ceasefire came in early 1949. This war, however bloody (Israel lost approximately 1% of its Jewish population) was not as devastating as II World War for Eastern Europe (and Europe and Asia in general). Nevertheless it created crisis among both Jews and Arabs and produced - as I have written before - some 750,000 Arab refugees and some 900,000 Jewish refugees. The first group became known some 20 years later as Palestinians, whereas the other were Mizrahi Jews from Arab countries removed from their home countries.

Having a valid experience from Europe United Nations in 1949 created UNRWA (United Nations  Relief and Works Agency). Initially UNRWA was helping both refugees' populations. In 1952 Israel diminished and subsequently resigned from the help by UNRWA. The worst was over (though still there ware food rations and terrible lack of housing). Palestinian population was dispersed in Egypt (kept in Gaza without possibility of resettling to other parts of Egypt or way to citizenship), Lebanon (refugee camps, no legal right to work in many professions, no possibilities to study, no way to citizenship), Syria (same as Lebanon) and Jordan (the only country that tried to help Arab refugees but finally had to remove them after Arafat's PLO tried to assassinate the king and take power in Jordan forcefully). We are talking about time before Six Days War when neither Gaza nor the West Bank were under Israeli administration, but respectively under the Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian ones.

UNRRA was operational for 5 years (most actively 3 postwar ones). Later the nations of devastated Europe (including those under harsh, Stalinist occupation) started coping on their own. 

The international help for Pakistani or Indian refugees after the division of the former Raj was virtually non-existent. 

Japan, with its main cities of Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed to the ground used American assistance to start  Japanese economical miracle.

Jewish refugees in Israel, many of whom were former prisoners of concentration camps or escapees from pogroms in Iran, Iraq, Libya and so on were busily building their dream-country. Their reliance on international help of UNRWA finished in 1952.

In 1950-ies Germany was recreated and started building its economy (today 3rd or 4th in the world), European Communities were created, London wounds healed. Europe started helping others. 

Fast forward 80 years: of the nations relying on international help in sustaining elementary needs as an effect of wars in 1940-ies there is but one: Palestinians. They receive the highest international help per capita, UNRWA is dedicated to their needs exclusively, their educational system, health system, social system are funded by other countries (including Israel they ceaselessly try to destroy). Palestinian authorities have created tunnel network more vast than London's tube. They are experts in money laundering, drug trafficking, weaponry creation, terrorism development and few other branches of activities. However they never even tried to create sustainable state institutions. And countries that used to - in similar time period - rely on UNRRA's help see nothing wrong with eternal refugees (some with French, British, American, Dutch etc. passports).

 

Israel as a scapegoat - today! Think it threw

In ancient Israel, when the temple was still standing and all rituals connected to it were performed, one of them was sacrificing animal for the Lord (universal practice of all religions at the time, quite many of others sacrificed people as well, which was never the practice in Judaism and was explicitly forbidden). But during the Atonement Day (Yom Kippur) the priest, in accordance with the text in Leviticus 16:1-34, two goats were chosen, one of them as a sacrifice and one of them chosen to take the sins and transgressions of the community upon itself. The very name "scapegoat" is connected to English translation of the Bible from 1520, and English translation of the Hebrew word 'ăzāzêl means "for entire removal" or, later, as a synonym of fallen angel (Satan) although this tradition is rather from the XVI century Christianity. 

This sacrifice and sin bearing was thus referred to by Maimonides: “There is no doubt that sins cannot be carried like a burden, and taken off the shoulder of one being to be laid on that of another being. But these ceremonies are of a symbolic character, and serve to impress men with a certain idea, and to induce them to repent; as if to say, we have freed ourselves of our previous deeds, have cast them behind our backs, and removed them from us as far as possible.”

Still, why two goats? Torah states:  “On this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the L‑rd, you will be clean from all your sins.” This ritual, so specific for Yom Kippur, might mean that on top of atonement for acts, sought after with each and every offering, not only in Judaism, something else was at stake. Purification for persons, for community. Sins leave stains on the character of those who commit them, and these need to be cleansed before we can undergo catharsis and begin anew. A moral stain is not something physical. It exists in the mind, the emotions, the soul. It is hard to rid oneself of the feeling of defilement when you have committed a wrong, even when you know it has been forgiven. Some symbolic action seems necessary.

Why do I write about it? The psychological burden of - even atoned - sins and transgressions is universal for most, if not all, human cultures. It creates cleansing rituals for groups and individuals alike. There is nothing wrong with such rituals, they serve our deep psychological needs. However there are dangers that are or may be attached to some of those rituals. Some of them may be dangerous for people craving cleansing. Others may be hostile or dangerous for others.

Since at least Bar Kochba's uprising in 135 CE Jews were perceived as Others by Roman and subsequently Christian cultures. Christianity, trying to gain its own identity had to severe ties with Judaism. And trying to survive in the Roman world on 2nd century, extremely hostile to Jews, who after two uprisings (in 70 CE and 135 CE) were being murdered, exiled and sold as slaves, Christianity turned to Antisemitism. When Europe started turning into Christian continent in IV and V centuries Jews, keeping their own ancient religion, tradition and culture, were finally the last lasting, non-Christian element of European societies. And soon, due to long standing and constantly fed enmity of Christian authorities, and lack of trust and understanding on the part of majority of Christian Europeans, they were perceived as suspicious group of people. The law barring them from many occupations was additional problem. 

Anti Judaism of Catholic church has many victims: Jews were accused of poisoning wells during Black Death epidemic, they were accused of using Christian babies blood for baking matzot (blood label) and of torturing communion wafers in Catholic church. They were banished from England in 1290 and from Spain and Portugal in 1492. There were places where they were relatively safe for long periods of time but almost always, even after years, the persecution was returning. 

Since many people, even subconsciously, knew that such treatment was not deserved, not Christian-like or humanly and generally problematic, they were looking for reasons which could justify such approach. Not for the benefit of defense against law (persecution was fully lawful) or defense against persecuted Jews (they didn't need any) but for their own benefit. They needed reason to feel righteous even when treating Jews wrongly and sometimes horribly. And this is probably the source of many accusations. Chief among them was the accusation of killing Jesus. After all, killing God is such preposterous crime that any bad treatment of the culprit is deserved. The fact that Jesus (from Christian standpoint) agreed for his fate in order to become the savior, did nothing to prevent maltreatment of his compatriots. The fact that Jesus himself was a Jew didn't registered with people till late XIX century and is questioned even until this day, and the fact that crucifixion was a purely Roman punishment for political transgressions and no Jewish court could sentence anybody to such a penalty has never registered at all with majority of churchgoers.

During Enlightenment and XIX century Jews started to be persecuted for their race or nation, as religion was becoming less and less of the meaningful factor. This time they were accused of not wanting to assimilate (or assimilating and pretending not to be Jewish), of being wealthy (or poor, as majority of them were), of being capitalists (or communists), or of being internationalists not tied emotionally to any country of residence, though it was not a crime, and actually they were no Jews but aristocrats who were guilty of widespread internationalism.

When this approach led to Shoah, probably the worst case of genocide in history, the accusations ceased for some time. Yet it took solely some 20-30 years to start accusing Jews of Zionism. Therefore, internationalism (false accusation in itself as so many Jews were wonderful patriots in the countries where they lived) was bad, but apparently loving their own land (something called patriotism in all other countries and for centuries believed to be a virtue) was even worse. And at the time when Europe started turning towards internationalism herself, and even European patriotism was less welcome, Zionism became a super sin. Without any regards for facts or circumstances.

What have all these accusations in common? Jews were made into kind of scapegoats themselves by European civilization and cultures. Transgressions and  bad characteristics that people saw in themselves and their neighbors were extrapolated to "others" (very human behavior) and one group - Jews - was always perceived as "others" in the worst meaning of this term. After centuries of this situation, probably partially from habit and partially because analysis would have to lead to confrontation with 20 centuries of constant persecution of innocent people by our whole Western civilization (which, no matter lip critic, most people living in it still believe to be superior to any other) it was and is easier to hold to the old bloody myths just changing the accusations. And they don't have to be consistent. After all if Jews can be blood sucking capitalists and communists at the same time they may be Western imperialists, racists and nationalists and anti-Western agents at the same time as well. 

This is why extreme right and far left at this moment speak and write practically the same texts about Jews and Israel. The classic horseshoe theory implementation.

And for both these extremes (taking more and more of the overall political spectrum in today's troubling times) Jews (and Israelis specially) are scapegoat. They believe (or very well pretend to believe) that all Jews are responsible for transgressions of any one of them, that all Israelis (or at least Jewish Israelis) are responsible for any real and invented sins of Israel and her government, that all Jews have views this particular group of activists is condemning the most in any given moment. Obviously any other country or entity may have (sometimes very aggressive) international agenda or interests. EU may accept occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco and Morocco may occupy Western Sahara. Saudi Arabia and Iran may lead per proxi war in Yemen causing thousands of deaths and true famine. Iran may mess in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza (among others) keeping and using private armies and it is still politics. China may occupy Tibet, threaten Taiwan, not keep their promises towards Hong Kong and murder Ujgurs. USA may sink Venezuelan ships and threaten war in this country. France may arrest presumably Russian tanker with Chinese captain on international waters. India and Pakistan may from time to time exchange blows in Kashmir. Business as usual. God forbid if Israel sustains legal blockade, responds to attack, or not treat non-citizens as non-citizens. Suddenly this obvious, everyday actions are sins.

The blockade of Yemen engaging quite few countries is almost unknown, the blockade of Japan in 1945 is understood. The fact that UK lost in II world war some 300,000 citizens, mostly soldiers, of which some were killed by Japanese, and in British air raids over Germany some 2 million civilians perished does not make British defense against Nazi Germany genocide. The fact that non-citizens have not the same rights as citizens does not create apartheid anywhere but - apparently - in Israel. After all ALL  citizens of Israel (Jews, Arab and Druze; Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Bahai, non-believers etc.) have exactly the same rights. Well, non-Jews don't have to serve in IDF, however many of them do and among Bedouins and Druze as many as among Jews). But suddenly different approach to non-citizens residing in West Bank makes Israel an apartheid state. Why?

These are not just double standards, which would have been bad enough. This is putting demands that no other states would ever be expected to apply and putting all realized and unrealized sins, transgressions and unfulfilled dreams of the world on Israel and than abandoning her to Azazel.  

But Israel is not sacrificial goat. She is a wonderful country that tries to do more than the majority if not all other states. And transgressions are left with culpable parties (as always). This is not to say Israel is sinless. But she is a democratic country, trying for the best under extremely hard and hostile circumstances.

And scapegoats, in this and all other situations, do not lead to feeling of relief and cleanliness by individuals, groups, nations or countries trying to pass their sins to somebody else. Scapegoats create more anger, feeling of injustice, resentments and so on. Because in the heart of hearts we all know there is no such a thing as scapegoat and the more we try to believe in one and shout about one the harder the situation gets.

 

 

Victims in Gaza: who are they really

 There are ongoing discussions regarding the number of victims in Gaza during the two years of war. Most probably we will never know the exact number, but of course we may approach the true one closely and in the process debunk different lies about it that may be found in media.

Let's start with the source. The majority of Western media writing about Gaza casualties refers to "Gaza Health Ministry". It means Hamas. Since 2007 Hamas has been ruling Gaza in a totalitarian way. As in Mussolini's definition - "everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State" - in combination with the Stalin's way of executing power. Nothing, including ministries, health care, statistics and press and media releases, could have been done without Hamas's "imprimatur".

This data was repeated by UN (in itself not objective, but this is for another occasion), which openly states so in all its reports, by NGOs, media representatives and health personnel on spot. None of them has any other source of information. And if they would question Hamas's data they would have been excluded from entering Gaza at all.

Now that we know the source, unreliable as it is, let's examine the data (after all even the worst sources occasionally were known to produce correct data for a variety of reasons, still, the source needs to be taken into account). So, according to Hamas during last two years in Gaza app. 69,000 people died as a result of war. Before 2023 the average natural death rate in Gaza was approximately 8,000 people a year. No natural deaths are reported for the wartime, and in fact Hamas official admitted that they were counted as war casualties. 

"The head of the statistics team at Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry, Zaher al-Wahidi, made the admission to Sky News after an analysis by the HonestReporting nonprofit last week found that some 3,400 individuals listed as war casualties in earlier tallies had been dropped from the ministry’s latest update."

Therefore, at least 15,000-16,000 reported casualties are, in fact, deaths caused by natural causes. So let's be conservative, and reduce the given by Hamas number by 14,000 to 55,000 war casualties.

The next problem almost NEVER addressed is that Hamas (also if it's named Health Ministry) does not differentiate between targeted terrorists and civilian casualties. All victims are classified as civilians which is obviously very, very far from truth. So what is the ratio? Obviously nobody (except maybe Hamas to some extent) has exact numbers. Nevertheless both parties try to count them and sometimes admit/ reveal their calculations. In April 2024, 6 months into the war, Hamas made a statement to Reuters: 

"More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, Gazan medical officials say. Hamas has said 6,000 of its fighters are among the fatalities. Israeli officials say the Palestinian combatant death toll is more than twice as high." 

At the time Israelis were estimating terrorists among casualties of the war at 14,000. We may go about the estimation in two ways: 

a) proportionately to the time of the war going on (therefore estimating after 2 years the number of terrorists killed as 24,000 according to Hamas and 56,000 according to IDF) or

b) proportionately to the number of casualties (therefore estimating after 2 years the number of terrorists killed as 10,000 according to Hamas - 18% of 55,000 killed, and 23,000 according to IDF  - 42% of 55,000 killed)

It is noteworthy to say that if we would count this percent from the number of all victims as given by Hamas - 18% (or 42% according to IDF) of 69,000 the number of killed terrorists would have been significantly higher (12,400 according to Hamas or 29,000 according to IDF in relation to former data, so I try to be all the time very conservative to not overestimate in any way the number of killed terrorists. By the way we know that many a time individual victims were counted by Hamas as civilians even when they were known terrorists. Here is one example, and there are more, but I concentrated here on statistics rather than individual cases.

So, continuing our very Hamas-numbers-friendly correction starting by admitting total death number over last two years as 69,000, and correcting it by 14,000 natural deaths (yes, during war people still die because of old age, heart failure, traffic accidents, cancer etc.) to 55,000 we can agree for approximately 42,500 civilian casualties as per Hamas. Yes, these may be civilian casualties (if we will really really fall for Hamas narrative) and of course each and every life is precious, but that means on average less than 58 civilian casualties a day. You think it is a lot? It is definitely too many (the best would be none at all on both sides) but compare it with 1,195 Israeli casualties during ONE DAY (the first day of this war) and figure it out. Moreover, the number of killed terrorists is obviously vastly underestimated in this calculation as we know that 3,800 terrorists from elite Nukba force were sent to Israel on October 7. many of them were killed during first 2 days still on Israeli territory. So it is almost impossible for the same number to be killed over 6 months of regular war as Hamas wants it to be.

If the above calculation would be true we'd have a civilian to terrorist ratio among killed as 3.4:1. That would have been quite an achievement for any army, but in fact this ratio is probably far far better and more humanitarian. But if you for whatever reason will not be convinced by what I will present below keep this overestimation in mind. And please, remember that according to UN the civilian victims of warfare constitute on average 90% meaning 9:1 ratio. 

The next point is the ratio of minors and women among casualties. Here we need some data. While in most societies the ratio of men to women is vastly 1:1 with slight differences; the ratio of minors (per Hamas up till 18 years, which agrees with legal definition in many Western countries, but does not take into consideration factors connected to cultures, including Islamic one) might be very different in different countries. For example: in the USA people under 18 between 2022-2024 constituted approximately 22%; in UK people under 18 between 2022-2024 constituted approximately 19%; in Israel people under 18 between 2022-2024 constituted approximately 33%; in Gaza in 2023 people under 18 constituted approximately 50% of the society. Therefore if in UK among casualties of any calamity 50% would be people under 18 they would have been tremendously over represented. In Gaza they would be just in mathematical proportion. Of course in ideal world no children should be harmed by war, but they always are, and we always have to take into consideration what is the average age of the population in any given country. Are all Gaza minors civilian casualties of the war? Unfortunately not. Hamas was training minors for a long time and continues to do so, from the very early age indeed. Starting from the age 15 they are included in terrorist actions. Therefore many of the "minors" were, sadly, 15, 16 and 17 years old terrorists. Were they victims? Absolutely! But not of Israel or of IDF. They were and remain victims of Hamas. When we hear about child-soldiers in African countries, often forced to join militias after they murdered their parents, and who occasionally are 12 or 13 years old we consider them victims of sadistic cruelty, and rightly so. But they are victims of these militias and not of peoples who they murder. They can be (and usually are) both victims (forced to join the armed forces and kill) and perpetrators (killing others). Such is the history of many Gaza minor casualties of the war. They may be in some instances minor, but they are no more civilian than Wehrmacht (in last stage of II world war conscription in Germany started at 16), Werewolf (Nazi partizans after May 1945, some 14 or 15) or Viet Cong partisans. If somebody carries the gun and shoots others with it during the war they are no civilians. Some of the women were as well members of Hamas, probably not in combat forces but nevertheless no civilian victims.

And that does not even take into account the major discrepancies in reporting the ratio of minor and female casualties. And Hamas did many of those, probably believing (unfortunately for a good reason) that few will bother to check their data. Still, some did check.

 

Above we have two pictures illustrating the claimed number of Palestinian victims from early days of war. One from December 8, and one from December 27, 2023. Both include the Hamas data as stated (Ministry of Health in Gaza). UN OCHA repeated this data without questions, but in fact while the total number of deaths had risen by 3,623, the number of women and children allegedly killed remained constant,  and the percentage of women and children killed also remained steady at 70%. In reality, when combined, the figures of the allegedly dead women and children on December 8 account for 73.6% of the dead, while on December 27, they account for only 61% of the allegedly dead.

 

Having made the decision to blindly adopt and UN-wash the Hamas propaganda statistics, UN OCHA even reported the blatant lies presented by Hamas.

Thus, for example, on March 29, 2024, UN OCHA reported a total of 32,623 Palestinian casualties, of whom at least 9,000 were women and 13,000 were children.

 A week later, on April 5, 2024, UN OCHA reported  that the death toll had risen to a total of 33,091, of whom more than 9,500 were women (a rise of 500 dead women) and approximately 14,500 were children (a rise of roughly 1,500 dead children).

In other words, inexplicably, out of the 468 total additional deaths from March 29 to April 5, at least 2,000 (!) of them were women and children.

You may check it yourselves on UN OCHA webpages.

 Following the pattern of adopting and UN-washing the Hamas terror propaganda, on May 6, 2024, the UN OCHA report  included its usual info-graph showing that since the beginning of the war, there had been 34,735 reported Palestinian casualties, of whom more than 9,500 (27.3%) were women and more than 14,500 (41.7%) were children.

Suddenly, on May 8, 2024, UN OCHA dropped a bombshell. In its new report,  UN OCHA suddenly clarified that of the total alleged casualties, only 24,686 had been identified. The number of women killed suddenly plummeted from over 9,000 on May 6 to 4,959 on May 8. The number of children killed also plummeted from over 14,500 on May 6 to 7,797 on May 8.

UN OCHA still reported the higher, unconfirmed data about death toll and continues to do so, but suddenly, on May 8, 2024, its shown ratio of victims changed as you may see below:

 And what about real ratio for civilian to combatant killed? Well, I have shown that UN regards "normal" ratio (as if there is anything normal about the war, but unfortunately wars happen) as 9:1, according to Hamas statistics shown above it's 3.4:1, but subsequently I have provided some critical analysis of Hamas provided data. What about IDF provided data? I have no way of verifying it but there are no obvious flows and in-consequences.  According to this data the ratio of civilian to militant casualties is less than 2:1, which is really remarkable. For comparison, while in earlier wars (II WW, Korean war) the ratio of civilian casualties was really high in recent wars involving Western armies (Afghanistan, Iraq) this ratio was much lower (thankfully) but still constituted approximately 2.4-2.7:1. If you will go with Hamas's data IDF is slightly worse than American forces in Afghanistan, if you go with IDF data it is slightly better, but none of these pictures indicates genocide. On the contrary, considering it is urban warfare with Hamas using civilian infrastructure as launching pads and civilians as human shields, not mentioning that Hamas terrorists are not using any kind of uniforms this ratio - according to any data available you choose - is remarkable, showing IDF's consideration for civilian lives.