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Reprinted from raymcgovern.com
Answer to a Close Friend on Palestine
Dear Miriam,
Sorry, this is as brief as I can make it.
I was nine years old (1948) when there was HUGE celebration in the Bronx at founding of the state of Israel. No one told me that Arabs had lived on that land for centuries and were displaced by force, tens of thousands of them crammed into postage-stamp-size Gaza, now host to two million Palestinians.
The Religious 'Justification': Zionist Jews, like the ones now in power in Israel, claim God gave them the land they now occupy. They cite Deuteronomy. But given the way they treat Arabs, they ignore the fact that, according to Deuteronomy, it was a two-part 'deal'. By their oppression of the Arab population, Israel's leaders push aside the condition God is said to have imposed on their "inheritance". It was an "only if".
Deuteronomy 15:4-5 New International Version:
"4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today."
In June 1967 Israel annexed the "West Bank" (of the Jordan) and Gaza by first attacking and destroying the Egyptian and Syrian armies in a surprise attack. Israeli leaders claimed Egypt was about to attack Israel, but former Israeli President Menachem later admitted publicly that this was a lie. In a speech he gave in Washington, DC, on August 8, 1982 he said:
"In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him." (See:
On Nov. 22, 1967, UN Resolution 242, adopted unanimously, called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the "territories occupied in the recent conflict". Israel withdrew from the Sinai after the Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979. It did not withdraw from other lands occupied in 1967 - the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights in Syria.
As for Gaza, it has been blockaded to the point that it is almost impossible to get in or out - as I experienced personally in 2011 with gutsy, justice-oriented folks like Alice Walker on the aborted voyage of the "U.S. Boat to Gaza". (See: Click Here)
Getting Away With Murder: On June 8, 1967 Israel tried to sink the intelligence collection ship USS Liberty and leave no survivors - in full daylight in international waters off the Sinai coast during the 6-day Israeli-Arab war. Washington (including the US Navy!) covered up the killing of 34 US sailors and the wounding of 170 others. Thus, Israel learned that it could literally get away with murder - of US servicemen, as well as Palestinians.
The extremists now heading the Israeli government have made no secret of their plans to move even more forcefully against the Palestinians. It was/is a powder keg that has now exploded.
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