Deception, misinformation and incitement are being promoted by some members of Congress. Reps. Rashida Talib (D-Mich.), Cory Bush (D-Mo.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and others are seeking to advance the agenda of Hamas and Hezbollah. These organizations and many others are being nurtured, financed and trained by the biggest supporter of international terrorism: the Iranian regime.
One of the most blatant recent examples of the psychological warfare employed by these politicians and others is the blood libel. For example, they accused Israel of intentionally bombing a Gaza hospital and causing hundreds of casualties despite the overwhelming evidence, documented by both Israeli and U.S. intelligence services, that the rocket in question was launched by Islamic Jihad terrorists. Moreover, the rocket hit the parking lot of the hospital and caused a limited number of casualties.
Obviously, the current attacks on the State of Israel and its citizens do not distinguish between Jews, Christians, Muslims or anybody else. But it should not be ignored that the entire free world is also facing the serious long-term risk presented by the incitement of ignorant individuals by radical Muslims and other groups.
Multiple anti-Western entities have been promoting worldwide unrest by exploiting the ignorance of students, journalists, politicians and others. Hopefully, once these people realize that their own skin may be in the game, they will wake up, stand up against evil and support peaceful coexistence.
Some of the most oft-used deceptive claims against Israel include:
1. The lie that the Land of Israel was always a Muslim territory.
The Land of Israel was historically a Jewish territory, documented clearly in the Bible and with archeological evidence. The Jews entered the land of Israel in 1400 BCE. They established the kingdoms of King David and King Solomon, built their two Temples and much more. The exile of the Jews from their ancestral homeland occurred after the defeat of the Jews by the Romans in about 130 CE. Despite the exile, throughout the centuries there were always Jews in the Land of Israel. In an attempt to disconnect the Jews from their land, the Romans renamed the Land of Israel “Palestina” and renamed the city of Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina.” Islam was founded only in the seventh-century CE, which is many hundreds of years after the documented Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. The fact is that never in the history of the world did a country by the name of “Palestine” exist in the Land of Israel.
2. The lie that Israel refused the partition of the disputed Land of Israel with its neighbors.
In the 1917 Balfour Declaration, Britain endorsed the “Zionist aspirations” to reestablish the Jewish homeland in Palestine and promised to “facilitate” the effort. In 1920, the Covenant of the League of Nations adopted this promise and turned it into international law. In 1920, the Arabs instigated deadly anti-Jewish riots in the city of Jerusalem out of anger at the British presence in Palestine. In 1922, Britain cut off about 77% of the territory of Mandatory Palestine to Jewish people and gave it to the Hashemites, who created the state of Trans-Jordan in 1946. This was essentially a two-state solution, in which most of the original territory of the British Mandate, which was supposed to become the modern homeland of the Jewish people, became the state of Trans-Jordan.
In 1937, the Peel Commission recommended a further partition of the remaining 23% of the Land of Israel. In 1939, under Arab pressure, the British further restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine (even from Nazi Germany) on the eve of the Second World War. Despite all this, the Jews supported the British, and most Arabs supported Nazi Germany. In 1948 the British Mandate for Palestine ended. In accordance with the U.N. Partition Resolution, and in accordance with the legal favorable vote by the U.N., the State of Israel was established on about 10% of the land included in the original British Mandate for Palestine and became an official member of the U.N. Israel asked the local Arabs to become a part of the reestablished Jewish state in its ancestral homeland, but on the same day, surrounding Arab states, along with many local Arabs, started a war to destroy it.
In 1964, while the Arabs were still in control of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza, the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded with the intention of destroying the State of Israel. In 1967, Arab countries tried again to destroy Israel, but were defeated in what was later called the Six-Day War. Following the war, the Arab League announced the famous “three No’s”: No Peace, No Negotiations and No Recognition of Israel. In 1973, on Yom Kippur, Arab countries launched another all-out war. They were once again defeated. Since then, peace agreements were achieved with Egypt in 1979, with Jordan in 1994 and with the UAE, Sudan, Morocco and Bahrain in 2020 via the Abraham Accords.
Despite the Oslo Accords, which were signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 1993, the Palestinians continued their traditional hostilities and refused to recognize the Jewish state within any borders. The Palestinians continued with multiple destructive and indiscriminate terror attacks despite very generous peace offers, which included relinquishing to the Arab Palestinians more than 95% of the disputed land. These generous offers to settle the dispute were made by various Israeli prime ministers and mediated by various American presidents, but the Arab Palestinians refused to accept any of them.
In 2005, Israel left 100% of Gaza hoping that the Arab Palestinians would create the Singapore or Monaco of the Middle East. Instead, they created a vicious terror state that did not care about its own people or any other people. Supported by Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah became ruthless proxies and helped to undermine international stability. Israel was defined as “The Little Satan,” while the U.S. was crowned “The Great Satan.”
3. The lie about Israel expelling most of the Arab Palestinians from the territories of the British Mandate.
Upon the creation of the modern State of Israel, local Arabs were offered the chance to become equal partners in building the country. Many thousands of Arabs accepted the offer and became citizens of Israel with equal rights, but too many listened to the corrupt Arab leadership’s propaganda and instead became involved in a brutal military confrontation with Israel. Many others just left the country, even before the escalation of the military confrontation, hoping to return after the destruction of the Jewish state. The estimated number of these Arab refugees from the 1948 war was about 500,000. At the same time, the State of Israel absorbed about 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands.
4. The lie that Israel is an apartheid state.
In Israel, all citizens, whether they be Jews, Arabs, Christians or others have equal rights under the law.
Israel has Arab members of Knesset. Arab citizens of Israel have served on the Supreme Court and are employed in government positions. Arabs have freedom of speech, can vote freely in parliamentary elections and can practice any profession they choose.
At the same time, the Palestinian Authority practices real apartheid by not allowing Jews to live or buy any property in any area under their control. The P.A. gives money to terrorists and their families as a reward for killing or injuring Israelis. Despite political differences, the P.A. supports terror attacks against Israelis, including the most recent unprovoked vicious terror assault on Israel that claimed the lives of more than 1,400 innocent civilians and the abduction of about 240. These innocent victims included babies, women and the elderly.
The bizarre broad international support for the recent unprovoked atrocities that were perpetrated by Hamas terrorists and their supporters is a very clear sign that deception and misinformation are influencing too many ignorant individuals. Unfortunately, many of these people are unknowingly supporting evil, which may ultimately put they themselves in danger. We must know the facts and address this problem wisely and as soon as possible in order to save the future of the free world.
The following are a few first steps that we can take to help the free world address these dangerous trends:
- Show how anti-Jewish and anti-Israel activities, deception and incitement will harm everybody, including non-Jews. People must understand that, should evil prevail, their own skin is going to be in the game. It is not only a Jewish problem; it is a free-world problem.
- Show who is providing most of the funds to these bad operatives. For example, Qatar, Iran and their representatives.
- Show how much of the money, which is used and misused by these bad operatives, will also be directed towards their own benefit. For example, several Hamas leaders are millionaires who live in Qatar.
- Show how some of the money is being used to deceive, incite and brainwash the current and next generation, which will end up undermining the stability and welfare of our society. For example, the various related NGOs that operate on universities and college campuses.
- Show how these self-serving malicious individuals may benefit not only from simple financial and personal gains but also from many other privileges and perks.
The sooner we wake up and expose and marginalize evil, the better it will be for humanity.