Thursday, October 02, 2008

Letter before 1980 Addressing Anti-Semites in Boise, Idaho
The Ontario, Oregon Argus Observer Newspaper printed a letter I wrote. I'll put the body here.

.... We find it very interesting that underlying these letters is a strong belief in anti-semitism. We are very dismayed to find such obvious and unmistakable incorrect statements.

First of all, Palestine never belonged to the Arab people and was not an Arab nation. This area belonged to a few; rich Arab landowners living abroad who later sold it to the Jewish people. Baron Rothschild purchased land from Arab and Turkish landowners. Israel has not stolen any land but has always paid, and at very high prices because it was "holy land."

In the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Syria and Lebanon went to France as the mandates of the League of Nations. Palestine and Iraq went to England on the same basis. Zionism played no part in these decisions. But King Feisal, then head of the Arabs, signed a peace treaty that said Jews could come to Palestine on a large scale.

Facts show that Arabs in Israel have much higher standards of living and are quite happy. Under Arab landowners they were serfs living under a 12th century-type feudal system.

Arab land is 230 times greater and population is 60 times more than Israel's. Isn't it miraculous how a people so out-numbered on a minuscule of land is capable of evicting Arabs and taking their land from them? Let us remind the readers that the Arab's holy mission has been the total destruction of the Jews' homeland, and this started in 1936. In 1967 Nassar and Arabs were still vowing to drive the Israelis into the sea and wipe Israel off the map. It is only now that these people are singing a different tune. No one in their right mind should deny Israel the right to existence, but the neighbors of Israel have been doing so for a long time.

And as for Zionism that Mr. X wants investigated, I think people should start investigating and reading to find answers instead of being swayed by emotions and prejudices. For a starter, Zionism is a term coined by Nathan Birnbaum in 1890 for the movement aiming at the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel (Palestine). Ever since Jews were forced to leave this land in 70 A.D., they have felt they were living in exile and have wanted to return to the land of their fathers. Jewish people have suffered from anti-Semitism throughout the ages; from the Crusades to the Spanish Inquisition to the Nazi holocaust. They are always the scapegoats for others. Jews in Israel are fighting for survival.

Israel was founded by humanitarian socialists who dreamed of a model state of social justice, shared labors, people living in peace, fighting only hunger, disease and ignorance. It is now the only democratic state in the Middle East. I believe it is the United States' sorrow that we did not vote for them in the United Nations. But then, oil does have a much larger voice, doesn't it?

Reference: found letter to the editor of Ontario Argus Observer that my husband and I wrote in reply to other letters complaining about Israel between 1972-1979.

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