Rashid Khalidi Blaming Only Israel…Again

In another op-ed piece in the New York Times Rashid Khalidi again places the blame of all the violence squarely at Israel’s feet. He ignores the fact that Hamas started the latest round (as well as the subsequent other conflicts prior to this one). But the real kicker is this claim:

“The flight or expulsion of at least a quarter-million Palestinians from Haifa, Jaffa, Tiberias, Beisan and other localities before the Israeli declaration of independence that May helped trigger the first war between the Arab states and Israel.”

This is a complete fabrication. “Helped trigger the first war”? Is he serious? Facts are facts. History is a series of events that aren’t subject to subjective interpretation in the whole. The “trigger” for the first ware between the Arab states and Israel was the actual declaration by the Jews of the modern State of Israel. That was it. It had nothing to do with the Arabs. Little note here: prior to 1948 if you said “Palestinian” you actually meant the Jewish population of the Palestine Mandate – not the Arabs. If anything the Arabs who were there were, for the most part, transplants from other places – Syria, Egypt, Jordan – but they weren’t Arabs who lived in the Mandate since time immemorial – despite what they would like to claim.

The migration of the Arabs from “Haifa, Jaffa, Tiberias, Beisan and other localities” as Mr. Khalidi notes was due more to the fact that they were encouraged by their Arab brethren in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere to evacuate so that the Arab armies could go in and slaughter the Jews. Hmmm…in a strange way this is similar to what the IDF is asking Palestinians to do now – get out of the way so they can fight Hamas while minimizing civilian casualties.

Israel does not want to reoccupy the Gaza Strip – but it does want the Gaza Strip to be free of Hamas. We cannot accept a situation where things go back to the previous status quo after a short conflict. Hamas has proven that they are nothing more than a band of murderous thugs whose sole raison d’être is to slaughter Jews – men, women, the elderly, children – every one of us. We’ve seen this story before and we’ve learned, the hard way, that when someone says that they’re coming to kill you – you should believe them.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Khalidi places all of the blame for this on Israel and, by extension, the US and absolves the Palestinians for any responsibility for the current situation. His apologetics for Palestinian actions is nauseating to say the least and framed solely in one of Israeli oppression with no condemnation of the horrors which Hamas visits not only on the Israeli population but also on the Palestinian one too. He closes his op-ed with the statement

“The only possible solution is one that ends the oppression of one people by another and guarantees absolutely equal rights and security for both peoples.”

He misses the mark a bit and I’ve corrected it for him: “The only possible solution is one that has Palestinians establishing their own government and society based on peaceful coexistence with Israel and guarantees equal rights and security for both peoples.”

Wonderful Videos of Israel and the IDF

I came across a few very nice videos about Israel and the IDF in its defense of Israel. I just wanted to share them. Enjoy!

Israel – Amazing Little Country:

The Faces and Places of Israel in the 21st Century:

IDF: One of the Most Humaine Armies in the World:

Support the IDF:

If Your Heart is Crying:

Post Gaza

As we near the end of the 18th day of fighting in the Gaza strip Hamas is seriously damaged but certainly not destroyed. Israel’s intent in this offensive was to go into Gaza and destroy Hamas’ capability to launch rockets into southern Israel. While the Isreal Defense Forces (IDF) have made progress in that area — the daily count of rockets landing in communities in southern Isreal has dropped from 70 to 80 per day down to 20 to 30 today alone (Slackman, Michael and Steven Erlanger, “Israel Says Hamas is Damaged, Not Destroyed“, The New York Times, January 13, 2009)(a still non-trivial number) — they are still far from the goal of knocking Hamas completely out of the picture. One question that must be addressed however is “What happens afterwards?” This is the same question that the U.S. military and government had to face after toppling the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein.

Israel has clearly stated they do not wish reoccupy Gaza. By all accounts it would be a case of “been there, done that.” The question remains how can Israel achieve its goal of destroying Hamas’ ability to launch rockets (and more than likely destroy Hamas as a military organization) and extricate itself from the morass which is Gaza? Clearly an immediate withdrawl by Isreali troops before Hamas has been sufficiently destroyed would result in the eventual reconstitution of the terrorist organization and its rearming for another fight. Perhaps the solution would be to hand over the territory to the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas. Unfortunately the PA has already shown itself unable to control Gaza — even in a “unity” government with Hamas. Israel may well find itself in a serious quandry when they achieve their goal. They want to leave — but they may not be able to leave as it would result in a power vacuum that could allow other terrorist organizations like Islamic Jihad or a resurgent Hamas or perhaps an offshoot of Hezbollah to gain control.

Israel needs to have a solid exit strategy if it wants Operation Cast Lead to result in real and substantive changes on the ground in Gaza. Otherwise it may find itself trapped once more with the Gaza albatross around its neck.