I am not a sensitive person, in general. Very little really bothers me.
But I was sitting in my living room thinking (something I had time to do because our line of sight internet went out for several hours).
I was thinking about why the Israeli-Arab conflict resonated so much with me. Why I get so angry when I see the Arab propaganda being shared by so many well-meaning idiots.
Having actually studied the conflict in depth, I see that the narrative is that massive, powerful Israel has been conducting a genocide, murdering women and children en masse. (Of course this narrative is encouraged by Europeans because if the Jews are doing it to the Arabs, then obviously it’s ok for the Europeans to have done it to the Jews).
But there is a problem. In fact its a pretty big one if you simply take the time to examine the statistics.
First, you have to understand context. If civilians are killed during a strike on a launching area, where unguided rockets are being launched at Israeli civilians, suddenly it’s not a matter of “innocent people being targeted for extermination.” It is, in fact, collateral damage of a moral and ethical attempt to prevent the murder of innocents. This may not be popular, but it is neither a targeted attempt at murder nor is it an attempt at genocide. There is not a single conflict elsewhere in the world where one group attacks another and the group being attacked is expected to do nothing.
The statistics are even more damning when you dig deeper. In fact, these “resistance rockets” kill more Arabs than Israelis! They go awry often and kill Arabs, while the vast majority of the ones that do get launched properly are destroyed by the Iron Dome and very rarely accomplish their goal of killing Jews.
But since the Arabs have couched the launching of these unguided missiles as “resistance,” gullible people never question the morality of knowingly firing rockets at civilians let alone the intelligence of doing so KNOWING it will most likely result in dead Arabs – either from failure at launch, or from the strike at the launch pad which is, oddly enough, almost always from the poor and most populated areas, and never from the yard of a Hamas leader. That leader is almost always at a 5-star hotel in Doha while the IDF retaliates against the terror attacks.
They talk about “resistance” while living a privileged life that includes supercars that most North Americans can only dream about and living in palaces that very few can afford. But you would never know this because the narrative is “Gaza is a prison/concentration camp” despite Gaza tourism literally making videos showing the 5-star restaurants and swimming pools that are all over Gaza.
I live on a Metis Settlement in Northern Alberta at the edge of the Arboreal Forest. I have travelled extensively and have lived among indigenous people all over the world. What I have noticed is that the vast majority of us do not live in luxury, even in Israel where you could argue some of the most successful indigenous people in the world live. People do not tend to live ostentatiously; instead, you see many nice homes, but nothing over the top ridiculous, not like what I saw in the PA-controlled areas with massive palaces and Aston Martins in the driveway.
One group is the so-called occupiers, because the narrative is that they are foreign European colonizers, yet they mostly live in modest homes, mostly apartments, unless you go to Judah or the Shomron, and drive what I would call normal cars: Toyotas, Volkswagens (yes that is ironic and not for the reason you think), and sometimes maybe an Audi or Land Rover. The so-called oppressed refugees live in opulence in many cases (and yes I am aware some of them, perhaps even a LOT of them, are actually poor), but it was among them that I saw my dream car, an Aston Martin DB7, and several Lamborghinis and Ferraris. I also saw actual palaces all over the place. I somehow doubt the well-meaning European “peace activists” are ever given THAT tour.
It is mind boggling to me that people cannot see that contrary to the narrative, the palestinian Arabs are in fact pretty much constantly murdering Jews, targeting innocent civilians, and literally children. Yet if you Google “murder/children/Middle East”, you will not find the story of the recent attack where several Israelis were stabbed, including an 11-year -old. You will not find the Jerusalem bombing from a few months ago where a 14-year-old boy was killed, nor will you see stories of the Dolphinarium or Sbarro Pizzeria that were bombed. You will find stories “debunked yet still shared,” like of Mohammed Al dura, or the children in Gaza who were killed by a Hamas rocket that fell short, yet somehow that juicy tidbit never came out until weeks later. When you talk to so-called experts you never hear about Shalhavit Pass, a toddler who was murdered by a sniper, or the little girl who Samir Kuntar, may he eternally suffer in pain, murdered by smashing her head against a rock.
Now you want to talk about murder? Tell me who is more morally culpable – someone who is attempting to destroy a launch site where rockets are being fired at Israeli civilians, and, to be blunt, launches a guided-targeted missile in the attempt to minimize casualties, or the absolute human effluence who looks at a TODDLER through a sniper scope and makes the decision to shoot her, or the absolute scumbag who murders a little girl’s father in front of her and then smashes her head on the rocks until she dies?
Of course, some of the less decent people will still try to justify these horrific actions with “but the occupation” or “they are just resisting and are not responsible” and “Israel kills so many Arabs that it’s a just reaction.”
Again, context. We know what it looks like when a military power literally attacks civilians indiscriminately, because right next door in Syria the Syrian military has been waging an asymmetrical war and targeting civilians. They literally do what Israel is accused of doing and attack civilians heedless of whether they are innocent and unarmed or not. They actually do carpet bomb civilians and by simply looking at the statistics, we know immediately that to accuse Israel of doing the same is not just ridiculous but immoral. The simple truth is that we see in Syria the casualties that happen when you target civilians with a military, and the numbers are staggering.
Don’t believe me? If you take all the casualties on BOTH sides of the Israel-Arab conflict since 1948, according to the PA (Israel’s numbers are lower obviously), the total number of casualties is less than 50,000. Remember, that’s after three actual wars, several “intifadas” and constant low-level conflicts since 1948. Syria in the past 10 years has over 350,000 casualties and that’s without the Syrian government even admitting how many they have lost. Now I am no math genius, but 350,000 over 10 years works out to 35,000 a year – almost the same number as 75 years of conflict in Israel that includes three actual wars.
I know this is not going to change the entrenched minds of people who hate Jews, but I am hopeful that by actually looking at context and facts rather than opinions and narratives based on falsehoods, maybe a few people might find their moral compass and ask questions at the very least. Although the myriad of videos showing palestinian Arabs handing out sweets and candies to celebrate the murder of children should be enough for any rational decent person to take the correct side.
