The Madness Must Stop Now!

I  was on yesterday's march calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. The madness in the Middle East must stop. Commentators must be balanced and go to the genesis of the Middle East Crisis.

How was the state of Israel formed? Who were driven from their ancestral lands in order to make way for the creation of the state of Israel? Were the human rights of those driven from their homes respected? Did the Zionists under Begin resort to terrorism and bombing campaigns during their struggle for a state of their own - eg the bombing of King David hotel in 1946? Has Israel kidnapped and assassinated those it considers its enemies?

Let's not suggest that the conflict began with the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers.

Terrorism must be condemned regardless of who commits it.

1 Response to "The Madness Must Stop Now!"

mc

Thu, 02/07/2008 - 11:57
<p><font style="background-color: #e2e2e2">A common misperception is that all the Jews were forced into the Diaspora by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. and then, 1800 years later, suddenly reurned to Palestine demanding their country back. IN REALITY, the Jewish peopke have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3700 years.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: #e2e2e2">The Jewish people base their claim to the Land of Israel on at least four premises: 1) the Jewish people settled and developed the land ; 2) the international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine to the Jewish people ; 3) the territory was captured in defensive wars and 4) G-d promised the land to the patriarch Abraham. </font></p><p><font style="background-color: #e2e2e2">Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the beginning of the exile, Jewish life in the Land of Israel continued and often flourished. Large communities were reestablished in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the ninth century. In the 11th century, Jewish communities grew in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea. </font></p><p><font style="background-color: #e2e2e2">The Crusaders massacred many Jews during the 12th century, but the community rebounded in the next two centuries as large numbers of rabbis and Jewish pilgrims immigrated to Jerusalem and teh Galilee. Prominent rabbis established communities in Safed, Jerusalem and elsewhere during the next 300 years. By the early 19th century - years before the birth of the modern Zionism movement - more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout what is today Israel. The 78 years of nation - building, beginning in 1870, culminated in the reestablishment of the Jewish State. </font></p><p><font style="background-color: #e2e2e2">Israel&#39;s international &quot;birth certificate&quot; was validated by Jewish statehood in the Land of Israel in Biblical times; uninterrupted Jewish presence from the time of Joshua onward; the Balfour declaration of 1917; the League of Nations Mandate, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration; the United Nations partition resolution of 1947; Israel&#39;s admission to the UN in 1949; the recognition of Israel by most other states; and, most of all, the society created by Israel&#39;s people in decades of thriving, dynamic national existence. </font></p>