The First Perpetrators of
“Terrorism” in our region were the Jewish underground in Palestine during the
British Mandate.
Laura Baramki Khoury reads a lot and does not miss one item in the weekly Time
magazine. She is writing the following in response to a letter written by Mr.
Jeremy Slomnicki in the inbox of the Time Magazine issue of April 16 in which he
emphasizes the need for Israel to defend itself because of Palestinian
Terrorism. She did not respond to the Time magazine because she wanted to say
more words than allowed, yet she is hoping that in one way or another it will
reach Mr. Slomnicki. So please circulate to your international friends.
“I am writing this to remind Mr. Slomnicki and all the Slomnickis of the world
that the first perpetrators of “Terrorism” in our region were the Jewish
underground in Palestine during the British Mandate.
Israel did not exist then, but Jewish terrorism started before 1948.
I do not know how old you are Mr. Slomnicki, but if you are under 60 years you
probably need to learn about the bombing of the King David Hotel Wing of the
British Secretariat in July 1947 in which one hundred Palestinians were blown
up.
The bombing took place on a Saturday to spare Jewish lives who were off on that
day. Ironically the man behind the bombing was Menahim Begin who later became
one of Israel’s prime ministers.
King David was just the beginning followed by many other terrorist acts, such as
the Semiramis hotel when a whole Palestinian family perished and the Palestine
Post offices.
The list is endless, but fortunately it has been recorded by many historians and
ironically some Jewish ones of conscience who had the courage to expose the
truth.
But surely you must have heard of the “calculated” massacre of Deir Yaseen, a
peaceful village near Jerusalem when a defenseless population was massacred,
mostly women and children. A gruesome sight that triggered a scare that led to
the fleeing of many Palestinians from their homes.
After 1967 The Jerusalem Post quoted Mr. Menahim Begin regarding Deir Yaseen:
“It was a blessing in disguise because it helped create the State of Israel.” Of
course those who did not flee were driven out at gun point in other parts of
Palestine.
With regard to your letter Mr. Slomnicki that Israel has the right to defend
itself, we are really tired of this cliché.
Surely Israel has the right to defend itself and so does every nation, but not
when Israel is the aggressor, the occupier, the oppressor and the fifth
strongest army in the world loaded with a stockpile of nuclear weapons.So from
whom is Israel defending itself? From a defenseless, dispossessed, and occupied
population separated by walls and check points while their homes are demolished
and their farms and olive trees are razed.
Are you comparing a resistance of an area under siege by the use of crude
home-made missiles that might have injured a few people but hardly caused any
damage, to the Israeli air strikes of populated Gaza that killed hundreds?
The attack on the Jenin camp was another act of “terrorism” and not by
underground militias, but by the regular and sophisticated Israeli army. So it
is ironic that you should really be so worried about “poor”Israel’s need to
defend itself.
And so is the implanting of the settlers and settlements on Palestinian land an
act of terrorism, especially that those settlers are there as colonizers with
the sole aim of driving away the Palestinians.
They raid their homes, block them from reaching their farms and groves and use
every means to deprive them from living a peaceful life.
I would like to quote a letter that appeared also in the Time magazine inbox
written by Mr. Claus Frausing from Copenhagen in the April 9, 2012 issue:
“Israel’s irresponsible behavior is dangerous for the security of the rest of
the world. Israel is extremely superior from a military point of view. Thanks to
the US. But because Israel has never been able to establish true alliances of
friendships with its neighbors, it is surrounded by hostile populations. A power
whose security is based on military superiority alone can only act militarily.
This is the real threat to the World not the possible nuclear power of Iran.”
Not only does Israel want to be the only country that owns nuclear weapons in
the region, it wants to be the super power of the region.
It succeeded in having the USA fight its war to eliminate what they perceived as
a potential threat, a potential threat, Iraq, under false pretexts, and now
their next target is Iran. Mr. Carter also alluded to that in the Time magazine
at one time that if Iran has one war head, Israel has 300. So Iran will
definitely not attempt to attack Israel knowing its strength.
Surely the Soviet Union and the USA during the years of the Cold War were aware
of each other’s strength and none would have attempted an attack because both
countries would have been destroyed. The key word was restraint.
Because we Palestinians live under Israeli occupation, because our territories
have been surrounded by separation walls, separating us from our Palestinian
families and communities, and because we cannot move further than 20 miles
without having to go through an Israeli military check point it is we,
Palestinians, Mr. Slomnicki, who have the right to defend ourselves.”
Laura Khoury