The Eclipse of the Moon

By DOVID BEN-MEIR
 The secretary general of the United Nations has come out against Israeli settlement expansion activity in the "occupied" territories, stating that they are illegal and harm the peace process, they are an affront to the world, and they and the "occupation" are an understandable reason for young Arabs in the Holy Land to take up a knife and stab men, women and children.
"Illegal"? Taking into the account the nature of the majority of regimes represented in the U.N. – I'm not surprised at that distortion of law in order to satisfy the masters at the UN. The truth is: we, the Jewish nation, have come home to our land where no other nation-state existed besides ours. Every scrap of land we occupy was either bought, or fought for in defensive wars against people who took up arms against us long before 1967! You can't illegally occupy your own homeland!
"Settlement expansion" – Often I hear the term and am puzzled. There haven't been new settlements in the last twenty years or so, nor are boundaries of existing settlements being enlarged. Inside existing "settlements" houses are sometimes built, but after all that construction, the built-up areas in Judea and Samaria, Arab and Jew together, are less than ten percent of the area. There isn't enough room for everyone?
I admit: I'm a settler; I've put on weight – ergo "settler expansion". If that's the cause of apprehension – I'm grateful for the concern, but I fear the real meaning of "settlement expansion" is something more sinister.
Let's clarify something by un-laundering the term "settlement". When they say "settlement" they don't mean Arab communities in Judea and Samaria. Oh no! They mean Jewish communities. So when they say "settlement expansion harms the peace process" what they really mean is: Jewish communities, building homes for Jews in Jewish community on Jewish-owned land – supposedly harms the peace process.
Substitute "black" for "Jewish" and say: "Black communities and the building of homes for blacks on black-owned land in white neighborhoods harm communal harmony."
Hear the racism?
The Palestinian Authority repeatedly declares that in the future state of Palestine there will be no Jews. They say "Israeli settlers", but you know what they mean… Do you ever hear the Israeli government say that in any future peace agreement there will be no Arabs left in the Jewish state?
So why isn't THAT an affront to the world? The real "affront" to the "world" is the persistent, pernicious and very determined anti-Semitism, a term coined to launder the act of hating Jews
.
Moon 'understands' terrorism, accepts the reasons as legitimate. But he's wrong on two accounts:
First: there are real people and nations, real countries or portions of countries under real foreign occupation. China occupies Tibet, Turkey the northern half of Cyprus –and the list goes on. There are no shortages of people living under harsh, repressive regimes. Jews suffered often from such oppression, both in Europe and in the Islamic world. Do you hear of Tibetans knifing Chinese soldiers? How many Basques or Corsicans stab civilians? Ever heard of Jewish suicide-bombers in the last one hundred and fifty years?
It's not a political situation that inspires people to take a knife and stab a mother of six, a pregnant woman, or an eighty year old man or woman. It's first and foremost a question of culture and education.
And this brings us to the second point: Arab terrorism is rooted in the religion and culture surrounding Israel in the Middle East. Overwhelmingly – most Muslims are killed by other Muslims, over issues that have nothing to do with Israel.
The hate propaganda, distortion of history both recent and ancient, and encouragement of intolerance that the Palestinian Authority spreads, whether in school texts, the media, or even children's TV shows – all these indoctrinate youth with the urge to kill Jews, because they learn that it's meritorious to kill Jews because they're Jews.
I am a Jewish "settler" living in a Jewish community in the heartland of the Land of Israel. I wish to declare: despite this eclipse of the Moon – I adhere to the truth, keeping my heart free from hate and striving for love of all mankind.


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