Toxic Terms

Israel’s Jewish and Christian supporters in the West must undertake two conscious steps. First, we must sharpen our terms and frames-of-reference, purging those that delegitimize the Jewish people’s homeland connection to Israel, and then demand that the main stream media do the same. Consider the following disastrously delegitimizing main stream media terms and frames of reference that, alas, even Israelis and pro-Israel Westerners often use.

“1967 Borders” – They aren’t. They were subsequent war-vitiated 1949-67 Israel-Jordan ceasefire lines.

“1948 Creation of Israel,” “1948 Founding of Israel” – No. Israel’s attainment of independence wasn’t artificial and out-of-the-blue.

“The War that Followed Israel’s Creation” – No, it wasn’t. The 1948 war was a partition-rejecting multi-nation Arab invasion for Israel’s destruction.

“Palestinian Refugees From the War that Followed Israel’s Creation” – No, they weren’t. There were multiple reasons why Arabs (not yet called 122 “Palestinians”) left Israel, mainly encouragement by the invading Arab states. And more Jewish refugees, mostly Israel-absorbed, fled vast Muslim lands where Jews had lived for millennia than Arabs left tiny Israel.

“East Jerusalem” – No, it’s not. Except for Jordan’s 1948-1967 seizure, the Old City, City of David, and “eastern” residential areas have been part of just “Jerusalem,” which has again had a Jewish majority since 19th century times.

“East Jerusalem Jewish Settlers” – No, they’re not. Jews have lived in Jerusalem since ancient times, inexorably returning whenever foreign conquerors kicked them out. During the three millennia preceding 1967, nobody called Jews in Jerusalem alien “settlers.”

“Hamas is ‘Considered’ a Terrorist Group” – No, it’s not. It is a terrorist group. “Israel was Created Because of the Holocaust” – No, it wasn’t. Israel’s independence is the natural culmination of the Jewish people’s continuous organized, openly-Jewish, homeland-claiming presence, recognized in the 20th century by pre-Holocaust international forums and documents.

“Palestinian Refugee Issue” – No, it’s not. In the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war and its aftermath, a greater number of Middle Eastern Jews fled vast Muslim lands than Arabs fled tiny Israel. Israel’s absorption of the Jewish refugees while “host” countries, including today Palestinian Arab-controlled areas of Palestine, continue to confine the Arabs to “refugee camps” does not remove the Jewish refugees (who’ve had descendants too) from the Arab-Israeli conflict’s refugee issue.

“‘Jewish State’ Recognition Demand is a “New Stumbling Block” – No, it’s not. The land of Israel as the Jewish people’s homeland has been central to Jewish peoplehood since Moses’ time.

“Palestinian Militants” – No, they’re not. Mass murderers who prey on civilians using rockets, mortars and bombs are terrorists, period.

“Suicide Bombers” – No, they’re not. They’re mass murderers of civilian men, women and kids.

“Millions of Palestinian Refugees and Their Descendants” – No, there weren’t. Palestine’s 1947 entire population, at least a third of it Jews, was less than two million. Not all the Arabs lived in the part that became Israel, and not all of them left. Some half-million Arabs left tiny Israel. A greater number of Jews, most of whom fled to Israel, fled vast Muslim lands.

“Moderate Abbas and Fatah” – No, they’re not. They demand Israel’s retreat to the 1949 ceasefire lines, removal of Jews from Judea, Samaria and all of Jerusalem, while demanding a “right of return” for millions of Arabs into shrunken Israel. They reject “two states for two peoples.” They demand impossible peace-talk pre-conditions.

“Hard-Line “Netanyahu” – No, he’s not. He accepts the “two-state solution” with a Muslim Arab state alongside Jewish Israel. He instituted a 10-month Judea-Samaria building ban. He calls continuously for resumption of direct talks without pre-conditions.

“Nakba” – No, it wasn’t, unless it’s your view that the homeland Jewish army having thrown back a multi-nation Arab invasion for its destruction and annihilation of its people was a “catastrophe.” The Palestinian Arabs’ real Nakba was their turning down their own state because there would also have been a Palestinian state of the Jews.

“Occupied Territories,” “Palestinian Territories” – No, they’re not. The League of Nations Palestine Mandate recognized the Jewish people’s right to reconstitute its Jewish National Home in Palestine (including Judea and Samaria, and originally including what became Transjordan), and called for close settlement of the Jews on this land, where Jews had lived, claiming it as their homeland, for three thousand years. They’re disputed, not “occupied” or “Palestinian” territories.

“Occupation” and Oslo – The declaration of principles (DOP, or Oslo I) signed on the White House lawn in September 1993 by the PLO and the Israeli government provided for Palestinian self-rule in designated portions of the West Bank/Judea-Samaria and Gaza Strip for a transitional period not to exceed five years, during which Israel and the Palestinian Arabs would negotiate a permanent peace settlement. By May 1994, Israel had completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (apart from a small stretch of territory containing a small number of Israeli settlements that “occupied” not a single Palestinian and were subsequently evacuated in 2005) and the Jericho area of the West Bank/Judea-Samaria. On July 1, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat made his triumphant entry into Gaza, and shortly afterward a newly- established Palestinian Authority (PA ) under his leadership took control of this territory.

On September 28, 1995, despite the PA ’s abysmal failure to clamp down on terrorist activities in the territories under its control, Israel and the PA signed an interim agreement, and by the end of the year Israeli forces had been withdrawn from the West Bank/Judea-Samaria’s populated areas with the exception of Hebron (where redeployment was completed in early 1997). On January 20, 1996, elections to the Palestinian Council were held, and shortly afterward both the Israeli Civil Administration and military government were dissolved.

In effect, a Palestinian state had been established. In one fell swoop, Israel relinquished control over virtually all of the West Bank/Judea-Samaria’s 1.4 million residents. Since that time, nearly 60% of them have lived entirely under Palestinian jurisdiction (Area A). Another 40% live in towns, villages, refugee camps and hamlets where the PA exercises civil authority but, in line with the Oslo accords, Israel has maintained “overriding responsibility for security” (Area B). Some 2% of the W.Bank/J-S’s population – tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs – continue to live in areas where Israel has complete control, but even there the PA maintains “functional jurisdiction” (Area C).  This is NOT OCCUPATION.

In short, since the beginning of 1996, and certainly following the completion of the redeployment from Hebron in January 1997, 99% of the Palestinian Arab population of the W.Bank/J-S and the Gaza Strip has not lived under Israeli “occupation.” As the Palestinian Arab’s virulent anti-Israel and anti-Jewish media, school system and Islamic religious incitement can attest to, any “presence” of a foreign “occupation” has been virtually non-existent.

This in turn means that the presentation of terrorism as a natural response to the so-called “occupation” is not only completely unfounded but the inverse of the truth.

“Israeli Offensives in Gaza” – No, they’re not. Israel eventually responding to near-daily rocketing of its civilians by going after the rocket-launching terrorists in their lairs is a defensive response to that rocketing, not an aggressive “Israeli offensive.”

 “The Palestinians” – No, they’re not. Palestine is a place, not a people. Palestine’s Arabs are Palestinian Arabs, just as Israeli Jews are Palestinian Jews. The media acknowledges that during the Mandate Christians, Muslims and Jews in the land were all called Palestinians. In fact, until the 1960’s “Palestinian” was used mainly in reference to Palestine’s Jews.

“Retaliation” – No, it’s not. To “retaliate” is to return injury-for-injury, likefor-like. Labeling Israel’s response against terrorists who rocket and bomb Israeli civilians “Israeli retaliation” drags Israel’s obligatory, justified protection of its citizens down to the moral mud of intentionally targeting civilians.

“Road Map Requires Palestinian Authority To Rein In Militants” – No, it doesn’t. It requires the Palestinian Authority to confront all those engaged in terror and to dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.

“Rockets Fired At Israel, Into Israel” – No, they’re not. They’re fired at civilians in towns and cities in Israel, using target shifting and volleying to try to evade Israel’s new Iron Dome interception.

 “Israeli Said ‘Militants’” – He almost certainly didn’t. If he did, print the direct quote of him saying so.

“Seized By Israel in June 1967” – Don’t say that to Jews who remember the anguish Israeli and Diaspora Jews went through in May 1967.

“‘Jewish Settlements’ Versus ‘Palestinian’ “Neighborhoods…Towns…Villages” – No, they’re not. Wherever the eventual political border will run, Jews are not outsiders, but actually have far longer connection to the land of Israel, including Judea, Samaria and “East” Jerusalem, than Arabs. Most place names are of Hebrew, Greek or other non-Arab origin.

 “Suspected Militants” – Don’t use that expression for those who blow themselves up seeking martyrdom.

“P.A. Is For and Israel Against the ‘Two-State Solution’” – Wrong on both counts. Israel agrees with the U.S. on “two states for two peoples, Jewish and Arab.” Abbas and other P.A. leaders have said over and over “We shall never recognize a Jewish state.”

“Israel’s Deadly Raid On an Aid Flotilla Bound for Gaza” – No, it wasn’t. It was Israeli enforcement of a legal blockade against seaborne armaments for the terrorist Gaza regime of Hamas, which “claims responsibility” for relentlessly rocketing civilians in Israel, and a long line of “suicide” bombers.

 “The Cave of the Patriarchs is a ‘West Bank Shrine,’ and Rachel’s Tomb is ‘a Mosque’ “ – No, they’re not. They’re Jewish, and they long antedate Islam.

 “The West Bank” – No, it’s not. “Judea and Samaria” are not just “biblical names,” but the names the Israeli hill country of Israel was known by from ancient times, including in the U.N.’s 1947 partition resolution, until after Transjordan invaded in 1948 (and was ousted by Israel in 1967).

 “‘Whistle-Blower’ Vanunu” – No, he’s not. He betrayed and endangered his countrymen, surrounded as they are by enemies sworn to their destruction, by revealing his country’s military secrets.

 “Israel is Xenophobic” – No, it’s not. Israeli Arabs are full Israeli citizens. The xenophobes are the Palestinian Arabs, who would expel every last Jew from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

“Israel Is a European Colonial Zionist Entity With “No Place In The Islamic Middle East” – No, it’s not. The Jewish people, as such, has lived in the land of Israel without interruption for longer than 3,000 years. The Zionist movement is a modern expression of a diaspora connection to the land, including through aliyah, that never ceased. Much of Israel’s population today is descended from Jews expelled in the mid-20th century from Middle East lands in which they had unbroken family roots going back hundreds and even thousands of years.

 

The Jewish state of Israel is none of the dark, depraved things its enemies and the M.S.M. paint it. It is a miraculous revival of sovereign dignity of a people which never relinquished its ancient homeland connection to its land. Surrounded by foes dedicated to its annihilation, it has accomplished much