The Palestinians living where Israel is now were mostly farmers. They had a very high rate of education for the region, and lived peacefully on their land. They were not the cause of anti-Semitism, they were not killing Jews, and it is totally unfair that they were treated in such a horrendous manner by the Zionists.
In the timeline I posted to you the other day, the beginning dates of all the Zionist terrorist organizations were posted, starting very early in the 20th century. It is totally natural that in a land that is attacked, where farms and other property is stolen from people, that there would eventually be resistance, and yet it was not until the 1960's that an organized resistance to the Zionists really even took hold.
I think the only legitimate use of terrorism is when your land has been stolen from you and is occupied by the enemy. I don't see what other means you have to resist at that point.
Perhaps you do not know the dates of all the massacres in the camps--some happened not that long ago. Ariel Sharon was implicated in one of the last ones, and judged by an Israeli court to be culpable. What is a man like that doing running Israel? And an even more crucial question--the Jews beg us never to forget what happened to them in Nazi Germany, and I certainly won't. So how is it fair for you to excuse heinous behavior because it happened, say, just 25 years ago?
So I do believe there is complete justification for the terror attacks on Israel. And I totally support the settlers' being driven from their homes. Are you aware of the vast number of human rights violations being committed on an ongoing basis by the Israels? Perhaps I should post some of the reports occasionally, just to keep everything in focus. We hear way too much about the Palestinian response, but not the original aggressions, like Israeli soldiers mowing down Palestinian children and teenagers who are just playing in fields near their homes. The Palestinians were a peaceful people; the terrorism inflicted on them by the Zionists is what led to this chain of events. I think it's important to keep that clear.
Even the new Pope agrees with me:
Vatican Denounces Some Israeli Retaliation
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 28, 2005; 5:58 PM
VATICAN CITY -- Responding to Israeli criticism, the Vatican said Thursday it hasn't condemned every strike by Palestinian militants against the Jewish state because Israel's military response to the attacks has sometimes violated international law.
Largely good relations between the Vatican and Israel in recent years were strained this week by Israeli outrage that Pope Benedict XVI failed to condemn terror against Israelis in recent remarks.
Pope Benedict XVI waves to the faithful upon his arrival at his summer residence of Castelgandolfo, on the outskirts of Rome, Thursday, July 28, 2005. The pontiff plans to remain at Castel Gandolfo through to the end of the summer, although he'll leave Aug. 18 for a three-day trip to his native Germany to participate in the church's World Youth Day. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito) (Pier Paolo Cito - AP)
Israel's Foreign Ministry complained Monday that Benedict, in a public appearance at his Alpine vacation retreat on Sunday, "deliberately" didn't mention a July 12 suicide bombing in the coastal city of Netanya while the pontiff did refer to recent terror strikes in Egypt, Britain, Turkey and Iraq.
"It's not always possible to immediately follow every attack against Israel with a public statement of condemnation, and for various reasons, among them the fact that the attacks against Israel sometimes were followed by immediate Israeli reactions not always compatible with the rules of international law," a statement from the Vatican press office said Thursday night.
"It would thus be impossible to condemn the first (the terror strikes) and let the second (Israeli retaliation) pass in silence," said the Vatican statement, which had an unusually strong tone for the Holy See.
The Vatican didn't describe any of the alleged violations. Israel often has responded to terror attacks by raiding Palestinian towns and refugee camps that are home to suspected militants and destroying their homes. But since a Feb. 8 cease-fire went into effect, Israel has halted most of its retaliatory operations.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev declined to comment on the Vatican statement.
On Monday, the Vatican envoy to Israel was summoned to the Foreign Ministry as the Israeli government expressed its outrage over Benedict's remarks that didn't condemn the Netanya bombing, which killed five Israelis.
A day earlier, as Benedict addressed pilgrims while on vacation, he prayed for God to stop the "murderous hand" of terrorists. He denounced as "abhorrent" the terror strikes at a Red Sea resort in Egypt, the attacks in London and other terrorism in Iraq and Turkey.
On Monday, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Benedict had been referring to the attacks of the last few days and, referring to the ministry statement, called it "surprising that one would have wanted to take the opportunity to distort the intentions of the Holy Father."
Navarro-Valls said then that the Netanya attack "falls under the general and unreserved condemnation of terrorism" by the pontiff.
Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, also came under criticism by an Israeli foreign ministry official in the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
In the paper, Nimrod Barkan, head of the World Jewish Affairs department at the ministry, was quoted as saying that during John Paul's tenure Israel "quietly" protested in Rome the pope's lack of condemnation of attacks in Israel.
Referring to Monday's summoning of the Vatican envoy, Barkan is quoted as saying: "We will have to weigh other steps" if the protest isn't effective.
Reacting to Barkan's remarks, the Vatican said he was "inventing" that Israel supposedly made numerous protests to the Holy See about John Paul's record.
"The interventions of John Paul II against every form of terrorism and against every single act of terrorism against Israel have been many and public," the Vatican said.
The statement also denounced Monday's complaint about Benedict as "presumptuous."
"Just as the Israeli government understandably doesn't allow itself to be told by others what it should say, neither can the Holy See accept teachings and directives by some other authority regarding the leaning and content of its own statements," the Vatican press office said.
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