Oh, Josef, Josef, Josef. You know I read the AP regularly. Why would you even tempt me?
NETANYAHU: “You don’t need to send American troops to Israel. We defend ourselves.”
THE FACTS: Israel is a leading recipient of American foreign aid, including more than $1 billion in military assistance each year.
THE TRUTH: Israel must spend 75% of that money on U.S.-made equipment, thus guaranteeing U.S. military suppliers jobs and customers. Also, since Israeli aid is bundled in with Egyptian aid, Israel must spend money on defense from Egypt, as recent events have shown. For every dollar Israel takes from the U.S., it spends between $1.06 and $1.39 on defense.
NETANYAHU: “In Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers. We are not the British in India. We are not the Belgians in the Congo.”
THE FACTS: While the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria, is promised to the Jewish people in the Bible, the international community considers the West Bank occupied territory. Israel captured the area in the 1967 Mideast war but has never annexed it. Its occupied status is underscored by the presence of tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers who protect Israeli settlements and control the movement of Palestinian residents in the name of security.
THE TRUTH: The West Bank includes the ancient Jewish city of Jerusalem, in which a majority of Jews lived before the war with the Arab nations. Jews were driven out of their homes there, and in other areas of the territories, including from Hebron in 1929—fleeing a massacre which a 92-year-old Arab woman thinks of fondly.
NETANYAHU: “You don’t need to export democracy to Israel. We’ve already got it.”
THE FACTS: Israel does give its Arab minority full civil rights, including participation in elections. But Israeli Arabs suffer from systematic discrimination in housing and the workplace. Also, more than 2 million Palestinians living in the West Bank do not have Israeli citizenship and therefore cannot vote in Israeli elections.
THE TRUTH: Democracy is democracy. Arab-Israelis can vote. The rest of this “fact” is distraction. Discrimination is a different story, and, funnily enough, the AP does not point out that the discriminatory practices keep getting knocked down by Jewish judges. Also, West Bank Palestinians are not Israeli citizens. They will be citizeins of Palestine. Why would they vote in Israeli elections?
NETANYAHU: “The vast majority of the 650,000 Israelis who live beyond the 1967 lines reside in neighborhoods and suburbs of Jerusalem and greater Tel Aviv.”
THE FACTS: Nearly all of these communities were built in the face of overwhelming international opposition and are considered illegal settlements by the world, including the U.S. There are 300,000 Israelis living in the West Bank and 200,000 in east Jerusalem, making a total of 500,000.
THE TRUTH: Once again, the AP ignores the Jews displaced from Jerusalem, and does not include, say, the actual distances of the suburbs. Also, once again, the eastern half of Jerusalem never belonged to the Palestinians. In eastern Jerusalem is the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the ruins of the Temple Mount, both taken from Jews by Jordan in 1948.
NETANYAHU: “The Palestinian economy is booming. It’s growing by more than 10 percent a year.”
THE FACTS: The West Bank economy is indeed growing rapidly. But the World Bank has noted that the growth comes after years of contraction during fighting with Israel and has been fueled by huge amounts of foreign aid. It warns the growth is unsustainable unless Israel does more to encourage the Palestinian private sector.
THE TRUTH: If it is booming, it is booming. This is another attempt to deny the reality of the situation. The AP isn’t able to disprove the growth, therefore it says it is “unsustainable.” Uh-huh.
NETANYAHU: “Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by the Palestinian version of al-Qaida.”
THE FACTS: While Hamas and al-Qaida have killed hundreds of people in religious holy wars, they have no connection, and Hamas has in fact come under criticism from the global terror network for being too moderate. Al-Qaida preaches global jihad. Hamas says its struggle is solely against Israel, not the West at large. In its Gaza stronghold, Hamas has violently clashed with smaller armed groups that claim inspiration from al-Qaida.
THE TRUTH: Seriously? You’re going to take a figure of speech and make it count literally? Fine. Let’s discuss terrorist groups and see if you can tell the difference between the two. One wants to kill Jews, drive them out of “Palestine,” restore an Islamic Caliphate, and have Islam rule the world. The other wants to kill Jews, drive them out of “Palestine,” restore an Islamic Caliphate, and have Islam rule the world. One is called Hamas, the other al Qaeda. Can you tell which one is which? I sure can’t.
There is also Article Five of the Hamas Charter, which calls for a global jihad:
Its extent in place is anywhere that there are Muslims who embrace Islam as their way of life everywhere in the globe. This being so, it extends to the depth of the earth and reaches out to the heaven.
And there you have another example of the AP anti-Israel media bias.
Update: Great minds, and all that. Daled Amos and I think alike.
`World Bank has noted that the growth comes after years of contraction `
Maybe the pals shouldn`t have started a war