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A letter from A Palestinian Christian to a Christian Friend of Israel

Dear Mr. David Dolan,

I received your article, “ Crisis in the Middle East “ published in the Israeli News Digest November 2000, through a friend asking for comments. To be honest with you, for me, It was hard to digest.

I am a Christian living in Bethlehem area. I would like, after your permission, to question some of your statements. Of course as being part of the Christian friends of Israel I should not expect you to be objective, and I know to start with where your sympathy and support is placed. But I expected you to be honest whenever you refer to facts and happenings. To start with, if I have asked the spokesman of the Israeli government to state the Israeli position in regard to the current crisis I would have got exactly the same statements and way of reasoning.

Firstly I noticed that whenever you mentioned the happenings of the recent crisis you have been very selective. The problem is not with what you are welling to tell, it is in what you are avoiding to mention.  Let me take quotations from your article: “Those same forces either shot at the Jewish neighborhoods…. Or turned blind eye while other armed Palestinians did so” and “… who promised to safeguard Jewish Holy sites (Joseph’s tomb) and then sat back as Arab mobs overran and shacked the site” and “… whose sons gleefully mutilated two reserve soldiers because they took a wrong turn in a road “.

Sir, you managed to bring about all the wrong doings of Palestinians during this bloody crisis. You missed no one. If I attempt to list the wrong doings of Israel I do not think it will be surprising to you, as a well-informed person, that the list will be too long and needs a thick book to be documented. Maybe I will mention some in the course of my letter but I will not attempt to list them.

Sir, did it ever occurred to your mind that Palestinians have, as well, the right to ask similar questions. How would Arafat be able to convince, not only Palestinians, but as well Arabs and Moslems that Israel which prevents people of faith from reaching holy shrines; have destroyed or turned into night clubs more than 45 mosques; where Israeli mobs, just recently, overran and shacked a mosque in Tiberias; where Israeli soldiers sited at the surrounding walls of the Aqsa mosque yard killed seven people and injured hundreds in one hour; where Alaqsa mosque was put on fire by a Christian friend of Israel; where Dr. Goldstein committed the ugly massacre at the tomb of the patriarchs against Moslems while kneeing in front of God,  That Israel is the allegeable trusty party as a guardian to the holy city and shrines.

I, even when searching carefully, never found Palestinians mentioned in your article. You only mention Israel, Israelis, and Arafat police force. The only reference to Palestinians I saw in your article is mobs. Is it again the myth of the land without people for the people without land? Sir, do you know, or shall I bring to your attention that 130 Palestinian civilians where killed on the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces, settler’s gangs, and Israeli mobs. Do you know that: 200 Palestinian civilians are declared to be clinically dead; That a Palestinian was kidnapped, tortured, and burned alive by Israeli settlers; That Palestinian civilians are shoot at and bombarded daily with heavy machine guns, canons, and missiles from ground as well as from the Israeli air force. Does this even bother you? Sorry to inquire.  How would Palestinians trust any arrangement that gives Israel control over their lives, holy shrines, exits and inlets to their country, and access in between their isolated regions (sorry reservations). How would Palestinians be able to live with Israeli settlers planted around and inside their towns and villages on land expropriated against their well? Do Palestinians count in your calculation or only the chosen people are?

Sir, Bethlehem, the porn place of our lord and the hold of the remnants of the Christian community in the Holy Land is being bombarded daily, people are killed, homes are cracked down, kids are terrified. Does that move anything inside you? or you are only shattered with the seen of few bullets shoot from a long range at Gilo. I want to stress to you that I disapprove both yet I want you to be aware of the proportion of both acts.

Do you think that Palestinians have the right to self-defense? Do you envision that the Palestinian authority's first duty is to defend the lives of Palestinians and if necessary fight against anyone that endanger it? You seem to approve this function for the state of Israel. Am I right? Can you then understand that when such a massacre take place we need to criticize the Palestinian police for being silent and not for shyly trying to protect the lives of its people?

In few encounters where either the clashes erupted between settlers and Palestinians or between Israelis and Palestinians who are Israeli citizens, the Israel army and police moved to firstly protect Israelis and then to brutally attack Palestinians and take over control. 13 Palestinians citizens of Israel where killed on the hands of the Israeli army and police in such events. So far Israel is not allowing any third party investigation to any of those tragedies. For God sake if Israel is so right and have totally clean hands and If this is an Arafat conspiracy why don’t they just give the world the chance to incriminate him and praise Israel? What Israel wants is a free hand in dealing with Palestinians and for the whole world to accept their story as the final judgment. To my first reading I see that you accept it as a bible versus.

Let me look at your thorough political analysis. It really sounds interesting. I will summaries, correct me if I am wrong. In one sentence it is Arafat conspiracy against the poor peace loving state of Israel. So according to your analysis “Arafat had already gotten what he could out of the process: full control over most Palestinians living in the disputed!! Territories…. Large armed Para-military force, a media network, an airport and a port” so now he want other things through violence and international intervention. The poor state of Israel has no agenda by its own and is trapped by this giant horrible force of Arafat.

Let us examine some facts here: The major achievement of Arafat according to your analysis was to gain control over the majority of Palestinians. Israel unwillingly with a broken heart and for the sake of living peacefully decided to deliver them to his hands. Sir, the dream of all Israeli leaders was to find a way to get red of Palestinians (a demographic problem) while keeping control over their land and resources. Rabin said once, and I think you remember, I wish Gaza is drawn into the sea. Do you know that the majority of Palestinians living under Arafat authority in the major cities are living on less than 3% of the total area of the occupied (not disputed according to you) west bank. Have you ever envisioned under which conditions those besieged Palestinians are living?. Are the seeds of anger, despair, and hatred inherited in the Palestinians Genetic structure or is it possible, in your judgment, that the inhuman conditions imposed on them are the roots of what we all encounter these days?

Even the most right wing Israelis praised Oslo for helping Israel to solve the growing demographic problem. What actually happened recently is an Israeli attempts to cut short the peace deal with Palestinians to suite the interests of the extreme right wing parties in Israel.

Firstly Israel stopped the implementation of many signed agreements. In fact Mr. Barak did not implement any of the interim agreements he himself signed. Then moved using its military strength, the blind support of the United States, and the blind support of the Christian friends of Israel, to replace the terms of reference of the peace process, which are the UN resolutions 242 and 338, by an Israeli dictation. The UN resolutions talk about the Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem, which you call, disputed as occupied. It was not Peres or Barak who signed the deal in Madrid and accepted those resolutions as the terms of reference for the peace process; it was Shmir the most radical right wing Prime Minster in Israel.  

You might remember that Shamir himself said openly afterwards that he never intended to conclude a peace deal and he only wanted to gain time for his settlement building projects. His intention was, according to his own public statements, to extend the negotiations for 10 or 20 years. Recently Mr. Barak, who saw no political future for himself but through a catholic marriage to Sharon, moved quickly to either dictate the Israeli solution through negotiations or without them. This is exactly why Barak coordinated with Sharon the provocative visit to the Aqsa mosque. He wanted to prepare the ground for a unilaterally imposed solution. If you watch carefully the disputes in Israel, you will see speedy preparations for a unilaterally imposed separation between Israel and the Palestinians.

Yes you are right, most Israelis, including the peace camp, where living the illusion that all other occupiers lived. They think that their military might can dictate on the helpless Palestinians the final status terms. The illusion of Palestinians being the slaves and Arafat being Israel’s agent who should guide them to accept what is decided as the national interests of the state of Israel. They never envisioned Arafat as a national leader and as having the interest and safety of his people as priority number one. If we ever will have a chance to live in peace, and we should, this illusion have to be shaken and disappear and Israelis have to deal with Palestinians as equal partners with hopes, feelings, rights, and national interests.

Let me bring your “shocking reality” theme to be examined more thoroughly. Arafat and in all of his public statements made it clear to everyone that in order to solve the Problem Israel should withdraw from the areas occupied in 1967 war including east Jerusalem and that the long existing problem of the Palestinian refugees should be solved and their basic rights should be protected. So what was the source of the illusions on the Israeli side?. I might agree with you that it is extremely difficult for Israel to live with justice for Palestinians being restored and historical mistakes being corrected.

Finally referring selectively to statements to reveal conspiracies is not fruitful or would you like me to bring now thousands of statements issued by the most prominent leaders of Israel that proves total aggression and no interest in peace. More honest indicators in this environment which is full of rhetoric,  for me, are actions. If you insist I will be willing to list them all next time.

Then, according to your article, Barak came to “ save the day”: “ At Camp David, Barak offered Arafat more than most Israelis ever remotely imagined would be put on the negotiating table”. I agree. Most Israelis think that Palestinians are entitled to live in isolated totally controlled ex-south African stile reservations and that this is the most that could be offered to them. What bothers me is that a Christian friend of Israel is taking this as a fair reference to scale peace arrangements against. Sir, peace with no human and just notions is neither peace nor sustainable. Re-establishing the apartheid south Africa in Palestine is no good for both. Even if the majority of Israelis are immersed with the current problems and lack future vision. I expected an outsider with deep interest in the region to think differently and see things more clearly.

If you are welling to choose another scale to reference Barak against you will not find a suitable one but the already defined reference for the peace process, which is the UN resolutions. We cannot measure him against any other Israeli Prime Minster because none of them was engaged in final status negotiations.

Yet examine your figures more clearly otherwise people might be misled by them. “ Barak offered 92% of the west bank to Arafat”. Does that include greater Jerusalem area? Is the Dead Sea area calculated into it? Are those calculations done after or before adding Maalee Adumim and Gosh Etsion into Jerusalem?

I had a chance to look at the Israeli maps presented at Camp David. The maps indicate a negative answer to all the questions I already stated and show clearly the West bank divided into three separated reservations added to the already existing one in Gaza. All are surrounded by narrow passages controlled by Israel.  Even so, Palestinian negotiators were willing to deal positively with the Israeli proposition and accepted Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish quarter and the principle of exchange of territories. The explosion came about when Israeli negotiators decided to release the evil gene from the bottle and opened a religious dispute over the Aqsa mosque yard. For the sake of all the lives we lost Jerusalem have no religious solutions only political. I am afraid that people like you are the ones who want to move things into the religious arena without caring about the human cost.

A major reason behind the current crisis is related to the genuine fears for the safety of the holy shrines. Only the ones who want to drive the region to the edge of a disaster are welling to touch this sensitive nerve. Unfortunately, under the influence of orthodox Jews and Fundamental Christians, secular Barak was ready to play with fire and push the region to the edge of a disaster.

You sound very proud of predicting from the beginning that also accords will die. Good you was not a naïve left wing Israeli or a naïve peace seeking Palestinian but shared your vision with right wing Israelis who still hold to the myth of the greater land of Israel and conclude that peace is not possible with Arabs who only understand one language, The language of power and dictation. Unfortunately such mentality is still common among mainstream Israeli leaders and this is exactly why most of them engage in a peace process with one hand and hinder it by the acts of the other hand. For example, after signing the Oslo accords Israel launched an unprecedented land expropriation and settlement building campaign. Before the ink dried on the papers signed Israel launched a campaign to build a huge net work of what is called by-pass roads that fragmented the Palestinian areas and by de facto annexed huge areas from the west bank into Israel and limited severely the mobility of Palestinians.

Your piece “ Holy war for Jerusalem” is the most bothering off all.  I guess you are obsessed with the conspiracy theory. Arafat, planning to set the region in flames to create a more suitable International and Arab attitude towards his position and claims, trapped, according to your analysis, both Barak and Sharon. Both volunteered to play to the hands of Arafat. Amazing, after the end of the cold war the uni-powerful pole in function in the world is not the USA nor the western block but probably Arafat. He plays with the world with the tips of his fingers. Be realistic sir, readers might be ignorant but by too far are not stupid.

Let me examine your chronology of events. You start by stating that before Camp David and even after there were incidents of violence in the region that helped you to discover the starting point of the viscous plan. Excuse me sir, can you point to any period, since Oslo up, in which there were no Acts of violence from both sides. The only difference was the existence of a mechanism for both parties to cooperate in attempting to defuse and prevent them. Did it come to your mind that on both sides there still existed strong holds of opponents to the piece process like yourself? Those who never believed in it and did their at most to obstacles and hinder it and worked hard to bring it to a state of being clinically dead like the two hundred Palestinians laying in our hospitals waiting for their funerals to be announced. I guess you need to find a more convincing scenario for the starting point of the conspiracy.

Then, the actual burst of events came next day of Sharon provocation. It was Friday afternoon, when Israeli soldiers used unprecedented power against Palestinian protesters killing seven and injuring hundreds in one hour. No one could claim at that point that Palestinians used arms or that the lives of the soldiers positioned at the roof tops of the surrounding buildings was endangered. Have you ever asked your self why The Israeli soldiers were ordered to shoot life ammunition at angry civilians to the extent of committing a massacre? Is Palestinian blood not worthy as the blood of others or is this a prophecy to be fulfilled?.

When demonstrations continued the army behaved in the same way. More blood, more funerals, more tragedies and with each of them the crisis received more fuel. In my point of view Barak adopted the position of Netanyahu who stated his conditions for the peace process to succeed. The most important of them was: Palestinians should lower their expectations from the peace process. By moving in such a brutal inhuman way Barak was trying to force Palestinians to lower their expectations by force after he failed to do it in Camp David negotiations. Can you even think about this scenario?

I agree with you that on both sides there are strong holds for the idea of the holy war. This is exactly why I insist that the solution to the issue of Jerusalem have to be decided on political secular terms. Religious rights and practicing faith should be totally separated from religious and biblical claims. It is ironic that both sides have a secular national leadership and yet issues are brought to the negotiating table, ironically, from the Israeli side, the more secular, through a religious biblical context.

Yes there are Palestinians and Moslems who are still dominated by theological thinking towards an extremely sensitive issue like Jerusalem and at the same time the same methodology of thinking exists considerably among Israeli Jews. Yet playing with fire started from the Israeli side. From the side of Barak and Sharon and they should be held responsible of the consequences.

Your piece “Sinai Summit” is unbearable. I cannot be objective about it. You allow your self to talk about death tolls and how minor it is to other death tolls in Africa and other places. You even hated the idea that a conference convened to look at the issue. The death tolls have to reach thousands so as and from your point of view for the world community to do some thing. All of your assuring statements about how much you dislike it and how terrible it is did not prevent you from showing a real face of someone who is either careless, or excuse me to say it, still blood thirsty for more. Probably I was right when I said earlier that You want Israel to have a free hand in dealing with it and the world community should take the Israeli position as the final Judgment.

Assume that a well-informed reporter like your self told the world leaders that: kidnapping three Israeli soldiers at the northern borders is not enough for you to move and send your representatives to help release them. If the toll of kidnapped soldiers reaches hundreds or thousands then you can think about it..

Sir, to be a friend of Israel you do not need to hate and dehumanize all others.  All of the good friends of Palestinians in the USA and Europe have sympathy to us and at the same time are strongly committed to  Peace and justice. Many of those are Christians and I think there is a lot for you to learn from them.

Sir, do not ring the drums of war in this area we already have many that are. No matter what your biblical believes are, peace and justice are the basic principles of all religions.

Best regards

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Last modified: 27-10-2000 09:13:56 PM