To close out the week, I'm linking to David Bogner's excellent and concise post on the most recent "easing of restrictions" on the palestinian arab population in Judea and Samaria. You might want to bookmark this one and refer to it whenever you hear that increasingly ubiquitous phrase. David cites two statistical points that are often missed and can't be stressed enough. The first:
For the record, I patently reject the Zionist myth of modern Jewish settlers miraculously finding 'a land without people for a people without a land'. But 19th century Turkish/Ottoman-era maps, photographs and census documents provide incontrovertible proof that while both Jews and Arabs can claim a very modest presence in the land going back centuries... the overwhelming majority of current Jewish and Arab residents are descendants of parallel waves of immigration that occurred in modern times.
Propaganda to the contrary notwithstanding. And the second:
... each and every 'gesture' Israel has ever made towards easing the plight of the Palestinian population has resulted in increased attacks and violence. Every attempt to make 'occupation' less onerous for the Arabs has been met with direct violence... and the one real test case for removing any semblance of 'occupation' (Gaza) has provided proof of the direst warnings that the response to autonomy would be increased attacks against Israel/Israelis.
Sad but true. And largely ignored.
Shabbat Shalom.
