In search of better arguments Steven Rosenberg. 18 Aug 2006 Dear Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, I recently discovered your internet site. I found though many of the articles and web pages try to argue the case for the Jewish people's right to live within the borders of their ancient homeland, they all seem to have similiar flaws. Which is unfortnuate if one wants to be taken seriously by Americans and Europeans alike. Take for example the article "Many of the so called 1948 refugees weren't actually born in Palestine" by Zev Nissenson 27 Dec 2001. Wouldn't it be more convincing if it provided evidence for it's arguments, such as quoting UNRWA Reviews, Information Paper No. 6, Beirut, September, 1962 that documents that during WWII, Arabic speaking Moslems were immigrating to the land? This was at a time when millions of Jews were prevented from returning from their ancient homeland, only to be murdered in Europe while the British at best turned a blind eye to Arabs immigrating to the land. What about research comparing the 1922 and 1947 British Censuses of the land and finding which families really immigrated at that time? Ravachim Zeevi performed genealogy research on Arabic speaking Moslems and announced his finds. Maybe that's why he's no longer with us? Murdered for telling the truth? Sure, this would deny many Arab families from what they call a law of return. Mark Twaine's "The Innocents Abroad" does document his travels to the "Holy-Land" in the early 1860s and he wrote "Palestine is desolate and unlovely.", his descriptions show that outside the major population centers, the land was desolate and empty. He emphasized that the population centers he visited (such as Tiberias, Nazareth, and Jerusalem) were small and impoverished. Robinson's paintings of the 1840s also documents how much of the land was desolate with small population centers. Also, the paper by Mr. Nissenson is more like a draft (statements such as "important note the majority of the population of Jordan are in fact Palestinian, and I hear nor Problems with that" is an extremely weak, vague and incorrect argument. Why not just say the truth? The Hashemites who call themselves Jordanian are actually Saudi Arabians and the rest of the country are actually Jordanians, not "Palestinians". Surely we can tell the truth in such a way as to not offend our Jordanian neighbors or encourge any destabilization there. Another article "Were the Palestinians Expelled?" by Efraim Karsh brings up some great arguments, but doesn't cite any evidence. No quotes from newspaper articles or direct quotes or better yet scanned bitmap graphic copies of the British documents Mr. Karsh references. I would have liked to see historical articles documenting the how the Jewish people were expelled by the ancient Roman Europeans in 3 major wars. Cite the evidence, describe the Arch of Titus, Roman coins announcing to the world "Judea Capta", the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran, archealogical evidience of Jewish Residence and Roman destruction in Gamla in the Golan, Jerusalem, Masada and Yodefat. Also, a huge amount of finds documented first and second temple periods throught the country. You'd be surprised how many people don't know. The PLO won the propoganda war not only by using the media for it's "action and reaction strategy", but by creating "Information Centers" in Embassies of Arab countries throughout the major capitals of Europe from the 1980s. Much can be done through education to counteract the propoganda. Much of what is said in the media coming out of Moslem countries is just plain in accurate and shouldn't be ignored. Because in the end, the Governments of democracies are elected by the people and for the people. So its the people we have to convince, and quiet diplomancy doesn't do that. Maybe we should start by convincing Israelis? Our country needs unity, for united we stand, divided we fall. Thank you for your time and consideration on the matter. With Best Regards. Steven Rosenberg. |
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