Analysis of a Comment – Part 2

Brooke R. left a comment that I could not publish without commenting on my own and yet it would take too much space to do it in one post. So here is part 2.

Part 1 (you can read it here), covered this part of her comment:

50 rockets hit Israel, but how many people were injured or killed? If 50 rockets hit the West Bank or Gaza at least a thousand people would be killed or injured. The land you live on is stolen.

Here is Part 2:

The way you treat the people who you stole the land is abominable. If you lived the way they did you’d be angry too. If I lived the way they did I’d be angry. Crazy thing? There are people who are angry but who don’t hate you like you hate them. Crazy thing is that those people are looking to their faith and what it teaches them, what God teaches us. To love, and not oppress. To love your enemy. I think its a bit out of whack for you to play the victim card. You are not a victim. The Palestinians are the victims. They are the victims of my government, your government, many Middle Eastern governments. For once why don’t you try to put yourself in their shoes. Let go of your anger and victim mentality. That’s what I try to do when I think about how your government treated me recently.

I’ll start with the first part:

The way you treat the people who you stole the land is abominable. If you lived the way they did you’d be angry too. If I lived the way they did I’d be angry. Crazy thing? There are people who are angry but who don’t hate you like you hate them. Crazy thing is that those people are looking to their faith and what it teaches them, what God teaches us. To love, and not oppress.

How do we treat them, exactly? See, the crazy thing here is that you really believe that the Palestinians just want to love us and yes, we are harming them…there are so many ways to counter this argument, I’m not sure which one to use. Here are a few of them – pick which one works for you:

• Let’s look at patterns…how many Palestinian aid missions have there been. Ah, you’ll say they are poor (which they aren’t), or restricted or whatever. Okay let’s open it up – how many Jordanian missions of aid have their been to help others around the world? Syrian? Egyptian? Saudi Arabian? Well, yeah, I think they sent some money somewhere, sometime. Lebanese? Israel, by comparison, is often the FIRST team onsite – even though we travel from a much greater distance. We beat the Americans by days – to get to Haiti. We were among the first to offer assistance after the tsunami. We helped in the massive Turkish earthquake and it was our teams in Kenya digging out after explosions collapsed buildings and killed people. We send doctors around the world to operate on children and save lives. 
• How many Israelis are treated in Palestinian hospitals…um…any Arab hospitals in ANY Arab country in the world? I would guess around zero, but since you might be able to find one, let’s round it up to 10. Last year alone, we treated over 19,000 Palestinians in our hospitals – and that doesn’t even count Arabs from other countries who come here; and others from around the world. When our team came back from weeks of helping in Haiti, we brought back on the plane a young Haitian boy, performed a complex heart operation, and then when he was better, returned him home … at our expense. 
• What does OUR faith teach us…well, pretty much what you think the Arab faith teaches them – except you’re wrong about that. WE teach our children to live and to choose life. My son’s unit was taught not just how to fight, but how to live, how to survive, and how to return home safely. This is not taught to Arab soldiers. We do not turn our children into suicide bombers nor do we praise violence. We do not announce that we will defeat them because we love death (search Hassan Nasrallah and you’ll see his quote about how the Jews love life and the Arabs will defeat us because of this).
• If I look at their faith, if you look at their faith – you will find that we are infidels (you and I…unless you are a Muslim). As we are infidels, it is proper and good for them to lie to you; to promise they mean peace…and then, it is acceptable for them to slit your throat or break any agreement – you are, after all, only an infidel. If you don’t know this – you don’t understand their culture.

I think its a bit out of whack for you to play the victim card. You are not a victim. The Palestinians are the victims. They are the victims of my government, your government, many Middle Eastern governments.

For once why don’t you try to put yourself in their shoes. Let go of your anger and victim mentality. That’s what I try to do when I think about how your government treated me recently.

I cannot put myself in their shoes because I cherish my children. I could never send my sons out to kill themselves; I could never praise them for slitting the throat of an infant…any infant. 


Let go of my anger? The anger I have is for those who butcher, those who launch rockets, those who attack innocent people in Israeli cities who just want to live.


Victim mentality? I covered that one. I have no victim mentality. I am proud of what my country has built, despite having to spend so much effort defending itself.


As for how my government treated you recently, you’ll have to explain that one to me because I haven’t got a clue. Were you in Israel recently? What did you try to do? I guess I’d have to know that before I could answer back on what you think Israel or the government did to you. Till then, I’ll leave you with a simple thought…Jews didn’t come back to live in Israel to die, but to live. We want to live in peace. We want to live with our Arab neighbors…if they let us. 


But we will not let them defeat us. We will not surrender our legitimate rights to our land. And one more concept – you have to live with the consequences of your actions – you, me, and all people. The Arabs chose war and lost. Reality. Truth.


They could have settled for peace in 1947 and had half the land, including some of the most fertile areas. They chose war and lost. They could have learned their lesson and chosen peace in 1949…or at any time until 1967. But they didn’t and so they lost again. More land, more areas. 


They could have chosen so many times and each time, as Abba Eban once said, “the Palestinians never lose an opportunity to lose an opportunity.”


And that concludes my attempt to make you see reason and add depth to your knowledge of Israel and the Middle East – here’s hoping it managed, in some part, to broaden your views and make you question, if only a little, your misconceptions.