Of Bullets, Men and other Armaments of War

Did you ever wonder why there are refugee camps in Yehudah, Shomron and 'Aza?

Oh yes, I know the easy answer: they're "Palestinian" refugees who have been uprooted from their homes and they're waiting to return to them. But the real answer isn't so easy.

A quick and inconvenient history lesson: In November, 1947 the United Nations voted to partition the land that is today Israel including Yehudah, Shomron and 'Aza into two states, a Jewish one and an Arab one. Names weren't chosen but it was clear the two populations would be decided by ethnicity. (In fact, at one point Judah was actually under serious consideration by the Zionist leadership)

As is well known, the Arab leadership of the community in Israel as well as the Arab League rejected the partition plan outright. With all the grace of a spoiled teenager, they shouted that it was to be everything or nothing: either the Arabs get the entire land as their own by an act of the international community or they would just march in and slaughter the Jews and take it for themselves, but under no circumstances would they recognize the right of the hated Jews to create an independent country in their midst.

Thus it was that the day after the vote the Arabs in Israel began attacking the Jewish community with open force and when the British finally withdrew six Arab states immediately joined them in an attempt to add 600 000 Jews to the tally of the Holocaust.

With the help of God, they failed and Israel was born. Unfortunately, the international community acted to prevent our fathers from completing the task of conquering all of Israel and as a result, armistice lines were imposed that gave 'Aza to the Egyptians and Yehudah and Shomron to Jordan.

During the war, it is also well known that 600 000 Arabs fled from Israel. Yes, yes, the revisionist self-hating Jewish historians would like us to believe, from their selective interpretation of history and vivid imaginations, that the "evil Zionist imperialists" drove them out but there are still too many living witnesses who recall the Arab radio broadcasts demanding that the Arabs run so they wouldn't get in the way of the victorious Muslim armies that would be arriving to slaughter the Jews. There are too many photos of Jewish soldiers posting notes in Arab village imploring the locals to stay. Regardless, the Arabs, many of whom had no real tie to the land anyway, ran and wound up in Yehudah, Shomron, 'Aza and the surrounding Arab countries.

And now the Arab world had a dilemma. They had a displaced population to deal with, ethnic brethren who had given up their homes at their urging and now were in refugee camps because they had lost the war. And a decision was made that continues to haunt the Middle East until this day.

One must remember that the Arab world, with the temporary exception of Iraq, lacks the concept of democracy. It also lacks, including Iraq, the concept of the value of human life. The number of Arabs killed by other Arabs on a monthly basis through the Middle East is in the hundreds, if not higher. Suicide bombers, terrorist attacks not covered by the Western media, persection of one tribal group by another, Sunnis vs Shiites, in the Arab world life is cheap.

And for their leaders it's even cheaper. Remember that all Arab states except Iraq (for now) are despotic dictatorships. In a handful (Jordan, Syria) the rule is dynastic even if the leader is called "the president" and in the rest the rulers all received their positions after the murder of their predecessor. They rule by terror, power and fear, not love and public acceptance.

This is doubly the case in 'Aza, Yehudah and Shomron where the leaders are acknowledged terrorists who don't even try to cover their evil acts with a veneer of respectability.

When a civilized country goes to war, it checks over its inventory of arms. It counts bullets, tanks, planes, artillery shells, etc. In the Arab world, one more item is added to the inventory: human beings. For the leaders of the Arab world, the average "man on the street" is not a human being with a family, aspirations and fears. He is a "human shield", a potential target to be used for PR purposes, simply another piece of inventory in the military arsenal.

Thus is was that in 1949 the Arab League decided that all 600 000 displaced Arabs from the Israeli war of independence would become weapons of war. They were given a new label: Palestinian, and a new fiction, that their country called Palestine had been stolen from them by the rapacious Jews, was created. And they were condemned by the Arab leadership to remain in their refugee camps because only a return to the exact property they had before the war would be acceptable.

Imagine how large the Arab world is. Imagine how many trillions of petro-dollars they have. Yet not one square inch would be set aside to resettle the so-called Palestinians. Not one dollar would be spent to make their lives better. They were to remain in squalor and misery as a part of the propaganda war against Israel and their children were to raised to become terrorists and suicide bombers in the active war against the Jews. Not that they had any say in this, mind you. The decision was made by their leaders and continues to be.

So back to the original question: why are there refugee camps in Yehudah, Shomron and 'Aza? If one listens to the Arab propaganda on CNN, BBC, and other sympathetic media outlets, one very quickly gets the following impression: historic "Palestine" is essentially what they call Gaza and the West Bank. If Israel would only remove all Jews from those areas (funny that Israel isn't allowed to kick out its Arabs as well because that would be racist) then they would declare independence, build a viable country and peace would break out all over the world!!!

Except for one forgotten fact: between 1949 and 1969 it was the Arab world that controlled these areas. For twenty years Jordan ruled over Yehudah and Shomron, including part of Yerushalayim. At the same time Egypt ruled over 'Aza. yet at no time in those twenty years was any attempt made by any Arab leader to help the so-called Palestinians build their own state. What's more, those Arabs who had fled from Israel were not allowed out of their refugee camps even though they were living on what the Arabs today say is Palestine!

At that time pre-1967 Israel was Palestine. Jordan and Egypt owned Yehudah, Shomron and 'Aza and had no intention of allowed the Arabs there to create their own country.

This tragedy is now playing itself out in 'Aza as the world watches. A normal leadership, faced with overwhelming odds and the liklikhood of high civilian casualities, would sue for peace against their dominant opponent. This would be especially true when the dominant opponent has no territorial aspirations against them. Yet Hamas is doing the opposite. Despite the mounting civilian death toll, despite the clear knowledge that given enough time the brave soldiers of Tzahal will rout them to the last, they continue to be defiant. They continue to position their people in places of danger, arrange for schools full of children to be attacked by placing rocket pads in them, and then shout about how their people are suffering when that happens. And why?

Because Hamas is not interested in protecting its people. It's not interested in building a viable state in 'Aza. It's not interested in the future of its children. When Hamas' leaders look around they see armaments, not human beings. And until these murderers are destroyed, their people will continue to suffer the consequences of this sick ideology.