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The Curse of Forgetting History
fivedoves.com ^ | ? | Victor Schlatter

Posted on 01/19/2002 12:22:29 PM PST by markn

THE CURSE OF FORGETTING HISTORY

Victor Schlatter

Something over six decades ago Adolph Hitler initiated it, and his propaganda chief, J. P. Goebbels, perpetuated it. It was the Big Lie of the century. In simple summary, the Jew is the decadent evil behind world finance, the arch enemy of society, and consequently must be destroyed. Today this is preposterous logic in the light of the political correctness of the 21st century but in those days most of Germany and even much of Europe bought into the diabolical scheme, but not before 6 million Jews ultimately perished in the incomprehensible treachery of Hitler's gas chambers.

Unfortunately only a limited few of us are still alive today who would yet remember those sordid details. Sadder yet, are all the rest who have little sensitivity to this tragic episode of history. Philosopher George Santayana warned that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to relive it. And alas, that condemnation is once again heavy upon us. The Jew, the world's scapegoat since the ancient kingdoms of Egypt, Babylon and Persia, once more bears the heaviest condemnation of all. And the world barely blinks.

In these days, in newscast after newscast referring to the land of Israel, we hear the one-liner "the occupation" bandied about. And just what occupation is being spoken of, may we ask? But Joseph Goebells knew that the bigger the lie, the better it was swallowed. Not much has changed in 60 years!

If one would only take the time and effort to probe the annals of the last century and a half with regard to a so-called Palestine, he would find some startling statistics.

Historians, theologians and authors, including the celebrated (and less than biased) Mark Twain, spoke as if with one solitary voice of the barrenness and desolation of this land the Romans had renamed Palestine in 132 AD. In spite of the Jews being driven far from their homeland in those days, there was always a remnant Jewish population in what was historically known as Judea and Samaria. By 1893 the total Arab population within the Jewish settled areas was but 92,300 souls. Many of these Arabs were even recent arrivals who had followed their Jewish cousins as they trickled back to their ancient lands from the middle of the 19th Century onwards.

An intriguing work by Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial published by Harper and Row in 1984 tells the entire story.

Now who in the world is Joan Peters pray tell, and what Jewish lobby does she happen to spring from? Sorry for an abrupt correction, but Ms. Peters was a no-nonsense non-Jewish, secular English journalist, who like most of us, initially absorbed the propaganda as it was served up. And like most of the world, she assumed in her reporting that the Arab generated fiction of their rights to this hotly contested bit of Middle East real estate was built on solid fact. Then she was challenged with some information she had hitherto not known. Her professional integrity set her on a search for the real truth, and she came up with an impelling study that all the world should know. But all the world does not want to know. No one is so blind as he who does not wish to see!

Peters discovered that from the Ottoman census in 1893 until the recognition of Jewish independence in 1947, Arab population in the predominately Arab-only areas of western Palestine grew by a little over 200%, a figure which demographers would describe as "natural increase". BUT, the revelation of the hour was that during that identical period of time, the Arab in-migration within the expressly Jewish areas of population was no less than 500%, or two and a half times above what demographics would regard as natural growth! Why the Arab influx?. Historians inform us that Arabs from neighboring Middle East countries migrated in because of the job and economic opportunities being created with the Jewish reclamation of barren sites and wastelands.

So much for the crude propaganda that the Jews have replaced the "Palestinians" and driven them out of their 5,000-year of homeland! Unfortunately, most journalists today have swallowed the Big Lie revisited, like crocodiles coming off a hunger strike!

Incidentally, the label "Palestinians" was initially applied to the Jewish Diaspora who had returned home in the late 19th Century to drain the malarial swamps in the north and otherwise restore the inhospitable and nearly uninhabited land all the way down to the Negev. But after the combined attack on Israel in 1967 by Syria, Egypt and Jordan, (the Six Day War) when King Hussein lost the disputed land he had seized west of the Jordan River (which he cleverly renamed "the West Bank"), only then did they begin to call the Arabs living there "Palestinians". Most of us would hardly be privy to the facts of those days. But the virulent propaganda since that time against so-called "Jewish settlers" (the major "obstacle to peace" we are told), has generated another flood of media one-liners. Occupation, indeed! But it is hardly the Jews who are occupying someone else's turf.

And just where are these despicable settlements that are allegedly on Palestinian land? They are by and large on uncultivated rocky hilltops that were once crown land under the Turks, then under the British Mandate until 1947, and then snatched up illegally by the Jordanians for 19 years after Israel's War of Independence. And the world looked the other way because the powers that be didn't want to upset King Hussein. But those so-called "settlements" are hardly what could be termed Palestinian lands. And how could they are ever be regarded as "greatest obstacle to peace" since terrorist-cum-statesman Arafat initially set about to "liberate" Palestine in 1964, a full three years before these Jewish communities even began to be built on those isolated ridges.

And where, we might probe, did those miserable refugee camps come from? (And they are unquestionably miserable, teeming and horrific). When Israel was granted her independence on May 14, 1948 she extended an olive branch to her Palestinian (Read: Arab) neighbors with the offer for them to stick around and help build the land together. About 11% stayed and did just that. Today they are known as Israeli-Arabs and have 10 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, the parliament of Israel.

But for the other 89%, it was another story. The Islamic Mufti called upon the faithful to immediately flee their homes for safety. Rejecting the UN partition of November 29, 1947, they declared that there would be a violent battle, but within 6 months the Jews would be "driven into the sea". Then the Arabs who fled to safer havens, could then return to their own properties, along with the spoils of what the Jews would leave behind in a presumed panic exodus. Those who trusted their Mufti, never had a home to go back to. In their gullible hope of ultimate Jewish destruction, they blew the lot.

The Jews invitation to "build the land together" did have a rider. You are welcome to stay, but if you go, don't ever come back. 11% opted to stay and build. 89% chose the blind edict of the Mufti, and now fester in the refugee camps, with no road back. In the last 5 decades, Israel would have even tried to ease the pain, but under the influence of the Arab bloc in the UN, they were forbidden to resettle the Palestinians in any way, shape, or form. "These camps are not yours to touch!" Today they remain as a showpiece of propaganda. More fiction fodder for the one-liners without ever checking up on the facts!

Am I making this up? I suggest you get a copy of the once popular O' Jerusalem by Collins and LaPierre published in 1972 by Simon & Shuster, a dynamic and even-handed account with hundreds of interviews of both Jews and Arabs during this long forgotten period. And I suggest you further study the brilliant research and records of Joan Peters -- a bit more technical but a damning revelation of the truth of the matter. She has meticulously probed, documented and reported the Arab in-migration records during the British Mandate. The so-called "occupation" is a monstrous fabrication, Hanan Ashrawi's smooth, sweet talking notwithstanding!

The problem is not quite land, but an inordinate hatred of anything Jewish in general and the state of Israel in particular.

So wouldn't it be nice if the journalists, the columnists, the newscasters would do their homework and be a bit more evenhanded? A bit less biased? A bit more truthful? Wouldn't it be nice if the photo-journalists took equal footage of the terrorist tactics, and the murderous terrorist training camps of sub-teen Palestinian kids? Wouldn't it be nice to quit blaming Israel for the wretched failures of the Palestinian refugee camps which the Islamic Mufti in actual fact generated? Wouldn't it be fair to translate what the Palestinian Authority is saying in the Arabic media into English? And while we're at it, why not translate the shocking anti-Jewish hate materials in the Arabic Primary School textbooks, that these kids are fed from childhood? Ironically, all of this hate agenda has been translated, but far too many of our reporters are choosing to not tell us the whole story. Any ideas why?

Never mind, ever since the Pharaohs of Egypt, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Prime Minister Haman of Persia, the Caesars of Rome, the Church of the Dark Ages, and Adolph Hitler of recent times, has it been any different? Should we be surprised that a majority of Arabs today (Palestinian or otherwise) have seized Hitler's baton and turned truth on it's head. And those who make their living from one-liners will continue to glaze our eyes with the myth of an "occupation".

The most unsettling experience is to return to Australia after a trip to Israel where one (even the tourists) lives under the daily threat of Palestinian terrorism, and hear the news reports in a total reversal of reality. The victim is blamed for the crime!

Perhaps one day, and we long for that day, the real truth will eventually spring forth. As much of the world seethes in hatred from the Osama Bin Ladens of all manner and sizes, the rest of us await with tears for a brighter Day.

Victor Schlatter Cairns, Queensland, Australia


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS:
A very interesting look at Israel, the land, Palestine, and media-propoganda.
1 posted on 01/19/2002 12:22:29 PM PST by markn
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To: markn
Good catch!
2 posted on 01/19/2002 12:33:01 PM PST by headsonpikes
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To: markn
Great article. Reading this article in addition to Horowitz's latest article is an eye-opener. It really is amazing the slant of the (jo)urinalist community in favor of the Palestinians.

Would the hatred of the Palestinians for the Jews be tolerated without comment against ANY other community in the world - except of course against white males.

3 posted on 01/19/2002 12:43:20 PM PST by keithtoo
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To: markn
I am awaiting the delivery of this guy's new book, "Showdown of the God's". It sounds like it will be interesting.
4 posted on 01/19/2002 12:55:10 PM PST by markn
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To: markn
Great article. I'll be looking out for this author. Checking Amazon now...

Philosopher George Santayana warned that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to relive it.

One thing I do love is people who think atheists are immoral scum (I don't know about this author however) constantly quoting this great atheist philosopher.

5 posted on 01/19/2002 1:26:36 PM PST by Quila
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To: markn
Something over six decades ago Adolph Hitler initiated it

An article's credibility is severely damaged when the very first statement is not historically correct. Anti-Semitism goes back centuries before Hitler was born. This phrase is an obvious attempt to create guilt by association between Hitler and anybody criticizing Israel.

6 posted on 01/19/2002 1:41:33 PM PST by Restorer
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To: Restorer
He's not referring to anti Semitism but the "big lie" as perfected by AH
7 posted on 01/19/2002 1:59:08 PM PST by D2
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To: D2
Hitler may have popularized the term "The Big Lie." He certainly did not invent the concept, which goes back no doubt to the early days of human society.

The specific "Big Lie" that "the Jew is the decadent evil behind world finance, the arch enemy of society, and consequently must be destroyed" was adopted by Hitler, not invented by him. Even in its racial, as opposed to religious, form it goes back long before AH was born.

Wagner, Chamberlain and the French aristocrat whose name escapes me at the moment are examples.

8 posted on 01/19/2002 2:17:02 PM PST by Restorer
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To: Restorer
Wagner, Chamberlain and the French aristocrat whose name escapes me at the moment are examples.

I'm betting Cardinal Richelieu.

9 posted on 01/19/2002 2:22:55 PM PST by Quila
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To: Quila
The name I was thinking of is Gobineau.

My understanding is that Richelieu was quite friendly to the Jews. At least I'm fairly sure he was not a leader of anti-semitism. He had plenty of real enemies and didn't have to drum up scapegoats.

10 posted on 01/19/2002 2:35:13 PM PST by Restorer
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To: Restorer
You're right. Richelieu hated the Hugenots, not the Jews.
11 posted on 01/19/2002 3:16:04 PM PST by Quila
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To: markn
Click here for a pro (Pipes and Sanders) and con (Porath) discussion of the central thesis of Peter's book.

From Porath:

Since we are left with no sound basis for Mrs. Peters's figures for the population in the "Jewish-settled areas" in 1893, there is no need to account for the supposed quintupling of the Arab population in those areas by 1947; so dramatic an increase did not take place. It is true nevertheless that during the Mandatory period the Arab population of the coastal area of Palestine grew faster than it did in other areas. But this fact does not necessarily prove an Arab immigration into Palestine took place. More reasonably it confirms the very well-known fact that the coastal area attracted Arab villagers from the mountainous parts of Palestine who preferred the economic opportunities in the fast-growing areas of Jaffa and Haifa to the meager opportunities available in their villages.

The coastal area had several main attractions for the Arab villagers. They found jobs in constructing, and later working in, the port of Haifa, the Iraq Petroleum Company refineries, the railway workshops, and the nascent Arab industries there. They also took part in the large-scale cultivation of the citrus groves between Haifa and Jaffa and found jobs connected with the shipment of citrus fruits from the Jaffa port.

12 posted on 01/19/2002 6:44:32 PM PST by secretagent
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To: Quila
Richelieu hated the Hugenots, not the Jews.

Not really. He destroyed their political power, but then gave them perhaps the most complete religious freedom in Europe outside the Netherland. Richelieu had it in for anybody that resisted his drive to make the Crown supreme in France.

13 posted on 01/19/2002 7:40:19 PM PST by Restorer
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To: Restorer
Richelieu had it in for anybody that resisted his drive to make the Crown supreme in France. Yes, he was pretty vicious to that end, even exiling Luis XIV's mom, but he did do quite a bit of good for France too. I guess it's one of those Machiavelli (yes, I've read it) questions of whether his actions were justified.
14 posted on 01/20/2002 11:45:50 AM PST by Quila
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