Reality Check

Amnesty International, in sync with the current fashionably racist trend of applauding all things Arab, regardless of how medieval, fascist and misogynistic, has entitled its latest report on the Israel-Arab conflict thus: "Enduring Occupation--Palestinians Under Seige In the West Bank."

Amnesty is supposed to be a human rights organization. That implies human rights for Jews, also, notwithstanding European/Arab cultural dissonance to the contrary. It certainly is not supposed to shill for Palestinians at the expense of Jews or anyone else.

Yet the title of this report alone is designed to present only one side of the issue: "Palestinians Under Seige In the West Bank." Right. They're "occupied." No question about it. The West Bank has been "occupied" by the Turks, by the British, by the Jordanians and now by the Israelis. The Palestinians (who in previous generations identified themselves as "Arab" then "Syrian" and more lately as "Jordanian") have been occupied non-stop. There has never been a "Palestine" although the Israelis have offered to provide the West Bank and Gaza to the residents as a future state of Palestine.

Why do the Israelis "occupy" the West Bank? It's occupied today because in 1967, the Jordanian Army tried to use the Occupied-by-Jordan West Bank (by the way, the Jordanians dubbed it the "west bank" because to a Jordanian, it is the western bank of the Jordan River) as the launchpad of its war on Israel across the 1948 cease-fire line, better known as the "Green Line." This is the same Green Line that the anti-Israel Left and Arab fellow-travelers like to call the "1967 borders."

There were NEVER any borders; there was a cease-fire line in 1948 after the Arabs failed to eradicate the UN-established state of Israel in recognition of the Jewish right to self-determination (think Kosovo, Bosnia, Slovenia, Slovakia and other small nations who have struggled for self-determination---a certain group of former British colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America comes to mind also. Self-determination is a human right, isn't it? Hello, Amnesty?). Borders? What borders? When Israel wanted borders and a peace treaty in 1967, what it got instead was the Khartoum Conference and its infamous "Three No's"--no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiation with Israel.

1967 brought full-out war, not merely the terror attacks that the Jordanians had been lauching for two decades across the Green Line. People who want us to give back East Jerusalem forget that this was the ground from which Jordanian snipers killed passing Jews on the other side of the Green Line for simple amusement. Those who blindly insist, without any clue as to the history or geography of the area, that Gilo and French Hill must be returned to hostile Arabs don't realize that these were the ridges around Jerusalem from which the Arab armies fired artillery into the Jewish residential areas below.

Jordan, along with its erstwhile allies Syria and Egypt, lost the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel took not just Gaza and the West Bank but also the Golan Heights from Syria (who has no entitlement to it in the first place) and the Sinai from Egypt.

Egypt got the Sinai back when Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel. Egypt declined to take back Gaza, which it had occupied since 1948 and used as a dumping ground for Moslem Brotherhood extremists it didn't want in Egypt proper. You thought Hamas was a home-grown institution? Wrong again. Hamas IS the Moslem Brotherhood in Gaza, and the Arab fedayeen (now called shaheeds, or martyrs) who crossed the Gaza lines to infiltrate and murder Israeli civilians between 1948 and 1967 were armed, trained and sent by Egypt. Now they are armed, trained and sent by European and Arab-funded Hamas.

Like it's brother-in-arms Egypt, Jordan declined to take back the West Bank when it made peace with Israel. This rendered the West Bank and Gaza, in international legal terminology, "disputed territory." It is NOT ipso facto "Palestinian." It is, by both the terms of UN resolutions at the end of the 1967 war and international law, territory that can be negotiated for a final resolution of that war.

Fine. Why isn't Israel negotiating? Because when Fatah and it's terror leader Yasser Arafat was in charge, Arafat said, "Peace for us means the destruction of Israel." This was after the Camp David agreements and his undeserved receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Now we have Hamas, who has stated often and frequently that its goal is to "end the Occupation of ALL of Palestine" which is defined by that entity as the State of Israel. No two-state solution for Hamas--it is on record as late as last month as stating that the war against Israel will not end while Jaffa, Akko, Ashdod and Jerusalem have a Jewish flag flying over them. In other words, Hamas's end-goal is to occupy Israel, wipe out Jewish culture and life here and replace it with the ideological equivalent of a medieval Islamic state. No Hebrew newspapers--only Arabic (don't believe me? Go talk to Iraq's Kurds, who were required to "Arabize" in order to own property in Iraq). Never mind Hebrew culture--all things western and progressive are on the chopping block with Hamas. That's why Gaza has had its internet cafes destroyed, women murdered for walking on the beach with their boyfriends, and why Israel regularly gives sanctuary to girls fleeing Islamic-sanctioned "honor killings" and gay Palestinians who have been "outed" and face death by impalement.

The goal of Fatah and the goal of Hamas is identical -- the destruction of Israel. Arafat started the Second Intifada and sent other people's children to blow themselves up in cafes and buses.

Israel, which had already relinquished the majority of the West Bank, moved the army back and re-occupied it. Checkpoints were set up; soldiers patrolled the hills and goat-paths; curfews were imposed; terrorists arrested and killed; suicide bombers were intercepted. Life in Israel, which had been a daily bloodbath in the joint-venture terror tactics of Fatah, Hamas and their junior affiliates, returned slowly to normal and is now blooming again.

Life in the West Bank is, well, under military occupation. You reap what you sew. It will stay occupied, regardless of what the PC-Pimps like Amnesty cry, until the Arabs of the West Bank can prove to Israeli satisfaction that IEPs, car bombs, and suicide bombers are a thing of the past, and that the State of Israel and its citizens can live in peace. I should be able to let my son eat in a cafe with his friends without it being a death sentence. My neighbor should be able to take the bus downtown without wondering if she will survive the trip or orphan her children.

According to Amnesty's report: "The movement of Palestinians is constrained by a host of restrictions, including over 500 checkpoints and blockades, and a network of roads for Israeli settlers to use (which are) off-limits to Palestinians."

Yes. That's true. And the army is still intercepting suicide bombers and wanna-be car bombers; the army is still uncovering and destroying suicide-bomb-belt factories and Kassam factories. Yes, there are separate roads for Israeli settlers--but also for West Bank Arabs. There is a road that runs from the West Bank to Jerusalem which ONLY Arabs are allowed to use. This separation was designed to facilitate peace-keeping and to stop each side from shooting at the other in passing car wars. Yes, the West Bank is occupied and will stay occupied until Israel no longer has to place soldiers there to keep Arabs from murdering Jewish women and children in cafes, in restaurants, and on buses.

We're ready to end this "occupation" when we have proof that life in Israel won't resemble life in downtown Baghdad, thank you.

These facts are conveniently overlooked by Amnesty and the other Lefty peace shills. "If only Israel would end the Occupation, then there would be peace," they cry. They're right in part -- if Israel agreed to commit suicide and allow the Arab hostiles to overrun the country, wipe out the state and its citizens, and call the land "Palestine" there would indeed be peace. A peace of the dead in our millions.

Of note is the total absence of any mention by Amnesty of what happened when Israel DID end an "occupation." Israel withdrew from Gaza and took its citizens with it, forcibly moving those who didn't want to leave.

The Arab response? Daily rocket fire into Israel. Over 4,000 rockets have been fired into Israel in the last six years; they come daily now, in barrages of anywhere from 10 to 40 or more. The rockets, despite being derided by the MSM as "homemade" and "not effective" have killed. No, its not a Tomahawk -- but if your husband or son is the fatality, it is equally devasting.

And Amnesty thinks the West Bank is under seige? Welcome to my world, you idiots.