The Top Ten Differences Between Israel and The so-called “Palestinians”
SPECIAL EDITION
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
In this Special Edition, I’m reposting a 2014 article by Don Feder of GrasstopsUSA.com (my illustrations added). It highlights some of the major differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians. While we’re waiting for the latest cease-fire to unravel, consider the following – news you won’t get from the Hamas Ministry of Disinformation – The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN etc.
1. Israel is a country. Palestine is a lie.
Israel was reestablished in 1948. It became a country 3,300 years ago. There has been a continuous Jewish presence in the land for the entire time. Even the modern State of Israel is older than half of the nations on earth.
The term “Palestinian” is a creation of Arab propagandists. In the past two millennia, there has never been an independent Arab state on the land. When the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza, were occupiedby Jordan and Egypt (1948 – 1967), any talk of a Palestinian homeland would have been met with summary execution.
When they lost the Six-Day War, Arab states decided to hitch their campaign of annihilation to the star of national liberation. In a 1977 interview with a Dutch newspaper, Zahir Muhsein, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee, admitted: “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity.”
2. Israel is a modern nation. Its economy has a strong high-tech sector. If terrorism was a commodity, the “Palestinians” would have one of the world’s largest GDPs.
Of 187 countries, Israel (with 7.7 million people) ranks 16th on the UN’s Human Development Index (a composite which includes life expectancy, education and income). It has the highest number of scientists, technicians and engineers per capita in the world. It pioneered voice mail and developed a technology that helps paraplegics to walk. Since 1994, 12 Israelis have won Nobel Prizes.
The word “Palestinian” is synonymous with terrorism – as in suicide bombers, as in rockets, as in kidnappings, as in deliberately targeting women and children. Quick, name anything else for which the West Bank and Gaza are known.
Israel uprooted 10,000 of its citizens to create a Palestinian enclave in Gaza. In return, the Palestinians have fired over 15,000 rockets at Israel since 2001 (3,500 in the last month alone).
When Israel kills non-combatants, it’s unintentional. When the Palestinians kill civilians, it’s by design. The purpose of terrorism, after all, is to terrorize. That isn’t done by killing enemy soldiers. The June 12 abduction/murder of three Israeli teens was a Hamas operation.
The latest refinement in this dirty war is the 40 terror tunnels destroyed by the IDF, running from Gaza to Jewish communities in Israel. On the High Holy Days this year, the tunnels were to disgorge hundreds of heavily-armed fighters near civilian targets. Hamas planned to place dynamite under kindergartens, to initiate an orgy of murder and kidnapping.
3. Israel is a democracy, the only one in the region. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas are to democracy what Chicago is to good government.
Israel has been a democracy since its inception. All transitions of power have been peaceful. A dozen Arabs sit in the Knesset. One is on the Supreme Court. Arab Christians and Muslims have the same rights as Jews. (Jews aren’t even allowed to live in most of the Arab world. Christians are treated as untermenschen.)
Israel has an independent judiciary that often rules against considerations of national security. It’s the only nation in the Middle East whose citizens can hold rallies protesting their government and be protected by the police. Anywhere else, it would be the big adios.
Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, though with the support of most residents. This followed a civil war in which Hamas fighters dragged Fatah members into the streets of Gaza City and shot them point-blank. What little resistance there is to Hamas among the people of Gaza is dealt with swiftly and brutally.
4. Christians thrive in Israel. Christians are disappearing from the West Bank, as they are in the rest of the Muslim world.
Israel is the only nation in the region whose Christian population is growing – from 34,000 in 1949 to 155,000 today, an increase of 345%.
Bethlehem was once a Christian city. Its Christian population fell from 54% in 1967 to 40% in 1995 to 10% today. In a few years more, there will be no Christians living in the place of Jesus’ birth. This parallels religious cleansing throughout the wonderful world of Islam.
5. Israel tries to minimize civilian casualties. The Palestinians try to maximize them – their own and Israel’s.
Even though its survival is at stake, Israel tries to avoid collateral damage. It uses leaflets, flares and phone calls to warn residents of targeted areas to evacuate. It risks the lives of its soldiers by sending ground troops into densely populated neighborhoods, instead of using air strikes.
Dead children are the most effective weapon Hamas has. It uses Gaza’s death toll, dwelled on endlessly by the mainstream media, to generate sympathy among the credulous. (By the way, of the 1,800 Gazans killed in Operation Protective Edge, roughly half were Hamas fighters.)
Hamas places its rocker launchers near schools and in residential areas, where the chance for dead kids is greatest. It puts command centers in mosques and stockpiles rockets close to hospitals. Israel tells civilians to leave; Hamas tells them to stay. It boasts of its people “confronting Israeli warplanes with their bare chests.” The media pays a PR bounty for every dead child.
6. Israel is an American ally. The Palestinians are America’s enemies.
In response to the deaths of 3,000 Americans on 9-11, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon extended his nation’s sympathy and pledged solidarity: “At this most difficult hour, Israelis stand with you
ready to provide any assistance. The government declares tomorrow a day of national mourning as we bow our heads and share the pain of the American people.”
When word of World Trade Center reached the West Bank, thousands poured into the streets of Ramallah and Nablus to celebrate the slaughter, distributing candy and chanting “God is great.” A daily newspaper controlled by the Palestinian Authority lauded the hijackers as “the engines of history… the most honorable among us.”
7. The left hates Israel. The left loves the Palestinians.
Whether it’s the media left, the Hollywood left (like Danny Glover, Rosie O’Donnell and John Cusack), mainline churches (The United Methodist Church and Presbyterian Church, USA) or campus storm troopers, the left loathes Israel and venerates the Palestinians, now its favorite victim group.
The New York Times cries itself a river over “the beleaguered population of Gaza, where whole neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble.” Cusack tweets “Bombing civilians is not self-defense.” (Who does he think we bombed in World War II?) “Israel must Stop Its Reign of Terror” whined an editorial in The Nation. Jimmy Carter (who used to say the US has “political prisoners”), calls Hamas a “legitimate political actor.” And Penelope Cruz signed an ad accusing Israel of “genocide.” She should be forced to crawl on her hands and knees to Yad Vashem to see what real genocide looks like.
Those who thought the Cold War was due to American paranoia, who love Fidel Castro, who believe opposition to Obama is racially motivated, and who think the concept of American exceptionalism is obscene, hate Israel. Big surprise.
8. Israel is willing to live with the Palestinians (such as they are). The Palestinians want to annihilate Israel.
Israel’s government has made it quite clear that it will negotiate almost anything with the Palestinians – including a sovereign state – if it can ever get them to the bargaining table.
For Hamas, hatred of Israel and the Jews is an item of faith. Its charter declares: “Israel, by virtue of being Jewish and having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims.” It’s not about “occupation” or self-determination, but any challenge (however modest) to Muslim hegemony.
A recent Friday sermon broadcast on Hamas-controlled Al Aqsa TV warned the people of Israel: “We will not leave a single one of you alive. Our doctrine in fighting you is that we will totally exterminate you.” And you wonder why Israel is wary of these sweethearts.
At anti-Israel rallies in Europe, organized by Hamas and its allies, cries of “Hitler was right” and “Kill the Jews” are de rigueur.
9. Israel fights for civilization, as well as its own survival. “Palestine” is one front of a world war.
Iraqi Christians have received an ultimatum from ISIS: Convert to Islam, pay tribute or leave. So far, 300,000 have fled. In Nigeria, Mali, Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast, Christians are tortured, murdered, raped and exiled in the name of the religion of peace.
The Palestinians adhere to the same murderous creed. If Israel loses, everyone from the Taliban and al-Qaeda to Boko Haram wins.
10. The Palestinians can lose many times and keep fighting. Israel can lose only once. 
Israel fights to defend itself. Once a threat is eliminated (rockets, tunnels, terrorist command posts), the operation ceases.
The Palestinians are fighting a total war – a war of annihilation. Against such a foe, Israel can’t afford to lose even one battle.
Think about it the next time someone you know starts babbling about Gaza’s “civilian death toll.”
Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer who is now a political/communications consultant. He also maintains his own website, DonFeder.com.
Click here to watch my YouTube program on “Israeli Occupied Territory.”
Click here to watch an Israeli video on “Occupied Territory.”
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