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PrintMarch 24, 2024
Gaza: Soldiers, or terrorists?
These are some historical facts about Palestine that people should know before forming opinions.
Some 30,000 people killed in this most recent conflict in the Middle East, mostly Palestinian civilians, are figures given to us by the Palestinian Health Ministry here near the end of March, 2024.
Propaganda anyone? How do we fact check that? Do those figures include the 1,163 women and children raped, tortured and slaughtered in one day by Hamas "soldiers" on October 7, 2023?
I remember how we did body counts in the jungles of Vietnam. We knew how many American kids were killed, but it was anybody's guess about how many Viet Cong or North Vietnamese civilians were killed.
There has never been a country with borders called Palestine. It was always referred to as the name of a region. Think American Midwest or Southeast Asia. Source: Douglas Feist
The people of that region, until the middle of the 20th century, were called Palestinian Arabs, Palestinian Christians, and Palestinian Jews.
The only independent nations that ever existed in this region (for which we can clearly document the boundaries), are the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judea. A nation called Palestine with people called Palestinians has never existed.
There have been eight identified conflicts/wars in the region of Palestine since 1948?
The two conflicts started by Israel were done to force Egypt to open up the Straits of Tiran and the Suez Canal that Egypt had closed to Israeli shipping. Israel depended on that shipping for food, medicine, household goods, etc. The other six conflicts were started by the surrounding Arab nations.
From the numbers that I've been able to gather in my research, numbers that I can't verify are correct but looked to be objectively reasonable; if you add together the number of military and civilian Palestinian Jews, (now known as Israelis) and Palestinian Christians, the number killed is around the same as the number of Palestinian Arabs killed since about 1870.
If you are someone using the term "genocide" in your arguments, think about the Armenian genocide in 1915 with 600,000 -1.3 million systematically killed.
The Darfur region of Sudan in 2003 with 400,000 dead.
Rwandan 1994 with 800,000 dead.
Bosnia 1992 - 200,000 dead.
China 1958-1964 "The Great Leap Forward" where 27,000,000 were starved to death during the "leap forward."
The Holocaust, Europe, 1939-1945, 7,000,000.
To me, the numbers we are talking about very loudly tell me that the term "genocide" does not apply to this war. If you are a real journalist reporting on this area stop demeaning the definition by using that term. And shame on anyone else using the term in their arguments and propaganda. Source: Iain Overton
There have been no documented instances of Palestinian Christians and Jews strapping bombs on their women and children and sending them into highly populated areas to blow themselves up just to take a couple of Palestinians with them.
Since 1994 114 suicide bombers (the youngest being 7 years old), have killed 721 and wounded 5,100 people in Israel alone. One in seven bombers were children. 95% of the dead were Israelis.
I have no nickels in this quarter. I am an American Buddhist living in the U.S. Northeast . I'm not saying that anybody is right or wrong in what they think is going on in the Palestinian region and Israel. I'm just stating basic facts.
I think that if you don't know these basic facts and you have formed an opinion of who is right and who is wrong you should really go back and research the history and then do some rethinking. At least then your formed opinion will be based on facts that you yourself found and you won't look like you don't know what you don't know.
You are entitled to your own opinion but you are NOT entitled to your own facts.
Another quick fact: the United States declared Hamas to be a terrorist organization in October 1997.
Real history, not history rewritten for propaganda purposes, is what ought to be used to form opinions. If real history requires one to change one's opinion, then such people should have the courage to change it.
Bill is a retired political consultant having managed or consulted on over 50 campaigns up to the state level Attorney General, State Treasure and Governor im Pennsylvania. (He won far more than he lost). He can be reached at bh8506@gmail.com and also on his Substack.
Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
