Speaking of bloodthirsty agressors...

After the Turkish Hurriyet published some new photos of the IDF soldiers, the account below seems completely credible to me.

(Letter shared by Naomi Ragen.)

DETAILS EMERGE how "humanitarian aid" workers on the Mavi Marmara viciously attacked Israeli soldiers. Below, read a first hand account from Amir, an Israeli soldier who was there.

"Hello Uncle Erwin,

This is Amir writing you after reading what you sent to my father, Eitan. As you know, it was my unit and my friends who were on the ship. My commander was injured badly as a result of the "pacifists" violence.

I want to tell you how he was injured so you could tell the story. it shows just how horrible and inhuman were the activists. My commander was the first soldier that rappelled down from the helicopter to the ship. When he touched ground, he got hit in the head with a pole and stabbed in the stomach with a knife. When he drew out his secondary weapon-a handgun (his primary weapon was a regular paintball gun: "Tippman 98 custom") he was shot in the leg. He managed to fire a single shot before he was tossed from the balcony by 4 Arab activists, to the lower deck (a 12 feet fall). He was then dragged by other activists to a room in the lower deck were he was stripped down by 2 activists. They took off his vest, helmet and shirt, leaving him with only his pants and shoes on. When they finished they took a knife and expanded the wound he already had in his stomach. They cut his ab muscles horizontally and by hand spilled his guts out. When they finished they raised him up and walked him on the deck outside. He was conscious the whole time.

If you are asking yourself why they did all that, here comes the reason. They wanted to show the soldiers their commander's body so they will be demoralized and scared. Luckily, when they walked him on the deck a soldier saw him and managed to shoot the activist that was walking him down the outside corridor. He shot him with a special non-lethal bullet that didn't kill him. My commander managed to jump from the deck to the water and swim to an army rescue boat (his guts still out of his body, and now in salty sea water). That was how he was saved.

The activists that did this to him are alive, now in Turkey, and treated as heroes.I'm sorry if I described this with too many details, but I thought it was necessary for the credibility. Please tell this story to anyone who will listen. I think that these days you are one of Israel's best spokesman.

Thanks uncle Erwin,
Shabbat shalom!
Amir"

How I changed my mind

 (Gaza Strip, October 2000, photo by: Reuters) 

(photo taken outside Ramalla checkpoint, March 19th, 2010)

Apparently, the picture posted in connection with my previous post needs some explanation. Out of context, it seems purely offensive and doesn't carry the meaning I intended to give it. I apologize for that. But what I meant was that our history books (again, this famous history that is on our side) have omitted an interesting page. 

I have therefore chosen to move the picture to this post to make some parallels a little bit more obvious. I also hope that a few short paragraphs will make it clear how I changed my whole outlook on politics, history and Israel's place in it. 

Despite the suddenly very popular rhetoric equaling modern Israel with Nazis - I actually fell for it myself in my first month there - the truth is actually plain to see for anyone who might be interested to look into it. The problem is, of course, that interest is absent. We seem to be suffering from collective historical amnesia.

Let me give you a few quotes to explain what I mean. For example, this one:

"The Jews have a dangerous aim by which they challenge four hundred million Moslems, and that is their express wish to occupy the holy Islamic institutions including the El Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem under the pretext that this Mosque is the Temple of Solomon. This was openly admitted by a number of political religious and official leaders and their recognized institutions.”

Brings back the sweet memories of those days when the guys in the kitchen were convinced that the Jews were going to blow up the Mosque and blame it on the earthquake - for Tuesday was such a lovely day to build the Third Temple. Actually, this quote is from the speech made by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, in March 1943.

"Shall we go to protect the Mosque and fight the Jews?", a Christian came running downstairs after one of such fiery speeches in March 2010. Or how about this one:

"...uncompromising war against the Jews. That naturally included active opposition to the Jewish national home in Palestine, which was nothing other than a center, in the form of a state, for the exercise of destructive influence by Jewish interests. Germany was also aware that the assertion that the Jews were carrying out the functions of economic pioneers in Palestine was a lie. The work there was done only by the Arabs, not the Jews" (Minutes of the meeting between German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Al-Husseini in Berlin on November 28, 1941; as published in Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, London, 1964).

Already in the 1920s, the Grand Mufti was known for inciting the anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem by claiming that the Jews were plotting to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque. In 1951, a close relative of the Mufti named Rahman Abdul Rauf el-Qudwa el-Husseini matriculated to the University of Cairo. The student decided to conceal his true identity and enlisted as "Yasser Arafat." The rest is history... Or, how about this, more recent one:

"You have supported the Jews in their idea that Jerusalem is their eternal capital, and agreed to move your embassy there. With your help and under your protection, the Israelis are planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque. Under the protection of your weapons, Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa mosque to pollute it as a preparation to destroy and capture it".

What a relief, this is certainly not addressed to us. We would have never permitted anyone to build an embassy in Jerusalem. Indeed, this is a quote from Osama bin Laden's Letter to the American People from 2002. We have come full circle.

The Mousetrap Snapped Shut...

...and, actually, there is nothing much to say. Israel is in the news, and IDF is Jack the Ripper. I have been asked to write a few notes, so this is what I am going to do here, as well. Just a few words, to sum up what I think, without implying that I am the only one in the right, and without commenting on what I know nothing about...

I believe this one boat - one out of many - should have never been boarded. I am not a military expert so any further comments on the fact itself would just look idiotic. I don't want to write anything more than that. I feel it would have been unfair to the 163 who died in Nigeria today. Unfair to the 30 000 who died in Sukhumi within a few weeks, without a single person knowing about it Norway except me, I think, and a few refugees from around there. Unfair to the 2 million Armenian refugees and at least 600,000 dead in the genocide of 1914 to 1918.

The fleet of activists, whose testimonies are so precious in the face of the bloodthirsty Israeli agressor, have mostly been sleeping on lower decks or been tucked away for protection. The one who was actually taking part in the commotion arrived in Norway looking so happy I would have given him a bottle of champagne to celebrate. I understand, he has many reasons for his joy. They have put up a show yesterday discussing how well they can hear the difference between rubber bullets and live fire... Somehow the fact that they sailed from another occupied territory (where the occupying power had just vowed to finish off the remaining Armenians!) has never bothered them. Well, I suppose it's all about choosing sides.

I am sorry for the Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps, who are not allowed to buy property or take up employment outside the camps, and are now third generation refugees. The best they can do is rent an apartment, for a special law has been passed - prohibiting their integration into society.

I remember when war broke out in Somalia, Yemen opened its borders unconditionally, accepting anyone who could come. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands. Nobody wanted to do the same for the Arab Palestinian refugees. I feel sorry for the poor people who have been condemnded by their fellow Arabs to become the tool for manipulating and destroying Israel. I feel sorry for the people in Gaza who are held hostage to the power play and fed by slogans of the kind 'history is on our side'. History is always on everybody's side - you just tell it the way you like it.

After WWII, the Jews that were arrested and deported from Norway - by Norwegians! - never got a penny, much less a fraction of their property which has been confiscated from them. It is very interesting to hear the descendants of those very people, who denied any compensation to the Jews, advocate for the Palestinian right of return. It is even MORE interesting to hear them say that the Greeks from the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus DO NOT have the right of return. I suppose, history is not on their side. Alas. Poor Greeks.