Thursday’s opinion page included a letter (“Seeks Neal’s explanation on Israel bill”) by a writer who believes that Congressmen Richard Neal “owes us an explanation of why he would endorse this violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” implying that Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian lands.
The facts are that the Israelites are Palestinians, too, and have been there since Joshua’s time. In the resurrection of the state of Israel, the survivors of the Holocaust and Jewish pioneers fought against the combined Arab might. The Jews fought them and beat them,
The Arabs tried time and time again to strangle Israel in its cradle, and every time they failed. The Arabs fomented pogroms and encouraged the Nazis to eradicate the Jews even before 1948. After they lost the war of independence in 1948, they tried again in 1952, 1956, 1967 and 1973.
In the absence of victory (or the desire for peace), they have invented a persistent narrative that Israel has illegally occupied their land. But although they lived on the land, so did the Jews. The term “Palestinian” was given by the Brits to Jew and Arab alike. The Arabs were citizens of other countries. There are Palestinian people, but not a country called Palestine.
So Israel does not, legally or illegally, occupy a country called “Palestine.” As for Israel’s being there, they were there first, they were attacked, and they won. And unless they’re alert, they’ll have to do it again, because the Arabs are very persistent.
Newton Bowdan
South Hadley