Jewish Perspective on Historic Grievances
by Steven Shamrak
During the last couple of months, I have had discussions with several Muslim activists, who are propagating Islam. We have been talking about Islam, Christianity, Judaism and the prophets, and of course about the war in Gaza.
When I told them that Israel retaliated to a brutal terror attack perpetrated by Hamas on 7th of October last year, most of them replied that it has to be viewed through “the historical perspective of occupation” and what Israel has done to Palestinian people. None of them has actually offered any details of what they meant. The only thing they mentioned is the attacks by Jewish ‘settlers’ on Arabs in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).
Those conversations prompted me to review the factual history, and find out who actually has more grievances, Jews or Arabs, for the ‘sins’ of the past.
As I recall, at the end of the 19th century, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire welcomed the idea of Jews coming to his kingdom in hope that Jews will bring trade, industries and prosperity to his kingdom. At the time Arabs called Haifa “the city of jobs”, and many thousands of them came to the Promised Land.
Although, when the sultan realised that the Zionists were actually serious about creating the Jewish state, he began to encourage even more Muslims to move to the land by offering them tax benefits and exemption from army service. And they came - from Egypt, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and even from northern Caucasus.
I wonder, who actually has more Historical Perspective and grievances:
1. In 1922, the British controllers of the Palestine mandate encouraged Arabs who migrated to the Promised Land with – it didn’t take too much persuasion - to stage riots and pogroms through all mandate territory against Jews. This gave the British an excuse to remove Jews, for their ‘safety’ from Trans-Jordan and other parts of the mandate. After that, the British ceded 82 percent of the mandate to Arabs.
2. In 1947, Jews accepted the ridiculous partition plan proposed by the United Nations, by agreeing to accept the remaining 18% of the mandate. Jews accepted this idiotic plan. The Arabs rejected it, and seven Arab states immediately declared war against Israel.
3. From 1948 to 1967, Arabs made no attempt to create a Palestinian state. During that time, they conducted a War of Attrition, continuously attacking Israel.
4. Since Israel won the Six Day War in 1967, Jews were subjected to the endless number of terrorist attacks by so-called Palestinians, who were created in 1964 with the help of Soviet KGB in 1964.
5. After that, Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria have been continuously attacked by Arabs neighbours. Therefore, it is understandable that some Jews have had enough of this often deadly harassment, which they have been suffering and enduring for 60 years!
6. Israel forcefully removed 8,500 Jews and the IDF forces from Gaza. It was an opportunity for the enemies of Israel to show that they could peacefully coexist with the Jewish state. Instead, they elected Hamas, a bigger terrorist than Fatah; dug the tunnels in Gaza; brought rockets, and staged the heinous attack on 7th of October, killing 1,200 Jews in Israel.
This brings us back to the question: Who has more grievances, Jews or so-called Palestinians? What do you think?