One way to evaluate the innocent and the guilty in a conflict when you don’t know who to believe is to see how severely they deal with their opponents or believe they should deal with their opponents and how generally they believe they should punish their opponents . In other words if group A says group B should be totally annihilated and group B says only the worst offenders of group A should be locked up group B is probably in the right.
The argument against this approach of evaluating who is good or bad is that group A may have suffered grevious harm from group B and perhaps group B really should be severely dealt with especially if group B is a threat..Just because one believes one should deal severely with an opponent doesn't imply one's guilt, however if one side has a more humane outlook toward their opponent they are probably in the right in a conflict.
In the case of the Arab – Israel conflict we can start by considering statements of intent in 1948 the year Israel was born, by the surrounding Arab countries when they thought they would be victorious against Israel. These statements are significant because at that time they did not believe it necessary to hide their true intentions in order to gain propaganda victories in the West. The paragraphs below are taken from an article by Louis Rene Beres of Purdue University called The Geneva Initiative and Arab Perpetrated Jewish Genocide which appeared in the Jewish Press (1/14/2004?)
Acknowledged by the United Nations and the attendant community of nations, Israel became a recognized and sovereign state on May 14, 1948. Immediately, five armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan (which was renamed Jordan one year llater, in 1949), Lebanon and Iraq invaded the fledgling country. Their combined intention, celebrated enthusiastically all over the Arab world, was expressed plainly and publicly by Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades." Hence, scarcely a few years after the Holocaust and resultant identification of Crimes Against Humanity, the intent of these Arab states toward the tiny new State of Israel was openly genocidal. On May 15, 1967, Israel`s 19th Independence Day, Egyptian troops began moving openly into the Sinai, massing aggressively near the Israeli border. By May 18, Syrian troops, too, were preparing for battle along the Golan Heights, almost 3000 feet above the Galilee, from which they had been shelling Israel`s farms and villages for several years. Egypt`s Nasser ordered the UN Emergency Force (UNEF), stationed in the Sinai since 1956, to withdraw. After the withdrawal of UNEF, the Voice Of The Arabs proclaimed, on May 18, 1967: "As of today there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel. We shall exercise patience no more. We shall not complain any more to the UN about Israel. The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence." Two days later, a jubilant echo came from Hafez Asad, then the Syrian Defense Minister: "Our forces are now entirely ready... to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland.... The time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation." President Abdur Rahman Aref of Iraq joined the chorus of genocidal threats: "The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear to wipe Israel off the map."
That was then, what about now? PA controlled TV broadcasts are a good way to assess the Palestinian Authority's current intentions to the Jews. Ibrahim Mudayris, gave a sermon on Friday May 13, 2005 which can be watched by clicking here.
Here is some of the text of the sermon.
"There is no god but Allah, Who warned His Prophet and Beloved [Muhammad] of the Jews; who murdered their prophets, and falsified their Bible; who were corrupt and corrupted throughout their existence; [and] violated their treaties and agreements. Hundreds of verses about them came down [from the heavens] and appeared in the Koran. And in them it is told of the corruption of their qualities and their evil intentions… Had Allah not protected your Beloved, he would have been a victim of the Jews’ treachery, he would have been one of the thousands of prophets that were murdered by the Jews…
This [May 15, the day the PA marks Israel’s Independence] is the hardest day of remembrance for the Palestinian people … because with the loss of Palestine, the Arab nation was lost, and with the establishment of the false State of Israel, the whole Muslim nation was lost.
With the establishment of the State of Israel, the entire Muslim nation was lost because Israel is a cancer that spread in the body of the Islamic nation; because the Jews are a virus similar to AIDS, from which the entire world is suffering. This has been proven in history. Read the history! I don’t want you to read the Koran, because the Koran is clear and permanent and we all believe it, but for those who do not believe the Koran, we say to them: read the history...You’ll find that Jews behind every conflict on Earth. The suffering of nations? The Jews are behind it! Ask Britain! What did it do to the Jews at the beginning of the sixth century? What did they do to the Jews? [They] chased them down them, made them suffer, and prevented them from entering for more than 300 consecutive years... Ask France what it did to the Jews! They made them suffer, chased them down and burned their Talmud, for the conflicts that they [i.e. Jews] tried to ignite in France in the period of Louis XI. Ask Portugal what it did to the Jews! Ask Czarist Russia - who hosted the Jews and they plotted to murder the Czar! And they were massacred again and again. Don’t ask Germany what it did to the Jews, since the Jews are the ones who provoked the Nazis so the world would go to war against it. On the day the Jews provoked – through the Zionist movement – the nations of the world to fight Germany economically, and to boycott German goods; on the day that they incited Russia, Britain, France and Italy, the anger of the Germans toward the Jews increased significantly, and what happened – happened at that time so that [Holocaust] Remembrance Day is commemorated by the Jews to this day.
For they are doing worse things than what was done to them in the era of the Nazi war. It is likely some of them were killed, and it is likely some of them were burned, but they’re exaggerating the description [of the Holocaust] in order to gain [the attention of] world media, and world sympathy.
The worst criminal acts in history were perpetrated upon the Jews, but they are not worse than those perpetrated upon the inhabitants of Palestine. What was done to the Jews is a crime, but isn't what they are doing in Palestine a crime…?
The Jews did not have a national home on this earth because they are liars! They are liars if they say that the establishment of a national home in Palestine appears in their faith. They were never interested in and never considered the establishment of a national home in Palestine itself. They were interested in a national home in any place at all, any place at all... Britain is the one that promised them the establishment of a national home on the land of Palestine. Why? Because Britain was disgusted by the Jewish presence there, in Britain, and wanted to be relieved of them, and therefore promised to establish a national home in Palestine…
The right [of the Jews] stems from their power, but our right - or our power - stems from our right. The rights of the Jews stem from their power, and power is transient…
Know, O Muslims, that the Jews in their conferences, led by the cursed Herzl did not set Palestine as their goal for the establishment of a national home...
Herzl admitted, and said: 'We could have accepted the establishment of a national home in Mozambique.’ Mozambique, which Portugal wanted to give them - also to get rid of them… Liar - anyone who says that the Jews have any rights to this land aside – besides being occupiers. And they will disappear!...
The Jews have the power of a balloon; it isn’t real. Why? Because the Jews drew their power from the Muslims’ weakness - our weakness. They drew their power from our weakness... If we wished to measure power, then [we’d find that] power is the power of character, the power of determination and faith is the real power. And the Jews have nothing of that power. Because Allah, who created them, is the one who confirmed that to us...
Allah is the one who says that the Jews have the character of cowards; they fear Muslims more then they fear Allah...
The Palestinian nation is the strongest on earth. Look at all the civilizations! Look at all the states! Look at all the civilizations and forces and empires. Where did Great Britain disappear? Where did the Czar’s Russia disappear? Where did France, which almost ruled the world, disappear? Where did Nazi Germany, which massacred millions and ruled the earth, disappear? Where did all those forces disappear? In Allah’s will, He will get rid of the USA like he got rid of them. He caused Russia to disappear within a day, and He is the one Who can remove the USA and bring it down, and so He shall do it, in Allah’s will...
We [Muslims] have ruled the world [in the past] and a day will come, by Allah, and we shall rule the world [again]. The day will come and we shall rule America, Britain, we shall rule the entire world, except the Jews. The Jews will not live under our rule agreeably permanently, since they have been treacherous in nature throughout history. A day will come when all shall rest from the Jews, even the tree and the stone, which have suffered from them. Listen to your Beloved [Muhammad], who tells you about the most dire end awaiting the Jews. The tree and the stone want the Muslim to bring every Jew to his end. You all know the Hadith." [PA TV, May 13, 2005]
Mudayris here is referring to following Hadith:
“The Hour [Resurrection] will not come until the Muslims make war against the Jews and kill them, and until a Jew hiding behind a rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: ‘Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!”
He explains that the fulfillment of the often-preached Hadith means the extermination of every last Jew is Allah’s will and is, thus, inevitable.
In the above sermon Ibrahim Mudayris reiterated many of the often-repeated PA justifications for the anticipated genocide, including the following hate messages:
1. The Jews have
inherently evil character traits that Muhammad warned Muslims about in the
2. The Jews have been the source of conflict throughout all of history: “The Jews are a virus similar to AIDS, from which the entire world is suffering.”
3. The persecution of Jews throughout history is presented as natural responses of self-defense by numerous countries against the evil of the Jews. Britain, France, Portugal, Czarist Russia, Nazi Germany, all persecuted and/or expelled Jews – as acts of self-defense and revenge.
4. Zionism was created by Britain in order solve its Jewish problem by sending them to Israel.
5. God has predetermined that the Jewish problem will be solved with the extermination of the Jews.
6. God has predetermined that the Christian -Islam interactions will end with today's Christian countries under Islam.
7. Israel has no right to exist and will be destroyed.
(PMW’s report: Kill a Jew - go to Heaven - a full report outlining the PA systematic justification of genocide, can be found on the PMW web site, at the following address: http://www.pmw.org.il/KAJ_eng.htm )
The message that God has predetermined that the Christian Islam interactions will end with today's Christian countries under Islam may sound like the ravings of an arrogant lunatic but if one reads Bat Ye'or's Eurabia or web sites such as Islam and Jihad, it becomes clear that this is a very real possibility.
We can learn a lot about the innocent and guilty in the Palestinian conflict from a demonstration of Jewish students that took place at San Francisco State University. In May 2002 Hillel (A Jewish College Student Organization) students organized a Peace in the Middle East Rally… They wore new Hillel t-shirts that said "peace" in English, Hebrew and Arabic. While they did this counter-demonstrators filled the air with abuse. The following is the account of Laurie Zoloft, the director of Jewish Studies on the campus about what happened next.
As soon as the community supporters left, the 50 students who remained praying in a minyan for the traditional afternoon prayers, or chatting, or cleaning up after the rally, talking -- were surrounded by a large, angry crowd of Palestinians and their supporters. But they were not calling for peace. They screamed at us to "go back to Russia" and they screamed that they would kill us all, and other terrible things. They surrounded the praying students, and the elderly women who are our elder college participants, who survived the Shoah, who helped shape the Bay Area peace movement, only to watch as the Hillel students were shoved against the wall of the plaza by a threatening crowd... As the counter demonstrators poured into the plaza, screaming at the Jews to "Get out or we will kill you" and "Hitler did not finish the job," I turned to the police and to every administrator I could find and asked them to remove the counter demonstrators from the Plaza, to maintain the separation of 100 feet that we had been promised. The police told me that they had been told not to arrest anyone, and that if they did, "it would start a riot." I told them that it already was a riot. Finally, Fred Astren, the Northern California Hillel Director and I went up directly to speak with Dean Saffold, who was watching from her post a flight above us. She told us she would call in the SF police. But the police could do nothing more than surround the Jewish students and community members who were now trapped into a corner of the plaza, grouped under the flags of Israel, while an angry, out of control mob, literally chanting for our deaths, surrounded us...
Using the method of evaluating how they wish to deal with the opponents we see that the Hillel demonstrators wanted peace whereas their opponents wanted to kill them. Clearly the Hillel students are the innocent party. That suggests the country they represent, Israel, is in the right in the Middle East.
Treatment of Those Who Have Peaceful Relations with the Enemy
The thesis of this web page is that the severity with which a group treats or intends to treat the opposing group is an indicator of its guilt with the exception of military action taken in self defense. Another angle of this is the severity with which a group treats it's own dissenters.
An article titled Gaza Villagers Fear Slaughter if Forced to Remain (Jerusalem Post 6/3/2005) quotes Salem Argiba, a resident of Dahaniya as saying "If we are sent to [Palestinian] Gaza they might as well save us the time and close the body bags, because we will be slaughtered." Dahaniya is a village in Gaza that the Israelis plan to turn over to the Palestinians. "In Arab society," says his friend and local leader Abed Samiya Ashtewi, "there is nothing worse than a traitor. We are tainted only because we live here." The reason they are tainted is that Arab inhabitants of the town helped Israel stop Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Several East-Jerusalem merchants who opened their shops contrary to PLO orders issued over their radio station, lost all they had with their stores burnt to the ground. A prominent Arab leader and restaurant owner, Mohammed Ayed, of the village Kabatiya, was lynched for his cooperation with Israel, and hung naked by his feet atop a high utility pole. During this recent intifada such brutal lynching of “collaborators” became the norm, dragging them afterwards face down through the streets of their town or village to instill fear of even only thinking to live in peace with Israel. (Between a Rock and a Hard Place)
According to the Independent (Palestinians cheer militant executions of 'collaborators') Oct 24, 2003:
Eighty-six Palestinians have now been lynched or summarily executed by militants for collaborating with Israeli security forces since the start of the intifada three years ago, including the two men killed yesterday