Tell The Truth — Make Up Something

Last week I heard Abu Mazen on Israel radio.  He was speaking in English to a delegation of left wing retired IDF officers visiting him in Ramallah, and was trying to make an impression as a peace-seeker.

Two things he said caught my attention.

1.      “You went to the General Assembly in 1947, so why shouldn’t we go now?”

2.      “How can I ignore Five Million Palestinian refugees who were driven out of Israel in 1948?”

I didn’t hear any of those present protesting these distortions.  Let’s examine them.

1.      In 1947 it wasn’t Israel (which didn’t exist) or Jews who went to the General Assembly.  It was Britain which wanted to abandon its mandate for Palestine and dump the problem in the lap of the UN. The General Assembly voted for partition of Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab.  The Jews accepted this and established Israel.  The Arabs went to war to prevent it and lost the war.  Jordan annexed the Arab areas and kept them until the Six Day War in 1967.  During all that time no Arab leader demanded a Palestinian State. 

2.      In 1948-9, hundreds of thousands of Arabs, at most, fled the territory of Israel, not five million.  But what do 4 ½ million people matter when you are trying to make a propaganda point?

 For Arabs, truth is whatever they think will help their cause at any given moment.  If tomorrow or next week they think the opposite will help their cause, then that will become their truth.  Their motto could be, “Tell the truth—make up something”.

Call me politically incorrect, but these are the inconvenient facts.