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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Lies People Tell About Jews and Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Since the truth being told about Israel is not helping the Palestinians in their fight to destroy Israel, they have been fighting with lies, which is what the Nazi regime used as well.  If you tell a lie enough times, they thought, people will believe it.

When telling the truth, they can mange to tell it in a deceitful way if their goal is to disparage Israel.  One example is saying that Israel doesn't allow Arabs or any non-Jew into the IDF (Israel Defense Force).    Arabs have not been required to serve in the Israeli army for obvious reasons.  In other words, they have been exempt unless they have wanted to serve.  Now even the USA is not that liberal.  If you are a citizen and in time of stress, your name was called in days of the draft.  The Druze are not a Jewish group but have been serving since Israel's creation.  They are one of the best and are very loyal.   Bedouin Arabs are among the "most sought after recruits as they make such good soldiers.

 Recently, Major Ala Wahib, a general in the army has written about how strongly he feels about Israel.  We also have Anet Haskia, a Muslim Arab mother who is proud of her children who serve in the IDF and of her country, Israel.  It may come to the point where all Arabs will be asked to serve along with everyone else. Netanyahu's new coalition has been talking about this.  

As it is, all women under age 26 serve  for 20 months. Men under 29 are called up for 3 years  Men will do milueem for a month out of every year until age 55.  That is a practice time to keep in shape.  Doctors may be called up until age 34.  During 1982's Lebanon War, all the men in Safed were called up and the streets were empty.  Women took over their husband's jobs.  I saw a unit of white-haired and bearded old men marching up the street protecting us.  Surely they were past 55.  We women were asked to bake cakes for the soldiers.  They were put in kiosks that were set up along with coffee for soldiers getting to their destinations.  In that way I helped, but I was afraid that these 18-55 year old soldiers would all suffer from a sugar high.

Orthodox Jewish men have been left to study if they are in Yeshivote (religious higher education), and this may change as well.  Israel is a very little country with only 7 million people and their vast  neighborhood is full of millions of Muslims who have not accepted change in the area.

My husband and I were new olim and had moved to Israel in 1980.  Danny had been in the US air force but had a serious liability of a lung disease that scared even Israel:  He was called in for his physical at age 43 and was given something like a 4F.  Instead, we both served in the Civil Guard where we did duty with others once a month,  training first for 3 days on an M1 Rifle.  Our friend, another Portlander who had moved into an apartment across the street in Safed, had a heart problem which did not keep him out of the army.  He managed, but Dan did die with his disease a few years ago.

Another lie constantly told is that Israel is Apartheid.  One thing I've noticed is that if there's a fault among the Arab population, they will place that fault onto Israelis to get it off their backs.  In fact, they plan to make their Palestine free of Jews, "Judenrein."  Israel has about 1.6 million Arab citizens with full citizenship and rights.  In fact, it is the only country in the Middle East to do so for these Arabs who would have been refugees from 1948's war.  Many Arabs have risen to prominency in Israel.  There are Arab ministers in Israel's parliament.  Arab doctors treat Jewish patients next to Jewish doctors who treat Arab patients.

 I lived in Binyon 213 in Safed, an apartment building full of Jews and Arabs.  During a broken water pipe crisis where my apartment was becoming flooded, an Israeli Jewish lady and an Israeli Arab lady  came to help me without me asking.  They could easily chat with each other while I, a new immigrant, was left pretty much in the dark but loved it.

Because Israel was created to be a Jewish state, the only Jewish state in the world, does not make it apartheid. There are now 6 million Jews and 1.6 million Arabs living there as citizens.   There are 49 Muslim majority states in the world.  Only Jews have suffered the slings and arrows of anti-Semitism for 2,000 years and were in desperate need of their own state.  The Holocaust, where Nazis tried to exterminate all Jews in the whole world, was the turning point for this world to understand that we needed our own country.  We knew it even before while suffering from terrible pogroms in Russia and started the ball rolling then to create our own state.  We knew it again when in 1894 Lt. Dreyfus was put in prison in France just for being Jewish and that caused the wheels to start turning.

2.2 Billion Christians in the world=32% of world population
1.6 Billion Muslims in the world =23% of world population
1.0 Billion Hindus in the world = 15% of world population
500 Million Buddhists in the world= 7% of world population
 14 Million Jews in the world= 0.02% of world population 

Resource:  http://www.israelmuse.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country
http://www.christianpost.com/news/poll-christians-most-numerous-worldwide-nones-majority-in-six-countries-86895/

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