Mutreja unjustified in Israeli criticism

Rima Mutreja was clearly referring to herself when she wrote the “public lacks understanding of [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict,” a perfect example of the blatant lies that anti-Israelis throw around.

She says that “we all know for a fact that Israel is a ‘Jewish-only’ state.” This statement doesn’t have the smallest fraction of truth. Israel is a secular, constitutional democracy.

In Israel, just like the United States, the right to vote extends to everyone, including women and minorities. Almost one million of Israel’s six million people are Muslim or Christian, and they are represented in similar proportions in the K’nesset, Israel’s parliament. There is also a group of peace-seeking parliamentarians—not only can minorities hold high political office, but they also can hold dissenting opinions! What a repressive country!

Economic rights also extend to everyone. There are thousands of successful Muslim businessmen in the Israeli economy. Most are happy members of their communities.

I’m also sick of hearing about how Israel stole land from the Palestinians. In the late 1800s, a group led by Theodore Herzl started buying land from the Arabs who lived there. Most were thrilled to get such a good price for land that was essentially worthless. As the Jews began to improve the land, the Palestinians became jealous. This is fact—the financial records of land purchase are all well-documented.

After fifty years of Jews buying up land with the aid of the British, U.S. and U.N., Israel was declared to be a country, with borders similar to today. A coalition of Arab states, led by Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan vowed to “drive the Jews into the sea” and claim the land for themselves. When the Israelis beat them in an undeniably self-defensive campaign, Israel took over the bases of operation—the West Bank and Gaza strip—in an effort to defend themselves from future attacks.

Since then, militant Muslims from the occupied territories have been suicide bombing Israel, specifically targeting women and children. Hundreds of Israelis have died in the last few years alone.

Israel has retaliated militarily against the territories, and Palestinians have died. However, terrorists are targeted by Israel, while women and children are targeted by Palestine. Also, you will never see Israelis dancing in the streets and cheering when Palestinians are killed. Palestinians dance in the street when Israeli children are killed on a regular basis.