Jihad
& Nakba: Two Words - Two Lies
The
Arab Propaganda Machine Lives On
by
Shelomo Alfassa
Published
in Ami Magazine
(May
24, 2011) Two previously unfamiliar Arabic words have
become common to the English listener's ear in the last
decade. These two words-which are chock full of distortions
and deceit-are 'Jihad' and 'Nakba.' To the uneducated
or to the person who does not elect to fully investigate,
research, and comprehend the true meaning and significance
of these words, it's easy to fall for the lies associated
with them. The former is a word often told to the media
and the public to mean an 'internal strife' or 'inner
battle.' Yet, in its most classic sense, it is a word
which means nothing less than 'war.' The latter is the
Arabic word for 'tragedy,' a term used by Palestinian
Arabs in reference to the 1948 war of Israel's independence
and the vicissitude they experienced during the period.
The
truth is that jihad is really combative warfare. This
is clearly defined by both Hamas and the Palestine Islamic
Jihad (PIJ), two of Israel's most notorious terror groups.
In 1988, a self-declared charter identified Hamas as
Muslims who "fear God and raise the banner of Jihad
in the face of the oppressors." The Palestine Islamic
Jihad's official logo has a depiction of the country
of Israel in red, surrounded by clenched fists and guns-need
they be more clear about their intent?
CLICK
TO OPEN PDF
Yet,
of these two words, it is 'Nakba' (tragedy) which is
the most deliberately misleading. There is a truth which
crosses all cultural and linguistic boundaries: If you
tell someone something often enough, they will eventually
believe it. This includes repeating an outright lie,
and it makes no difference how preposterous, outlandish,
or how hateful it is. Further, if you repeat dishonest
canards to young children, they will carry them as beliefs
into adulthood, and you will raise a generation that
only understands distortions of history. Such is the
hatred the Arabs possess for the Jews, based on a foundation
complete with virulent inciting remarks written in the
'Koran' and the 'Hadith' (the Islamic version of the
Talmud), and centuries of historic inaccuracies that
target the Jewish people. This, of course, includes
the paradigm created by Hitler in partnership with the
Arab-Nazi Amin Al-Husseini, leader of the Arabs in Palestine
and the Middle East during and after WWII.
Some
700,000 Arabs are said to have been displaced during
the 1948 war, when Israel was fighting for its Independence
(and survival). It's well known that a large percentage
of the Arabs fled on the advice of their leaders, including
on order of Amin Al-Husseini, who told them that after
all the Jews were killed they could safely return. The
so-called Arab Liberation Army, headquartered in Damascus,
enticed urban and rural Arabs to flee Palestine in order
to facilitate warfare against the Jews. This is well-documented
both in Jewish and Arab literature, but has been strategically
overlooked by Palestinian Arabs in their desire to play
the victim: "We brought destruction upon the refugees,
by calling on them to leave their homes," said
Khaled al-Azam, Syrian Prime Minister in 1949. This
departure and non-return to land inside what is today
the modern State of Israel, is what the Palestinian
Arabs term 'Nakba.' Still, as they shed tears on television,
they continually fail to admit that their departure
from the land of Israel was not only supported but encouraged
by their brothers throughout the Arab world.
Further,
if the Arabs had respected and accepted the United Nations
two-state solution of 1947, there most likely would
have been no war, and today there would be a country
for them. But this didn't happen; instead, the Arabs-seething
in hatred for the Jews-attacked, and lost. This loss
to a Jewish army, as well as subsequent losses in wars
(such as in 1968), have left the Arabs embarrassed and
humiliated, and they remain so over 60 years later.
The Arabs living in modern Israel continue to blame
the Jews-and continue to attack and kill them-even though
it was the decisions of their own failed leadership
of 1947-48 which put them in this position. Errors of
the Arab leadership, and their own counter-intuitive
choices, combined with countries such as Syria, Jordan,
and Saudi Arabia continuing to use Palestinian Arabs
as political weapons against Israel, keeps them in the
same stagnant place in which they have been and will
remain.
Instead
of accepting responsibility, the Arabs annually bring
the dramatics of Nakba-theatre to the world stage and
cry, throw stones, and make political statements as
if they were some sort of deserving, wounded victims.
They turn away from responsibility and push toward delusion
instead of admitting the truth and accepting their own
culpability. Sabri Jiryis, a prominent Palestinian Arab
researcher at the Institute for Palestinian Studies
in Beirut, once said: "While it is estimated that
700,000 Arabs fled the 1948 war…Arabs caused the
expulsion of just as many Jews from Arab states...whose
properties were taken over...a population and property
exchange occurred and each side must bear the consequences."
While the United Nations tells us that 700,000 Arabs
were victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict, what is often
not discussed is that since 1948, 856,000 Jewish refugees
have been dispossessed from the lands of their birth
in Arab and Muslim countries-where they had dwelled
for centuries even before Islam came about. These Jews
left everything behind, including communal and personal
property valued at some $300 billion by today's standards.
Not only did they physically lose everything they owned,
these Jews lost their unique and beloved living cultures
in over 10 different countries. And today, in 2011,
while the idea of 'Right of Return'--that Arabs could
go to "Palestine" and Jews back to the Muslim
countries of their birth--is bandied around by the Arab
media, research has demonstrated this to be a myth.
Nearly all Arab and Muslim countries either have clauses
in their constitutions that expressly forbid Jews from
living in their countries today, or have passed laws
which would make them inhospitable to returning Jews.
Since
1948, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent
by the international community, as well as by the United
Nations and member countries, to provide relief and
assistance to Palestinian Arab refugees. During that
same period, no such international financial support
was ever provided to improve the plight of Jewish refugees.
Where is the real Nakba?
