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The facts, as some of us know, are rather different. The Jews (isn’t it comforting to keep calling them Zionists in the article, a common ploy by Arabs to play on some unknown and frightening ideology, rather than identify the Jews as Jews?) at this moment in history were weak, barely armed, and hugely outnumbered by both Palestinians and the surrounding Arab countries, all of whom had announced their intention of pushing the Jews into the sea and destroying them completely. Under these circumstances, a little, or even a lot, of overreaction would be expected. After all, we live in a country that for 50 years felt justified in holding the entire world hostage to nuclear annihilation in order to preserve our only theoretically challenged “national security.” Try to imagine yourself surrounded by sworn enemies with armies and a hostile, armed group of people living in your midst, and say that you wouldn’t have your finger on the trigger or be anxious to uproot this hostile group. Of course, we also live in a country that took care of its equivalent of the “Palestinian problem” through genocide, broken treaties, and “reservations,” and still shows no remorse. Those Palestinians that stay in Israel, on the other hand, became citizens with voting rights and representatives in the Knesset.
Fifty years later, some Palestinians still talk of eliminating the “Zionist Entity” (I’m sure they don’t mean to harm any Jews though) while others are trying to come to grips with reality and finally regain a homeland of some sort. Just as the Peace Now and other sympathetic Jews are trying to tell the hidden truths about their past, it’s time for some like-minded Palestinians to come forward and admit that just maybe some of the massacres the Arabs committed were not in response to Jewish provocation. When all sides admit that all good is not on their side, perhaps a real peace might be possible. More justification through victimization is not going to help anyone.
