Israel's Excuse for War

Israel, always "acting in defense of its citizens" has a lot of different tactics to spark war in the region. One of them being to push the surrounding Arab countries to the limits of their patience, until they say enough and resort to violence. In response, Israel launches an all out war, and the IDF destroys anything in their way, being houses or innocent children. Let's take the example of the 1967 Six Day War. The start of this war was not in June, but in April, two months before the official Six Day War. Israeli Settlers were advancing deeper and deeper into the heart of the Golan Heights in Syria and they were plowing land, in an area known as the demilitarized zone. The Israeli government was pushing these people further and further. And this strategy was well thought out beforehand. They wanted a reaction from the Syrian Government, they wanted them to shoot at the Israeli Settlers and that's exactly what happened. Because in this situation, there are only two choices the Syrian government could take, and only one choice to defend Syrian land. If they didn't shoot, the Israeli Settlers would advance more and more and settle in Syria, just like they are currently in the West Bank. But they did shoot, and the Israelis launched a disproportionate offensive. This is what Israel's Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan said at the time to the New York Times, "If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until in the end the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force also". So the Israeli Defense Minister at the time, said it himself, that this advancement of settlers was to trigger a reaction from the Syrians, and in response Israel would be justified to attack Syria, as an "Act of Defense for the Israeli Citizens". And they did exactly that, causing heavy Syrian casualties as well as the shooting down of several planes over the city of Damascus. These are their tactics, provocation, violence, and lies. And this cycle will never end. We saw it just recently with the Gaza offensive. Israel blockades, Hamas shoots rockets, and Israel announces a war "to ensure the safety of the citizens of the State of Israel", and kills around a thousand and a half people in the process. And I don't have to mention the state of destruction the Gaza strip is in right now, and all of that just for home made rockets being launched and barely killing 5 people and doing any damage. Israel's disproportionate offensives and attacks will never end. The world witnessed in 2006 how Israel bombed Rafik al Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon. Why, because Hezbollah imprisoned two Israeli soldiers and won't release them, in comparison with the hundreds of innocent war prisoners in Israel. Not only did it bomb the airport, but this whole issue became a month long war that destroyed a portion of Beirut. So before the world points fingers at the Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries, they should recognize what Israel had done, what it is doing, and what it will do in the near future.

"The Lemon Tree": Neutral Perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, is a book that explains the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in precise detail. It gives two points of view, one from a Palestinian, Bashir, that used to live in the town of al Ramla in present day Israel before the expulsions, and a Bulgarian Jew, Dalia, that emigrated to Israel and now lives in the house the Bashir and his family were forced to flee. I went to Borders two days ago to pick up a copy of this book and it took me about half an hour to find it after the employee said it was misplaced. But in the end I was determined to read it as it caught my interest when I was browsing for books online. This is a neutral book, until now at least.. I am on page 142, about halfway into it. All the facts are there and the author is following the story of these two individuals. This book is totally and completely nonfiction. I love the amount of detail the author uses, and that I am glad that he depicts everything that happened and the sad events of all the innocent Palestinian families’ expulsions from their homes, and their forcing of living as refugees in their own land. When I am finished with the book, I will put up my own review and a summary. So far, it is highly recommended by me. This is the exact description on the back cover of the book:

In 1967 Bashir Khairi, a twenty-five-year-old Palestinian, journeyed to Israel with the goal of seeing the beloved stone house with the lemon tree behind it that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Eshkanazi Landau, a nineteen year old Israeli college student, whose family fled Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next thirty-five years in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, suggesting that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and reconciliation.