A Go(o)d Reason

Ever hear of the Sámi people in Sweden?

Does anyone know how the Basques are treated in Spain?

The Sámi (or Laplanders) are indigenous peoples of Sweden and the largest indigenous ethnic group in Europe.

Sweden is touted as one of the most egalitarian countries in the world; yet, the inequality with which the Sámi are treated is astonishing. Even though legally entitled, their rights have been unafforded.

Many haven't even heard of the Basque people. According to international reports they are ill-treated and tortured by Spain.

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Yes, while the rest of the world is quick to chastise Israel for protecting itself, the ETA or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom) has been engaging in violent struggle for Basque country, which it seeks to carve out from France and Spain.

Spain has been particularly hit by the ETA and has long-endured the brunt of its terrorism attacks.

Major bomb explosions, which have killed many in Barcelona, Madrid and other Spanish cities have been overlooked, ignored or even disregarded by the media.

Spain has to torture the Basque to protect itself, right? So that is okay.

Sámi… Basque… they are only two of many peoples of whom you’ve probably never heard.

But, surely you’ve heard of one of the worst treated groups in the world: the Palestinians.

As one Gazan said, "The Arabs say they're our friends, and treat us worse than the Israelis do."

The United Nations has over 4.6 million Palestinian refugees registered, including those in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Gaza, Saudi Arabia, and the West Bank.

Most Arabs in the Middle East vacation in Lebanon, but for the 220,000 Palestinians who have been exiled to decaying refugee camps, life is no vacation.

Those 220,000 are lucky to even have a “home.”

Lebanese Palestinians' Home Sweet Home

As the rest of the 400,000 Palestinians who live in Lebanon are not allowed to buy homes and are barred from over 70 professions.

This includes individuals born on Lebanese soil - generations ago.

Indeed, it is but a propaganda line to substitute the term "Palestinians" for the term "Arab refugees.”

True, not everyone in the Stalingrad-esque refugee camps are Palestinian. Some are foreign Arabs from Iraq or Saudi Arabia.

Residents accuse the Lebanese army of looting or raiding their homes.

"The war with Israel was much easier than this," says Mohammed Ali Hamid, a 76-year-old veteran from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

A few more examples of poor Palestinian treatment, outside the hands of Israel…

Syria has almost 500,000 Palestinian refugees. They exist in refugee camps, and are provided with an inconstant water supply, and do not receive sewage treatment.

They are allowed universal health care, but there is so little medical aid available that they rarely receive it.

Oh, and then there's the small matter of the estimated 10,000 Palestinians killed under Syrian President al-Assad, a couple decades ago.

He literally wiped a town off the map. So nobody really talked about it. Shhhh...

Granted, it was not only Syria that exterminated thousands of Palestinians.

Anyone know of Black September? Back in 1970, King Hussein of Jordan ruthlessly murdered at least 15,000 Palestinians when he felt threatened by them.

In Iraq, 100,000 Palestinian refugees are treated like vermin, with no homes and no rights.

And after the Gulf War, the Kuwaiti government threw out thousands of Palestinians.

“We are a thorn in every Arab leader’s side,” said a Palestinian woman in Baghdad’s Haifa Sports Club refugee camp.

When given a choice, Palestinians have decidedly chosen to live under Zionist, rather than Arab or Palestinian rule.

In Israel, Palestinians can receive National Insurance Institute payments, social services – including healthcare, and many other benefits.

Salaries are about five times higher than in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Israel's social security system is not even remotely parallelled on the Palestinian side.

So, Palestinians living outside of Israel actually want in.

They can enjoy rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, homosexual rights, other minority rights, and the only democratic state in the Middle East.
 

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Palestinians sell guns in local markets. [Life]

Israeli-Arab journalists Faiz Abbas and Muhammad Awwad say that Gazans now "miss the Israelis, since Israel is more merciful than [the Palestinian gunmen] who do not even know why they are fighting and killing one another. It's like organized crime."

Israel gives Gaza more aid in a single week than the 10,000 tonnes brought by the anti-Israel activist group and its flotilla back in May.

(And it is interesting how the group calls itself pro-Palestinian activists, while their actions are purely anti-Israel.)

To be clear, during what the world called an attack by Israel, on the flotilla, the small country, which finds itself under constant attack, warned the flotilla to turn around. Over the course of seven hours it reiterated this, and offered the flotilla the opportunity to dock in Ashdod, where the aid would be inspected then delivered to Gaza.

By the way, Israel ensured the goods aboard the vessels were quickly shipped to Gaza. Included in the aid, were expired medications and military camouflage fabrics, intended for delivery to the Hamas terror regime.

(Otherwise known incorrectly, as “the militant group Hamas.”)
 
Hamas, a terrorist organization that teaches and indoctrinates children to hate and kill Jews and Israelis with a Mickey Mouse look-a-like TV show, regularly tries to smuggle weapons into Gaza through “aid shipments”.

This is a threat to Israel and its existence.

Could you imagine the United States negotiating - while under threat - for seven hours? If the US Navy tells you to turn around you listen. Or you’re done.

No country has the restraint Israel has.

The flotilla was a propagated trap. Israel was caught – in a catch 22.

So now, again, the world has reason to hate Israel, because the anti-Israel propaganda machine is powerful.

In response, private Israeli citizens organized a flotilla of their own to draw attention to the fact that Hamas continues to illegally hold abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

And since the “pro-Palestinians” activists’ ships originated in Turkey, the Israeli flotilla is also hoping to perhaps call the caring activists’ attention to the poor treatment of minorities in Turkey.

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Armenian genocide. Wait, what genocide?

The Turks are quick to protest Israel, while they treat their own minorities as second-class citizens who are excluded from acceptance and full participation in Turkish life.

And who can forget the Turks’ genocides of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Kurds?

…Oh wait, most people can, because it is seldom mentioned.

Perhaps Arab governments should finance the welfare of their own brothers and sisters, instead of using them as political pawns.

The money these Arab governments and terrorist organizations have spent and continue to spend on hypocritical propaganda could certainly care for their people.

People whom they don’t accept, but for whom they profess to fight.

The objective of the Arab world's propaganda strategy has been one-sided Arab "repatriation." A "return" in the name of "self-determination" of those Arab refugees who have been perceived as the Palestinian people from time immemorial, with "rights" to "their land."

In the foundation for those claims, a popular perception is that the Arabs are the only hapless refugees who were uprooted in 1948.

The world needs to recognize that there has been an irreversible exchange of Jewish and Arab refugee populations.

When the Jews were exiled from Arab countries, they were all forced to settle in Israel. Who else would greet them – other than Untimely Death?

Of note, Jacques Gauthier, a non-Jewish Canadian lawyer who spent 20 years researching the legal status of Jerusalem, has concluded: "Jerusalem belongs to the Jews, by international law."

The Arab world is nearly 200 million strong. It has millions of miles of real estate. So why does it continue to reject the minuscule Jewish state?

And finally, why are the Arabs (and much of the world) willing to sacrifice the human rights and often the very lives of their own people?

There must be a go(o)d reason.

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