What if history happened differently, the facts are the same but the people and places are different. Picture it...let me take you on a trip, a trip back in time. The names and groups I have used are only to show a point, in no way, shape or form do these groups actually have plans or beliefs that mirror image this written piece.
The year is 1917, World War I is coming to an end, and a group of men go to Britain with an agreement in hand. In this agreement, it hands over part of the United States to the Buddhists, in order to form a State for the Buddhist people. No one from any of the states have a say regarding the handover of their land or when they will have to leave. In 1918, in Versailles, during the signing of the treaty ending World War I, these same men who went to Britain with the agreement just a year earlier, show up with document in hand to show the world. The document states that Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, and Colorado are annexed from the United States of America to become the new State of Buddha. No longer will those names exist under the new state. News gets back to the U.S, Americans are up in arms, where would they go???? Most of the people living in these states have had generations grow up in the same place, generations after generations; homes being handed down in the families for centuries, why should they have to give up their livelihoods...why didn't someone stop this agreement from happening????
By 1922, the declaration/agreement was endorsed by other countries around the world and the League of Nations. Buddhists from all over the globe started immigrating. Even the U.S Government endorsed the idea, but postponed the move for a later date. Extremist factions started to pile into the area to try to make Americans flee their lands. A crusade of violence on American people was orchestrated from 1931-1948, & still can be found happening even to this day.
World War II breaks out, the disgusting testing & concentration of a mass of people happens, and Pearl Harbor gets hit....while all this bloodshed is happening, delegates & Government officials from all sides maintain countless visits to the lower 48. Behind the scenes, deals are made. The creation of the State of Buddha is one step closer to becoming reality. A deal of transfer was struck for the survivors of the torturous, hateful treatment; to immigrate to the bottom area of the United States. Back in the states, Americans are fleeing north to save themselves from militants terrorizing their daily lives.
The State of Buddha was, in effect, declared in 1948, to keep in line with the presented "Declaration". A part of the U.S is no longer, now an established Buddhist state. Americans living in those states are consistently evicted from their properties or pushed to refugee camps. When in refugee camps, many Americans are tricked into losing the rights to their properties, which then becomes confiscated by the new state. Americans try to continue to flee to the north, but after awhile the U.S Government starts to complain they can't fit the population. 1967 rolls around & war breaks out within our borders, well former borders. Due to the war, more states become annexed to the new State of Buddha. State of Buddha declares Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, & Washington now apart of their new country. No longer part of the United States of America.
By 2009, the only remaining part of the United States is left to New Jersey & Massachusetts, everything else now is occupied by the Buddhist's State of Buddha. Millions of Americans, by this time, were pushed into these two small areas. Sparks have fired off from both the Buddhists & the Americans from time to time, at this point how would you feel as an American citizen??? Would you be happy with a bounce in your step each day, if you were now living in New Jersey or Massachusetts, when you used to live in LA or Seattle?? Using the excuse of security, the State of Buddha decides to build a wall around its region. In the process, a part of that wall crosses into the area of New Jersey and Massachusetts, in effect making those two states even smaller. Due to the land grab, workers in the region are separated from their businesses, which were once on their property. And citizens become separated from their homes.
The State of Buddha controls the ports & won't allow the basic necessities to come into New Jersey or Massachusetts waters, under the veil of national security. The ports are under a blockade and checkpoints are put up to control movement of the Americans going into the State of Buddha, as well as goods coming in. Roads are built, but segregated. One road for Buddhists only and the other for everyone else. The Buddhist road is direct, but the other roads are the long way around; in effect taking it longer for everyone else to travel to & from. Segregation does not end there. You can find it in the laws, employment opportunities, education, travel visas, even housing.
The Buddha Defense Forces go into New Jersey & Massachusetts frequently, bulldozing American homes, shooting at American civilians & using tear gas, as well as bean bag guns if the American civilians get too close to the separation wall. The wall that separates Americans from the State of Buddha is guarded by heavy artillery armaments, controlled by remote control by young Buddhists behind a computer screen. If Americans even think of getting close, the new recruits behind computers, will open fire. Children are afraid to walk to school, for fear that they will be shot at by the Buddha Defense Forces. The checkpoints are impossible to deal with, lines for hours just to get through. Medical emergencies like women in labor or people dying do not get through in time to make it to the hospital. Babies have been born at the checkpoints. The State of Buddha controls the checkpoints too.
Travel is not any simpler for Americans, even just to visit fellow family members in the two American states left. Families never see one another. The State of Buddha controls permits & visas, they generally do not give them to Americans unless they feel pressured by other Governments or an overload of bad publicity in the press. Without a permit Americans can't travel back & forth into New Jersey or Massachusetts. Americans traveling abroad is also controlled by the Buddhist State. There are times when they will allow Americans to leave, but getting back to their home is another story. They could be detained & incarcerated trying to return, sometimes even tortured while in custody.
In the State of Buddha, there are Americans that reside within it, but they have to declare themselves a Buddhist citizen (rather then just saying they are American) in order to stay. At this present time, the State of Buddha is attempting to make a law saying that Buddhist citizens living in Buddha have to pledge their loyalty to the Buddhist state or citizenship would be revoked & possible jail time would be implemented. Even though Americans reside in the State of Buddha, the laws are surely not the same for them. They are on the bottom of the chain for just about everything: jobs, court system, housing, banking/loans, etc. Ex: A certain type of Buddhist will get housing first, an immigrated Buddhist is second in line, another religious group are third & at the bottom are Americans. Ex: some jobs advertise flat out, Americans need not apply. Ex: Americans can't vote & they can't serve in the military. Yet the State of Buddha claims that they are a democracy & everyone is equal. As an American, would you feel equal???
If you lived in New Jersey & Massachusetts, every day would be intolerable. Markets run out of food at times, due to the inability to import goods. Most of the time, there is no electricity & no running clean water. The hospitals & clinics are running out of medicine & they are limited at what procedures they can do to help. Americans have no sanitation services, nothing to help keep their area clean & disease-free. Would this make you angry to have to live in these type of forced circumstances??? What if you looked at new settlements being built right beside you by the new state & you could see fountains of water, sprinklers, swimming pools; where is your right to water?????
In late 2008, the State of Buddha went on the offensive by bombing & destroying one of the American states. Buildings were bombed out & the rubble still remains. The state was destroyed. New Jersey & Massachusetts have become an open-air death camp to the Americans living there. Americans are dying. The State of Buddha continues the aggression & Americans as young as 12 have been locked up in a Buddhist Prison without any word to their families about their whereabouts. Would you be worried if your 12 year old child didn't come home?? During the 2008 offensive, white phosphorus was used against the American population, making their skin burn...women, children, elderly, mothers, fathers, babies...the bombs drop and hit the masses not a select few. As Americans, would you be infuriated, ready to fight in defense or would you be willing to continue to take it??? Could you live like this everyday???? Would you want your children to be treated in this way??? Would you be able to deal with tanks & a neighboring military roaming our streets at all times??? Could you ever look at your neighbor country as an ally or friend, if they treated you in this type of manner???
I understand the point of the article but reject the premise. However, keep writing your ideas are your ideas.
Great piece. Well written. I hope it makes an impact.
This is a fabulous. thought-provoking article. Anyone living in the States or anywhere else, could read this and clearly see what is happening in Palestine. Makes it incredibly easy to picture youself in the Palestinian shoes. Hard to believe that the whole world, including the UN stand by and keep silent, except for these very few brave people. I hope this gets read far and wide. May just shake some people up. The US actually condones this treatment. and have done so all along.
Brandy
And wouldn't it be really strange if a certain "Buddhist" at the turn of the century, had invented and written about this EXACT grandiose, religious/political movement? And lo and behold, seeming "random, unrelated events" start to unfold throughout the world that start to turn this very same kooky theory into a reality....
"It has fallen to the British Government, as the result of the conquest of Palestine, to have the opportunity and the responsibility of securing for the Jewish race all over the world a home and a centre of national life...
The fiery energies of Dr. Weissman, the leader, for practical purposes, of the Zionist project, backed by many of the most prominent British Jews, and supported by the full authority of Lord Allenby, are all directed to achieving the success of this inspiring movement.
Of course, Palestine is far too small to accomodate more than a fraction of the Jewish race, nor do the majority of national Jews wish to go there. But if, as may well happen, there should be created in our lifetime by the banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown, which might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event would have occurred in the history of the world which would, from every point of view, be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire." --Winston Churchill [Illustrated Sunday Herald, February 8, 1920]
http://www.codoh.com/zionweb/zionchurch.html
Again, from 1920.... "[to make possible the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine] an event would have occurred in the history of the world which would, from every point of view, be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire."
.... lets see.... it would have to be a really HUGE event... and would have to involve loads and loads of Jewish suffering (real or otherwise) perpetrated by an evil dictator (who we can actually set-up and then defeat) for a sympathetic WORLD to buy into this gigantic farce....
What a coincidence.
"The methods adopted to get the land of Palestine away from the Arabs in the early days of the Zionist invasion were such as will fill the world with indignation once the world is permitted to know what was done.... It staggers the imagination to forecast what will be done in a period of full and unquestioned rule." --Henry Ford, Dearborn Independent, 1921
Wow - I've been formulating exactly the same scenario in an effort to convince the ignorant Americans around me of the Israel Injustice. But I would have used Indians - yes, from India - to claim 1/2 of the United States, just because that was the label applied to Native Americans. East Indians have just as much a claim to the USA as Ashkenazi jews do to Palestine, ie, NONE. The Zionists have very cleverly glossed over the fact that Ashkenazi Jews NEVER had jewish ancestors in palestine, but instead descend from the Kazars of Asia. The real semites and descendants of Jesus family are the very Palestinians they persecute! Genetic testing proves this and, ever so coincidentally, its publication is forbidden in Israel.
The other thing I see missing from your story is any reference to racism and apartheid. Every day in Isreal more palestines are ejected from their homes and property under color of law and immediately handed over to Jews. The illegal settlements are Jews-only housing. Tens of thousands suffer torture and abuse in jail without charges just because they are Palestinian. Zionist racism includes abuse of the blacks and other non-ashkenazi Jews of Israel, so it's not just religious intolerance. Your analogy would work better if it used race instead of religion.
Brilliant. If people looked at the situation logically -- without the emotion of the holocaust and religious affiliations to cloud their judgement -- they would see clearly that in every conceivable way what has happened to the Palestinians is unjust and immoral. But, the whole world seems to think that we must bow and scrape to the Jewish people in an effort to make up for the horrors of the Nazi regime. Enough is enough. Native Americans and African Americans do not get this kind of special treatment -- and they were wronged by America. Why should I, as an American, use my tax dollars to prop up a state that in many ways has become even more evil than the Nazi regime? If Germany wishes to do so in an effort to make reparations to the minority they persecuted, fine. The rest of the world has already paid that debt with the blood of the soldiers who fought to defeat fascism.
And at any rate, allowing the Jewish state to act like the fascist Nazi regime is not justice. We are merely allowing the formerly bullied to become even worse bullies ...
great job E!!!!!!! you should be proud of your writing and how you made it so someone could put themselves in those shoes!! keep writing so more and more people can understand so together we can take a stand. bring your article to work tomorrow so you can show your article to more of our friends there. can't wait to see what you write next.
Excellent article. It didn't take me long to figure out what the story was about. What really pisses me off is the amount of money the U.S. government doles out to Israel every year yet in public they ridicule Israel for their acts of injustice. Have you ever read "A Jewish Defector Warns America" a lecture by Benjamin Freedman. He lays it out in great detail. Thanks for the article.
Your analogy to the US has several errors. There was never a Palestinian state, it was unincorparated area. Jews legally bought land from its owners, usually Turks. Many of the Arabs came to the area seeking jobs after the area began to develop. Arabs instigated fighting because of the increase of Jewish settlers, this brought about the need for partition. This battle continues until today, rather than posing the Arabs as innocent victims.
'Never proclaimed guilt on either side'? You must be joking, your analogy is totally a condemnation of Israel. 'Stayed to the facts'? You account is purely a one-sided account of the Israeli-Arab conflict, with books worth of facts excluded, specifically,any fact that would implicate the Arabs in wrong doing.
You too are free to believe whatever you want, and I would have to ask you to research further.
Yes I "deny that groups like the Stern Gang & Irgun came into Palestine with the intention to terrorize its people living there before 1948?" These groups were formed to defend their own people. Maybe they used terrorizism tactics while doing that, however, terrorizim was not their goal, as your statement assets.
Firstly, you started on a wrong premise.
Before the 12 centuries worth of Muslim occupation, it was the land of the Jews. Muslims occupied the Jewish land since 636AD all the way up to 1917AD. Before the Palestinians-as-victim spin that started in the mid-1980s, the Muslims and Arabs were proud to say that they are resisting Jewish resistance against Arab Muslim claim on historical Jewish land. Pick up any publication during the time of the 1967 war. Or the 1973 war. Or even the 1948 war. Whether it was Time magazine or an Arab newspaper, the Arabs were Arabs, not "Palestinians". Their objective was to drive out the Jews in order to preserve Muslim occupation in Israel.
Therefore, a better analogy would be like this. What if America was invaded by the Russians in 1800. Then, in the year 2000, after 2 centuries of Russian occupation, there was a world war and Britain won the war. America became a British Mandate territory. The British decided to annex a big chunk of the occupied territories to return to the Americans. The Russians protested.
Initially the British wanted to return the entire America to the Americans, but the Russians were up in arms. Okay, they said, let's partition America into Eastern America and Western America. Give Western America to the Russians, and Eastern America to the Americans.
Still the Russians protested. There were Russians still occupying Eastern America, and they vehemently protested any single square inch being returned to the Americans. Alright then, the British, with the United Nations, decided to split Eastern America further, giving approximately 55% to the Americans and 45% to the Russians.
A war breaks out shortly after that due to Russian aggression. The Americans, though outnumbered, fought back valiantly and managed to defeat the combined might of the Russians from the East, West, North and South. They captured some of the land that was previously partitioned for the Russians, and now Eastern America is 60% American and 40% Russian.
Throughout the next few decades, the Russians repeatedly waged war on what little remained of America. The rest of the world collectively remembers that 60% of Eastern America as "America", and not the entire country that it once was, and condemns America for defending itself, for trying to liberate the rest of the country from centuries of oppressive occupation. The occupying forces on the other hand leveraged on the left-leaning media to portray themselves as the victims although they were the original occupiers, and somehow the American resistance against their occupiers is termed as aggression, state terrorism, apartheid, etc. America's claim to the additional land that they held after their war of independence is portrayed as America's illegal occupation of Russian territory, and the world community never fails to force America to give up those territories to the Russians.
America, as an emasculated, humiliated and oppressed nation from 2 centuries of Russian occupation, had to endure further admonishments and humiliations in the long battle to reclaim back what is rightfully hers. The world condemns America for fighting back, seemingly forgetting that the Russians are the occupiers and not the other way around.
How about that? How would you feel?
Now THAT's more like it. Refreshing to read something with a bit of truth to it for once. Thanks MightyDonkeyKong.
What about the people that were terrorized when the Irgun and Stern gangs came? They didn't come for no purpose. The Arabs terrorized the Jews endlessly. They extinguished the most ancient Jewish settlements around "Palestine". There was the incident known as Tarpat, in which Arabs, under incitement from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (the pal of Hitler) eliminated the Jews of Hebron. Jews that have existed there for 3000 years. Why is it that nobody feels sorry for Jews like these? Why doesn't people feel sorry for the illegal occupation of Jewish lands?
About the immigration of Ashkenazis from Europe into Israel - not all of them had no connection with Israel. Some of them were descendants of Israeli/Sephardic Jews. Similarly, I challenge you to prove that the Palestinians of today aren't from neighboring states. Immigration records have proven that present-day Palestinians are mostly descendants of Arab immigrants who came to Palestine/Israel from the 1920s up to 1948. Arafat himself spoke with an Egyptian dialect and had to use a translator in order for the other Palestinian Arabs to comprehend what he's saying, for crying out loud!
Yes, we can certainly agree that the land area has changed rulers/hands many times. Right now it belongs to the Jews. Why is it that we can't oppose its ownership/occupation under the Muslims, but we must oppose its ownership under the Jews?
Israeli oppression of Palestinian people - how about Palestinian terrorism of Israeli civilians? Before the "oppressive" checkpoints and security fences came up, Palestinians were free to move around, but what did they do? They bombed Israeli civilian areas. It's been a tit-for-tat ever since.
Israeli citizens who are not permitted to have the same rights as other Israeli citizens - By this, I suppose you're talking about Israeli Arabs? Okay, they might be treated poorer due to being perceived as security risks, but they can freely criticize the Israeli government. They can build their mosques, yell out their prayers 5 times a day, they can hold government positions and be members of the Knesset.
Compare this to the position of Christians and Jews and other non-Muslims in most Muslim countries. Can a Jew hold a govt position in Saudi Arabia? In Palestine? Can Jews openly build synagogues and practice worship in Egypt? Malaysia? Indonesia?
When you speak about govt policies against others, you're coming from the point of view of how oppressed Muslims are, how vile the Israelis or zionists are. But did you turn around and look the other way, at how Palestinians treat others, at how the Arabs and Muslims treat others. Granted, two wrongs don't make a right, but it's grossly ignorant and hypocritical for pro-Palestinian supporters to always paint Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims as the perpetual victims while Israel and the US govt as villains, when the truth is that Israel and the US have so much more freedom and human rights compared to any of these Muslim states!
I'm not anti-Muslim, I just believe that Islamic countries and their policies pose a greater nuisance to the world at present compared to Israel and the United States.
Contrary to what you think, a majority of the world scrutinizes Israel and condemns it. Out of over 520 UN resolutions ever passed on the Middle East, more than 300 are against Israel. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International seem to make it a hobby out of scrutinizing and condemning Israel, same goes for UNRWA and UNIFIL although paradoxically UNIFIL also reports that Hezbollah has over-run UN camps and are firing rockets into Israel from there.. and yet they're largely against Israel.
I agree that throttling basic daily needs into an entire state as a form of collective punishment is wrong, but Israel is only following statistics. When vehicles (and that includes food transport) were allowed to flow freely, their borders were so porous that terrorists were bombing security checkpoints and civilian areas so regularly. As they started throttling the traffic (which directly affected the delivery of basic goods) and had stricter routines at the checkpoints, the incidences of suicide bombings and attacks on civilian targets dropped dramatically. After a long lull, they decide that it's safe to open up the checkpoints again, and the attacks concomitantly rose. And when they started throttling traffic again, the attacks reduced.
Similarly, before they put up security fences, there were regular suicide bombing attacks and attempted attacks. After they put up the fence, suicide attacks dropped to almost zero.
You should also understand that a large cross-section of Palestinian population, thanks to indoctrination, look forward to Israel's destruction. In contrast, a large cross-section of Israeli population look forward to having lasting peace with their Arab neighbors.
If a Palestinian in Palestine openly criticizes Hamas, Fatah, etc. and say something like "Israel isn't that bad, we should make peace with them", quite likely he'll be lynched by a mob. But in Israel, the Israelis themselves organize protests and demonstrations asking their government to scale back on heavy-handed tactics, and they have the freedom to assemble and make their views heard to the military and the government.
To me, that is a big difference between Palestinian and Israeli societies, and that is a key determinant as to which state wants peace more badly than the other.
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |