by Edna Yaghi

(Ms. Edna Yaghi wrote the following article in response to the 2nd letter from Dr. Andrew E. Mathis to the Editor)

Dr. Mathis,

If you find that I do not happen to agree with whatever you say, this does not mean that I did not read what you wrote, quite the contrary, I read you and what you wrote quite clearly. Also, your letter was full of contradictions. At one time you stated that Mr. Leonard read your letter better than I did and then you turn around and say that neither one of us seems to have read your letter well enough.

As for Zionist aggression, such aggression has taken place in the whole of Palestine and not in just a portion of it. What is at stake is not whether you believe me, or how condescending you can be to those who do not agree with you or how supercilious you may strive to be, but the lives and welfare of the Palestinian people. You pretend to agree that the Palestinians have suffered at the hands of the Israelis, yet you twist the truth to suit your purposes.

Please do not hide behind your pretensions of my not reading or understanding what you wrote. English happens to be my native language and therefore, I do not have too much trouble comprehending what I read, and at times I am even able to read what is written between the lines.

Let us turn now to the Kingdoms of David and Solomon. David’s kingdom lasted from 1010-970 B.C. Solomon’s lasted from 970-930 B.C. After the death of Solomon, there ensued a decline in the Hebrew kingdom. In 585 B.C., the new Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and took many of its people into captivity to Babylon. There was some revival of the Hebrews recovering most of what Solomon had ruled before B.C. but in 63 B.C., Pompey stormed Jerusalem and Palestine virtually became a Roman province. In A.D. 135, the Romans put an end to the Jewish presence in Palestine by destroying Jerusalem. It was not until the Muslim conqueror Saladin retook Jerusalem in 1187, that the Jews were allowed to return.

However you look at it, Jewish presence in Palestine was short-lived, unstable and intermittent. And that after some 4000 years ago, Hebrews of then have no national or racial affinity between them and the Russian, Polish, American and European Jews of today. If such transitory occupation can give Zionists a historic right to Palestine, then we can say that the Arabs who occupied Spain continuously for 800 years could claim that country today. The Zionist claim to Palestine is neither correct, legitimate, moral or ethical. As for gloating, you are quite wrong Dr. Mathis. I gloat over nothing. I am interested in the truth and am not anti-Jew but anti-oppression and injustice. What I would like to see is that the truth prevail especially where it is so often distorted and changed to suit biased purposes.

Gracious me, it wasn’t too difficult for me to grasp your etymology of anti-Semitism either. What you term as a proper definition does not have to suit me. Semites are, regardless of your etymology, mostly Arabs. Arabs are not anti-Semites but anti-oppression. Zionists use this term for anyone who disagrees with them. It has become a magic wand which has and can still bring the Christian world to their heels with the mere threat of being labeled as anti-Semites. It cloaks every Israeli crime and the Western world blinks at every Israeli atrocity for fear of being labeled anti-Semite. As for political blindness Dr. Mathis, I suggest you take your own advice and abandon yours.

There is no difficulty on my part to distinguish Jews from Israelis, though most of Israel seems to be made up of Jews. Palestinian children are shot at point blank range and often in the back because they are indeed non-Jews, and the Israelis who shoot them are Jews. As for the Druzes and Bedouins who serve in the IDF, they are traitors to the Arabs of Palestine and I know that whenever there is a battle, these traitors are put in the front line so that if anyone dies, it will be them and not the Jewish Israelis.

The Zionists did not have to choose the land of another people to realize their Jewish state. It is a war state bent on the destruction of the Palestinian people. There is no threat to Jews in any part of the world, but there is a grave threat to the Palestinian people. They are the victims of hate, they are the oppressed, and they are the ones who die every day while they fight for their freedom. They are an endangered species. They are the expedient victims of Israeli whims and attempts at genocide. It is impossible too for Israel to accommodate all the Jews in the world at the expense of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. Jews are no longer a race of people, but a religion. That such converts to Judaism as American Sammy Davis Jr. have more right to Palestine than a Palestinian born in his own country is not only a tragedy but a crime against humanity. I shall not hold my breath for Israel to relinquish its right to exist, but I will pray for justice.

It is not the Jews who need a refuge in other people’s lands but the world needs a refuge in which to hide from Zionists. God created the world perfect. It is only man who manipulates it to serve his own evil purposes. And Zionism is indeed as evil as evil can be.

History was written by those who hang heroes. How many Palestinian heroes have you hung Dr. Mathis? Until the Palestinian Holocaust is over, until the Palestinian Diaspora is settled, until oppression and the massacre of the Palestinian people ends, there will never be peace in the Middle East.

Happy Hanukah and May your New Year give you a greater and more objective insight into the suffering of an innocent people.

Mrs. Edna Yaghi is a free-lance writer and a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN)

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