The Day Before THE DAY

Editorial Opinion from Marc J. Rauch
Co-publisher
The Auto Channel

Exactly one year today, September 10, 2001, I was driving south on I-5 from Sacramento to Los Angeles, en route to a speaking engagement at a television industry conference. I was in one of those spots where it’s typical to lose good reception of one’s favorite local stations. I put the radio on scan and listened to short bursts of broadcasts trying to decide what to listen to.

As the radio automatically scanned the dial, it landed on a station that had a familiar sound to it. The familiar sound was the ambient tonal quality of a PBS-style radio station. As I came to learn, that station was KFCF, and they were broadcasting a program from its sister station, KPFA. Although I wasn’t specifically aware of either station, the quality of the ambient sound was sufficient to make me stop the radio scan and listen to the show.

The host of the particular broadcast introduced a female correspondent who was reporting from outside of Jerusalem. Within seconds I realized the kind of radio station and program that I had landed on. The key words that tipped me off were, “Occupied Palestine” - the totally erroneous, fallacious, and ridiculous manner that the severely demented use to describe the legal and legitimate nation-state Israel.

I continued to listen, because I found the commentary quite humorous. The distorted view that the “Palestinian Arabs,” who were waiting to cross into Jerusalem, were innocent victims of oppression and were being subjected to inappropriate waits and searches was just so preposterous. The reporter and the radio program completely ignored the fact that Israel was in the midst of a wave of vicious terrorism, as a result of Yasser Arafat’s refusal to accept the Camp David Agreement, and that without stopping and searching the Arabs crossing into Israel, the Israelis had no way to stop the slaughter of its innocent civilians. It was like a great comedy spoof from Saturday Night Live. While I vehemently disagreed with the slant being given to the story, it was so absurdly addictive that I couldn’t turn it off.

The radio signal eventually faded away and I went on to other stations, putting the live report from “Occupied Palestine” out of my mind. I did think once or twice that I should write a scathing letter to the stations, but I knew that I would never find the time.

As coincidences often happen, on the next morning I watched from my hotel room as the World Trade Center towers collapsed as a result of the dastardly attack of the “brave and heroic Islamic freedom fighters.” Later in the day, as I awaited my chance to address the conference, I reflected back on the broadcast I heard the day before. I imagined the insane and inane rationalizing that must have been going on at the two radio stations. I knew then and there that I would indeed write a scathing letter to the two radio stations, and I decided to write the first of what would become many essays on the subject of Israel and the Middle East Conflict. While I’ve since had a few dozen such articles published in a variety of print and online publications, my original story never received any real distribution outside of a few friends. That essay is repeated below. I believe it’s a fitting piece to commemorate what took place on September 11, 2001, and to remind us all of the enormous danger that we still face.

Time Out for History: Background on the War Against Terrorism October 20, 2001

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the current War on Terrorism, is the public’s almost total lack of knowledge and understanding about the contemporary “Middle East Conflict”, which is at the least, a crucial underlying cause of the recent suicide attack on the World Trade Center. And at the heart of the Conflict is the dispute over Israel’s historical and legal right to exist.

Without this understanding it’s almost impossible to understand how diabolical Islam is.

Divine Inspiration or Insanity Faced with the potential of fighting a multiple-front war against many Islamic nations (in order to stop the current wave of violence, and derail future terrorist acts from the same source), the leading Western governments are now engaged in a desperate attempt at appeasement. They are seeking to separate the existing military and economic actions as a war against individuals, and not as a war against nations or the Islamic religion.

This is as unrealistic an effort of appeasement as any attempt to mollify any aggressor over the last three thousand years. Appeasement is always only met with scorn by the aggressors and treated as an indication of weakness. At best, appeasement provides a brief temporary respite. The outcome is always either capitulation by the victim-state and its peoples, or a belated and overly protracted military action that causes far greater loss of lives and materiel than a strong response to the original threat would have required. Appeasement never brings lasting peace.

With all the time and attention being given to the United States’ effort against Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, it appears almost inconceivable to think that this is just an effort of appeasement. But it is because it doesn’t address and attack the root cause of the problem: the Islamic religion and the Muslim people.

The October 15th issue of NEWSWEEK magazine carries the Fareed Zakaria’s feature story, Why They Hate Us? In the sub-headline Zakaria states, “To dismiss the terrorists as insane is to delude ourselves.”

Zakaria states that the terrorists are simply “products of failed societies that breed their anger,” and “that America needs a plan (to deal with the terrorists and reform the world).” As if the failure of their societies is the fault of the United States or the capitalist Western world, or that we should be responsible for the solution.

Yet, in the ensuing paragraphs of his NEWSWEEK story, Zakaria classifies the Muslim terrorists as misfits with a twisted morality. He places the actions and beliefs of the terrorists as not just that of common, garden-variety ”demented loners” (such as Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber), he elevates them to new heights of lunatic extremism that justifies mass murder and ritual suicide. Their culture, Zakaria states, reinforces and fuels the hostility, hatred, and distrust that the terrorists feel for the West.

On Sunday, October 14th, CNN presented an hour-long television special entitled, Struggle for Islam. The show documented that millions of boys were being raised in state supported schools that preach the death and destruction of non-Islamic believers.

Islam’s history of fanaticism, mass murder, terrorism, and elimination of non-Islamic believers dates back to its origins in the seventh century AD (CE), considerably before the founding of the United States, Capitalism, or any present-day government or socio-economic society in the Western world.

Zakaria also writes that, “Until the 1950s, Jews and Christians lived peacefully under Muslim Rule.” He quotes another author of arguing (in favor of Islam); “…that for much of history minorities did better under Muslim rulers than they did under Christian ones.” One of the obvious cynical points of contention to these statements is the very notion that other religions lived “peacefully” and “better” under Muslim rule. If a “peace” existed, it was because the Islamic armies and rulers decimated and destroyed any appreciable opposition that may have existed in the lands that they conquered. One need not look further than the historical treatment of Jews in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Ethiopia to see how badly and savagely the Jews had been mistreated for hundreds of years. To argue that they (the minorities) “did better” under Muslim rule is to argue that Africans did better as slaves in America than in having to live and survive in the harsh jungle environment of their homeland. Also, as it pertains to the Jews, it’s little consolation to argue that being butchered and repressed by Muslims was better than being butchered and repressed by Christians: Dead is dead, torture is torture. Moreover, the word “under” speaks volumes about the relationship between Muslims living in non-Islamic countries and/or under governments that don’t share their particular Islamic sect, if they’re not the ones in charge, there is no peace in that nation, nor safety for its citizens.

And now, after 1,500 years of conventional terror, Islamic adherents have discovered how to utilize modern technology to cause new, horrific, high-tech methods of death and destruction.

If this isn’t insanity, what is?

America Gets "Thanked" For Its Assistance Ten years ago, the United States put hundreds of thousands of its military men and women in harm’s way to free Kuwait from Saddam Hussein, while also defending Saudi Arabia from what seemed like an inevitable attack by Iraq. The U.S. action cost our country billions and billions of dollars, and if it weren’t for the professionalism and expertise of America’s armed forces, tens of thousands of American lives could have been lost: all to defend Islamic countries and its Muslim people. This was neither the first nor the last time that the United States committed itself to help Muslim people. The U.S. also supplied military forces to aid and defend the Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo, and back in 1956, America actually positioned itself against Britain, its closest ally in support of Egypt during the Suez Canal crisis.

Osama Bin Laden, the reigning Islamic mass-murderer-of-the-year, put a plan into action that killed thousands of innocent people and caused billions of dollars in damage. The Saudi Arabian ruling family, to show their "sincere thanks" to the American people (for saving their lives and their country) and demonstrate "their sorrow" over the World Trade Center attack, sent Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to tour the ruins and make a donation to the relief fund. Along with the donation Prince Alwaleed issued a written statement in which he said that while he came to visit “Ground Zero to offer condolences to families of victims of the attack…we must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack…” He then added, “…our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of the Israelis while the world turns the other cheek.”

Attaching and assigning any blame to America or Israel for the Islamic attack on the World Trade Center, and using America’s friendship with a non-Islamic nation as an excuse for such a wanton act, is a perfect example of the twisted, convoluted and insane logic of the Islamic mind. Fortunately, New York mayor Rudolph Guiliani rejected the donation and issued his own statement in which he correctly said that there is “no justification” for the WTC attack.

Prince Alwaleed’s statement adds to a very long list of fallacious and grossly offensive misstatements concerning the United States and Israel, and Israel’s right to exist. Among the most preposterous Anti-Semitic statements are those alleging the WTC attack was a Jewish/Israeli plot and that no Jews were killed (or even present in the buildings at the time of the attack).

The bottom-line, of course, is the Islamic world’s irrational anger and hatred of Israel and Jews. They see any and every action taken by the United States, even those actions that defend and protect Islamic nations, as being veiled conspiracies to aid Israel. It’s interesting to note that while the United States has used armed forces to aid Muslim nations and people, the U.S. has never fielded an army to protect Israel or to participate with Israel in an offensive military action against any aggressor.

Ironically, Islam may have a greater loathing of Christians than Jews. But because they know of the hatred that many Christians have for Jews, they use this "trump card" to exploit their paranoid anti-Semitic claims. Neo-Nazi type groups are also anxious to believe that every action taken by Western governments, that don’t unequivocally benefit white Christians, are just Jewish plots to control the world. Time and again, I’ve heard callers to talk radio programs assert that if America didn’t support Israel’s “taking the Palestinians’ land” there’d be no problems in the Middle East. Some less-articulate callers will state this erroneous position in even more simplistic, crude terms: “They hate us because we have so many Jews in America.”

It’s virtually impossible to fight the unfounded universal fear of Jews and the empty specter of Jewish plots to control the world’s economy. However, historical facts and objective commentary can effectively fight the ridiculous claims made about Israel; Israel’s right to its territory; and the correctness of America’s position, vis-a-vis Israel’s right to exist. (Yes, I do know that no amount of historical facts and objective commentary will change the beliefs of the insane, but it will help those who are sane to understand the situation and the position of the two countries.)

At the center of the problem are the questions surrounding “right” to the land: Whose land is it? Why did the Israelis take the Palestinians’ land? Why don’t they just give it back?

The short answer is that the land known as Israel never “belonged” to the “Palestinians”, therefore Israel never took it away from them and shouldn’t give it back or give it away.

Unfortunately, the shortness of this answer is not a simple one, and it seems to fly in the face of all the news reports and/or “urban-legend” misinformation that pervade our everyday life. Amazingly, Israel’s success at defending itself and developing an enviable military adeptness almost hurts Israel’s image, and it seems to help portray the “Palestinians” as innocent victims of the U.S. backed Israeli forces. I’ve heard more than one person say that they support the “Palestinian” cause, because they are the under-dogs. Well God-bless the indomitable American spirit and America’s enthusiasm to support the downtrodden (it’s among the best qualities of our people). But the “Palestinians” are neither innocent victims of Israeli military might nor are they the under-dogs in the Middle East quagmire. Israel’s steadfast determination to defend itself and its citizens from the continuous insane attacks by its enemies has been deliberately misconstrued and mischaracterized by those same enemies.

As an American Jew growing up in New York, I was far, far more American than a Jew. I drifted through the troubled times of the Six Day Arab-Israel War, the Vietnam War, and the ’73 Yom Kippur Arab-Israel War; much more concerned with building a career than the struggles of faceless people in far-off lands. But as the haze of my own youthful confusion cleared, I asked myself the same questions about Israel and the Middle East.

Which Measuring Stick to Use Jewish right to land in the Middle East can be argued from two perspectives. The first, of course, is biblical. About 1300 BC (BCE), God directed Moses to lead a group of Hebrews from Egypt back to the “Promised Land” of Canaan, the birthplace of the Jewish religion and the home of its first recognized followers, Abraham and his family. Canaan is generally the area around the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. By the year 1000 BC (BCE), the Kingdom of David, ancient Israel, included not only what is now present day Israel but extensive territory reaching west (into present day Jordan) and north past Damascus (present day Syria).

After a succession of wars and invasions from Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, (which significantly whittled down the size of the Kingdom), the Jewish religion was officially banned by the Romans in 135 AD (CE). The Jews were forced to leave their homeland (then called Judea) and dispersed throughout the world. The Romans changed the name of the land from Judea to Palestine in an attempt to eliminate all identity with the Jews. Palestine was a Roman/Hellenic version of Philistia, the land of the then non-existent people known as Philistines. The Philistines had been fully assimilated into the civilizations of the invading Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians hundreds of years before.

Although most Jews were forcibly removed from Jerusalem and Judea (Palestine), many thousand continued to live and practice Judaism in secret and/or in remote desert communities, or traveled the land as nomads. After 231 AD (CE), Jews were allowed to return to the city of Jerusalem.

One problem with using the Jews’ biblical and ancient rights as the legal basis to the land is that it’s hard to find any legal system in the world that would recognize the command from God to Moses as a legitimate or enforceable verbal contract. Another problem is that for other religions to acknowledge that contemporary Jews would have a “God-given” right to the land, they would have to admit that contemporary Jews are the legitimate descendants of the Children of Israel, and are the chosen people. Such acknowledgement would degrade their particular doctrines to a “less-true” status. Paradoxically, in those theocratic countries of the world (i.e., Islamic nations), that normally dote on every supposed word of God and use it as the basis of their laws, they suddenly find it acceptable to defy and ignore God’s will with respect to Jewish right of land ownership.

But reliance upon an “unenforceable verbal contract with God’, or ancient squatters-rights entitlement is not necessary to explain Israel’s right to exist and their right to the land they occupy. Contemporary legal documentation and precedence can do that.

First, however, let’s look at what a “Palestinian” is. I’ve purposely placed marks around the word “Palestinian” in each instance of its use in order to give it obvious emphasis. The current world-view of a “Palestinian” is an individual that would be physically described as Arabic, a descendant of a nomadic Bedouin tribe, and a worshipper of the Islamic faith. The “Palestinian”, as the name seems to imply, might also be a native of the land called Palestine or a descendant of forebears that originated in that land. Interestingly, the arrival in Palestine by the Arab people that became the “Palestinian” Arabs didn’t happen in any appreciable numbers until the spread of Islam in the 7th century AD (CE), five hundred years after the name change. However, because of the naming-convention that is now used to classify this person and people, this “Palestinian” Arab wrongly benefits from a similarity to the Roman/Hellenic name of the land. Since they’re called “Palestinians”, they are falsely perceived to have an inherent right to the land. On the other hand, if the name of the land was never changed from Israel or Judea the world might better understand and accept that the Jews have more right to the land.

In any event, the original natives of Palestine were the Jews and other non-Jewish people that lived at the time of Roman occupation of Israel, and then continued to live in that region. As the land was no longer known as Israel, the inhabitants were not called Israelites, but “Palestinians.” Right up until the time of Israel’s formal proclamation of independent statehood, anyone living in Palestine could and would have been described as “Palestinian,” be they Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Hindu.

By the 1500s AD (CE), Jerusalem again had a sizable Jewish population of about 4,000. Around 1517 AD (CE), the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) began its conquest of the Middle East region, which it then ruled almost continuously until their defeat in World War I as Germany’s partner. During the years of Ottoman rule, several waves of Jewish refugees from various parts of Europe sought sanctuary in Palestine by buying land from the Turks and absentee Arab landlords. They didn’t arrive in Palestine mounted on war-horses, armed with guns, knives, and swords to take the land by force; they purchased as much as they could, when they could. The land was inhospitable, barely habitable, almost completely infertile, and had just a scanty population.

Slowly, as more refugees escaped to Palestine from the European countries that were systematically massacring their friends and families, the Jews bought land, drained swamps, turned arid desert into farms, and founded settlements where no one else dared to live. By the middle of the 1800s, the majority of the Jerusalem population was Jewish. In the latter part of the 19th century additional waves of Jewish refugees arrived in Palestine, and the total Jewish population grew to nearly 100,000; all living on land that was legally purchased or leased and/or reclaimed from the most unpopulated hostile environs. As Jewish settlements were founded they became targets for Arab gunmen.

At the conclusion of the First World War, and with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations took control of all the territories that were previously ruled by the Turks. The League, in turn, put Palestine and Iraq under British administration; France was asked to administer Syria and Lebanon. The eastern portion of Palestine, which had once been part of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, was turned i nto an Arab state called Transjordan (now Jordan). The area west of the Jordan River was kept under British administration.

During the war, in order to solidify Jewish support for the allied war effort, the British issued the Balfour Declaration, which expressed Britain’s desire and support to create “a national home for the Jewish people.” Since the eastern most portion of Palestine was turned into an Arab state, the Jewish population presumed that all or part of the remaining territory of Palestine would become the promised Jewish homeland. The Balfour Declaration also agreed to allow additional Jewish immigration into Palestine and the right to purchase additional land (the land was not given away to the Jews, nor were they taking it by force of arms; they were to legally buy it).

To the Palestinian Arabs, the legality of the Jews ownership of land was irrelevant. The fact that the Jews built settlements and cities on land that was unoccupied was trivial. Strangely, they felt that the same administrators that allowed the creation of the Arab States Transjordan, Lebanon, and Iraq didn’t have the authority to grant the creation of an independent Jewish homeland. Sporadic attacks on Jews and Jewish settlements erupted into full scale Arab riots against the Jews in 1921 and 1929, and then full Arab rebellion from 1936-39. Hundreds of Jews were killed during these terrorist actions and tens of thousands more were threatened on a daily basis. For defense, the Jews established a militia to try and protect themselves.

After World War II, the British turned the question and decision of a Jewish homeland over to the newly found United Nations. In November 1947, after long study, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states, with the city of Jerusalem as a separate International protectorate. The part of Palestine where most of the Arabs lived was granted to the Palestinian Arabs, and the part where most of the Palestinian Jews lived was given to the Jews. Land and property that was Arab-owned, but fell inside the Jewish territory, wasn’t to be confiscated, it was intended that the Arab owners would continue to own the property, live on the land, and participate as citizens of the new Jewish State.

The British scheduled the removal of all their troops by May 15, 1948, effectively becoming the National Independence Day for the two new states. On May 14th, the eve of Independence Day, while the Jews celebrated the establishment of the first independent Jewish homeland in almost 2,000 years, the Arabs finalized plans to attack Israel.

On May 15th, as the last British troops withdrew from Palestine, Arab armies from several Arab nations attacked Israel, intent on annihilating every Jew. Israel had only about 50,000 soldiers and Civil Defense fighters to face millions of hostile Arabs.

Contrary to what most people would assume, Israel’s defense force was not armed by the United States or Britain, but by the Soviet Union via Czechoslovakia. The Arab armies had been supplied with their weapons, part intentionally and part inadvertently, by the British army (the Arabs had been armed by the British during World War II, and as they departed Palestine, the British turned over all the weapons they weren’t taking with them). In addition, British army officers commanded the Jordanian army (known as the Arab Legion).

In the days leading up to Israeli independence and in the weeks immediately after the Arab invasion began, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs suddenly and surprisingly abandoned their homes, their shops, and their property in Israel, unwilling to live in a land ruled by Jews. They openly boasted that they were just getting out of the way while the Arabian hordes swept through Israel. They then intended to return to reclaim their land and property, as well as the land and property of the dead Jews.

Miraculously, Israel was victorious in defending itself, with no other country fighting on the side of Israel. Armistice agreements with all the major Arab antagonists were finally signed by the summer of 1949. Since that time, however, Israel has had three other major military confrontations with the surrounding Arab nations. Additionally, Israel has been under continuous attack by murderous, cowardly Arab terrorists that blow-up school buses filled with children, shopping centers, and restaurants. Meanwhile, Israel has continued to thrive, build beautiful cities, develop a strong efficient military force, and become a productive, meaningful trading partner with the other democratic industrial nations of the world.

To defend itself during the wars, and preempt or mitigate future attacks, Israel has had to occupy areas other than the land originally granted them by the United Nations: areas such as Syria’s Golan Heights, from which the Syrians had been able to shoot down upon Israeli farming communities. The Arabs and their insanely misguided supporters around the world demand to have those territories returned. They protest when Israeli soldiers and police stop “Palestinians” from freely crossing into Israeli cities and neighborhoods; which only occurs because of Israel’s desire to see their children grow up and not have their school buses destroyed up by suicide bombers.

If the Arabs had been victorious in any one of the military confrontations with Israel, they wouldn’t have stopped until they killed every Israeli Jew or pushed them into the sea. The atrocities that they would have committed against the Jews would have made the Holocaust pale by comparison; and this is proven by the inhuman way the Arabs and Arab nations have fought against their “fellow” Muslims from other sects.

The “Palestinians” may indeed be victims, but they’re the victims of their own ignorance, greed, and Muslim brothers: those Muslim brothers that promised them victory over Israel and the eradication of the Jews. And because of those promises, they abandoned their right to their own U.N. mandated independent state. They’ve now lost more than 50 years of peace - 50 years of working to build their nation - 50 years of watching their children and grandchildren grow up. All they have to show for it are new ways to strap on bombs and blow themselves up.

Is There an Answer? There’s no shortage of money in the Arab and Islamic world: there’s all that oil. There’s no shortage of empty land in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in which the “Palestinians” could live. There’s no reason for poverty or hunger to exist in the Middle East. If Israel can turn barren desert into fertile crop-producing land, the Arabs should be able to do the same, or buy the knowledge to do it. But the other Arab nations and Muslim people don’t even want to help support or house the insane “Palestinians”, who they left in the lurch in 1948.

If the other Islamic nations and people weren’t equally insane, they would have distanced themselves from the “Palestinian” question and international terrorism long ago. They would have made peace with Israel, and be either content with ignoring the Jews or happily engaged in a profitable trade relationship with them. Their perverse religion blinds them and binds their hands from taking the kind of stern action that should be taken against murderers like Bin Laden, regardless of their religious affiliation.

If there’s a holy war for Muslims to declare, they should declare it against their own civil and spiritual leaders who have lied to them for 1,500 years. They should fight against the corrupt royal families that are more profane and sacrilegious than any westerner. They should rise up and mercilessly crush all those murderous cowards that threaten the safety of other people. But they won’t, because the insanity that they suffer from is too ingrained in their religion.

I find that being a student of history is not tantamount to being an effective futurist, other than being able to recite the old adage, “history repeats itself”. And history definitely repeats itself when we allow it to happen. Muslims would like the rest of the world to believe that Islam is a religion of peace. But there is no historical proof of that. There is no contemporary proof of that claim.

It’s impossible and absurd to call for the elimination of Islam and its followers. However, we can demand military action that is so strong and so severe that it effectively puts an end to their ability to attack others and cause fear around the world. The onus is on them. For almost fifteen hundred years they have wreaked havoc. Let’s now have fifteen hundred years of peace from them before they’re allowed to rejoin the community of nations.

About the author:

Marc J. Rauch was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1952, and lived in the metropolitan area until “emigrating” to the West Coast in the early 80s. He is a multi-award winning TV/film writer, producer, and director, and has been a broadcasting and marketing executive since the 1975. Marc regularly lectures on various subjects concerning broadcasting and new media at conferences and seminars throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 1994, he authored a book on advertising and has had several business and industry articles published in a variety of related magazines. After the events of September 11, 2001, Marc began writing about U.S./Arab relations and the Middle East conflict. His commentaries appear regularly in several print and online publications.