The constant theme in Danny Wakil’s letters is ‘Hamas bad, Israel good’. He never criticises Israel despite so many Israeli war crimes over decades, which Israel continues to commit. His core propaganda is that Israel does no wrong, Israel is an innocent victim and Israel wants peace. All demonstrably false.
He seems keen to give us a history lesson, but conveniently omits anything relating to the very violent founding of Israel. Before and during 1948, murderous Zionist gangs, particularly Irgun and Stern, terrorised the Palestinian population, forcing 700,000 to flee. More than 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed, wells were poisoned and houses looted. Terrorist Yitzhak Shamir led the racist Stern Gang and was prime minister of Israel in 1983-4. Terrorist Menachem Begin, the head of Irgun, became prime minister from 1977 to 1983.
Irgun evolved into the fascist Herut (Freedom) Party, which in 1988 merged into Likud, the main political party in Israel today. This is the truth behind Zionism.
In 1948-49, Palestinian refugees were shot as ‘infiltrators’ if they attempted to return. Israel then introduced the Absentees’ Property Law in 1950, allowing for the irreversible confiscation of Palestinian land and property if the owner was not present. Flagrant theft through terror and legal trickery. Refugees in Gaza still hold title deeds and keys to the doors of their stolen homes.
It is simply not true to imply that Israel wants peace. Israel is a violent expansionist state, which has never agreed to any borders and repeatedly takes more land by force including through its aggressive settlement program. Official government policy is to continue expanding and to prevent a Palestinian state.
The Arabs have repeatedly outstretched a hand to peace – and Israel has always rejected it, more than 10 proposals spurned between 1948 and 1965 alone, each time with a different excuse. More recently former Israeli Likud prime minister Ehud Olmert, writing in Maariv, February 2020 said: ‘There is no denying that over the past ten years, Israel has been the recalcitrant, provocative, aggressive party – and its lack of flexibility is the main reason why peace initiatives have not only failed to mature into near-agreements, but were not even introduced’.
And then there is Benjamin Netanyahu, who tweeted in Hebrew on 28 December 2022:
‘The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel – in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, Judea and Samaria’.
Given these facts, perhaps Danny Wakil might enlighten us on what his peace will look like?
