Israel is a liberal democracy

THE EDITOR, Madam:

THE ADVOCATES Network’s article is a gross perversion of the truth.

Israel is a paragon of virtue in a neighbourhood where genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are common.

Israel is a liberal democracy. Seventy-two per cent of Israelis, including 63 per cent of Arabs, voted in the last elections. Canada and the US had 62 per cent participation. It is considered the eighth most powerful state. Its GDP beats Canada, New Zealand and the UK. It is fourth on the World Happiness Index, first in digital quality, and fifth in education. Tel Aviv is one of the best LGBTQ vacation destinations and is a safe haven for regional gays. Israel’s hospitals include Jewish and Arab doctors, staff and patients. Few Israeli Arabs would give this up.

There are massive human-rights abuses in the Palestinian Authority. Minorities live precariously. Gays are thrown off buildings. Honour killings are common, as is female genital mutilation. None of these are Israel’s fault.

The Advocates talk of a “Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group”. This as a total falsehood. There has never been a Palestine nor a Palestinian people.

In 1964, the Soviet KGB created the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Egypt. They simply renamed Israel ‘Palestine’, and the people ‘Palestinians’. There was a Roman province of Syria-Palestina in the second to fourth centuries AD, 400 years before Mohammed was born.

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War One, the Britain mandates administered areas that became Iraq, TransJordan and Israel. France’s mandates became Lebanon and Syria.

The British Mandate for Palestine was the Jewish homeland. Jews were called Palestinians. To call an Arab a Palestinian was like calling him a Jew.

There were 700,000 Arabs in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank in 1948. There are now 7,000,000. This must be the most incompetent genocide in history. Radical Islam and the PLO threw 700,000 Christians out of Lebanon. It is now an Iranian vassal state controlled by Hezbollah terrorists. Israel will not follow Lebanon’s example. It will defend itself. If the Arabs don’t like it, they are free to move. There are 56 Organisation of Islamic Cooperation states that surely would welcome them.

Conversely, the Arabs can behave like every other minority in the world and accept that others, even infidels, are in charge.

LEN BENNETT Ottawa, Canada