Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

What is the goal of the current Israeli government?

Regrettably peace through negotiations has been proven impossible the last ten years. The reason is that the Palestinian leadership itself is encouraging and organizing terror attacks. With that they show that their promises in the peace accords (Oslo and others) have no meaning to them, so Israeli concessions work counterproductive, see:

Therefore, the Israeli government has made unilateral steps to peace, the disengagement plan and the security fence:

Is the safety fence really necessary?

Yes, because the last ten years have shown that the Palestinians – notwithstanding the accords they have signed – will do nothing to stop terror. The fences with Lebanon and Gaza have halted terror attacks from there. Therefore it is logical that the Westbank gets a fence too. Although the fence is not yet completed the number of terror victims has already halved. For more information, see:

Why is peace so difficult to achieve?

The main reason is that Arabs do not accept a Jewish state, because the dictatorial Arab regimes need an outside enemy and because of ideology; Muslim-fundamentalism and nazism. One must realise that the phenomenon of suicide attacks were a result of the Oslo peace-agreements, they began immediately afterwards. Muslim-fundamentalists like Hamas wanted to do everything they could to torpedo the peace, because they could not stand the idea, peace with the Jewish State.

Peace with the Palestinians has become more difficult under the regime of Arafat and his followers, because of the relentless hate campaign against Jews, see:

This is why the Arabs have now rejected with violence peaceful settlements and their own state already four times:

* 1937 Division plan of the Mandate Palestine by the British,

* 1947 Division plan of the United Nations,

* 1967 Request to Jordan not to attack,

* 2000 / 2001 offer of prime minister Barak to create a Palestinians State, of almost the complete Westbank (compensation elsewhere for the rest), Gaza and East-Jerusalem.

At the moment we are witnessing it happening for the fifth time: under the Road Map, the Palestinians are promised a State when they uproot terror. They do not intend to do that, see:

But the Palestinian Authority is condemning the terror?

That is in the Western press, in the Palestinian media and schoolbooks it says exactly the opposite, see:

In reality, it is funding and encouraging terror, see:

What kind of Palestinian society has this created?

A society the world has never seen before, where killing and getting killed is the goal in life, even small children are raised with this idea: see:

The violence and lawlessness is so great that today Palestinians even prefer to live under Israeli rule, see for example:

But the Palestinians have signed several treaties with the obligation to crush terror?

They signed the treaties, but the reality is different. They lied to get concessions from Israel, see:

How about settlements, are they illegal?

Notwithstanding Palestinian propaganda the settlements are not illegal. Ever since 1948 – when the Arabs rejected the division proposal of the United Nations and attacked Israel – their status is in dispute. The definite borders of Israel have still to be determined by international treaty. The Palestinians themselves have confirmed that in the Oslo and Road Map treaties. See:

Are the settlements not the main cause of terror?

No, that is an Arab propaganda ploy. It can easily been disproved: the terror is about forty years older then the first settlements, as an example, there were even more terror victims in the Fifties (before any settlement) than in the Nineties. See:

And when Israel left Gaza, the number of Qassam rockets on Israel increased, not decreased, see the graph below.

Qassam rockets from Gaza

The terrorist groups themselves say that the destroying of Israel and the killing of Jews is their real goal, see:

Hamas leader: Our ultimate plan is to have Palestine in its entirety.
Hamas Minister: Allah will poison the air breathed by the Jews and the Americans.
Hamas deputy minister calls for Jews to be annihilated.
Platform of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas: “Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! … There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. … Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims.”
The Hezbollah program:“Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.”
Fateh Constitution:“This struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished.”

In a wider perspective it is a part of a vicious antisemitism that can be found in the Arab world, for instance:

Another aspect of it is the idiotic denial of Jewish history in the land of Israel, see for example:

And it is connected to hate of the Western / non-Muslim world in general:

Terreuraanslag op een bus bij Eilat, 17 maart 1954.

Is Israel not acting illegally by killing terrorist leaders?

No, it is lawful under international law. The U.S. is doing the same in Yemen and Afghanistan. See:

Is Israel not acting too forcefully, the number of Palestinian victims is greater then of Israelis?

The number of civilian victims is not so different (932 Palestinians versus 683 Israeli’s). The rest are combatants (1194 Palestinians and 179 Israeli’s). Then there are some strange things in the statistics: on the Palestinian side killed terrorists are counted too, that are people who choose for death themselves. Also are counted people killed by their own side (324 Palestinians!).

Of course every innocent life taken is a tragedy. But there is also the moral difference: the Palestinian are killed unintentionally by Israeli counter-terrorism actions, because terrorist take shelter between the civilian population (the ‘use of human shields’, a war crime). Israeli civilian lives are taken intentionally, of people walking the street, eating in a restaurant of taking the bus.

This kind of difference is shown by the kind of victims, for instance the number of women killed: 118 Palestinian women versus 248 Israeli women (figures of January 2004).

So, the real cause is not the Israeli actions but the terrorists who are hiding between the civilian population, not minding that this will lead to casualties – because they view this in helping their cause with media (and so political) attention. See for instance:

But Israel is often condemned by the United Nations?

Israel is not (one-sidedly) condemned by the Security Council, whose resolutions are binding. It is often by the General Council, because that is dominated by Arab countries and other dictatorships. See:

What do you think of the media coverage?

We think for a number of reasons there is a bias. An important factor is that journalists are not free to report, they know that reporting badly on the Palestinians can have all kinds of results (banning from the territority, kidnapping and more). See for example:

Another factor is that the news agencies heavily rely on local sources and help, and inside the Palestinian Authority only pro-Palestinians are allowed to do that, see for instance:

The case of Reuters.

Is Israel not to blame for the bad state of Palestinian society?

On the contrary. Under Israeli government 1967-1993 the territories were relatively affluent, compared with other Arab countries. There was strong economic growth. Seven universities were founded (before none). Healthcare improved greatly.

When Arafat took over, the economy dropped about 50%, because of the increased terror (and the Israeli countermeasures against it), the money wasted on terror and the increased corruption and unlawfulness. See:

But the Palestinians have much success in promoting the perception of Palestinians as victims, it has become the most powerful marketing tool Palestinians have, see: David and Goliath.