um this is a beautiful church so once
again thank you to the pastor for
allowing us uh to use this this is
really beautiful and thank you all for
being here tonight and and for caring
enough to uh take the time and um and
listen and participate and be
active I always begin my remarks with a
disclaimer and that disclaimer is
this if anybody here came hoping to hear
a balanced
presentation then they're going to be
sorely
disappointed I say this because a lot of
things that you're about to hear tonight
are difficult to
hear and also because I don't believe
that a balanced presentation on this
topic is
possible anybody that cares enough to
speak about this probably has a very
strong opinion one way or the
other um almost everybody has feelings
and strong emotions on this issue one
way or the other for me it's deeply
personal and the issue itself is not a
balanced issue there is no balance in
this issue so therefore I say this is
there cannot be a balanced presentation
on this and I think if anybody claims
that their presentation is balanced
they're either misleading themselves or
they're misleading Their audience
this whole issue of Israel and Palestine
is is covered in so much
myth and there's so much um there's so
much double standard when people talk
about this issue and I'll give you two
examples I don't know if you heard bib
nany's speech at the United Nations I
heard it not live but after he uh
actually delivered it and he began and
he began it with probably the two most
striking examples of uh myth and double
standard
and he began by talking about
um the right of
Return of the Jews to their ancient
Homeland and of course the Jews that
returned so-called returned to their
Homeland were not exactly the same Jews
who were expelled from their Homeland
right because these were expelled a
couple of thousand years before that
these were not their descendants either
because they this has this has been a
very long time so these are people the
people that actually came back so to
speak are people that claim some kind of
a Heritage some kind of a connection a
relationship
to the ancient
Hebrews and they claimed that they had
the right to return to their Homeland
and this was this is what Zionism was
about and this was this was you know
accepted by the world as the right they
had the right to
return now if we talk about the right of
Return of one nation you'd expect that
there would
be if we accept it as as a principle
then you'd expect that we'd accept it in
general across the board yet when people
talk about the right of Return of
Palestinians to their Homeland suddenly
a red line comes up and everybody says
no we can't talk about the right of
Return of the
Palestinians this has to be taken off
the table this is not negotiable the
right of Return of the Palestinians is
not acceptable what's interesting about
that is that the right of Return of the
Palestinians we talking about quite
often we talk talk about the actual
people who had to leave their
homes and if they had already passed
away then we're talking about their
direct descendants people who still have
the keys and the Deeds to their
homes and quite often can go to the very
spot where a village existed where today
there might be a
highway and we'll point out the mosque
and we point out the well and we'll
point out the door to their home yet
they do not enjoy the right to return so
obviously this is a double standard of
immense
proportions the other thing BB talked
about right off as he started was about
King
David who reigned some 3,000 years ago
and you know and here we are today as
his
descendants what's interesting is
besides the fact that there is no
historical evidence that King David ever
existed outside the Bible which of
course is not a historical document um
and Israeli archaeologists have all but
turned up the entire country to find
proof that he ever existed today as we
speak an entire town an entire Community
is
being kicked out of their
homes and forced into Exile through
violence in order to prove that King
David existed in a place called silan
it's a community of 50,000 people right
outside the walls of the old city of
Jerusalem yet the world sees nothing
wrong with this American money is poured
into this project to build what is
called the new city of David an
archaeological Park and a community of
50,000 Palestinians has to be terrorized
in order to leave their homes are being
destroyed in order to make this point
this fictional mythical connection
between the ancient Kingdom of King
David and today's Israel so these are
just two examples and it was interesting
that bi nany decided to kick off his
speech at the United Nations with these
two
things um but what I what I'd like to do
today is just begin with a little
bit of
history and if you go ahead hit the
first slide thank
you people talk about the fact that this
conflict the the conflict in The Holy
Land the conflict between Israelis and
Palestinians has been around for so long
that it's it's really not something
anybody can ever
solve it's been going on for thousands
of years people have been killing each
other there
forever this is not true and a good
place to start if we're going to talk
about how this conflict began a good
place to start would be on the 29th of
November
1947 the day that United
Nations accepted the resolution to
partition Palestine into a Jewish State
and Arab State and this ridiculous map
is what they came up
with now when you look at this map
before before you even hear about the
details before we even touch on the
details of this map just by looking at
it it's it's unbelievable that anybody
expected that this would work and of
course this didn't even last one
day in 1947 there were two communities
living parallel
lives we had the Jewish community that
numbered about half a million maybe a
little bit less than half a million
that were expecting and hoping to become
a
state and you had the Arab Community the
Palestinian Arab community of about a
million and a half people who are also
in the process and had the expectation
of becoming a
state yet when the United Nations came
up with this ridiculous plan they chose
to give the larger portion of the
country to the smaller Community to the
Jewish community and the smaller portion
of the land to the larger community
and then people said and to this day you
hear people say see the Arabs the
Palestinians did not accept the
partition plan so all this is their
fault is anybody mad enough to think
that they would accept this would
anybody in their pal in their place have
accepted something like this obviously
not and obviously like I said this did
not last even a single
day because as soon as the resolution
was
accepted the Zion
forces what was called the ha the Palm
began a massive campaign of ethnic
cleansing now the story that we hear the
myth that we're told about 1947 and I
heard it once again today earlier today
at the Seattle Times is that in
1947 after the United Nations finally
recognized the right of the Jewish
people to have their own
State the Arab armies
attacked intending to destroy this
fledgling State this young Jewish
community and this is only several years
after the Nazi
Holocaust yet
somehow between the end of
1947 and the end of
1948 the Zionist forces were able to
conquer almost 80% of the
country destroy over 500 towns and
Villages including schools and mosques
and church churches and
homes and Exile almost a million people
within a 12-month
period how did they do this if they were
being attacked by Massive armies from
the
outside but once again when we look at
the facts we realize that in 1947 the
Jewish Community the Zionist
Community had quite a substantial
military force they had a force of close
to 40,000 armed men
and well trained well indoctrinated my
father was one of
them there was no equivalent on the
Palestinian side the Palestinians have
never had a military force to this day
the Palestinians have never had an army
or military force there was no
equivalent of the other side the Arab
armies such as they were didn't didn't
enter the war until late in 194 uh May
of
1948 much of the ethnic cleansing had
already taken place the war been taking
place for over 6 months by then so of
course this is a
myth this is a myth that nobody qu
nobody nobody takes the time to
investigate and question but once again
the reality that in a 12-month period so
much was done exactly because that is
what that is exactly was the purpose of
these Zionist
forces to capture as much of the land as
possible and get rid of as many people
as possible and that's exactly what they
did would you hit the next one
please you heard the story Judith
related to the story about my mother
that's my mother she's 86 now she's
still living in Jerusalem she was born
and raised in Jerusalem and she used to
tell me how when she was she was young
she would walk around on a Saturday
afternoon and many of the many of the
beautiful neighborhoods in Jerusalem and
I'm talking about the New Jerusalem the
Jerusalem that was built outside the
city
walls um these are be these are
Palestinian communities with beautiful
homes and she would walk around and she
would see the families on a Saturday
afternoon sitting under the or by the
lemon tree and so
on yet and then in 1948 she was living
still in Jerusalem these communities
were forced to leave their homes were
given to Israeli
families and she was offered one of
these homes and like you heard she
refused the thought of taking another
family's home just did not sit well with
her and then she saw the Looting and and
she's still to this day when she talks
about it you can see that she feels such
a sense of
shame but what's interesting is that I
remember hearing this story as a child
many many years ago and over a very long
period of
time and it wasn't until I was actually
working on the book and I spoke to her
about this
again that I realized why this story was
bothering me all those years because the
story was bothering me I could there was
something about it that was
troubling and only now I can I realized
it was troubling because it contradicted
the national narrative it contradicted
what I learned in in school that the
Arabs attacked we won they left and we
get the
spoils so what's wrong with taking their
homes if this is the truth then there's
no wrong in taking their homes they
attacked and we won it's fair
enough but once again like I said
hearing the story in the back of my mind
over and over and over again kind of
troubled me and this is exactly why the
truth lays in the personal story not in
the National narrative
can you hit the next one
please the the title of the book is the
general
son and then the subtitle is Journey of
an Israeli in Palestine so the general
son is a big part of who I am and this
is my father as a
general now after the state of Israel
was established and the Jewish militia
the Zionist militia became the Israeli
Army he remained as an officer and had a
very long and you know uh interesting
military
career 20 years later 1967 the drums of
War were beating he was already a
general and a lot has been written about
what happened in 1967 and why the war
broke out and who actually started the
war and why a lot of books have been
written about this movies have been made
about
this and it's an interesting period now
just kind of to touch on the history
some of you I'm sure
recall the Egyptian president NASA
decided to kick out the UN peacekeeping
forces that were in the Sinai Peninsula
that divided Egypt from
Israel and he and he entered and he
entered against against the uh ceasefire
agreement that existed between the
countries he entered Egyptian troops
into the Sinai
Peninsula the general saw this as a
cause for War as a legitimate cause for
war and they pushed for war the Israeli
cabinet however was was not they were
hesitant they were not so eager to start
a war
and this tug of war began tug of war
began between these two groups it was a
very interesting difference between
these two groups because the cabinet
members were older they were in their
late 60s early 70s most of them they
were born in Exile they came with this
whole uh baggage of Exile of pograms and
you know this is only 25 years after the
Holocaust and They Carried all this and
they were worried that a war might lead
to another
Holocaust the generals however were in
the early 40s the almost all of them
were born in Palestine almost all of
them were members of the Zionist militia
before the in 1948 and they were what I
like to call the new Jew that the
Zionist wanted to create full of s
toster on and very assertive and willing
and ready to
fight and they created the Israeli
Army well they wanted to fight they saw
they saw an opportunity to start another
War now the myth that we're told about
this or the story I should say that
we're told about the 1967 war is that
once again Israel was attacked by three
massive armies intending to destroy
it and once again
miraculously somehow we the Israelis
prevailed because we're smarter and
because we're better trained and we're
more motivated and as we heard now
recently we're somehow culturally uh
Superior as well perhaps who knows but
all these
reasons for all these reasons we
prevailed and we defeated the Arab
armies once again when I was working on
the book I decided to look go into the
Israeli Army archives to learn about my
father's
career like I said he had a very very
interesting military career and I was
interested particularly in reading the
minutes of the meetings of the generals
leading up to the 1967 war now once
again A lot has been written about those
meetings so I wasn't expecting to find
anything new cuz I'd read everything
that was out there
but as soon as I began reading I saw
something that I had not seen anywhere
else my father says this and several of
the others generals say this in their
attempt to convince the cabinet to start
the war and that
is that the Egyptian Army is not
prepared for
war and therefore we must attack
now in fact they said the Egyptian Army
needs at least a year and a half to two
years before it is it will be prepared
for for war so we have a tremendous
opportunity now to once again this would
be the third time to destroy the
Egyptian
Army and the fact that the Egyptian Army
brought their troops into SI and closer
to us closer to Israel only makes it
easier for us to destroy
them not only are they not talking about
an existential threat they're not
talking about any threat they're talking
about an opportunity a military
opportunity to once again defeat the
Egyptian Army
so once again the myth Fizzles
away the generals of course won the day
the government all gave them the okay to
start a preemptive strike against
Egypt the Egyptian Army was decimated in
a couple of days the Sinai Peninsula was
conquered once again the Gaza Strip was
conquered and the generals wanted
more the generals wanted more
they wanted the West
Bank which was a sore spot for them
because in 1948 they wanted to take it
they were young commanders in 1948 and
they wanted the West Bank then but for
political reasons Israel decided not to
take
it well here was their opportunity and
they took the West
Bank and they' wanted the Goan Heights
for a long time too because it's high up
above the Galilee and it's you know
there's lots of water there and they
took that as well and there was a lot of
ambition too the generals the northern
Commander wanted the Goan Heights the
central Commander wanted you know they
all wanted The Laurels of Victory they
had no doubt that they're going to be
victorious in six days in six
days the Israeli Army defeated and
destroyed three Arab
armies conquered the West Bank the Golan
Heights the Sinai Peninsula the Gaza
Strip killed over 15,000 Arab soldiers
at a loss of 700 soldiers to the Israeli
Army 15,000 to 700 that's quite a
ratio and all this was done in six days
as Arab armies were attacking
them also attacked the USS Liberty and
killed 3
3471 Americans true true that's another
one of those stories that nobody talks
about the Liber USS Liberty that's right
so again the myth Fizzles away once you
actually take a look at the
facts now my father did something very
interesting after the war was over at
the very first meeting of the generals
the very first weekly meeting he stood
up and he said now we have an
opportunity to solve the Palestinian
question we can now offer the
Palestinians a state in the West Bank in
Gaza if we do this this will be the
first Arab state with which which Israel
will have a peace agreement it'll be a
bridge for peace agreements with the
other Arab countries since Palestine of
course was always a central issue and we
can go on living you know being the
Democratic Jewish state that we wanted
to
be and as he was saying
this a massive settlement project and an
ethnic cleansing project began in the
West Bank hundreds of thousands were
thrown out towns and Villages and cities
were destroyed and New Towns were being
built and highways and so on and
infrastructure to bring Israelis into
the West
Bank just as Israel had done after 1948
destroying Palestinian towns and
Villages changing the names and building
towns and Villages for
Israelis the same thing was done in the
West Bank after
1967 for Israel this meant the job was
done in essence what they did did was
they erased Palestine off the map I
always I always like to show this
picture this is the Victory lap these
are all the generals standing after the
war young you know Victorious and in the
center is al man chazar who is the
president of the state of Israel you
know Israel has a president as kind of a
symbolic figure somebody who used to be
a you know something important in his
lifetime uh and you see the old
generation and the new
generation and this new generation of
generals often referred to as the silver
tray upon which the land of
Israel was given to the Jewish people
because from that point on the entire
land of Israel was under Jewish control
for the first time after 2,000 years and
only 25 years after the Holocaust
historically from a Jewish from a
Zionist perspective this is unbelievable
unprecedented but in fact this is what
they did
Palestine was erased completely from the
map and Israel was incompletely over the
entire map this was the objective this
was the name of the
game erasing Palestine getting rid of
the people and de arabize the country de
arabize the country is what was left to
do that's why when people talk about the
possibility of Israel somehow giving up
the West Bank for a Palestinian state if
it wasn't so sad it would be funny
it shows a
complete misunderstanding of the
objective of Zionism and the Jewish
State and the Zionist
State because Conquering the land was
the first objective getting rid of the
people and then de arabize and when I
say de arabize the
country this country has a, 1500 year
old history of Arab and Muslim rule it
was an Arab and Muslim country more than
it was anything else in
history so that has to be destroyed
monuments have to be destroyed names
have to be
changed the history has to be Rewritten
to connect once again King David to
today's
Israel and completely disregard the fact
that this is in fact an Arab country
that it is in fact in the center of the
Arab
world and that in fact over half of the
population are Arabs
now after my father retired from the
military he did something even more
stunning he dedicated the rest of his
life to the creation of a Palestinian
State and peace with the Palestinians in
the West Bank in Gaza
and he advocated for equal rights for
the Palestinians who are Israeli
citizens two things which are yet to be
achieved now in the mid 197
s the Palestinian leadership the
PLO started contacting my father and
others orary and others people who are
like that in order to begin a dialogue
and that is really when the notion of
the two-state solution was put together
these were Yas arafat's top arafat's top
people his his his his advisers and his
ambassadors and so on in this picture is
my father with Dr Isam sarawi who was
the Palestinian Ambassador the p
ambassador to Paris he was later killed
in
1983 and this dialogue went on between
official representatives of the PLO and
on the Israeli side these were Renegades
these are people who who used to hold
you know high high office of one kind of
or another and they were Zionist
Israelis but the Israeli government
refused refused to take part in any of
this
only in
1993 only in
1993 did the Israeli government agree to
finally begin negotiating with the
Palestinians what
happened what what
changed well what changed was they they
they achieved they accomplished their
mission of making the conquest of the
West Bank
irreversible by
1993 the Israel government knew for
certain that a Palestinian State could
not be established in the West
Bank the settlements were there billions
were
invested the entire Jordan River Valley
was was settled with with villages and
and kibuts and things like that there
are major cities already built in the
West Bank entire East Jerusalem was
being was taken over by Israel there was
no place anymore for a Palestinian state
to be established and that is when
Israel said okay we will begin negoti
iations so they allowed arat to come
misleading him into thinking that they
were really intending to make peace and
basically trying to force him to sign an
agreement that would that would complete
his
surrender but once again when we hear
people still talking about the notion
that somehow there could be an Israeli
government that would give up the West
Bank for a Palestinian State like I said
if it wasn't so sad and tragic it would
be
funny cuz as we look at the 65 year
history of the state of Israel it is
absolutely clear that this can never
happen now later on in the year 2000 you
may I'm sure you recall President
Clinton invited Barack and arat to to
Camp David to somehow solidify a peace
agreement or so he
said what they tried to do is force
Arafat once again to surrender which he
would not do so they came out of Camp
David and President Clinton said Arafat
G gave some Barack gave more in other
words this is arafat's
fault and from that moment on for the
last four years of his life he was
vilified and eventually Arafat died with
Israeli tanks surrounding his office
Under
Siege but the myth that that we're
always told is that the Palestinians are
not willing to make concessions
and that is the problem I think Mitt
Romney alluded to this as well in that
little secret tape that was recorded the
problem is the Palestinians they just
don't want peace Yas Arafat was willing
to give up almost 80% of his
homeland and the right of the
Palestinian refugees to return to their
Homeland and be compensated all for the
sake of Peace what he wouldn't do is he
wouldn't go
beyond he wouldn't go you know less than
20% he wouldn't give up the West Bank
and the Gaza that he couldn't do they
want him to give up even more they want
him to sign a surrender agreement and he
wouldn't it's not the Palestinians that
aren't willing to make concessions it's
Israel that's incapable of making
concessions because concessions on the
land are impossible from a Zionist
perspective the whole name of the game
is taking the land and making it
ours and this is exactly the process
that took place
please now once again like I said the
book goes in and out of my own personal
family history and the St history of the
state of Israel and
how the two are related this is a
picture of my niece
Madar and on September the 4th
1997 she was killed two young
Palestinians blew themselves up in
Jerusalem took their own lives and
several Israel the lives of several
Israelis including her she was 13 years
old so when a 13-year-old little girl
that you know and love gets killed like
this you know you don't really know what
to do
you don't know what to think you don't
know what to feel you don't know how
you're going to get back to life after
that now she was a granddaughter of a
famous General so this was big
news on top of that she was also the
granddaughter of Mr peace with Palestine
and now look what they did to him look
what they did to his
granddaughter my my father had already
passed away by
then so this was even this was big news
and I landed in when I arrived in
Jerusalem my sister's house on the
ground I could ALS I saw the the morning
paper and on the front page it already
said the granddaughter of General ped
was killed by
Palestinians and my sister's apartment
was packed with mourners of course
people who came to express their sorrow
but also reporters endless stream of
reporters and after the funeral she came
out to greet and see everybody she said
two things that put me on a pth path and
I think it put her on a path and many of
us kind of helped us to wrap our heads
around this unspeakable
tragedy the first thing she was asked of
course is about revenge and
retaliation and the comment that she
made
was no real mother would want this to
happen to another
mother don't talk to me about revenge
motherhood is a uniting force it cuts
through Rel religion it cuts through any
differences that might exist between
us and if she's anything above all is
she is a mother she's got three other
boys wonderful
boys and the second thing she said
was my government is
responsible my government brought these
two young men to such a level of Despair
that they would take their own lives and
take the lives of other innocent people
including a 13-year-old girl the the
brutal
oppression under which the Palestinians
have to live because of
us is the cause of this that is why this
is happening if we want this to happen
we have to lift the
oppression as long as Palestinians are
denied
hope and denied freedom and denied
water and denied their land and their
homes this will continue to happen I
point a finger at my own government and
interestingly enough bi Netanyahu who's
today prime minister was prime minister
then as
well he also used to be a close personal
friend of my sister because they went to
school together in
Jerusalem that's a whole other side
story so then I came back you know the
seven days of morning that we Jews uh
keep you know were over and I had to
come back I lived here in America
already and you have to go to work the
next day and how do you do this but
somehow what my sister said put me on a
path and I decided okay it's it's time
to do something because she became very
outspoken and her husband Ramy became
very outspoken as some of you I think
know some of you have heard him here
about Rec the need for reconciliation
and the need to allow the Palestinians
their rights and
freedoms I was lucky enough that in San
Diego I met a group of people it was a
it was a Jewish Palestinian dialogue
group took me some time to find them it
took me some time to understand what I
was going to do and what was interesting
was I was 39 years old I was here in the
United
States and that was the very first time
I ever met Palestinians I grew up in
Jerusalem I was born and raised in
Jerusalem a mixed City the first time I
ever sat with Palestinians in a normal
setting as completely equal
people was here in the United
States because even though Jerusalem is
you know so-called United and so on it's
completely segregated so an Israeli boy
does not meet
Palestinians I mean you might see them
doing landscaping or you know washing
dishes and then I began hearing all
these stories that I had never heard
before this was a dialogue group so it
was not about you know accusing or
arguing everybody told their story and
I'm sitting with Palestinians and
they're telling me about forced Exile
and about massacres and all these things
that we don't do we Israelis don't do
these things we're a moral people we're
a moral Army we've made mistakes we're
not perfect but basically we don't do
these
things and my good fortune was that I
was around a group of people mostly
Palestinians who helped me go through
this
transformation it's like
learning I don't know it's like having
your tooth pulled out teeth pulled out
without anesthesia it's so painful you
suddenly learn that everything you know
is not
true and coming from my background with
my family history that was very
painful but they were very gracious and
very generous in the way they kind of
led me through
this and I'm you know I'm forever
grateful to that Palestinian community
in San Diego for you know carrying me
along it took several years the way now
I talk about it like it was easy but it
was very difficult and it took a very
long
time and then I became active and then I
started visiting Palestinian communities
inside Israel and I would visit the West
Bank and I began learning more and more
about the issue would you hit the next
one please and as I traveled to the West
Bank I see
this if you've been to kandia or any of
the major checkpoints you see the sign
it's about the size of one of these
walls it's a massive
sign and as you can see it's white
letters over a red background which
usually means
danger and of course it's in
Hebrew and what the sign says is that
this road leads to area a which is under
Palestinian
control an entry to Israelis into area a
is
forbidden it's
life-threatening and it's a
felony and if you notice there are two
exclamation
marks so if you're not scared yet the
two exclamation marks will probably do
the trick now you'll also notice that
unless you can read Hebrew this is this
is irrelevant it's only true if you can
read Hebrew
now if you see a sign like that and you
have any sense at all you turn around
and go
home who in his right mind would see a
sign that says danger firing zone and
walk right into
it my good fortune was that I don't have
that kind of
sense and that I have many friends who
don't have that kind of sense and we
went right through and I've been going
right through that these checkpoints and
right through that sign every single
time
I go visit my friends on the other side
of the
wall and what's interesting is I always
see the same thing from the very first
time all the way to today it's been
several years every time I cross that
that wall every time I cross the sign I
see the exact same thing I see traffic
jams I see children going to school
which is probably the most common site
in Palestinian areas as children coming
and going to
school I see people going to work I see
shops I've yet to see the Palestinians
that want to kill
me I've yet to see the Palestinians
ready with machine guns and tanks and F6
is ready to bomb me because I'm an
Israeli I'm yet to have yet to see
that and I know that many other Israelis
who do
this haven't seen it
either and with time I began to realize
this sign has nothing to do with
security the wall has nothing to do with
security the massive armed Israeli
forces along Ong the road have nothing
to do with
security the terrorizing and harassment
that Palestinian Israelis go through
when they go through Tel Aviv
airport the humiliating process that
they have to go through they have to
endure every time they decide to leave
and go overseas has nothing to do with
security it has everything to do with
racism with hatred and with a deep
desire to keep us apart to keep me
privileged and them with no rights
that's the name of the game that's what
it's all about and that's the purpose of
the sign can you H the next one
please can can you read that can
somebody read that for me United Nations
resolution 33 from 1973 States the
struggles of peoples under Colonial and
alien domination and racist regimes for
the implementation of their right to
self-determination
and Independence is legitimate and in
full accordance with the principles of
international law legitimate and in full
accordance with the principle of
international
law this describes the Palestinian
struggle because that is exactly what
Israel
is now in this picture I stand with my
friend Jamal who sat in Israel prison
for many many years in fact he was given
a life sentence but he was exchanged
with in one of the prisoner Exchange
between Israel and the PLO and the
reason he was given a life sentence is
because he killed a
soldier he and three others there saw
two young Israeli soldiers guarding a
bank in rala of all
things and soldiers are usually fully
armed of course and they approached them
and they stabbed them to death with a
knife and for that they were later on
you know beaten tortured and arrested
and given life
sentences but when I see the picture of
the two of us standing side by side I
have to wonder which one of us is really
the
terrorist because according to this it's
certainly not
him I on the other hand served in the
Israeli Army an army of
occupation an army of Oppression an army
who is sole purpose is to make sure that
he does not have aate he does not have
rights and he dare not
resist so yes my Army has uniforms and
commanders and Generals but which one of
us is really the
terrorist and finally and this is also
how the book
ends what do we do I mean how do two
Nations share a state how do they share
a
country well there are lots of examples
look at uh
Switzerland look at Belgium
you know these are multinational States
the Swiss or swiss the belgians or
Belgium regardless of what you know
actual nationality they are beyond that
so there are plenty of examples of
nation of of states that have multin
Nations within
them once again going back to this
question is one state the right thing is
two states the right thing are three
states the right thing somebody gave me
something you know about a
confederation the reality is that Israel
had created a one state the borders in
terms of what from Israeli perspective
are very clear the borders of the state
of Israel are the Jordan River on the
East and the Mediterranean on the west
that's
it if you look at Israel school books if
you look at weather maps if you look at
any official maps of the state of Israel
it is absolutely clear there is no
question in anybody's mind what the
borders of the state of Israel are
that's it
so the notion that there could be as an
Israeli government that would give up
some of that is absolutely
absurd and Israel governs this one state
very skillfully with three different
sets of laws you have the laws that
govern people like myself Israeli Jews
who can come and go and say what they
please pretty much a democratic state
for all in for for all purposes you've
got the laws that govern
the Palestinians who are citizens of
Israel and there are over 30 laws in the
law books that discriminate them against
them specifically and you've got an
entire culture of discrimination against
them that is deep-seated and deep rooted
in Israeli society and then you've got
the laws that govern the Palestinians in
the West Bank and Gaza and this is
really at the pleasure of the Israeli
Army if they want to destroy they
destroy if they want to arrest and beat
they arrest and beat if they want to
torture they torture if they want to
kill they kill and Palestinians have no
recourse this is the
reality there's an education system the
Zionist education system like Judith
alluded my sister just wrote a book
about it she's an
educator that teaches racism in a very
subtle
way there's a bureaucracy and entire
bureaucracy that is dedicated to making
life impossible for Palestinians through
all kinds of restrictions and permits
and uh and requirements that are
absolutely uncalled for and unnecessary
but are all given and provided under the
guise of
security and then you've got the Israeli
Army which I like to refer to as one of
the most one of the best trained best
equipped best
fed terrorist organizations in the
world and yes they have generals and
they have nice uniforms but their
entire their entire uh purpose is
Terrorism and just as one example I'll
give you one example almost exactly four
years ago as Israel began its attack on
Gaza September the 27th 2008 at 11:25 in
the
morning what I refer to as the most
shameful day in the Jewish history the
most shameful day in the history of the
Jewish people Israel began carpet
bombing Gaza and on the first day of
what was to be a 21-day attack they
dropped 100 tons of
bombs okay a one-ton bomb will decimate
an entire city block Gaza is one of the
most densely populated places in the
world 800,000 children live in
Gaza 11:25 is exactly the time when the
morning School shift and the afternoon
School
shift change so all the kids are in the
streets all the children are on the
streets that was the moment decided by
the decision makers in Israel to begin
the
attack this was the first day of a
21-day Slaughter that had absolutely no
justification if that's not terrorism I
don't know what it
is and this is how the state of Israel
manages to control the different
populations and somehow still keep up
this very sweet liberal kind of face to
everything but we still have to figure
out how we go from
here well let's look at what happened in
South Africa they got rid of
apartheid that is the example what did
they do in America they had got rid of
the racist laws that existed in the
South did the whites in South Africa
want this like this absolutely not did
the whites in the southern states in
America here in the United States want
this or like this no it was not done by
consensus but Zionism just like racism
has to
go the Zionist
State the Zionist state has to be
replaced with a
democracy equal rights we have 5 and a
half million Palestinians about 6 and a
half million
Israelis there's absolutely no reason in
the world why they can't live together
as
equals now in often when Jewish people
hear this especially if they support
Zionism and support the state of Israel
they go see you're talking about
genocide you're talking about another
Holocaust that's just an excuse there's
no reason to assume this is going to be
violent there's no reason for a transfer
of power to be
violent evil dictatorships can be and
evil regimes can be replaced by
democracies without
violence it's happened before there's no
reason why it won't happen
again I just heard this thing today
about the vast differences between
Israelis and Palestinians cultural
differences the cultural superiority of
the Israelis I've never heard such
nonsense in my
life the two societies could not be more
similar their languages are similar
their religions are similar more than
half Israelis half of almost I'm sorry
more than half of all
Israelis are descendants of people who
came from the Middle East the
descendants of Arab Jews who came from
Iraq who came from North Africa who came
from
Yemen Arab culture is part of who they
are when IR when Baghdad was being
bombed you had old old Arab Jews from
Baghdad in Israel crying that their city
is being
bombed there are no
differences and the likelihood of of
both populations seeing their common
cause and seeing their common goals as
outweighing any differences that might
be might exist between them is far
greater than anything
else and then young Palestinians and
young Israelis can grow
up and have a future and live in a real
democracy and do great things because
this is a beautiful country and it's got
a lot of
possibilities so the name of the game
has to be democracy and equal rights not
anything else all right thank you very
much the first one was is the sale and
purchase of land a viable function and
does it follow the rule of law I'm
assuming that means for palestinia I um
and then does Israel use the right of
eminent domain or is the land seized
with no legal
process how strong is the opposition
within Israel to what appears to be an
impending attack on Iran by Israel
that's three questions okay let's do one
more one more
okay is BB really serious about
attacking Iran or is this a sideshow in
order to avoid dealing with the
Palestinians okay I'm saying I'm no
legal expert so I don't really know
about this uh imminent domain and sale
of land and so on so I'm not really not
sure how to I will say this and I don't
know if it answers the question or not
but in Israel the
land is all owned by the state so
there's no in essence there's no private
property when you buy land you're
actually leasing it from the
state so and every 49 years you have to
lease it again for either 50 or either
49 years or 99 years that's kind of how
this how that works so what they triy to
do like after 1948 they passed a law
that meant that all of the absentee
property absentee property is the
property of the people who were thrown
out and then left as absentee as their
absent
somehow um was taken was the law passed
that made it permissible for the state
to take over the
land then they passed another law that
made it illegal for the Palestinian
refugees to return and claim their
land so that's how that works I'm not I
don't know if that answers the question
but I'm like I said I'm no legal scholar
is there opposition in Israel to an
attack you know the whole the the and
and is BB serious about the
attack
um the whole Iran issue in my opinion
anyway is a smoke screen it's it was
designed very cleverly and it's used
very cleverly by netan and his
government to shift everybody's
attention from Palestine to some other
fictional
threat and it's been very successful I
mean the United Nations General Assembly
nobody talked about
Palestine you know everything was about
Iran Iran the threat on Iran attack Iran
the bomb Iran don't bomb
Iran thousands of political
prisoners in violation of of of
international law sit in Israeli prisons
isra Palestinian children get less water
than Israeli
children Palestinians are kicked off
their homes and their land is being
taken and their towns are being
destroyed every single
day people are being killed shot and
killed in nonviolent protests in the
West Bank every single
week how can you talk about this
nonsense though when there's a threat of
an Iran uh nuclear the Iranian nuclear
threat and they managed to manipulate
this so I don't think he's serious I
think he would be politically insane to
let go of this wonderful
card as long as he can keep talking
about an Iranian threat people are not
going to talk about Palestine what's the
point of attacking Iran what will that
give him politically it gives him
nothing militarily it gives him nothing
because there is no threat and then he's
going to have a
problem this way he's got this issue
he's had it for several years and I
don't think he'll give it up so I don't
think he's serious about it that's not
to say that there is no possibility that
something might happen but I can't uh I
can't imagine that he would he would do
that um and you know people in Israel
are basically scared I mean what do
people know people know what they read
what they hear in the paper every day
the the headline somebody says something
about Iran the defense minister decided
to say uh just a few weeks ago and he
the defense minister goes back and forth
supporting it and being against it and
so a few weeks ago there was a headline
saying quoting him as
saying that the blade that rests on our
on our necks
now is even sharper and more dangerous
than the threat of
1967 so my first reaction was he should
read my
book
but you know anybody that's
knowledgeable knows that there was no
threat in 1967 but they want to create
this tension that was they bring back
that tension of 1967 where people are
actually afraid Israelis in 1967 were
scared to death the generals didn't let
on that this was going to be a very easy
War you know people are actually afraid
that there would be another Holocaust
and they're creating this fear again so
that they can continue to to talk about
this threat so I don't think it's a it's
a real threat and I don't think BB would
attack because it's too good of a
political card to give
up more
questions okay do you think a one-state
solution will work given that 60 to 70%
of Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs and
Palestinians do not favor a one state
solution how do you make this happen
that's one question
okay okay well in the second one the
second one is similar so I won't read it
um where did this land grabbing this is
a biggie racist Zionist philosophy come
from and where did the suicide bomber
phenomenon come
from and whoa let me write this
down and how could you live your whole
life in Israel serve in the military and
not see what you now see oh
easy okay is that three good ones yeah
yeah
that's well I don't know that uh such a
large number of Palestinians don't want
the St say solution I talked to a lot of
Palestinians and I don't I haven't done
any statistics but a lot of Palestinians
that I talk to realize and see no
problem with it so I don't think there's
going to be that big of an opposition on
the Palestinian side to this at all
there will be opposition of course on
the Israeli side because when you're
privileged you don't want to give up
your privileges you know we the Israeli
Jews are privileged in this society and
the Privileges that are given to us by
the state are part of the attempt to set
us apart from the
Palestinians so if I break the
law in
Hebron and a Palestinian breaks the
exact same law in the exact same spot
the laws that govern the state of Israel
which are you know regular you know
conventional law applies to
me Israeli military law applies to the
Palestinian if I participate or I should
say when I participate in protests in
the West Bank and I get arrested
everybody knows how it's going to end I
go home at the end of the day I might
get roughed up a little bit you know
whatever but at the end of the day
everybody knows I go
home because I'm an Israeli Jew
Palestinian that gets arrested will be
beaten will be tortured and will be kept
in prison as long as the local Commander
wants him in
prison it could be a day it could be a
week it could be a month it could be a
year without charges and without a
trial and then six months later I get a
letter from the police saying that the
case was closed because of something
some technicality
so Israelis are not going to want to
give up this privilege but I think
whites in South Africa didn't want to
give up their privilege and whites in
America didn't want to give up their
privilege either but they're going to
have to things like this are not done as
a result of a
consensus that's why there are pressures
that's why there's BDS that's why
there's a non nonviolent resistance
that's why we have events like this
that's why more and more American Jews
are breaking away from Zionism and
coming and organizing events like this
and whether they like it or not this is
the transformation that's going to take
place people ask me I'll tell you a
little story I was asked um I I spoke at
an eighth grade class friend of mine as
a teacher of this really nice special
kind of a school where kids actually
learn about stuff so it's an eth grade
class and they're learning about this
issue and they've been learning about it
for a few weeks and they wanted me to
come and speak and they took a poll
among themselves
asking how many of
them think there will a solution in
their
lifetime a peaceful solution in their
lifetime these are eighth graders
they're 13 years old 80% said
no so when I came to speak I said well
let's see if I can't change your mind
because it's all a question of what you
know and I explained to them about the
similarities about the societies and all
the
possibilities that exist
once the state of Israel is transformed
into a democracy
if I didn't think this was possible in
my lifetime I wouldn't be doing this if
I wasn't completely confident that this
is actually going to happen I wouldn't
be doing this so Israelis aren't going
to like it but they don't need to like
it um you know that's kind of the way
these things
are but I think
Palestinians the impression that I have
and I'm there a lot is that Palestinians
actually do favor
this okay there's two questions here one
is about where did Zionist philosophy
come from well at the the turn of the
19th century there was you know this uh
nationalism Rose and all these little
groups decided that they were going to
become
Nations and my grandparents were part of
that they were Jews and they were in
Eastern Europe and they suffered from
pograms and they suffered from all kinds
of
um all kinds of discrimination and
racism against Jews and anti-Semitism
and they thought well maybe this is a
good
idea and when Zionism again you know
there was a whole scope of of
Zionism you know there were zionists
that believe in in the Democracy that
that Jews and Arabs would live together
they didn't in their Wildest Dreams
imagine that they would kick out people
from their homes and then there were
other zionists who later on became the
mainstream
zionists led by people like benon who
was Israel's first prime minister that
were ra radical racist and
violent and they won the day and they
gave the tone and that's why Zionism is
what it is today racist violent militant
and
non-compromising but that tone was given
by Bion and people around
him um so that's that's where that came
from
um and where did suicide bombers come
from I don't know that suicide bombing
is a philosophy I mean there are five
million five and a half million
Palestinians who live inside of
Palestine there's probably another five
or so that live outside of Palestine
that's 10 million people there were less
than 200 suicide
bombers so it's not like you know
there's a rash there's some kind of of a
Madness of suicide bombers among
Palestinians let's put things in
perspective um and I don't know that
there's a philosophy to it I think when
people are desperate enough and hopeless
enough they see their fathers being
beaten and torture they see their
sisters being shot and arrested they see
their homes being destroyed they have no
ability to go anywhere or buy food or
provide water for their families or
their or their siblings and they see
this massive Army that is relentlessly
oppressing them and beating
them if there's no hope there's no hope
so we do what we can you know but I
think if we actually look at how many
people actually did this and I don't
know a single Palestinian and I know a
lot of Palestinians
that thinks this was a good
thing you ready or supports it so I
think it's important to put the suicide
bombing thing in in proportion
yeah okay I have four cards here that
all kind of deal with something so it's
not really three questions I'll just
give you a whole okay series of topics
um are you saying that nothing will
change unless there are changes in
American policies and public opinion
what can we do in our us communities to
support a single Democratic state in
Israel hold on hold on slow down um how
do we counter this is all part well it's
all I got to you oh you got to get them
okay so nothing will change unless
something changes in the US what can we
do yeah H what can we do uh are you
saying that nothing will change it
unless
America and what can we do in our
communities to support a single
Democratic State and to
counter yeah he wanted me to read them
tried go on go
on how how do we counter the M the uh
influence of APAC and other Jewish
organizations over US policies okay and
how do we convince Americans I assume
who speak against Israeli policies to
fight the false accusation of
anti-Semitism and what do you see as the
US collusion with the current Zionist
project and who's actually calling the
shots historically the Zionist movement
or the US government in Big Business
those are all related okay wow that's a
lot of questions
okay well nothing's going to change
until a lot of things change I think
um closer yes okay I think nothing's
going to change until a lot of things
change so things have to change in this
country certainly and they are changing
in this country like I said you know I'm
going to be speaking right now I'm
booked through
Thanksgiving pretty much straight
through more than half of the events
that I'm invited to speak at are
organized by American
Jews so I see a very big change in in in
in what's perceived to be you know
American American Jewelry it's not it's
it's no longer this blind um admiration
for APAC and for Israel and for the
whole Zionist thing Jews are looking at
the state of Israel and they say well we
this is not this does not represent us
this is not what we you know what we
stand for thousands of political
prisoners
torture discrimination this is not what
American Jews stand for so more and more
American Jews are are moving away from
Zionism and I think that's a very good
thing so that's changing already I also
think that you know certainly the United
methodists the Presbyterian churches are
doing a lot of work on this
issue and they're making big strides and
they're bringing about big changes and I
think the
more the more Americans see Jewish
people criticize Israel the more
non-jewish people will feel comfortable
and this anti-semitic thing people ask
me this all the time they say well look
you can say this because you are you but
when we say it they call us
anti-semitic and my reply to that is
fine maybe they call me a self-hating
Jew I just got something that set up I
was self hating Jew or that I hate Jews
or something fine I'll take that now
let's let's talk about something else
can you explain to
me why Palestinian children get no water
can you explain to me how you justify
dropping 100 tons of bombs on children
can you explain to me throwing people
out of their homes and making them
homeless can you explain to me taking
kids yanking kids out of their beds at
2:00 in the morning throwing them in
prison and torturing them can you
explain all this to me perhaps I'm
anti-semitic now you explain all this to
me what does that make
you and this has to be the
conversation calling people anti-semitic
is is a very weak weapon it's a very
weak tool it's all they've got but when
you actually look at it it's completely
meaningless because they do not have an
answer for all those other questions and
that has to be the issue they're the
ones who have to explain not not anybody
not you not
us you have nothing to explain these are
legitimate questions you supported you
danced you celebrated when Israel was
dropping hundreds of tons on bombs on
800,000 children they were locked up in
Gaza and had nowhere to go you supported
this I'm anti-semitic what does that
make
you you support a country that
deliberately prevents children from
access to
water not to mention food and medicine
and
education and a home and
freedom you support that what does that
make you how can you support
this this has to be the
conversation and I'm not suggesting it's
an easy thing to do but I am suggesting
that this is how you counter
APAC and that's what you do here in the
US
because these are the conversations that
a these are the best excuses these are
the best thing APAC can come up
with they're talking about transforming
Israel is anti-Semitism and it's calling
for genocide who's talking about
genocide I haven't heard anybody suggest
genocide of all the people that I've
heard and I've heard a lot of people
talk about trans this trans transition
changing Israel from a Zionist state to
a democracy I've heard many people talk
about Elan Pape who talks about and many
people talk about this none of them not
a single one of them would support a
violent uh transformation transition not
one would support
violence and violence is not
needed so that's how you combat APAC and
that that's how you counter APAC and
that's how you convince Americans not to
be
afraid like I said I'm not suggesting
it's easy when somebody comes back with
this anti-Semitism thing then people you
know pull back and they're afraid and I
can understand that it's very hurtful at
the same
time there's a bigger issue
here so this may hurt our feelings for 5
seconds but you know let's continue the
conversation and that's what has to
happen and that's how you take over this
APAC
nonsense um the collision with sism is
inevitable was it Collision or
collusion huh a collusion I'm sorry well
I think it's
temporary it's temporary I mean America
does you know politicians in America do
what they have to do in order to get
elected being pro Zionist is part of
what you have to do in America if you
want a political career either you're
the president or a council member of you
know like my City Coronado I mean
they're not even you know it's kind of a
part-time
job that's what the that's the name
that's the name of the game that's the
price of doing business so I think the
president cares more about health care
than about Israel so he's going to give
money to Israel so they shut up and he
can pass Healthcare re this is how it is
this is politics in America and that's
why a second Obama term is not going to
make the differ any change it's not
going to be different on this issue
because he doesn't care enough and
because you know why bother he's got
nothing to
gain but it's going to start from the
bottom and once there's a lot going on
it's like I said to somebody earlier
it's like Vietnam when American people
decided it enough is enough Congress
said enough enough and the president
said enough and that was it and
Americans were out of Vietnam but it
takes that kind of a
movement um and right now it's true that
on this issue Israel calls the
shots right now and Israel says jump the
American politicians say how high and
then they move on to the next thing but
that's the price of doing business here
in America if you want to be a
politician is that it I have one more
question um how has your book been
received in
Israel it hasn't been received in Israel
I don't think anybody in Israel uh read
it um you know I've had several speaking
events and I've had a couple of book
launches but they were all on the other
side one was in East Jerusalem one was
in rala and so on and so Israel ignores
this completely and that may change I
don't know but I haven't had any any
response one way or the other from
anybody in Israel about the
book that's it yeah I that is it um for
questions it is not it for signing books
okay you yes we need to give this man an
incredible amount of applause