I can't tell you how many people call me Jew. They make fun of me because I'm cheap. But when someone is in crisis, they always come to me. Shit, every homeless person at work knows me. I'm free therapy for all my friends. In fact I'm on to fixing my third relationship and causing my second marriage for troubled couples (the results yet to be determined). I'm a regular Ruth Westheimer. Generous, small, dirty minded, and very loving.

Whenever someone used to draw swastikas on my locker or folders at schools, I always confronted them with facts. Inevitably, those people became my best friends, and changed considerably away from being Nazi's. Whenever I was not welcome at a party, I gave my best, and was always asked to come back. Last week I went to a bachelorette bash, and was actually thanked for pitching in extra when everyone bailed.

For me, this is so indicative of my culture and race. Yes, we may bargain on things we buy. But we never ever put a price on love. When it comes to emergencies and special occassions, that's where the money we save comes in handy.

So it's no surpise to me that people may misinterpret the thrifty manner in which Jews are raised. It's no surprise Israelis in particular are misinterpreted to have done nothing for Palestinians. Everyone likes to assume the Jews are bad.. Still, here are the cold hard facts.

"In 1975, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution slandering Zionism by equating it with racism. In his spirited response to the resolution, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog noted the irony of the timing, the vote coming exactly 37 years after Kristallnacht.

Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which holds that Jews, like any other nation, are entitled to a homeland.

History has demonstrated the need to ensure Jewish security through a national homeland. Zionism recognizes that Jewishness is defined by shared origin, religion, culture and history. The realization of the Zionist dream is exemplified by more than five million Jews, from more than 100 countries, who are Israeli citizens.

Israel's Law of Return grants automatic citizenship to Jews, but non-Jews are also eligible to become citizens under naturalization procedures similar to those in other countries. Approximately 1,000,000 Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, Baha'is, Circassians and other ethnic groups also are represented in Israel's population. The presence in Israel of thousands of dark-skinned Jews from Ethiopia, Yemen and India is the best refutation of the calumny against Zionism. In a series of historic airlifts, labeled Moses (1984), Joshua (1985) and Solomon (1991), Israel rescued almost 42,000 members of the ancient Ethiopian Jewish community.

Zionism does not discriminate against anyone. Israel's open and democratic character, and its scrupulous protection of the religious and political rights of Christians and Muslims, rebut the charge of exclusivity. Moreover, anyone — Jew or non-Jew, Israeli, American, or Saudi, black, white, yellow or purple — can be a Zionist.

Writing after "Operation Moses" was revealed, William Safire noted:

“...For the first time in history, thousands of black people are being brought to a country not in chains but in dignity, not as slaves but as citizens.”18



By contrast, the Arab states define citizenship strictly by native parentage. It is almost impossible to become a naturalized citizen in many Arab states, especially Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Several Arab nations have laws that facilitate the naturalization of foreign Arabs, with the specific exception of Palestinians. Jordan, on the other hand, instituted its own "law of return" in 1954, according citizenship to all former residents of Palestine, except for Jews.19

To single out Jewish self-determination for condemnation is itself a form of racism. When approached by a student at Harvard in 1968 who attacked Zionism, Martin Luther King responded: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism."20

The 1975 UN resolution was part of the Soviet-Arab Cold War anti-Israel campaign. Almost all the former non-Arab supporters of the resolution have apologized and changed their positions. When the General Assembly voted to repeal the resolution in 1991, only some Arab and Muslim states, as well as Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam were opposed."

Since it's inception Israelis have built hundreds of schools and hospitals in "Occupied Palestine". Like no other occuying force, Israelis allowed the people sworn to kill them into their homes for work. They allowed them free passage across borders. They allowed freedom of religion. And they never once tried to rebuild their true temple or destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque. Several Jewish holy sites have been destroyed however. On top of repeated stonings from the upper position of the mosque towards the old men who selflessly pray at the small section of wall below.

In Israel today, no Arab is ever turned down for the best of medical care. In fact they prefer Israeli hospitals. No seperate fountains exist nor are there seperate housing quarters(except in the most volatile of Jerusalem). Many Arabs live in major Israeli cities, and vote as well. Many Jews are not able to enter Arab sections, such as the holiest site of Hebron which claims the graves of Israel's patriarchs. This is why they remain segregated, due to Arab violence. When I was a child, before the first intifada, I used to buy lambskin coats at the Arab market of Jerusalem. Before I returned the second time, people began stabbing random Jewish and British tourists. It was no longer safe to go.

My cousin is an ambulance driver. Although he lost several of his brothers to bombings and war, he still picks up and saves hundreds of Arab lives a month. Every time he is in Hebron his vehicle is stoned.

He has even had to argue with people who would not get into the ambulance because he was a Jew. Naturally, he just threw them in.

It is understandable that Palestinians, who are Syrians, Greek Phillistines, and some of Roman decent, are wishing to have a homeland also. It is also understandable that perhaps Israel has played a heavy hand in the wake of it's inception due to fervor generated by millenia worth of crusades, pogroms, second class citizenship, and genocide.

However, it is absolutely not understandable that a corrupt leadership in Palestine which advocates martyrdom should be supported or defended. Imagine MLK advocating martydom? In fact, it is not simply martyrdom that leads Israelis to institute what has been miscontrued as Apartheid type violations.

Avowed racim is common practice in Palestine and has been in practice undeniably in the Middle East since pre Roman times. There is no lack of literal reference to killing Jews in particular. Friends of Jews are often killed as well simply for sharing businesses. Peacemakers on both sides are called everything from traitor to enemy of state.

For whatever it's worth, the U.N. has always been consistently negative towards what they helped create, despite the fact that Israel aids many countries during earthquakes and is a small breadbasket for the EU.

Israel has saved many more lives than it has harmed.

It is time for the left to recognise the contribution, the uncolonial nature of people from 100 countries coming together to be where they know by fact their ancestors lived. This is actually anti or reverse colonialism. Only the Palestinians have decided how far back to go for heritage rights. And physical evidence is apparently invalidated.

Jews not only need protection, but are protecting American interests in the region daily. No one in Israel ever advocated the Iraq war formally. All intelligence on Iraq is for the U.S. to have, and it was Israeli analysts who actually said a war with Sadam could be disastrous for the region.

So for those who lack facts, please try reading from both sides of the story and meeting in the middle. Palestinians are notoriously untrue to historical fact, Jews are notoriously attached to biblical nonsense. but let it never be said that Jews didn't try to give everything, schools, roads, food, jobs, and hospitals, to Palestinians who were robbed of these things by their own racism.