I reposted an old post yesterday about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, entitled “The History of this Bullshit”. That in itself was insanity. It seems nobody will ever come to agreement on this issue. But then I made it worse by not citing my sources.

The original post did include links to sources, but those links have been lost. They were probably destroyed by a terrorist.

I guess ordinarily it would be no big deal. But something of an imbroglio developed over my post. A commenter told me that my story was a myth, and that it was full of lies, distortions, and outrageous omissions. I deny all but the omissions. Heck, I can’t include everything–there’s just so much to the Middle East conflict.

As to whether or not my omissions are outrageous, I advise you not to take this shit too seriously. This is politics, after all. Never take politics very seriously or you will often feel disenchanted, discouraged, dissed, and outraged. Be your own salvation, and never rely on politics to save your butt.

Someone also said my post was biased. It might be. I’ve heard so much bias in favor of Israel, I thought it would make for a more interesting post if it emphasized the other side of the story for a change.

But in the interest of fairness, I will admit that both sides have committed atrocities. And the use of terrorism by Arabs to retaliate against the injustices done to them is a stupid and tragic strategy. It has also backfired fatally on them, in terms of public relations.

I want to assure you that I did not make up the claims presented in yesterday’s post. So I sacrificed some sleep (and believe me, that’s a big sacrifice for me) and redid my research to find new links. Now you can check it out for yourself with a few convenient clicks. Here are my sources:

Some people believe the Palestinians came from the Philistines of the Old Testament:
http://hope-of-israel.org/whopal.html

But others claim that’s a myth:
http://www.imninalu.net/myths-pals.htm

A Zionist movement that began in the 19th Century, led to the immigration of Jews to Palestine for the purpose of establishing a sovereign Jewish state:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism

Some Muslim leaders supported Zionism. Heck, some still do, even today:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_supporters_of_Israel

Many Jews immigrated to Palestine illegally, before Israel was established. Of course this was very understandable, as many were trying to escape the Nazis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah_Bet

Czechoslovakia supplied weapons to Jewish militias after WWII. This proved critical in helping them to defeat the Arabs and establish the state of Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_shipments_from_Czechoslovakia_to_Israel_1947%E2%80%9349

Jewish forces committed massacres against Palestinians during the 1948 Palestine War. But to be fair (and not included in my original post), Palestinians also committed some massacres. Reports are conflicting, but it seems many more massacres have been attributed to the Jewish forces than to the Arab forces. But then again, this is disputed by some who are pro-Israeli, and inflated by some who are pro-Palestinian. Argggh!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killings_and_massacres_during_the_1948_Palestine_war

The 1948 Palestine War displaced 750,000 Arabs, and resulted in the loss of 60% of Palestine’s territory to Israel (I couldn’t find that exact link, but this link puts the amount of displaced as over 700,000. And it tallies the lost territory as 78% of “mandate” Palestine, or 22% more territory for Israel than the UN Partition Plan had allocated.):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestine_war

In 1967, Israel launched a surprise attack against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, enabling them to take land from them in just 6 days:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War

In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel, to get their land back. This was called the Yom Kippur War:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War

Israel came close to being defeated during the Yom Kippur War, but rallied and won after help from the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/arab-israeli-war-1973

The Yom Kippur War raised tensions between the the United States and Soviet Union to the point where nuclear war seemed possible. In fact, toward the end of the war the United States put its nuclear forces on worldwide alert:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/arab-israeli-war-1973

The price we paid for supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War included waiting in long lines for gas, and the energy crisis of the 1970’s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_energy_crisis

Israel is very popular in the United States:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/American_attitudes_toward_Israel.html

The U.S.A. gives billions of dollars in military aid to Israel:
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-much-america-really-spends-on-israels-defense-2012-9

Israel violates the human rights of Palestinians:
https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/israel/palestine

Israel continues to occupy Palestine, effectively colonizing the West Bank. This helps the Israeli economy, but harms the Palestinian economy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement

Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into the world’s largest open-air prison:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/tales-from-gaza-what-is-life-really-like-in-the-worlds-largest-outdoor-prison-8567611.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_the_Gaza_Strip

Reuters has reported that Israel’s expensive “Iron Dome” defense system has failed to stop all but a few of Hamas’ rockets:
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/07/25/israels-iron-dome-is-more-like-an-iron-sieve/