European Union Parliament President Martin Schulz addressed the Knesset after having visited the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah on Wednesday February 12, 2014 where he almost literally regurgitated word for word the absurd claims that the Israelis limit drastically the water Palestinian Arabs are permitted to use while providing unfettered access to abundant water to the Jews living beyond the Green Line often in neighborhoods adjacent to the thirsty water starved Palestinians. There were a number of Ministers of the Knesset that took such offense at these false claims berating their ears with insults that they walked out of the hall mid-speech. The majority of those walking out were members of Naftali Benet’s Jewish Home Party, a religious Zionist party. Later in the day the European Union released a statement to the press expressing their feelings of insult derived from the demonstration of Ministers walking out on Parliament President Schulz’s speech. Thus far, to the best of our knowledge, neither the European Union nor Mr. Schultz have apologized for their false accusations and speaking in such demeaning and harsh terms using slanted and erroneous information without vetting what they had been told simply accepting it as truth and beyond any suspicions that the Palestinians might have exaggerated or even, as in this case, spouted outright falsifications. We suspect that if the order of meetings had been reversed and Israeli leaders had told Mr. Schultz or any other European Union official a complaint depicting a situation where the Palestinians were favored and Israelis, especially Jews, were denied equality in treatment and privileges such as, for example, that Jews are often denied the right to visit the Temple Mount, are forbidden from praying or even appearing to pray, forbidden to carry religious or nationalist items, or are removed at the smallest complaint by any Palestinian while Palestinians are permitted completely unfettered access and often picnic, play soccer, attack Jews who visit which results in the Jews being removed and riot on an almost regular schedule as doing so leads the Temple Mount authorities banning Jews from visiting the Temple Mount for the rest of the day to as long as a week or even more. What are the odds that any European Union, Mr. Schultz included, would take this information and while addressing the Palestinian Parliament berate them for not allowing Jews equality and freedom of actions, access, and usage of the Temple Mount before they had checked and double checked the information? I would be surprised if they actually bothered to check the facts and even if they did and, as they would in this case, they were verified, they would likely just forget completely about it as soon as humanly possible as they are not the slightest interested in Israelis being treated unfairly, they only desire to berate and chastise Israelis for any perceived real or imagined evils, and mostly imagined.
There is an object lesson which gives some very deep insight to the whole situation which is making the negotiations between the Arab World and Israel thousands of degrees more difficult and probably makes peace impossible. Where many European Union and many of the European governments’ representatives will immediately believe virtually anything they hear which casts Israel in a bad light or depicts Israelis as evil, vindictive, viscous people who delight in making the lives of Palestinians as difficult as they are able. This is also true from the vast majority of European media and also can be said about virtually the entirety of the leftist politicians and many on the extreme right politically. With the vast spread of information which goes to any extreme to cast Israel in as poor a light as possible convicting them in the media without waiting for a verdict or the truth to be researched, it is not surprising that so many people hold extremely negative views of Israel and Israelis and when asked if they believe Israelis are guilty of being like the Nazis or are attempting to commit genocide against the Palestinians or are starving and denying medical aid from reaching the people in Gaza with their illegal embargo, they will immediately agree despite the truth being that none of those accusation holds one iota of validity.
Taking them in reverse order, the embargo Israel has imposed on Gaza prevents ships from docking in Gaza without being inspected for armaments, explosives and other tools and items usable in the commission of terrorist attacks only makes the ships unload at an Israeli port and after an inspection all the unsuspicious items are trucked across the border into Gaza often the next day. The United Nations has ruled on the Israeli blockade and found it to be lawful and being performed within all legal requirements. Further, the Egyptians not only also impose a similar embargo on their border with Gaza, they actually forbid more items than the Israelis and have often completely closed their border and in the past months the Egyptians have exploded hundreds of smuggling tunnels in order to deprive the Hamas and other terrorists from smuggling arms and terrorist personnel across the border. Egypt also has their own blockade against Gaza which mostly is applied in conjunction with the Israeli system as mostly the Egyptians prevent ships from sneaking in from the neighboring Egyptian controlled waters into Gaza underneath the Israeli patrolled areas. As far as the claim that the Israelis are carrying out genocide against the Palestinian population and have been doing so since the 1967 Six Day War runs into one small fact which throws the entire idea into disbelief; is it possible with Israel’s military capabilities that if they had been attempting to commit genocide and murder the entire Palestinian population in the disputed areas that there would be a single Palestinian still living in these areas, let alone their numbers more than tripling since the end of the Six Day War, if this were a valid claim? Needless to say one would have to believe that the Israeli military was the most inept in the world in order to believe that claim to be valid. Finally, to claim the Israelis are the new Nazis is the most insulting and vicious accusations and is usually claimed by people who are either horridly misinformed or are anti-Semites through and through. For a small dose of somebody who at first look would be considered to be antagonist towards Israel as she was raised in Lebanon falling victim as a child because of the horrific Lebanese Civil War, I would like to allow Bridgette Gabriel talk of her education that came as an indirect result of that Civil War which can be read here at Snopes which will save having to look for any verifications as Snopes is one of if not the best authorization fact-checkers on the internet.
Back to the claims that the Israelis are rationing water such that the Palestinians are going thirsty while Israelis are filling their swimming pools. There is not an iota of fact in the Palestinian claims in the story of depravity they wove for European Union Parliament President Martin Schulz claiming Palestinian Authority Arabs receives seventeen liters of water per day, as opposed to seventy liters consumed by the average Israeli. Truth is that the Palestinians have access to all of the same water availability as their Israeli neighbors. They are all part of the same water system in most of the disputed territories and where the Palestinians are on a different system, that system is controlled, managed, maintained and the complete responsibility of the Palestinian Authority and exists solely in Area A which is under total Palestinian Authority control. Citing reports from Israel water provider Mekorot and the Water Authority, Palestinian Authority cities consumed sixty cubic meters on average consumption by private residents annually, or 165 liters per day, while the average Israeli’s consumption is 183 liters per day. This is a far cry from the lies told to Mr. Schultz. But perhaps Mr. Schultz might be granted some leeway in hoping that the lesson he might have learned can be used to inform others that all the claims of either side need be verified before acting or speaking with untruths as one’s foundation.
Information and accusations can take the form of a five pound lump of clay on a potter’s wheel. Depending on the inspiration of the potter those five pounds of clay could become a tall eloquently curved vase, a wide and broad based bowl, a deep planter for a favorite plant or possibly the mold for a warrior’s helmet from which an army will be outfitted for battle, it all depends on the turns of the wheel and the motions of the guiding hands. That is the same with statistics and facts which can be massaged and slanted in order to make one’s point and prove their argument. Then when confronting the other side of the equation one will hear a whole new slant and massaging of the same numbers and facts leading to the opposite conclusion. What any presentation received, especially by those who report news and facts to the public or make policies and decisions which determine the actions of governments and other molders of the future, the information should be vetted and researched and inspected in order to draw one’s own conclusion. Even then one may make errors in judgment or miscalculate drawing erroneous conclusions even after doing their own research and checking the validity of what they have heard, but at least those are errors of the individual, not blindly repeating the slant allowing one side to decide your mind and set you then as their agent owned and completely compromised. Does anybody really feel more confident going through life allowing other people’s facts be their own or is it better to get your own facts and draw your own conclusions which makes your mind your own. Five pounds of clay being used to make one item over another is not as vital for the future than is five pounds of conclusions driven forward by unthinking drones who talk influenced by the last group to tweak their ear and fill their mouths with their lies, their view which becomes his whether it is true or not. You decide what you wish for your mind and reputation going forward and please check any facts given here as I would want nothing less.
Beyond the Cusp 