Dan Sweeney, Boston Globe, April 30, 02. Which one is Right.

The annual session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, last week, condemned Israel for "mass killings" of Palestinians, "gross violations" of humanitarian law" and affirmed the "legitimate right of Palestinian people to resist." [Affirmed terrorism was a valid form of resistance.] Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned Israel's "brutal practices in the occupied Palestinian territories."
UNESCO issued a resolution condemning the Israeli attacks on the cultural centers and holy sites in Palestine. (Strangely, they said nothing of the destruction of Josephs's tomb by the Palestinian, or the temple destroyed in Tunisa.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution last week that called on the European Union to suspend its 6-year-old trade Treaty with Israel [without hearing the Israeli side or examining Israeli evidence]. You, our children, you hear these things, you read these things. You witness demonstrations on college campuses and in the great cities of the world. And you have to wonder: Is this the truth? Are these really my people?
What kind of people are we? What kind of society is Israel? What happened to the dream that once was Zionism?

Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations put it succinctly: "Is it possible," he asked, "that Israel is right and the whole world is wrong?"

As long as you live, I want you to remember this night. Tonight, something extraordinary is happening. Tonight, we have come, your parents and grandparents, your rabbis and teachers, distinguished leaders from every corner of the
ewish community -- Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, religious and secular, right-wing and left-wing, to say one thing: Is it possible that Israel is right and the whole world is wrong? You bet your life it is. You bet your life, because we've bet our lives. It is true now and it always has been. From the time the world worshiped rocks and trees and Abraham discovered the Creator of all. From the time the world bowed low to Pharaoh and Moses commanded that we stand up and be free. From the time when the world idolized and revered Roman power and Akiva risked his life to teach Torah. And it's true today. Because the world has no memory. They forget, but we remember.

In 1947 the United Nations voted to partition Palestine and to create two states between the Jordan and the Mediterranean [in a General Assembly resolution which is not legally binding]: One, the Jewish State of Israel. The other, a[nother] homeland for Palestinian Arabs. The Zionistleadership, the acting government of the Yishuv, accepted the plan. In 1947, we affirmed our desire to live in peace, side byside with a Palestinian State. But the armies of nine Arab states came pouring over the
borders, to extinguish the nascent state of Israel and to murder yet another million Jews. When a truce came, the territory for the Palestinian Arab State, was controlled by Egypt and Jordan and Syria.

They forget, but we remember that thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled in the face of that Arab invasion [the UN says 68% voluntarily left their homes and only 15% were even land owners, most would not qualify as refugees under the UNHRC's criteria for refugee status today]. But when they reached the borders of Jordan and Egypt, they were not permitted to enter. Israel, tiny beleaguered Israel managed to absorb and settle millions of Jewish refugees from Europe and the Middle East [800,000 Jewish Arabs forced from Arab lands, most went to Israel].

But the entire Arab League and all 26 Muslim nations, with all their oil-wealth, couldn't find room for their poor Palestinian brothers and sisters [despite the vast labor shortages of the time] -- and left them to rot in squalid refugee camps, festering in hatred and rage [King Hussein Sr. of Jordan called this a crime perpetrated by the Arab League in a statement to the AP in 1960]. They forget, but we remember every time they came across our border to murder and to destroy.

We remember 1948, 1956, 1973. We remember the Olympic massacre in Munich and the school massacre in Ma'alot. And we remember that when Sadat came to Jerusalem, we dismantled settlements, and relocated whole cities, and gave Egypt the entire Sinai, in return for peace. We remember that his protege, Ehud Barak went to Camp David and then to Taba, and offered, for the second time in 50 years, to create a Palestinian State, comprised of 97% of the West Bank [and 3% of Israel] and all of Gaza with sovereignty over half of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount [our holiest place], and $30 billion in world economic aid. And we remember the answer
[Arafat walked away without even proposing a counter offer].

They forget, but we remember, just months ago, a bomber in the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv killed 21 teens. And what did we do in retaliation, what did we hit? Nothing. We practiced restraint. And months later when another bomber destroyed Sbarro's Pizza and dozens more were killed. What was our retaliation? Nothing. We practiced restraint. And the Bat Mitzvah in Hadera and the mall in Netanya and the
restaurants and cafes in Jerusalem and Afula and in Haifa --We retaliated by destroying buildings. Empty buildings. Because we called them hours in advance of each mission, to warn them to evacuate.

And then came Pesach. This year, the Angel of Death did not passover. Whole families were murdered at the Seder table. But even now, do we bomb from the air, like America? Risk hitting hospitals and schools and embassies like America did in Bosnia and Afghanistan [thousands of civilians have been killed in allied bombing in Afghanistan]?

No.

We send our kids through the alleyways and byways -- to face booby traps [even in inhabited civilian dwellings], snipers, and mines [and roads filled with gasoline and children given pipe bombs to carry]. Tonight, your parents and grandparents, your rabbis and teachers, your community have gathered here in the thousands to testify that the whole world is wrong and Israel is right.
And we will not apologize for doing what's right -- for defending our children and their dreams from murderers. We mourn for innocents, who are caught in the struggle. We
take no pleasure in the suffering of any human being -- we dip out wine from our cups -- but we will not apologize for taking steps to survive in that vicious corner of the world where, mesmerized by murder and blood, they dance and sing
when their children blow themselves up. We will not apologize for demanding our land and our freedom and our security in this world. Jews no longer apologize for surviving.