With the current conflict in Lebanon, it is worth reminding ourselves of some fundamental facts.

Israel became a state in 1312 BC, two millennia before Islam.

Arab refugees from Israel began calling themselves “Palestinians” in 1967, two decades after (modern) Israeli statehood.

After conquering the land in 1272 BC, Jews ruled it for a thousand years and maintained a continuous presence there for 3,300 years.

The only Arab rule following conquest in 633 BC lasted just 22 years.

For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem was the Jewish capital.  It was never the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even under Jordanian rule, (east) Jerusalem was not made the capital, and no Arab leader came to visit it.

Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Bible, but not once is it mentioned in the Qur’an.

King David founded Jerusalem; Mohammed never set foot in it.

Jews pray facing Jerusalem; Muslims face Mecca.  If they are between the two cities, Muslims pray facing Mecca, with their backs to Jerusalem.

In 1948, Arab leaders urged their people to leave, promising to cleanse the land of Jewish presence.  68% of them fled without ever setting eyes on an Israeli soldier.

Virtually the entire Jewish population of Muslim countries had to flee as the result of violence and pogroms.

Some 630,000 Arabs left Israel in 1948, while close to a million Jews were forced to leave the Muslim countries.

In spite of the vast territories at their disposal, Arab refugees were deliberately prevented from assimilating into their host countries.  Of 100 million refugees following World War II, they are the only group to have never integrated with their co-religionists.  Most of the Jewish refugees from Europe and Arab lands were settled in Israel, a country a third the size of Tasmania.

There are 22 Muslim countries, not counting Palestine.  There is only one Jewish state.  Arabs started all five wars against Israel, and lost every one of them.

Fatah and Hamas constitutions still call for the destruction of Israel.  Israel ceded most of the west bank and all of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, and even provided it with arms.

During the Jordanian occupation, Jewish holy sites were vandalized and were off limits to Jews.  Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian holy sites are accessible to all faiths.

Out of 175 United Nations Security Council resolutions up to 1990, 97 were against Israel; out of 690 General Assembly resolutions, 429 were against Israel.

The UN was silent when the Jordanians destroyed 58 synagogues in the old city of Jerusalem.  It remained silent while Jordan systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and it remained silent when Jordan enforced apartheid laws preventing Jews from accessing the Temple Mount and Western Wall.

These are trying times.  We must ask ourselves what we should be doing, and what we will tell our grandchildren about our actions during this crisis, when we had the chance to make a difference.

Ross Petersen

This article from The Age’s “Israeli activist David Grossman’s son killed” ends with this sentence: “In 1987, he wrote The Yellow Wind, a sympathetic look at Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, a rare attitude at the time that made him a spokesman for Israel’s small peace camp.”

Now, what fair and liberal-minded Tasmanian Times readers will be looking forward to are the corresponding accounts of “small peace camps” in Israel’s Arab neighbours, including, thanks to the marvellous capabilities of Mr Tuffin’s computer, full colour footage of peace marches in, say, Cairo and Damascus. Oh, and news that “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” [Arab version] has been officially recycled into the sort of paper product that it deserves to be.