"For people who embrace a progressive Jewish vision, Israel is against everything we believe in. They're violating the Jewish tradition of progressive struggle, and their claim of being a victim is wrong." - Jewish activist Judy Rebnick

"END U.S. AID TO ISRAEL, STOP ECONOMIC ATTACKS ON PALESTINE. The Israeli government has been demolishing Palestinian houses and crops in the Occupied Territories, while allowing Jewish settlers many of them American -- to illegally occupy the same land." - JATO (Jews Against the Occupation) mission statement.

"We remember...over 61 years of Palestinian struggle against ethnic cleansing. We are reminded that the latest siege and blockade of Gaza is part of this ongoing colonization of Palestine. Through our actions we intend to honor the second intifada, which reignited the international solidarity movement from which our network emerged."- The International Anti-Zionist Jewish Network (IJAN)

Stop. Stop everything you are doing and read that last part again.

"Through our actions we intend to honor the second intifada."

As if it is not horrific enough that Jewish people are supporting a regime that wants to annihilate not only Israel's existence in the land, but the Jewish people as a whole, the International Anti Zionist Jewish Network just had the audacity to honor something as vile and as sickening as the second intifada.

Well dear IJAN, JATO and all your cohorts, I have something to say to you.

Before I start getting angry responses from people who are just itching to misquote me, I would like to state for the record that I do not believe that all Palestinians are bad and that in my opinion there would be significantly fewer terrorists among them if they were led by good men and not evil monsters. With that disclaimer, I am now going to explain exactly why I think these claims the IJAN, JATO and all their friends make are poisonous, dangerous and constitute a knife in the back of the state of Israel.

Having lived in Israel for the better part of my life, the second Intifada that began in 2000 changed everything for me. It affected who I am as a person and the way I looked at the world around me. For those who may not know, the Intifada was a giant escalation in terror attacks in Israel perpetrated by Hamas and the Palestinian people. And when I say escalation, I mean a sharp escalation. Israel is a country already too well acquainted with buses that blow up and body parts scattered all over the highway as people drive by during morning rush hour. In spite of this, the Intifada still blew our minds. Suddenly there was chaos everywhere. Bombings, shootings, stoning attacks, individual murder...everywhere.

The afternoon news had so many new attacks to report on a daily basis that the morning murders were no longer on the rotation in the evening news. We were all constantly on our cell phones calling our families after every attack just to make sure everyone was ok. But of course, everyone was not ok. There was always someone injured or killed bringing the pain all that more close to home.

This is the part when IJAN and JATO would probably tell me that I am turning Israel into a 'perpetual victim' by stating these events.

This is not victimization. This is the truth.

I recently came across an article praising the actions of those people who say Israel is 'ethnically cleansing' the Palestinians and that Zionism must be stopped. Not surprisingly there was a large trail of comments after it, all of them spewing anti-Israel sentiment, (under the disclaimer of not being anti-Semitic,) one even going so far as to compare Israel to Hitler's Germany and inquiring if there was even any point in saving such a useless country? Another comment explained that if any group in this world was oppressed like the Palestinians, then they would all become militant fanatics too! After all, what choice do they have?

During the Intifada, amidst the hell raging around us, on October 12, 2000 two soldiers got lost and wound up in Ramallah. What happened next will never be accurately portrayed by words. Cpl. Yosef Avrahami and First Sgt. Vadim Norzhich, both 33 years old, both men with families, were tortured and killed. At least, that's what was reported by the mainstream media.

What the news neglected to mention was that they were murdered in the center of the city to the delight of the chanting, cheering crowds. The news also failed to report that their bodies were ripped open and hundreds of pairs of hands dug their fingers through these men's bodies, raising their bloody fingers with pride and enjoyment. Most horrifically, you were not told that children were not only present and watching, but encouraged to participate.

As the morbid spectacle continued to escalate, an RAI Italian news team that was onsite captured images of one of the soldier's heads being ripped off his body and tossed around like a soccer ball.

One man proudly holds up his bloody hands

The footage was televised in Israel, which changed the already mournful atmosphere to one of bleak depression and utter hopelessness. You could see it in the eyes of every Israeli. Those weren't just our boys who were mutilated. We were mutilated right there with them.

Of course, these graphic images were not shown by a large portion of the world media, some choosing not to air it, simply because they were uncertain as to whether or not the viewing public could stomach it. Later the video was removed entirely because of threats issued by the Palestinian terrorists. Horror and terrorism was given a generic label of 'lynch' and covered for two minutes in the evening news before moving on to some vapid entertainment story.

And now my fellow Jews at the International Anti-Zionist Jewish Network are SUPPORTING THIS. This is just one example of the countless terror attacks that happened in Israel during the second intifada. And even if this was the only example, for someone to stand by and pledge their support to this requires either sheer stupidity or complete lack of moral conscience. It is sickening.

I also want to respond to the people who claim that the Palestinians have no choice but to become militants. I would like to ask if you really have the nerve to tell me that anything could push you to behave in such a ravenous animalistic manner? What could ever cause you to rip open another human being's body and kick his head over to your child to play with?

I understand oppression. I understand fighting back. To play devil's advocate for a moment, assuming anything you say about the Palestinians being 'forced' to become fundamentalists is legitimate, (and it's not, otherwise we would have had millions of Jewish militants after the Holocaust,) then I could understand them wanting to harm us. But lynching a human being and taking pleasure in it? Never! I believe that people are only capable of such blatant evil when they are brainwashed from an early age and filled with so much rage and hatred and instilled with a lack of respect for life. And that is thanks to Hamas and the other radicals that planted it in them before they could understand what was happening and why it does not have to be that way.

Thank goodness the IJAN, JATO and their friends have Israel to blame for the Palestinian problems, otherwise, what would the Palestinians do? Take responsibility? Heaven forbid.

You might be surprised to hear that many Israelis are reasonable people. They recognize that this is not the fault of the innocent. They in turn would probably be surprised to hear that after these kinds of occurrences, there are those among us, those in the IJAN and JATO, our own people who claim that we are committing crimes and performing ethnic cleansing.

Their nerve is astounding.

No such thing is happening. Israel does not perform raids for the joy of it. Israel responds when it has to, and only as a last resort, and she has the right to defend and protect her people. What's Israel's big bad sin anyway? Oh yes. We built a wall! Oh no, not a wall! A country with a wall as a border? That must be evil! After all, Berlin had a wall! Yes, Israel built a wall, and it has reduced the amount and frequency of terror attacks significantly. Blockades and checkpoints were created, yes; these protected the Israeli people from constant terror attacks. But in the opinion of these misguided voices this is ethnic cleansing! Especially since Israel has 'no claim to this land.' This is as Maya Wind puts it, Israel's attempt to "control Palestinians and Palestinian resistance to the occupation."

Yes Maya, you could say that. We are trying to 'control.' We would very much like to control the terrorists if it makes them stop bombing us. Well put.

When 19 year old Maya Wind refused to enter the Israeli army, she was arrested and spent some time in military prison. Before entering prison she stated the following: "At first, like many other Israeli citizens, I too could not bring myself to confront or criticize the Israeli military's immoral actions. I realize that this difficulty originated from my sense of identification with soldiers my own age, to whom I could relate. Today it is precisely this realization that leads me to refuse to serve. I cannot recognize the humanity of Israelis but not that of Palestinians. .. I am refusing to contribute to this cycle of bloodshed."

My dear sweet Maya. Wake up. I like most Jews, have no problem criticizing anyone, least of all my own people. I too have no problem recognizing the humanity of the Palestinians. But instead of feeling bad for the thousands of adults who are more than eager to line up in order to blow up our schools, buses and malls, I feel bad for their children. I feel bad for the six-year-old who watches the Arab version of the Muppets that tells them that the best thing he can do when he grows up is become a martyr. My heart breaks for these children. I want to adopt a million Palestinian babies and put them in homes that have loving parents who are not trapped beneath a dominating regime, a family that wants them to live, not throw away their lives to further hatred. What a waste of young potential.

Israel is not perfect; far from it. And just like any other country we have bad people who do bad things. The difference is this - If the IDF even suspects any misconduct toward Palestinian civilians by any soldier, or if Palestinian civilians were killed under suspicious circumstances, an immediate investigation is formed and the perpetrator is dealt with harshly. Israel does not condone cruelty for the sake of cruelty. However in sharp contrast, the lynching mentioned earlier actually took place right next to a Palestinian police station. The men stopped for help, and instead they were murdered. To have the audacity to compare those that rejoice in death and those that rejoice in life is delusional.

The anti-Israel comments that litter these articles and websites are astounding. One man wrote that as an Israeli, he was always taught that 'because of the Holocaust, everything was permissible.' How ironic. In Israel, everyone that I have spoken to personally on this matter all agree that the opposite is true. Because of the monstrosities of the Holocaust, NOTHING must be permissible. We must take every pain to ensure that such a thing is never repeated to any group of people. It is my belief that this is part of the reason as to why so many Jews are so liberal, to ensure that everyone has choices and rights, to ensure that no people is treated this way again. But this does not mean that we should stand idly by and put a giant welcome mat out on the Israeli border that says: "WELCOME terrorists!" I would expect any reasonable person to understand this.We have to draw the line somewhere.

So, dear IJAN, if after hearing all this you still want to support the Intifada and you want to continue throwing manure on the public face of Israel, your country...go ahead. The people of Israel will take your derogatory comments and walk on as they always have. Israel will not lie down and die quietly. And whether you know it or not, that is not only for our benefit, but for yours as well.

by T. Litvin