On September 23rd, an article was published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv. The original, entitled And the World was Silent (hebrew) is here. It was translated into English by a blogger named Imshin (intro, page 1, page 2, page 3). Here is a quote from the first page of the article, giving a synopsis of the general point being made by the author, Ben Dror Yemini:

Under an academic and/or journalistic umbrella, today’s Israel is compared to the damned Germany of yesteryear. In conclusion, there are those who call to terminate the ‘Zionist project’. And in more simple words: because Israel is a country that perpetrates so many war crimes and engages in ethnic cleansing and genocide – it has no right to exist. This, for instance, is the essence of an article by the Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder (writer of “Sophie’s world”), who wrote, among other things: “We call killers of children by their name”). The conclusion is that Israel has no right to exist.

The tragedy is that in Arab and Muslim countries a massacre is happening. A genocide protected by the silence of the world. A genocide protected by a deception that is perhaps unparalleled in the history of mankind. A genocide that has no connection to Israel, to Zionism or to Jews. A genocide of mainly Arabs and Muslims, by Arabs and Muslims.

This is not a matter of opinion or viewpoint. This is the result of factual examination, as precise as possible, of the numbers of victims of various wars and conflicts that have taken place since the establishment of the State of Israel up till this time, in which the massacre continues. It is, indeed, death on a massive scale. A massacre. It is the wiping out of villages and cities and whole populations. And the world is silent. The Muslims are indeed abandoned. They are murdered and the world is silent. And if it bothers to open its mouth, it doesn’t complain about the murderers. It doesn’t complain about the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity. It complains about Israel.

Blogger Chayyei Sarah has gone through the article and printed a summary of the various statistics here. Here are her words:

The next time Arabs and/or Muslims complain about the persecution they suffer at the hands of the Americans and Israelis, remember this . . .Since 1948, the number of Muslims killed by the Americans and Israelis combined is still less than the number killed by the French. And the number of Muslims killed by the French, Israelis, and Americans combined is still less than the number killed by the Soviets/Russians. And the number of Muslims killed by the Soviets, Russians, French, Israelis, and Americans, combined, is still about 1/3 of the number of Muslims who have been killed by Muslim states.

I don’t mean to minimize anyone’s suffering, and as an Israeli I’m interested in continuing to pressure Israel to keep Arab casualties at a minimum while still protecting Israelis. But if the goal is to save lives, then to focus one’s pressure on the deeds or misdeeds of Israel is to apply an incredible, ridiculous double standard, one clearly motivated by anti-Semitism and nothing more. If the goal is to spare Muslim lives, then the Muslims could start with themselves, and come back to us when they value each other. (Oh, and when they themselves don’t think anymore that 1,000 of them is worth 2 of us.)

I don’t have so much to add to the commentaries cited above. (Just to note that the statistic of 60,000 Arab deaths in the Arab-Israel conflicts since 1948 were almost entirely as a result of wars started by the Arab countries in which they sought to destroy Israel). Although the matter is disturbing, it is not also very surprising, given the agenda of the Arab world (as well as most of the UN) for the past half century regarding Israel. I am interested in seeing what (if any is possible) cogent response can be given to this by those who spend their days calling Israel dirty names all in the name justice. If you are so interested in saving (Arab) lives (as opposed to destroying Jewish countries), given the statistics cited above, what is your defense?

(This article was cross-posted on Newsvine)