Is Israel the nation that is abusing the Palestinians? Let's look at the neighbours:
Beginning in 1950, Egypt refused to allow
Gaza-registered Palestinians to enter Egypt, let alone work and live there.
They feared dilution of their economy, as well as political strife. In
contrast, Israel regularly licensed thousands of Palestinians to come work in
Israel, until those workers began carrying bombs into the country.
Jordan allowed the Palestinians entry, and
even citizenship, from the time Jordan was first formed. On the other hand, the
Jordanian army declared war on the Palestinians in 1970, killing 3,000 in a
ten-day rampage which became known as Black September. The Jordanians feared a
Palestinian take-over of their country, and reacted with force. Israel has consistently negotiated with the Palestinians, despite their violence.
The Lebanese government killed thousands of
Palestinians in 1975-1976, during the Lebanese Civil War, when the Palestinians
backed the PLO-sympathetic Lebanese National Movement against Pierre Gemayel’s
Lebanese Front. Between June 12th and August 12th in 1976, Phalangist forces
killed 2500 Palestinians in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Israel, in contrast,
provides food, water, and medical help to refugee camps - even though refugee camps exist only because their residents insist on staying there and claiming "refugee" status, rather than building homes and communities, so as to keep their claim to Israel alive.
The Syrians refused to grant the
Palestinians citizenship, but allowed them to live and work there. This ended
when the Palestinians attempted to overthrow the Syrian government in the late
1970’s, as part of the Islamic Front. In 1982 the government responded by
smashing the largely-civilian city of Hama, killing at least 10,000 residents.
The Israelis are the only government in that area
to negotiate with the Palestinians and try to find compromise, rather than
simply slaughter them.
