Last week, I ran into a leftist illegally acting as a tour guide to a bunch of visiting tourists. Illegal, because to the best of my knowledge it is against the law to take money and work as a tour guide without a license. It is also illegal for Israeli citizens to enter certain areas under Palestinian control, lest the illegal visit results in the army having to go in and rescue you from your own stupidity.
Someone saw this man, who lives in Jerusalem, and heard a bit of what he was telling this “unsuspecting” group of people from Norway, Finland, Denmark, and the UK. I was asked to speak to the group and for some reason, the leftist agreed to let me speak. Mostly, I think, he agreed because he realized that he had already poisoned them sufficiently, or perhaps they were already poisoned before they came.
I approached the group of young people, who were standing in the harsh Israeli sun overlooking a breathtaking view of Jerusalem to the west, Abu Dis and Azariya are to our left, and the barren Judean desert to our right. Pisgat Zev is just over the hill (E1). Within minutes, it was clear that for these people, I can be described in only negative terms. I am a settler. I am an occupier. I am aggressive. I stole their land. I was even accused of stealing their water. I deny them medical care, blockade them, abuse them, They are the “Palestinians, the rightful population of this land, poor, victimized, abused…by the Jews, who have no right, no claim.
The leftist Jew was very proud, every once in a while he would throw in words that would be hilarious if he weren’t so serious. Our leaders are criminals – thank you to the former President, mayor of Jerusalem and current endless investigations against the Prime Minister and his wife. Apparently, we are to blame for that too.
So, our leaders are criminals – not Mahmoud Abbas who helped plan and finance the Munich Massacre, not the second in command of Hamas who helped coordinate the kidnapping and murder of three beautiful Israeli teenagers a few summers ago. Not those who shoot rockets at our cities…but Bibi Netanyahu who eats too much ice cream and politicians from whom we are protected by a judicial system that charges them with any crimes they committed and puts them in jail rather than in office, as happens under the Palestinians.
I knew from the beginning I was fighting a losing battle and I knew when I scored even a small point – the young woman in the black hijab would dramatically claim “I’m going to faint” every time I said something she didn’t like.
“If we are the occupiers,” I asked at one point, “how did we get our Holy Temple underneath THEIR mosque?” No real answer from the leftist Jew whose only response was “that was 2,000 years ago.”
When I mentioned that thing about us being here for over 2,000 years…the leftist asked, “Who do you think Joshua stole the land from?”
I wasn’t sure if it was physically possible for me to pick the leftist up and toss him over the fence but I have to admit the thought crossed my mind. I asked him if he was serious and was shocked to realize that he was. That’s right. The Jew was playing Abbas’ tune. Jesus was a Palestinian. The Canaanites have been reborn again as poor Palestinians – victims of the aggressive Israelites who dare to reclaim their land. Oh wait, we can’t use words like “reclaim” – that’s Zionist talk.
Terrorism, to this leftist Jew, is a completely understandable reaction that wouldn’t be necessary…necessary, can you imagine, if we didn’t steal from them (that which was ours and that which they stole from someone else). Oy, she’s going to faint again.
If you mention murdered Israeli children, the leftist Jew parades out the ONE Arab child he can think of who was murdered by “extremist Jews.” If you point out that that ONE murder was universally condemned across the country, compared to the Arab reaction of handing out sweets and shooting fireworks to celebrate MANY Palestinian attacks against innocent Jewish children, the hijab lady feels faint again.
And the man who led these people? His name is Jeff Halper and he was involved in the asinine flotilla event years ago. He lives in Jerusalem, uses and abuses our society and illegally takes tours to Maale Adumim to show people the lies he frames as truth. Joshua, who led our people home, becomes a Zionist occupier to the twisted minds of men like Halper.
Take them to Hadassah Hospital, I told Halper – let them see a model of what the world could be like if the Palestinians stopped their violence. Jew and Arab doctors, nurses, patients. “If only I could get in to Hadassah,” poor little (he’s really short) Jeff Halper bemoans.
To get into Hadassah, you have to…walk or drive. But apparently walking and/or driving is not something Halper can do. All he can do is spread his hatred. Mentioning Hadassah brings him to the poor Palestinians suffering in Gaza because they can’t get into Israeli hospitals. They can’t? News to me.
But why don’t they have decent hospitals in Gaza? I counter. The answer is because money is better spent on rockets and killing than saving lives but Halper has an answer for this – the Israeli blockade and our denying medicine to be transported into Gaza.
Another lie. We send HUNDREDS of trucks into Gaza EVERY DAY, I inform the ‘un-informable”. The hijab woman threatens to faint again.
Jeff Halper mentions that Israel puts Palestinians on a starvation diet of 2,000 calories a day. First, the number that was tossed around was 2,079 calories and it was taken from UN recommendations. Second, the suggestion of ensuring daily aid transports was only discussed in the middle of war in 2008 to ensure there would be NO humanitarian crisis. It was never implemented – but Halper presents it as a daily fact for today. Another lie.
Halper also apparently doesn’t know that Gaza is bordered to the west by the Egyptians, not the Israelis and so any closure on that side is from the Palestinians’ Arab brother, not Israel. “Egyptians aren’t Arabs anyway,” Halper offers uselessly.
As I concluded my short talk with these people, knowing that the poison of the leftists like Halper had succeeded in defying truth, I walked away knowing that the greatest of all truths is that I live here on this mountain. It is my home that was built on barren land, my garden that defies the desert heat and sun.
And Joshua? Somewhere in the heavens above, Joshua is smiling and Moshe stands beside him laughing, “A Zionist occupier?” Abraham approaches and asks what the joke is, and they are soon joined by on the right by Michael and on the left by Gavriel. In front, comes Uriel and behind Joshua comes Raphael, over my his head is the presence of God and below him, our beautiful land of Israel, once again returned by right, by might, by history, by God, to the Jewish people.
Jeff Halper can tell his lies and lead as many tourists as he wants; the land and history will defeat him every time, and Joshua will continue to smile upon us, his work of bringing home his people, once again a reality.
