Developing the Boots on the Ground

This letter came to me today from a fellow GOPisForMe member and student at Texas A&M University.  It spells out the intentions and agenda of the group, Aggies for Palestine, and provides documented evidence of their anti-Semitic rhetoric.  Please help by passing this information along to anyone who can help end this sort of tactic on our State supported college campuses.

“Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I hope this e-mail finds all of you doing well. I am writing to you today to discuss activities on Texas A&M campus both which are disturbing and alarming. Moreover, I am writing to ask for your help in the most professional manner possible. The activity to which I am specifically referring to is the formation of the Aggies for Palestine on Campus. When I first heard about this group over the 2011-2012 Christmas break, I was initially curious as I believed this group would merely advocate a peaceful and responsible two state solution to the conflicts surrounding the State of Israel. However, the more research I conducted concerning this organization, the more disturbed I became. Attached in the documents you will find evidence of the disturbing nature of the recently formed student group, Aggies for Palestine.

In the attachment Constitution, you will find the group’s stated purpose, vision, and rules of procedure. You will notice I have highlighted the vision of this group as this is the area I would like to pay particular attention to. The vision is contained in both the attachment Constitution as well as the attachment Purpose. The multi-colored accusations against Israel are the issues specifically to which I would like to bring to your attention. Most alarming are the accusations that Israel is an apartheid state, the notation that Palestinians are refugees, and the advocating for a right of return.

As you may well know, the accusation that Israel is an apartheid state comes from the wall which is currently being built along the long-established borders between the West Bank and the State of Israel. The purpose of this wall is to protect the State of Israel and to prevent future suicide bombings in civilian areas. Such proof of this issue is that since the first contiguous segment was constructed in 2006, terrorist attacks which numbered at 73, killing a total of 293 and injuring over 1,900 others has been reduced to 12 attacks, killing only 64 and wounding 445. (Information obtained from The Anti-Terrorist Fence by Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

The next item which lambasts the state of Israel is the notion that Palestinians are refugees. This accusation arises from the belief that upon the declaration of Israel as a sovereign nation on 14 May 1948, the State of Israel unreasonably and forcibly drove the non-Jewish inhabitants out of the newly formed State. I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. We know, as reflected in the official Israeli position the:

…the Arabs in Palestine were asked to stay and live as citizens in the Jewish state. Instead, they chose to leave, either because they were unwilling to live with the Jews, or because they expected an Arab military victory which would annihilate the Zionists. They thought they could leave temporarily and return at their leisure. Later, an additional claim was put forth, namely that the Palestinians were ordered to leave [by their imams], with radio broadcasts instructing them to quit their homes.

Furthermore, any claim which argues that Palestinian villages were forced to excavate by Israeli soldiers is either disingenuous or dishonest in its entirety. For starters, Israeli soldiers did forcibly remove people from Palestinian villages. But these evacuation orders were given in May 1948, weeks after the initial hostilities between Arab nations and Israel had begun. Secondly, as discovered by Benny Morris, in The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, the Arab High Committee on March 8, 1948 was ordered by the Arab National Committee to “forcibly evacuate women, children, and the elderly to a faraway area from the dangers. Any opposition to this order is an obstacle to the holy war and will hamper the operations of the fighters in these districts”. This unwillingness to live under Jewish authority was noted in its contribution to the 1948 Palestinian exodus by George Crews McGhee in On the frontline in the Cold War: an ambassador reports (1997) as well as known historian Joseph Schechtman and Professor at King’s College London, Efraim Karsh.

The last item from the Constitutuion and Purpose which raises immediate concern is the advocating for the right of return. The right of return is the internationally recognized right of people to return to their country of origin. While on the onset, this idea has many merits, in the application to the State of Israel, the results are catastrophic. If the State of Israel were forced to grant the demands contained in the Palestinian right of return, which includes the right to return to an exact property location, it would, in so doing, forcibly evict Jews from their homes so that other people can then inhabit them.

Having finished discussing the immediate issues contained in the Constitution, I would also ask that you regard the document Facebook Photos. In this document you will find several photos taken from the Aggies for Palestine’s Facebook page. The two photos I would like to point your attention to are the two center photos. You will notice in both of these photos the Keffiyeh is present. As has been documented by Caroline Glick from the Jerusalem Post, Rhonda Koenig from the Independent in Britain, Kim Kibum from the New York Times, and authors Frank B. Tipton and Cas Muddle, this garment is a symbol of solidarity with Palestine. In particular, it is a symbol of solidarity with the Fatah, a Palestinian political party who calls for the full liberation of Palestine and all Palestinian lands with Jerusalem as its capital. Furthermore, in 2007, Fatah, as the majority party in the Palestinian National Authority, agreed to work in coordination with Hamas who won elections in the Gaza Strip in 2005. Clarification on the meaning of “all Palestinian lands” can be found on the Keffiyeh (in the center-right photo, look at the bottom left. Specifically the end of the Keffiyeh.) Further clarification can be found in the top center photo as well as the bottom center photo, both which have the entire state of Israel in the colors of red, green, and black (the colors associated with Palestinian nationalism).

There are many issues and subjects which I did not discuss due to the nature and purpose of this e-mail. While I believe the issues of the history surrounding the State of Israel and the emerging anti-Semitic dialogue must be discussed in the future, the purpose of this e-mail is to ask for your most professional assistance in addressing the issue of anti-Semitic rhetoric on Texas A&M campus. I do not believe this rhetoric should be tolerated and I am shocked that such anti-Semitic rhetoric would be sponsored by Texas A&M University officials. While I fully support academia being the market place of ideas, the principles of hate and purposeful manipulation of history have no legitimate place in an intellectual dialogue as they threaten the very fabric on which the market place is built.

In order to address this issue, I have been privileged to work with the Texas Aggie Conservatives and the College Republicans who have agreed to help being Dr. David Horowitz to speak on A&M campus. He is tentatively scheduled to speak on 16 April 2012. The charge to have him speak is $7,000. Texas Aggie Conservatives are currently in the process of working to establish a secure account for the purpose of bringing in Dr. Horowitz to speak. As soon as I find the number to which any donations can be wired, I will forward this information on to you. If you would like to help us achieve our goal, we would be most grateful. In order to receive the account information, please e-mail me at johnson2380@gmail.com. For any other ways you would like to help, please feel free to e-mail me as well. Please feel free to forward to all those who would be interested. This will require a team effort!!! I look forward to working with all of you!”

Links:

Aggies for Palestine Constitution

Aggies for Palestine Purpose

Aggies for Palestine Facebook Pics