By Robert Fantina

This writer does not read the New York Post. He wants to state that initially, lest anyone thinks he gains information by reading that rag. He wants no misunderstanding on this point.

However, from time to time, an article of interest posted on some other site, catches his eye, that was initially published in the New York Post. Such an unhappy occurrence happened this week.

The article in question is entitled To Get a State, Palestinians Should do what Zionists did, by one Benny Avni. Intriguing to this writer, to say the least. So, with some trepidation, he read the article online.

The lies and omissions in the article astounded him. He will mention just a few:

• “The UN General Assembly’s vote of Nov. 29, 1947, to partition Palestine merely recognized reality. The Jews had built their state; the UN acknowledged this fact.”

No, the General Assembly ordered the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians, to make room for Israelis. The Jews had not built their state. They owned about 7% of land in Palestine at that time. The UN wanted to do something for the Jewish population, following World War II. That they chose to take someone else’s homeland to do it is an ongoing tragedy.

• “By the partition vote, there was a state in place.”

Completely false. Eighty percent of Palestinians had to be displaced to make room available for Israelis.

• “The Arabs, as they were called in the 1947 partition plan, never really undertook the tasks required to become a state.”

Palestine had been a ‘state’ for countless generations of time; Palestinians didn’t have to undertake ‘the tasks required to become a state’. They needed to resist the violent, brutal and immoral takeover of their nation.

• “Instead, they first launched the 1948 war to undo the nascent Jewish state.”

If the United Nations decided today to give Manhattan to Rohingya refugees, who are being slaughtered by the tens of thousands in their homeland, would the people of New York City simply walk away from their homes, business, places of worship, schools and universities? Would they be willing to leave behind sacred cemeteries, cherished museums and other places of personal and cultural importance? This writer doubts it. The Palestinians were no more willing to surrender their possessions, culture and way of life than New Yorkers would be today.

• “But here’s the difference: In 1948, the Zionists determined they had all the pieces in place to declare their independence.”

Israel discourages other nations from recognizing Palestine because, Israel claims, Palestine is not a self-sufficient nation. This is a true statement. However, the reason Palestine is not self-sufficient is because of the brutal, illegal and immoral occupation of the West Bank by Israel, and the equally brutal and illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, also by Israel. Unemployment is among the highest in the world, because basic supplies for building, manufacturing and trade are forbidden by Israel to enter the country. Palestinian farmers must gain permission from Israel to plant or harvest crops on their own land. That permission is often granted only long after the time for planting, or long after the crops have ripened, and have rotted in the fields. If they are able to plant and harvest crops on time, Israel forbids their export.

Such basic equipment as concrete is not allowed to be imported, resulting in thousands of homes and business remaining destroyed as a result of Israeli bombardment.

The reason Palestine is unable to take its rightful place in the world community is because Israel prevents it from having the means to do so.

On the other side, how has Israel ‘flourished’? Only with billions and billions of dollars from the United States. If the U.S. were to give equal amounts to Palestine, instead of nothing, Palestine, too, would be a vibrant, flourishing nation.

• “In Palestinian-controlled West Bank cities and in Hamas-ruled Gaza, political differences are resolved by force.”

This is a most puzzling statement. Fatah and Hamas have been separate parts of the government for over a decade. If force were to be used to resolve these ‘political differences’, the government would have been united a long time ago. The fact that Fatah is a puppet of the U.S. and Israel does nothing to help matters along.

• “But in what once was called Palestine, a Jewish state will flourish, while partition, and the two-state solution, will wait until Palestinians get their act together.”

No, what was once called Palestine will again be called Palestine. If Israel in its current form is a ‘Jewish’ state – one with separate laws for Israelis and different laws for everyone else; one where its leaders call for the extermination of Arabs, and one that teaches its children to hate – then the ever-increasingly tarnished reputation of that apartheid regime is a continuing stain on the entire Jewish identity.

The two-state solution isn’t waiting ‘until Palestinians get their act together’. It is waiting for the brutal Zionist entity known as Israel to respect and adhere to international law, retreat to the borders as decreed (however immorally) by the United Nations in 1947, and establish some semblance of democracy within those borders, where Israelis and non-Israelis, whether Arab or of African descent, live under the same rules. Israel, with its current hateful and hate-filled policies, is light years away from achieving anything close to democracy.

It must be obvious why this reader disdains the New York Post. Any so-called ‘news’ publication that prints an article with the distortions and lies as indicated above should not be taken seriously by any intelligent person. Support for Israel can only be clung to by lies, which Benny Avni uses liberally in his article, and ignorance, in which his readers bask. Surveys indicate that support for Israel is dropping rapidly around the world, even in the United States, despite the efforts of various powerful pro-Israel lobbying groups. Articles such as the one discussed herein are simply part of the desperate attempts of Zionists to reclaim the narrative, which has somehow slipped away from them. Rather than uphold the principles of justice, human rights and international law, they try to shift the focus by blaming the victim. As Palestinian legislator, activist and scholar Hanan Ashrawi has said: “The Palestinians are the only people on earth required to guarantee the security of the occupier, while Israel is the only country that demands protection from its victims.”

The tide always eventually turns toward justice. The world is slowly seeing this happen today. Zionist hasbara may increase as its perpetrators grow more desperate, but it cannot stop the slow march of justice.

– Robert Fantina is an author and activist for peace and international human rights. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit his website.