Excerpt from "The Arabs of Palestine" by Martha Gellhorn October 1961

Martha Gellhorn, (8 November 1908 – 15 February 1998) was a novelist, journalist, and former war correspondent, travel writer, and journalist who is considered one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century. 

She reported on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career.

She was the third wife of American novelist Ernest Hemingway, from 1940 to 1945.

Her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish, and her maternal grandmother came from a Protestant family.

She died in 1998 by apparent suicide at the age of 89, ill and almost completely blind.

As a correspondent she went on a "fact finding mission" to the Middle East, where she went to see the "Palestinian Refugee Problem" in terms of real life, real people. 

In her article she reports how the Arab refugees and the Arab Israelis live, and what they say about themselves, their past and their future.

ACCORDING to Arab politicians and apologists, this is "THE Narrative" of the Great Nachba. 

"In 1948, war took place between five Arab nations of the Middle East and the Jews in Palestine. 

This war was caused by the United Nations, whose General Assembly resolved to partition Palestine into two states, one for the Palestinian Arabs, the other for the Jews. 

The Arab nations and the Palestinian Arabs would not accept this monstrous decision. 

They were obliged to protect themselves against it, with force. 

The United Nations operated as the tool of the Western Imperialists, notably Great Britain and the United States. Therefore because the Western Imperialists, favored the: Jews" -(read Zionists) over the Arabs. The United Nations wanted the Jews to proclaim the upstart state of Israel. 

Because of the massive military support of the Western Imperialists, the Arabs lost the war. 

The Arab residents of Palestine fled in masses due to massacres, threatening broadcasts, pointed bayonets, and the murderous siege of cities. The Jews drove hundreds of thousands of Arabs out of their homeland. For now on seventy seven years, these poor UNWRA Arab refugees have languished in misery in refugee camps around the borders of Israel. 

The United Nations (Western branch) bears the blame for these events and must repair the damage. The condition of the refugees is a sore on the conscience of honorable men. The Israeli government refuses to welcome back to their homeland the refugees, now swollen to more than "five million" in number. 

This refusal demonstrates the brutality and dishonesty of Israel, an abnormal nation of aliens, Jews from Europe, who not only forced innocent people into exile but also stole their property. 

There is no solution to this injustice, the greatest the world has ever seen, except to repatriate all Palestinian refugees in Palestine. Palestine is an Arab country, now infamously called Israel. 

Israel has no right to exist, and the Arab nations will not sign peace treaties with it but will, by every means possible, maintain the state of war."

(None of the Arab (Pro Palestinian) narritive is based on the true documented and recorded truth! Only heresay and "The false Narrative" agenda based lies) The details of the "False Narrative" vary, depending on the political climate of the moment and the audience. 

The one basic truth is that the lower poorer class Arab refugees of the "Mandated Areas" always remain the invaluable, central theme. The case is painted the color of blood in the Arab countries: Revenge and Return. 

Martha Gellhorn writes:

For the Western public, tears replace blood; the Arab case rests on the plight of the refugees and is a call to conscience rather than to arms. But no Arab statesman has ever promised final peace with Israel if only the million Palestinian refugees may return to their former homes.

The best way to consider this case is close up, by looking at the Palestinian refugees themselves, not as a "problem," not as statistics, but as people. 

The Palestinian refugees, battered by thirteen years in the arena of international politics, have lost their shape; they appear as a lump and are spoken of as one object. They are individuals, like everyone else.

Despite the unique care and concern they have received, despite the unique publicity which rages around them, the Arab refugees, alas, are not unique. 

Although no one knows exactly how many refugees are scattered everywhere over the globe, it is estimated that since World War II, and only since then, at least thirty-nine million non-Arab men, women, and children have become homeless refugees, through no choice of their own. Their numbers grow every year; Angolans are the latest addition to the long list. The causes for this uprooting are always different, but the result is the same: the uprooted have lost what they had and where they came from and must start life again as handicapped strangers wherever they are allowed to live.

The world could be far more generous to these unwilling wanderers, but at least the world has never thought of exploiting them. They are recognized as people, not pawns. By their own efforts, and with help from those devoted to their service, all but some six million of the thirty-nine million have made a place for themselves, found work and another chance for the future. 

To be a refugee is not necessarily a life sentence.

The unique misfortune of the Palestinian refugees is that they are a weapon in what seems to be a permanent war. 

Alarming signs, from Egypt, warn us that the Palestinian refugees may develop into more than a justification for cold war against Israel. 

We ignored Mein Kampf in its day, as the ravings of a lunatic, written for limited home consumption. We ought to have learned never to ignore dictators or their books. Egypt's Liberation, by Gamal Abdel Nasser, deserves careful notice. 

It is short, low-keyed, and tells us once again that a nation has been ordained by fate to lead--this time, to lead the Arab nations, all Africa, all Islam. 

The Palestinian refugees are not mentioned, and today, in the Middle East, you get a repeated sinking sensation about the Palestinian refugees: they are only a beginning, not an end. Their function is to hang around and be constantly useful as a goad. The ultimate aim is not such humane small potatoes as repatriating refugees.

THE word "refugee" is drenched in memories which stretch back over too many years and too many landscapes: Spain, Czechoslovakia, China, Finland, England, Italy, Holland, Germany. In Madrid, between artillery bombardments, children were stuffed into trucks to be taken somewhere, out of that roulette death, while their mothers clung to the tailboards of the trucks and were dragged weeping after the bewildered, weeping children. In Germany, at war's end, the whole country seemed alive with the roaming mad -- slave laborers, concentration camp survivors who spoke the many tongues of Babel, dressed in whatever scraps they had looted, and searched for food in stalled freight cars though the very rail-yards were being bombed. From China to Finland, people like these defined the meaning of "refugee."

No one could wish to see even a pale imitation of such anguish again. In the Middle East, there would be no high explosive, no concentration camps, but the imagined, expected scene was bad enough; lice and rickets and tuberculosis, bodies rotting in the heat, the apathy of despair. 

Why, in 1961, did I have such a picture of the Palestinian refugees? 

Obviously from what I had read, as one of the average absorbent reading public; notions float in the air exactly as dust does. Nothing that I had read or heard prepared me for what I found.

What do they look like, the undifferentiated mass known as the "Palestinian Refugee Problem"? What do they think, feel, say? What do they want? How do they live, where do they live, what do they do? Who takes care of them? What future can they hope for, in terms of reality, not in terms of slogans, which are meaningless if not actually fatal, as we know.

The children are as fast as birds, irreverent as monkeys, large-eyed, ready to laugh. The young girls, trained by carrying water jars or other heavy household bundles on their heads, move like ballerinas and are shrouded in modesty and silence as if in cocoons. The young men, crudely or finely formed, have in common the hopefulness and swagger of their new manhood. The middle years seem nondescript, in both sexes. 

After this the women, who age quickly but not as quickly as the men, wear unpainted experience on their faces; they look patient, humorous, and strong. When the men have grown visibly old, they turn into a race of grandees. Their color, infant to patriarch, ranges from golden fair to mahogany dark, all warmed by the glaze of sun. The instinct for hospitality, the elegance of manner have not been exaggerated.

UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), inheriting its role from previous caretakers, has been the splendid mother-and-father of these people for eleven years. In the course of its parenthood UNRWA has spent about $360 million on the Arab refugees, this money having been contributed by members of the United Nations, with smaller but loving donations from private charitable organizations as well. 

Of the total the United States provided more than $238 million, Great Britain over $65 million--but spread across the years and in varying amounts, sixty-one states, including Israel and the Holy See, have helped with cash. 

The Soviet Union has never paid one cent. This is a tiny note of malice: Arab refugees often express tender emotions for the Soviet Union, whereas most of the village orators blame the United States and England, or that bogey, "Western Imperialism," for their exile.

In the so-called "host countries," Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt, UNRWA runs fifty-eight refugee camps. The camps in Egypt are not in Egypt but in the Gaza Strip, which is Palestine; Egypt is the de facto mandatory power, the land and the government of the Gaza Strip are Palestinian. The majority of camps in Jordan are also on what was the territory of Palestine, now annexed to Jordan.

UNRWA has never yet been allowed to make a total proper census of its refugee population, so statistics about the number of ex-Palestinians are nothing except the best estimate possible; UNRWA itself says this.

Over half of the registered Palestinian refugees do not live in camps, but have made more or less comfortable private arrangements varying from first-class houses, at the top, to hand-built Hooverville shacks, at the bottom. 

UNRWA calculates that, at the end of June, 1960, 421,500 refugees were living in their camps, almost double their camp population ten years ago. 

The advantage of living in a camp is that life there is rent free; and for the poor, the standard of housing and sanitation in an UNRWA camp is better than that of the native population.

I wanted to visit Palestinian Arabs in Israel, the ones who stayed behind, the non-refugees. Seeing them at home, I thought I might better understand the mentality of their brothers in exile. Some important clue was lacking, but I could not name it or define it.

On this tour, I visited a Christian Arab village near the Lebanese frontier; a Muslim Arab village on the coastal plain near Acre; two Muslim villages near the Jordanian frontier; a new Muslim settlement near Tel Aviv -the exact copy of a new Jewish settlement, built by the government; and a Roman Catholic priest, in the beautiful Crusader city of Acre.

My idea was to search out Arab school teachers, on the grounds that they would probably speak English, were educated men, would know the feelings of their communities, and would have thought about Arab problems. Arabs, living in their own communities, have their own schools, by their own wish, where the children are taught in Arabic, according to Arab principles. Nissim, my driver, was to serve as translator until I had found someone I could talk to; he was then to disappear. I did not want anyone to feel hampered by his alien presence. I might have spared myself anxiety. The candor of the Arabs is proof of their freedom inside the state of Israel; they are not in the least cowed.

In the Christian Arab village, the school teacher was an attractive lean young man, with prematurely gray hair, working in his garden in the cool of the evening. He had a good modern house, a young modern wife, and after six years of marriage, a first baby, a six-months-old girl named Mary, whom he and his wife so adored that neither of them took their eyes off the child at the same moment. He was healthy, prosperous, respected, freely doing his chosen work, loved and loving; by any standards, a fortunate man. After hours of listening to him, I had grasped the lacking clue, and felt hopeless.

"Great Britain helped the Jews," he said. "The English gave weapons to the Arab countries, and they gave weapons to us. In this village we were all armed; we all fired at the Jews, every one of us. But our bullets were no good; the English gave bad bullets to the Arabs. Four out of five of the bullets were no good. When we saw this, we ran away to Lebanon for two weeks and then we came back."

"Were any of you killed in these battles?"

"No, no one. Yes, we refused Partition. We did not want the Jews here; we wanted the whole country for ourselves, as is right. We only lost because of the United Nations and the Western powers.

"The Ottoman Empire crushed the pride of the Arabs. The Western powers divided the Arabs into many nations, after the First World War, to keep them weak. In the 1948 war, the next village was bombed by the Jews; when we saw that, we knew we had no hope."

(Pause for breath: the Jewish Air Force at the time consisted of nineteen Piper Cubs, a nice little plane, not a bomber; the next village was a good seven or eight miles away.)

"Now we have military zones, all along the frontiers. We must ask for permission to travel or work in different places. They have taken our land which is in the military zones. Yes, they pay for it, but very cheaply."

"At the price it used to be worth in the Mandate? Before it was improved by the Jews?"

"Something like that. No, even cheaper. Just now two boys from this village were caught on the Lebanese frontier; the Lebanese police sent them back. The Israelis are holding them for interrogation. How could such boys be spies?"

"I don't know. But you do remember that the Arab countries are at war with Israel? I should think it might be hard for the Jews to know what Arabs they could trust."

"They are right not to trust 50 per cent of the Arabs in this country."

"How can they know which 50 per cent?"

"Oh, they know everything. They have a C.I.D. agent in every Arab village. He is a Jew, and everyone knows him."

"What's the use of having a secret policeman if everyone knows he's a secret policeman?"

"There are plenty of informers. I don't know what it is that has taught all Arabs to be spies." He said this with real despair.

"There is compulsory education in this country up to the age of fourteen. That is a very good thing. We did not have such a thing before. But the Muslims do not send their girls to school half the time and do not send the boys if they can earn. Then what? The fine for the father is only five pounds. What is five pounds to the father?"

"Have you ever visited the Arab countries? Have you been to Egypt?"

We drank more coffee; we lit more cigarettes. I braced myself for further enlightenment.

"The Arab Kings were not the true representatives of the Arab peoples when they made war against Israel. Now all the refugees should come back and we should have Partition."

At this point, I decided to make one long, determined stand to see whether there was any meeting ground of minds on a basis of mutually accepted facts and reasoning.

"Please bear with me and help me," said I. "I am a simple American, and I am trying to understand how the Arab mind works, and I am finding it very difficult. I want to put some things in order; if I have everything wrong, you will correct me. In 1947, the United Nations recommended the Partition of Palestine. 

I have seen the Partition map and studied it. I cannot tell, but it does not look to me as if the Arabs were being cheated of their share of good land. 

The idea was that this division would work, if both Jews and Arabs The idea was that this division would work, if both Jews and Arabs accepted it and lived under an Economic Union. 

And, of course, the Arab countries around the borders would have to be peaceful and cooperative or else nothing would work at all. The Jews accepted this Partition plan; I suppose because they felt they had to. They were outnumbered about two to one inside the country, and there were the neighboring Arab states with five regular armies and forty million or more citizens, not feeling friendly. Are we agreed so far?"

"It is right."

"The Arab governments and the Palestinian Arabs rejected Partition absolutely. You wanted the whole country. There is no secret about this. The statements of the Arab representatives, in the UN are on record. The Arab governments never hid the fact that they started the war against Israel. But you, the Palestinian Arabs, agreed to this, you wanted it. And you thought, it seems to me very reasonably, that you would win and win quickly. It hardly seemed a gamble; it seemed a sure bet. You took the gamble and you lost. I can understand why you have all been searching for explanations of that defeat ever since, because it does seem incredible. I don't happen to accept your explanations, but that is beside the point. The point is that you lost."

"Now you say that you want to return to the past; you want Partition. So, in fact you say, let us forget that war we started, and the defeat, and, after all, we think Partition is a good, sensible idea. Please answer me this, which is what I must, know. 

If the position were reversed, if the Jews had started the war and lost it, if you had won the war, would you now accept Partition? 

Would you give up part of the country and allow the 650,000 Jewish residents of Palestine -who had fled from the war--to come back? Certainly not," he said, without an instant's hesitation. "But there would have been no Jewish refugees. They had no place to go. They would all be dead or in the sea."

It is difficult to pity the pitiless. To wring the heart past all doubt, those who cry aloud for justice must be innocent. They cannot have wished for a victorious rewarding war, blame everyone else for their defeat, and remain guiltless. 

Truth.....

Before the official Arab-Israel war started (on May 15, 1948) there had been months and months of "incidents." 

("From the first week of December 1947, disorder in Palestine had begun to mount. The Arabs repeatedly asserted that they would resist partition by force. They seemed to be determined to drive that point home by assaults upon the Jewish community in Palestine."--Trygve Lie, In the Cause of Peace, Macmillan, 1954.) 

By February, 1948, aside from scattered Arab attacks on scattered Jews, and reprisals for same, the "Arab Liberation Army" had moved into Palestine from the north, and Jerusalem was bombarded, besieged, and cut off. The Jews were trying to run food to the beleaguered Jewish population of Jerusalem. A lot of Jews were getting killed in that effort, in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and in the eyes of some Jews not enough was being done to prevent or avenge this. The state of Israel did not exist; no functioning Jewish government could control this anarchic, deadly phase of undeclared war.

The village of Dir Yassin lay close to besieged Jerusalem and its life-line road. According to the Irgun, Dir Yassin was a nest of snipers and armed Arabs; an effective enemy concentration. On their own, the Irgun decided to attack Dir Yassin. Their leader was killed by Arab fire from the village; the Irgun fighters then went brutally mad and shot everyone in sight. Two hundred and fifty Arabs were killed.

Well, there was much fear. Then, they all knew about Dir Yassin and expected the same to happen to them. Inside Israel, the Arabs do not need or use the refugees' stories of massacres; they do not have to account for flight, since they are still at home. They know what happened around them, and their neighbors know, and such stories would be pointless. But they do speak of Dir Yassin, which was a genuine massacre and took place in the village of that name, near Jerusalem, on April 9, 1948.

The news of Dir Yassin spread like the tolling of a funeral bell throughout Arab Palestine. According to their own ethical code and practice of war, Dir Yassin must have seemed a natural portent of the future to the Arabs. They intended to massacre the Jews; if the Jews were victorious, obviously they would massacre the Arabs. As the beautiful schoolteacher pointed out, Dir Yassin threw the fear of death into vast numbers of the Arab population. In panic, they fled from Palestine.

If there was the choice between a big financial compensation or return, only 50 per cent of the refugees would wish to return, and most of those who came back would not stay. "They could not endure how this country is run. The discipline. The work." The refugees are kept thinking of Palestine by the Arab leaders, by propaganda. 

 

The Islamic Mindset by a former Moslem

 To be filed under the "Know your Enemy" and to ENLIGHTEN the "Western Christian World" just WHO those millions of "Poor Immigrants from Moslem Lands" really are.

I just saw this posted by a "former Moslem" regarding the funeral of the former vaporized leader of the "Party of God" in Lebanon and wanted EVERYONE to understand fully "The Islamic Mindset".

A former Moslem begins by asking: "Why would a Moslem drive his car into a crowd of innocent people?"

Here is HIS reply: 

"I was raised Muslim, and I know exactly why this happens. It’s not poverty. It’s not oppression. It’s not even radicalization. It’s the logical outcome of Islamic doctrine itself.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a Muslim or not; we, as human beings, carry guilt deep inside us. We know we are not good enough and spend our lives trying to redeem ourselves through good deeds, thinking it will make the guilt disappear.

Christianity, for example, offers a way out of guilt, a solution not based on your works but on Christ’s. 

Salvation isn’t earned; it’s given. You accept that you can’t redeem yourself because Christ did everything on your behalf. That means you’re free. Free to live, free to build, free to serve, free to love.

When Christians feel lost, broken, and needing forgiveness, they can go to church, talk to a pastor or priest, and leave knowing they have been forgiven.

Islam, on the other hand, doesn’t offer redemption; it weaponizes guilt. Instead of providing salvation, Allah exposes you, holds your sins over your head, and threatens you with hellfire and torture in the grave.

The Quran isn’t a book of peace; it’s a book of threats. It bullies Muslims into obedience through fear, humiliation, and punishment.

So, what happens when a Muslim seeks redemption? 

They try to be better Muslims. They pray, fast, give to charity, go on Hajj, and do everything Allah commands. But it never works. I know. I did it.

And no matter how much you pray, no matter how much you try, the guilt never goes away. Because deep down, every Muslim knows it’s not enough. Allah always demands more.

Allah loves those who die fighting against the infidels. That’s not an opinion, it’s in the Quran, Hadith, and every lesson taught to children.

This is why Muslims, even the so-called "moderates," always hesitate to condemn terrorism. Because they know Allah requires jihad. They might not be willing to commit it themselves, but they cannot say it’s wrong.

So when a Muslim fails to reach peace through religious rituals, they have two choices:

Give up, stop being devout, and learn to live with the guilt, or commit to jihad because that’s the only way to be true to yourself.

The Quran spells it out clearly: “Kill those who do not worship Allah or obey the Prophet” (9:29).

So when a Muslim embraces this identity fully, killing infidels isn’t just justified; it’s joyful. It’s an act of:

✔ Saving yourself

✔ Obeying Allah

✔ Securing your eternity

✔ Finally escaping the crushing weight of guilt

This is why a Muslim can drive his car into a crowd of innocent people and feel nothing but satisfaction.

Because for the first time in his life, he finally believes he has done something worthy of redemption."

Murder of Innocents

What words can truly be used to describe the actions of the subhuman beasts undeserving of mere existance! 

Only beasts murder children.

And they must be "put down" swiftly with the full weight of the "Wrath of God"!

They and ALL their offspring must know that the Lord God of hosts calls for their removal from mankind. 

Those beloved by the world as : "Innocent residents of Gaza?"

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon wrote:

"There are no words that can describe such an atrocity. Hamas not only murdered Ariel and Kfir Bibas in cold blood – a four-year-old boy and a ten-month-old baby – but continues to violate every basic moral value even after their death.

Instead of returning Shiri, the mother of Kfir and Ariel, Hamas returned an unidentified body, as if it were a worthless shipment. This is a new low, an evil and cruelty with no parallel.

The UN Secretary-General, the Security Council and the General Assembly cannot continue to remain silent in the face of Hamas's barbarity. The State of Israel demands a clear and unequivocal condemnation of this heinous crime, and a clear and an immediate demand for the return of Shiri to her family. History will remember well who stood by and remained silent while Hamas trampled on the most basic principles of humanity."

The IDF confirmed on Friday morning that the hostage remains released on Thursday belonged to Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

However, the third body "was not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other abductee. It is an anonymous body without identification," the military stated.

IDF Spokesman:
"Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in collaboration with the Israel Police, IDF representatives informed the Bibas family that their loved ones, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, have been identified.

According to the assessment of professional officials, based on the intelligence available to us and forensic findings from the identification process, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023.

During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body.

This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.

Ariel Bibas was but four years old at the time of his death, and Kfir Bibas was ten months old at the time of his death. They were abducted with their mother, Shiri Bibas, from their home in Nir Oz. Yarden Bibas, Ariel and Kfir's father, went out to protect them and was abducted prior to the abduction of Shiri and the children. Yarden returned as part of the agreement for the return of the hostages on February 1, 2025."

We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Bibas family during this incredibly difficult time and remain committed to doing everything possible to ensure Shiri and all the hostages are brought home at the earliest opportunity.

Joel 4: 19
"19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land."

Operation Nickel Grass and US AID

Seeing the preparations by Egypt and Syria for war in 1973; specifically the supply of over 600 advanced surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), 300 MiG-21 fighters, 1,200 T-72 tanks and hundreds of thousands of tons of war material supplied by the Soviet Union prior to the Yom Kippur. The US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger  urged Israeli Prime Minister to NOT mobilize Israeli forces nor take ANY "preemptive Strike", to "not antagonise the Arabs" so that "war will NOT breakout".

Once the full truth of the American "miscalculation" and the full "brunt" of the massive Egyptian and Syrian successes and the tragically high loss human lives, tanks, and aircraft was felt by Israel. Golda ordered the readying of IAF A-4s and Jericho rockets with nuclear warheads. The outfitting was purposely made visible to US Spy satalites. 

The NSA informed United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who then urged then President Richard M. Nixon to initiate an aerial resupply operation to Israel, codenamed Nickel Grass, beginning on October 14th through November 14th, 1973.  

Kissinger swiftly made arrangements for the Israeli national airline, El Al to pick up some items, including ammunition, "high technology products" and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles at a U.S. naval base in Virginia. 

The Military Airlift Command of the United States Air Force shipped approximately 22,325 tons of supplies, including tanks, artillery, and ammunition, in multiple flights of C-141 Starlifters and C-5 Galaxys. 

During the beginnings of the resupply operation El Al's limited supply of ill-configured passenger aircraft were insufficient. Still wanting to avoid direct U.S. involvement, starting 10 October, the use of commercial carriers was explored to provide 10–20 flights a day.

None of these were willing to accept the job for fear of being refused entry to Arab nations after the war. Only Portugal seemed willing to help though, so aircraft were dispatched to Lajes Field in the Azores Islands and Lajes became a key staging point for the rest of the airlift. 

To comply with the demands of the cowardly European nations, even supplies already stored on US Bases in Europe were routed through Lajes. Soon over thirty aircraft per day were moving through Lajes.

So on 12 October, Nixon decided that no more delays could be allowed, and ordered the USAF to "send everything that can fly." Within nine hours, C-141s and C-5s were en route to Israel. 

In the opening days of the war, Arab forces destroyed significant numbers of IAF aircraft, surprising the Israelis with aggressive use of the new Soviet SA-6 Gainful SAMs. Consequently, at least 36 F-4 Phantom II fighters were sent to Israel under Nickel Grass.

The cowardly European nations continued to hamper the efforts of the USAF as traditional European allies refused to allow re-supply aircraft to land for refueling or even overfly their territory. Because of this cowardice Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) were the first to arrive at Lajes Air Base. 

The KC-135 Stratotankers had left Pease AFB, New Hampshire, the night of Saturday, 13 October (one of the bases El Al was using to re-supply the war effort); the tankers were ferrying factory-fresh Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and F-4 Phantom II aircraft flying non-stop from the factory in St. Louis, Missouri to Ben Gurion Airport where American pilots were swapped for their Israeli counterparts. 

After the replacement of USAF insignia with IAF insignia if needed, the planes were refueled and ordered to the front, often taking to the air within hours of having arrived. 

Some aircraft came directly from European bases and operated in USAF camouflage, but with Israeli insignia, thus earning the Israeli nickname "Frog". 

Thirty-six A-4 Skyhawks from U.S. stocks, staging from Lajes were refueled by SAC KC-135A tankers from Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire and U.S. Navy tankers from the USS John F. Kennedy west of the Straits of Gibraltar. 

They then flew on to the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt southeast of Sicily where they stayed overnight, then continued on to Israel refueling once more from tankers launched from the USS Independence south of Crete.

Additionally, twelve C-130E Hercules transports were also transferred to Israel, the first of the type to be delivered to the IAF.

Operation Nickel Grass had immediate and far-reaching effects. Arab members of OPEC had declared they would limit or stop oil shipments to the U.S. and other countries if they supported Israel in the conflict. Holding to their threats, the Arab states declared a complete oil embargo on the U.S.. Oil prices skyrocketed, fuel became scarce and the U.S. was soon embroiled in the 1973 oil crisis. 

Nickel Grass also revealed a severe deficiency in American airlift capabilities: the need for staging bases overseas. Without Portugal's assistance, the airlift might not even have been possible. As a result, the U.S. greatly expanded its aerial refueling capabilities and made long-distance flight operations the standard rather than the exception. 

A GAO study of the operation discussed the shortcomings of the C-141A. As a result, the C-141B was conceived. The A models were sent back to Georgia where they were cut fore and aft of the wing, extended in length by three pallet positions, and refitted for in-flight refueling. 

Nickel Grass vindicated the USAF decision to purchase the C-5 Galaxy. Since its introduction in 1970, the C-5 had been plagued by problems. The USAF claimed to have rectified the problems, but the C-5 was still viewed by the press as an expensive failure. During Nickel Grass, C-5s carried 48% of the total cargo in only 145 of the 567 total missions. The C-5 also carried "outsize" cargo such as M60 Patton tanks, M109 howitzers, ground radar systems, mobile tractor units, CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters and A-4 Skyhawk components, cargo that could not fit in smaller aircraft. This performance justified the C-5's existence

Truth and President Trump's plan

Regarding the motion of President Donald J Trump that "moving out the "residents of Gaza" is "Ethnic Cleansing".....Immediately those of the "Orangeman Bad" profound suffers leaped together with the apologists for the "Palestinians" to immediate scream down and belittle the plan as Trump's plant to convert Gaza into "Mar-a-Lago" 

I as a historian who writes according to DOCUMENTED HISTORICAL FACTs the REAL TRUTH DOES MATTER wish to state the TRUTH.

So in light of the "widespread destruction" in Gaza, together with the utterly hate filled villainy of the barbaric terrorist organization Hamas. Together with the dire need to "reeducate from the lie of the false "Nachba" narrative  and "DeHamasify".

Here is a reminder of HISTORICAL precedence worth noting:

In the immediate end of World War II millions were "Displaced Persons" lving in camps. Whole areas of Europe were laid waste ...

"The post World War II Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of communism."

Documented FACTs: 

1) The Gaza Strip is 41 km (25 mi) long, from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, and has a total area of 365 km2 (141 sq mi).[27][8] It has a 51 km (32 mi) border with Israel, and an 11 km (7 mi) border with Egypt, near the city of Rafah. Most of the original "Arab" inhabitants were from Egypt.

2) MOST of the refugees, residing in Gaza post 1948 were Bedouin from clans related to the "Al-Tirabin" clan which is considered the largest Bedouin tribe in the Negev and Sinai Peninsula and all Egypt, with over 500,000 people.

The Sinai Tarabin Bedouin migrated or settled down in Palestine, Egypt and Syria during Ottomon rule some around 300 years ago.

 3) The coastal area was INVADED, CONQUERED and OCCUPIED by the Arab League Member State of Egypt from 1947-1967, in open violation of the Mandate given by the League of Nations to the British Empire. 

2) Egypt created the All-Palestine government which was little more than a façade for Egyptian control, on 22 September 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, to govern the Egyptian-controlled territory in Gaza, which Egypt had on the same day declared as the All-Palestine Protectorate.

The President of the protectorate was: 

Haj Amin al-Husseini (The notorious Grand Mufti and "best bud" of Alois Schicklgruber (Adolph Hitler) and Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (Head of the SS) Heinrich Himmler), 

former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, and the Prime Minister was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha

With negligible independent funding or influence, the All-Palestine government subsequently moved to Cairo and dissolved in 1959 by decree of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser.

 3) "Arabs of the Mandated Areas" living in Gaza were issued All-Palestine passports. Egypt did not offer them citizenship and from the end of 1949, received aid directly from UNRWA. 

4) After the cessation of hostilities and the ratification of the Rhodes Armistice Agreement of 24 February 1949 a "Green Line" (Ceasefire Line) of separation between Egyptian and Israeli forces was created. 

This "Green Line" became the modern boundary between Gaza and Israel, which BOTH signatories declared not to be an international border. 

5) The area was part of the Mandated Area ‎to be ‎incorporated into the "Homeland of the Jews" and it was recognized as "Cestui sue trust" of the political rights to them in 1922 by 52 ‎countries at the San Remo conference in the Treaty of Sèvres and later ratified in the Treaty of Lausanne signed in the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland July 24th 1923. 

6) As such the "Mandated Area" that was offered to and never claimed by the "Arabs of the ‎‎Mandated Areas" in the partition plan to be the "State for the Arabs of the Mandated ‎‎Areas" or as they refer to themselves since 1964 as "Falestinians" became what is termed by International Law as "Terra Nullis" (land belonging to NO ONE)

‎7) With the negotiated peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979. The Mandated area for ‎‎the Jewish Homeland (Article 8 Mandate for Palestine) was returned and therefore the ‎‎‎"Gaza Strip" officially became Israeli territory as per International Law termed; Uti ‎possidetis juris or uti possidetis iuris (Latin for "as you possess under law") which is a principle ‎of international law that states that; "newly formed sovereign states should have the same ‎borders that their preceding dependent area had before their independence". 

A "Historical Note" 

Since the visitation of the Palestine Exploration Fund Survey of Palestine led at different times by four senior Royal Engineers: 

a) Captain Wilson (later Col. Sir Charles Wilson, who in 1885 led the final stage of the Nile Expedition);

b) Captain Warren (later General Sir Charles Warren, who in 1888 was the Commissioner of the London Police Force during the Jack the Ripper murder investigation); 

c) Lieutenant Conder (later Colonel Conder, who became a prolific author on Ancient Middle Eastern history, and almost a century after his death was accused of being Jack the Ripper); 

d) Lieutenant Kitchener (later Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, and the British Secretary of State for War at the beginning of World War I)

Nothing has changed...the "Arabs" have never improved the area known as the "Holy Land" cree Eretz Yisrael!

Historical perspective:

"' It is no idle dream to suppose that Palestine might, in a few years, become a land flowing with milk and honey ; even with the present inhabitants, under an upright Government, the land would in a short time change its appearance, and, as it is, the country has changed in parts to a small extent, due to the alteration in the Government, brought about by the influence of public opinion of the West asserting itself even in Syria. Look how those villages have begun to thrive which have been mortgaged to the Greek converts; and watch the cloud resting over the Christian village of Beit Jala in the autumn sun, with its groves of olives, while all around is the brazen sky."

' At present, however, Palestine — Philistia in particular — has not a tithe of the population that it would support ; its fruit trees are left to take care of themselves, its waters allowed to run underground instead of on the surface.

 The fact is, the bulk of the water reaches the ocean underground ; on coming into the plain it forms marshes and pools, and quietly sinks away, while the bed of the stream itself in the plain is merely a narrow ditch some 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep. You may leave the water at the commencement of the wady mouth, ride over the plain without seeing anything of it, and meet it again welling out of the ground close to the seashore, forming wide lagoons there. Now, if proper precautions were taken, were the people industrious, and the country cultivated and clothed again with trees, the waters, flowing in the ravines, might be conducted over the plains in the early summer months, and induce the rich soil to yield a second crop.

' The encroachment of sand is one of the most serious evils now to be dreaded on the coast of Palestine. Already Gaza and Ashdod are threatened, and nothing is done to arrest the enemy, though there is little doubt but that the danger might be averted by obliging the landed proprietors to take common action against their silent foe."

falestinian dezinformatsiya and Jesus

As Christmas time approaches so do the lies of the Haters of Israel and Zionism.

So to clarify here are the documented facts.

First Main Falestinian Lie #1

So… was Jesus a Jew or was he a Palestinian?-(Excerpt fron Article in Honest Reporting) by Emmanuel Miller 5th September 2019
For the benefit of anyone exposed to this false claim, a brief recap of history is in order:

Jesus was born in Judea, a client kingdom of the Roman Empire, and identified as a Jew. Jews living there at the time would most likely have described themselves as living in the Land of Israel. Anyone referring to “Palestine” in the first century C.E. would have earned themselves strange look, especially from the indigenous Aramaic-speaking Jews. The land was subject to all the religious laws in Judaism that apply in Land of Israel.

A century later, the area was renamed. After a Jewish revolt was crushed in the 2nd Century CE, the vast majority of Jews were exiled and the Roman emperor Hadrian subsequently had the region entitled “Syria Palestina” after the Jews’ ancient enemies, the Philistines, in an antagonistic move designed to demonstrate that the Jews were no longer owners of the land.

Put simply, an Aramaic-speaking Jew living a century before this change of name would never have called himself Palestinian.

Indeed, while the New Testament mentions Israel and the Jews repeatedly, Palestine is not mentioned even once. Take for example the second chapter of Matthew, which begins thus:

“Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews?’” “Indeed, it is believed that the cross above Jesus’ head bore the sign ‘INRI’ – ‘Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm,’ which means Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews in Latin.

As for Jesus’ appearance, while it’s hard to determine for certain how any specific individual would have appeared, some documentation does exist on what Jesus’ contemporaries would have looked like. The Jewish Mishna (Negaim 2:1) records one rabbi describing “The children of Israel – [may] I atone for them – are like cedar wood, neither black, nor white, but in between.”

The entrance of Arabs to the Holy Land occurred only some 700 years after Jesus was crucified, when Arab conquerors took the area. The people identifying as Palestinian today are Arab, and hence it is clear that Jesus, quite simply, was not a Palestinian or an Arab, but a Jew.

And NO!! Jesus was not a Philistine, either…
A variation of this claim, that Jesus was actually a Philistine, also features as a staple of anti-Israel propaganda, including the roundly debunked notion that Palestinians are actually Canaanites.

The idea that Palestinians are Philistines is equally false.

Unlike modern day Jews and Palestinians, the Philistines were an ancient, non-Semitic, sea-faring people, whose form of worship was unconnected to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

In other words, the Philistine ethnicity, culture and religion are all entirely different from that of modern day Palestinians.

The Philistine connection to the Israelites began when the former invaded and occupied a portion of the Kingdom of Israel in about 1000 BCE, but were later defeated by ancient Israel’s King David.

In roughly the seventh century BCE, the Philistines were conquered by the Kingdom of Babylonia and subsequently wiped out as a distinct culture.

In other words, in addition to being culturally, ethnically and religiously unrelated to Jews or Palestinians, the Philistines no longer exist.

Falestinian Lie #2

Linda Sarsour, once tweeted that Jesus is described in the Quran.
"Jesus was Palestinian of Nazareth and is described in the Quran as being brown copper skinned with wooly hair."

Yet, in truth, there is no description of the appearance of Jesus in the Quran.
However, in the Hadith Volume 4 Book 55 Number 648:

"The prophet said, "I saw Moses, Jesus and Abraham (on the night of my Ascension to the heavens).
Jesus was of red complexion, curly hair and a broad chest.
Moses was of brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature as if he was from the people of Az-Zutt."
(Az-Zutt-Arabicised form of Jat. - Originally inhabitants of lower Indus Valley (Pakistan), Jats were present in Mesopotamia from the 5th century AD since the times of the Sasanian Empire, although their main migration occurred after the establishment of Umayyad Caliphate.)

So according to Hadith Jesus was:
•Moderate height, he's not tall nor short
•Brown skinned with a white/red hue (especially his cheeks)
•Straight hair that reaches the shoulders
•Broad chest, thick muscled

Does the Torah mention Jesus?
Jesus as such, is not mentioned in the Torah. Postum factum and with a lot of grease, some passages are forcefully interpreted as if he is mentioned like many other “prophecies” that are made to fit later events. Foretelling the future in any shape or form is a practical impossibility as the future did not happen yet.

What is the quote from the Quran about Jesus?
Surat al-Imran (The Family of Imran) 3, verse 55 says, (And remember) when Allah said:
"O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing thee to ascend unto Me, and am cleansing thee of those who disbelieve and am setting those who follow thee above those who disbelieve."

Does Jesus appear in Islam?
Jesus, Mary, and the angel Gabriel are all prominent characters in the Qur'an (as are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and a bunch of other Bible characters). Muslims believe that Jesus (called “Isa” in Arabic) was a prophet of God and was born to a virgin (Mary).

And why was this? Well when one attempts -like Mohammed did - to make people believe in him he rewrote the Bible just as modern day falestinian dezinformatsiya.

The “art” of ex-Soviet brand dezinformatsiya presents known forged documents as genuine; invent ingenious but implausible reasons for distrusting genuine documents; attribute false conclusions to books and sources that report the opposite; manipulate statistics to support their given point of view; and deliberately mis-translate texts.

So know the truth and see through the falsehoods in accordance with fact or reality.

My "War Diary" "Home Alone" now 380 Days...and counting.

What is on my mind?META asks ...

As I am an old man, a father of grown children who have moved away. A grandpa, a "baby boomer" soon to be 72 years old relic of a time gone by. I sleep with a CPAP mask connect to my oxygen generator. The sounds of both machines and the mask drown out my PTSD sleep inhibitors and I thankfully fall into that desired REM sleep...

 When I finally awaken due to the call of nature. I perform the required "duties". After I dress I proceed to go downstairs to take my medicine and drink my morning cup of coffee.

As I went to the refrigerator to get my insulin and the milk for my coffee. I saw that the drawings that my third son Natanel's daughter, my second granddaughter Shira Rachel my "Shirush" had made with joy and love for her Savta -as evidence of her dedication to her.

After I took my insulin and medicine and placed the insulin and milk in the fridge. I rearranged the magnets to hold her drawings.

 I have not seen my "local granchildren" for several days now as they have stopped coming by since the the daughter in laws parents moved to the same apartment complex as where my son and his wife live.

In some way it is better since they have a secure room, cable wide screen TV and of course a Sephardic Morrocan grandmother who loves to bake "goodies" ;-)

The house -our home- stands empty and cold.

When I washed the floors this morning there were no more traces of "Love fibers" from the recently "departed" beloved family dog "Marley" only dust.

I rarely go out into my backyard garden now. When I do I pass my array of gardening tools and lawn mower on the porch to hang my wash to dry on the clothesline. The grass has all dried up as I have not watered it to save on the cost of water. I haven't "visited" the lower portion in months.

As for the front, I used to be the caring neighbor who always swept and cleaned the front pathway in front of our apartment building.

Now, I no longer feel like doing it. My neighbor who has lived next door with his family passed away. Like me their children have all moved away. Only his wife remains.

My other neighbor, a Russian pianist went back to live with her daughter in the Ukraine, her Amidar apartment vacant. Next to her is an apartment in contention between sons as their mother died leaving her apartment vacant. Above her lives a young couple with a son and a daughter the husband a career non-commisioned officer is away on duty. Rachel works in the local super market in the old city center walking distance not far way.

The municipality clening wokers rarely clean and now the front pathway in front of our apartment building is full of leaves and trash.

 As part of the ritual of throwing out the meager house trash I only clean the front entrance now. Of my once pampered house plants in the entrance only seven plants are still alive. The rest died and I saved the pots but threw away the dead plants and earth.

I cleaned the dust from the upstairs porch and swept and mopped the rooms upstairs.

Since it is cold at night and it poured a few days ago I have closed the windows at night. Out of necessity and to save electricity I leave the hot water boiler on for an hour each night.

I finally enter "my room", divided into two small sections by five steps. A lower portion with my clothes and my easel, next to it the "space" I made with shelves for my brushes and paint. I use the hand rail that I made from wood to help me climb the steps.  

I pass the CPAP and the Oxygen generator and my bed and I am now able to rest in my computer chair. I turn on my computer and read my mail and send greetings to my children and my wife who moved to be near my daughter and to help care for my grandson more than a year ago.

No fan, no AC, since when the windows are open it is cool and pleasant. Which regretfully allows the sounds of war; the sounds of artillery firing, the explosions of Hezbollah rockets or mortar rounds and the Tamir Interceptors.

By the all too familiar sounds it is clear that we have Apache gunships stationed above our area looking for Iranian made Hezbollah drones.

 My combat experienced ears pick up the familiar and well known sound of CH-53I Shilorsky Helicopter transports and "Blawkhawks" flying back and forth into and out of Lebanon. I even disguish the sound of low flying C-130 transport planes as they drop supplies to the troops inside.

I feel the concussions, as my trained ears percieve, the sounds of explosions, from a distance, inside Lebanon.

I place my cellphone to recharge to the left of me on the desk I have set the Red Alert notifications to vibrate, so as to warn me of a threat as some 100 Iranian made Hezbollah rockets have been fired this morning alone.

Out of habit I go to read the news --"IDF says it hits Hezbollah intelligence command post, underground arms factory.  Members of the Likud blast opposition leaders for not condemning ‘Iranian assassination attempt’ of PM. Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem fled Lebanon and is now living in Tehran — report."

And oh, golly gee seeing this story I feel the “Love” of the Democratic Presidential Nominee…During a talk in Milwaukee on Thursday Kamala Harris "appears to say" Israel is committing genocide in Gaza...

"Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real. It’s real. That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real, and I respect his voice."

The story as it was reported:

“In the videos circulated on social media on Saturday evening, Kamala Harris can be seen addressing a group of students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before being interrupted by a student who asks her to speak about "the genocide"  in Gaza.

Harris tells the students she is "so invested" in them before being interrupted by the student who says, "And in genocide, right? Billions of dollars in genocide you invested in?"

In response, Harris said she respected the student's right to speak. "I respect your right to speak. I'm speaking right now, I know what you're speaking of. I want the ceasefire. I want the war to end." 

The male student, who is wearing a keffiyeh, continues to ask her about the genocide while pushing through the crowd towards Harris.

Harris then gestures to the student as he is escorted out of the room by security and says to the crowd, "Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real. It’s real. That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real, and I respect his voice."

UWM Police removed the heckler, who was cited for disorderly conduct, according to a university spokesperson.

'Gives credence to blood libel'

Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told the New York Post that Harris had just "publicly validated the false and vicious accusation that Israel is engaging in genocide.” 

“Many, including myself, always suspected that she held this warped, antisemitic view of Israel’s self-defense against Hamas barbarism. But the cat is now out of the bag,” he said to the US outlet on Saturday.

“Her view is as ignorant as it is malign. … To give credence publicly to this disgusting blood libel disqualifies Harris from holding any public office, let alone the presidency,” he added.

The heckler was seemingly affiliated with the group UW-Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine Coalition, which posted a video on their Instagram, joint with National SJP.

Alongside the video, the group wrote that they had staged a massive student protest of Harris's talk at four locations outside the hall, and that a student had interrupted the talk.

"When exiting the event, her motorcade was forced to pass right by all of the protesters," the statement added.

This was corroborated by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which said that Harris' motorcade drove past pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus before she arrived at the meeting at Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, which journalists were not allowed to attend.

According to social media reports, some of the pro-Palestine protesters outside the event refused to move away and lay on the ground.”

Ah yes Amerika….but of course “WE” in Israel are too blame for “ALL” the misery in the world…Well I will say “adios Amigo’s” I am turning to my Red Dead Redemption 2 because the real world sux big time.