Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(January 2002)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
The Palestinian situation - Part Two
A personal story that may be of interest to you.
A number of years ago I was a guest at a dinner party of
around a dozen people in Long Beach, California.
 My
next-door neighbors, who were of the Jewish persuasion,
gave this dinner party.
We imbibed freely over dinner and the conversation, (incidentally
not initiated by me, seeing that I was the only Gentile
at the table), turned to the subject of the Holocaust and
the State of Israel.
One of the guests asked me, somewhat naively, if I was aware
of the Holocaust.
 I
answered that not only was I was aware of the “Kristal
Nacht” purge of the Jews in pre-World War Two Germany,
but added that in 1945, I personally visited a concentration
camp at Buchenwald.
I also informed the gentleman that although I didn’t
have a number tattooed on my forearm, I did have the gefangener
number: Zwei und Achtsich--Zwei hundert Drie, (sp), (82--203),
inscribed upon a name tag which hung around my neck.
I still have the original.
This sobered the gentleman very quickly.
I then thought why not take the opportunity to expand this
conversation a little further, so I asked a question of
the assembly,
“By the way, how many of the people present have
visited the Promised Land”. The answer astounded
me-a big fat zero!
Then the previous questioner determined to get his own
back said,
“I suppose that you have been there”.
I just nodded my head in the affirmative and smiled, and
immediately turned the conversation over to more pleasant
topics.
From that moment on I was treated with kid gloves and with
much respect.
A brief history of Israel.
The Canaanites were the earliest known inhabitants of Palestine
and were followed by the Hebrew tribes around 1230 BC who
held power until 539 BC and were then conquered by the Persians.
Alexander the Great took over the region in 333 BC and
it became a Roman Province.
Muslim Arab Armies invaded Palestine in 638 AD and ruled
for 1300 years.
In 1880 Arab Palestinians constituted 95% of the population.
 The
Ottoman Turks appeared upon the scene in 1517 and ruled
Palestine until 1917 when the British, aided by the Arabs
took over.
The Balfour declaration of 1917 promised the Jews a national
homeland in Palestine and a mandate was created to police
and control immigration into Palestine.
The State of Israel was established on the 14th of May 1948.
I am given to understand that Mr. Winston Churchill was
a prime supporter of the Jewish Lobby.
I believe that Aldous Huxley, when talking about Jerusalem
said,
“To understand why men still kill in the name of
God, come to Jerusalem, holy of holies, the slaughterhouse
of the religions”.
The patriotic English hymn speaks of building Jerusalem
in England’s green and pleasant land.
See how lucky you are to have been spared the centuries
of religious bias and war - or have you. !!!
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