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In a discussion about science and education, together with a list of countries like Japan and Singapore, I mentioned the name Israel. And all of a sudden, by mentioning the unmentionable name I seemed to have triggered a response like no other. Never in my blog life did I encounter such strong response, not when I talked about drugs, prostitution, human slavery or harvesting organs from prisoners. Why is that?

Let’s look at some facts. Israel’s birth was in war. Like most other wars it’s controversial, and there are numerous viewpoints and interpretations of the events. Undoubtedly both sides had their fair share of atrocities. Yet, no other birth of a nation has created such hatred.

Nowadays the existence of Israel is a fact. None of those who took part in the birth of the country is in a position of power any more. Most of them are dead. So even those who feel that the birth of Israel was in sin must admit that most living Israelis had nothing to do with the birth of their country. Yet they are our target of hatred.

There is no doubt that the Arab-Israeli conflict is ugly. No doubt that this has been a horrible war that both sides committed atrocities. But there is also little doubt that either side is solely at blame. The situation is rather hopeless, and no one, absolutely no one has a solution. Yet, we hate Israel.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is far from being the bloodiest conflict in the world. It’s far from having the worse record of atrocities. Let’s look at some numbers (all taken from the Historical atlas of 20th century Matthew White):

The total death toll of the Israeli Arab conflict in over 100 years claimed about 60,000 people, out of which 6,000 Arabs were killed in the 40 years of occupation. It’s a horrible number indeed. However, in the same period 83 million people were killed as a result of tyranny and genocide. That is Israel has been responsible for 0.07% of all such killings, even though it’s population is 0.1% of the world population. Not so bad for a country in a state of war. During the same period:

In China 40 m were killed under Mao
In Russia 20 m under Stalin
Sudan conflict has consumed 225,000
Somalia 400,000
Romania 150,000
Cambodia 225,000
Algeria 100,000 (fundamentalist Moslem insurrection only, not including the Algerian war)
Kurdistan 300,000
Liberia 150,000
Angola 550,000
Philippines 50,000

Not that any of these numbers justify the Arab-Israeli war, but one must wonder why the hatred in the street is focused on Israel rather than on Algeria or Angola.

How come Israeli scholars are banned from many English academic conferences unless they condemn their government policies? Why don’t we have similar p from Burmese or Sudanese scholars, for instance? And why, when any Muslim decides to detonate a bomb anywhere in the world, let it be London or Bali calls against Israel can be heard in the street?

Is it because blaming the bomber can lead to more religious hatred, and more bombs, while it’s safe to blame Israel? After all, no bomb, suicide bomber, airplane hijacking by an Israeli has ever taken place?

Let’s not forget that in London it the Polish were at fault when they were first occupied by Hitler. Is it possible that we still hold the same views?