1. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Myths and Facts about the Middle East conflict Ben-Dror Yemini Israel is described as the great menace to the world peace. One must ask why. This presentation is divided to 3 parts: 1. What do public figures say about Israel. 2. What do public opinion polls reveal about Israel. 3. What are the facts about Israel. We could present plenty of negative views against Israel, mainly by academics from Jews and non-Jews, though here we present them in a nutshell. When I say expressions against Israel, I don’t mean any legitimate criticism against Israel, the occupation, and so on. I mean only something irrational, exaggerated, that demonstrates a kind of obsession against Jews and Israel, together and separately.

2. Ottoman Empire Territorial Division James Parkes, Whose Land? A History of the Peoples of Palestine

3. Historical Palestine

4. The Partition Plan (1947) – The Green Line (1948-1967)

5. Arab Countries versus Israel

6. Israel versus the Arab & Muslim world

7. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Yitzhak Laor, an Israeli poet, and a regular contributor to Haaretz London Review of Books”, 9.5.2002 : London Review of Books”, 9.5.2002 “Gas chambers are not the only way to destroy a nation. It is enough to develop high rates of infant mortality”

8. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com The World Bank: infant mortality, West Bank & Gaza Strip

9. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Jose Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning writer (12.4.02):12.4.02 "What is happening in Palestine is a crime as what happened at Auschwitz"

10. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Jostein Gaarder (author of "Sophie's World“) (5.9.06):5.9.06 “We call child murderers 'child murderers‘ … We do not recognize the state of Israel [to exist]”

11. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com QUOTES Clare Short, former minister in Blair government, the British Labor party (13.9.07):13.9.07 “The oppression of the Palestinian people is the major cause of violence in the world” As part of her obsession, Ms. Short charged: "Israel undermines the international community's reaction to global warming"

12. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Arun Ghandi, grandson of India’s legendary leader “Mahatma” Gandhi (7.1.08):(7.1.08): “We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity”

13. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Gideon Levy, a leading Israeli Journalist (Haaretz): “They shoot at the Palestinians, Straight at the head, on a daily basis” ”THE INDEPENDENT”, 24.9.2010

14. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (11.1.10):(11.1.10): “Israel threatening global peace”

15. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com ISRAEL’S IMAGE IN WORLD MEDIA."

16. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

17. Germany A 2004 comprehensive poll, German University of Bielefeld reveals:A 2004 comprehensive poll, German University of Bielefeld reveals More than 50% equating Israel's policies toward the Palestinians with Nazi treatment of the Jews 68% specifically believe that Israel is waging a "war of extermination" against the Palestinian People.

18. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Italy The Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera conducted a survey to ascertain anti-Semitic attitudes and public opinion on the Israeli conflict.Il Corriere della Sera conducted a survey Close to 40% agreed with the statement that: “ The Israeli government is perpetrating a full-fledged genocide and is acting with the Palestinians the way the Nazis did with the Jews."

19. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Norway The Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities. Data were collected in November 2011 by TNS GallupData were collected in November 2011 by TNS Gallup “38% believe that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is similar to Nazi treatment of the Jews during World War II "

20. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com The BBC poll: A majority of people believe that Israel has the most negative influence in the world. BBC, 2008

21. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com The 2012 BBC poll: BBC, 2012 BBC, 2012

22. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com The real Genocide Thousands of publications include the words “genocide” and/or “ethnic cleansing”, while describing Israel. Much fewer publications deal with the internal, continuing and much bigger genocide, which is taking place in the Arab and or the Muslim world. While Intellectuals, journalists, academics, put all the blame on Israel, Muslims and Arabs kill mainly, and almost only, their fellow Muslims and Arabs. The numbers are astonishing.

23. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com The real Genocide In order to defy the argument, or the quite common assertion, that Israel is the main cause of violence in the Middle-East, we will present here the death toll, among Arabs and Muslims, only since the foundation of Israel.

24. WORLD FATALITIES 40,000,000China (1949-1975) 3,000,000Korean War (1950-53) 1,350,000Rwanda and Burundi (1959-95) 4,200,000Second Indochina War (1960-75) 3,800,000Congo (1998 et seq.) 2,000,000Ethiopia (1962-92) 1,650,000Cambodia, Khmer Rouge (1975-1978) 1,000,000Nigeria (1966-70) … … … 86,000,000Total After the Second War World

25. MUSLIM & ARAB WORLD FATALITIES 400,000-1,000,000Algeria (1954-1962) 100,000-150,000Yemen Civil War (1962-1975) 1,400,000-3,000,000Bangladesh (1971) 80,000-130,000Chechnya Wars (1995, 1999) 1,900,000Sudan Genocide (Nuba 1983-2003) 100,000-200,000Algeria Civil War 900,000-1,400,000Iraq-Iran War (1980-1989) 400,000Somalia Civil war (since 1977) 130,000Lebanon Civil War (1975-1990) 2,500,000Afghanistan Wars (1979-2001) 200,000-400,000Darfur Genocide (2003-2008) 12,000,000Total

26. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com DEATH TOLL (MUSLIMS & ARABS)

27. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com PROPORTION The no. of Palestinians who were killed during more than 40 years of occupation is: Less than the no. of Palestinians killed by King Hussein of Jordan in the “Black September”, 1970 – 10,000-25,000. Less than 25,000, the death toll in the 1982 Hama massacre in Syria carried out against Muslims by Hafez al-Assad. Less than the no. of Bosnian Muslims killed in a single massacre perpetrated by Serbs in 1991 at Srebrenica, in which over 8,000 murders were committed.

28. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

29. 1912-1995 BALKANS 7,000,000 1948 INDIA-PAKISTAN 14,000,000 1984-1994 Armenia- Azerbaijan 1,050,000 1974 CYPRUS 25O,000 1941-1943 FINLAND (KARELIA) 600,000

30. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com India Pakistan During the foundation of India, 1948, the just born entity separated to 2 states, according to religious lines. The violence that erupted caused not only a huge number of casualties, but also a transfer of 7 millions of Hindus, from Pakistan, and the same number of Muslims, from India. 7,000,000 Hindus from Pakistan to India 14,000,000

31. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Balkans 7,000,000 Endless waves of population exchanges, began in 1912 and 1915, and then a big wave following WW1, 1923, that took place under some regional settlements. The last wave was during the 90 ’s. Fridtjof Nansen, who initiated the population exchange between Turkey and Greece, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

32. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Germans 12,000,000 Following World War II, ethnic Germans were forced to leave all the neighboring countries. Most of them as a result of post-war agreements, like Yalta and Potsdam.

33. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Sudan Since the foundation of Sudan, the civil war, mainly between the Arab-Muslim north and the south, has never stopped. The last wave is the genocide, and ethnic cleansing, in Darfur. 3,000,000

34. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Poland-Ukraine The multi-ethnic area at the eastern border of Poland caused several waves of population exchanges, mainly following the 2 world wars. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to move. 1,400,000

35. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Armenia- Azerbaijan The majority of Azerbaijan is MUSLIM. But the majority in Nagorno-Karabakh region was Armenian Christian. In 1988, this semi-autonomous region sought to be joined to Armenia. That request triggered widespread killings of Muslims in Armenia and Armenians in Azerbaijan. Fighting ended with a ceasefire in 1994, but the conflict gave rise to one million new refugees: 740,000 Muslims fled Armenia for Azerbaijan, and 360,000 Armenians made the opposite direction. 1,000,000 360,000 Armenians to Armenia 740,000 Muslims to Azerbaijan

36. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Cyprus in 1974, Turkish forces invaded the island. As a result of the invasion, Cyprus was divided into two halves: one Greek and the other Turkish. 200,000 ethnic Greeks moved to the Greek-controlled half of the island, and 50,000 Turkish MUSLIMs moved to the Turkish part of the island 250,000 200,000 Greeks to the south 50,000 Muslims to the north

37. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Winston Churchill Winston Churchill was convinced that the only way to alleviate tensions between populations was the transfer of people, to match the national borders. As he stated in a speech to the House of Commons in 1944:speech to the House of Commons in 1944 “ Expulsion is the method which will be the most satisfactory and lasting. Expulsion is the method which will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble… A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by these transferences I am not alarmed by these transferences ”

38. POPULATION TRANSFERS IN EUROPE 1944-1951: 20,000,000 Prof. Joseph Schechtman

39. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Israel-Arab, Jews a nd Palestinians 711,000 Arabs to the neighboring countries 850,000 Jews from the Arab countries

40. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

41. Jews in Maabara (Refugees Camp) 1951

42. POPULATION EXCHANGES 1913-1995

43. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com ARAB LANDS Algeria 2,381,741919,59518.10% Saudi Arabia 2,149,690830,00016.40% Sudan 1,861,484718,72314.20% Libya 1,759,540679,36011.40% Mauritania 1,025,520395,9607.80% Egypt 1,002,000387,0007.60% Somalia 637,657246,2014.90% Yemen 527,968203,8504.00% Morocco 446,550172,4103.40% Iraq 435,244168,0493.30% Oman 309,500119,5002.40% Syria 185,18071,5001.40% Tunisia 163,61063,1701.20% Jordan 89,34234,4950.70% United Arab Emirates 83,60032,3000.60% Djibouti 23,2009,0000.10% Kuwait 17,8186,8800.10% Qatar 11,5864,4730.08% Lebanon 10,4524,0360.08% Palestine 6,0202,3200.05% Comoros 2,2358630.01% Bahrain 7582930.01% 13,130,695 13,130,195 sq km

44. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com ARAB LANDS 13,130,195 sq km 20,770 sq km 340,000,000 People 3,400,000 People

45. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com REFUGEES The UN has two agencies: United Nations Relief and Works Agency) United Nations High Commission for Refugees)

46. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com WHO IS A REFUGEE? UNHCR Every person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality UNRWA Palestine refugees are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict

47. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com THE PARADOX OF UNRWA UNRWAUNHCR helps people to preserve their refugee status helps people out of their refugee status Status of refugee is given to all offspring Status of refugee is not given to all offspring refugee status is not dependent on economic condition refugee status is dependent on economic condition

48. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com THE PARADOX OF UNRWA UNHCR “Helped 50,000,000 people to restart their life” They are not refugees anymore” http://www.unhcr.org.ua/main.php?article_id=4&view=full UNRWA 711,000 refugees in 1948 The number now is (according to UNRWA) 5,000,000 http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=47 http://www.unhcr.org.ua/main.php?article_id=4&view=full

51. The Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Saleh ed-Din: In demanding the restoration of the refugees to Palestine, the Arabs intend that they shall return as the masters … More explicitly: they intend to exterminate the state of Israel” Alexander Galloway, UNRWA official 1951-52: “The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore … as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die” Refugee conference in Homs, Syria, 1957: “… any discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestine problem which will not based on ensuring the refugees' right to annihilate Israel will be regarded as desecration of the Arab people and an act of treason” The Arab League, 1959, Resolution 1457:Resolution 1457 “The Arab countries will not grant citizenship to applicants of Palestinian origin in order to prevent their assimilation into the host countries” Egypt’s President, Gamal Abdul Nasser, 1960: “If the refugees return to Israel, Israel will cease to exist”

52. 1.After the UN partition resolution, and the total rejection of the resolution by the Arab side, the Arabs officially declared no less than an extermination war against the just-born Israel. Israel was lucky to win, with a high price of 6,000 casualties, one percent of its population. 2. Palestinians were forced out. Of course. But that’s precisely what happened in every conflict at the 40 th. Singling out this fact is a moral distortion. Because that was the accepted and prevailed norm of the time. 3. And even more important, is the forgotten fact about this population exchange: a bigger number of Jews fled, or were forced to flee, the Arab countries. 4. Arabs were forced out because they declared a war of extermination. Jews in the Arab world never declared war. They were forced out only because they were Jews.

53. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com International perspective ROR At 1974, 200,000 Greeks deported from the northern side of Cyprus, following the invasion of Turkey. From any perspective, they have more rights from the Palestinians. They didn’t declare war, and so on. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan devised a proposal in 2004. The proposal was rejected by the Greeks. But more important are the guidelines of the plan, that were backed by the international community: 1.Only Greeks over a certain age can practically return to their old property. 2.The quota of returnees will be limited, and even then, only on condition that they not constitute more than a certain percentage from the Turkish population, and no more than a certain percentage in any particular area. 3.The returnees will not be granted with civil rights in the Turkish part, and they will be allowed to apply for citizenship only after 7 years of domicile. Had Israel accepted such a proposal, it would have had to export Palestinians rather than bring them back for the simple reason that Palestinians constitute over 20% of Israel's population.

54. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com Prof. John Mearsheimer ( The co-author, with Prof. Stehphen M. Walt, the controversial and bestseller book: “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”) “… ethnically homogeneous states must be created… We should create a Bosnian stateethnically homogeneous states must be created peopled almost exclusively by Muslims, a Croatian state for Croatians and a Serbian state made up mainly of Serbians. Creating homogeneous states would require drawing new borders and transferring populations. Croatians, Muslims and Serbians would have to concede territory and move people” (NYT, 31.3.93)NYT, 31.3.93

55. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com The fact is that multiethnic states don’t survive in Europe. If you look all over Europe in the 20th century, what you see is lots of examples of multiethnic states breaking apart and being replaced by ethnically homogeneous states. And when they break apart, they usually break apart in a very bloody fashion. This is regrettable but true. Consider Poland. It used to have lots of Jews, Germans, Belarusians, Ukrainians. They’re basically all gone. Poland is now full of Poles. That is for the best. When I hear Americans saying how wonderful it is that Germans are moving back into Poland, I ask myself, what world are these people living in? If the Clinton administration had been around in 1918 instead of the Woodrow Wilson administration, it probably would have tried to hold the Austro- Hungarian Empire together. It probably would have tried to hold the Ottoman Empire together. What about the Soviet Union, another multiethnic empire? That’s gone. Czechoslovakia? That’s gone. (conference about liberty and peace, 1999)

56. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

57. Lord Peel Commission - 1937 The Partition Resolution - 1947 The Khartoum Decision (Arab League) - 1967 The Bill Clinton Proposal - 2000 The Arab Initiative - 2002 The Olmert Proposal - 2008

58. “If we lose this opportunity, it is not going to be a tragedy. This is going to be a crime " The New Yorker" March 24, 2003

59. The Clinton Proposal “The deal was so good I couldn’t believe anyone would be foolish enough to let it go … Arafat’s rejection of my proposal after Barak accepted it was an error of historic proportions…” Bill Clinton, “My Life”, 2005, 936-946

60. Condoleezza Rice “No Higher Honor”, 2011 Condoleezza Rice, about the Olmert proposal: BEST. DEAL. EVER May 2008, Abu-Mazen: “I can’t tell four million Palestinians that only five thousand of them can go home”

61. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

62. Condoleezza Rice “No Higher Honor”, 2011 Condoleezza Rice, about the Olmert proposal: BEST. DEAL. EVER The President took Abbas into the Oval Office alone and appealed to him to reconsider. Abbas stood firm and the idea died ”

63. The Olmert Proposal: Mahmoud Abbas: large-scale resettlement of refugees

64. The Olmert Proposal: “In the West Bank we have a good reality... the people are living a normal life"

65. The People Voice Initiative: Sari Nusseibeh: “Palestinian refugees will return only to the State of Palestine”

66. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

67. “ Kill the Jews ” (the Grand Mufti with Hitler) 1941

68. The Hamas Charter, Article 17 "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Muslim) Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

69. HAMAS LEADER: “ THE EXPULSION OF THE INVADERS, FROM THE JORDAN TO THE SEA”

70. Abbas Zaki:

71. When we say that the settlement should be based upon the borders of June 4, 1967, President [Abbas] understands, we understand, and everybody knows that the greater goal cannot be accomplished in one go. If Israel withdraws (to the 67 borders- B.Y) – what will become of Israel? It will come to an end. [...] If one says that one wants to wipe Israel out... C'mon, it's too difficult. It's not [acceptable] policy to say so. Don't say these things to the world. Keep it to yourself. (Fatah Central Committee Member Abbas Zaki, Al-Jazeera Sep. 2011)Fatah Central Committee Member Abbas Zaki, Al-Jazeera Sep. 2011

72. Palestinian Authority Mufti (Highest religious authority at Fatah event, Jan. 15, 2012): “Muslims' destiny is to kill Jews” Moderator at Fatah event: “Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs (i.e., Jews) is a war of religion and faith"

73. AHMEDINJAD – “DEATH TO ISRAEL”

74. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com HAMAS: “ KILL THE JEWS, THE CHRISTIANS, THE COMUNISTS, TO THE LAST ONE”

75. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

76. HAMAS: “ KILL THE JEWS, THE CHRISTIANS, THE COMUNISTS, TO THE LAST ONE”

77. HAMAS – IN THEIR VOICES

78. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

79. ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT* Article 7 Crimes against humanity 1. For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of persons; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. “The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime”

80. The Apartheid Lie

83. Moshe Katsav, the eight president of Israel, was sent to 7 years in jail George Kara, The Presiding Judge

84. According to the Democracy Index 2011, nearly 53 percent of Israeli Arabs are “Proud to be Israelis”“Proud to be Israelis” The survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute

85. 42 percent of Jerusalem Arabs say they would try to move to Israel if their neighborhood became part of a new Palestinian state These findings are from a survey sponsored by The Washington Institute and conducted by Palestinian pollster Dr. Nabil Kukali of the Bethlehem-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), in partnership with the Princeton-based Pechter Middle East PollsPrinceton-based Pechter Middle East Polls

86. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

87. FLOTILA TO GAZA

88. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com

90. IRAQ, FALUJJAH 2004 (1,200) 2,000-6,000 ISRAEL: CAST LEAD 2009 (700) 500-700 PAKISTAN SWAT VALLEY 2009 (1,200) 6,000 THE SECOND CHCHEN WAR 1999-2001 30,000-100-000 SRI-LANKA 2009 10,000-40,000 THE FIRST CHCHEN WAR 1994-1996 50,000-200,000 NATO-KOSOVO WAR 1999 (500) 1,100-2,500

91. BATTLES DEATH TOLL (COMBTANTS & CIVILIANS)

93. Ben-Dror Yemini bdyemini@gmail.com GOLDSTONE C: “ If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different report ” (Washington Post,Washington Post, April 1, 2011April 1, 2011)