this is how history is written

This is how history is written

By David Verveer

This story is based on fictional reality, or in other words, similar types of incidents have happened, however this one did but was used in order to explain to the outsider, how he is fed with propaganda and lies (without any possibility to discover the real truth). In fact, those untrue tragedies happen daily in the on-going struggle between the Palestinians and the Israelis, some with grains of truth, as reported from one side, but all, without exception told in such a manner, that the criminal and cruel manner of behavior, as related by the accusing side, and in most cases, every story has two entire different interpretations.

The messenger (the reporter journalist who brought the story to the news media) is already brain-washed, or in such extends, opinioned, that the version of the story published from the other side, is totally ignored and discarded as pure propaganda. The problem remains of course, that, due to the noise and the impact of the story on the western media, this story becomes factual history, and one of the sides is blamed for terrible crimes, which in most cases, never eve took place.

Please remember that such incidents do occur daily, and most probably the reader could not care less what and who is guilty and what really happened, as those stories are part of a propaganda strategy fought on both sides. To be fair to the reporter, there is no sure and true way to report events in the Middle East, clean of influencing public opinion. Every event can be translated in such manner, that this side is innocent and the other side looks bad.

In order to explain the power of creating a one sided incident, I borrow a story which happened only two days ago, not related at all to the Middle East Conflict, but with many aspects which could be interpreted differently. First of all, the facts (in so far we know it), a women in her fifties, crossed a highway, at a place were pedestrians are not allowed to pass, and was hit by a car, and killed on the spot. The driver, who did not comprehend what had happened to him and the car, manage to stop the vehicle about 100 meters from the accident, his front window totally smashed. To complicate the matters, the driver is nearly blind, and because his eye site, never received a driver license. As it took him a while to get the car to stop, and to walk back to the place of the accident, his behaviour could be translated in "hit and run", especially as he knew, they would ask him immediately for his driver license. Would it have been an ordinary driver, he would not been charged with anything, as the woman crossed where crossing is not permitted. Would the driver have been an Arab; manslaughter would have been the minimum charge, besides suicide terroristic act. In the last case, the driver being an Arab, his side's reporter would tell us about the terrible conditions of the drivers family, and the poor man, who had to drive 10 / 20 kilometers every time to bring his young daughter, who suffers from a rare type of cancer, back from hospital, home, even though, the hospital is only 5 minutes away from his house on the western site of the separation wall, between east (where he lives) and west Jerusalem.

The other side would tell us that the driver was a Jewish hero, who is losing his eyesight being an innocent by-stander in a terrorist attack a few years back, who came from the hospital were he serves as volunteer. At that time of the night there are no busses or taxies to reach home, not realizing his night blindness.
But based on recent happenings in Jerusalem, we could aggravate the story, claiming that the Arab terrorist intended to kill Jews, and his blindness was only a cover-up for his real intentions, and on the other side, the heroic woman threw herself in front of the car in order to prevent a greater disaster, as she understood the real purpose of the driver, to kill as many Jews as possible (at the next bus-stop).

Luckily, the driver is a Jew, thus his house will not be destroyed, the woman is dead, and nobody knows why she crossed the road at that spot. The story will never reach the foreign press, as it doesn't contain this very important element of hate needed to make it interesting reading, but if it does, please remember my warning, you are being manupilated!

how to win a war

How to win a war?

By David Verveer

We first of all have to admit, wars are bad, and many innocent people die or suffer and lose everything they ever possessed. Everybody knows this and agrees to this, but her in Israel (all great believers in peace, the most popular word in our language) seem to get into wars every two to five years, not because we want something of our neighbors, besides living in peace, but we fight order to defend our citizens, a duty of any sovereign state in the world.

The second point is, if going to war, you have to be stronger than your enemy, and win the war or else you lose everything, as nations like ours have no alternative, we finally returned after 2000 years, and losing the war, which is what our opponents intent, means fleeing back to the original countries, from where we or our ancestors fled (after the holocaust), who are far from anxious to take us back.

But this is simplifying a very complex situation in "the modern media" fought skirmishes, in which clever propaganda masters use the internet and media, by picturing events in a false light, capable of manipulating heroic and humanistic behaviour into defeat, cruelty and homicide.

There is no doubt that the last action in Gaza of the Israeli army against a small group of Islamic terrorists (Hamas) was a military victory for Israel, in which it accomplished in hurting the Hamas, temporary reduce he missile bombardment of the south, and even slow down the re-arming efforts of smuggling through tunnels coming from the Egyptian Sinai dessert.

But which value has a military victory in our days, when our brave enemies have the World Press in their pocket, and every reporter, reporting from the Israeli border, received from their Palestinian counterparts, living in Gaza, reports showing Israel's cruelties, even though, in most cases proven incorrect by the Israeli videos, but who believes those blood thirsty Jews, a father with a dead child in his hand, is much better propaganda material, than a very sophisticated video film, taken by an unmanned Israeli airplane. The very few Palestinians who dared to tell the visiting Press (after the war) the truth about Hamas' behaviour and that of the Israelis, were / are treated extremely humane by the Hamas, after they reappeared from their safe hiding places (underneath the hospital), they shoot the Palestinians who talked in the legs, as they are enemies of the Islam, (see video by the French television).

This war shows again how the world reacts against anything Israel does, who really wants to know the truth. The world is talking about an unbalanced power struggle, with more than 1300 Palestinian death and only 13 Israelis, that is unfair, we should have given them a fair chance to kill some more Israelis, and so what, 8 years of bombing innocent Israelis can not be compared with the havoc created in the strip, with those modern planes, tanks and artillery. I see it as a kind of Anti-Semitism, as we did not see the same reactions when Russia dealt with Chechnya, or NATO in Bosnia, not to forget our allies, the USA in Afghanistan or Iraq.

But what could you care, seeing the war in Gaza is an entertaining event, just as the Obama's swearing in a few days later. The talkback fighters in the cyber press were able to give air to their intelligent and informed opinions, some bordering
Anti-Semitism, blaming Israel for everything which has gone wrong in the last 400 years (some even used arguments older than 2000 years), only a few took the Israeli side of the argument. Funny anough, most Dutch talkbacks in comparison with the Belgium's Flemish opinions were fair and more objective in their blame and accusations. I have no idea why the Flemish people are so against Jews and Israel, but that is irrelevant to my argument, which deals with the fact that even though we won the war, we lost it in the world opinion, which does not make a lot of difference, military wise, but might bring Israeli officers into war crime tribunals shows, put up by humanism loving countries.

For those who are sorry they missed some interesting episodes of the last Gaza campaign, don't worry, we will have soon new episodes of our next war with those nice quaint Arabs, as the war has been fought, won and lost, but the problem remained unchained, and the world is already poring in money to rearm them as soon as possible, so they get a fair chance to try again. What a wonderful world we are living in.

how to win a war

How to win a war?

By David Verveer

We first of all have to admit, wars are bad, and many innocent people die or suffer and lose everything they ever possessed. Everybody knows this and agrees to this, but her in Israel (all great believers in peace, the most popular word in our language) seem to get into wars every two to five years, not because we want something of our neighbors, besides living in peace, but we fight order to defend our citizens, a duty of any sovereign state in the world.

The second point is, if going to war, you have to be stronger than your enemy, and win the war or else you lose everything, as nations like ours have no alternative, we finally returned after 2000 years, and losing the war, which is what our opponents intent, means fleeing back to the original countries, from where we or our ancestors fled (after the holocaust), who are far from anxious to take us back.

But this is simplifying a very complex situation in "the modern media" fought skirmishes, in which clever propaganda masters use the internet and media, by picturing events in a false light, capable of manipulating heroic and humanistic behaviour into defeat, cruelty and homicide.

There is no doubt that the last action in Gaza of the Israeli army against a small group of Islamic terrorists (Hamas) was a military victory for Israel, in which it accomplished in hurting the Hamas, temporary reduce he missile bombardment of the south, and even slow down the re-arming efforts of smuggling through tunnels coming from the Egyptian Sinai dessert.

But which value has a military victory in our days, when our brave enemies have the World Press in their pocket, and every reporter, reporting from the Israeli border, received from their Palestinian counterparts, living in Gaza, reports showing Israel's cruelties, even though, in most cases proven incorrect by the Israeli videos, but who believes those blood thirsty Jews, a father with a dead child in his hand, is much better propaganda material, than a very sophisticated video film, taken by an unmanned Israeli airplane. The very few Palestinians who dared to tell the visiting Press (after the war) the truth about Hamas' behaviour and that of the Israelis, were / are treated extremely humane by the Hamas, after they reappeared from their safe hiding places (underneath the hospital), they shoot the Palestinians who talked in the legs, as they are enemies of the Islam, (see video by the French television).

This war shows again how the world reacts against anything Israel does, who really wants to know the truth. The world is talking about an unbalanced power struggle, with more than 1300 Palestinian death and only 13 Israelis, that is unfair, we should have given them a fair chance to kill some more Israelis, and so what, 8 years of bombing innocent Israelis can not be compared with the havoc created in the strip, with those modern planes, tanks and artillery. I see it as a kind of Anti-Semitism, as we did not see the same reactions when Russia dealt with Chechnya, or NATO in Bosnia, not to forget our allies, the USA in Afghanistan or Iraq.

But what could you care, seeing the war in Gaza is an entertaining event, just as the Obama's swearing in a few days later. The talkback fighters in the cyber press were able to give air to their intelligent and informed opinions, some bordering
Anti-Semitism, blaming Israel for everything which has gone wrong in the last 400 years (some even used arguments older than 2000 years), only a few took the Israeli side of the argument. Funny anough, most Dutch talkbacks in comparison with the Belgium's Flemish opinions were fair and more objective in their blame and accusations. I have no idea why the Flemish people are so against Jews and Israel, but that is irrelevant to my argument, which deals with the fact that even though we won the war, we lost it in the world opinion, which does not make a lot of difference, military wise, but might bring Israeli officers into war crime tribunals shows, put up by humanism loving countries.

For those who are sorry they missed some interesting episodes of the last Gaza campaign, don't worry, we will have soon new episodes of our next war with those nice quaint Arabs, as the war has been fought, won and lost, but the problem remained unchained, and the world is already poring in money to rearm them as soon as possible, so they get a fair chance to try again. What a wonderful world we are living in.

the secret of the treasured Turkey's army tunic button

The secret of the treasured Turkey's army tunic button

By David Verveer

After I published my short story on finding a treasure box plastered into the wall, containing only a Turkey's army tunic button, I kept on thinking why and who would hide such a thing in a treasure box, but life goes on, and treasure haunting is certainly not my daily activity. Surprisingly, a few days after publishing this story in a blog, I received a call on my mobile. On the other side of the line, somebody said something like barhaba (I think it is a general greeting in Arab), and suspected that the person by mistake dialed me, I told him in Hebrew that he had the wrong number, but he continued in English by asking, are you Mr. Verveer, who wrote the treasure blog? I thought somebody was playing a trick on me, but decided to play along. But soon after I heard what this person had to say, I realized that nobody was fooling around and from a partly fabled story, a serious historical drama came to light, but in order to tell the story correctly, I will try to relate the story of this gentleman. His name is Hassan, and he is a Canadian born into a Palestinian family, who left Palestine before the Second World War. His grandfather, Musa, around 90 years old, requested him to accompany him in visiting Israel, to see those places where he had spent in his youth. They were staying with their relatives still living in this region (Jaljulia, a tiny Arab village in the Sharon area, which according some archeologists is the biblical Gilgal). This village is situated East of my town Kfar Saba, a 5 minute drive from my house.

Apparently, by accident they read my blog which excited Mr. Musa very much, as it reminded him from a happening in his youth. He asked me, if I would be so kind and come to visit him. Curiously what he could tell me, I agreed immediately.

Their family (it seems that the entire village belongs to the same clan) lived in a large house, occupied with numerous children and people coming in or going out. Mr. Musa and his grandson Hassan waited for me in the sitting room, and with the traditional cup of coffee he told me the following story.

He went back to the Ottoman Empire, when the Turks occupied the entire Middle East including Palestine, an era that ended in a defeat of the Turkey's army by the British General Allenby in 1917 / 1918. At the time their family, living in Jaffa, businessmen traders in grains, etc, possessed also numerous citrus plantations.

Parts of these plantations were in the coastal dunes, north of Jaffa, in the area where today the town Raanana is situated. Musa's grandfather, one of the least successful businessmen in the family, functioned as caretaker of the citrus orchards, living in a big house in the middle.

The area belonged to the northern part of the Jaffa Sanjek (an administrative and military region of the Turkey's Empire. The deputy Governor of the Sanjek was a Turkey's nobleman from the well known Bey family, named Mustafa Bey, and his son, also Mustafa, a career officer in the Turkey's army spending most of his free time in horse riding, and flirting with girls throughout the district. One day passing by a well, he noticed Musa's aunt with some friends. As it goes in nature, her being a beautiful girl and he an handsome tall military man, a love affair was started, which even though, at that time of arranged marriages relatively un known. But the fact that he was extremely rich, and both were from the same (Muslim) faith, they managed to get the families to agree. Soon wedding preparations were in the air, but than the War caught up with them, and Mustafa was required to leave in order to defend the empire. As mentioned before, the Turks lost the battle and Mustafa never came back, we don't know if he was killed in the battle or simply did not want to go back defeated.

In the mean time, our lady, the Musa's aunt was pregnant, and to great dismay of the family, a child was born, which the mother named of course Mustafa. It has to be mentioned that in general, there was no love lost between the Palestinians and the Ottoman rulers who treated them as peasants and preferred the Zionists to deal with. Big American groups such as Ahuza Alef (an American Organization) bought real estate from the Palestinians with Turkey's approval and encouragement. Most Palestinian landowners were not living on the land and used poorer relations or peasants to do the agricultural tasks. Eventually, also the orchards of Musa's family were sold, but this was approximately 20 years later.

Musa's oldest uncle, a very religious man, angry with the world, decided on a fateful day to kill his sister the mother of Mustafa, in order to defend the honor of the family. These family honor crimes are taking still place today, but today they are considered what they really are "murder". In those days, nobody was really in charge, the British couldn't care less, and her murder remained unpunished. However, only a few months later the moody killer committed suicide.

In the mean time, Mustafa and Musa, both of nearly the same age, grew up and were like twins. Of course Mustafa was part of the clan and family, but as orphan, without a penny to his name. The only thing he inherited from his parents were the good looks and charm of his parents and when he reached the age of 15, he decided to run away from home and look for his father and family in Turkey..

One of the last things, which Musa and Mustafa did together, was burying one of the two buttons from his father's tunic, which he found between his mother's possessions, in a treasure chest, in the wall of the old farmhouse, the second one he took with him. Musa promised to retrieve the button from this hiding place, if and when he eventually would leave the farmhouse, a promise, Musa could not keep, because the sudden sale of the farmhouse, during a period Musa was studying in Jordan.

This was the last time Musa had seen and heard from his cousin, he vanished in the thin air. He tried to find him through the Red Cross, the Turkey's embassy in Canada, but all those affords without success.

Musa ended his story by asking me to publish his story, in the hope somebody would read it, who knew Mustafa in Turkey.

Musa and Hassan returned last week to Canada, continuing to wait for news about their lost cousin Mustafa.

If anybody, reading this story, has some information on the where about of Mustapha, now also in his nineties, please contact me, as soon as possible.