Changes

Written by rather a peace activst MK in 1976<ref>Aryeh L. Eliav, ''The Ladder of Israel: A Dream and Its Breakdown; A Socio-Political Analysis of Israel'' [Heb.], Zmora-Bitan-Modan, 1976, pp. 41-44 [https://books.google.com/books?id=EMxLAAAAMAAJ&q=%22%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%91%20%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D%22%20%D7%A0%D7%90%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%9D%22].</ref>:

Written by rather a peace activist [[MK]] in 1976<ref>Aryeh L. Eliav, ''The Ladder of Israel: A Dream and Its Breakdown; A Socio-Political Analysis of Israel'' [Heb.], Zmora-Bitan-Modan, 1976, pp. 41-44 [https://books.google.com/books?id=EMxLAAAAMAAJ&q=%22%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%91%20%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D%22%20%D7%A0%D7%90%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%9D%22].</ref>:

{{quotebox-float| Let us make a reckoning – a true and terrible reckoning – with those Palestinian Arabs. Not only with the million or more Arabs who are under our rule, but with all of them. All those two and a half million Arabs who call themselves “the Palestinian people” and who are now in the bosom of the Arab world that surrounds us.  

{{quotebox-float| Let us make a reckoning – a true and terrible reckoning – with those Palestinian Arabs. Not only with the million or more Arabs who are under our rule, but with all of them. All those two and a half million Arabs who call themselves “the Palestinian people” and who are now in the bosom of the Arab world that surrounds us.  

Since our settlers, the first Zionists, set foot on the sandy and marshy land of the land a hundred years ago, the Arabs, the locals, harassed them, robbed them, plundered them, beat them, humiliated them (:Awlad al-Mawt") 'children of death', <small>[used as a derogatory slur to mean 'cowards' or 'the helpless ones']</small> and murdered them (I am not now doing the whole account with the Arabs and the Muslims regarding their attitude towards the Jews. This is a very long account, and it has very dark and terrible chapters. But it also has beautiful chapters in comparison to other cultures and peoples, among whom the Jews lived).  

Since our settlers, the first Zionists, set foot on the sandy and marshy land of the land a hundred years ago, the Arabs, the locals, harassed them, robbed them, plundered them, beat them, humiliated them ("Awlad al-Mawt") 'children of death', <small>[used as a derogatory slur to mean 'cowards' or 'the helpless ones']</small> and murdered them (I am not now doing the whole account with the Arabs and the Muslims regarding their attitude towards the Jews. This is a very long account, and it has very dark and terrible chapters. But it also has beautiful chapters in comparison to other cultures and peoples, among whom the Jews lived).  

Thus the first Zionists spent the first decades, in constant fear of highwaymen, of murderers for the sake of plundering booty and of murderers for the sake of blood; and thus they were forced to create for themselves a self-defense belt, to teach their hands not only hard manual labor but also the bow <small>[combat/weapons training. Term based on II Samuel 1:18]</small>; and thus the first defense organizations arose for them and "Hashomer" at their head. This is how they lived.  In the world of the "local Arabs", where Turkish law supposedly ruled, but in reality the law of "every man for himself" of "blood vengeance" might makes right (survival of the fittes), of "an eye for an eye" ruled.

Thus the first Zionists spent the first decades, in constant fear of highwaymen, of murderers for the sake of plundering booty and of murderers for the sake of blood; and thus they were forced to create for themselves a self-defense belt, to teach their hands not only hard manual labor but also the bow <small>[combat/weapons training. Term based on II Samuel 1:18]</small>; and thus the first defense organizations arose for them and "Hashomer" at their head. This is how they lived.  In the world of the "local Arabs", where Turkish law supposedly ruled, but in reality the law of "every man for himself" of "blood vengeance" might makes right (survival of the fittes), of "an eye for an eye" ruled.