I write in response to the recent column published on August 28 by the Jamaica Observer entitled ‘Will the world allow another 600 years of carnage?’

One can only marvel at the sheer audacity of this historical revisionism. To link modern Israel to a “600 years of carnage” narrative is not just factually wrong; it is, in my opinion, a lazy smear that feeds into the very worst anti-Semitic fantasies. I believe these narratives are not born of honest inquiry, they are conjured from a long, sordid tradition of blaming Jews for the world’s ills. This is not political critique; as far as I see, it is prejudice parading as journalism, and it is dangerous.

The idea of a “Greater Israel” is nothing more than a new coat of paint on an old lie: that Jews are covert manipulators, pulling strings from the shadows to dominate an entire region. This calumny once found a home in the collaboration between Nazi Germany and figures like Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem. Al-Husseini, a man who met with Adolf Hitler and whose stated goal was to “solve the Jewish problem” in the Middle East, is a celebrated figure in modern Palestinian society. The fact that streets and squares are named after him is not some historical quirk; it is a stark, public testament to the continuing embrace of a hatred so vile it partnered with genocide.

The “Greater Israel” project is a fantasy, easily disproven by a simple glance at the facts. For decades Israel has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to trade land for peace. After the 1967 Six-Day War, a war forced upon it, Israel occupied the vast Sinai Peninsula. It was returned, in its entirety, to Egypt in 1982 in exchange for a peace treaty. This was not the act of a nation bent on conquest; it was the act of a nation yearning for security and recognition.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza, evacuating every last settlement in a desperate, and ultimately failed, gamble for peace. These actions do not align with an expansionist agenda; they are a direct contradiction of it. As former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said, “We have shown that we are prepared to give up land for peace.” The evidence speaks for itself, and it screams in the face of the “Greater Israel” myth.

The narrative of “600 years of carnage” conveniently omits a far more relevant and painful history: the real carnage was inflicted upon Jewish communities in the Middle East for centuries, long before the modern State of Israel was even a dream. From State-sanctioned discrimination to violent pogroms, Jewish people in Arab lands lived in constant peril. The Farhud in Iraq in 1941, a pogrom that killed hundreds of Jews amid a pro-Nazi coup, shattered the sense of security for Iraq’s ancient Jewish community. The expulsion from Yemen after 1947, which led to the airlift of nearly the entire Jewish population, was a direct consequence of this violence and hatred.

In the decades surrounding 1948, nearly one million Jews were ethnically cleansed from Arab countries — primarily resettling in Israel. They were forced to flee with nothing, their property stolen, and their right of return denied. This mass displacement is the history that is deliberately swept under the rug to create a one-sided, victim-blaming narrative.

Israel has offered peace. The Oslo Accords, among other attempts, were a testament to this effort. Yet these agreements were repeatedly undermined by Palestinian authorities who continued to incite and facilitate violence against civilians and refused to recognise Israel’s right to exist. The global media, international institutions, and now, columns like the one in the Observer, have become complicit. They emphasise Palestinian suffering while airbrushing Israel’s security concerns and the long history of Jewish persecution. This one-sided propaganda has created a global climate in which anti-Semitism is no longer a fringe phenomenon but a normalised expression of political discourse, leading to a sharp rise in Jew hatred globally.

The path to a just peace does not lie in more lies. It lies in honest dialogue, mutual recognition, and a complete rejection of the historical hatred that underpins this entire one-sided crusade.

jillianforbes21@gmail.
com