From the editor's desk: Caught on video

By Christine DeSouza

It is unbelievable how people rewrite history. On the Israel Video Network (www.israelvideonetwork.com) a Costco smoothie demonstrator was videoed as she proceeded to slam Jews.

Standing in front of a food demonstration in a Costco in the San Francisco Bay area, two men were having a discussion when an employee interrupted them to say that Jews should leave Israel because “it is Palestinian land,” and that they should “go back where they came from.” “Where is that?” one of the men asked. “Go back to Europe,” she said.

He asked her how that would be possible after what happened in WWII. She claimed that the Jews were not persecuted by the Nazis. “They had a chance to go ahead and get $500 for their freedom,” following that up with “if something bad did happen to them, they brought it on themselves.”

This isn’t the usual hate-filled face of anti-Semitism—she looks like a sweet old grandmother and is perfectly calm in the video, talking matter-of-factly as she goes about her job filling cups with the smoothie product samples. None the less, it is anti-Semitism.

It was obvious to see that no amount of recounting the facts of history would penetrate her already convinced mind about the Jewish people.

However, it is so important to never quit. No matter how many times it has to be repeated, continue to speak the truth about what happened to 6 million Jews in Europe from 1938 to 1945. Continue to speak the truth about how the land was practically barren in the 1800s, when there were only smatterings of Jews and Arabs across that arid land. No Arab country wanted that dried up parcel! That is until Jews started going there in the late 1800s to rebuild the land, which they painstakingly did.

Israel was established in 1948 (with the United Nation’s blessing) and was immediately attacked by the Arab countries surrounding her. Israel purchased much of the land from Arabs, and sometimes repurchased it. Israel never started a war. Israel has always defended herself.

Every lie must be addressed with what really happened and what really is happening today.

This land does not belong to the Arabs. It does not belong to the Palestinians. It belongs to G-d. And He gave it to the Jewish people.