By Your Slanderous Fabrications You Shall Be Recognized:

From avowed BDSers:
 https://twitter.com/joe_n1nety/status/462263559108718592/photo/1


The passage highlighted in red is the source of a quote which circulates on the Internet in a distorted manner, attributing to Menachem Begin a declaration that Jews are a 'Master race" and Palestinians are "two footed animal". 

This is an excerpt from Begin's statement to the Knesset on June 8, 1982:


  "Mr. Speaker, what did we do after all the considerations, after all the weighing, after all the hesitations? What could we do? Could we accept the malicious interpretation of an unsigned agreement for the cessation of hostilities, according to which it was only from south Lebanon that terrorists could not strike at us, but from any other sector it is permitted, and all the Jews of the world can be their target?

We have never accepted this explanation. I asked Mr. Philip Habib, who I will soon meet with again, to note that we give no permission to strike at Jews in the Diaspora, and we stood by this correct interpretation. The talk that striking at Jews in London, in Athens, in Rome and in other locations is not a breach of the agreement for the cessation of hostilities - is a strange interpretation that I have never accepted, but it exists.

What could we do, therefore? In this generation, shall we abandon Jewish blood? Shall we allow the murder of an ambassador of the State of Israel, who represents its glory, honor and sovereignty? It is apparent that we had to react to this criminal act, and we did so. And what did the enemy do? It immediately began massive shelling. In the course of two days, 800 shells were fired on 23 of our settlements in the Galilee. There was mass destruction of property. There were wounded. A soldier was killed, our blood was spilled, and they threatened to continue. Men, women and children by the thousands and tens of thousands were forced to sit in shelters day and night, in the summer.
In the course of the past year, we added shelters. It is true that we improved shelters, but nevertheless it is very difficult. I have been in them. It is very difficult to sit in them even for a few hours. We have here a Knesset member who recalls her visit to her kibbutz, Gesher, our Edna. She once said to me: Soon we will have children who we will call "shelter children." Thank God, in that part of the country there is peace since then. And then we began shelter-children in Nahariya, shelter-children in Kiryat Shmona, in Kfar Giladi, in Metulla, in Misgav Am, in Dafna. Shelter children. 

Is there a nation which would tolerate such a phenomenon?  Is there a nation which would acquiesce in such aggression? I want to declare to all nations: The children of Israel will happily go to school and joyfully return home, just like the children in Washington, in Moscow and in Peking; in Paris and in Rome; in Oslo, in Stockholm and in Copenhagen. The fate of a million and half a million Jewish children has been different from all the children of the world throughout the generations. No more. We will defend our children. If the hand of any two-footed animal is raised against them, that hand will be cut off, and our children will grow up in joy in the homes of their parents.

But, here there are Katyushas, missiles and artillery shells day and night, with the sole intention of murdering our women and children. There are military targets in the Galilee. What a characteristic phenomenon, they are protected, completely immune to these terrorists. Only at the civilian population, only to shed our blood, just to kill our children, our wives, our sisters, our elderly. Such a method, so despicable, terroristic. Despicable. There has been none so despicable since the days of the S.A. the S.S. and the Gestapo.

There was never an armed organization so low, so despicable as this terrorist organization, which aims its unclean weapons against men, women and children. Therefore we have implemented our right to national self-defense.

In reply to U.S. President Reagan's letter, a very friendly letter, I explained to him: Here the U.S. supports Britain's actions in the Falkland Islands, or the Malvinas as the Argentinians call them. How does Mrs. Thatcher justify it? On the basis of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which speaks of "The inherent right of self defense." 8,000 miles from that country, this is a right of national self-defense? Whereas one mile, two miles, three miles, on our doorstep, our threshold, we are attacked and have no right to national self-defense? We have to sit by and watch the shells falling on our brothers and sisters? It is clear that we had to implement our right of national self-defense, and we did so. We continue to do so.

Once more, I would like to tell all peoples - for a long time, too long, the Jew was excluded from all the laws which applied to all nations. No more. The laws which apply to other nations will apply to our nation - to the Jewish people. The right of self-defense accorded to all other nations is also accorded to us. No more and no less.

Since I am still on the subject of Britain, I want to return to the important and famous newspaper, "Times". which today published a leader attacking Israel and me, personally, for what we have done in the north in order to protect our people in the Galilee and in Lebanon. That is its right - we believe in freedom of the press - however, if someone attacks he has to expect a response. I wish to say:
A newspaper which supported the treachery of the Munich Agreement must be very careful about moralizing to a small nation fighting for its life. Were we to listen to it, we would no longer be in existence. Czechoslovakia vanished because of the famous line of the "Times" in 1938, and the famous, or infamous lead article at the time of Rumciman's visit to Prague. But we learned the lesson. Therefore, we are also not taking the latest advice of the "Times", just as we did not take its advice at the time of Munich. It should take stock of its deeds and articles."

With regard to "two footed animal" I have this to say:

 It seems to me that the description of a person so evil and perverse that he seeks out to kill Jewish children qua Jewish Israeli children, that there is simply no comprehending him, as “two-footed animal” does gross injustice to the animal. Animals do not kill randomly. Animals do not murder innocents for revenge.

It is quite puzzling, in fact, that some people assume the Palestinians are the ones, as a collectivity, designated as "two legged animal"s. Surely this is not intended to imply, that all Palestinians, to a person, raise their hand to slay Jewish kids? I would hazard a guess that most Palestinians are horrified when Jewish kids are deliberately targeted and gunned down by a Palestinian or any murderer, in their name. In fact, even if images of celebrating Palestinians beam across the world's TV screens, they represent only themselves, and not the millions of other Palestinians who are not celebrating, and are not seen to be celebrating. Why, then, the assumption that Palestinians can be   essentialized as murderers? Why assume that Begin's angry description of the terrorist as "two legged animals" refers to all Palestinians?

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I ask again: what good is  a cause that needs to be supported by lies, slanders and hateful inventions to prove its justice?