September 4, 2026
Stalin once said, `The death of one person is a tragedy. The death of thousands is a mere statistic.’ He was quite right, of course.
Palestine is the current example of Stalin’s cynical observation. There, young, violent Israeli hoodlums – known as ‘settlers’ in western media – have been trying to terrorize Arab villagers into flight. It’s all part of a broad plan of genocide against peaceful Palestinian villagers.
In fact, this is a repeat of what happened in the region in the 1940’s and 50’s when close to a million Palestinians were driven from their homes in Palestine and Galilee by armed Jewish vigilantes. Britain and the US allowed this to happen – or even encouraged it – under the slogan ‘a land without people for a people without land.’ It was a big lie but very effective.
Now, seven decades later, and repeated ethnic cleansings, there are nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees, among them many Arab villages in Gaza.
Last week, Jewish ‘settlers’ attacked another Palestinian household in Gaza. They tore up its fields. They cut down its cherished olive trees, which take a century to mature before bearing fruit. But worst of all for me, as one who respects and loves animals, they seized a little donkey from that farm, tied it to their jeep, and dragged the little animal to its death. This crime was shown on French TV. It would not have appeared on heavily censored U.S. TV
Donkeys are sweet, gentle animals. They protect sheep from predators. They like to playfully nip humans. One of them bore Jesus to the manger in Bethlehem. They are God’s little creatures.
Sadly, they are the main method of transport across the Arab Mideast. They are starved, overworked, whipped and abused even though the Prophet of Islam urged his followers to be gentle to all animals.
I help support donkey sanctuaries in Israel and Puslinch, Canada with joy and satisfaction. I even bought hay last year for the Israeli refuge, something very new for me as a New Yorker.
I wish Israel’s police would cease closing their eyes to their ‘settler’s’ vandalism and provide protection to its animals. Before she came to me, one of my cats was run over in Tel Aviv and her back was broken. Excellent Israeli vets kept her in traction for months until she healed. That’s the humane side of Israel. The inhumane side is all the savage attacks we see against animals – mostly innocent little donkeys whose ears are cut off and, worse, that are set on fire by young hoodlums, Arab and Jewish. These Jewish sadists are being used by Israel’s far right Netanyahu government. What a shameful blot on the honor of the Jewish people.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2026
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