Faried Ibrahim, in his recent rant “Not everyone’s Promised Land,” has fallen into several traditional anti-Israel positions that are based on fallacies, half-truths and general ignorance.

His techniques include blaming the Israelis for Palestinian misdeeds, changing the definition of words to fit his skewed perspective, altering history to cover up Palestinian mistakes and detailing inappropriate moral equivalency (my personal favorite).

A brief examination of Mr. Ibrahim’s “arguments” will quickly expose their uselessness. Mr. Ibrahim mentions the economic suffering of the Palestinians, especially those in the Gaza Strip. I will absolutely grant that they are economically deprived, and then will ask a simple question: Where are the tens of millions of dollars that have been given to the Palestinian Authority?

The incredible amount of money, part of which comes from Mr. Ibrahim’s tax dollars, has been lost to corruption and blatant thievery. While the PA attempts to purchase arms from Iran, its people starve in Gaza.

Is this Israel’s fault?

Israel used to hire Palestinian workers-until they started showing a peculiar predilection for blowing up Israelis. Surprisingly, this has reduced the Israeli inclination to hire lots of Palestinians.

The article also states that Israel practices “colonialism” and is similar to South Africa. Let’s deconstruct this silliness one falsehood at a time.

How can a country have a colony on its own land? That’s like calling Middlebury a colony of Burlington. Mr. Ibrahim knows that “colonialism” has negative connotations, so he slanders Israel, probably knowing that it doesn’t make any logical sense. He also compares Israeli policies to “apartheid.” Well, let’s compare. Apartheid (South Africa) involved the domination of 90% of the population by 10%; the minority group didn’t allow any of the majority group to vote or participate in the political process.

In Israel, Jews are the majority, yet there are several Arabs in the Israeli Parliament; these Arabs are allowed to participate in all of the Knesset Activities even though most are passionately anti-Zionist. Also, Arabs who don’t want to destroy Israel (aqua Palestinians) serve loyally in the Israeli Army. Good comparison, Mr. Ibrahim.

The Palestinians could have had their own country in 1948 when the UN offered them one. They rejected the offer, and have caused their own suffering ever since.

They also rejected the Camp David accords which would have granted them 96% of the West Bank and a capital in East Jerusalem. That sounds a lot like “self-determination” to me, but Mr. Ibrahim attacks Israel for its denial of Palestinian independence. Again, I’m seeing a slight contradiction in the facts and Mr. Ibrahim’s positions.

Finally, in a classic anti-Israel maneuver, Mr. Ibrahim attempts to shift the blame for the violence from where it belongs (the terrorists) to the innocents (the Israelis).

Since 1948, Israel has attempted to make peace with their Arab neighbors-to no avail. Palestinians murder civilians, and Israelis endeavor to kill terrorists.

Does Israel kill some civilians accidentally while pursuing the absolutely justifiable attempt to stop terrorists? Absolutely, and that is very sad.

However, Israel only attacks when provoked. She has fought five wars in the past sixty years, and not one has been an aggressive war. This recent intifada, initiated by the Palestinians, occurred after the Palestinians rejected an absurdly good offer from Israel.

The Palestinians should accept the Israeli terms, stop murdering civilians and focus all of that wasted anger on fixing their own decrepit society.