Zionists think the rest of us are stupid. It's the only possible explanation.

A Palestinian climbs the separation barrier in order to cross from the Palestinian side to the Israeli side of the east Jerusalem village of Abu Dis, Friday, Sept. 14, 2007. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

First they gave us that catchy slogan "a land without a people for a people without a land": as if we were too stupid to read a census, and learn for ourselves that Palestine had a settled, overwhelmingly Arab, population before the first Zionist settler ever set foot there.

A Palestinian climbing a makeshift ladder to cross Israel's eight-meter-high concrete barrier in the West Bank village of al-Ram on the outskirts of Jerusalem; Jun 4 2007. (AFP/File/Gali Tibbon)

And they have always reassured us that all they really want is peaceful coexistence with the Palestinian Arab population: as if we can't read for ourselves the writings of their founding fathers, who said from the beginning that they would spirit the native population away across the border; that the Arab majority would have to be reduced to no more than 15 per cent of the population; and that they would settle for a partitioned Palestine, but only until Israel's army was strong enough for them to expand and take over the rest.

A Palestinian worker climbs over a section of Israel's separation barrier from the West Bank village of A-Ram towards Jerusalem, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Today, Israeli politicians tell us that their only purpose in building the Wall is to secure Israel from suicide bombers, and that its proven track record in that regard justifies its continuing construction on Palestinian land: as if we are too stupid to read for ourselves the Israeli security service's warning that the respite in suicide bombings is due to the truce that Hamas has maintained, and not the Wall, which the militants have already learned to bypass.

Palestinians cross a section of Israel's separation barrier from the West Bank village of A-Ram towards Jerusalem, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

I have written in an earlier post about the fact that although the Wall is capable of inflicting misery on a great many Palestinians, it is difficult to believe that it is capable of keeping suicide bombers out of Israel, seeing as it is already proving incapable of keeping out thousands of Palestinians who circumvent it to avoid being cut off from work or other essential services. At the time, I had to estimate that the number of West Bank Palestinians who were bypassing the Wall to work in Israel was probably in the low tens of thousands, as I didn't have a reliable number. But now I do.

Palestinians cross a section of Israel's separation barrier from the West Bank village of A-Ram towards Jerusalem, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

The Palestinian independent news agency, Maan News, reported last Sunday on a news item that was broadcast the previous evening on Israel's Channel Two:

Last night, Israeli television broadcast a report showing Tel Aviv police hunting Palestinian workers who bypass the Wall to look for work.

A Channel Two camera crew accompanied Israeli police patrols as they raided construction sites and arrested workers who were sleeping outside or in builders' workshops...

The report revealed that Israeli police said they arrested 17,620 Palestinian workers inside the Green Line during the last two months. It also reported that 2,552 were arrested in the past two weeks...

The report said in conclusion: "The wall, siege, security cordon, police patrols and border guards have not prevented tens of thousands of workers from reaching Tel Aviv every month".

Two thousand, five hundred and fifty-two arrests in just two weeks adds up to an awful lot of people circumventing Israel's Wall. And of course those numbers reflect the absolute minimum number of Palestinians who successfully bypass it, as they count only those who are arrested while working inside Israel, not those who remain there undetected.

A Palestinian man sneaking to Israel crosses from Bethlehem, right, into Jerusalem, left, Monday, May 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Israelis can believe if they want to their own propaganda about how the dreadful things they do to the Palestinian people are necessary for "security needs". If they are more comfortable believing that the Wall in the West Bank is a defensive measure that has stopped the suicide attacks, rather than a land-grabbing measure which - from a security perspective - leaks like a sieve, I guess they have that right. But they don't have the right to expect the rest of us to be stupid enough to believe it too.

Palestinian worshippers climb over a section of Israel's separation barrier from the West Bank village of A-Ram to Jerusalem on their way to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque, 20 Oct 2006. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

The next time Israeli apologists tell you that the Wall is a security measure that keeps suicide bombers out of Israel, just remember the number 1,276. One thousand, two hundred and seventy six is - at a minimum - the average number of permit-less Palestinians who bypass the Wall on a weekly basis to work in Israel. They are asking you to believe that the destitution Israel's West Bank land grab inflicts on some of the poorest people on earth is justified because a wall which is breached at least 1,276 times a week by undocumented workers is nevertheless impermeable to suicide bombers.

That's what they're asking you to believe.

That's how stupid they think you are.