In today’s Financial Times, Henry Siegman states that Israel is trying to annex large portions of the West Bank and thereby frustrate plans for a true Palestinian state. “The issue is not whether Hamas recognises Israel,” Siegman says. It is whether Israel recognizes the right of Palestinians to statehood. Hamas, he points out, has in spite of its rhetoric not launched suicide bombers against Israel in over a year. Meanwhile, Israel continues to baffle and crush Palestinian hopes for a state.
Three points:
1. Once again, this bold statement, by an American, did not—could not— appear in an American newspaper. It had to appear in Europe. What does this mean? That Americans continue to maintain one-dimensional understanding of Israel. Americans’ ideas of Israeli history and policy are “a fantasy built on a fantasy,” Tony Kushner told me earlier this year. Reality requires frank discussion, including even Jews like Siegman and Kushner (whose honorary degree from Brandeis, recognizing his work as a playwright, became a rallying point for rightwing opposition!). Americans don’t get frank discussion.
2. Siegman is a brave man. He headed the American Jewish Congress for 16 years. He is now the Council on Foreign Relations’ leading expert on the Middle East. He speaks out again and again on these matters and has suffered god only knows how much threat and vituperation.
3. As the vision of a Palestinian state dissolves, the left will migrate slowly but inevitably toward another ideal: a one-state pluralistic solution.
There has never been a civilization or a nation referred to as "Palestine" and the very notion of a "Palestinian Arab nation" having ancient attachments to the Holy Land going back to time immemorial is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon the world. There is not, nor has there ever been, a distinct "Palestinian" culture or language. Further, there has never been a Palestinian state governed BY Arab Palestinians in history, nor was there ever a serious Arab-Palestinian national movement until 1964. Even the so-called leader of the "Palestinian" people, Yasser Arafat, was born in Egypt! The so-called Arab "Palestinians" are a manufactured people…a people with no history and no authenticity… whose sole purpose for existence is to destroy the Jewish State.
The term "Palestine" came from the name that the conquering Roman Empire gave the ancient Land of Israel in an attempt to obliterate and de-legitimize the Jewish presence in the Holy Land. The name "Palestine" was invented in the year 135 C.E. Before it was known as Judea, which was the southern kingdom of ancient Israel. The Roman Procurator in charge of the Judean-Israel territories was so angry at the Jews for revolting that he called for his historians and asked them who were the worst enemies of the Jews in their past history. The scribes said, "the Philistines." Thus, the Procurator declared that Land of Israel would from then forward be called "Philistia" [further bastardized into "Palaistina"] to dishonor the Jews and obliterate their history. Hence the name "Palestine."
One more thing. Very often one hears the revisionists and propagandists finding ancient historical links between the "Philistines" ("Invaders" in Hebrew) and the Arab "Palestinians." There is no truth to this claim. The Philistines were one of a number of Sea Peoples who reached the eastern Mediterranean region approximately 1250-1100 B.C.E. They were actually an amalgamation of various ethnic groups, primarily of Aegean and south-east European origin [Greece, Crete and Western Turkey] and they died out over 2500 years ago! Those Philistines were not Arab… and neither was Goliath! The Arabs of "Palestine" are just that… Arabs! And these Arabs of "Palestine" have about as much historical roots to the ancient Philistines as Yasser Arafat has to the Eskimos!
The ancient, indigenous inhabitants of Palestine are long perished from the earth. Canaanites, Phoencians, and then Philistines, all were dominated by the Israelites before 1060 B.C.E. Most of these cultural identities dissolved completely by the neo-Babylonian age, or, the 6th century B.C.E. Arabs weren't even in Palestine until the mid-7th century C.E., over a thousand years later, after Palestine's 1,300-year Jewish history. Arabs later living in Palestine never developed themselves or the land, but remained nomadic and quasi-primitive
Even the word "Palestine" has no meaning in Arabic – every word in Arabic has some meaning deriving from the Koran, but the word "Palestine" does not. If anything, the name "Palestine" was associated with Jews. In the years leading up to the rebirth of Israel in 1948, those who spoke of "Palestinians" were nearly always referring to the region's Jewish residents. For example, the "Palestine Post" [forerunner of today's Jerusalem Post] newspaper and the Palestine Symphony Orchestra were all-Jewish. The "Palestine Brigade Regiment" was composed exclusively of Jewish volunteers in the British World War II Army. In fact, Arab leaders rejected the notion of a unique "Palestinian Arab" identity, insisting that Palestine was merely a part of "Greater Syria."
I would not say most Americans continue to hold the SAME one-dimensional view of Israel.
Most Americans pay little attention to foriegn policy. As far as the trouble in Israel is concerned, we expect it to be on the news as regular feature. We expect death and violence and peace talks and special ambassadors and summits. Very few Americans care if the Israelis are mistreating the Palistinians or the Arabs are bombing schools. The power of the AIPAC is that they are the only ones who care.
Another myth deals with the issue of Jerusalem and its Temple Mount. The myth is that Jerusalem is really an Arab city and that it is a central focus of Islam. The truth is that the Arabs expressed very limited interest in the Temple Mount before 1967 after the Six-Day War. Besides, Mecca and Medina (both in Saudi Arabia) are Islam's holiest cities!
Islam's Holy Koran mentions Mecca 2 or 3 (implied, but not actually written) times. It mentions Medina 5 times. It never mentions Jerusalem and with good reason. There is no historical evidence to suggest Mohammad ever visited Jerusalem! And if he did visit Jerusalem, it could not have been until 6 years after his death. Therefore, the notion that Mohammed ascended to Heaven from a rock in Jerusalem (today's Dome of the Rock) is even more ridiculous.
OK, so maybe Mohammed just forget to mention "Jerusalem". Maybe he also forgot to mention the Haram-esh-Sharif, their name for Judaism's Temple Mount. Perhaps it was an honest oversight. But surely "Palestine" is mentioned all through the Koran. After all, ancient "Palestinians" go way back, right? WRONG. "Palestine" and "Palestinian" are nowhere to be found. Perhaps that's because these so-called Arab "Palestinians" have ancient historical roots going ALL THE WAY back to June 1967! So much for the Arab, Muslim or "Palestinian" ancient religious or physical connections to a single ounce of turf in the so-called "occupied" territories!
From 1948 to 1967, when East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were "occupied" by Jordanian Forces following the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli War, Jerusalem itself was ignored by the Arab world. No Arab leader ever paid a visit, not even to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock (both located on the JEWISH Temple Mount). Also noteworthy during this 19 year period of Jordanian occupation' no Jews were allowed there… not that there was much for them to see since the Arabs destroyed 58 of Jerusalem's Jewish synagogues! Even the Arabs of "Palestine" placed so low a priority on Jerusalem that the PLO's founding charter, the 1964 Palestinian National Covenant, made no reference whatsoever to it. Only when the Jews recaptured it after the 1967 "Six Day War" (initiated by the Arabs) did the Arab world SUDDENLY grow very passionate about Jerusalem!
Can any Muslim in the world produce any credible evidence for their connection to this holy site, other than Mohammed's dream? Believe it or not, the one and only source for the Muslim's claim to Jerusalem and the site of the Holy Temple, is a mention in the Koran of a dream that Mohammed had about an unknown "place far away".
In truth, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosques are just but two of hundreds of thousands of Muslim mosques around the world. Except for these two minor mosques, Jerusalem itself has no major Islamic significance. In fact, far more Christian shrines are in Jerusalem than Muslim ones!
It is important to note that the world has seen hundreds of millions of REFUGEES… more than 135 million during the 20th-century alone. It's a unfortunate end result of wars. The "Palestinian" (Arab) refugee problem is rooted in the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli War. In 1947, realizing that the Jewish and Arab communities of "Palestine" could not live together in one state, the U.N. General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which recommended partitioning "Palestine" into two states… one Jewish and one Arab. While the Jews accepted this plan, the Arabs rejected it, claiming that all of "Palestine" belonged to them. And when Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, seven neighboring Arab states attacked it in an attempt to prevent its creation… and to slaughter every Jewish man, woman and child!
In the wake of this war, approximately 420,000 Arab- Palestinians fled to Arab states from the portion of "Palestine" that is now Israel. Arabs remaining in Israel numbered 140,000. The total number of Arabs who left could not mathematically have been more than some 420,000. This is the number according to the British Mandate's statistics and conforms roughly also to the figure published from Arab sources, and by the UN. Conveniently not mentioned was that only 15% of these fleeing Arab "Palestinians" were actually landowners… the remainder were simply squatters! And practically never acknowledged by the Arab world was that 860,000 Jewish refugees fled from Arab countries to Israel! The latter are the refugees the Arab world seems to forget mentioning when they squawk about refugees! For example, before the Jewish Palestinians declared their State of Israel in 1948, there were 350,000 Jewish people in Iraq alone… fully one-fifth of Baghdad's citizens were Jewish! After the creation of the State of Israel hundreds of thousands of the Iraqi Jews fled for their lives. Most went to Israel. Today, there are 38 Jews left in Baghdad. In Basra, Iraq there is just one old woman. In Mosul, Amarah, and other Iraqi cities where Jews had lived for more than two thousand years, their communities have vanished without trace!
This population exchange mirrored far larger population movements following the end of World War II, which involved millions of Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan, as well as Poles, Germans and MANY other nationalities in Central and East Europe. These population exchanges were resolved through the integration of all refugees into host states. While Israel absorbed the Jewish refugees, the Arab states refused to allow such resettlement and integration of their Palestinian brethren, preferring instead to exploit the Arab-"Palestinian" refugees to serve their own political agendas. And now, more than a half century since the Jewish-"Palestinians" became "Israelis," many of the Arab-"Palestinian" refugee camps remain throughout Judea-Samaria (a.k.a. "West Bank"), Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Of course, many of these so-called "refugee camps" include double and triple level homes in which one can find computers and Internet connections! However, they STILL guard their "refugee status" so as appeal to "suckers" around the world! Are you one of them?
We don't hear about any Jewish refugees who were thrown out of many Arab countries in 1948 for most of them were absorbed by their fellow Jews within Israel. The children and grandchildren of these Jewish refugees are now free and productive citizens. Yet, while the Arabs throughout the Middle East cry crocodile tears for their poor suffering "Palestinian" brothers and sisters, none of the 24 Arab countries has opened their arms to embrace them as new citizens. Instead, these refugees and their descendants were dumped into camps of poverty and degradation for the world to see, further fanning the flames of hatred. Ironically, the Arabs who did not flee and, instead, remained inside Israel became Israeli-Arab citizens have fared far better than those in Arab countries!
The bottom line is that today's Arab "Palestinian" refugees are not now, and never were, the problem or responsibility of Israel. The truth is that nearly 70% of the Arab Palestinians who left in 1948 – perhaps 300,000 of them – never saw an Israeli soldier! The remaining 30% either (1) saw for themselves that these Jews would fight and die for their new nation and decided to pack up and leave or (2) were driven off the land as a normal consequence of war.
The Arab armies did not give up trying to destroy Israel after their initial failure in 1948-9. They tried again in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Once again they lost and another million Arabs… from the (Jordanian) "West Bank," (Egyptian) Gaza Strip and the (Syrian) Golan region…. added to the Arab Palestinian refugee list. It must be stressed that the "Palestinian" Arabs (abetted and "stirred up" by neighboring Arab nations) started BOTH the 1948 and 1967 wars leading to their refugee status! Talk about "Sore Losers!"
The solicitous attitude toward the Palestinians is a prime example of that most entrenched of international double standards — one rule for Israel , another for everyone else. Not only the Arabs who left what became Israel , but their children and grandchildren have been granted refugee status in perpetuity by the United Nations. Clearly, most of the five million "Palestinian refugees" have never set eyes on their “homeland!”
Just wanted to make a comment about using history as a guide to solving this issue.
The bottom line is that the issue needs to be resolved by forward looking creative thinkers like Siegman (whether u or disagree with his solution; his approach is what impresses me). We cannot waste time looking back and debate history.
I mean just look at the way nation states were fabricated in Europe in the 1700s. Every country in Europe at the came up with reasons why they were great; some definitely not truthful.
History opens up a whole can of worms and after hours of debating it will come down to a difference of opinion about interpretations of history.
That's exactly what we need- a forward-looking creative solution- not one caught in the dogma and irrelevant facts like the "1967 border" or Jerusalem being the eternal capital of the so-called Palestinian people.
Let's solve the problem with:
1. Reparations for the property that was taken from the Arabs (the so-called "Palestinians" ) in 1948.
2. More money for all of the hardship.
3. Water rights.
4. Land swaps- Israel keeps the high elevation settlements like Ariel that it needs to maintains radar towers against threats from Iran and Syria, etc. in exchange for land that the so-called "Palestinians" will need to be secure and prosper.
5. Loan guarantees.
Great plan, huh? This is exactly what was offered to Arafat in 2000- land, 34 billion dollars, water rights- he walked away from the offer, gave no counter-proposal, and started bombing civilians.
During the 19 years that the territories, including Jerusalem and Gaza, were occupied by the kingdoms of Jordan and Egypt, no one talked about a Palestinian state, not the Arab countries, not the United Nations. Nobody asked Jordan or Egypt to abdicate their ownership and give it to the Palestinians. Not even the Palestinians themselves said anything about a Palestinian state or a Palestinian people, because nobody heard of a Palestinian people. It never existed.
The fact simply is that there are no Palestinians. These people are Arabs like all other Arabs, and they happen to live in a region called Palestine. They are not a separate people.
What makes a separate people? Religion, language, culture, garb, cuisine, etc. The Arabs in Palestine speak the same language, practice the same religion, have the same culture, etc., as all the other Arabs.
The Arabs living in Syria or Jordan, etc., are also the same Arabs, but they are each a separate nation because they each have a separate country. The so-called Palestinians want a separate country because they claim to be a separate nation. They are not. They were never a separate people before the new state of Israel. How did they become one now?
Because of these lies, the so-called "Palestinians" feel justified in sending suicide bombers to kill women, children, babies, old men, old women and noncombatant citizens. Because of these lies, the United Nations and the media of the world are condemning Israel who is acting less harshly than any other country would act in retaliation for such heinous attacks. What is the United States doing in Afghanistan, a totally foreign country? Killing Afghanis. Why? Because they attacked us on Sept. 11. I understand this. But why do they not understand that that is exactly what Israel is doing, only on a much smaller scale?
Ask yourself this: Should the use of terror ever be rewarded? When is the use of terrorism justified as a military tactic? As a political tactic? As an economic tactic? What implications does this hold for future conflicts?
Let us examine the truths here:
Arab "Palestinian?" with Flag of "Palestine?"1) There never was a Palestinian state or a Palestinian nation. There are no Palestinian people, per se. Rather, these are Arabs living in a region that historically has been called many things, including "Palestine."
2) Israel did not go to war against a Palestinian state and occupy its land. Rather, Israel was attacked by six Arab countries at once. She defended herself, defeated her attackers, and won the so-called territories, not from the Palestinians, but from Jordan and Egypt.
3) Jerusalem was never the capital of any state but Israel. It was certainly never the capital of a country that never existed. Why should the Palestinians get any part of it? Because they want it? Because they have terrorists?
4) Jerusalem, under the current Israeli control, is a free and open city. Israel, as a democracy, guarantees freedom of religion within its borders. Contrast this fact with areas that have come under Palestinian occupation. What percentage of Christians have left in recent years because they cannot stand the harassment and persecution?
5) Most Arabs living in Palestine today are not indigenous to the region. It was not until after the Jews had changed deserts and swamps into a productive and thriving land that the Arabs started migrating there. Arafat himself was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. Did you know that?
The belief that giving the Palestinians a state will bring peace is a delusion. The truth is that they want it all. The short-term goal is a state consisting of the West Bank and Gaza. The long-term goal is a state which includes all of "historical Palestine," including Jordan.
"Whose kidding who", "duh", "yo this is the whack", and "wow!" who slavishly apologize for Israel's barbaric occupation and colonization of Palestinian land are exactly the reason Israel has becme an international pariah. They are not Israel's "friends", they are its "enablers"
The Arab League has offered Israel full normalization of relations in exchange for withdrawal to the 1967 borders, the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerualem as its capital, and a just resolution to the refugee problem. This is the path to peace and security, not cut and pasting propaganda from hasbara websites.