One theme on the site is the erasure of the green line in Jewish life – both in Israel and the U.S. The green line demarcates Israel’s internationally recognized border at the 1949 armistice line, and its absence on Israeli and American Jewish maps alludes to a broader Jewish claim over Greater Israel.
As I searched for an image today for Allison’s post on the new $1 billion Jewish National Fund fundraising push, I was somewhat surprised to find that most of the iconic JNF blue boxes fail to show the green line. For those not familiar, the JNF blue box is a ubiquitous grassroots donation collection box found in almost any communal mainstream Jewish space, including many homes. The boxes are a bedrock symbol of the Zionist movement, the JNF even claims the first collection box was Theodor Herzl’s hat.
Here’s what the blue box looks like today:
It even makes its way into JNF educational efforts:
Strangly enough, this box below does include the green line. It is vaguely what I remember the box looking like when I was a kid (in the early 1980s):
The Jewish National Fund’s Israeli website has a photo gallery of blue boxes through the years. This box isn’t there, I wonder when, or where, it’s from?
The Likud Party charter states .. a. “The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel.”
b. “Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem”
c. “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.”
d. “The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.” On Palestinian self-rule it says:
“The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river. The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state. Thus, for example, in matters of foreign affairs, security, immigration and ecology, their activity shall be limited in accordance with imperatives of Israel’s existence, security and national needs.” So there we have it, Israel will not freely give up sovereignty over the Land of Israel, it will have to be taken from them, they will never negotiate it away.
The JNF box I remember from my childhood (1950s — early 60s) was all blue, including the patches indicating land bought by the JNF. I wonder whether the switch to green was to create an excuse for deleting the green line or whether there were other reasons (to appeal to the environmental movement?).
Israel’s erasure of the Green Line helps put the lie to the Obama/Kerry “peace talks”. The sooner Kerry folds up the tent on his Quixotic quest the sooner we’ll be into the endgame for Israel’s racist designs.
The green line is what separates Judaism and systematic evil. Judaism needs the green line but evil is winning.
>> An illustration of “Blue Box Bob,” a JNF mascot.
The smiling face of Jewish supremacism. How cute.