Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Monday 6 December 2010

In Tel Aviv, Geert Wilders praises Israel and repeats that Jordan is Palestine

Controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders has given a speech in Tel Aviv today in which he affirms once again his solidarity with Israel and his conviction that Jordan is Palestine:

'Shalom chavarim.  Let me start by saying that it is with great sadness that I share your grief over the deaths of more than 40 brave Israelis who lost their lives  many while trying to save others   in the great fire near Haifa. My country, the Netherlands, is amongst other countries helping to put down this fire, which is threatening the lives and property of thousands of your compatriots. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who perished. My thoughts are with them.

Israel is an immense source of inspiration for me. When I came to your country for the first time as a teenager, I lived here for a year.

I am not ashamed to stand with Israel, but proud. I am grateful to Israel. I will always defend Israel. Your country is the cradle of Western civilisation. We call it the Judeo-Christian civilisation with good reason.

Israel is often being treated unfairly. The world looks at the plight of the Palestinians in refugee camps in Lebanon, Gaza, and other places, and many blame Israel. The UN claims that there are over 4.7 million Palestinian refugees, and many blame Israel. These voices say the Palestinians should be allowed to return to "Palestine". But where is Palestine? Many say Israel must solve the problems of Palestine. But is Israel guilty of the plight of the Palestinian refugees?

My answer is "No".  The Arab leaders are to be blamed  and Islam is to be blamed. Let me first tell you why, and then I will tell you where Palestine can be found.

At the end of World War II, there were 50 million refugees. Today, all the refugee problems dating from before the 1950s have been solved. All, except one  the problem of the Palestinians.

Why did this problem not get solved? The reason is simple: Because the Arab countries did not allow it to get solved. And because Islam does not allow it to get solved.

In May 1948, the number of Jews in the Arab countries was estimated to be close to 1 million. Today, fewer than 8,000 Jews are left in the entire Arab world. In 1948, the Arab countries forced the Jews out and confiscated their properties. More Jews fled the Arab countries than Arabs fled Israel. Where are the Jewish refugee camps? There are none.

So, why are there refugee camps for Palestinians in areas surrounding Israel? Because the Palestinians were not welcomed in the neighboring Arab countries. There was no Arab solidarity; the refugees were forced into camps and slums, where many of their descendants still linger today.

Under international definitions the status of refugee or displaced person only applies to first generation refugees. However, the UN makes an exception for Palestinians. Descendants of Palestinian refugees are granted the same refugee status as their ancestors. Consequently, the number of so-called Palestinian refugees registered with the UN increased from 711,000 in 1950 to over 4.7 million in 2010. These refugees are being used as a demographic weapon against Israel.

Instead of blaming the inhospitable Arab regimes, many blame Israel.

My friends, the blame should be laid where it belongs with the Arab world. The Jewish refugees built new lives for themselves. They did what millions of refugees have done in the course of history, including, in the 20th century, the Germans who had to leave Sudetenland and the lands east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, the Hungarians who fled Transylvania, the Greeks who were ejected from the Aegean coast of Anatolia, the Hindus who fled the Punjab.

With each generation, the resentment of these refugees and their descendents slowly fades away. Time heals all wounds. Acceptance of the new situation is the norm.

Islam, however, conditions Muslims to hate Jews. It is a religious duty to do so. Israel must be destroyed because it is the homeland of the Jews.

Influential Islamic scholars, such as Muhammad Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, the most prestigious centre of Muslim learning, call Jews "enemies of Allah". Tantawi, who died last March, was generally considered a moderate by the Western media and policy makers. But how did this "moderate" address a delegation of Palestinian Muslims who visited him in 2002?

He urged them to intensify suicide attacks against Israelis, stating that every so-called "martyrdom operation" against I quote – "any Israeli, including children, women, and teenagers, is a legitimate act according to [Islamic] religious law, and an Islamic commandment, until the people of Palestine regain their land".

Nizar Qabbani, one of the most revered poets in the Arab world, praised the madness of those who are blinded by an ideology of hatred. In his poem Ode to the Intifada, he wrote: "O mad people of Gaza, a thousand greetings to the mad. The age of political reason has long departed. So teach us madness."

Thát is the nature of the Islamic enemies confronting the Jews sheer madness.

Israel, on the other hand, is a beacon of light; it is like a Chanukah menorah whose lights have been kindled in a region that until 1948 was engulfed by darkness.

Friends, Israel is not to blame for the situation in the Middle East. The problem is Islam’s rejection of Israel’s right to exist. Only last month, Fatah concluded its convention in Ramallah by declaring its blatant refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

The problem is also our Western leaders’ refusal to understand that Israel is the West’s canary in the coalmine: If the Jews are denied the right to live in freedom and peace, soon we will all be denied this right. If the light of Israel is extinguished, we will all face darkness. If Israel falls, the West falls. That is why we are all Israel.

But as long as the West refuses to understand how the Palestinians are used as a weapon against Israel, it will not be able to see who is truly to blame; it will not be able to see that it is not Israel’s duty to provide a Palestinian state for the simple reason that there already is a Palestinian state and that state is Jordan.

Indeed, my friends, Jordan is Palestine. Take a look at the map of this part of the world after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War One.  Both contemporary Israel and contemporary Jordan were part of the British Mandate of Palestine.

In 1922, the British partitioned Palestine into Cisjordan and Transjordan  the latter comprising 78 per cent of the territory of Palestine. The British handed that territory over to their ally, the Hashemite strongman Abdallah ibn Hussein. Abdallah was the son of the Emir Hussein bin Ali, guardian of the Islamic holy city of Mecca. The Hashemites belong to the Quraish tribe  the tribe of Islam founder Mohammed. They are a foreign body in Palestine.

In 1946, Transjordan became an independent state under Hashemite rule. In November 1947, the United Nations proposed to partition the remaining 22 per cent of Palestine. The territory between the Jordan River and the sea was divided into a Jewish and an Arab part. The Jewish representatives accepted the UN partition plan, but the Arab representatives refused. In an attempt to "drive all the Jews into the sea", they began the 1948 War  which they lost.

They took revenge, however, on the Jews in East Jerusalem and the rest of Cisjordan  the ancient provinces of Judea and Samaria  held by the Arab forces. This entire region was ethnically cleansed of all Jews. Even the names of Judea and Samaria were wiped off the map and replaced by the ridiculous term "West Bank". A river bank of over 40 kilometres wide.  I come from a country full of rivers, and there the river banks are only a few dozen metres wide.

Israel, including Judea and Samaria, has been the land of the Jews since time immemorial. Judea means "Land of the Jews". Never in the history of the world has there been an autonomous state in the area that was not Jewish. The Diaspora of the Jews, which began after their defeat by the Romans in AD 70, did not lead to the departure of all the Jews from their ancient homeland. Jews had been living in the Jordan Valley for centuries until the Arab invaders drove them out in 1948, when the provinces of Judea and Samaria were occupied by the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, which abbreviated its name to Jordan in 1950.

And until 1967, when Israel regained the ancient Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria, no one, not a single Islamic scholar or Western politician, ever demanded that there be an independent Palestinian state in the so-called West Bank.

Must Israel trade land for peace? Should it assign Judea and Samaria to another Palestinian state a second one, next to Jordan? My friends, let me be very clear: The conflict in the Middle East is not a conflict over territory, but rather an ideological battle.

People are mistaken when they assume that giving up Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem and letting the Palestinians have it, will end the conflict between Israel and the Arabs. In 2005, Israel sacrificed the settlements in Gaza for the sake of peace. Did it get peace?

On the contrary, because the conflict is essentially ideological, the situation worsened. Because the conflict is ideological, territorial concessions are counterproductive. Ideologies cannot be defeated by concessions. They are encouraged and emboldened by it.

Ideologies must be confronted with the iron will never to give in  "Never, never, never, never  in nothing, great or small, large or petty."  That is the lesson which the world learned from Winston Churchill when he confronted the evil ideology of Nazism.

This conflict here in the Middle East is not about land and borders, but about Islamic jihadism opposing Western liberty. From the moment that Israel was founded, the Arab leaders have rejected every partition plan and every initiative for a territorial settlement. The Islamic ideology simply does not accept the concept of a Jewish state. Neither Hamas nor Fatah are willing to recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own in their historic homeland. No territorial concession on Israel’s part can ever change that.

Israel’s ideological enemies want to wipe Israel out as a nation. They simply deny the Jewish state the right to exist and to live in peace, dignity and liberty.

For the sake of its own survival and security, Israel needs defendable borders. A country that is only 15 kilometres wide is impossible to defend. That is the strategic reason why Jews need to settle Judea and Samaria.

Therefore, the Jewish towns and villages in Judea and Samaria are not an impediment to peace; they are an expression of the Jewish right to exist in this land. They are tiny outposts of freedom, defying ideological forces which deny not only Israel but the entire West the right to live in peace, dignity and liberty.

Let us never forget that Islam threatens not just Israel; Islam threatens the entire world. Without Judea and Samaria, Israel cannot protect Jerusalem. The future of the world depends on Jerusalem. If Jerusalem falls, Athens and Rome – and Paris, London and Washington will be next.

Thus, Jerusalem is the main front protecting our common civilisation. When the flag of Israel no longer flies over the walls of Jerusalem, the West will no longer be free.

However, a peaceful solution must also be found for the many Palestinians in the refugee camps in Lebanon, Gaza and elsewhere. Each year, hundreds of millions of euros and dollars are spent on the Palestinian refugees in international aid.

The financial assistance, however, did not provide the refugees a new home, a place to live and build a future for their children and grandchildren. It is obvious where this place should be. It should be Palestine, just as, after the Second World War, the obvious place for the German refugees from the East to go to, was Germany. Since Jordan is Palestine, it is the duty of the Jordanian government to welcome all Palestinian refugees who voluntarily want to settle there.

Until the late 1980s, Jordan’s Hashemite rulers did not deny that their country was Palestine. They said so on numerous occasions. In 1965, King Hussein said: “Those organizations which seek to differentiate between Palestinians and Jordanians are traitors.” As late as 1981, Hussein repeated –  I quote “Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.”

In March 1971, the Palestine National Council, too, stated that "what links Jordan to Palestine is a national bond … formed, since time immemorial, by history and culture. The establishment of one political entity in Transjordan and another in Palestine is illegal."

By the late 1970s, however, the Arab authorities began to differentiate between Jordanians and Palestinians. What was previously considered to be treason and illegality suddenly became the propaganda line.

In March 1977, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein admitted in a candid interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw:

"Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot lay claim to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In 1988, as the first Intifada raged, Jordan officially renounced any claim of sovereignty to the so-called West Bank. In recent years, the Jordanian authorities have stripped thousands of Palestinians of their Jordanian citizenship. They do so for two reasons.

First, because the alien Hashemite rulers fear that the Palestinians might one day take over their own country. And second, because stripping Palestinians of their Jordanian citizenship supports the falsehood that Jordan is not a part of Palestine. And that, consequently, the Palestinians must attack Israel if they want a place of their own.

By arbitrarily reducing thousands of their citizens to statelessness, the Jordanian authorities want to force the Palestinians to turn their aspirations towards the establishment of another Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. This decision is a great injustice committed by the Hashemite rulers of Jordan this foreign clan which the British installed.

I am not naive. I am not blind to the possibility that if Jordan were to be ruled by the Palestinians, this might lead to political radicalisation in Jordan. However, a continuation of the present situation will most certainly lead to radicalisation. We need a paradigm shift. If we keep thinking along the same lines as we have done so far, no peaceful solution of the Palestinian problem is possible without endangering the existence of Israel and disrupting the social and economic fabric in Judea and Samaria. Resettling millions of Palestinians in these small provinces is simply impossible and is not going to happen. 

To the sceptics I say What is the alternative? Leaving the present situation as it is? No, my friends, the world must recognise that there has been an independent Palestinian state since 1946, and it is the kingdom of Jordan.

Allowing all Palestinians to voluntarily settle in Jordan is a better way towards peace than the current so-called two-states-approach (in reality a three-states approach) propagated by the United Nations, the US administration, and governing elites all over the world. We only want a democratic non-violent solution for the Palestinian problem. This requires that the Palestinian people should be given the right to voluntarily settle in Jordan and freely elect their own government in Amman. If the present Hashemite king is still as popular as today, he can remain in power. That is for the people of Palestine to decide in real democratic elections.

My friends, let us adopt a totally new approach. Let us acknowledge that Jordan is Palestine.

And to the Western world I say: Let us stand with Israel because the Jews have no other state, while the Palestinians already have Jordan. Let us stand with Israel because the history of our civilisation began here, in this land, the homeland of the Jews. Let us stand with Israel because the Jewish state needs defendable borders to secure its own survival. Let us stand with Israel because it is the frontline in the battle for the survival of the West.

We must speak the truth. The truth that Jordan is Palestine, the truth that Samaria and Judea are part of Israel, the truth that Jerusalem may not fall, the truth that Israel is the only democracy in a dark and tyrannical region, the truth that Israel is the lynchpin of the West.

Of course, I am just a foreign guest and should be modest. Israel is a democracy and I respect every decision which its people and government will make. But I am proud to be here and grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts and beliefs with you.

Because it is here that our civilisation is under attack as we speak. It is here that we, men and women of the West, must show our resolve to defend ourselves. It is here that Israel has lit the light of freedom and that Europeans and Americans must help the Israelis to keep that light shining in the darkness. For Israel’s sake and for the sake of all of us.

Toda Raba and Shalom to all of you.'

17 comments:

  1. This is , of course, the classic and unanswered question; "You already have one Palestinian state, why do you need another one?" Once posed, and granted an understanding of history, it answers itself; "To kill Jews".

    But history is denied and Jordan is no longer Palestine.

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  2. Shkoyach!!!

    This has left me speechless.

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  3. Thanks, Ian - I'm getting more hawkish since I fear the "endgame" they have in mind.

    I imagine that would be a first, Shirlee!

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  4. Now , now Daphne !!

    Here’s a good one for you. A few years back I was the President of the Ladies Auxiliary at my shul. We had a themed dinner dance annually. One year it was the Oscars.
    Now don’t be to rude please……..but

    I won an Academy Award, for being able to talk the most,
    probably even under water !!

    Don’t you dare say a word !!!!

    I can hear you laughing all the way ‘down under’

    Ian- if you look at some of the loony left, pro-Palestinian web sites, I think you'll see that these "haters" incite more hatred towards Israel than the Arab/Muslim world does

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  5. Meanwhile -

    Prominent VVD politician Frits Bolkestein believes there is no future for 'active' Jews in the Netherlands. The conservative politician made his remarks in an interview with freesheet De Pers.
    In the interview, Mr Bolkestein says that when he talks about active Jews he means those who are recognisable as such, for instance Orthodox Jews. The former EU Commissioner says there is no future for this group in the Netherlands because of "the anti-Semitism among Dutchmen of Moroccan descent, whose numbers keep growing''.
    He feels that this group of Jews should encourage their children to emigrate to either the United States or Israel, because he has little confidence in the effectiveness of the government's proposals for fighting anti-Semitism.
    Earlier, Mr Bolkestein made similar statements in Het Verval (The Decline) by Manfred Gerstenberg, a recently published book about Jews in the Netherlands. Frits Bolkestein was political leader of the current coalition party VVD between 1990 en 1998. He later served as European Commissioner from 1999 until 2004.
    © Radio Netherlands Worldwide

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  6. And made an acceptance speech as long as Gwyneth Paltrow's, eh, Shirlee?
    [Ducks out of firing range]

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  7. No comment !! Daphne, you are becoming too cheeky !! My rabbi, who is Lubavich, won the 'best schmoozer'award

    I have heard that comment previously from Holland, I think, or it may have been Sweden?

    In a discussion a few weeks ago, with an administrator of the EDL. I made comment that the US is waking up to Islam and I think there will be a blood bath there soon, because of the availability of firearms

    He said “NO way” The US is way behind. It will be Sweden or Holland first, followed by England

    Frightening thoughts !!

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  8. The demographic weapon is scary - I'm not sure whether David Cameron's welfare cuts removed state benefits to polygamous wives and their offspring or not.
    Meanwhile:
    A radical US-based Islamic website shut down last month after allegedly helping to inspire the stabbing of a Labour MP has resurfaced with a new name.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8182336/Islamic-website-tied-to-MPs-stabbing-resurfaces-under-new-name.html

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  9. And that ex jailbird Lord Ahmed threatened to swamp the democratic House of Lords with 10,000 muslims if Geert Wilders film were to be shown there.

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  10. Indeed, Steve.
    We live in exciting times...

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  11. From Robin Shepherd's blog (see my blogroll):
    "Brazil, the leading power in Latin America, has formally recognised a Palestinian state on 1967 lines. News agencies reported that the announcement was made on the Brazilian foreign ministry’s website...."

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  12. B'H

    I have been trying to set up a FREE ISRAEL group on Facebook. Free Israel from the lies, propaganda, terror and arsonists both within and without their borders.

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  13. Good onya Ilana. You listened to me !!

    Here's a link for Wilders speech

    http://wejew.com/media/9927/Geert_Wilders:_Jordan_is_Palestine/

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  14. youcancallmemeyer7 December 2010 at 02:05

    Daphne,

    Thankyou for making this speech available.

    As the western world is still dominated by leftists his analysis of the Israel problem will be rejected.

    Even the so called right wing Likud party negotiates freezes on construction in Jerusalem! What chance of a mainstream Israeli party annexing Judea and Samaria, as Likud should, and facing the double barreled charge, from world leftists, of Apartheid in Judea and Samaria and genocide when it tries to migrate the adjacent arabs to Jordan.

    The more moderate Lieberman plan was rejected by Sharon and, as I understand it, Lieberman now accepts a three state solution (branded a two state solution); so I see a lot of blood on western streets before our politicians accept Wilders' analysis and remedies.

    The canary in the coal mine for sure.


    Shirl,

    Not being Jewish, you had me racing for "the new joys of yiddish" to find out what Shkoyach meant. Oy, not there. Apparently not Yiddish but slang Hebrew being a contraction of Yasher Koach used by frummies? Too tired to google further. Always nice to increase the vocabulary.

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  15. Thanks for the comment, Meyer. I must do a blogpost on that topic soon. I just hope Brazil's recognition of the "Auschwitz Borders" of 1967 doesn't have a domino effect. Abbas must be feeling gleeful.

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  16. youcancallmemeyer sorry for posting a word you didn't understand.

    Thanks for the background into the word "Shkoyach" That was enlightening. Now I look in my VERY ancient Yiddish dictionary, I see it isn't there. Unfortunately, it's American Yiddish and certainly isn't the Yiddish I speak and I grew up with.

    At times I confuse words with German words, which I speak too, after all Yiddish is a bastardised German

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  17. Everyone can have a chuckle here.

    I receive many emails daily & many have up to 100 email addresses on them. Some people have no idea how to, or indeed know to, use the BBC box or delete addresses.

    These addresses my husband keeps. Then, when something like the Geert Wilders speech on video comes along, he sends it to all of them.

    I am not joking here, he has hundreds, if not thousands of addresses.!!

    He says, quite rightly, that we are all busy sending articles etc., to people of like mind. This way we reach those who are not aware or think differently to us.!!

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