David Singer: Jordan must not socially distance from Judea and Samaria’s Arabs

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Formation of a National Unity Government in Israel has focused attention on the future of Judea and Samaria – 4% of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine – in which sovereignty still remains unallocated between Jews and Arabs.

 President Trump’s Peace Plan published on 28 January 2020 has been endorsed by Israel.
Trump’s Plan proposes that Israeli sovereignty be extended into parts of Judea and Samaria – with the balance reserved to create a second Arab state in former Palestine – in addition to Jordan – for the first time in recorded history.

The PLO, Arab League and the international community have rejected Trump’s proposals.
However US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has given the greenlight to Israel proceeding with extending Israeli sovereignty in about 30% of Judea and Samaria now the new Israeli Government of National Unity is finalised.

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has agreed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can seek Parliament’s approval for Israeli sovereignty to be extended into about 30% of Judea and Samaria after 1 July in accordance with the decisions of a joint US-Israel mapping committee.
Israel’s entitlement to do so is grounded in the legal rights vested by the international community in the Jewish People pursuant to:

• The San Remo Resolution dated 25 April 1920
• Article 95 Treaty of Sevres dated 10 August 1920
• Article 6 Mandate for Palestine dated 24 July 1922
• Article 16 Treaty of Lausanne dated 24 July 1923
• Article 80 United Nations Charter 1945

These commitments have been previously breached by:

• The Council of the League of Nations approving article 25 being inserted in the Mandate for Palestine – allowing Britain to postpone or withhold the Jewish National Home being reconstituted in Transjordan – 77% of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine
• Britain unilaterally granting independence to Transjordan on 25 May 1946 contrary to article 5 of the Mandate for Palestine
• Britain handing back its Mandate to the United Nations – uncompleted – on 15^th May 1948 – leaving the Jews to defend themselves against six invading Arab armies from neighbouring States.

The European Union has now hypocritically chosen to strongly oppose Israel extending sovereignty into Judea and Samaria after 1 July.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell released the following statement:

“…the EU’s position on the status of the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 remains unchanged. The EU does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank. The EU reiterates that any annexation would constitute a serious violation of international law.”

Borrell is way off the mark:

• Not ‘’sovereignty over the occupied West Bank” – but “sovereignty over 30% of Judea and Samaria – land designated for reconstitution of the Jewish National Home under internationally-negotiated agreements”
• Not “annexation” – but “ the restoration of sovereignty lost 3000 years ago by the Jewish people in its biblical heartland”
• Not “a serious violation of international law”: Israeli sovereignty is being applied in accordance with international agreements that the international community is obligated to uphold.

Trump should focus on Jordan – having occupied and ruled Judea and Samaria between 1948 and 1967 – to replace the PLO in negotiations with Israel on Trump’s additional Arab State proposal.
The PLO – only founded in 1964 – expressly stipulated under article 24 of its Charter that it did:

 “not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,”

The PLO reversed its position in 1968 after Israel gained control in the 1967 Six Day War.
Judea and Samaria’s Arab residents were Jordanian citizens between 1950 and 1988. Socially distancing from them now is the last thing Jordan should be doing.

Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog.

In Australia, "A Zionist Attack on Free Speech"

Israel-critical Australian former federal politician Melissa Parke sat from 2007 to 2013 as Labor (ALP) member for Fremantle and was briefly minister for international development.  To quote Wikipedia, which provides footnotes for these statements,

'On 22 January 2016, Parke announced her retirement at the next federal election, to spend more time with her family, following her marriage to Perth businessman and patron of the arts, Warwick Hemsley.

In April 2019, she was selected by the Australian Labor Party to contest the federal seat of Curtin in the 2019 federal election. This seat had been held by former Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop since 1998. Parke withdrew her candidacy for the seat following negative media coverage after she was reported to have told a meeting that Israel's treatment of Palestinians was "worse than the South African system of apartheid". She said her views regarding Palestine-Israel were well known but that she did not want them to be a "distraction from electing a Labor government which will take urgent and strong action on climate change".

In January 2020, Parke sued Liberal MP Dave Sharma for defamation over a tweet in which he accused her of anti-semitism and "trafficking in conspiracy theories". She also sued Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, and the West Australian and Herald Sun newspapers, over a press release from Rubenstein and stories run in the West Australian and Herald Sun that she alleged defamed her.[23] On 8 January 2020 the West Australian published an apology and published an article by Parke.[24] On 26 March 2020, the Herald Sun printed an apology to Parke and published her op-ed entitled Criticism Not Same As Racism.'

Positive reaction to this development can be seen, as Ms Parke indicates in the above tweet, here, as well  as here (in the comments to which I found the following charmer)

and, with images, here

Meanwhile, on the subject of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, here is an article that appeared in the British journal Patterns of Prejudice (volume 4, 1970, issue 4), and published online by publisher Taylor and Francis on 28 May 2010 (Download citation https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.1970.9968931).

I found it via a tweet by the estimable British scholar Dr James Vaughan (@EquusontheBuses)

In Australia, Some Jewish Leftists Sink Ever Lower

The far left frequently Israel-demonising Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS) has dismayed even Jewish observers disposed to try to think well of it, by promoting a film called :Gaza Fights for Freedom" made by American journalist Abby Martin, who  has a history of espousing conspiracy theories and who, to quote Wikipedia (which provides sources for its comments)

"On February 10, 2020 ..., represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR], filed a free-speech lawsuit against the State of Georgia's law requiring contractors to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel after her booking to speak at a conference at Georgia Southern University on Critical Media Literacy was cancelled for refusing to sign the pledge. The conference was later cancelled."

 Here's some information about the film, and its sponsors:

About the film, the AJDS enthuses thus:

Not surprisingly, many Aussie Jews are wondering how much lower into the mire the AJDS might sink.

UPDATED David Singer: Trump-hatred divides American Zionists 100 years after San Remo

Originally posted yesterday, but now revised in view of subsequent developments, here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:
 Celebrations marking the 100^th Anniversary of the signing of the San Remo Resolution on 25 April 1920 by Britain, France, Italy and Japan will be marred by bitter confrontation between those American Zionists who support Jewish sovereignty being restored in 30% of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and those who don’t.

Rejoicing was the order of the day, as the Times of London pointed out on 26 April 1920:

Judea and Samaria – the Jewish People’s ancient and biblical heartland – was included in the land designated for “close settlement by Jews” whilst “ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced” under article 6 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.

Israel today exercises full security and administrative control in about 60% of Judea and Samaria – “Area C” – 150,000 of whose residents are Arab and 464,000  Jews – under the 1993 Oslo Accords. Negotiations to resolve the final status of Area C and the remaining 40% of Judea and Samaria – Areas “A” and “B” under control of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) – have been non-existent since 2014.

President Trump’s Peace Plan – released on 28 January 2020 – provides the first realistic opportunity in 100 years since the San Remo Resolution to restore Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria – and create a second Arab state in Mandatory Palestine never contemplated at San Remo.

The PLO and the Arab League has rejected Trump’s plan out of hand.

President Trump nevertheless has decided to proceed with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restore Jewish sovereignty in about 30% of Area C.  A joint US-Israel mapping committee is presently finalising details identifying the particular areas.
American Zionist groups have similarly attacked this Trump-Netanyahu historic move.

One such group – the Israel Policy Forum (IPF) – has written to Gantz:

“We write to you as American Jewish communal leaders who are proudly Zionist, unquestionably pro-Israel, and who have devoted our lives to supporting the State of Israel and ensuring an ironclad relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.”

IPF proclaims:

“We have strongly objected to Israel unilaterally annexing West Bank territory and applying sovereignty to Jewish settlements, whether according to the parameters of the Trump plan or any other similar proposal, at any point in time.”

IPF couches its plea is the language of the enemies of the Jewish people – “unilaterally annexing West Bank territory and applying sovereignty” – rather than “restoring Jewish sovereignty in 30% of Judea and Samaria”

138 prominent American Jewish Communal leaders including Charles Bronfman and Sir James Wolfensohn have signed this letter.

These Zionist naysayers opposing long-lost Jewish sovereignty being restored in parts of Judea and Samaria – are repudiating the miraculous resurrection of this entitlement recognised at San Remo 100 years ago.

Trump-hatred seems to be driving these American Zionists to sacrifice the Jewish People’s long-term national interest for short term partisan American politics.

Their pleas have failed.

Under the Government of National Unity just announced it is being reported that the Government will be applying sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria according to Trump’s Peace Plan from early July.

Hopefully these dissenting American Zionists will now relent and support the Trump-Netanyahu historic decision.

Author’s note: The cartoon—commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”—one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators—whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog.

"Gearing Up for the Battle of Liberation and Return"

The 17th of  April is "Palestinian Prisoners' Day", and to mark the occasion the Islamic Jihad Movement has issued a characteristically sabre-rattling statement declaring that the "resistance" is “exercising its role in defending the Palestinian people and gearing up for the battle of liberation and return.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Forum in Britain has declared, inter alia,

"On the 17th of April of each year; the Palestinians and the liberals of the world  celebrate Palestinian prisoners day, in solidarity with prisoners held by the Israeli occupation.

The Forum ... calls on the British government to pressure the occupation government to release the prisoners; taking into account Britain's role in the tragedy of the Palestinian people through the Balfour Declaration.

The Forum calls on human rights and humanitarian institutions to do their part to seek the release of Palestinian prisoners, persecuted and oppressed in prisons around the Arab world as well, and in other countries around the world.

The Forum calls on the free people of the world, and people from Arab and Muslim countries to support the prisoners and their families and to show solidarity with them by all means, including electronic demonstrations to keep their cause going in the media in the world....

On this occasion, the Palestinian Forum and the members of the Palestinian community in Britain salute and appreciate our courageous prisoners in the occupation prisons who sacrifice their youth behind bars for the freedom of their people and their land, and they hold onto lawful resistance to the occupation until they gain their rights, and to live on the land of Palestine with pride and dignity.

Speaking on Al-Hiwar TV (U.K.) in August last year, Hamas official Maher Salah makes his movement's attitude to peace with the Zionist entity crystal clear.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lRyYFHVzDU

To quote the translator and uploader, Menri.org, Maher Salah, he proclaimed that

Israel is the root of all evil in the Middle East. He said that there is a large revolution coming that will require great sacrifices and that will change the region. He harshly criticized anybody who recognizes Israel, who sees it as an ally, and who normalizes relations with it, and he said that such people should be excommunicated because they are committing treason and "falsifying" the will of the nation and the "true feelings of contemporary Arabs and Muslims." Salah also explained that Hamas has a good relationship with Iran because of Iran's financial and material support for the Palestinian cause and because of its continued hostility to Israel.

David Singer: PLO Continues to Denigrate Trump Peace Plan and Ignore Elections

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has cranked up its propaganda machine to continue denigrating President Trump’s deal of the century – as a joint US-Israel Mapping Committee is finalising those areas in Judea and Samaria on Trump’s map where Jewish sovereignty can be restored after 3000 years.

The PLO rejected Trump’s plan on the day it was published – 28 January 2020 – even though it provided for the creation of a second Arab State in former Palestine – in addition to Jordan – for the first time in recorded history.

WAFA – the Palestinian news and information agency – has attacked Trump’s move to start implementing his plan in an article headlined: “PLO official warns of Israeli plan to annex parts of West Bank” – which headline itself is false and misleading for the following reasons:

• It is not an Israeli plan – but Trump’s plan being applied by Israel in tandem with Trump
• Trump’s plan does not involve annexation by Israel – rather the restoration of Jewish sovereignty after 3000 years in the Jewish people’s ancient and biblical heartland – in areas authorised by the San Remo Conference and Treaty of Sevres in 1920, the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922 and the United Nations Charter.
• “West Bank” was only coined in 1950 to replace the 3000 years old geographic place name “Judea and Samaria” – after all the Jews living there had been ethnically cleansed by Transjordan during the 1948 War of Independence – and Judea & Samaria was unified with Transjordan to form a new territorial entity – renamed Jordan.

Wafa’s report references a statement by Ahmad Majdalani – member of the PLO Executive Committee and Minister of Social Affairs:

“Uncovered reports that Washington and Tel Aviv are about to agree on the maps of annexation [of parts of the West Bank] – at a time the world is preoccupied with the war on coronavirus – falls within the framework of the US plan to implement the “deal of the century”

Note:

• No uncovered reports are produced
• Repetition of the false and misleading terms annexation and West Bank
• The world might be preoccupied with the war on coronavirus but Governments – including the US and Israeli Governments – have not stopped governing and making decisions – and to suggest they should is arrant nonsense

Wafa asserts:

“The PLO official stressed that the US-Israeli plan undermines the basic principles of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and the resolutions of the international community, calling on the latter to compel Israel to abide by these resolutions.”

No mention that:

• Negotiations between Israel and the PLO spanning various periods between 1993 and 2014 have failed to produce any resolution
• negotiations have not been held since 2014

Majdalani concludes:

“This plan, drawn with maps by the teams of the Israeli occupation and the Trump administration, is the actual implementation of the “deal of the century”, which means an end to the two-state solution.”

False:

• Israel’s occupies 60% and the PLO 40% of Judea and Samaria pursuant to the 1993 Oslo Accords
• The “two-state” solution is very much alive under Trump’s Plan. It just doesn’t meet the PLO’s non-negotiable demand for the last 53 years claiming a state in 100% of Judea and Samaria.

The PLO has not called any general election since 2006.

Holding elections now would allow 95% of Judea and Samaria’s Arab population currently living under the PLO’s tyrannical and oppressive governance in Areas “A” and “B” to have their say on Trump’s two-state proposal and the PLO’s continuing rule over them.

The deathly-silent international community needs to stop fawning over the PLO and demand such long-overdue elections take place.

Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article – is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones” – one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Young Man, Old Attitude

"The Jews are the slayers of the prophets ... Therefore hatred and hostility towards them is part of our faith ... normalising relations with them is haram ..."

So ranted Sudanese preacher Abdallah Hassan Jiballah last month.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRa4xbfT2Ps

A Memri.org video.

David Singer: “Restoring Jewish Sovereignty” is Not “West Bank Annexation”

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz have reached a critical point in their negotiations to form a Government of National Unity: whether to seize the opportunity presented by President Trump to restore Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria – the heartland of the ancient and biblical Jewish National Home – after an absence of 3000 years.

Netanyahu wants to do so in tandem with President Trump – immediately a Government of at least 61 members headed by him as Prime Minister is formed. Gantz is not prepared to do so unless the Arab States – notably Jordan – and the international community agree – virtually guaranteeing it will never happen.

The Jewish media do not seem to have grasped this unique opportunity given to the Jewish People to turn a 3000-year-old dream into a miraculous reality.

Using what can only be described as the language of the enemies of the Jewish people, the mainstream Jewish media in Israel and elsewhere have been headlining their reports of the ongoing struggle between Netanyahu and Gantz with very similar headlines:

• “Gantz weighing limited West Bank settlement annexation – report”
• “Two leaders forced to yell to each other with PM in precautionary isolation; main disagreement is still over annexing parts of West Bank, which Netanyahu wants as his ‘legacy’”
• “Gantz reportedly prepared to accept limited annexation of West Bank”
• “Report: Gantz agrees to limited West Bank annexation, inches closer to unity gov’t”
• “Dan Shapiro: Gantz and Netanyahu are ‘haggling’ over West Bank annexation”
• “West Bank annexation remains a sticking point in Israel unity government talks”

These Jewish media reports are doing the Jewish People a great disservice.

The correct name of the “West Bank” is “Judea and Samaria” – the geographic place name used for 3000 years until 1950 – when its name was changed by Transjordan following its illegal occupation of Judea and Samaria and the ethnic cleansing of all Jews living there in the 1948 War of Independence.

Transjordan and Judea and Samaria were unified into one territorial entity and renamed Jordan. The West Bank was the area of Jordan on the West Bank of the River Jordan. The area on the East Bank of the Jordan River comprised what was formerly Transjordan.

The term “Judea and Samaria” had been recently used in Part II A of the 1947 UN Partition Resolution.

The 1950 change of name to “West Bank” has since been used to mask any Jewish claims or connection to the land. To rub salt into the wound the United Nations now calls it the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

The term “annexation” connotes taking something to which you have no claim. Yet the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine included Judea and Samaria as areas in which the Jewish National Home could be “reconstituted”.  This right to do so is preserved today by article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

Language is important.

The Jewish media is letting the Jewish People down at this critical moment in Jewish history. In seeking to underplay the Netanyahu-Gantz divide, the Jewish media is giving ammunition to our enemies to use “West Bank annexation” at every opportunity.

“West Bank annexation” is a distinctly anti-Jewish phrase. “Restoring Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria” states the Jewish case. Four more words for media to include in their headlines and reports that create a very different perception and understanding of what is at stake.

As Jews recount the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt at their Seders this week, think of the miracle Jews may be soon blessed to witness with their own eyes – reclaiming patrimony in the ancient Jewish homeland after 3000 years.

 Author’s note: The cartoon—commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”—one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators—whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

The Destruction of the Bedrock Values of Western Civilisation

Many readers will already  have discovered this interview with Marvellous Melanie, but for those who haven't, it's a 50-minute must-hear  (no need to stay glued to the screen).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asQ8KFrZY84

Hear her tell, inter alia, why antisemitism and anti-Zionism made her leave The Guardian ...