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)
Showing posts with label David Friedman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Friedman. Show all posts

Wednesday, 14 August 2019

David Singer: Trump Reaffirms Bush’s Recognition of Jewish claims in West Bank

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

He writes:

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is frothing at the mouth at media reports indicating that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a public declaration from US President Donald Trump recognizing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank prior to the Israeli elections on 17 September.

PLO spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh stressed that any procedure or decision affecting Palestinian national rights and the resolutions of international legitimacy shall be considered illegitimate. Abu Rudeineh warned such a move would have “serious implications”.

Abu Rudineh continued:
“This step, if taken, would constitute ongoing playing with fire,” he added, and stressed that stability and security are indivisible and that “peace would not be made at any price”.
“Neither this step would establish any right [to Israel], nor it will create a viable false reality,” he added.”
Such a Trump declaration would undoubtedly help Netanyahu’s re-election chances – as have Trump’s declarations on Jerusalem being Israel’s capital, moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognising Jewish claims in the  Golan Heights.

However Trump’s US Ambassador to Israel – David Friedman – has already made such a declaration – telling the New York Times on 8 June 2019:
 “Under certain circumstances I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.”
Friedman diplomatically continued:
“We really don’t have a view until we understand how much, on what terms, why does it make sense, why is it good for Israel, why is it good for the region, why does it not create more problems than it solves… These are all things that we’d want to understand, and I don’t want to prejudge … Certainly Israel’s entitled to retain some portion of it,”
Friedman confirmed what has been declared American policy since 2004 – when President Bush made the following written commitment in his letter to Israel’s then Prime Minister – the late Ariel Sharon – on 14 April 2004:
“As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centres, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities.”
This commitment was overwhelmingly endorsed by the House of Representatives 407:9 on 23 June 2004 and the Senate 95:3 the next day.

Bush’s letter welcomed the disengagement plan Sharon had prepared:
“under which Israel would withdraw certain military installations and all settlements from Gaza, and withdraw certain military installations and settlements in the West Bank. These steps described in the plan will mark real progress toward realizing my June 24, 2002 vision, and make a real contribution towards peace”
Israel honoured its commitment – at great personal loss of life, injury and property damage to both its civilian population and military forces. Israel continues to pay a heavy price for that disengagement as Hamas remains in control of Gaza with the avowed aim of wiping Israel off the face of the map.
Trump has already recognized – and will continue to recognize – Jewish rights in the West Bank as sacrosanct.

The PLO is shouting loads of codswallop from its Ramallah-Headquarters rooftop – as the ceiling slowly collapses under its feet.

Author's note:   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

Wednesday, 12 June 2019

David Singer: Trump Recognizes Israeli Claims in West Bank and East Jerusalem

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

He writes:

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has set a cat among the pigeons with his claim that:
“Under certain circumstances I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.”
Friedman clearly was speaking for the Trump administration – not just himself personally – when he continued:
“We really don’t have a view until we understand how much, on what terms, why does it make sense, why is it good for Israel, why is it good for the region, why does it not create more problems than it solves. These are all things that we’d want to understand, and I don’t want to prejudge.”
Friedman accused the Obama administration – which in the last month of Obama’s presidency  allowed passage of a United Nations resolution in December 2016 condemning Israeli settlements as a “flagrant violation” of international law – of giving credence to Palestinian Arab arguments “that the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem belong to them.”

Friedman asserted:
“Certainly Israel’s entitled to retain some portion of it”
Friedman was spot on.

The right of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in at least some parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem was recognised by:
  • the 1920 San Remo Conference
  • the 1920 Treaty of Sevres,
  • articles 6 and 25 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (Mandate) and
  • article 80 of the 1945 United Nations Charter
Friedman’s criticism of the  United Nations attempt to subvert the Jewish people's legal rights created under the Mandate and preserved under the United Nations’ own Charter to “close settlement by Jewson the land including State lands and waste land not required for public purposes” located in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was justified and long overdue..

Friedman postulated:
“The absolute last thing the world needs is a failed Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan,”
He could have also added that:
  • Jordan is a Palestinian Arab state that has occupied 78% of the land comprised in the Mandate for Palestine since 1922
  • Redrawing the international boundary between Jordan and Israel in direct negotiations between those two states as successor States to the Mandate could see parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem incorporated within each of these two existing states thereby eliminating any danger a failed third state would pose to their security and existence.
Interestingly – Friedman indicated that Trump’s long-awaited “deal of the century” might not even be released if Trump believed it would do more harm than good.

Friedman reportedly said the United States would coordinate closely with Jordan – which could face unrest among its large Palestinian population over a plan perceived as overly favourable to Israel.
 “We don’t want to make things worse. Our goal is not to show how smart we are at the expense of people’s safety.”
Trump has seemingly anointed Jordan to replace the rejectionist Palestine Liberation Organization as Israel’s negotiating partner on the future of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

It now appears that Trump’s proposals will not see the light of day unless Trump receives an unqualified assurance from Jordan that it is willing to negotiate with Israel before the plan’s details are released.

Recognising Israel has claims in the West Bank and East Jerusalem sends a clear signal to Jordan and the rest of the Arab World that time is not on their side. The opportunity to yet again miss another opportunity to make peace looms large.

Trump has targeted the West Bank and East Jerusalem – as he already has in West Jerusalem and the Golan Heights – with amazing prescience.

(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)

Thursday, 11 August 2016

David Singer: Come Clean, Clinton! Trump Advisor Castigates Clinton Betrayal of Israel

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

He writes:

Donald Trump’s trusted co-advisor on Israel – David Friedman – has castigated Hillary Clinton for her role as Secretary of State in perpetrating one of President Obama’s worst foreign policy failures  –
trashing the letter from President Bush to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dated 14 April 2004 – its terms having been overwhelmingly endorsed by Congress 502 votes to 12.

Friedman – rumoured to be Trump’s Ambassador to Israel if Trump becomes America’s next President – was recently asked this question in a wide ranging interview:
"Hillary Clinton has just about everyone suggesting she is the most qualified person ever to be president. Where did she go wrong with the Middle East — if she did?"
Friedman replied:
"I don’t think she has made a right decision. I think she said some helpful things when she was the senator from New York when she had a Jewish constituency. As soon as she became secretary of state, the first thing she did was to embrace a unilateral settlement freeze. I think it completely poisoned the environment. I’m not aware of anything she did that is particularly good. I can name off the top of my head things that were nasty, like ripping up the letter from George Bush to Ariel Sharon, which I think was the only thing Israel got from evacuating Gaza."
The Bush letter had acknowledged the risks Israel was taking in unilaterally disengaging from Gaza and part of the West Bank. In return Bush gave Israel written assurances that in final status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority America would support Israel:
* not returning to the 1949 armistice lines
* demanding recognition as the Jewish state
* refusing Palestinian Arab "refugees" being resettled in Israel
In ripping up these assurances Obama had undermined Israel’s security concerns and negotiating positions as agreed with Obama’s immediate predecessor.

Israel’s unilateral disengagement was duly completed in 2005 – with 8000 Israeli civilians leaving their homes and businesses established during the previous 35 years – whilst Israel’s military also completely withdrew.

By any analysis that disengagement has been disastrous – bringing Israel and Gaza no peace – only ongoing and continuing conflict resulting from:
* Thousands of rockets and projectiles being fired indiscriminately into Israeli population centres from Gaza
* Terrorist incursions into Israel and
* The construction of tunnels from Gaza into Israel’s sovereign territory to serve as entry points for future terrorist assaults on Israel by Gaza’s myriad array of terrorist groups.
To be fair to Clinton, her role in framing Obama’s policy repudiating the Bush Congress-endorsed assurances remains unclarified and unexplained.

Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State by the full Senate voting 94:2 on 21 January 2009 – having been a Senator since 3 January 2001.

On 24 June 2004 she was part of the Senate majority that voted 95:3 to endorse the Bush letter.

The fact that Clinton was Secretary of State when the Bush letter was torn up does not necessarily implicate her as the architect of, or personally having agreed to, that appalling decision.

Statements made by Clinton – on 17 June 2009 and 25 November 2009 – point to her as the lead Obama official charged with implementing Obama’s policy finally declared by Obama on 19 May 2011.

Clinton remained Secretary of State until 1 February 2013.

Critically for Clinton, she now needs to fully explain her role in Obama’s gross act of betrayal of one of America’s staunchest long-standing allies.

Does Clinton avow:
1. Obama’s policy of ripping up the Bush letter in 2011?
 or
2. Her vote in the Senate endorsing the Bush letter in 2004?
Clinton needs to come clean before voting day.