David Singer: Trump Ends Arab Preoccupation with Occupation in Judea and Samaria

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

He writes:

President Trump’s decision to recognise the right of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) ends a long-running Arab political campaign accompanied by murderous terrorist attacks to drive the Jews out under the Arab mantra – “End the Occupation”. 

This mantra had become the Arabs’ rallying cry over the last 53 years as they sought to assert sovereignty over every square meter of this hotly-disputed territory.

These three little words managed to turn Israel’s miraculous victory in the 1967 Six Day War in Judea and Samaria – that saw the Jewish People’s triumphal return to the heart of the biblical and ancestral land of its forefathers - as something to be reviled and reversed.

Those mouthing the mantra did not seek to have the “occupation”ended in favour of Jordan - the previous Arab occupier between1948 and 1967.

Rather they were insisting it all be given to another group – the “Palestinians” –   who did not exist:

• In1922 – when the League of Nations created the Mandate for Palestine•In1937 -when the Peel Commission issued its Report

• In 1947 -when the United Nations recommended the partition of western Palestine into an Arab State and a Jewish State

• Between 1948-1964 – when Judea and Samaria had been ethnically cleansed of every single Jew who had been living there prior to 1948 

 The “Palestinians”only first saw the light of day in 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Charter was promulgated and Article 1 declared:

Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.

 In 2019 the PLO’s legitimacy to rule the “Palestinians”is being challenged by Hamas.Reconciliation between these two competing power seekers is still not in prospect after 13 years of bitter internecine conflict – nor are elections anywhere in sight.

Jordan now sits on the sideline having abandoned any claim to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) in
1988. Jordan shows no interest in attempting to try and restore – as far as is now possible – the status quo existing in these areas Jordan ruled on 4 June 1967.

President Trump is waiting patiently in the wings ready to release his “deal of the century”when Israel’s next Government is eventually formed.

It is surely time for a new mantra – “Right the Wrongs” – to enter into the lexicon of international diplomacy in the Middle East – to replace the racist and apartheid “end the occupation”.

The wrongs are the failure of the United Nations to acknowledge that:

• the provisions of Article 80 of the United Nations Charter reserve to the Jewish people the right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Judea and Samaria in accordance with the provisions laid down in article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine

• Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 remain the only internationally accepted bases for resolving the conflict in former Palestine. 

The United Nations' failure to insist on these binding tenets of international law being universally acknowledged has proved to be a major stumbling block in resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict.

Bowing to extreme pressure from the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference -the United Nations has succumbed to a myriad of General Assembly resolutions that have buried these pillars of international law.

The sooner they again become the foundations for peace - the sooner some sanity will return to the Middle East.Trump’s decisiveness has amazingly ended 53 wasted years of Arab preoccupation with occupation.

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

More Maps for Morons

"Always was, always will be Aboriginal land."  

That's one of the slogans of the leftwing Aussie crowd who, more often than not, are anti-Israel and pro-Muslim immigration.

Funny (peculiar), not funny (ha ha), that they welcome more incursions onto Aboriginal land, and don't get off it themselves, given that their loathing of "colonial settlement" then.  Strange that they don't hand their own homes and gardens back to those whom they consider the true owners of that land.

Then again, perhaps not so strange, given the breath-taking hypocrisy of the Left.

"Always was, always will be Palestine" is the sentiment of an Aussie Israel-hater, obviously adapted from the above-mentioned slogan, who has posted a certain video onto her Facebook page.

The video, from which I've taken the following representative screen shots, is in the by now time-dishonoured tradition of trotting out maps and artefacts "proving" that "Palestine" was once a sovereign entity stolen by da Joos from the original and rightful owners.  All this collection of maps proves, of course, is that the Romans very successfully expunged the memory of the Hebrews' presence in Israel and Judah (Judea) by renaming the region Palestine and how easily fooled and desperate to fool some people are into swallowing and promulgating propaganda:

If these people really seek to educate others (and themselves) to the reality of the history of "Palestine" they can do no better than recommend this excellent contribution to knowledge.

Oy!

The Envoy, The Crooner, & The Semantics of "Occupation" (video)

"It is time to end the occupation".

So declares the "Palestinian ambassador to the UK," Professor Manuel Hassassian, in this video by our old friend Alex Seymour.  Professor Hassassian explains that he's come to lend support to a demo outside the Red Cross headquarters in London regarding the incarceration of "political prisoners" in Israeli gaols.

Trouble is, "ending the occupation" does not appear to be the ultimate goal of the demonstrators, as the song belted out by the bloke with the guitar indicates when it invokes a familiar refrain.

As for Palestinian prisoners of the Israelis, see the video and article here

And here's what another Palestinian has been saying in American regarding "the Zionists":

To quote the video's maker, memritv.org:

'Osama Abu Irshaid, the national director of the Chicago-based American Muslims for Palestine organization, said that the Zionist movement has managed to culturally infiltrate American consciousness by claiming that Israel and the United States share the circumstances of their establishment. Speaking at a symposium titled “Confronting the Zionist Myths,” which was held in Istanbul as part of the second International Palestine Forum for Media and Communications, Abu Irshaid said that this claim has some truth to it, because both countries were involved in “ethnic cleansing.” Abu Irshaid complained that while MEMRI exposes “flops” in the Arab media to American public opinion, the Arab rhetoric is always emotional.

The Al-Jazeera network broadcast the event on May 18, 2016.'

Also, check out this video and article here

Richard Millett is his good articulate self here:

David Singer Maps It Out: "Internet Intifada Denies Free Speech"

Here, entitled "Internet Intifada Denies Free Speech," is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Many Palestinian websites are stifling free speech by refusing to publish comments answering anti-Israel articles published on their sites.

The latest example is an article written by Rania Khalek on Electronic Intifada

Responding to the decision by McGraw Hill Education to destroy all copies of its text book Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World  – containing the accompanying maps – Khalek claimed: 

"The maps, which appear in chronological succession on page 123, show Palestinian land loss from 1946, one year before Zionist militias initiated the displacement of more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from historic Palestine, to the year 2000, by which point Palestinian land had been reduced to a handful of tiny non-contiguous enclaves in the occupied West Bank and a sliver of Gaza."

I endeavoured to post the following comment in response on 21 March pointing out the misleading nature of these maps:

"Map 1:

The heading “Palestinian and Jewish Land 1946“ is misleading for the following reasons:

(i) The map excludes Transjordan which in 1946 still comprised 78% of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine until granted independence by Great Britain in May 1946.

(ii) The land described as “Palestinian land” misleadingly implies legal ownership by the Palestinian Arabs of that land when in fact about 90% of it was State land under British Mandatory control and legal power of disposition.

Map 2:

The legend “Palestinian land” is misleading.

The legend should have said “proposed Jewish State” and “proposed Arab State” - the terms used in the UN Partition Plan.

Map 3:

The heading "1949-1967" is misleading.

The map should have shown the unification of the West Bank with Transjordan between 1949 and 1967 and the change of name of Transjordan to Jordan in 1950.

It should also have designated the Gaza Strip as being under Egyptian military administration between 1948-1967.

Map 4:

One can only wonder why the year 2000 was chosen. Why not 2015 after Israel had already withdrawn from Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank in 2005 and dismantled many illegal outposts?

In any event the legend “Palestinian land” and “Israeli land” is again wrong and misleading in so far as it relates to the West Bank. The land there should have been shown as Areas “A”, “B” and “C”

As maps designed to be taught to students they are totally lacking in accuracy and ignore basic facts in their compilation.

Designating land as “Palestinian land” in any event implies that such land belongs to the “Palestinians”. Since there were no persons designated as “Palestinians” until the 1964 PLO Charter defined that term – the use of the term in maps before then smacks of an attempt to re-write history.

McGraw Hill had no option but to discard these maps"

My comments have not yet been published – and comes at a particularly sensitive time as Electronic Intifada Editor Ali Abunimah, a US citizen, has recently received a visa from the Australian Government – after waiting two months – to speak at a four day Marxism Conference and at other venues in Australia.

Abunimah posted the following tweet thanking the thousands who had petitioned the Australian Government supporting the grant of his visa:

"I'm so grateful to every person who stood up for free speech. Delighted that I just received my visa for Australia. See you Down Under!" 4:44 AM - 16 Mar 2016

Perhaps my comment inadvertently slipped through the cracks as Mr Abunimah was busy packing his bags for his visit to Australia.

Free speech means free speech for all Mr Abunimah. Stand up, be counted, publish my comment.

Debunking Bunkum (video) (updated)

Thanks to a commenter on my latest Tuesday article for Elder of Ziyon for this one:

And hat tip to the same blog (well, that amazing resource Ian, actually) for linking to this by Professor Alan Johnson entitled "The Left and the Jews ...".

Regarding BBC bias, a magnificent piece here by a maestro, David Collier,  Beautifully written, compellingly argued.

"The Great Replacement":

Pardon My French (video)

Thanks to Ian for telling me about this one:

Bonus: more misogyny from the Dark Ages. How the women in Paradise differ from earthly women, few of whom make it to Paradise anyway, apparently.  Much ado about "tearing hymens".  Hymens that conveniently repair themselves after every act of penetration, for the greater gratification of the almighty male! 

As blogger Vlad Tepes comments ironically, the formula seems to be that it ain't porn so long as it's sung.

David Singer Exposes Abu Mazen's Porkies

A few hours ago I posted an item regarding mendacious Palestinian propaganda and later added a video which perfectly illustrates one of the key contentions made: please take a look.  Meanwhile, in this new article, entitled "United Nations Bedazzled By Abbas Word Wizardry," Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer continues the theme of propagandistic Palestinian falsehoods, focusing on the United Nations' willing beguilement by Mahmoud Abbas.

Writes David Singer:

PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s speech to the UN General Assembly last week contained a concoction of half-truths and outright lies that everyone listening to him should question.

Here are some prize porkies:

1. “The question of Palestine was one of the first just issues brought before the United Nations from the time of its inception, and yet it remains unresolved until this moment”

17 May 1948; Photo: Detroit Jewish News

Abbas failed to mention that it has remained unresolved since then because:

(i) The Arabs did not accept the 1947 UN Partition Plan to partition western Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State – whilst the Jews did.

(ii) The Arabs – instead - unsuccessfully sent six Arab armies to invade Palestine in May 1948 to rout the newly declared Jewish State – Israel – and drive its Jewish population into the sea

(iii) Jordan and Egypt successfully drove out and permanently expelled the Jewish population living in the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (later termed “the West Bank”) – keeping those areas Jew-free from 1948 until 1967

(iv) No attempt was made between 1948 and 1967 to create the Palestinian state Abbas says he will now accept. That opportunity has been well and truly missed.

2. Abbas described the Palestinian Arabs as “a people that had lived peacefully in their land and made genuine intellectual, cultural and humanitarian contributions to mankind”.

Abbas was gilding the lily.

(i) The Arab riots in Jerusalem in 1920, the Hebron massacre of the Jewish community in 1929 and the Arab riots between 1936 and 1939 give the lie to his claims.

(ii) No genuine intellectual, cultural and humanitarian contributions have been made to mankind by the Palestinian Arabs – unless airline hijackings, suicide vests, and indiscriminate targeting of Jews is what Abbas had in mind

3. “While Palestine was partitioned into two states – according to which Israel was established 67 years ago – the second part of that resolution still awaits implementation.”

Abbas suffers from a selective memory.

(i) Palestine was effectively divided 92 years ago in 1923 – when 78 per cent – originally designated for the Jewish National Home by the 1920 San Remo conference and the Treaty of Sevres – was denied to Jewish settlement by Article 25 of the Palestine Mandate.

(ii) This area subsequently became the Jew-free independent Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan in 1946 – renamed Jordan in 1950 after being unified with Judea and Samaria.

 4. 'We recall here the words of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1976, when he stated that Israel will become an apartheid state if it continues its occupation of the Palestinian territory and described the Israeli settlements on Palestinian land as “cancer”.'

Abbas misleadingly failed to tell the General Assembly that Rabin’s view had changed markedly just before his assassination in 1995 – after experiencing 19 years of unremitting terrorism and rejectionism by the PLO – telling the Knesset:

(i) The borders of the State of Israel would be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. Israel would not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.

(ii) Jerusalem would be united and would include both Maale Adumim and Givat Zeev as the capital of Israel under Israeli sovereignty

(iii) The security border of Israel would be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term

(iv) Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities in the area east of what was the "Green Line" prior to the Six Day War would be included in the State of Israel;

(v) Blocs of settlements would be established in Judea and Samaria like the one in Gush Katif

(vi) No single settlement would be uprooted in the framework of the Interim Agreement, nor building hindered for natural growth

5. “Palestine is a country of holiness and peace. It is the birthplace of Christ, the messenger of love and peace, and the Isra’ and Mi’raj [ascension to heaven and night journey] of Mohammed”

Abbas omitted any mention of the Jews – the forebears of the Christians.

6. “It is no longer useful to waste time in negotiations for the sake of negotiations; what is required is to mobilize international efforts to oversee an end to the occupation in line with the resolutions of international legitimacy.”

Abbas supposedly supports “resolutions of international legitimacy” – yet the PLO he heads has declared that the Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void.

The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter are resolutions of international legitimacy that cannot be swept away because Abbas does not like them.

7. "The state of Palestine, based on the 4th of June 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, is a state under occupation, as was the case for many countries during World War II.”

(i) “The state of Palestine” does not meet the legal requirements of customary international law as encapsulated in the 1933 Montevideo Convention.

(ii) There were no borders – only armistice lines.

(iii) How can “Palestine” be a state under occupation since there was no such State in existence prior to 1967?

The applause accorded Abbas in the UN General Assembly indicates how his deceptively misleading word wizardry continues to confound attempts to end the 100 years old Jewish-Arab conflict.
Exposing its false peddlers must never cease.

Time the United Nations woke up and restored its own credibility.

Professorial Truths Regarding Palestinian Propaganda (updated: relevant video)

Well said, that wag!

In July this year, in a predictably vain attempt to dissuade the ALP (Australian Labor Party) conference from adopting such a motion, the ABC's Religion and Ethics website carried this article by Professor Alan Johnson of BICOM arguing against unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

Among the professor's many excellent points were these simple truthes:

'The inconvenient truth is that Israel accepted the case for Palestinian statehood long ago, but it refuses to commit national suicide. So it insists on negotiating three things with the Palestinians:

 genuine mutual recognition - the deal must create two states for two peoples, with Israel recognised as the homeland of the Jewish people, and Palestine as the homeland of the Palestinian people;

security guarantees - so the West Bank does not become a launching pad for a continued terror war on Israel; and

a commitment by the Palestinians that the deal is a final status agreement, or what is called the "end of conflict."

The Palestinians have so far refused to negotiate recognition. They will not accept that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. They demand the full and untrammelled "right of return" for millions of Palestinian refugees, and their children and later descendants ad infinitum, which would mean the end of Israel and the creation of yet another Arab state, in which the Jews would have to take their chances as a minority. This is not an especially attractive prospect given the treatment of minorities throughout the Middle East.

Nor have the Palestinians negotiated Israel's legitimate security needs. Instead, the Palestinian Authority has entered a unity agreement with an unreformed and fascistic Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction. It is not enough to agree to demilitarization, as the proposers argue. In a collapsing Middle East, with Islamic State taking over in failed states, the ongoing security of the West Bank - the high ground that sits above Israel's population centres - is what must be negotiated.'

In response, the longtime Palestinian lobbyist in Australia, Ali Kazak, wrote this outrageous screed.

Its tone and thrust is exemplified by this despicable allegation: "[T]he aim of Zionism has been to colonise all of Palestine and parts of the neighbouring Arab states, and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people".

Now, another pro-Israel professor, the peerless Denis MacEoin, has written in characteristic fashion a masterly piece which demolishes Ali Kazak's structure to its very foundations.  Inter alia, he notes:

'As far back as 1906, the young Ben Gurion wrote that "The Jewish settlement is not designed to undermine the position of the Arab community; on the contrary, it will salvage it from its economic misery, lift it from its social decline, and rescue it from physical and moral degeneration. Our renaissance in Palestine will come through the country's regeneration, that is: the renaissance of its Arab inhabitants."

Throughout his life, Ben Gurion made many such comments, constantly pleading with the Arabs to live and work alongside the Jews to create a flourishing state. Why does Kazak mention none of these, but substitutes a falsified, mistranslated, and deceitful quotation to "prove" that the Jews were intent from the beginning on expelling the Arabs?

Written while a civil war launched by the Arabs still raged, and as five Arab nations prepared to invade the new state, Israel's Declaration of Independence reads in part:

We appeal - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.

We extend our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East. 

.... In truth, there has been and still is a tiny minority of Zionists who cling to the fantasy of a Jewish state embracing the Biblical region from eastern Egypt to northern Arabia. But to present this as evidence that Zionists as a whole hold such views is deeply misleading. When I say "a minority," I really mean it. After 1967, a movement and political party named The Movement for Greater Israel emerged, and in 1969 it stood in a general election. It received 0.6% of the vote, below the electoral threshold of 1%, and collapsed.

Kazak weaves a fiction of malign Zionist aims to take over territories beyond the borders of Israel, when all the Jewish people as a whole ever wanted to do was have a state of their own.

By 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made the country's position clear when speaking to his cabinet: "Greater Israel is over. There is no such thing. Anyone who talks that way is deluding themselves." It is not hard to conclude that Ali Kazak is one of the deluded.

Kazak's fantasy about a Greater Israel is false, yet he does not so much as breathe a word about the most popular slogan used by Palestinians and their supporters abroad: "Palestine will be free From the river to the Sea." All Palestinian maps show this same thing: a Palestine stretching from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean. The slogan and the maps show one thing: no Israel. To call for the extinction of a people and country is a threat of genocide, something the Jews of all people have never called for and will never urge.

The notion that all Zionists and Jews want to build a Greater Israel has disturbing echoes of one of the hoariest and most frequently dismissed myths of anti-Semitism: that the Jews control everything and have taken over everything from banking to the film industry, to all the wars and revolutions, even entire governments. This was an evil conspiracy theory constructed by the Russian secret police to justify their pogroms and later promulgated by the Nazis to explain their extermination of six million human beings. It is shameful even to hint at it.'

Update: This video of raucous Israel-haters outside the Egyptian Embassy in London yesterday deliciously proves the professor's point about the true aims of the "Free Palestine" crowd:

See what I mean?

Video credit: Seymour Alexander

Read Denis MacEoin's entire article here

Hat tip: Ian G.

Meanwhile, in Australia more pro-Palestinian state recognition propaganda afoot. Better have the corn plasters ready.

An absent-minded dictionary?

An Enemy's Anemone

A little bit of silliness to brighten Monday morning.

The English national flower is the rose, right?  The rose, however, is not confined to the British Isles alone.  There are species of roses native to Europe, but also to North America and to Asia, including Japan.

Needless to say, however, nobody accuses the English of "stealing" the rose for their emblem.

The Scottish national flower is the thistle, yet the thistle is not confined to Scotland alone.  Its native habitat stretches from Portugal to Scandinavia to Kazakhstan. 

Needless to say, however, nobody accuses Scotland of "stealing" the thistle, just as no one accuses France of stealing the lily ("fleur de lis"), and so on.

I think you have guessed what's coming...

The much-loved pretty little red "crown anemone" (anemone coronaria), known in Hebrew as calanit metzouva, from the word for "bride", grows wild throughout the immediate region, and figures in local legends.

In the image above it's seen on an Israeli poster dating to 1949.

In 2013, following a poll, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel declared it their country's national flower.

Needless to say, just as Israel has been accused to stealing a "Palestinian" bird, so it's been accused of stealing a "Palestinian" flower.

In this potty example of the charge, the accusation is that the anemone coronaria has been declared a "Jewish flower":

Gives a whole new meaning to "flower power", doesn't it?

Balls!!! See How They Spin!

Is there no end to the gullibility and ignorance of the Israel-hating brigade who fail to understand that the "Palestine" involved in this pre-war soccer match Down Under totally comprised members of the Yishuv?

This latest kick of this ball has landed it onto the Facebook page of the Kiwi Israel-demonising organisation Kia Ora Gaza (which is headed by veteran far leftist Roger Fowler, who's been linked to the Communist Party and to Socialist Alliance).

 A typical response has so far been

Will any of the anti-Israel activists belonging to Kia Ora Gaza have the wherewithal to cry "Foul!", I wonder?

Still, it's an amusing spectator sport in itself to note the number of times the Israel-haters have been taken in.

Not the brightest shirts on the field, are they?

When and where will they strike next?
 
The truth about the team here and here

"So Palestine Never Existed?": The soccer ball rolls on ... & scores another own goal for the ignorant

Guys, please try not to make such fools of yourselves.

I mean, it's kind of embarrassing to have to point out your ignorance of Mandate Palestine and the Yishuv.

The latest own goal comes from a somebody who found, via  the Ramallah-based Ayjal Radio Network, another piece of irrefutable proof that there was (wait for it!) once a place called Palestine!

That'll show those Zionists, huh?

The somebody in question appears to be a supporter of an Aussie outfit called Students for Palestine.  They're a leftist-cum-Muslim organisation which is often represented at anti-Israel rallies, at least in Melbourne.

Their agenda is suggested by their map logo, which is seen below on a poster advertising an event at Latrobe University in greater Melbourne:

And, citing these guys, this Elgas fella writes:

You (and they) should have looked here first, Mr Elgas! Then you (and the radio buddies, who I'm sure wouldn't want to claim a team that didn't belong to them) would have known that the Palestine football team was a  team from the Yishuv, and consisted of - er - Zionists!

Better luck next time, old bean.


(Incidentally, for Aussie federal MP Michael Danby's condemnation of recent bullying of a Jewish student by certain pro-Palestinians at Latrobe see here)

" Israel Has Paradoxically Saved The Palestinian National Movement From Complete Oblivion": Middle East scholar

Fancy a scholarly, footnoted, but eminently readable overview of Arab culpability for the plight of those of their people known, as the result of one of the most brilliant propagandistic rebrandings in history, as "The Palestinians"?

Then look no further than this article by the always interesting Professor Efraim Karsh, in the Spring 2014 issue of the Middle East Quarterly, of which he is editor.

Here are some morsels to whet the appetite:

'.... Had Israel lost the [1948-49] war, its territory would have been divided among the invading Arab forces. The name Palestine would have vanished into the dustbin of history. By surviving the pan-Arab assault, Israel has paradoxically saved the Palestinian national movement from complete oblivion.  [Emphasis added here and below]

Having helped drive the Palestinians to national ruin, the Arab states continued to manipulate the Palestinian national cause to their own ends. Neither Egypt nor Jordan allowed Palestinian self-determination in the parts of Palestine they occupied during the 1948 war. Upon occupying the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, [Jordan's King] Abdullah moved to erase all traces of corporate Palestinian Arab identity.  On April 4, 1950, the territory was formally annexed to Jordan to be subsequently known as the "West Bank" of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. Its residents became Jordanian citizens, and they were increasingly integrated into the kingdom's economic, political, and social structures. And while Egypt showed no desire to annex the occupied Gaza Strip, this did not imply support of Palestinian nationalism or of any sort of collective political awareness among the Palestinians.

 The refugees were kept under oppressive military rule, were denied Egyptian citizenship, and were subjected to severe restrictions on travel. "The Palestinians are useful to the Arab states as they are," President Gamal Abdel Nasser candidly responded to an enquiring Western reporter. "We will always see that they do not become too powerful. Can you imagine yet another nation on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean!" Had these territories not come under Israel's control during the June 1967 war, their populations would have lost whatever vestiges of Palestinian identity they retained since 1948. For the second time in two decades, Israel unwittingly salvaged the Palestinian national cause....

The political manipulation of the Palestinian cause was mirrored by the dismal treatment of the Palestinian refugees based in Arab states since the 1948 war. Far from being welcomed, the new arrivals were seen as an unpatriotic and cowardly lot who had shamefully abdicated their national duty while expecting others to fight on their behalf, and this attitude was entrenched and institutionalized over time. Yet with their desire to offload their Palestinian guests matched by the lingering dream of Israel's destruction, the Arab states as well as the Palestinian leadership rejected U.N. General Assembly resolution 194 of December 11, 1948, which conditioned repatriation on the attainment of comprehensive peace and partial refugee resettlement in the host Arab states. The resolution's subsequent transformation into the cornerstone of an utterly spurious claim to a "right of return" has only served to perpetuate the refugee problem as the Arab states used this "right" as a pretext to prevent Palestinian assimilation into their societies in anticipation of their eventual return to their homeland....

Not only have the host Arab states marginalized and abused their Palestinian guests, but they have not shrunk from massacring them on a grand scale whenever this suited their needs....

Much has been made of the Palestinian exodus of 1948, but during their decades of dispersal, the Palestinians have been subjected to similarly traumatic ordeals at the hands of their Arab brothers....

....Self-serving interventionism under the pretence of pan-Arab solidarity has transformed the bilateral Palestinian-Israeli dispute into a multilateral Arab-Israeli conflict, thereby stirring unrealistic hopes and expectations in Palestinian political circles and, at key junctures, inciting widespread and horrifically destructive violence.

 The consequence has been to increase the intensity of the conflict and make its resolution far more complex and tortuous, leaving the Palestinians stateless for over six-and-a-half decades.

The sooner the Palestinians reject this spurious link and recognize that their cause is theirs alone, the sooner are they likely to make their own peace with the existence of the Jewish state—as stipulated by the 1947 partition resolution—and win their own state at long last despite their Arab "brothers."'

More Utter Stupidity From The "There Was A State Called Palestine" Brigade

They've used coins and stamps in support of their warped view of history, despite the fact that those items were issued not by some autonomous Palestinian state but by the British Mandatory authorities.

Artist: Franz Krausz

They've used posters in the set represented by this one above and a newspaper (The Palestine Post) and an orchestra (The Palestine Symphony Orchestra) in pursuit of the same propagandistic end, despite the fact that those initiatives came out of the Yishuv.

wikipedia: Josef Tal & The Palestine Conservatoire of Music Orchestra in 1939

They've appropriated the Palestine Football Team that toured Australia just before the Second World War in support of their ludicrous thesis, assuming wrongly that the team consisted of Arabs.

They've enlisted maps supposedly of venerable age, and, as in all these ventures into a past that was not as it was but as they would like it to have been, made fools of themselves in the process.

And now they're using a postcard addressed by Golda Meir in 1930 as another piece of "evidence" for their false claim.

Look, for instance,  how it's been utilised on the Facebook page of the disgusting CUFP (for the lowdown on that antisemitic group and its founder see my previous post):

It really does seem that such ignoramuses genuinely believe that before 1948 there was an independent Palestinian state with its own government.

Some have even opened a Facebook page showcasing their misconceptions.

Oy!

UNESCO's Cancelled Exhibition Gets The Go-Ahead

Great news, contained in a circular the Simon Wiesenthal Center has sent out to its supporters; let's hope UNESCO means what it says this time:

'The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today that its joint exhibition with UNESCO, “Book, People, Land - The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People With the Holy Land”, will open on June 11, 2014, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The date was confirmed in an exchange of letters between Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO and Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center [both pictured above, in 2012]. 

“It was simply ludicrous for the 22-Arab states that belong to UNESCO to attempt to torpedo the exhibition, just days before its opening, on the grounds that it interferes with Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to jumpstart the Middle East peace process. Our exhibition, vetted and approved by both the UNESCO and Wiesenthal Center’s teams, had nothing to do with the peace process,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier. 

“It is ironic, that while the Arab League was trying to kill this exhibition and all the attention was focused on Paris, the UN headquarters in New York is hosting an exhibit entitled, ‘Palestine’, based entirely on the Arab narrative, which was not criticized as an interference with Secretary Kerry’s mission.”

The Center wishes to thank the US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, Foreign Minister of Canada John Baird, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, B’nai Birth International, the CRIF, and our many supporters from all over the world for weighing in so strongly. 

The exhibition was written by Hebrew University Professor Robert Wistrich, and co-sponsored by the governments of Canada, Israel and Montenegro. Members of the exhibition’s honorary committee include: Elie Wiesel; Lord Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury; Boualem Sansal, Algerian author; and Professor Irwin Cotler, former Canadian Justice Minister.'

 Read more here

"Palestine Soccer Team. Sending Out A Few Terrorists to Play Against You in Australia"

Streuth! How shall we Zionists, we-so-called hasbarafiosos, ever live this one down?  There was a Palestinian soccer team that visited Australia in 1939.  More irrefutable evidence that there was indeed a people known as "The Palestinians" well before Yasser Arafat snatched that term for propaganda purposes in the 1960s and ran with it.

To quote the original uploader onto YouTube:

"This video is one of endless evidents [sic] which prove that Palestine was inhibted [sic] by the Palestinaians before the jewish people came from all around the world to occupy this land ,demolish the cities and villages of Palestinians slaughter the people of this land and force them to leave their homes and property.

the result of this match : Palestine 1-0 Australia

this video was taken from the historian Ahmad Mrowat Mroueh Facebook page ..."

Not so fast, Ahmad, and those who have been misled along with you.  Have a listen to what the Aussie commentator says at 34 seconds and you'll learn that the "Palestinians" aren't Arabs, as you assume, but Jews:

"Wham! Saved! But then the Jews were always a saving race."

 But don't just take the commentator's word for it.

(Melbourne) Argus, 27 June 1939

Here's some background on the team (read the entire thing here, it's quite fascinating):

".... Ironically it was Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938 that put a Palestine tour of Australia back on the agenda.

The Australian Association had been in correspondence with Austrian club, Rapid, and the Indian National team about touring Australia. In June they rejected a proposal to bring out a Palestine team despite the Melbourne Jewish community backing the tour with £1000 and providing accommodation.

However when Rapid applied to the German Football Association for permission to tour it was rejected.

With little hope of any European side touring Australia, the Association eventually changed it's previous stance and in early 1939, agreed for Palestine to tour, as long as the financial backing was guaranteed.

Before leaving for Australia, the touring party laid a wreath on the Australian War Memorial, opposite the entrance gates of the British War Cemetery, at Mount Scopus, Jerusalem in memory of fallen Australian soldiers.

The players, who were mostly from the powerful Maccabi Tel-Aviv club side with a few players from other teams included to create a 'Palestine' banner under which to play. The Grand Mufti had a message for Australia, when placing this ad  in a newspaper upon the arrival of the tourists in Western Australia.

 The visitors were officially welcomed to Australia by the chairman of the board of control of the West Australian Soccer Football Association (Mr.F. Smith) and members of the board. Following the official reception, the Palestine players had their first practice run since leaving Ceylon at the Stephen street Reserve, after which they were brought to Perth and entertained at a luncheon tendered by the board of management of the Perth Hebrew Congregation. They then sailed for Melbourne in the evening...."

Also this:

Sydney Morning Herald, 1 July 1939

"An interesting soccer tour took place during this time of increased tension. In 1939 The Maccabi-Palestine team arrived in Australia for 5 test matches. Overall media response was very negative with suggestions that future tours should only be accepted from members of the Empire. The Sydney Morning Herald of 7th August 1939 described play as ‘wretched’ and stated that it ‘caused resentment among paying spectators’. This assessment is bemusing as although the tourists lost the test series they won 11 and drew 3 of their 19 matches – including big wins over Queensland, Victoria, Melbourne, South Australia and Western Australia.

Despite the negativity Avrah[a]m Reznik, Avrah[a]m Beit HaLevi and Menaham Mirmvotich remained in Australia. According to records at the Australian War Memorial two were killed in action serving Australia:

Menaham Mirvotich (2/11th Battalion - Infantry) died 12 May 1945 in New Guinea

 Abraham Bezalel Beth-Helevy [Anglicised] (2/12th Battalion - Infantry) died 21 January 1944."

http://www.ozfootball.net/museum/index.php/en/tours/253-1939-palestine-tour-of-australia

Sorry to disappoint you and your cohorts, Ahmad. But that's the situation as it was, and not as the Israel-delegitimising movement wishes it had been.

(Cross-posted to News and Jews from Jews Down Under here)

(Talking of matters historical, I see there are renewed calls to boycott the planned Oral History Conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Here's a list of  boycott advocates: what an obnoxious bunch of wretches.) 

Clown Coinage

Oh dear! Clownish it might be, but it's getting past a joke, this  ignorance – genuine or feigned – bedeviling the propaganda spewed out by the brainwashed westerners of the anti-Israel movement in their efforts to brainwash others.

We saw recently that Mick Napier, head honcho of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, is using a Mandate-era coin as propaganda.

Now, from another opponent of Israel, whose name I'll leave out with the observation only that he seems to be a Kiwi (no doubt some Aussies would say "Not so much a Kiwi, more a galah!"), comes another Arab propaganda piece featuring a Mandate-era coin, introduced as a prize exhibit for the absurd argument that there was indeed a sovereign country called Palestine and, by implication, for promoting the view that Israel should be replaced by a single state for Jews and Palestinian Arabs, including the Arabs who left their homes during Israel's War of Independence and the descendants of those Arabs.

We all know what that scenario would portend.

Do these western propagandists really think that interwar Palestine, or Eretz Israel as many Zionists prefer to term it, was devoid of Arab hostility towards Jews?

Have they not heard, for instance, of the Hebron Massacre of 1929?

Let's remind them of the words of an eyewitness:

‘I remember that I went up in the afternoon on the Friday [23 August] to serve the milk; I used to go on the road to Jerusalem on the main highway; nothing happened when I was walking, but when I was walking back I saw these little groups ... of about ten Arabs here and there, talking. And as I was nearing home, one of them threw a stone at me and hit me in the cheek, and of course I started screaming and ran to the house, and as I ran up the stairs my father opened the door, dragged me in and shut the door again quickly. “We are leaving, we are going to our [i.e. her] grandparents,” he said, which was only down the road actually...

We took few belongings; we didn’t have time.... [M]y father said we were going to the hotel, and sure enough we went through the back way and ran through the different yards, and got to the hotel and there were already different people there. There was an elderly couple that came on holidays ... and the doctor was upstairs, he was staying there; and a few of our friends came and then later I found out there were 33 souls staying there, my aunties and Uncle Sholem and his wife, and so on, and some friends. I’ll never forget, we locked all the doors, and they said we would be safer upstairs, so we all walked upstairs ...

There we were, Esther [her sister] and I, standing at this big window, upstairs in the hotel, and when we were looking out to another house not very far at all, and it was called the Yeshiva School... where Orthodox young men were learning the Torah ... that’s the house where they stayed, where they lived.

And ... we could see the Arabs – they had hardly any guns but there were these long swords – screaming “Kill the Jews, kill the Jews” in Arabic.

And first they opened the doors, and a few minutes later they came out and ... we could see the blood ... on those swords ... Anyway, the next thing, all of a sudden, the Arab who was the owner of the hotel – my grandparents were just running it, of course – and this wonderful man, this Arab, who was in his vineyard with his two wives ... heard apparently of the massacre that was going on, and came running up with his wives ... and said: “Come on, you are not safe here. Come down quickly.” He took us down the back steps to his home. It was one big room and off it were the bedrooms (and whatever other rooms), but we, all 33 of us, went into this room and sat down; and he locked the doors and put his two wives on guard outside the door....

[Eliezer Dan] Slonim was the bank manager [the local branch of the Anglo-Palestine Bank], and he had all these people working for him, and amongst them was a friend of his, an Arab, a great friend of his, working there with him. And these Arabs were running up the steps to his home and he came up and saw his friend and he said: “Thank G-d it’s you. Now I feel safe.” And the fellow took a gun and shot him.

Then the others ran in and they stuck a sword down his wife’s throat. The couple had two boys, so they killed one of them, but the other one miraculously survived. They had a neighbour, a very big fat woman, wearing these big, big clothes that were hanging down, and she lay down on top of the other child. His name was Binyamin Slonim, and he is still alive today, somewhere in Israel...

These Arabs went around and killed and killed and massacred. Our baker, our poor darling baker; they lit the primus stove, and they put his head on it, and another was found upside down in the toilet. The toilet was just a hole in the ground; and they just did atrocious things....

[W]e saw bodies lying in different parts of the road. We saw bodies lying on the ground and being picked up, and when we came to the big square in front of the police station, there were so many dead lying around and so many people sitting next to them howling, crying, moaning, holding their heads. It was a terrible picture: there were bodies and blood everywhere, and one poor woman, whose husband was on a stretcher, was on her knees and her dress was all red with blood and she was crying for her husband and the scene was just absolutely shocking.’

  (In the following video the name Slonim has been misspelled):

Have they (the western propagandists?) not heard of the Arab riots (with attendant atrocities) of 1936-37?

It seems they have swallowed the Arab narrative hook, line, and sinker.

Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer pointed out here that unlike 'the Jewish narrative – which dates the "Jewish-Arab conflict" as having begun in 1880', 

'The Palestinian Arab narrative [starts] its narrative from 1948 by characterising the conflict as the "Israeli-Arab Conflict"– thus allowing such narrative to completely ignore a host of critical events that occurred between 1917-1947, let alone the centuries before that.

This rejectionism is clearly evident in article 20 of the 1968 PLO Charter:

"Article 20: The Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate, and everything that has been based on them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of their own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong."

The Palestinian Arab narrative conveniently ignores the fact that the two-state solution was first suggested in 1922 and actually proposed and rejected by the Palestinian Arabs in 1937, 1938 and 1947.

The Palestinian Arab narrative has no memory or remorse for the Arab riots in 1920 and 1929 that targeted and slaughtered Jews or the 1936-1939 Arab revolt which wrought similar havoc on Jews living in Palestine during those turbulent years.

Starting from 1948 the Arab narrative can avoid confronting the reality that Winston Churchill told a delegation of Palestinian Arabs leaders in 1921 urging him to halt Jewish immigration to Palestine:

"It is manifestly right that the Jews,who are scattered all over the world,should have a national centre and a National Home,where some of them may be reunited. and where else could that be but in the land of Palestine, with which for more than three thousand years they have been intimately and profoundly associated?"

The flawed Arab narrative also avoids accepting responsibility for the Arab pressure put on Great Britain to severely curtail Jewish immigration to Palestine between 1939 and 1945 - resulting in hundreds of thousands of Jews perishing at the hands of the Nazis when their lives might have been spared had Great Britain ignored such inhumane Arab demands.

The Arab narrative has always rejected - and will continue to reject - the will of the international community expressed in the 1920 San Remo Conference and the Treaty of Sevres, the 1922 Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the 1945 United Nations Charter.' [Emphasis added]

Here, by the way, is a video that features Arabs who want to live in Israel (hat tip: Jean Vercors):

Mendacity & Myth Regarding Palestine (video)

Here's a video, uploaded to YouTube by Corncake80, that translates its Hebrew original:

Hat tip: reader Ian

"The Jeu de Paume Honours Killers Of Jews"

This is a guest blog by M. Jean Vercors, from France, whose photographs with captions formed the substance of this post last year.

Writes Jean Vercors:

The Jeu de Paume in Paris is one of that city's most important exhibition spaces dedicated to photography, video, installation, and other image-based arts. Located on the edge of the Jardin des Tuileries, adjacent to the Musée de l'Orangerie, the Jeu de Paume regularly hosts exhibits highlighting important 20th and 21st century photographers, video artists, or performance artists.

From 28 May until 1 September 2013 the Jeu de Paume is honouring a photography exhibit from Palestinian militant Ahlam Shibli.

http://www.hatjecantz.de/controller.php?cmd=detail&titzif=00003576&lang=en

 An apology for terrorism

 Here (in French, with English version following it) is my letter to the museum.

 Paris, le 29 mai 2013

 Madame La Directrice Marta Gili

 Le musée du Jeu de Paume connu dans le monde et subventionné par Le Ministère de la Culture propose depuis le 28 mai au 1 septembre 2013 à  ses visiteurs, une exposition de la photographe Palestinienne Ahlam Shibli.

 Cette exposition « Foyer Fantôme » est constituée de 68 photographies de portraits de terroristes palestiniens, tous membres des brigades des martyrs d'Al Aksa, organisation classée terroriste par Israël, les USA et l’Union Européenne

 Cette exposition met en avant la mémoire entretenue par des familles palestiniennes de ces hommes et femmes morts dans de nombreux attentats-suicide commis contre des civils israéliens.

 Les légendes qui accompagnent chaque photo reprennent systématiquement la terminologie du culte de la mort: « martyr mort en opération ».

 Le musée de paume honore des tueurs de Juifs.

En cautionnant une telle exposition qui est à mes yeux pure propagande anti Israélienne, celle-ci ne peut que produire d’autres tueurs de Juifs comme Mohamed Merah à Toulouse.

la propagande désigne un ensemble d’actions psychologiques influençant la perception publique des événements, des personnes ou des enjeux, de façon à endoctriner ou embrigader une population et la faire agir et penser d’une manière voulue. Et c’est exactement ce que fait cette exposition.

Une telle exposition exaltant du sacrifice humain et les attentats suicides,

Equivaut à faire « L’apologie du terrorisme » ou « l’appel à la haine et à la violence émanant de certains photographes militants.

 Merci de bien vouloir me faire part de vos commentaires sur cette exposition.

 Veuillez croire, Madame la directrice, à mes salutations distinguées.
Jean Vercors

 NB/Copie traduite et envoyée aux Medias US, Canadiens, Anglais, Australiens et Israéliens

Paris, May 29, 2013

 Madam Director Marta Gili

 The Jeu de Paume a well known museum in the world subsidized by The French  Ministry of Culture has since May 28 to September 1, 2013 offered visitors, an exhibition of Palestinian photographer Ahlam Shibli.

This "Phantom home" exhibition consists of 68 photographs of portraits of Palestinian terrorists, all members of the brigades of Al Aqsa Martyrs, ranked terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union

This exhibition highlights the memory maintained by Palestinian families of these men and women who died in numerous suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

The captions that accompany each photo automatically resume terminology death cult "martyred in operation."

The Jeu de Paume honours killers of Jews.

Endorsing such an exhibition is to my eyes pure anti-Israeli propaganda, it can only produce MORE killers of Jews as Mohamed Merah in Toulouse.

Propaganda is a set of psychological operations affecting the public perception of events, people or issues in order to indoctrinate and indoctrinate the population and to think and act in a desired manner. And that's exactly what this exhibition does.

Such an exhibition of human sacrifice and suicide bombings, equals  to "The glorification of terrorism" or "incitement to hatred and violence by some activist photographers.

 I’ll appreciate your thoughts about this.

 Kind regards,
Jean Vercors

Update: William Goldnadel, a well-known French Jewish lawyer, has written an Open Letter to the Minister of Culture: see here