Gress… Has Issues

Willful Ignorance, Self-Indulgent Gullibility - and Bigotry, Win Again

Arab Magical-Thinking Map

Well, anti-Semitic fools – it looks like we’re finally approaching the end game for our fascinating, long-running drama fatuously called the Israeli-Palestinian “dispute.”  Or is it simply the “Israeli Occupation?”  You’ve all fallen hook, line and sinker for the anti-Israel propaganda package sponsored by the Arab League, the Russians and the United-effing-Nations.  Sixty plus years worth.  You really ought to be ashamed of yourselves for being so naïve and self-indulgent; for letting yourself relax into Jew-hating so you could polish your Leftist virtue up a bit.  No problem.  They’ll all finally be dead or displaced, so you’ll have your shadenfreude, and then, after a decent interval of, say, a news cycle, you can join the rest of your wad in agreeing that the Jews brought it on themselves, after all.

And, yes, it would be nice if there weren’t so many American Jews tsk-tsking the imminent demise of their spiritual homeland, but there it is.

There is no longer a  U.S. ally – only a piece of paper that will never be honored under this profoundly dishonorable administration.  The Turks are gone; not because of the Mavi Marmara incident, but because the Turks have switched from Atatürk to Osama.  That was just their official coming out. (And it looks like they intend to keep coming.)

The Persian-backed Syrians are ready. Their Hezbollah avatars are bristling with thousands of longer-range rockets; and the rest of the crowd that’s attacked this Chicago Metro-sized (or London) country so often in the past without success, finally has the technology and coordination to finish the job.  It won’t be pretty, but to an ahistorical Western World, it will be just another TV drama.  OK, maybe a little better because they’ve spent so many years slowly building up their Jew-hatred and resentment that passed so well as objection to the cruelty of Israel to the helpless Palestinian victims.  A splendid morality play produced by schemers, for dreamers.

There was a time, not so terribly long ago, when I really didn’t give a rat’s ass about this particular morality play.  I thought I was looking at two groups of religious fanatics, and that maybe Israel really just should never have shown up in the area.  I didn’t want to know any more about the conflict; it had gone on too long, with too much repetition and posturing, and no hope of progress.  A pox on both their houses.  No more.  As a blogger devoted to the exploration and analysis of pressing issues, I know that this is simply not an issue that can be brushed aside in a fit of pique.  I realized this a few years ago and started doing my homework.  Not being a scholar, and given to fits of intellectual laziness and despair, you’ll just have to trust that I did my best as a fallible human to decide what was fair and true in the matter.

The problem, of course, is that this issue concerns events that, in their most current form, have engaged the world’s attention for more than sixty years.  So I have to be careful not to wander too deeply into a thicket that has been studied and written about extensively over that entire period, but focus on summarizing what I believe (as above) based on my reading, and providing just a few links that are either information resources or serve to illustrate the discussion.

I need to warn you that, because of the density of material out there, I can only share my conclusions and point you to some resources that are only a fly-speck in the universe of data and discussion available.  IOW, not ‘proof’ of my point of view, or a point-by-point rebuttal to some of the absurd claims made both historically and daily regarding Israel and the Jews, but an invitation to explore the matter more deeply in order to shield yourself from a blizzard of propaganda.  This is an area in which all of us need to keep our BS detectors turned on maximum sensitivity because there are powerful local and global interests who really need for us to buy into specific narratives.  I’ll try to explore why that is so, if only for a bit, but you’ll need to do your own homework, for all our sakes.

ISRAEL-DENIERS PET NARRATIVE.

While not accepted in every detail by each denier of Israel’s right to survive, the Narrative generally goes like this:  A bunch of European Jews who had made themselves unwelcome in their own countries decided to migrate to their biblical home of more than a thousand years ago and re-establish a Jewish state.  Unfortunately, the territory was already occupied by the Palestinian people, who were horrified to learn of their plans.  They complained to the British rulers of the land, but to no avail, and when it was announced that there would be two states created, Israel and Palestine, the Arabs revolted.

The Jews won through terrorism and terrible war crimes and commenced to steal all the Palestinian’s land, renaming it Israel.  This was the beginning of the Occupation.  Although all of the Arab states were willing to go to war, repeatedly, to dislodge the occupier, they were unsuccessful due to the Zionist Entity’s financial and military support by “The Great Satan,” America.  With this illegal and immoral alliance, the Zionists have felt free to starve, rob and beat the millions of Palestinian Refugees who are prisoners in their own homeland.

Revolts by Palestinian Freedom Fighters have only resulted in assassinations by Israel, the mass murder of civilians, unjust imprisonment, and the deliberate destruction of Palestinian property, depriving families of their homes and children of their schools.  Zionist influence is so great on the US Congress, that they annually vote Israel the largest amounts of foreign aid.  This money is then used to buy weapons to use against the Palestinian people. The US accuses Hamas, the legally-elected government of Gaza (Palestine) of being a terrorist organization.  They have built a wall around Israel that prevents Palestinians from earning a living, and set up a blockade of Gaza that is intended to starve the population into submission or death.  It is genocide practiced by the same people who claim to be history’s greatest victims of genocide.

ISRAEL’S RESPONSE.

The Arab occupiers of the area designated as Palestine have never existed as a nation or, if you prefer, a state.  They have always been ruled by other entities, the most recent being the Ottoman Empire, followed by Great Britain.  Palestinians, until recently considered themselves to be part of greater Syria.  They have a regional dialect, but otherwise their language is Arabic, and they are in most other regards not distinguishable from their fellow Arabs.  In other words, before you can be considered “occupied,” you need to be a homogeneous entity bound under autonomous laws of your own making.  There was never a Palestinian ‘State’ to ‘occupy.’

The Allies won WWI, defeating the Ottomans, among others, and taking control of the defeated territories.  The French and British established Mandates over the Middle Eastern geography we’re discussing, with the British Mandate in control of Palestine.  The League of Nations, predecessor to the United Nations, granted Israel the right to have a homeland in that territory, an international law that survives today.  The UN later divided the territory in its effort to create separate Palestine and Israeli states, and the Israeli’s acceded to this in order to keep the peace.

The Eastern half of the division became Jordan, which immediately closed its borders to Jews.  The compromise didn’t work, in any event, because the Palestinians rejected the offer of their own state alongside Israel and immediately went to war, along with the rest of the members of the Arab League.  They lost, and have been attacking Israel ever since.

And just one little footnote to the question of the provenance of the ‘Palestinian People:”  (From FreeRepublic.com)

Way back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here’s what he said:

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. 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.

We’ll list our version of Deniers’ Motives, by group, but first, more maps.  (I know, but this issue is about Real Estate possession, and we need to all see just what it is we’re talking about – and we Americans are notoriously uninterested in Geography.)

First, just for fun (and I have to note that Wikipedia always has great maps and pictures), here’s a map showing the greatest extent of the Ottoman Empire, in 1683.  It all ended when they backed the wrong horse during WWI. (Which resulted in Great Britain getting the Palestine Mandate.)

About 400 Years Worth, w/10 for Egyptians

OK, just three more maps that we need for historical understanding;  The British Mandate, under the League of Nations; the UN Partition, and the current map showing Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.  Then, if you’re still up for it, we’ll cover a little history (woo-hoo!)

Mostly Israel prior to UN Partition

(The actual mandate was in 1923)

Shrinkage for Peace (Didn't Work!)

And down to Today’s Nightmare:

How are Two States Possible?

All of these maps are from Wikipedia-Palestine.  If you go there you’ll get Palestine’s entire geographic history, with links to other Palestine articles, including its political history.

So let’s do a little history.  You deserve a break from reading, so we’ll go to one of those much-maligned, knee-jerk American legislators who can’t seem to break the Israeli spell, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey.  This is a pretty short You Tube speech on the Senate floor summarizing Israel’s history.  If you don’t read another word, you’ll find this helpful.

All well and good, you say, but (if you’re still inclined to deny Israel’s right to survival) what about all those Palestinian victims we’ve heard so much about and watched suffer on the evening news?  Where, Gress – in other words – is your sense of balance and fairness?  Right you are.  A healthy dose of pure Hamas-supporting vitriol is called for, and I know just the place to go:  Canada!  A bit longish tirade here; but kinda admirable in its hateful comprehensiveness (For the record, it’s called Global Research).  A few excerpts:

Because of the unconditional support of the entire political class in the US, from the White House to Congress, including both Parties, incoming and outgoing elected officials and all the principle print and electronic mass media, the Israeli Government feels no compunction in publicly proclaiming a detailed and graphic account of its policy of mass extermination of the population of Gaza.

Israel’s sustained and comprehensive bombing campaign of every aspect of governance, civic institutions and society is directed toward destroying civilized life in Gaza. Israel’s totalitarian vision is driven by the practice of a permanent purge of Arab Palestine informed by Zionism, an ethno-racist ideology, promulgated by the Jewish state and justified, enforced and pursued by its organized backers in the United States.

The facts of Israeli extermination have become known: In the first six days of round the clock terror bombing of major and minor populations centers, the Jewish State has murdered and seriously maimed over 2,500 people, mostly dismembered and burned in the open ovens of missile fire. Scores of children and women have been slaughtered as well as defenseless civilians and officials.

They have sealed off all access to Gaza and declared it a military, free fire zone, while expanding their target to include the entire population of 1.5 millions semi-starved prisoners. According to the Boston Globe (December 30, 2008): Israeli military officials said their target lists have expanded to include the vast support network on which the Islamist movement relies to stay in power “…we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, becauseeverything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel (my emphasis)”. A top Israeli in its secret police apparatus is quoted saying,“Hamas’ civilian infrastructure is a very sensitive target” (ibid). What the Israeli Jewish politicians and military planners designate as “Hamas” is the entire social service network, the entire government and the vast majority of economic activity, embracing almost the entire 1.5 million imprisoned residents of Gaza.

Or, how about this:

From the moment that the Israeli Government decided it would destroy the newly elected Hamas government and punish the democratic electorate of Gaza with starvation and murder, the entire Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) in the US, including the PMAJO, pulled all stops in implementing the Israeli policy. The PMAJO encompasses the fifty-two Jewish organizations with the largest membership, with the greatest financial clout and the most influential backers. The most prominent lobbyist within the PMAJO is AIPAC, which has over 100,000 members and 150 full-time operatives in Washington actively pressuring the US Congress, the White House and all administrative agencies whose policies may relate to the interests of the State of Israel. However Israeli political extends far beyond its non-governmental agencies. Over two score legislators in the Congress and over a dozen senators are committed Zionists who automatically back Israel’s policies and push for US funding and armaments for its military machine. Top officials in key administrative positions, in Treasury, Commerce and the National Security Council, senior functionaries in the Pentagon and top advisers on Middle East affairs are also life-long, fanatically committed Zionists, who consistently and unreservedly back the policies of the State of Israel.

Or this:

The Zionist-controlled US print media, in particular the New York Times and the Washington Post, systematically fabricated an account that fit perfectly with Israel’s official line defending its massive assault on Gaza: Omitting any historical account of the hundreds of Israeli armed incursions and ‘targeted’ assassinations of Palestinian leaders and officials (even in their own homes) which repeatedly violated the ‘cease fire’ agreed by Hamas and provoked its retaliation in self-defense of its people; omitting the years of an Israeli enforced starvation embargo of food and essentials that threatened the lives of 1.5 million Palestinians and led to the desperate efforts of the elected Hamas leadership to secure supplies for the people’s survival via tunnels across the Egyptian border and through missile attacks against Israel to pressure the Jewish state to negotiate an end of the criminal blockade.

Having fun yet?  Me neither.  Let’s go back to the question of “The Occupation.”  We already discussed how it’s not really possible to “occupy” random groups of people who happen to be governed by someone else (The Ottomans).  Here’s a brief analysis of the matter, in letter form, to a group of Jewish Jurists:

The following document was presented by Eli Hertz at the meeting of the Board of Governors of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists on December 3, 2009 in Washington D.C.

Dear friend,

Have you ever asked yourself why during the period between 1917 and 1947 hundreds of thousands of Jews throughout the world woke up one morning and decided to leave their homes and go to Palestine? The majority did this because they heard that a future National Home for the Jewish people was being established in Palestine, on the basis of the League of Nations’ obligation under the “Mandate for Palestine.” This historical document laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an entitlement unaltered in international law.

The “Mandate for Palestine” was not a naïve vision briefly embraced by the international community. Fifty-one member countries – the entire League of Nations – unanimously declared on July 24, 1922:

“Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”

American Support for a Jewish National Home:

On June 30, 1922, a joint resolution (the Lodge Fish Resolution) of both Houses of Congress of the United States unanimously endorsed the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” confirming the irrevocable right of Jews to settle in the area of Palestine – anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea:

“Favoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.

“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected.” [italics in the original]

On September 21, 1922, President Warren G. Harding signed the Lodge-Fish Resolution, endorsing the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

The U.S. Government (not a member of the League of Nations) maintained that her participation in WWI and her contribution to the defeat of Germany and the defeat of her Allies, entitled the United States to be consulted as to the terms of the “Mandate for Palestine.”

The outcome of this request was a “Convention [Treaty] between the United States of America and the United Kingdom with respect to the rights of the two governments and their nationals in Palestine,” a relationship governed by international law. The Convention contains the entire text of the “Mandate for Palestine” including the preamble and was concluded and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries in London on December 3, 1924; Ratification advised by the Senate, February 20, 1925; Ratified by President Calvin Coolidge, March 2, 1925; Ratified by Great Britain, March 18, 1925; Ratifications exchanged at London, December 3, 1925; Proclaimed, December 5, 1925.

In ratifying the Convention, the United States of America formally recognized the terms of the “Mandate for Palestine” and the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.

Any attempt to negate the Jewish people’s right to Palestine – Eretz-Israel – and to deny them access and control in the area designated for the Jewish people by the League of Nations is an actionable infringement of both international law and the Supremacy Clause (Article VI, paragraph 2 of the United States Constitution), which dictates that Treaties “shall be the supreme Law of the Land”.

We collectively and individually must do all we can to support the Jewish people and the state of Israel. There is no more crucial time than today, and I believe that this body has the capacity to help defeat the “Occupation” mantra by insisting that the land of Israel has been given to the Jewish people as of right, and in accordance with existing international law.

Sincerely,
Eli E. Hertz
eMail: eli@hertztec.com

And one more that I’ve lost the link to, but if you really want good perspective on the so-called “Occupation,” the Professor has it pretty well nailed.

Israel ‘Occupies’ no Arab Territories

June 1, 2010 | Guest: Professor Louis René Beres

In urgent matters of national survival and geopolitics, words matter. The still generally unchallenged language referring provocatively to an Israeli “Occupation” always overlooks the pertinent and incontestable history of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza.

Perhaps the most evident omission concerns the unwitting manner in which these “Territories” fell into Israel’s hands in the first place. It is simply and widely disregarded that “occupation” followed the multi-state Arab aggression of 1967 – one never disguised by Egypt, Syria or Jordan. A sovereign state of “Palestine” did not exist before 1967 or 1948. Nor was a state of “Palestine” ever promised by UN Security Council Resolution 242. Contrary to popular understanding, a state of “Palestine” has never existed. Never. Even as a non-state legal entity, “Palestine” ceased to exist in 1948, when Great Britain relinquished its League of Nations mandate. During the 1948-49 Israeli War of Independence (a war of survival fought because the entire Arab world had rejected the authoritative United Nations recommendation to create a Jewish state), the West Bank and Gaza came under the illegal control of Jordan and Egypt respectively. These Arab conquests did not put an end to an already-existing state or to an ongoing trust territory. What these aggressions did accomplish was the effective prevention, sui generis, of a state of”Palestine.”

The original hopes for Palestine were dashed, therefore, not by the new Jewish state or by its supporters, but by the Arab states, especially Jordan and Egypt. Let us return to an earlier time in history. From the Biblical Period ( 1350 BCE to 586 BCE) to the British Mandate (1922 – 1948), the land named by the Romans after the ancient Philistines was controlled only by non-Palestinian elements.

Significantly, however, a continuous chain of Jewish possession of the land was legally recognized after World War I, at the San Remo Peace Conference of April 1920. There, a binding treaty was signed in which Great Britain was given mandatory authority over Palestine (the area had been ruled by the Ottoman Turks for 400 years since 1516) to prepare it to become the “national home for the Jewish People.” Palestine, according to the Treaty, comprised territories encompassing what are now the states of Jordan and Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza. Present-day Israel comprises only 23 percent of Palestine as defined and ratified at the San Remo Peace Conference. In 1922, Great Britain with questionable authority split off 77 percent of the lands originally promised to the Jewish people - all of Palestine east of the Jordan River – and gave it to Abdullah, the non-Palestinian Arab son of the Sharif of Mecca. Eastern Palestine now t ook the name Trans-Jordan, which it retained until April 1949, when it was renamed as Jordan.

From the moment of its creation, Trans-Jordan was closed to all Jewish migration and settlement, a clear betrayal of the British promise in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and a patent contravention of its Mandatory obligations under international law. On July 20, 1951, a Palestinian Arab assassinated King Abdullah for the latter’s hostility to Palestinian Arabs aspirations and concerns. Regarding these aspirations, Jordan’s “moderate” King Hussein – 19 years later, during September 1970 – brutally murdered thousands of defenseless Palestinian Arabs under “his protection.”

In 1947, several years prior to Abdullah’s killing, the newly-formed United Nations, rather than designate the entire land west of the Jordan River as the long-promised Jewish national homeland, enacted a second partition. Curiously, considering that this second fission again gave complete advantage to Arab interests, Jewish leaders accepted the painful recommendation. The Arab states did not. On May 15, 1948, exactly 24 hours after the State of Israel came into existence, Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League, declared to a tiny new country founded upon the ashes of the Holocaust: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre.” This unambiguous declaration has been at the very heart of all subsequent Arab orientations toward Israel, including those of “moderate” Fatah.

Even by the strict legal standards of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Arab actions and attitudes toward the microscopic Jewish state in their midst has remained patently genocidal. For some reason, this persistence has repeatedly been made to appear benign.

In 1967, almost 20 years after Israel’s entry into the community of nations, the Jewish state, as a result of its unexpected military victory over Arab aggressor states, gained unintended control over the West Bank and Gaza. Although the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war is codified in the UN, there existed no authoritative sovereign to whom the Territories could be “returned.” Israel could hardly have been expected to transfer them back to Jordan and Egypt, which had exercised unauthorized and terribly cruel control since the Arab-initiated war of “extermination” in 1948-49.

Moreover, the idea of Palestinian Arabs “self-determination” had only just begun to emerge after the Six Day War, and – significantly – had not even been included in UN Security Council Resolution 242, which was adopted on November 22, 1967. For their part, the Arab states convened a summit in Khartoum in August 1967, concluding: “No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it …” The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed three years earlier, in 1964, before there were any “Israeli Occupied Territories.” Exactly what was it, therefore, that the PLO sought to “liberate” between 1964 and 1967?

This question should now be raised in connection with the US-sponsored “Road Map to peace in the Middle East,” a twisted cartography leading to Palestine.

This has been a very brief account of essential historic reasons why the so-called “Palestinian Territories” are not occupied by Israel. Several other equally valid reasons stem from Israel’s inherent legal right to security and self-defense. International law is not a suicide pact. Because a Palestinian Arab state would severely threaten the very existence of Israel – a fact that remains altogether unhidden in Arab media and governments – the Jewish State is under no binding obligation to end a falsely alleged “Occupation.” No state can ever be required to accept complicity in its own dismemberment and annihilation. Neither Jerusalem nor Washington should be deceived by the so-called “Road Map to peace in the Middle East,” a distorted bit of highway that makes entirely inaccurate claims about “Palestinian Territories” and “Israeli Occupation.”

For substantially documented reasons of history and national security, it is imperative that a twenty-second Arab state never be carved out of the still-living body of Israel. If anyone should still have doubts about Palestinian Arabs’ intentions, they need look only to former Prime Minister Sharon’s “disengagement” from Gaza, an area that is now used by Hamas to stage rocket attacks upon Israeli noncombatants, and by al-Qaeda to mount future terrorist operations against American cities.

---

Professor Louis René Beres, Professor of Political Science at Purdue, was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971). Born in Zurich, Switzerland, at the end of World War II, he is the author of many major books, monographs and articles dealing with international law, strategic theory, Israeli nuclear policy, and regional nuclear war. In Israel, where he served as Chair of Project Daniel, his work is known to selected military and intelligence communities.

It pains me to report that it would be irresponsible to ignore the issue of land ownership, description and transfer.  Controversial, but for mostly practical reasons that emerge on examination. I strongly urge you to go to this site for at least a glance at the parameters of the problem.

Here are the opening paragraphs.

The Land Question in Palestine – The issue of land ownership is crucial to understanding the evolution of Zionism in Palestine and the genesis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The issues surrounding the Land Question are not simple, and they have been the subject of numerous claims and counter-claims since the start of the British Mandate. The proportion of rhetoric on this question, relative to the amount of hard data, has always been very high.

The two major Palestinian claims are 1) that Zionists were systematically dispossessing Arab fellahin in the period 1917-1948 and 2)  by 1948, the Zionists had purchased less than 8% of the land of Palestine, while the Arabs “owned” about 45% and the rest was government land.

This segues to the following:

A study by Kenneth W. Stein (Stein, Kenneth W., The Land Question In Palestine, 1917-1939, Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1984 and Stein, Kenneth W., Palestine’s Rural Economy, 1917 – 1939, Studies in Zionism, Vol. 8, no. 1 (1987); pp. 25 – 49 ) concluded that Palestinian Arab fellahin were being systematically displaced from the land, but that this was an ongoing process that had begun in Ottoman times, and was not related to Zionist settlement. Rather, he attributed it to the archaic land laws, the Tanzimat reform of those laws which favored the rich, competition from inexpensive imports and the depredations of World War I, which had ruined Palestinian agriculture and put many poor peasants hopelessly in debt. The eagerness of owners large and small to sell their land no doubt increased as the prices that others were willing to pay increased. As in all countries at the beginning of the twentieth century, agriculture became less and less capable of supplying a livelihood and could not compete with other land uses and labor opportunities. Greedy landlords found ways to evict tenants and sell the land or put it to more productive uses, subverting laws intended to protect tenant farmers. The land was usually not sold to Zionists or Jews.

Different statistics have been advanced by each side to prove whatever point they wished to prove at any given time, and actual statistics of land ownership and utilization are very scarce and non-systematic.

We then move to descriptions of the eight different land categories available under the Ottomans.  There’s a lot of government and unsurveyed land, leading to much confusion and the ability of both sides to make unprovable claims.  Here is just one of the categories:

Mawat – (or Mewat) So-called “dead”, unreclaimed land. It constituted about 50 to 60% of the land in Palestine. It belonged to the government. Private individuals could purchase and register this land as their own for its unreclaimed value, but it was just as easy to simply cultivate it.( Stein, Land Question, p. 13). If the land had been cultivated with permission, it would be registered, at least under the Mandate, free of charge. Communities and individuals often expanded their land land holdings “informally” by cultivating or using such land. According to  theHope-Simpson Report Mewat land was probably of considerable extent. It was defined as any land that was more than a mile and a half from a village, and was not owned by anyone. However, no systematic survey was ever done, so it was impossible to determine the precise extent of Mewat land.

And later on to some hint at the problems that ensued:

From the point of view of the Arabs, all these lands “belonged” to Arabs, since all of the land of Palestine “belonged” to the Arabs, inasmuch as they considered themselves the rightful owners. It is a circular definition of ownership and not very meaningful. The Arabs of Palestine had never exercised sovereignty and did not own most of the land by private purchase. It was government land that had belonged to the Ottoman empire and before that to the various Turkish and Arab empires. If there had been “actual” owners in history, they were probably Jews of 2,000 or more years ago.

A map that is often presented in pro-Palestinian accounts enhances the impression that Palestine had belonged to the Arabs and had been “stolen” by the Jews. The map was prepared by a subcommittee of the UN and shows “Jewish” and “non-Jewish” land ownership in different areas. The “catch” is that all of the land that was not purchased and registered to Jews or the Jewish agency, including government lands, is categorized as “non-Jewish.” The Beersheba district, which was 99% government land, is shown as being 99% “Non-Jewish” (seePalestine Land Ownership Map 1944) It was also “99% non-Arab.”

From the point of view of the Arabs, likewise, the Mandate provisions for “close settlement” of Jews on the land, and the entire mandate, were illegal creations of the Western imperialists. But the League of Nations British Mandate was international law. For some reason, the Arab concern for “international legitimacy” evaporates when such laws favor the Zionists. Moreover, the land of Palestine was for the most part virtually worthless prior to the mandate. Land prices soared because of the mandate, and this was due almost entirely to Jewish settlement and Zionist investment. The land of the Sursocks was sold in 1921 for 3 to 6 Egyptian piasters per dunam, which was 40 to 80 times what they had paid for the land. (Stein, Land Question, page 65). In effect, the British policy and the Arab “land claims” amounted to saying “we will take the money of the Jews, but we will not give them their rights).

Here’s the map:

This map, prepared by the UN “Subcommittee on the Palestine Question” purports to show that Arabs owned most of the land in Mandatory Palestine. Arab landownership is deliberately exaggerated by dividing the land into “Jewish” and “non-Jewish” ownership. However, the land included under “non-Jewish ownership includes government lands. For example, the map shows that “Jews” owned less than 1% of the land in the Beersheba district. In fact, nearly all the land in the Beersheba district was government owned land that belonged to the British mandate, and should have been made available for Jewish ownership under article 6 of the League of Nations mandate. In any case, “Arabs” did not own this land. From the map, we can also learn that the eventual outlines of “Green Line” Israel (borders of 1949 armistice) closely followed the pattern of Jewish land ownership. In the West Bank, Jews owned less than 1% of the land, and in Gaza about 4%. Small areas of land abandoned in 1948 were recaptured in the 1967 Six day war. See also The Land Question in Palestine

Since this is a map the Palestinians approve of, and we’ve already examined their complaints, we won’t attempt to make this a book-length post by pursuing the matter further.  This post is an attempt to add clarity to an issue, not be comprehensive.  (although it’s beginning to look that way; maybe I should be submitting this to Wikipedia instead of borrowing their maps.)

Alright, that covers international legitimacy, the ‘occupancy’ issue, land sales, British, Arab and United Nations betrayal of the Jews, and a light reference to the many wars that have been covered extensively in the press.  I promised you my notions of why so many world actors have turned on Israel, and I’m forced to admit that all I can do is a slight impressionistic painting of a few.  That’s OK, I think, because I’m going to risk boring the bejesus out of you by marching through a trail of bullet points that indicates the general line of my thinking on the matter, and if that doesn’t work, I apoligize in advance for wasting your time.

We’ll close with my own conclusions and assertion on the issue (at least to date), a quick description of the dilemmas faced by both sides and a summary by writer Barry Rubin of how he thinks the Jihadis see the struggle between, not just themselves and Israel, but between them and Western Civilization (nee Christendom).  Along the way, I intend to link to yet more articles that tend to support this narrative.  I strongly recommend you read this, because it concerns the targeted gullibility of the good citizens of the West, who see themselves as too civilized to even entertain the idea that they are at war with a radical religion.  One that is determinedly at war with them, no matter what they say or do.  (Your objection that it is only a few radicals acting in the name of a religion has merit only if that religion really is one of peace.)

But first, the impressionism.

EUROPEANS. Have a proprietary outlook toward the Mideast; the Arabs in particular, since about the time of Napoleon.  Paternalistic, Commercial, perhaps just a whiff of condescension, they feel their ‘special relationship’ trumps all other considerations.  Their reflexive, traditional American bashing makes it all the more delightful to watch us bungle relations with their…colonials?

RUSSIANS.  Not exactly Europeans, if you know what I mean.  Putin is KGB through and through, and he and his ilk have a very long history of meddling in the Middle East.  Oil, goods, arms, influence;  it is good to rebuild the empire and stick it to the stupid Americans at the same time.

TURKS. Failed European applicants, they elected Islamists eight years ago and are careening toward becoming the new Algeria.  The lesson here is to never elect Islamists unless you understand that it will be the last secular, democratic election you will ever enjoy.  Your challenge is to spot them before it’s too late.  Prime Minister Erdogan seems primed for a fight with Israel.  We’ll have to wait and see just how far he thinks he can go.

AMERICANS. Another former ally of Israel, the current Transnational Administration is eager to befriend the Arabs, Turks and Persians, in order to gain approval of Global Leftists who despise Israel for its intransigency toward Palestinians.  (Otherwise known as survival.)  Flaunting its ‘evenhandedness’ has only convinced the ME that the US has lost its will, clearing the way for aggression on all fronts.  After sixty years of anti-Zionist propaganda, cowardly, authoritarian nations find it easy to use Israel to distract from their own shortcomings.  The problem is exacerbated by the fact that most American Jews are Democrats, which today means Progressives and Collectivists.  The consensus in that party is that the Palestinian are victims of the Israelis.  If you want to know how that particular circle is squared, quiz your Jewish friends.

THE UNITED NATIONS. A global gathering of America and Israel-bashing Kleptocrats whose incompetence and corruption has been so extensively documented that it is only of interest to those who would prefer to think of it as an international charity.  Condemning Israel is like breathing for these folks, and merits no special attention.

For Instance, regarding the flotilla incident:

Citing facts and figures, Mr. Yemini (The Middle East correspondent for Phildelphia’s “The Bulletin“) asserted that the U.N. Human Rights Council has a clear bias against, or obsession with, Israel, and he notes: “The proposal to form a fact-finding mission was supported by Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, and was submitted by the Palestinians and Pakistanis, which represented the Islamic states.”

“This is a disgrace to true human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, head of U.N. Watch who was present at the meeting. “Only three countries voted against:  the U.S., Holland and Italy. The rest of the countries of the free world abstained. The automatic majority of the benighted countries did not leave any chance of any other decision.”

You get the idea – piling on – where Israel is concerned – has reached pandemic proportions in the West.

I have only one more map, I think, that helps to illustrate the absurdity of the notion that Israel has stolen, and continues to illegitimately acquire – Palestinian land.  If you look at the British mandate map bestowing (yes, they could legally do that) the territory that today comprises almost all of Jordan, Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza, and compare it to the British and UN reduced version that exists today, you have to wonder how anyone can give credence to the idea of an expansionist (and thieving) Israel.  On top of that, in order to gain a peace that was never to be, the Israelis gave back the entire Sinai peninsula to Egypt (won in an Egyptian-initiated war), totally vacated Gaza, where two million Arabs dwell, and continue suffering the occupation of the West Bank that was originally theirs.  Your BS detector does not have to really be that good to realize the stolen land idea simply cannot hold water.  You can also tell from the maps that the various land divisions and mixture of Arab and Jewish settlements (Israel, remember, has one million Arab citizens, and some Arab members of the Knesset) make practically impossible a two-state solution.  This map is just to put Israel’s amount of  land ownership in perspective when looking at a map of the Middle East.

The Little Blue Sliver is the Land-grabbers

Connoisseurs of ME geography will note how really insignificant Israel would become if the other, non-Arab,  Muslim states were also highlighted.

And here, as a later add-on to this post (that I find irresistible) is an even better perspective on the situation:

Israel Clearly Colonized the Middle East

Since this Post is necessarily finite, I’ll refrain from attempting to refute every accusation made against Israel over these many decades; instead, I’ll volunteer to be your punching bag by running through a list of my own conclusions and assertions on the matter, although you can certainly have concluded by now that, while I consider the Palestinians victims, I do not think they have ever been victimized by the Israelis.  Here we go:

#  Israel is our strategic Ally in the Middle East.  (If you feel the US should have no influence there, and hence no leverage over the region’s bad actors, then perhaps no strategic ally is needed.)

#  Israel is the only fully functioning democracy in the Middle East.  (Iraq, as well, but needs time to develop.)  This represents hope for a Middle Eastern future that is more ‘tolerant, inclusive and protective of individual rights.’  That, in turn, means more peace and less threats to the US and its interests.)

#  Israel has been invaluable over the years in supplying the US with intelligence.  They are also superb at weapons development.  (If the neighborhood is not dangerous, then, of course, there’s no need for those things.)

#  The US, because of the above, gets more than its money’s worth for having Israel as its top foreign-aid recipient.

#  The Muslims of the Middle East are anachronistic, dysfunctional and violent (in general).  They thrive on newspapers and magazines that attack the US and Israel daily, with truth being the first casualty.  This distracts them from protesting their own governments and lifestyles.  Islam is a political religion that is authoritarian and imperialistic.  There is no separation of Church and state; the Church is the state; and everything is the will of Allah. It is not compatible with Western values, economies or the rule of law (no such thing); Sharia is rule by God, enforced by the entire community, the ummah.  Look it up…in the Koran.

#  Al Queda started as a protest against having American Infidels on Saudi Arabian soil; the holy land, Mecca.  It was never about Israel until years later when it seemed opportunistic to throw them into the mix.  (Hey, everyone else does)

#  This stalemate will never be broken (the hoped-for breakthrough by Western diplomats) because it is not about concessions for peace, let alone land for peace, which has failed 100%.  It’s about Jew-hatred and the Muslim determination to have the Jews leave, or die.  There is no time or resource limit to this.  All of Arabia agrees (the Arab League).  Go back to the top of this Post and look at the map of Palestine without Israel.  It’s a common map there.

#  Islam is not a “Religion of Peace.”  It is a warrior’s code for the entire community.  In countries where Islam is in the majority, Infidels (non-believers) are 2nd class citizens, or worse.

#  So-called “Moderate Muslims” are simply those not engaged in battle.  If they are a minority in another population, they are encouraged to lie to Infidels, and forbidden by the Koran from making friends with non-believers.

#  It is perfectly understandable that America’s political class would not accept the above as fact or act on its implications, but it looks as if some in the Israeli government are so desperate for peace (or so deluded) they will rationalize all of the above away and offer anything either the Arabs or the West tells them might bring peace.  This is suicidal, and they are running out of time and options.

#  Nearly every conflict on the planet is caused by either the Jihadis or some strain of Marxism.  Yet America and Israel are demonized as the major sources of evil in the world.  Bring them to heel, the conventional wisdom goes, and we will have a new era of peace  (prosperity not particularly desired, as it’s a capitalist trait); with inequality banished and justice finally established.  We just lack the will and the ‘right’ leaders to make it happen.

#  Our moral obligations are not to Israel alone.  They are to any human on the planet who wishes to live in a society that protects the individual through the rule of (just) law.   If we realize we are the only ones able to help, it becomes binding.

#  Where does that leave the Palestinians?  They were told if they fought the Turks, they would be given a state of their own.  They thought it would be exclusive and include all of Palestine.  They were offered a state side-by-side with the Jews, instead.  Unacceptable.  Then they were betrayed by the Egyptians and Jordanians who came in and occupied Gaza and the West Bank, precluding the possibility of a whole Palestinian state.  Their biggest betrayal by their fellow Arabs, though, was the refusal to allow them to relocate to Arab League countries.  Instead, they were held hostage to the cause of removing Jews from the Mideast.  Generations grew up in UN-run ‘Refugee Camps.”  How long can you be a ‘refugee’ before somebody starts asking why you don’t go somewhere else?  Pawns; prisoners forced to think their wardens were Israelis.

#  As soon as Israel was founded, they were attacked by the Arab League and the Palestinians.  They’ve been fighting ever since (1948).  Hamas was chartered for the sole purpose of eliminating the Jews.

#  Arafat was dedicated to removing the Jews from Palestine.  All the diplomacy was fake; it just bought time to rest and rearm for the next phase of violence against Israel.  There are a number of international intelligence operatives who believe he was an Egyptian who was adopted by the KGB after a couple of years of fighting and taught that propaganda and convincing the world of his victimhood would be more effective in eliminating Israel.  That’s when Palestinians started to become victims in the eyes of the world.  Americans aren’t used to such enemies.  Religion and decades-long propaganda campaigns.

#  The Gazans rain missiles down on the Israelis who left Gaza completely at a cost of billions, in order to buy peace.

#  The Gazans elected Hamas, knowing full well who they were  (they were really tired of Fatah).  This is not a society of Israeli victims.  They’re in it for the long haul, and the US is providing the dollars to rebuild the damage done by Israel when it went in to close the weapon-smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza.  And, of course, to stop the constant barrage of rockets on Israeli communities.

DILEMMAS.

UNITED STATES. Is committed to a Land-for-Peace, Two-State solution, and the conviction that it is the only proper negotiator for a final resolution of the problem.  Presidents seem to love the photo-ops, and it gives the entire State Department something to focus on when they’re not dealing with the rest of the Mideast, or the assorted global Marxist regimes.  But, since they are committed to the same strategy administration after administration, they keep getting the same results.  They’re alternatives seem to be, a) Do nothing, b) Find some way to talk the Palestinians into giving up the fight, or c) Getting creative, dramatic and innovative, risking large, bold initiatives that involve borders and populations and coalitions and threats; especially threats.  The rest is FAIL.

PALESTINIANS. An indeterminate number have grown up dependent on UN and foreign aid, with their only goal to be either Shahids (martyrs) or guerrillas fighting the Israelis.  Of course, many have traditionally worked in Israel proper, and a great many are working in other Arab countries.  There problem with mobility across borders and getting food and other provisions when they need it is the ongoing war.  If they wished full mobility and access to jobs or supplies, all they would have to do is stop trying to drive the Jews out of Palestine.  But they can’t.  And this probably explains the miserable job they do at governing when elected or appointed; they aren’t about peace and stability and the quiet tedium of administration – they are committed to a cause.  They don’t want a state of their own as long as there is such a thing as a state also for the Jews.  They’ve turned down that offer repeatedly.  They’re trapped in their own ideology.

ISRAELIS. Even if peace were to occur, the demographics of Israel’s Arab citizens would eventually require that the state founded on Jewish identity would have Jews as a minority.  Being a minority in a Muslim population is not promising for anyone, let alone Jews.  If I were a Jew, I would initiate a program to slowly relocate all of the Palestinians to Jordan and elsewhere, over time, but with certitude.  Relocation expenses would be paid, and by, say, 2020, Israel’s borders would be from Jordan to the sea.  I would negotiate back the Sinai, threaten to annihilate Syria the next time Hizbollah even thinks of attacking, and I would put a permanent quota on non-Jewish citizens in Israel.  But that’s just me.  I’m sure our State Department could…oh, never mind.

I’m reminded that for some problems there really is no solution; I just don’t want a bunch of smarmy, self-indulgent Americans to violate the principles on which their country was founded by lamely encouraging the destruction of a friend who so bravely shares those principles.

As promised, I’m closing with this rather grim description by Author Barry Rubin of the mindset of Jihadis everywhere.  It’s a warning.

Islamist Strategy in a Nutshell by Barry Rubin [Here’s a hint:  it counts on our ignorance and naivete to work..]

In what follows, “we” represents such disparate forces as Hamas, Hizballah, Iran, Iraqi insurgents, al-Qaida, Syria, the Taliban, and others including radical Arab nationalists and now Turkish Islamists. These forces are not all alike or allied but do often follow a parallel set of rules quite different from how international affairs have generally been conducted.

–We’ll never give up. No matter what you do, we will continue fighting. No matter what you offer we will keep attacking you. Since you can’t win you should give up.

–We’re indifferent to pressure you put on us. We will turn this pressure against you. Against us, deterrence does not exist; diplomacy does not convince. Neither does the carrot buy us off, nor does the stick make us yield. There are no solutions that can end the conflict. You cannot win militarily nor make peace through diplomacy.

–If you set economic sanctions we’ll say you are starving our people in an act of “collective punishment.” Moreover, sanctions will cost you money and generate opposition among those who lose profits.

–In response to military operations we’ll attack your civilians. Casualties will undermine your internal support. We will try to force you to kill civilians accidentally. We won’t care but will use this to persuade many that you are evil. Thus, we will simultaneously murder your civilians and get you condemned as human rights’ violators.

–If you try to isolate us we will use your own media and intellectuals against you. At times, we’ll hint at moderation and make promises of change. We won’t do so enough to alienate our own followers but enough to subvert yours. They will demand you engage us, which means you making concessions for nothing real in exchange.

–Talking to our own people, we foment hatred and demonize you. Speaking to the West, we will accuse you of fomenting hatred. We will hypocritically turn against you all the concepts you developed: racism, imperialism, failure to understand the “other,” and so on. These, of course, are our ideas but your feelings of guilt, ignorance about us, and indifference to ideology will make you not notice that fact.

–We will claim to be victims and “underdogs.” Because you are the stronger and more “advanced” that means you are the villains. We’re not held responsible for our deeds or expected to live up to the same standards. There is no shortage of, to quote Lenin, “useful idiots” who will echo our propaganda.

–Since our societies are weak, undemocratic, and have few real moderates, you will have to make deals with phoney moderates and dictatorial regimes weakened by corruption and incompetence.

–Even the less radical regimes, often our immediate adversaries, partly play into our hands. Due to popular pressure–plus their desire to mobilize support and distract attention from their own shortcomings–they trumpet Arab and Islamic solidarity. They denounce the West, blame all problems on Israel, and revile America, even as they accept your aid. They glorify interpretations of Islam not too far from ours. They cheer Iraqi insurgents, Hizballah, and Hamas. They don’t struggle against Iran getting nuclear weapons. They lay the basis for our mass support and recruits, as Lenin said selling us the rope to hang them as well as you.

–There’s no diplomatic solution for you, though you yearn to find one. There’s no military solution for you, whether you try that or not. You love life, we love death; you are divided, we are united; you want to get back to material satisfaction, we are dedicated revolutionaries. We will outlast you.

–Finally, our greatest weapon is that you truly don’t understand all the points made above. You are taught, informed, and often led by people who simply don’t comprehend what an alternative, highly ideological, revolutionary worldview means. In effect, we will try, and often succeed, to turn your “best and brightest” into the worst and dimmest who think you can persuade us, blame you for the conflicts, or expect that we will alter our course, and we will use those mistakes against you.

The above analysis seems pessimistic but actually is the opposite. Most of this strategy’s power is based on spreading illusions, depending on gullibility. Much of the rest relies on their enemies’ psychological weaknesses.