Not long after the first round got under way, news of a crisis soon emerged.
Taking his cues from the American President who is sponsoring the event, Mahmoud Abbas said he won't return to the table unless Israel caves in to the Arab demand that it remain a sub-rump state in perpetuity--a mere nine to fifteen miles wide at its strategic waist, where the bulk of its population and industry are located and exposed. Recall that President Obama has repeatedly stated that Israel would be crazy (his exact words) not to accept the Saudi Peace(of the grave) Plan; the withdrawal of Israel to the '49 Auschwitz/armistice lines is a key provision of that.
As a result, Arafat's Fatah successor, Palestinian (Arab) Authority President Abbas, now demands that Israel not allow Jews to build in Jerusalem, a city that they've called home since King David made it his capital over three thousand years ago (when most other folks, including Arabs, were worshipping stone idols and practicing fertility cults). By the way, after ups and downs due to assorted tragedies, Jews once again constituted the majority population of Jerusalem since the mid-19th century.
Prime Minister Netanyahu had earlier agreed--under intense pressure from the Obama Administration--to a freeze in new apartment building. That was a mistake on Israel's part...
For now, it's once again time to face up to the real issues here--and they go far beyond apartments.
If the Saudi 'Peace' Plan is to be forced upon Israel, then Jews living anywhere beyond the '49 armistice lines are taboo...hence the problems with those new apartments in east Jerusalem and construction elsewhere in Judea and Samaria--aka the 'West Bank.'
The State Department began this game with words quite a while back, and it now has a more than willing partner in the White House.
After Israel was attacked in '48, and after the United Nations stood by and watched the Arab assault (and did nothing to stop it), armistice lines were mostly drawn up--not borders--to mark the spot where the fighting came to a halt. The UN jumped in only after the Jews turned the tide of the battle and did so only to limit Arab losses.
Arab Transjordan on the east bank of the Jordan River--itself carved out of almost 80% of the original 1920 Mandate of Palestine in 1922--had seized Judea and Samaria on the west bank. Before long, it made the latter Judenrein, as it had earlier "cleansed" itself. Jews have thousands of years of history connecting them to those lands. Indeed, places like Beth El, Bethlehem, Shiloh, Hebron, and others are known primarily because of the meaning Jews gave to those places. And they lived and owned property there until their 20th century slaughter by Arabs. During the Mandatory Period, it is well documented that huge numbers of Arabs poured into the Mandate from all over the region...Arab settlers setting up Arab settlements.
After the Arabs' renewed attempt on Israel's life in June 1967, the architects of the final draft of UNSC Resolution 242 realized that Israel's absurd, indefensible armistice lines would only invite continuous Arab aggression. Most people have to travel further to go to work than Israel's distance is in width according to those lines..
Here's Britain's Lord Caradon, chief architect of the final draft of 242, on the matter...
We didn't say there should be a withdrawal to the '67 line; we did not put the 'the' in, we did not say 'all ' the territories deliberately. We all knew - that the boundaries of '67 were not drawn as permanent frontiers, they were a cease-fire line of a couple of decades earlier... We did not say that the '67 boundaries must be forever; it would be insanity.
Some thoughts from America's own leaders...
President Lyndon Johnson June 19, 1967:
A return to the situation on June 4 (the day before outbreak of war) was not a prescription for peace but for renewed hostilities.' He then called for 'new recognized boundaries that would provide security against terror, destruction, and war.
President Ronald Reagan, September 1, 1982:
In the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely 10-miles wide...the bulk of Israel's population within artillery range of hostile armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again.
Secretary of State George Shultz, 1988…
Israel will never negotiate from or return to the 1967 borders.
Secure, somewhat defensible borders were indeed promised by 242--the main basis for peace-making from '67 onwards. Recognized was also part of the wording of 242 regarding borders, but since Arabs refuse to recognize a nine to fifteen mile wide Israel, it's no shock that they refuse anything larger.
That brings us back to words, their effective usage, and their meanings...
In order for Israel to get the protective territorial buffer 242 envisioned, Jews would have to be allowed once again to return to places like Judea and Samaria--the "West Bank"--where they had been earlier massacred and expelled from. Keep in mind that those areas are non-apportioned territories of the original 1920 Mandate--not "purely Arab lands" as Arabs proclaim. And keep in mind that when Arabs seized control of east Jerusalem in 1948, no Jew was allowed there--the site of the Temple of Solomon's Western Wall, numerous ancient synagogues (that the Arabs subsequently destroyed), and so forth.
Since Israel reunited Jerusalem in '67, the city has been open to all peoples. And, I keep on wondering (as my readers probably have noticed )...if no Jews are allowed to live in Judea, then why--pray tell--should any Arab be allowed to live in Israel?
As happens too often, Israel's leaders seem to be too much like Moses...not adept with words. Israel has long had a problem with hasbara...
They have fallen into the Arabs' and Arabist State Department's ( which fought President Truman about even recognizing the Jewish State in the first place)trap, thus allowing the argument and the headlines to always be about "settlements" (Jewish towns), security barriers, checkpoints, and building freezes instead of about Israel finally getting the justice and just borders it deserves and which are absolutely necessary if it's to get any semblance of the security promised to it via 242. The birth of the Arabs' 22nd state--and second, not first, in "Palestine"--must not come as a result of the forced suicide of the sole state of the Jews.
It's about time Israel elect leaders who can use the spoken word effectively...as often as necessary. No tiring here permitted. Each repeated Arab lie must be squahed head-on.
There are many reasonable minds still out there. They must be addressed often and appropriately.
No Arab nor other world leader, no media editorial, no State Department press conference, no hypocritical Arab mouthpiece in academia, etc. and so forth should be allowed to lecture, threaten, and so forth Israel about "settlements" without Israel nailing them on this subject as spelled out above.
Speaking of media, I guess you've seen the cover story of Time magazine this week.
Since the Jews (at least some) are asking that a true compromise on concrete issues ( i.e., the non-apportioned, not "purely Arab," territories in question above) take place between themselves and enemies sworn to destroy them (as opposed to the Arabs' repeated and open declarations that, in any negotiations, their task will be solely to receive while Israel's will be solely to give), Time targets the Jews as the spoilers.
That the Jews have come to know the true rejectionist nature of their enemies--yet choose to live life as best as possible anyway given this reality--seems not to phase the magazine's publisher, editors, nor writers in their conclusions.
Thus, proclaiming Israel does not care about peace, Time now completes its gradual transition into becoming a pea in the same nauseating pod as Jimmy Apartheid Israel Carter.
The power of words…" (source)
Gerald Honigmanan is an educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated many anti-Israel spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world.
To obtain a copy of Gerald's book, "The Quest For Justice In The Middle East", click here
