Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Shiloh is a Community Not a "Settlement"

If "Shiloh Community" is good enough in America, in Alabama,


it is good enough for the original Shiloh, Binyamin Region  in the Land of Israel.

You could also call us a village or a town.


^

Monday, January 30, 2017

On Ethnicity

Found here, p. 11:


^

US Residency Requirement Item

The US Jerusalem Consulate sponsors many programs and among them is this one:

Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES)

it seeks "Palestinian secondary school students" in order to get them to participate in a study-in-the-USA initiative for high school students during the 2018-2019 school year.

And where do these students live?  See the second green-outlined box below:



That pretty much excludes thousands of Jews, it would seem.  

Jews cannot be "Palestinians"?

^



Friday, January 27, 2017

Peace Now's Misleading Map

This map is in a campaign promoting a two-state solution sponsored by Peace Now.




Although it is used to display public opinion poll percentages, it nevertheless, totally misrepresents the reality on the ground and is misleading.

Wrong area of what two-states would look like, no topography, straight lines as borders, etc.

Yikes.

^

Thursday, January 26, 2017

The Difference Between Construction in Shiloh and...in Shiloh

As my readers know well, the construction and building (and even planning) of houses, schools and other edifices as well as fields, orchards and hothouses are headline material, a subject for UN deliberations, fodder for campus strife and what not.

I live in Shiloh in the Benjamin Region and sort of suffer from all this hullabaloo.

Unlike other Shiloh residents, like those in Illinois, USA.

Here's their barn problem.

Barn problem?

Yes, a problem with a barn:-

The Shiloh Board of Trustees remains divided on how to move forward with the dilapidated Red Barn that continues to sit at the end of Country Lane. Do they pass the bid opening up to $400,000 to restore the building for a new Cultural Arts Center? Or do they tear it down and construct a new building for the center?
After much deliberation, the board remained split during its Jan. 23 committee at large meeting 3-3. Shiloh Mayor Jim Vernier cast the swing vote to pass moving the bid opening to a $300,000 maximum, and a $400,000 finance proposal for the Red Barn rehabilitation. A final vote is expected to take place next month during the full board meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6.
Village Administrator John Marquart informed the board that the village qualified for a tax exempt note on a loan with Commerce Bank locally for $400,000 to finance the initial improvements.
Trustees Mark Kurtz, Greg O’Neil and Bob Weilmuenster voted in opposition, while Colleen Powers, Tina Warchol and Kurt Burrelsman approved the maximum bid amount be reduced from $400,000 to $300,000.

Just think about that.

And can you imagine me talking about "Greater Shiloh"?







Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/news/local/community/ofallon-progress/article128658914.html#storylink=cpy

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

On the Issue of Status Quo

Moslems Violate Status Quo at Wailing Wall; Jerusalem Jews Protest to Government

November 22, 1928Jerusalem (Nov. 21)


The Jews of Jerusalem filed another solemn protest with the District Commissioner of the Holy City and were given new assurances of a further investigation as steps taken by the Moslem Supreme Council were clearly seen as a violation of the status quo of the Jewish Holy Site.

A hospice has been established by the Moslems in the house adjacent to the Wailing Wall, and they are establishing a Home for the Aged in another house nearby. In addition a Muedzin appears on the roof of a house adjacent to that corner of the Wall where on Saturday the Aron Kodesh, the Ark containing the Holy Scrolls’ is placed. The Muedzin comes out five times daily to call Moslems to prayer.

Mohamed Ali, famous Indian Moslem leader, arrived in Jerusalem today. Some political significance was ascribed to his visit, in connection with the Wailing Wall agitation, and the government of Palestine was somewhat hesitant about admitting him to the country. The demand for granting him a visa was pressed by the Moslem Supreme Council which argued that the government should permit Mohamed Ali to enter the country, since it permitted Vladimir Jabotinsky to do so.

^

Jabotinsky a Victim of 'Fake News' ... in 1932

From here:

Mr. Jabotinsky Explains His Dynamite Speech: Letter to “The Times”: England, Not Jews Whom I Accused of Potential Dynamite
January 27, 1932London (Jan. 26)


Mr. Vladimir Jabotinsky has a long letter in to-day’s issue of the “Times” explaining what he meant by his speech to the Revisionist Conference in Warsaw, the report of which in the “Times” contained a passage attributing to him the statement that “Jews might become the dynamite which would blow up the British Empire.”


This is most inaccurate, Mr. Jabotinsky declares, for it was not to Jews but to another (and much more formidable) community that I referred as to a potential reservoir of human “dynamite”. (Mr. Jabotinsky, in his original letter indicated Islam as being the other community, but the “Times” made the change in printing the text).


But I especially resent the wording of your cable, Mr. Jabotinsky goes on, because it sounds as though I suggested that “Jews” wished or might wish harm to the British Empire. So far I have heard of no Jew who does. It is one of our racial weaknesses (too often taken advantage of) that with us resentment does not necessarily imply the desire for revenge; and “the Empire” really bears no responsibility for England’s action as Mandatory in Palestine.


On the other hand, he says, the object of my present mise au point is by no means apologetic. On the contrary, your cable’s epitome of my Warsaw speech was in some ways rather an under-statement. It was England, not the Jews, whom I accused of playing with “dynamite” – with a store of potential high explosive consisting of some 300,000,000 units; and what seems likely to be “blown up” as a result of such practice is, I said, something much bigger and more important even than the British Empirenamely, the world’s stability.


I beg leave to quote the essence of those two passages in my Warsaw speech to which your cable evidently referred, Mr. Jabotinsky continues, one dealing with “Jews” and the other with “dynamite”. The first: “Our experience with England as Mandatory for Palestine has resulted in making 15,000,000 people lose faith in a nation whose name, to every Jew, has always stood for straightforward moral earnestness. The Mandatory has become an unmitigated hindrance to any progress of Zionism. The realisation threatens to drive the Jewish masses, especially our youth, along a very dangerous road. The youth of a people faced with such plight as ours cannot live without some kind of faith; faith either in a great restoration or in a great destruction. England acts as though she wished to set ablaze 15,000,000 toches of despair scattered in every corner of the world.”


The second passage is: “But this is not the only game of world incendiarism in which some English agencies now seem to engage. There is an even bigger one going on just now: I mean the systematic galvanisation of pan-Islamic fanaticism in its most medieval and reactionary form. Jerusalem is being converted into a centre of incitement vying with the worst efforts of the Muscovite Comintern, a centre from which innumerable sticks of dynamite are to be showered all round, threatening not only our Jewish settlers in Palestine but also the whole of Europe’s colonial system. It is not to us Jews, it is to some of the mightiest nations of Europe that England may soon have to render accounts for this shortsighted and dangerous gamble with the world’s security conducted under her aegis”.


WHAT THE “TIMES” LEFT OUT

The “Times” stops here. Mr. Jabotinsky’s letter, however, contained the following additional two paragraphs:


This is what I actually said, and here I repeat and confirm it. Let me warn all concerned against attempts to shout down the feelings here expressed as those of one single faction or one single person. It would be blindness not to realise that the natural reaction to all this must inevitably be the rise of a strong anti-English feeling among all sections of Jewry not living under the British crown. In this term, anti-English feeling, I imply no hint of a futile threat: no Jew dreams of trying “reprisals”, nor would it save us if we tried. But the feeling itself is a fact; it grows and spreads and deepens day by day, and it can no longer be stemmed.


It is with the profoundest regret that I state this undeniable truth. There are even in England, some who know how stubbornly my friends and I have stuck to the last trench in trying to keep up our people’s waning faith in England. It was we who have for years, and even as late as the 1931 Zionist Congress, endeavoured to persuade our masses that the main defaulters were the Palestine bureaucracy and the Zionist leadership; but that there still remained England’s collective conscience as our Court of Appeal, and if we only could reach it it would redress all our wrongs. I wish we could still go on preaching the same doctrine for it can do our people no good, in its present unparalleled distress, to have to admit that a pledge meant to endorse a national hope of such universally revered sacredness can be turned into a mockery. But a moment comes when even the most desirable illusion can no longer be maintained in the face of cruel realities.

See here, too, on the matter.  And "trembling Israelite" Eder.

___________________

And Arab propaganda was rampant then:


Jabotinsky Terms Allegation of Arab Delegation “Invention”

May 12, 1930London (May. 10)

The allegation of the Arab delegation to the United States that Vladimir Jabotinsky, leader of the Zionist Revisionists, had once said that "the Zionists will only allow enough Arabs to remain in Palestine to be hewers of wood and drawers of water" is an invention, the Executive of the Revisionist Organization here declared today after receiving word from Mr. Jabotinsky. Emir Ardel Arslan, head of the Arab delegation, made this assertion in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York, April 29.

What Mr. Jabotinsky did say is incorporated in the report of the Palestine Inquiry Commission (page 176). He said "there is not one Zionist who really dreams of ousting the existing rural population of Palestine. Suppose that practically all the available land in Palestine is occupied by fellaheen who actually work it. I would say, irrespective of whether I desire to oust them or not, it is impossible. They will remain, therefore, nothing remains for me. Then I would try another avenue.

"Perhaps it is possible, despite all, to constitute a nation simply by urban population, waiting for such time when the intensification of cultivation will allow the Arabs to live on a smaller area so that we can buy the remainder. If I came to the conclusion that that cannot be done, I would go to the Jews and say, ‘Commit suicide or go and become, I do not know what, Bolsheviks, anything, because you have no hope’."

And he wasn't the only victim.

Nor was this a one-off.

^

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Quiz: False News Term

What year and in which circumstances this written?

Fourthly, all parties undertake to use vigorous means to prevent any unfair act in party strife, such as libel, slander, insult to individuals or groups, the spreading of false news, denunciations, or insults to the symbols, flags or uniforms of the opponents.

^

Ah, Another Double Standard

In the Guardian you can read of how "Iran is engineering population swaps in Syria".
Labib al-Nahas, the chief of foreign relations for Ahrar al-Sham, who led negotiations in Istanbul, said Tehran was seeking to create areas it could control. “Iran was very ready to make a full swap between the north and south. They wanted a geographical continuation into Lebanon. Full sectarian segregation is at the heart of the Iranian project in Syria. They are looking for geographical zones that they can fully dominate and influence. This will have repercussions on the entire region.
and here is a screen-snap:


But isn't Israel accused of a war crime on the basis of Geneva 1949?

Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.DEPORTATIONS, TRANSFERS, EVACUATIONSARTICLE 49 

Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.

Another double-standard?

^

The Vagaries of Minor Zionist Hisory


Jabotinsky’s Clothing is Stolen by Burglars
London (Dec. 18)

Burglars last night broke into the London residence of Vladimir Jabotinsky, head of the world Zionist Revisionist organization, and escaped with practically his entire wardrobe.

Other property was also taken. As a result Mr. Jabotinsky will have to re-outfit himself completely to attend a Revisionist conference in Poland before his departure for the United States later this month.

^

Monday, January 23, 2017

"By Demanding It"

Jabotinsky is quiet and forceful, with the assured air of a man who sees a sharply defined vision, totally lacking in confusion or compromise, which he knows must be realized. That vision is a Jewish nation in Palestine.

“How can the Jews achieve a true Homeland in the Holy Land?” the reporter asked him.

“By demanding it,” Jabotinsky said quietly.

^

The CIA Does the Irgun

From a report dated September 1, 1944, six months after Menachem Begin declared the Revolt:



Oh to be fanatical.

^



When Beinart's Hero Called My Hero a Fascist

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is Peter Beinart's hero.

Back in 1935, during Ze'ev Jabotinsky's visit to the United States*, Wise took exception to Jabo's policies and used the term "fascism":


“Revisionism on the ethical-social side runs counter to every ideal and idealism of the Jewish people and of the Jewish tradition. Revisionism does not mean peace in Palestine. Revisionism speaks of peace in Palestine but it actually means war in Palestine against the Jewish workers, war in Palestine upon the Jewish pioneers, above all, war in the name of truce upon all that for which Jews have stood and fought and died throughout the ages.

“I grieve to say it, for my battle is not with Jabotinsky but with Hitlerism and with Nazism, but the truth is that Revisionism is a species of Fascism in Yiddish or Hebrew, uttering its commands in the Hebrew language and therefore doubly baleful to us who believe that Hebrew should be the medium of a forward-looking hope, not of a dangerously reactionary movement. We zionists cannot accept Revisionism. We cannot support its leadership because we are resolved to be true to the Jewish tradition. For all that is best in Jewish life is permanently and indissolubly allied with the social and democratic ideals of our day and age even though for a time these have come under the displeasure and the shadow of the forces of wealth as is conscienceless and power that is limitless.”

Other reasons given by Rabbi Wise for his rejection of the Revisionist program are, “because Revisionism regards lightly and inadvisedly the claims of the Arabs in Palestine,” and “because the whole tradition of the Jewish people is against militarism.”


Here's a news report from March 28 on Jabo's response:

A sharply worded attack on Rabbi Stephen S. Wise was made here last night by Vladimir Jabotinsky, Revisionist leader, addressing a large audience in Chicago Orchestra Hall.
Taking exception to the recent attack made by Rabbi Wise on the Revisionist movement, Jabotinsky charged that Rabbi Wise has never made a study of the Revisionist program and based his allegations only on a superficial knowledge.
The meeting was opened by H. L. Meites, editor and publisher of an Anglo-Jewish weekly in Chicago. Mr. Meites, in his opening speech, told of the severe opposition which he encountered from various opposing groups in preparing the meeting. Charles P. Schwartz presided.
Mr. Jabotinsky started with an objection to Rabbi Wise’s characterizing the Revisionists as “Fascists.” He declared that the use of this term is an extremely serious matter.
“That is not a term of derogation,” Mr. Jabotinsky said, “but a name of a political belief of a power that is still friendly to the Jews. If such careless use is made of this term in a fight among the Jews, we face the danger of enrolling a new power among the ranks of our enemies, a power we need and need badly.”
“Rabbi Wise says that we are against social justice,” Mr. Jabotinsky continued. “I cannot understand his misuse of the word ‘justice.’ All one has to do is to pick up a dictionary and look up the meaning of this word. We object to the whole class war ideology and psychology and we do not want it in Palestine.”
Replying to Rabbi Wise’s assertion that the Revisionists advocate militarism, Mr. Jabotinsky said, “All one has to do is to get someone who can read and understand Hebrew and read our party program printed in Hebrew. He will then see how ridiculous it is to charge us with militarism. All we advocate is merely the protection of Jews in Palestine, since the British army in Palestine is not large enough to insure Jewish life and limb. We do not want a Jewish army. What we are doing is to prepare ourselves to have our own protection in case of necessity,” Jabotinsky explained.

Beinart still uses 'fascism' epithetically.

__________________

UPDATE

I now have found this, Jabotinsky's reply to Wise:


Long ago, an unkind American Jew told me this about Dr. Stephen Wise: “He has one great quality”, he says what he thinks; but he has one great defect, he doesn’t think.” 

I now begin to see how such an opinion, rather widespread in America, could have arisen. For “thinking” really implies also inquiring, and thoroughly inquiring; what is known as “documentation.” Dr. Wise, in his recent attack on Revisionism, has been singularly careless about consulting authentic sources or documents to get his facts.

“Revisionism demands sacrifices from Labor only, but not from Capital?” Our Vienna conference resolution of 1928, which proclaimed the Arbitration principle, clearly says, black on white: The Board of Arbitration shall have the right to fix both the minimum of fair wages for Labor and the maximum of fair profit on capital. The resolution, further, outlaws both strike and lockout as well as (“boycott of Jewish labor by Jewish employers”). Besides the principle of compulsory arbitration, by its very nature, is bound to hit both ways: honest arbitrators sometimes rule against the workers’ demands and sometimes against the employers’.

One might fear bias if it were a question of arbitrators appointed by a government but in our scheme, the arbitrators are to be elected by common consent of both the workers’ and the employers’ organizations. Those who have the habit of thinking before they speak would see the difference.

Elimination of strikes is “reactionary?” Let me recommend to Dr. Wise, for his documentation, one of the volumes he seems to have overlooked. A good authority on what is reactionary and what is progressive is the League of Nations: and, insofar as social problems are concerned, particularly its international labor office in Geneva. (run mostly by Socialists). This office published in 1933 a report of some 700 pages under the title “Conciliation and Arbitration in Industrial Disputes.” Now observe how this book defines “the general purpose” of that portion of the League of Nations Covenant “on which the International Labor organization is based”: “the improvement of the economic and social position of the workers, and the removal of the existing antagonism between employers and workers by peaceful means.” And further, in general conclusions, “conciliations and arbitration are thus a symbol of that idea of the community of interests between workers, employers is the basis of modern labor law and also of the constitution of the international labor organization.” (Page 141.)

A few more remarks which would not be necessary had there been a superficial effort at thinking before speaking:

1. The question whether it be liberal or unliberal for the State to “prohibit” strikes has no bearing on the Revisionist scheme. The Palestinian State is not to be asked for any intervention whatsoever. It is a matter of a free voluntary covenant between Jews and Jews. If both sides agree, well and good; if not, there will be no covenant; and even if all did agree, but a minority, however small, would still prefer to go on class-warring, it would (to my regret) be free to do so.

Equally safe, under that scheme is the principle of “organized labor”: no covenant can obviously have any value unless signed in the name of organizations. Still safer is the principle of “collective bargaining between all the workers and all the employers of one national community.

2. Safest of all is, under this scheme, the principle of “social justice.” Nobody can seriously and honestly maintain that strike and lockouts are methods of achieving “justice”; it is the side which has the largest war chest, not the side which has the fairest case, that wins in a strike or in a lockout. “Justice” excludes settlement of any strife by a direct clash between the parties: “justice” begins with the appointment of an impartial tribunal. Can Dr. Wise cavil at this elementary truth? What, then, are in his opinion those “Jewish ideals” he involves: stopping work in Jewish workshops of a Jewish country, scaring “pickets,” calling each other “class enemies” instead of going to a judge? Where, in what Scriptures, has Dr. Wise found authority for such a conception of “Jewish social ideals?” The answer is unfortunately obvious: he just omitted the little formality of research before speech.

But there also is a comical side to this arbitration controversy here in America. Before the end of this month the left wing Histadruth is to ratify, by a referendum, the “Labor Agreement” Mr. Ben Gurion and I signed in London; and that agreement culminates in the pledge to promote a Covenant implying black on white “obligatory arbitration.” What will these Tuxedo-clad strike fans of America do if the Histadruth ratifies the agreement?

Another brilliant sample: “To Revisionism, as to Fascism, the state is everything and the individual nothing.” Where, in what resolution or declaration or authoritative article have you read it? Personally I hate the very idea of a “totalitarian State,” whether Communist or Fascist, call them all “Polizei-Staat,” and prefer old-fashioned parliamentarism however clumsy or inefficient; and ninety-nine per cent of my hardy comrades share this attitude. What Dr. Wise obviously mistook for his bogey is the fact that we maintain and will go on maintaining—that the striving for the creation of a Jewish State should be, to all those who accept it as their ideal, miles above any class or individual interest. But so did Garibaldi hold the creation of the Italian State paramount, so did Lincoln the unity of America; which does not mean that they wanted an Italy or an America where the State would be everything and the individual nothing. To those who think before speaking, the difference should again be clear.

As to the charge that Revisionism wants “an Arabless Palestine”, in other words, the eviction of Arabs from Palestine, I very seriously warn Dr. Wise and any possible imitators of his: if I hear anything of this kind again, I will demand a Court of Honor, on the strength of that other London agreement which prohibits “aililoth” and “alila,” in good colloquial Hebrew, means calumny. Revisionism, in all its documents, official and unofficial, has always contended that in Palestine there is room for all the Jews who will ever need it and for all the Arabs with their progeny. But (to those who think before speaking) one thing ought to be clear even without “documents,” a party which stands for a “Jewish majority in Palestine” obviously foresees the presence of a “minority.”

There is, however, one point on which I should prefer not to deny Dr. Wise’s “documentation” but much rather simply to ask for his source and authority in making such a statement: this is his emphatic affirmation that it is “arrant nonsense or unforgivable to hold that the Jewish labor party is introducing class war in Palestine.” This is really cheering news, and I should love to know who authorized Dr. Wise, on behalf of the “Mapai” to dissociate that party from the class war principle. No, say—is it really true? Hurrah! Shall I cable the glad news to Palestine? “The Jewish Palestine Labor Party announces via New York that it no longer adheres to the class war idea.” Only I fear that the cable would provoke an angry denial; that the beautiful dream is premature, and that for the present we shall have to be satisfied with the reality, with the same phenomenon of eloquence dispensing with enquiry.

========

*


I had the pleasure of attending the mass meeting staged by Avukah last Saturday at which Vladimir Jabotinsky spoke [social justice dictates that the Arabs give up Palestine to the Jews...If you admit self-determination for the Arabs, where shall the Jews go? There is nowhere for them to go. Shall they go on starving and suffering because the world has not been evenly distributed?] This pleasure was not due altogether to hearing Mr. Jabotinsky, although, as we all know, he is perhaps the most stimulating orator we Jews have.
I got a great thrill out of observing how hundreds of our intelligent youth were drawn to a meeting of this sort. Of course, it is true, as our rabbis say, that large numbers of our children are indifferent to Jewish matters. And perhaps for just this reason I was so glad to see that some at least are awake and interested.
Jacob Rothberg
New York City.
^

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Jabotinsky and 6,000,000

From a news report on June 5, 1938:

Vladimir Jabotinsky, president of the New Zionist Organization, speaking at the Anglo-Palestine Club, declared last night that European belts of Jewish distress comprised 6,000,000 whose hopes centered on migration to Palestine.

Chaim Weizmann employed that figure back in 1937:

"The hopes of Europe's six million Jews are centered on emigration. I was asked, 'Can you bring six million Jews to Palestine?' I replied, 'No'....From the depths of the tragedy I want to save two million young people...The old ones will pass. They will bear their fate or they will not. They were dust, economic and moral dust in a cruel world...Only the branch of the young shall survive...They have to accept it."
^

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Needed: A Commemoration Plaque

While doing some research, I came across a letter written by Ze'ev Jabotinsky to the HQ of the Jewish Legion in London at the end of October 1917 while he was with his troops in England:





I found out that while Chenies Street 






is marked by some memorials and history, the fact that the Jewish Legion HQ was at 22 Chenies Street is not marked.

I think a small plaque along the lines of:

During World War I, a building at 22 Chenies Street
served as the Headquarters for the Jewish Legion,
a force of over 5000 Jews who served in the
Royal Fusiliers and fought in Palestine 1918

Isn't that a grand idea?

Who, then, will help?

_____________

P.S.


By the way, as I included in a previous blog post, there is a film clip and it would be wonderful if the building Patterson stands in front at around 1:30 and at 2:12 Jabotinsky appears was that Chenies Street building.





Is there anyone who could check newspaper archives and see if there was a report which mentions the parade which took place on Monday February 4th 1918?

It may have been The Pavillion Theatre in Mile End Road (which actually stood at 193 Whitechapel Road, near the corner with Vallance Road).

^

Kerry's CNN For the Record with Amanpour

On CNN with London-born, Muslim-raised and Teheran-educated (more on this later) Christiane Amanpour:

QUESTION: I want to stay in the Middle East. You did so much shuttle diplomacy. Basically, yet another administration has not brought peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

SECRETARY KERRY: Yeah, I --

QUESTION: Donald Trump says this is going to be his priority and that his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is an Orthodox Jew, will be a great negotiator and make a peace deal.

While it is fair to note that Kushner is an Orthodox Jew, to make sure we're fair all around, I thought to note Amanpour's personal background as well. In fact, we can add that she is married to a Jew by birth, American James Rubin.

To continue:

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, more power to them if they can do that, Christiane. But you have to have a theory of how you’re going to do that and what compromises are going to be made to do it. I assure you --

QUESTION: Were you wrong about the settlements and --

Now if I was the interviewer, I'd ask Mr. Kerry: "what compromises to you expect the Palestinian Authority to make?  Territories, because isn't the game "territorial compromise"?  

Or, perhaps, the PA needs to fulfill commitments they signed in previous agreements that until today that have not fully carried out?

More:

SECRETARY KERRY: I assure you – let me just make this so clear – that when you say another administration has failed to do this – no, no. The leaders of the two countries involved – one country and one entity, the Palestinian Authority – have failed to come to the table and reach agreement. You know the old saying – you can lead a horse to water, you can’t make it drink. Now, we did a lot of leading to a lot of water, but people decided they weren’t ready for one reason or another to move. Now --

QUESTION: And one reason or another is what you described --

SECRETARY KERRY: And that is one of the reasons why we at the United Nations made the decision we made, because we believe that Israel has a major choice and the Palestinians have a major choice. The choice we put to Israel is if you want to be a Jewish state and you want to be a democracy, you cannot be a unitary state. And right now, they’re marching down the road, because of the increased settlements, because of the absence of a legitimate negotiation, towards that possibility. And all we’re trying to do --

Why not ask: "well, why can't they be a 'unitary state'? Are you sure the demographics are negative?"


QUESTION: So you said --

SECRETARY KERRY: -- is speak as a good, good, solid best friend of Israel. And we’ve done more for this government, more for Israel, than any other administration with the Iron Dome and the $38 billion --

QUESTION: Do you think they’re ungrateful? Do you think Prime Minister Netanyahu is ungrateful?

SECRETARY KERRY: No, I’m not characterizing it in any way whatsoever except to say that it – we speak out of a caring and concern for Israel as a democratic and Jewish state, and we also speak out of concern for the Palestinians, who will not be able to satisfy their aspirations ever without the ability to be able to create a state. So both have a huge interest in being able to move this forward, and we wish the administration coming in all the luck in the world if they find a different formula that will actually work. But I will be stunned if the Arab world writ large and the Palestinians in particular – because everybody has said the parties have to arrive at an agreement – I guarantee you the Palestinians are not going to agree to less than a state based on 1967 lines with swaps. They’re just not going to do that.

Did she do a follow-up and ask: if the end is a state based on the 1967 lines with swaps, what compromise is that? After all, they started the 1967 war with the terror campaign of the PLO beginning on January 1, 1965? 

Did she ask him about Israel and Iran?

No, she didn't.

Another empty Amanpour interview.

^

Sunday, January 15, 2017

What is a "Palestinian Citizen"?

I spotted this and it piqued my curiosity:




In the past, we would have read "Israeli Arabs demonstrate...".

They are not "Arabs" but "Palestinians".

Their nationality, even if born in Israel, is not Israeli.

If you check here, you'll learn that

There has never been a sovereign Palestinian authority to explicitly define who is a Palestinian, but the term evolved from a geographic description of citizenship to a description of geographic citizenship with an Arab ethnicity.

But if you go back a few lines there, you'll have to wade through some gobbledygook:


Palestinian people have a history that is often linked to the history of the Arab Nation, which is linked to the rise of Islam. When Islam was started by Muhammad in Mecca in AD 610, Christianity was the major religion of Palestine. Soon after the rise of Islam, Palestine was conquered and brought into the rapidly expanding Islamic empire...After toppling the Mamluk state in 1517, the Ottoman Turks took control of most of the Arab world. Palestine existed within the Ottoman Empire as two districts, also referred to as Sanjaks. The legal origin of citizenship in the Middle East was born of the Ottoman Citizenship Law of 19 January 1869...

So, there's a fictitious nationality based on a fictitious people in a fictitious country.

The Muslim Arabs conquered the Land of Israel that had been conquered by the Romans whose empire then became the Byzantine Christian Empire. It wasn't a country but just to districts.

But it gets better:

The Palestinian National Authority drafted, but did not pass, a piece of legislation in 1995 outlining its Citizenship Law. Article 7 of this legislation defines a Palestinian as anyone who "(1) was a holder of Palestinian citizenship (other than Jews) before 15 May 1948; (2) was born to a Palestinian father; (3) was born in Palestine to a Palestinian mother even if the citizenship of the father is not known; (4) was born in Palestine to unknown parents;...

So, to be "Palestinian" is not only a fiction but a racist status.

And liberal/progressives support this.




Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Clare Hollingworth on A/The Jewish National Home

Clare Hollingworth has died.

One of the most famous and best of the female war journalists.

She also covered Palestine after World War II, narrowly escaping injury or worse when the Irgun attacked the offices of the Government Secretariat and the General Army HQ esconced in the expropriated southern wing of the King David Hotel.




In her book (here), however, she tries to be a political interpreter of history:



I fail to understand her linguistic comment.

Can there be two Jewish National Homes?

What difference, politically, geographically, semantically or otherwise, would the "the" add that an "a" doesn't?

By the way:

After the war, Hollingworth, by now working for the Observer and the Economist, married Geoffrey Hoare, the Times's Middle East correspondent.The couple were just 300 yards from Jerusalem's King David Hotel when it was bombed in 1946, killing 91 people.The attack left her with a hatred of the man behind the attack, the Irgun leader Menachem Begin, who eventually became prime minister of Israel and won the Nobel Peace Prize."I would not shake a hand with so much blood on it," she explained.


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