Is there an ‘After’ After the Kushner show in Bahrain?
| [Prefatory Note: The interview below was published by Tasmin New Agency on July 2, 2019, conducted by Mohammad Hassani. The text below has been somewhat modified.]
Q1: Bahrain hosted the so-called “Peace to Prosperity” conference to discuss what the US has described as the economic part of President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century”, a plan which aims to consign the Palestinian cause to oblivion. The Palestinian leadership boycotted the meeting on June 25 and 26 in Manama, leading critics to question the credibility of the event. In your opinion, what goals are the US and Israel pursuing by holding the conference? Would they reach their goals?
The ‘workshop’ in Bahrain should never have been evaluated without considering the overall approach taken by the Trump presidency to Israel and Palestine. The relationship to Israel pre-Trump had been one of leaning toward Israel while purporting to be ‘an honest broker,’ a thinly disguised partisanship. Since Trump became president the U.S. has dispensed with thin disguise, and become the avowed partner of Israel and adversary of Palestinian goals. It manifested this shift in several concrete unprovoked policy shifts that were deliberately punitive toward the Palestinians. Such behavior was a strange prelude to a proclaimed ‘diplomatic’ initiative hyperbolically called ‘the deal of the century.’ Washington’s behavior clearly signaled an end to diplomacy based on agreement and consent of the parties, substituting coercion on behalf of the favored party and seeking submission by its adversary.
From such a perspective it should be understood that the purpose of ‘Peace to Prosperity’ is neither peace nor prosperity, but securing an Israeli ‘victory’ and a Palestinian surrender with respect to the political agenda of achieving basic national rights, especially the right of self-determination. Thus, the Manama meeting is a success to the extent it made the proposed bargain of economic normalization in exchange for political defeat seem of material benefit to the governments of the region and had some attraction for the Palestinian Authority and segments of the Palestinian people. The reactions to the event seem very subdued suggesting that the Kushner/Trump initiative has had very little, if any, political impact so far. The secondary objective is one of public relations, being able to blame the anticipated failure to achieve ‘the deal of the century’ on the Palestinians. I fear the Western mainstream media will lend some support to this outrageous claim, which confuses the rejection of American ultimatum, preceded by a series of pro-Israel policy moves (Jerusalem, settlements, UNRWA funding, closing the PLO information office Washington, endorsing Golan and West Bank annexations) hostile to the Palestinians as signaling this Trump shift from pro-Israeli partisanship of the Obama era to pro-Israeli coercive diplomacy currently practices by Washington.
Against this background, it is disingenuous for Israeli apologists such as Dershowitz and others to urge the Palestinians to listen with an open mind to what the Trump ‘peace initiative’ is proposing. To lend legitimacy to such coercive diplomacy would be a sign of weakness and an expression of illegitimacy by representatives of the Palestinian people. It would have been seen as an expression of Palestinian hopelessness. Instead, if their refusal to participate in such a macabre charade is linked to the resistance struggle in Gaza embodied in the Great March of Return, it is a moment for those of us in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle to lend greater support to nonviolent initiatives, including the BDS campaign. Q2: Some analysts say that the Trump administration’s focus on an economic plan, led by his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, is a strategic mistake that could stymie the peace negotiations even before they begin. What is your assessment of the US approach to the conflict and the future of the plan? Is it practical at all?
The Trump/Kushner ‘plan’ is not looking toward genuine diplomatic negotiations. It is trying to impose a one-sided Israeli victory, and treat the conflict as resolved. This overlooks the robustness of Palestinian resistance, dramatized by the Great March of Return in Gaza, and by the growing global solidarity movement, as featuring the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Campaign. It should be appreciated that such a campaign managed over time delegitimized South Africa’s apartheid regime to such an extent that it collapsed. Such a soft power Palestinian victory can still be expected if this combination of resistance, solidarity, and patience persist in a manner that imposes sufficient costs on Israel for its reliance on an apartheid structure to achieve its ‘security’ at the expense of Palestinian basic rights. The hope of most activists is that Israeli leaders and citizens will recalculate their interests so as to accept a political compromise based on the equality of rights of the two peoples coexisting with mutual respect in historic Palestine. Remember that all of the anti-colonial victories of the 20th century were achieved by the weakerside militarily and geopolitically. Q3: Israeli occupation forces have killed 84 Palestinians during the first half of 2019, including eight women and 19 children, according to local media reports. On Friday, Israeli forces once again opened fire on Palestinians taking part in the peaceful “Great March of Return” protests, along the separation fence between the besieged Gaza Strip and occupied territories. According to media reports, more than 270 people, including 52 children, have been killed since the demonstrations began in March 2018. Most of the dead and the thousands wounded were unarmed civilians against whom Israel was using excessive force. Why has the international community, particularly the Western mainstream media, made a muted response to the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes against Palestinians so far? Israel reliance on excessive force and collective punishment to deal with the Great March of Return, and its grievances and lawful demands, should be treated as violations of international humanitarian law of a severity that amounts to crimes against humanity. It is a shocking reflection of media bias that it accords massive attention to human rights violations in Turkey of a relatively lesser character, while ignoring and even rationalizing much more serious violations by Israel. Although Western liberals have counseled Palestinians to rely on nonviolence in their opposition to Israel, such reliance as in the Great March has been consistently met with brutal force by Israel and by virtual silence in the world media, by the governments of the world, and even by the United Nations. It is a case of geopolitics eclipsing moral and legal accountability exposing the lack of political will to protect the innocent and vulnerable from abuse by the vindictive and militarily powerful.
The growing movement of global solidarity as reinforced by Palestinian acts of resistance to apartheid structures of oppression is the sole basis for a peaceful future for both peoples, Palestinians and Israeli Jews. |
Global Justice in the 21st Century 
Richard,
This is an excellent analysis of a disgusting situation. In my estimation, nothing looking anything like peace in the area will come to pass until the US finally decides to terminate its favoritism toward Israel. That is highly unlikely until the masses finally wake up and decide on peaceful revolution. Not in our lifetime!
Dear Professor Falk,
‘Macabre charade’, indeed. Jared is still the dull little punk whose ex-con dad had to bribe into Harvard. The Palestinians really should listen, says Dershowittz, to a guy who once reserved some of his real estate units “for Orthodox Jews only”. Among the Israeli crimes you mention here, you omit that grand day when, amid much reactionary fanfare, the US embassy moved to Jerusalem, even as Gazans were being slaughtered at the fence…Listen to us! We have the Deal of the Century for You!!
Richard, I thank God you are still a very strong voice crying in the Wilderness.
I just read this excellent article by another admirer of your courage, strength and steadfastness continuing the struggle for Justice in Palestine in the face of dishonest, corrupted opposition.
‘The (Continuing) Vilification of Richard Falk’
https://ahtribune.com/world/asia-pacific/3289-vilification-of-richard-falk.html
Thanks so much, Ray. Your affirming and supportive words keep believing that I have no choice but to continue working for what
we both believe is right.
With greetings from Perth,
Richard
What comes after Bahrain? Absolutely nothing! In boycotting “Peace to Prosperity” after rejecting the “Deal of the Century (sight unseen),” given the pace of negotiations, Palestinian leaders ensure that they will remain isolated, impoverished and stateless for at least another quarter century, if not more. Why is it a crime for Zionists to have self-determination (Statehood and U.N. Membership recognized in 1949), while Palestinians have rejected the same option for over 7 decades? In their demand for a “single-state solution,” they have painted themselves into a corner, from which it is impossible to extricate themselves, and under the “law of unintended consequences,” made Israel the “one democratic state” at the Palestinians’ own expense. There is no historic Palestine, a fictional entity, only the reality of Israel, the ancestral home of the Jewish people for over 4,000 years.
In an “Orwellian Inversion (war is peace, poverty is plenty and ignorance is strength),” Palestinians seek to impose a 20% minority “Arab Supremacist Apartheid Regime” over a 75% majority Jewish Israeli population. How that would differ from the former “Apartheid” South Africa, once ruled by a 10% minority “White Supremacist Apartheid Regime” over a 90% majority Black and Mixed Race African population, they refuse to explain! Just as South Africans are entitled to democratic majority rule in their nation, Israelis are entitled to the same in their nation!
In answer to the first question, the objective of the Bahrain Conference was to improve the economic life of Palestinians, based on the Post World War II Marshall Plan. Gulf Cooperation Council members see “Peace to Prosperity ” as an opportunity to “normalize” an alliance against a common enemy, Iran, as well as a regional trade bloc, which now exists largely “under the table.” While the Sunni states still insist on resolution of the Palestinian – Israeli Conflict, they will not wait forever if Palestinian intransigence becomes a barrier to regional stability. Will the Palestinians become irrelevant to a regional solution? Time will tell!
In imposing unreasonable unacceptable “preconditions” to resuming direct negotiations with Israel, particularly demands that Israel recognize East Jerusalem as “occupied,” Palestinians ensure that negotiations will never resume. Note that in the 25 years preceding the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital, legislation calling for the move was waived by successive Presidents every six months to allow for a negotiated sharing of the city. Mahmoud Abbas sat on his hands years, thus forfeiting any rights to the city. To quote comedian/actor Jim Carrey in “The Cable Guy:” “He who hesitates, masturbates.”
By analogy, surrender was a precursor for World War II adversaries Germany and Japan for receipt of Marshall Fund reconstruction aid, both of which emerged prosperous nations. Unlike the Germans and Japanese, the Palestinians prefer to sacrifice future prosperity for their Imperial Ambitions. Alan Dershowitz, unlike some on the Israeli Right, favors an open mind on the “two-state solution,” already rejected by Palestinians. See his: “The Case for Israel.” Others see him as hopelessly naive and Palestinian rejection as acquiescence in the status-quo, in effect making a decision to make no decision, a decision for no change.
In answer to the second question, the Trump/Kushner economic plan is not a strategic mistake by the U.S., but its rejection by the Palestine is a serious mistake. As the Gulf States and others “normalize” under the table defense and economic relations with Israel, Palestinians will become irrelevant to growing regional common interests between Arab states and Israel.
In answer to the third question and in conclusion, Palestinians under-estimate the resolve of the IDF to defend the nation and its population against terrorists, who target civilians in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, such as during the “Second Intifada,” in which over 1,000 Israeli civilians were murdered in bus and cafe bombings, defining the deliberate targeting of civilians as a War Crime. The vast majority of Palestinians killed in the “Border Riots” were identified members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both recognized terrorist organizations and thus legitimate targets for the IDF. If the “Border Riots are “Peaceful Protests,” all the IDF is doing is staging a “counter-protest!” In invoking Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, recognizing an “inherent right of individual, or collective self-defense” Israel is using legitimate force to protect the nation and its population from terrorist aggression!
Marshall Plan? Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan? The aftermath of Hiroshima/Nagasaki? Your nomenclature is as telling as your historical confusion. The “Victory Caucus” hasn’t won yet, Sir.
Perhaps, the “Victory Caucus” as you put it, has not yet won the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but it has made enormous advances, including some because of the self-defeating, counter-intuitive conduct of the Palestinians. Passing up the Bahrain Economic Conference, a regional iteration of the post World War II “Marshall Plan” was a major blunder, which will keep Palestinians impoverished for at least another quarter century awaiting a political solution. But it will ensure continuation of the Palestinian Authority kleptocracy, running an additional $2,000 per month for each Minister and an increase in “Pay-for-Slay” for some incarcerated terrorists, or their survivors, and will not improve the quality of life of the average Palestinian.
In his surrender message to the Japanese people, Emperor Hirohito asked them to “endure the unendurable,” knowing that continued war should only lead to continuing death and devastation of the nation’s housing and infrastructure. The occupation of Japan, under the government of General Douglas MacArthur, led to the adoption of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, renouncing the right to wage “wars of aggression,” which if adopted by the Palestinians, would allow the diversion of resources from war to reconstruction. Twenty-five years later, Emperor Hirohito saw a reconstructed and prosperous Japan. In “enduring the unendurable,” Japan regained it sovereignty and prosperity, something which the Palestinians will never do if they don’t get to first base!
Why is it a crime for Zionists to have self-determination (Statehood and U.N. Membership recognized in 1949)
Israel is the terrorist aggressor and all the “Zionist self-determination” has been gotten by illegal Wars that same United Nations prohibits. Once the Jewish State got it’s foot in the door, the United Nations was of no further use.
Of all the Nations on Earth, the US-Israel are exceptional only in their belief UN International Law applies to other Nations, not them.
Ray,
Israel won its Independence in the same manner in which the United States, France, Vietnam, Algeria and many other nations won theirs, through “Wars of Independence.” Had the Arab League accepted the 1947 U.N. Partition, they would have had an additional state of their own, but that was not their objective; they didn’t want to create an additional Arab state, but to eradicate the one Jewish state.But if that Resolution, providing for two states, is not binding on the Palestinians, neither is it, nor any other U.N. Resolution, binding on the Israelis.
Some Palestinians have openly admitted that they are an “invented people.”
“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 posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait for even a minute to unite Palestine with Jordan.”
–Zuheir Moshen, (1977), pro-Syrian Sa-Iqa faction of the P.L.O.
Just War Theory and International Law condemn the initiation of war for the purpose of gaining territory, as the Third Reich did in 1939 and the Arab League did in 1948 and 1967. However, it does not condemn retaining land captured in “defensive wars of necessity,” as the Soviet Union did post 1945 and Israel did post 1949 and 1967. Under the Doctrine of Uti Possidetis, the victorious belligerent may retain captured land until possession is modified by treaty. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uti_possidtis (Latin: As you possess, you may possess henceforth)
The Soviet Army advancing westward during World War II, ejected ethnic Germans from the Volga River basin, the Czech Sudetenland and Konigsberg, East Prussia (Now Kaliningrad Oblast) pushing them west of the Oder River, the current German/Polish border. No nation is obligated to allow illegal aliens, Quislings (Traitors), subversives, or “Fifth Columnists” to remain within its borders. Just as the United States is entitled to close its borders to such invaders, Israel may do the same.
Ray, you appear to be ignorant of the causes of those wars, both “wars of aggression” initiated by the Arab League. As many Arab states now consider Israel part of the neighborhood and seek to “normalize” relations by bringing “under-the-table” trade and defense cooperation into the open, time is running out for the Palestinians. Arab and Israeli suspicion of a common enemy, Iran, is pushing them into an “Alliance of Convenience,” not unlike that shared by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. during World War II.
Dear Professor Falk,
When Nelson Mandela stopped to expose the real or true face of humanity and instead started to preach … Reconciliation and Forgiveness that was not existing nor possible to that which he originally was exposing – he really failed and plunged entire South Africa into the same curse that he was preaching — against.
Therefore, they have a situation that they have now. Still, South Africa’s case is not the same as the case of the Holy Land.
It’s a Potter Field with a amount of dispersed coins with blood price – where the wicked of these contemporary times can’t help themselves to fight over to pick them up.
Yes, we all see and have seen the true or real face of humanity that is taking place in Holy Land.
Today, American tax-money / Welfare to the Zionist establishment (not to Israel or Jewish people) acts as same today as those dispersed coins with blood the price.
While tax-money should be paid without complaint – that does not mean that those who do appropriate it will not receive a double curse.
Further, humanity should never forget the Zionist collaboration with Hitler and the Nazi Party.
Return to the Land of Israel should not have been a trail smeared with the blood. That’s of that unclean and accursed woman (a Biblical concept) that has a round silver tongue of the satan.
I can feel that atmosphere here is changing and it’s really hot and getting more hot – its like that nuclear testing ground for Trinity back then. Stil. that had nothing to do with Roman-Catholic Church order, sacraments – or rites.
Therefore, I get now and there a barn furrows that eat all nearby wasps.. and I can enjoy a natural revelation that tell a story about God. It’s a natural miracle!
K.F.
Kata,
If there is to be peace in the Middle-East, it must meet the requirements of UNSCR 242 and 338:
“Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area and the right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats tracts of force.”
There has not yet appeared a Palestinian Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., or Gandhi as a proponent of peace and co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis. The antisemitic trope that Zionists collaborated with Hitler has been exposed among the examples of such bigotry in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definitions and examples.
Kata, you should be aware that such Jew hatred had been condemned by the Catholic Church during the 1962 Vatican II Conference, when the Church officially abandoned antisemitism. To quote Pope Francis: “To attack Jews is antisemitism, but an outright attack on the State of Israel is also antisemitism.” What will you tell the Priest when you go to Confession next Sunday? Will you confess your sin, or lie in the Priest’s face Kata?
Here are some things to read and consider before going to Confession:
http://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/war/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/war/
http://www.iep.utm.edu/justwar/
Mike, it’s not Jew hatred, but Master Race/Nazi hatred.
Read your own Jewish Scriptures. It is replete with many instances when the God of Israel and the Jews, used people who were not God’s people to chastise God’s people.
Ray, I just like to point out to you that I personally have no hatred/dislike/hate toward any living person – be they in their embryonic stage – or death bed. I would have any Master Race/Nazi hatred. No, not even that. I am not created and raised to have anything like that. I do know fully understand what human wickedness is, and what it creates for them and their children – as well as others. Most wicked person can become extraordinary human – but its walk out a hell. Thank you, K.F.
To belabor the obvious, it would be a mistake to take a Zionist “victory” for granted, to the point where Palestinians must be oh-so grateful for the generous “Marshall Plan” of some silly little boy like Jared Kushner, good buddy of Mr Bone Saw, also known as MBS, (as the journalists always remind us). If we like to quote Jim Carey, maybe we also like Cole Porter…”Use your mentality; Wake up to Reality..” Viva BDS!!
Ray,
The Arab “Master Race,” like the Nazi “Master Race” seeks to obliterate the world’s only Jewish State, and in the words of one Hamas spokesman (since retracted after condemned by other members of Palestinian terrorist organizations), commit genocide of all Jews, Israeli, or not. Why otherwise would it seek to impose a 20% minority “Arab Supremacist Apartheid Regime” over a 75% Israeli Jewish majority population? Israel does not seek to build an empire across the Arab world, from the Euphrates to the Nile; that is the objective of the Mullahs of Iran, which like the Third Reich, sought “lebensraum” by subjugating and exterminating the “untermenschen.” Israel has limited its ability to expand through peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan and potentially similar treaties with the Gulf States; Israel seeks only sovereignty over the minuscule piece of land which was afforded it under UNSCR 181 in 1947, however the “Arab Master Race” seeks to strip them of that. That is why Israel requires a robust defense establishment to protect its citizens from those who would annihilate them.
Beau,
If Israel could have obtained security for its citizens without victory in “defensive wars of necessity,” it would have done so. To quote the late Prime Minister Golda Meier in 1969: “We have always said that in our wars with the Arabs we had a secret weapon – no alternative.” The IDF never takes victory for granted and prepares for the worst possible scenario; if the Palestinians lost a war, as they often have, they can try again; if Israel loses a war, it has no second opportunity.
Mahmoud Abbas is free to make economic revitalization subservient to a political solution to the conflict, but under the current pace of negotiations that will not happen in the next quarter century, or any time in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, Palestinians will remain impoverished and isolated until that happens. Abbas and his Ministers will reap an additional $2,000 per month as he continues the 15th year of the four year term to which he was elected in 2005. However, democracy and elections are two other luxuries that Mr.Abbas can ill afford.
Israelis and their defenders have long faced reality and in the U.S., state and Federal governments have responded with anti-BDS laws, which deny boycotters government contracts and investments. Boycotting the boycotters if fair play!
Mike, you are revising History to match your blindness.
Read Genesis 34 reporting when the Jewish Patriarchs saw “The Promised Land” for the 1st Time 3700 years ago.
The local king’s son fell madly in love with Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, offering everything to be able to marry her. They said the land is big enough for both people and welcomed the Jewish Patriarchs.
The Patriarchs said if the locals were circumcised like they were, then they would intermarry and live in Peace together. The king’s son was the 1st to agree to the terms, and convinced all the men of the City to be circumcised.
The record is clear, after 3 days, when the men were still sore from the circumcision, the Jewish Patriarchs lied, and in a surprise attack, killed ALL the men, kidnapped the women and children, and stole all the animals and got out of town quickly.
The Bible records the descendants of the Patriarchs returned to “The Promised Land” 400 years later, and the 2nd Time, killed not only the men, but the women, children and the animals.
The word Genocide didn’t exist then, but that’s what ‘The Chosen People’ perpetrated and the Bible records that fact.
Arriving at ‘The Promised Land’ this 3rd Time in 1947, the killing and displacement of the local Palestinians with impunity continues, only at a slower pace because the World is watching.
As to majorities and minorities, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, at the Time of the Balfour Declaration, Jews made up only 8.1% of the population in Palestine.
That increased to 30% in 1946.
After the European Jews invaded Palestine in 1948, Jews were the majority for the 1st Time at 82.1%.
Naturally, the 55% of Palestine given to minority of Jews by the UN was not enough, and by War, the Zionists took even more Palestinian Land, subjugating the Palestinian People with their Chosen People/Master Race attitudes.
Ray,
You refuse to acknowledge that there are no differences, whatsoever, between “Neo-Nazi Aryan Racial Supremacy,” “Jim Crow Segregationist White Supremacy” and “Palestinian Islamo-Fascist Racial Supremacy.” How would a minority “Palestinian Supremacist Apartheid Regime” differ from the former minority “South African White Supremacist Regime?”
Apartheid movements, by their nature, involve racial supremacist minorities seeking domination of majority populations, denying their rights to self-determination and democratic majority rule. All racial supremacist movements, whether “Neo-Nazi Aryan Racial Supremacist,” “White Racial Supremacist,” or Palestinian Islamo-Fascist Racial Supremacist,” are dependent on the “Big Lie:”
“The lie can be maintained for only such time as the state can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the state to use all of its resources to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state.”
— Paul Joseph Goebbels, Propaganda Minister for the Third Reich
The “Apartheid Canard” has been exposed as a blatant lie. See:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/pro-palestinian-ads-misrepresent-apartheid/
blogs.timesofisrael.com/apartheid-canard-does-not-wash/
ins.org/opinion/south-africas-chief-justice-confronts-the-apartheid-analogy/
The truth is that there is no racial, or religious segregation between Arab, Christian, Druze, Jewish, Muslim, or other citizens of Israel. There are no separate drinking fountains, toilets, restaurants, theaters, buses, hotels, schools, or other places of public accommodation, as there were in the Third Reich, South Africa, and the Jim Crow South. Arab citizens of Israel, like all others, can vote, hold public office, form their own political parties and practice professional occupations, such as medicine, engineering and law. Lebanon, which confines Palestinian refugees to squalid refugee camps, denies them the right to become Lebanese citizens, bars them from most trades and occupations, and denies them the right to practice professional occupations, is an “Apartheid State.”
In contrast, “Palestinian Authority President for Life” Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 17th year of the four year term to which he was elected in 2005, abolished the Legislative Council and decreed that no Jews can live in, or become citizens of the proposed Palestinian state, and that any Palestinian who sells land to Jews faces severe criminal penalties, including capital punishment. The criminalization of land sales to Jews, is similar to the now illegal “racial covenants,” which once barred land sales to African-Americans. Isn’t that “Apartheid,” Ray?
Your application of “double standards” to Israelis, not applicable to Palestinians
or others, marks you as an Anti-Semite, a bigot, and a “do as I say, not as I do”
hypocrite!
Ray,
The events of 3,700 years ago, occurred long before the rise of Islam and the migration of Muslims into current day Israel. If, the people of that era acted deceptively, Islam has its counterpart in the doctrine of “Taquiyya,” which allows outright lying and deceptive tactics to advance the faith.
The Jewish people were indigenous to Israel long before 1947, comprising the majority population of Jerusalem, and the population increased due to Israeli immigration policy, offering displaced European Jews a new home, rather than an “Invasion.” Many Jewish immigrants were people expelled from Aleppo, Algiers, Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus and other Arab cities, where their ancestors has lived for generations. It was the Palestinians and other Arab nations, which initiated an “Invasion” of Israel within the territory allocated to it be the U.N. in 1948, leading to the “Israeli War of Independence.” The Arab League never recognized a Palestinian state, nor created one during the Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”), between 1948 and 1967, when it could have done so. Under the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hitler’s one time ally, the Arabs sought total eradication of the world’s only Jewish state, rather than a renegotiation of the borders provided under UNGAR 181, to provide the Arabs an additional 5% of territory. That conflict continues today, with repeated Palestinian “wars of aggression,” followed by defeats and refusals to negotiate peace in exchange for return of territory, negotiations to determine borders and resettlement of Palestinian refugees in a Palestinian state.