Between Trump talking about turning Gaza into a resort, and Netanyahu's government looking for other countries to take Palestinians, no wonder G-7 will recognize a Palestinian State this fall. I understand that with planned Jewish construction on the West Bank, such a State will be virtually landless for now, but world attitude favoring a state has turned strongly toward it. Netanyahu and his obsessions have done for the Palestinians what they wouldn't and couldn't do for themselves.
More consequential is that Israel has squandered its reputation. It has depreciated the Jewish reality of the holocaust. The disservice that Netanyahu and his coalition inflicted on Israel and world Jewry will be a long term burden.
shown above the Tomb of Aaron
There is no "west bank!" It's Judea and Samaria! There are no "Palestinians!" They're Arabs - let the Arab states take them in! Why are American Jews so dense about these matters?!?
ReplyDeleteThe Arab states don’t want anything to do with them.
Deleteanon@1:42: I had always been a fan of Netanyahu, until about mid 2024. A local predator referred to me as a Zionist, although he meant it as an insult, I didn't take it that way. I supported the right of Jews to live in the West Bank, and Palestinians in Israel. Israel's right to its main territory is based on the 1947 UN map. The justification for the "occupied" areas is because of the Palestinian (and Syrian/Golan) failure to attempt coexistence.
ReplyDeleteJust as I reject Palestinian "River to the sea", I reject extremist Israeli Judea and Samaria.
I printed your comment to elaborate on my point of view, but farther promotion of your point will have to be made somewhere else.
The 1948 partition of the Britsh Mandate of Palestine divided the area into two partitions. The arab one, which became Jordan, and the jewish one, which became Israel.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason for the "west bank" and "gaza" to exist was that the "west bank" was land captured by the British Arab legion in the 1948 Israeli war of independence, and "gaza" was land captured by the Egyptian army in the war. When the fighting ended with a "cease fire" those areas remained under arab control and Israel has been in a perpetual state of dispute and conflict with those arabs in those areas ever since.
As the commenter@1:42 already noted, arabs live in those areas, although they could be considered "palestinian arabs", given the name of the former British Mandate. However that is about the same as saying Jordanians are different than Syrians, or Iraqis, or Kuwaitis, or Saudis. They are all arabs, like all Americans are the same, no matter what state we live in.
Until the arabs recognize that the jewish people also have historical claims to the land and a right to live there, this conflict will continue.
anon@3:06: Thank you for your Huckabee history lesson, but when I took classes in Jerusalem at Hebrew University, this mapwas on the wall.
ReplyDeleteAs the map in the link shows, the West Bank and Gaza were to be an Arab state. The state was rejected repeatedly by both attacks (1948, 1956, 1967, 1973) and negotiations, with the Arab position preferring the destruction of Israel. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, which was taken in 1973. Hamas ruled Gaza since. PA(PLO) ruled the West Bank, where Israeli settlers kept increasing their position. This post wasn't meant as history lesson or discussion, but rather expressing my exasperation at current events in Gaza. Ironically, I see some MAGA/Trump types supporting Netanyahu as an extension of their party loyalty here.. I urge them not to comment on this post...I will not be printing more of their narratives, which I then have to refute..
DeleteHamas and the Gazens have only themselves to blame. They need only to lay down their arms, renounce violence, and recognize the State of Isreal. None of this are they so far willing to do. They refuse to recognize the state of Israel, they refuse to lay down their arms, they refuse to surrender. No other country in the world would accept anthing less than a complete victory over such a mortal enemy. No other country on earth would be asked to do so.
ReplyDeleteScott@4:29: most Gazens now would settle for some food and clean water. A majority of Israelis, including the chief of IDF staff, would settle for all the hostages... unfortunately, they're victims of the coalition government.
ReplyDelete