REVIVING THE TRUTH!

Palestinians  And Their “Rights”

Let’s get real and shake off all the propaganda that we hear.

There may be many people who don’t want to hear about this stuff, but sympathizers are spinning fairy tales. We have seen some of that in Gaza recently. The Arab street holds to those tales with rabid enthusiasm. Their agents in the media broadcast those lies. Those lies cost many lives on both sides. Someone must call them to account.

The struggle of the State of Israel to survive and prosper has been evident for the past seventy-five plus years. Some Palestinians claim they antedate Jewish presence in the territory.

What is the truth?

We hear talk of the current Palestinians having ancient roots, trying to rewrite history.

 It is historical fact that Jesus, a Jew, lived and preached in ancient Judea and the Galilee during Roman times in a country inhabited by Jews. In spite of this, many Arabs deny Israel’s historic tie to the land. They even claim Jesus as their own.

 It is historical fact that when Emperor Hadrian had completed his conquest of the rebellious Jews, he, and those who followed him over the next seventy years, dispersed the majority of the Jewish population throughout the Roman Empire. Hadrian sought to erase the land’s connection with the Jews. He renamed the territory Palestina, reminiscent of the Philistines, a Greek grouping that once inhabited the coastal area of the territory. That is where the label Palestine came from.

Over the centuries, with total neglect by governing authorities, the area became an exhausted, almost deserted, land, with inhabitants living mainly off revenues associated with trading routes crossing the territory.

 In latter periods, much of the rural areas were in the hands of absentee landlords. Returning Jews, beginning in the early nineteenth century, began buying some of this land to build settlements.

An important fraction of the forbears of the current population calling itself Palestinians, entered the territory from surrounding countries during the British mandate. (1918-1948). Primarily, they were attracted by the increased economic activity flowing from the investments of returning Jews impelled by the Zionist idea. These were also the years when Arabs were emerging from under the rule of western imperial powers and before Arabs gained control of substantial oil resources.

There has been condemnation of today’s Israel for denying Palestinians their “rights”. What, if any, are Palestinian “rights”? The issue is clouded and complicated by pan-Arab aspirations and religious ideas inherent in Islam. These often color events with a rationale inconsistent with secular thought. They also justify for believers assertions without a basis in fact.

The U.N. partitioned the mandated territory originally set aside by the League of Nations as a Jewish National Home. The U.N. Partition Plan offered shreds of disconnected land for the Jews. It was accepted by Israel, and they declared an independent Jewish state on May 14, 1948. The Arab League rejected the Plan, effectively surrendering any rights under it. Arab inhabitants attacked their Jewish neighbors and seven Arab armies invaded the territory. No country came to Israel’s aid.

When hostilities finally ceased in February, 1949, many Arabs had fled the fighting to neighboring countries. Jordan annexed ancient Judaea and Samaria, (called the West Bank,) and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip. Jordan granted citizenship to those in the territory it held. No country intervened.

There were two further unprovoked attacks on Israel, one in 1967, and another in 1973. Israel gained control of the whole of the mandated territory by force of arms as a result. This was twenty per cent of the originally mandated territory allocated for the Jewish National Home by the League of Nations. There was never a Palestinian entity.

In 1993, (a second Accord was added in 1995,) Israel voluntarily signed the internationally-negotiated Oslo Accords establishing the P.A. to allow Palestinians living outside recognized Israel boundaries a form of self-governance. This Accord divided the territory captured from Jordan into three regions (always under Israel overall security authority,) into Area C, then largely unpopulated , under  Israel’s governance, Area A, the territory’s population centers, under the governance of the Palestinian Authority, and Area B, placed under joint governance.

Most of the Palestinians living in the State of Israel, about twenty per cent of the population, were granted full rights as citizens after hostilities ceased. Some residents chose to retain their Jordanian citizenship and lost their right to vote.

 Most Palestinians in Israel fully participate in the economy. Some even serve in the Israel Defense Forces. They are particularly prominent in the medical profession. Many act as entrepreneurs, and as workers in industry and agriculture. Palestinians have elected representation in Israel’s parliament.

In spite of claims of “occupation”, Israel has no legal responsibility for Palestinians living under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority or for those living under the control of the Hamas regime in Gaza. Israel voluntarily withdrew from the Gaza Strip on August 15, 2005, surrendering responsibility for security, and evacuating 7000 Israelis it could no longer protect. The P.A acquired total authority over the Gaza population at that time. Hamas, recognized internationally as a terrorist group funded by Iran, took over Gaza in a violent coup against the P.A. on June 15, 2007.

When the Oslo Accords were signed with international partners in 1993, the P.A. under Arafat did not sign them. Those were the days when there still was an aspiration that the Palestinians could construct a viable administration that might lead to a form of statehood. At one time there was the possibility that the Gaza Strip might be added with a closed connecting roadway.

Chief among the criticisms of Israel are its actions to defend itself from attacks from terror groups in Gaza, Lebanon, from Syria, and terrorists originating in the territory under the governance of the Palestinian Authority. Israel has the fundamental right of any responsible government to protect its citizens and has no reason to apologize for taking all necessary measures to do so, regardless of world-wide vilification and anti-Israel propaganda ignoring the terrorist attacks it faces daily.

Although Palestine was recognized as a “non-member observer state” by the U.N. in 2012, the P.A. has proved to be a failure in its responsibility to provide Palestinians under its jurisdiction with the basic elements of statehood. It has lost control of Gaza to a Hamas terrorist dictatorship. It has allowed terrorist groups to implant themselves in its major population centers to attack Israeli civilians. Crime and lawlessness has been the result.

Schools run by the P.A. educate children to kill Jews. It spends one-third of its budget providing incentive payment to those who launch attacks on Israeli civilians. The P.A.’s has failed to prioritize economic development in its territory. Indeed, it is Israel that has made jobs in its territory available. These have been a life-saver for many Palestinian inhabitants of that territory and in Gaza. That administration had only one goal, the elimination of Jews. As for the P.A., efforts by members of its own population to generate development were  prevented by that administration.

After three wars and incessant terrorist attacks on its civilian population since its inception, Israel no longer accepts the possibility of a Palestinian state, which it sees as a future terrorist enclave with its own army. Proposals for a two-state solution being promoted internationally, and by the U.S., are de facto, viewed by Israel as aimed at destroying the State of Israel.

Israel is being criticized because it has allowed Jewish settlement in Area C, where it has sole governance under the Oslo Accords. It is repopulating its ancient territory of Judaea and Samaria . because Israelis feel that no part of Israel’s ancient territory should be absent occupation by Jews no matter where borders are drawn. The P.A. denies Jews that right in their territory. (Who is fostering apartheid?)

Under the Accords, authority to ensure security is Israel’s responsibility. It plans to re-establish law and order in the populated cities in Area C where the P.A. has failed to exercise governance. The popularity of the P.A has been lost to terrorist organizations because it has failed to use its resources to improve the lot of its population. Its priority is to promote victimhood.

Israel would hope to negotiate development activity in Area A with international donors if the P.A. could be roused to do its job. There is no hope for this within current P.A . policy.

These truths are not being told to the American people by the American media and by media elsewhere, to the world. These facts are being ignored by those who promote misinformation and are seeking to harm or destroy the Jewish state.

The truth is that Israel’s democracy remains vibrant and sensitive to its obligations toward minorities. Current internal dislocation in Israel is partly about ensuring that its citizens making up the Palestinian minority will continue to retain the equal rights to which they are entitled. Some elements in the current government voiced plans to alter that. Some of the noisy conflict about judicial reform in the country has implications for that.

The public demonstrations we are hearing about in Israel are important for the healthy future of Palestinians as well as for “the Start Up Nation”. The IDF is carrying out necessary work to make life viable for Jews and for Palestinians in the “West Bank”, consequent on the failure of the Palestinian Authority to fulfil its hoped for role.

For a look at what kind of life people might expect under undiluted Palestinian rule we can look to Gaza which is ruled by an authoritarian terrorist group. What Jews could expect from them, we see with the example of the recent brutal Hamas attack in southern Israel, thousands killed, wounded, and taken hostage.  Would you like them as your neighbors?

That is the truth.