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Friday, March 22, 2013

Little Interest in a Palestine in 1948: Why the Change?

Nadene Goldfoot
While the Palestinians are angry with Obama because he did not demand and insist that Israel stop building either in East Jerusalem  or Judea and Samaria (original land of the Israelites),  they lobbed 2 Qassam rockets from Gaza into Sderot on Obama's 2nd day of visiting Israel. They had originally fired 5 rockets, but 3 must have been duds as they didn't reach their target.  Possibly they fell into Palestinian territory in Gaza.  It was enough of a trek to make 5 alarms go off in southern Israel, though.

He had another chilly reception in Fatah's area of Judea-Samaria (West Bank).  A gang of Palestinians held an anti-Obama protest on a hillside east of Jerusalem Wednesday and unfurled a banner saying, "Obama:  You promised hope and change, you gave us colonies and apartheid". 

What did they get, "colonies"?  Is that the only word they could find for a translation from Arabic to English? They can only blame their rulers from Arafat to Abbas for that.   Apartheid?  Arabs plan on taking over all of Judea-Samaria and kicking out all the Jews.  Now, that's apartheid.  Israel has 1.4 million Arab citizens that they did not kick out at the creation of Israel.  Those that stayed with them became citizens.  Friends get rewarded, enemies get bubkes.  These "young men" had the audacity to call the A word, apartheid,  at a time when Obama had just met Miss Israel, a beautiful Ethiopian former sergeant in the IDF.  

Has it always been the desire of the Arabs to have their own state?  Would this satisfy them to live peacefully with Israel?

In the summer of 1948, the UN sent Count Folke Bernadotte to Palestine to mediate a truce as war existed since 1947 between the Arabs and Jews.  Bernadotte was from Sweden.  His plan called for the Jewish State to relinquish the Negev and Jerusalem to Transjordan and to get the western Galilee in its place.  This plan had been rejected on both sides.

The proposal was offered AFTER  the Arabs had gone to war to stop the partition plan and a Jewish state had already been declared.  It was again rejected by both sides.  You have to have some knowledge of "the Old Testament" to understand the relevance of Jerusalem to Jews, I suppose, but it was a no brainer to keep Jerusalem for Israel.  To take it off the table was showing Folke's lack of historical value that  it held.  Could he find the word "Jerusalem" in the Koran?  The answer is "NO."

Bernadotte was surprised to find little enthusiasm among the Arabs for independence in having their own state.  This is something that Great Britain thought was only fair between the two contestants for the land they held a mandate for.  Bernadotte then wrote in his diary the following:  Great Britain had already given away 80% of the Jewish Homeland to make Transjordan.

"The Palestinian Arabs had at present no will of their own.  Neither have they ever developed any specifically Palestinian nationalism.  The demand for a separate Arab state in Palestine is consequently relatively weak.  It would seem as though in existing circumstances most of the Palestinian Arabs would be quite content to be incorporated in Transjordan."

Obama spoke to the college students in Israel as if we can forget our long history and importance of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem.  It's like asking us to forget our grandparents and the struggles they went through. It is our very history that causes us to live in Israel.   He expects the young people to just consider the Palestinians, the people who have been attacking Israel for 66 years.  

He doesn't have to tell Jews to think of them as they already do anyway.  Otherwise Israelis might be acting like the Syrians of today.  I would hope he could see that ethics of Israel is quite different from their neighbors.  That's something that Golda Meier spoke of so often.  Our religion  teaches us to do so, but not to lie down and die.  We were also taught that this land was to be ours by a much higher power than presidents of any country.  Yet the Arabs pronounce to the world over and over their intentions to end Israel,  and where are the reprisals to such pronouncements?  Where is the uproar?  

Like Golda had said, "The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight."  or, "We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.".  She also said, "We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go."  " We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel."  and "One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.."  and what she is most famous for saying, "“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

I hate to get preachy, but this is Friday and Shabbat starts this evening.  When the Palestinians get wise and follow the Golden Rule like a lot of the world tries to follow, and that is to not treat others as you wouldn't want to be treated, then maybe peace will be spoken of from the heart.  Following the rule of killing Jews that are hiding behind trees and rocks will get you nowhere.  We're not asking you to become Jewish or Christian, just act like human beings with a heart.  All Israel has been getting are a lot of people who have been taught hatred and the desire to kill Israelis and Jews.  With such an outlook, peace will always be elusive to us all.  You know, I think Obama was trying to say this as well.  

It is hatred that drives the Palestinian Arabs, but it is love of their original homeland that drives the Israelis. 

Resource:  http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Palestinians-disappointed-with-Obama-307375
Oregonian newspaper 3/23, 13 page A5. Obama calls for Mideast talks to resume.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/golda_meir.html

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