EU fuels Jew-hatred that Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine can end

 

The European Union’s institutionalized Jew-hatred was on full show when High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since 2019 - Josep Borrell - took the opportunity to castigate the Jewish State and one of its Ministers during a press conference.

Borrell’s outburst came when asked the following question:

Q. "I would like to ask your reaction of the Israeli Finance Minister [Bezalel] Smotrich who said yesterday in the speech in Paris - and I quote him -: “There is no such thing as the Palestinian nation, there is no Palestinian history, there is no Palestinian language.” I would like to ask your comments on this.”

Borrell lashed out against Smotrich and Israel:

"The comments of Minister Smotrich go, once again, in the opposite direction and certainly cannot be tolerated. I call on the Israeli government to disavow those comments and to start working together with all parties to defuse tensions. It is not the first time that I have to express our concerns regarding the spiralling violence on the ground and we - the European Union - we have constantly advocated for measure of de-escalation, not inflammatory. The latest meetings in Aqaba, and in Sharm El Sheik go in the good direction, but I have to deplore this unacceptable comment by Minister Smotrich. It is wrong it is disrespectful; it is dangerous; it is counterproductive to say this kind of things in a situation which is already very tense.

So, we will continue on our longstanding commitment to the two-state solution with an independent and sovereign state of Palestine living side by side with Israel in peace and security.

I am sorry if some don’t like to listen to this kind of things, but this is the position of the European Union. It is not the personal position of the High Representative. It is the European Union position. ..."

Not tolerate Smotrich’s comments? Calling on the Israeli government to disavow Smotrich’s comments? Borrell’s arrogance and ignorance was appalling.

Smotrich was calling out the Palestinians false narrative claiming to be an ancient people - adopted unquestioningly by Borrell despite the following facts:

• Arabs living in Palestine in 1922 were not recognized by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine as a separate people - only comprising part of the “existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”
• The 1947 UN Partition Resolution called for creation of a Jewish State and an Arab State - not a Palestinian State
• The “Palestinians” were identified for the first time in history in 1964 in the founding Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organisation:

“The Palestinians are those Arab citizens who were living normally in Palestine up to 1947, whether they remained or were expelled. Every child who was born to a Palestinian parent after this date whether in Palestine or outside is a Palestinian. 

• Additionally that Charter expressly provided:

“This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.”

The EU’s continuing call for a separate independent and sovereign state for the Palestinians - in addition to Jordan - ignores the existence of the alternative Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution proposed in 2022 - that states:

“Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighborhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines.”

Successful implementation of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution will end the 100 years-old Jewish-Arab conflict. Borrell’s anti-Jewish diatribe ensures the continuation of that conflict - not its resolution.

Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”

Author’s note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.

MBS: Is Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution dead or alive?

 

Following the announcement that Saudi Arabia and Iran intend resuming diplomatic relations within the next two months - Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister - Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) - needs to urgently answer this one question: 

“Is the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on  June 8, 2022 by your confidant Ali Shihabi dead - or is it still alive?”

Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran after two of its diplomatic posts were attacked in Tehran and Mashhad in 2016 by demonstrators protesting Saudi Arabia’s executions of 47 people convicted of terrorism - including Shia preacher Nimr al-Nimr and al-Qaeda ideologue Fares al-Shuwail.

MBS’s answer will help give meaning to the final sentence intriguingly included in the Joint Trilateral Statement by the People's Republic of China, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Islamic Republic of Iran issued on March 10th:

“The three countries expressed their keenness to exert all efforts towards enhancing regional and international peace and security.”

Has Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei decided to abandon Iran’s call for the elimination of Israel and accept Israel’s reality as expressed in the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution?

“Israel is a reality firmly implanted on the ground that has to be accepted, however grudgingly, by the region around it.”

Is Paramount Leader Xi Jinping of China - a permanent member of the UN Security Council - ready to consider replacing the UN’s failed 2016 two-state solution with the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution?

MBS’s response will also confirm or reject the claim by Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief - Prince Turki Al-Feisal - that the Kingdom was sticking to the terms of the failed 2002 Arab Peace Initiative in its drive to normalise relations with Israel:

"The terms are well-known. The creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with recognised borders and Jerusalem is its capital, and the return of Palestine refugees."

"What I have said was not my opinion, but it was declared by officials. I trust the officials when they say anything, and anything made by media is nonsense."

The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative has been rejected by every Israeli government in the past 20 years. Its use by date has long expired.

Several Arab states have bypassed it and forged ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords. The Aqaba Summit seeks horizons for peace.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution shreds the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative by calling for:

• The merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one sovereign territorial entity
• Having its capital in Amman and not Jerusalem
• Being governed by the current rulers of Jordan for the last 100 years - the Hashemites - not the PLO or Hamas.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution would have needed MBS’s approval before its publication in the Government-controlled Al Arabiya News - given it was trashing Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy for the previous 20 years.

No Saudi Arabian citizen could expect to be walking Riyadh’s streets the day after making such a public statement without MBS consent. Yet its author - Ali Shihabi - remains a member of the Board advising MBS on the construction of a US$500 billion futuristic mega city called Neom in north western Saudi Arabia - covering an area the size of Israel.

Significantly MBS has not rejected the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution in the 10 months since its publication. Neither have the leaders of those Arab parties most affected: Jordan’s King Abdullah, PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh - whose policies for the past 25 years will also become ancient history.

Time for MBS to break his silence by answering this one pressing question definitively and without further delay.

Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”

Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades

Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine can avoid humanitarian disaster

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestine Liberation Organisation President Mahmoud Abbas need to break their silence and confirm or deny whether two of their senior officials have been discussing implementing the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution or alternative solutions in secret back channel meetings for the last two months.

Answering this question undercuts Netanyahu’s predilection for secret negotiations articulated by him on December 15, 2022:

“You know, I’m sort of a champion of a slight twist in what Woodrow Wilson said in the Versailles Peace Conference. He said he believed in open covenants, openly arrived at. I believe in open covenants, secretly arrived at or discreetly arrived at...

…"I don’t need the public fanfare, I don’t need it. You know, if you come to an agreement, it will be publicized. If you don’t come to an agreement, nothing happens. I think we can come to amazing agreements.”

That luxury is no longer available - nor is responding to reporters’ questions by “neither confirming nor denying” good enough at this critical juncture--having regard to:

• the rapidly deteriorating political, legal and security situations in Israel, Gaza and Judea/ Samaria (West Bank) and
• the reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran
• Israelis in their hundreds of thousands - demonstrating for the last 10 weeks to protect Israel’s High Court of Justice from the reforming zeal of the current Government - are probably unaware of the Court’s inexplicable intrusion into decisions properly the Government’s to make - placing these protestors own lives in jeopardy.

The High Court of Justice on May 24, 2018 rejected a final appeal by 200 residents of an illegally constructed Bedouin encampment - Khan Al Ahmar - when three judges unanimously decided the Government had the right “under the letter of the law” to demolish and evacuate its residents.

Nine adjournments had been granted since then until 1 February  this year when these three Judges refused to grant the newly-installed Netanyahu Government a tenth adjournment for a further four months - creating an immediate political crisis by ordering the Government to come up with a plan of evacuation by April 2, 2023 and relisting the matter for final hearing on May 1, 2023.

This act of judicial petulance placed the Government in an intolerable political bind that could have been avoided by simply granting the further adjournment.

Court dates are deadlines that cannot be ignored.

The Judges clearly had had enough of these adjournments - oblivious apparently to the political ramifications of what they were causing by refusing another.

Successive Governments grappling with the 2018 decision had clearly indicated the Court’s order was too controversial and inflammatory to deal with - to be put off to another date and time.

Netanyahu and Abbas now need to neutralize the April 2nd and May 1st Court-imposed deadlines.

Thousands of other illegal Arab structures similarly face demolition in Area C. Any perceived threat that they might be demolished could trigger a chain of violent protests and reactions causing a major humanitarian disaster.

Netanyahu and Abbas need to come clean and persuade the Court on 1 May — whether a plan of evacuation of Khan Al-Ahmar has been filed by 2 April  or not - that negotiations have been commenced between them to find a solution whose successful implementation will render the demolition of virtually all illegal Arab structures in Area C unnecessary.

The Saudi-based plan - calling for Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to be divided between Israel and the newly-created Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - provides such a solution.

The High Court of Justice needs to climb down from its impetuous incursion into making political decisions clearly the province of Government - by granting another adjournment.

Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”

Author’s note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades

Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine: Biden’s New Horizon for Peace?

The Aqaba Joint Communique issued by the US Department of State suggests that President Biden could be jettisoning his support for UN Security Council Resolution 2334 calling for the creation of a sovereign independent Palestinian Arab State between Israel and Jordan (two-State Solution).

Resolution 2334 was born in sin on December 23, 2016 when the Obama/Biden administration failed to veto its adoption as they were packing up and vacating the White House following their electoral defeat at the hands of Donald Trump.

The UN Security Council has totally failed to advance its two-State Solution in the last six years - as well-respected analyst Thomas Friedman - writing in the New York Times - makes clear:

"A week of reporting from Israel and the West Bank has left me feeling that the prospect for a two-state solution has all but vanished. But no one wants to formally declare it dead and buried--because categorically ruling it out would have enormous ramifications. So, diplomats, politicians and liberal Jewish organizations pretend that it still has a faint heartbeat. I do as well. But we all know that the two-state option is not in a hospital. It’s in hospice. Only a miracle cure could save it now."

US Secretary of State Blinken was still flogging this dead horse on 18 February - reiterating to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu America’s support for:

“a negotiated two-state solution and opposition to policies that endangered its viability.”

Blinken was closely followed on 20 February by UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process - Tor Wennesland - pathetically repeating his monthly mantra to the Security Council:

“As we continue to work with the parties and with regional and international partners to calm tensions, we must identify and pursue every opportunity to advance our long-term goal: an end to the occupation and the establishment of two States, living side-by-side in peace and security, on the basis of the 1967 lines, in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements.”

Biden’s position seemingly changed in the next seven days.

The Aqaba Joint Communique issued on February 26, 2023 following the meeting of senior officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the US, Jordan and Egypt significantly omitted any reference to the two-State Solution--stating instead:

“The participants stressed the importance of the Aqaba meeting, the first of its kind in years. They agreed to continue meeting under this formula, maintain positive momentum and expand this agreement towards wider political process leading to a just and lasting peace...

..They also thanked the United States for its important role in efforts to reach understandings that led to this agreement today, emphasizing its indispensable role in efforts to prevent deterioration and find horizons for peace.”

Two senior officials present in Aqaba - Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh - had been engaged in secret back-channel negotiations for the previous two months.

“Wider political process leading to a just and lasting peace” suggests they had already buried the UN two-State Solution.

Emphasizing America’s “indispensable role in efforts to prevent deterioration and find horizons for peace” suggests Biden had finally put aside his personal loathing for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and is looking at the only other solution presently on the horizon for ending the deteriorating political and security situation in Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza: The Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on June 8, 2022.

Meantime Biden’s lunchtime-confidant and disappointed-Saudi Whisperer Friedman sits weeping in the hospice - refusing to write one word about the Saudi plan in the ten months since its publication.

Another White House lunch with Friedman could prove to be historic...

Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”

Author’s note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”--one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades