Biden, Israel & UN have two 100-year-anniversaries to celebrate

 

President Joe Biden's postponement of his forthcoming trip to Israel this month due to "scheduling factors" gives Biden, the United Nations (UN) and Israel the opportunity to celebrate at UN headquarters the 100th anniversaries of American and international support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. 

 In announcing Biden's postponed visit US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides said:

"I'll bet that Joe Biden has been to Israel and the Middle East more times in his career than every American president combined. He calls himself a Zionist, he loves this place and I think there's no question about his commitment to this place."

The first Zionist Congress in Basle in 1897 had declared: 

"Zionism aims at establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine."

America's commitment to Zionism's ambitious goal came on 30 June 1922 – when both houses of the US Congress passed the following joint resolution:

"Favoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected." 

The League of Nations (LON) – the UN's predecessor--closely followed the US Congress on 24 July 1922--proclaiming the Mandate for Palestine:

Recognising "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country"

On September 16, 1922 a memorandum relating to article 25 of the Mandate was presented by the British Government to the Council of the League notifying it that the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home was to occur only in 22% of the Mandate territory west of the Jordan River -and not in Transjordan – the remaining 78% of the Mandate territory east of the Jordan River  

The area set aside for the Jewish National Home in Britain's Memorandum included Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem – the 3000-years old ancient and biblical heartland of the Jewish people. 

In 1948 Transjordan (having gained its independence in 1946) attacked and conquered Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem - driving out all the Jews then living there and unifying Transjordan, Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem in 1950 into one territorial unit - renamed Jordan 

Israel's capture of Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War offered the hope that the provisions of the Mandate would be finally fulfilled.

Instead the rights of Jews under the Mandate to return and settle in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem were arbitrarily shredded by the UN--even though such rights had been expressly preserved by article 80 of the UN's own Charter. 

The UN to its eternal shame re-designated Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem as "Occupied Palestinian Territory", rather than "Jewish Mandated Territory" - passing scores of UN resolutions declaring as "illegal" the right of Jews to live there. 

It is the UN that is acting illegally in defiance of its own Charter. 

The upcoming 100-year-anniversaries of the momentous decisions made in 1922 by America and the League of Nations supporting self-determination for the Jewish people need to be honoured and implemented.

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.

Jew-hater joins Prince Harry & Meghan as Icons in TIME Top 100

 

TIME has made a laughing stock of itself - and its credibility - by including 23 year old rabid-Jew hating Palestinian Arab journalist Mohammed El-Kurd and his twin sister Mana El-Kurd among 16 persons listed as Icons in its 100 most influential people in 2021.

Other Icons include the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, tennis player Naomi Osaka and entertainers Britney Spears and Dolly Parton.

Edward Felsenthal Editor-in-Chief and CEO of TIME – said of the magazine’s choices:

“At TIME, we see the TIME100 as far more than a list. It is a community of leaders whose energy and commitment we hope inspires others to spring into action as well.”

El-Kurd’s Jew-hating credentials were exposed in a May 2021 interview when making the following false claims:

“My entire neighbourhood is being stolen by Israeli settler organisations working with the Israeli government to ethnically cleanse us from Jerusalem, as they have been doing for 73 years”

Just four Arab families residing in El- Kurd’s neighbourhood of East Jerusalem – Sheikh Jarrah - are facing the risk of eviction due to a legal challenge by Jews claiming ownership of these four properties.

These Arab families have refused an offer that they remain in their properties as “protected tenants”, recognise ownership of their homes by their Jewish claimants and pay a symbolic annual rent.

Jordan occupied Sheikh Jarrah and East Jerusalem in 1948 and expelled every Jew living there. Jews were unable to return there until after the Six Day War in 1967 and subsequently begin the long legal process to reclaim their properties given to these four families by Jordan in conjunction with UNRWA.

The 1967 Israeli census showed 29904 Palestinian Arabs were then living in East Jerusalem. Today that population numbers 428304 according to World Population Review. El-Kurd’s accusation of ethnic cleansing is offensive, inflammatory and one big lie.

"[Sheikh Jarrah] is a microcosm of Israeli settler-colonialism in Palestine at large…it showcases, you know, the way they [Israel] forcibly take people’s homes and have taken people’s homes. But it also showcases a manipulation, or exploitation, of the law, that is basically about colonial supremacy, to produce a judicial system that legalises ethnic cleansing."

The claim of "Israeli settler-colonialism" denies that Israel is the national home of the Jewish people reconstituted after 3000 years with the approval of the League of Nations and the United Nations, that Jews are not colonisers but have been granted international recognition to resettle in, rebuild and restore their ancient and biblical homeland.

El-Kurd’s attack on Israel’s judicial system in a throwaway unsubstantiated sentence is reckless, provocative and amounts to a call on Palestinian Arabs to disrespect the law and to engage in violence against Jews – as they did in Jerusalem in 1920, 1929 and 1936.

“The fact that there’s a dominant narrative that stretches so far from the truth is so concerning. And the fact that the rebuttal to that narrative is seen as radical or extremist or courageous, is going to put me in danger is really concerning”

The dominant narrative El-Kurd seeks to rebut includes the Palestinian Arabs refusal to accept:

• Partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs proposed by the Peel Commission in 1937 and the United Nations in 1947,
• offers made by Israel in 2000 and 2008 and
• proposals made by President Bush in 2003 and President Trump in 2020

El-Kurd’s denial of these truths signals continuing confrontation – not negotiations - to resolve the Jewish-Arab conflict.

TIME should be truly ashamed of its decision to recognise this Jew-hater and purveyor of false claims seeking to denigrate and incite violence against Jews.

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.

Arizona shames Biden on Ben & Jerry's boycott of Jews

 

Arizona has highlighted President Biden’s weak leadership in failing to condemn Jew-hatred - by selling off Arizona’s $143 million investment in Unilever bonds ($50 million still to be sold) - after Unilever’s subsidiary - Ben & Jerry’s - announced its intention to stop selling its ice cream products from the end of 2022 to Jews living in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

Unilever’s consumer products span the globe – including these household items: 

 

                         

In a racist statement dressed up as an expression of a political opinion Ben & Jerry’s announced on 19 July:

“We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).”

However the geographic name “Occupied Palestinian Territory” - first used in 1999 - has earlier names: “Judea and Samaria” – which appear in the Bible many times - comprising part of the land within which the Jewish National Home was to be reconstituted under the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and preserved under the United Nations Charter.

Judea and Samaria was also the nomenclature used by the United Nations in its 1947 Partition Resolution.

All Jews living in Judea and Samaria were expelled following its conquest by Transjordan in 1948 –– and only allowed to return there after the conclusion of the 1967 Six Day War. The name “West Bank” was first coined in 1950.

Israel’s response to Ben & Jerry’s announcement pulled no punches.

Ambassador of Israel to the United States and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations – Gilad Erdan – in co-ordination with Israel’s Foreign Minister – Yair Lapid - wrote to the Governors of those 35 American states urging them to take action under their legislation – calling Ben & Jerry’s decision:

”de-facto adoption of anti-Semitic practices and advancement of the de-legitimization of the Jewish State and the dehumanization of the Jewish people”.

The Biden administration’s limp response came from US State Department spokesman Ned Price:

“I don’t have a reaction to offer regarding the actions of a private company… More broadly what I would say is that we firmly reject the BDS movement [Ed: Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions] which unfairly singles out Israel,”

These were token words of little import having regard to Ben & Jerry’s overt display of Jew-hatred. No Biden reaction to an American company refusing to sell its ice cream to Jews living in part of the Jewish people’s ancient and biblical homeland?

Biden’s reluctance to demand Ben & Jerry’s retract their decision can be traced back to 23 December 2016 when - as Vice President - Biden authorised America’s abstention on – rather than vetoing of – United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 – which reaffirmed:

” that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;”

Biden’s failure to condemn Ben & Jerry’s decision suggests he has not changed his 2016 position on Judea and Samaria being Occupied Palestinian territory - but additionally in 2021 that Jews living there now can be discriminated against and economically targeted.

Biden’s following promise to Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on 27 August was – as a consequence - shallow and insincere:

“The US will always be there for Israel. It’s an unshakeable partnership between our two nations”.

Illinois reportedly now seems set to follow Arizona’s lead and call out Ben & Jerry’s Jew-hatred – leadership which Biden so demonstrably lacks.


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.

King Abdullah cannot exclude Jordan from any two-state solution

 

King Abdullah’s continuing attempt to exclude Jordan from being part of any two-state solution remains the major obstacle to ending the 100 years old unresolved Arab-Jewish conflict.

The King’s intransigent position came in this exchange with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria this week:

Zakaria: Dore Gold, an influential adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu, recently said, Jordan needs to start thinking of itself as the Palestinian state. In other words, there is a two-state solution, the Palestinian state is Jordan, I think the implication would be, of course, you have 60-70 percent Palestinians, you could absorb the Palestinians in the West Bank. This has been touted before, but here you have a fairly influential Israeli saying it. What is your reaction?

King: Well, again, that type of rhetoric is nothing new, and basically, those people have agendas that they want to do at the expense of others. Jordan is Jordan. We have a mixed society from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. I would maybe contest the percentage in the figures that you have mentioned, but it is our country. The Palestinians do not want to be in Jordan; they want their lands, they want their football team, they want their flag to fly above their houses.”

King Abdullah ignored Jordan’s chequered origins in asserting:

• "Jordan is Jordan”,
• “it is our country” and
• ”the Palestinians do not want to be in Jordan”

The following historic, geographic and demographic realities contradict King Abdullah’s remarks:

• Jordan — then called Transjordan — comprised 78% of the territory of former Palestine designated in the 1920-1948 Mandate for Palestine (British Mandate).
• Transjordan only became an independent state in 1946
• Abdullah’s great-grandfather and Transjordan’s first ruler — King Abdullah I — told a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo on April 12, 1948:

“Palestine and Transjordan are one, for Palestine is the coastline and Transjordan the hinterland of the same country”

• Israel achieved its independence in May 1948 in 17% of the territory comprised in the British Mandate.
• Transjordan was unified with Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem into one territorial entity and renamed Jordan in 1950 after Transjordan had conquered those areas in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War— which lasted until their loss to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
• Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem were designated “the West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” in the founding 1964 Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Charter — whilst regional sovereignty was not claimed by the PLO.
• The 1964 PLO Charter asserted that “Palestine with its boundaries at the time of the British Mandate is a regional indivisible unit.”
• The revised 1968 PLO Charter confirmed that “Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit”.
• Arab residents of Judea and Samaria were Jordanian citizens between 1950 and 1988
• Abdullah’s uncle—Prince Hassan—told the Jordanian National Assembly on February 2, 1970:

"Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine, there is one people and one land, with one history and one and the same fate”

• The PLO unsuccessfully tried to seize power in Jordan in 1970
• Prime PLO political strategist—Abu Iyad—declared in Near East Report on January 8, 1990:

“All those who tried in the past and are still trying to create divisions between the Jordanian and Palestinian people have failed. We indeed constitute one people”

Abdullah ignores these long-standing realities at his peril.

Abdullah is deluding himself in denying the role Jordan must inevitably play in achieving the long sought-after two-state solution: Redrawing the international border between Jordan and Israel — the two successor States to the British Mandate — allocating sovereignty between them in Judea Samaria and Gaza — without creating another State.


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.

UN discrimination against Jews traps Unilever and J Street

 

The United Nations (UN) false designation of Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem as the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” (OPT) has seen the sorry spectacle this week of:

• A multinational corporation — Unilever PIC (Unilever) — discriminating against the sale of ice cream to Jews who live in those areas by its wholly owned subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s and
• A Jewish organisation — J Street — defending Unilever’s decision.

The term “Occupied Palestinian Territories” ignores the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that saw every Jew living in those territories prior to 1948 being:

• driven out and expelled from their homes and businesses by the invading army of Transjordan and
• prevented from returning to resume life there until the conclusion of the Six Day War in 1967.

Moreover this loaded anti-Jewish term papers over the destruction, damage and vandalizing of Jewish synagogues, cemeteries and properties during the 19 years those areas remained Judenrein.

Had the UN any intellectual honesty in presenting a fair and balanced account of what happened between 1948 and 1967 — it would be calling these territories the “Re-occupied Disputed Territories”. Its continuing failure to do so indicates the disturbing anti-Jewish bias that permeates the United Nations and its agencies.

Ben & Jerry’s’ press release headlined “Occupied Palestinian Territory” (below) has clearly influenced Unilever’s decision to justify its policy of discriminating against Jews living there — whilst being more than happy to continue selling its ice cream to those Jew-haters who:

• Forcibly evicted and expelled all the Jews living there between 1948 and 1967
• Murder and maim Jews living there now on an ongoing basis and are financially rewarded for doing so.

Strange values indeed for a multinational organisation to embrace — values that are leading Unilever into growing commercial challenges internationally by those decent enough to not share Unilever’s perverse values.

Even more disturbing and reprehensible is this J Street defence of Unilever’s anti-Jewish discrimination policy:

J Street gets it very wrong in relying on false and misleading decades-old UN propaganda when making the following claims:

• The battleground is not the “Israeli-Palestinian debate” — it is the “Jewish-Arab conflict” - begun 100 years ago with the 1920 San Remo Conference and Treaty of Sevres and still unresolved - when there were no “Israelis” or “Palestinians” — only “Arabs” and “Jews”.
• The “Palestinian people” was not defined until 1964 — a racist and apartheid Arabs-only definition that excludes all non-Arabs and Jews who lived in Palestine after 1917.
• The “rights and freedom of the Palestinian People” specifically excluded any claim by its sole spokesman — the Palestine Liberation Organisation - to sovereignty in “the West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” - or the right to establish a separate State there — in addition to Jordan — which occupies 78% of former Palestine.
• “Illegal settlements” are “legal” under article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter.

Words do count.

J Street’s readiness to defend Unilever’s decision is appalling. No self-respecting Jewish organisation espousing “our Jewish values” should ever defend decisions discriminating against Jews.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN — Yehuda Blum – confronted the UN General Assembly and trashed its treatment of the Jewish-Arab conflict on November 16, 1978:

“The history of international conflicts, and particularly those with complex historical origins, can only be properly written by objective historians who enjoy complete academic freedom. The practice of writing and rewriting history according to the transient interests of a political body is of course characteristic of certain regimes. It is regrettable that the United Nations has now been drawn into that pattern.”

Unilever and J Street have seemingly swallowed the UN’s pernicious rewriting of history to justify discrimination against Jews because of where they live.

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.

UN should start focusing on the Jordan-Israel two-state solution

 

United Nations Secretary General – Antonio Guterres – was at it again this week repeating the failed decades-old UN mantra supposed to end the 100 years old Jewish-Arab conflict: 

“I remain committed to supporting Palestinians and Israelis to resolve the conflict and end the occupation in line with relevant United Nations resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements in pursuit of achieving the vision of two States – Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian State — living side by side in peace and security within secure and recognized borders, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both States.”

The Secretary-General’s “vision of two States” — the creation of a new Arab State between Israel and Jordan for the first time in recorded history – is nothing but a mirage.

This UN backed solution is not based on historic, geographic or demographic foundations — but on a fiction invented in 1964 with the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

Article 24 of the PLO’s founding Charter expressly denied any claims to such an independent state:

“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”

The PLO clearly had no interest in establishing an independent state in any area that had been occupied by another Arab state since 1948 which then included east Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

It was only after the 1967 Six Day War that the concept of an additional Arab State — with Jerusalem as its capital - was dreamt up by the PLO – and promoted at the UN with the formation in 1975 of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People - spewing out a fictitious narrative on the Arab-Jewish conflict.

Even worse — the United Nations seeks to deny the Jewish People’s right to reconstitute their National Home in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) — legally granted to them by article 6 and article 25 of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine - and preserved by article 80 of the United Nations Charter until today.

The Secretary-General looks on without uttering one word in protest at this continuing flagrant breach by the United Nations of its own Charter and international law.

In referring to the “pre-existing 1967 lines” — the Secretary-General glosses over the fact that they are in fact the “the 1949 Armistice Demarcation Lines” — designated in agreements between:

• The Government of Egypt and the Government of Israel dated February 24, 1949
• The Government of the Hashemite Jordan Kingdom and the Government of Israel dated April 3, 1949

Those lines were not set in concrete but were agreed on without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines.

Secretary-General Guterres would do well to start focusing on the realistically-attainable Jordan-Israel two-state solution – so eloquently expressed by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the New York Times on August 27, 1972:

The Secretary-General should digest what former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Chaim Herzog wrote in the Wall Street Journal on November 26, 1980 [Ed: my underlining]:



The UN’s continuing pursuit of a third-state solution has reached a dead end.

The Jordan-Israel two-state solution requires two sets of negotiators — armed only with pencils and rubbers — to redraw the existing internationally-recognised boundary between Israel and Jordan to enable the allocation of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza between those two States.

Not one Jew or Arab would need to move from his present home. Jordanian citizenship would be restored to West Bank Arab residents — as existed between 1950 and 1988.

The UN’s continuing pursuit of a third-state solution has reached a dead end and should be consigned to the diplomatic graveyard.


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.

Arab riots challenge private Jewish ownership rights in Jerusalem

 

Tension between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem has reached boiling point as Arab riots erupt threatening the postponement of Court-ordered evictions of Arab squatters from Jewish-owned houses in the area known as Sheikh Jarrah.

The facts – as is usual in the Arab-Jewish conflict – are lost in a welter of Arab and international condemnation comprising wildly unsubstantiated claims of unlawful dispossession of Arabs and denial of their property and legal rights.

NGO Monitor describes the current situation as dispassionately and factually as it can:

"On February 10, 2021, the Jerusalem District Court upheld an October 2020 Jerusalem Magistrate Court decision, requiring a number of Sheikh Jarrah residents to vacate properties they are living in by May 2, 2021. Following this decision, the residents appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court has given the two sides until May 6, to report if they have reached a compromise to settle out of court.

These developments have been the source of extensive NGO campaigning - particularly by the Palestinian group, Al-Haq - including submissions to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to UN officials, alleging that the court order and the expected forcible removal represent war crimes.

Such claims and campaigns distort, obfuscate, and erase the facts of the case, as litigated over 50 years in multiple Israeli courts."

Israel’s Supreme Court in 2009 had determined:

• The land in question “was owned by Chief Rabbi (Hacham Bashi) Avraham Ashkenazi and Chief Rabbi Meir Orbach until the War of Independence [1948], after they purchased it in 1875 from its Arab owners.”
• Subsequently, two Jewish organizations, Va’ad Eidat HaSfaradim and Va’ad HaKlali L’Knesset Yisrael, worked to register the land with British Mandatory government in 1946.
• The properties were registered with Israeli authorities under these two organizations’ names in 1973 and were later sold to the Nahalat Shimon organization in 2003.

The land encompassed the site of the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik — a third century BCE High Priest -       also known as Simeon the Just.

This chain of Jewish ownership and the reverence shown by Jews for one of their religious luminaries buried there  —  by visiting and praying at his tomb — was interrupted by certain events that happened in 1956 – after Sheikh Jarrah had been invaded and conquered in 1948 by Transjordan which expelled all the Jews living there and did not let them return to their homes or pray at Simeon’s tomb.

Sheikh Jarrah was included in the conquered territory unified with Transjordan in 1950 and renamed Jordan.

In 1956 — Jordan in cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) housed 28 families of Palestinian refugees as tenants in a compound built on the lands of the two Jewish trusts— managed after 1948 by the Jordanian “Custodian of Enemy Property.”

Jordan lost control of Sheikh Jarrah to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

In 1972 the Israeli Custodian General ordered that the properties be released and registered under the ownership of the Jewish trusts and that their occupants pay rent.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement accusing the Palestinian Authority of “presenting a real estate dispute between private parties, as a nationalistic cause, in order to incite violence in Jerusalem,” adding that Ramallah would bear responsibility for any violence that ensued.

Jewish settlement in Sheikh Jarrah is indeed the work of private Jewish entities using legal procedures to reclaim their private property rights.

Refusing to accept the decisions of Israel’s Supreme Court is a sure recipe for disaster.

Arabs rioting and inciting to violence can never replace the rule of law or help end the 100 years-old unresolved Arab-Jewish conflict.


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.

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Action - not platitudes - required from Jordan’s King Abdullah

 

Jordan’s King Abdullah continues to engage in platitudes - rather than concrete action - as he pontificates but does nothing to help resolve the 100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict.

Jordan — called Transjordan between 1922 and 1949:

• Comprises 78% of the territory of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine
• Is the key to resolving the long-running conflict.

Abdullah recently repeated one of his favourite mantras - insisting that peace should be:

“based on the two-state solution that guarantees the establishment of an independent, sovereign, and viable Palestinian state on the 4 June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living in peace and security alongside Israel, in accordance with international law, recognized terms of reference, and the Arab Peace Initiative.”

This solution could have been implemented at any time between 1948 and 1967 after Transjordan had conquered and occupied East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (renamed the West Bank in 1950):

• Driving out all the Jews living there and refusing to allow their return and
• Unifying those territories with Transjordan into a single territorial entity - renamed “Jordan”.

That 19 years window of opportunity was squandered after Jordan lost those territories to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. That opportunity is not going to return — no matter how many times Abdullah continues to repeat it as the solution.

Abdullah also asserts:

“The Palestinian cause is central to Jordan, and we continue to stand alongside our Palestinian brethren with all our power and capabilities as they seek to gain their just and legitimate rights. We are constantly communicating and coordinating with them in this regard”

Talk is cheap — action is necessary.

Abdullah could with the stroke of a pen — preferably with Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) approval - restore Jordanian citizenship to his “Palestinian brethren” living in the West Bank — a status they enjoyed from 1950 until Jordan revoked their citizenship on July 28, 1988 under article 2 of the Jordan: Disengagement Regulations for the Year 1988:

“Every person residing in the West Bank before the date of 31/7/1988 will be considered as Palestinian citizen and not as Jordanian.”

Restoring Jordanian citizenship to West Bank Arabs opens the way to a far more realistic and attainable solution than creating another Arab State between Jordan and Israel: The territorial subdivision of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine.

This solution would accord with the policy of the PLO enunciated in its founding 1964 Charter:

“Article 24. 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 present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem under Article 2 (3) of the 1994 Washington Declaration signed between Israel, Jordan and the United States would become permanent.

Distinguishing between Arabs living in the West Bank and Arabs living in Jordan is an artificial construct that has no basis in history, geography or demography. They are one and the same people—not two separate nations.

Abdullah should stop sermonizing, roll up his sleeves and continue the work of Arab-Jewish reconciliation which has now seen Peace Treaties or diplomatic engagements between Israel and:

• Egypt
• Jordan
• United Arab Emirates
• Bahrain
• Morocco
• Sudan

Compromise between Israel and Jordan on the future sovereignty of the West Bank is the achievable way forward. The finishing line could be coming into sight if King Abdullah keep his eyes — and mind— open to this solution.


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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Remembering Rabin’s 1985 legacy can end Arab-Jewish conflict

 [Published 6 October 2020]

The 25th anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin’s assassination on 4 November 1995 has seen leading left-wing Democratic Party Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) cancelling her planned attendance at a memorial event organized by Americans for Peace Now on 20 October.

Ocasio-Cortez withdrew after journalist Alex Kane tweeted and AOC replied:




Rabin was indeed a liberal peacemaker and AOC’s decision is to be deplored.

Rabin – when Israel’s Defence Minister – stated on May 27, 1985:

“The Palestinians should have a sovereign State which includes most of the Palestinians. It should be Jordan with a considerable part of the West Bank and Gaza. East of the Jordan River there is enough room to settle the Palestinian refugees. One tiny State between Israel and Jordan will solve nothing. It will be a time bomb.”

One month before his assassination - Prime Minister Rabin sought approval for the 300 page “Israeli – Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” (Oslo Accords)" - telling the Knesset on 5 October 1995:

“We are striving for a permanent solution to the unending bloody conflict between us and the Palestinians and the Arab states.
“In the framework of the permanent solution, we aspire to reach, first and foremost, the State of Israel as a Jewish state, at least 80% of whose citizens will be, and are, Jews.
“At the same time, we also promise that the non-Jewish citizens of Israel — Muslim, Christian, Druze and others — will enjoy full personal, religious and civil rights, like those of any Israeli citizen. Judaism and racism are diametrically opposed.
“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. 

We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines. 

And these are the main changes, not all of them, which we envision and want in the permanent solution:
First and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma’ale Adumim and Givat Ze’ev — as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty, while preserving the rights of the members of the other faiths, Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of worship in their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths. 

The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term. 

Changes which will include the addition of Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are in the area east of what was the “Green Line,” prior to the Six Day War.

The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.”

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) rejected this Rabin 1995 “entity-only solution”.

President Trump’s 2020 “two-state solution” promising the Palestinian Arabs a demilitarized state for the first time in recorded history in Gaza and possibly 70% of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) has also been rejected by the PLO.

Rabin’s 1985 “one-state solution”: “Peace with a Jordanian-Palestinian state under one government, one flag, one army” still remains the key to ending the 100-years old Arab-Jewish conflict.


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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Jewish People reclaiming sovereignty in biblical heartland after 3000 years

[Published 29 June 2020]

The United Nations is disgracefully trying to prevent a miracle happening 100 years after the world first gave its historic imprimatur to an impossible dream becoming a possible reality: 

The restoration of Jewish sovereignty in 1697km² of the Jewish People’s biblical heartland in Judea and Samaria (West Bank)

The defeat of the 400 years-old Ottoman Empire in World War I revived the Jewish People’s 3000 years-old dream of regaining nationhood in their ancient homeland—which had extended across both banks of the River Jordan where the twelve tribes of Israel had finally settled 40 years after their exodus from Egypt.

The San Remo Resolution signed by Great Britain, France, Japan and Italy on April 25, 1920 promised the Jews real hope.

The Treaty of Sevres involving the international community quickly followed on August 10, 1920.

The British Empire, France, Italy and Japan (“Principal Allied Powers”) were joined by Armenia, Belgium, Greece, the Hedjaz, Poland, Portugal, Romania, The Serb-Croat Slovene State and Czechoslovakia (“Allied Powers”) in this peace treaty signed with Turkey.

Signatories for the British Empire were representatives for:

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The Dominion of Canada
The Commonwealth of Australia
The Dominion of New Zealand
The Union of South Africa
India

Article 95 provided that Palestine — within such boundaries as might be determined by the Principal Allied Powers — be administered by a Mandatory to be selected by them. The Mandatory was to be responsible for putting into effect the Balfour Declaration made on November 2, 1917 by the British Government — and adopted by the Allied Powers — in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people — it being clearly understood that nothing would be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine — or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

The League of Nations 51 member states unanimously appointed Britain as Mandatory and approved the terms of the Mandate for Palestine on July 24, 1922.

Intervening political events in Syria between 1920 and 1922 involving France and Britain saw the Mandate’s provisions deny the Jewish People the right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home on the East Bank of the Jordan River where two and a half of the twelve tribes had settled after reaching the Promised Land.

Judea and Samaria was reserved however for the Jews under the Mandate — that right being preserved under article 80 of the 1945 United Nations Charter notwithstanding the demise of the League of Nations in 1946.

After Britain handed its Mandate back to the United Nations in 1948 — every Jew living in Judea and Samaria was driven out by the invading army of Transjordan which itself comprised 77% of the Mandate territory and had achieved independence in 1946.

Judea and Samaria was unified with Transjordan to become “The West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” from 1950 to 1967 — recognized only by Great Britain, Iraq and Pakistan. Jordanian citizenship was extended to all its Arab citizens from 1954 to 1988.

Jordan’s loss of Judea and Samaria to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War saw some 450,000 Jews returning to reclaim their patrimony over the next 53 years — but the international community’s seal of approval soon changed to outright condemnation. President Trump’s 2020 Peace Plan has confirmed those vested legal rights acquired 1920-1922 by the Jewish People in Judea and Samaria.

An amazing miracle is about to occur on July 1st without any parallel in world history.

Trump needs to revise his vision for Judea and Samaria

[Published 1 June 2020]

President Trump’s deal of the century envisioning the creation of a second Arab state in former Palestine - in addition to Jordan – is in tatters following its absolute rejection by the PLO – requiring its urgent revision by the President.

Trump has vainly struggled to keep the statehood possibility alive despite PLO President Mahmoud Abbas having consigned it to the dustbin of history on the day of its publication - 28 January 2020 - but the PLO has refused to play ball.

Being a beggar does not fit Trump’s persona. He is allowing Israel to apply sovereignty in 30% of Judea and Samaria in July — with allocation of the remaining 70% requiring another Arab interlocutor to negotiate with Israel.

Trump’s vision was always a mirage — offering the PLO less than 100% of Judea and Samaria it had been demanding since 1967 - supported by the international community since the 1980 Venice Declaration.

Trump had predicated his vision without even defining who comprised the “Palestinians”.

In addition his plan had incorrectly asserted:

1. “Palestinians have aspirations that have not been realized, including self-determination”.

All West Bank Arabs became Jordanian nationals in 1954 until their nationality was revoked by Jordan in 1988.

2. “The State of Israel has also exchanged sizeable territories for the sake of peace, as it did when it withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace with the Arab Republic of Egypt.”

Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 didn’t rate a mention.

3. “One reason for the intractability of this problem is the conflation of two separate conflicts: a territorial, security and refugee dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and a religious dispute between Israel and the Muslim world regarding control over places of religious significance.”

There is only one conflict – between Jews and Arabs - fuelled by the Arab League’s refusal to recognise the State of Israel since its establishment in 1948.

The religious dispute was resolved under the 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty granting Jordan control over places of Islamic religious significance in Jerusalem.

4.Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin’s proposal for ending the Jewish- Arab conflict.

Rabin actually said:
“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines”.

Trump’s generous offer of statehood – rather than an entity less than a state – has gone begging with the PLO’s unbelievable rebuff of Trump’s proposal.

5. “This Vision addresses today’s realities, and provides the Palestinians, who do not yet have a state ...”

The “Palestinians” do have a state — called Jordan — created in 78% of former Palestine in 1946.

The key to ending this 100 years unresolved conflict now requires Trump to call on Jordan to replace the PLO as Israel’s negotiating partner to allocate between them the areas designated “Proposed future state of Palestine” in Trump’s vision for peace.

June 1967 marked Jordan’s loss of Judea and Samaria to Israel after 19 years of illegal occupation. June 2020 will hopefully signal Jordan’s agreement to peacefully return.


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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog.

PLO opens door to Jordan returning to Judea and Samaria

[Published 25 May 2020]

Advancing an end to the 100 years old Jewish-Arab conflict has become a miraculous possibility since the formation of an Israeli Government of National Unity just 7 days ago.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately gave the lie to mounting international opposition claiming that Israel’s intention to restore Jewish sovereignty in 30% of Judea and Samaria amounted to “West Bank annexation”:

“It’s time to apply the Israeli law and write another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism. These territories are where the Jewish nation was born and grew. This will not distance us from peace, it will bring us closer.”

The Jewish People’s right to reconstitute its ancient Jewish National Home in Judea and Samaria — the biblical heartland of the Jewish People - after 3000 years — had been recognized by the international community in:

1920: The San Remo Resolution and the Treaty of Sevres

1922 : The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine

1945 : Article 80 United Nations Charter

Attempts by that international community to deny such vested legal rights in the Jewish People over the past 53 years had exacerbated the long-running conflict — contributing materially to it failing to be resolved. Netanyahu had no compunction in calling out and exposing the continuing travesty of justice that these current protestations represented.

However the roadblock jamming any progress in resolving the conflict was suddenly cleared when days later PLO President Mahmoud Abbas announced:

“The Israeli occupation authority, as of today, has to shoulder all responsibilities and obligations in front of the international community as an occupying power over the territory of the occupied state of Palestine, with all its consequences and repercussions based on international law and international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which holds the occupying power responsible for the protection of the civilian population under occupation and their property, criminalizes collective punishment, bans theft of resources, appropriation and annexation of land, bans forced transfer of the population of the occupied territory and bans transfer of the population of the occupying state (the colonialists) to the land it occupies, which all are grave violations and war crimes,”

Stripped of the lies and false and deceptive claims contained in this statement that have formed part and parcel of the PLO’s propaganda arsenal since its formation in 1964 — Abbas’s message was clear: Abbas was now turning over responsibility for Judea and Samaria to Israel.

The PLO had never claimed “regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” or “on the Gaza Strip” as article 24 of its founding 1964 Charter declared. Its activities were to be “on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields”

This PLO position only changed in 1968 after Jordan — having occupied Judea and Samaria between 1950 and 1967 driving out every Jew living there — lost that territory to Israel in the Six Day War. Gaining sovereignty in 100% of Judea and Samaria by the creation of another Arab State became the focus of the PLO from 1968.

President Trump’s peace plan offering the PLO possibly 70% of Judea and Samaria plus Gaza has been rejected by the PLO.

Abbas — in turning over responsibility for Judea and Samaria to Israel — has opened the door to Jordan replacing the PLO as Israel’s negotiating partner.

Successful negotiations between Jordan and Israel could see Jordan annexing part of Judea and Samaria, Jordanian citizenship being restored for the Arab residents as existed between 1954 and 1988 and a possible end to the Jewish-Arab conflict.

King Abdullah — expect a call from President Trump.

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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Jordan’s King Abdullah tries to torpedo Trump peace plan

[Published 17 May 2020]

King Abdullah of Jordan has attempted to torpedo President Trump’s peace plan by falsely suggesting it could lead to a one-state solution — not the two-state solution Trump clearly envisages.

Abdullah’s intent became apparent in this interview with Der Spiegel:

DER SPIEGEL: In a few weeks’ time, the Israeli parliament plans to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, which includes the annexation of the West Bank by Israel. What would it mean for Jordan if Trump’s plan for the Middle East were to be implemented?

The question was false in its content and framed in the language of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) — using the term “annexation of the West Bank” instead of “restoring Jewish sovereignty in 30% of the West Bank after 3000 years”.

Abdullah responded to this canard:

King Abdullah II: Is now, in the midst of the corona pandemic, really the time to discuss whether we want a one - or two - state solution for Israel and Palestine? Or should we be discussing how we can fight the pandemic together? The two-state solution is the only way for us to be able to move forward.

Why gratuitously throw in a one-state solution? Why no mention by Abdullah that the two-state solution could not move forward because the PLO has absolutely refused to negotiate with Israel?

The interviewer’s next question corrected his first — asking about Israel annexing “large parts of the Palestinian territories.”

DER SPIEGEL: Politicians like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu want to take advantage of the opportunity presented by Trump and annex large parts of the Palestinian territories.

Abdullah ignored the correction — repeating his false one-state allegation:

King Abdullah II: Leaders who advocate a one-state solution do not understand what that would mean. What would happen if the Palestinian National Authority collapsed? There would be more chaos and extremism in the region. If Israel really annexes the West Bank in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Neither Trump nor Netanyahu has advocated a one-state solution.

The “Palestinian Authority” no longer exists — Mahmoud Abbas having changed its name to the “State of Palestine” by decree on January 3, 2013.

Maybe a massive conflict if Israel “annexed” the West Bank — but 30% - an area of 1697 km??

The interviewer did not query Abdullah — but blithely continued:

DER SPIEGEL: You would suspend the peace treaty with Israel?

King Abdullah II: I don’t want to make threats and create a loggerheads atmosphere, but we are considering all options. We agree with many countries in Europe and the international community that the law of the strongest should not apply in the Middle East.

Empty posturing.

The Hashemites have controlled Jordan since 1920.

The PLO has controlled Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria since 2004 and allowed its hapless residents only one vote in 2006.

The law of the strongest is alive and kicking in the Middle East.

Abdullah faces Trump calling on him to fill the negotiating void left by the PLO jettisoning Trump’s plan — because:

1. Transjordan invaded Judea and Samaria in 1948 driving out every Jew living there

2. Transjordan and Judea and Samaria were merged into one territorial entity in 1950 and renamed “Jordan” whilst “Judea and Samaria” was renamed “West Bank”

3. “West Bank” Arab residents were granted Jordanian citizenship between 1954 and 1988

4. PLO made no claims to territorial sovereignty until Jordan lost Judea and Samaria to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

The one-state solution is a desperate Abdullah ploy to remain uninvolved.

The realistic two-state solution — Jordan and Israel — is coming.

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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Trump and Netanyahu ready to create history in Judea and Samaria

[Published 11 May 2020]

President Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are readying to create history together on 1 July - when Israel restores Jewish sovereignty after 3000 years in 1697km² of territory comprising 30% of Judea and Samaria — the Jewish People’s biblical and ancient heartland.

About 65000 Arabs — 5% of the Arab population of Judea and Samaria — and 450000 Jews live in the area proposed for Jewish sovereignty.

The road forward has been made possible after Netanyahu was unanimously confirmed as Israel’s next Prime Minister by 11 judges of Israel’s Supreme Court.

Trump’s map gives practical expression to the following international treaties and documents justifying Israel’s proposed action:

1. The San Remo Resolution and Treaty of Sevres in 1920
2. The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922
3. Article 80 of the UN Charter

Trump’s translation of a dream begun 100 years ago at San Remo into a miraculous reality for the Jewish people in July 2020, should be welcomed by every Jew worldwide privileged to be the generation to see this amazing reaffirmation of the Jewish People’s past history coming alive again.

Instead this momentous occasion is being met with opposition by many Jewish organisations, media and individuals concerned at what they call “West Bank Annexation” — the identical language used by the UN and EU, PLO and Arab League in opposing Israel’s action.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Restoring Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria - designated for reconstitution of the Jewish National Home by the international community 100 years ago - is not “West Bank annexation”.

Trump and Netanyahu - therefore - would certainly not have welcomed the publication in the New York Times of an article by Middle East Forum President - Daniel Pipes – headlined “Annexing the West Bank would hurt Israel”.

Pipes opposes Israel’s decision for six reasons:

1. President Trump could well erupt in fury at Israel for “unilaterally acting” on July 1
2. “Annexation” would alienate and weaken Israel’s diminishing number of friends in the Democratic Party and in Europe

3. “Unilateral Israeli annexation” could end Israel’s expanding ties with Sunni Arab states.

4. “Annexation” could destabilize “Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza”.

5. “Annexation” is sure to alienate Israel’s Left which would lead probably to a contingent of Israeli Zionists turning anti-Zionist, with some Israelis leaving the country in disgust.

6. “Annexation” would be likely to make more Palestinians eligible to become citizens of Israel.

Two of Pipes’ reasons suggesting “unilateral action” by Israel are simply untrue.

The remaining four will not deter Netanyahu from proceeding to realise this epic milestone in the history of the Jewish People — simultaneously strengthening Israel’s ability to protect the safety and security of its citizens against those Arab neighbours who seek its destruction.

Pipes - like so many other critical Jews – is sadly missing the big picture.

Pipes asks:

“And what does annexation actually achieve?”

His answer indicates he has no conception of the miracle unfolding before his very eyes:

“It is a symbolic move, a gesture toward Israelis living on the West Bank in legal limbo. But annexation does not extricate them from that limbo, since it is likely that no important government in the world would recognize their change in legal status.”

This is no symbolic move. The territory involved may be miniscule but this moment in the timeline of the Jewish people is also highly significant for mankind.

Those Jews who returned to reclaim Judea and Samaria following the Six Day War in 1967 — after every Jew living there was driven out in 1948 — will be finally recognized and vindicated.

Words count.

Pipes - like so many other critical Jews – is sadly missing the big picture.

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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Trump moves to end 3000 years wait by the Jewish People

[Published 11 February 2020]

President Trump’s deal of the century (Deal) to end the 100 years old conflict between Arabs and Jews in former Palestine has seemingly hit a brick wall — following a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the 22 member countries of the Arab League on 1 February.

Their communique declared:

“The Arab League rejects the deal as it does not satisfy the minimum rights and ambitions of the Palestinians and violates international law and United Nations resolutions,”

Those minimum rights and ambitions have been spelled out for the last 46 years by their sole recognized spokesman — the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the creation of an independent Arab State for the first time in recorded history on all the land lost by Jordan and Egypt to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and having its capital in East Jerusalem.

Trump apparently thought he had broken through the Arab League’s long-standing support for these non-negotiable demands as three Arab ambassadors from Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates stood beside him with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when releasing his Deal on January 28.

The optics were good — but that vision was lost just four days later.

Trump appeared to have miscalculated the strength of Arab League opposition to his Deal. However that rejection has given Trump the opportunity to immediately proceed to complete that part of the Deal promised to Israel — the extension of Israeli sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

That possibility had first been raised by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman — on June 8, 2019 when he indicated Israel had a right to annex at least some, but “unlikely all” of the West Bank.

Friedman then added:

“We really don’t have a view until we understand how much, on what terms, why does it make sense, why is it good for Israel, why is it good for the region, why does it not create more problems than it solves. These are all things that we’d want to understand, and I don’t want to prejudge.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cleared the way for Friedman’s scenario to happen on November 18, 2019:

“The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law”

Pompeo stressed that this decision was:

“based on the unique facts, history, and circumstances presented by the establishment of civilian settlements in the West Bank.”

Pompeo however added a warning caveat:

”…we are not addressing or prejudging the ultimate status of the West Bank.This is for the Israelis and the Palestinians to negotiate.”

Outright rejection by the PLO and the Arab League of Trump’s Deal has removed Pompeo’s caveat

Friedman — not unsurprisingly tweeted on February 9:

”.. the application of Israeli law to the territory which the Plan provides to be part of Israel is subject to the completion of a mapping process by a joint Israeli-American committee.”

The PLO and the Arab League had committed political suicide in rebuffing Trump – ensuring that part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) will soon come under Israeli sovereignty whilst the Arabs correspondingly miss out. Another golden opportunity to end the Jewish-Arab conflict has been lost by continuing Arab intransigency.

Trump’s strategy will see new boundaries being determined for Israel incorporating part of the Jewish People’s biblical, historic and ancestral heartland in Judea and Samaria.

The area will be small in size but massively significant for the psyche of the Jewish People — who have been waiting for this day to arrive for 3,000 years.

President Trump is bringing that very long wait to an end.

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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog

Trump's vision is a mirage based on shaky foundations

[Published 29 January 2020]

President Trump’s now released deal of the century – calling for the creation of a second Arab state in former Palestine in addition to Jordan (“the two-state solution”) – has predictably already been consigned to the dustbin of history by PLO President Mahmoud Abbas on the day of its publication.

Trump’s solution was a mirage based on the same shaky foundations unsuccessfully pursued by the international community since the 1980 Venice Declaration.

Trump’s failure to address the following issues ensured its collapse from the get go:

1. The term “Palestinians” is not defined in the plan’s Glossary.

Who comprise “the Palestinians” and what constitutes their common identity?

2. Trump’s plan states:

“Palestinians have aspirations that have not been realized, including self-determination”.

Trump ignores that the “Palestinians” right to self-determination was realized when all West Bank Arabs became citizens of Jordan between 1950 and 1967 – then continued to retain their Jordanian citizenship until revoked by Jordan in 1988.

3.Trump’s plan states:

“The State of Israel has also exchanged sizeable territories for the sake of peace, as it did when it withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace with the Arab Republic of Egypt.”

Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005.Why was this not mentioned?

4.Trump’s plan states:

“One reason for the intractability of this problem is the conflation of two separate conflicts: a territorial, security and refugee dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and a religious dispute between Israel and the Muslim world regarding control over places of religious significance.”

There is only one conflict – between Jews and Arabs - fuelled by the Arab League’s refusal to recognise the State of Israel since its establishment in 1948.The religious dispute was resolved under the 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty granting Jordan control over places of Islamic religious significance in Jerusalem.

5. Trump’s plan states that Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin:

“envisioned Jerusalem remaining united under Israeli rule, the portions of the West Bank with large Jewish populations and the Jordan Valley being incorporated into Israel, and the remainder of the West Bank, along with Gaza, becoming subject to Palestinian civil autonomy in what he said would be something “less than a state.” Rabin’s vision was the basis upon which the Knesset approved the Oslo Accords, and it was not rejected by the Palestinian leadership at the time.”

Rabin actually said:

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines”.

6. Trump’s plan states:

“This Vision addresses today’s realities, and provides the Palestinians, who do not yet have a state ...”

The “Palestinians” do have a state — now called Jordan — created in 78% of former Palestine in 1946.

The key to successfully ending this 100 years unresolved conflict requires Jordan’s borders to be extended to incorporate those areas designated as “A Future State of Palestine” in Trump’s already-defunct proposal.

President Trump needs to go back to the drawing board and persuade Israel and Jordan to urgently negotiate those new borders.

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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog.

Israel now needs miracle to set secure and recognized boundaries

[Published 17 December 2019]

History will not kindly recall Israel’s power-hungry politicians who have forced a third election within twelve months on Israeli voters at a direct cost of another US$135 million.

The politicians’ inability to form a Government of National Unity is derelict — especially after Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin entreated them to do so.

The Jewish calendar is replete with both happy and sad times in the history of the Jewish people spanning thousands of years — faithfully remembered on each anniversary.

The period between 18 November 2019 and 11 December 2019 — which I call The Time of Missed Opportunity — could qualify for inclusion in that calendar.

November 18 marks the day US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the US did not regard Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) as being inconsistent with international law.

December 11 marks the last day a Government of National Unity could have been formed to finally set Israel’s secure and recognized boundaries under Security Council Resolution 242 — within which the Jewish people would reconstitute the Jewish National Home 100 years after the San Remo Convention laid the groundwork on April 25, 1920.

Israel and the Jewish World have been divided as to where those boundaries should be — particularly since Judea and Samaria (the disputed territories) were conquered by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War enabling Jews to return and live there after having been expelled and driven out in 1948 by six invading Arab armies.

Israelis espouse views ranging from extending Israeli sovereignty to all the disputed territories to sovereignty over none. Compromise somewhere in between could have possibly been found with a Government of National Unity making consensus decisions acceptable to the overwhelming majority of Israel’s population.

Two deadlocked Israeli elections in April and September 2019 have exposed a very disturbing political rift among Israeli voters as Israel confronts its Arab neighbours who seek to destroy it — and its international enemies at the United Nations who seek to deny that Jews have any legal right to live in the disputed territories guaranteed by article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

This Jewish divisiveness has a bitter parallel in Jewish history — the Bible recounting that on the succession of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, around 930 BCE, the land of Israel split into two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Israel (including the cities of Nablus and Samaria) in the north and the Kingdom of Judah (containing Jerusalem) in the south. These kingdoms remained separate states for over two hundred years.

Yuval Diskin, Israel’s former internal security chief, warned in 2015 that this could happen again:

“The two-state solution is becoming true for the Jews: The State of Judea is being built de facto side by side with the State of Israel. These are two nations whose differences are eclipsing their commonalities, a condition that is growing irreversible.

The State of Judea has different standards, different approaches to democracy, and it has two justice systems, one for Jews (Israeli law) and the other for Palestinians (martial law). Whether we want it or not, these two justice systems have divergent measures to adjudicate identical offenses”.

Israel’s politicians — in rejecting a Government of National Unity and opting for a third election — have not acted in the national interest. They have chosen to continue political division and pursue personal ambition to achieve political power — rather than seeking national unity.

A third deadlocked election is the miracle and opportunity Israel needs to enable a Government of National Unity to set Israel’s boundaries.

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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog.

Trump ends Arab preoccupation with occupation in Judea and Samaria

[Published 3 December 2019]

President Trump’s decision to recognise the right of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) ends a long-running Arab political campaign accompanied by murderous terrorist attacks to drive the Jews out under the Arab mantra - “End the Occupation”. This mantra had become the Arabs’ rallying cry over the last 53 years as they sought to assert sovereignty over every square meter of this hotly-disputed territory.

These three little words managed to turn Israel’s miraculous victory in the 1967 Six Day War in Judea and Samaria — that saw the Jewish People’s triumphal return to the heart of the biblical and ancestral land of its forefathers — as something to be reviled and reversed.

Those mouthing the mantra did not seek to have the “occupation” ended in favour of Jordan — the previous Arab occupier between 1948 and 1967.

Rather they were insisting it all be given to another group — the “Palestinians” — who did not exist:

1. In 1922 – when the League of Nations created the Mandate for Palestine

2. In 1937 - when the Peel Commission issued its Report

3. In 1947 - when the United Nations recommended the partition of western Palestine into an Arab State and a Jewish State.

4. Between 1948-1964 — when Judea and Samaria had been ethnically cleansed of every single Jew who had been living there prior to 1948

The “Palestinians” only first saw the light of day in 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Charter was promulgated and Article 1 declared:
"Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation".

In 2019 the PLO’s legitimacy to rule the “Palestinians” is being challenged by Hamas. Reconciliation between these two competing power seekers is still not in prospect after 13 years of bitter internecine conflict — nor are elections anywhere in sight.

Jordan now sits on the sideline having abandoned any claim to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) in 1988. Jordan shows no interest in attempting to try and restore — as far as is now possible — the status quo existing in these areas Jordan ruled on June 4, 1967.

President Trump is waiting patiently in the wings ready to release his “deal of the century” when Israel’s next Government is eventually formed.

It is surely time for a new mantra: “Right the Wrongs” to enter into the lexicon of international diplomacy in the Middle East — to replace the racist and apartheid “end the occupation”.

The wrongs are the failure of the United Nations to acknowledge that:

1. the provisions of Article 80 of the United Nations Charter reserve to the Jewish people the right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Judea and Samaria in accordance with the provisions laid down in article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine

2. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 remain the only internationally accepted bases for resolving the conflict in former Palestine.

The United Nations failure to insist on these binding tenets of international law being universally acknowledged has proved to be a major stumbling block in resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict.

Bowing to extreme pressure from the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference — the United Nations has succumbed to a myriad of General Assembly resolutions that have buried these pillars of international law. The sooner they again become the foundations for peace — the sooner some sanity will return to the Middle East.

Trump’s decisiveness has amazingly ended 53 wasted years of Arab preoccupation with occupation.

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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog