Israel set to uncork Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine genie at UN

 

Israel is readying to uncork the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine genie at the United Nations - ending UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process Torr Wennesland’s efforts to keep the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution (Saudi Solution) from being discussed as a replacement for the failed UN 20 years-old two state solution. 

The Saudi Solution was published on 8 June 2022 in the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News. Its author - Ali Shihabi - advises Saudi Arabia’s King-designate, Crown Prince and Prime Minister - Mohammed Bin Salman - on the development of Neom - a new $500 billion mega city the size of Israel

The Saudi Solution calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - having its capital in Amman -not Jerusalem. 

It supersedes the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - spawned by Saudi Arabia and embraced by the UN -which calls for:

"the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital."

The UN stands to become totally irrelevant if it continues to refuse to discuss the Saudi Solution following Danny Danon - Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations - claiming at the first Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit - that Saudi Arabia may be one of the next nations to normalize relations with Israel.  

Danon stated:

"We have been in contact with the Saudis for years. I worked personally with them at the United Nations on matters of regional stability and security. It’s just a matter of time before courageous leaders step out of the shadows and full peace is achieved between all the children of Abraham. .. I expect we’ll see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia this year"

This was good news for those seeking an end to the 100 years-old Jewish/Arab conflict - but bad news for the UN which continues to stubbornly support the two-state solution whilst refusing to even acknowledge the existence of the game-changing Saudi Solution since its publication six months ago.  

It beggars belief that on 30 November the UN General Assembly adopted five resolutions on the questions of Palestine and the Middle East without one speaker uttering the words - "Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution" - whose successful implementation would see the Arab populations in Gaza, part of the West Bank and the wretched UNRWA camps in Lebanon and Syria becoming citizens of that newly-created territorial entity. 

Cheikh Niang (Senegal)- Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People - introduced its annual report containing developments relating to the question of Palestine between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022 - which contained not one reference to the Saudi Solution in its 27 pages. 

Israeli Prime Minister designate Bibi Netanyahu has made his intentions crystal-clear:

"I think the big prize is peace with Saudi Arabia, which I intend to achieve if I go back into office… The rise of Israeli power facilitated the Abraham Accords, and the continual nurturing of Israeli power will also nurture a broader peace with Saudi Arabia and nearly all of the rest of the Arab world. I intend to bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to a close."

The 2022 Saudi Solution offers Israel:

• sole sovereignty in Jerusalem, 
• sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and 
• abandonment of the 74 years-old Arab claim to return to Israel

The UN must respond to the hope of peace offered by the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine genie.  

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.

NYT needs to end silence on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

The visit to Hebron this week by New York Times (NYT) columnist Thomas Friedman and Kathleen Kingsbury, The New York Times' Opinion Editor could see the NYT finally breaking its silence on the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine proposal published in the Saudi Arabian government-controlled Al Arabiya News on June 8, 2022. 

This new plan is certainly newsworthy: The merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one territorial entity to be named The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - to be governed by the Hashemite dynasty that has ruled Jordan for the last 100 years and will have its capital located in Amman – not Jerusalem (Saudi Plan).

The NYT is not on its own.  

The international media has almost universally ignored the Saudi Plan – which supersedes the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative – originally formulated by Thomas Friedman himself - as his NYT op-ed dated 17 February 2002 reveals:

"Earlier this month, I wrote a column suggesting that the 22 members of the Arab League, at their summit in Beirut on March 27 and 28, make a simple, clear-cut proposal to Israel to break the Israeli-Palestinian impasse: In return for a total withdrawal by Israel to the June 4, 1967, lines, and the establishment of a Palestinian state, the 22 members of the Arab League would offer Israel full diplomatic relations, normalized trade and security guarantees. Full withdrawal, in accord with U.N. Resolution 242, for full peace between Israel and the entire Arab world. Why not?"

Friedman was surprised when he dared mention his idea to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and de facto ruler – Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud - at a dinner a few days later

"After I laid out this idea, the crown prince looked at me with mock astonishment and said, ''Have you broken into my desk?'' ''No,'' I said, wondering what he was talking about... ''... I have drafted a speech along those lines. My thinking was to deliver it before the Arab summit and try to mobilize the entire Arab world behind it. The speech is written, and it is in my desk.  

Friedman then proffered this advice to the Crown Prince:

"I suggested to the crown Prince that if he felt so strongly about this idea, even in draft form, why not put it on the record--only then would anyone take it seriously. He said he would think about it. The next day his office called, reviewed the crown prince's quotations and said, Go ahead, put them on the record. So here they are."

Thus was born the Friedman-inspired 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - which has gone nowhere in the last 20 years. 

The 2022 Saudi Plan - authored by Ali Shihabi - a close confidant of Saudi Arabia's current Crown Prince and de facto ruler  – Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) –shreds Friedman's 2002 idea – offering in its place a drastically different solution to end the 100 years-old Jewish-Arab conflict - if negotiations to implement it are successfully completed.

Yet Friedman has not written one word about Shihabi's proposal in the six months since its publication--despite my personal request to him to do so. Sour grapes perhaps?  

However why has the NYT not informed its readers of this Saudi Plan - that also offers Israel sole sovereignty in Jerusalem and in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)? If that's not front page news--what is? 

Could a well-resourced NYT investigative journalist with Saudi contacts find out whether a plan similar to Shihabi's is in MBS's desk or ask MBS directly whether he endorses Shihabi's plan? 

Thomas Friedman and Kathleen Kingsbury – some answers and an op-ed please. 

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.

RIP UN two-State solution, Hello Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

The United Nations  two-State solution - first proposed on November 29, 1947 - needs to be finally buried and replaced with the Saudi peace solution proposed on June 8, 2022. 

The 1947 UN solution: Creating one Jewish State and one Arab state between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea (UN two-State solution) - was aimed at ending the Arab-Jewish conflict in Western Palestine which had then been raging for the previous 50 years.

This proposal was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs - becoming the catalyst for the War that broke out in May 1948.  

The Arabs ended up controlling some 22% of the territory between the River and the Sea. The major part was unified with Eastern Palestine located east of the Jordan River - (granted independence in 1946 as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan) - and renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1950. The balance - the Gaza Strip -was occupied and administered by Egypt. 

The founding document of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 1964 (PLO) expressly disavowed any claim to sovereignty "over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" and "the Gaza Strip". 

It was only in 1968 - after Jordan and Egypt had lost these lands to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War - that the PLO began to agitate for an independent Arab state west of the Jordan River - employing terrorism to try and achieve it. The PLO strategy failed. However the long-dormant UN two-State solution was resurrected by the international community in:

• 1980: Venice Declaration 
• 1993: Oslo Accords
• 2002: Arab Peace Initiative.
• 2003: President Bush Roadmap 
• 2011: President Obama 
• 2020: President Trump 

Powerful backers indeed - but no such two-State solution has appeared a remote possibility for the last forty years.

A radically-different proposal however surfaced in Saudi Arabia on June 8, 2022 that was both revolutionary and ground-breaking: Merge Jordan, the Gaza Strip, and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - no new Arab State between the River and the Sea. 

The UN's response has been disgraceful.

Instead of welcoming this Saudi proposal and the prospects its successful implementation offers for ending the Jewish-Arab conflict - the UN has failed to even acknowledge its existence - denying it any oxygen, exposure or traction in the UN. 

Secretary General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Process Torr Wennesland have made no public comments whatsoever on the Saudi proposal or included any reference to it in their monthly reports to the Security Council since its release. 

They need to break their silence. 

Until they do - they remain compromised and conflicted. 

A UN closed forum convened on 8 November by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) with Civil Society Organizations (CSO's) from "Palestine" Israel and the United States "Advocating for Accountability in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" --asserted  that "Safeguarding the two-State solution" remained their prime objective. 

Not one of them apparently mentioned the Saudi proposal - whose successful implementation would put them all out of business by finally ending a conflict that has defied resolution for more than 100 years. 

Guterres continued parroting the UN's commitment to the two-state solution on November 22 - without mentioning the Saudi solution - which needs to be aired and debated in the UN General Assembly, Security Council and CEIRPP and no longer suppressed. 

The UN's 75 years-old failed two-State solution to end the Jewish-Arab conflict has well and truly passed its use by date. The time has come for the UN to adopt the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution to replace it. 

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 key to ending Jew-bashing at UN

 

The United Nations favourite sport - Jew bashing - was on full display this past week at the 77th Session of the United Nations Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) - which approved six draft resolutions - all highly critical of Israel. 

One of these draft resolutions - approved by 98 voting in favour to 17 against, - with 52 abstentions--was titled "Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem" (document A/C.4/77/L.12/Rev.1).

By its terms, the UN General Assembly would demand that Israel cease: 

"all measures that violate the human rights of the Palestinian people, including the killing and injuring of civilians, the arbitrary detention and imprisonment of civilians, the forced displacement of civilians, the transfer of its own population into the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem" 

and that:

"the General Assembly should request the International Court of Justice to render urgently an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, from its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967"

Vituperative verbal attacks on the Jewish State made by Bangladesh, Venezuela, South Africa, Iran, Libya, Niger, Türkiye, Algeria, Brunei Darussalam, Namibia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Japan, Qatar, Lebanon, Sudan, Malaysia and Yemen ensured Jew-bashing would continue at the United Nations whilst the 100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict remains unresolved. 

Yet the implementation of a recently-published proposal that could end that conflict and similar future acrimonious debates was never raised or discussed. 

That proposal - published on June 8, 2022 in the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News by Ali Shihabi - a confidant of Crown Prince and Saudi Arabian Prime Minister - Mohammed Bin Salman (Saudi Solution):

• Recognises Israel is a reality firmly implanted on the ground that has to be accepted, however grudgingly, by the region around it.
• Calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - with its capital in Amman - not Jerusalem - to be governed by the current Hashemite dynasty ruling in Jordan
• Supersedes the 2002 Saudi-inspired Arab Peace Initiative
• Ends the 74 years old Palestinian Arab claim to the right of return to live in Israel.
• Grants citizenship and passports to all Arab residents living within the new entity's borders 
• Does not require any of the entity's population to pack up and move elsewhere. 
• Offers Palestinian Arab refugees the right to resettle there and acquire citizenship
• Recognises sole Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem
• Affirms Jordan's custodianship of the Islamic Holy Sites in Jerusalem

Successful implementation of this Saudi Solution would immeasurably free up the UN's time to deal with other unresolved and emerging world conflicts. 

The fact that this ground-breaking and - indeed revolutionary - Saudi Solution has never been discussed by the UN General Assembly, Security Council or any of its Committees - its very existence not even being acknowledged by any of them - is a damning indictment on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Torr Wennesland. 

The UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People - whose 2022 Annual Report fails to mention the Saudi Solution - is also expressly complicit. 

The UN has become hopelessly conflicted - burying the Saudi Solution rather than considering it to replace its owned failed two-state solution to create an independent Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan that has gone nowhere in the last 20 years. 

Failure to examine and evaluate the Saudi Solution threatens the UN's relevance and continued existence. 

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 & King Abdullah keep Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine alive

 

Non-participation by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister – Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)  – and Jordan’s King Abdullah at the 31st Summit of the Arab League held in Algiers on 1 and 2 November – even via Zoom  - was highly significant – signalling that the Saudi-based plan to merge  Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine (HKoP solution) still remains a viable solution to replace the failed 20 years-old two-state solution proposed by the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative (API) - endorsed yet again in Algiers. 

Saudi Arabia, the EU, and the Arab League had previously held a closed ministerial meeting on 21 September to activate the API - given the absence of any prospect for a political resolution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This September meeting followed publication of the HKoP solution in Al Arabiya News on 8 June – amazingly attracting no mention at the UN and scant attention in the international media and more importantly within Israel and Israel’s media. 

The HKoP solution was certainly newsworthy since it offered Israel:

• Sole sovereignty in Jerusalem
• Abandonment of the right of Palestinian Arabs to return to Israel
• No separate Palestinian State between Israel and Jordan
• The shelving of the API 
• Sovereignty in part of the West Bank for the first time in 3000 years.

The HKoP solution also offered the Arab populations of Gaza, the West Bank and Palestinian Arab refugees in other locations:

• “a legal identity—a globally respected citizenship that allows a person to operate in the modern world. Labor in this day and age is mobile and having citizenship in a country that facilitates such mobility is critical to human development.”
• “Palestinians in Arab countries like Lebanon can then become citizens of this enlarged kingdom while also getting full residency rights in Lebanon, equivalent to what an EU citizen has in the European Union outside his or her home country. This would allow the Palestinians to gain full civil rights as legal foreign residents without impacting the local political or sectarian balance in these countries. The GCC, the EU, the US, Canada, and others can also help support this solution by granting this Jordanian–Palestinian passport easier access to their labor markets.”

The Saudi proposal’s author - Ali Shihabi – is a confidant of MBS and a member of the Advisory Board  appointed by MBS to report to him on the building of a new US$500 billion mega city – Neom - in northern Saudi Arabia bordering Israel. 

Shihabi had lamented on the absence of a response from any Israeli politician to his plan on 14 August. This lack of Israeli interest was ongoing when the 21 September meeting agreed:

“to work with regional and international partners to shed light on the tragic situation of the Palestinians in light of the deadlock in the peace process and the absence of any glimmer of hope and to urge them to take practical steps to support the resumption of dialogue on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative, United Nations resolutions and relevant peace references, in addition to reviving the diplomatic track to overcome the despair and lack of a vision toward achieving the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and establishing their state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

MBS was not at this meeting but was subsequently appointed Saudi Arabia’s Prime Minister on 27 September. MBS, 

King Abdullah, PLO Leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh have not rejected the HKoP solution. 

MBS and King Abdullah’s non-participation at Algiers offers the glimmer of hope that the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine can soon become a conflict-ending reality. 

 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.

Netanyahu victory paves way for Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

Bibi Netanyahu’s triumphal return as Israel’s next Prime Minister affords him the opportunity to fulfil one of his major election promises: Ending the 100-years old unresolved Arab-Jewish conflict. 

It has been a long and arduous road for Netanyahu to travel since he told the United Nations on December 11, 1984:

“Those who accept the notion of a Palestinian people must therefore wonder: how many Palestinian Arab peoples are there? Is there a western Palestinian Arab people and, just across that narrow stream known as the Jordan River an eastern Palestinian Arab people? How many Arab States in Palestine does Palestinian self-determination require? Clearly, in eastern and western Palestine there are only two peoples, the Arabs and the Jews; and, just as clearly, there are only two States in that area, Jordan and Israel. The Arab State of Jordan, containing some 3 million Arabs, does not allow a single Jew 10 live there. It contains four fifths of the territory originally allocated by the predecessor of the United Nations. the League of Nations, for the Jewish national home. The other State, Israel, has a population of a little over 4 million, of which one sixth IS Arab. It contains less than one fifth of the territory originally allocated to the Jews under the Mandate. The claim of self-determination, then, is misleading, for the inhabitants of Jordan which,  incidentally, Hussein's grandfather, King Abdullah, wanted originally to call the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - are largely Palestinian Arabs, and within that population, western Palestinian Arabs are the majority. It cannot be said, therefore, that the Arabs of Palestine are lacking a State or their own, the ultimate expression of self-determination. The demand for a second Palestinian Arab State in western Palestine, and the twenty-second Arab State in the world, is merely the latest attempt to push Israel back into the hopelessly vulnerable armistice lines of 1949.”

The United Nations rejected Netanyahu’s warning  - pushing ahead instead to try and create that 22nd Arab state between Israel and Jordan in territories allocated to the Jews to reconstitute the Jewish National Home under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter.  

Both the Security Council and General Assembly subsequently passed a plethora of anti-Israel resolutions using  highly-inflammatory language such as  “Occupied Palestinian Territories” and recognising two separate peoples in the process - “Jordanians” and “Palestinians” – even granting observer status to the non-existent “State of Palestine”

This 22nd Arab state still remains a figment of the UN’s warped imagination today – whilst various UN  organs seek to delegitimise and isolate Israel as an international pariah. 

A new Saudi-based proposal published on 8 June finally debunks these heinous anti-Israel longstanding UN positions :

“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.” 

This Saudi-based proposal – calling for Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to be merged into one territorial entity called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine with its capital in Amman – not Jerusalem - shreds the UN’s failed 22nd Arab state solution.

“The transition to an expanded Palestinian–Jordanian kingdom will then be relatively straightforward since it will simply involve the current kingdom of Jordan’s widening its writ to cover the Palestinian territories and the diaspora in a step recognized by all relevant countries”

Netanyahu’s long trek - begun in 1984 in the face of UN hostility - can hopefully soon be ended with the successful creation of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine and an end to a conflict that the UN has shamefully mismanaged.

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.

Netanyahu gives nod to Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution

 

Israel's Leader of the Opposition Benjamin Netanyahu has finally broken his silence - giving his nod of approval to adopting the Saudi-proposed Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (Saudi Solution) :

"I think the big prize is peace with Saudi Arabia, which I intend to achieve if I go back into office… The rise of Israeli power facilitated the Abraham Accords, and the continual nurturing of Israeli power will also nurture a broader peace with Saudi Arabia and nearly all of the rest of the Arab world. I intend to bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to a close."

Peace with Saudi Arabia and ending the Arab-Israeli conflict will require Netanyahu to successfully  implement the Saudi Solution - published in June - that would see:

• Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) being merged into one territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - with its capital in Amman - not Jerusalem 
• Abandonment of the 74 years-old Palestinian Arab demand to return and live in Israel 
• Recognition of  Jewish sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) for the first time in 3000 years
• No new Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan

Yesh Atid Party Leader - Yair Lapid,  Blue and White Party Leader - Benny Gantz - and Labor Party Leader - Merav Michaeli - have all rejected the Saudi Solution - aligning their respective parties policies with President Biden's to continue pursuing the failed two-state solution first dreamt up by the European Union in 1980 and endorsed by the United Nations in 2003. 

The leaders of all other Israeli political parties have yet to comment on the Saudi Solution.

Netanyahu indicated his thinking was clearly in sync with the Saudi Solution's game-changing proposals.

On the touchy question of Israeli sovereignty in part only of Judea and Samaria (West Bank)--Netanyahu said:

"The reality is that a third, which includes biblical sites, strategic sites, and Jewish suburbs of our major cities, they're going to stay in Israel no matter what. We'd like more—possibly everything—but that's not the point. The point is everybody recognized this part will stay, so why not recognize it the way Trump recognized Jerusalem as our capital? And it's been that way for 3,000 years since King David; so why not recognize this reality too?" 

On the sensitive issue of Jerusalem remaining solely the capital of Israel - Netanyahu declared:

"As long as [the Palestinians] cling to the unrealistic assumption that we're going to dismantle half of Jerusalem and dismantle these suburbs, you ain't gonna get peace. You're going to get nothing. You cannot build peace in the Middle East on fantasy. Any peace built on lies and fantasy will founder on the rocks of Middle Eastern realities. It's about time to recognize what is going to be. What is [currently] there, and what is going to be."

The Saudi Solution maintains the current reality of Jerusalem remaining the capital of Israel only. 

So do Hamas and the PLO - as their four-months self-imposed silence in failing to oppose or reject  the Saudi Solution testifies. 

The main remaining issue to be negotiated is security control over the newly merged entity – where Netanyahu told Ben Shapiro in an earlier interview:

"...West of the Jordan River ... Israel and Israel alone controls security. We control the airspace, we control the ground security, underground security in case they want to do tunnels... We're not going to commit suicide for a favourable op-ed in the New York Times"

If Netanyahu becomes Israel's next Prime Minister – the end of the 100 years old Arab-Israeli conflict and peace with Saudi Arabia could well be realised.

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.