The State of Israel continues to survive because we defeated those who sought our annihilation - by Nave Dromi

The Jewish refugees from the Middle East know the truth: Only a sovereign people seen as invincible and indestructible are secure in this region.

Nave Dromi..
JNS.org..
24 November '19..

Ever since the Muslim conquest, occupation and colonization of the Middle East and North Africa in the 7th century, the region’s Jews, among others, lived under a dhimmi status. While the Arabic term “dhimmi” has been translated as “tolerated,” the actual meaning is far more sinister.

Under Islamic law, Jews were less than second-class citizens. They were a brutally oppressed minority, forced to pay special taxes called jizya, frequently forced to place distinctive signs on their houses and clothing and sometimes brutally humiliated in other ways.

The Egyptian-born British author Bat Ye’or wrote that the dhimmi status was a “relationship between conqueror and conquered” and that “the dhimmi peoples bore the role of victim, vanquished by force; and indeed, it is after a war, a jihad, and after a defeat, that a nation becomes a dhimmi people.”

The Jewish people had lived in the region for millennia before being expelled and forced to flee by Arab leaders in the 20th century. Almost a million Jews had lived in the Middle East and North Africa before their status turned from perilous to entirely unwanted around the middle of the past century, most fleeing to the nascent State of Israel.

On Nov. 30, we will remember them on the Day of Commemoration for the Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries and Iran. We will remember their history, culture and tradition, maintained under difficult circumstances, and also their ethnic cleansing.

However, there are also lessons we need to learn.

Those of us whose origins are in lands now known as Arab countries and whose families were dhimmis understand well this history of defeat.

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Nave Dromi is the director of the Middle East Forum in Israel. She previously served as the manager of the Blue and White Human Rights movement, founded by the Institute for Zionist Strategies. She holds a B.A in Political Science and Middle Eastern studies from Ben-Gurion University and a masters degree from the Ruderman Program for Israel and American Jewish Studies.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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A sovereign nation owes no explanations to foreign “masters” or patrons - by Forest Rain

...Colonized Jews hate being told that they are colonized. The idea that the culture of the land in which they live dominated and swallowed up their Jewish identity is repugnant. Historically Jews have preferred to believe that are happily integrated and welcome in the society in which they live (“I’m not Jewish, I’m a German of the Mosiac faith”). Historically it has been non-Jewish neighbors who taught Jews otherwise. Colonization is a harsh definition, it is more common to hear the softer terminology: “diaspora mentality” which means having the mentality of a scattered people, living at the mercy of others. In other words, this is the mentality of people who are not sovereign and lack the power to determine their own fate.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
20 April '19..

There are two kinds of people who hate strong Jews: your run-of-the-mill Jew haters (classical antisemites) and colonized Jews.

2000 years of living as unwelcome guests in other people’s lands have taken a toll on the Jewish People. Putting your head down, being quiet in the face of abuse and minimizing signs of Jewishness have become habits, so deeply ingrained that many fail to recognize their existence. Judaism upholds the sanctity of life and, because of this, actions taken by Jews to hide their Jewishness in order to survive were approved. Even religious traditions were changed in order to adapt to the realities of living in places where it was not necessarily a good idea to be “too Jewish” – for example, lighting and placing the Hanukah candles inside the home rather than in a public place where everyone passing by can see.

The re-establishment of the Jewish State led to a new alignment of powers. Now the classical antisemites can direct their Jew-hatred at the Jewish State rather than their Jewish neighbors. The oldest hatred has been reborn with modern branding: “I don’t hate Jews, I just hate Israel.” Or, an even more sophisticated version: “I don’t hate Jews or Israelis, I just hate the Israeli government.”

For colonized Jews the statements are different. The fact that these are said by Jews and seem more “nuanced” makes them harder for most people to address: “I love Israel, that’s why I hate the policies of the Israeli government.” Or “Why does Israel have to make waves and cause problems? Why was it necessary to move the embassy to Jerusalem? Pass the Nation-State Law? Those things were obvious and just upset people.”

Colonized Jews hate being told that they are colonized. The idea that the culture of the land in which they live dominated and swallowed up their Jewish identity is repugnant. Historically Jews have preferred to believe that are happily integrated and welcome in the society in which they live (“I’m not Jewish, I’m a German of the Mosiac faith”). Historically it has been non-Jewish neighbors who taught Jews otherwise.

Colonization is a harsh definition, it is more common to hear the softer terminology: “diaspora mentality” which means having the mentality of a scattered people, living at the mercy of others. In other words, this is the mentality of people who are not sovereign and lack the power to determine their own fate.

It is important to note that while Jews who live in the diaspora are more likely to have a diaspora mentality, there are plenty of Israelis with the same mindset.


This terminology enrages those who it most aptly describes.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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And when the darkness threatens to overwhelm us, we respond by growing even brighter - by Forest Rain

...For 2000 years we dreamt of return to our land, to be a free nation in our land. No Arafat will succeed in taking that away from us. Jewish sovereignty and freedom are more than the legal and self-sufficient Nation State. They are dependent on the determination of the Jewish spirit. We are small in number but ours is a light that will not go out – and when the darkness threatens to overwhelm us, we respond by growing even brighter. We are Ori.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
13 February '19..

My Facebook feed is full of Ori’s photo. She looks different in the different images but in each, her radiant smile is the same.

Ori, “my light” in Hebrew, was obviously a fitting name for this sunny girl. The more we hear about Ori from friends, family and the people she volunteered with helping underprivileged youth, we learn about the light that was stolen from us – Ori was a role model, an inspiration, a light that pointed the way for many to a better and happier world.

Israel and the Jewish community around the world have paused in horror at the discovery of Ori’s brutal murder on February 7th.

The rest of the world, not so much.

Who cares about a dead Jewish girl? Women are raped and murdered all over the world. It’s nothing unusual. Sad, but not newsworthy. Certainly not on an international level.

From a distance, it is probably difficult to understand why this case is different.

It is not just that our nation is so small and every life is precious.

It is not just that Ori was lovely and innocent. It is not just the stark contrast between her sunniness and the viciousness with which her life was ripped from her, the darkness rising up to stomp out the light because it knows that even a small light can banish great darkness.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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To be a free Nation, in our land, the Land of Zion and Jerusalem - by Forest Rain

...Zaïd was survived by his wife and four children and the legacy that waited for the survivors of the death marches and concentration camps to pick up and continue where he left off – creating new Jews, more powerful and alive. Jews whose hearts no longer yearned but now beat as one with the land that gave them their history, where they could create a promise of an independent future for Jewish generations to come – free in our own land, Land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
14 April '18..

Standing on the top of the hill, I looked out at the beautiful land stretched before me.

Suddenly I felt my body vibrating. Looking up, I saw the guardians of Israel thundering across the sky. IAF fighter jets. It was Holocaust Memorial Day and they were practicing for the Independence Day aerial show.

How suitable. How awe-inspiring.

Could those Jews, those downtrodden, dehumanized, beaten, starving and tortured Jews imagine their grandchildren cutting through the heavens, with enough might at their fingertips to make any enemy shake in their boots and grovel for mercy?

And then I remembered a story I once heard from a Holocaust survivor. He had been a small boy when his family was forced on a death march. As a grandfather, living in Israel, on every Holocaust Memorial Day he walks through the streets of Jerusalem and, at the end of his march he eats two portions of steaming hot, golden falafel. Because, he explained, on that March, his mother, desperate to distract her hungry child, told him that in Zion food grows on trees, hot, crispy golden dumplings that anyone can take, whenever they want.

Cold and starving, marching towards death, they were dreaming of Zion…

It is in her honor that this man marches, as he pleases, free in the land of Zion and eats, not one but TWO portions of golden falafel.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Once again testing us to see just how attached we are to this land - by Dror Eydar

...A sovereign presence requires determination. Not a hesitant, indecisive presence that wishes to appease our enemies, but rather a clear and natural presence of a nation at its holiest site, a place of longing that brought us back home after 2,000 years.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
23 July '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=19499

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Now that the metal detectors on the Temple Mount have been splattered with the blood of murdered Jews -- a grandfather, a father and a sister slaughtered at the hands of a miserable wretch who unfortunately stayed alive (why?!) -- to back down and remove them would be shameful and a disgrace, as well as a legitimization of bloodshed. Furthermore, anyone who thinks that removing the metal detectors will diminish the desire to murder Jews among those who wish to destroy us is dangerously mislead.

Pay no mind to the repeated accusations of "Jewish radicalism." They are part of what prominent poet Nathan Alterman described in a poem after the Six-Day War about the Devil's attempts to defeat the Jewish people not by use of force, but rather -- "only this shall I do: I will dull his mind and cause him to forget the justice of his cause."

2.
In reality, the weakness of our response (what the brainwashing machine calls "moderation") contains within it the seeds of terror. As early as the 1920s, Revisionist Zionist thinker Ze'ev Jabotinsky called for a physical as well as a psychological "iron wall" of security to ward off the Arabs. Only this way will we bring peace to the country, he asserted.

The source of Arab murderousness is not despair, but rather the delusional hope of kicking us out of our land. To our shame, this murderousness draws its power from our weak conduct, namely the public dispute among Israeli security bodies after the deed was already done and the metal detectors were put in place. Is it not yet clear to us that we must put up a united front and stand as a wall of fortitude against threats by the "voice of wrath" from Ramallah and the Islamist elements from within us? Is a century insufficient time to get to know this murderous pattern, fed by Jewish hesitancy?

When the truth is a minority opinion, then it must be repeated - by Vic Rosenthal

...But in fact all but a few ‘Palestinians’ are descended from Arabs who migrated to the area for economic reasons after the advent of Zionism, and even fewer arrived before the invasion by Muhammad Ali in the 1830s. The Jewish connection to the land doesn’t need further explication. Judea and Samaria, in fact, represent the biblical heartland of the Jewish people, where its history took place and where its holy places are located. If there is any part of the land of Israel that should belong to the Jewish people, it is Judea (including Jerusalem) and Samaria.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
12 December '16..

This morning I got an email from an American correspondent asking what are the arguments for the legitimacy of Israeli communities (not ‘settlements’) across the Green Line, including all of Jerusalem. When I responded, I realized that although I have written about this before, it needs to be repeated – and repeated, because in this case the truth is a minority opinion. So here is a slightly more complete version of my answer:

The Jewish people have a legal, historical and moral right to live anywhere in the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean; and the only sovereign power in this region is Israel, the state of the Jewish people. Here is why:

From a legal point of view, the land was originally a part of the Ottoman Empire, which ceased to exist at the end of WWI. “Palestine” was set aside for the Jewish people by the Palestine Mandate, which was supposed to be administered for their benefit by Britain, which then tried to subvert it for its own interests. It’s clear that while the intent of the Mandate was that all residents would have civil rights, rights to a “national home” were reserved for the Jewish people, who were also explicitly granted the right of “close settlement on the land”. This was affirmed for all the land from the river to the sea by the representatives of the international community in 1923.

The partition resolution of November 1947 (UNGA 181) was non-binding – a recommendation for a permanent settlement after the end of the Mandate. But it was never implemented. In 1948, the Arabs rejected the UN’s partition resolution and invaded the territory of the former Mandate, blatantly violating the UN Charter in an attempt to acquire the territory for themselves. The 1949 ceasefire agreement that ended hostilities was not a peace agreement, and both sides insisted that that the ceasefire lines were not political boundaries. Their only significance was to mark the locations of the armies when the shooting stopped.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Okay. Israel is Not Perfect. So What? - by Jonathan Tobin

...On its 68th birthday, Israelis and their friends have much to celebrate. Just as important, its foes and critics should realize that focusing on its imperfections will never be enough to destroy it. Whether or not their state is perfect, the return of the Jews to their land will not be reversed by hate or by the betrayal of those who have forgotten what is at stake in the struggle to defend Zionism.

Israelis watch an air show during
Independence Day in Tel Aviv.
(AP Photo/Dan Balilty)

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
12 May '16..

Last week the deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces stirred up a hornet’s nest while speaking at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony. General Yair Golan was quoted as saying that the “revolting processes” present in Europe and Germany prior to the Holocaust were “here among us in 2016.” The implication of his comments was that negative Israeli attitudes toward Palestinians were somehow analogous to the rise of murderous anti-Semitism that led to the murder of six million Jews. He then went on to say that Yom HaShoah, the day the Jewish world sets aside to contemplate that terrible crime should also be used for a day of atonement on which Israelis should deal with “unsettling issues” present in the Jewish state such as the misuse of weapons and how Jews “treat the stranger.”

For this, he was cheered to the echo by Israel’s left-wing press and excoriated from the right by writers such as Israel Hayom’s Ruthie Blum, who correctly pointed out that the general was not merely making a “vile comparison” but providing material for Israel’s most malevolent critics. Prime Minister Netanyahu also rebuked Golan but since then has tried to put the controversy in the past. But it came up again when his Cabinet colleague/rival Naftali Bennett alluded to it today on Israel’s Independence Day. The Education Minister said it was time for his countrymen to stop “the festival of self-flagellation” in which so many seem to want to seize on any possible infraction by the IDF or individual citizens as proof of the moral corruption of Israeli society that is rooted in the conflict with the Palestinians.

What are Israel’s overseas friends to make of this controversy? For those on the left who regard the continuing standoff with the Palestinians and the presence of Jews in the West Bank as proof that Netanyahu — and the majority of Israelis who keep re-electing him — have strayed from Jewish values, the general’s comments seem to validate their stance. As I noted earlier this month, the growth of groups that are not only critical of Israel’s government but use the conflict as an excuse to justify their neutrality about both Zionism and the BDS movement that wages economic warfare on the Jewish state is alarming.

Israel’s open enemies that traffic in anti-Semitism while masquerading as human rights activists use any disturbing story that comes out of the country – like the recent firestorm over a soldier who is accused of killing a wounded terrorist after he had been subdued and presented no further danger — as a pretext for their hate. But for many Jews, the problem is much more subtle. Raised on an interpretation of Jewish identity that primarily emphasizes universal values while de-emphasizing more parochial ones, they tend to view Jewish nationalism as inherently suspect. Yet they also react to proof that Israel is an imperfect place filled with imperfect people as evidence that the Jewish state no longer merits their support.

Sovereignty is not something gained by force -- it requires compromise and endless patience.

...In the last 48 years, no Israeli government has imposed full sovereignty over the parts of the homeland that we have conquered. I am not afraid of puritanical language. We reconquered the land that was originally ours, the land that had waited for us for years. We did not take this land away from any foreign entity that had sovereignty over it, and therefore our claim to it is entirely justified -- historically, legally, internationally and religiously. But the fact is that for decades Israel has avoided imposing full sovereignty over the entire scope of the land.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
31 July '15..

Two buildings in the settlement of Beit El that were demolished under order of the High Court of Justice this week have brought a small group of Jewish pioneers to the point of frustration, prompting them to insult IDF soldiers and harshly criticize the legal system and the government. Before we go any further, I must say that the remarks made by MK Moti Yogev (Habayit Hayehudi) on Wednesday (saying the High Court should be bulldozed) were not legitimate criticism, but rather an embarrassment to his party and to the pioneering settlement enterprise that he purports to represent. Having said that, I will say this: Dear brothers and sisters, the current government is as right-wing as a government in Israel will get. It is legitimate to criticize, even harshly, and it is okay to protest, but anyone who is incapable of playing by the rules of democracy needs to step out of the game and let others carry the settlement enterprise on their shoulders.

It was only 10 years ago that entire communities were destroyed by order of the Israeli government. Has our spirit been broken? Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook used to say that during times like these, nerves of steel are in order. Do not fall into the trap of impatience and frustration and avoid throwing away all the good that we already have. Look for what we have rather than yielding to the fatalist tendency to see only what is absent. The demolition of two buildings is no reason for all this drama. Where is the common sense? This is a classic recipe for "cry wolf" syndrome: When something truly devastating happens, the general public will not be receptive, having had its fill of empty, wasted drama.

The Jewish people are returning home. I say "returning" because this is a years-long process -- hundreds of years in the making and with hundreds of years left to go. The people who look at the diplomatic, social and political picture as a string of specific failures or successes are looking at reality through minimizing, petty eyes, and obviously no government could possibly live up to their expectations.

2.

It is fascinating to see the mirror image of last week's Peace Now conference in some of the reactions to the events in Beit El. In both cases the "rule of radicalization" was in play -- with individuals turning to the radical end of the spectrum when things don't go their way in a kind of puritanical way, as if to say "at least my conscience is clear." It is legitimate to want more, but it takes some degree of maturity and responsibility to understand that you can't always have everything. Sometimes it is best to be content with what you have, out of respect for the independent passing of time that is not always congruous with our own inner timing.

What does it mean to be puritanical? It means a lack of maturity and failure to understand that by nature, political, diplomatic and social processes require compromise. If we aspire to absorb large social groups, in the millions of people, we have to strike a middle ground that will accommodate the widest possible range of people.

In the last 48 years, no Israeli government has imposed full sovereignty over the parts of the homeland that we have conquered. I am not afraid of puritanical language. We reconquered the land that was originally ours, the land that had waited for us for years. We did not take this land away from any foreign entity that had sovereignty over it, and therefore our claim to it is entirely justified -- historically, legally, internationally and religiously. But the fact is that for decades Israel has avoided imposing full sovereignty over the entire scope of the land.

On the other hand, we are settling the land, acre by acre, family by family, home by home -- using the good old Zionist method. Most of us have plenty of patience. What doesn't get done in this generation will be done in the next, God willing. In the meantime, the important thing is to make sure the Zionist foundations are strong.

Misdemeanor terrorism and the need to oppose all degradations of Jewish sovereignty

...There are neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Arab towns where a Jewish driver stands the risk of being dragged from his car and lynched. And of course the roads of Judea and Samaria have become arcades for Arab terrorists-in-training to practice throwing rocks and firebombs. Most of the time — although every few weeks there is an exception — this doesn’t rise to the level of murder. Hence I call it ‘misdemeanor terrorism’; but it is no less terrorism.

Fresnozionism.org..
21 January '14..

In today’s (Monday) “Israel Hayom,” Nadav Shragai describes the situation in Mt. Scopus, in northeastern Jerusalem:

A few minutes’ drive from the National Police Headquarters in Jerusalem, where along the way sits the Hebrew University campus (founded 88 years ago), soldiers, students, policemen, civilians and local residents try braving the drive to arrive safe and sound to school, reserve duty or their homes. Along the way, they may encounter anything and everything from Molotov cocktails, stone throwing, hit-and-run attempts, burning tires and cinder blocks on the road. In this ongoing local intifada, which has known its ups and downs, everything is fair game as far as the youth of Issawiyeh are concerned. …

Female students leaving the campus on foot frequently suffer sexually related assaults. They have tried everything — whistles, pepper spray, self-defense courses, they have written letters to police commanders, held meetings in the Knesset. Nothing has helped them. Take that path, go around that way, protect yourselves like this — these are the answers they hear.

This is not the only place in the Jewish state where Jews are afraid of becoming victims of anti-Jewish violence. About a mile to the south the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews have been buried for 3,000 years, is also dangerous territory for Jews, not to mention a target of continuous vandalism. Numerous famous rabbis, Henrietta Szold (the founder of Hadassah), Eliezer Ben Yehuda, Menachem Begin and many others are buried there, and a Jew takes his life in his hands to visit their graves!

There are neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Arab towns where a Jewish driver stands the risk of being dragged from his car and lynched. And of course the roads of Judea and Samaria have become arcades for Arab terrorists-in-training to practice throwing rocks and firebombs.

Most of the time — although every few weeks there is an exception — this doesn’t rise to the level of murder. Hence I call it ‘misdemeanor terrorism’; but it is no less terrorism.

The Arabs that perpetrate these offenses believe that the Jewish presence in the land of Israel is illegitimate, and that therefore anything they do is perfectly justified. They have an endless list of exaggerated and imagined atrocities to avenge. Much of the time the terrorists and vandals are juveniles, making it hard to arrest them and impossible to deter them with threats of punishment.

Thanking the EU for making us insist, time and again, that Israel is our own ancestral country

...As stated, these few comments are given only from the EU's perspective. When it comes to our own actions, we can stick to Simon Maccabee's answer to Antiochus' demand that Simon surrender to him territory he had taken in battle. "We have never taken land away from other nations or confiscated anything that belonged to other people," Simon said. "On the contrary, we have simply taken back property that we inherited from our ancestors, land that had been unjustly taken away from us by our enemies at one time or another. We are now only making use of this opportunity to recover our ancestral heritage." As we recite in the blessing over the Hanukkah lights: "In those days, at this time." As then, so now.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
29 November '13.




1.
We should be thanking the European Union for making us insist, time and again, that Israel is our own ancestral country. Love of the Jewish people is not the most prominent characteristic of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who came up with the regulations forbidding the EU to provide economic support to any Israeli "entity" with an address in Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and even east Jerusalem (!). Exempt from the restrictions are activities that "aim at benefiting protected persons under the terms of international humanitarian law who live in these territories and/or at promoting the Middle East peace process in line with EU policy." In other words, left-wing organizations that work to cut us off from our own land, the land on which our lives are based, are eligible for EU funds.

Of course, the ones who write the resolutions anchor them in "international law" as the EU sees it. The EU regards some parts of our homeland as "occupied territory" -- in other words, under Israel's belligerent occupation. Hence the claim that the settlements are illegal, so the EU must stop providing any grants that support them so as not to be tainted by their illegality. That was reason enough for all "Israel's land-lovers" to rejoice and accuse the settlement enterprise of impeding Israel's scientific progress.

Before we get to the resolution, we should take another look at the simple truth, which is anchored in the law of nations and in international law: Judea and Samaria are not conquered territories that we took from another country.

Since 70 C.E., when we were destroyed as a political entity, no sovereign country or any other nation controlled the Land of Israel; only empires did. After the War of Independence in 1948, Jordan annexed the region, but no one recognized the annexation except Great Britain and Pakistan. Israel's point of departure was that as far as it was concerned, the territories were, at worst, disputed. We claim full ownership of all of them by virtue of the resolution of the Entente Powers, also known as the Allies (the organization that preceded the United Nations after World War I) at the San Remo Conference in April 1920. During the conference, Great Britain was given the mandate to fulfill the Balfour Declaration -- "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." The mandate included even Transjordan and, certainly, Judea and Samaria.

Our claim to ownership also stems from our historical rights, which were recognized in the law of the nations. In the Six Day War, Israel took the land from a country that was not its rightful owner. Before that, the Arabs who lived there never complained that the land was occupied. That only happened once the Yahud ("Jews" in Arabic) came. As everybody knows, the Yahud are not allowed to control land under Muslim ownership (known as waqf, or trust) -- which is how the Muslims see the Land of Israel.

In short, from a legal perspective the laws of occupation do not apply here; land that does not belong to anyone cannot be conquered. The claim that Jewish settlement of the land is "illegal" under international law is not accurate. On the strength of the claims noted above, we as Jews have legal rights to the land, so the establishment of settlements is legal. If it is claimed that we are not allowed to put facts on the ground, the other side should be told that as well. But they build and put facts on the ground there; there is no reason to sit idle and allow our rivals to decide our fate.

Israel is the Jewish state of the Jewish people

There is a simple solution. Israel must insist that there can be no negotiations until all parties agree that Israel is the Jewish state of the Jewish people.

Fresnozionism.org..
27 March '13..






Palestinians must recognize that Israel will be a Jewish state — Barack Obama, March 21, 2013

The ‘Jewish state.’ What is a ‘Jewish state?’ We call it, the ‘State of Israel.’ You can call yourselves whatever you want. But I will not accept it. And I say this on a live broadcast… It’s not my job to define it, to provide a definition for the state and what it contains. You can call yourselves the Zionist Republic, the Hebrew, the National, the Socialist [Republic] call it whatever you like. I don’t care. — Mahmoud Abbas, 2009

When some 120 Israeli figures came here, they said, ‘What’s your opinion concerning the Jewish state?’, and I said that we wouldn’t agree to it. We know what they mean by it, and therefore we shall not agree to a Jewish state… — Abbas, 2011

We say to him [Netanyahu], when he claims — that they [Jews] have a historical right dating back to 3000 years BCE — we say that the nation of Palestine upon the land of Canaan had a 7000 year history BCE. This is the truth, which must be understood and we have to note it, in order to say: ‘Netanyahu, you are incidental in history. We are the people of history. We are the owners of history. — Abbas, 2011

Obama did not suggest that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state be a precondition for negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), and PM Netanyahu has called for “negotiations without preconditions.” But there is no doubt that it must be a precondition — not just for talking to the PA, but for diplomacy with anybody about anything. How can a nation have a give and take discussion with someone who thinks that it is fundamentally illegitimate?

The Arab League initiative, for example, which I discussed here, does not include any mention of recognition. This is not merely an oversight: the initiative was conceived and is understood as an admission by the “Zionist regime” that is fully responsible for the conflict. The initiative calls for a redress of their historic grievance in part by means of the ‘return’ of almost 5 million Arabs who claim hereditary refugee status — something unheard of in the annals of diplomacy — which is incompatible with a Jewish state of Israel.

This is not a symbolic issue. Like Turkey’s Erdoğan, the Arabs have a narrative that they are not willing to compromise, not even a little. It includes the propositions that