Suddenly, it’s 1947

News item:

US Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to overcome the controversy surrounding the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state by changing the definition to “the national homeland of the Jews”, the London-based Arabic Al-Hayat newspaper reported Saturday morning.

The report, that quoted western diplomatic sources, noted that in exchange for Kerry’s initiative, the Palestinians would have to agree that the Palestinian capital would be established only in parts of East Jerusalem; it was further reported that the Palestinians have rejected the proposal.

Suddenly, it’s 1947. Or 1920. The nations still can’t decide if the Jewish people deserve a state, or something less than one. I’m sure I don’t understand the difference between a “Jewish state” and a “national homeland of the Jews,” and I’m not going to speculate. Israel is a state, and a lot of Jewish blood was spilled to make it so.

This, actually, is what brought it into being, not  the “international community,” the declaration of Lord Balfour or the decisions of various world powers, the League of Nations or the UN.

Today, because of a combination of cowardice, avarice and Jew-hatred, the nations would like to take back any commitments they may have made to the Jews. But the Jewish state rests on its own accomplishments and struggles, not on their acquiescence.

So let them try. Those who say that the Palestinians ought not to be required to recognize Israel as a Jewish state are correct. Who are we to take away the Cause that is their reason for being? On the other hand, who are they to say that we ought to give away parts of our homeland to our enemies?

More, who are they to say that Israel should release murderers so that these same Palestinians will agree to continue talking, when so far all they have talked about is how we should give up everything we won with the aforesaid Jewish blood?

There is a Jewish state because the Jews rose up and threw out the British, who had even then gone back on their commitment to nurture a Jewish homeland, and who condemned thousands, maybe tens or hundreds of thousands, of European Jews to death at the hands of the Nazis by their policies. After that, the Jews had to fight wars and terrorism waged by the Arab nations, whose ethnic and religious prejudice made a Jewish state in the Middle East unacceptable to them.

But they will have to accept it, like it or not. And we don’t have to pretend that their motives are anything other than primitive prejudice.

Recently I had a discussion with a visitor from Mars. He said that he found it difficult to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It went like this:

VFM: What do the Israelis want?
Me: They want the Palestinians to stop trying to kill them. In return, they will give them some of their very small homeland for a new Arab state. But they can’t get the Palestinians to agree to take it.

VFM: The Palestinians want a state, and the Israelis want to give it to them? But why won’t the Palestinians take it?
Me: Because they won’t take it unless the Israelis agree that the part that they don’t give them belongs to the Palestinians too.

VFM: That doesn’t sound fair. I suppose the Palestinians must be very powerful in order to demand so much.
Me: No, actually Israel is much stronger militarily and economically.

VFM: Then what’s the point in talking to them?
Me: Ask John Kerry.

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3 Responses to “Suddenly, it’s 1947”

  1. Shalom Freedman says:

    We apparently are about to release more terrorist murderers in order to enable the negotiations, which all understand are not real negotiations, to continue. This is the work of John Kerry, but of course it would not be possible without the support of President Obama.
    I understand Prime Minister Netanyahu is under great pressure, but perhaps we should stop the farce now, and take whatever comes from the U.N.
    The U.S. under Obama is not stopping and will not stop Iran.
    The Palestinian Arabs blackmail, and we are consenting to their pressure and acting as if we are the weaker party.
    I find our behavior in this shameful. I find the American’s behavoir stupid and immoral. The Palestinians have openly declared that they will never agree to our minimal conditions, and hope to gain through threat what they have never been able to gain on any field of battle.

  2. NormanF says:

    Actually there is no difference in the substance of the terms.

    The Arabs are opposed to national self-determination for the Jewish people. Its clearly not the words “Jewish State” that upsets them. No what frosts them is the notion the Jews are a nation.

    No matter how that is formulated, they reject it out of hand. We can be thankful to Secretary Kerry for inadvertently making clear the real nature of the dispute. Which has nothing to do with territory, settlements or all the usual side issues advanced to explain the Arab grievance towards Israel.

    In reality, as it has always been, its about the right of the Jewish State to exist. Which is exactly why peace in Middle East remains impossible.

  3. sabashimon says:

    Your post reminds me of a quote from Avraham “Ya’ir” Stern: “We do not fight to be free; we fight because we are free”

    The UN most certainly did not “create” the State of Israel. That was, as you rightly pointed out, gallons of Jewish blood.