TOE-LESS ISRAEL
by David Basch
6.14.09
"Never in history has a nation [Israel] worked so
diligently and duplicitously for the purpose of
undermining and destroying itself on behalf of its
enemies...."
"Eugene Rostow [former Undersecretary of State under
Lynden Johnson] wrote a letter to the New York Times
[presented below] that reveals the truth about Israel's
valid claims to her lands ... Israel can hardly be an
illegal "occupier" of her own lands ..."
The above title, "TOE-LESS," was the punch line of an old joke about
the name of a cowboy who was said to have the fastest gun draw in the
West. It seems that today Israel too is "toeless" as a result of
counting her chickens before they were hatched in embracing and
empowering Arab enemies who continue to work to destroy her.
This was evident even 20 years ago when, in the flush of Israel's
strength and military victories, the very arrogant General Ariel
Sharon came to the US and spouted off about Israel's "occupied
territories," calling the Arab enemy "Palestinians," as though Jewish
Israelis were not "Palestinians" since Jews too are residents of the
Mandate of Palestine, which is the only thing that the term
"Palestinian" validly refers to. The result was to fix in the world
public's mind that Israel was robbing Arabs of their national lands,
which was untrue and a slander of Israel -- talk about shooting off
Israel's toes.
Sharon, like other ego-driven, power mad leaders, ended up undoing a
lifetime of good works by surrendering the defenses of the whole
southern flank of Israel. He transformed an area of Israel free of war
into a war zone, as the Gaza salient that Sharon surrendered to the
Arab enemies became a dagger stuck into Israel, a place from which
tens of thousands of Arab rockets rain on Israeli to this very day.
But Sharon was not the only Israeli leader eyeless in Gaza as the
fruits of Israeli self-slander have ripened and disarmed Israel in
defending her very existence. Ironically today we find even right-wing
spokesmen talking of Israel's occupation" of "Palestinian" land,
continuing to shoot off any remaining Israeli toes.
But here now are the very words of Eugene Rostow, former
Undersecretary of State of the US, about Israel's legal possession of
the territories of the Mandate of Palestine in his letter to the New
York Times in 1992. It must be noted that, in other discussions,
Rostow had observed that, in 1967, Israel did not cross an
international boundary when her armies entered Judea and Samaria in
defending Israel in the war the Arabs began. As Rostow noted, these
were lands to which Israel, "a high contracting party," had the only
valid, sovereign claim. Thus Israel can hardly be an illegal
"occupier" of her own lands, an oxymoron. Here in full is the text of
Rostow's letter:
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1992
EDITORIALS/LETTERS
Israeli Settlement and the Geneva Convention
To the Editor:
I apologize for an error in "Agreements Don't Bar West Bank
Settlements" (letter, March 18), on the legality of Israeli
settlements in the West Bank, which states that "international
lawyers differ on whether the 1949 Geneva Convention applies to
the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, because Israel is not a
signatory." Both Israel and Jordan did sign and ratify the
convention, Israel with a reservation.
The error does not affect my argument, however. Article 2 of the
convention provides that the agreement applies "to all cases of
partial or total occupation of the territory of a high
contracting party." Thus the convention cannot apply because the
West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip have never been
generally recognized as territories of Jordan. Jordan
administered them as a belligerent occupant between 1948 and 1967
after a war of aggression against Israel in 1948. Jordan's
attempt to annex these areas in 1950 was recognized only by
Britain (except for Jerusalem) and perhaps by Pakistan.
In any event, Jordan has formally renounced whatever claims it
may have had to the territory, which is a residual part of the
Palestine Mandate and therefore subject to the rights of "the
Jewish people" to make "close settlement" on the land. I regard
this aspect of the controversy as legally more important than
arguments based on the Geneva Convention.
EUGENE V. ROSTOW
Distinguished Fellow,
United States
Institute of Peace
Washington, March 23, 1992
The letter supplies the proof that Israeli governments have been
betraying the Jewish people's rights to their lands in the Mandate of
Palestine.
Unfortunately, short-sighted, mendacious, Leftist Israeli governments
have sworn to falsehood. They have lied to the Israeli people by
telling them that the territories are "occupied" lands so that these
governments could give away the Jewish people's lands for the sake of
building an Israeli Boribidzan -- a version of the Russian Jewish
homeland that is today empty of Jews. Thus, "toeless" Israel in its
stupidity does not even get the credit for any magnaminity in "ceding
its own lands for peace."
As Rostow wrote, the lands of the Mandate held by Jordan were not the
property of "a high contracting party," a sovereign nation, since
Jordan held those lands illegally and therefore did not fall under the
rules of the Geneva Convention. In fact, Israel was the only sovereign
nation nations with claims to the Mandate of Palestine lands. The
Arabs living in those lands lived as residents without national rights
since they were not part of any historic nation with a peoplehood that
ruled the area and were not designated by the Mandate as having the
right to build a homeland, but the Jews were.
This was evident as late as 1967 since "a Palestinian people" was
not mentioned in UN Resolution 242 and those Arabs who were
displaced during the 1967 war prior to that were considered to be
merely "refugees" and were named "refugees" in the resolution.
Had there been such an Arab "people" the UN resolution would have
certainly mentioned them.
Neither did Resolution 242 declare the lands that Israel took
possession of in the 1967 as "occupied territories." It referred
to "withdrawals from lands," and not "ALL lands" either. The
resolution did go on to use the word "occupied" in the phrase,
"lands occupied," but that usage merely identifies those lands as
lands having come into the possession of Israel, which is the
conventional, non diplomatic meaning of the word "occupied" --
like "he 'occupied' his house." In a bit of trickery foisted on
Israel, this diplomatic terminology was used to delegitimate
rightful Israeli claims and confer them on others without such
claims.
Alas, Israeli governments, to their everlasting shame, has recognized
a never-was "Palestinian people" and nation so that it can
subsequently cede the lands of the Jewish people to that new national
creation, including Jerusalem, retrojecting "historic claims" to that
new national body in the fiction that this entity had existed earlier.
Condileeza Rice was altogether wrong and spoke slander when she called
Gaza and the territories "occupied" lands. President Reagan never did
since he knew better.
It is despicable that Israeli governments have been surrendering its
own history and patrimony to a newly created rival nationality that
was founded for the sole purpose of replacing Israel. Never in history
has a nation worked so diligently and duplicitously for the purpose of
undermining and destroying itself on behalf of its enemies.
No doubt, Jews cannot conceive that the leftist leaders they so
admired as the epitome of intellectuality and the heights of admired
generalmanship were really obsessed universalists, in love with their
secular ideology and wanting to bury the Jewish roots of their nation
to create a Hebrew speaking secular Boribidzan and were willing to
pervert truth and risk the lives of their people to achieve that
vacuous national horror. The damage is incalculable since "can the
crooked be made straight?"
If Israel's people don't immediately wake up to their dismemberment
and the usurpation of their national patrimony by Arabs assisted by
Leftist Israeli leaders they will lose the entire Jewish enterprise of
Zionist return. New tactics need to be crafted to end the untenable
situation of guaranteed and irreversable, Arab nation building on
Israel's lands with Israel's role only to powerlessly sigh at her own
gradual disappearance on the world stage.
6.14.09
"Never in history has a nation [Israel] worked so
diligently and duplicitously for the purpose of
undermining and destroying itself on behalf of its
enemies...."
"Eugene Rostow [former Undersecretary of State under
Lynden Johnson] wrote a letter to the New York Times
[presented below] that reveals the truth about Israel's
valid claims to her lands ... Israel can hardly be an
illegal "occupier" of her own lands ..."
The above title, "TOE-LESS," was the punch line of an old joke about
the name of a cowboy who was said to have the fastest gun draw in the
West. It seems that today Israel too is "toeless" as a result of
counting her chickens before they were hatched in embracing and
empowering Arab enemies who continue to work to destroy her.
This was evident even 20 years ago when, in the flush of Israel's
strength and military victories, the very arrogant General Ariel
Sharon came to the US and spouted off about Israel's "occupied
territories," calling the Arab enemy "Palestinians," as though Jewish
Israelis were not "Palestinians" since Jews too are residents of the
Mandate of Palestine, which is the only thing that the term
"Palestinian" validly refers to. The result was to fix in the world
public's mind that Israel was robbing Arabs of their national lands,
which was untrue and a slander of Israel -- talk about shooting off
Israel's toes.
Sharon, like other ego-driven, power mad leaders, ended up undoing a
lifetime of good works by surrendering the defenses of the whole
southern flank of Israel. He transformed an area of Israel free of war
into a war zone, as the Gaza salient that Sharon surrendered to the
Arab enemies became a dagger stuck into Israel, a place from which
tens of thousands of Arab rockets rain on Israeli to this very day.
But Sharon was not the only Israeli leader eyeless in Gaza as the
fruits of Israeli self-slander have ripened and disarmed Israel in
defending her very existence. Ironically today we find even right-wing
spokesmen talking of Israel's occupation" of "Palestinian" land,
continuing to shoot off any remaining Israeli toes.
But here now are the very words of Eugene Rostow, former
Undersecretary of State of the US, about Israel's legal possession of
the territories of the Mandate of Palestine in his letter to the New
York Times in 1992. It must be noted that, in other discussions,
Rostow had observed that, in 1967, Israel did not cross an
international boundary when her armies entered Judea and Samaria in
defending Israel in the war the Arabs began. As Rostow noted, these
were lands to which Israel, "a high contracting party," had the only
valid, sovereign claim. Thus Israel can hardly be an illegal
"occupier" of her own lands, an oxymoron. Here in full is the text of
Rostow's letter:
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1992
EDITORIALS/LETTERS
Israeli Settlement and the Geneva Convention
To the Editor:
I apologize for an error in "Agreements Don't Bar West Bank
Settlements" (letter, March 18), on the legality of Israeli
settlements in the West Bank, which states that "international
lawyers differ on whether the 1949 Geneva Convention applies to
the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, because Israel is not a
signatory." Both Israel and Jordan did sign and ratify the
convention, Israel with a reservation.
The error does not affect my argument, however. Article 2 of the
convention provides that the agreement applies "to all cases of
partial or total occupation of the territory of a high
contracting party." Thus the convention cannot apply because the
West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip have never been
generally recognized as territories of Jordan. Jordan
administered them as a belligerent occupant between 1948 and 1967
after a war of aggression against Israel in 1948. Jordan's
attempt to annex these areas in 1950 was recognized only by
Britain (except for Jerusalem) and perhaps by Pakistan.
In any event, Jordan has formally renounced whatever claims it
may have had to the territory, which is a residual part of the
Palestine Mandate and therefore subject to the rights of "the
Jewish people" to make "close settlement" on the land. I regard
this aspect of the controversy as legally more important than
arguments based on the Geneva Convention.
EUGENE V. ROSTOW
Distinguished Fellow,
United States
Institute of Peace
Washington, March 23, 1992
The letter supplies the proof that Israeli governments have been
betraying the Jewish people's rights to their lands in the Mandate of
Palestine.
Unfortunately, short-sighted, mendacious, Leftist Israeli governments
have sworn to falsehood. They have lied to the Israeli people by
telling them that the territories are "occupied" lands so that these
governments could give away the Jewish people's lands for the sake of
building an Israeli Boribidzan -- a version of the Russian Jewish
homeland that is today empty of Jews. Thus, "toeless" Israel in its
stupidity does not even get the credit for any magnaminity in "ceding
its own lands for peace."
As Rostow wrote, the lands of the Mandate held by Jordan were not the
property of "a high contracting party," a sovereign nation, since
Jordan held those lands illegally and therefore did not fall under the
rules of the Geneva Convention. In fact, Israel was the only sovereign
nation nations with claims to the Mandate of Palestine lands. The
Arabs living in those lands lived as residents without national rights
since they were not part of any historic nation with a peoplehood that
ruled the area and were not designated by the Mandate as having the
right to build a homeland, but the Jews were.
This was evident as late as 1967 since "a Palestinian people" was
not mentioned in UN Resolution 242 and those Arabs who were
displaced during the 1967 war prior to that were considered to be
merely "refugees" and were named "refugees" in the resolution.
Had there been such an Arab "people" the UN resolution would have
certainly mentioned them.
Neither did Resolution 242 declare the lands that Israel took
possession of in the 1967 as "occupied territories." It referred
to "withdrawals from lands," and not "ALL lands" either. The
resolution did go on to use the word "occupied" in the phrase,
"lands occupied," but that usage merely identifies those lands as
lands having come into the possession of Israel, which is the
conventional, non diplomatic meaning of the word "occupied" --
like "he 'occupied' his house." In a bit of trickery foisted on
Israel, this diplomatic terminology was used to delegitimate
rightful Israeli claims and confer them on others without such
claims.
Alas, Israeli governments, to their everlasting shame, has recognized
a never-was "Palestinian people" and nation so that it can
subsequently cede the lands of the Jewish people to that new national
creation, including Jerusalem, retrojecting "historic claims" to that
new national body in the fiction that this entity had existed earlier.
Condileeza Rice was altogether wrong and spoke slander when she called
Gaza and the territories "occupied" lands. President Reagan never did
since he knew better.
It is despicable that Israeli governments have been surrendering its
own history and patrimony to a newly created rival nationality that
was founded for the sole purpose of replacing Israel. Never in history
has a nation worked so diligently and duplicitously for the purpose of
undermining and destroying itself on behalf of its enemies.
No doubt, Jews cannot conceive that the leftist leaders they so
admired as the epitome of intellectuality and the heights of admired
generalmanship were really obsessed universalists, in love with their
secular ideology and wanting to bury the Jewish roots of their nation
to create a Hebrew speaking secular Boribidzan and were willing to
pervert truth and risk the lives of their people to achieve that
vacuous national horror. The damage is incalculable since "can the
crooked be made straight?"
If Israel's people don't immediately wake up to their dismemberment
and the usurpation of their national patrimony by Arabs assisted by
Leftist Israeli leaders they will lose the entire Jewish enterprise of
Zionist return. New tactics need to be crafted to end the untenable
situation of guaranteed and irreversable, Arab nation building on
Israel's lands with Israel's role only to powerlessly sigh at her own
gradual disappearance on the world stage.
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