Friday 12 March 2010


March 12, 2010
 
"The Country of Palestine"
 
You may know that there is no country of Palestine.  And I may know it.  But that doesn't stop the Palestinian Authority from saying that there is such a country, and that Jerusalem (not "East Jerusalem") is its capital.
 
The PA has said this in a booklet put out by the PA Ministry of Tourism.  The really big news here is that this was supported by the US government, via USAID (United States Agency for International Development). The USAID logo is on the cover and someone from the PA Ministry of Tourism told me about her office's cooperation with USAID in Ramallah.
 
An article I wrote about this is in The Washington Times.  You can see it at:  (also attached below)
 
 
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Please, share this broadly.  Most importantly contact your representatives in Congress about this and ask them what the hell is going on.  Provide the URL.  (People with blogs and lists: this should go out big time.) USAID operates without Congressional approval and many in Congress will be enraged to learn how taxpayer dollars have been spent.
 

For your Congresspersons:

 

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

 

For your Senators:

 

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

 

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I've written about the Friends of the IDF dinner in NYC at which Chief of Staff Ashkenazi spoke, and the counter-demonstration in support of the IDF that was organized by Lori Lowenthal Marcus of ZStreet (www.zstreet.org) and Marvin Belsky of Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam (HRCRI).

 

Others supporting the effort included Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI), ZOA Philadelphia branch (Steve Feldman), the Hebron Fund (Yossi Baumel), and Pam Geller (Atlas Shrugs blog). 

 

Thank heaven for all of these people and more not mentioned.  We need every friend we can get in the US.  I take the time to mention them because it's important to know who our friends are.  I encourage you in the US to work with and support the efforts of these groups.

 

And to be motivated by them: to see a living example of how action is important.

 

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See the informative report of the event by Helen Freedman of AFSI:

 

http://www.zstreet.org:80/index.php?option=com_lyftenbloggie&view=lyftenbloggie&category=media%20and%20other%20bias&Itemid=26 

 

Lori says that the best revenge against the "haters" was that more than $20 million was raised at the dinner.

 

To get an idea of what the anti-IDF demonstration was like, see the video below. "Haters" really is the proper term for these demonstrators.  Continue to the end to see a vivid example of pure anti-Semitism, which in the final analysis is a major motivating factor.

 
 
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With the help of the Almighty, and determined action on the part of all of us, it will be Israel and not "haters" who will prevail.
 
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A housekeeping note made necessary by some (Netvision) transmission difficulties.  If, at any time, you go for a long period without a posting from me and I haven't indicated there would be a hiatus, check my website (below) to see if there is material you've missed. And then, let me know.
 
If you haven't been getting my posts, and then start getting them again, please let me know this, as well.
 
One can never be certain, but I hope to have matters straightened out fully before too many days. 
 
Shabbat Shalom.
 
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Rewriting history on the taxpayer dime

Just pretend pesky Israel doesn't exist
 
By Arlene Kushner    March 12, 2010     

The U.S. government, via the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has provided support for a glossy 39-page "Palestine Guide Book." Just released by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Tourism, it declares on its first page, "Palestine lies between the Mediterranean Coast and the Jordan River." Not until Page 10 are we informed - under the heading "Country" - that "Palestine comprises the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

No discrepancy here. Rather, a clear message is intended: While the "country" is restricted to certain areas, "historical Palestine," to which Muslim Arabs lay claim in its entirety, is much larger. That impression is reinforced by the Historical Map of Palestine on the last page, which shows Palestine from the river to the sea.

Under "Capital," there is a single word: "Jerusalem." This flies in the face of the official Palestinian Authority (PA) position that it seeks "East Jerusalem" as its capital.

What the PA offers here, as fact, is a vision of the country that it anticipates soon will be. Yet its underlying premise - that all area beyond the Green Line belongs to the Arabs of Palestine and will soon make up their state - is fallacious. That this booklet is founded on factual misrepresentations should not surprise. The PA is well-acquainted with the psychological truism that a lie told often enough will be believed.

A backward look provides insight into where the fallacies lie:

The League of Nations' 1922 Mandate for Palestine - allocating Palestine for a Jewish homeland - incorporated as integral parts both the West Bank and Gaza. As the mandate has never been superseded in international law, they remain areas to which Israel retains considerable claim.

When Israel declared independence in 1948, the Arab League attacked. At the war's end, Jordan controlled the West Bank, and Egypt controlled Gaza. Palestinian Arabs controlled neither of these areas. The line behind which Israel found herself - roughly what is called the Green Line - was not a final border, but an armistice line, understood by written agreement to be temporary.

After the Six-Day War of 1967, during which Israel secured control of the West Bank and Gaza, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 242. It spoke of Israeli withdrawal from "territories," but not all territories. Implicit was recognition that the Green Line as border would not provide security for Israel. In no event was Israel required to withdraw prior to negotiations. No reference was made to a Palestinian people or Palestinian state.

So how did we arrive at the present situation, with the PA boldly pretending, absent negotiations, that a country of defined parameters exists?

The Palestinian Authority - an "interim self-government authority" - was established by the 1993 Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This accord called for final status negotiations based on Resolution 242.

There is no reason to assume that the Green Line was to become Israel's final border (i.e., that all of Gaza and the West Bank would lie beyond Israel). According to Oslo, the status of Jerusalem, the status of settlements (which were not deemed illegal) and final borders were all to be discussed during final status negotiations.

The PA, awash in internal politics that are neither moderate nor conciliatory, has been displeased consistently with negotiations - despite some extraordinarily generous offers. It thus suits the PA to create "facts" unilaterally, making its case to the international community rather than at a negotiating table.

This booklet promotes fallacious positions that defy a major U.N. Security Council resolution and a written agreement between Israel and the PLO - both of which require negotiations for determination of final status for Palestinian Arabs.

It is unsettling to see the USAID logo on the back cover, but it is no accident.

Magdouline Slameh, head of the PA Ministry of Tourism Department of Materials and Translation, expressed gratitude to this writer for the wonderful support provided by USAID. She said her staff wrote the booklet in close cooperation with the USAID offices in Ramallah.

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Arlene Kushner is senior analyst for the Center for Near East Policy Research in Jerusalem.

 

Posted by Britannia Radio at 21:37