Fundamentally Freund: Welcome to the post-Palestine era

T. Belman. Freund has his numbers wrong and I told him. According to Wikipedia “As of December 2015, altogether over 800,000 Israeli Jews resided over the 1949 Armistice Lines (including east-Jerusalem neighborhoods), constituting approximately 13% of Israel’s Jewish population.[4]”. That would have increased by 35,000 in 2016 due to natural growth. This total number does not include the outposts or Nahal settlements.

Annexing Judea and Samaria will dash the delusions of those who continue to cling to the idea of the creation of “Palestine.”

By Michael Freund, JPOST

Terror Israel

Finally, after decades of perseverance, one of the most energetic and enduring diplomatic delusions of the modern era is at last giving way to reality.

Notwithstanding the recent UN Security Council vote regarding Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and US Secretary of State John Kerry’s subsequent temper tantrum on the same subject, it is time to formally pronounce the death of the so-called two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

This is not a matter of wishful thinking, ideological zeal or messianic fervor. It is a cold, hard fact and the Left and the international community need to accept that we have now entered the post-Palestine era.

Just take a look at the numbers. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are currently some 400,000 Israeli Jews living in Judea and Samaria. Add to that the more than 200,000 Jews living in eastern Jerusalem and the sum total of Jews residing in the areas liberated by Israel in 1967 is more than 600,000.

That means that nearly one out of every 10 Israeli Jews, or 10% of the Jewish population, live in “the settlements.”

And their number continues to grow at a pace that is more than twice as fast as the rest of the country, averaging around 4% per year.

Indeed, since 2001, despite waves of Palestinian violence and terrorism, including stabbings, shootings and stone-throwings, and various building freezes imposed by the Israeli government, the number of Jews calling Judea and Samaria home has more than doubled.

Remarkably, over the past 15 years, without exception, the settler population has grown annually irrespective of the economic, diplomatic or security situation.

So whether Meretz, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas or US President Barack Obama like it or not, the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria, along with eastern Jerusalem, are here to stay.

There are over 130 Jewish communities spread throughout the territories, as well as dozens of undocumented outposts. Does anyone really think it would be possible or even desirable to forcibly evict so many people from their homes? Even the Palestinians have come to accept this reality. In poll results published last week by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, a whopping two-thirds of Palestinians said they no longer believe the two-state solution is viable because of the growth of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Hence, it appears that the only people remaining who continue to believe in the establishment of a Palestinian state are those who frequent smoke-filled cocktail parties on the diplomatic circuit, where free-flowing alcohol makes the mantra of an independent “Palestine” still sound germane.

And that is precisely why recent calls by Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked for Israel to start annexing Judea and Samaria make so much sense.

Since Palestine cannot and will not arise, there is no reason for Judea and Samaria’s Jews to continue to live under military rule. Residents of Shiloh, Hebron and Tekoa are tax-paying citizens, so it is only fair that they be extended the rights that the rest of the nation enjoys.

Extending Israeli law to places such as Ariel and Kiryat Arba will once and for all remove any question marks hovering over their status in the eyes of future Israeli governments.

Bear in mind that even among the broad public there is widespread consensus that places such as Ma’aleh Adumim must remain part of Israel.

The community was built and expanded by none other than Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, both of whom repeatedly stated over the years that Ma’aleh Adumim was an inseparable part of the Jewish state.

In 1994, just a year prior to his death, Rabin told the Knesset, “A united Jerusalem will include Ma’aleh Adumim, as well as Givat Ze’ev, as the capital of Israel under Israeli sovereignty.”

Annexing Judea and Samaria will dash the delusions of those who continue to cling to the idea of the creation of “Palestine.” And with the incoming Trump administration set to assume power in two weeks, now more than ever must the Jewish state press forward with practical plans to annex the areas.

This coming May will mark 50 years since our brave soldiers liberated Judea and Samaria and reunited Jerusalem after 19 centuries of foreign occupation. The best way to celebrate this momentous anniversary would be for the Israeli government to end five decades of ambiguity and finally send a clear message to the international community: the Jewish people did not return to Zion in order to hand it over to our foes.

January 5, 2017 | 24 Comments »

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  1. xxx

    Concerning Lawrence himself, whatever his sexual proclivities, it is not well known that in fact he was never a soldier, never recieved military training, but had been picked solely because he, a practicing archaeologist, had been actively working in that and other areas for many years, was a fluent Arabic speaker, then in short supply, and knew and was friendly with the Arabs. He was appointed a 2nd lieutenant and worked as a translator in Egtpt in the intelligence dept.

    His promotions later-to major and eventually Lt. Col- occurred as a matter of protocol because he was by then dealing on a close level with the highest Arab leaders.

    Meinertzhagen, who was well acquainted with him, in his diaries said that the outwardly modest Lawrence had an unerring ability to back slowly into the limelight.

    Very little of Lawrence’s history and subsequent war activities would have come to light, if it hadn’t been for the manufactured hero-worship of Lawrence (as a commencial matter-naturally) by a writer and traveller named Lowell Thomas. He actually constructed the synthetic being that we know as “Lawrence of Arabia”, which requires a complete book in itself.

    I agree with the many military experts who say that Lawrence’s exploits, and their effect on the War, were negligible to microscopic, only blown up by Lowell Thomas’ effusive publicity, into a major historical event.

    I still have a (well-meaning) Barmitzvah gift of the “7 Pillars of Wisdom” by Lawrence-as well as several other related books on Lawrence acquired later.

  2. The last comment is very dicey even if Colonel (temporary acting…and supremely political) TE Lawrence might have been. Colonel Newcombe the regular/career Royal Engineer officer who was also in the Arab Revolt with explosives and Lewis gunners but not half as gabby or amateur remained in British Levant admin and supervised the demarcation of the Franco-British frontier culminating in the 1923 Convention.
    The Kirkbride – Abdullah story is page 53 of Sykes’ book (pbk ed) and K remained with A till after A’s death he was sent to be the first HM Ambassador to Libya. It is very easy to sneer at the British post WWI but their wartime army had been disbanded not without near mutiny at the delays to find shipping and this was the pre air transport epoch with very little radio. Remember that the Hebron and Safed fatalities in the 1929 riot happened before there was any way in which reinforcements could have arrived because Arab police were not willing to shoot their own given the blood feud nature of their society – a good reason why the Turks used gendarmerie cross posted from different provinces – as Spain till the end of Franco’s time at least.

  3. I am trying to find an affordable copy, so willlook for the Sicker book as well.

    I referred to the pre-war situation in Amman. The Turks stationed a mounted troop there, which was ordinarily enough to put the local bedouins to flight. There was a series of such outposts which were created in the attempt to prevent raids by local bedouins and to halt influx of illegal immigrants that became squatters. However, the Ottoman corruption was working here also since squatters would become ‘invisible’ and therfore untaxable income to the Turks who were nominal land title owners in the region.
    The British were very much aware of this since they used the itinerant worker flows to infiltrate Ottoman territory from Egypt, but most of their Arab ‘agents’ were either coaught, to sold out to the Ottomans. Which is why ‘Lawrence’ was sent in. He was mentaly unstable enough to do a job no other European in Allied employ with the qualifications would take on.
    I was once informed that most of the British officers that volunteerd for service with the Arab Legion had ulterior, personal motives and today would be described as ‘sexual disorders’.

  4. Martin Sicker wrote a rather more detailed book called, I think, “The Middle East in the Twentieth Century”. In it he devotes a whole long chapter to the beginnings of Transjordan, Chapter 4. I had completely forgotten about it, having only read it but not bought it.

    He says that Kirkbride, the British diplomat in charge of the “country” Moab, which he himself had formed and who had titled himself President) had only 50 policemen, and when he heard of Abdullah coming along (slowly) announcing that he was going to Damascus to fight the French for kicking his brother off the throne, (family honour you know) he was frightened and didn’t know what to do. He contacted the Colonial Office who also didn’t know what to do. This was before Churchill flew out to deal with the matter. Fright all around. You might never think that they’d just fought and won the bloodiest war in history.

    His book is rather long, and one might say that Sicker writes in longhand, whereas Sykes details in shorthand, with some anecdotes that Sicker may not have been aware of. Sykes is regarded as the definitive book however, although brief, but succinctly to the point.

  5. @ mrg3105:
    xxx

    You could be right about Amman. Sykes writes that by the time the Abdullah-ites dumped their weary bones_down, they’d spent many months slowly wandering up from Hejaz to reach Amman. The area was then called Moab and was run by, I believe, about 9 policemen of whom only 2 were British officers. So I assumed that it was merely a dot in a large expanse of sand. You’ll find the book well worth reading. If anyone knew the “inside” nuts and bolts, Sykes Jr. did, because of his lineage. I’ve had the book in storage for many years, and have not read it for far longer so perhaps the amount was 30,000 sovereigns, and, perhaps, 6 times yearly. 6 is to me multiple anyway..

    (I don’t think it was to be “total”. I know for a fact that Abdullah was a paid client of Britain for many years, and they sent him regular stipends to bolster his country. They had basically no exports worth mentioning for quite a while….perhaps dates and sand, camelhair blankets or mats etc(speculation)…. Also they sent British Officers and sergeants to train the Arabs into the most successful army in the area. Glubb Pasha should come to your mind re this).

    I was basically paraphrasing, and any reasonable library should have it or borrow it from another library. Good reading…!

  6. Edgar, I knew most of this, albeit from a variety of different sources. Will try to get the book, thank you. Didn’t know it was 20,000 gold sovereigns, and in multiple payments. My information was from memory ‘thousands of pounds’ in six payments, which I sort of assumed meant in total.
    It seems to me that calling Amman a ‘village’ is an exageration for the period. 🙂 It conjures up visions of a European village or perhaps a smallish US town. In fact my information suggests it was a RE-occupied set of ruins that Ottomans worked into the most dispised fortified outpost for a Turk to be assigned to, with primary function of safeguarding larger communities closer to coast from bedouin raids. The payments explain how Amman was built into a city 🙂

  7. mrg3105 Said:

    Correction, the creation of Trans-Jordan was also illegal!

    xxx
    NO correction needed thank you……I am aware of all that and have read the full transaction several times. The British and French were the major players in the League, and Britain forced in a clause that the British could at their option reserve or refuse to lump in, the Palestinian Province of Trans-Jordan.

    Winston Churchill flew out in a rickety old aeroplane to “stop” Feisal’s brother Abdullah, who had been camped at the village of Amman, with a rag-tag bunch of 800-900 bandits for about 7 months on his very lethargic way to “attack” the French in Damascus. They had thrown his brother Feisal (Lawrences friend) off the Damascus throne, on which he had just set himself for 2-3 months. (Britain cossetted him by giving him the throne of Mesopotamia).

    Because the Brits were (always) in a dicy situation with the French, He offered Abdullah to be the Emir of Trans-Jordan if he called off his “attack”.. Abdullah eagerly grabbed it with both hands -on condition that the British would send him 20,000 (?) gold sovereigns at regular intervals. This was duly done, carried by camel, in leather sacks. I got the above information from the very definitive book “Crossroads To Israel” by Christopher Sykes, who was the son of Sir Mark Sykes, who with Francois Picot had carved up the area in 1915. It was called the Sykes-Picot Agreement, I suggest you read it. An excellent book. I bought it about 50 years ago and still have it.

  8. DNC chair candidate forum to be held at a Code Pink hangout, a restaurant owned by anti-Israel activist Andy Shallal, where he sells Code Pink t-shirts “Occupation isn’t pretty”
    (candidate Tom Perez has not confirmed attendance)

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/01/perfect-dnc-chair-candidate-forum-to-be-held-at-anti-israel-restaurant.php

    Maybe the date is at the Free Beacon link. Powerline has more details.

    Perhaps when DJT called Schumer a clown, DJT was thinking of the scary clowns that appeared before the election. My bet is DJT will pursue all Soros links, including those creepy clowns.

  9. @ CuriousAmerican:
    China seems to have overbuilt housing, many apt. towers sit empty. Move-in ready!

    @ mrg3105:
    Mongolia is a nice country, struggling with internal problems. Not enough camel milk to spare. (Watch “Weeping Camel”, a wonderful film)

  10. @ CuriousAmerican:

    The best solution is to DILUTE the PA population world-wide. How this works is that the existing Arab ‘refugee’ population is divided proportionally by the administrative government entities around the World.
    There are for example 3,144 counties in the USA, so the US portion of the population would be divided up based on demographic proportion from largest to smalles. This would be based on ‘Palestinians’ already in th evarious countries, so in the US counties example, some already have more than their share of this quota. However, there are many US county equivalent administrative regions in Mongolia for example tht are ‘Palestinian’-poor, and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) doesn’t have any ‘Palestinians’ at all to enrich its demographic diversity 🙂 Given there is lots of space available on the Lena River West Bank, they can perhaps resettle more there.

  11. to curious american: so the arabs refuse to take in their own brothers? Why should the jews take them in instead?
    Wrong conclusion: there are so many bleeding heart nations out there like eurabia and obamaland that really like the arabs, so let them take the whole bunch.

  12. Edgar G. Said:

    @ MELECH david:
    xxx
    Correction…neither the Hashemites nor the Brits had any authority, explicit or implied, to sell a single grain of sand of the Jewish Land from the Jordan River to the Sea. The Mandate Conditions forbade a single scrap of the Land from being transferred. The Brits were appointed by the LoN to carefully see that the Jews-and only the Jews -should settle all over the land, “closely” is I believe, the term used in the document, and it was a caretaker position only, with restricted rights of governorship, until the Jews were competent and strong enough to form their Jewish State, when they would then take over.

    I welcome correction (with details) if wrong.

    You must be Brit yourself, so you should know this, as I assume that you’be read the LoN document in full including the important Preamble.

    Correction, the creation of Trans-Jordan was also illegal!

  13. Joe Blaugh Said:

    George Soros will purchase a large territory somewhere in the world, and it will be called Obamaland. That is where they can move to. Call it the ultimate “Obamacare.”

    And Obama can be their new president 🙂

  14. MELECH david Said:

    Remove the fake name word Palestine, the arabs who live in J. S and can show ties prior to 1922 should be allowed to stay. those arriving during brits and hasimites occupation are illegals. any so called land purchases by the and registered by the brits and hashimites are fake, false and should be told right up front of no value. ISRAEL has no need to give them cash to leave just a one way bus ticket to the border would suffice

    kol hakavod!

  15. One thing is for sure… if we the people.. had spoken up to represent OURSELVES, the Kings would have to get off their high horses and listen to us. It would have required large numbers marching in the streets and up to their front doors… but it could have been done! They are not Kings; they are mere mortals capable of causing ruination..and of that .. and for every piece of filth swept under the flying carpets… the proof is in the bloodshed of Jewish blood crying out from the ground.

    WHY DIDN’T WE BELIEVE THEM WHEN THEY SENT ROCKETS, STABBED US TO DEATH, GUNNED US DOWN IN OUR CARS, KILLED US IN SYNAGOGUES, MURDERED COUNTLESS INNOCENT LIVES, AND CREPT INTO THE SACRED DOMAIN OF OUR HOMES TO OBLITERATE US? WHY DID WE DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF THE NATIONS WHEN THEIR DELUSIONS OF PEACE INSULTED REALITY?! Honesty was and is the best policy. Call the kettle black when it’s black and stop going along with idiotic insanities.

    The simplest answer of all was simply to say, The land is our covenant land forever and if you don’t understand what that means, take your complaint to The God of Israel. I’m sure he’d be happy to explain it to you loud and clear… and bring your captains and kings and allah along for the hearing. We will stand back while you listen to Him.

  16. @ CuriousAmerican:
    if the brits allowed them in during their occupation as with the JEWS living in mandated pally + the JEWISH immigrants they have a right to brit citizenship. if a parab state was allowed on mandated land as with ISRAEL both have the right to apply for commonwealth membership. why? because the brits ruled using brit law.

  17. xxx
    I really wanted to comment on Freund, and got sidetracked by the need to set the the other posters straight.(assuming that I’m correct).

    MY complaint about Freund is that in his own way, he is just as Mashugga as Einat Wilf, because he travells around the world picking up “lost” tribes and spending his multimillions in having a compliant Rabbi declare them “a Lost Jewish Tribe”, and thren more millions in beinging them to Israel (THAT must take bribery on a large scale itself).

    It’s a bee in his bonnet, buzzing around inside and driving him to this crazy scheme. He finds indigenous tribesmen in the far reaches of the globe, just recently beginning a form of Judaism, (usually because of a drug induced headsman’s dream) former, Christians, Animists, cannibals, and who knows what else. If examined scientifically I’m sure there may be traces of the last succulent meal enjoyed by them, provided by the captives of a neighbouring enemy..

    It reminds me a a Mark Twain story which I have in a very obscure book of his anecdotes, and which is NOT included in any COMPLETE Mark Twain publicatiuon I have ever seen. As follows…..
    declaiming
    Twain and a friend were visiting the (then) Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) and declaiming on Missionaries to the interested savages and how they had been often slaughtered for their zeal. The chiefs were vociferous in their praise, untl Twain casually mentioned that they’d been somewhere around the Sandwich Islands…

    there was along, awkward pause and then one of the chiefs blurted out…

    “welll waht did they want to come foolin’ around hiyar fur”……. I ofen wonder if such a thing could happen to Freund.

    He would be far more blessed if he took all that money and concentrated on preventing unneccessary abortions. If he did this, the results would dwarf Aliya on which untold billions are spent in mostly futile efforts, considering the meagre-by comparison numbers- (including large “perks” for the favoured Shalicim of the party in Power)….. I think you all know what I mean by that.

  18. @ MELECH david:
    xxx
    Correction…neither the Hashemites nor the Brits had any authority, explicit or implied, to sell a single grain of sand of the Jewish Land from the Jordan River to the Sea. The Mandate Conditions forbade a single scrap of the Land from being transferred. The Brits were appointed by the LoN to carefully see that the Jews-and only the Jews -should settle all over the land, “closely” is I believe, the term used in the document, and it was a caretaker position only, with restricted rights of governorship, until the Jews were competent and strong enough to form their Jewish State, when they would then take over.

    I welcome correction (with details) if wrong.

    You must be Brit yourself, so you should know this, as I assume that you’be read the LoN document in full including the important Preamble.

  19. George Soros will purchase a large territory somewhere in the world, and it will be called Obamaland. That is where they can move to. Call it the ultimate “Obamacare.”

  20. @ MELECH david:
    those arriving during brits and hasimites occupation are illegals.

    Where would you deport them since the Arabs refuse to take them?

    All solutions should ideally be practicable.

  21. Remove the fake name word Palestine, the arabs who live in J. S and can show ties prior to 1922 should be allowed to stay. those arriving during brits and hasimites occupation are illegals. any so called land purchases by the and registered by the brits and hashimites are fake, false and should be told right up front of no value. ISRAEL has no need to give them cash to leave just a one way bus ticket to the border would suffice