Tuesday, March 01, 2011

  Creating a Palestinian State

from Dr. Dore Gold's interview by Michael Tuchfeld
Nadene Goldfoot

The Palestinians are going to ask the UN Security Council again to create Palestine for them.  I'd like to point out that Hebrews arrived in present day Israel under Joshua, and afterwards were led by King David.  Independent Hebrew Kingdoms were a fact for more than 1,600 years in what the Romans later called "Palestine."  It was Judea that was renamed Palestine because the Romans were trying to dejudaise it.  Thousands of Jews remained in large communities such as Jerusalem, Safad (where I lived) Tiberias and Hebron.  There were Jews in smaller communities also such as Gaza, Rafah, Ashkelon, Caesarea, Jaffa, Acre, and Jerico.  Many Jews have remained in the land up to 1948 when it again became Israel.  Right now Palestinians have been trying to whitewash our connection with the land, even with Jerusalem.  This is a travesty to history. 

The American position has been that the UN was not created to deal with political issues such as Palestine and Israel's needs.  In doing this, what will happen is that the UN will predetermine the borders without any negotiations.  America uses its veto because it's been in American interests to do so and hopefully will veto this again. 

The settlements are a very sensitive issue.  This vote is designed to take Israel back to the 1967 borders.  This took place from June 5th to June 10th 1967 in what is called "The Yom Kippur War" or the Six Day War, when Egypt, then known as the United Arab Republic, Jordan and Syria all attacked Israel on their holiest of holy days, The Day of Repentence, when all of Israel was fasting.  The world must recognize Israel's needs of security in this geography and not allow this to happen.  

Only Carter's government hadn't felt  that the Israeli settlements were legal, and he's been accusatory of Israel ever since his presidency with his books and actions.  They all thought the settlements were an obstacle to peace, however.  I hope that they now see that it isn't settlements that deter peace but the unwillingness  of the Palestinians who have refused to accept even a cupful of a Jewish Israel who have kept peace from happening.  Even Professor Rostow from Yale Law School stated that Israel had the right to build in the settlements.  I feel that as long as the Palestinians were unwilling and continue to do so to this day to stop fighting Israel, and come to a peace settlement, Israel had the right to inhabit the land that was not only formerly theirs for upteen generations, but that all the Arab countries had sacrificed in their zeal to attack and kill off Israel.  Blood-letting acts deserve an effect, and that is to have lost Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem and whatever else they think they should obtain.  Why on earth should they be rewarded for their horrible greedy behavior? 

It was Arafat who asked for a building freeze on the settlements  and luckily Peres and Rabin refused to do this.  Arafat then gave up and told Abbas to sign the Oslo Accords in 1993.  Legally, Israel has no legal reason to stop construction because of this signing. 

My opinion is that the Palestinians are still imbued with hatred for Israel and Jews and are in no way ready to be good neighbors and not be a threat to Israel.  Gaza must be considered as well as the West Bank and it is as hateful as a hungry rattlesnake who is striking with missiles and rockets constantly.  Much change has to happen before they prove themselves to be trusted. and ready for nationhood. 

After living through a horrible attack of many Muslim countries in 1967 and winning, why should Israel be punished to go back to those impossible-to-defend borders, especially at a time when it needs a better defensive position?  This has become a very unstable era in the Middle East.  I'd like to see a time when the UN starts pressing the Palestinians to instead accept Israel as being a Middle East member who is there to stay after their struggles of 63 years.  Like Oprah Winfrey says, hating only hurts your own body.  Or like my idol, Golda Meir had said, when the Palestinians start loving their own children as much as the Jews love theirs, then there is hope for peace between the two.  She would not have been surprised at how Palestinian chldren  have been sacrificed by their own parents in their hatred for Israel. 


Dr. Dore Gold, a former Israeli UN Ambassador, is president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. 
Alan Dershowitz: The Case for Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War

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