Israel’s approaching 75th anniversary might be a good time to contrast this milestone with the 100-plus-year-old “Palestinian-Israeli” conflict. According to PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, this conflict is based his claim that “The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the State of Israel… Palestinian identity would be emphasized for political reasons.”
Thus, the concept of a Palestinian peoplehood or state is a tactic that has been employed consistently and brilliantly for the sole purpose of destroying the Jewish State of Israel. The benefit or well-being of any “Palestinian” is not the objective. Looking at three key eras: 1920-1947, 1947-1964, and 1964 until today, demonstrates this is a tactic and not an objective.
- 1920-1947. The League of Nations divided the spoils of World War I after defeating the 620-year-old Ottoman Empire, thereby creating the Mandate of Palestine. Why did the Arab leadership violently object to the League of Nations’ Mandate of Palestine? Because the result would be a Jewish state, replacing the Islamic concept of “dhimmis” (second-class citizenship for all non-Muslims, with severe religious social, and economic restrictions), historically enforced upon Jews.
- 1947-1948. Britain returned the Mandate to the UN. Discussions of Jewish statehood for Palestine began. In the UN’s own records [UN Oral History Project, Walter Eytan interview, June 20, 1990], discussions were held as to whether there should be a state for the Jews. There was never any proposal by the Arab leadership to create a country comprised of Palestinian Arabs.
Although the original Mandate of Palestine set aside a reasonable amount of land for a Jewish homeland, Winston Churchill gave away 70% of that area (Trans-Jordan) at the 1921 Cairo Conference, creating Jordan. (Perhaps the original “two-state solution.”) The remaining 30% of Palestine was further carved into what became UN Resolution 181, also known as the Partition Plan.
UN Resolution 181 was passed on November 29, 1947. Maps clearly show it was a biased, non-contiguous further division of the remaining territory designated for the Jewish homeland, into two “independent Arab and Jewish states.” This plan omitted most of the holy Jewish historical/cultural/religious locations, including Judea, Samaria and even Jerusalem.
Despite this untenable position that greatly lessened the amount of land for Jews and put them at a geographic disadvantage, Jews said, “yes”; the Arabs said “no.” Another lost “two-state solution” opportunity.
Arab objective was never to free Palestine
As soon as Israel declared itself a state, Arabs declared war. Five well-trained Arab armies attacked the fledgling State of Israel. The Arab objective was never to free Palestine and form a state for the Palestinians, but to destroy and divide Israel – north for Syria, central for Jordan, south for Egypt. Miraculously, the Arab armies failed.
Once the armistice line (“Green Line”) was drawn, the West Bank and east Jerusalem were in Jordanian hands. From 1949 until about 1964, while Jordan illegally occupied the West Bank (including half of Jerusalem), there was no outcry for Palestinian statehood from the Arab leadership or “Palestinians.”
- 1964 to present. At a 1964 conference in Egypt, Russia, Egypt, and the Arab League (not “Palestinians”) created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). There never was any Arab Palestinian peoplehood, state, or country to liberate.
WHO ARE the Palestinians and where does the name Palestine come from? Titus renamed the Israelite kingdom Palaestina (after the Philistines who had disappeared 680 years earlier) when Rome destroyed Jerusalem’s Second Jewish Temple in 70 CE. Over time, Palaestina became Palestine. Throughout history, Palestine = Holy Land = Israel (including its capital, Jerusalem) = the land of the Jewish people. Palestine by any other name is still Israel. Talk about cultural appropriation!
In June 1967, the West Bank and east Jerusalem were captured by Israel in a defensive war with Jordan – not from any country called “Palestine.”
So, you want a revolution? There are basically two types of revolutions. One is where people are revolting against the ruling autocratic government or monarchy. The other type is where people are revolting against a foreign occupier or colonial power.
This revolutionary “Palestine liberation” movement is neither. And never has been. The clear and consistent objective is the elimination of Israel as a sovereign state and the extermination of Jews as a people and religion.
In their own words below, the “liberation of Palestine” was, and still is, not their objective but their tactic. Here are just five examples:
- During the Peel Commission testimony (1937), Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, an Arab leader said, “There is no such country [as Palestine]! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country is part of Syria.”
- In May 1947, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the UN said at the General Assembly “Palestine was part of the Province of Syria… Politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity.”
- In a February 1948 UN memorandum, Azzman Pasha, the secretary-general of the Arab League, referring to May 1948 stated, “This war will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre that will be spoken of like the Mongol massacres and the Crusades.”
This article’s opening quote is from the March 31, 1977, Dutch newspaper Trouw, which published an interview with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. He said: “The Palestinian people do not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the State of Israel for our Arab unity.
“Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.”
He further explained that there were “no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese,” though Palestinian identity would be emphasized for political reasons.
- May 1994. According to The Washington Post, just after signing the Oslo Peace Accords, PLO chairman Yassar Arafat made a speech in a mosque, calling for “jihad.” He suggested that his peace agreement with Israel was just a tactical step, easily reversed. Arafat then quoted Islamic history to support the acceptability of such duplicity.
THERE ARE hundreds more examples espoused by Arab leadership, embedded in their organizational charters, all taking this tactic of a revolution for “Palestinian liberation” that consistently preaches and demands nothing less than genocide against Israel. There is no mention of a “two-state solution.” There never has been.
The “Palestine revolution” movement, using PLO lies and radicalization (used by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and others), is just one more tactical weapon in this long-standing religious war, which aims to destroy Israel and the Jewish people.
This new promising era of the Abraham Accords has brought a realization among the Arab world that this tactical weapon calling for revolution is now out of control, similar to a pandemic gone wild. This tactic of hatred has devastated generations being kept in Arabs refugee camps, brainwashed by lies of incitement, terrorism that has killed and maimed innocents, corrupted education to build the next generation of terrorists, and involved children in ways that are clearly child abuse.
For centuries, Christendom held Jews responsible for killing Jesus. In 1962, the Catholic Church declared that Jews did not kill Jesus, thus negating one of the major causes of antisemitism. Why hasn’t Islam moved forward into this interconnected diverse geopolitical modern world?
It is time for Islam to become the religion of peace it claims to be. Calling for a new thinking for Islam, on January 1, 2015, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi implored: “It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world... It’s antagonizing the entire world!”
Islam and its followers should focus their efforts on the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, rather than Jerusalem (not mentioned once in the Koran). They should focus on helping fellow Arab and Palestinian-Arab refugees become self-reliant. Focus on and solve internal problems of Islamic countries. The focus should also be on providing an education – free from hate-filled false history, but replaced with the joyful embracing of one’s fellow Arab brothers and Israeli cousins, which should become the new norm.
What a true revolution that would be.
The writer, who made aliyah in 2015, is a former NYC advertising and marketing executive, and retired Rutgers University professor. He is a history buff who is currently working on a book about revolutions. He blogs at: thetruthfulproject.blogspot.com. Twitter: @DavidsLevine