Tuesday April 8, 2014

I've Been Thinking:

As talks between Israelis and Palestinians wane and as US Secretary of State John Kerry and his associates scamper around trying to inject some sense of life into the negotiations, the Palestinians have called a meeting of the Arab League.

The Palestinian Authority will ask the Arab League for political and financial support. They will, of course, get the necessary votes for the money - but that does not mean that they will actually get the money. Promises made by the Arab League are notorious for being fulfilled in small, slow notoriously trickles and they almost never pay in full.

Palestinian pundits and talking heads are busy explaining away their current strategy and the decision to run and join UN agencies and sign on to international treaties.

One standard argument is that Palestinians cannot be expected to give up any more. They have already given up 82% of historic Palestine and their new state will only be on 12% of the land.

Here is where they are so wrong: Historic Palestine is way more than the land Israel is situated on. The Palestinians are referring to Israel as if to say that all of Israel was once theirs and they are giving all that up and accepting only a measly 12%. In reality, historic Palestine was Trans-Jordan which is far larger than the State of Israel as it exists today.

While I do not believe that the Palestinians should go to Jordan, I do think that it is essential to realize that their dream is not historical. History and all pretense of history aside, the fact is that the Palestinians want the land on which Israel, the Jewish State, is situated.

History mitigates the Palestinian rather than strengthening the claim.

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