Distortion of History

On Monday The New York Times ran an op/ed piece from Mahmoud Abbas on "The Long Overdue Palestinian State." The article is based on a revisionist view of history that disturbs me. Here is one of the key paragraphs:

It is important to note that the last time the question of Palestinian statehood took center stage at the General Assembly, the question posed to the international community was whether our homeland should be partitioned into two states. In November 1947, the General Assembly made its recommendation and answered in the affirmative. Shortly thereafter, Zionist forces expelled Palestinian Arabs to ensure a decisive Jewish majority in the future state of Israel, and Arab armies intervened. War and further expulsions ensued.

To help put the UN partition vote in perspective, I've included the front page of The New York Times with its original coverage of that UN General Assembly vote. The final vote was 33 in favor of partitioning the land into two states and 13 opposed. The Jewish population in Palestine, though they didn't have an official vote in the UN, had agreed to the proposal. So who opposed it? Well, the Arabs living in Palestine along with 13 voting member of the UN. These were Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen. The article also makes this clear. "The walkout of the Arab delegates was taken as a clear indication that the Palestinian Arabs would have nothing to do with the Assembly's decision."

Look carefully at the list of nations opposed to a two-state solution in 1947. Apart from Greece and Cuba, the remaining 11 countries share one thing in common. They are all Muslim countries, and they include every Arab country from the Middle East that could vote!

Abbas' op/ed piece tries to blame Israel for the failure of a Palestinian state. He implies that Israel was responsible for the war that resulted in the expulsion of the Palestinians. In fact, it was the Arabs who opposed the formation of the State of Israel as part of any two state solution, and it was the Arabs (including the Palestinians) who sought to destroy Israel.

Did the ensuing conflict result in a refugee problem? Yes it did...on both sides. (Remember that hundreds of thousands of Jews were also expelled from Muslim countries following the formation of the State of Israel.) Did the conflict prohibit the formation of a State of Palestine? It did...especially after Egypt and Jordan swallowed up the land that had been allocated to a Palestinian State. Did Israel end up with more land than had been originally allocated to them by the UN? Yes they did...as the result of a war imposed on them by the surrounding countries who sought to deny the Jews the right to have a country they could call their own.

President Abbas, it is the Arabs who are ultimately responsible for the lack of a Palestinian state. Isn't it about time to stop blaming the Jews...and to acknowledge your past failures? It seems like that sort of honesty is an important first step toward any lasting peace.

Actions speak louder than words

The Palestinian leadership under President Mahmoud Abbas has been threatening unilaterally to declare statehood for Palestine. He is encouraging other countries to recognize Palestine as a state within the 1967 borders. And he appears to have the backing of President Obama, the EU, Russia, and the UN.

So it comes as some surprise to learn today that President Abbas, his two sons, and other senior Palestinian Authority leadership have quietly applied for--and received--Jordanian citizenship. According to an article in the Jerusalem Post, these individuals received their Jordanian citizenship at a time when they were publicly urging the Jordanian government to stop giving citizenship to Palestinians in order to “consolidate their Palestinian identity.”

Abbas has presented himself as the champion of statehood for the Palestinian people. But his words lose their force when we learn he quietly sought and received Jordanian citizenship for himself while publicly seeking to deny that right to other Palestinians. Reminds me of the old expression, "Do as I say, not as I do."

No room at the inn

Two thousand year's ago there was "no room at the inn" for a Jewish family and their newborn child. If Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has his way, that will remain true in the future.

Today Abbas declared, "We have frankly said, and always will say, if there is an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it." So Abbas is saying that not a single Jew would be allowed to live in any future Palestinian state. But at the same time he is also demanding the "right of return" for all Palestinians to return to the state of Israel. So Israel must allow all Palestinians to return, but the Palestinians will not allow any Jews in their country--not those living there now nor the thousands who were also dispossessed from their homes in the past.

When the UN partitioned Palestine in 1947, they voted to create two states--Israel and Palestine. They also said that Arabs and Jews who chose to live in the other state would have full rights as citizens. Israel agreed to the partition and ultimately gave citizenship to those Arabs living in towns like Nazareth, which was within the boundaries of the new state. The Palestinians refused to accept the existence of a Jewish state and went to war to oppose it...which is why a state of Palestine never came into existence. Now Abbas is saying he is willing to accept a state of Israel...as long as all Arabs who want to live there can. But he adamantly refuses to allow any Jews to live in a future Palestinian state.

And it's Abbas who wants the world to condemn Israel as the racist state!

A Jewish State?

How far apart are the Israelis and Palestinians in their current peace negotiations? Consider just one issue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said one result of any agreement must be Palestinian recognition of the Jewish State of Israel. This seems reasonable. If the goal of the talks is a two-state solution, one should expect both sides to acknowledge the existence of the other.

But today Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took issue with this assertion. "We're not talking about a Jewish state and we won't talk about one," Abbas said in an interview with the semi-official Al-Quds newspaper. "For us, there is the state of Israel and we won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state" (see http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=187417).

Abbas's reason for his position is that a Jewish state would strip Israeli-Arabs of their rights and turn them into illegal citizens. But would it? I believe the answer is no for two reasons. First, Arab citizens within Israel proper today have rights as Israeli citizens--and have since 1948. Second, U.N. Resolution 181 (the original 1947 UN resolution to partition the land and establish the states of Israel and Palestine) addressed clearly addressed this issue. By the way, Resolution 181 was accepted by the Jewish population of the land but rejected by the Arabs who were opposed to any two-state solution at that time.

Here are some excerpts from that resolution:

Religious and minority rights. Freedom of conscience and the free exercise of all forms of worship, subject only to the maintenance of public order and morals, shall be ensured to all. No discrimination of any kind shall be made between the inhabitants on the ground of race, religion, language or sex.

Citizenship. Palestinian citizens residing in Palestine outside the City of Jerusalem, as well as Arabs and Jews who, not holding Palestinian citizenship, reside in Palestine outside the City of Jerusalem shall, upon the recognition of independence, become citizens of the State in which they are resident and enjoy full civil and political rights. Persons over the age of eighteen years may opt, within one year from the date of recognition of independence of the State in which they reside, for citizenship of the other State, providing that no Arab residing in the area of the proposed Arab State shall have the right to opt for citizenship in the proposed Jewish State and no Jew residing in the proposed Jewish State shall have the right to opt for citizenship in the proposed Arab State. The exercise of this right of option will be taken to include the wives and children under eighteen years of age of persons so opting.
(To read UN General Assembly Resolution 181 in its entirety, go to: http://www.mideastweb.org/181.htm.)

The original UN declaration establishing a two-state solution specifically identified Israel as a Jewish State...and provided clear guidelines on the rights of the non-majority population within that state. Israel has largely followed these guidelines--from the use of Arabic on street signs to the freedom given to Muslims and Christians to worship without harassment.

Are the Palestinians willing to abide by the same rules? Abbas's statement today casts doubt on the sincerity of their commitment.

The prophet Amos made a wise observation, "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3, NKJV).

If there is disagreement on such a foundational issue as allowing Israel to be a Jewish State, don't expect great progress.