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Arabs and Iran Have
Now 22 States = 10% of World's Land
Area.
Palestinian State
Never
Existed. Small
Israel Supports Creation of Arab Palestinian State in Disputed West
Bank and Gaza
Strip, if Democratic and Peaceful.
Israel Singled Out for Occupying Small Areas,
Harbours of Terrorism, Bordering the Capital Jerusalem and Israeli Population
Centers.
 Today, the defense of Israeli
population centers against Palestinian terrorism
necessitates the partial (re)occupation of the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip.
Of the
original 1922 League of
Nations Palestine Mandate to establish the Jewish National Home (120,000 sq
km), Israel got only
17% (20,330 sq km), while Arab Jordan got 77% (91,971 sq km). Golan
Heights (1,200 sq km): 1%.
The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are the remaining 5% of
the former British Mandate and are today under Israeli or
Arab Palestinian home rule,
their
current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim
Agreement, their permanent status to be determined through further
negotiation.
The United Nations General Assembly partition resolution of
November 29, 1947 envisioned the creation of three separate entities: a
Jewish state, an Arab state, and an internationalized Jerusalem.
The
Arab Palestinians rejected the United Nation's partition
plan. When the
mandate ended on May 15, 1948, only one of the three projected entities – Israel
– emerged. On that date, in clear violation of the assembly resolution and of
general international law, five Arab countries invaded Israel in an attempt to
destroy the nascent Jewish state. At war's end, Israel survived, the Gaza Strip
came under Arab
Egyptian occupation,
and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, came under
Arab
Jordanian occupation.
During the
1967 war, Israel seized the West Bank (5,860 sq km) from Arab Jordan and took the Gaza Strip (360 sq km) from Arab Egypt, not from the Arab Palestinians. Following peace
agreements with Israel, today Egypt
and Jordan do not claim former mandate territories.
Israel clearly has a superior title to the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip of any other claimant, since it is the only entity legitimately to
survive from the 1947-48 era.
The disputed West
Bank and Gaza
Strip area of 6,220 sq km is
matching equivalent to a circle with a radius of 45 km.
This is 1/2400 (0.04%!) of the total area of the Arab world & Iran (15.15
million sq km):
Land cannot possibly be the
contentious issue as the Arabs and Iran already have 750 times as much territory
as Israel and 2,400 times as much territory as the disputed West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Arabs and Iran have 60 times the population of Israel, all of the oil reserves of the region and 22
states of their own – all
varying shades of police states.
Almost all Arab states &
Iran have disputes over enormous territories and populations. Arab Syria occupies Arab Lebanon, 50% larger than the West
Bank. Arab
Morocco occupies the Saharawi
Arab Republic (45 times as big as the size of the
West Bank) while the Saharawi Arabs
have been vegetating for decades in the world's worst refugee
camps.
Even peaceful Western states like Denmark have such disputes, often over huge overseas
territories. The United States & Great Britain occupy distant lands &
preemptively overthrow overseas governments for security reasons.
Great Britain went to war for the Falkland
Islands, 14,000 km from London. But Israel is singled out for occupying small areas, harbours of terrorism, bordering the
Capital Jerusalem and Israeli population centers.
Examples:
 CIA World Factbook (Denmark): Rockall
continental shelf dispute involving Denmark,
Iceland, and the UK (Ireland and the UK have signed a
boundary agreement in the Rockall area); dispute with Iceland over the Faroe Islands' fisheries
median line boundary within 200 NM; disputes with Iceland, the UK, and Ireland
over the Faroe Islands continental shelf boundary outside 200 NM;
Faroese are considering
proposals for full independence." CIA World Factbook (Greenland): "The world's largest
non-continental island ... Denmark continues to
exercise control of Greenland's foreign affairs ... Land Area: 2,166,086 sq km
(410,449 sq km ice-free, 1,755,637 sq km ice-covered)."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km & Greenland: 2.2 million sq km]
Denmark -
Greenland and the Faroe Islands (Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs):
"Greenland and the Faroes are part of the
kingdom of Denmark, but are
largely self-governing. Legislation formally comes under the
Danish Folketing which includes two representatives from Greenland, but in
practical terms the Greenland Landsting administers almost all legislative
matters. This does not apply to the country's
foreign policy, Greenland's mineral rights, the police and judicial
system, or to the Greenland Command in Grønnedal. The most
senior Danish representative in the area is a Commissioner appointed under the
Royal Seal."
Genocides, Crimes and Massacres Committed by the PLO and the
Syrians Against the Lebanese, 1975-2002 (Guardians of the Cedars)
Freedom for Araby? (Amir Taheri, Iranian author, JP,
Feb 27, 2003):) "The new Arab regime had waged war not only on its
own society; almost inevitably, it also became involved in a series of external
wars none of which reflected the national interests of the countries concerned
...
In 1960 Nasser
intervened in Yemen, first
through covert operations, and then by despatching a 60,000-strong occupation
army to be bogged down there for almost seven years. In the early 1960s
Nasserist agents and sympathisers engineered the annexation of Syria to Egypt. In 1967 Nasser
provoked another, and more disastrous, war with Israel, ending up with the loss
of the Sinai Peninsula and the Israeli army dipping its feet in the Suez Canal.
Syria, Jordan and Iraq also participated in that war, thus sharing Egypt's
defeat. Egypt also became involved in smaller
military operations in the Sudan, Congo, Somalia, and the British protectorates
of southern Arabia.
The Iraqi
military regime flexed its muscles with an attempted annexation of Kuwait in 1961 setting
a pattern that was to continue for three decades. Between 1969 and 1975 it was
engaged in a major, but highly unpublicised, frontier war against Iran that ended with Iraqi capitulation in
1975. In 1977 Iraq was
involved in a military showdown with Turkey over the waters
of the River Euphrates. Border clashes took place
between Syria and Iraq in 1978. In 1980 Iraq invaded Iran, starting a war that
lasted eight years and claimed a million lives on both sides. And
in 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait
and has been in a state of war against the United Nations ever since.
The
Syrian military regime, for its part, clashed
with Turkey, over the Iskanderun enclave, and fought
several battles with the Jordanian army
under the pretext of protecting the Palestinians. From the
late 1950s onwards, military intervention in
Lebanon was to become a permanent feature of Syrian policy.
Syria, alongside Egypt, was involved in the 1973
war against Israel.
Other Arab
military regimes had their share of war on varying scales.
Algeria triggered a war against
Morocco
over Spanish Sahara from the 1970s onwards. In the 1980s Libya invaded Chad which, despite the
investment of billions of dollars, ended up with a decisive defeat for Colonel
Muammar Kaddhafi's regime."
CIA World Factbook (United Kingdom): "Spain and UK are discussing "total shared
sovereignty" over Gibraltar, subject to a constitutional referendum by
Gibraltarians, who have largely expressed opposition to any form of cession to
Spain; Mauritius and
Seychelles claim the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian
Ocean Territory) and its former inhabitants, who reside chiefly in Mauritius,
but in 2001 were granted UK citizenship and the right to repatriation since
eviction in 1965; Argentina
claims the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South
Sandwich Islands; Rockall continental shelf dispute involving Denmark and Iceland;
territorial claim in Antarctica (British
Antarctic Territory) overlaps Argentine claim and partially
overlaps Chilean claim; disputes with
Iceland, Denmark, and Ireland over the Faroe Islands
continental shelf boundary outside 200 NM."
Falkland Islands War (Encyclopaedia Britannica): "... also
called Falklands War, Malvinas War, or South Atlantic War, a brief, undeclared
war fought between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982 over the control of the
Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and associated island dependencies."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
Turkish occupation
and ethnic cleansing in Cyprus (Le Monde diplomatique): "After the
Turkish occupation of the north of the island and the forced transfer of
populations, the two communities - Turkish in the north and Greek in the south -
are now strictly separated by a demarcation line."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
Greek and Turkish claims in the Aegean (Le Monde
diplomatique)
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
The
Russian kaleidoscope (Le Monde diplomatique): The plethora of religions and
ethno-linguistic families in the 21 republics of the Russian Federation, on 17
million sq km.
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
Conflict in the Caucasus (Le Monde
diplomatique)
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
Regions disputed by Pakistan, India and China since 1947 (Le Monde
diplomatique)
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
Rivalry in the
China Sea (Le Monde diplomatique)
[Compare:
size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
Millions of refugees in Africa (Le Monde
diplomatique)
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (France): "Madagascar claims Bassas da India, Europa
Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, and Tromelin Island;
Comoros claims Mayotte;
Mauritius claims Tromelin
Island; territorial dispute between Suriname and
French Guiana; territorial claim in Antarctica (Adelie Land); Matthew and
Hunter Islands, east of New Caledonia, claimed by France and Vanuatu."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km & Falkland Islands: 12,000 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Norway):
"Norway asserts a territorial
claim in Antarctica (Queen
Maud Land and its continental shelf); despite recent discussions,
Russia and Norway continue to dispute
their maritime limits in the Barents Sea and Russia's
fishing rights beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty
zone."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Lebanon): "Syrian troops in northern, central,
and eastern Lebanon since October 1976."
Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty
Restoration Act of 2003, H. R. 1828, signed into law by U.S. President Bush on
Dec 12, 2003: "To halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, and stop its
development of weapons of mass destruction, and by so doing hold Syria
accountable for the serious international security problems it has caused in the
Middle East, and for other purposes."
[Compare:
size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
The Kurds, a people divided (Le Monde
diplomatique)
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Western Sahara): "Morocco virtually annexed Western Sahara in 1976, and
the rest of the territory in 1979. Part of the people of Western Sahara live as
refugees for decades. A referendum on final status has been
repeatedly postponed. The territory is contested by Morocco and Polisario Front
(Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro), which
in February 1976 formally proclaimed a government-in-exile of the Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic (SADR); territory partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania
in April 1976, with Morocco acquiring northern two-thirds; Mauritania, under
pressure from Polisario guerrillas, abandoned all claims to its portion in
August 1979; Morocco moved to occupy that sector shortly thereafter and has
since asserted administrative control; the Polisario's government-in-exile was
seated as an OAU member in 1984; guerrilla activities continued sporadically,
until a UN-monitored cease-fire was implemented 6 September 1991 ... Area:
266,000 sq
km"
[Compare: size of
disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Morocco): "Claims and administers Western
Sahara, but sovereignty remains unresolved; UN-administered
cease-fire has remained in effect since September 1991, but attempts to hold a
referendum have failed and parties reject other proposals; Spain controls three small possessions off the
coast of Morocco - the islands of Penon de Alhucemas, Penon de Velez de la
Gomera, and Islas Chafarinas and two autonomous communities on the coast of
Morrocco - Ceuta and Mellila; Morocco rejected Spain's unilateral designation of
a median line from the Canary Islands in 2002 to explore undersea resources and
to interdict illegal refugees from Africa.
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
Moroccan Agenda: Not Just an Islet. Envoy Revives Subject of
Spain's North African Enclaves (Desmond Boylan, Wahington Post, Jul 20,
2002): "... dispute over ownership of a tiny island off North Africa, as
Morocco injected the thorny subject of two
enclaves that Spain controls on the Moroccan coast."
CIA World Factbook (Egypt): "Egypt
and Sudan each claim to administer triangular areas which
extend north and south of the 1899 Treaty boundary along the 22nd Parallel (in
the north, the "Hala'ib Triangle", is the largest with 20,580 sq km); in 2001, the two states agreed
to discuss an "area of integration" and withdraw military forces in the
overlapping areas."
[Compare: size of disputed
Westbank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA
World Factbook (Libya): "Libya claims about
19,400 sq km in Niger as well as part of southeastern Algeria in currently
dormant disputes."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Iran): "Despite restored diplomatic
relations in 1990, Iran lacks
maritime boundary with Iraq
and disputes land boundary, navigation channels, and other issues from
eight-year war; UAE seeks
United Arab League and other international support against Iran's occupation of
Greater Tunb Island (called Tunb al Kubra in Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Tonb-e
Bozorg in Persian by Iran) and Lesser Tunb Island (called Tunb as Sughra in
Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Kuchek in Persian by Iran) and attempts to
occupy completely a jointly administered island in the Persian Gulf (called Abu
Musa in Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Abu Musa in Persian by Iran); Iran insists
on division of Caspian Sea into five equal sectors while Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and
Turkmenistan have generally agreed upon equidistant seabed
boundaries; Iran threatens to conduct oil exploration in Azerbaijani-claimed
waters, while interdicting Azerbaijani activities."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Iraq): "Despite restored diplomatic
relations in 1990, lacks maritime boundary with Iran and disputes land boundary, navigation
channels, and other issues from eight-year war; in November
1994, Iraq formally accepted
the UN-demarcated border with Kuwait which had been spelled out in Security
Council Resolutions 687 (1991), 773 (1993), and 883 (1993); this formally ends
earlier claims to Kuwait and to Bubiyan and Warbah islands although the
government continues periodic rhetorical challenges; dispute over water
development plans by Turkey
for the Tigris and Euphrates rivers."
[Compare:
size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Oman): "Oman signed a boundary treaty with
the UAE in 1999, but the completed boundary is not expected until the end of
2002; undefined segments of the Oman-UAE boundary remain with Ra's al-Khaymah
and Ash Shariqah (Sharjah) emirates, including the Musandam Peninsula, where an
administrative boundary substitutes for an international
boundary."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Saudi Arabia): "Demarcation of delimited
boundary with Yemen involves
nomadic tribal affiliations; because details of 1974 and 1977 treaties have not
been made public, the exact location of the Saudi
Arabia-UAE boundary is unknown and status is considered de
facto."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Somalia): "Most of the southern half of
the boundary with Ethiopia is
a provisional administrative line; in the Ogaden, regional states have
established a variety of conflicting relationships with the Transitional
National Government in Mogadishu, feuding factions in Puntland region, and the
economically stabile break-away "Somaliland"
region; Djibouti maintains economic ties and border
accords with "Somaliland" leadership while politically supporting Somali
Transitional National Government in Mogadishu; arms smuggling and Oromo rebel
activities prompt strict border regime with Kenya."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Sudan): "Sudan
agrees in 2002 to demarcate whole boundary with Ethiopia; Egypt
and Sudan
each claim to administer triangular areas which extend north and south of the
1899 Treaty boundary along the 22nd Parallel (the north "Hala'ib Triangle" is
the largest with 20,580 sq km); in 2001, the two states agreed to discuss an
"area of integration" and withdraw military forces in the overlapping areas;
since colonial times, Kenya's
administrative boundary has extended beyond its treaty boundary into Sudan
creating the 'Ilemi Triangle'".
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
CIA World Factbook (Syria): "Golan Heights is
Israeli-occupied; dispute
with upstream riparian Turkey
over Turkish water development plans for the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; Syrian
troops in northern, central, and eastern Lebanon since October 1976; Turkey is quick to rebuff any perceived Syrian
claim to Hatay province"
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
We need another PLO (Arab-American journalist Joseph Farah, WND, Sep 2,
2003): "Syrian troops deny Lebanon – one of
only two Middle East nations with a recent history of representative government
– its sovereignty and freedom. ... In addition, under Syrian
control, Lebanon has become a haven for terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and
other terrorist organizations. It has become a major producer of heroin and
other drugs. Syrian domination has resulted in the worst imaginable human-rights
abuses. People just disappear off the streets."
CIA World Factbook (United Arab
Emirates):
"Oman signed boundary treaty
with the UAE in 1999, but complete UAE-Oman boundary line is not expected until
the end of 2002; undefined segments remain with Ra's al-Khaymah and Ash Shariqah
(Sharjah) emirates, including the Musandam Peninsula, where an administrative
boundary substitutes for an international boundary; because details of 1974 and
1977 treaties have not been made public, the exact location of the
Saudi Arabia-UAE boundary is
unknown and status is considered de facto; UAE seeks United Arab League and
other international support against Iran's
occupation of Greater Tunb Island (called Tunb al Kubra in
Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Bozorg in Persian by Iran) and Lesser Tunb
Island (called Tunb as Sughra in Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Kuchek in
Persian by Iran) and attempts to occupy completely a jointly administered island
in the Persian Gulf (called Abu Musa in Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Abu Musa in
Persian by Iran)."
[Compare: size of disputed West Bank & Gaza Strip: 6,220 sq km]
 Geneva
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War,
Part I, Art. 3: "(1)
Persons taking no active part in the hostilities,
including members of armed forces who have laid down their
arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention,
or any other cause, shall in
all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded
on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar
criteria. To this end the following acts are and
shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to
the above-mentioned persons: (a) violence to life and person, in particular
murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and
torture;"
Without distinction - attacks on civilians by Palestinian armed groups
(Amnesty International): "The deliberate
killing of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups amounts to crimes
against humanity. As defined in the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court, crimes against humanity are various acts committed
as part of a ''widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian
population'', ''pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organization's
policy to commit such attack''. (71) The specified acts include murder, torture
and ''other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great
suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.'' (72)
Crimes against humanity do not require a link to an armed conflict - they can be
committed either in peacetime or in wartime. The
deliberate killings of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups and
individuals are both widespread and systematic, and are perpetrated as part of a
publicly announced policy to target civilians. They
therefore satisfy the definition of crimes against humanity included in the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court, which is recognized as reflecting
customary international law. War crimes and crimes against humanity are among
the most serious crimes under international law, and represent offences against
humanity as a whole. Bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice is
therefore the concern and the responsibility of the international community.
This view is illustrated in the Preamble to the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court, adopted in July 1998, which affirms that the most
serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go
unpunished and that their effective prosecution must be ensured by taking
measures at the national level and by enhancing international
cooperation."
Which Came First - Terrorism or "Occupation"?
(MFA)
Myth: United
Nations Security Council Resolution 242 calls for immediate Israeli withdrawal
to pre-1967 borders:
Fact: Resolution 242 makes two points in relation to drawing borders in the
Middle East. First, it calls for a "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from
territories occupied in the recent conflict." Notably, there is no article or
modifier applied to the word "territories." This is in fact not a semantic
detail; the omission was deliberate and meant to highlight the fact that there
was no expectation that Israel would be forced to resume the pre-1967 borders.
Efforts by Soviet First Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov failed to
convince the council members that adding the word "all" would be productive; the
Security Council rejected the Soviet draft and unanimously adopted the
British-drafted text as Resolution 242. Moreover, Resolution 242 calls for
"Termination of all claims or states of belligerence and respect for and
acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political
independence of every State in the area, and their right to live in peace within
secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." Such
recognition by the Arab powers of Israel's right to peaceful existence has never
occurred. Eugene Rostow, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Public Affairs
at Yale University and Chairman of the Interdepartmental Control Group
responsible for shaping U.S. policy in the Middle East at the time, wrote,
"until the states concerned in the dispute make peace in accordance with
Resolution 242, the Security Council decided, Israel could remain in the
territories it held after the Six Day War as occupying power. The legality and
legitimacy of its presence as occupying power is thus certified by the Security
Council."
From "occupied
territories" to "disputed territories" (Dore Gold): "The
politically-loaded term "occupied territories" or "occupation" seems to apply
only to Israel and is hardly ever used when other territorial disputes are
discussed, especially by interested third parties. For example, the U.S.
Department of State refers to Kashmir as "disputed areas. Similarly in its
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the State Department describes the
patch of Azerbaijan claimed as an independent republic by indigenous Armenian
separatists as "the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh."
 INTERNATIONAL LAW
AND THE ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT
(Extracts from "Israel and Palestine - Assault
on the Law of Nations", Prof. Julius Stone): (PDF
1.4 MB)
"The legality of Israel's presence in Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria and Gaza has been the subject of heated argument since 1967. Some regard
these areas as illegally occupied, others as disputed territories and there is
an obvious need for clarity if the subject is to be discussed rationally in
terms of facts rather than assumptions."
Lausanne Peace Treaty of Jan 30, 1923, Convention Concerning the
Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations (Turkish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs): "The Government of the Grand
National Assembly of Turkey and the Greek Government have agreed upon the
following provisions: Article 1 As from the 1st May, 1923, there shall take
place a compulsory exchange of Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox religion
established in Turkish territory, and of Greek nationals of the Moslem religion
established in Greek territory. These persons shall not return to live in Turkey
or Greece respectively without the authorisation of the Turkish Government or of
the Greek Government respectively."
Forced
Population Transfers: Institutionalised Ethnic Cleansing as the Road to New
(In-) Stability? The European Experience (Stefan Wolff, Department of European
Studies, University of Bath/UK)
My new Muslim hero (Arab-American journalist Joseph Farah, WND, Nov 28,
2001): "...
Zohair Hamdan, the muktar of the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Sur Bahir, was gunned down by would-be
assassins who fired nine rounds, hitting the Arab peace
crusader with five. When Jerusalem's Arab
neighborhoods were scheduled to fall under Palestinian Authority control under
the peace plan of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Hamdan protested,
saying he would prefer to remain under Israeli sovereignty rather than
Arafat's. Courageously, Hamdan did something that is without
precedent in the world of Arab politics. He launched a petition campaign,
collecting more than 10,000 signatures of Jerusalem Arabs opposing Arafat's
rule."
Revisiting the Six-Day War (Arab-American journalist Joseph Farah, WND,
Jan 23, 2003): "Occupation, occupation,
occupation. If you listen to Arabs, that's the cause of the conflict with Israel
– occupation."
Medina, Islam's second holiest city, was originally a Jewish
"settlement": "The city of Medina, some 280 miles north
of Mecca, had originally been settled by Jewish tribes from
the north, especially the Banu Nadir and Banu Quraiza. The comparative richness
of the town attracted an infiltration of pagan Arabs who came at first as
clients of the Jews and ultimately succeeded in dominating them. Medina, or, as
it was known before Islam, Yathrib, had no form of stable government at all. The
town was tom by the feuds of the rival Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj, with the
Jews maintaining an uneasy balance of power. The latter, engaged mainly in
agriculture and handicrafts, were economically and culturally superior to the
Arabs, and were consequently disliked.... as soon as the Arabs had attained
unity through the agency of Muhammad they attacked and ultimately eliminated the
Jews." (Professor Bernard Lewis, Arabs in History, p. 40).
"I worked for 18 months to try to put in place a plan that
would allow Chairman Arafat to demonstrate his leadership. We would have been
way along if the violence had been brought down. Chairman Arafat simply did not
seize any of these opportunities to bring the violence under control. Moreover,
after the Israelis pulled back from the recent occupation ... we thought maybe
we have some movement. What we saw instead were more bombing. Bombing after
bombing after bombing after bombing, day after day. Frankly, we also saw
continuing indications that there was complicity with the senior levels in the
Palestinian Authority."
- US Secretary
of State Colin Powell, CBS' "Face the Nation", June 30,
2002
President Bush's call of June 24, 2002 to the
Palestinians, to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, end incitement to
violence in official media, elect new leaders not compromised by terror, and
embrace democracy.
The
National Security Strategy of the United States of America (President George W.
Bush, White House, Sep 2002): "We
must adapt the concept of imminent threat to the capabilities and objectives of
today’s adversaries ... The
targets of these attacks are our military forces and our civilian
population, in direct violation of one of the principal
norms of the law of warfare. As was demonstrated by the losses on September 11,
2001, mass civilian casualties is the specific objective of terrorists and these
losses would be exponentially more severe if terrorists acquired and used
weapons of mass destruction. The United States
has long maintained the option of preemptive actions to counter a sufficient
threat to our national security. The greater the threat, the greater is the risk
of inaction— and the more compelling the case for taking
anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the
time and place of the enemy’s attack. To
forestall or prevent such hostile acts by our adversaries, the United States
will, if necessary, act preemptively."
US National Strategy to Combat
Weapons of Mass Destruction (White House, Dec 2002)
(PDF, 424
KB)
U.S. Congress
Peace Through Negotiations Act of 2000 (H. R. 5272) providing for a United
States response in the event of a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state
(Sep 27, 2000) (PDF, 16
KB)
Iraq, Israel and the United Nations. Double standards (Economist,
Oct 10, 2002): " ... a quite distinct sort of claim is also made in the
“double standards” debate. This holds that Israel stands in breach of Security
Council resolutions in just the way Iraq does, and therefore deserves to be
treated by the UN with equal severity. Not so."
Is Jordan
Palestine? (Daniel Pipes)
Palestine for the Syrians? (Daniel Pipes, Commentary, Dec 1986):
During a meeting with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in
1976, Syrian President Hafiz al-Asad referred to Palestine as a region of Syria,
as Southern Syria. He then went on to tell the Palestinians: "You do not
represent Palestine as much as we do. Do not forget one thing: there is no
Palestinian people, no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria! You are an
integral part of the Syrian people and Palestine is an integral part of Syria.
Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the real representatives of
the Palestinian people."
Indian Reservations,
Bantustans, and the Dimensions of the Palestinian State Offered by Israel's PM
Ehud Barak in 2000 - Are They Comparable? (Source: Edah)
Stuck on a Barrier That's Not on the Road Map (Charles
Krauthammer, Washington Post, Aug 8, 2003): "There have been nearly 100
Palestinian suicide bombings. All the terrorists
came from the West Bank, where the barrier is being built. Not a single one has
come from Gaza. Why? Because there already is a fence separating Gaza from
Israel. ... In America, we
build stretches of fence along the Mexican border to prevent foreigners from
coming in to take jobs. It takes a lot of audacity to demand that Israel stop
building a fence whose purpose is to prevent foreigners from coming in to commit
mass murder. As part of the propaganda campaign against the
barrier, it has been called a wall. In fact, it
is a fence, with electronics on either side to prevent
infiltrators. It is wall-like for only about a tenth of its length -- in just
two places, both along the Trans-Israel Highway. Why? Because Palestinian gunmen
had been shooting from Palestinian territory onto the highway and killing
innocent Israelis."
Palestinian
Pretense & Israeli Reality. What the world knows, but can’t say, to be true
(Victor Davis Hanson, NRO, Mar 18, 2003): "Much of the problem, then, quite simply is also
psychological and arises because a Jewish state is right smack in the middle of
the Arab world — and by every measure of economic, political, social, and
cultural success thriving amid misery. Without oil, without
a large population, without friendly countries on its borders, without vast real
estate, and without the Suez Canal, it somehow provides its citizenry with a way
of life far more humane than what is found in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, or
Egypt. Yet the world listens to the Palestinians' often-duplicitous leadership —
despite the corrupt nature and murderous past history of Mr. Arafat's regime —
because its sponsors sell a good part of the globe's oil. And to risk their
wrath, one would have to support a few million Jews, not hundreds of millions
of, say, British, Swedes, or Italians. And so we give not a damn over
millions of innocents elsewhere butchered over millions of acres each year
worldwide, but instead focus on what the Palestinians lost while attempting to
destroy their neighbors."
The Jews took no one's land (Arab-American journalist
Joseph Farah, WND, Apr 23, 2002)
The 'military solution' works (Evelyn Gordon, JP, Oct
7, 2003): "Far from proving a failure, the 'military solution' has proven
its efficacy over the last year."
The main conflicts of the 1990s (Le Monde
diplomatique)
Index
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