TheTroublemakerTimes

 

If dear reader, you have been following the international news, you would have seen, that that recently Hillary Clinton, the very qualified secretary of state for the United States of America, has  landed on the shores of the middle east, in order to, you guessed it, forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

We’ve seen this before, indeed, every administration from Carter to Obama, has always had, a road map to peace, for the Middle East. Each and every administration has, without fail, had a special envoy to the middle east, who’s sole purpose, as it were, was to introduce peace to that very troubled part of the even more troubled middle east.

What we have also seen, from each administration, has been the absolute failure of each and every map that they have so arrogantly offered up. And I say arrogantly, for that, is unfortunately what each and every US backed plan has been. Arrogant and deeply ignorant.

 

Peace is no easy quest. Ask anyone in a war zone. Everybody wants it, and every body wants it on their own terms, exclusively and at the threat of yet more war. That, in theory is why, outside intervention is to be valued. Perhaps, it seems to us, that those without an axe to grind, can see the issues more clearly than those who labour daily under the very terrible consequences of conflict and loss 

I have not had sight of Mrs. Clintons special plan for peace that she hopes to activate in Israel and Palestine, nor have I any idea of the parameters under which she is instructed to proceed. I also do not have to tell you, dear reader, that I am a fan of the USA and of Mrs. Clinton. I am and will always be grateful to live in the American Empire. I am dyed red white and blue.

I also don’t have to tell you, that this new plan, will fail.

It will fail, simply because, like all its predecessors, it will exclude the most crucial part of Palestinian prerequisites, the right of return. It will gloss over the historical facts, and it will, yet again, pretend that Israel is an innocent bystander in Arab violence. It will be, simply put, an insult to the Palestinians, and even more, a slap in the face to intelligent observers. Yet again.

The eminent and extremely erudite historian, Barbara Tuchman, wrote an extraordinary treatise before her death, on why nations pursue a course of action that is contrary to their interests. I wonder if in the future, US policy on Palestinian interests will be as foolish as the people of Troy. I suspect that it will.

I am convinced that Israel is here to stay. I am convinced too, that the Palestinians will not disappear. What I am not convinced of, is this idea of a separate Palestinian state, on the border, and at the mercy of Israel. Whose idea is this anyway?

Perhaps, before we proceed, for those readers unfamiliar with the events in that particular part of the middle east in the last 60 or so years, we should examine some, undisputed historical facts. Just so that we can all, as it were, be on the same page. Now, for those of you who want to phone the Jewish anti-defamation league, be advised that Jewish blood runs, undisputedly in my veins. Ours is not a discussion of religion, it is merely about pragmatics.

We speak here, dear reader, of a small piece of land that you can find easily on a map. It is a piece of land that is the subject of great dispute. We shall not consider whether or not God gave it to anyone here. We will also not be interested in the 400 years or so that a bunch of people called the Israelites occupied it, thousands of years ago. We, are also, here, not interested as to how a religion that originated in Babylon, from a tribe of Judeans, called Judaism, claims title to the heritage of Israel.

NO!

 

Here we will simply consider a piece of land, and the people who are stuck there. Jew, Palestinian, and the odd Italian or so. And their respective rights to be there, if they have any. 

Now, Gold Meir will have you believe that when the Jews arrived in Palestine, in the 1930’s, it was an empty desert. It was a place, uninhabited, that Jews would return too. I shall not, for obvious reasons, consider the stupidity of claiming that one can “return” to a place one has been gone from for over two thousand years. I shall, however take issue with this idea that it was empty.

In this respect I am like Menachim Begin, who told fellow Jewish occupiers, “ If this is Palestine, and not the land of Israel, then you are conquerors and not tillers of the land. You are invaders. If this is Palestine, then it belongs to a people who have lived here before you came.”

 

Palestine has never been empty. It is the home of the longest continually inhabited city in history, namely Jericho. Many Palestinians can trace their history back over 10 000 years, which is by the way, longer than any Jewish claim. 

For those of you, who foolishly, take issue with the above, I refer you to the much-ignored King Crane Commission, of 1919, sent by Woodrow Wilson to investigate the claims of the Zionists to Palestine. I leave you with only two quotes from the official report to the United States Congress.

“…The erection of a Jewish State  (cannot) be accomplished without the gravest trespass upon the civil rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”

And

“ if  that principle is to rule, and so the wishes of Palestine’s population are to be decisive as to what is to be done to Palestine, then it is to be remembered that the non-Jewish population of Palestine, nearly nine tenths of the whole, are emphatically against the entire Zionist program.”

And for emphasis sake one more;

“The fact came out repeatedly in the Commission’s conference with Jewish representatives that the Zionists looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine.”

 

However today, things have changed. 

And how .

Millions of  Palestinian refugees, languish in neighboring countries. Jewish settlements continue to expand both in Israel proper and in the so-called occupied territories.

 

Conflict and war 

What should be done ?

American foreign policy, influenced as it is, by Jewish lobby groups, suggests a separate Palestinian state. Yasser Arafat would have agreed. No doubt Hillary is pushing for the same.

I think its rubbish.

I think that Israel is there to stay, too much water under the bridge.

Arab nations must recognise Israel’s right to exist.

 

However, Israel must recognise the historical context from which it comes. 

Herein lies the greatest similarity with Apartheid South Africa. This separate Palestinian state nonsense is akin to the Bantustans. Palestine as a separate state is as sensible as Baputhatswana or the Transkei.

Palestinians who were chased off their lands need to be compensated, provided that they can prove their title. Not a terrible concession for Israel, considering their blanket denial that any Palestinians were there to begin with.

The revoluntionary idea that I am suggesting here, is simply this; Israel is a democracy, and all the people in its borders, which include the occupied territories, are Israeli, and as such all deserve the vote.

Yes, Palestinians are Israelis.

This pathetic attempt to pretend that they are somehow from somewhere else is nothing more than a convenient semantic game. All the people who have settled there have a right to vote, as do the people who have been chased from there. This semantic nonsense was obvious in South Africa; it should be just as obvious in Israel.

In a given place, one man one vote.

That’s democracy.

Herding people into small parts thereof and claiming national identity is akin to ethnic cleansing.

 It’s Bantustans.

Give everyone the vote.

Be a democracy.

Everything will sort itself out.

This other plan sucks, like the Transkei did.