2023/24 Hamas / Iran / Palestine - Israel war

NDPP wrote:

"Dogs bark, snakes bite, and IDF spinners lie. It has always been this way with Israel's media spokesmen."

Cats meow, sharks bite, and people who want to see the demise of Jewish Israelis lie. It has always been this way with these haters.

https://twitter.com/lilacsigan/status/1725467899320566183?s=46&t=ticRmUdTUGERBFdZXsHlgQ

A letter written by a Professor who teaches biblical studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Dear Students,

I have spent the last 25 years showing you the beauty of all of the literary, cultural, philosophical, & artistic heights of the human spirit over the course of human history. Teaching you has been the most wonderful & satisfying of callings. I never wanted to do anything other than meet with you, discuss ideas with you, discover & rediscover human insights, truths, & wonders. I never regretted my career path, never hated my job, & never doubted my legacy. I felt privileged & honoured to show you how to analyse, to think critically, to weigh evidence, & to understand people & ideas, contexts & complexity, deeply & thoroughly. I thought my work was helping to make the world a better, more humane, more thoughtful place.

You have broken my heart. No: shattered it, irreparably. I don’t know how I will ever set foot in a classroom again. I don’t know how I will ever see you the same way. I know now that I was deluding myself that I ever had any impact, would ever leave any positive legacy, that my work ever made any difference.

I watch you all on social media, in the streets & the quads, marching in solidarity with a movement that seeks only to wipe me out. To exterminate me, my children, my parents, my entire family & community. I know, some of you think you’re trying to help the oppressed. You think that my kind is the white colonialist racist kind that you hate. But I thought I taught you how to evaluate arguments. I thought I taught you the importance of understanding context, both historical & rhetorical. I thought that I taught you that the world did not operate according to dichotomies, like black & white, oppressor & oppressed, villain and victim. I thought I taught you about complexity, about judgment, & to examine your sources & not to take anyone’s statements at face value.

Zionism is the Jewish right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. Israel is that ancestral homeland. Jews are the indigenous peoples of that land; not the only indigenous peoples of that land, to be sure. But Israel is the only land to which we are indigenous. After 2000 years of longing, the result of the Holocaust – a Nazi movement which sought to ethnically cleanse the world of Jews by systematically exterminating us – was that the international community granted us a sliver of that ancestral homeland. It was to be shared, partitioned into a Jewish state & an Arab state. The Arabs rejected the partition & attacked the Jews when they declared the state of Israel in 1948. The Jews won. Arabs who remained in Israel became citizens with full rights & freedoms. 20% of Israel’s population today is Arab. They fight in the army, they are doctors, lawyers, members of Parliament & supreme court judges. There is no apartheid. Israel’s Jewish population consists of Jews from Arab lands, whose parents or grandparents were kicked out when the state of Israel was formed, & of descendants of refugees from Eastern Europe, Holocaust survivors who had no homes to return to. Some are more recent refugees from Europe, Russia, & the Americas who either returned to Israel for religious reasons or because the Jew-hatred in their communities grew too excessive & they decided to emigrate, to head for the one place in the world Jews can go if their neighbours or governments turn against them.

The West Bank & Gaza strip – along with refugee camps that still exist in Lebanon, Syria, & Jordan -- were the places that the Arab nations who attacked Israel at its founding told the Arabs living in Palestine (later to be known as Palestinians) to flee. It was supposed to be temporary, because the plan was to “push the Jews into the sea.” When the plan didn’t work out, all of these states refused to absorb the Palestinians. They wanted to keep them in camps because they still planned to annihilate Israel & the Jews that lived there & then the Palestinians could return. The West Bank was in Jordan & Gaza was in Egypt until 1967, when the Arab states tried again to push the Jews into the sea. Their failure this time ended with Israel capturing these territories. When Israel tried to exchange land for peace & give Gaza back to Egypt, Egypt didn’t want it. And so the territories remained in Israel. In 2005 Israel pulled out of Gaza & left it to govern itself. Most of the West Bank is also self-governing, but not all because of the high number of suicide bombers & other threats to Israel’s existence fomenting there, so Israel hasn’t been able to fully remove itself. The current awful Israeli government has allowed religious fanatics, “settlers,” to build settlements there, which makes everything worse.

And you see what I did there? I criticized Israel’s government. I can do that, & still support the existence of a Jewish state in our ancestral homeland.

When you say “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” this is a call to ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homeland, from the only state in the entire Middle East that would look remotely familiar to you in terms of basic rights & freedoms & a democratic system if you were to visit the region. When Hamas supporters – like those who led you all in a rally on my home campus today – talk about Jews as “occupiers,” they don’t mean Gaza. They mean the whole state of Israel. They want Jews eradicated from the entire land. Hamas actually wants us gone from the whole world, as they have stated many times. Who are the Nazis now?

But here I am, teaching again. I can’t help myself. I wish that you cared what I had to say. I wish that some knowledge, some context, some understanding, could reach beyond the slogans & chants for my death that you are repeating mindlessly & endlessly as you march to the beat of hatred across the tattered remains of my broken soul.

Makes sense Israel is at war with Hamas:

Video shows Hamas terrorist executing Israeli woman begging for her life

A young Israeli woman is seen begging for her life before she is shot at point-blank range by a Hamas terrorist, in a new video of the Oct. 7 massacres released this week by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
...

At 7:08 a.m., according to a time stamp on the video, the group is sent fleeing by the sight of three Hamas fighters sprinting towards the gate and raising their weapons.

As the group scatters, a terrorist can be seen breaking into a run towards a pair of women running slower than the others.

It takes the terrorist only about 10 seconds to catch a woman dressed in a flowing black skirt. From the angle of the camera, he seems to grab her by the hair or clothing before a puff can be seen, after which she drops to the ground.

This prompts a woman in a white sweatshirt just a few metres from the terrorist to drop to the ground in an apparent act of begging for her life. After he appears to aim a few shots at the other fleeing festival-goers, he lingers for a while before shooting the crouching woman in the head.

Scenes like this played out all across Southern Israel on Oct. 7. Dozens of young people who escaped the initial massacres at the Re’im music festival were instead murdered along roadways or in neighbouring communities as they attempted to find shelter.

Switzerland moves to ban Hamas, backs Israel’s ‘right to self-defence’; Al Jazeera; November 22, 2023

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/22/switzerland-moves-to-ban-hamas-activities-or-support

Swiss government to introduce legislation by February against Palestinian group, supports Israel’s right to ‘its own security’.

The Swiss government has announced it will introduce legislation by the end of February to explicitly ban “Hamas activities or support” for the Palestinian group.

The Federal Council, the executive branch, said on Wednesday that it has decided to draft a law to ban the Palestinian group “considering this to be the most appropriate response to the situation that has prevailed in the Middle East since October 7”.

“The act will provide the federal authorities with the necessary tools to counter any Hamas activities or support for the organisation in Switzerland.”

On October 7, Palestinian fighters from the Gaza Strip, which has been run by Hamas since 2007, launched an attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to the Israeli government.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions also took an estimated 240 Israelis and foreigners into the Gaza Strip as captives.

Since then, Israel has launched a massive air and ground offensive on the beleaguered Strip, killing at least 14,319 people, including more than 5,000 children, local health authorities say.

Early on Wednesday, Israel and Hamas agreed on a Qatar-mediated deal for a four-day truce in Gaza and the release of 50 captives held in the enclave for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, with negotiations ongoing on the timing.

The seven-member council is formed by ministers from the four largest parties, and lawmakers in parliament are likely to swing strongly behind the draft legislation, given the positions of the major parties.

The hard-right Swiss People’s Party, the biggest in the country, has been strongly pushing for a ban.

On Wednesday, the government called for respect for international humanitarian law and particularly the protection of civilians. It voiced “deep sorrow for the thousands of civilians who have lost their lives in Israel and across the occupied Palestinian territories” and condemned the Hamas attack on October 7 “in the strongest possible terms”.

The statement made no mention of Israel’s actions in Gaza but recognised “Israel’s right to ensure its own defence and security”.

“In view of the dramatic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the Federal Council stresses the need to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access. Humanitarian pauses are necessary for this purpose,” the statement added.

Bern reiterated the need to restore the prospect of a political framework in the region based on a two-state solution.

“This approach is the only viable path towards ensuring that both the Palestinian and Israeli populations can coexist peacefully, securely and with dignity,” it said.

On October 11, the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs (FDFA) suspended millions of dollars in funding to six Palestinian and five Israeli civil society organisations with ongoing international cooperation partnerships with the Swiss government.

The 11 partner NGOs were subject to “in-depth verification of their compliance with the FDFA’s code of conduct and the anti-discrimination clause in their contracts”. As a result, three of the NGOs saw their contract with the government terminated.

As ethnic groups there are Arab Israelis, Muslim Israelis, Palestinian Israelis, and Arab Jews. As ethnicities, why aren’t there Jewish Palestinians or Palestinian Jews?

Between 1920 and 1948 current Arab Jewish Israelis identified as Arab Jews living in Mandatory Palestine. The League of Nations created "Mandatory Palestine" as the name name for the area ruled by the Ottoman Empire before 1920. When the Ottoman Empire ruled the area Jews in the area identified mostly as Sephardic Jews or Mizrahi Jews or Levantine Jews. Why didn't Jews in that area identify as "Jewish Palestinian" or "Palestinian Jews" before 1948 and before 1920? And why aren't there currently Palestinian Jews like there currently are Mortican Jews, Persian Jews, Turkish Jews, German Jews, French Jews, etc...?

https://twitter.com/cptallenhistory/status/1727463127594287460?s=46&t=ticRmUdTUGERBFdZXsHlgQ

Pre-World War I, neither #Arabs nor #Jews had their own states; and the #MiddleEast was controlled by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. During the 30 years between the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in 1918 & Israel declaring independence in 1948, there were many opportunities for peace. 1918 - First Meeting Between #Zionist & Arab Leaders At Aqaba, Zionist leader Dr. Chaim Weizmann first met Emir Feisal (photo below) - son of the Grand Sharif of #Mecca, ruler of the Hejaz, direct descendant of #Mohammed, leader of the #Arab revolt against the Ottomans & by far the most well-known & respected Arab leader of the early 20th century. Feisal knew that what he called “Southern #Syria” (referred to by the British as “Palestine” & by the Jews as “Eretz Israel”) had become a neglected, largely barren, arid, malarial-swamp-infested wasteland under the Ottomans & felt the #Jewish zeal to revitalize the Land would benefit both Jews & Arabs. 1919 - #Paris Peace Conference The Paris Peace Conference convened to discuss post-war peace terms & how land of the former Ottoman Empire & Imperial #Germany would be divided. Emir Feisal represented Arab interests at the Conference Jan 1919: Weizmann-Feisal Agreement Signed Dr. Weizmann and Emir Feisal, in Jan 1919, signed an Agreement acknowledging: “the racial kinship & ancient bonds existing between the Arabs & the Jewish people” and mutually recognizing the Balfour Declaration by declaring “Palestine” the Jewish National Home on which “[a]ll necessary measures will be taken to encourage and stimulate #immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil.” March 1919: Feisal & Frankfurter Exchange Letters After a meeting between Emir Feisal & Zionist leader Felix Frankfurter in March 1919, Feisal drafted & signed a letter to Frankfurter with the Arab position: “We feel that the Arabs & Jews are cousins by race, suffering similar oppression at the hands of powers stronger than themselves, & by happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the attainment of their national ideals together. We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement … we regard [the Zionist proposals] … as moderate and proper … [and] wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home … The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist … there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a real success without the other.” Frankfurter replied to Feisal in a letter acknowledging the Arab position “with deep appreciation” & stating: “[W]e knew that the aspirations of the Arab and the Jewish peoples were parallel, that each aspired to re-establish its nationality in its own homeland … The Arabs and Jews are neighbors in territory; we cannot but live side by side as friends.” Apr 4-7 1920 - Violent Nebi Musa Riots & Their Rejection By Several Arab Leaders While the policy of the #British government was pro-Zionist & pro-Arab, certain British officers on the ground were deeply #antisemitic & worked to foment Arab violence against Jews. Specifically, British Colonel Waters Taylor (financial advisor to Military Administration in Palestine), met with Arab extremist Amin al-Husseini & encouraged him to incite a riot during Easter to show the Arabs did not support #Zionism. For four straight days, al-Husseini’s incited mob of ~65,000 Arabs engaged in a riotous #pogrom against the Jewish community in #Jerusalem. The mob chanted things like, “slaughter the Jews,” “the Jews are our dogs,” and “we will drink Jewish blood,” as they destroyed & looted Jewish shops, homes, & synagogues and then raped and murdered their way through the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. As horrifying as the riots were, not all hope was lost as Arab sheikhs from 82 villages around Jaffa & Jerusalem (who claimed to represent 70% of the population) published a document fully condemning the Arab riots & violence against Jews & expressly proclaiming Zionism was “not a danger” to Arabs. April 20, 1920 - San Remo Conference At the San Remo Conference, Ottoman & German colonies were split into 15 legal mandates awarded to the Allied powers. One of those mandates was the British Mandate for Palestine (containing all of modern day Israel, #Gaza, the #WestBank, & the country of #Jordan), which expressly required the British to hold the land in trust while encouraging Jewish immigration to the Land on which there would be a reconstituted Jewish National Home. Feb 1921 - Churchill meets Jewish & Arab leaders in Palestine Winston Churchill was put in charge of Britain’s Palestine policy by Prime Minister David Lloyd George & he visited the Land to meet with Jewish & Arab leaders in Feb 1921. Churchill was stunned by the degree to which the Jews had already developed the land & built large, fully-functioning communities over the prior decades; he also marked the groundbreaking ceremony for #Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Days later, Churchill met with Arab leaders - only those with whom he met were led by another member of the al-Husseini clan, Musa Kazem al-Husseini. Churchill was stunned as he listed to the Arabs read aloud a 39-page memorandum filled almost exclusively with hatred, demonization, & absurd conspiracy theories about Jews and world domination. Churchill expressed his disapproval & told the Arab leaders in attendance it was “manifestly right that the Jews should have a National Home … [a]nd where else could that be but in this land of Palestine, with which for more than 3,000 years they have been intimately & profoundly associated? … [W]e also think it will be good for the Arabs who dwell in Palestine.” March 1921 - British Commission Empowers al-Husseini & Terror Ensues The British Commission in Palestine appointed Amin al-Husseini “Grand Mufti” - a position that did not previously exist (“mufti” existed, but not “grand mufti”), and that gave him lifelong tenure as the most prominent Arab leader in Palestine. Al-Husseini almost immediately instigated organized “fedayeen” terror attacks against the Jewish community culminating with riots in Jaffa and Petah Tikvah that left 43 Jews dead only three weeks later. Following the riots, al-Husseini consolidated his power & took control of all #Muslim religious funds, the mosques, the schools, & the courts. He then wrote to Churchill & demanded an end to Jewish immigration & for Palestine to be “reunited with Syria.” 1922 - Mandate made Official & the First Partition of Palestine By international treaty, in 1922, the League of Nations officially formalized the British Mandate for Palestine, which adopted the Balfour Declaration, acknowledging the Jewish people’s "historical connections” to the Land, & declaring the British requirement to “facilitat[e] Jewish immigration [and] encourage settlement on the land” while acknowledging the “moral validity of reconstituting” the Jewish nation. Meanwhile, Churchill acknowledged a segment of the Palestinian Arab community violently rejected the Jews, but he also received express declarations from hundreds of Palestinian Arab sheikhs & mukhtars supporting Jewish immigration to improve the industrial development of the land, which they said would improve the lives of Arabs as well. In an attempt to quell any further violence & Arab anxieties, with the stroke of a pen, Churchill partitioned the British Mandate for Palestine by slicing off 3/4 of the Land (everything east of the Jordan River) to create a new Arab Muslim country called “Trans-Jordan,” to which Emir Feisal’s brother, Abdullah (also widely recognized as an Arab Muslim leader from #Saudi Arabia), was named king. Jews were irate at the loss of 75% of the territory promised to them, but ultimately decided to accept Churchill’s White Paper in the spirit of good will toward their Arab neighbors. Al-Husseini (who now had his thumb on the majority of Palestine’s Arabs, especially since most would not dare challenge him lest they be summarily executed) flatly rejected the extremely Arab-friendly partition & said the whole of the land was Arab. Just one year later, the British were forced to suspend the Palestine Constitution after Al-Husseini refused to participate in the Mandatory government. And al-Husseini continued to organize ongoing violence against Jews culminating in the particularly barbaric 1929 Hebron massacre, which began as a result of the now oft-repeated & nearly 100-year-old lie that the Jews were attempting to “destroy al-Aqsa mosque.” 1936 - Start of the Arab Revolt In April 1936 (3+ years after Hitler first came to power & while the situation of Jews in #Europe was rapidly deteriorating), al-Husseini organized a terror attack on a Jewish bus, which was then followed by three years of organized terror between Palestinian Arab clans & by Arabs against both Jews and the British. Al-Husseini formed the Arab Higher Committee, declared a national strike & made three demands: (1) cessation of Jewish immigration; (2) end of land sales to Jews; & (3) the establishment of an Arab national government in the whole of Palestine. 1937 - Peel Commission & Recommended Second Partition of Palestine Britain set up the Peel Commission to investigate the cause of the Arab riots & to make recommendations. One of the Jewish Zionist leaders, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, was interviewed by the Commission, & his words were hauntingly prophetic. Jabotinsky told the British the Jews of Europe faced “a disaster of historic magnitude … We have got to save millions, many millions … who are virtually knocking at the door [of Palestine] asking for admission.” As to the Arab population, Jabotinsky was clear there was no Jewish desire to “oust” any Arabs and he further said “Palestine on both sides of the Jordan should hold the Arabs, their progeny, and many millions of Jews.” Jabotinsky then acknowledged a movement of Palestine’s Arabs to create yet another Arab state in the land, but he said, “when the Arab claim is confronted with our Jewish demand to be saved, it is like the claims of appetite versus the claims of starvation.” The Peel Commission ultimately recommended a second partition of Palestine - this time leaving the Jews with only an extraordinarily tiny portion of what is today a sliver of the northwest coast of Israel, and giving the remaining 80% of the land for an Arab state. The Jews felt betrayed. But they understood, at least on some level, the disaster awaiting their brethren in Europe & the immediate need to provide safe haven. So, the Jews accepted the Peel Commission’s partition, assuming the Arabs would accept it & agree to live side-by-side in peace. This time, not only did al-Husseini reject the planned partition, but neighboring Arab leaders & states did as well. A Syrian pan-Arab Congress rejected the Peel Commission’s recommendations & declared its goal to “liberat[e] the country and establish[] an Arab government.” 1938 - Woodhead Commission & the Evian Conference The following year, Britain established the Woodhead Commission to study Palestine & try to find borders that both the Jews & Arabs could accept. The Woodhead Commission made three proposals, all of which saw the once large Jewish nation continue to shrink exponentially. In its report, the Woodhead Commission noted, “Arabs of all parties & shades of political opinion were unanimous in condemning the plan as inequitable & wholly unacceptable.” The report further noted that the thought that “peace to Palestine” would be brought by any partition that included a Jewish state of any size was something “we cannot venture to hope.” One Arab witness interviewed by the Woodhead Commission said if partition is set in motion that creates any Jewish state, “you will have to have a barbed wire right right it … with pill boxes every half kilometer … Hostility in our lifetime there will be.” Another Arab witness said, “There would be a violent reaction to anything which gives any part of Palestine to the Jews.” One other Arab witness said that even if a tiny Jewish State was proclaimed, the Arabs might stay quiet at first, but they would merely be “bid[ing] their time, that is all” until the Jewish State would be destroyed. The Woodhead Commission declared the Arab position as making the conflict in Palestine “irreconcilable.” Meanwhile, also in 1938, the Evian Conference was called by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt in #France to allegedly attempt to deal with the Jewish #refugee problem caused by rise of #Nazi Germany. All 32 nations in attendance at the Evian Conference refused to permit any significant immigration of Jews to their country. The #Nazis even mocked the world and their “fake” sympathy for the Jews by declaring in Nazi newspaper headlines, “JEWS FOR SALE AT A BARGAIN PRICE—WHO WANTS THEM? NO ONE.” 1939 - St. James Palace Conference & the White Paper In February 1939, the British held the St. James Palace Conference in #London to try to find a peaceful solution to the problems in Palestine. However, the Conference was dead on arrival as the Arab delegates refused to meet with their Jewish counterparts. Meanwhile, just two months later, Britain (then led by anti-Zionist Neville Chamberlain) was preparing for potential war with Germany, acknowledged its dependence on Middle Eastern oil to win that war (thus requiring Arab goodwill), & decided to appease the Arabs. The 1939 White Paper was issued, abandoning Britain’s legal obligations to establish a Jewish State in Palestine & shutting the doors to further Jewish immigration almost entirely. When the British submitted the White Paper to the League of Nations for approval, it was rejected as “not in accordance with … the Mandate.” But the world was on the brink of war, and the League of Nations had no enforcement power. So Britain ignored the League of Nations’ decision. The Jewish Agency for Palestine called the White Paper a betrayal in the midst of the “darkest hour of Jewish history.” Zionist leader (and later first Prime Minister of Israel) David Ben-Gurion called the White Paper “the greatest betrayal perpetrated by the government of a civilized people in our generation.” Dr. Weitzmann called it, “a death sentence for the Jewish people.” When war broke out later that year & the Holocaust ensued, Europe’s Jews did not have any place on Earth in which they could seek refuge. Millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis, but it could be argued they were condemned to their fate by the failure of the Evian Conference and the issuance of the British White Paper. 1945 - End of WWII & the Holocaust In 1945, the full extent of Nazi atrocities & their systematic slaughter of 6 million of Europe’s Jews (2/3 of the population) was revealed to the world. Those Jews who survived had no homes to which they could return; & there were multiple violent pogroms against the few Jews who tried to go “home.” Hundreds of thousands of Jews were homeless #refugees & survivors of #Hitler’s madness; but they could only be put into Displaced Persons camps, which were often in the same location as the Nazi concentration camps in which they had been tortured & where their families had been murdered. U.S. President Harry Truman was appalled that even in light of the Holocaust & the condition of the surviving displaced refugee Jews, the British refused to end its illegal White Paper policy; and he demanded Britain immediately permit the entry of 100,000 Jewish survivors to Palestine. Britain, then under the leadership of anti-Zionist Prime Minister Clement Attlee, refused. 1946 - Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was set up in 1946 to study the Jewish refugee problem & the status of the situation in Palestine and make any recommendations. The Committee found the Arab intransigence to any Jewish immigration & to any Jewish state remained; but given Britain’s legal obligations under the Mandate & the condition of the Jewish refugees in Europe, the Committee recommended the immediate immigration of 100,000 Jews to Palestine to be followed by further steps to arrange a compromise between the Jews & Arabs. 1947 - Britain Abandons the Mandate & Seeks Resolution by the UN Foreign Minister of Britain (and well-known #antisemite) Ernest Bevin declared in Feb 1947 his recommendation that the Mandate be abandoned since “there is no prospect of reaching … any settlement which would be even broadly acceptable to the two communities in Palestine.” Bevin described the “irreconcilable” nature of the conflict to the British House of Commons thusly, “For the Jews, the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of a Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine.” In May 1947, the UN created the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (“UNSCOP”), & four months later, UNSCOP made its recommendations that included a partition of Palestine into one Jewish state & one Arab state - each on approximately 50% of the Land (which, for the Jews, represented a mere 1/8 of the territory originally set aside for Jewish immigration and a Jewish State). The Jews accepted the UN’s proposal, but the Arabs rejected it. Sept 1947 - Attempts to Avoid War On Sept 16, 1947, Zionist leaders met with the leader & secretary-general of the Arab League, Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha. The Zionist leaders pointed out the #UN had spoken, but also said they were “genuinely desirous of an agreement with the Arabs & [were] prepared to make sacrifices for one.” Generous compromises were offered. Pasha, however, responded thusly: “It’s likely … that your plan is rational & logical, but the fate of nations is not decided by rational logic. Nations never concede; they fight. You won’t get anything by peaceful means or compromise. You can, perhaps, get something, but only by the force of arms. We shall try to defeat you. I’m not sure we’ll succeed, but we’ll try.” Abba Eban (later Israel’s first Ambassador to the UN) tried to reason with Pasha, saying he would “welcome any counterproposal from your side.” But Pasha responded: “An agreement will only be acceptable at our terms … We have only one test, the test of strength. If I were a Zionist leader, I might have behaved the way you’re doing. You have no alternative. In all events, the problem now is only soluble by the force of arms.” Oct 2, 1947 - Zionist Leaders Urge Reconciliation with Local Arabs The Assembly of Palestine Jewry issued an appeal on Oct 2, 1947 that read: “We will do everything in our power to maintain peace, & establish a cooperation gainful to both [Jews & Arabs]. It is now, here & now, from Jerusalem itself, that a call must go out to the Arab nations to join forces with Jewry & the destined Jewish State and work shoulder to shoulder for our common good, for the peace and progress of sovereign equals.” There was no similar call from the Arab world in response. Nov 1947 - UN Partition Vote & Outbreak of Civil War On Nov 29, 1947, the UN voted to approve General Assembly Resolution 181 adopting partition as recommended by UNSCOP. The Jews celebrated international legitimacy for their State; but, like all UNGA Resolutions, 181 was a mere “recommendation.” Since the Arabs flatly rejected Resolution 181, there was no means by which the UN could enforce it. The next day, Arabs attacked a Jewish bus on the Petah Tikva-Lod road, killing five passengers, & Jewish neighborhoods in and surrounding Jerusalem were attacked. A Civil War had begun. May 1948 - Israeli Independence At 8 a.m. on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared independence for the State of Israel. Ben-Gurion began by stating: “Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained statehood, created cultural values of national & universal significance & gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.” But Ben-Gurion also ended by stating: “In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve the ways of peace & play their part in the development of the State, on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its bodies and institutions … We extend our hand in peace & neighborliness to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. Only hours later, the neighboring Arab countries (#Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, #Iraq, and #Egypt) launched a full scale invasion of the nascent State of Israel. Sec-Gen Azzam Pasha proclaimed, “This will be a war of extermination & momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres & the Crusades.” Pundits filled the airwaves with talk of a second Holocaust considering the Arab states had a population of 200 million with well-equipped armies, & Israel’s entire population was ~600,000 men, women, & children with no formal military training. Plus, both the United States & Britain maintained an arms embargo on Israel. However, in what was a true modern-day miracle, the Jews of the reconstituted Jewish State of Israel, a mere three years after the Holocaust & once again facing extermination, fought back the Arab armies to armistices signed in April 1949.

NDPP wrote:

praise Hamas for its resistance, their freedom, and what history will show was the beginning of the end of the apartheid Jewish state.

Will Hamas even be in power by summer time? Maybe on the upcoming summer solstice many will be celebrating the beginning of summer and the end of Hamas’s genocidal rule?