Dear Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice,
I want to address some ideological, moral, practical and legal issues that pertain to your goal of removing Jews from their rightful and historical lands in Judea and Samaria, and, yes, even Gaza. I believe that it is amoral, at best, to make room for an illegitimate and potentially dangerous Palestinian state in the historic heartland of the Jewish people. Nothing that the Arabs or so-called Palestinians and their supporters have presented to date has any factual merit that would justify replacing parts of the Jewish homeland with a state born of terror, deception and totalitarianism.
I think it is safe for me to assume that you and I share some values, such as basing justice on fact, not rewarding terror, and not stealing or lying to get what we desire. I am almost sure that you not would consciously support the removal of a people from their land in a fashion reminiscent of the displacement of many Native Americans. It is in the spirit of such values that I boldly propose that your goal for a Palestinian state in the heartland of the Jewish nation would be an unequivocal neglect of such values, and potentially dangerous for Israel, given the history of 70 or more years.
I understand the ideology of diplomatic appeasement and how this may relate to the hope that anti-Israel/anti-US elements of treachery and deceit might be satiated enough by a land exchange so that American interests, and perhaps Israeli interests, might also be satisfied. But to risk the lives of Israeli civilians any more than has already occurred (playing with Oslo, the Road Map, various hudna, etc.) for such an ideology is nearly gross negligence. It would be just as neglectful of such values to lend the slightest support to the lies and distortions of the Arab world, Yasser Arafat and most Palestinians about their claims to Judea, Samaria and Gaza; true and scholarly history just cannot support such claims.
I assume, hopefully without conveying arrogance, that you have a fairly good grasp of history. But I am concerned that your support for the "justice" of a Palestinian state on the historical lands of the Jews may not have fully taken into account many historical facts that resulted in what has been framed by the Arab world and other anti-Israel sources as, the "Palestinian Problem", victimization of "Palestinians by Israel" and the rights of "Palestinians" to land that was blatantly stolen from the Jews of Israel.
First and foremost, Jews have been living in what are now Israel and the disputed territories continuously since 1000 BCE (including Judea, Samaria and even Gaza). Jewish sovereignty over their homeland was lost when other nations from Ancient Rome forward committed acts of ethnic cleansing, theft and genocide against the Jews of Israel over many centuries. It should also be remembered that it was the Jews who were known to be the people of ancient Palestine. Ancient Rome renamed much of what is considered to be Judea and Samaria ("West Bank"), the Biblical homeland of the Jews, as "Palestine" when Rome attempted to destroy Judaism and control the Jewish population; there was no such entity as a Palestinian Arab at that time.
In fact, there was no Palestinian nation, as defined by the Arab world, prior to the time when Arabs, in collaboration with other anti-Semitic forces, realized that by maintaining a "Palestinian Problem" of refugees they would have an excellent tool to advance the campaign of destroying the State of Israel. After the Arabs failed to ethnically cleanse the region of Jews through civilized warfare (in 1948), the Arabs learned that it would beneficial to use the "Palestinian refugees" as a tool to gain the "moral" high ground in their effort to dissolve the Jewish nation. Most of the so-called Palestinian Arabs living in Israel prior to 1948, who numbered no more than several hundred thousand, chose to leave Israel when Arab neighbors, such as Egypt, threatened war against Israel. The Arabs fleeing Israel were promised that the spoils of war would be theirs, as would the return to their homes following the swift annihilation of the Jews of Israel (which included rape and murder).
Some 30 years prior to the 1948 War, the Jewish homeland was defined (mandated) by the League of Nations and the Balfour declaration to include most of what is Israel today and the areas of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and even what is currently known as Jordan (historically, TransJordan). In fact, the Arab leader Emir Faisal in 1919 called for "closest collaboration with returning Jews for the development of the Arab states and Palestine" in response to the Balfour declaration (British Mandate). Shortly after this Balfour-based mandate, Britain decided that it was in their interest (Arab appeasement won the day) to renege on this mandate, and the Jewish homeland was repartitioned, reducing it is size (taking away TransJordan, but still leaving Gaza, Judea and Samaria as part of the Jewish homeland).
In 1947, the UN further repartitioned Israel (the mandated lands) to appease the Arab world, resulting in a Jewish partition that comprised only 13% of the original British Mandate. Furthermore, the UN partition left the Jews of Israel with non-contiguous regions divided by areas of hostile Arabs. Yet, despite these "raw deals" and a very unjust usurping of the Jewish lands, the Jews accepted further erosion of their homeland to make the world, and hopefully the Arabs, "happy". But concessions then, as concessions in more recent history by Israel, proved just how valueless appeasement was; Israel was brutally attacked by many Arab nations bent on genocide in 1948, but Israel was fortunate enough to survive and regain some of their land, lost to a variety thieves over the previous centuries.
Cease-fires were agreed upon, but the Arabs repeatedly violated the cease-fire agreements while spewing forth propaganda designed to incite against and threaten the survival of Israel (this has continued into the 21st Century). An undeniable and very important fact was that Arab nations incited and supported the so-called Palestinians to commit the most hideous forms of terror for the sole purpose of slandering Zionism and State of Israel, as part of a campaign to win world sympathy for the Arab cause, which might lead to the eventual "justified" annihilation of Israel.
The so-called "Palestinian Problem" (refugees / "victimization") did not become an issue until Abdul Nasser, dictator of Egypt, and other Arab conspirators made sure that the Arabs that abandoned Israel for promised fortune remained refugees, and they enlisted Yasser Arafat (actually born in Egypt) to hideously attempt to terrorize Israel into non-existence.
Arab nations did not stand up to help their "beloved Palestinian brethren" leave the refugee camps, and it was only Israel that lent support (educational, medical, etc.) to the "Palestinian" miscreants who sought the destruction of Israel. Millions of non-residents Arabs were actually imported from other Arab nations into the "West Bank"/Gaza before and after the 1948 War, solely to exercise another means of destroying the Jewish homeland.
The burden of the "Palestinian problem" belongs squarely on the backs of those who created it through their relentless ambition to destroy Israel and Jews, not on the backs of the Jews of Israel resettling their legitimate homeland (as defined by the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations).
Factual history does not in any way support the claims of the Arab world to Gaza, Judea, Samaria or Jerusalem. Nor is their any reasonable or legitimate justification to view the so-called Palestinians as victims of Israel. The so-called Palestinians and their refugee plight was unequivocally a result of the Arab design to destroy Israel, with support from Yasser Arafat and many in the world, seeking to appease the Arab world or express whitewashed versions of anti-Semitism (couched creatively as "humanitarianism").
Many throughout the world, and even within the US State Department, have no quarrel with reducing the size of Israel, while expanding the size the Arab world, despite the potential threat to Israel's survival from the nations of Islam. Somehow, this seems to be a blatant disregard for humanitarianism, justice, minority rights, and moral fortitude, especially in the face of the fact that the so-called Palestinians already have settled nicely in their true homeland, Jordan, or could settle within the other numerous and spacious nations of the Arabs, given the proper incentives.
Furthermore, defining the Israeli Jewish "settlers", residing in responsible and productive communities in their rightful homeland (Judea, Samaria, and Gaza), as the "problem" in the Middle East is a perversity, at best. Encouraging the Israeli government to forcibly throw Jewish "settlers" off their land to make room for settlers of an illegitimate "nation" (so-called Palestinians) is an abomination of Biblical proportions, and cannot be legitimately defended by a responsible religious or political doctrine that would seek to promote the principles of justice and morality. Notwithstanding the illegitimacy of the "Palestinian" claim to the Jewish homeland, there is an immediate and present danger of evolving a potential terror state contiguously connecting the "West Bank" and Gaza. If the "Palestinians" yearn for more, then Israel will once again be split in such a way that the country will be more difficult to defend.
I think that I can safely say that Israel is a true friend of the United States, and second to none in its support and sacrifices for the United States. And, yes, I appreciate the sacrifices made by the United States in Israel's behalf. But can you truly say that the creation of an illegitimate and historically unjustified Palestinian state in the heartland of the historic Jewish homeland is "the way to treat a friend"?
I want to address some ideological, moral, practical and legal issues that pertain to your goal of removing Jews from their rightful and historical lands in Judea and Samaria, and, yes, even Gaza. I believe that it is amoral, at best, to make room for an illegitimate and potentially dangerous Palestinian state in the historic heartland of the Jewish people. Nothing that the Arabs or so-called Palestinians and their supporters have presented to date has any factual merit that would justify replacing parts of the Jewish homeland with a state born of terror, deception and totalitarianism.
I think it is safe for me to assume that you and I share some values, such as basing justice on fact, not rewarding terror, and not stealing or lying to get what we desire. I am almost sure that you not would consciously support the removal of a people from their land in a fashion reminiscent of the displacement of many Native Americans. It is in the spirit of such values that I boldly propose that your goal for a Palestinian state in the heartland of the Jewish nation would be an unequivocal neglect of such values, and potentially dangerous for Israel, given the history of 70 or more years.
I understand the ideology of diplomatic appeasement and how this may relate to the hope that anti-Israel/anti-US elements of treachery and deceit might be satiated enough by a land exchange so that American interests, and perhaps Israeli interests, might also be satisfied. But to risk the lives of Israeli civilians any more than has already occurred (playing with Oslo, the Road Map, various hudna, etc.) for such an ideology is nearly gross negligence. It would be just as neglectful of such values to lend the slightest support to the lies and distortions of the Arab world, Yasser Arafat and most Palestinians about their claims to Judea, Samaria and Gaza; true and scholarly history just cannot support such claims.
I assume, hopefully without conveying arrogance, that you have a fairly good grasp of history. But I am concerned that your support for the "justice" of a Palestinian state on the historical lands of the Jews may not have fully taken into account many historical facts that resulted in what has been framed by the Arab world and other anti-Israel sources as, the "Palestinian Problem", victimization of "Palestinians by Israel" and the rights of "Palestinians" to land that was blatantly stolen from the Jews of Israel.
First and foremost, Jews have been living in what are now Israel and the disputed territories continuously since 1000 BCE (including Judea, Samaria and even Gaza). Jewish sovereignty over their homeland was lost when other nations from Ancient Rome forward committed acts of ethnic cleansing, theft and genocide against the Jews of Israel over many centuries. It should also be remembered that it was the Jews who were known to be the people of ancient Palestine. Ancient Rome renamed much of what is considered to be Judea and Samaria ("West Bank"), the Biblical homeland of the Jews, as "Palestine" when Rome attempted to destroy Judaism and control the Jewish population; there was no such entity as a Palestinian Arab at that time.
In fact, there was no Palestinian nation, as defined by the Arab world, prior to the time when Arabs, in collaboration with other anti-Semitic forces, realized that by maintaining a "Palestinian Problem" of refugees they would have an excellent tool to advance the campaign of destroying the State of Israel. After the Arabs failed to ethnically cleanse the region of Jews through civilized warfare (in 1948), the Arabs learned that it would beneficial to use the "Palestinian refugees" as a tool to gain the "moral" high ground in their effort to dissolve the Jewish nation. Most of the so-called Palestinian Arabs living in Israel prior to 1948, who numbered no more than several hundred thousand, chose to leave Israel when Arab neighbors, such as Egypt, threatened war against Israel. The Arabs fleeing Israel were promised that the spoils of war would be theirs, as would the return to their homes following the swift annihilation of the Jews of Israel (which included rape and murder).
Some 30 years prior to the 1948 War, the Jewish homeland was defined (mandated) by the League of Nations and the Balfour declaration to include most of what is Israel today and the areas of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and even what is currently known as Jordan (historically, TransJordan). In fact, the Arab leader Emir Faisal in 1919 called for "closest collaboration with returning Jews for the development of the Arab states and Palestine" in response to the Balfour declaration (British Mandate). Shortly after this Balfour-based mandate, Britain decided that it was in their interest (Arab appeasement won the day) to renege on this mandate, and the Jewish homeland was repartitioned, reducing it is size (taking away TransJordan, but still leaving Gaza, Judea and Samaria as part of the Jewish homeland).
In 1947, the UN further repartitioned Israel (the mandated lands) to appease the Arab world, resulting in a Jewish partition that comprised only 13% of the original British Mandate. Furthermore, the UN partition left the Jews of Israel with non-contiguous regions divided by areas of hostile Arabs. Yet, despite these "raw deals" and a very unjust usurping of the Jewish lands, the Jews accepted further erosion of their homeland to make the world, and hopefully the Arabs, "happy". But concessions then, as concessions in more recent history by Israel, proved just how valueless appeasement was; Israel was brutally attacked by many Arab nations bent on genocide in 1948, but Israel was fortunate enough to survive and regain some of their land, lost to a variety thieves over the previous centuries.
Cease-fires were agreed upon, but the Arabs repeatedly violated the cease-fire agreements while spewing forth propaganda designed to incite against and threaten the survival of Israel (this has continued into the 21st Century). An undeniable and very important fact was that Arab nations incited and supported the so-called Palestinians to commit the most hideous forms of terror for the sole purpose of slandering Zionism and State of Israel, as part of a campaign to win world sympathy for the Arab cause, which might lead to the eventual "justified" annihilation of Israel.
The so-called "Palestinian Problem" (refugees / "victimization") did not become an issue until Abdul Nasser, dictator of Egypt, and other Arab conspirators made sure that the Arabs that abandoned Israel for promised fortune remained refugees, and they enlisted Yasser Arafat (actually born in Egypt) to hideously attempt to terrorize Israel into non-existence.
Arab nations did not stand up to help their "beloved Palestinian brethren" leave the refugee camps, and it was only Israel that lent support (educational, medical, etc.) to the "Palestinian" miscreants who sought the destruction of Israel. Millions of non-residents Arabs were actually imported from other Arab nations into the "West Bank"/Gaza before and after the 1948 War, solely to exercise another means of destroying the Jewish homeland.
The burden of the "Palestinian problem" belongs squarely on the backs of those who created it through their relentless ambition to destroy Israel and Jews, not on the backs of the Jews of Israel resettling their legitimate homeland (as defined by the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations).
Factual history does not in any way support the claims of the Arab world to Gaza, Judea, Samaria or Jerusalem. Nor is their any reasonable or legitimate justification to view the so-called Palestinians as victims of Israel. The so-called Palestinians and their refugee plight was unequivocally a result of the Arab design to destroy Israel, with support from Yasser Arafat and many in the world, seeking to appease the Arab world or express whitewashed versions of anti-Semitism (couched creatively as "humanitarianism").
Many throughout the world, and even within the US State Department, have no quarrel with reducing the size of Israel, while expanding the size the Arab world, despite the potential threat to Israel's survival from the nations of Islam. Somehow, this seems to be a blatant disregard for humanitarianism, justice, minority rights, and moral fortitude, especially in the face of the fact that the so-called Palestinians already have settled nicely in their true homeland, Jordan, or could settle within the other numerous and spacious nations of the Arabs, given the proper incentives.
Furthermore, defining the Israeli Jewish "settlers", residing in responsible and productive communities in their rightful homeland (Judea, Samaria, and Gaza), as the "problem" in the Middle East is a perversity, at best. Encouraging the Israeli government to forcibly throw Jewish "settlers" off their land to make room for settlers of an illegitimate "nation" (so-called Palestinians) is an abomination of Biblical proportions, and cannot be legitimately defended by a responsible religious or political doctrine that would seek to promote the principles of justice and morality. Notwithstanding the illegitimacy of the "Palestinian" claim to the Jewish homeland, there is an immediate and present danger of evolving a potential terror state contiguously connecting the "West Bank" and Gaza. If the "Palestinians" yearn for more, then Israel will once again be split in such a way that the country will be more difficult to defend.
I think that I can safely say that Israel is a true friend of the United States, and second to none in its support and sacrifices for the United States. And, yes, I appreciate the sacrifices made by the United States in Israel's behalf. But can you truly say that the creation of an illegitimate and historically unjustified Palestinian state in the heartland of the historic Jewish homeland is "the way to treat a friend"?