Did the Palestinians Arabs groan for a state? Did they plead to be lifted from the dung heap and raised from the dust? No. What they did was celebrate every watershed atrocity from 9/11 to Oct 7.
Enigmas do come wrapped in mysteries. But really. First the United Kingdom, along with countries of that provoking sort, recognised pie in the sky ‘Palestine’ as a country. Now a member of Britain’s government has punished Israel for aborting the newly born "Palestine".
So what’s it to be - real or unreal?
Recognising a country with no borders, no elected government, no economy and no way of standing on its own feet was manic to begin with. Now the European Union’s foreign minister compounds the enigma by calling on member countries to join Britain’s trade ban on Jewish communities in what they call the ‘West Bank’ (of the Jordan River) and what Israel calls ‘Judea and Samaria', keeping the ancient name.
And that is where things stand with the antiquated ‘Two-State Solution’ that would reputedly solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With plans to construct new settlements in Area E1 (more name-calling) Israel has given the West a new excuse to boycott the Jews, and the Palestinian Arabs a new impetus for the inhumanity and brutality on which their identity is crucial.
If the grim picture isn’t enough, irony tops it. Ever since Israel’s own 9\11 - Oct 7 - Israelis can’t stomach the Two State Solution. The Palestinian Arabs never could stomach the concept.
It is entirely fair to say that Israel tried and retried the peace process route to a Palestinian Arab state the world believes in with unshakeable fervour. No go. Essentially the block remains in 2026 what it was in 1947: the Jews said Yes and the Arabs said No.
It is undeniable that Arab blood boils at the very thought of two states living side by side in harmony.
No one would know that better than Hussein Agha and Robert Malley.
The book Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine tells about their decades of effort, singly and together, promoting Palestinian Arab statehood.
Blood boiling indeed: the authors write that “October 7 was neither uniquely Hamas nor distinctively Islamist. It was Palestinian through and through."
So what is it the United Kingdom and Europe want from Israel? Their pet Pals never showed the faintest interest in state development and state. They only want the Jews gone from their midst, preferably dead.
In November 2008 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered up the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem for the capital. Again ‘No’ was the answer. If that suicidal offer was not good enough no offer will ever be enough.
To cut to the quick, the idea of two states for two people does not meet the aspirations of either people. The Solution is dead, long live The Solution.
Yet the resolve of Ed Miliband, Foreign Secretary in Britain’s new Andy Burnham government, is unwavering. “The E1 project risks making a Palestinian state unviable."
Miliband swore that never will he “acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution."
There you go: the never say die mania.
Much of Europe has caught the psychosis big time. Some 20 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the EU and Australia view Israel’s conduct vis-à-vis buggering a Palestinian state as nothing short of criminal.
What is criminal is the bald faced falsehood in their joint statement condemning the E1 project in the “Occupied West Bank". What also is criminal is Ed Miliband worried to death that Jewish settlements in E1 will “harm the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian territories."
Indignant politicians of his ilk give Israel the eye treatment and say, there goes a serial breaker of international law. Yet they are the people in glass houses who shouldn’t throw stones.
The real estate they call, ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’ could not be rnational law.
I proved it through different lenses: political, historical and logical.
My effort was not called upon. Long before, in 2012 in fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu tasked three top legal minds to investigate the legality of Jewish settlements in the ‘West Bank’.
It remains indisputable that the 89 page analysis is about law and not politics. The team looked at Israel’s obligation under international and domestic law and nothing besides. Result? The laws of occupation are not applicable to Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria.
“Israelis have the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria and the establishment of settlements cannot, in and of itself, be considered illegal,"
Hence (1) war records turn up nothing to support ‘Occupation’ and ‘Palestinian Territories’ and (2) Statutes also turn up nothing.
There really is no Palestinian territory for Israel to occupy.
The latest of moves to ban Jewish products has everything to do with the politics of hate and nothing to do with morality. What Europe and Britain are doing amount to introducing a blatant backdoor to impose Nazi style boycotts of Jewish business.
Over and above slandering Israel as occupier of ‘Palestinian Territories’ a quite laughable falsehood crops up. The Palestinian Territories, declares a joint statement from many countries, are “home to millions of Palestinians striving for self-determination and statehood".
Heehaw. Those “millions of Palestinians" are fundamentally preoccupied with eliminating the Jewish state rather than building one of their own.
Certainly, Florida Congressman Randy Fine was unimpressed. Companies complying with Britain’s Israel sanctions, he posted, will be barred from doing business with state and local governments.
"Florida is one of Britain’s largest trading partners. They should understand that their vanity project in support of Muslim terror could cost them billions of dollars."
Muslim terror and Palestinian Arabs attract each other like honey attracts bees.
After the 9/11 attacks, there was video footage of celebrations in the 'West Bank' and Gaza. Sweeties and all were being handed out. Yasser Arafat’s spokesperson, Hanan Ashrawi vehemently denied the widespread celebrations that our lying eyes had watched live. Reuters and AP filmed the videos and their cameramen were violently attacked for so doing.
As for the Palestinian Authority, it condemned the attacks but took the occasion to censor the media through scare tactics. Arafat's Cabinet secretary spoke menacingly in warning that he couldn’t "guarantee the life" of cameramen if they broadcast footage of the 9/11 celebrations in Nablus. A Fafo Foundation poll in 2005 found that 65% of Palestinians supported "Al Qaeda's bombings in America and Europe".
Support for Oct 7 was higher. In the immediate aftermath around 72% of Palestinian Arabs across the 'West Bank' and Gaza welcomed Hamas doing what it did. Thereafter the approval level never fell below 50%. No wonder that even Israeli leftists have lost their taste for the Palestinian Arab state the West madly desires.
Western leaders have got bored with the peace process. What drives their mania for the Two State Solution is the media attention, glorified negotiations, swanky state visits, noble declarations and peace summits. Making a Palestinian Arab state viable takes long hard work which is unrewarding.
“This is what we are witnessing in the new wave of ritually recognising the non-existent state of Palestine. The message to Palestinians is clear:
“What you need to do to get your state recognized is nothing. No reform, no institution building, no democracy, no defeat of terrorist groups, no competent government. All of that will happen magically in the Palestinian state once it comes into existence. The use of brutal and inhuman violence will bring some nice rewards, while Israel’s reactions will bring it punishment."
Elliot Abrams is bang on. Without Oct 7, Macron, Albanese, Carney, Miliband and co would not today be punishing Israel for blocking the fairy tale state.
President Trump won’t tolerate their recognising 'Palestine' as a reward for terror and a retribution for Israel.
It can hardly be anything else according to Michael Oren in Farewell to the ‘Two-State Solution’ Delusion “Nobody knows what that state would look like, who would run it, or whether it would be democratic and peaceful or Islamic and jihadist."
Are they antisemitic, the devil-may-care gambits to bring a state of 'Palestine' into the world?
At a quick glance they leave Israelis in a bad fix. Gamblers with their future basically require the country to shrink back to the 1967 borders. These were the armistice lines drawn up at the close of the War of Independence: “Auschwitz borders" Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Abba Eban acutely hit on the name.
The other red flag puts the seal on the correct answer.
“UK premier Andy Burnham’s announcement of boycotts and sanctions on businesses in Judea and Samaria have no tangible goal. His is a policy of chaos and spite, not one of demands and concessions".
Indeed. All mad supporters of the Two-State Solution are, whether consciously or not, Jew-haters deluxe.
Steve Apfel is a veteran authority on anti-Zionism and a prodigious author.