Jordan is Palestine

Establishing 2nd Palestinian state west of Jordan River would be great folly.

Haim Misgav

The Jewish State was established in the Land of Israel. Not in Uganda, not in South America and not in any other area offered to the Jews at one time or another as a response to their distress. The League of Nations, which granted Britain the mandate to form the Jewish people’s national home, referred to the entire territory on both sides of the Jordan River.

One should be aware of the following: There was no “Jordanian people” to the east of the Jordan River that sought independence there, just like there was no “Palestinian people” west of the Jordan River.

Hence, When David Ben-Gurion drafted the Declaration of Independence he did not determine the State of Israel’s borders. He too knew that at the end of the war forced upon the small Jewish community by Arab states, the borders will be different than the “partition boundaries.”

The Jewish state’s first prime minister also knew that any territory to be conquered by the IDF will remain part of the state, and will not be called “occupied territory.” The Jewish state will become its legal owner based on the international conventions that designated the whole of the Land of Israel, on both sides of the Jordan River (yes, Mr. Jordanian King) for a Jewish home.

Unfortunately, only parts of Judea and Samaria, east Jerusalem and the Jordan River Valley were conquered in that just war. These parts were overtaken by members of the Hashemite Kingdom. No nation in the world recognized this Jordanian takeover, as it was clear to everyone that the real sovereign of these territories is the Jewish people. When the Brits ended their mission in the Land of Israel in 1948, after being defeated by the Jewish people’s fighting forces, they in fact returned the land to its natural sovereign: The Jewish people.

Annex Judea and Samaria

Jordan’s king, who heads a state that in fact does not comprise a nation, but rather, a hodgepodge of tribes that arrived from across the desert coupled with what is known as “Palestinian refugees,” is certainly right to be concerned about the fate of his puppet state. This state has a family known as the “royal family,” which rules the country, and nothing else. One of these days we may be able to view it as the “Palestinian state” the whole world is so eager to see.

Establishing yet another Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would certainly be a great folly. Firstly, because such state would seek to unite with its sister-state across the River. Secondly, because the many Arabs in the Galilee and northern Israel would also seek to connect to their sister state.

Hence, if the Jewish residents of our country seek life, we should quickly annex the territories freed from foreign control in the Six-Day War, just like David Ben-Gurion did at the end of the War of Independence when he applied Israeli law to all the territories conquered in that war. Any other solutions would raise question marks over our right to live in Beersheba or Eilat or Lod or Jaffa, not to mention many other communities in the Galilee, on the Coastal Plain and in the Negev.

Further withdrawals are certainly not an option. “Land for peace” is a false formula. The Oslo Accords, which now mark their 18th’s anniversary, were no more than one huge folly, as were the other withdrawals - from south Lebanon, from Gush Katif, from northern Samaria, and from our Sinai communities. Those who fail to understand it now may end up finding themselves drinking the Mediterranean Sea’s water one of these days, as Arafat wished for us in the past.

Dr. Haim Misgav is a law lecturer at the Netanya Academic College

Poster's Note:

Reminder:

LET THEM SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES!!!!

1) "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel. For our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of Palestinian people, since Arab national interest demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism". (~ Zahir Muhse'in, Member PLO Executive and the hoax of "Palestinian" identity - March 31, 1977 interview with the Amsterdam-based newspaper "Dagblad de Verdieping Trouw"~)

2) Throughout his authorized biography (Alan Hart, Arafat: terrorist or peace maker) Arafat asserts at least a dozen times: "The Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasser Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel."

3) 7/67, Yassir Arafat & Khalad Hassan re Israel's post-war peace initiative.
"Horrific! If the Arab states made peace with Israel, the Palestinian cause would be lost forever" (quoted in Alan Hart, Arafat - Terrorist or Peacemaker)

4) "We are the Government of Palestine, the army of Palestine and the refugees of Palestine." (~ The Prime Minister of Jordan, Hazza' al-Majali, August 23,1959 ~)

5) "Palestine and Transjordan are one, for Palestine is the coastline and Transjordan the hinterland of the same country." (~ King Abdullah, at the Meeting of the Arab League, Cairo, 12th April 1948 ~)

6) "There is no such country as Palestine. 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. 'Palestine' is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it". (- Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937 -)

7) "Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine; there is one people and one land, with one history and one and the same fate." (~ Prince Hassan, brother of King Hussein, addressing the Jordanian National Assembly, 2nd February 1970 ~)

8) "We consider it necessary to clarify to one and all, in the Arab world and outside, that the PALESTINIAN PEOPLE with its nobility and conscience is to be found HERE on the EAST Bank The WEST Bank and the Gaza Strip. Its overwhelming majority is HERE and nowhere else." (~ King Hussein, quoted in An-Hahar, Beirut, 24th August 1972 ~)

9) "The new Jordan, which emerged in 1949, was the creation of the Palestinians of the West Bank and their brothers in the East. While Israel was the negation of the Palestinian right of self-determination, unified Jordan was the expression of it." (~ Sherif Al-Hamid Sharaf, Representative of Jordan at the UN Security Council, 11th June 1973 ~)

10) Past "President Bourguiba (of Tunisia) considers Jordan an artificial creation presented by Great Britain to King Abdullah. But he accepts Palestine and the Palestinians as an existing and primary fact since the days of the Pharaohs. Israel, too, he considers as a primary entity. However, Arab history makes no distinction between Jordanians, Syrians and Palestinians. Most of them hail from the same Arab race, which arrived in the region with the Arab Moslem conquest." (~ Editorial Comment in the Jordanian Armed Forces' weekly, Al-Aqsa, Amman, 11th July 1973 ~)

11) "With all respect to King Hussein, I suggest that the Emirate of Transjordan was created from oil cloth by Great Britain, which for this purpose cut up ancient Palestine. To this desert territory to the bast of the Jordan (River)., it gave the name Transjordan. But there is nothing in history which carries this name. While since our earliest time there was Palestine and Palestinians. I maintain that the matter of Transjordan is an artificial one, and that Palestine is the basic problem. King Hussein should submit to the wishes of the people, in accordance with the principles of democracy and self-determination, so as-to avoid the fate of his grandfather, Abdullah, or of his cousin, Feisal, both of whom were assassinated." (~ Past President Bourguiba of Tunisia, in a public statement, July 1973 ~)

12) "How much better off Hussein would be if he had been induced to abandon his pose as a benevolent 'host' to 'refugees' and to affirm the fact that Jordan is the Palestinian Arab nation-state, just as Israel is the Palestinian Jewish nation-state." (~ Editorial Comment in the publication The Economist of 19th July 1975 ~)

13) "Palestine and Jordan were both (by then) under British Mandate, but as my grandfather pointed out in his memoirs, they were hardly separate countries. Transjordan being to the east of the River Jordan, it formed in a sense, the interior of Palestine." (~ King Hussein, writing in his Memoirs ~)

14) " There is no Palestinian nation! There is an Arab nation, but no Palestinian nation. This was invented by the colonial powers. When are the Palestinians mentioned in history? Never!" (~ Azmi Bishara, former Arab Knesset member, on Israel television. ~)

15) "Palestinian Arabs hold seventy-five per cent of all government jobs in Jordan." (~ The Sunday newspaper The Observer of 2nd March 1976 ~)

16) "Palestinian Arabs control over seventy per cent of Jordan's economy." (~ The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram of 5th March 1976 ~)

17) "There should be a kind of linkage because Jordanians and Palestinians are considered by the PLO as one people." (~ Farouk Kadoumi, head of the PLO Political Department, quoted in Newsweek, 14th March 1977 ~)

18) "Along these lines, the West German Der Spiegel magazine this month cited Dr George Habash, leader of one of the Palestinian organizations, as saying that 70 per cent of Jordan's population are Palestinians and that the power in Jordan should be seized." (Translated by BBC Monitoring Service ~ From a commentary which was broadcast by Radio Amman, 30th June 1980 ~)

19) "Jordan is not just another Arab state with regard to Palestine but, rather, Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan in terms of territory, national identity, sufferings, hopes and aspirations, both day and night. Though we are all Arabs and our point of departure is that we are all members of the same people, the Palestinian-Jordanian nation is one and unique, and different from those of the other Arab states." (~ Marwan al Hamoud, member of the Jordanian National Consultative Council and former Minister of Agriculture, quoted by Al Rai, Amman, 24th September 1980 ~)

20) "The potential weak spot in Jordan is that most of the population are not, strictly speaking, Jordanian at all, but Palestinian. An estimated 60 per cent of the country's 2,500,000 people are Palestinians ... Most of these hold Jordanian passports, and many are integrated into Jordanian society." (~ Richard Owen, in an article published in The Times, 14th November 1980 ~)

21) "There is no moral justification for a second Palestine." (~ The Freeman Center - September 3, 1993 ~)

So the concepts "Palestinians" and "Palestinian People" and "Palestinian nation" and "Palestinian national self-determination" and "historical Palestine" are all hoaxes to facilitate the Arab terrorist destruction of Israel. What does that tell us about what possible solutions to the conflict may work?..and what does it tell us about what will NOT work?



Ynet News

The Jews Are the Real Palestinians

The truth about "Palestine" and the "Palestinian" people.

Debunking the lies of Israeli "occupation" in the Holy Land

by Steven Simpson

The term "Palestine" has conjured up many images and meanings throughout the centuries. In the Christian West, the term was synonymous for the "Promised Land," or the "Holy Land," that is, the Land of the Jews. Throughout the centuries, the terms "Palestine" and "Palestinian" were analogous to the terms "Israel" and "Jew." This is quite evident from reading books, articles, newspapers, and encyclopedias.

"Palestinian" was used to identify Jews living in the Holy Land as opposed to Jews living elsewhere, such as in Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome, or elsewhere. In fact, within Judaism there is even a Talmud (ancient composition of commentary on the Bible) that is called by historians the "Palestinian Talmud," as opposed to the "Babylonian Talmud. "

Nevertheless, within the last forty to fifty years, a perverse and vicious transmogrification of the term "Palestine" has taken root among anti-Jews and anti-Israel haters around the globe, most notably in the Arab/Muslim world, and in the increasingly "dhimmified" European world.

A name in Arabic — "Filastin" — that has no historical connotations or etymological meaning for Arabs and other Muslims — has now taken on the properties of a wholesale myth that could fill volumes of vitriolic and venomous propaganda. Indeed, the whole distortion and myth of an Arab "Palestine" has become a virtual religion unto itself.

How did this myth of a non-existent people and non-existent land of "Filastin" ever come to be? The answer lies in the tragic history of the Roman-Jewish "encounter" during the 1st and 2nd centuries, when Israel (then called Judea) was occupied by the Roman Empire.

The Jews bitterly resented being ruled by the pagan Romans, and for over a century fought to regain their independence. Twice during Roman rule, an independent Kingdom of Judea existed. First, under Herod the Great (while Augustus was emperor), and then under Herod's grandson, Herod Agrippa, (while Claudius was emperor). Regardless, all ended in disaster when the Jews rose in revolt in 66 A.D., and fought a four year war with Rome that resulted — according to the eyewitness historian Josephus — with close to a million Jewish deaths, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple.

Yet Judea, while conquered, remained a restive province in the Roman Empire.

This changed dramatically and drastically in 132 A.D. when a Jewish warrior by the name of Simeon Bar Kokhba raised another revolt against Rome. The war lasted for three years and was so intense, that the Emperor Hadrian had to recall his greatest general, Julius Severus from Britain. It took close to a dozen Roman legions to put down the revolt, but when it was finished, so was Judea. Hadrian had had enough of the Jews and their revolts and decided to rename Judea "Syria Palestina."

The name "Palestina" was chosen after the Philistines — ancient enemies of the Israelites. It was nothing more than pouring salt into the wounds of the already defeated Jews. Jerusalem's name was not spared either and was renamed "Aelia Capitolina." And so it appeared that the "Jewish Question" of the 1st and 2nd centuries had been "solved."
However, Jews continued to remain as a majority in their conquered land.

The situation remained static until the Arabs marched out of the Arabian desert conquering every country in sight for Allah and Muhammad.

In 635 A.D., the Arabs conquered the Holy Land from Byzantium. However, it appears that the Muslims had no real interest in the land. In fact, when they entered Jerusalem, they apparently did not realize where they were, as they first called the city "Iliyas," nothing more than an Arabicized form of the Latin "Aelia" (which, as previously stated, was substituted for the name of Jerusalem). In an ironic twist of fate, it was a Jew who had converted to Islam that pointed out to the Caliph Omar where he and his occupation army were now standing; namely, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

It was then that the Arabs decided to call the city "Al Quds" and "Beit al Muqdas." Once again, these are nothing but Arabicized terms from the original Hebrew: "Ha-Qodesh" and "Beit ha-Miqdash" which respectively mean "the Holy (City)" and "the Holy House" (i.e., "Holy Temple").

The Arab-Muslims now called the land "Jund Filastin" (Province of Palestine) — a direct borrowing from the Greco-Roman term. But because Arabic has no "P" sound in it language, "Palestina" became "Filastina." Indeed, every name of every so-called "Arab village" in Israel is nothing more than an Arabic perversion of the original Hebrew, Greek or Latin names for a city. (To name just two: "Habrun" — from the Hebrew "Hevron", and "Nablus" — Nea Polis, ("New City") built on the ruins of biblical Shechem.)

The Arab Muslim disinterest in the land was so great that with the exception of the city of Ramleh (perhaps built on the Jewish ruins of the city Ramathaim Zophim, according to some archaeologists) no other city was ever built by the Arabs or the other Muslim conquerors. Even more ironic, it was Ramleh that became the provincial capital of "Filastin." Jerusalem played absolutely no significance with the major exception of the building of Masjid Al-Aqsa (the Mosque of Al Aqsa) and Qubbat as-Sahra (the Dome of the Rock) over the ruins of the Jewish Temple. And the reason for building these structures was to show the superiority of Islam over Judaism, and to be in "competition" with the Christian Holy Sepulchre which had been built nearby, centuries earlier.

NOTHING CHANGED OVER THE CENTURIES as the denuded land of "Palestine" went from one conqueror to another. Finally, in 1917, Britain wrested the land from the Ottomans and after promising the Jews a homeland in their ancestral country, the League of Nations awarded a Mandate to the British which extended over both the western and eastern banks of the Jordan River. It was at this point that the term "Palestine" was revived as a quasi-political entity ruled by a British governor.

While the Jews began to call their newspapers, charities, and organizations such names as the Palestine Post and the "United Palestine Appeal," the Arabs eschewed the term as being "Jewish" and "Zionist." For them, they were Muslims first, and "Southern Syrians" second. Indeed, many an Arab politician and historian denied that there was ever a country called "Palestine." To name the amount of Arab political figures and historians who stated this would require an article all by itself.

Suffice to say that Arabs such as the late Hashemite monarch Hussein "Chairman" Arafat, and noted Arab historian Philip K. Hitti, have all candidly admitted that no such country as "Palestine" ever existed. In fact, the latter, while appearing in front of a January 11, 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry in Washington, D.C. stated "[T]here is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not." The late King Hussein, who knew about artificial entities (i.e., Transjordan — now "Jordan") said that "[T]he truth is that JORDAN IS PALESTINE, and PALESTINE IS JORDAN." He said this on more than one occasion in the 1970s and as late as December 26, 1981 in an interview with the Paris based Arabic newspaper An-Nahar Al Arabi ("The Arabic Daily").

Many other Hashemites (past and present) have made similar statements. Indeed, without the help of Churchill and Britain, there would never have been a "Hashemite entity" on the East Bank of the Jordan created in 1922 and carved out of the original "Palestine Mandate" for the Jewish National Home. And in one of the most candid admissions ever made, Zuhair Muhsin, little known leader of the PLO splinter gang known as "Al Sa'iqa" (The Storm) and backed by Syria, said in a March 31, 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw:

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.

Muhsin was eventually assassinated by Israel in 1979.

And of course, there was "Chairman" Arafat who in a 1974 interview with The New Republic stated: "What you call Jordan is actually Palestine."

Regardless, until the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964, "Palestine" and "Palestinian" had no meaning for the Arabs. As an aside, the fact that the PLO was created in 1964 by the League of Arab States and not after the June "Six Day War" of 1967, is telling enough that Ahmad Shuqayri (original founder of the PLO), and his successor Yasser Arafat, were looking for the total extermination of Israel, while Jordan already had the "occupied territories" of the "West Bank," and Egypt had the "Gaza Strip."

For them and for the PLO (or PA of today), "Palestine" is just a part of the "Arab Muslim national homeland" that has to be liberated from the "infidel" Jews. As late as 1967, even the UN did not refer to the term "Palestinians" merely calling them "refugees." (Resolution 242 of November 22, 1967.) However, as the late 1960s turned into the 1970s, the historical terminology of "Palestine" began to be turned upside down, and hijacked by the Arabs. It now became terms synonymous with Arabs, but in reality was only a weapon in the fight to extirpate Israel from the world.

The facts are undeniable. "Palestine" has no meaning in Greek, Latin, Arabic, or English. It is a general fact that a people give their name to a country, not vice-versa. Thus, the Arabs call their homeland, "Jazirat al-Arab" or "Island of the Arabians."

The Jews call their land Israel because they were called Israelites; Israel in Hebrew meaning "to strive with God." Similarly, it was called Judah or Judea after the tribe of Judah (meaning "praise" in Hebrew). Ironically, there is only one language in which the term "Palestine" has a meaning, and that language is Hebrew. The name translated as "Philistia" in the Holy Bible comes from the Hebrew "Peleshet" which means nothing more than "land of the Philistines." Contrary to Arab propaganda, the Philistines were a non-Semitic, Indo-European people who migrated to what is now Gaza. Historians believe that these "sea peoples" originated in the Aegean area of what is now Crete.

In conclusion, one can only imagine if Hadrian had never changed the name of Israel from Judea to Palestina. We might very well have seen a "Judea Liberation Organization" instead of a "Palestine Liberation Organization" and we might very well be hearing the mantra of the "inalienable rights of the Judean Arab people."

At the same time, if Hadrian had changed the name of Judea to Mars, we would be hearing of the "Martian Arab people." Of course, this sounds absurd, but not any more absurd than the fictitious mythical land and people of "Palestine."

Israel would be well advised to learn from the cruel fates of history which has a way of repeating itself. Judea did not exist alongside "Palestina" after Hadrian's destruction in the 2nd century. Similarly today, in the 21st century, it is impossible for Israel to exist "side by side in peace" with a "Palestine" that seeks to replicate and complete Hadrian's war against the Jews. One state or the other can exist, but never both.

Israel is a historical reality. Arab "Palestine" is an artificial invention.

Inevitably, a "two state solution" will lead to nothing less than a final solution for the state of Israel, and perhaps for the Jews of the world.

It is time for Israel to take a courageous stand and face the painful facts of reality — and history.





This article appeared July 13, 2010 in Front Page Magazine.