Opinion A MIX OF IDEAS Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us . Derailing Peace N to Israel as the Jewish state and no to any land swaps, says the Palestinian Authority's controlling political board. Talk about a train wreck for negotiations between Israel and the P.A. before they even start. Once more, the Fatah Revolutionary Council (FRC) asserted its rejection of Israel as a Jewish state. The council renewed "its refusal for the establish- ment of any racist state based on reli- gion in accordance with international law and human rights conventions?' Notably, the council also affirmed Palestinian opposition to any under- standings or agreements between Israel and the U.S. that could "harm Palestinian rights and prolong occu- pation" and "make the occupier more stubborn and radical" — especially U.S. plans to furnish weapons to Israel in exchange for reviving peace talks. A long list of preconditions certainly would render Israeli-Palestinian peace talks moot, were they to actually resume. The Fatal council stated it was cate- gorically opposed to proposals for a land swap between Israel and the Palestinians under the pretext that "illegal settler gangs can't be put on an equal footing with the owners of the lands and rights:' reported the Jerusalem Post, while Israel has long assumed that any final-status agreement would include land swaps. Coming into talks with positions of no land swaps as well as the right of return for Palestinian refugees are hardly nonstarters; reasoned discussion could 0 change such hard-line thinking relative to settlements and borders. But acknowl- edging that Israel is a Jewish state, with a United Nations mandate, is an essential prerequisite to beginning meaningful talks. To delegitimize the Jewish ances- tral homeland presents a fundamental and unconquerable obstacle to peace. The FRC issued its Nov. 27 pronounce- ment as Israel awaits a U.S. incentives proposal before reinstating a partial freeze on new settlement construction that expired on Sept. 26. The P.A. has held firm to a stop on all settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem before agreeing to direct negotiations. With the right push, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to approve reinstatement. The backdrop for the FRC conven- tion in Ramallah was a provocative P.A. Ministry of Culture Administration conference in Tulkarem. The forum was to mark the 93rd anniversary of the "cursed" Balfour Declaration. The guest lecturer stated that the intent of this 1917 British plan for a Jewish homeland in Palestine was to get rid of "this bur- den called the Jews" — a burden that troubled Britain and Europe, according to the Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch. Revisionist history has always been a pillar of the P.A. "The P.A. has con- sistently taught that the Jews came to Israel not because of their historical ties to the land, but because Europe wanted to be rid of the burden of the Jews and Dry Bones CATASTROPHE THE FAMILY OF NATIONS CAN DISPLAY rrs COMPASSION AND SHARED HUMANITY www. DryBonesBlog.com "wanted to get rid of the Jews and their problems:' reported the Palestinian newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. The FRC's juxtaposition of condemn- ing the Balfour Declaration, then dis- crediting the Jewish state is no accident. It was a calculated one-two punch to praise P.A. Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' puppet leadership, dismiss the Jewish claim to Israel and forestall any hint of renewed negotiations toward lasting compromise. And the Palestinian people continue to suffer from their leaders' self-imposed state of poverty. ❑ Exodus, The Movie, Recalled 0 n Mach 22, 1960, Hollywood actor Paul Newman arrived in Israel for the filming of the movie Exodus, which was based on the novel Exodus by author Leon Uris. Although the bestseller was called a novel and its characters were fictitious, the book was based on an event in pre- state Israel. The movie, which lasted 31/2 hours, had its premiere on Dec. 15, 1960, 50 years ago, in the Warner Theatre in Hollywood. Both the book and the movie did a great deal for the Israeli cause, at least at that time. The ship Exodus 1947 — in Hebrew: Yetziat Eiropah Tashaz (5707) — left a port near Marseilles with 4,515 passengers, including 655 children, on July 11, 1947, heading for Eretz Israel [the biblical Land of Israel], or Palestine, in clear defiance of the British government, which under the White Paper banned Jewish immigration. (Statehood didn't come until 1948). The British accompanied the ship from the outset and, approaching the Palestine coast, rammed it and boarded it. In the battle that ensued, two passen- gers and one crew member were killed; 30 others were wounded. The Exodus 1947 was towed to Haifa, where the passen- gers — Holocaust survivors — were to be forced onto other ships bound for France; they refused to disembark and remained on the ship under the worst conditions for 24 days. Eventually, the British authorities returned the weary passengers to camps in Germany. There were a great number of journalists who covered this grim saga of the Jewish refugees. The world was shocked at the heartless behavior of the British govern- ment, which then decided to no longer send these "illegal" immigrants back to Germany, but instead to incarcerate them in detention camps in Cyprus. There is a happy ending to this story. Most of the Exodus refugees finally settled in Israel; however, some had to wait until the establishment of the state on May 14, 1948. When remembering the story of the Exodus 1947, one can't help but imagine how many innocent Jews could have been saved during the Shoah were there an independent Israel only a few years sooner. It helps us appreciate what the State of Israel means and not to take it for granted. ❑ Rachel Kapen is a West Bloomfield resident. December 9 • 2010 39