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Essay
Editorial
Jewish Birthright
Israel will never cede land lightly.
L
Settling on borders will
require Job's patience
and Noah's emotional
strength.
and swaps will be pivotal to any
negotiated peace deal between
Israel and the Palestinian
Authority. But because the fate of holy and
historic Jewish land is at stake, it's only
right that Israeli voters have the final say
before any territory within Israel's pre-
1967 borders is surrendered to the P.A. as
part of an agreed-upon exchange.
annexed modern-day Judea and Samaria,
Political expediency shouldn't compel
which constitute the West Bank. Israel
Israel into an impetuous giveaway. Jews
does maintain a military presence there as
invariably cling to this land of their his-
a defense against terrorism and also over-
tory and heritage — their birthright. As
sees approved settlements.
I walk the biblical land of our forbears,
Under international law, you could
I feel its tug at my heart and soul — and
make the case for Judea and Samaria
its nourishment of my Jewish
already being part of Israel,
identity and spiritual journey. A
not "occupied" territories,
visit is simultaneously riveting,
as Arab leaders assert. In
exhausting, uplifting, provoking
1922, the League of Nations
and enlightening. It under-
approved the British Mandate
scores the richness of the very
for Palestine, which essentially
soil that binds us as a people.
awarded those historic lands
On March 13, the Knesset
to the Jewish people. As Israeli
overwhelmingly passed a bill
columnist Caroline Glick told
requiring voter approval before
Breitbart News: "They are
Robert
any release of sovereign Israeli
Israeli territories that Israel has
Contrib
territory. Such territory belongs
chosen — after they were ille-
Edit
to the Jewish people; it is their
gally occupied by the Jordanian
ancestral homeland. The citi-
military in 1949 — to adminis-
zens of Israel are its stewards.
ter under different laws"
Land swapping to establish new borders
The idea of swapping land is not new to
is sure to be listed as one of the broad top-
Israel-Palestinian peace talks. Invariably, it
ics in U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's
has proven a sticking point — one of many
proposed framework for a peace agree-
that have spurred repeated and agonizing
ment — should such a plan ever appear
impasses.
given talks have been mostly off. Settling
on borders will require Job's patience and
A Voter's Right
Noah's emotional strength. Neither side
It's not practical for voters to consider
will budge easily. Both sides are feeling
every detail of diplomacy. That's why
international pressure. The P.A. is doing
they elect leaders. But in the case of the
nothing to improve the climate for com-
long-running standoff as Israel and the
promise, going so far as to disseminate
P.A. try to make peace in anticipation of
maps obscuring Israel by showing the
creating an internationally recognized
Palestinian state, Israeli voter signoff on
Jewish state as part of "Palestine'
trading land is crucial. As Israeli Prime
So an acceptable land trade will be hard
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before
to come by. Getting one trade proposal to
the Knesset, a public vote "is the only
pass muster may well hold the secret to
thing that will preserve the domestic
getting consensus on another.
peace among us." For example, keeping
What It Means
Jerusalem whole, as the IN long has called
The new law calls for a referendum follow-
for, is sure to present a diplomatic tangle
ing any government decision to cede land
in any discussions.
within Israel. That includes such annexed
The Israeli Supreme Court could always
land as eastern Jerusalem (annexed
weigh in on the referendum law. But as it
from Jordan in 1967), the Golan Heights
stands, the new legislation represents good
(annexed from Syria in 1981) and other
governance.
less-publicized Arab villages and farm-
Pesach begins at sundown Monday,
April 14. This popular holiday of renewal,
lands annexed into Jerusalem since Israeli
statehood in 1948.
resilience and redemption provides a time-
A treaty giving up land can be ratified
ly occasion to grasp just how pivotal land
without a referendum if more than 80 law-
is to Israel, a sliver of a growing nation
fighting valiantly to prosper in the midst
makers support such action.
of unrelenting enemies of Am Yisrael — of
Notably, the law won't apply to evacu-
ated areas of the West Bank; Israel never
we, the Jewish people.
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40 April 10 • 2014
Arab Fabrications
Keep Peace At Bay
A
mid the tottering U.S.-brokered peace talks between the Israelis and
Palestinians, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank calculatedly
promotes hatred of Israel through lies. The claim: Israel and Jews have
mounted a scheme to demean Palestinians.
Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has documented that since
1997, the heyday of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, the
Palestinian Authority has spread the myth that Israel is seeking to conquer
large swaths of Arab land to expand Israeli jurisdiction from "the Nile to the
Euphrates" – referring to two Middle East rivers well beyond Israel's borders.
The myth thus imagines the Zionist dream rooted in "old-style colonialism."
Compounding this untrue indoctrination is a popular P.A. video depicting a fan-
tasy classroom of Hebrew-speaking "Israeli students" wearing kippot, standing
in front of the Israeli flag and repeating after a teacher: "The Land of Israel,
from the Nile to the Euphrates."
Flag Disrespected
Ahmad Assaf, official spokesman for Fatah, the P.A. party
governing Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank,
boldly stoked the expansive fantasy twice this past month.
His March assertions: The two blue stripes on the Israeli flag
represent the two rivers, the Nile and the Euphrates, and
the Star of David in the middle represents Israel's yearning
to control the full swath between the two rivers. The impli-
cation: Israel has no definable borders.
PMW underscored Assaf's deduction that Israel's land-
Ahmad Assaf
grab desires present a danger to the entire Arab world and
that the P.A. is on the frontlines of defending this world.
In reality, the very innocent blue stripes were inspired by the similarly hued
stripes of the tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl. The Star of David's shape as a
recognized symbol of Judaism derives from the 17th century, but has roots in
Jewish antiquity. It gained stature when it became the centerpiece of the flag
of the First Zionist Congress in 1897.
Armed Aggression
If Palestinian mockery of the Israeli flag wasn't enough to overcome as
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry strives to sustain peace talks despite
Palestinian intransigence and indifference, a Fatah Central Committee mem-
ber touted Fatah's renewed allegiance to the rifle as a means of jihad – the
Palestinian "struggle."
At a March ceremony honoring
P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas in
Jericho, Fatah Cental Committee
member Tawfiq Tirawi blurted,
"The rifle is here and it can burst
PAINFUL CONCESSIONS
LISTENING FOR
forth at any moment with a new
DEMANDED OF ISRAEL
THE PAINFUL
method and a new leadership. It
INCLUDE UPROOTING
CONCESSIONS
JEWISH COMMUNITIES
DEMANDED FROM
will burst forth from this leader-
AND PULLING OUT
THE PALESTINIANS.
ship if we remain alive because
OF
THE
'we are its people'; and if we are
WEST
no longer alive, our sons, our
BANK.
young lions, and you will be its
people. Revolution until victory,
until victory, until victory."
Such malarkey is hardly a
backdrop worthy of reviving
foundering peace talks. This
unrelenting incitement, more
so than lack of movement on
permanent-status issues at
the barren negotiating table, is
likely to dash Secretary Kerry's
hopes for Israeli-Palestinian
conciliation.
Dry Bones
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