How Jews Living in West Bank Affect the Palestinians

We hear so much noise about the areas known historically as Judea, Samaria and Benyamin which were recently retagged as the West Bank in order to make them sound less Jewish. We hear about the need for the Palestinian Authority to be granted full autonomy of an independent nation with complete control over this West Bank as well as Gaza. Part of the problem with this presentation is that the Palestinians have two completely separate, mutually exclusive, actively competitive, viciously antagonistic governing agents with Hamas controlling and ruling over Gaza while the Palestinian Authority Fatah organization controlling and ruling over Area A the West Bank. Hamas is led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh while the Palestinian Authority leader is President Mahmoud Abbas. Since the two factions split after the Hamas violent coup which placed them in control of Gaza in June 2007, all efforts to reunite the two groups have utterly failed. Part of the problem is that Hamas is based in Islamic religious governance while the Palestinian Authority is aligned with Fatah which is secular socialist governance and such philosophies are very much similar to oil and water, they do not mix well. The power struggle between these two groups drips with the avarice and hatreds such that the resultant atmosphere is not conducive to healthy economic policies therefore depressing economic growth potentials due to crippling corruption. The situation has resulted in totally failed governance in almost every category which has become completely reliant on foreign generosity lurching from one financial catastrophe to the next. Such poor governance constantly leads to the need to plead to the world for emergency funding. This has resulted in high unemployment for the Palestinian Arab people living under the direct controlling rule of either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority in either Gaza or Area A in the West Bank. Yet there is one group who has 100% employment as the Palestinian Authority places every Palestinian terrorist or criminal who has been sentenced to prison in Israel, whether they are members in the PLO, Fatah, Hamas, or any other terror related group, where they receive some of the highest salaries which are directly proportional to the number of Israelis they were able to maim and murder. This would almost be the guaranteed condition over the entire areas of Gaza and the West Bank should the entirety of these areas be placed under solely Palestinian governance.

 

Should anybody desire to find a more optimistic and promising atmosphere where the overwhelming majority of the people are employed and making significantly higher salaries resulting in a higher standard of living, one need not leave the West Bank, one simply needs to visit the areas where modern governance encourages economic ventures and the size and scope of government is limited. These areas are not under either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinians living in these areas are largely employed with comparatively no unemployment when compared to the Palestinians living in Area A. The major difference in the condition for these Palestinians is they live among Israeli settlers. Much of the world decries the supposed conditions under which Palestinians are forced to live in areas where they share the lands with the Israeli settler who are mostly Jewish. There are so numerous different origins of the Israelis living in Samaria and Judea that any attempt to stereotype them as just religious Jews is not only pointless but in complete denial of reality. The Jews who have chosen to live in what the world refers to as the West Bank consist of religious and secular Jews, Israeli Arabs both Christian and Muslim, Secular Jews, Zionist Jews, Jews seeking a more relaxed atmosphere in which to live, farmers, people working locally as well as many whose work is in Tel Aviv who commute, IDF soldiers, physicians, nurses, computer programmers, entrepreneurs, and people from every walk of life one can find. There is a major Israeli University in Ariel called, oddly enough, Ariel University.

 

But what is most interesting is the completely impossible situation under which the Jews and Palestinian Arabs face living close to each other with all the serious relationship problems which are the constant fare in the mainstream media coverage of the Jewish settlers living beyond the Green Line. For the best example of how all of this has an effect, all one need do is visit Ariel University, Barkan Industrial Park, Shahak Industrial Park, and the other industrial parks, farms, vineyards, wineries, business parks, and other businesses and witness a bit of the truth about the Israeli controlled areas of Judea and Samaria. What becomes evident very quickly is that there is no distinction between Jews, Muslims, Christians and those of other religions, Jews and Arabs, Asian ancestry and European ancestry, or religious and secular. Approximately half of the employees along with their supervisors and management in both large and small industrial enterprises are West Bank Arabs employed there right next to West Bank Jews. The same goes for students and professors to a great extent at Ariel University. Throughout the main settlement areas of the West Bank the Jews and Palestinian Arabs live and work together in harmony without any trouble, violence, oppressions or any of the myriad of misconceptions that spring from a media more interested in forcing the issue of the oppressor Jews dispossessing the unfortunate Arab victims of Jewish hegemony. The fact that the Palestinian Arabs who live and work among the Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria have a much higher standard of living is a little secret of which the mainstream media refuses to inform the world. The fact that the rule is cooperation and an improved life for those Palestinians fortunate to reside in the developed mixed Jewish and Arab areas and that the terrorism and violence are the exception must be suppressed as there exists an entire industry based upon the Jewish oppressions of the Arabs. The problem is people living and working in harmony just does not sell newspapers or newscasts anywhere near as well as explosions and violence. The real truth is that the standard of living for the Palestinian Arabs throughout Gaza and the West Bank was among the fastest growing GDP of anywhere in the world from 1973 through 1992. Then, starting in 1993 when Yasser Arafat returned and the very same Palestinians were placed in a semi-autonomous self-ruled areas under the Palestinian Authority the GDP and standard of living reversed and has continued to drop ever since. The wonderful and hopeful truth which the media insists does not exist is that where Palestinian Arabs live together in relative harmony and mutual tolerance with Jews in Area C of the West Bank, sharing the advantages of the rule of law and entrepreneurial opportunity live better lives than their Palestinian brothers living in Area A and Gaza where the leadership is under the Palestinian Authority or Hamas which consist of dictatorial regimes. If people throughout the world truly wish the best of possibilities for the Palestinian people, perhaps they would be better able to decide where to place their efforts after taking an actual investigation of the separate Areas in the West Bank and Gaza and ask the Palestinians who reside within and amongst the Jews in Area C and those living in Palestinian autonomous areas of Area A and Gaza and then decide which group lives a more productive and preferred life. Finding the truth would definitely be an eye-opening experience which would likely deliver a viewpoint not covered by the mainstream media and actually actively hidden by the mainstream media.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

How Can One Compromise with Those Holding Such Positions?

One of the leading representatives with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, Jibril Rajoub, was giving an interview on Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV when he allowed the truth to leak out. Mr. Rajoub when queried as to whether the Palestinian would ever plan to return to negotiations with the Israelis replied that negotiations would be considered only if the Palestinian Authority’s preconditions are met. It was in further explaining what he viewed as the Palestinian Authority’s desire in place of negotiations that he stated, “Listen. We as yet don’t have a nuke, but I swear that if we had a nuke, we’d have used it this very morning.” Rajoub is the Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and chairman of the Palestinian Authority Olympic Committee. This should make for some serious doubts as to the sincerity of any position including compromise with the Israelis the Palestinian leadership express in interviews given to western media outlets. As many other as well as we have pointed out, if only the world would take the time, investing some effort even if only to satisfy curiosity and translate what the Palestinian spokespeople express when speaking in Arabic translating and placing them in their reports with equal prominence they give their articles denouncing Israeli efforts at self-defense, the public would be well served in making an informed and balanced evaluation of the realities of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Unfortunately, it appears that truth and honest reporting are the first two casualties in the mainstream media coverage of virtually all things concerning the Middle East and its relevance and importance to the current world struggles.

 

In another recent television appearance, another senior PA official, Sultan Abu al-Einein on Palestinian Authority TV stated about the recent stabbing murder of Evyatar Borovsky by a Palestinian terrorist recently released from Israeli custody, Salam al-Zaghal, “We salute the heroic fighter, the self-sacrificing Salam al-Zaghal. He insisted on defending his honor, so he went against the settler and killed him. Blessings to the breast that nursed Salam Al-Zaghal.” Such comments being broadcast on Palestinian, Lebanese, Egyptian and other Arabic broadcast media are far from being the exception, they are by far the rule. It is solely due to the willful negligence of our Western mainstream media that prevents such claims from being widely known and the hidden truth behind who are the true impediments to peace being more broadly recognized. When covering the Middle East much of the media either omits information or represents misinformation unchallenged as if it were fact. There is a near constant drumbeat claiming that the presence of Israeli communities on established Palestinian claimed land which prevents any possibility for peace and stands in the way of negotiations. What is not explained are the facts that the Palestinians not only claim the areas known as the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem but also the rest of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Galilee and all of the land that makes up Israel, every single square inch. The Palestinian leadership reserves the right to continue the resistance until all of Palestine is freed which is an actual declaration that the terrorist attacks must continue even after any peace accord which may be signed in the future. Whenever this fact is admitted in the Western media it is portrayed as belonging only to Hamas and Fatah and the Palestinian Authority are represented as being moderates who are willing to make peace. The unfortunate truth is that the Fatah, the PLO, the Palestinian Authority and the entire Arab League all hold fast to their claim to replace all of Israel with an Arab state and the eradication of any trace of Judaism as their only acceptable goal. Since the Khartoum conference of 1967 the entire Arab World has held to the Declaration of the Three No’s; No peace, No negotiations, and No recognition. Such a position does indeed make holding peace talks rather difficult.

 

The truths which are lost because of the ruse known as the Palestinian’s claim to reconstruct their ancient homeland called Palestine are that there never was in all of history such a place as Palestine, the British used the term Palestinian to describe the Jews who resided within the British Mandate, The Balfour Declaration addressed the rights of the Arab populations residing within the British Mandate, Transjordan (currently called Jordan) was created as the Arab State for those Arabs living within the British Mandate and required the Jews to relinquish their legal claim to 78% of the British Mandate, Israel was not required by UNSC Resolution 242 to relinquish any of the West Bank but to relinquish only those lands acquired as a result of the 1967 War that were not determined by Israel to be vital for secure borders. Of the lands under UNSC Resolution 242 Israel has already relinquished well over 75% of the area by returning the Sinai Peninsula to the Egyptians, and lastly the original conflict was never between the Israelis and the Palestinians but between the Arab World and Israel.

 

Even should one look at the Oslo Accords one would almost immediately draw some interesting conclusions. The Oslo Accords drew three distinct areas within what is often referred to as the West Bank, and was historically referred to as Judea, Samaria and Benyamin (which kind of explains why those wishing to prevent Israel from claiming these areas had to rename them), into three separate areas, A, B, and C. Area A was given over to complete control of the Arabs under the auspices of the PLO and Yasser Arafat. Area C was given over to total Israeli control. Area B was jointly controlled by both the Arabs and the Israelis. This makes an obvious demarcation suggesting the intended solution originally was that Israel required all of Area C as their minimum needs to have basic security and the Arab population already, as it existed, was concentrated within Area A. This left Area B which held some concentrations of Arab villages and farms, some open lands, and some lands claimed by Jews who had their lands confiscated by the Jordanians after the 1948 war which the Arabs referred to as the war to eradicate the Jews and Israel calls their War of Independence, which gives some insight to the perspectives of the two sides. Since Area B was placed under dual control one might be led to think that these were the lands disputed between the two sides as originally observed when the Oslo Accords were enacted. It also would be prudent to believe that the negotiations should have been over where the border should be placed in order to fairly divide the lands within Area B. Instead we have muddied the original intents to the point that there have been discussions of granting the Palestinian Arabs a corridor across the Negev Desert so that their areas near the Jordan River have easy access without entering Israel to Gaza and the Mediterranean Sea, never mind that by doing such Israel is cut in two and is no longer contiguous, as long as the Palestinian areas are contiguous everything should be wonderful. There was a period when Mahmoud Abbas felt he had such a strong position he began claiming the entirety of Jerusalem as the capital city for the Palestinians. Fortunately, somebody managed to disavow him of such a felonious concept. All of this is a prime example of how far removed today’s perceived realities are from the original ideas of the Oslo Accords, let alone from the decisions, treaties, conferences, and even the White Papers which were all ratified soon after World War I and blessed by the League of Nations, the United States, Russia, and even the leadership of the Arab World, King Faisal. Sometimes time worsen wounds, not heals them.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

In the End There Will be Only One

Evyatar Borovsky is the name of the Jewish man who was murdered while waiting at a bus station at Tapuah Junction by the recently released Palestinian terrorist Salam Al-Zaghal who stabbed the father of five multiple times in the chest. Later the same day the Palestinian news sources all honored this glorious conquest against one of those guilty Zionist occupiers who had no right to live. Minister of the Knesset Jamal Zahalka of the Balad Party stated boldly and emphatically that the Jewish settlers living on Arab claimed lands have no right to self-defense and deserve to be executed. Also heaping praise upon the recent released terrorist murderer was Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and one of the major political parties making up the Palestinian Authority and in control of the predominantly Arab and Muslim Areas of Judea, Samaria and Binyamin. It comes as no surprise that such a terrorist would receive such praise and be held as a role model for the Palestinian youth, but it is a new wrinkle that the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, which has every iota of content approved by Mahmoud Abbas and the ranking members of the Palestinian Authority, the governing body for the Palestinian people and the presumed peace partners with which Israel is presumed to offer the surrender of the West Bank in order to reach a peace, also praised this murderous act.

 

But what if Israel was to remove over a quarter of a million Jews from their homes and granted the Palestinians the entirety of the West Bank which includes virtually all of the lands which make up the original tribes of biblical Israel of Benyamin, Judea and Samaria. The result waiting in the future should such a peace be reached is not actually unknown nor should the resulting actions surprise anybody who actually is dealing in reality. Yasser Arafat stated the intentions of the Palestinians and their leadership numerous times as has Mahmoud Abbas as well as many other Arab and Muslim leaders from within Palestinian society and outside of it. There have been numerous repetitions of the intent televised on Palestinian TV, transmitted on their radio stations, and declared clearly in numerous public speeches. All of the evidence which all parties and those observers from around the world have full knowledge about is that after the Palestinians have received as much lands by having Israel cede the areas to them then they would continue the struggle until every inch of Palestinian lands have been liberated from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The well-known truth is that once the Palestinians have made their truce which they call a hudna, then they will actually step up the violence and levels of terror in order to drive the Jews who they refer to as occupiers off of all the land and into the sea. The Palestinians are not negotiating to make peace but are negotiating to grab as large a foothold to serve as their beachhead for their final assault to destroy Israel as the Jewish State.

 

Recently United States Secretary of State John Kerry visited with Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss what would be required to restart the peace process. Mahmoud Abbas gave as his answer that it is of foremost and paramount importance that all of the terrorists and other criminal Palestinians from Israeli prisons no matter their crime even multiple murders even those who set off bombs which murdered and maimed entire families and numerous other men, women, children, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandparents, indiscriminately taking lives of people simply because they are Jews must be released before he would even consider returning to the peace negotiations. As an ending note Mahmoud Abbas also informed Secretary Kerry that in no way and under no circumstances could he ever recognize Israel as a Jewish state nor would he ever forget the fight for the “Right of Return” for over five-million Palestinian refugees and their descendants into Israel within the Green Line transforming Israel into a second Palestinian state where the Jews would become a persecuted minority. That is the only solution that Mahmoud Abbas will accept and he even stated it boldly and in plain language to Secretary of State John Kerry who made no complaint nor did he appear troubled or concerned in any way to these claims. Instead Secretary Kerry reiterated his intent to work to get a peace that Abbas could be satisfied with and accept. The meat of the problem is I have no doubt that not only did John Kerry understand every word uttered by Mahmoud Abbas but agreed with every concept and consequence and is willing to work with Abbas to force Israel to succumb to the Palestinian death wishes for the Jews of Israel.

 

The absolute truth is the Palestinians await the day when they will be empowered to plunge knives into every single Israeli Jew’s chest. That is the end aim of the Palestinian Authority but that is actually not as severe an expectation as the end desires of Hamas which holds the Gaza Strip and launches rockets into southern Israel in the hopes of destroying the lives of the Jews living there. Hamas desires to develop or otherwise acquire longer range rockets and even accurate missiles so they can better murder every Jew in Israel. But Hamas does not want to stop there as their intent is to murder every single Jew on Earth. They share this desire with Hezballah whose leader Hassan Nasralla who was quoted saying, “If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” All that is necessary to reveal the dishonesty of all too many of the so-called Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims when it comes to Israel is to quote their own words. Nobody in honesty could listen to the words of incitements and hatreds towards the very existence of the Jewish people that are proclaimed almost daily throughout the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim worlds and claim that Israel has a partner for peaceful coexistence. A large and likely plurality would not even accept merely a position of superiority with complete control of all the positions of power, be they religious, political, law enforcement or any other manner of societal supremacy but instead would only accept the eradication and annihilation of the entirety of Judaism, all its followers and every memory or vestige of Judaism wherever they might be found. The whole idea that Israel even backed by the entirety of Judaism in the world, the entire approximately fifteen-million which makes up 0.2% of the world population, could be a viable, domineering, overpowering threat to the near two-billion Muslims who make up over a quarter of the world population is beyond laughable. Is the lands of Israel as defined as the lands from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and the Golan Heights really too much to ask? I would hope that would be acceptable but it often does appear to be beyond the world’s ability to come to grips with and accept allowing the Jewish peoples their Biblical homelands, but how about it.

 

Beyond the Cusp