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Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Palestine and Palestinians: A Place and a People that Do Not Exist (Judean Rose)


Palestine, the Israel-Palestine conflict, Palestinians. All day long, it seems, there is a merciless barrage of agitprop to brainwash us into believing that “Palestine” is an actual Arab country peopled with “Palestinian” nationals. This, despite the fact that there has never been a sovereign state known as “Palestine” and certainly not a sovereign Arab state known as “Palestine.”

Many writers, commentators, and just plain regular folks have long given up trying to call the Arabs of the PA and Gaza anything but “Palestinian.” It’s just become too hard for people to go against that overwhelming tide of propaganda. And what should one call them instead? Calling them “Arabs,” just generically, sounds wrong, and almost racist, being that the term has no connection to any specific location.

So where do we go from here, when you want to be accurate, without sounding racist, in describing what is essentially a group of ragtag migrants who found a good place to settle and dug in their heels? I figured the best person to ask would be my late friend Robert Werdine. Robert grew up in Michigan, but his mother’s family was Lebanese. “What do you call them?” I asked.

“I call them ‘Arabs,’” he said.

And that was good enough for me.

It makes sense: the Arabs of the PA and Hamas, along with the Arabs who left Israel in 1948, have no single nationality, as they originate from not one but several Arab countries in the Middle East. That means that the best we can do is identify them as “Arabs,” just as you might more broadly identify someone as Asian or Native American. When you don’t know a person’s country of origin or their tribe, you’ve got to go broad. That’s not racist. It’s inclusive, and even respectful.

What’s not respectful is calling indigenous Jewish land “Palestine” and pretending that Arabs, and not Jews, are native to the territory. And still, every day, people are out there, ramming the lie down our throats, incessantly. I’m a stubborn cuss, however, and so I continue to fight this dishonest nomenclature. I fight it on Twitter.

But mostly I fight the lie of this fictitious Arab nation and its people on Quora. The people who pose questions on this topic are disingenuous. They are uninterested in my answers. They only want to assert the premise of the question—the lie—as fact.

I see them and what they are doing, but I answer them over and over again, mostly the same way. They are tireless in trying to get us to swallow the lie, just by saying “Palestine, Palestine, Palestine,” and “Palestinian, Palestinian, Palestinian” at us all day long, and they have been all too successful in training us to repeat after them. To my mind, the best way to deal with this is to counter them all day long, by telling the truth.

By way of example, here are several “questions” along with my answers, on the topic of the imaginary country of Palestine and its pretend nationals:


If the Balfour Declaration of 1917 had been kept, how different would the history of Israel and Palestine have been?

Varda: Israel would still exist and Palestine would still be nonexistent.

With Israel and Palestine having elections, are either of the candidates in either country likely to work towards a peace agreement together or is that not going to happen?

Varda: Of the two, only Israel exists.

Is it likely a two-state solution will happen in the next century now that the Palestinians have committed to one? Can biden create a two state solution in four-eight years?

Varda: I assume that when you say “Palestinians” you mean the Arabs who live under the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, as there is no such place called “Palestine” and therefore there cannot exist such a nationality as “Palestinian.”

There will never be a two-state solution because neither side desires one. This is something that Trump understood, and for some reason others refuse to understand, even when the writing on the wall is plain to see. Hamas and the PA pretend they want this, in order to accrue maximum benefits from the American and Israeli governments, meantime, they tell the truth in Arabic, to their people. See:

Biden administration and even Israeli media are fooled by Palestinian doubletalk: No, Hamas didn't commit to a two state solution

Why doesn't Quora show posts related to the Israel and Palestinian conflict?

Varda: If this were the case, I would not be able to see your question.

Is a two state solution likely to take Isreal and Palestine 4-8 years to agree to or would it take many more years than that to come to an agreement? Do you think it will happen within 50 years?

Varda: Your question is a contradiction in terms. If there were a place called “Palestine” there would already be two states. If that is the case, what is meant by the “two-state solution” and why has it not brought peace?

There is no reason for the Jewish people to give up any of their land, and especially not to those who threaten to annihilate them.

Why does Israel want to annex lands in the West Bank? What will happen to the Palestinians living there?

Varda: Israel has no desire to annex land. Not in Judea and Samaria, and not anywhere else.

“West Bank” is propaganda term that people substitute for the geographical area known as Judea and Samaria, part of indigenous Jewish territory. The term is used to suggest that this land sits on the west bank of the Jordan River, hence belongs to Jordan. The territory is nowhere near any body of water except for the body of water known as the Dead Sea.

Judea and Samaria was returned to the Jewish people by dint of a defensive war imposed on the Jewish State. There is no need to annex land that already belongs to you. There is, however, a need to exercise sovereignty, because at present, the territory is under martial law, and it is necessary to bring law and order to the area. Also, Israel has a right to declare its sovereignty over all its land, including Judea and Samaria, which was returned to its rightful owners, the Jewish people, in 1967.

What makes up Palestine?

Varda: That’s a very good question. There is no state called Palestine. If there were such a state, there would be no clamor for a two-state solution, as such a “solution” would already exist, there being two states: Israel and “Palestine.”

The other reason this is a good question is that those who speak of “Palestine,” cannot name its borders unless it is to say that the borders of “Palestine” are exactly the borders of the Jewish State.


What are some Palestinian building archetypes?

Varda: There is no such thing, as there is no state of Palestine, hence no such nationality.

How should President Biden approach the Israel/Palestine issue considering the Middle East seems more preoccupied by Iran now?

Varda: There is no Israel/Palestine issue, because one of these countries does not exist. Biden has already sworn to restore aid to the PA and Hamas which will no doubt go toward their terror-incentivizing pay-to-slay program, so he is not as uninvolved as you suggest in the move to rid the Middle East of its Jewish presence.

What are your thoughts on Jared Kushner calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a ‘real estate dispute’?

Varda: I wouldn’t call it an “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” to begin with, because there is no sovereign Arab country called “Palestine” and as such, there can be no such nationality as “Palestinian.”

Also, it’s not a conflict if one side wants to live and the other side doesn’t want them to live.

All in all, I guess I’d have to say I disagree with Jared Kushner, because it’s not just about real estate, but about the fact that the PA and Hamas want this real estate to be “judenfrei” or free of a Jewish presence.

Aside from the land, and who may and may not live there, the PA and Hamas want to destroy the Jewish people and are working toward that eventuality (God Forbid) by inciting the people under their rule to commit terror attacks. The PA even pays stipends to the families of those who murder Jews to incentivize others to follow suit.

If Israel and the Palestinians did manage to cease hostilities and both agree to a resolution which would lead to peaceful relations, how exactly could that occur in your opinion?

Varda: Presumably, you refer to the Arabs who settled in what is the State of Israel. A resolution to the state of war will occur when the Arabs lay down their arms, as they are the belligerent party.

What is the focus of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? Which of them has the right to the land of Palestine?

Varda: No such conflict exists as there is no such thing as a “Palestinian” being that there is no such place as “Palestine.” There was never an independent state called by this name, and there was never an independent sovereign Arab state by this name, either. As such, there can be no nationality called “Palestinian.”

There is, however, a state called “Israel” that is indigenous Jewish territory and has been for thousands of years. Presumably, you would like to take this land from the indigenous Jewish people and give it to the Arabs and pretend it is called “Palestine.”

Perhaps that is your conflict, in a nutshell: that the Jewish people have a tiny sliver of land and you would like to take it away from them and give it to the Arabs. Perhaps you are not aware that even the Quran refers to the Jews as the Bani Isra’il, the “sons of Israel.”

Do you think the conflict between Israel and Palestine will ever end?

Varda: There’s no such conflict, as only one of these countries exists.

***
Anti-Israel, hence antisemitic Quorans, will continue to bombard me with these stupid questions, and I’ll keep coming back with the same honest answers. Will it help? Maybe, maybe not. At least not unless everyone else who knows the truth makes an effort to stop using the language of “Palestine,” the country that doesn’t exist and never has.