Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

"The only remaining people under military occupation in the world"

Even though I fisked Maen Areikat's op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday, there were too many lies for one post. In fact, one can make an entire post from each of his lies.

One of my readers, who would like to remain anonymous, did exactly that.

Areikat said that the Palestinian Arabs were "the only remaining people under military occupation in the world."

Certainly.

Except for the Kurds, of course, the Turkish military rides the Kurds pretty hard, and they use live ammunition. But except for the Kurds the Palestinians really are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the people of the Western Sahara, of course. But the Moroccan Army makes sure that the world doesn't hear much about them. Still, they're occupied and not happy about it, so except for the Kurds and the Western Sahara, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the Uyghur of Eastern Turkistan. And the Tibetans of Tibet. The Chinese pretty much bash the Uyghurs and the Tibetans if they say peep. Still, except tor the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the people of Darfur, of course. It's pretty ugly what goes on in Darfur. Rape, murder, pillage, and wholesale ethnic cleansing for the sake of land theft all committed by a militia backed by the Arab government of Sudan. Better not to talk about it. Still, it's happening, so we kind of do have to at least mention it. So, except for the people of Darfur, the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the people of Western Papua where they are really, really not happy about living under Indonesian military occupation. Neither are the people of Aceh, come th that, just ask them. So Except for Aceh, Western Papua, Darfur, the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the Tamils of Sri Lanka. But the Sri lankan government pretty much snuffed them, in fact, maybe they don't count any more since that was the nearest thing a deliberate, calculated genocide that the world has seen this millenia. Even the omniscient Wikipedia lists them as "no longer active." Shissh, talk about mealy-mouthed. Dead! They're dead. The Sri Lankans killed them and nobody except John Lee Anderson writing in the New Yorker even cared. A few of them did survive and manage to stay in Sri Lanka, so I suppose we should count them. So except for the Tamil of Sri Lanka, Aceh, Western Papua, Darfur, the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And Baluchistan, and Wazirstan, you really do have to mention Baluchistan and Wazirstan because not only are they really, really pissed off by the Pakistani military occupation, lots of people die from it. And when a military occupation is killing that many people, we at least have to add them to this list. So, except for Baluchistan, Waziristan, the Tamil of Sri Lanka, Aceh, Western Papua, Darfur, the Uyghur, the Tibetans, the Western Saharans, and the Kurds, the Palestinians are the only remaining people under military occupation in the world.

And the oppressed Assyrians of Syria, and the Patani in southern Thailand, the Kurds of Syria, the Syrian Druse, the Coptic Christians of Egypt, the....

Oh, why bother?

Unity! Hamas continues to harass Fatah members

From PCHR:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, on 26 and 27 December 2011, 50 activists of Fatah Movement throughout the Gaza Strip were summoned to ISS centers, each of them according to his area of residence. When they went there, they were held for several hours, during which they were questioned about their participation in celebration and honor ceremonies of Palestinian prisoners who had been released from Israeli jails.

On 19 December 2011, ISS officers raided and searched 3 houses belonging to 3 members of former security services in al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. They confiscated computer sets and summoned the three persons to the ISS center in Deir al-Balah on the following day. When those summoned went to the center, they were held for several hours, during which they were questioned. They were then ordered to refer to the center again on 04 January 2012.

On 13 December 2011, two members of former security services in the central Gaza Strip were summoned to the ISS center in Deir al-Balah for the following day. When they went to the center, they were held for several hours, during which they were questioned. They were then ordered to refer to the center again.

Additionally, a number of members of former security services were arrested by the ISS in the Gaza Strip. Some of the released detainees reported that were subjected to methods of torture during interrogation.

It should be noted that the ISS has recently waged a campaign of arrests that targeted persons who used to work in the Palestinian General Intelligence throughout the Gaza Strip. Some of the detainees were released, while others have remained in custody. The detainees were interrogated by ISS officers and were accused of having contacts with Ramallah. A released detainee reported that he was subjected to method of torture while being interrogated in Gaza City for accusations of having contacts with Ramallah. He stated that they placed a plastic bag over his head and that he was subjected to Shabeh* in a 20-square-meter room for 15 days, including 12 consecutive days. He added that he was placed in a cell for another 15 days together with another 6 persons. They were interrogated and subjected to methods of torture, including forcing them to hear extremely loud sounds.

* Regular shabeh entails shackling the detainee's hands and legs to a small chair, angled to slant forward so that the detainee cannot sit in a stable position. The detainee's head is covered with an often-filthy sack and loud music is played non-stop through loudspeakers. Detainees in shabeh are not allowed to sleep.

In other "unity" news, Hamas informed Fatah in Gaza that they will not allow any celebrations on the 47th anniversary of Fatah's founding January 1.

15 years of restrictions on construction in Lebanese PalArab camps

On January 1, 1997, the Lebanese government put into effect regulations that severely restrict bringing construction materials into Palestinian Arab camps in southern Lebanon.

For fifteen years, these camp residents who live in already dilapidated houses have had almost no recourse to repair it.

And for fifteen years, as the population in the camps grew, no new housing has been built.

The restrictions were lifted in 2004 but then reinstated in 2006, adding a new camp to the regulation.In theory there is a lengthy bureaucratic process through which building in the camps could be authorized, but in fact it hardly ever gets approved. People building without a permit are subject to arrest.

UNRWA downplays the issue:

There are no legal restrictions in place regarding the transportation of construction materials into Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Restrictions, when they exist, function on an administrative basis and only apply to camps in the south of the country and to Nahr el-Bared. Camp dwellers have to apply for a permit, to be granted by the Army. However, in some camps, it seems that smuggling of construction material is rife.

Not only that, but in 2001 Lebanon passed a law outlawing Palestinian Arabs from purchasing land or for transferring land they already owned to their children, so the little amount of land that Palestinian Arabs do own in Lebanon is disappearing as the owners die.

You will be hard-pressed to find anyone calling to boycott Lebanon, a country that discriminates so egregiously against its Palestinian population. You will not find UNRWA reports condemning Lebanon for its planned policy of discrimination and marginalization of its Palestinian population.

The 15th anniversary of these regulations is coming up. Good luck reading about this anniversary in any English-language media besides here.

UNRWA spokesperson Abu Adnan Hasna said today that Israel bears the legal and moral responsibility for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestine Today.

I wonder if Hasna considers PLO and Hamas as responsible for damage to southern communities from rockets, for paying for the Iron Dome system, for the construction of hundreds of rocket shelters and indeed for the entire Gaza war that was only fought to stop Gaza rocket attacks?

Or does UNRWA only consider responsibility a one-way street?

Arabs upset that Palestinian Olympic Committee cooperates with Israel

Recently, the Israel Olympic Committee signed an agreement with the Palestine Olympic Committee to help facilitate travel of Palestinian Arab athletes through Israel and to help ensure that sports equipment gets delivered to the Arab athletes in a timely manner.

This is causing an uproar in the Arab world, both within the territories and from outside.

Besides the scandal of Palestinian Arabs actually speaking to Israeli Jews, which is bad enough, it looks like this cooperation is going to help both Israel and a Palestinian Arab team to compete in the Mediterranean Games.

Both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs have been barred from participating in the Mediterranean Games, and this cooperation seems to make it easier for both to join in. The IOC, which had once been against allowing Israel to participate, is now supporting allowing both teams to compete.

Even though adding a Palestine team would help legitimize the Palestinian Arab cause, the price to be paid - allowing Israel to compete in the games - is considered way too high by the Arab world. Arabs would prefer that both teams be barred than to allow Israel to join.

Which is just one more piece of evidence that no one in the Arab world is really "pro-Palestinian." People who want to penalize Palestinian Arab legitimacy in international sports are not in any way "pro-Palestinian."

They are simply anti-Israel.

And it is further proof that while Israelis try to find "win-win" solutions, Arabs will not. They would rather have "lose-lose" if one of the potential winners would be Israel. They base their most basic decisions on irrational hatred of Israel. Their mentality remains zero-sum.

By the way, this 1996 article from the New York Times shows that fact checking was not a priority for that newspaper even then:

Although Atlanta will mark the first Palestinian participation in the Olympics, Palestinians have a long association with sports -- they were once among the Arab world's best boxers. And, according to Nahil Mabrouk, president of the Palestinian Track and Field Federation, the Palestine Olympic Committee was founded in 1931 and remained a member of the Olympic family until 1967, the year of the Six-Day War and the beginning of Israel's 26-year occupation.

In fact, the Palestine Olympic Committee that was formed in 1933 changed its name in 1951 - to the Israel Olympic Committee. It was recognized by the IOC in 1952.

(h/t E. ben Abuya for correct dates.)

Tunisia sends 4 tons of aid to Gaza. No one notices.

In recent days, Ma'an has started writing a boilerplate description of Gaza in a number of articles:

The Gaza Strip has been under a sea, land and air blockade imposed by Israel since 2007.

Really?

There has been a steady stream of land convoys that have been going to Gaza through Egypt's Rafah crossing over the past year, and no one is doing anything to stop them.

The latest came from Tunisia, which sent activists with 15 vehicles carrying four tons of what they say are medicines and medical equipment.

There have been others - Viva Palestina, Miles of Smiles, and more - that successfully and pretty quietly send whatever they want to Gaza through Rafah without any Israeli intervention.

Essentially, anyone can send whatever aid they want to Gaza.

Not that you would know it from reading the news.

Israeli pencils in Saudi Arabia?

From YNet:

How Youm7 illustrated the story

Saudi authorities are investigating how Israeli pencils reached one of the kingdom's biggest retail chains. The Kravitz chain, which markets the pencils in Israel, was surprised to hear about the affair stirring up the Gulf kingdom.

It turns out that Abu Rialin, a Saudi chain which offers all of its items for two riyals, is selling one of Kravitz's most popular products – a set of 12 pencils with an eraser.

The pencils are sold with the Kravitz logo in Hebrew and without any attempt to conceal the fact that they are made in Israel.

Kravitz learned about the incident following a report published by Saudi website Jazan. The reporter noted that Kravitz was the biggest manufacturer of office supplies in Israel and asked how the Saudi Ministry of Commerce could overlook such a thing.

"Where are the Saudi kingdom's supervision authorities?" the reporter asks, calling for an investigation into the apparent marketing of an Israeli product in Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the original Saudi story. Plenty of Arabic sites are talking about this but every one I can find is referring to an article about it in Ma'ariv.

I found "Jazan News" and "Jazan Press" websites, but no newspaper simply called "Jazan." I found a story on both sites complaining about the prices of school supplies at the Abu Rialin chain, but nothing about Israeli pencils.

So while it is a fun story, it might be just a rumor.

SA CEO responds to critics for selling Israeli products, Muslims seethe

From IOL News (South Africa):

Ivan Saltzman, the chief executive of pharmacy giant Dis-Chem, is embroiled in an ugly spat with a Durban woman over the retailer’s decision to sell Israeli-made skin care products.

The spat began when Fathima Moosa visited the Westwood Mall branch of Dischem and noticed that they were selling Dead Sea products made in Israel.

She later submitted an online letter of complaint, asking them to remove the products on the basis that Israel’s “human rights violations replicate Hitler’s Nazism”.

After Dis-Chem’s initial response that the products were not going to be removed, Moosa demanded that her e-mail be forwarded to top management.

Twenty days later, Saltzman responded to her personally, telling her that likening Israel’s supposed human rights violations was a “a scurrilous slur that you have clearly chosen to employ in order to give maximum offence”.

The spat which has since seen the Islamic Media Review Network get involved with an open letter to Saltzman now threatens to turn into boycott of Dis-Chem by pro-Palestinian groups in SA.

Moosa's original email to the website stated:

i visited your store in westwood mall, durban, and noticed that you stock products from Israel. as a south african who lived under oppression, i was very upset to see that your store imports products from a country whose human rights violations replicate hitler's nazism. please consider removing israeli products from your shelves.

Dear Fathima

Thank you for contacting us. I have brought this matter to the attention of one of our Directors who has advised that we will not consider removing the Israeli products from Dis-Chem stores.

Kind regards

Dawn de Klerk

Moosa responded:

Hi

I am very disappointed by your response.

Please forward this mail to your director, whom I believe is a caring individual. ( I am formerly from Pretoria, and I know that he does a lot of charity).

It is very easy for us to rise to the defense of those who are from our brethren, but the nobler response is to do what's right, even if its the unpopular choice.

The jews of many organisations nationally and internationally have nobly and amazingly distanced themselves from the israeli regime, and have been at the forefront of the call for sanctions against Israel, because of their racist and inhumane policies.

Please google, "nkusa", "young jewish and proud", "rabbis against Israel", Ronnie Kasrils: "not in my name".

Among all these voices, are Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and many Israeli MPs who urge the world to end the madness.

I hope and trust that your good judgement and commitment to the values enshrined in the Torah, allow you to make the right decision.

Happy is the man who renounces everything that puts a strain on his conscience.

After all, we are all the children of Abraham.

Thank you

Fathima Moosa

And here is CEO Ivan Saltzman's unapolgetic response:

Dear Fatima Moosa

I will begin by answering your likening Israel’s supposed human rights violations to Hitler’s Nazism, a scurrilous slur that you have clear chosen to employ in order to give maximum offense. I think you well know that the crimes of the Nazi regime involved the deliberate mass murder of millions of civilians, largely Jews, as a matter of planned policy. Is this really what Israel is doing. Obviously not – in fact it does completely the opposite. Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to minimize civilian casualties and has been extremely successful in this regard. Palestinian (or for that matter Lebanese) casualties have been a tiny fraction of what they would have been if Israel had truly adopted a Nazi-like extermination policy, given the massive military capability it has at its disposal.

In fact, it is very easy to identify the true modern-day Nazis in the Middle East. They are found in the ranks of such murderous extremist groupings as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestine Islamic Jihad (amongst others), all of which regard the mass murder of Israeli Jews as the noblest goal their followers can aspire to. Have you ever thought what the consequences would be if Israel were to adopt the same kind of tactics against the Palestinian population? Mass slaughter would indeed ensue, but fortunately Israel, no matter what the provocation, has not nor will not ever stoop to such depths.

So far as your stated intention of boycotting Dis-Chem goes, that is obviously your decision. After all, we do live in a free country. However, if it is your intention to boycott Israeli products, you need to be consistent If your gesture is to have any meaning. I hope you don’t use an intel chip in your computer with which you probably wrote your e-mail because it was invented in Israel. I hope that you stay in good health because if you need preventative surgery against a heart attack, you will have to boycott the procedure because guess what? The stent was invented in Israel! Likewise, I hope you are never prescribed any patch for diabetes, to deliver medication and other drugs. If you are an asthmatic you may have to use a new type of inhaler (Spin) invented in Israel. So please check! Israel has given the world the system of drip irrigation which is being widely adopted in South Africa with water shortages like many countries. Should you boycott all fruit and vegetables grown by this method. The list that Israel has given the world is very lengthy. Check very carefully what you boycott.

You may not have noticed the crisis in the Arab world, “Arab Spring” which now is in Winter with no end in sight. To the best of my knowledge this over human rights but then I have an HD TV which you are probably boycotting. The cheapness of life in Somalia and Sudan is perpetrated by people who you are strongly affiliated to. You obviously don’t know what the racism of Hitler differs very little to Israel’s enemies. Both want the destruction of the Jewish people.

I believe I had to answer your “complaint”. I will continue to sell Dead Sea products from Israel. You know the Dead Sea has two shores. I wonder why the Jordanians or Palestinians (most come from Jordan) do not want to share this wonderful natural resource of the Dead Sea.

I will not respond to any further correspondence on your subject.

Yours faithfully

IVAN SALTZMAN | CHIEF EXCECUTIVE OFFICER
23 Stag Rd, Allandale, Midrand, South Africa
(011) 589-2208
ivan@dischem.co.za

A Muslim organization in South Africa, Media Review Network, responds with a lengthy letter that actually defends Moosa's characterization of Israel as engaging in Nazi-like behavior.

Unsurprisingly, MRN explicitly supports Hamas and terrorism against Israelis (saying the Shalit prisoner swap "vindicates any and all resistance options to oppression must be employed against the brutal Zionist occupation of their lands.")

(h/t Gidon)

The PLO's US envoy lies in the WaPo

From the Washington Post, an op-ed by US PLO representative Maen Rashid Areikat.

Areikat has said more than once that his organization intends to ethnically cleanse a half million people from their homes.

Here he takes on the idea that "Palestinians" are an invented nation, with a suite of lies:

The issue of Palestinian identity and national history has become a source of controversy, with many Americans making deeply disturbing and alarming statements. As the representative of my people to the United States, I would like to tell you what the Palestinians, as a people, are all about.

We go far back, much further than those doubting our existence can remember. Jericho, my home town, goes as far back as 10,000 B.C., making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. .... We lived under the rule of a plethora of empires: the Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Israelites, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Mongols, Ottomans and, finally, the British. This has made our region rich in history, culture and heritage. Indeed, if our olive trees could speak — some are centuries old — they would have a lot to say.

This makes us very proud and appreciative of our special place in this world. That is why we are so attached to our land and to our identity.... Centuries of rule by an eclectic assortment have taught us that empires come and go but legacies and values remain. ... The fact that we outlived these empires is a testament to our resilience and strength.

Areikat is making the claim that today's Palestinian Arabs are descended from the people who lived in the same area thousands of years ago.

Yet in his next paragraph he says:

Yes, as presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said recently, we are also Arabs, the Arabs of the Holy Land. Infused with a mix of attributes from the civilizations that passed by, we are Arabs with black, brown and white skin, dark- and light-colored eyes, and the whole gamut of hair types.

The Arab conquest of Palestine occurred in the seventh century. While there was no doubt some intermixing of the Arab invaders with the existing population, it is contradictory to claim both that Palestinians are descended from the people who lived there for thousands of years - and that they are Arab. If they are Arab, it is impossible to say that they lived under the rule of the Canaanites, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and so forth. (And if they were there for so long - aren't they Canaanites? Is he saying that they pre-date the Canaanites?

Anyway you look at this, Areikat is being a-historical.

Beyond that, there is plenty of evidence that a significant number of "Palestinians" came from elsewhere. The Nashashibis, who were prominent residents of Jerusalem for centuries, arrived in Palestine in 1469. The Al Nammaris came after the expulsion of Muslims from Spain. The Dajani family came from Arabia. These were considered among the most prominent Arab clans in the Jerusalem area.

Furthermore, a significant number of Palestinian Arabs have surnames that indicate they came from elsewhere: Hejazi from Arabia, Mughrabi from Morocco, Masri from Egypt, Haurani from Syria, Turki and Dogmush from Turkey, Yamani from Yemen, Jaziri from Algeria, Hindi from India, Kurdi from Kurdistan, Halabi from Aleppo, and many more.

No Arabs have the surname Filisteeni.

Moreover, all the major tribes that lived near Jerusalem in the 19th century came from Arabia. And the Yamani and the Qais tribes in Palestine, who engaged in a famous centuries-old feud, came from Yemen and southern Arabia, respectively.

I am not an expert, but I have yet to see a Palestinian Arab family that was able to trace their ancestry beyond the Crusades. Perhaps some of the rapidly disappearing Palestinian Christians can, but the number is diminishingly small.

Beyond that, there was a significant immigration of Arabs to Palestine that mirrored the growth of Zionism, as tens of thousands of Arabs from Syria, Transjordan and Egypt came to seek their fortunes in the 1920s and early 1930s. All of them are considered "Palestinian" today. Certainly Areikat does not think of them as any less Palestinian even though they came from other areas.

In short, very few Palestinian Arabs have been there longer than a thousand years, and I would guess that most have not been there longer than 200 years. Areikat is spinning a large lie.

Like Americans, we are a hybrid of peoples defined by one overarching identity.

As I have recently shown, that identity simply did not exist until the middle of the 20th century.

Historian Benny Morris concurs, when he wrote a few years ago that "the birth of Palestinian Arab nationalism [occurred] in the 1920s (and the start of general Arab nationalism only a few years before). But for years thereafter, Palestinian Arab nationalism remained the purview of middle- and upper-class families. Most peasants, and perhaps many among the urban poor as well--together, some 80 percent of the Palestine Arabs--lacked political consciousness or a 'national' ideology."

In other words, they identified as Arabs, as clans, as members of a village, as tribes - but never as "Palestinians."

Before World War II, Palestinians and Jews living in Palestine enjoyed times of great harmony. My grandfather shared a bakery shop with a Jewish partner, Aaron, in Jerusalem’s Bak’a Tahta neighborhood. My mother told me stories of the period of peace and tranquillity they enjoyed with Jews during this time. That period ended in 1948, however, and a conflict began.

One only has to look at the history of Palestinian Arabs attacking Jews before 1948 to see how transparent this lie is. The 1886 attack on Petah Tikva, attacks on Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall in 1911, murders of Jews in 1912, the deadly riots in 1920, 1921 and 1929, the years of terror from 1936-9. As Christian pilgrims noted, in the 19th century the biggest insult an Arab could give was to call another a "Jew."

Areikat is lying.

We agreed to confine our right to self-determination and statehood on only 22 percent of what used to be our historic homeland, and we did so for the sake of peace and with a sober realization that seeking “absolute justice” is a fool’s errand.

"22 percent of what used to be our historic homeland" is another lie. Historic Palestine was not congruent with British Mandate Palestine; it included parts of Jordan and possibly Lebanon - even by the loose Arab definition of Palestine. Here's a map of the area drawn inthe 19th century based on the work of medieval Arab geographers.

Which begs the question - why don't Palestinian Arabs claim eastern Jordan as their "historic homeland"? (And why is the Negev. never considered a part of historic Palestine, included in their definition?)

The answer, as I have noted, is that their goal has always been to destroy a state, not to build one.

And to say that the PLO is accepting a state in the territories only is also a gross misrepresentation of the official PLO position. They are not only demanding their state on every inch of territories they never controlled, but they are also demanding the right to flood Israel with Arabs. The obvious goal is to turn Israel into another Palestinian Arab state. This is why they are dead-set against "two states for two peoples" and against recognizing that Israel is a Jewish state.

So while Areikat is charging that people are ignorant of his made-up history of "Palestinians," his own PLO is on the record as saying that the Jewish people does not exist. Talk about historic revisionism!

Beyond that, the PLO and the PA erases Israel from every single one of their maps. (Fatah logos start at about the 1-minute mark.)

To claim that they are accepting a two-state solution is to engage in wishful thinking. At best, they are accepting the temporary existence of Israel until they figure out how to get rid of it - demographically, politically, or militarily.

Areikat is a liar, and it is a shame that most people don't realize it.

Photo by DoZ taken at the Elder estate using a Fujifilm Finepix S2500HD

It is the last night of Chanukah, so here's an open thread to say good-bye.

Chanukah Video Night 8: Jew-Z's Groove

This video is notable because it caused Heeb Magazine to freak out over how much they hated it.

The disappearance and reappearance of Palestinian Arab nationalism, 1949-1968

Palestinian Arab nationalism effectively sprung out of thin air in 1920. Up until then, with very little exception, it was subsumed under the desire to be a part of "Greater Syria" which would include all of Palestine - and leave no room for a Jewish state.

As soon as the ink dried on the San Remo resolution, Palestinian Arab leaders changed their tune, and embraced the idea of an Arab Palestine that would, again, ensure that no Jewish state would ever exist.

After 1948, the desire for a Palestinian Arab state disappeared again. Palestinian Arabs in the west bank of the Jordan became citizens of that country; those in Gaza saw their land occupied by Egypt. Neither of them showed the slightest interest in their own state - the desire just disappeared.

What replaced it was a return to 1919's Syrian-style pan-Arabism, and the person they believed could help them was Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Here is an interesting AP story from 1957:

Yes, Palestinians in Gaza in 1957 wanted to be under the administration of Egypt - not to have their own country!

In fact, Jordan's King Hussein's major problem during that time was the threat from Nasser, who incited Jordanian Palestinians to revolt against him and even to assassinate him, so the entire Arab world could be Nasserist.

What happened to their vaunted nationalism? Where was their desire for an independent state that their leaders spoke about so eloquently during the 1940s?

It is apparent that the desire for a state was far less than the desire to destroy Israel, which was Nasser's selling point to them. "Liberating Palestine" meant liberating it - from Jews.

The 1964 PLO Covenant is a very interesting document. Its Arabic name is "Al-Mithaq Al-Kawmee Al-Philisteeni," which roughly means The Palestinian Pan-Arabist Covenant. It is mostly wedded to the Nasserist vision, insisting on how the Palestinian cause is a pan-Arab cause, and it is replete with references to Arab unity and the Arab nation. (It also specifically excludes Gaza and the West Bank from areas wanted for "Palestine" - since those areas were considered "liberated!" Significantly, it also refers to Israel's pre-1967 existence as "occupation.")

The 1968 version of the document, in contrast, is called "Al-Mithaq Al-Watanee Al-Philisteeni" which more explicitly means "The Palestinian National Covenant." Which means that only after 1967, when hopes for an Arab military victory over Israel faded, did Palestinian Arab nationalism become reincarnated.

We see that the Palestinian Arab leadership went from Greater Syrian nationalism to Palestinian Arab nationalism to pan-Arab Nasserite nationalism and then back to Palestinian Arab nationalism, all in the course of fifty years.

All of those political movements boasted wonderfully written documents and passionate speeches explaining why their cause was the only logical, moral and legal means to justly deal with Palestinian Arabs. There were no apparent cases of whiplash as people moved from one to the next, contradictory political position. The reason is clear: all those disparate movements had one thing in common, the eradication of Jewish nationalism. Everything else was window dressing to put a polite face on what is really a philosophy of hate.

And it continues today, as Palestinian Arabs are seemingly torn between what appears to be completely different paths - the PLO's stated methods of declarations and popular resistance, or Hamas' newly stated method of embracing a strategy of stages that mimics Arafat's 1974 Phased Plan to destroy Israel, to Islamic Jihad's dedication to nothing but armed resistance, to Hezbollah's single-minded goal of utterly destroying Israel by any means possible. But in the end, they are all paper-thin veneers on top of the same underlying goal - to destroy Israel by whatever means makes the most sense at the moment.

Westerners cannot wrap their heads around the idea that an entire national movement is really not interested in liberty and freedom for their people, but rather is meant solely to destroy another people. It is literally unbelievable that Arab leaders would hold millions of people hostage simply to use them as human weapons against Israel. But like it or not, it is the truth, and it is what needs to be understood before any real progress can be made.