Hagee: Gulf states should offer Israel normalized ties
The Gulf states should offer to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel rather than threatening to cut burgeoning ties out of anger over Israeli annexation plans and the US peace initiative, Pastor John Hagee told The Jerusalem Post.HonestReporting: Did Balfour Declaration Give Jews a License To Steal?
“The Gulf states, who are claiming that Israeli ‘annexation’ would lead to an end to their not-so-secret relations with Israel, ought to put their requests in a positive light,” said Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel. “Rather than threaten to walk away, they should publicly and formally offer normalization of ties between the broader Arab world and Israel, if Israel gives the Palestinians a set period of time to return to the negotiating table in good faith.
“But there must be an understanding that if the PA walks away, ‘annexation’ will then have no impact on broader Arab-Israeli ties,” the pastor continued.
Hagee and his 8.5-million-member Christians United for Israel (CUFI) support the Trump peace plan “in its entirety” and would back up Israel if it decides to apply sovereignty to the West Bank and Jordan Valley.
He dismissed threats the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have made in recent weeks about possible damage to their ties with Israel, should annexation proceed.
King Abdullah and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi have warned that they would review their country’s peace treaty with Israel and might decide to cancel it if Jerusalem annexes the Jordan Valley.
“I had more faith in the treaty before Jordan so easily threatened to cancel it,” Hagee told the Post. “I think this proves that Israel can only rely on herself, and not a piece of paper, to keep her citizens safe. And that means truly defensible borders.
“CUFI stands with the decisions of the democratically elected government of Israel. We don’t weigh in on internal debates, whether they are between average citizens or generals,” Hagee, told the Post ahead of the organization’s annual conference, which will take place June 28-30.
In a commentary published in The Guardian, Avi Shlaim maintains that by recognizing Palestine, Britain can help right the wrongs of 1917’s Balfour Declaration. According to Shlaim, the theft of Palestinian land is a legacy of British colonialism. As such, the UK must do what it can to prevent Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank.State Department accuses Abbas of inconsistency on non-violence pledges
Shlaim’s conclusion is based on a belief that the Balfour Declaration was the original sin in which Israel was conceived. The writer thus implies that this sin has been transmitted by heredity to every Jew who has ever lived in Israel to the present day:
The Balfour Declaration enabled the Zionist movement to embark on the systematic takeover of Palestine, a process the Zionists themselves initially described as settler colonialism, a process which is still continuing.
That’s strong stuff. But not even the intensity of Shlaim’s conviction can overcome some pesky facts about the Balfour Declaration.
Palestine 1917: Not a State in Sight
At the time that Arthur James Balfour issued his famous declaration in support of “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, Shlaim asserts that Jews only comprised 10% of the population. The other 90% were Arabs. How could Britain have recognized the national rights of a tiny minority and denied it to the majority?
Shlaim gets it right. There were 600,000 Arabs and 60,000 Jews living in the region at the time. But what he neglects to mention is that there was no Arab state in the land at the time, nor was there any effort to establish one. In 1917, there was no national Palestinian identity – the non-Jewish residents of the land considered themselves to be part of the wider Arab nation.
An annual US State Department report on counter-terrorism, published Wednesday, singled out Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as failing to consistently maintain a stance of non-violence.
“President Mahmoud Abbas has stated in the past a commitment to non-violence, a two-state solution and previous PLO commitments, but he has also made inconsistent statements that appear to contradict and undermine his prior commitments,” the report stated.
It quoted one instance in August of last year, in which Abbas said, “So we say to [Israel], ‘Every stone you [used] to build on our land and every house you have built on our land is bound to be destroyed, Allah willing…Jerusalem is ours whether they like it or not… We shall enter Jerusalem — millions of fighters! We shall enter it! All of us, the entire Palestinian people, the entire Arab nation, the Islamic nation, and the Christian nation… They shall all enter Jerusalem…'”
The quote is based on a translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute, a US-based watchdog with strong links to Israel.
Last year, the same State Department report noted only that “PA President Mahmoud Abbas maintained a public commitment to non-violence.”
Israel has long argued that the Palestinian Authority, and particularity its financial support for families of terrorists, glorifies and incites violence against Israelis.
According to PA law, Palestinian security prisoners serving time in Israeli jails and families of assailants killed while carrying attacks against Israelis are eligible to receive stipends and other benefits.
The State Department report also said that the PA’s security forces, which recently cut ties with the US and Israel over Jerusalem’s plans to annex West Bank land, cannot manage counter-terror operations on theirs own.
The coordination has been seen as critical in preventing numerous attacks against Israeli targets.
The PA has boycotted the US administration since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US embassy there in late 2017. Washington has retaliated by halting virtually all aid to the Palestinians.