Letter writer’s claims about Israel disingenous
Richard Deaton’s polemic against President Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan and the State of Israel (The Drums of War, Jan 30) comes as no surprise. Mr. Deaton, a long-time anti-Israel detractor, has previously faced criticism for comparing proIsrael columnists to chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, a virulent antisemite, and for labelling them as “Zionist goons.”
Firstly, the reason the Palestinians had no input on the peace plan is because they cut off all relations with the U.S. They did this because America recognized Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital and moved its embassy to western Jerusalem, of which, even Russia agrees with this saying that this is Israel’s capital. Trump’s plan would see a U.S. embassy for the Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem and the town of Abu Dis would be its capital.
Mr. Deaton’s claim that Israel has been “grabbing” Palestinian land against all international laws, is not only disingenuous but is not the case at all.
The disputed land is all within Area C of the West Bank, which under the terms of the Oslo II Agreement signed by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, is territory under full Israeli civil and security control.
Additionally, Israel and the Jewish people have legitimate claims to Judea and Samaria according to international law as these lands were promised to the Jewish people at the San Remo Conference which saw the establishment in Britishmandate Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. Israel liberated these areas from Jordanian occupation following the 1967 war. Accordingly, there never was a sovereign of these disputed lands.
Contrary to his misconception, the origins of the socalled “Nakba,” was caused by a war of annihilation launched against the nascent Israeli state by neighbouring Arab armies. This “catastrophe” which forms the foundations of the Palestinian culture of victimhood, was caused by the Arab world’s choice to go to war with the Jews rather than live alongside them in peace, and by the decisions of the surrounding Arab states to force approximately 800,000 Palestinian refugees in squalor in refugee camps, denying them equal rights and the opportunity of citizenship and to integrate into society with their fellow Arabs with whom they share common language, religion and culture.
Furthermore, Deaton’s accusation of “ethnic cleansing” is not just disgusting, it’s ludicrous. Not only does this denigrate and trivialize actual cases of ethnic cleansing, it completely disregards the over 800,000 Jews who were forcibly expelled from their homes in Arab and Muslim countries and were successfully resettled in Israel and elsewhere.
It is completely unreasonable to dismiss this peace plan simply because the Palestinians weren’t given everything they have ever demanded. The Palestinians must understand that there are consequences for turning down past offers, and actually must give peace a try. How many more opportunities do they think there will be?