Excellent essay, however you should have addressed the Arab High Committee’s 1937 statement that “ The Zionists invented Palestine “ for their own benefit. It was the Roman Empire that coined the name Syria - Palestina to erase Jewish identity to the land. Zionists have always called it Eretz Yisrael.
I could have done that, but I thought adding it into this particular article would have distracted from the flow and was unnecessary for the points I was making.
They were excellent points. I did not realize that the Arab High Committee had made that statement about the Zionists invented Palestine. It just stood out as a typical propaganda lie. I appreciate your essay.
Thank you for your question. Just as Swedish democracy is reconciling itself with Swedish statehood, Armenian democracy is reconciling itself with Armenian statehood, Danish democracy is reconciling itself with Danish statehood, and Turkish democracy is reconciling itself with Turkish statehood (as are Latvian, Estonian, and other nation-states...).
Arabs lost all the wars and still cry " Palestine ". " Palestine " ceased to exist in 1947. Golda Meir was Palestinian then still.
The winners of World Wars divided their conquered territories, like everyone else, and assigned kings and rulers, sometimes quite ignorantly, but they did their job. .Nations were born and everyone moved on.
The " West Bank" Arabs refused a state, as their Arab warlords demanded. The WB became Jordan. Gaza became Egypt.
Now, it is all Israel. History works like that. End of story.
The Soviets created chaos and terror against the West. Israel was a way to infiltrate and damage, continuing into the Middle East which the Soviets wanted to dominate.
The Arabs have not yet accepted defeat. It's been too many centuries. It's a primitive desert honour tradition and a Quranic commandment. They have created, together with other communist descendants and idiotic empty-brained losers " The Age of Chaos". This is where we are now.
I do trust force and grass roots regenerative initiatives. But today internet is king .It has supplanted minds and keeps leeching people's
intelligence. We must wage war there.
In the meantime, I recommend the movie
" Idiocracy", a most revelatory, very funny, second rate movie, that tells one truth after another.
I supported a Palestine State but they didn't actually create one did they? In fact they sabotaged nationhood at every turn. Nothing in the Palestinian discourse supports peace and development. The objective is destruction not creation. So it seems to me. No Israeli overtures are good enough. They leave Gaza then Hamas sabotages the territory, not just Hamas but also Arab allies, Iran, Turkey, all complicit in Oct 7th. Even the UN and democratic leadership . They saved Sinwar's life with brain surgery and released him. He formulated the Oct 7th massacre.
You're occupiers right, so you may as well show them what occupation really looks like.
On the other hand, Palestine was a colloquial place name that Arabs identified with and Britain formalized. How do you walk that back? I think the Palestinians are people betrayed by their own leadership and by the western world.
Palestine boundaries were amorphous, it was a district not a self governing province or country it never was. Arabs were Ottoman Arabs, Jews were Ottoman Jews and so on
Yes, Palestinian nationalism was a 20th century construction to further pan Arab/ pan Islamic political hegemony, which is exclusionary, segregationist and historically genocidal up to the present day.
The lexicon of colonial occupation emerged during their collaboration with Germany in WW2. Their genocidal agenda for Jews began there too and gained traction under the Soviet alliance during the cold war. They formed an Islamic SS Battalion to march in lockstep with the Germans to complete the final solution in British Palestine.
There is a great book on line, Holocaust Denial the Politics of Perfidy, Wistrich (editor) 2012.
It attests to history using primary sources endorsing the counter narrative to Palestinian claims.
For the most part, the Arabs did not identify with the name, Palestine. Only some of the Christian Arabic speaking population. I critiqued a PhD thesis that inadvertently showed that even as he tried to prove the opposite. (https://ozsheri.substack.com/p/the-invention-of-palestine?r=9b5em). Other than that point, I agree with everything else you wrote.
Your article was very educational—thank you. I have only one comment. I’ve always wondered why Arab and Muslim-majority countries did not recognize Israel in 1947, given that their own holy book, the Qur’an, refers to Israel and Banī Isrā’īl—the Children of Israel—more than twenty times in various contexts: praising the righteous among them, offering historical narratives, and providing moral critiques.
Another point you raise that I found especially interesting, and that I don’t think many Western readers know, is the role of the Arab High Committee and the fact that it was the Zionists who popularized the term “Palestinians,” while the Arab leadership of the time saw the area as part of Syria.
Not just pride. There is also the classical Islamic legal principle that territory once under Muslim rule is not supposed to revert to non-Muslim sovereignty. Since the land promised to the Jews had been under Ottoman (Muslim) rule, many Arab leaders believed they could not accept a non-Muslim state there. And still cannot.
"The Holy Land didn’t become “Palestine” until it became useful against Jews." Very true. In the more recent time we can thank (or is it condemn?) Yasir Arafat for the latest iteration of the name Palestinian. I wouldn't at all be surprised if someone salts a site with so-called "Palestinian" artifacts and attempts to say they pre-date Hebrew presence in the area. Remember in history the Piltdown Man which turned out to be a hoax?
Dan Burmawi in his recent book "Islam Israel and the West" addresses this issue with quite a few references to primary sources - such as letters and reports - that discuss migration of Arabs into Ottoman-Roman Palestine in both the 1800s and early 1900s. I didn't see these referenced in your article. The text with end-notes can be found in Dan's chapter 2, The Islamic War on Israel.
Your comment ‘Why was there no call for a Palestinian state between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan ruled Judea and Samaria (rebranding it as “the West Bank”) and Egypt controlled Gaza? During those 19 years, Jordan annexed the West Bank and granted citizenship to its Arab residents. Egypt administered Gaza as occupied territory. If Palestinian nationalism was their priority, this would have been the perfect opportunity to establish that state without Israeli interference.’ Is SPOT ON.
The notion of a palestinian people is a fake notion, brought about by the exclusivity of passing refugee status to subsequent generations .. no other refugee has this right.
The second state of any two state solution is Jordan, after all, Transjordan was created with 78% of what was British Mandated Palestine.
Every time the Arabs in traditional dress tending sheep outside of quaint stone villages are placed against Jews in 18th century Hasidic costume or Jews in modern dress in suburban looking tracts,...the optics say Arabs indigenous and Jews "white settler colonialists from Poland." No matter that I fully understand the Arab Muslim settler colonial invasion, the usurping of lands for the benefit of the invaders, the numerous examples of foreign but Muslim people being settled in Land of Israel....the academic papers that are sent to my in box are 90% about Jewish land acquisition against the rights of indigenous settled on the land Muslim Arabic speakers. So the history being taught at a thousand university mideast and some Jewish! studies departments is the story of the indigenous "Palestinians" cruelly subjected to a settler colonial scheme backed by UK, America, and wealthy "white European" Jews. And this is the underpinning of the current editors of NY Times, Guardian, Independent, Le Monde, New Yorker, New York Review of books, Economist....and that's just the beginning. Hollywood and London celebrities. Hence the kids in the streets with the Pal table cloth.
Excellent essay, however you should have addressed the Arab High Committee’s 1937 statement that “ The Zionists invented Palestine “ for their own benefit. It was the Roman Empire that coined the name Syria - Palestina to erase Jewish identity to the land. Zionists have always called it Eretz Yisrael.
I could have done that, but I thought adding it into this particular article would have distracted from the flow and was unnecessary for the points I was making.
They were excellent points. I did not realize that the Arab High Committee had made that statement about the Zionists invented Palestine. It just stood out as a typical propaganda lie. I appreciate your essay.
Thank you
How do you reconcile Israeli democracy and Jewish statehood with this concept?
Thank you for your question. Just as Swedish democracy is reconciling itself with Swedish statehood, Armenian democracy is reconciling itself with Armenian statehood, Danish democracy is reconciling itself with Danish statehood, and Turkish democracy is reconciling itself with Turkish statehood (as are Latvian, Estonian, and other nation-states...).
I have always regarded Israel as a sovereign state. Its existence goes back 3,000 years. It belongs to the Jewish people.
Arabs lost all the wars and still cry " Palestine ". " Palestine " ceased to exist in 1947. Golda Meir was Palestinian then still.
The winners of World Wars divided their conquered territories, like everyone else, and assigned kings and rulers, sometimes quite ignorantly, but they did their job. .Nations were born and everyone moved on.
The " West Bank" Arabs refused a state, as their Arab warlords demanded. The WB became Jordan. Gaza became Egypt.
Now, it is all Israel. History works like that. End of story.
The Soviets created chaos and terror against the West. Israel was a way to infiltrate and damage, continuing into the Middle East which the Soviets wanted to dominate.
The Arabs have not yet accepted defeat. It's been too many centuries. It's a primitive desert honour tradition and a Quranic commandment. They have created, together with other communist descendants and idiotic empty-brained losers " The Age of Chaos". This is where we are now.
I do trust force and grass roots regenerative initiatives. But today internet is king .It has supplanted minds and keeps leeching people's
intelligence. We must wage war there.
In the meantime, I recommend the movie
" Idiocracy", a most revelatory, very funny, second rate movie, that tells one truth after another.
Succinct and 100 percent spot-on, Bless.
I'll look for the movie. Looks like a good way to take a break from all the insanity.
It was created by Arab states with Soviet help to destroy a jewish country “ in their midst” — under islam jews are to be subjugated never sovereign
I supported a Palestine State but they didn't actually create one did they? In fact they sabotaged nationhood at every turn. Nothing in the Palestinian discourse supports peace and development. The objective is destruction not creation. So it seems to me. No Israeli overtures are good enough. They leave Gaza then Hamas sabotages the territory, not just Hamas but also Arab allies, Iran, Turkey, all complicit in Oct 7th. Even the UN and democratic leadership . They saved Sinwar's life with brain surgery and released him. He formulated the Oct 7th massacre.
You're occupiers right, so you may as well show them what occupation really looks like.
But it's a precarious spot.
🇨🇦🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱❤️🕎🙏
On the other hand, Palestine was a colloquial place name that Arabs identified with and Britain formalized. How do you walk that back? I think the Palestinians are people betrayed by their own leadership and by the western world.
Palestine boundaries were amorphous, it was a district not a self governing province or country it never was. Arabs were Ottoman Arabs, Jews were Ottoman Jews and so on
Yes, Palestinian nationalism was a 20th century construction to further pan Arab/ pan Islamic political hegemony, which is exclusionary, segregationist and historically genocidal up to the present day.
The lexicon of colonial occupation emerged during their collaboration with Germany in WW2. Their genocidal agenda for Jews began there too and gained traction under the Soviet alliance during the cold war. They formed an Islamic SS Battalion to march in lockstep with the Germans to complete the final solution in British Palestine.
There is a great book on line, Holocaust Denial the Politics of Perfidy, Wistrich (editor) 2012.
It attests to history using primary sources endorsing the counter narrative to Palestinian claims.
For the most part, the Arabs did not identify with the name, Palestine. Only some of the Christian Arabic speaking population. I critiqued a PhD thesis that inadvertently showed that even as he tried to prove the opposite. (https://ozsheri.substack.com/p/the-invention-of-palestine?r=9b5em). Other than that point, I agree with everything else you wrote.
Your article was very educational—thank you. I have only one comment. I’ve always wondered why Arab and Muslim-majority countries did not recognize Israel in 1947, given that their own holy book, the Qur’an, refers to Israel and Banī Isrā’īl—the Children of Israel—more than twenty times in various contexts: praising the righteous among them, offering historical narratives, and providing moral critiques.
Another point you raise that I found especially interesting, and that I don’t think many Western readers know, is the role of the Arab High Committee and the fact that it was the Zionists who popularized the term “Palestinians,” while the Arab leadership of the time saw the area as part of Syria.
It probably has a lot to do with Arab pride.
Not just pride. There is also the classical Islamic legal principle that territory once under Muslim rule is not supposed to revert to non-Muslim sovereignty. Since the land promised to the Jews had been under Ottoman (Muslim) rule, many Arab leaders believed they could not accept a non-Muslim state there. And still cannot.
Yes. That is absolutely in there, too.
"The Holy Land didn’t become “Palestine” until it became useful against Jews." Very true. In the more recent time we can thank (or is it condemn?) Yasir Arafat for the latest iteration of the name Palestinian. I wouldn't at all be surprised if someone salts a site with so-called "Palestinian" artifacts and attempts to say they pre-date Hebrew presence in the area. Remember in history the Piltdown Man which turned out to be a hoax?
Dan Burmawi in his recent book "Islam Israel and the West" addresses this issue with quite a few references to primary sources - such as letters and reports - that discuss migration of Arabs into Ottoman-Roman Palestine in both the 1800s and early 1900s. I didn't see these referenced in your article. The text with end-notes can be found in Dan's chapter 2, The Islamic War on Israel.
I haven't yet read Burmawi's book. I should get onto it, eh!
The biggest load of shit ever is palestine. It doesn’t even warrant capitalizing.
Your comment ‘Why was there no call for a Palestinian state between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan ruled Judea and Samaria (rebranding it as “the West Bank”) and Egypt controlled Gaza? During those 19 years, Jordan annexed the West Bank and granted citizenship to its Arab residents. Egypt administered Gaza as occupied territory. If Palestinian nationalism was their priority, this would have been the perfect opportunity to establish that state without Israeli interference.’ Is SPOT ON.
The notion of a palestinian people is a fake notion, brought about by the exclusivity of passing refugee status to subsequent generations .. no other refugee has this right.
The second state of any two state solution is Jordan, after all, Transjordan was created with 78% of what was British Mandated Palestine.
Every time the Arabs in traditional dress tending sheep outside of quaint stone villages are placed against Jews in 18th century Hasidic costume or Jews in modern dress in suburban looking tracts,...the optics say Arabs indigenous and Jews "white settler colonialists from Poland." No matter that I fully understand the Arab Muslim settler colonial invasion, the usurping of lands for the benefit of the invaders, the numerous examples of foreign but Muslim people being settled in Land of Israel....the academic papers that are sent to my in box are 90% about Jewish land acquisition against the rights of indigenous settled on the land Muslim Arabic speakers. So the history being taught at a thousand university mideast and some Jewish! studies departments is the story of the indigenous "Palestinians" cruelly subjected to a settler colonial scheme backed by UK, America, and wealthy "white European" Jews. And this is the underpinning of the current editors of NY Times, Guardian, Independent, Le Monde, New Yorker, New York Review of books, Economist....and that's just the beginning. Hollywood and London celebrities. Hence the kids in the streets with the Pal table cloth.