In their versions of the West Bank, not a single Palestinian makes a choice. They are only shown as victims, there to be pitied and filmed. And no Israeli is shown as a real person.
Too often, politicians don't go there to discover the truth—they go there to reinforce the conclusions they've already reached. The itinerary simply becomes a way of validating the narrative they intended to tell before they even arrived.
One other thought. I understand why the Palestinian side and much of the international media call it the "West Bank." But why are we doing the same? Why aren't we consistently referring to it as Judea and Samaria, the historical names? These things matter. Language shapes perception, and perception shapes public opinion.
Sometimes I think our side loses as much in messaging as it does anywhere else. We need to become far more disciplined and strategic in how we present our own history.
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
I also prefer our historic Judea and Samaria, but at least the “West Bank” is a geographic term, and not the pejorative “Occupied Territories” our political enemies love to use.
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
Thanks for the clarification. I hadn't thought of it that way. That's a fair point. I still understand why many people prefer "Judea and Samaria" because of the historical connection, but I appreciate the distinction you made.
“Being detained means being held or officially restrained. In a legal context, it refers to a temporary seizure or holding of an individual by authorities (like the police) to investigate suspected criminal activity. Outside of law enforcement, it simply means being delayed or kept in a specific place.
No, the legal term detained does not apply if you are free to turn around and leave.”
Perhaps the author should rethink his parroting of Ro Khanna’s lie.
Rahm Emanuel is no different from Ro Khanna. He only picked a diffrent stage for his passion play. Emanuel too threw Israel under a bus, slandered Netanyahu, stated his policy preference which most Israelis rightly oppose. Only crazy Jews would hold up one of these two morons and despicable characters as a preference and claim him to be a friend of Israel instead of a Jewish traitor.
You can’t really effectively pander to the crazy pro Hamas crowd. Ro Khanna will soon discover what the Israeli left did. You can’t meet Palestinian nationalists halfway and negotiate anything productive with them.
Author is an Israeli, I am not. I'm an American Zionist and I have some advice for you Eli-Quit calling the pioneers of Israel, "Settlers"-You cant be a settler on your own land! "Residents" fits perfectly.
"West Bank"? Really? That is what Jordan called it for nineteen years. Judea and Samaria is what everyone else called it for three thousand. Arkansas and Tennessee have already written the historical names into law — Arizona's legislature adopted them this year and many other states like Florida are adopting the same.
Khanna and Emanuel are the same sleaze bag in different suits. Neither one gives a damn about Israel — they care what Israel does for them this week. A talking point when the room wants one, a punching bag when the room turns.
Khanna at least never pretended. He reads the room and adjusts, and the room has drifted somewhere ugly.
Emanuel is worse, because Emanuel bills himself as the real thing. He wears the Jewish credential like a lapel pin — out when it buys him something, away when the base is in a mood.
Nothing Khanna filmed is invented. The impunity behind it is real. The settlers around Khirbet Zanuta include Yinon Levi, who shot and killed Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist, in a nearby village last year — a killing Hathaleen filmed as it happened. Levi was released within days.
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
If he announced his visit he would have been treated differently than Palestinians. I’m a Zionist and all I can think of is you guys are angry you couldn’t hide the truth. If the occupation is the cause of suffering then why would he care about humanizing settlers? It is a complete wrong and it caused the mother’s heartache, not October 7. The world doesn’t care about semantics
Like Judea vs West Bank. Only right wing Israelis do. 99 percent of the world is against it but you want to argue language as if it will change the pictures of settlers beating villagers. Sometimes I’m embarrassed by my peoples fetish for abstract arguments in the face of real world catastrophes. You might win the West Bank now and lose Israel in 10 years and the safety of all
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” It’s a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was the master at repeating Big Lies so often they were accepted as truth.
This wretched principle is certainly true of the so-called illegality of Israel’s presence over the “Green Line,” which is actually just a military armistice line created in 1949.
In fact, there is no truth to the claim that Israel is illegally occupying territory or that it is “violating the basic human rights of the Palestinian people.” No matter how often it is repeated, it’s still a lie."
An excellent, hard-hitting article. When one is glued to the seat reading, for the truth and insight coming their way - the exposure that enables - it's quite an experience. Shame on the likes of this voyeur with a purpose and my compliments to you, Eli Kowaz, for writing with the rigour of hard truths.
Neither Israel, nor any of its internet apologists, should be taken seriously talking about the West Bank (inc. East Jerusalem) until it demolishes all its settlements there and pays financial recompense to the Palestinians adversely affected by such settlements. The reason being such a person (or state) is ignoring international law on the issue and therefore has no moral grounds for speaking.
So you think Israel is justified in breaking international law based on a hypothetical 'what if'? You do realise that's the same logic currently used by Russia for their justification to go to war with Ukraine right?
I’m not a fan of the settlement enterprise. But I do think Israel is justified in continuing to keep the IDF in the West Bank. We saw exactly what happened when the IDF left Gaza. Given that Israel is already fighting various terrorist groups in the West Bank (Hamas, PIJ, Lion’s Den, Jenin Brigades) and Palestinian public opinion is super radical we know exactly what would happen. Do you want polls?
The analogy to the Russia-Ukraine case is completely silly. There’s no reason to believe an independent Ukraine would be unwilling to live at peace with Russia. Ukraine did for decades and gave up nukes and Russia invaded them. Ukraine didn’t perpetrate a 10/7 style attack against Russia. If Palestinians were like Ukrainians there would have been a two state solution a long time ago.
I don’t believe that international law should always be followed. I don’t oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine because of “international law”, I oppose it because it’s a terrible pointless war that has hurt Russians and Ukrainians alike. Invading Gaza and taking out Hamas, and staying in the West Bank to combat Hamas and similar groups, has a clear purpose. Putin’s war has been awful. Including by the way for Russia. Meanwhile Israel winning its wars has made the Israeli stock exchange go way up. If Russia faced a real threat from Ukraine, and degrading that threat massively helped Russia’s stock exchange, we’d have a different conversation where you could argue that even if Ukrainians suffered a lot that the Russians has a clear interest here. This war is not that, it’s just Putin being a piece of shit.
Oh how noble of you! You're not a fan of it. I'm sure all the Palestinians who have had their homes destroyed as a consequence will feel massively reassured.
You talk as if the only issue with Gaza was withdrawal and yet there are dozens of other factors at play there. The brutal nature of the occupation, the prisoners illegally taken to Israel, the rationing programme used by Israel, the fact that Israel regularly performs pogroms there and the list goes on and on. As if one could make the case that it all falls on one issue is ridiculous.
The fact is Israel does not have the right, legally, to be there. If you want the right to argue that pragmatics are more important than international law then Hamas can easily make the case that Oct 7 is justified. Now you can't tell Hamas they broke any laws because they did what they felt to be most pragmatic. And since that trumps the law they were right to do so eh?
The analogy to Ukraine isn't silly at all. It just reveals you don't know much about that either. It doesn't need to be a completely identical situation I am just pointing out that one of the threats Russia has made to its neighbouring countries, including Ukraine, is that even flirting with partnership with NATO is justification for them to take direct military action. (also in contravention of international law.)
Awesome you don't think international law should always be follow so you therefore have no argument against Hamas whatsoever (if you were to be logically consistent which is too much to ask). Now all reasoning is just based on what we prefer. In that case, since we're being pragmatic and not lawful, let's support any and all groups who go to war with Israel since it deserves to be dismantled. You obviously also don't care that Likud is putting Israel into a debt hole it will never likely recover from and it's ensuring that the next generation of US politicians will need to start finding serious justification for financially propping Israel up (something Americans are getting increasingly upset about). "But the stock market!!" Bravo!!
So your preferred policy is Israel withdraws from the West Bank and then what? When this inevitably doesn’t lead to peace, and a huge war starts because the West Bank becomes another Gaza, then what?
I oppose 10/7 both because it was extremely immoral and explicitly tried to kill civilians for the sake of killing civilians and causing terror. As far as pragmatically serving Palestinian goals, it accomplished nothing except to start a giant destructive war. Sinwar signed the death warrants of 70,000 Palestinians. The good things about 10/7 were that it stopped the judicial reform and sped up Haredi integration.
“International law” doesn’t show up in the last paragraph. American law and US interests I care about. American law should never be subordinate to international law. I love what Rubio is doing to the ICC. I don’t need a bunch of international lawyers to tell me 10/7 is wrong.
Yes I do trust markets. Things that are good for the world and human welfare tend to make the market go up. Things that are bad make it go down. Things in the US interest make the stock market go up and make GDP grow. Same for things in the Israeli interest. And the Ukrainian interest and the Russian interest.
Likud is expected to lose the next Israeli election! And wartime debt isn’t that big. The next government will be god willing more moderate and integrate the Haredim.
again. semantics. such a nice touch with "even if you wish it didn't". like you don't wish palestinians live there? that is also the cool thing about "facts." i know the history but unfortunately the facts don't matter when their algorithm show settlers rampaging thru villages and babies being murdered in air strikes. there is no talmudic argument that will "win" here.
and unfortunately you will not convince the millions of people in my country who now are more favorable to palestinians than israelis by a large large number. you have made life hell for jews and in fact make it impossible to support israel except with other jews. even republicans are using it to further antisemitism and convincing everyone on the fence in the middle we are murdering defenseless people because of semantics.
so be "right" and sit back in satisfaction that you have intellectually "won" your argument.
Right up until no israelis can join professional societies, travel anywhere wihtout someone deciding to attack you because they can't take their frustration out on west bank settlers, or american friends ask if we support genocide, little kids are bullied all over the world just so 600,000 messianic jews can feel good about themselves and sacrifice everything that was built before you out of the ashes of the holocaust and gave us a safe home that is no longer safe because you decided to implicate the rest of us in your pointless religious war believing you can displace 2 million people without the world working towards our destruction.
What about terror from the Pals in Judea and Samaria? Can Israel tolerate another Gaza in that region?--evidence was found and exposed over a year ago in houses there that the terrorists there had amassed a ton of weapons and supplies so they could stage a massacre identical to Oct. 7th. Israel must annex Judea and Samaria and keep terror out of the center of Israel or on its borders. No "second state" because the Pals have made clear--and still do--that they will never accept a Jewish state and that ALL of Israel must become Muslim and the Jews must go. It's in the Hamas charter. It's time to stop being delusional and think that if a state for the Pals is created in or next to Israel, that all of a sudden, everything will be fine.
Not really. The status quo is that the Arabs in Judea and Samaria have never stopped attacking Israeli citizens. The status quo is over and Israel is sick of decades of terrorism and not being "allowed" to end it, only to "defend" against it.
Status quo seems fine to me? Annexation would mean giving millions of hostile Palestinians a Knesset vote and having to give them benefits and welfare and such. Besides they don’t want it either.
The Palestinians have forfeited any right to reside in Judea and Samaria. They have broken every clause of the Oslo Accords and at times have said so knowingly. If many Americans are antisemitic if it is because they are too ignorant and too lazy to learn the facts, starting with the history fo Islam, not to mention the modern Middle East. You keep pushing your lies and you will wind up being responsible for nuclear war, perhaps even in your own backyard.
Wait so you want to expel all the Palestinians including the babies from the area? I don’t think the IDF should leave the WB/J+S but I don’t think you can say 3 million people lose the right to live somewhere just because of the pro terrorist attitudes common in their society.
You try living with 3 million people in your midst all of whom are committed to destroying you, down to their sexual pores, and every day make attempts at doing so, sometimes succeeding. I don't know where you live, but if you had neighbours committed to doing that I don't think you would excuse them by saying they have the wrong attitudes.
Huh? I don’t excuse it. But the solution is to just keep the IDF there. Expelling 3 million people is unrealistic. That’s not going to happen. It would not be bad if more of them emigrated sure.
Your solution is no solution. Expelling them is wiser and more humane all around. You know what our parents said: you can't have your cake and eat it too. And then there's the famous quote about you can't have an omelette without breaking eggs. And I won't bother to cite all the historical parallels. Or quote Deuteronomy to you. Time will tell.
Good article, and I think you're 100% right.
Too often, politicians don't go there to discover the truth—they go there to reinforce the conclusions they've already reached. The itinerary simply becomes a way of validating the narrative they intended to tell before they even arrived.
One other thought. I understand why the Palestinian side and much of the international media call it the "West Bank." But why are we doing the same? Why aren't we consistently referring to it as Judea and Samaria, the historical names? These things matter. Language shapes perception, and perception shapes public opinion.
Sometimes I think our side loses as much in messaging as it does anywhere else. We need to become far more disciplined and strategic in how we present our own history.
Agreed Frederick. Calling the West Bank by its historical names of Judea and Samaria is important
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
I agree with your assessment on using the correct name Judea and Samaria. When you call it the West Bank you take away the truth and it's history.
But the Green Line is a kind of arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh are part of Judea.
I also prefer our historic Judea and Samaria, but at least the “West Bank” is a geographic term, and not the pejorative “Occupied Territories” our political enemies love to use.
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
Thanks for the clarification. I hadn't thought of it that way. That's a fair point. I still understand why many people prefer "Judea and Samaria" because of the historical connection, but I appreciate the distinction you made.
Lousy article. He lost me after the first few paragraphs.
These kind of trouble makers should not have been allowed to enter the State of Israel in the first place.
Notice my comment on the West Bank. I am spreading your word
Detained definition according to AI:
“Being detained means being held or officially restrained. In a legal context, it refers to a temporary seizure or holding of an individual by authorities (like the police) to investigate suspected criminal activity. Outside of law enforcement, it simply means being delayed or kept in a specific place.
No, the legal term detained does not apply if you are free to turn around and leave.”
Perhaps the author should rethink his parroting of Ro Khanna’s lie.
Rahm Emanuel is no different from Ro Khanna. He only picked a diffrent stage for his passion play. Emanuel too threw Israel under a bus, slandered Netanyahu, stated his policy preference which most Israelis rightly oppose. Only crazy Jews would hold up one of these two morons and despicable characters as a preference and claim him to be a friend of Israel instead of a Jewish traitor.
Many are not fooled by his actions.
yet too many are...
Maybe. He's received some negative press from it. Then on Drop Site News (a far left independent news site) he came across poorly. We'll see.
You can’t really effectively pander to the crazy pro Hamas crowd. Ro Khanna will soon discover what the Israeli left did. You can’t meet Palestinian nationalists halfway and negotiate anything productive with them.
Agreed
Author is an Israeli, I am not. I'm an American Zionist and I have some advice for you Eli-Quit calling the pioneers of Israel, "Settlers"-You cant be a settler on your own land! "Residents" fits perfectly.
"West Bank"? Really? That is what Jordan called it for nineteen years. Judea and Samaria is what everyone else called it for three thousand. Arkansas and Tennessee have already written the historical names into law — Arizona's legislature adopted them this year and many other states like Florida are adopting the same.
Khanna and Emanuel are the same sleaze bag in different suits. Neither one gives a damn about Israel — they care what Israel does for them this week. A talking point when the room wants one, a punching bag when the room turns.
Khanna at least never pretended. He reads the room and adjusts, and the room has drifted somewhere ugly.
Emanuel is worse, because Emanuel bills himself as the real thing. He wears the Jewish credential like a lapel pin — out when it buys him something, away when the base is in a mood.
These kind of trouble makers should not have been allowed to enter the State of Israel in the first place.
It is called Judea and Samaria. Jews living there are not "settlers". They are living on ancestral Jewish land.
An "activist" or a terrorist?
You are engaging in the same kind of demonization of Jews in Judea and Samaria as the far-left media and democrats.
......................................................................................................................................................................................
Nothing Khanna filmed is invented. The impunity behind it is real. The settlers around Khirbet Zanuta include Yinon Levi, who shot and killed Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist, in a nearby village last year — a killing Hathaleen filmed as it happened. Levi was released within days.
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
If he announced his visit he would have been treated differently than Palestinians. I’m a Zionist and all I can think of is you guys are angry you couldn’t hide the truth. If the occupation is the cause of suffering then why would he care about humanizing settlers? It is a complete wrong and it caused the mother’s heartache, not October 7. The world doesn’t care about semantics
Like Judea vs West Bank. Only right wing Israelis do. 99 percent of the world is against it but you want to argue language as if it will change the pictures of settlers beating villagers. Sometimes I’m embarrassed by my peoples fetish for abstract arguments in the face of real world catastrophes. You might win the West Bank now and lose Israel in 10 years and the safety of all
Jews forever
What was the “West Bank” called by everyone in the world for the two millennia before the region was illegally annexed by Jordan in 1949?
That’s the cool thing about history. It actually happened, even if you wish it didn’t.
“Judea” also includes West Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. The Green Line is an arbitrary ceasefire line. It’s not the border of historical Judea. West Bank is a more precise term.
The term “occupation” is a fallacious Orwellian myth, because “occupation” means that the “occupier” stole another state’s sovereign land.
The History of the land of Israel and the Jewish people
https://youtu.be/V1adoNjKaPI
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” It’s a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was the master at repeating Big Lies so often they were accepted as truth.
This wretched principle is certainly true of the so-called illegality of Israel’s presence over the “Green Line,” which is actually just a military armistice line created in 1949.
In fact, there is no truth to the claim that Israel is illegally occupying territory or that it is “violating the basic human rights of the Palestinian people.” No matter how often it is repeated, it’s still a lie."
https://www.jns.org/opinion/ignoring-truth-ben-jerrys-occupation-simply-repeats-a-big-lie/?utm_source
Eugene Kontorovich explaining the legality of Judea and Samaria
https://x.com/EVKontorovich/status/1999450307605201067?s=20
It’s very sad. Stockholm syndrome in action.
Israel shouldn't be trying to wipe Palestinians off the face of the earth. How bout we start there?
An excellent, hard-hitting article. When one is glued to the seat reading, for the truth and insight coming their way - the exposure that enables - it's quite an experience. Shame on the likes of this voyeur with a purpose and my compliments to you, Eli Kowaz, for writing with the rigour of hard truths.
Neither Israel, nor any of its internet apologists, should be taken seriously talking about the West Bank (inc. East Jerusalem) until it demolishes all its settlements there and pays financial recompense to the Palestinians adversely affected by such settlements. The reason being such a person (or state) is ignoring international law on the issue and therefore has no moral grounds for speaking.
Say Israel does that. What happens next? Does the IDF stay in the West Bank? If it withdraws then it just becomes another Gaza right?
So you think Israel is justified in breaking international law based on a hypothetical 'what if'? You do realise that's the same logic currently used by Russia for their justification to go to war with Ukraine right?
I’m not a fan of the settlement enterprise. But I do think Israel is justified in continuing to keep the IDF in the West Bank. We saw exactly what happened when the IDF left Gaza. Given that Israel is already fighting various terrorist groups in the West Bank (Hamas, PIJ, Lion’s Den, Jenin Brigades) and Palestinian public opinion is super radical we know exactly what would happen. Do you want polls?
The analogy to the Russia-Ukraine case is completely silly. There’s no reason to believe an independent Ukraine would be unwilling to live at peace with Russia. Ukraine did for decades and gave up nukes and Russia invaded them. Ukraine didn’t perpetrate a 10/7 style attack against Russia. If Palestinians were like Ukrainians there would have been a two state solution a long time ago.
I don’t believe that international law should always be followed. I don’t oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine because of “international law”, I oppose it because it’s a terrible pointless war that has hurt Russians and Ukrainians alike. Invading Gaza and taking out Hamas, and staying in the West Bank to combat Hamas and similar groups, has a clear purpose. Putin’s war has been awful. Including by the way for Russia. Meanwhile Israel winning its wars has made the Israeli stock exchange go way up. If Russia faced a real threat from Ukraine, and degrading that threat massively helped Russia’s stock exchange, we’d have a different conversation where you could argue that even if Ukrainians suffered a lot that the Russians has a clear interest here. This war is not that, it’s just Putin being a piece of shit.
Oh how noble of you! You're not a fan of it. I'm sure all the Palestinians who have had their homes destroyed as a consequence will feel massively reassured.
You talk as if the only issue with Gaza was withdrawal and yet there are dozens of other factors at play there. The brutal nature of the occupation, the prisoners illegally taken to Israel, the rationing programme used by Israel, the fact that Israel regularly performs pogroms there and the list goes on and on. As if one could make the case that it all falls on one issue is ridiculous.
The fact is Israel does not have the right, legally, to be there. If you want the right to argue that pragmatics are more important than international law then Hamas can easily make the case that Oct 7 is justified. Now you can't tell Hamas they broke any laws because they did what they felt to be most pragmatic. And since that trumps the law they were right to do so eh?
The analogy to Ukraine isn't silly at all. It just reveals you don't know much about that either. It doesn't need to be a completely identical situation I am just pointing out that one of the threats Russia has made to its neighbouring countries, including Ukraine, is that even flirting with partnership with NATO is justification for them to take direct military action. (also in contravention of international law.)
Awesome you don't think international law should always be follow so you therefore have no argument against Hamas whatsoever (if you were to be logically consistent which is too much to ask). Now all reasoning is just based on what we prefer. In that case, since we're being pragmatic and not lawful, let's support any and all groups who go to war with Israel since it deserves to be dismantled. You obviously also don't care that Likud is putting Israel into a debt hole it will never likely recover from and it's ensuring that the next generation of US politicians will need to start finding serious justification for financially propping Israel up (something Americans are getting increasingly upset about). "But the stock market!!" Bravo!!
So your preferred policy is Israel withdraws from the West Bank and then what? When this inevitably doesn’t lead to peace, and a huge war starts because the West Bank becomes another Gaza, then what?
I oppose 10/7 both because it was extremely immoral and explicitly tried to kill civilians for the sake of killing civilians and causing terror. As far as pragmatically serving Palestinian goals, it accomplished nothing except to start a giant destructive war. Sinwar signed the death warrants of 70,000 Palestinians. The good things about 10/7 were that it stopped the judicial reform and sped up Haredi integration.
“International law” doesn’t show up in the last paragraph. American law and US interests I care about. American law should never be subordinate to international law. I love what Rubio is doing to the ICC. I don’t need a bunch of international lawyers to tell me 10/7 is wrong.
Yes I do trust markets. Things that are good for the world and human welfare tend to make the market go up. Things that are bad make it go down. Things in the US interest make the stock market go up and make GDP grow. Same for things in the Israeli interest. And the Ukrainian interest and the Russian interest.
Likud is expected to lose the next Israeli election! And wartime debt isn’t that big. The next government will be god willing more moderate and integrate the Haredim.
again. semantics. such a nice touch with "even if you wish it didn't". like you don't wish palestinians live there? that is also the cool thing about "facts." i know the history but unfortunately the facts don't matter when their algorithm show settlers rampaging thru villages and babies being murdered in air strikes. there is no talmudic argument that will "win" here.
and unfortunately you will not convince the millions of people in my country who now are more favorable to palestinians than israelis by a large large number. you have made life hell for jews and in fact make it impossible to support israel except with other jews. even republicans are using it to further antisemitism and convincing everyone on the fence in the middle we are murdering defenseless people because of semantics.
so be "right" and sit back in satisfaction that you have intellectually "won" your argument.
Right up until no israelis can join professional societies, travel anywhere wihtout someone deciding to attack you because they can't take their frustration out on west bank settlers, or american friends ask if we support genocide, little kids are bullied all over the world just so 600,000 messianic jews can feel good about themselves and sacrifice everything that was built before you out of the ashes of the holocaust and gave us a safe home that is no longer safe because you decided to implicate the rest of us in your pointless religious war believing you can displace 2 million people without the world working towards our destruction.
What about terror from the Pals in Judea and Samaria? Can Israel tolerate another Gaza in that region?--evidence was found and exposed over a year ago in houses there that the terrorists there had amassed a ton of weapons and supplies so they could stage a massacre identical to Oct. 7th. Israel must annex Judea and Samaria and keep terror out of the center of Israel or on its borders. No "second state" because the Pals have made clear--and still do--that they will never accept a Jewish state and that ALL of Israel must become Muslim and the Jews must go. It's in the Hamas charter. It's time to stop being delusional and think that if a state for the Pals is created in or next to Israel, that all of a sudden, everything will be fine.
Israel should neither annex or withdraw. Keep the Israeli army there. The status quo works.
Not really. The status quo is that the Arabs in Judea and Samaria have never stopped attacking Israeli citizens. The status quo is over and Israel is sick of decades of terrorism and not being "allowed" to end it, only to "defend" against it.
Status quo seems fine to me? Annexation would mean giving millions of hostile Palestinians a Knesset vote and having to give them benefits and welfare and such. Besides they don’t want it either.
would it automatically give the Pals a vote? I'm not sure of that...
They could apply like the ones in EJ and there would be tremendous international pressure.
The Palestinians have forfeited any right to reside in Judea and Samaria. They have broken every clause of the Oslo Accords and at times have said so knowingly. If many Americans are antisemitic if it is because they are too ignorant and too lazy to learn the facts, starting with the history fo Islam, not to mention the modern Middle East. You keep pushing your lies and you will wind up being responsible for nuclear war, perhaps even in your own backyard.
Wait so you want to expel all the Palestinians including the babies from the area? I don’t think the IDF should leave the WB/J+S but I don’t think you can say 3 million people lose the right to live somewhere just because of the pro terrorist attitudes common in their society.
You try living with 3 million people in your midst all of whom are committed to destroying you, down to their sexual pores, and every day make attempts at doing so, sometimes succeeding. I don't know where you live, but if you had neighbours committed to doing that I don't think you would excuse them by saying they have the wrong attitudes.
Huh? I don’t excuse it. But the solution is to just keep the IDF there. Expelling 3 million people is unrealistic. That’s not going to happen. It would not be bad if more of them emigrated sure.
Your solution is no solution. Expelling them is wiser and more humane all around. You know what our parents said: you can't have your cake and eat it too. And then there's the famous quote about you can't have an omelette without breaking eggs. And I won't bother to cite all the historical parallels. Or quote Deuteronomy to you. Time will tell.
Sometimes there’s no solution. You can only manage the situation.
Expel them to where? At gunpoint? How? Jordan? There’s no precedent anywhere for expelling millions of people at peacetime.
Now if you wanted to pay them to leave or set up some program to encourage voluntary emigration, that’s an idea that can be entertained.
These kind of trouble makers should not have been allowed to enter the State of Israel in the first place.
These kind of trouble makers should not have been allowed to enter the State of Israel in the first place.