Tag Archives: Palestine

This posting – which is a sequel to my last – begins with a video. An unusual way to begin, I know. But this is an unusual posting, and the video, which is seven minutes long, is quite extraordinary. I want to thank long-time reader from Toronto, Leon K., for …

Given that the government is trying to show unity, why is the Evyatar outpost being tackled so soon, if at all? The new government is trying to show its unity, not courting controversy, though there will inevitably be controversies thrust upon it. Given this orientation, it seems strange that Evyatar, …

The phrase I am about to write may be considered more radical by modern standards than the act of supporting a Hamas missile strike on Israeli civilians, but let’s start off with a bang.  “Palestinian” people do not exist.  Oh, yes.  I’ll even take it a step further and say …

Israel is under attack and Israeli civilians are once more being targetted by the rockets of radical Islamic terror groups. 1000s of rockets have been fired at dozens of Israeli towns and cities.  Radical Islamic terrorists are trying to kill as many innocent civilians as they can. This undeniable simplicity …

FACT: The Palestinians have for years tried to convince the International Criminal Court (ICC) to charge Israeli soldiers and politicians with war crimes. The approach to the ICC is part of the desperate effort by Palestinians to find some international body that will force Israel to capitulate to their demands. …

In January 1919, Chaim Weizmann, who would become the first president of Israel, signed an agreement with Emir Faisal, who would rule Syria and Iraq. Signed on the eve of the Paris Peace Conference at which the victors of World War I would determine how to administer the former colonies …

The Zionist Achievement When the French essayist and playwright Edmond Fleg attended Herzl’s Third Zionist Congress in Basel in 1899, he marvelled at the scene. It wasn’t merely the dynamism of the convenor that moved Fleg but the diversity of the delegates. ‘I looked about me. What Jewish contrasts! A …

Palestinian Arabs often share a series of maps which show that “their land and country” are in a perpetual state of shrinking when the opposite is the truth. Local Palestinian Arabs never had self-rule until 1995. The Ottomans ruled the region from 1517 to 1917 and then the British until …

Though the definite origins of the word Palestine have been debated for years and are still not known for sure, the name is believed to be derived from the Egyptian and Hebrew word peleshet. Roughly translated to mean rolling or migratory, the term was used to describe the inhabitants of …

FACT The Jewish claim to statehood in their homeland dates to ancient times when the Israelite and Hasmonean kingdoms ruled for more than 400 years in the region that later came to be known as Palestine. The Jewish people never left the area but were forced to live under the …

There are many misconceptions about the Temple Mount, the Kotel and the Al Aqsa mosque. Confusion and even much conflict can be dispelled when the facts are made clear! 1. What is the holiest site on earth for Jews? Did you answer, “the Kotel”? If you did, that’s a mistake …

When people think of visiting Israel, few consider going to Hebron. The city is depicted as contentious, dangerous and unpleasant. It is associated with “Occupation,” poverty and apartheid. Who would want to go there? Even most Israelis don’t consider Hebron a place they would want to visit, much less live. …

For two days now, there have been a stream of articles calling Trumps ‘peace plan’ everything from a conspiracy to Apartheid.  Quite a few of the ‘predictable’ politicians from the UK and US have bitterly attacked the initiative.  Judging by Emily Thornberry’s comments in parliament it seems that many of …

I have written before about the importance of semantics in the discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how frustrated many people are about losing various battles over nomenclature, such as references to the disputed territories as “occupied,” and “Judaea and Samaria” as the West Bank.  An arguably more important semantic …

It is Monday night, 23rd September. It has been a long day. Today was my second day at the 2019 Labour Party conference in Brighton. On the first day I had spent my time looking at what was taking place outside of the  secure conference area.  Today I went inside. …

FACT: For many centuries, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and widely neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts, and malarial marshes.  This was Mark Twain’s description when he visited in 1867: A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent mournful …

FACT. For many centuries, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and widely neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts, and malarial marshes.  This was Mark Twain’s description when he visited in 1867: A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent mournful …

In the memory of June 5th 1967, some recall defeat others celebrate victory, but very few remember the tragedy of the forgotten ones.  After the war between Israel and Egypt started in 1967, the Egyptian government took the decision to take Egyptian Jews into custody until they evacuated them from …

MYTH Palestine was always an Arab country. FACT The term “Palestine” is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who, in the twelfth century BCE, settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain — now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second century CE, after crushing the last …

Any lingering thought that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would have any role to play in President Trump’s soon to-be-released peace plan has vanished – after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $165 million had been deducted from funding to the PLO because of its continuing “pay for slay” …