Symposium: The Fall of Palestine

From FrontPageMagazine.com March 17, 2006, By Jamie Glazov...


Hamas’ recent stunning victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections has forced the international community to face a precarious challenge. As the U.S. and Israel regroup to to deal with unapologetic Islamo-Fascists running Palestinian office, several pertinent questions beg analysis:

(1) Why did the Palestinians utilize a democratic experiment to elect Islamo-Fascists?

(2) Why are Israeli leftists using the occasion to paint the new rulers of Palestinians as forces of social justice?



To discuss these and other questions relating to Hamas’ takeover of the Palestinian Authority, we have assembled a distinguished panel.

Our guests today:

Kenneth Levin, a clinical instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a Princeton-trained historian, and a commentator on Israeli politics. He is the author of the new book The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege.

David Keyes, who assisted a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. and specialized on terrorism at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He recently returned from the Middle East where he co-authored academic papers with the former U.N. ambassador and the former head of Israeli military intelligence research and assessment. His latest paper, entitled “Al-Qaeda Infiltration of Gaza: A Post-Disengagement Assessment” was published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and

David Gutmann, Emeritus professor of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at North-Western university Medical School, in Chicago. As a clinician, he has practiced and taught intensive psychotherapy. As a researcher, he has conducted psychological studies of the Galilean and the Golan Heights Druse, as well as the Bedouin of the Negev and Sinai deserts.

Go to the Frontpagemag.com site for the full transcript ...

Not One More Dime for the Palestinians

From an opinion by Lee Kaplan in Arutz Sheva Mar 15, '06 / 15 Adar 5766 . . . .

The Hamas win in the Palestinian elections really changed nothing in the so-called "peace process". All it really did was clarify in simple language what the Palestinian Liberation Organization and its leadership have sought through deception and forced America to face reality. The election results could be a boon for the American taxpayer, who has been fleeced unceasingly since 1993 to support a terrorist protection racket masquerading as a "nationalist movement".

... Hamas has been regarded as separate from Fatah and the PLO, but both terrorist organizations signed an agreement in 1996 agreeing to work together, making Hamas a de facto part of the PLO.

... Created in the mid-1950s by the late secular, pan-Arab nationalist Gamel Abdul-Nasser of Egypt, it solidified into a terrorist movement and protection racket .... The PLO's purpose was to work with the Arab League that herded Arab refugees from the 1948 war with Israel into camps, where they could fester until Israel's Jews were finally displaced for another Arab state in Israel's place. An umbrella group composed of different factions with the same goal - destroying Israel. (For example, the PFLP faction is composed of Christian Arabs and communists, Fatah is largely secular but mainly Islamic. The Muslim fundamentalists of Hamas are newer.)

The "right of return" is a non-negotiable theme that maintains these refugees can never be assimilated into the Arab world. Since 1948, Arabs who were forced to be "Palestinians" have left the camps, but had to tithe their income to Arafat. The tithes were collected by the governments of any Arab state where they were living only as alien residents.

Meanwhile, the United States and other Western nations' taxpayers helped support those in the refugee camps. The Arab League's donations were always minimal and PLO money usually spent on training and weapons.

From 1964 on, Palestinian terrorism became a protection racket, as Saudi billionaires and the Arab League paid the PLO to roil the conflict with Israel's Jews and keep their own impoverished populations distracted from their leaders' personal opulence.

The PLO became a big business during those years, renting itself out to the Soviet Union and KGB and allying itself to revolutionary causes from the IRA to the Basque Separatist Movement to Castro's Cuba by providing training by its military wing.

The PLO also went into legitimate businesses. By the 1970s, the PLO established SAMED, an Arabic acronym for Palestinian Martyr's Sons Enterprises. SAMED is actually a worldwide conglomerate swimming in money. Its portfolio includes farms, restaurants, retail stores, factories and even oil refineries. It holds real estate investments in France, Spain and England, and owns several newspapers. It even has controlling interest in a Monte Carlo radio station. The portfolio also includes large amounts of money invested in Wall Street and in stock exchanges in Tokyo, Paris and Frankfurt, including a large share of Mercedes Benz. Airlines in the Maldives, Caledonia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nicaragua, and duty free shops all over Africa are also in the portfolio, since they serve as covers for moving terrorists around and providing them travel documents - all while turning a profit.

Mandatory tithing to Arafat by Palestinians living in other Arab states generated some $50 million dollars a year, while the Saudis and Gulf States donated billions of dollars to the PLO. Intelligence agencies have estimated that the PLO added $5 million dollars per day to its coffers during the 1970s and '80s, and British National Criminal Intelligence Services in 1994 estimated the PLO's net worth at $10 billion dollars.

Besides SAMED, the Palestine Commercial Services Company today has a monopoly in flour, cement, cigarettes, oil and construction material in the Palestinian Authority. The Palestine Development and Investment Company (PADICO) controls 93% of all investments in the emerging "State of Palestine".The PLO even expanded its operations to the illicit drug trade. Sallagh Dabbagh, the PLO former treasurer, stated, "The entire future of the PLO operation for liberation may hinge on our exporting more drugs around the world." Other illegal enterprises included counterfeiting US currency, money laundering, arms smuggling, murders for hire and even bank robberies. The Guinness Book of World Records estimated PLO-organized bank robberies in Europe netted in excess of 100 million dollars. Despite all this, the PLO was still raking it in at the height of the "peace process".

Direct aid and funds through non-governmental organizations exceeding at least $125 million a month, for only 3.2 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, came from the US, the EU and the Arab League (that only gives nominally). PLO leaders, though, were buying and smuggling guns to destroy Israel, while rewarding Arafat's wife an annuity worthy of a potentate.

This doesn't include millions in UN funds for UNWRA, the United Nations Welfare Relief Agency, that is run not by the UN, but by the Palestinians themselves. UN aid estimates that Palestinians received $300 a year per person in handouts as "refugees", the highest figure given any refugees in the world.

.... President George Bush has yet to strongly censure Saudi aid to Hamas, and even walked hand in hand with Crown Prince Abdullah at Crawford.So, President Bush's announcement that the US will not give aid to Hamas may be good news, if it finally gives the US taxpayer a break. Condoleezza Rice, however, has discussed possibly giving foreign aid money to "non-governmental" organizations in the Palestinian Authority, instead of to the Hamas-led government.

It's time to turn off the spigot.
It is up to the American taxpayer to stand up for once and say to our own government, "Not one more dime!" for a terrorist protection movement that already is swimming in money, but prefers not to disburse it to its people. This year's projected US taxpayer handouts to the Palestinians are said to be 224 million dollars, considerably less than the 600 million dollars President Bush wanted to give them.

That's 224 million dollars for American schools, roads and infrastructure that should be withheld from the Palestinian Arabs for two reasons:
1) They don't really need it and can obtain funding from the caches of their leadership (or throw them out for good); and
2) The American taxpayer is tired of being ripped off by a terrorist racket that is not serious about peace.

Lee Kaplan is senior intelligence analyst with the Northeast Intelligence Network and a contributor to Front Page Magazine. He is also the national director of Dafka.org and heads Stop the ISM.

A message to Hamas

From Ynetnews - Opinion - A message to Hamas 16/3/06 by Sever Plocker ....

The IDF operation in Jericho Tuesday was a pointed message: Don't break agreements with us, or you'll pay in spades. The message was intended for the extremists in Hamas.

. . .Don't even think about breaking existing agreements, like you threatened to do with the guys who killed Rehavam Zeevi. Because the minute you do, we'll be in your house to deliver a quick, sharp dose of preventive medicine. We've got the military might and the intelligence information to do it, and we have become fanatics about keeping agreements. We have especially become fanatics about Hamas.

... the Jericho operation has given them an extremely unpleasant choice: If Hamas rips up the agreements signed by the Fatah government it will simply be unable to rule. The tanks that rolled into Jericho could easily do so to Ramallah to shut down Palestinian matters of state.

... The Hamas leadership is comprised of men who know well how to interpret Israeli moves. They interpret and they fear.

Hamas decided to stop terror attacks when it became clear that left with no other options, Israel would go so far as to assassinate Sheikh Yassin on a wet winter's day, without worrying about setting the entire Middle East on fire, as many experts predicted would happen. But the fire never broke out.

... Israeli residents continue to live with memories of the intifada, when any Israeli action brought another wave of terror. But since then, reality has changed. Terror organizations now have limited ability to operate; they are only able to enlist limited numbers of suicide candidates. There is no longer a nation behind them ready to sacrifice itself as it once was.

Reports in the international media about the operation itself were restrained and balanced. Western governments reacted with understanding, even with sympathy.

And Arab governments? As usual, they fled the scene. They gave no support to Hamas. This message, too, was received in Gaza and Ramallah.

The folks who came out with their hands up from the prison in Jericho could well have signaled the beginning of the end of the Hamas government, before it has even been established.

Israel opposes new UN rights body

From JPost Mar. 15, 2006 19:48 by Herb Keinon and AP. . .

Israel was one of a few countries poised to vote with the US in the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday against establishing a new UN body to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission.

The US has argued that right abusers could still be elected to the new body under the proposed rules. World leaders at September's UN summit decided to create a new council to replace the commission, which has been criticized for allowing some of the worst rights-offending countries to use their membership to protect one another from condemnation. In recent years, members have included Sudan, Libya, Zimbabwe and Cuba.

The Americans want members of the council to be elected by a two-thirds vote, not the simple majority now called for, to help keep rights abusers out. They also want the text to explicitly bar any nation from joining the council if it is under sanction by the United Nations. The current draft says only that such measures would be taken into account when deciding membership.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev explained Israel's opposition to the new proposal saying that UN bodies designed to deal with human rights have, over the years, become "vehicles for singling out Israel, and for Israel bashing."

Regev said that although Israel welcomed the pursuit of a new human rights framework at the UN, it feels that "some of the problems in the previous structure are present in the current structure as well. We are concerned that it could still be manipulated to advance an extremist anti-Israel agenda, instead of promoting human rights."

Palestinian Iraqi era begins?

From DEBKAfile’s political sources: March 15, 2006, 2:17 PM (GMT+02:00) .. . .

The PFLP`s Ahmed Sadaat is the first head of a Palestinian terrorist group Israel has ever detained in its six-year war with the Palestinians

The Jericho raid and siege of March 14 opened a new chapter in the undeclared Palestinian-Israeli war in more than one respect. For the first time, Israel held the Palestinian Authority to account for breaching its obligations under an international accord it signed.

Another first: Acting Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert sent a commando force to raid a Palestinian government installation and arrest a top terror chief. Even his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, held an IDF siege force back from detaining the 200 terror chiefs sheltering under Yasser Arafat’s wing in 2002.

Until now, aside from targeted killings, Israel countered ongoing Palestinian suicidal violence by detaining and demolishing the homes of small-time terrorists.

Most significantly, the Jericho operation knocked over more than a Palestinian jail; it blew another gaping hole in the largely dysfunctional Palestinian government.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that in some important ways, the ten-hour Jericho siege also signaled the onset of the Palestinian Iraqi era.

1. The breakdown of central government was plain to see. In Ramallah and Gaza City, neither the Hamas nor any other Palestinian party was capable of assuming the reins of government. Abu Mazen, the Palestinian Authority chairman, was on a visit to the IAEA direct Dr Mohammed ElBaradei in Vienna. He was helpless to manage the Jericho crisis, while the Hamas, which is due to take over government shortly, started off by stammering before fading altogether.

2. This left the field clear for unidentified Palestinian gunmen to go on a rampage, grabbing foreign hostages and setting on fire the British cultural center which also housed European Union headquarters. The major Palestinian terror organizations appeared to have disintegrated into small bands of guerilla-style thugs and criminals on the prowl for trouble, very much like the Iraqi guerrillas in the early days of the Iraqi war. UN, Red Cross and other international aid workers hurriedly departed the Gaza Strip, just as they did in Iraq under similar circumstances.
3. That moment in the summer of 2003 marked the beginning of the full-blown Iraqi guerrilla insurgency. It burgeoned as a result of the gap in governance between Saddam Hussein’s fall and the time it took for the Americans to improvise a form of central government after they realized it was essential for controlling the country.
The Hamas behaved Tuesday exactly like a terrorist group incapable of rising to the challenge of leading a government. This lapse in authority was certainly noted by the half dozen leading terrorist groups lurking in the background quietly for their chance. Among them are the Lebanese Hizballah, subversive agents of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, al Qaeda, Iraqi Baathists, Muslim Brotherhood operatives, Middle East crime gangs and arms smuggling networks. All of them are set to prey on the weakness at the center to grab slices of Palestinian territory and government.

4. The same clandestine trans-Middle East logistical forces that feed money, arms and fighting men to the Sunni insurgents and al Qaeda units in Iraq will now divert some of those resources to the Palestinian territories. With Hamas at the head of government, propped up by the feeble Mahmoud Abbas, there is no Palestinian authority capable of stopping Iraq’s mayhem from spilling over in earnest to the shore of the Mediterranean.

Sa'adat, five others taken alive by IDF after surrendering

From J Post Mar. 14, 2006 By YAAKOV KATZ, MARGOT DUDKEVITCH, JPOST.COM STAFF, AND AP JERICHO . . .

Ahmed Sa'adat, the mastermind behind the assassination of former tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi in 2001, was captured alive by IDF troops Tuesday evening following a day-long siege of the Jericho prison where he was being held. Five other men wanted by the IDF for involvement in the killing were also arrested. . . .

Israel decided to raid the prison compound after US and British monitors left the prison citing security concerns. The monitors, according to a deal between Israel and former PA President Yasser Arafat, were charged with ensuring the incarceration of Ze'evi's killers. Naveh reiterated Israel's stance that there was no prior cooperation between the US and Britain with Israel, and that the IDF was not informed by the monitors as to their decision to leave the prison.

. . .During operation "Pay a Visit," which began Tuesday morning, Nahal Brigade troops along with the police's special anti-terror unit, broke into the facility amidst reports of explosions and heavy gunfire. PA sources said two Palestinians were killed - one policeman and one inmate - while three others were wounded in the exchange of fire.

Aside from the six, some 200 prisoners had already surrendered to IDF troops and were taken to the nearby Jewish settlement of Vered Jericho for interrogation. According to the IDF, whoever was of interest to security forces would be kept in Israeli custody. Seventy-six others, who were not of interest to security forces, were returned to the custody of the PA.
However, the main target of the operation was Sa'adat, who is the secretary general of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

. . .An IDF officer explained that at around 9:30 in the morning, soldiers at the checkpoint to Jericho noticed the US and British monitors leaving the city, and that was how the IDF found out that the monitors were gone. Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio that once it became evident that the international monitors had left the compound, as per the announcement of UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw, there was no other choice but to capture the PFLP operatives, who were likely to be released by the Hamas-led PA government.

. . .The IDF spokesman issued the following statement, "Due to the violations of understandings reached with the Palestinian Authority regarding the incarceration of the murderers of government minister Ze'evi murderers and additional senior terrorists in the Jericho jail, and after international monitors left the city due to the PA's violations, security forces, after receiving a government directive, have entered the jail to arrest the Ze'evi murderers and additional terrorists."

Sa'adat is being held for his involvement in ordering the assassination of Ze'evi in 2001. In accordance with an arrangement with the PA, he was guarded by British and US wardens, in addition to Palestinian jailers.

However, Straw criticized the PA for failing to guarantee the monitors' security, blaming the PA for their withdrawal. "The UK and the US withdrew our monitors from the Jericho Monitoring Mission on March 14. It is the prime responsibility of the Palestinian Authority to ensure the personal security of the monitors. Over the last months it has become increasingly clear that the Palestinian Authority is unable to do this," he said in a statement released Tuesday.
According to Straw, "The UK and the US have repeatedly raised our concerns over the security of our monitors with the Palestinian Authority and urged them to meet their obligations under the Ramallah agreement. Unfortunately, there has been no improvement. The Palestinian Authority has consistently failed to meet its obligations under the Ramallah Agreement.". . .

Saudis back Hamas

From Debkafile, March 13, 2006, 11:55 PM (GMT+02:00) ...

Saudi media kept a tight lid on the visit to Riyadh of a five-man Hamas delegation headed by Damascus-based politburo chief Khaled Meshaal. It took place after the Saudi government turned down a request from US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to cut off aid to a Hamas government, unless its leaders recognize Israel, renounce terrorism and respect previous accords.

At the same time, the visitors were given a red carpet welcome by Muslim Brotherhood websites which are popular with the Saudi public. ...those websites released a religious edict, signed by top Saudi clerical, spiritual and academic leaders. Among them were the noted writer and religious ideologue, Ibrahim Jerallah from Riyadh, and Dr. Ahmed Zaharni, rector of the theology faculty of Medina University. None of these eminent persons would have taken this initiative without the say-so of the royal court.

The edict consists of five parts:
1. All Palestinians must join a Hamas government without prior conditions or quibbling on terms.
2. Zionist efforts to isolate or bend a Hamas-led regime must be thwarted.
3. All armed Palestinian organizations must line up behind a Hamas government.
4. The Palestinian people should not worry about its future but cooperate with a Hamas government.
5. If the Palestinians follow these decrees, the Palestinian Authority will not lack for funds.

Sunday, March 12, Sheik Nasser al-Omar, who is reputed to be one of the most extremist clerics in the kingdom, threw a gala reception for the Hamas delegation at his residence in Riyadh. Among the guests were hardline Muslim leaders, some of whom have spent time in jail for supporting al Qaeda. Tuesday, before performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hamas visitors will meet the head of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah.

Peres meets Abbas in secret (deja vu?)

From JPost, Mar. 13, 2006 By JPOST.COM STAFF ...

Former prime minister and current Kadima candidate for the Knesset Shimon Peres met in secret with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday, Channel 2 reported on Monday. According to the report, Peres had apparently asked for and received permission to conduct the meeting from Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

...The meeting flies in the face of Kadima's declared policy of not meeting with any representatives of a Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority.

Last week, Abbas endorsed Olmert for the upcoming elections.

... Abbas said that Olmert's victory would be a positive outcome for the March 28 national balloting. "...I hope Olmert wins....I know him well. I believe that with him we could work in a productive way," said Abbas.

AP contributed to this report.

Reader commentary to this report is vehemently opposed to such meetings, comparing them to the start of the failed Oslo "process"...

Psychologist to cleric: Muslims are barbaric

From Ynet News 13/3/06. . .

Arab-American psychologist makes explosive TV appearance on Al-Jazeera, tells cleric: 'Clash is between those who treat woman like beasts and those who treat them like human beings'
Yaakov Lappin

An Arab-American psychologist, Wafa Sultan, has appeared live on the Al-Jazeera Arab satellite network, where she confronted an Egyptian Islamic cleric, and declared that "the clash we are witnessing around the world… is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century."

The February TV appearance, which has been widely circulated around the internet, was made available by the Arabic translation service MEMRI.

"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations," said Sultan. . . .

We posted an exerpt from the transcript on 1/3/06.
Go to MEMRI 2/21/2006 Clip No. 1050 to see the video.

IDF on high alert in north

From Ynet News 13/3/06...

Farmers working near border fence forbidden to go to work Monday due to fear of terror attacks, kidnappings by Hizbullah; army expected to maintain high alert until after elections
Hagai Einav

The IDF's alert level along the northern border reached a high Monday morning for fear of escalation on the part of Hizbullah. Farmers working near the border fence were forbidden to leave for work for fear of confrontations with the terror organization's members stationed not far from the fence. Four road sections along the border with Lebanon were closed to traffic by the army and police. The decision to raise the alert level of security forces deployed along the border was made at the end of a meeting between security and intelligence officials at the Northern Command.

. . . The high alert is expected to be maintained until Election Day, in about two weeks. Senior army officials expressed their fear that Hizbullah, supported by Syria or Iran, would try to escalate the situation at the border.

... "The Lebanese government must understand that any attempt to hurt IDF soldiers (or)Israeli citizens touring or living near the border would be appropriately retaliated by us. The responsibility for any escalation lies with the Beirut government, which has to understand that it is time to apply its sovereignty also on the south of the state," an IDF officer said...

SYNAGOGUE DESTROYED

Thanks to Sandi for alerting us to this article, which went generally unnoticed...
From a SPECIAL STATEMENT FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SEPHARDIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL, FEBRUARY 26, 2006 ...

Decent people of the world were horrified by the destruction of the gold domed mosque last week, but on the same day, the destruction of an active synagogue—by a progressive government, supposedly based on civil law—was hardly even noted.

...On February 22, 2006, an active synagogue, much beloved by its Jewish congregation, was destroyed .... This was the only active synagogue in the country of Tajikistan, a country north of Afghanistan and south of Russia.

.... When news of the destruction of the Tajikistan synagogue reached the Bukharian community in the United States, the news was met with shock; people whose children were brought up in that synagogue reacted in tears. Members of the Bukharian community in Atlanta, Georgia stated they worry about the Jewish cemeteries that are near the synagogue, what will happen to them?....First the government destroyed the mikvah (ritual bath), then the kosher butcher shop, now the entire synagogue.

... while the Iraqi Muslims claim say the community near the gold domed mosque was there for 1000 years, the Jewish community has been in the area surrounding Tajikistan for 2000 years. And while the gold domed mosque in Iraq was built in 1905—a little over 100 years ago—the synagogue in Tajikistan was built 100 years ago as well. Yet, everyone is quiet about this. Including Jewish organizations—this must change.

The destruction of the Tajikistan synagogue is the most disgraceful act committed by a sovereign state toward its Jewish population since the end of WWII. The Soviet Union and its successor states may have oppressed and harassed their Jewish communities, but even at the height of Stalin’s anti-Semitic purges they did not seek to wipe every element of Jewish existence like the Tajikistan government.

It is an ominous message for a Jewish community, that while living under a government that is attempting to rebuild its economic, political and social image—it starts by wiping out the only synagogue in its country.
Where is the outrage?

###

Editor's Note: The International Sephardic Leadership Council is based in the heart of the vibrant Near-Eastern Sephardic Community of New York City, a community highly committed to Judaism, made up of 75,000 Syrian, Egyptian, Lebanese, Turkish and North African Jews; one of the largest, strongest, and fastest growing Sephardic communities in the world.

Palestinian intentions

From Ynetnews 11/3/06 by Martin Sherman...

There is a wide valley between factually correct and politically correct

"There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity… the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel." (Zuheir Muhsin, former head of the PLO's Military Department and member of its Executive Council)

.. .In principle, there are two countervailing hypotheses by which to account for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to prevailing conventional wisdom, the fuel of the conflict is the lack of Palestinian self-determination, and all the Palestinians want is to establish a state for themselves.

There is, however, an alternative proposition, . . . the fuel of the conflict is not the lack of Palestinian self-determination but the existence of Jewish self-determination – thus, as long as Jewish self-determination continues, so will the conflict. Moreover, according to the alternative explanation, the goal of the Palestinians is not to establish a state for themselves but to dismantle a state for others - the Jews.

. . . Which of these two alternative hypotheses has the greater explanatory power?
. . .the latter – for it provides eminently plausible explanations for a range of events that the former is totally unable to account for. For example:

It explains why every territorial proposal, which would have allowed the Palestinians to create a state of their own (from the 1947 partition plan to Barak's offer at Camp David in 2000), never satisfied them. They rejected every one.

It explains why only the total negation of Jewish independence appears acceptable to the Palestinians, as evidenced not only by their abovementioned rejection of all viable "two-state solutions", but also by nearly all Palestinian rhetoric and symbolism which invariably portrays the whole the Land of Israel, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, as constituting part of Arab Palestine.

It explains not only why the Palestinians eschewed claims of national sovereignty over the pre-1967 "West Bank" and Gaza (as evidenced by the explicit text of their original 1964 National Charter in which they specifically forgo any aspirations to "exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank .(or) on the Gaza Strip..."); but also accounts for why today the Palestinians, as an overwhelming majority in Jordan, clearly resign themselves to the rule of a Hashemite monarch, who belongs to the non-Palestinian minority in the land . This clearly indicates that Palestinians are not at all averse to non-Palestinian rule, only to the existence of Jewish rule.

It explains not only why they rejected the far-reaching generosity of the 2000 Barak proposal, but also the violent manner in which they rejected it. For although these proposals did include a proviso insisting on "end of conflict", they were unprecedented in the concessions offered towards making a Palestinian state a feasible prospect. However, the ferocity of the repudiation by the Palestinians seems to indicate that even these were far short of their real demands. After all if they were only marginally inadequate, it would be reasonable to expect that the Palestinians would have preferred to negotiate the details of issues of contention, rather than launch such a fierce and destructive wave of violence. This is a response that seems explicable only if "end of conflict" is an unacceptable concept for them.

It explains why the Palestinians stubbornly insist on the "right of return", which would imply placing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians (and possibly even more), now living in Arab countries … under Israeli jurisdiction!? This is a demand that really tears the mask off Palestinian intentions for it is a position totally inconsistent with an alleged desire to be free of "oppressive" Israeli control... or with an equitable two-state solution.

By contrast, none of the above phenomena can be reconciled with the explanation propounded by the advocates of the conventional wisdom hypothesis. For in reality the Palestinians seem to have little motivation in expressing their national sovereignty in territories under non-Palestinian Arab rule. Strangely, this desire only manifests itself in these territories when they fall under Jewish rule.

Indeed, Palestinian efforts seem far more comprehensible if seen as directed toward eliminating - or at least undermining - Jewish sovereignty, than in the establishment of their own independence.
If this is true, then making ever more generous proposals regarding Palestinian statehood will be totally unproductive, indeed counterproductive, for these will induce no peaceable response whatsoever. After all, as Muhsin said: "The founding of a Palestinian state is (no more than) a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel."