(Guest posting by Charles Smith)
The subject of “settlements”
has been made a top factor in the Palestinian fight to discredit and eventually
overcome Israel. It is discussed constantly in the media, and has been made
into a big political issue in Europe, America, generally. You’d think the
matter concerned at least China or Russia and was of world-wide importance. But
it does concern the Jews, so the facts are that it concerns only one out of about
200 cases of building in “occupied” land by other nations worldwide, and then it is only on a dot on the map.
I'd class the supporters of
the Palestinian narrative - that the "settlements" are illegal and
are preventing peace in the M.E. - including representatives of many countries,
large numbers of students and others – into two categories:
a) those who are
influenced by antisemitism and
b) those who are ignorant of the facts and have
accepted blindly what they’ve heard from spokesmen or the media.
I'm sure that 95% of
them haven’t the time or the interest, so haven’t checked the true legal
situation via reliable sources. This probably applies to Jewish people as well,
since most people can’t start reading legal opinions about everything that’s
going on. I have made the effort, however, as it’s so important to us living
here.
I came across a fairly short article in the papers today. It gives, what I think is a
very good summary of the important facts of the matter, and so a basic
understanding of what we Israelis see as the true situation, and the flaws in
the situation as it is broadcast and accepted by a huge majority world wide
(for the two reasons mentioned above).
There is one more relatively
minor factor, regularly used in discussions on the matter, which is not
mentioned in the article. So just to add this to your ammunition if needed:
Another clause in the Geneva
Convention (after WWII) on which most arguments are based, states that one
state can’t occupy land captured from another state in a war. The
Israeli (and now apparently also American) position is that the so-called West
Bank was taken back from Jordan in the war they started in order to destroy the
new Israeli state, but was never recognized as part of Jordan i.e. it was never
part of another state. All the opposition choose to ignore that small
problem, while accepting and relying absolutely on another clause !!
(Questionable motive?)
Last note before you read the short article: Just to remind, once again, that the whole subject is a total red
herring, since the one and only factor actually preventing any progress in the
non-existent “peace process” is the absolute refusal of the Palestinians
to EVER consider acceptance of any Jewish independent state in the M.E. All the
rest could be settled in no time if they dropped that eternal brick wall.
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