Saturday, November 26, 2011

A Comment to Gershom Gorenberg

Comment left at The New Prospect blog of Gershom Gorenberg:

Having become a Zionist, a quite active one I would suggest, in 1962 in New York, and living there until 1970 and being very involved, can I say that Gershom congratulates himself too much, I fear. He has trea no new path. Robust debates with opponents have always taken place even in strongly supportive congregations and organizations of the right of Jews to reside in Judea and Samaria, something they did - which usually is ignored - throughout recorded history except for the brief 19 year period of Jordanian illegal occupation between 1948-1967. Somehow, persons like Gershom rarely dissect the history as regards "rights", "legality", etc. when it comes to the reality of that period and that immediately prior, seeking to distract attention from the behavior of the local Arab nationalist movement in Mandated Palestine which engaged for 30 years in a prolonged campaign of ethnic cleansing of Jews from Hebron, Shchem/Nablus, Gaza, Jenin and Jerusalem's Old City in addition to the newer locations such as the 4 kibbutzim in Gush Etzion, at Bet HaAravah, the moshavim of Atarot and Neveh Yakov accompanied by terror, gto be continued througout the 1948-1967 period first by fedyeen and then by Fatah/PLO. Gershom & Co. always start from June 10, 1967 and a supposed "illegal occupation".

Of course, his back row intelocuter has a point. Besides that opinion, of someone who subsequently left Israel and ran away to more progressive quarters, Israel's legal minds and its Supreme Court, have awarded legal approbation to almost all of the construction of Jewish homes, factories, farms and schools in Judea and Samaria, distinguishing between that issue and that of eventual political sovereignty. In assisting the view that Jews should be banned from Judea & Samaria, prohibited from living there, Gorenberg actually serves the darkest forces of illegality, apartheid and violation of Jewish rights as guaranteed by the highest legal forum at the time which recognized the historic connection of the Jewish people with that territory as part of the land area to become the reconstituted Jewish national home (for a collection of opinions, see: http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2011/08/are-settlements-legal.html)

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