Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Commenting in the NYTimes

I left this comment at Dani Dayan's op-ed in the NYTimes:

Yisrael Medad Shiloh, Israel 22 hours ago
As a colleague, I express agreement with his plan's elements which, in the main, have always been there for those whose ideological background is the Jabotinsky Revisionist camp (see especially his 1940 article "The Arab Angle Undramatized"). My one comment is this sentence "...But we settlers were never driven — except for fringe elements — by bigotry, hate or racism." I think a statement of what we are driven by (unless edited out) should have been included. This is our land, the internationally-recognized homeland of the Jews which is ours through our long historical connection. Until the Mandate period Jews lived in what we know as Judea and Samaria (geographical terms even the UN included in its 1947 Partition Plan - but not the 'West Bank' which was created only in April 1950) but Arabs engaged in an ethnic cleansing campaign. If any has a 'right of return', it si a Jew seeking to return to Hebron, Shchem/Nablus, Gaza and to Shiloh, where I reside, where the Tabernacle was erected at the capital of the tribal federation that existed from 1200 BCE untill the monarchy was formed. We are driven by a national ethos that until the Arabs understand and accept. even the steps Dani suggests will be politically ineffective in the long run. As Jabotinsky wrote, "there, the son of Arabia, the son of Nazereth and my son will benefit from bountifulness and joy" and the "there" was all of the Land of Israel, at its heartland, Judea and Samaria. We are not in a foreign land.

There were two responders:

Leucippe Princeton NJ 19 hours ago
Alas, your attitude that it is all yours and always be so is one continuing basis for obstacles to peace, even co existence.

and

Duncan Lennox Canada 13 hours ago
Sorry but the global consensus of archaeologists (including the leading Israeli archaeologists) & experts in Near East history is that there was no Exodus, no Joshua invasion of Canaan & that the biblical Israelites were native Canaanites who lived in the highlands of Canaan. ie. No Moses, no covenant, no promised land.

As to Abraham, he is also a myth. That he met a Philistine king & used camels as beasts of burden 1000 yrs before that was possible is not a problem for the uninformed. As is the consensus of experts that the United Monarchy never was. ie. In the 10th century BC, Judea was a very sparsely populated outback of 23 villages while Samaria had 235 villages & towns with 8-10x the population & yet most people lived on the coastal plain or fertile Jezreel-Beth Shean valleys.

We need to separate the myths from facts. Justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestine on the fairy tale of the Passover is equivalent to celebrating Easter based on the Easter bunny.

Historians recognize that the UN Resolution #181 that partioned Palestine in 1947 was a rigged vote. It received the bare minimum of 33 votes of which many were by coercion. eg. Haiti`s was purchased by a "loan". Liberia`s was obtained by threatening its only export product Nat Rubber. Pres.Truman wrote in his memoirs that never before of since was there so much pressure on the UN nations to submit to the Zionists.

To Leucippe:

Alas.

To Duncan:

As for archaeology, not only is he wrong but by its very nature, archaeology is based on what you find.  That you do not find it doesn't mean it isn't there.

As for Abraham, shhhh, don't tell the Muslims.

As for ethnic cleansing, it was we Jews 'cleansed' from Judea and Samaria.

As for rigging, what the Arabs have done outdoes whatever we could have done.

^

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