by Ezequiel Doiny
Democrat bill reverses Trump policy and Oslo, calling Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter and Western Wall "Occupied Palestinian Territories."
On September 26, 2021 Alan Dershowitz wrote in Gatestone Institute
"Just when Congress overwhelmingly defeated an effort by eight radical
Democrats and one Republican to defund Israel's Iron Dome defense
system, several "mainstream" Democrats proposed legislation that is
equally dangerous and filled with half-truths, omissions and outright
fabrications...The bill declares that the 'West Bank', East Jerusalem
and the Gaza Strip are occupied territories and must be referred to as
such by all American statements. It implies that the occupation is
illegal and entirely the fault of Israel..." (click on the link to read
about the issues not discussed in this article).
That this is happening during Biden's government is not surprising. On May 19, 2021 Caroline Glick wrote:
"Biden’s actual policies regarding Israel, are revealed in three
different ways. First, there are the policies that Biden had already
adopted before Hamas opened its missile offensive from Gaza and its
spate of organized anti-Jewish pogroms in mixed Arab-Jewish cities
throughout Israel.
"Biden’s
courtship of Iran through the renewal of nuclear talks in Vienna, in
which he has signaled his willingness to end U.S. economic sanctions on
Iran; and through his administration’s persuasion of Iraq and South
Korea to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue have
signaled Iran and its terror proxies including Hamas that the Biden
administration is abandoning the U.S. alliance with Israel and the
moderate Sunni states in favor of Iran and its proxies.
'Likewise, Biden’s announcement that he is restoring U.S. funding to
UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority despite their funding of terrorism
were a tailwind for Iran and Hamas plans to attack Israel. With U.S.
funding and sanctions relief, not only did they realize that the U.S.
had their back, Iran and Hamas gained the economic wherewithal to wage
war. So too, Hamas was able to use America’s abandonment of Israel as a
means to persuade Israeli Arabs that they could safely participate in
pogroms against their Jewish neighbors and accept Hamas as their
representative.
"The second indication of Biden’s actual policies were the people he
appointed to positions responsible for managing U.S. ties with Israel in
his National Security Council, at the State Department, the Defense
Department and the U.S. intelligence agencies. Most of the people that
Biden has appointed to these key positions have public records of
hostility towards Israel. For instance, Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr was an anti-Israel activist
until his appointment. Amr has a long record of statements hostile to
Israel and supportive of Palestinian terrorists, including Hamas. When
supposedly moderate Secretary of State Anthony Blinken decided to send
an envoy to the region, it was Amr that he dispatched last week.
Appointments like Amr, and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin
Kahl are the sort of appointments that one would expect from an
anti-Israel president, not from a pro-Israel president.
"Finally, there is the political climate in Biden’s Democrat Party.
From the moment Hamas launched its current offensive against Israel,
radical Democrat lawmakers in Congress have escalated their anti-Israel
rhetoric and actions to unprecedented levels. On Monday, Congresswomen
Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and others adopted
rank anti-Semitic language against Israel referring to Israel as an
“Apartheid” state and insisting that Israel is not a democracy because
“Apartheid states aren’t democracies.” The State Department itself has
determined that accusing Israel of being an “Apartheid” state is an
anti-Semitic act.
"No “responsible adult,” not Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer or
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and definitely not Biden, called them out
for their bigoted behavior," Glick emphasized.
The Democrat's new bill violates the Oslo Accords fascilitated by
Bill Clinton which considered the territories were considered
"disputed", not "ocupied". Obama was the first to violate the Oslo
Accords when he refused to veto UNSC 2334 on December 23, 2016.
On January 11, 2017 the Zionist Organization of America reported "...This resolution has absurdly and shockingly labeled Judaism’s holiest places,
such as the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, as “occupied Arab land.”
It has also wrongly labeled Judea and Samaria, the Jewish Quarter,
Hebrew University, Hadassah Hospital and the Mt. of Olives – the site of
the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world – as “occupied Arab land"
"Quite simply, Resolution 2334 has turned the truth on its head. It
has also attempted to negate UN Resolution 242, Article 80 of the League
of Nations, and the Oslo agreements, which proclaimed either that these
areas are sovereign Jewish land or that negotiations between the
parties are required to make a final determination of the status of
these areas. Either way, a UN resolution cannot unilaterally decide..."
The Oslo Accords ruled that negotiations between the parties were
required to determine the final status of the disputed areas, the UNSC
violated the Oslo Accords when they imposed a pro-Palestinian
resolution. The Jerusalem Post reported "While Palestinian
officials have welcomed the resolution, characterizing it as “historic,”
Israeli officials have rejected the resolution, calling it “shameful”
and “scandalous.”
UNSC 2334 rules that even Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter and the Western
Wall are in "illegally occupied Palestinian territories" but this is
incorrect because according to the Oslo Accords the land is "disputed"
not "illegally occupied". The Oslo Accords said that the borders would
be determined through direct negotiations between the parties, UNSC
violated the Oslo Accords by imposing borders.
According to the Oslo Accords the settlements are not illegal.
Clinton's parameters for peace, based on the Oslo Accords, did not
consider settlements "illegal" and contrary to Obama's anti-Semitic UNSC
2334 Clinton made it clear that the Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter and the
Western Wall would remain in Israel something he called "non
negotiable".
In his autobiography "My Life" Bill Clinton describes a conversation
he had with Arafat when he was hosting a Palestinian-Israeli summit in
Camp David in 2000:
“...When Arafat came to see me, he asked a lot of questions about my
proposal. He wanted Israel to have the Wailing Wall, because of its
religious significance, but asserted that the remaining fifty feet of
the Western Wall should go to the Palestinians. I told him he was wrong,
that Israel should have the entire wall to protect itself from someone
using one entrance of the tunnel that ran beneath the wall from damaging
the remains of the temples beneath the Haram.
"The Old City has four quarters: Jewish, Muslim Christian, and
Armenian. It was assumed that Palestine would get the Muslim and
Christian quarters, with Israel getting the other two. Arafat argued
that he should have a few blocks of the Armenian quarter because of the
Christian churches there. I couldn’t believe he was talking to me about
this....I said these parameters were nonnegotiable and were the best I
could do...Arafat’s rejection of my proposal after Barak accepted it was
an error of historic proportions...” (Clinton, Bill. “My Life.” Vintage
(2005). pp. 936-946 and Jewish Virtual Library.)
Clinton's "Parameters for Peace" also called for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria to remain in Israel:
"...The Parties should develop a map consistent with the following criteria:
– 80% of settlers in blocs..."
Both Clinton and Rabin called for settlement blocs to remain in
Israel. According to the Oslo Accords the settlements are not illegal.
In 1995 when Rabin was campaigning for the Knesset to approve the Oslo
Accords he gave a speech in the Knesset in which he promised that:
“…The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution,
will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will
not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.
And these are the main changes, not all of them, which we envision and want in the permanent solution:
A. First and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both
Ma’ale Adumim and Givat Ze’ev — as the capital of Israel, under Israeli
sovereignty, while preserving the rights of the members of the other
faiths, Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of
worship in their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths.
B. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.
C. Changes which will include the addition of Gush Etzion, Efrat,
Beitar and other communities, most of which are in the area east of what
was the “Green Line,” prior to the Six Day War.
D. The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.
Neither
side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent
solution negotiations."
I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an
agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a
single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to
hinder building for natural growth.
...The responsibility for external security along the borders with
Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the
territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands...
Mr. Speaker Members of Knesset,
The agreement, with all its articles lies before you. There are no
secret appendices or letters. This is the agreement that dozens, perhaps
hundreds, of civil servants, and IDF officers led by Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres worked on, and to all of them I say -- thank you from the
bottom of my heart..."
Netanyahu accused Obama of initiating UNSC 2334 demanding that it be passed. On December 27, 2016 John Walsh reported on IBTimes "Vice
President Joe Biden is being accused of convincing Ukraine to vote in
favor of the United Nations Resolution 2334 Friday that condemned Israel
for building housing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin told the Jerusalem Post Monday that Biden persuaded Ukrainian diplomats to vote yes on the measure. They would have reportedly abstained if he hadn’t.
A member of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's office said that
Biden had indeed called, but was unable to confirm whether or not their
discussion involved the Friday U.N. vote...
Despite heavy pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
on the U.S. to veto the measure, it abstained from voting, resulting in
the U.N. Security Council approving the resolution with 14 votes to
0...
Netanyahu summoned Israel’s leading ambassador to the U.S. Daniel
Shapiro Sunday while issuing harsh words for the Obama administration
following the vote, CNN reported Monday.
"We have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood
behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed,"
Netanyahu said Sunday."
United with Israel reported
"The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which dedicates itself to combating
post-Holocaust anti-Semitism, has presented its list of the top 10 worst
anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incidents that occurred over the course of
2016:
"...The most stunning 2016 United Nations (UN) attack on Israel was
facilitated by US President Obama when the US abstained on a UN Security
Council resolution condemning Israel for construction in Judea and
Samaria. It reversed decades-long US policy of vetoing such diplomatic
moves against the Jewish State."
In 2011, a similar resolution was vetoed by US Ambassador Susan Rice
“This draft resolution risks hardening the positions of both sides. It
could encourage the parties to stay out of negotiations”, she had said.
That same year, President Obama told the UN General Assembly that peace
would “not [come] through statements and resolutions at the UN”
The resolution, in effect, identifies Jerusalem’s holiest sites,
including the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, as “occupied
Palestinian territory.” It also urges UN members “to distinguish, in
their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel
and the territories occupied since 1967,” effectively endorsing BDS.
US Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) echoed the sentiments of many
Democrats and Republicans, labeling the resolution “destructive and
irresponsible” and as seeking “to isolate and delegitimize Israel…US
actions were completely unacceptable and reckless.”
Throughout 2016, a year rife with global Islamist terrorism and
horrific human rights violations, the UN General Assembly passed 20
resolutions against Israel and four against all other countries
combined. At UNESCO, an Arab–backed resolution erased any historic link
between the Jewish people and Judaism’s holiest sites, the Temple Mount
and the Western Wall. It also rebranded Rachel’s Tomb and the Tomb of
the Patriarchs as exclusively Muslim sites. The resolution also “deeply
regrets” Israel’s refusal to remove these sites from its national
heritage list..."
UNSC 2334 called Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter, the Temple Mount, the
Western Wall and the settlements "occupied Palestinian territories" but
the Congress rejected this. H.Res.11 rejected UNSC 2334. 0n July 1st
2017 the Congress approved H.Res.11 - Objecting to United Nations
Security Council Resolution 2334 as an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian
peace, and for other purposes. H.Res.11 "Calls for such resolution to be
repealed or fundamentally altered
On January 13, 2017 JEAN-PATRICK GRUMBERG wrote in dreuz.info
"In a historic trial carefully forgotten by the media, the 3rd Chamber
of the Court of Appeal of Versailles declared that Israel is the legal
occupant of the 'West Bank'."
Until 1948 Jews were a majority of the population in Jerusalem. On
December 11, 2017 Amb. Dore Gold wrote in the Jerusalem Center of Public
Affairs "By the mid-19th century, the British Consulate in Jerusalem
made the following determination, according to this report, which I
found in the Public Record Office in Kew, it states that Jews were a
majority in Jerusalem, when? already in 1863 – that’s long before
Theodor Herzl, before the Britt’s arrived, or Lord Balfour."
"See the guy on the right, William Seward, he was Secretary of State
of the United States during the American civil war, under President
Abraham Lincoln.
"When Seward’s term ended, he visited the holy land, he visited
Jerusalem. And he wrote a memoir. And in his memoir, it is written,
'There is a Jewish majority in Jerusalem.'" See William Seward, Travels
Around the World (1873)
Jews were a majority of the population in Jerusalem until they were
expelled by the Jordanian Arab Legion in 1948. In 1948 British General
Glubb Pasha lead the Jordanian Arab Legion to expel all the Jews from
Hevron, East Jerusalem and the 'West Bank'. Not only they did ethnic
cleansing but they destroyed dozens of ancient synagogues and thousands
of Ancient Jewish Tombstones in the Sacred Ancient Jewish Cemetery of
Mount of Olives to try to erase all evidence of Jewish History.
According to the Palestinians Arabs themselves most "Palestinians"
are migrants from other Arab Countries. On March 23, 2012 MEMRI reported
"Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad
Slams Egypt over Fuel Shortage in Gaza Strip, and Says: "Half of the
Palestinians Are Egyptians and the Other Half Are Saudis" (Please see
video in the link below)
Even though 20% of the Israeli population is Israeli Arab and Arabs
are allowed to live anywhere in Israel, Abbas calls for the ethnic
cleansing of all Jews from Judea and Samaria (including Jerusalem's
Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall). On July 29, 2013 Reuters reported "...Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or border forces could remain in a future Palestinian state..."
In conclusion, Israel must emphasize that Jerusalem is to Judaism as
Mecca is to Islam. Jerusalem is the spiritual capital of Judaism, the
spiritual capital of Islam is Mecca. Jews around the world face
Jerusalem when they pray, Muslims face Mecca even when in or around
Jerusalem. Jews were not allowed to pray in Jerusalem's Western Wall
while it was under Jordanian occupation (1948-1967) and now the
Democrats are trying to get the Jews expelled from the Western Wall
again.
Ezequiel Doiny is author of "Obama's Assault on Jerusalem's Western Wall"
Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/314068
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