by Hugh Fitzgerald
A history lesson for a queen.
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More on Queen Rania of Jordan’s false claims can be found here: “Jordan’s Queen Rania: Israel had one October 7, the Palestinians have had 156,” Jerusalem Post, March 13, 2024:
Queen Rania claims that the “dehumanization” of Palestinians is “systematic” in Israel and that it is unjustifiably ingrained in Israeli society to believe “if we don’t kill them, they’re going to kill us” regarding the Palestinians. She says that she blames “hardline leaders for keeping their people in this perpetual state of fear of an existential threat that doesn’t exist and making them feel like just killing Palestinians and killing Hamas is going to be the solution to the problem.”
So Israelis are kept in a “perpetual state of fear” by their own leaders? They have nothing to fear from Arab states that tried to destroy Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973? Nothing to fear, in 1948, when Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, promised that the coming war between the Arab states and Israel would be a terrible one for the Jews. “This war,” he said, “will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongol massacres and the Crusades.” And in 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser promised hysterical Cairene crowds that soon enough Egypt’s army would be in Tel Aviv, and Israel would no longer exist. In 1973, the surprise attack on Israel by the armies of Egypt and Syria almost led to an Arab victory. And ever since the 1970s, the Israelis have endured the scourge of terrorist attacks: the hijacking of planes, the murder of thousands of innocent Israelis shot dead on busses, blown up at Passover seders and in pizza parlors, run over or shot while waiting at bus stops and car washes, stabbed to death while shopping in an Arab village, or while walking through the Old City, whole families murdered when the parents were driving their children home from school in the West Bank, and on and on. It is not Israel’s leaders who keep the people of Israel in a “perpetual state of fear,” but the unending terror attacks that unnerve some in Israel. And yet despite these attacks, most Israelis have not succumbed to fear, but are fighting back against a ruthless enemy with cool determination, like the 360,000 IDF reservists who immediately showed up when called to help the professional army in Gaza to fight against Hamas. Israelis are not cowering in fear. Since 1948, they have given the world a lesson in bravery.
Queen Rania concluded the interview by saying, “We in this part of the world need to find a way to share these holy lands in peace.”
Israel has tried to make peace with the Arabs several times. In 1947, the Jews accepted the UN’s partition plan for “Palestine,” but the Arabs turned it down. In 1949, Israel offered to make the armistice lines into permanent borders, but the Arabs turned that offer down. After the 1967 war, Israel offered to make peace with the Arabs, who responded at a meeting of the Arab League in Khartoum with “the three No’s” — no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with Israel. Israel eventually made a separate peace with Egypt, which in return for a promise of peace in 1979, got back from Israel the entire Sinai that Israel had won in the Six Day War. In 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty. Israel and several Arab states have become members of the Abraham Accords, with those states agreeing to a “normalization of ties” with Israel. They include Morocco, Bahrain, and the UAE. That is now the best way to enlarge the circle of peace in the region. Queen Rania doesn’t mention it.
In 2000, Ehud Barak made a generous offer to Yassir Arafat, to return 92% of the West Bank, with compensating territory taken from Israel and given to the Palestinians. He also offered to give the Palestinians control over the Muslim and Christian Quarters of the Old City. Yassir Arafat wouldn’t even discuss it; he simply walked away. In 2008, Ehud Olmert made an even more generous offer to Mahmoud Abbas, which included giving the Palestinians 5.8% of Israel’s territory to compensate for the 6.3% of the West Bank that Israel, for security reasons, wanted to annex. That 5.8% of Israel was greater in area than the 6.3% of the West Bank that Israel wanted to retain. Olmert also offered to implement a five-nation trusteeship for the Holy Basin surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem.
Like Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas simply walked away. Yet here is Queen Rania, claiming that it is Israel that does not want to make peace.
Queen Rania is fetching in her outer aspect. But she is distinctly meretricious in her version of the Arab-Israeli conflict. There is an old French saying: Sois-belle, et tais-toi. Be beautiful, and stay quiet. A word to the wise, Queen Rania. A word to the wise.
Hugh Fitzgerald
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/no-queen-rania-its-not-israel-thats-the-obstacle-to-peace/
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