Lack of leadership leaves Palestinians stateless

Mr Frederickson, whilst arguing for a “Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, free from illegal land confiscation and occupation”, (presumably Israeli, but not clarified), conveniently ignores the fact that in 1922 the British, disregarding their League of Nations mandate, partitioned Palestine into Trans Jordan (East Bank 78 per cent of the total mandate) and Palestine (West Bank 22 per cent of the total mandate). Thus the Jews lost 78 per cent of their homeland as originally designated by the League of Nations and in its place, the first independent Palestinian State (Trans Jordan) was established. 

It should be noted at this point that there was and still is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. The Arabs who were living in the Mandate of Palestine after World War I were migrants from the surrounding countries who had flowed into the area so that they might benefit from the Jewish economic development of the area following British victory over the Turks. The concept of a Palestinian nation was born in the fertile mind of Yasser Arafat only after the Six Day War in 1967. This concept was undoubtedly Arafat’s greatest achievement. 

The original Mandate, issued by the Council of the League of Nations and reconfirmed by the San Remo Resolution in 1920, was given to Great Britain for the purpose of the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people within the area designated as “Palestine” after the defeat of the Turkish Empire in 1918. 

 In 1937 following the Arab Riots in Palestine, it was once more recommended (by the Peel Commission) to partition yet further of what was left of the Palestinian mandate into a Jewish area and an Arab area. This partition (i.e., a further independent Palestinian state) was rejected by the Arabs. 

In 1947 the United Nations once again proposed to split Palestine into a Jewish area and an Arab area. This partition plan was again rejected by the Arabs and was followed by the 1948 Arab-Israel War. 

In 1967 after the Six Day War with a new opportunity for negotiations with Israel, the Arabs issued the infamous “Three No’s of Khartoum” (no peace, recognition or negotiations with Israel).

Yet another opportunity for the creation of an Arab Palestinian state was rejected by the Arabs, a pattern that would be repeated in the decades since. 

The fact that no Palestinian State has existed, other than the Kingdom of Jordan, over the past 89 years must rest squarely on the misguided leadership of the Palestinians themselves. In the words of Abba Eban: “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Mr Frederickson’s resurrection of the bogeymen of “the religious lobby” (presumably Jewish and/or Israeli, but again not stated) dictating US foreign policy is so ludicrous as to be risible. His ranting bears more relationship to the speeches of Goebbels or the texts of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion than to any reality and should be dismissed for the biased nonsense that it really is. 

Lord of Ballinaboy

Buri Ram