A true basis for a lasting peace in The Middle
East r3 Draiman
A far-sighted Arab-Jewish agreement was arrived at 97 years
ago but was never fully implemented. This still-legal agreement provides the
basis for a solution today and should become widely publicized and supported.
In 1919, following the end of World War I, an international
Paris Peace Conference was convened by the victorious Allies to settle
international questions. Delegations attended from around the world including
an official Arab and Zionist delegation. The Arab delegation was led by Emir
Feisal I, who agreed that the entire Palestine territory of the
Balfour Declaration of 1917 would become the Jewish national home and expressed
that position in separate letters to Zionist leaders Dr. Chaim Weitzman and
Felix Frankfurter. In return for Arab support the Zionists promised economic
and technical assistance to the local Arabs and the Allied powers agreed to
grant eventual sovereignty to many of the Arab peoples in the region that were
previously under control of the former Turkish Ottoman Empire.
This conference, and a subsequent one at the April 1920 San
Remo Italy, amicably settled the issues among the parties with voluntary,
legally binding, international agreements confirmed by The Treaty of Sevres of August 1920 and included in The Treaty of Lausanne of 1923. In 1922 the League of
Nations assigned Britain as the Mandatory to faithfully carry
out these agreements. It was British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill who
unilaterally and in violation of International treaties and agreements, divided
Mandatory Jewish Palestine into an exclusively Arab sector (Trans Jordan) and a
Jewish sector. The Arabs received 77% of the original territory, comprising
35,000 square miles, located east of the Jordan River. That left the
Jewish sector with only 10,000 square miles out of their original 47,000 square
miles, which was still less than 1% of the combined Arab areas of over 5
million square miles. That remaining Jewish sector is today contested with the
' Arab-Palestinians' claiming the 'West Bank' Judea and Samaria
and Gaza to create, in effect, a second Arab-Palestinian state.
(Jordan is mostly Arab-Palestinian and the Arabs in Judea and Samaria carry
Jordanian passports.) It was the British, in 1919, who began to undermine and
violate their own Mandate and to instigate the Arabs against Jews.
Under this settlement and international treaties of post WWI,
the whole of Palestine-Israel on both sides of the Jordan was
reserved exclusively for the Jewish People as the Jewish National Home, in
recognition of their historical and ancestral connection with that country,
dating from the Patriarchal Period. The Palestine-Israel aspect of the
global settlement was recorded in three basic documents that led to the
re-constituted and founding of the modern State of Israel.
The British Government repudiated and violated their duty and
the solemn obligation it undertook to develop Palestine-Israel gradually
into an independent Jewish state. The US aided and abetted the
British betrayal of the Jewish People by its abject failure to act decisively
against the 1939 White Paper despite its own legal obligation to do so under
the 1924 treaty. To add to the British crimes against the Jews; the returned
Jewish refugees escaping Nazi concentration camps to be exterminated by the
Germans and prohibited Jews escaping from Germany to enter Palestine aka
Israel, in violation of the terms of the Mandate for Palestine aka Israel. This
caused the deaths of millions of Jews who could of escaped to Palestine aka
Israel. The UN Partition Resolution of November 29, 1947 which is
only a recommendation which bears no legal force, illegally recommended the
restriction of Jewish legal rights to a truncated part of Palestine aka Israel. Despite
all the subversive actions to smother and destroy Jewish legal rights and title
of sovereignty to the entire Historical Land of Israel, (the Jews are the only
remaining indigenous people in Palestine aka Israel and have always had Jewish
communities in Palestine aka Israel) they still remain in full force by virtue
of the Principle of Acquired Rights and the doctrine of Estoppel that apply in
all legal systems of the democratic world.
It has been argued and adjudicated, by scholars of
international law, that the agreements of the international Paris Peace
Conference of 1919, and their formal assignment to Britain to carry
out the terms as the Mandatory by the League of Nations, continue to be
legally binding on all parties under international law. In addition to
Jewish legal claims based on the 1922 law, a case can be made that it
is also morally binding.
Without a doubt, England is guilty of intentional
violation, bad faith and for having engaged in deliberate sabotage of that
agreement. A most promising beginning for Arab-Jewish relations in
the Middle East was deliberately undermined by England and
this part of history must be brought to bear upon the present
conflict. Israel has a right to make full land claims under the April 1920
San Remo Conference and that 1922 Mandate by the League of Nations. The
Arabs should also be made aware that it was England that instigated
them against the Jews in pursuit of British imperial interests, and to the
disadvantage of both Arabs and Jews.
Significantly, Arab support for a Jewish state was clearly
manifested at the Paris Peace conference of 1919. This should also be part of
the legally binding Arab obligations to acceptance of a Jewish state with full
rights. Emir Feisal I, son of Hussein, Sheriff of Mecca led the Arab delegation
to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Excerpts of two letters from Emir Feisal
to Zionist leaders Dr. Chaim Weitzman and to Felix Frankfurter indicate their
friendly relations and high hopes for Jewish - Arab cooperation. Also note
in the following text the term 'Palestine' clearly refers to the Jewish
national home and not to any Arab entity or people.
From Emir Feisal to Dr. Weitzman:
"His Royal Highness the Emir Feisal, representing and
acting on behalf of the Arab Kingdom of Hedjaz, and Dr. Chaim Weitzman,
representing and acting on behalf of the Zionist Organization, mindful of the
racial kinship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish
People, and realizing that the surest means of working out the consummation of
their national aspirations is through the closest possible collaboration in the
development of the Arab State and Palestine, and being desirous further of
confirming the good understanding which exists between them, have agreed upon
the following Articles:" ... Article IV: "All necessary measures
shall be taken to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on
a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the
land through closer settlements and intensive cultivation of the soil. In
taking such measures the Arab peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in
their rights, and shall be assisted in forwarding their economic
development."
From Emir Feisal to Felix Frankfurter:
"... We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in
race, having suffered similar oppression’s at the hands of the powers stronger
than themselves, and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first
step towards the attainment of their national ideals together." "We
Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the
Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted
with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organization to the Peace
Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best, in
so far as we are concerned, to help them through: we wish the Jews a most
hearty welcome home." .... "People less informed and less responsible
than our leaders and yours, ignoring the need for cooperation of the Arabs and
the Zionists have been trying to exploit the local difficulties that must
necessarily arise in Palestine in the early stages of our movements.
Some of them have, I am afraid, misrepresented your aims to the Arab peasantry,
and our aims to the Jewish peasantry, with the result that interested parties
have been able to make capital our of what they call our differences. ..."
(To read full text go
to: http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~samuel/feisal1.html and http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~samuel/feisal2.html)
What remains now is for all parties to courageously and
boldly cast off the mindless schemes of Oslo and the Road Map which
are now null and void, and return to the sanity and statesmanship of the 1919
agreement. Those Arabs who have an acquired identity as 'Arab-Palestinian' should
be given a far better alternative option than to be buried alive inside a
non-viable illegal micro-state carved out of the Israeli Jewish heartland.
The Win-Win solution
Contrary to popular belief, the Arab-Israeli conflict has a
reasonable solution. An orderly resettlement elsewhere of the so-called
Arab-Palestinians (like in Jordan, the homes and over 47,000 sq. mi. of land
confiscated by the Arab nations after expelling over a million Jewish families,
which majority of the expelled families were resettled in Greater Israel) would solve this
long-standing 'intractable' problem. To propose this solution today elicits
automatic rejection by almost everyone and perhaps even anger and hostility at
its very mention (although attitudes may finally be changing). This is because
the minds of many have been so thoroughly conditioned, with layer upon layer of
repeated falsehoods, that open-minded reconsideration is almost impossible. But
resettlement could become the basis of a win-win solution for both sides.
For example, Saudi Arabia comprises some 750,000
square miles. It has a very low population density of only 33 per square mile
vs. 1,000 for Israel including the territories. A modest 4%
of Saudi Arabia, some 30,000 square miles, should be set aside for a new
Arab-Palestinian state. That state would be 13 times the size of the present
Arab-Palestinian area proposed under the Road Map and would now have ample
space for natural growth. All of the intractable problems facing both Jews and
Arabs, arising under the present schemes, would be eliminated. The
Arab-Palestinians could now construct their own state with full political
independence, self-rule and full dignity. The sources of friction between them
and Israel would now be removed along with all the immense human and
material costs associated with the current conflict. Resources used for
conflict can now be diverted for developing housing and industry, while
increasing the standard of living for the Arabs.
This would benefit the Saudis. It would take a desolate area
and develop it and create an industry that would also benefit the Saudis.
Arab-Palestinians could begin using their legitimate 'right
of return' to exit the territories, and the refugee camps, and migrate back to
their ancestral home in Arabia and thereby also be closer to Mecca and Medina.
A fraction of the countless billions spent on weapons by the Arab governments
could fund the cost of establishing new settlements for the
Arab-Palestinians. Israel would be free of Arabs, and the
Arab-Palestinians would be free of Israel. The deep wounds of both peoples
would now have a chance to heal.
In early 2004 a poll by
the Arab-Palestinian Center for Public Opinion shows 47% willing
to emigrate in return for a home, a job and $250,000. And this
is before a far better deal has been offered, including true
self-rule, peace and security, plus their own ample territory. What if
'Arab-Palestinians' were offered a homeland territory, drawn from lands donated
by one of the more spacious Arab countries, one expressing continuous concern,
love for, and outrage at the treatment of these very same folk?
Israeli Arabs could play a constructive role in this because
of their higher level of education and their experience living as full citizens
in democratic Israel. They would become the managerial and entrepreneurial
class and provide valuable assistance and leadership for fellow
Arab-Palestinians who were stagnating in refugee camps inside other Arab
countries. This crime was committed by their own brother Arabs, who refused to
allow them to settle.
Once the migration starts toward a far better future the
movement could well accelerate voluntarily because the first ones to relocate
would receive the best 'ground floor' opportunities, and the last ones to move
would get what remains. Today there are tens of millions of people on the move
around the world in search of better living conditions, so relocation is a long
established and viable option for everyone.
Another important advantage is that Israeli-Arab/Palestinian
interaction would be limited to the selling of Arab homes in the territories
and an orderly exit. No more frustratingly complex agreements as
with Oslo where Israel honors all commitments and Arabs
violate all commitments, and even U.S. assurances often prove
worthless. The less need for Israel to depend on agreements with
Arabs, Europeans and even Americans the better for all concerned.
Part of the problem are those Arab governments who
deliberately keep the Israel-Arab/Palestinian conflict alive to divert
attention from their own corrupt regimes. Also, western governments still
pander to their corrupt Arab clients for purely expedient reasons. But new
progressive voices are emerging among Arab intellectuals and even among some
Muslim clerics that call for Arab societal reform, and who also recognize the
Jewish rights in the land of Israel. These voices need to be
encouraged and enlisted in this quest for sanity.
Another option is to settle the Palestinians in Sinai. This
proposal was made after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It should be reconsidered.
Previously Egypt offered part of the Sinai adjacent
to Gaza as a Arab-Palestinian State.
What is also needed is Saudi cooperation and active support.
The Saudis have long been responsible for promoting anti-Jewish,
anti-Christian, and anti-American hatred along with funding terror and the
teaching of a hateful form of Islam. With their 'royal' family of thousands of
princes living lavishly off of oil income and the labor of foreign workers,
they are a cesspool of corruption that even Osama bin Laden found offensive.
It is time to demand that the Saudis make a major
contribution to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. They caused much of the
problem and they must now assist with the solution. It is time for the American
administration to make the Saudis 'an offer they can't refuse' and have
them realize they have a direct interest in providing 'land for peace'.
For too long many people have labored under a collective
mindset resembling a bad dream where big lies become entrenched wisdom, and
truth is constantly strangled. Unless we change direction there will be dire
consequences extending well beyond the peoples of the region. Those who still
have minds and morals intact now have an obligation to think clearly and with
sanity and support this approach to finally resolving the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
The resettlement of the Arab-Palestinian refugees would also
balance against the million Jewish refugees and their children expelled from
Arab countries without any assets.
See: The mandates
for Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine aka Israel were
assigned by the Supreme Powers at its San Remo meeting in April 1920.
Negotiations between Great Britain and the United
States with regard to the Palestine mandate were successfully
concluded in May 1922, and were to be carried out by the Council of
the League of Nations in July 1922. The mandates for Palestine and Syria came
into force simultaneously on September 29, 1922. In this document,
the League of Nations recognized the "historical connection of
the Jewish people with Palestine" and the "grounds for
reconstituting their national home in that country." As was stated in the
International treaty of 1920 San Remo Conference.
The Jerusalem Covenant:
As of this day, Jerusalem Day, the twenty-eight day of the
month of Iyar in the year five thousand seven hundred fifty-two; one thousand
nine hundred and twenty-two years after the destruction of the Second Temple;
forty-four years since the founding of the State of Israel; twenty-five years
since the Six Day War during which the Israel Defense Forces, in defense of our
very existence, broke through the walls of the city and restored the Temple Mount
and the unity of Jerusalem; twelve years since the Knesset of Israel
reestablished the 'Jerusalem, unified and whole, is the Capital of Israel'; the
State of Israel is the State of the 'Jewish People' and the Capital of Israel
is the Capital of the People of Israel. We have gathered together in Zion,
national leaders and heads, of our communities everywhere, to enter into a
covenant with Jerusalem, as was done by the leaders of our nation and all
the people of Israel upon Israel's return to its Land from the
"Babylonian exile";
and the people and their leaders will dwell
in Jerusalem, the Holy City.
Once again, 'our feet stand within your gates, O Jerusalem -
Jerusalem built as a city joined together' which 'unites the people of Israel
to one another', and 'links heavenly Jerusalem with earthly Jerusalem.'
We have returned to the place that the Lord vowed to bestow
upon the descendants of Abraham, Father of our Nation; to the City of David,
King of Israel; where Solomon, son of David, built a Holy Temple; a Capital
City which became the Mother of all Israel; a metropolis for justice and
righteousness and for the wisdom and insights of the ancient world; where a
Second Temple was erected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. In this city the
prophets of the Lord prophesied; in the City the Sages taught Torah; in this
City the Sanhedrin convened in session in its stone chamber. 'For there were
the seats of Justice, the Throne of the House of David', 'for out
of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'
Today, as of old, we hold fast to the truth of the words of
the Prophets of Israel, that all the inhabitants of the world shall enter
within the gates of Jerusalem: 'And it shall come to pass at the end of days,
the mountain of the House of the Lord will be well established at the peak of
the mountains and will tower above the hills, and all the nation shall stream
towards it.' Each and every nation will live in it by its own faith: 'For all
the nation will go forward, each with its own Divine Name; we shall go in the
name of the Lord our God forever and ever.' And in this spirit the Knesset of
the State of Israel has enacted a law: The places holy to the peoples of all
religions shall be protected from any desecration and from any restriction of
free access to them.
Jerusalem - peace and tranquility shall reign in the
city: 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; may those who love you be
tranquil. May there by peace within your walls, and tranquility within your
palaces.' Out of Jerusalem, a message of peace went forth and shall yet go
forth again to all the inhabitants of the earth: 'And they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation will not
lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.' Our sages,
peace be upon them, said. In the future, The Holy One, the Blessed, will
comfort Jerusalem only with peace.
From this place, we once again take this vow: "If I
forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its strength; may my tongue
cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not raise
up Jerusalem at the very height of my rejoicing.'
And with all these understandings, we enter into this
Covenant and write: We shall bind you to us forever; we shall bind you to us
with faithfulness, with righteousness and justice, with steadfast love and
compassion. We love you, O Jerusalem, with eternal love, with unbounded love,
under siege and when liberated from the yoke of oppressors. We have been
martyred for you; we have yearned for you, we have clung to you. Our
faithfulness to you we shall bequeath to our children after us. Forevermore our
home shall be within you.
YJ Draiman
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