Extreme Option for Extreme Times

Extreme turbulence in the Middle East provides an opportunity for Israel to assert its right to annex Samaria, Judea and East Bethlehem.

Secretary of State John Kerry heads to Jordan for a meeting with Palestinian Authority Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas.   Abbas finalized a Unity Government with Ismail Haniyeh leader of the terrorist group Hamas of Gaza; which kills Israeli civilians in suicide bombings and continued missile attacks.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns the Unity Government and urges the international community not to recognize the entity which was announced on June 1st.   The Unity Government violates OSLO principles.  

King Saul ruled the Kingdom of Israel in 1020 BC in the area known in recent times as Palestine.   Subsequently it was ruled by Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans. Jews revolted under leadership of Simon bar Kokhba but defeated by Emperor Hadrian who named it Syria Palestina.  Killed and persecuted, Jews did not abandon the area.

During WW I the Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine.  A letter from the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild in 1917 announced that it favored the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.  The League of Nations entrusted the United Kingdom with the Palestine Mandate in 1922. 

Winston Churchill produced a two state solution.  He wrote the 1922 White Paper re-asserting the Balfour Declaration within the Palestine Mandate.   Churchill created Transjordan for Palestine Arabs and split the Mandate area at the Jordan River to establish the Emirate.  The Jewish homeland was west of the River, to the Mediterranean; Arabs were not required to leave.  Britain remained Civilian Administrator of both areas.   Arabs resisted British Rule; bloodshed continued until the start of WWII.

Germany bombed Tel Aviv and Haifa, Italy invaded, and Rommel came north towards the Suez Canal.  Jews formed the Palmach, a highly trained unit of the Haganah to fight.   Arab leaders saw German victory as a way of taking the Jewish Homeland from Britain and the Jews.  Heinrich Himmler enlisted the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin Al Husseini, who assisted Hitler’s efforts.

 Transjordan became a sovereign state in 1946.  When Israel became a sovereign state in 1948, she was attacked by Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.    David Ben Gurion led Israeli warriors to victory.   However, Jordan had captured Judea, Samaria and the Old City of Jerusalem.  

During The Six Day War of 1967; Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq joined forces against Israel.  Israel was victorious and recaptured the territories Jordan had won in 1948. 

Egyptian born Yasser Arafat was a Muslim Brotherhood terrorist.  After the Six Day War he was dubbed “leader of the Palestinians” and FATAH was born.  Arafat led the PLO until his 2004 death; succeeded by his protégé Mahmoud Abbas.   

President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yasser Arafat were at the 1993 ceremony in Washington when the PLO signed Oslo Accords with Israel.   Declaration of Principles included that Israel recognize the PLO as Palestine’s official representative, the PLO renounce the use of violence, and the PLO recognize Israel’s right to exist, and more.   The PLO morphed into the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Oslo II, Camp David, Wye River, and Sharm El Sheikh produced failed attempts at a “Road Map for Peace”. 

 In contravention of the Palestinian Mandate and the Churchill White Paper; Arab sympathizers claim that Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem are occupied territory, and demand its return to the PA; which never had title to it.  These territories are lands Israel lost to Jordan in 1948 and recaptured in 1967.  

Now is the time for Israel to annex Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem, according to an increasing number of Israeli leaders.   Peace talks failed for decades.  Fatah joined terrorist Hamas in a unity government.  Egypt has deep economic and political difficulties. Syria is in civil war.  Lebanon is weak. Iraq is in turmoil. Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel.  Turkey has internal problems.  United Nations is a paper tiger.  Who would stop Israel from annexing this land?

Naftali Bennet, Jewish Home Chairman and Economic Minister, promotes a plan that Israel annex Judea and Samaria in stages.   Bennet said “We are in the post Oslo era.  The age of unilateral withdrawals where we run away from an area and pray that all will be well is over.”    Naftali drafted a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Israel establish full sovereignty over settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria. 

Jerusalem Post Editor Caroline Glick states multiple reasons for annexation.  Law and order would come to the territories under control of Israel Defense Forces rather than PA Forces trained by the US.  Violent responses would be neutralized; there would be law and order.  She refutes claims that the annexation would cause too much influence from Muslim citizens, with facts and numbers.  While acknowledging that Europe and the US might be unhappy about it; they have domestic difficulties to deal with and would cause little problem. 

Russia annexed the Crimea with a whimper of international upset.  What would happen if Israel annexed Gush Etzion?  Perhaps we shall see

Post Script:  June 2nd.  In a shocking twist, a dramatic about face, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas stepped down, leaving Mahmoud Abbas in full control of the Unity Government.  Is this a  gesture regarding the legal terrorist designated Hamas done to gain Western sympathies?  You cannot make a silk purse from a pig’s ear.