Trump-hatred divides American Zionists 100 years after San Remo
Celebrations marking the 100th Anniversary of the signing of the San Remo Resolution on 25 April 1920 by Britain, France, Italy and Japan will be marred by bitter confrontation between those American Zionists who support Jewish sovereignty being restored in 30% of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and those who don’t.
Rejoicing was the order of the day as the Times of London pointed out on 26 April 1920:
Judea and Samaria – the Jewish People’s ancient and biblical heartland – was included in the land designated for “close settlement by Jews” whilst “ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced” under article 6 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
Israel today exercises full security and administrative control in about 60% of Judea and Samaria – “Area C” – 150000 of whose residents are Arab and 464000 Jews – under the 1993 Oslo Accords. Negotiations to resolve the final status of Area C and the remaining 40% of Judea and Samaria – Areas “A” and “B” under control of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) – have been non-existent since 2014.
President Trump’s Peace Plan – released on 28 January 2020 – provides the first realistic opportunity in 100 years since the San Remo Resolution to restore Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria – and create a second Arab state in Mandatory Palestine never contemplated at San Remo.
The PLO and the Arab League has rejected Trump’s plan out of hand.
President Trump nevertheless has decided to proceed with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restore Jewish sovereignty in about 30% of Area C. A joint US-Israel mapping committee is presently finalising details identifying the particular areas.
American Zionist groups have similarly attacked this Trump-Netanyahu historic move.
One such group – the Israel Policy Forum (IPF) – has written to Gantz:
“We write to you as American Jewish communal leaders who are proudly Zionist, unquestionably pro-Israel, and who have devoted our lives to supporting the State of Israel and ensuring an ironclad relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.”
IPF proclaims:
“We have strongly objected to Israel unilaterally annexing West Bank territory and applying sovereignty to Jewish settlements, whether according to the parameters of the Trump plan or any other similar proposal, at any point in time.”
IPF couches its plea is the language of the enemies of the Jewish people – “unilaterally annexing West Bank territory and applying sovereignty” – rather than “restoring Jewish sovereignty in 30% of Judea and Samaria”
138 prominent American Jewish Communal leaders including Charles Bronfman and Sir James Wolfensohn have signed this letter.
These Zionist naysayers opposing long-lost Jewish sovereignty being restored in parts of Judea and Samaria – are repudiating the miraculous resurrection of this entitlement recognised at San Remo 100 years ago.
Trump-hatred seems to be driving these American Zionists to sacrifice the Jewish People’s long-term national interest for short term partisan American politics.
Their pleas have failed.
Under the Government of National Unity just announced it is being reported that the Government will be applying sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria according to Trump’s Peace Plan from early July.
Hopefully these dissenting American Zionists will now relent and support the Trump-Netanyahu historic decision.
David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and foundation member of the International Analysts Network
Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones” – one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog
The UN and the EU are corrupt to the core.
Israel will enforce the secular laws that support the Jewish claim; the laws that (most of) the nations, acting ,in effect, as accomplices to and perpetrators of illegality, continually flout.
Israel and the Jewish people want justice after the terrible Holocaust and the right to live in Judea and Samaria is justice because these are empty spaces the Jews of Europe could have escaped to from Nazi occupied Europe without displacing any Palestinian people from their lands .
Empty valleys and hills were arid and the settlers have reclaimed them .
But that is different to hubristic annexation .
The greater policy is security safety for the Jewish people in the hostile world and this involves deep security presence in the Jordan Valley .
Eoin
The justice Israel and the Jewish people want is for the world to honour the obligations it entered into with the Jewish people under:
1. The San Remo Resolution on 25 April 1920
2. The Treaty of Sevres on 10 August 1920
3. The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922
4. Article 80 of the United Nations Charter.
The UN acting in contravention of its own Charter and the European Union actively supporting this disgraceful conduct should be ashamed of themselves.
Judea and Samaria – the Jewish People’s biblical heartland – was part of the territory in which the Jewish National Home was to be reconstituted. To hear the UN and EU falling over themselves condemning Israel having the audacity to restore sovereignty in about 30% of this territory – which in total area is one twelfth the size of Tasmania – is sickening and disgusting.
Eion, your approach and attitude are anachronistic. They echo the mentality of many of the powerless supplicant Jews of the past.
The right to The Land of Israel has absolutely nothing to do with the Shoah or antisemitism in general.
That right predates the Shoah by more than 3,000 years.
David Ben-Gurion, declared that to the world. His declaration must be re-echoed continuously.