A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
Shakespeare "Romeo And Juliet" Act V,
Scene III
I
had written this proposal for a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict / problem back in 2009 based on the Marshal
Plan used in post WWII Europe and the creation of a Confederation between the Palestinian controlled areas (areas A & B) of Judaea and Shomron -aka the “West Bank” and Jordan as
it was during the Period of 1948 -1967.
Little could I know that 10 years later an American President would be elected who would have "Zionistic" advisors and have the fortitude to deal with the Arabs as described further in my blog as FDR proposed.
Though "painful" as my plan is to the Arab side it is the right and only humanitarian solution to end the
conflict.
The continual corrupt Palestinian Leadership and the Arab governments refusal to accept the State
of Israel as a Jewish state and as an entity in the Middle
East, is a forgone conclusion and MUST be recognized.
As for the long suffering of the innocent Palestinian refugees (pawns / cannon fodder) they should be absorbed in those countries where they fled to. Just as Israel did for the Jews that
were made refugees in post WWII Europe and the 900,000 "ethnically cleansed" Jews from most of the Arab
countries of the Middle East.
UNR194
Article 9:
"Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."Under UNR194 Article 9 it states "compensation should be paid for the property" any Arab refugee-the sole representative NOT ALL the UNWRA descendants- who can prove by documentation ownership should receive adequate compensation through the court system.
Those who do not have any proof will receive a special "resettlement deal".
As for the 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab Lands they should also receive "compensation should be paid for the property" "... made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."
My proposal is based on that put forward in the
late 1930’s, by US President Franklin
D Roosevelt,
on the absorption and resettlement of the stateless and homeless Palestinian refugees just as Israel did
for the Jewish refugees.
All should note that all six Arab countries that were then represented at the UN and
voted against UNR194; Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen, and were active participants to the
conflict in question. Should lead the way in resolving the issue by
each absorbing the Palestinians as fellow
citizens as stipulated in UNR194 Article
9.
The
plan encompasses a two-step solution.
Step
One:
Those Palestinian refugees within the Palestinian
Authority controlled areas in Judaea and Shomron -the West Bank and Gaza Strip
should be offered a comprehensive resettlement and financial package in return
for a long-term
peace based on a total cessation of conflict and a forgoing of their “right of return”.
Step
Two:
As to the Palestinians that have lived in squalid
stateless refugee camps throughout the region,
in those states that have confined them there, should be allowed two choices.
- Either to stay and be absorbed into their adoptive countries as full citizens
- or they should be allowed free passage to “return” to the lands of the Palestinian Authority.
Those adoptive countries which welcome the
refugees as full citizens should be enticed to do so with incentives and financial
compensation. Those Arab countries that refuse should be severe penalized and should face
punitive actions.
As to the Jewish residents in Judea and Shomron who are in areas A ; B that will not be annexed to the state of Israel they
should be offered the choice to become citizens of the Palestinian State or to receive monetary compensation to relocate within the Jewish State.
Assistance in the re-education of the Arab population from that of war, religious intolerance
and terror must be enforced. Should one of the countries in the region fail to comply to the
re-education and to co-existence in peace than that body should face worldwide condemnation,
boycott and cessation of all assistance.
Additionally, any state which threatens the
existence of another state or should propose genocide should be met with the fullest
enforcement of the entire UN body under Article
2 of the UN Charter with a
total economic embargo and if necessitated
by a full-scale military
operation of all parties concerned for world peace.
Furthermore, a proposal should be made to the
Egyptians to forgive her national debt in return for a ceding of parts of northern Sinai to
the Palestinian Authority or for the resettlement
of stateless Palestinians wishing for land to live on there.
The same could be said for the resettlement of
Palestinians from Areas A; B in the sparsely inhabited eastern
regions of Jordan. In order to make this decision feasible than those Arab countries willing to
participate should adopt Israel’s Development Town settlement plan used in its resettlement of
the displaced Jews in the 1950’s. This plan based on collective farming villages inhabited
by those Palestinians who have farming skills, will be given assistance to build homes as
well as basic essentials to begin their farms.
Needless to say, that those who accept the
resettlement plan will be given title or “Taboo” to the land and full citizenship.
Those Palestinian
refugees with small business skills and occupations
who wish to resettle in the "Development
Towns” of these areas will be given
apartments and financial aid to begin small
businesses as well as long term loans.
What was the Source for my plan?
My plan is not new nor was it never contemplated
before. The thirty-second President of the
United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who held this office for an unprecedented thirteen years
until his death in 1945 also put forth a similar plan BEFORE the decision for
Partition of the Mandate was made in November of 1947.
President Roosevelt's interest in transferring
Arabs from Palestine began in October
1938 after a
meeting with Justice Louis Brandeis. Brandeis
reported on this meeting to Felix Frankfurter
who in turn passed on the report to Stephen
Wise and to presidential advisor and
script-writer Ben Cohen. Brandeis pointed out in his report of this meeting how Roosevelt appreciated the significance of Palestine, “the need of keeping it whole
and of making it
Jewish". He was tremendously
interested - and wholly
surprised - on learning of
the great increase in Arab population
since the First World War;
and on learning of the plenitude
of land for Arabs in Arab countries,
about which he
made specific inquiries.”
The Historian Zaha Bustami commented that it was,
“…difficult to tell who brought up this
subject during the meeting, but the information on Arab demography was provided by Frankfurter,” who had met
with FDR a few days earlier a meeting to discuss
the Palestine
situation.
On 25th of October 1938, Roosevelt had a meeting
with the British Ambassador to the U.S.,
Sir Ronald Lindsay. Lindsay wrote that the President was “impressed by the fact
that the Arab population had
increased by 400,000 since the establishment of the League Of Nations Mandate.”
FDR also contemplated the creation of a program of
well-digging across the Jordan.
Roosevelt firmly believed
that, “we ought to be able to find that money for the purpose”. FDR believed that once a large quantity of water
would be made available
for irrigation and the cultivable
land thus created in Trans-Jordanian territory it;
“should be set apart for Arabs from Palestine. They should be offered land free, and that ought to be enough to attract them; and failing the attraction, they should be compelled to emigrate to it. Palestine could thus be relieved of 200,000 Arabs”.
FDR
also added that it would; “be necessary to prescribe that no Arab should be allowed to immigrate into Palestine,
and no Jew into the Arab lands.”
The Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle,
later recalled that,"The President was full of Palestine” and that FDR called on Ronald
Lindsay to call a conference of Arab princes.
FDR was adamant in having them lay down;
“say $200,000,000 buying a farm for every Arab who wishes to leave Palestine, the money chiefly to be used in digging wells, which is perfectly possible in the Hedjaz.” Here, it is quite clear that Roosevelt intended the Arabs to pay for the transfer of the Arabs of Palestine."
British
Ambassador Lindsay therefore asked Lancelot Oliphant of the British Foreign Office to have someone
prepare a “short answer to this scheme” to have in readiness, although he stressed that he
would not take the initiative in sending a reply to the President. Lindsay’s request
was first dealt with by Lacy Baggalay of the Foreign Office. He first quoted experts, who held that
the possibilities of finding water in quantity by boring in Transjordan were, “quite
restricted”. He then continued;
“But even assuming that water could be found in large quantities, it is now out of the question that any Arabs should be 'compelled' to emigrate to the lands thus brought into cultivation.Whatever else may remain uncertain about the problem of Palestine, the impossibility of compulsion on this scale is now beyond dispute."
Oliphant sent a reply to Lindsay saying that the
British government
would not even contemplate
such an idea, and it would be “thoroughly unjust” to compel the Arabs to transfer from Palestine “to
make room for immigrants [Jews]
of a totally different race who
have had no connection with it [Palestine] for at least 2,000 years.” He also
brought, in his
words, the “fallacy” which Roosevelt was using
to try and solve the Palestine problem.
There are those who blame, “the genesis of Roosevelt's idea of a forcible or voluntary eviction of Palestinian Arabs to Trans-Jordan or other neighboring lands" on Roosevelt’s contacts with Zionist circles in the summer of 1938 perhaps in discussions with Brandeis and Frankfurter.”
But in truth the
"Who" actually had given Roosevelt the idea that irrigation of the
Transjordan desert would
create a suitable
location for the Arab transferees? The indications are that it came from the State Department where at that period
Edward Norman was in contact with government
officials to advance his own
transfer plans. Although Norman was at the time in contact with
the State Department, his plans were in fact to irrigate Iraq by means of the dams it had recently constructed.
Roosevelt summoned British Ambassador Lindsay for
a further meeting, presumably during the first half of November. At this meeting,
the President said that he thought that “the British should call in some of the Arab leaders
from Palestine and some of the leaders from the adjoining Arab countries.
"The
British should explain to them that they, the Arabs, had within their control large territories ample to sustain
their people.” He also pointed out that Jewish immigration to Palestine and Transjordan would not harm the Arabs
since there was plenty of
room for everyone.
Roosevelt then went on to propose transfer of Arabs, “Some of the Arabs on poor land in Palestine could be given much better land in adjoining Arab countries."
Roosevelt then went on to propose transfer of Arabs, “Some of the Arabs on poor land in Palestine could be given much better land in adjoining Arab countries."
British Ambassador Lindsay answered Roosevelt by saying that there was
opposition in both the
Arab and Moslem
world but the President, “belittled this opposition and thought it due largely to British indecision and
conflicting policy.”
Roosevelt had also thought of ideas of how to finance this transfer. He thought that; “if a plan was devised for a settlement of 100,000 families costing $3,000 a family or $300 million the funds might be raised” by the American Government, the British and French Governments, and private subscriptions - largely Jewish; each of these bodies would contribute $100 million."
Roosevelt had also thought of ideas of how to finance this transfer. He thought that; “if a plan was devised for a settlement of 100,000 families costing $3,000 a family or $300 million the funds might be raised” by the American Government, the British and French Governments, and private subscriptions - largely Jewish; each of these bodies would contribute $100 million."
Towards the end of December the British Charge
d'Affaires in Washington met with Sumner
Welles and handed him a memorandum on transfer received from the British Government, adding that
Roosevelt would probably be interested in it. After pointing out that the latest available
evidence did not bear out the belief that any considerable quantity of water could be obtained in
Transjordan at shallow levels by boring
wells, the memorandum
continued;
“Suggestions have also been made that if the free offer of cultivable land in Transjordan did not suffice to attract the Arabs from Palestine, they might be compelled to emigrate from it, with the object of vacating land in Palestine for settlement by Jews.”
This
discussion and debate regarding the Arabs of the Mandated Areas occurs during
the rise of
Nazi Germany occurring during the years 1933 -1938. During this period the free
immigration of the Jews of
Europe was of the utmost issue for Jewish circles. The critical period of 1938-1941 was the
period of the beginnings of war in Europe. It was also the period of British appeasement
to the Arabs of the severe restrictions of Jewish immigration in the White
Paper of 1939.
The British Government was fearful of the
repercussions in Britain, India and the Moslem
world if they should back Roosevelt's plan of Arab "resettlement".
They saw the threat to
the sources of raw materials and oil for the Empire in agreeing to Roosevelt’s proposals. Their Empire would
be in jeopardy due to their promises
made to the Jews. His
Majesty's Government
realized that they would be accused
of “unjustly trying to force
a long-established community to
leave its country in order
to make room for immigrants
of a race which has, in great part,
not lived in Palestine
for many centuries.”
The British Government also felt that the problem of “redistribution
of the Arab and
Jewish communities in Palestine and across the Jordan”, was
not one of finance but
rather of politics. On
two occasions, Roosevelt raised his plan with British representatives but he was “firmly told that no amount
of financial inducement would move
the Palestinian Arabs.” Roosevelt however, was
unconvinced by this British reply.
Chaim Weizmann
had his first meeting with Roosevelt in February 1940. At this meeting, Roosevelt put forward
the idea of bribing the Arabs,
asking Weizmann “What about
the Arabs? Can't that be settled
with a little baksheesh?” Weizmann replied that “it wasn't
as simple as all that. Of course,
the Jewish people would compensate the Arabs
in a reasonable
way for anything they got, but there
were other factors appertaining
to a settlement.”
In December 1942 two and a half years later,
Roosevelt told Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau;
“I actually would put a barbed wire around Palestine, and I would begin to move the Arabs out of Palestine.... I would provide land for the Arabs in some other part of the Middle East.... Each time we move out an Arab we would bring in another Jewish family.... But I don't want to bring in more than they can economically support.... It would be an independent nation just like any other nation.... Naturally, if there are 90 per cent Jews, the Jews would dominate the government.... There are lots of places to which you could move the Arabs. All you have to do is drill a well because there is a large underground water supply, and we can move the Arabs to places where they can really live.”
In October 1943, the question of “barbed-wire”
around Palestine came up again in a conversation
between Roosevelt and Judge Samuel Rosenman, Justice of the New York Supreme Court and
speechwriter and counselor to Roosevelt. Roosevelt had spoken of the “possibility of settling
the Palestine question by letting the Jews in to the limit that the country will support them -
with a barbed-wire fence around the Holy Land.” Rosenman thought that this would
work, “if the fence was a two-way one to keep the Jews in and the Arabs out.”
What should be mentioned here is that by this time Roosevelt
already knew full well
of the Nazi program of
mass genocide. He had been informed by Churchill in the Casablanca Conference January 14 to 24,
1943, of the entire text of the Protocols of the Wannassee conference gleaned from the
transmission of the file through the Abwehr G312 “Enigma” program
at Bletchley Park. Roosevelt
had also read the Polish Foreign Minister Count Edward Raczynski's note which had been addressed to
the Governments of the United Nations
on 10 December 1942 entitled, "The mass extermination of Jews in German occupied Poland", which
provided the Allies with the earliest and most accurate accounts of the Holocaust.
At the beginning of November 1944, Roosevelt was
elected President for an unprecedented
fourth term. A few days later, Roosevelt discussed the Palestine situation with the Under-Secretary of
State, Edward Stettinius. After telling Roosevelt of their difficulties regarding
Palestine, Stettinius wrote in his diary, that Roosevelt felt confident that he would be able to
“iron out” the whole Arab-Jewish issue. “He thinks Palestine should be for the Jews and
no Arabs should be in it”, continued Stettinius, “and he has definite ideas on the
subject. It should be exclusive Jewish territory.”
Roosevelt developed his ideas for the transfer of
the Arabs from Palestine during the last six
or seven years of his life through his insight on the rise of Hitler and Nazi
Germany. Some
believe that Roosevelt's views had become more extreme as time progressed as he
heard from State Department officials and Military
Intelligence reports of the events happening
in Eastern Europe against
the Jews.
Originally recommending the transfer of two hundred thousand Arabs, he eventually stated unequivocally that “Palestine should be for the Jews and no Arabs should be in it.”
Originally recommending the transfer of two hundred thousand Arabs, he eventually stated unequivocally that “Palestine should be for the Jews and no Arabs should be in it.”
Almost all the statements that are quoted on this
subject were not written by Roosevelt himself,
but by the various
people he worked and met with. There are no recordings either.
This however, is characteristic of Franklin D. Roosevelt since he was a man who always had one eye cocked on historians who would someday assess his role in history. He tried to cover his historical tracks, using unrecorded telephone conversations and unrecorded private interviews .
This however, is characteristic of Franklin D. Roosevelt since he was a man who always had one eye cocked on historians who would someday assess his role in history. He tried to cover his historical tracks, using unrecorded telephone conversations and unrecorded private interviews .
The Jewish people wherever they are have aspired for
peace for over two thousand years! Our people
have known discrimination,
bigotry, death and destruction with no place to run to.
The chief American Zionist leaders at that terrible time Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter and Henry Morgenthau knew that the fate of millions of Jews were at stake. But the world’s apathy and closed doors and most importantly Arab hatred epitomized by the Grand Mufti of “Palestine” Haj Amin Al-Husseini lead to the death of SIX million innocent Jewish lives.
The chief American Zionist leaders at that terrible time Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter and Henry Morgenthau knew that the fate of millions of Jews were at stake. But the world’s apathy and closed doors and most importantly Arab hatred epitomized by the Grand Mufti of “Palestine” Haj Amin Al-Husseini lead to the death of SIX million innocent Jewish lives.
No thinking intelligent individual whether he be Jew
or Gentile desires the horrors of death
and destruction caused by
war and terrorism. Tolerance and the willingness to sit down with one’s former arch enemy for the sake of
peace initiated by the late Itzhak Rabin
z”l who gave his life in
an attempt to bring peace to the Middle East calumniated in the 1993 ‘Oslo Accords’. The quest for peace during the
past decade was the keystone of
the administrations of former
Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and even Arik Sharon.
However, at every instance the Palestinians have
opted for more and more violence.
The tremendous desire for a true peace and an end
to the cycle of violence between our two
peoples has led Israel to make endless and painful concessions to the Arabs
with NOTHING in return. We, Israeli’s have
evacuated the Sinai and it’s settlements for Peace with Egypt. We also
“disengaged” from the
Gaza Strip, a step which severely traumatized parts of our people, for no concessions in return other
than that the Palestinian people acknowledge our right to exist. It is sadly
regrettable that the Palestinian people have continued to react to the Israeli concessions with
over 12,000 rockets and mortar rounds.
Recently, the Palestinian Authority's ambassador
to the US publicly said. "No Jews should be allowed to live in" any part of a future
Palestinian state. If he
had said "no Israelis," that would be one thing; however, he excludes
all Jews (presumably
even the handful of ultra-orthodox Neturai Karta who are anti-Zionist), and further reinforces the full
truth behind the conflict.
The keystone of the new Hamas led Palestinian
Government is the denial of the “Oslo Accords”
and the Iranian policy of the total extermination of the State of Israel and of
the Jews within. Their leaders
make endless speeches of hatred and there is a total lack of the teaching of tolerant and peace among
their youth.
Moderate and “Educated” Arabs as well as those
Arab countries who wish to live in a “Just and Lasting “Peace for the Middle East, need to prove
to the Jews of Israel their willingness to enter a new “Golden Age”. All
hatred and death must stop now.
Epilogue:
Following the First World War, Emir Feisal, son of
Sherif Hussein (Husayn) of Mecca, and
the leader of the Arab movement, met in Aqaba with Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the head
of the Zionist Commission to
Palestine. Later, at the Paris Peace Conference, the two negotiated and signed an
agreement, which spoke of full cooperation in the development of the independent Arab state
in present-day Syria and Iraq (as promised by the British to Feisal) and the Jewish home in
Palestine (from the Balfour Declaration), and encouraging "the immigration of Jews
into Palestine on a large scale". The agreement was not carried out, mostly due to the change
in Allied policy regarding the Arab State which Feisal had planned to establish.
The two defining articles of the agreement were:
Article I :
The Arab State and "Palestine" (Note:
Feisal is referring here to the Jewish State) in all their relations and undertakings shall be
controlled by the most cordial goodwill and understanding and to this end Arab and Jewish duly
accredited agents shall be established and maintained in the respective territories.
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 settlement 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.
Also, during the peace conference following World
War I, the Emir Feisal exchanged letters
with Justice Felix Frankfurter, professing his support for Zionist aims. In the
light of later
history and the current characterization of the Zionist movement, it is
significant that Feisal
wrote:
“I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position to make the Jews some return for their kindness. We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a real success without the other.”
“People less informed and less responsible than our leaders and yours, ignoring the need for co-operation of the Arabs and 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 out of what they call our differences.”
The promises once made by Emir Feisal are
forgotten by today’s “Moderate” Palestinians. Sari Nusseibeh once wrote: “The Israeli
government's current mantra is that the Palestinians must recognize a "Jewish
State".” - to which former
president of the Supreme Court of Israel, Aharon Barak once wrote;
"[The]
Jewish State is the state of the Jewish people … it is a state in which every
Jew has the right
to return …”
Israel is THE Jewish homeland for the Jewish
people.
