The Battle Over Israel’s ‘Etzion Bloc’

pp4While the Middle East burns and tens of thousands of corpses pile up in Syria and Iraq, Jewish residence anywhere beyond the 1949 armistice lines ––  in eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank, transfixes the attention of foreign governments. Just recall the Obama Administration saying nothing when, in March 2010, the Palestinian Authority (PA) named a public square in Ramallah in honor of blood-soaked terrorist Dalal Mughrabi –– but condemned Israel for announcing a program of building Jewish homes in eastern Jerusalem the day before.

Now, Israel has designated 988 acres in the Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem as state land, leading the Obama Administration to condemn this “settlement announcement” as “counterproductive to … a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians.”

Meanwhile, Obama’s “blocking back,” the faux “pro-Israel, pro-peace” J Street organization, has gone still further, urging President Obama in the pages  of the Los Angeles Times to start calling Jewish communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines “illegal.”

There is some relevant history here. In 2011, President Obama vetoed a UN Security Council resolution making this false declaration –– although that was only after he unsuccessfully attempted have the U.N. Security Council baselessly call them “illegitimate.”

Clearly, J Street is trying to push the President in a direction he’d like to go but can’t, due to legal and factual hurdles that would cost him politically to straddle, but which J Street would like to ameliorate.

Factually and legally unsound, J Street’s agitprop on this issue is simply designed to isolate and increase pressure on Israel, not defend the cause of peace that is actually unthreatened by this Israeli administrative action.

The Etzion bloc was home to substantial Jewish communities even before Israel was created. It’s widely accepted that it would be incorporated into Israel in any feasible peace treaty, should one emerge one day.

Even an anti-Israel partisan like former President Jimmy Carter has publicly stated regarding the Jewish communities in the Etzion bloc that this “area is not one I ever envision being abandoned or changed over into Palestinian territory.’

So why the furor? It’s not as if the designation changes the land’s pre-existing status. Since the days of the British Palestine Mandate, the land in question has always been classed as public land. Its designation as ‘state land’ merely reaffirms this, following exhaustive investigation to ascertain that such a designation was not in conflict with any private property rights.

The Obama Administration and J Street object to any process that would seem to remove any obstacle to Jews living in or building homes in these disputed territories. That is because both subscribe to the canard that Jewish residence there is –– or ought to be –– illegal.

The basis of this canard is Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits

“Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not … The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

Formulated in the aftermath of the Second World War to prohibit Nazi-like mass deportations and forced population transfers, Article 49 clearly holds no relevance: Palestinians are not being deported or forcibly transferred to another territory; Jews are not being deported or transferred from Israel to these Jewish communities; they are moving there freely of their own will.

Peace is presently impossible due to continuing Palestinian refusal to accept the permanence and legitimacy of the Jewish state of Israel and the terrorism, aggression and incitement to hatred and murder against Jews and Israel that flows from this –– not due to Israel duly designating state lands.

Whether one favors or disfavors Jews living in the territories, no one should falsify the law in order to indict Israel as an international violator.

Last week, Israel announced the construction of thousands of apartments in eastern Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods. If building apartments is a crime, it remains so when done for Arabs no less than Jews. Is this a logic the Obama Administration wishes to embrace? So far it seems to be saying that it is a crime for Jews, and Jews only,  to move in or build homes in these areas –– a discriminatory and absurd argument.

The Congress should explicitly repudiate this logic and the canard of illegality that underlies it, a canard, moreover, which is fueling anti-Israel and anti-Semitic agitation worldwide. A damaging lie cannot be finessed; it must be exposed and repudiated.

Morton A. Klein is National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). Dr. Daniel Mandel is Director of the ZOA’ s Center for Middle East Policy and author of H.V. Evatt & the Creation of Israel (Routledge, London, 2004).

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  • wildjew

    Israel’s prime minister announced at Bar Ilan University (June 2009) his willingness to establish a Palestinian Muslim-enemy state in Israel’s heartland. It was a mistake of monumental proportions. Our purported friends now invoke him. Mitt Romney’s surrogate used the prime minister’s words against Israel at our national platform writing committee, August 2012.

    Sen. Jim Talent: Now here is what Prime Minister Netanyahu said and this is in a speech to Congress:

    “…. We must also find a way to forge a lasting peace with the Palestinians. Two years ago, I publicly committed to a solution of two states for two peoples: a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state.”

  • Vinegar Hill

    There is an obvious arrogant indignance about the way this article is written. It also tries to corrupt justice in the sense that it goes totally against the declarations of international judges, some of which belong to the ICJ.
    “The ICJ…recalling GA Resolution 2625 and SC Resolution 242 the illegality of territorial acquisitions resulting from the threat or use of force.” The IDF Judge, Shangar, fully supported this and clearly stated that the “dictum of the Court is unassailable.”
    When the penny finally drops, then, and only then, will we see steps taken towards the road to peace.

    • http://www.stubbornthings.org NAHALKIDES

      Except there were no “territorial acquisitions resulting from the threat or use of force” at least not on any wide scale. Arab property was typically purchased from the owners. The Arabs have had plenty of opportunities for peace and declined each time. They want the destruction of Israel – that was and remains the problem.

      • Vinegar Hill

        Are you for real with your first sentence?!
        I also notice that you totally ignore the legal declarations. What makes you above the law.? Do you claim to be some sort of god, the maker of all that is on this earth?

    • johntyd

      We all know what your idea of ‘justice’ is. You Jews will get slapped and like it. When the penny finally drops the arabs will reap what they have sown.

      They will get what they have wished for the Jews and repeatedly tried to dispense.

      • Vinegar Hill

        Legal declarations obviously have hit a soft spot and one that hurts.

        • johntyd

          I don’t have any soft spots as far as your kind is concerned.

    • Pete

      As far as I am concerned Israel owns all if the West bank. That is how war works.

      The Arab countries declared war against Israel in 1948, 1956 and were preparing to war against it in 1967.

      Look at Europe. A lot of boundaries were changed after WW2.

      The UN does not make a difference. If it did there would not have been as many wars or any wars. I bet statistically that the number of wars before or after the UN was created is statistically insignificant,so why the F_CK do we need the expensive overhead? Answer me that BATMAN!

      Oh wait you can’t. You are a wordsmith therefore you think you know enough to pontificate like a bloviated @zzhole.

      Well then I have a suggestion for you. Learn some college level statistics so you can see if my hypothesis is true for yourself. You will be a better person for it. But I know a priori that you do not wish to be a better person.

      • Vinegar Hill

        You need to calm down and don’t forget that the hasbra handbook clearly states that you must remain calm and don’t raise your voice.
        Why do you place yourself above international judges? Who are you? I even included a top ranking IDF judge and you ignored the lot!! I will repeat:
        “The ICJ…recalling GA Resolution 2625 and SC Resolution 242 the illegality of territorial acquisitions resulting from the threat or use of force.” The IDF Judge Shangar fully supported this and clearly stated that the “dictum of the Court is unassailable.”
        I would appreciate it if you could explain what is wrong legally with this dictum.

        • Pete

          Hasbra? I will haver to look it up.

          So I was right, you are mathematically challenged.

          You have no ideal what justice,fairness, logic and so many other things are.

          Shouldn’t you be at the beach?

          Or did you move to take advantage of other people misery. They unemployment is quite high where you live. I bet you live like a queen.

          • Giborei1967

            Hasbara is the code word used by all the IslamoNazi trolls on this site. None of them know exactly how to apply this Hebrew word correctly, thus it is a dead give-away as to who they are!

          • Pete

            I assumed it was a handbook with talking points. I am so tired of the ignorant Vinegar Hill. I did not bother to look up the word.

            Vinegar claims to be retired and living in Spain. I don’t see why she is not enjoying the sun. No, instead she has to spew here.

            One of my bosses said you could get more with honey that you could with vinegar. Vinegar Hill never got the memo. Or if she did she did not read it and threw it away.
            She might possibly have some literary skill, but that is all she developed. She is like a square storm grate..

          • Giborei1967

            Hasbara means explanation in Hebrew. There is no book with talking points. The Israelis have traditionally been poor at presenting their side of the issues. They think that since they are in the right, the truth should be self-explanatory. Unfortunately reality is otherwise. Look at how successfully the Arabs have expropriated the lingo. In historical context the Jews have been the target of brutal and global anti-Semitism since the Romans, in an act of utmost anti-Semitism, enslaved and dispersed the people and renamed Israel as “Palestina” after the Philistines, Israel’s ancient enemy, a Greek-descendant people, who had become extinct centuries prior; Goliath was a Philistine. The posters vinegar, americana, ctrl-z, crypto, bigta, howe, etc. fall into two categories: nazis and/or antisemites, mostly Islamists. They are waging “keyboard taqqiya,” part of the overall jihad. The so-called “land for peace” is a big lie (see the Gaza withdrawal of 2005.) This was arafat’s destruction in stages ploy. Why do you think the Arabs in Samaria and Judea teach their young to hate Jews and dress them in suicide vests? The ayatolah spells it outright. Their goal is the total destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. The Qooran demands that and more. There were some excellent recent articles on this site, I can send you links, if needed.

          • Pete

            I have a NRA Fact Card. It is 12 pages and fits in a wallet. Some people would call it talking points and some people would call it an explanation.

            That is what I meant.

            The Phillistines did not go extinct unless they all died in war or stopped having children. Chances are the Phillistines merged with the Israelites or others. An analysis of SNPs maybe able to tell us.

            A history of the Sea Peoples, the subjugation of Egypt by the Hyksos and the Phillistines is interesting. People should read history more. Heck they should read mythology more. A history of the Greek goddess Aphrodite would tell them what they need to know from whence the Phillisitines came. Aphrodite was a goddess originally of Cypress. A study of that mythological goddess starts to show connections all along the Eastern seaboard and beyond. A recent issue of Ancient Warfare showed how Greek expansion closely resembled that of the Vikings.

          • Giborei1967

            My point on the issue was that there was no Philistine control of any territory in 135 C. E. when the Romans renamed Israel.

          • Pete

            After my response to her, I am hit with the fact how worthless the UN is. Not only do they not prevent war, but they cannot change border being changed by force.

            Russia is changing borders. they are not doing it fast, but nonetheless the maps 5 10 or 20 years from now will recognize what has happened.

            You can model the outbreak of war with a Poisson distribution.You could model the out break for war in the century before the founding of the UN and after and to see if there is a difference. It is a testable hypothesis. So if the UN does not prevent war, why should we pay billions in support for the overhead?

            The problem with Vinegar is that she only got her degree in English or something. She is not a well rounded when it comes to various disciplines.

        • iluvisrael

          oooooh! you’re sooo impressive! You know Jewish words! No surprise considering you’re an irrelevant and obsessed Jew envying turd. Get back in the toilet.

  • Vinegar Hill

    Why do you claim that Israel is the only country that has to abide by international convention?
    Other countries have been held responsible to international laws. You need to read the case histories of the ICC and the ICJ.
    Why do you call the Palestinians “barbarians” when all that they want is for justice to be implemented regarding the illegal occupation of the West Bank?
    Why do you support that Israel is and should continue to act as a cowboy state demonstrating little or no respect for law? No wonder criticism is levelled at the country!
    Have you ever considered why the Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank are fighting against Israel?

    • johntyd

      You just engage in willful distortions. Always a pointless exercise in engaging with your ilk. I’m not interested in the perversions of the ICC or the ICJ to which Israel is not a signatory along with many other countries.

      The ‘palestinians’ are engaged in race warfare against the Jews and you are just trying to transpose this into a polite form of National Socialism couched in the usual irrelevant cliches.

      Judea and Sumaria were illegally occupied by King Abdullah. The end game is coming and there will little that you, the arabs or the world will be able to do about it – just as has been the case since 1948.

      • Giborei1967

        Vinegar is an outed anti-Semite IslamoNazi douchebag. She has ZERO credibility on the issue. Just ignore her…

      • Vinegar Hill

        Read my reply to “Michael LeFavour”.

  • Martin Edwin Andersen

    On the question of what the UN-approved definition of indigeneity can mean for creating a new paradigm for peace between the Jewish State of Israel and the Palestinians, please see the Open Letter to the Delegates to the U.N. World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, “Unleashing Avatar: Indigeneity as a paradigm for peace for the peoples of Israel and the Occupied Territories,” and the essays, “Pyrrhic victories and glass houses: The Palestinians, the Jewish State of Israel, and the Wobbly Ceasefire,” “Common Lands, Common Ground: The indigenous agenda, Israel, Palestine and breaking the post-Oslo Accords logjam,” and “Indigeneity: Opening the Door to the Path of Peace Between the Jewish State of Israel and the Palestinians” (also @ http://goo.gl/kyn1u4 , @ http://goo.gl/XZIKoa , @ goo.gl/wAJgOJrespectively).

  • Vinegar Hill

    You are wrong on both points. The Palestinians are fighting to liberate themselves from the theft of land carried out by the Zionists who established the state of Israel on Palestinian territory.
    The mandate was set up so that the state of Palestine could be established. In a case before the Anglo-Turkish Mixed Tribunal in 1927 “the claimant produced [inter alia] a laissez passer, dated 16 March 1920, and issued by the British military authorities in occupation of Egypt, which described him as ‘sujet palestinien, protégé britannique ’”. The inhabitants were thus regarded by other states as being both Palestinian citizens and British protected persons.
    Furthermore, in a broader international context, the “Nationality law … showed that
    the Palestinians formed a nation, and that Palestine was a State… though (Permanent Mandates Commission, Minutes of the Thirty-Second (Extraordinary) Session Devoted to Palestine (Geneva: League of Nations, 1937), pp. 86-87.

    Secondly your argument that the West Bank did not come within the compass of the phrase ‘territory of a High Contracting Party’ appearing in the second paragraph (of the GC) The Israeli argument along these lines is a nonstarter because in the second paragraph the crucial determining words “shall also apply” are directly linked to the opening paragraph. The general rule is stated in the first paragraph, and the second paragraph relates only to the exceptional scenario of an occupation that meets with no armed resistance. Furthermore my points are supported by my earlier references to Israeli judges and the judges of the ICJ.

  • Vinegar Hill

    Palestinian nationality was first founded, according to international law, on 6 August 1924; and “treaty nationality in Palestine runs from that date”. The Treaty of Lausanne had transformed the de facto status of Palestinian nationality into de jure existence from an international legal perspective. Likewise, in August 1924, the The status of Palestine and the nationality of its inhabitants were finally settled by the Treaty of Lausanne from the public international law perspective.
    In a report submitted to the League of Nations, the British Government
    pointed out: “The ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne in Aug., 1924,
    finally regularised the international status of Palestine”. And, thereafter, international law certified the birth of the “Palestinian people” as distinct from all other peoples.
    Therefore your claim that “the Arabs have no historic claim to the land.” is null and void.
    So too is your reference to the “agreement” between the Sultan and Emir Faisel. Your other points also fall flat because they have no consequence due to the evidence I have used.

    You try and smear the author of the source because you hate the fact that the book, which caused an uproar, broke one of the many falsities and myths surrounding the establishment of the state of Israel. The book is academically sound, based upon and using, thoroughly researched evidence.
    Regarding your second point you are off target. The article and my initial response deals with the West Bank. Why are you going on about the GC and refugees? I asume you are stuck and can’t respond and have tried to divert from the issue.
    On both points you are a loser.

  • Amitai Itzhakov

    An additional piece of fact is missing from this article:
    After the 1948 war the armistice agreement signed specifically with Jordan included an article that specified that the borders are for military designation only. The conflict with Jordan during the 1967 war in which Israel liberated Judea and Samaria was initiated by Jordan. Therefore, Judea and Samaria rather than being occupied are disputed territories. Therefore the Geneva convension article 49 is inapplicable.
    “The Armistice Demarcation Lines defined in articles V and VI of this Agreement are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto.” Article VI.9.

    http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/F03D55E48F77AB698525643B00608D34