Palestine fails the five tests of statehood

Israeli summer youth program (Wikimedia Commons)

Any group of people desiring to become a nation has to pass crucial tests in order to achieve and maintain statehood. First, a people must acquire adequate land. Second, a nation must be able to develop its land on behalf of its citizens. Third, the nation must be able to defend its citizens against those who would take their land. Fourth, an independent nation must have a legitimate government. And, finally, a nation’s leadership usually has to have a grip on reality.

Although Palestinian Jews accepted the 1947 UN partition plan that outlined the creation of Jewish and Arab states living side-by-side in peace, Palestinian Arabs refused to accept land for their state if the Jews were going to receive any land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea for a Jewish state. Thus, Palestinian Arabs failed the first requirement of nationhood by refusing the land that could’ve become their country. It seemed logical for Palestinian Arabs to believe that six Arab countries could easily destroy the little Jewish state. Not so fast.

The second test of nationhood is the ability to develop a country on behalf of its citizens. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is propped up by foreign governments and has never shown the desire to build a nation more than it desires killing Jews. Even Israel, the PA’s declared enemy, has to deliver to Palestinian Arabs many of the services that should be provided by the Palestinian Authority. Abbas recently admitted again that he still pays the salaries of terrorists after he supposedly had quit. Abbas is more interested in financing a culture of death than investing in infrastructure or adequate services for Palestinian Arabs.

The security of Area A under Oslo II was supposed to be administered strictly by the Palestinian Authority. This would be the case if Palestinian terrorists were not on the PA’s payroll and did not hide in Area A. When Israeli security forces have to go into Area A in order to arrest terrorists on the Palestinian Authority payroll, it operates at will and pretty much with impunity. So the PA fails the third test of nationhood by its inability to defend its own sovereignty.

Palestine fails the fourth test of nationhood because it doesn’t seem capable of achieving and maintaining a legitimate government. The PLO, Fatah party, and the Palestinian Authority did not arise spontaneously as self-government among Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority grew out of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was created, not to govern the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, but to discredit and destroy the only Jewish state. To accent this fact, the PLO renounced all claims to the West Bank and Gaza in 1964 after Jordan annexed the West Bank and Egypt annexed Gaza.

It’s not that the Palestinians wanted the West Bank and Gaza for a state. They had turned down the areas in 1947 if it meant that Israel would also exist. Palestinians were more than happy for Jordan and Egypt to annex the West Bank and Gaza. They just don’t want Jews to live there. I smell blatant racism.

Abbas’s term as Palestinian president expired in 2009. He is currently just like any other run of the mill dictator who is propped up mainly by the U.S. State Department and the European Union. Some Israelis argue that he is better than Hamas. Yet the PLO and Hamas are not the only two choices. Palestinian Arabs could enjoy semi-autonomy by means of city governments and regional councils.

Finally, the fifth test of nationhood is failed because the PA leadership seems to get it wrong more often than they can get it right. In other words, whenever and wherever the PA leadership can make a mistake, they do make a mistake. They often seem unable to distinguish good from evil and right from wrong.

The denial of verifiable history is one example of Palestinian intellectuals closing their eyes to truth because of their intense hatred of Jews. For example, Abbas’s doctoral dissertation hypothesized a conspiracy between the Nazis and Zionists. In contrast, history bears out that it was the enemy of Zionism, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who worked closely with the Nazis. Additionally, many Palestinians deny any Jewish connection with the Temple Mount.

In a USA Today interview on May 14, Bayan Abu Khdeir, an 18-year-old Bethlehem University student, didn’t know that the United Nations had approved the creation of both a Jewish and Arab state in 1947 or that Arab armies attacked Israel in 1948. H-m-m-m. There seems to be no value placed on truth in the Palestinian Authority. So why did we ever negotiate with them as if they were capable of keeping promises?

Palestinian Arabs are not genetically distinct from other Arabs. Palestinian Arabs are a broad mixture of migrants from all of the Arab countries who came for economic opportunity after Jews began developing their ancient Judean homeland in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Even PLO members have admitted that the claim of a distinct Palestinian people was fabricated in an attempt to discredit the Zionist narrative that was based on 4,000 years of Jewish history in the land.

Even if the Palestinians were a unique people, a distinct political entity or even a distinct geographical area does not a nation make. For example, San Bernardino County in California is 20,105 square miles, which is over 8 times as big as the West Bank and Gaza Strip combined. It is larger than 71 sovereign nations. I use to live in San Bernardino County. We were proud of being the largest county by area in the United States.

Besides being a distinct political entity like other American counties, San Bernardino County is different from most counties in the United States in that it has a Hispanic majority. Hispanic residents of San Bernardino County do not demand to be recognized as an independent nation. They do not claim that they are a distinct nationality different than other Hispanics in the United States. Nor do the non-Hispanic residents.

Neither Hispanics, nor non-Hispanics in San Bernardino County engage in ethnic cleansing by forbidding the other group to live in their neighborhoods as Palestinian Arabs do to Jews. Nor does either group commit acts of terrorism against the other in an attempt to gain statehood. Hispanics in San Bernardino County do not claim to be genetically distinct from other Hispanics in the United States. So why do Palestinian Arabs claim to be distinct from other Arabs?

Jews usually treat Arabs as if they are responsible adults and know what they want. It is the rest of the world that treats the Palestinians as children by taking the position that no matter how many times they make the same mistake, Palestinians should always be given another opportunity to make the same error again.

If a murderer makes an error in judgment by killing someone, the U.S. president doesn’t insist that he remain free to make the same mistake by killing other people over and over again. No, the person is locked up for the rest of his life so innocent people do not unnecessarily die. No matter how many times Palestinians reject their own state, the U.S. State Department and the EU want to continue endangering Jews by creating a belligerent terrorist state beside the Jewish state.

Over 23,000 Israelis have died at the hands of Arab killers. If the Hispanic residents of San Bernardino County murdered over 23,000 non-Hispanic residents in an attempt to have the county declared an independent nation, does anyone seriously believe that the non-Hispanic residents of the county or the U.S. government would capitulate and grant them statehood? Of course not.

The PLO, Fatah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority so far have existed for one purpose and one purpose alone – the destruction of the Jewish state. Israelis will not give Palestinian Arabs their own state until they display disconfirming behavior for a sufficient period of time. And Israelis will be the ones to decide how long that period should be. Palestinians must now prove that they possess the ability and desire to build a peaceful nation beside our Jewish state.

Against all odds, Israelis have demonstrated their ability to create one of the greatest miracles in human history. While the Palestinian leadership was busy cultivating a culture of death, Jews were busy formulating solutions to the world’s problems. While Palestinians were making suicide vests, we were building desalination facilities, inventing drip irrigation, and manufacturing healing medicines. While they were fabricating lies against the Jewish state, we were busy winning Nobel prizes in chemistry, economics, and literature. In addition, three Israelis have won the Nobel Prize in Peace.

Although the Palestinian leadership may not want their own country unless they can first destroy Israel, there are over 6 million Israeli Jews standing in their way. When we look into the eyes of our children, we realize that there is too much at stake and their survival is more important to us than anyone’s approval. It is evident that we love our children more than the Americans and the Europeans love our children. For our children’s sake, we have been for 4,000 years and here we will continue to stand our ground.

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Yoeli’s Mandate: Leave your mark, make a difference for the good, and do your part to make sure that they never again devour Jacob or make his habitation waste.

You can email Yoeli Kaufman at ocfidina@yahoo.com