No one would ever think of telling Governor Rick Perry to return Texas to Mexico. Nor, would anyone chide Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to return California to Mexico. And no one, I mean no one, would ever demand that US President Obama return America to the United Kingdom. Yet, the world, often influenced by Middle Eastern oil money, expects Israel to hand over the Golan Heights to Syria, the West Bank to Jordan and Gaza to Egypt – all at Israel’s peril.
Like most territorial seizures, Israel captured these areas during war similar to the examples cited earlier. That’s right. Texas and California (two of the three states I have lived in most of my life) gained their sovereignty through war. But we never refer to the Lonestar state, the Golden State or the Land of Stars and Stripes as “occupied territories.” That would be anti-American.
But can’t we see the forest for the trees? I mean its common knowledge that Arabs opposed to Israel manufactured the term “occupied territories” just like the term “Palestinians.” Both words came into usage as a way of blaming Israel for Arab refugees resulting from the 1948 and 1967 invasions of Israel. And guess what? The invasions occurred by Arab states who refused assistance to their fellow Arabs. Instead, they left them in refugee camps while blaming Israel.
Let’s be honest. Don’t you think the 22 Arab states surrounding Israel could have welcomed the Palestinians if they wanted to? Wouldn’t it be easy to annex land and use some of their oil resources to end war instead of arming groups of terrorists? But most know that as long as these disenfranchised groups exist either they or Iran can arm and fund terrorist attacks on Israel. The greater desperation among these groups the greater the population of candidates willing to sacrifice their lives to kill more Israelis.
The cycle of hate doesn’t just stop there. Oh, no. It spreads like a cancer to Jews around the world. And the more Israel tries to defend itself the more its haters spread antisemitism. The lynch mob of countries criticizing Israel’s right to protect itself and its citizens (which by the way include over one million Israeli Arabs) only incite more antisemitic attacks in all corners of the world.
How many countries do you know that have never received global recognition of their borders or their capital? Try one. Israel. This is after reaching statehood nearly 62 years ago in 1948.
And for those that are unclear of Israel’s capital, you guessed it, Jerusalem.
So to be fair, let’s give all or part of Austin (capital of Texas) to the Mexican government along with Sacramento (capital of California) and all or part of Washington DC to the United Kingdom. This way we won’t treat Israel different from any other democratic country in the world. Or maybe, just maybe, we can come to our senses, stop telling Israel to return land and abolish antisemitism once and for all.
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