More "Inventiveness"

Elder of Ziyon

Daoud Kuttab, who I have debated, has an opinion piece, "We Are Palestinians", in the Int'l Herald Tribune.

I picked one line inventive from it:

Palestinian Arabs attempted to become independent after the British mandate ended, but the British pledged Palestine simultaneously to Jews and Arabs.

Note:

a) the "attempt" was prior to the end.

b) and it was launching a war against Jewish civilians on November 30, 1947, on the morrow of the UN recommended partition plan to establsih an Arab state and a Jewish state. In fact, attacks against Jews had begun a few months earlier when it became apparent that the UN was going to decide something. c) the British had not "pledged Palestine simultaneously to Jews and Arabs". In the first instance, that phrase belongs to the 1920s. Secondly, there was no simultaneous promise. There were parallel promises. And the 1947 promise was, as noted, of the United Nations.

d) in any case, what is TransJordan, now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, if not an Arab state in Palestine?

The Jews and the Arabs were awarded states. We took our opportunity despite yet another whittling down of the terriroty of the Jewish national home.

All the Arabs wanted to do was to deny Jews a state on any territory. It turned out to be the precedent of the "suicide bomber" phenomenon of a later period. They preferred to lose a chance at statehood just so the Jews should not achieve their national aspirations.

Kuttab is engaged, as most Arabs who consider themselves "Palestinians" are, in inventiveness - either relating to their own history or in relating to Jewish history and heritage.

And inventiveness is not enough to build a society, construct governmental institutions or formulate and carry through economic policies.

But it works well on the pages of a hostile press to Israel.