Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Mainstream Western media coverage of Israel is laced with expressions intentionally crafted to delegitimize the Jewish State. The good news is that these terms werenât written in stone 3,300 years ago, but are post-Israel independence creations. By forfeiting this language, we forfeit our history. Here are 13 phrases we must stop repeating.
1. âWest Bankâ: Claims that âJudea and Samariaâ is simply the âbiblical name for the West Bankâ stands history on its head. The Hebrew-origin terms âJudeaâ and âSamariaâ were used through 1950, when invading [Trans]Jordan renamed them the âWest Bankâ in order to disassociate these areas of the Jewish homeland from Jews. The U.N.âs own 1947 partition resolution referred not to âWest Bank,â but to âthe hill country of Samaria and Judea.â This term is not shorthand for âJudea and Samaria.â Under this formulation, Jordan is the âEast Bankâ of the original Palestine Mandate, which was designated as the homeland for the Jewish People.
2. âEastâ Jerusalem or âtraditionally Arab Eastâ Jerusalem: From the cityâs second millennium BCE origins until 1947 CE, there was no such place as âEastâ Jerusalem. The 19 years between when invading Jordan captured part of the city in 1948 and was ousted by Israel in 1967 was the only time in history, except between 638 and 1099, when Arabs ruled any part of Jerusalem. Palestinian Arabs have not ruled an inch of it for one day in history. In the past three millennia, Jerusalem has been the capital of three native statesâJudah, Judaea, and modern Israelâand has had a renewed Jewish majority since 19th century Turkish rule. Eastern Jerusalem is a neighborhood of the city that Israel reunified in 1967.
3. âThe UN sought to create Jewish and Palestinian Statesâ: It did not. Partitioning Palestine between âPalestiniansâ and Jews is like partitioning Pennsylvania between Pennsylvanians and Jews. Over and over in its 1947 partition resolution, the UN referenced âthe Jewish Stateâ and âthe Arabâ [not âPalestinianâ] State.
4. 1948 was the âCreationâ and âFoundingâ of  Israel: Israel wasnât âcreatedâ and âfoundedâ in 1948 artificially and out-of-the-blue. Israel attained independence that year as the natural fruition into renewed statehood of a people that had twice before been independent in that land, and after centuries of hard work to re-establish a Jewish State in this historic homeland.
5. âThe War that Followed Israelâs Creationâ: Israeli did not choose this war; it was foisted on Israel by almost every Arab state, which rejected the UN partition and tried to push the Jews of Israel into the sea. And it was a homeland Jewish army, Haganah, which became the IDF, that threw back that multi-nation foreign invasion.
6. âPalestinian Refugees of the War that Followed Israelâs Creation,â or the âPalestinian Refugee Issueâ: It was the invading Arab nations bent on Israelâs destruction that both encouraged and caused the bulk of the Arabs to flee Israel. And a greater number of media constantly ignore the indigenous Middle Eastern Jews who were expelled from vast Arab and other Muslim lands in the wake of the Arab-Israeli War. Their number is greater than the amount of Arabs that fled tiny Israel. That Israel absorbed the bulk of these Jews, while Arab âhosts,â including in Palestine itself, isolate the Arab refugeesâ descendants in Western-supported ârefugee campsâ does not convert the Arab-Israeli conflictâs two-sided refugee issue into a âPalestinianâ refugee issue. Had the Palestinian Arabs accepted the UN partition plan, they would also have been celebrating their 66th anniversary.
7. Israel âseizedâ Arab lands in 1967: It did not. The 1967 war, like its predecessors, was a defensive war forced upon Israel. Israelâs neighbors did not want to compromise; they simply wanted to destroy the Jewish State. The new Israeli territory was meant to provide a security barrier and ensure this could never happen. Moreover, these were not âArab Lands.â
8. Israelâs â1967 Bordersâ: The 1949 Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement expressly declared the âgreen lineâ it drew between the two sidesâ ceasefire positions as a military ceasefire line only, without prejudice to either sideâs political border claims. The post-â67 war UN resolution 242 pointedly did not demand Israel retreat from these lines.
9. âIsraeli-Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalemâ: That the media insistently calls Israeli presence in the heart of Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria âIsraeli occupation of Palestinian territoriesâ does not make it so. âOccupationâ is an international law term referencing foreign presence in the sovereign territory of another state. The land of Israelâs last sovereign native state before modern Israel was Jewish Judaea. The land ratio of Arab lands to Israel is 625-1, 23 states to one.
10. âJewish Settlers and Settlementsâ vs. âPalestinian Residents of Neighborhoods and Villagesâ: A favorite media news article contrast is referencing in the same sentence âJewish settlersâ in âsettlementsâ and âPalestinian residentsâ of nearby âneighborhoodsâ and âvillages.â Jews are not alienâ settlersâ in a Jerusalem thatâs had a Jewish majority since 19th century times or in the Judea-Samaria Jewish historical heartland.
11. Israelâs âJewish Stateâ recognition is âa new stumbling blockâ: New since Mosesâ time. The Jewish homeland of Israel, including continuous homeland-claiming Jewish presence, has always been central to Jewish peoplehood. In 1947, British Foreign Secretary Bevin told Parliament that the Jewsâ âessential point of principleâ was Jewish Palestine sovereignty.
12. âPalestinians accept and Israel rejects a Two-State Solutionâ: Wrong on both counts. Both the U.S. and Israel define âTwo Statesâ as two states for two peoplesâJews and Arabs. Many on the Arab side insistently reject two states for two peoples. Many Israelis, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, support that planâconditioned on an end to Palestinian terror. The Arabs continuously and consistently deny Israelâs right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish People, no matter where its borders are drawn.
13. âThe Palestiniansâ: The United Nationsâ 1947 partition resolution called Palestineâs Arabs and Jews âthe two Palestinian peoples.â Nothing is more self-delegitimizing and counter-productive to achieving peace based on Arab recognition of Jewsâ right to be there, than that Jews should go around calling Palestinian Arabs âThe Palestinians.â They have no distinguishing language, religion, or culture from neighboring Arabs, and have never been sovereign in Palestine, whereas the Jews, with a presence stretching back three millennia, have had three states there, all Jerusalem-based. Most Palestinian Arabs cannot trace their own lineage to the land back more than 4 generations.
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