The Holy Land and Us hides the real villains: Western governments that left Jews with only one credible escape from European antisemitism, by dispossessing Palestinians
Not imagining it would be any better than that of the previous administrations, which at best, for the most part, was often bad, at worst atrocious. I suspect treatment of violent settlers ,the outpost settlers and all those in formerly (before this gov) illegal settlements will be tolerated and encouraged, an obnoxious policy.
A book to read: Policy of Deceit: Britain and Palestine, 1914-1939 Peter Shambrook
This is where the problem lies. I have suggested to the BBC to follow from their Holy Land and Us to examine Britain's responsibility and the complicit role of the USA administration with the help of Western governments in upholding Israel's apartheid policy.
The utter evil of Britain and Israel toward the Palestinians. Israel does not belong in Palestine…never did. The complacency of the US gov. Is despicable! Thanks, Jonathan.
What the video seems to be pulling off is an old PR trick. Word is getting out about the horrors of Israeli apartheid. The documentary, Tantura, likely opened a lot of people's eyes. So, what can be done when the public is catching on to your crimes?
The answer is to make a "documentary" that abhors the horrible things that were done, but waters them down by an order of magnitude. Supposedly the video is bravely speaking out on a subject that was forbidden to talk about, but gives a version that is infinitely less damming than the actual history.
I find this piece by Mr Cook one sided and distorted and everything is "decontextualized". LIke so many commentators on both sides, his passion and obsession with the Palestinian cause (I believe he is married to one) incapacitates him from delivering reliable commentary. Deir Yassin was a dreadful massacre; but immediately after the Jewish Agency sent a formal letter of apology and had sent Doctors to the site. And Arabs took their revenge on Mount Scopus killing and burning more than 70 Jews including doctors and nurses going to the Haddasah hospital. Only the intervention of the Jordanian army spared a massacre of Jews in the Etzion Block. There were barbarities on both sides, no doubt more by the Jews than the Arabs. This was a civil war and they are often the worst. Make no mistake both sides hated each other and that had been going on since 1900 with the massacre in Hebron and Safad of Jews in 1929 Jews did not immigrate to Palestine to terrorize and disposses Arabs. They went there long before the Holocaust and settled on land purchased from Arab land owners as did almost all Jews who went before the Naqbah. As for ethnic cleansing, Cook omits the fact that Arab leadership had made it plain, including in the League of Nations speeches in the 30s that the Jews would be completely driven out en masse when the time came to rid Palestine of its new Jewish population. The Palestinian Arab leader Amin Husseini took refuge with HItler during WW2 and vowed to do to the Jews in Palestine what Hitler was doing in Germany. (The grotesque anti semitism of that time continues to this day in public statements by and on behalf of the PA and Hamas). When the war came, for the Jews it was anihilation or victory. For the Arabs it was victory, stay put, or escape, the last of which 750,000 of them took or were forced to take., while about 200,000 stayed behind) The famous plan Dalet is ambiguous and it is a hot debate among honest historians about whether the original intention was a complete ethnic cleansing or mostly ridding the centrebetween Jerusalem and Tel Aviv of most of its Arab population. The Israeli Declaration of Independence welcomed everyone whatever his creed. In Haifa, the Arabs were urged to stay behind and help build the country back up. Their local leadership, afraid of being branded as traitors left, much to the dismay of the Jewish mayor and Golda Meir. The net result was though, an ethnic cleansing which at that time was a completely normal result of this kind of war. It was called "population transfers". Think the Kurds v Turks; Turks v Greeks; Turks v Armenians. 10 million ethnic Germans were ordered out of their European homecountries after WW2, never to return. The most glaring example of this kind of population dislocatioin was probably the Pakistan/Indian exchange, creating a Muslim country and a Hindu one. Applying today's sensibilities to 1948 out of context is disingenuous commentary in my opinion. And one could say much more. Both sides were guilty of atrocious behaviour. As questionable as the morality of the Balfour Declaration was, its incorporation in the League of Nations and United Nations, the Partition proposal of the UNGA followed by the acceptance of Israel by the majority in the UNGA in 1949 "sealed the deal" for the Jews. The result of the war for the the Palestinians was a disaster, brought on themselves by the absolute and obdurate refusal of the leaders of them and their Arab neighbours to have imposed on them by the world powers a solution to European anti semitism that resulted in a very small geographical portion on the outskirts of a huge Arab land mass being used to create a Jewish state, whatever the Partition proportions by the UN were to be. And that attitude continues to this day. And the Israeli outrageous dream of having it all at the expense of the Palestinians we are witnessing now and have since 1967. For anyone actually interested in the facts leading up to the Nakbah and beyond, read Benny Morris ' "Righteous Victims" and Ian Black's "Neighbours and Enemies". At least you will be able to discern the invalidity of so much of the kind of commentary Mr Cook has posted here.
Excellent Jonathan. (The late Vidal Sassoon also helped his fellow Zionists in their ethnic cleansing war...very proud too of his role in the Nakba). Heinous acts.
Absolutely typical. I might add that that short one-page illegitimate Balfour declaration was disobeyed by the State of Israel because it clearly stated that the grant was *only* if the Palestinians were honoured in every regard. So Israel has zero legal basis, sorry to say.
Modified limited hangout. "Okay, Israel did some bad stuff, but that was a long time ago so let's move on! (and use those past crimes as precedent to excuse more recent crimes)."
Not imagining it would be any better than that of the previous administrations, which at best, for the most part, was often bad, at worst atrocious. I suspect treatment of violent settlers ,the outpost settlers and all those in formerly (before this gov) illegal settlements will be tolerated and encouraged, an obnoxious policy.
Read ‘Palestine The Reality’ by JMN Jeffries published 1939. It has been reprinted. Also ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ by Ilan Pappe.
A book to read: Policy of Deceit: Britain and Palestine, 1914-1939 Peter Shambrook
This is where the problem lies. I have suggested to the BBC to follow from their Holy Land and Us to examine Britain's responsibility and the complicit role of the USA administration with the help of Western governments in upholding Israel's apartheid policy.
The utter evil of Britain and Israel toward the Palestinians. Israel does not belong in Palestine…never did. The complacency of the US gov. Is despicable! Thanks, Jonathan.
Thank you.
What the video seems to be pulling off is an old PR trick. Word is getting out about the horrors of Israeli apartheid. The documentary, Tantura, likely opened a lot of people's eyes. So, what can be done when the public is catching on to your crimes?
The answer is to make a "documentary" that abhors the horrible things that were done, but waters them down by an order of magnitude. Supposedly the video is bravely speaking out on a subject that was forbidden to talk about, but gives a version that is infinitely less damming than the actual history.
It is an old trick. It works.
I find this piece by Mr Cook one sided and distorted and everything is "decontextualized". LIke so many commentators on both sides, his passion and obsession with the Palestinian cause (I believe he is married to one) incapacitates him from delivering reliable commentary. Deir Yassin was a dreadful massacre; but immediately after the Jewish Agency sent a formal letter of apology and had sent Doctors to the site. And Arabs took their revenge on Mount Scopus killing and burning more than 70 Jews including doctors and nurses going to the Haddasah hospital. Only the intervention of the Jordanian army spared a massacre of Jews in the Etzion Block. There were barbarities on both sides, no doubt more by the Jews than the Arabs. This was a civil war and they are often the worst. Make no mistake both sides hated each other and that had been going on since 1900 with the massacre in Hebron and Safad of Jews in 1929 Jews did not immigrate to Palestine to terrorize and disposses Arabs. They went there long before the Holocaust and settled on land purchased from Arab land owners as did almost all Jews who went before the Naqbah. As for ethnic cleansing, Cook omits the fact that Arab leadership had made it plain, including in the League of Nations speeches in the 30s that the Jews would be completely driven out en masse when the time came to rid Palestine of its new Jewish population. The Palestinian Arab leader Amin Husseini took refuge with HItler during WW2 and vowed to do to the Jews in Palestine what Hitler was doing in Germany. (The grotesque anti semitism of that time continues to this day in public statements by and on behalf of the PA and Hamas). When the war came, for the Jews it was anihilation or victory. For the Arabs it was victory, stay put, or escape, the last of which 750,000 of them took or were forced to take., while about 200,000 stayed behind) The famous plan Dalet is ambiguous and it is a hot debate among honest historians about whether the original intention was a complete ethnic cleansing or mostly ridding the centrebetween Jerusalem and Tel Aviv of most of its Arab population. The Israeli Declaration of Independence welcomed everyone whatever his creed. In Haifa, the Arabs were urged to stay behind and help build the country back up. Their local leadership, afraid of being branded as traitors left, much to the dismay of the Jewish mayor and Golda Meir. The net result was though, an ethnic cleansing which at that time was a completely normal result of this kind of war. It was called "population transfers". Think the Kurds v Turks; Turks v Greeks; Turks v Armenians. 10 million ethnic Germans were ordered out of their European homecountries after WW2, never to return. The most glaring example of this kind of population dislocatioin was probably the Pakistan/Indian exchange, creating a Muslim country and a Hindu one. Applying today's sensibilities to 1948 out of context is disingenuous commentary in my opinion. And one could say much more. Both sides were guilty of atrocious behaviour. As questionable as the morality of the Balfour Declaration was, its incorporation in the League of Nations and United Nations, the Partition proposal of the UNGA followed by the acceptance of Israel by the majority in the UNGA in 1949 "sealed the deal" for the Jews. The result of the war for the the Palestinians was a disaster, brought on themselves by the absolute and obdurate refusal of the leaders of them and their Arab neighbours to have imposed on them by the world powers a solution to European anti semitism that resulted in a very small geographical portion on the outskirts of a huge Arab land mass being used to create a Jewish state, whatever the Partition proportions by the UN were to be. And that attitude continues to this day. And the Israeli outrageous dream of having it all at the expense of the Palestinians we are witnessing now and have since 1967. For anyone actually interested in the facts leading up to the Nakbah and beyond, read Benny Morris ' "Righteous Victims" and Ian Black's "Neighbours and Enemies". At least you will be able to discern the invalidity of so much of the kind of commentary Mr Cook has posted here.
Another excellent piece Jonathan, thank you...
Superb analysis as usual.
Excellent Jonathan. (The late Vidal Sassoon also helped his fellow Zionists in their ethnic cleansing war...very proud too of his role in the Nakba). Heinous acts.
Absolutely typical. I might add that that short one-page illegitimate Balfour declaration was disobeyed by the State of Israel because it clearly stated that the grant was *only* if the Palestinians were honoured in every regard. So Israel has zero legal basis, sorry to say.
Dead on. Thanks for this.
Modified limited hangout. "Okay, Israel did some bad stuff, but that was a long time ago so let's move on! (and use those past crimes as precedent to excuse more recent crimes)."