The other day we reported on Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s video in which he pointed out that advocating the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) is hardly a path to peace, Ethnic Cleansing of Jews For Peace is Absurd:
Netanyahu was factually correct on the goals of the Palestinian leadership, and not only from Hamas:
The future independent Palestinian state will not include a Jewish minority, a top Palestinian official told USA Today on Wednesday [9/7/2011], adding that it was in the best interest of both peoples to “be separated.”Maen Areikat, PLO Ambassador to the United States, made the comment just as the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, was preparing to offer up Palestinian statehood to a vote in the United Nations General Assembly later this month.
And there is every reason to believe that ethnic cleansing is the goal. After all, that’s what the Jordanian’s did in the West Bank after the 1949 armistice, prior to Israel retaking the area in 1967. The small Jewish section of Hebron, reestablished after the 1929 Arab pogrom killed dozens and drove out the Jews, regularly is termed “illegal” (it’s not) and that Jews have no right to live there.
Mahmoud Abbas has toughened laws against selling land to Jews:
According to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency, Abbas on Monday [October 20, 2014] imposed a sentence of hard labor for life on “anyone diverting, renting or selling land to an enemy state or one of its subjects.”
No problem with Israel’s closest ally, the United States. Right? Right?
Wrong.
The Obama administration had another one of its fits of fury directed at Netanyahu (not at Abbas and the ethnic cleansers):
Washington on Friday fumed at comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video released online in which he accused the Palestinians of advocating ethnic cleansing of the Jewish population in the West Bank.US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters the administration is “engaging in direct conversations with the Israeli government” about the video.We obviously strongly disagree with the characterization that those who oppose settlement activity or view it as an obstacle to peace are somehow calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank. We believe that using that type of terminology is inappropriate and unhelpful,” Trudeau said.She said Israel expansion of settlements raises “real questions about Israel’s long-term intentions in the West Bank.”
To say the State Department spokesman missed the point in an understatement.
The Obama administration rebuke has led the Palestinian Authority to demand U.N. action against Israel:
Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said the prime minister’s video — published on Facebook and Twitter on Friday — “shows that Netanyahu has crossed every red line with his egregious and blatantly unethical remarks that flout international law.” …According to the PA’s official news agency Wafa, Erekat said the video should spur the world to take action against Israel, including a resolution by the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlements and prosecution of Israel in the International Criminal Court.The “world must now begin to hold this government responsible, and must not suffice with statements and denouncements, but require real and immediate accountability,” he said.The Palestinian foreign ministry also called Sunday for the international community to “compel” Israel to abide by international law and halt settlement construction.
This is a perfect example of how the Obama administration always makes things worse, particularly in the Middle East.
Netanyahu’s statement accurately reflected the ethnic cleansing goals of the Palestinians, yet he was attacked by the U.S. State Department for stating that truth, which then led the Palestinians, sensing an opening, to make even more intractable demands.
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