an anomaly: one nation, 22 states

An Anomaly: One Nation, 22 States
by Dr. Yoram Shifftan
Dec 15, '04 / 3 Tevet 5765

The Palestinian Charter asserts that the Arabs are one nation and the Palestinians are an integral part of the Arab nation. But, they say, in order to realize Arab unity, it is incumbent on the Palestinians to emphasize Palestinian identity at this stage in the struggle.

In the 1974 PLO "Phased Plan", article 8 states: "Once it is established, the Palestinian national authority will strive to achieve a union of the confrontation countries, with the aim of completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory, and as a step along the road to comprehensive Arab unity."

Thus, in addition to declarations to the Western press in moments of frankness,* the fundamental founding documents of the Palestinians explicitly assert that the notion of a Palestinian nation is only a temporary ploy to make it easier to destroy Israel, on the way to the realization of one Arab state. Other fundamental Arab documents, for example the founding documents of the Baath party, similarly emphasize that all the Arabs constitute one nation.

It is an axiom of international relations that one nation deserves one state only. So, since the Arabs themselves emphasize that they are one nation only (often complaining that they were artificially separated by the colonial-imperialistic powers into many states), it logically follows that the Arabs deserve one state only (i.e., one vote in the United Nations, etc.). It follows that the Arabs should reduce the number of their states from 22 to one, and surely not increase this number to 23.

A cleverer Israeli government would instruct its diplomats to point out the above anomaly and demand (even the very act of demanding is of value to shed light on the real situation) that the Arabs be given one vote only in the UN, as follows from the Arabs' own logic. Furthermore, the hypothetical clever Israeli diplomat would point out that the demand for an additional Arab state, as the Road Map suggests, will only enhance the anomaly and the already absurd situation. It will enhance the unfairness to the Kurds, the Tibetans and the many other true nations that are not allowed to have even one state. And this is true even before invoking the fact that this 23rd Arab state will be yet another totalitarian, terrorist state.

Moreover, the hypothetical clever Israeli diplomat would be in a position to point out that the commonly believed injustice to the Palestinian nation, which is deprived of a state of its own, is non-existent. Also, if the "Palestinians" are just Arabs, then their return to other Arab countries is the completion of the population exchange begun when Jews from Arab countries were forced to leave those countries. The idea of such a population exchange was even originally suggested by Arab politicians.

It should be noted that not only in the second half of the twenty century did the Arabs regard themselves as one nation (which indeed they are by all criteria), as expressed, for example, in the above founding documents. This is also reflected in the many international agreements in the first part of the twenty century. For example, the Feisal-Weizmann agreement of 1919 agrees upon the division of the Middle East into an Arab state and a Jewish state, the latter state referred to as "Palestine" (!).

The true historical-legal sequence of events and the correct terminology brings out the great injustice progressively committed against the Jews. The Balfour declaration was codified in international law by the League of Nations' Mandate for Palestine. This mandate allocated for a Jewish state an area of no more than 1% of the Middle East. Later, in September 1922, more than 80% of this miniscule area was taken from the prospective Jewish state upon the creation of Trans-Jordan. Now, the Road Map proposes to take 22% of the even-more-miniscule area that remained after the creation of Trans-Jordan (it is of great importance to realize that the number of 22% is the area of Gaza and the West Bank of Western Palestine, i.e. of a fifth of Palestine, and not of all of Palestine as Arabs and friends often mislead the world).

This succession of events does not even refer to the vast areas in Africa that the one Arab nation also possess or to their natural resources. The natural extension of this successive dispossession of the Jewish people is to try to dry the Mediterranean Sea of the coast of Tel Aviv, and indeed, even the late Raful Eitan considered it seriously. But in fact, even this would not help, since any semblance of Jewish sovereignty, no matter how absurdly miniscule is the area in which it is realized, is anathema to the Arabs.

Thus, Arab racism is reflected not only in the fact that while Israel contains 20% Arabs, the prospective "Palestinian state" cannot entertain the notion of even a very small fraction of Jews within its borders. Not only that, all Arab countries are essentially Jew-free, some by law, and earlier, the Jews were dhimmi (second class) status. Arab racism is also reflected in the fact that a nation that already possess 22 states instead of the lawful one, is denying the right of the Jewish people to have just one state.

Even more amazing is that by common consent, it is the victim of racism is who is denoted racist.

Note:

* For example, the PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein declared on the March 31, 1977, to the Dutch newspaper Trouw: "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism."