WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG: Two international documents, UNSC 2334 and the EU product labeling decree, express the position of two key international bodies, the United Nations and European Union, on respective Arab and Jewish western Palestine claims. Take a hard look at what these documents say. Key American Jewish institutions agree. Those of us who believe that the sovereign Jewish homeland rightly includes Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem should stand by Israel in its right to our homeland and not call for Israel’s withdrawal to the long-gone perilous ceasefire lines of 1949.
Talking Back To Three Documents That Talk Disparagingly About the Jewish Homeland of Israel
Take a hard look at three position-stating documents – one by the UN, one by the EU, and one by central pillar institutions of American Jews – on the Jewish homeland of Israel, and ask yourself whether it’s all right for those of us who believe that the Jewish homeland of Israel by right includes Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem merely to avert our eyes from them.
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I oscillate among which of three things that perturb me about UN Security Council resolution 2334 perturbs me the most – that the U.S. abstained (to say no more) on it, that the rest of the world voted for it, or what it says. This week, it’s what it says:
“that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace ….
“that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem . . .
“that it [UNSC] will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations. . . .”
This wording is not the world calling Judea-Samaria (the name that the UN itself used back in 1947) and historic Jerusalem (Temple Mount, Western Wall, Jewish Quarter, City of David and all) “disputed” between Arabs and Jews. It’s the world calling it “occupied Palestinian territory,” in which Jews are “settlers.” This isn’t a UN swing just at Israel. It’s a UN swing at Jews who regard the Jewish homeland as including Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem.
EU Product Labeling Decree
Then there’s the European Union’s product labeling decree of last fall. Products made by Jews in Judea-Samaria can’t say “from Israel,” or even “from the West Bank,” but must say, e.g., “product from the West Bank (Israeli settlement).” But if made by Arabs there, “products from Palestine” would be ok..
To the EU, which repeatedly defined “the West Bank” as “the West Bank (including East Jerusalem),” that “West Bank is a territory whose people, namely the Palestinian people, enjoy the right to self-determination.” And the EU defined “settlement” as having “a demographic dimension beyond its geographical meaning, sine it refers to a population of foreign origin.” (emphasis added, a tad)
Nine American Jewish Organizations’ Letter to American President
In the spring of last year, nine American Jewish organizations – the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, MERCAZ, the Rabbinical Assembly, the ADL, Ameinu, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Israel Policy Forum – addressed an open letter to President Trump, calling on him
“… to clearly express your opposition to unilateral measures outside of this framework [i.e., “a negotiated two-state solution”], including annexation by Israel of any territory in the West Bank.”
“… While that [two-state] solution is unlikely to hew precisely to the 1967 borders, any territorial adjustments must result in a signed agreement between the two sides.”
The sad truth is that most American Jews agree with these sentiments and the anti-Jewish homeland terms – “West Bank … annexation … the 1967 borders” – in which they were expressed. Most Israelis do not. It’s for Israelis, who courageously defend Israel’s boundaries, to deal with what Israel’s boundaries should be. Our armchair role, if not to support their claim to the Jewish state coextensive with the land of Israel, the historic Jewish homeland, is certainly not to tell the Israelis who fought their wars of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and the unending confrontations between and since them that Israel’s boundaries should be the ceasefire lines of 1949.
Look again at what the UN and EU are saying here – that Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem, restored to Jewish homeland control now for more than half a century, aren’t part of Israel but belong to “Palestinians” who never ruled any of it. Most of the world accepts this, and much of it goes further, agreeing with chanters in the West of “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” Israelis should not have to stand alone against this. We at least should stand with them.