#985 12/8/19 – Which Dirty Words Not To Use? ALL of Them

WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG:  The good news is that articles on major internet sites are challenging use of particular Jewish homeland-delegitimizing terms. The bad news is that the Jewish homeland claim to the entirety of the land of Israel, with viable borders and historic Jerusalem, is being assailed by the international community and even central pillar institutions of American Jews. Believers in a viable meaningful Jewish homeland state cannot be silent now.

Which Dirty Words Not To Use?  ALL of Them

Criticism This Week  of Particular Anti-Israel Dirty Words

A bit of good news lately has been forthright recognition in pro-Israel internet articles that particular terms commonly used in Arab-Israeli conflict discourse aren’t objective but Jewish homeland-delegitimizing pejoratives slanted against us.  Here are three examples this week:

*** AICE and Jewish Virtual Library Executive Director Mitchell Bard (Algemeiner, “Losing the Semantic War on Palestine,” 12/5/19):  “The most pernicious aspect of the reference to ‘Palestine’ is to create a false equivalency with the sovereign nation of Israel.”

***  Recent U.S. special representative for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt in opinion piece on CNN.com, 12/6/19:  “… in 2016, UNESCO tried to pretend that over 3,000 years of the Jewish people’s ties to Jerusalem did not exist, when its executive board voted in 2016 to refer to the Western Wall and Temple Mount only by their Muslim names.”  (CNN Editor’s Note:  “The views expressed in this commentary are his alone.”)

***  DePaul University Prof. Jason Hill in JNS article, “There Are NO Settlers on the West Bank,” 12/2/19: “… moral citizens of the world must begin a radical reversal of certain anti-Israel and anti-Jewry references to the so-called ‘settlers’ of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and what has been mistakenly referred to as ‘Occupied Territory.’”

All of Us Have to React To It All

Well and good, but this isn’t the domain of a few American pro-Israel organizational executive directors, U.S. special representatives, and university professors alone.  Nor is reacting to particular dirty words any longer any good.  Aggressively contesting the whole loaded lexicon of Jewish homeland delegitimizing terms and expressions that are in common use is the obligation of all self-respecting American Jews.

Delegitimizing  Israel’s1967 Gains Delegitimizes Those of 1948

It may seem at first look that the loaded lexicon of Jewish homeland delegitimizing pejoratives comes in two flavors: terms delegitimizing Israel’s attainments in 1967 and those delegitimizing those of 1948, i.e., Jewish homeland sovereignty altogether.  But the reality is that there’s no real difference because driving Israel back to the 1949 ceasefire lines – returning to Arab control Latrun, the steep slopes overlooking the road to Jerusalem, the Judea-Samaria hill country literally overlooking the nine miles wide coastal plain, Ammunition Hill, historic Jerusalem itself, the Jordan Valley, the defensible natural boundary of the Jordan River, embracing the Jordan Valley and hill country west of the Jordan River – would leave the resultant rump state of Israel militarily indefensible and Jewish homeland meaningless.

What makes the lack of any real difference between delegitimizing Israel’s 1967 and 1948 attainments so desperately significant for pro-Israel American Jews is that the American Jewish community and its main institutions, against the strong view of Israelis themselves, officiously support just such a “two-state solution,” existential danger to Israel and forfeiting of the Jewishness heart of the homeland and all.

Answering Back

It has to be fought.  We have on our website, www.factsonisrael.com, three sections – A-Z Facts, Toxic Terms and Dirty Words – enumerating many many Jewish homeland delegitimizing terms, explaining the sometimes subtle undermining of our homeland they do, and suggesting objective historically-grounded alternatives.  Go see.  (And take a look too at our Videos, including “10 Misleading Media Expressions.”  We’ll come give these Powerpoint talks – c. 45 minutes + Q&A) at no charge to your group.)

But the plea we make to you today is for you to have zero tolerance for the entire lexicon of Jewish homeland-delegitimizing poisoned pejoratives.  Resolutely call out, not least those on our side, who, e.g., mistakenly or maliciously call

*  Judea-Samaria “the West Bank”

*  the heart-of-the-Jewish-homeland historic Jerusalem “East Jerusalem”

*  the old 1967 war-obliterated 1949 ceasefire lines “the 1967 borders”

*  Judea-Samaria’s and historic Jerusalem’s 1967 liberation (not “occupation”) “their capture by Israel in 1967,” as though there were no prior 3,000-year Jewish connection

* Jewish communities in historic Jerusalem and Judea-Samaria “settlements” (often in pointed contradistinction to nearby “Palestinian neighborhoods … towns … villages”)

*  Israel’s 1948 reattainment of sovereignty as “Israel’s 1948 creation/founding,” as though historically baseless and artificial

*  the 1948 Arab invasion for Israel’s destruction “the war that followed Israel’s creation”

*  the conflict’s two-sided refugee issue “the Palestinian refugee issue”

*  Palestinian Arabs “THE Palestinians,” as though as though there’s no Jewish equity in “Palestine” and “Palestinian,” etc., etc.

But beyond assailing the dirty words, be forthright and uncompromising

*  that biblical and post-biblical Jewish homeland history happened, that we weren’t “exiled” but never left, that today’s Israel is the land of Israel’s next native state after Roman-destroyed Jewish Judaea; and

*  that the Palestine Mandate provided for reconstituting in Palestine the Jewish national home; that the excision from the Mandate of 78% as Arab Jordan constituted an equitable-to-Arabs division of Palestine between Arabs and Jews; and that Palestinian Arabs not being in charge of Palestinian Arab majority Jordan is to be resolved in that first division’s 78% of Palestine awarded to Arabs, not by again dividing between Arabs and Jews that first division’s 22% left for the Jews.

Today’s Delegitimizing Attacks Come From Without and Within

But here’s what we’re up against:

*  The UN and EU are on record, the EU just last month, that Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem are “occupied Palestinian territory.”

*  One hundred and seven Democratic members of the U.S. Congress’ House of Representatives, some of them Jewish, just wrote to the U.S. Secretary of State, protesting his declaring that Israeli “settlements” are not per se against international law.

*  The American Reform and Conservative religious movements this year called on the American President to seek restoration of “the 1967 borders.”  AIPAC has succumbed to “the two-state solution.”

*  This Friday, 12/6/19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution, 226 vs 188, favoring “the two-state solution.”  Jewish Press, “US House of Representatives Passes Resolution Reaffirming Support for Two-State Solution,” 12/7/19:  “Ahead of the vote, the Zionist Organization of America stated that the resolution calls for what it believes will be ‘a new Arab terrorist state on Israel’s border on historically Jewish land.’…. J Street … supported the outcome.  ‘With this vote the majority of the lawmakers have rejected the Trump administration’s embrace of the Israeli settlement movement’s agenda, which undermines U.S. interests, imperils Israel’s future and tramples on Palestinian rights,’ said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami.”

Being Silent Is No Longer an Option

If you’re an American Jew who believes we Jews are not “settlers” in Judea-Samaria and historic Jerusalem, areas of the land of Israel to which Jews are the indigenous people, not “trampling on Palestinian rights,” being silent is no longer an option.  Use historically correct terminology and sharply criticize those who don’t.