In 2022, UNRWA raised $1.175 billion, quite a haul. Of that money, $751 million came from designated programs while the balance was raised in emergency appeals.
The biggest donors by far were western countries, seemingly overcome with guilt that Palestinian Arabs haven’t been successful yet in destroying Israel.
Country
2022 Contribution
$ per Citizen
United States
$344 million
$1.01
Germany
$202 million
$2.43
European Union
$114 million
Sweden
$61 million
$5.87
Norway
$34 million
$6.30
Japan
$30 million
$0.24
France
$29 million
$0.43
Saudi Arabia
$27 million
$0.75
Switzerland
$26 million
$2.99
Turkey
$25 million
$0.29
Top 10 donors to UNRWA in 2022
The Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden were by far the most drawn to UNRWA. Not only were they among the top ten donor countries, they far exceeded all countries on a per capita contribution – 20 times as much at Turkey.
There were only two Muslim countries in the top 10 donors, one of which isn’t Arab. Despite the trillions of petrol dollars coming from the Gulf, most countries couldn’t be bothered with sending money to UNRWA.
Some of the largest Muslim countries in the world – Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia – gave a grand total of $459,000. The total population of those four countries is 708.2 million, meaning each person gave UNRWA an average of $0.0006. Egypt, abutting Gaza with about 85 million Muslims, didn’t send a single dollar.
Consider the countries hosting UNRWA facilities including Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and “Palestine” which is not recognized by most of UNRWA’s major donors. Each only contributed “in-kind,” essentially meaning giving office space to UNRWA for free.
It’s not as though Iran doesn’t give money to Palestinians, or Qatar limits its funding to the $10.5 million it contributed in 2022. It just sends the money directly to the political-terrorist group Hamas without the pitstop at the UN.
While the United Nations might sound global, it’s funded by western democracies while serving the “global South” and agendas of dictatorships and Islamic regimes (DIRs), including 50 Muslim-majority countries. Those DIRs channel western dupes’ monies to their causes via the UN, while simultaneously directly funding the more radical parts of their agendas.
The western world is complicit in funding the fungible farce. While it knows full well that Palestinians favor terrorism and want the destruction of Israel, it sends “humanitarian” money for education and health services through the United Nations, knowing that the military component is funded directly by DIRs.
When the congressional hearing about antisemitism at universities asked three university presidents whether they believed that Israel has a right to exist, they all answered in the affirmative, either believing so or feeling the pressure to state that they did. In fact, these educational leaders should have known that NO country has an inherent right to exist.
Not Turkey, not Colombia, not Japan and not Israel.
Countries have rights to secure borders and other matters, however there is nothing inherent that they must exist or that such existence cannot be dissolved.
For example, did Yugoslavia have a right to exist and does Macedonia have such right now? Did South Sudan have a right to a country before its creation? Do the Kurds have a right to a new Kurdistan in eastern Turkey together with sections of Iraq and Syria? Countries may opt to break apart into more regional tribal countries as was the case of Yugoslavia, or merge for particular political, demographic or ethnic reasons like Egypt and Syria in 1958.
But there is no inalienable right for any country to exist.
PEOPLE have a right to self-determination. Every person should be allowed to have citizenship in a country, participate in elections and have freedom of speech, religion and movement within such country as basic human rights.
It was a missed opportunity for the university presidents to educate the world on some fundamental realities but their failures were so profound, that this one was minor, especially in failing to clearly denounce repulsive calls for the genocide of Jews.
A more nuanced and interesting question is whether a country SHOULD exist. Does a country have a sound moral basis, a common sense of community and purpose? Does it have a functioning judicial system and ability and desire to govern and be governed? Is it willing to live at peace with its neighbors?
Israel meets every criteria. It has built a thriving economy and a liberal democracy in the heart of the illiberal Middle East. It has worked to forge peace agreements and engage in trade with its neighbors.
And even more, Israel built a safe haven for the most persecuted people in the world in their ancestral homeland. In their holy land. In their Promised Land.
Morning over Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan (photo: First One Through)
The answer is not clearcut regarding a Palestinian state.
The most compelling argument for a State of Palestine is that the Palestinians are stateless, Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs). They should have self-determination and citizenship somewhere, whether in their own country or others like Jordan and Egypt. Many of the Palestinians have lived in the area for generations and share a language and culture, and can either unify in a single entity or be part of other Muslim Arab countries nearby.
There are many arguments against Palestinians having a country. They have consistently favored killing civilians in Israel next door and celebrate their sadistic slaughter. They have spent time and resources devoted to building a terrorist infrastructure rather than an economy. They focus their education on demonizing Jews and the destruction of Israel. On a basic political front, they have been unable to reconcile between the two dominant political factions and territories.
The United Nations continues to push for a new Palestinian State, perhaps to balance supporting Israel’s creation in 1948. In the November 1974 General Assembly Resolution 3236 (XXIX), the UN claimed that Palestinians had “The right to national independence and sovereignty;” which is a bold falsehood as described above. No nation has such right and it is highly questionable as to whether Palestinians should have a country.
While no country has an inherent right to exist, the only country which SHOULD definitely exist is the Jewish State of Israel.
Gaza is a crowded mess and there are two proposals for “voluntary emigration” which are getting vastly different reactions.
Situation In Gaza
The population of Gaza is roughly 2.1 million people, all Arabs, almost 99% of whom are Muslim. Roughly 39.8% of the population is under 14 years old, making it one of the youngest geographies in the world, with less than 3% of the Strip over 65 years old. The median age of 19.2 years old ranks it at #209 out of 227 areas scored by the World Fact Book. By way of comparison, the median age in Israel is 30.1, in USA 38.5, and 40.6 in the United Kingdom.
The US-designated foreign terrorist group Hamas exclusively governs Gaza since 2007. That means that roughly half of the Gaza Strip has only known the rule of a fanatical Islamist group committed to killing Jews and the destruction of the Jewish State next door. Fighters, typically aged 18-24, have known almost nothing other than Hamas and its mission.
As of 2022, UNRWA provided services to nearly 1.8 million people in Gaza, or about 83% of the population. It manages most of the schools in the Strip, many of which openly call for killing Jews and destroying Israel according to reports from IMPACT-SE. The report also covers that “13 UNRWA staff members have publicly praised, celebrated or expressed their support for the unprecedented deadly assaults on civilians [in Israel] on 7 October.”
Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Proposal Condemned
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said “a small country like ours cannot afford a reality where four minutes away from our communities there is a hotbed of hatred and terrorism, where two million people wake up every morning with aspiration for the destruction of the State of Israel and with a desire to slaughter and rape and murder Jews wherever they are.” As such, he expressed his support for encouraging “voluntary emigration” of the Strip’s population to other countries as part of his postwar vision.
The reaction to Smotrich’s proposal was quick. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller labeled the suggestion as “inflammatory and irresponsible.” The New York Times reported that France and Germany had similar reactions.
United Nations’ Proposal Embraced
The United Nations also has a plan for Gaza. It involves the voluntary emigration of roughly 1.8 million Gazans for whom UNRWA provides services to relocate to Israel. It makes this proposal – still to this very day – as part of UN Resolution 194 which was passed in December 1948, over 75 years ago while the Israeli War of Independence was still being waged.
The proposal has long since passed its expiry date but dozens of Islamic and Arab countries, as well as the United Nations itself, keep on trying to breathe life into an idea to massively move over 80% of the population of Gaza – the majority of whom want to kill Jews – into Israel to extinguish the Jewish State.
Several Western countries and members of the progressive media were appalled that two members of the Israeli parliament suggested a “voluntary emigration” of Gazans to various countries but simultaneously embrace such emigration to Israel. It’s a peculiar mix of anti-Zionism and hypocrisy which seems very prevalent in these dark days.
On November 15, 1988, Palestine declared itself a brand new country, “an Arab state, an integral and indivisible part of the Arab nation”, “with its capital Jerusalem (Al-Quds Ash-Sharif).” The government of Israel worked to solidify the contours of such state during the Oslo Accords which came crashing down in September 2000.
The Palestinian territories have various stand-alone armies and militias including Hamas and Islamic Jihad
There is no functioning central government, as the west bank of the Jordan River/ east of the Green Line (EGL) and Gaza strip are administered independently, by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, respectively
Internal fighting, as witnessed in the 2007 rout of the PA by Hamas forces in Gaza, and various extrajudicial killings between those parties have continued since then
There is no border integrity as bedlam prevails in Gaza, Sinai and Israeli towns near the border of Gaza, highlighted by the October 7, 2023 massacre launched by Hamas into Israel
Lack of functioning economy and widespread unemployment due to the extremely high percentage of people under 25 years old and constant focus on destroying Israel rather than building an economy
No presidential or legislative elections, as they were suspended due to the splits mentioned above. The presidential election was last held in 2005 and PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s four-year term expired in 2009
Pervasive corruption of “ruling” elites angering the Palestinian Arab population nominally under PA control
The failed economy and security as well as gross mismanagement have led to the complete illegitimacy of the government
Failed states like Palestine are a danger to their populations and surrounding countries. They are safe havens for terrorist groups, illegal drug and weapons trades, and disease. October 7, 2023 highlighted the destructive carnage such failed states can inflict on neighboring countries.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace believes that the pathway to stability must begin with security, that is, a single government with one army. “The most important manifestations of state failure are the breakdown of internal security and the increasing inability of the state to control borders and territory and to exert its monopoly on the use of force. Interventions to prevent the failure of states at risk should focus more narrowly on restoring the state’s capacity to perform these tasks.” The dozens of rogue armed terrorist groups roaming Gaza and Areas A and B east of the Green Line (EGL) must be disbanded and disarmed.
The current war to eliminate Hamas in Gaza should include a pathway to dismantle all the terrorist groups.
Whether the experiment of a Palestinian State has proven a terrible failure not to be repeated, or whether new models for Arab self-determination should be explored, the critical dynamic now is “security first.” The world must support a complete dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure in Palestinian territories. Plans for the “day after” that do not incorporate security first are doomed, regardless of approach.
The media and United Nations are partially culpable for the current violence in the Middle East as they have been deliberately lying to the people in the region and the world.
Let’s speak honestly about the situation.
LIE: Palestinians are in favor of two states. So claims Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. It is simply untrue, as shown in repeated Palestinian polls.
LIE: Israelis are storming al Aqsa. This is repeated in Palestinian media to incite the Muslim world to attack Jews. It is plainly false unless a person can call a handful of Jews walking around the Temple Mount during regular visiting hours – nowhere near the al Aqsa Mosque – some kind of ‘storming’.
LIE: The al Aqsa Mosque Compound / Temple Mount is only holy for Muslims. This piece of fiction is repeated frequently in Muslim capitals around the world. But it’s also said at the United Nations, which marked the holiest site for Jews as purely a Muslim site in official maps.
LIE: Gazans want the more moderate Palestinian Authority as the government, not Hamas. A wishful sentiment and complete lie, as shown in repeated polls. Hamas controls 58% of the parliament and would win presidential elections if held now. Even James Zogby of the Arab American Institute bemoaned the “deformity of Palestinian culture” which favors violence, when he addressed the United Nations in June 2023, while The New York Times falsely states otherwise.
LIE: Settlers are more dangerous than Palestinian Arabs. So said Wennesland before the October massacre when he addressed the United Nations Security Council. But his own figures show that Palestinians killed FIVE TIMES more Israelis than Israeli ‘settlers’ killing Palestinians in the second quarter of 2023, and 2.5 times as many in the first quarter of 2023.
LIE: The Israeli government is more extreme and right-wing than Hamas and Fatah. The media repeatedly inserts a narrative that the current Israeli government is the most right-wing ever and that one minister had a photo of Baruch Goldstein, a murderer of 29 people, in his house. But the media NEVER informs readers that Hamas is a terrorist group with a genocidal jihadi charter calling for the death of Jews and destruction of Israel. It does not mention the dozens of Palestinian schools, squares and tournaments named after mass murderers of Jews. It does not mention that the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is a holocaust denier.
LIE: Gaza is an open air prison. The reality is that Gaza is a terrorist safe haven in which Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and many other terrorist groups train and plan terrorist attacks.
LIE: The Palestinians are ready to make peace. Not only do Palestinians not favor a two state solution, they cannot even make peace between themselves. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are severed. Hamas and Fatah cannot agree to any power-sharing arrangement. Palestinians have been unable to have a vote since 2006. And the current president is viewed as so corrupt and ineffective that any agreement he would theoretically sign with Israel would be worthless on the Palestinian street.
LIE: ‘East Jerusalem’ is Occupied Palestinian Land. While people may argue whether the ‘West Bank’ and Gaza are occupied Palestinian land, there is no scenario in which anyone can claim the eastern portion of Jerusalem, including the Old City was ever Palestinian. It wasn’t earmarked to be Palestinian in the 1947 Partition Plan which never took place, was illegally annexed by Jordan from 1950 to 1967, and part of Israel since that time. The place ‘East Jerusalem‘ only existed from 1949 to 1967, nineteen years in the city’s 4,000 year history.
LIE: Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem are stateless. Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem got resident status when Israel formally annexed the eastern part of the city and reunited it in 1980. Palestinians can apply for Israeli citizenship and thousands already have become Israelis.
LIE: Israel is an apartheid state. Israel enables all citizens to vote, become part of the government, own real estate, attend schools, and more. Israel is the most liberal country for 1,000 miles in any direction. That is in sharp contrast to the Palestinian Authority that is a truly apartheid and antisemitic entity that wishes to have a country free of any Jews.
LIE: Israel engaged in ethnic cleansing of Arabs. Israel gave all people in the land citizenship when it declared statehood in 1948, including non-Jews. The population of Arabs in both Jerusalem and all of Israel has grown more than Jews in Jerusalem and Israel, respectively, and also more than Arabs in neighboring countries. It was Jordan that ethnically cleansed all Jews from eastern Israel and eastern Jerusalem in what became known as the Jew-free “West Bank.”
LIE: Israel wants to take over the entire region. The halls of the United Nations are crowded with “intellectuals” who say “The Zionist idea to dominate the area from the Nile to the Euphrates, is well known,” making the Jews look greedy in taking “Arab land,” as portrayed in the New York Times. It is simply untrue, as proved by Israel giving up land to Egypt, Palestinian Authority and Jordan, while all Israel sought in exchange was peace.
LIE: Jews lived very well in Muslim lands and they just chose to immigrate to Israel once it was founded. Jews survived as second class dhimmis in Arab lands for centuries, paying a special jizyah, non-Muslim tax. After Israel was founded, Arab nationalism swept the region and antisemitic laws and pogroms forced roughly 1 million Jews to flee the homes they had in Muslim lands. The New York Times shares a very different narrative.
LIE: Only Arabs are indigenous to the holy land.The New York Times will try to instill that only Arabs are indigenous to the holy land. The fact is that while many Arabs came to the region in the seventh and eighth centuries, Jews have been in the land for over 3,000 years. Jews are the only people to establish their kingdom and capital there. Judaism is the only religion that is specifically tied to a land – the land of Israel. Further, while many Jews came to the land between 1920 and 1948, there were more Muslims that entered the land under the British than Jews.
LIE: Israel is a European colony. So says college professors parroting an Arab narrative. The fact is that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel and the British didn’t send any citizens to settle the land, they simply facilitated Jewish immigration to their homeland.
LIE: The United Nations and UNRWA are impartial and just providing assistance to “refugees.” The UN has adopted Palestinians as its permanent wards as has devoted numerous distinct agencies, like UNRWA, and resolutions for this particular group.
LIE: Gazans and West Bank Arabs are “refugees”. The world bemoans the status of millions of “refugees” who are simply not, and never were, refugees. These people live in the same land with the same people with the same language and culture just a few miles from where grandparents used to live. They have self-determination. At best, one can refer to them as descendants of internally-displaced people.
LIE: The current violence is because Hamas and Iran want to derail the Saudi Arabian – Israeli normalization. The October massacre was over a year in the making and pre-dated the aggressive discussions of normalization. The horrible truth is that the United States allowed Iran to reach the point of being nuclear weapons capable, so now feels compelled to give Saudi Arabia nuclear power to balance the arms race in the Middle East. As a condition for the U.S. giving the Saudis nuclear power, the Americans are insisting on normalizing relations with Israel. This is a war that is much more about Iranian and Saudi nuclear ambitions, not that Iran is upset about a normalization agreement between Israel and KSA.
LIE: Hamas is a “resistance movement”. Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. It “resists” Jewish presence in the Middle East. Palestinians support its mission, if not always its tactics.
LIE: Israel deliberately targets civilians.Israel takes more precautions than any other fighting force to limit civilian casualties. It drops leaflets to get people to move and calls their cellphones. It has dummy rockets that “knock” on the roof a minute before an armed missile hits a building to allow people to leave. It gives time for civilians to move out of the fighting area. But Hamas and its suporters encourage the civilians to stay putting them in harm’s way. Hamas builds its terrorist infrastructure and shoots rockets from mosques and schools. And Hamas brutally focuses on civilians for torture, butchering small children and burning families alive.
The list of lies goes on.
The effect of all these lies is a twisted idea of reality. It produces a fictional narrative that Palestinians are moderate and really support a two-state solution but the right-wing Israeli government is blocking it. The Israelis are racists who are trying to take over Palestinian land as they covet the entire region. First the Jews stole the land from Arabs as a colonial power, subjugated and ethnically-cleansed them from the land, and they continue to try to steal more, as they brutalize the local Arab population in an “ongoing Nakba“.
In reality, it is Palestinian Arabs who refuse to accept a Jewish State in the region. They rejected it in 1947, 1948, 1967, 2000, 2008 and every day. They want the entire region to be dominated by Muslim Arabs and support the killing of Jews until they “liberate” the land “from the River to the Sea.” Israel does its best to protect itself from the genocidal neighbors next door.
People are realizing that students on college campuses have been misinformed and indoctrinated about the Arab-Israeli conflict, but so has the world. We must all confront the false narratives about the conflict so we can honestly pursue a better future.
Wennesland posted two statements right before and immediately after the gruesome October 7 slaughter of over 1,000 Israelis. A comparison is illustrative.
After Israelis in the West Bank attacked the city of Huwwara where Palestinian Arabs have killed many Israelis, he condemned the “attack by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property,” adding that he was “outraged by the continued incitement, provocations and lack of accountability for these violent crimes.” With one Palestinian dead, Wennesland demanded that “Israel must ensure that the [Palestinian Arab] civilian population is protected, and the [Israeli] perpetrators are held to account.”
Some hours later, over 1,000 Palestinian Arabs invaded Israel and butchered over 1,000 Israelis in a grisly unprovoked attack. Wennesland’s short statement said so much and so little.
“I vehemently condemn this morning’s multi-front assault against Israeli towns and cities near the Gaza Strip, and barrage of rockets reaching across central Israel by Hamas militants.
“These events have resulted in horrific scenes of violence and many Israeli fatalities and injuries, with many believed to be kidnapped inside the Strip. These are heinous attacks targeting civilians and must stop immediately.
“I am deeply concerned for the well-being of all civilians. I am in close contact with all concerned to urge maximum restraint and call on all sides to protect civilians.
This is a dangerous precipice and I appeal to all to pull back from the brink.“
Matter
1 Palestinians killed in response to attack
1,000+ Israelis killed in unprovoked massacre
Condemnation
“condemn”
“vehemently condemn”
Attack
“Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property”
“horrific scenes of violence… heinous attacks targeting civilians and must stop immediately”
Outrage
“continued incitement, provocations, and lack of accountability for these violent crimes“
N/A
Concern
“[Palestinian] civilians”
“all civilians”
Action urged
“hold perpetrators accountable“
“maximum restraint“
Comparing the two incidents is like comparing a parking ticket to a multi-vehicle crash, facts which were clearly known to Wennesland. Yet he could not call out the “continued incitement, provocations and lack of accountability” for Palestinian Arabs who butchered people. He voiced his concern about Palestinians when one Arab was killed but was suddenly concerned for “all civilians” when hundreds upon hundreds of Israelis were tortured.
Most tellingly, the United Nations Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace only called for Israelis to be held accountable, but urged Israel to show “maximum restraint” and not pursue an entire Palestinian terrorist infrastructure that launched a war.
The United Nations has never been concerned about Middle East Peace, only the formation of a Palestinian State – even at the very moment when Palestinian Arabs clearly demonstrated to the world that they most definitely do not deserve one.
ACTION ITEM
Write US Ambassador to United Nations “Demand all Israeli hostages be returned and members of Hamas hand themselves over to Israel for prosecution for their heinous attack on over 1,000 civilians.”
The current estimated population of Gaza is about 2.25 million people, all Arab. Of that number, 1.8 million (80%) are wards of UNRWA, with a fraction being over 75 years old whom can claim to be refugees or internally displaced people, if one considers that Palestine included Gaza in 1948.
Approximately 25,000 belong to Hamas and thousands of others belong to other terrorist groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The newest anti-Zionist terrorist groups to emerge over the past two years have been in Area A of the West Bank, controlled by the Palestinian Authority. They include Lion’s Den, Jenin Brigades and Tulkarm Brigades. They have been getting most of the attention of the Israeli Defense Forces as intelligence showed that they were planning and committing attacks. It’s possible that they were diversions to draw the IDF attention away from the terrorist groups in Gaza as they prepared for a major invasion.
As the IDF prepares to pursue ‘maximum justice‘ for Hamas for the heinous October 7 slaughter of civilians going about their everyday lives, the Israeli government needs to assess how far to pursue such ends to make sure that no such attack emerges from Gaza again.
To take out every member of Hamas would mean killing 25,000 terrorists, a huge figure. But they are only part of the area’s terrorist infrastructure. There may be as many as 10,000 other terrorists belonging to the other groups.
While Hamas gets funding and support from Iran, Turkey, Qatar and Sudan, it also has broad local support. An estimated 1.5 million people (67% of the population) in Gaza support the group and its goal of killing Jews inside of Israel according to recent Palestinian polls.
While it is abhorrent to realize that so many Palestinian Arabs actively support terrorism, can the Israeli government really consider wiping out 1.5 million people who want to kill Jews next door? If it would entertain such idea, the approach of sending in ground troops into Gaza where many soldiers will be killed would be insane. It would be easier to pound the region into submission from the air.
Israel makes efforts to minimize the loss of life of Arab civilians during such conflicts based on inside intelligence about where terrorists are located. However, based on the colossal failure of Israeli intelligence to foresee the October 7 massacre, it is doubtful that Israel’s operatives can be relied upon to pinpoint the terrorists.
Which leaves the question of what constitutes “crushing” Hamas so that the group essentially ceases to operate? All 25,000 terrorists in the group? 35,000 including the other terrorist groups? 1.5 million people?
It is likely that the Israeli government is trying to figure this out while it begins to hit the known Hamas locations in the war’s early days. Unfortunately, many Arab civilians have been killed – some who are part of the 1.5 million terrorist supporters and some of the 750,000 civil Arabs who are willing to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors.
One approach to minimize a horrible death toll would be for Hamas leadership and the 1,500 October 7 butchers to hand themselves over to Israel to spare fellow Arabs. I’m sure if they would agree, future bloodshed could be averted.
Assuming that Hamas remains consistent that they are in a war of liberation and will continue to fight and try to kill as many Israeli as possible, it is likely that the entire Hamas leadership and at least half of the group will need to be eliminated to end the jihadi dream of destroying Israel, roughly 12,500 people. When considering the number of civilians that will likely be killed alongside the terrorists, the total Arab dead may be 20,000 before the Palestinians relent and surrender to calm.
Before the “fog of war” sets in during battle, commanders set out their mission with some particular metrics. Hamas’s goal was to slaughter as many Jews as possible as deep into Israel as they could reach. They succeeded beyond their dreams.
Now is the time for Israel to map out its goals, before the cacophony of resolutions derail it from its aims.
During August and September 2023, Palestinian Arab propaganda was in full display on social media feeds. The messaging – targeted to Zionists – was clear that they believe all of Israel is “occupied Palestine” and that the physical presence of Jews in Jerusalem is a grave assault to their senses.
Israel is Occupied Palestine
Israeli cities like Acre, Jaffa, Nazareth, Jerusalem and Haifa were promoted as part-and-parcel of Palestine in ads popping up in social media feeds like Facebook.
The ads, some of which were made in 2022, were promoted from a variety of sources including Quds News Network, The Inside – Palestine, DOP (Days of Palestine), Olive Palestine, Palestine and others.
Jews in Jerusalem Going About Daily Life Is An Aggravated Assault To Arabs
The advertisements in Facebook also featured Jews in Jerusalem enjoying their holiest city. However, the narrative accompanying the text made the Jews seemingly appear as violent, even when it was clear that they were doing nothing.
All Jews are described as “settlers” whether they lived east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49) or not. It says that they “stormed al Aqsa Mosque” even when the pictures show that they were just walking around and not in the mosque. It even condemned some young boys dancing in the Old City of Jerusalem away from the Temple Mount as “a provocative march.”
Israel Will Be Destroyed. Soon
The messaging of the ads could not be clearer. The State of Israel is not only occupying historic Palestine; it is about to come to and end.
The majority of Palestinians believe this to be true. The June 2023 poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research noted that “two-thirds [of Palestinian Arabs] say Israel will not celebrate the centenary of its establishment [within 25 years], and the majority believes that the Palestinian people will be able in the future to recover Palestine and return its refugees to their homes.”
Palestinian Arabs believe that the War of Liberation has begun, and were telling Zionists that this day is approaching for the past few months.
The latest quarterly Palestinian poll came out on September 13, 2023, which repeated commonly heard Palestinian attitudes about their disgust with their leadership and wanting to kill Jews. A deeper look at the trends related to an open-ended question reveals a disturbing reality.
When asked about the most important issue for Palestinians to address, the goal of “ending the occupation and establishing a new Palestinian state” was always the number one choice. The second most important issue has consistently been getting the “right of return” to move into towns in Israel.
A look at the trendline since 2011 shows a significant erosion of those seeking to form a new Palestinian State. In September 2011, 59% of Palestinian Arabs said that ending Israeli rule in the “West Bank” and Gaza was the top priority with only 24% considering a right of return to Israel as the main goal. That 35% gap shrunk by nearly half to 18% by September 2015 and by nearly half again in September 2018 when there was a 10% difference. Now the gap stands at a mere 7%.
The decline is virtually completely from a drop in enthusiasm for a new Palestinian State. The desire for a “right to return” to Israel has stayed virtually constant.
Not surprisingly based on the above, the opposition to a two state solution now stands at 67%.Opposition reached these elevated levels in early 2021, after a more modest opposition of 26% of Gazans and 40% of West Bank Arabs in December 2020.
It should not come as a surprise that Palestinians have come to oppose this Palestinian State. They view the leadership as terribly corrupt, with 78% wanting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to reign. The man has refused to hold elections and will soon start the 19th year of his four year-term.
This latest poll also asked about the Oslo Accords, now reaching its 30th anniversary. Today, 68% of Palestinian think Oslo harmed Palestinian interests and 71% think it was a mistake to sign them. A majority of 63% wants the PA to now abandon the accords completely.
These various responses reflect a new reality: Palestinians are done pursuing a peace agreement with Israel in search of a new corrupt Palestinian State. They have begun to prioritize the goal of moving to Israel, and taking over the Jewish State. It’s why Palestinian leaders are no longer shy condemning the ‘Judaization’ of Israel itself, and not just Jerusalem. They have called the entirety of the Jewish State a “painful settlement” in what they perceive of as purely “Arab land.”
The spike in Palestinian Arab violence since the beginning of 2021 is no longer about “resisting the occupation” and establishing an Arab State in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians are launching a war for Israel itself, as it considers the Nakba a living reality and not a moment in history in 1948. They have convinced themselves that Israel will soon cease to exist, and have set their sites on the bigger prize – from the river to the sea.
The United Nations General Assembly is getting ready to welcome foreign leaders this month. In advance of the New York gathering, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President(-for Life) Mahmoud Abbas yesterday.
Blinken’s call to Netanyahu revolved around four principle elements: working together on “bilateral partnerships”; commitment to Israel’s security including dealing with Iran; integration into the region; and advancing a productive future with Palestinians. The call to Abbas focused on: “ongoing violence” in the region; quality of life for Palestinians; and a commitment for a “two-state solution.”
To Israel, Blinken mentioned a peaceful coexistence with Palestinians but he didn’t even mention the word “Israel” to the PA leader as he focused only Palestinians’ desire for a good quality of life. In addressing the Israeli leader, Blinken mentioned America’s commitment to Israel’s security but to the Palestinians, the Secretary of State simply mentioned concern about the violence without addressing who was committing and instigating the attacks and the U.S.’s determination to stand opposed to terror.
“President Mahmoud Abbas stressed, during the call, that what the Israeli occupation authorities and their forces and settlers who practice terrorism are doing contributes to undermining the two-state solution and destroys all chances of achieving peace, calling on the US administration to accept the State of Palestine’s endeavor to obtain full membership in the UN by a Security Council decision, and to end all sanctions imposed on the Palestinians due to US laws, and build normal relations between the US administration and the State of Palestine, including reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem and an office for Palestine in Washington, and restoring the direct aid program.
“On the other hand, President Abbas stressed the need to oblige the Israeli occupation authorities to stop all their aggressive practices and unilateral Israeli actions, adhere to the signed agreements, and focus on the political horizon.
“President Abbas stressed that the State of Palestine will continue its efforts at the UN level in order to obtain full membership in the UN, and implement the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative, by ending the Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine, with its capital, East Jerusalem, on the 1967 borders.”
While Abbas ranted about Israeli “terrorism’, Blinken seemingly opted to not mention the U.S.’s commitment to Israel’s security, and didn’t even mention “Israel” on the official call notes. Abbas told Blinken that he wanted Palestine to have full UN membership and the opening of political offices for the PA in the U.S., and Blinken avoided the topic and focused on Palestinians rather than the PA.
It is safe to assume that the United Nations General Assembly will continue to be a spectacle of disappointment as a parade of dictators and anti-Semites are given a global platform. Any real peace may be achieved in bilateral meetings held in restaurants and apartments away from the microphones.
