By David Singer ——Bio and Archives--July 13, 2020
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I am immensely proud of the UK's contribution to the birth of Israel with the 1917 Balfour Declaration. But it will remain unfinished business until there is a solution which provides justice and lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. The only way it can be achieved is for both sides to return to the negotiating table. That must be our goal. Annexation would only take us further away from it.Peace for both "Israelis" and "Palestinians"? Neither existed until 1948 and 1964.. There were only "Arabs" and "Jews" in 1917. The Arab residents of Palestine then comprised part of "the existing non-Jewish communities". Johnson seems apparently unaware that the "Palestinians":
"I have no doubt that the only viable solution to the conflict resembles the one first set down on paper by another Briton, Lord Peel, in the report of the Royal Commission on Palestine in 1937, and that is the vision of two states for two peoples."The Royal Commission was authorised by Royal Warrant dated August 7, 1936 which did not mention the "Palestinians" - only naming two parties--the "Arabs" and the "Jews"--not three - as disputants. The Peel Commission after a lengthy and detailed Inquiry concluded that:
"two sovereign independent States would be established - the one an Arab State, consisting of Trans-Jordan united with that part of Palestine which lies to the east and south of a frontier such as we suggest in [the map] below; the other a Jewish State consisting of that part of Palestine which lies to the north and west of that frontier."The Arabs rejected this decision. The Jews disputed the boundaries. Trans-Jordan in 1937 then comprised the remaining 78% of the Mandate territory closed by Britain to Jewish settlement under Article 25. Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria however was to be facilitated and encouraged under article 6. The PLO's outright refusal to negotiate with Israel on President Trump's Peace Plan strengthens Netanyahu's decision to restore Jewish sovereignty in 30% of Judea and Samaria after 3000 years. Johnson's hypocritical posturing should reinforce - not weaken--Netanyahu's resolve.
Author's note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones"- one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators-- whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog.
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David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com