Recognizing Palestine

If you’re keeping score, to date 138 states have recognized the ‘State of Palestine,” most recently Ireland, Norway, and Spain. This begs the question, what are they recognizing?

They have recognized a state that never existed, with a name never used before 1964, but whose national identity is that Israel “occupied” them in 1948. The first time the term Palestine was used was in the Second Century, over 100 years after Jesus was crucified, to subjugate and embarrass its indigenous people, the Jewish people, after a Jewish revolt to expel Rome from Judea. It is documented in the term Judea capta (Judea captured) which the Romans branded on their coins and architecture to document their conquering of the Land and its people.

Today’s Palestinian Arabs are a self-identifying mix of indigenous Arabs, and descendants of Arab immigrants from the Arabian peninsula, Egypt, and Syria.

Today’s “Palestine” is governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, a terrorist group which, along with Hamas, is dedicated to eradicating Israel, not coexistence. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is their genocidal anthem, calling for the destruction of Israel.

One must ask, if “Palestine” was ever independent and therefore occupied by Israel: who was its first king, president, emir, or prime minister? What is its currency? When is its independence day?

How is it possible that the PLO governs a territory that is not under its control, not because of Israel but because of Hamas expelling the PLO in 2007?

What are the “Palestinians” national past times? Celebrating terror, inciting hatred and violence, funding terrorists and their families with an obscene financial incentive known as “pay to slay.”

Why when its terrorists attack Israelis and Jews around the world, the “State of Palestine” is not brought to the International Court of Justice?

Why the double standard?

If we are going to recognize “Palestine,” we must recognize it for what it is: a divisive tool to pressure Israel; a “state” whose only response to multiple offers for actual independence has been violence and terror and death.

Before the PLO was established May 28, 1964, one would be hard pressed to find any mention of the “Palestinians,” referring to Arabs in the Land. Before 1948, “Palestinian” currency issued by the British, had Arabic, English, and Hebrew. Would a Palestinian Arab state, or any Arab or Islamic state, ever have Hebrew on its official currency?

Before 1948, the Palestine Philharmonic was a Jewish orchestra. As were “Palestinian” athletic teams that competed internationally. All Jewish. The daily “Palestine Post” was a Jewish publication. And when the British referred to Palestinians, they were referring to the Jewish population as there was no Palestinian Arab ethnicity recognized by anyone until then. My father was an actual Palestinian.

After creating the PLO and a people for it to represent, Palestinian Arab nationalism existed with the sole purpose of eliminating Israel and the Jewish people. The PLO also tried to unseat the artificial Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1970, the entity that sits on 70 percent of British Mandate “Palestine.” They made up a state to reward their Hashemite allies who hailed from Arabia. Even the PLO knew that this was a fake state. But after being squashed and butchered by the Hashemite army, with more casualties in a month than Hamas claims today in Gaza after eight months, they retreated, were expelled, and set their sights only on Israel.

In the Oslo Accords, PLO leader Yasser Arafat publicly recognized Israel’s right to exist and renounced “terrorism and other acts of violence” against Israel. Yet practically, the PLO continued to engage in terrorism, and initiated the infamous “Pay to Slay” program, providing hefty pensions for Palestinian Arab terrorists and their families. This represents millions of dollars in the Palestinian Authority’s annual budget, and is subsidized by foreign contributions to the PA. In October 2018, the PLO suspended its recognition of Israel, and doubled down on the funding of terrorism.

This is the “Palestine” the world should recognize. Yes, there are several million people who identify as “Palestinians” today, a reality that will not change. There needs to be a resolution where they will hopefully, one day, choose to live in peace with Israel, truly renounce and stop inciting terror even among their children as young as pre-school, and live prosperously. But the solution is not to recognize a “State of Palestine” blind to this reality, as a slap to Israel, or thinking in any way that doing so without the Palestinian Arabs having to negotiate and aspire to peace rather than an endless genocidal war, will bring peace closer. It won’t. It only emboldens the terrorists.

Alternatively, if the world actually recognizes the “State of Palestine” against which it claims Israel is committing acts of war and genocide, and which 138 states that have recognized “Palestine” as an actual legitimate entity, it’s high time that “Palestine” be held to the same accountability as Israel, or any other state. As such, acts of terror that are inspired by, celebrated in, and funded from the “State of Palestine,” constitute actual war crimes and genocide. “Palestine’s” leaders should have arrest warrants against them. They should be brought to trial, individually and nationally.

The world’s double standards are profound. In calling for a “two state solution” nobody is demanding that “Palestine” be democratic. “Palestine” is an anti-democratic kleptocracy that has not seen even a fake election in nearly two decades, and the last time they had an election, Hamas became the parliamentary majority. The vast majority of “Palestinians” support the genocidal Islamist Hamas, according to their own polls, the same Hamas that slaughtered PLO leaders in Gaza, and then held all Gazans hostage.

This is the “Palestine” to recognize.

Jonathan Feldstein is president of the Genesis 123 Foundation and RunforZion.com, building bridges between Jews and Christians. He is the host of the “Inspiration from Zion” podcast, and editor of the forthcoming book “Israel the Miracle.” He and his family made moved to Israel in 2004. He can be reached at FirstPersonIsrael@gmail.com.