February 1, 2020
The Intercept

The Erasure of Palestinians From Trump's Mideast "Peace Plan" Has A Hundred-Year History

by Rashid Khalidi

Whatever the merits of Zionism, Yusuf Diya wrote, the "brutal force of circumstances had to be taken into account." Palestine "is inhabited by others." It had an Indigenous population that would never accept being superseded, making it "pure folly" for Zionism to plan to take Palestine over. "Nothing could be more just and equitable" than for "the unhappy Jewish nation" to find a refuge elsewhere, but, he concluded, "in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone."

Herzl replied -- and quickly, in a letter on March 19. His letter was probably the first response by a leader of the Zionist movement to a cogent Palestinian objection to its embryonic plans for Palestine. Herzl simply ignored the letter's basic thesis, that Palestine was already inhabited by a population that would not agree to be supplanted. Although Herzl had visited Palestine once, in an 1898 visit timed to coincide with that of German Kaiser Wilhelm II, he (like most early European Zionists) had not much knowledge of or contact with its native inhabitants.

Glossing over the fact that Zionism was ultimately meant to lead to Jewish control of Palestine, Herzl deployed a justification that has been a touchstone for colonialists and that would become a staple argument of the Zionist movement: Jewish immigration would benefit Palestine's Indigenous inhabitants. . . .

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IF AMERICANS KNEW - What every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine

TRUMP'S 'DEAL OF THE CENTURY' 100 YEARS IN DEVELOPMENT

Zionist leaders decades-long calls for peace:

"Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."--Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.

"We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not...You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world."--Chaim Weizmann, Published in "Judische Rundschau," No. 4, 1920

"The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war."--Israeli General Matityahu Peled, Ha'aretz, March 19, 1972

"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."--Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of July 14,1972.

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."--Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum," April 1976

"We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai."--David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

"We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'"--Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, October 23, 1979.

"We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours."--Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot, April 13, 1983, New York Times April 14, 1983

"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle."--Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, April 14, 1983

"We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves."--Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983

"The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls."--Isreali Prime Minister (at the time, in a speech to Jewish settlers) New York Times, April 1, 1988

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."--Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

"A Greater Israel?," The Wisdom Fund, November 5, 2013

Alison Weir, Against Our Better Judgment, National Press Club, March 7, 2014

"Genocide in Gaza," The Wisdom Fund, July 9, 2014

Gideon Levy, Two-State Solution Debate, OxfordUnion, June 26, 2016

"UN rejects US deal of the century," middleeastmonitor.com, January 29, 2020

Jonathon Cook, "Trump's 'deal of the century' won't bring peace -- that was the plan," jonathan-cook.net, January 29, 2020

Morgan Hekking, "OIC Rejects Trump's 'Deal of the Century'," jonathan-cook.net, February 3, 2020

[More than 700 General Assembly resolutions and more than 100 Security Council resolutions later, . . . no solution was in sight.--Thierry Meyssan, "The deal of the century'," voltairenet.org, February 4, 2020]

Colonial war on Palestine with Rashid Khalidi, On Contact, May 2, 2020

"What the Palestinians Think of the Israel-UAE 'Deal'," consortiumnews, August 17, 2020

[Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has implemented the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski strategy aimed at adapting the US army to the needs of a new form of capitalism based no longer on the production of goods and services, but on financial engineering. To do this, they began an "endless war" of destruction of state structures throughout the "broader Middle East" without taking into account their friends and enemies. In two decades, the region became cursed for its inhabitants. Afghanistan, then Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen are the theater of wars presented as lasting a few weeks, but which last indefinitely, without perspective.

When Donald Trump was elected president, he promised to put an end to the "endless wars" and to bring US soldiers home. In this spirit, he gave carte blanche to his special adviser and nevertheless son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The fact that President Trump is supported in his country by Zionist Christians and that Jared Kushner is an Orthodox Jew has led many commentators to portray them as friends of Israel. If they do indeed have an electoral interest in letting this be believed, it is not at all their approach to the Middle East. They intend to defend the interests of the American people, and not those of the Israelis, by substituting trade relations for war on the model of President Andrew Jackson (1829-37).--Thierry Meyssan, "Israel and the Emirates sign the 'Abraham Accords'," voltairenet.org, September 22, 2020]

Finkelstein: How Gulf monarchies, PLO leaders, and US neoliberals sold out Palestine, September 2020

Peter Beinart: Why I no longer believe in a Jewish state, Middle East Eye, June 23, 2021

Why Are Palestinian Christians Leaving Jesus' Birthplace? AJ+ December 5, 2022

[To live up to Israel's expectations and to ensure its survival, the Palestinian Authority is willing to clash directly with Palestinians who refuse to toe the line--Ramzy Baroud, "Mahmoud Abbas & the Risk of Civil War," consortiumnews, August 7, 2023]

Journalist Gideon Levy's old speech on Israel's occupation of Palestine goes viral, TOI, November 8, 2023

Former Israeli negotiator's perspective on the war in Gaza, Al Jazeera, December 21, 2023

Patrick Wintour, "Jared Kushner says Gaza's 'waterfront property could be very valuable'," theguardian.com, March 19, 2024