Mr. Netanyahu said that the Palestinian leader must do what he has done: “I stood before my people and I said, ‘I will accept a Palestinian state.’ It’s time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say, ‘I will accept a Jewish state.’ ”
Abbas demands a return to the 1969 borders and Obama has also called for the same criteria. Obviously, Israel could never agree to those terms.
For one thing, Israel would have to cede much of its land to the Palestinians. Israel is a tiny country and doesn’t have the ability to give up land that it won in the wars with Arab countries, who were also the agressors. It has already given up a great deal of land, such as the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace, which never materialized.
Palestinians also want to be able to return to the land in Israel that their grandparents and great grandparents lost when they fled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Israel fought for its independence much like the original U.S. colonies fought for our independence. Never before in history has a country been asked to give back land won in a war in where the other side was the agressor.
Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. Palestine is just a name given to the region by Romans after years of battles and finally the decimation and explusion of the Jewish people into diaspora.
Israel was a country from 1200 B.C.E. until about 136 C.E. when it was conquered by Rome and renamed Palestine.
Palestine became simply a region with no distinct borders. From the mid 1850s, there was great migration of Jews back into the sparcely populated region. They they developed the land, drained the swamps, and made the region inhabitable.
In 1920 after WWI, Palestine became a Brittish mandate. It’s borders under British rule had various configurations. In 1947, the U.N. offered the Arabs and Jews in Palestine a plan to partition the country into two independent states. The Jews accepted the offer but the Arabs turned it down. In 1948, the Jews fought for their independence when Palestine was attacked by seven Arab countries. The Arabs of Palestine fled to the West Bank and Gaza strip, expecting a quick defeat of the Jewish people. Much to the surprise of everyone in the world, the Jews won and the State of Israel was born.
DRUDGE RETORT 