JRV1333

For Us, Being Loathed and Alone Isn’t New; and Maybe the Best “Mideast Peace Plan” Is None

#1333 August 2, 2026

The notion that Israel’s conduct in Gaza is what turned much of the world against it and us is false, as revealed by pre-Oct 7 UN condemnations and WW II world abandonment of us, indeed persecution of our Christian and Muslim world Diasporas going back millennia.

For Us, Being Loathed and Alone Isn’t New; and Maybe the Best “Mideast Peace Plan” Is None

The World and Us Jews

I’ve been called naïve and a dreamer for believing Israel can and must bet the kibbutz in defending itself [no, it’s not committing “genocide” in Gaza or anyplace else] and in rejecting the internationally-demanded “two-state solution.”  But by me it’s the “two-states” supporting American Jews who’re the dreamers.

If you’re among those American Jews who feel Israel’s current conduct in Gaza has turned much of the world against it and us, reflect on this:

“UN Condemned Israel More Than All Other Countries Combined in 2022 – Monitor,” headline of Times of Israel, 1/3/23 

That January 2023 Times of Israel headline, nine months BEFORE Hamas invaded Israel and conducted the worst-since-the-Holocaust Jew-torture- murder-and-kidnap pogrom, says that in the just-ended previous year the United Nations hadn’t just condemned Israel more than any other country, but had condemned Israel more than ALL OTHER COUNTRIES COMBINED.

That wasn’t new.  We have a long history of being loathed and alone.

*** Our people’s two-millennia exile sojourn in Europe was persecution – Pale of Settlement, ghetto, Holocaust, Inquisition, forced exile from one place to another, pogrom – all along. (See, e.g., the first six chapters of Martin Gilbert’s “Exile & Return: The Struggle for a Jewish Homeland.”)  And we were persecuted as dhimmis in Muslim lands.

*** During World War II “the two great democracies, the United States and Great Britain, were, in the words of an official of the American Treasury Department, ‘deeply committed not to save the Jews.’” (quoted in Kaniuk, “Commander of the Exodus,” chapter 20)

*** During the Holocaust there was an international conference at which every nation stood up and said alas it was unable for one reason or another or more honestly unwilling to accept in its lands Europe’s Jews. 

*** There was strong pressure, including from the U.S. State Department, for Israel not to declare independence in 1948.  Not one country in the West, including the United States, would sell it arms, while Britain was arming the Arabs. One country, Czechoslovakia, sold it arms. 

*** In 1973, when Israel was jointly surprise-attacked by Egypt and Syria and close to overwhelmed, not one country in Europe would allow the U.S. planes rushing Israel arms to counter Soviet Arab resupply to land there to refuel. (It leaned on the Azores.) 

*** For long years the United Nations flaunted a “Zionism Is Racism” resolution.  At the tail-end of President Obama’s term, the UN Security Council passed (with US abstention but aid) still-in-effect UNSC 2334, declaring historic Jerusalem (3 times native Jewish State capital, renewed Jewish majority since 1800’s Ottoman rule) and defensible Judea-Samaria biblical hill country heartland to be “occupied Palestinian territory.” [Never mind that Palestinian Arabs have never ruled Palestine ever, and that today’s Israel is the land of Israel’s next native state after Roman-destroyed Jewish Judaea, all rulers in between having been foreign empire invaders.]

So if you’re among those American Jews who believe that just creating “a Palestinian state along the 1967 [i.e., 1949] lines with mutually agreed swaps” will miraculously bring our Jewish people’s homeland peace and security and end the world’s dislike of it and us Jews, by me it’s you, and not those of us who reject “the two-state solution” as unthinkable for Israel and us, who are naively living a dangerous dream.

But What Then?

The alternative to “the two-state solution” that I have supported is Ambassador David Friedman’s amendment to President Trump’s first term Israel-Palestinian Arab peace plan, similar to PM Rabin’s “less than a state” plan, for areas of Palestinian Arab autonomy in Judea-Samaria under partial Israeli sovereignty and security control.  Amb. Friedman detailed President Trump’s “Deal of the Century” plan in his first book “Sledgehammer.”  It was agreed to by Israel, but sidelined by the more regional Abraham Accords.  In his second book, “One Jewish State,” Amb. Friedman modified his version to include those Arab autonomous areas under Israeli sovereignty over the entirety of Judea-Samaria. 

As you can see from comments to my Here & Now #1332 last week, some commenters believe that despite President Trump, PM Rabin and Amb. Friedman advocating such a plan, Palestinian Arabs, in addition to their population majority in judenrein Jordan sitting of three-quarters of Mandated Palestine, will not accept west of the River Jordan less than a sovereign state.  

While I continue to support Amb. Friedman’s autonomous areas under full Israeli sovereignty, the possibility of implementing no plan may lead to a satisfactory-to-the-Jewish-people solution.

Consider Arlene Kushner’s Thursday posting, From Israel: Standing Strong in the Midst of Struggle.  She writes of increasing Israeli control over Judea-Samaria.  Starting with an account of recent Palestinian Arab attacks there on Israelis, Arlene notes “of late, we have been operating with increased vigor in confronting them” and of “the development of farms in Samaria.” 

Turning to control of Jewish religious sites, Arlene starts off with the Cave of the Patriarchs:

“After years of embarrassing dependence, the State of Israel is realizing its full sovereignty at the site most sacred to Judaism after the Temple Mount. Today we can say with confidence: the Cave of the Patriarchs is in safe hands….

“For 700 years, starting with the [Muslim] Mamelukes, Jews were banned from entering the site. After the Six Day War in 1967, Jews began to be allowed limited access [to an unroofed area]. Since the 1990s, the site has been divided with separate entrances for Jews and Muslims. The Muslim Waqf was in charge of the general maintenance, and the central electricity and water [were] controlled by them….

“No more! Work is currently being done on the Machpela to address these problems. Not only will there be a new roof, preservation work is being done, and new upgrades, electrical and otherwise, will be in place. My friends, this is big – because of the religious importance of the Machpela, and the hostile attitude of the Muslim Wakf. Sharing is not on their agenda, pushing us out is.”

Arlene continues: “But the most significant site is Har Habayit – the Temple Mount”:

“What I wish to call attention to here is the fact that something significant is taking place: each year more Jews choose to go up to the Mount. And while not so many years ago any Jew who prayed was arrested, today, Jews pray openly on the eastern side of the Mount

“This past Tisha B’Av, just a week ago, more than 3,500 Jews ascended, setting a new record. Rabbi Elisha Wolfson, Rosh Yeshiva of the Temple Mount Yeshiva ‘described what he said has been a significant change on the Temple Mount over the past two years, particularly since National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir took office. He contrasted the current situation with the early years of the Temple Mount Yeshiva, about six years ago, when, he said, even silent prayer could result in police detention.

 “’‘Today there are songs, prayers, and prostration on the Temple Mount. And starting today, there are also shade canopies and Tisha B’Av prayer booklets.’”

Israel is increasing Jewish housing in Judea-Samaria.  It recently limited Palestinian Arab employment in many areas.  As time goes by, Jewish control is being strengthened.  The 1949 ceasefire lines which “two-staters” seek to resurrect became defunct almost sixty years ago, succeeded by post-1967 war lines along the Jordan River, infinitely more Jewishly meaningful and securer for Israel.  Enemies will always be out there, but it seems they’re increasingly divided and weakened, and the best place to meet them seems not the pre- but the post-1967 war boundaries, ancient Israel in its entirety.