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The Origins of the Palestinians
Dear Editor:
Journalists must know who the Arabs we now call Palestinians are and where they come from?
The British Mandate for Palestine, “the reconstituted homeland of the Jewish people”, was created in1920 at San Remo.
In 1921, Churchill cut off 78% of the area to create Transjordan.
A 1922 census showed there were 590,000 Muslims, 91,000 Jews and 71,000 Christians in the mandate. These people held Palestinian passports, though only Jews were referred to as Palestinians. Arab attachment was to their clans.
Largely by immigration, the population grew to 1,700,000 Muslims, 530,000 Jews and 130,000 Christians by 1944.
In 1948, as the British withdrew, Israel declared its independence. Local Arabs and 5 nations attacked the new state. The Arabs failed to ‘drive the Jews into the sea’. This was their Nakba.
Egypt took Gaza. Jordan occupied the West Bank, killing or driving out 30,000 Jews. Only the UK recognized the Arab occupations. 700,000 Arabs fled to neighboring countries. 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel and became citizens. They now number 2,000,000 or 20% of the population. Egypt and Jordan felt no need to create a ‘Palestine’.
In 1964, the Soviet KGB and Egypt formed the Palestine Liberation Army. Its goal was to diminish American influence by destroying Israel. It collected terrorists from throughout the Middle East and North Africa, most having no links to the mandate. There fighters were the first Arabs to be called “Palestinians”.
The six-day war in 1967 drove out Jordan and Egypt, restoring Israel to its legal borders and adding the Golan Heights.
The Oslo Accords were signed in 1995, allowing Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian, and 100,000 followers to enter 40% of Judea and Samaria. These towns were either controlled by the Palestinian Authority or jointly managed with Israel. The other 60% is strictly Israeli territory, popular propaganda not-with-standing.
The Oslo Accords, 1995, were meant to usher in 2 states, living side-by-side in peace. However, Arafat launched the 2nd Intifada, 2000-2005, ending that fiction.
In 2005, in a futile attempt to appease the Arabs, PM Sharron gave Gaza to the PA, removing every Jew. The PA were thrown out by Hamas in 2007. Oct. 7, 2023, drove the final nail into the 2-state coffin.
The fate of the Arabs in Gaza and the PA is to be determined. If their aim remains genocide of the Jews, they will be driven out. If they accept their place as a minority in Israel, one of the most advanced societies in the world, they may attain a level of self-determination. The next step in their rehabilitation is the disarming of Hamas, the dismantling of UNRWA and the resettling of all who consider themselves to be refugees.
Sincerely
Len Bennett, Author of ‘Unfinished Work’
Deerfield Beach, Fl.
Mamdani’s Non-Condemnation
Dear Editor:
Sometimes, what you don’t say is more significant than what you say.
On Thursday evening, extremists chanted “We support Hamas!” outside a synagogue in Queens, New York.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said nothing in response.
Perhaps that’s not surprising. After all, Mamdani was a chapter leader of Students for Justice in Palestine, the group that spearheaded the pro-Hamas rallies nationwide in the aftermath of October 7.
On Friday, reporters asked the mayor if he condemned the pro-Hamas chants. He replied that “the rhetoric and displays that we saw are wrong and have no place in our city.”
What rhetoric? Which displays? Mamdani didn’t say—because he doesn’t really oppose the people who stood in front of a synagogue, cheering the murderers and rapists of Israeli Jews.
Later in the day, after being criticized for his non-condemnation, Mamdani issued another one. This time he wrote on social media, “Chants in support of a terrorist organization have no place in our city.”
But does Mamdani consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization? Nothing in his history suggests that he does. Recall that in the aftermath of October 7, he participated in protests denouncing Israel, not Hamas.
The mayor and his public relations team may believe that by using the term “terrorist organization” without actually naming it, Mamdani could fool the public into thinking he condemned Hamas, without really condemning it.
Yasir Arafat tried to play that game back in May 1990, when Palestinian Arab terrorists were intercepted on their way to massacre Jews on the Tel Aviv beachfront.
The U.S. government urged Arafat to condemn the terrorists. But all the PLO leader would say was “We are against any military action that targets civilians, whatever form it may take.” Arafat wouldn’t name the terrorist faction that was responsible. He wouldn’t even acknowledge that Israeli beachgoers are innocent civilians. So President George H.W. Bush responding by cutting off all U.S. contact with the PLO.
Arafat didn’t fool anybody then. Mamdani isn’t fooling anybody now, either.
Sincerely
Prof. Rafael Medoff
Arrest the Pro-Hamas Protesters
Dear Editor:
(The following is a letter sent to Council Member James F. Gennaro)
Thank you for your thorough in advance work to properly contain the couple hundred Pro-Hamas demonstrators (unlike what happened at the Park East Synagogue last Nov 19th).
But there’s still a major issue here: This self stated Pro-Hamas demonstration I would argue — wasn’t protected by any Freedom of Speech Laws as it had zero to do with freedom of speech.
The Pro-Hamas protesters broke Federal Laws against “Incitement to Riot” and supporting an “American Designated Terrorist Organization”. They chanted “Intifada War Revolution” and “Say it Loud, Say it Clear, We Support Hamas Here”. Therefore they were literally calling for the slaughter of Jews in Kew Gardens Hills Queens. That’s what happened on 1/08/26.
But with Governor Hochul, former Mayor Adams, Mayor Mamdani and yes President Trump’s Department of Justice (Civil Right’s Division) and Trump’s FBI — there’s zero enforcement of those Federal Laws.
Shame on them.
As soon as those Pro-Hamas and Pro Intifada chants started, they should have all been arrested and removed from the site by the NYPD and their organization’s funding and ties to Hamas investigated by the FBI and DOJ.
Sincerely
Stu Morrison
Queens, NY