Both sides are now engaged in war of words in the Gaza Strip, allegedly churning out horrific stories virtually for entertainment on TV, the first casuality in the fog of war being truth!
Commentary And Analysis . . . Any talk of ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, being academic, can only be redundant. Both sides are now engaged in war of words, allegedly churning out horrific stories virtually for entertainment on TV, the first casuality in the fog of war being truth.
CNN reports, for example, are mostly based on statements issued by the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip. It’s surprising that a small population has Health Ministry separate from the West Bank. There have been claims that 50K women, out of the nearly 2m Gaza population (before 7 October apparently), are pregnant and denied medical care. We know, from science, that population can only double itself in 25 years.
Israel could not be taking so long on pacification of the Gaza Strip, a tiny patch of land, with even tinier population.
It has been nearly three months since 7 Oct when Hamas militants attacked the international music festival in the desert in southern Israel. Two thirds of the 1, 200 people killed were reportedly from IDF (Israeli Defense Forces).
Hamas, we are told, took 250 hostages. The media has reported that 50 hostages were released in exchange for 150 Palestinian in Israeli jail.
Gaza War
The shooting war in the Gaza Strip was probably over within ten days of 7 Oct.
Israel has not left the territory and may not do so.
Instead, the number of Palestinian in jail in Israel has increased. The new estimate in the media reads 10K. On Oct 7, it was 8K. The number of Palestinian in Israeli jail has never gone down below 5K.
The bottomline remains that there would be no forward movement, away from the permanent conflict mechanism created by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 1948 and the proposed two state solution, until the war of words ends. In 1948, the UNSC recognised Israel as Jewish state on 20 per cent of the Biblical Holy Land — declared Palestine by the Roman Empire in thwarting Israel — and recognised, simultaneously, the rump state of Palestine.
Since 1948, after Israel seized 80 per cent of the Biblical Holy Land, there has been talk of the rest of the land being the 2nd rump state of Palestine, albeit with conditions. Jordan occupies 78 per cent of the British Trans Jordan Palestine Mandate, Israel 17.5 per cent, and Gaza Strip/West Bank 4.5 per cent. The British separated Jordan, before 1948, from the Mandate.
In law, Israel will sponsor Palestine as full member of the United Nations (UN) in exchange for recognition behind the present borders. At present, based on 1948, Palestine has observer status in the UN General Assembly (UNGA). It has also addressed the UNSC on the security challenges posed in the Middle East by the Biblical Holy Land and/or Old Free Palestine which thwarted Israel under the Roman Empire.
We can be forgiven, at this point, for recalling English novelist Charles Dickens who began life as court reporter. Dickens cynically observed, “the law is an ass”.
Propaganda
If true, 1948 amidst the propaganda barrage, was strategic mistake engineered by the British as permanent UNSC member. The British also stole land in India and created Pakistan and thereby set up permanent conflict mechanism in the Indian subcontinent. If the British had simply left India in 1947, the people would have resolved inter-faith issues based purely on the rule of law, secularism, human rights and international law. In law, there’s no place for clannishness, tribalism, feudalism, political personality cults and belief systems. There’s no place for emotions in law.
It’s open secret that India, based on 1947, has cautioned Israel on rushing into judgment on the two-state solution. India has consistently been against being party to illegalities i.e. pitting one country against another.
Hamas, on matter of principle, has rejected the two state solution. It has also rejected the one state solution where Israel dominates the equation under the “one country, three immigration systems” work not in progress.
Hamas, contrary to public perceptions created by the media, does not advocate driving Jew into the Mediterranean Sea.
However, it wants the majority of Jew out of Israel and back to the diaspora from where they originated during British times.
In law, that demand remains non-starter.
Jew In Marked Graves
The Jew from the diaspora, who entered the Biblical Holy Land in recent history, are probably all lying in marked graves in Israel. This remains an important development in customary practices and international law. Customary practices have force of law. International law also falls back on human rights and international customary practices. In jurisprudence, human rights remains the basis in international law, and read by national law as compliant.
The elephant in the room may be 1948. It isn’t possible that the UNSC reverses its recognition of Israel and admission as full member of the UN. 1948 brought closure and litigation does not continue. The UNSC has also taken stand on Palestine nationhood. Palestine, in history, has never been nation. There’s no Palestinian language.
It was the Roman Empire which codified Palestine as administrative term based on old Greek usage for the Philistinian.
The Philistinian, for those unfamiliar, came from southern Phoenicia in present day Lebanon and vanished into history in the Gaza Strip. Goliath, the one eyed giant in the story of David, was Philistinian. David’s cousin, tradition holds, killed Goliath with a well-aimed sling shot at the giant’s single eye in the forehead. The cousin took the giant’s sword and beheaded him. David, who founded Jerusalem 3K years ago as King, got the name for the Goliath beheading as he was more popular.
Palestinian
Jew and Arabic speaking Christian and Muslim, before 1948, were known as Palestinian. There were no Arabic speakers in the Roman Empire in Palestine. The Jew who entered the Biblical Holy Land during British days from north Africa and the Middle East all habitually spoke Arabic.
During the time of Jesus, Jew spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. The Messiah himself spoke Aramaic which originated from present day Syria. It’s said that the first Jew were Hebrew speakers.
In the diaspora, Jew don’t speak Hebrew, but multiplicity of local languages while keeping the faith and culture. It’s culture that separates Jew from non-Jew. Jew never promote the faith. However, anyone can embrace Judaism. Among Jew, a matriarchal society, descent was based on the female line. The issue of Jewish mother was Jewish. The issue of Jewish father isn’t Jewish unless the mother was Jewish.
Onus On The People
The onus in the Biblical Holy Land, history aside, remains on the here and now, on Israeli and Palestinian, on Hebrew speaking Jew and Arabic speaking Christian and Muslim, based on human rights, the rule of law and international law.
No court in the world will consider conspiracy theories, circumstantial evidence except in civil case, inadmissible hearsay and forms of politics.
If the verdict and/or Referendum favours the two state solution, so be it. Here, we can keep in mind that the British creation of Pakistan as Islamic state, set up permanent conflict mechanism in the Indian subcontinent. Pakistan, in fact, never became Islamic state. That’s another story, for another day, based on the legal fraternity and court favouring the rule of law over the rule by law.
Pakistan, like India, subscribes to the rule of law. Bangladesh, likewise, has dropped Islam from the Constitution.
Israel will probably never agree with the one state solution, under the “one country, three immigration systems, as in Malaysia and China.
There’s also the little matter of the Jewish state which has also been described as based on the Jewish character of Israel subscribing to the rule of law. Israel has no written/codified Constitution. — NMH
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Longtime Borneo watcher Joe Fernandez has been writing for many years on both sides of the Southeast Asia Sea. He should not be mistaken for a namesake formerly with the Daily Express in Kota Kinabalu. JF keeps a Blog under FernzTheGreat on the nature of human relationships.
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