The Annexation Myth – How a Nation Rejects its Own Sovereignty

There is a myth surrounding annexation, both inside Israel, and outside her borders. It is a baffling thing to see a nation rejecting its own sovereignty.

A statement from Israeli-America Civic Action Network appeared in my box stating: Standing with Israel: Sovereignty – The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN) expresses its unequivocal support for the State of Israel as it considers extending sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, the native lands of indigenous Jewish people. International law, facts on the ground, and the will of the Israeli people support this decision.”

“A fair, accurate, and unbiased reading of international law establishes an unbroken link between modern and ancient Israel. It is important to note that Judea and Samaria were part of the original land designated by the British Mandate for the creation of a National Home for the Jewish People.”

I could not help but pen my views on this matter. I intend to simplify here an issue the politicians complicated and took out of its legal context.

This sovereignty issue should have never been discussed nor needed to be applied.

I am assuming that Israel has totally forgotten this land was given to her with the ‘Mandate for Palestine-the Land of Israel‘ in the San Remo July 1922 Conference. In fact, that mandate also included the east side of the Jordan River, meaning, what today is known to be Jordan.

The Annexation Myth - How a Nation Rejects its Own Sovereignty 1
Original Palestine map-To become the State of Israel

In the vast territory the world’s powers gained when they won the World War One victory over the Ottoman Empire, there was also the territory allocated for the Jewish homeland’s vision. Once the Jews met all the requirements for a sovereign state, they would declare independence and the British mandatory rule would cease to exist in that land.

Unfortunately, matters did not go according to good intentions’ plan

During the British mandate years in the land of Israel – since July 1920-to-1948 – the British authorities acted with hostility toward the Jews. Unchecked, they have increased the number of Arabs who arrived in the land to benefit from the Jews’ efforts to build a prosperous economy.

With their White Paper decree, the British authorities calculatedly decreased the number of Jews who were allowed to immigrate to Israel. The British mandatory authorities incited the Arabs against the Jews and aided and abetted the perpetual mayhem and carnage in the land.

Among the British biases toward the Jews was their theft of some 78% of the land east of the Jordan River, originally allocated to be part of the state of Israel.

On 21 March 1921, the British incorporated Article 25, implemented via the 16 September 16, 1922, the Transjordan memorandum that established a separate “Administration of Trans-Jordan” into the Palestine Mandate.

Based on the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the understandings reached at the Paris and San Remo Conferences, the administration of Palestine by the British, with the aim of establishing the Jewish national home, as mentioned in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, was to ensure that the rights and positions of other communities in Palestine, as well as holy places, be preserved. Article 25 of the Mandate allowed the British, with the consent of the League of Nations, to “withhold or postpone” the application of certain provisions of the Mandate with regard to the territory east of the Jordan River and administer it separately from the rest of Palestine, a right which it exercised with the Transjordan Memorandum later in 1922.

At the end of the British political manipulative actions, the east side of the Jordan River, some 78% of the entire land allocated for the establishment of the State of Israel, was given to the Arabian Hashemite Family who were the Sheriff of Mecca since the 10th century, thus establishing a hostile enemy state, a walk away from the Jewish state.

Eventually, the Jews had enough of the British Mandatory bias and their unfair conduct toward them. They forced the British Mandatory authorities to fold their flag and leave the land, followed by the Jews declaring their independence.

Sovereignty Vs. ‘annexation’

From the day Israel declared independence, in 1948, and until 1967, the surrounding Arab states kept it in a state of war. They continuously found ways to attack it as well as deny her security and sovereignty rights.

In the 1948-49 War for Independence, Israel lost to Jordan’s aggression what became to be known as the “West Bank,” a territory that was illegally occupied by Jordan for 19 years. This territory was finally freed from its illegal occupier with the Six Day War of 1967, a war to defend itself that ended up with Israel’s victory.

The 1967 victory brought about a detrimental decision moment Israel totally missed

Since the territory gained was Israel’s legal territory, and since it was regained from an Arab aggression war against the Jewish state, according to laws of wartime that land should have automatically become part of sovereign Israel.

Efrat town in Judea
Efrat town in Judea

But not so fast when the Jews need to appease the world, even to their detrimental cost. And so, the territory that de-facto belongs to Israel, regained in 1967, became Israel’s Achilles heel ever since. This territory found itself in the ‘disputed territory’ box, from then on serving as a bargaining chip in the world’s ongoing attempts to put Israel under the bus.

The ongoing, often used term ‘annexation’ of parts of Judea and Samaria, what was ‘West Bank,’ is a huge, grave mistake. The only term to be used is sovereignty.

In my opinion, this entire sovereignty exercise is nothing but a farce. This sovereignty plan – Trump’s plan of the century – now dwindling as a twig in a rain storm, is doing the same thing over again, under a different banner, but perhaps is now posing more danger for Israel’s security and even existence than ever before.

If implemented, the Arabs, AKA ‘Palestinians,’ will de facto have a state. That state will bite deep into Israel’s legal territory and will put the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria into existential danger. Right now the application is in hold mode and should be deleted (forgotten) altogether. Better to remain in the decades’ long status quo mode.

Trump’s plan was dead in the water from the start. Perhaps political appeasement and cajoling played a major role in preparing it. Could it have been that Jared Kushner, representing President Trump, and Prime Minister Netanyahu thought more about photo-op-ed, Netanyahu about his legacy and Jared not understanding the deep-seated complexity of the issue?

Now the idea of the 8 emirates is making headlines again.

Going back to mistakes made, already in 1967-168, Israel should have immediately applied sovereignty to each inch of the territory it regained in 1967 that was under Jordan’s illegal occupation. The law of war allows the victor to maintain territory it has conquered, never mind that this territory belonged to Israel anyway. One does not annex land it owns and one does not apply sovereignty to one’s own sovereign land.

Sadly, Israelis are confused and are appeasers at their cost. The result, over 6 million hostile Arabs surround Israel today. All of them HATE and want to annihilate the Jewish state: 2 million Israeli-Arabs who have no loyalty to the Jewish state; PLUS, the nomad Bedouin families, at least 250,000, who now permanently illegally occupy Israel south state land, PLUS 2 million Arabs under the thumb of the Palestinian Authority rule and in Gaza 2 million more.

It is very difficult to comprehend Israel’s behavior. I do not know of any other nation that is either clueless about its own sovereignty subject or refuses to learn it.

The media and the Left in Israel made the Judea and Samaria territory a foreign land, a redundant land. When I visit Israel I travel much in that territory and my friends in Tel Aviv think I am out of my mind. They even look at me with some contempt that I support the 500,000 residents’ pioneering enterprise in Judea and Samaria.

The lies and inaccuracies that surround the Judea, Samaria and Jordan Valley territory are unfathomable. However, when it comes to Jews and Israel, they dominate the conversation rather than the truth.

Israel is a champion of mistakes and thus far refuses to learn from its political mistakes. And as one of my friends, a great supporter of Israel from her home in the USA has told me: “Tragically you are correct.”

During the 2006 second Lebanon War, Nurit Greenger, referenced then as the “Accidental Reporter” felt compelled to become an activist. Being an ‘out-of-the-box thinker, Nurit is a passionately committed advocate for Jews, Israel, the United States, and the Free World in general. From Southern California, Nurit serves as a “one-woman Hasbarah army” for Israel who believes that if you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.

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