Thread by @americanzionism

Here are some facts.

1. Between 1948 & 1967, while Jordan occupied the West Bank, there was no Palestinian movement to create an independent state, only "liberate Palestine" (Israel).

2. When Jordan annexed the West Bank in 1950, the UK & USA recognized the annexation.

3. When Jordan won the West Bank in a war, they transferred Jews out of Jewish communities, forcibly & violently, and transferred in Palestinian Arabs to take their place. One of the most famous examples is Kfar Etzion, bought by Jews, built by Jews, inhabited by Jews.

4. When Israel defeated Jordan in the 1967 war, some Jews returned to communities that they had been forcibly removed from. One of those places was Kfar Etzion, now known as the settlement of Gush Etzion.

5. Another area that Jews were forcibly removed from by Jordanian and Arab Legion troops was in East Jerusalem. This event was memorialized in a Life Magazine story. A Jewish presence, and often majority, that panned centuries was wiped out. Jewish holy places were destroyed.

In 1967, at the start of the 6 day war when control of the West Bank went from Jordan to Israel, Israel sent Jordan a communique asking them to stay out of the war. Jordan refused & attacked Israel. Subsequently Israel defeated Jordan & took the West Bank. It was a defensive war.

Before 1967, Jordan uses the West Bank to attack Israel. There were dozens of attacks & massacres of Jews from these infiltration. Often, the attacks were against residents of Kibbutzim or communal farms. This was in Israel and the victims were farmers, not soldiers.

The PLO was created in 1964, three years before Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza. You would think then that it was created to liberate those areas from Jordan & Egypt, but that was never the case. It was created to liberate Israel proper from the Jews.

In 1965, Israel prime minister Levi Eshkol presented a peace plan in the Knesset. It maintained the status quo at the time in exchange for peace. This was before the 1967 war, before settlements. The Arabs ignored it & maintained their commitment to "drive the Jews into the sea".

Shortly after the end of the 1967 war Israel made overtures to the Arabs, the Arab League convened in Khartoum, Sudan and issued the famous Khartoum Resolution and the 3 NOs:

1. No peace with Israel
2. No recognition of Israel
3. No no negotiations with Israel

The Arab nations rejected all overtures to return the captured territories in exchange for peace. They rejected the notion of any normalization with Israel under any circumstance and only supported the destruction of Israel.

There were zero settlements at the time.

Before peace with Egypt in 1979, there were 12 settlements in Sinai. All 12 settlements were evacuated by Israel. Jews were uprooted from their homes. No one outside of Israel protested. The settlements were not an impediment to peace. They did not "destroy the peace process."

Before Israel's unilateral & complete withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, there were 21 Jewish settlements. All 21 dismantled and all Jews uprooted from their homes. No one outside of Israel protested. It did not bring Israel peace. In fact you can argue it impeded the peace process.

Two years after the withdrawal, Hamas captured Gaza in a violent coup. Because of the split between the West Bank & Gaza, it has made the prospect of a comprehensive peace nearly impossible. Yet, the int community still blames Israel & lays zero blame on the Palestinians.

Since people have been questioning the US recognition of Jordanian annexation, here is the official document on the US Office of the Historian.

Recognition means "acknowledgment of something's existence, validity, or legality."