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1. After the 1948 war many Arabs were displaced to the West Bank & Gaza - both areas still within the borders of the former British mandate for Palestine.

But who were the approx 150,000 non-Jews who remained in Israel after the 1948 war and became Israeli citizens ? 2. Muslim Arabs

The majority of the Arabs who stayed in Israel were Muslims, primarily Sunni. They resided in various regions, including the Galilee, the "Little Triangle" (a group of Arab villages along the border with Jordan), and the Negev. Many of these communities were rural, living in villages, though some were in urban areas like Haifa, Jaffa, and Acre.

Many people on X aren’t big fans of well researched, factual history.

So those people probably wouldn’t want to know that in 1892, the Ottoman government prohibited the sale of land in Palestine to Jews, regardless of their citizenship. This was part of a broader policy aimed at limiting Jewish settlement and immigration to the region (By the end of the 16th century, the Jewish population in the Ottoman Empire was already estimated to be around 150,000 - the largest Jewish population in the world at that time).

In fact, until their defeat in 1918, the Ottomans continuously restricted Jewish immigration and land purchases in Palestine.

Then, following violence and pressure from Arab nationalists, this restriction was further enforced by the British Mandate authorities in 1939 through the White Paper, limiting Jewish land purchases to only a small percentage of the total land available. Why should Jews, with a continual presence in the region for 3000 years, have been denied the same rights of legal citizenship and land ownership as anyone else ?

Here are 7 obvious errors made by Dave Smith in his debate with Douglas Murray :

1. Completely misrepresented the laws & ethics of warfare with a false analogy about domestic vigilantism.

2. Confused Ben Gurion and Chaim Weizmann.

3. Falsely equated the Haganah with terrorism (it was established as a Jewish defense force following the Arab riots against Jews of 1920).

4. Showed no knowledge of the massive death toll in Syria, Yemen and other MENA countries over recent years.

5. Failed to demonstrate any grasp of the specific details of a concentration camp.

6. Showed no recognition of the stated genocidal intention of fundamentalist Islamic groups, including Hamas.

7. Failed to acknowledge even the most basic features of Churchill’s role in defeating the Nazis. Further, no sane person thinks that war is anything other than brutal and horrific.

Some of the clear and obvious questions are whether the consequences of not pursuing a war will be (far) worse than pursuing it, and therefore how a war might be fought within a legal framework.

Further, the point about debate is that if it does not involve people who can be independently & reasonably verified as having done a substantial amount of relevant / legitimate work in the field then it can obviously just descend into personal bias and bigotry without fact-checking or push back.

Patterns build a clearer picture of history.

Yasser Arafat, the Egyptian leader of the PLO, started wars in Jordan & Lebanon, fomented West Bank terrorism, launched the 2nd intifada & accrued personal wealth of $billions.

Abbas, current PA leader, has net worth of $100 million. Abbas was elected on 9 January 2005 to serve as President of the Palestinian National Authority and has not held elections since.

The Hamas leadership all became billionaires.

The Palestinians have effectively been governed by kleptocratic dictatorship for over 50 years.

1. Incitement is not free speech.

2. Arab-Islamic regimes have murdered millions in the last decade alone.

3. Palestinian leaders have rejected viable 2 State peace offers with Israel on at least 5 occasions.

4. Christians are being displaced from every Arab region. 5. No Arab country has accepted any refugees from Gaza.

6. Since 2017 Qatar has been subject to a boycott by Saudi , the UAE, Bahrain & Egypt over its support for Islamist terror groups.

7. The Druze are long term allies of Israel.

8. The Syrian Alawites supported Hezbollah.

It is now beyond doubt that the Arab-Palestinian leadership refused to accept a viable 2 State solution in 2000 & 2008.

1. Clinton was certain that Arafat had agreed to Barak's plan.

https://x.com/Osint613/status/1852116637752705343

2. Chief Palestinian negotiator Erekat admitted the rejection of Olmert's plan in 2008.

https://x.com/Aizenberg55/status/1894386134345527714

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1. How do you change a society that has supported extremist and violent ideology ?

One of the best and most recent examples is the denazification of Germany after WWII. 2. Firstly, the ruling entity has to be effectively defeated. Then there must be new laws.

In 1945/46, legal proceedings such as the Nuremberg Trials prosecuted major war criminals and specific crimes.

Lots of people talk about genocide.

What do you think was the intention in 1948 when 5 Arab armies (supported by Nazis) attacked the State of Israel and its population of Jewish refugees (within 3 years of the Holocaust) ? On October 11, 1947, the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar al-Yom quoted Abdul Rahman Azzam, the Arab League’s first secretary-general, on the war against Israel :

“a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades.”

Land ownership in Ottoman and Mandate Palestine 🧵

1. The Ottoman Land Codes and Laws of 1858 and 1859 were issued in order to grant state control over Ottoman Palestine and to increase state revenue. 2. The Ottoman Land Code defined five classes of land ownership: ملك milk, وقف waqf, ميري mīrī, متروك matrūk and موات mawāt. Milk is land in unrestricted private ownership. Waqf includes ‘religious’ land administered by a stipulated party such as a religious council.

1. After WWI, the British and Allies created 4 new States - Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq - while The Turkish War of Independence led to the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. 2. At the same time, the Kurds were denied a homeland of Kurdistan in the same region. washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysi…

If you’re confused about the situation in Syria, don’t worry.

Here’s the summary :

Several groups of fundamentalist maniacs (Putin, Assad, Erdogan and various jihadi factions) are trying to kill each other and anyone else who happens to be in their way. For those who prefer maps, this one is quite accurate.

(note Israel attempting to defend itself against all of them)

Gaza - some history 🧵

1. 1000s-730 BCE

King David brings Israelite rule to Gaza. When the Israelite kingdom splits in 930, Gaza becomes part of the northern Kingdom of Israel, which is conquered by the Assyrians in 730. 2. 100BCE

A synagogue with a mosaic of King David playing the lyre is built in what is now the Rimal district of the city. (Egyptian archaeologists who discover it in 1965 insist they’ve found the remains of a church and that the mosaic depicts Orpheus).

🧵 The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is an image or map that represents the mystical Jewish view of creation - from the most subtle light to the material human body.

Meditation, prayer and contemplation are all traditional Kabbalistic practices. From the 16th Century a Kabbalistic community re-emerged in Safed around the renowned teachers Moses Cordovero, Isaac Luria and Joseph Karo.

tabletmag.com/sections/histo…

🧵Malaria - the destroyer of pre-Zionist Ottoman Palestine

1. The Balfour Declaration supported a Jewish homeland in Palestine even though the British knew the region was drenched in malaria & was either uninhabitable in many areas or thinly populated. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC84… 2. During 1917, General Allenby fought his way northward against the Turkish army and captured Jerusalem. His army’s lines of supply were becoming over-extended and he found himself in ‘one of the most highly malarious countries in the world’. jewsfww.uk/general-allenb…

What the West ignores 🧵

1. ‘Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in the Syrian war, mostly by the regime and its powerful allies, while millions more have been displaced both inside and outside of Syria.’newarab.com/news/nearly-40… 2. ‘They (the Palestinians of Syria) are the forgotten, friendless Palestinians, ignored by their own leaders in Ramallah, tormented by their terrorist overlords, bombed and besieged by Bashar Assad.’ macleans.ca/news/world/the…

How Iran controls Arab States 🧵

Iran actively seeks to destabilise Arab States. It wants to control weak governments and create a land bridge to attack Israel. Hezbollah, ‘the jewel in the crown’ of Iran’s proxy militias across the region, is a Shiite Muslim group ‘perpetuating a sectarian civil war that is the fundamental cause of the humanitarian and political catastrophe across the region.’ cfr.org/backgrounder/w…

1. Syria under Assad and Lebanon under Hezbollah have become two of the world’s biggest drug trafficking dictatorships - short 🧵 2. Assad has leveraged Captagon, a codrug of amphetamine and theophylline, to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/…

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1. The UN Partition Plan 1947 gave 55% of Mandate Palestine land to the Jewish State & 45% to the Arab State.

Jews were only 1/3 of the population at that time. But do you know why ? 2. The British White Paper (1939) introduced a severe restriction on Jewish immigration as the Nazis rose to power & no Western countries would welcome Jewish refugees.

encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/art…

1. Greta Thunberg may have missed these Israeli green tech companies :

Carbonade - developed a CO2 Capture & Utilization Electrolyzer.

ECOncrete - pioneering environmentally sensitive concrete solutions, promotes biodiversity in marine infrastructure. 2. Eco Wave Power - harnessing the power of ocean waves, generates clean electricity through innovative wave energy converters.

H2Pro - has developed a production technology designed to enable wide-scale adoption of sustainable hydrogen fuel.

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The consequences of WWI across the Middle East

1. In 1916, Hussein (sharif & emir of Mecca) proclaimed himself King of the Arabs. With WWI raging & the Ottoman Empire facing collapse, Hussein saw the chance to establish a caliphate across the entire Middle East. 2. After WWI, new Arab States were established as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon & Iraq. In 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne saw the territory of 50 million native Kurds divided up between Turkey, Iraq, Syria & Iran.

1/2 The Map most of you have never seen :

The Joint Chiefs of Staff Map for Defensible Israeli Borders.

Issued by the Pentagon - June 29, 1967.

Israel would be required to retain significant amounts of territory taken after the 1967 war. 2/2 Full details below - including statements on the military necessity of Israel retaining territory. acpr.org.il/publications/b…