This rather cryptic title was inspired by an opinion piece in the Washington Post, in which Ahmed Noor argues for a one state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I won't go into details, as Judeopundit does a wonderful job here.
There are two sentences in Noor's piece, however, that bother me even more than his "jewish privilege" cliche (so trendy in antisemitic circles):
Palestine and Israel are two parts of the same country — something those who have not been to the region may find hard to imagine. The area of Mandate Palestine — that’s Israel, the West Bank and Gaza — is about the size of New Jersey.Too many mistakes in just two sentences - or are those really mistakes?
The area of Mandate Palestine was never a single country forcefully divided, as the first sentence suggests.
The second sentence...oh, here's something to sink my sharp teeth in. Well, let's begin by understanding what the area of Mandate Palestine really was - before 1922, when the british cut the whole territory east of Jordan river off to make room for future Jordan. This is not as easy as it sounds. I had to google long and hard before I could find some accurate maps of the area (most look like the "Israel, West Bank and Gaza" theory), and surprisingly, despite my stubborn belief that hard work doesn't really pay off, I actually managed to find some. Here's such a map, of Mandate Palestine between 1920-1922:
Not quite the size of New Jersey, eh? So, where does this "Mandate Palestine — that’s Israel, the West Bank and Gaza" come from?
Of course, that part of Palestine east of the Jordan river is now in Jordan, just as that part of Palestine west of the Jordan river is now Israel, West Bank and Gaza. However, that Palestine east of said river seems to have mysteriously vanished from the collective memory of palestinians and their supporters. How is that possible that the jordanian Palestine ceased to be Palestine back in 1922, while the israeli territory is still very much Palestine, after more than 60 years? What's sauce for the hashemite goose...is not sauce for the jewish gander, apparently.
Now all that's left for Ahmed Noor to do is fathom why hashemite privileges trump jewish privileges in this troubled area.
