Once upon a time we all knew that Palestine hasn't existed since the days of the Roman conquest of the land of Israel, and there certainly was no state of Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The war against the Jews started in the form of a Pan Arab rejection of Israel. The PLO was created by the KBG advising Arafat that the best way to succeed against Israel is to play the role of the victim and claim that all they want is their own state and that Israel is occupying Palestine. By replacing these historical facts with words that represent false and biased "narratives" the enemies of Israel whether they be Arabs, or their supporters throughout the Western World are creating a ready-made anti-Israel context which allows them to interpret the facts as they wish. We have gotten used to using these very words that are embedded with biased and false conceptions without even realizing that we are unintentionally perpetuating the distortions and outright lies that have become spoken and printed truths. By using these words we are accepting the Palestinian Arab version and interpretation of the Arab-Israeli conflict The words that have most come to falsely represent the accepted truth and truthful associations are: "Palestinians" which should mean; Arabs living within Judea and Samaria, "Occupation" which should mean; the Arab occupation of Judea and Samaria, "Settlers" which should mean; Jewish residents in all parts of Eretz Yisrael , "Land for Peace" which should mean; Arabs willing to negotiate their territorial demands, "Two-State Solution" which should mean; Arabs excepting that Israel is the home of the Jewish Nation and that the State of Israel is a Jewish and Democratic State, "Apartheid Wall" which should mean; a security fence constructed to prevent the entrance of suicide bombers and terrorists to the center of the country, and the "Peace Process" which should mean; a process based on Israel's right to exist within secure, defensive and recognized borders. We must understand that the war of words will be won with the same tenacity and perseverance that Israel has won all of the wars instigated by the Arabs, especially the Arabs of Judea and Samaria.
Only this past week we saw in Israel, an effective example of how to combat this phenomena. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon stars in a video released by his ministry, in which he presents a historical narrative meant to help wage battle in the war of the words. The video entitled The Truth About the West Bank can be viewed on you tube. Ayalon appears in front of an animated backdrop, and begins tackling the “very simple question” of from whom Israel liberated the Arab occupation of Judea and Samaria. He mentions how there was never an Arab state in Judea and Samaria and falsely known as “Palestine.” “Actually, was there ever [a state of Palestine]?” he then asks. Ayalon then breaks down the timeline from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 through Six Day War, along the way discussing UN Security Council Resolution 242 that followed the 1967 war. It talks about how Jordan had “no legal justification” for holding the Judea and Samaria following the War of Independence, and how Israel’s giving up its claim to the East Bank of the Jordan River, promised under the Balfour Declaration, shows that “I guess you can’t say the Jewish people haven’t accepted some painful compromises already.”
Ayalon goes on to say there was never an international border on the Green Line and that a new legal definition is needed for the area known as Judea and Samaria, arguing it should be considered a disputed area at most. “Israel’s presence in the West Bank is the result of a war of self-defense and should not be seen as occupied territory; because there was no sovereign body there before, it should be called a disputed area,” Ayalon says. “Please, let’s stop using the terms ‘occupied territories’ and ‘’67 borders,’ they’re simply not politically correct,” Ayalon says. The Foreign Ministry publicized that the “concise, easy to follow video” is meant to explain “where the terms ‘West Bank’ ‘occupied territories’ and ‘’67 borders’ originated and how they are incorrectly used and applied.”
The establishment of the State of Israel was one of the most inspiring events in modern history. Against all the odds, and in the immediate aftermath of the murder of six million of their brothers and sisters, a landless, stateless, and largely friendless people achieved national self-determination in returning to the land that they had prayed for continuously for the previous two thousand years. They did this in the face of unstinting opposition from the land’s population and the neighboring countries, opposition that was violent and zero-sum. They did this because they had no choice: to compromise on national liberation would have been suicidal.
The people of the Israel came from every corner of the earth. They looked different, spoke different languages, had different religious practices or none at all, and held different political beliefs. What they shared is that most awesome and unquantifiable of places that we call the soul – was the conviction that they were part of the Jewish people, and that the continued survival and success of the Jewish people was worth striving for. These are the words of our people, this is the narrative of the Jewish nation.