The West Bank Is Not Stolen Property - Jonathan S. Tobin
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has created a clever and informative six-minute YouTube video on "The Truth About the West Bank" that is driving the Palestinian Authority up the wall. PA negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed that by asserting Israel's historical rights to the West Bank and debunking claims that the territory is "illegally occupied," Israel is pursuing a "pro-conflict agenda."
Israel did not capture the West Bank in 1967 from the Palestinians but from Jordan in a war of self-defense. Jordan had illegally occupied the area as well as half of Jerusalem in the course of its participation in a war to destroy the newborn state of Israel in 1948. Jews were guaranteed the right of settlement in the West Bank by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
To assert the Jewish state's rights is not the same thing as saying Israel should never retreat from an inch of the West Bank. The borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state can only be determined by negotiations. But the Palestinians' charge that the land was stolen from them is false. If the West Bank is stolen property, then it should merely be returned to its owners and not be a subject for talks. (Commentary)
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