This series has previously mentioned that the San Remo Resolution, which resulted in the Mandate for Palestine that was ratified in July 1922, enshrined into international law the title deed that Almighty God had given to the Hebrew Patriarchs as an everlasting...
Israel is 75 years old. For an individual, that is already an advanced age, a time when one can begin to look back and evaluate a life that began with great dreams and finds itself winding down after years of activity and accomplishments. For a nation, it is a small...
The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation (thinc.) is a global network of international law academics, practitioners and experts in related disciplines (history, religion etc.). thinc. was founded in 2017 in The Hague, with the assistance of Christians...
In May this year, many Jews and their friends will celebrate the 75th birthday of the State of Israel. The Jewish State has been violently opposed for over a century, since before it was a physical reality, even back while it was still a political idea.
The White Paper of 1939 was effectively an abrogation of the British Mandate for Palestine.
In a fierce debate in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill, who a year later became Prime Minister, vehemently opposed the White Paper.
Two Months After Election Earthquake, Tsunami Roils Israeli Politics. On January 19, Israel’s Supreme Court barred a member of the new Netanyahu government
The San Remo Conference commenced on 18 April 1920 at the Villa Devachan in the Italian Riviera town of San Remo. As previously mentioned, the San Remo Conference was an addendum to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference specifically to deal with the carve-up of the defeated...
In 1920 the League of Nations approved the Mandate for Palestine. The idea was to enable the Jewish people to re-establish their homeland “in Palestine”. The territory of Palestine was one area, comprising what is today Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. The idea...
This most recent Israeli election, the fifth in the current cycle, proved to be quite different from the previous four, not only in producing a definitive result, but with the campaign itself. It began the same, however along the way expanded into not only a ‘for or...
September 2018 marks twenty-five years since Oslo and that famous handshake on the White House lawn by Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat under the patronage of President Bill Clinton. And a lot will be written about this anniversary. The one undeniable truth over this period has been the disenchantment of those who supported Oslo and who had believed that finally the Palestinians were going to reverse their original mantra as expressed in 1921 by the Palestine Arab Executive Committee when they said: “Either us or the Zionists. There is no room for both.” Those in Israel who still support the principles of Oslo and yearn for a Two State solution, understand where the fault lies for it not yet occurring. AB Yehoshua who was at one time on the Meretz list running for the Knesset, said in an interview in Ha’artez that: “Yasser Arafat first misled the world when he said he wanted a secular, pluralistic and democratic state and then trampled the Oslo Accords with terror attacks.” Yehoshua also blamed Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, for “rejecting Israel’s land-for-peace offer in 2008”. Einat Wilf a former Labour MK, in a recently published book says that her party’s assumption in […]
Last July 19 the Israel Knesset passed the Nation-State Law 62-55. Opinion, argument and comments came quickly. Frankly, the wording of the Bill simply summed up values known for 70 years. The founding fathers proclaimed ‘the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz Israel May 14, 1948. It was to be known “as the state of Israel”’. Everyone who has become residents of the land since 1948 has clearly known the Jewish status and cultural significance of the Jewish national tradition. The Basic Principles are listed in the Law first. A) The land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people, in which the State of Israel was established. B) The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfils its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination. C) The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people. No surprise there! It is also hard to argue with the ‘Symbols “ the Law lists next. 1). The name of the state is “Israel.” 2). The state flag is white with two blue stripes near the edges and a blue Star of David in […]
Over the last few years, in the lead-up to the Beersheba centenary, I have actively promoted the view that Australia—in timely fashion and emulating its famed Light Horsemen—could once again lead the charge, recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and place its embassy there. In 2016, I sat in the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv and asked then-Ambassador to Israel, David Sharma, why it was that his country would not take the initiative and do the right thing in Israel—as it had with every other one of its embassies and high commissions around the world—by placing its embassy in the designated capital. He replied that it was “not Australian statecraft” to do so. A few months later, I put the question to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott during a ‘chance encounter’ at Jerusalem’s Holocaust Memorial Museum. His response was very different: “If I was prime minister I would do it today.” Later that year, as we approached 100 years marking the Battle of Beersheba and the celebrated legacy of the 800 Light Horsemen, people around Australia responded to this voiced hope: that on this pivotal issue of the embassy move to Jerusalem, their nation might again show the maverick brand of […]