I am sure some of you aren't interested in this, maybe even thinking it's
detritus. I found it fascinating, especially given that it came out in
Ha'aretz on the 60th anniversary of the U.N. Partition Plan for
Palestine. An Israeli historian has discovered in U.N. archives, recently
opened, that as the date for statehood neared the international
organization tried to organize militias for both the envisioned "Jewish"
state and the envisioned "Arab" state. Yes, they called it an Arab state,
everybody did. No one called it a "Palestinian" state because no one
imagined that there was a Palestinian people. And not enough Arabs wanted
an Arab state. So the U.N. turned its attention to the Jewish state which
had, in a very real sense, been organizing itself since the end of the
First World War.
Denial lives a long life. Today, also apropos the 60th birthday, Hamas
called on the U.N. to rescind the Partition Plan, stating, "It is not
shameful to correct a mistake. Palestine is Arab-Islamic land from the
river to the sea, including Jerusalem, and Jews have no place
there." How's that for realism! Dream on!