Yirmiyahu

English cannot be your first language if you cannot tell the difference between ” should” and “shall”

More importantly – why did you change the specific wording of the Mandate twice?

Misrepresenting and misleading readers in this fashion is reprehensible.

Not much point in responding to you in the circumstances.

An apology by you is certainly called for.

David,

I don’t know which kind of English you learned as a child but the English I speak allows for interchangeable use of the words “shall” and “should”.
Only naeivety or dishonesty could(or ccan if you wish) lead to an interpretation of “civil and religious” rights that denies the basic right of a vote accorded to all citizens.
I gather that you have joined Mr. Kuttner in refusing to take current reality into account.

“What normal country would agree to a group of people living in their midst who deny the validity of the country’s very existence?”

Thank you very much for proving my point – As I wrote in my previous comment, in order to ensure its continued existence as a “normal” Jewish and democratic country, Israel must unilaterally erect a border leaving the majority of those rejecting Israel’s right to exist to build their own country on the other side.
The galut mentality that you refer to us being perfectly executed by the current government who have buried their heads in the sand, waiting for a miracle or the problem to simply go away.

Yirmiyahu

Pity you did not complete reproducing the “main stipulation” you quoted in the Mandate – which correctly states (in full):

“… in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country;”

As you will note:

Firstly – the correct word is “should” – not “shall”

Secondly – The end of the statement you somehow omitted to include made clear that “Civil and religious rights” did not include political rights for the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine (note also no mention of “Palestinians” or even “Palestinian Arabs”) – just 0.1% of the conquered Ottoman Empire territory.

Why?

Because Arab political rights were to be established in the 99.99% of the conquered Ottoman Empire territory covered by the Mandates for Syria and Lebanon, and Mesopotamia.

This policy was further extended when Arab political rights in 78% of Palestine (today called Jordan) were provided for under article 25 of the Mandate in September 1922.

The decisions taken at San Remo and by all three Mandates are as alive and kicking today as the Hague Conventions in 1899 and 1907 and the Commonwealth of Australia Constituiton Act 1900.

Relying on PLO misinformation will get you nowhere.

The problem faced by critics such as Yirmiyahu Natan is that their rose colored spectacles have lost their glow as Islamic terror and hate incitement is the order of the day. We have to face the situation as we face it now and not wallow in some hallucinatory vision which short of the the arrival of the Messianic age will not occur.

Israel has proven over the last 70 years or so that tolerant Moslems can live in harmony with Jews in Israel and those who have accepted this are full citizens of the Jewish State. It is those who having had their minds poisoned by years of incitement, hate and delegitimization, dedicate their lives to becoming jihad martyrs and denying any Jewish connection to Israel. What normal country would agree to a group of people living in their midst who deny the validity of the country’s very existence? Why should Jews be the exception, unless of course like some, they have suicidal tendencies and a galut mentality which leads them to acquiesce to their own demise?

Lewis, these population figures for Arabs living in Judea & Samaria are wildly inflated. It has always been part of the Arab disinformation campaign to exaggerate facts. Usually unreported in the general media is the fact that especially over the last few years the rate of emigration of Arabs from these areas has increased greatly and also the birth rate has dropped and is now surpassed by the Jewish birth rate. Factor in the prospect that given economic incentives many more Arabs will find it more lucrative and attractive to voluntarily move to other places.

Do you not find it rather bizarre that Abbas can boldly state that his Palestinian State will be devoid of any Jews and nobody says boo? We have an Arab population living among us yet when the prospect of voluntary emigration is mentioned there is a knee jerk reaction.

I think it is called hypocritical double standards.

Clinging on to the San Remo Resolution as a drowning man grasping a small piece of wood in the midst of the ocean, Mr. Kuttner has yet again proved that he is a master of presenting only the facts that, to his reasoning, prove his case while at the same time ignoring both reality and honesty.

Having so passionately presented the case claiming the validity even today of the San Remo Resolution, I would at least expect Mr. Kuttner to read and uphold its main stipulation “…in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that *nothing* shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine…”
Is Mr. Kuttner then a supporter of the One-State solution as proposed in the San Remo Resolution whereby Jews and non-Jews alike are accorded full civil rights such as the right to elect members of the Knesset? Naturally he is in favour of no such thing but rather, behaving with intellectual dishonesty, he selects and discards the Resolution’s words to suit his argument.

The second and equally damning undermining of Mr. Kuttner’s argument is simply that any child can easily see that reality on the ground no longer bears any resemblance to that of 90 years ago. The San Remo Resolution, however attached Mr. Kuttner has become to it, is as practically valid today as the desire to stop the world spinning..
What Israel needs today is courageous leadership that will, if necessary, take unilateral action to ensure the continued existence of both a Jewish and democratic State of Israel. Unfortunately, Mr. Kuttner’s delusions, however amusing, bring us no closer to this objective.