By Ted Belman
The Levy Report has sent shock waves through the Jewish communities in both Israel and the US as well as through the international community concerned with the peace process. The reverberations are still being felt.
It opined that
-
“According to international law, Israelis have a legal right to settle all of Judea and Samaria, or at the very least the lands that Israel controls under agreements with the Palestinian Authority. Therefore, the establishment of Jewish settlements [in Judea and Samaria] is, in itself, not illegal.”
“the laws of ‘occupation’ do not apply to the unique historic and legal circumstances surrounding Israel’s decades-long presence in Judea and Samaria.”
“the Fourth Geneva Convention [relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War] on the transfer of populations does not apply, and wasn’t intended to apply to communities such as those established by Israel in Judea and Samaria.”
Those on the right rejoiced as it substantiated what they had been claiming for years, namely that the settlements were legal. Furthermore it enabled them to shed the label of “occupier” and to make claim to all of Judea and Samaria.
Dore Gold recently took a more limited view and argued:
-
“Israel is not going to persuade its international critics to change their views on the status of the territories. Nonetheless its conclusions are still important for one diplomatic scenario, in particular: a negotiated end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the future. For at the end of the day, there is a huge difference in how a compromise will look if Israel’s negotiating team comes to the peace table as “foreign occupiers,” who took someone else’s land, or if they come as a party that also has just territorial claims.
The objections to the report first focused on the harm it would do to the peace process without challenging its legal conclusions other than to say it flies in the face of international opinion.
Isabel Kirshner wrote in the NYT
-
“The committee’s legal arguments, while nonbinding, could provide backup for the government should it decide to grant the outposts retroactive official status. But such a move would inevitably stir international outrage and deal a significant blow to prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.”
Forty Jewish leaders wrote to PM Netanyahu fretting:
-
“We fear that this report, if approved, will place the two-state solution, and the prestige of Israel as a democratic member of the international community, in peril.” [..]
“our great fear is that the Levy Report will not strengthen Israel’s position in this conflict, but rather add fuel to those who seek to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist.”
I was at a loss to understand why this would be so and they didn’t explain. They wanted the Report buried.
Former Foreign Ministry legal adviser and Ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, one of the Levy Committee members, angrily rejected the claim that the report jeopardizes the two-state solution and “adds fuel to those who seek to legitimize Israel’s right to exist.” Baker writes that such a claim is devoid of any basis “other than insulting to myself and the other members of the Commission in light of our respective contributions to the welfare and prestige of Israel.”
To the contrary, Baker writes that it is their letter that “adds the fuel to those who seek to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist.”
Stinging from the criticism, one of the authors of the letter was quick to explain that their concerns “stem from the added impediments the Levy Report poses for achieving a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict-not the technical and legal reasoning used to arrive at its conclusions, which is irrelevant to our concern.”
Obviously, it is easier to make a deal if you are ready to do what is demanded of you, rightly or wrongly, than to insist on your rights. The international community including liberal Jews favours invented rights for an invented people rather than legals rights of a three thousand year old people.
The international community believes the gaps are narrow and be bridged when in reality no party to the conflict is ready to give further concessions. It is no answer for Israel to stop building and merely wait for the Arabs to come around. Why should they. They have no incentive to compromise. They have it pretty good.
The Forward quotes certain Jewish leaders who advised that in 1983 at a meeting of the President’s Conference that a consensus was reached: “The consensus, if ever there was a consensus, was that we can disagree on the policies, but we do not disagree on the legality or on whether [the settlements are] an obstacle to peace.”
Now apparently that consensus no longer holds. AIPAC and B’nai Brith and The Conference of Presidents were unavailable for comment. But Executive Director David Harris of the AJC said the report could “pose costly and unnecessary political and diplomatic challenges” to Israel and to the peace process if adopted.
He worried that the findings would provide “an unearned excuse” for Palestinians to avoid returning to peace talks and that they would “interfere” with the impression that Israel has a “profound commitment to a negotiated two-state solution.” Abe Foxman, to his credit, was surprised by the Jewish communal opposition to the report, particularly with the declaration from the AJC. The reason being was that: “Israel has always believed settlements are legal,”.
Israel has always taken the position that their settlements or their legal rights can always be abandoned in the interest of a negotiated settlement. But in the meantime she wants to keep building as that is the only thing that puts pressure on the Arabs to negotiate in good faith, sooner than later. The settlement construction will mean that the Arabs get less than what they want, and why shouldn’t they, seeing as how they are the aggressors and the intransigent ones.
Thus building settlements supports the peace process and not building settlements undermines it by removing pressure on the Arab interests.
The Jewish liberals/left want peace at virtually any price i.e., ’67 lines with swaps and a shared Jerusalem whereas the Jewish right wants an undivided Jerusalem as its capital and part of Judea and Samaria. Put another way the left supports “land for peace” and the Jewish right wants “land and peace”.
For at least 7 years I have been complaining in my articles and in conferences that I totally reject when our government stresses our security needs and never mentions our rights. I demand that the Government fight for our rights, not our security. I said the same to Alan Baker and to Dore Gold and to Dan Diker the CEO of the World Jewish Congress. Now all three are putting more emphasis on our rights. It is a very welcome change.
Under the Balfour Declaration, incorporated into the San Remo Declaration and the Mandate, Jews have an absolute right to settle anywhere west of the Jordan. Indeed, a clear claim to certain areas east of the Jordan. Israel, the successor to the Mandate, has an absolute right to settle whoever it wants west of the Jordan. That right was not changed when the League of Nations was dissolved into its successor the U.N. Nothing has changed that right— certainly not the Jordanian seizure of Judea and Samaria in 1948. The Jewish People, and now Israel, always had title to Judea and Samaria (the British were only tasked with bringing the Jewish State into existence as soon as possible)and nothing has changed that right. The behavior of the U.S. and European countries blatantly violates their own treaty obligations.
Judea and Samaria are not “dispute” areas. They are Israeli areas and it is high time Israel acted accordingly.
leonard white Said:
There is no need as the opportunity is there to use the law against the detractors. the “jewish right of settlement west of Jordan river” is clear, strong and indisputable. Israel is sovereign west of green line and is administrator between green line and jordan river. Israel does not need to make itself sovereign between the Jordan river and the green line in order to fulfill the obligations under the UN Charter to settle Jews in the administrated area. My view is that any UN member nation that is in administration of the area is legally bound to fulfill the mandate as it is still unfulfilled in the area in question. The birth of the state of Israel did not reduce the area of settlement for Jews. I believe that even the non binding partition 181 resolution/suggestion was not to disturb those rights. Israel can simply claim that it will proceed to fulfill the amndate and even that it will still proceed to negotiate “peace”. The two are not mutually exclusive in law, only in the consensus of opinion of the detractors of Jews. Remember the main pint of international law is to form a basis for your actions and not to win in a court. Reason is given to erstwhile supporters to support Israel and the jews.
It is time to recognize that the peace process is and always was a charade invented by Brezhnev. It has worked brilliantly to keep the conflict going for 45 years. It should be buried without honors.
I want to add that Israel should not only state that it has a legal obligation under the UN Charter and the LofN Mandate Trust but that it is also obligated to institute an affirmative action program to mitigate the damage of no Jewish settlement during the Jordanian occupation and limited Jewish settlement since Israels liberation of the west bank. Since 1948 the rights of Jews to settlement in the west bank have been illegally obstructed and must now be corrected, unless one has a double standard for Jews that they cannot reasonably rely on the law. By the way the settlement can proceed legally under the status quo while Israel negotiates “peace”. However,, these negotiations MUST be demanded to include guarantees for continued Jewish settlement under the mandate(these were breached by occupier Jordan)and that settlers existent are part of the negotiation. The “palestinians” have no problem making outrageous demands based on nothing so why shouldn’t the Jews make seemingly “outrageous” demands based on law and equanimity. Once settlement proceeds with haste and massive proportions (I suggest free land grants based on US homestead act) everything else will fall into place. Think bigger, the enemy does!
Good Post Ted! I am happy to see that you are keeping this discussion of the legality of Jewish settlement rights in discussion. I believe that this approach has the detractors of Jewish settlement rights running scared as I have seen no strong LEGAL argument so far against those embedded rights. I believe that more legal investigation needs to be done as to the ramifications of the “legal rights of Jews to settle west of the Jordan River”. It is my view that as the “encouragement” is in the UN Charter that, legally speaking, UN members(or at least Charter signatories) are legally bound to encourage “Jews” to settle west of the JOrdan River.
Now to beat my usual drum upon I which I feel very strongly:
I feel that the focus should be placed on the legal rights of Jews to settle because it is the Israeli rights of settlement which have allowed the issue to be muddied with the GC etc and these arguments will continue as legal disputes. What I think is INDISPUTABLE, and will have detractors running scared, is the JEWISH right to settle west of the jordan river This unexpired right refers to the specific area in question and that right was never legally canceled and the area was never legally reduced. Furthermore, the boundaries of the state of Israel present day have no legal impact on the area of jewish settlement. The state of Israel may have become mandate trustee or Agent of Jewish people but the two are still separate classes. The land claims of the state of Israel are in flux but the land settlement for the Jews are not. The swindlers have intentionally confused the two and Jews fell for the trick. Israel does not have to annex now to settle JEWS and fulfill the mandate.
It never ceases to surprise me that a nation built on a rejection of the European ghetto mentality has produced a leadership and a population much of which is hamstrung by a Ghetto mentality. The same old fear for the Goyim whch got us nowhere in the past and will get us nowhere in the future.
@ underzog:
What we are dealing with here has nothing to do with the Geneva Conventions or any other legalities; it has to do with media spin.
Israel does not accept the fourth geneva convention — nor should it. The third Geneva Convention is good enough.
Incidentally, the third geneva convention states tht the use of protective people as sheilds does not confer protection for military targets (Article 28, I believe). That is something to keep in mind when Israel bombs Gaza despite Hamas stationing women and children on the intended target.
leonard white Said:
Stupid advice. By following it, Israel would run an unnecessary and potentially fatal risk of turning the US government into an open and avowed enemy. Israel needs to politely reject jewicidal advice from America, but a “thumb in the eye” approach serves no useful purpose.
@ leonard white:
Situation looks hopelessly dire. Time to call in BATMAN. 🙂
@ leonard white:
Yeah, correct we don’t get that much and the difference can be made up mostly by instituting more efficiencies in Israel’s bloated bureaucracy and by world Jewry.
I never said all but certainly any connected with the UN and countries who are not contributing to our national interest like the EU.
Competing serves our national interest and as an ex competitive athlete, I believe we should support and protect our own. When there is a clear and verified imminent danger then we should consider how we can protect them if we can’t they are left to decide for themselves to participate or not.
We are a democracy and our citizens can decide for themselves whether to travel where and when. The Government can advise but not ban. It’s not a terrible thing for our citizens to take a break from traveling outside of Israel and revisit many of our own tourist sites and spend their money at home.
I never said or advocated this, but we should dump all treaties and agreements where the other parties are not living up to their side of those treaties and agreements. Others might be renegotiated where it serves our interests to do so.
Duh? Are you suggesting we don’t? Or shouldn’t?
In todays military reality it’s unnecessary, we have quite enough manpower serving on active duty and instead of reserves, activate a dozen nukes with the inclusive notification to our enemies that even before the first missile or rocket hits Israel in their attack on us a nuclear response will automatically have been activated against the source of the fire against us along with preprogrammed targets of our enemies near and far.
In such a case your friends ( you are so concerned about and obviously fearful of) in the ” NATO, EU,US and the like” Should have every incentive based on self interest and self preservation to control those vermin who would destroy us if they could. They may have the oil and the money but we still hold the matches.
Apparently, you can take the Jews out of the ghetto, but can you take the ghetto out of the Jews?
Keep your head down, don’t speak up and perhaps the goyim will let you live or at least let you leave alive.
@ LT COL HOWARD:
Israel is now menaced by Hamas Rockets (35- 40 K), Hizbollah with 50-60 thousand highly advanced ballistic missiles. Al Qaeda infiltration of Israel through Sinai peninsula with the most dangerous biological weaponry, as well as nerve gas obtained from Lybia. Al Qaeda is sweeping into Syria where it has pretty well taken over the opposition forces, threatening to take possesion of Syria’s stock of chemical weapons. Al Qaeda has taken over some sectors of Jordan’s border region where it remains a threat to Israel’s security. Last but not least Al qaeda keeps destroying Egypt’s natural gas pipeline to Israel.
Israel is being surrounded by threats and we are discussing petty politics.
@ yamit82:
Yamit- You are perfectly correct. Israel should walk out of the UN- renounce military and financial assistance from the US and any other quarter. Remove itself from all international agencies. Not compete in the Olympics. Not have any of its citizens travel in foreign countries so not to put its residents in harm’s way. Renounce all treaties, agreements and associations with any NATION including, NATO, EU,US and the like. Tightly control all borders, ports, waterways.
CALL UP THE RESERVES AND KEEP THEM MOBILIZED AT ALL TIMES.
We must ask how did Israel get into this quandry? My simple answer – THE LEADERSHIP STINKS.
@ Mike Packer:
This is shameful. Israel’s situation is horrendous and getting worse by the day.
I agree withYamit82, Laura, Mike Packer, Norman F.
@ted:” the left supports “land for peace” and the Jewish right wants “land and peace”.”…. unfortunately the left supports land for illusion, unsupported dreams, hopes, etc. a piece of land for a piece of paper. Agreement with a group that announcesa that it hasd a duty to lie to achieve their objectives? Recall the US and UN pressures on Israel and theUS/UN brokered agreement with Hezbollah (which has now led to 40 to 50,000 missiles being aimed at Israel)? Recall the UN monitors that were withdrawn at Egyptian request that were supposed to guarantee Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal? Recall Oslo and the pledge of the PA to discontinue incitement against Israel? etc.
etc. etc.
There will never be peace with the Arabs.
Any one who thinks that is going to happen might as well try to win the house in Las Vegas or wait to be struck by lightning.
The Arabs are the same Arabs they have always been like the sea will always be the same sea. Nothing is going to change in the Middle East.
In a word, there is NO basis to the belief held by American Jewish liberals and the Israeli Left that Jewish niceness, goodwill and flexibility will transform the attitude of the Arabs who hate the Jews and Israel.
Israel has tried “land for peace” for over four decades now and those “gains” from it are now evaporating like liquid water in the desert. Its discredited. The only way Israel will be secure is to hold the sword and never let it drop from its hands.
As if we don’t have political and diplomatic challenges now and we certainly don’t have a “peace process”.
The arabs don’t need another excuse …they have enough already and the “two-state solution” is a dead horse anyway.
Israel should adopt the Levy Report and start a planned annexation of Judea and Samaria.
Europe is post Christian and secular left. American Christians are pro-Israel. What these Jewish liberals want is to be loved by the secular left in the west as one of them.
What they want is to be loved and recognized by the Christian Europeans and Americans as one of them and not Jewish religious fanatics.
For a piece of paper they would be willing to cede much more to the Arabs. These are the Jewish fools and traitors who gave away Sinai, Gaza and wanted to Give Assad the Golan. Think about where we would be today if they had given up the Golan to Assad and what we might expect from a MB dominated Egypt after we gave them territory, and energy resources. The Sinai agreement has cost in dollar terms to Israel over 100 billion $$$$.
Real Peace is a utopian concept especially with our conflict with Arab Muslims supported by most nations in the world.
What most Jews on the real right know, is that only through strength and willingness to go to war with the accompanied self sacrifice of Jews to hold on to their Land will any chance of peace become a possibility.
My recommendation for Jews who want peace at any price to move to Boston or Toronto if they will have them.
Betar Hymn
Shir HaBirionim – Etzel Anthem
by Ya’akov Cohen
We have arisen and returned mighty youths,
We have arisen and returned, We are Biryonim!
To redeem our land in war’s storm,
We demand our heritage with upraised hand.
In blood and fire Judea fell!
In blood and fire Judea will arise!
War for freedom, War for the land,
And if freedom dies, long live revenge!
If there is no justice in the land, the sword will judge
Even if we fall like sand, we’ll not give up our rights.
In blood and fire Judea fell!
In blood and fire Judea will arise!
Remember Me