Tel Aviv Dreaming

In the hoary tradition of Palestine denial, beginning with the Balfour Declaration's (1917) designation of 90% of Palestine's population as "the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine," and Lord Balfour's breath-taking statement that "in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country... The Four Great Powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land,"* comes the following gem from the pen of Ziocon hack Bret Stephens:

"Palestine can never hope to compete with Israel except in the sense that the fantasy of Palestine will always have an edge on the reality of Israel. Over a beachfront lunch yesterday in Tel Aviv, an astute Israeli friend had the following counter-fantasy. What if Western leaders refused to take Mahmoud Abbas's calls? What if they pointed out that, in the broad spectrum of global interests, from Eastern Europe to the South China Sea, the question of Palestinian statehood ranked very low - on a par with, say, the prospect for independence for the Walloons? What if these leaders observed that, in the scale of human tragedy, the supposed plight of the Palestinians is of small account next to the human suffering in Syria or South Sudan?" (Fantasy of a Palestinian state will always have edge on reality of Israel, The Wall Street Journal/ The Australian, 8/1/15)

[*Memo to Curzon, 11/8/19]