Walsh Preparing Resolution Backing Israeli Annexation

Firebrand lawmaker Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) plans to introduce a bill in US House of Representatives expressing congressional support for Israel’s right to annex Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria. The move comes as Palestinian Authority officials move forward over US objections with a controversial request for a declaration of statehood at the United Nations.

Walsh's resolution, modeled closely on a bill introduced in the Israeli Knesset, is the latest effort by Congress ahead of the proposed UN vote. Lawmakers from both parties returned from stints in Israel last month warning that Congress could seek to cut aid to the PA if they actually go ahead with the vote.

“We’ve got what I consider to be a potential slap in the face coming up with the vote in the UN, which is absolutely outrageous,” Walsh told reporters.

“It’s clear that the United States needs to make a very strong statement. I would argue that the president should make this statement, but he’s not capable of making it. So, the House needs to make this statement, if the [Palestinian Authority] continues down this road of trying to get recognition of statehood, the U.S. will not stand for it. And we will respect Israel’s right to annex Judea and Samaria.”

On Thursday US officials said they would exercise their veto of any attempt to grant statehood to the PA at the UN Security Council. But that hasn’t stopped lawmakers in both countries from threatening the consequences of a declaration.

Walsh is moving forward with his resolution after meeting last month in Israel with Danny Danon, a deputy speaker of the Knesset and Likud Party member known for criticizing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from the right. .....

I am not educated —but I seem to recall a doctrine called the Laws of Nations— and the Right of Conquest. Which unless I am mistaken says essentially that a nation attacked by another -if it is victorious has the right to claim disputed territory it deems necessary to assure its right to exist in peace. Unless I am mistaken since it was recognized by the UN
Israel ( the Modern State) has been harassed, and attacked by its neighbors repeatedly. and the 67 War —and Israeli occupation among the latest— I believe ALL other nations ought butt out of telling Israel it must pull out and pull back to the original territory.But I also believe America should have recognized Jerusalem as the Capitol if Israel from the git go and should have place dour Embassy there as a sign to the bloody freakin Arabs.

You are right.

A better way to view it, though, is to think of Israel’s Arab population as demanding independence, or secession, from Israel. Israel can’t force people to be loyal, Israel is better off without the Palestinians.

The land they are fighting over is vital to Israel in 3 ways. It represents a defensive line (especially the hills) that it needs to slow approaching armies. It has significant cultural, historical and (and tourist) relevance to its people. And it is rich in natural resources - namely water and possibly shale/oil.

The Arabs want it for the same reasons, though in the case of defense they want it to keep Israel threatened, and in the case of culture and history they want it as a captured prize (the city has no historic or cultural relevance except that they can say they captured it from the Jews). Of course they want the water and oil, as any nation would.

It is made complicated because the land was annexed by Jordan, though the UN never accepted that annexation everyone else did. Now that Israel has it, it is an abomination! (sarcasm) that must be “returned?” - to whom?

If the world were to look at it as a secessionist movement it would be easier to resolve. But they have fallen for Arab propaganda and call into Question whether Israel had a right to even be formed. It did, for the same reason that the Palestinians should ultimately have a state. They are there, they are one people unified, and they want it. All it comes down to is the size of the land and the borders.

I am asking,because you may know more about this than I... but I seem to recall that the modern State of Israel was a small
splinter of land taken from the old Ottoman Empire after WWII by the victors—by way of honoring a promise made (Balfore Agreement) after WWI.The Arabs often called the Palastinians, in the region seem to have been -for the most part left there
or brought in — as an irritant to the Israeli. Jordan did not want them to be repatriated. Syria did not want them.Egypt did not want them.I hear their lives are better under Israeli control than they are under self governance— and I know of No Arabic/ Islamic State where the average person has freedom for theirs seems a despotic rule as Montesquieu documented during our Founding era? Yes some Arab States have a lot of wealth from the Oil and Gas industry that American-and other non-Arab sources helped develop (Brown and Root did some work with the Saudi)And I hear they have good gas prices at the pump— and education-for some is good—and health care at reasonable price—but it all is not democracy but despotic—Bought with the price of submission to a bloody false paganism.Israel by contrast may certainly not be American—But it seems the land and the people are more prosperous under the Israeli system. Look at that prosperity trashed by the Palastinian when Israel pulled out of the so called West Bank? For what?
I would think a majority of non Jews in Israel -or lands now occupied by Israel would prefer to remain under that system (Israeli) But it is only an observation from a distance,perhaps out of ignorance.

On paper all that you say seems true to me. I can’t verify every fact, but yes it seems about right.

Now it is true the Arabs we call Palestinians are an eclectic bunch. One of the main reasons they cannot and will not make peace is that they cannot figure out how to make peace with each other. Not only the problems between Hamas in Gaza and the PLO in the West Bank - that is just 1 problem. The more severe problem is what will they do with the Palestinians who live as refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. Look at it this way - the people who live in the West Bank have it the best of all the Pals. They have the farmland, the water, the breathing room, the trade with Israel, the free trade zones, it is where the diplomats visit etc etc. They are the middle class. Gaza is almost 100% refugee camps, very poor people. When Israel left, the Arabs destroyed the farms and the settlements.

In Lebanon, the Pals are not citizens of Lebanon so they will want to come to the new Palestinian state. The Gazans are crowded, so they will want to move to West Bank. Lebanese Pals also won’t move to Gaza they will move to West Bank. SO the people who run the Palestinian Authority who live in the West Bank look around and say “sheesh! If we make peace and get a state, all these poor, uneducated people - many of them radical fundamentalists - are going to move into our nice neighborhoods and destroy the nice life we have! We can’t allow that. But we also can’t admit it. So we will just blame Israel and say that Israel has to take them back.

Of course, everyone knows that the solution to the problem has to be 1 state for Jews and 1 or 2 or 3 or 50 states for Arabs whatever they want to do with their land is their business. But no other Arab state wants any more Palestinians. Even Jordan, which is 50% Palestinian anyway, doesn’t want them.

So yes it is true they live pretty much under despotic rule. The Palestinians got to vote a couple of times and in that regard they are the most “free” but they voted for Hamas once and Hamas never let them vote again, and they voted for Arafat once and he never let them vote again etc. So it is kind of fake. Everything the Pals have economically is due to Israel. They use Israeli money. They trade with Israel. They get most of their jobs in Israel or by Israelis. The water and electricity is supplied by Israel. The Pals are not ready to run a state, and despite 20 years of trying to help them put it together they suffer from a paralysis which in my opinion is due in large part to two things: 1) They have an Islamic chauvinism which won’t let them admit that the Jews have a right to sovereign independence on that land and 2) the fact that the people who actually make the decisions are well off and isolated and protected from the mobs of people that they are supposed to rule. And there is no way they will ever agree to let those mobs in. The decision makers are better off keeping the Gazans in Gaza and the Lebanese in Lebanon - far away from them in the West Bank.

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