In 1919, the mandates system was established by Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. This was a way to put European powers in temporary control of various territories that had once been part of the now-defunct Ottoman Empire, that had been on the losing side in World War I. Those holders of the Mandates, Great Britain and France, were entrusted with bringing the people in the various mandates to self-rule. The Arabs in the mandates of Iraq and Lebanon-Syria would in time become three independent Arab states. The League also created a single mandate for the Jewish people, the Palestine Mandate, that under British control would be made ready to become the first independent Jewish state, in the historic homeland of the Jews, in more than two millennia.
The territory of the Palestine Mandate consisted of a northern border just beyond Mount Hermon in the north and a southern border at the Red Sea, and from the river Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west. Originally it had been expected that all of historic Palestine on both sides of the Jordan would be included in the Mandate, but for reasons of realpolitik, the British decided to remove 78% of that originally contemplated territory, on the east side of the Jordan River, from inclusion in the Palestine Mandate. This was done over the objections of the Zionists. The British decided unilaterally to make all of that territory east of the Jordan into a new state, the Emirate of Transjordan, which would be ruled by the Hashemite Emir Abdullah, who wanted to be given a state of his own. Abdullah had been greatly put out because his younger brother Feisal had been put on the throne of Iraq in 1921 by the British. In order to head him off from trying to conquer Syria, which would create a crisis with the French, the British simply lopped off all of eastern Palestine, originally meant to be part of a future Jewish state, and turned it into the Emirate of Transjordan, with Abdullah as its emir, so that he would not attempt to wrest Syria from French control, which could damage British-French relations. The Zionists watched helplessly as 78% of the territory which had been originally intended to be included in the Mandate for Palestine was removed from the Mandate’s provisions.
But there was never any doubt that the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine was meant to include all of the territory “from the river to the sea.” It was only because the Arab Legion of Jordan, led by British officers and with a British commander, John Bagot Glubb, known as Glubb Pasha, managed in the 1948 war to seize and hold onto Judea and Samaria, that the Jews were unable to make it part of their new state, the State of Israel. In 1950, the Jordanians renamed Judea and Samaria as “the West Bank” in order to efface the Jewish link to the land made obvious in the toponyms “Judea”and “Samaria.” This was a modern updating of the Roman attempt to efface the Jewish connection revealed in the place name “Judea” by renaming it “Syria Palestina” or “Syria of the Philistines,” which was then shortened to “Palestine.” The Jordanians held onto what they called the “West Bank” for 19 years, from 1948 to 1967. In all that time, only two countries, Great Britain and Pakistan, recognized Jordanian sovereignty over that territory. In 1967, as a result of the Six-Day War, the Jews recaptured Judea and Samaria. At that point, Israel could have simply annexed that territory outright, for that land was part of the Mandate — Israel already possessed the right to that land, but it was only then, after the Six-Day War, that it had the ability to enforce that pre-existing right. Had it immediately annexed Judea and Samaria in 1967, by now the world would have gotten used to it and, however begrudgingly, accepted it.
Instead, Israel chose not to annex the territory, for the peace camp in Israel was strong, and it believed in that will-o’-the-wisp, invoked so often that its constituent parts are usually uttered as one long word: “twostatesfortwopeopleslivinginpeacesidebyside.” Some Israelis thought of Judea and Samaria not as the places where Jewish history was made, central to Jewish identity, but as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the Palestinians, perhaps even for most of Judea and Samaria to be given up to attain a “peace.” But the Palestinian Arabs have shown that they want all of Judea and Samaria — hence the rejection by Yassir Arafat of Ehud Barak’s generous offer in 2000, and the rejection by Mahmoud Abbas of the even more generous offer in 2008 by Ehud Olmert. The Israelis did, however, begin after the Six-Day War to build Jewish towns and cities throughout Judea and Samaria, on state and waste lands, and on land bought from, or abandoned in 1967 by, the local Arabs. Now there are 540,000 Israeli Jews living in Judea and Samaria. They are not living in “settlements,” a word which smacks of small-scale and impermanent living quarters, but in towns and cities.
Dave says
Why does Israel refuse to declare IT is the land “Between the River and the Sea” and JORDAN is the “palestinian” state?
somehistory says
The God of the ancient Hebrews, of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel, gave the Land to those people as He had promised Abraham He would do.
He brought Abraham, His friend, out of Ur and showed the man the Land that was a ‘very, very good land, flowing with milk and honey.’ God promised Abraham that He would give that Land to Abraham’s descendants. He kept that promise.
Since God has never taken back the Land, it still belongs to the descendants of Abraham….and those are the Jews (Judah) the Israelites (offspring of Israel).
mozlums claim and pretend to be from Abraham, but that, like everything else they claim and pretend, is a big lie.
Thieves don’t get to have ownership of the things they steal; and that includes land.
Billy says
Yes. From the Euphrates to the river in Egypt. The land of Israel unconditionally belongs to Israel forever as covenanted by the LORD. Genesis 15:18 says, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
somehistory says
He made it perfectly clear which Land He was promising.
Billy says
Yes. Forever. Psalm 105:8-11 says, “He is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.””
Bbb M says
Yes He did- and also How he would punish those who give what belongs to God. away. His covenants are everlasting -they never expire.
“He remembers His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
1aying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance,”
(Psalm105:8-11)
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Israel needs to formally annex Judea and Samaria, just like it did Golan in 1982, and toss out the Palestinian Authority. Also expel all Palis w/ a criminal record to the same place that the Gazans go to
Walter Sieruk says
All genuine Christians who know the Bible should be very willing to declare the truth, which is that God had given all this land that now composes the State of Israel, including all of the West Bank, which in reality are Judah and Samaria ,to the Jewish people. This may be found in the Bible, as seen in, for example, Genesis 28:13-15. 35:10-12. Deuteronomy 32:48,49. Psalm 105:7-11.
In other words the Jews have tall this land by Divine Right. Furthermore, the Jewish people should have this land by historic rights as shown in First Kings 4:20,21, 24,25. 8:55, 56.
For the Bible informs its reader “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure.” Psalm 135:4. [N.K.J.V.]
abu taleb says
This is some excerpts from https://islamqa.info/en/answers/21977/solution-to-the-palestinian-issue
First, it is an Islamic issue, not just a Palestinian or Arab issue. So it is a religious war.
“It is worth pointing out in this context that the Palestinian issue is an Islamic issue, first and last, but the enemies of Islam are striving their utmost to remove it from the Islamic map and make the non-Arab Muslims think that it is an Arab issue that does not concern the non-Arabs. It seems that they have succeeded in that to some extent.”
Second, there are indeed Jews who are really the inhabitants of the land, but they are supposed to be ruled under Islamic rule. The rest should be expelled to where ever they came from (but some Jews came from Arab countries too, but they should be ruled bt the local Islamic ruler too of course).
.
“Hence I think that a solution cannot be reached in this matter unless it is regarded as an Islamic issue and the Muslims cooperate to find a solution, and wage an Islamic jihad against the Jews, until the land is given back to its people and the Jewish immigrants go back to the countries from which they came, and the original Jewish inhabitants stay in their towns under Islamic rule, not communist or secular rule. In this manner truth will prevail and falsehood will be defeated, and the people whose land it is will return to their land under Islamic rule and none other.”
As a conclusion, muslims thinks that the land belongs to Islam, the non muslims should either live under Islamic rule (paying jizyah or becoming slaves) or expelled or killed. More over, the whole earth actually belongs to muslims too, so non muslims either be killed, enslaved or pay jizyah (Christians and Jews only)
gravenimage says
Who Owns Judea and Samaria?
………………………………….
The very name “Judea” should give us a clue…
terry says
When those criminals who began a war lose to those to whom they waged war against, the aggressor wins not, and the defender aggressed against gets the spoils of the war started by the loser. Globalism, Marxism, and Islam are losers in any and all wars they ever began, and those who rule these losing powers and forces are now, and historically been nothing but violent grifters and criminals.