# 123 – Transjordan

August 14, 2009

After the recent spate of ‘responses and counter-responses, particularly concerning Mr. O’Bama, and coming from the far-left, far-right and far-middle of the ‘Letter from Israel’ recipients, one gentle soul among them wrote the following:

“There is the adage that if we forget the past, we are condemned to repeat it.

I think we need to be knowledgeable about how we arrived at this time and place, then use that knowledge toward bettering our lives and those of our children.  Some things cannot be forgotten, even though it might be less painful”.

[A propos responses, may I ask those who react to whatever I write – to write to me only, and not to copy the others. As it’s ‘my letter’, I’d better be the one to judge whether the responses should go to everyone.]

We currently have a nephew of ours staying with us. He’s Israeli. He’s an academic and he currently teaches at an American university. He is ‘exposed’ to the lack of knowledge about Israel shown by so many overseas persons, quite disproportionate to the interest and criticism so often aimed at Israel. He reminds me that I shall never be able to give ‘them’ the knowledge that is required to really know. I certainly don’t have it, so how can I expect them to acquire it.

Well, it won’t stop me trying…

Gosh, I wish I could get all of you to read Joan Peter’s book, ‘From Time Immemorial’. How it would open your eyes to the absolute myth that has not only been bantered around, but has been totally swallowed by us all. Is a now-settled refugee any less a refugee?

On the same subject, 2 articles from the Jerusalem Post weekend magazine…

Sarah Honig’s article ‘(Trans)Jordan is Palestine’ started as follows:

“If anyone can lay claim to consummate mastery of the thriving art of history-forging, it’s the Jordanians. Their entire state, nationhood and very identity are counterfeit. Had the international community not been sympathetically predisposed to lap up the lie, Jordan obviously couldn’t pull it off. Its wholesale fabrication hinges on a world contentedly collaborating in hoodwinking itself”.

(This article follows Jordan’s recent decision to strip many Palestinians, including my recently-acquired Palestinian friend, Mohammad Assaf, of their Jordanian citizenship. They’re becoming as cynical as their neighbours, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, who deprive the Palestinians of almost any rights, thereby sentencing them to life as a refugee, in the forlorn hope of ‘getting everything back’ from Israel).

The other article was “The Shepherd Hotel in Jerusalem: An end to the Arabs’ wars of limited liability?” The sub-heading is: “The Arabs paid little for their attacks in 1947 and 1948 on Jewish communities in Palestine, yet today they demand ‘right of return’ to areas within Israel’s borders since the 1949 armistice”.

(The Shepherd Hotel is one of the places in ‘Arab’ East Jerusalem which is legally owned by Jews and where a Jewish apartment block is now being constructed. There is understandable criticism of what appears to be antagonistic behaviour by Israel, but the world so conveniently denies the recent past, or accepts the unfair behaviour of the Arabs as fact. Why?).

It’s exactly 25 years since we arrived in this country. Drove across Europe, took the ferry from Brindisi to Corfu, had fun there, then across Greece for another ferry to Haifa. Arrived August 12, 1984.

It’s been a very interesting quarter of a century.

Stephen