Historically Jewish Territories Are Not ‘Palestinian Territories’

To the editor:

Bruce Ticker (“Israel is Our Business,” March 1) claims that the current Israeli government “has proposed annexing the Palestinian territories.” In fact, the government has not made any such proposal, and the platform of the ruling Likud party says nothing about annexing territories. Two of the smaller parties within the governing coalition do favor incorporating part, or all, of Judea-Samaria into Israel, although they have not proposed any legislation to that effect.

If they do, we can look forward to a vigorous debate in Israel and the Jewish world over the merits of such a proposal. That debate should be anchored in historical facts—including the basic fact that what Mr. Ticker calls “Palestinian territories” in fact have been the heart of the historical Jewish homeland since biblical times. Three thousand years before any Arabs even called themselves “Palestinians,” Hebron was King David’s capital, the patriarch Jacob had his famous dream in Beit El, and Shiloh was the main national center of Jewish worship—to cite just a few of the countless and deep Jewish ties to those territories.

If anybody wants to argue that Judea and Samaria should be handed over to the Palestinian Authority—thus reducing Israel to just nine miles wide at its vulnerable mid-section—they are free to make that case; but let’s not mangle history by claiming that those historically Jewish territories are “Palestinian territories.”

Sincerely,
Stephen M. Flatow
Long Branch, N.J.