White House Map Puts Jerusalem, West Bank and Golan Heights in No Man's Land or is it Jordan and Syria?

The Obama- Netanyahu press conference is underway this minute. I heard Obama speak of the perils of keeping Israel safe, and mentioning only rockets from Hezbollah (Lebanon). No mention of Hamas that I have heard. In the video below, it is clear that the West Bank is not considered a part of Israel, nor is Jerusalem by the White House. If you look at the map, you can see why it was impossible for Israel to protect it’s citizens with the Golan Heights and the West Bank armed and pointing weapons at them. Israel has taken back some of the territory originally mandated to them in various wars waged against them, and now refuses to give it up for security reasons. The original Mandate for an Israeli nation gave Israel all the land west of the Jordan River. The British who were appointed to execute the mandate whittled away at the land, in cooperation with the Mufti of Jerusalem – land mass that began with an area of 124,4466 sq. km. Two years later that land had been reduced to 28,166 sq. km. Seventy-seven percent of Israel’s mandated land was given to Saudi Arabia for the creation of Jordan. While the world talks about the territory Israel is “occupying,” it’s important to understand that their “occupation” comes only after the “occupation” of their land by others. It’s my understanding that the Mandate for Israel has never legally been changed. The last legally binding documents regarding the status of the West Bank and Gaza leave the areas belonging to Israel. In the U.N. Partition Resolution of 1947 (U.N. Resolution 181) was never accepted by Arabs. Had they accepted, there would have been the State of Israel and the State of Palestine. When Jordan took the West Bank from Israel in 1948, the world was fine with it. The world is not fine with Israel doing the same. Get this: The 1974 Arab League Summit deemed the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) to belong to The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Are you astonished that Israel thumbed their nose at the Arab League? Note in the graphic below, the dark blue represents Israel.

The map of the Middle East displayed in an Obama administration video released days before President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel shows the Jewish state dispossessed of substantial parts of its current territory, including its capital. 

The map of Israel, displayed repeatedly during the video, shows the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, northern Israel, and areas surrounding what is currently the West Bank as non-Israeli territory. The Golan Heights is shown as part of Syria; Jerusalem is shown as part of the West Bank; and northern Israel is shown as part of Lebanon. 

The itinerary on the White House website also implies that Jerusalem is neither Israel’s capital nor even part of Israel. 

The president’s schedule lists two stops in “Tel Aviv, Israel” and one in “Amman, Jordan” but his activities in Israel’s capital city are identified as taking place only in “Jerusalem” — with no country name attached. This keeps with a reluctantly-acknowledged administration policy of denying that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital or even a part of Israel. Source: Free Beacon

2009 – Netanyahu:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of Russian-language reporters Thursday that Israel will never withdraw from the Golan Heights.
“Remaining on the Golan will ensure Israel has a strategic advantage in cases of military conflict with Syria,” Netanyahu said during a briefing he gave to the reporters.

Can you imagine Germany demanding the return of Alsace from France, or Alsace demanding their previous short autonomy?

Israeli land as represented by the White House (video)
Here are some snippets from history - read the whole story here, which include maps:

Eleven minutes after, the United States recognized the State of Israel. On May 15th, 1948 Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria invaded the sovereign nation of Israel, crossing international frontiers, and the Arab-Israeli War (Israeli War of Independence) began. 

By July 24, 1949, Syria had signed an armistice agreement and Israel had increased it’s land area by almost 50% over the U.N. partition plan. The resulting armistice determined Israel’s borders for nineteen years. Egypt gained Gaza in the armistice. 

By Fall 1949, Jordan had control of Gaza and East Jerusalem. 

The odd and secretive 1956 War began. The short but incomplete story is that Israel took Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and then under threat by the U.S., gave it back. 

Then came the 1967 Six Day War. In the Spring, Syria conducted terrorist raids against Israel, water was diverted by Syria, from Israel and irrigation projects for south and central Israel, although approved by Arab engineers as non-detrimental to Arab lands, were not approved by the Arab governments. In May, Egypt blocked the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships. “Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia all activated their militaries. Iraqi troops reportedly approached the Syrian and Jordanian borders while Jordan moved tanks towards the West Bank.” 

Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia formed a “defense pact.” Egyptian President Nasser said “Our basic objective will be the destruction if Israel. 

The tiny nation of Israel was surrounded by “some 500,000 troops, more than 5,000 tanks, and almost 1,000 fighter planes.” France, Israel’s major arms supplier, issued a “complete ban on weapons sales and transfers to Israel.” 

In the 1973 War (Yom Kippur War), again the Arab world came against Israel, as Egypt sought to regain territories lost to Israel in 1967. After two days of trying to recover from the surprise attack, Israel’s IDF blocked Syrian, Egyptian and Iraqi assaults and once again took the Golan Heights. By the time a U.N. ceasefire was implemented, “Israel had completely surrounded the Egyptian Third Army.” 

Under the leadership of Moyshe Dayan, Israel decided to go to war on June 5, 1967. 

After a three days of fierce fighting, especially in and around Jerusalem, Israeli forces defeated the Jordanians and gained control of all of Jerusalem as well as the West Bank, the historical heartland of the Jewish people known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria. Following an air attack by the Syrians on the first day of the war, Israel dealt a shattering blow to the Syrian air force. …on fifth day of the war, the Israelis mustered enough forces to remove the Syrian threat from the Golan Heights. This difficult operation was completed the following day, bringing the active phase of the war to a close.

Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook