{"id":53645,"date":"2020-02-18T21:17:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T03:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=53645"},"modified":"2020-02-18T21:17:44","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T03:17:44","slug":"op-ed-mahmoud-abbass-map-of-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/op-ed-mahmoud-abbass-map-of-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"OP-ED: Mahmoud Abbas\u2019s map of lies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By DANNY DANON<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dateline\">(JNS.org)<\/span> \u2013 When Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas spoke before the U.N. Security Council last week to denounce U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s Mideast peace plan, he brought with him a peculiar prop: a graphic with a series of maps titled \u201cThe Palestinians [sic] Historic Compromise,\u201d which purport to show how \u201cHistoric Palestine\u201d has \u201cdisappeared\u201d over the course of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_53646\" style=\"width: 544px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53646\" class=\"wp-image-53646 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"534\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495.jpg 880w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495-768x432.jpg 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 534px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 534\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53646\" class=\"wp-image-53646\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"534\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495.jpg 880w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/abbas-un-map-880x495-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-53646\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations on Feb. 11, 2020. Source: Screenshot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Though the use of images at the United Nations is neither new nor unique, never has a graphic that so blatantly distorts history been displayed before the highest level of international diplomacy. This episode should raise alarm bells outside of Turtle Bay as it represents a growing trend of rewriting the historical record of the Middle East. <ins class=\"adsbygoogle JNS_InArticle_1\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8573325940152694\" data-ad-slot=\"JNS\/JNS_InArticle_1\" data-adsbygoogle-status=\"done\"><ins id=\"aswift_1_expand\"><ins id=\"aswift_1_anchor\"><\/ins><\/ins><\/ins><\/p>\n<p>Commonly called the \u201cMap of Lies,\u201d Abbas\u2019s graphic misleadingly suggests how what was so-called \u201cHistoric Palestine\u201d in 1917 has shrunk in size through a series of compromises in 1937, 1947 and 1967, until it is barely recognizable in \u201cTrump\u2019s Plan\u201d in 2020. Taken at face value, the map suggests that the sudden creation and growth of one state, Israel, came at the expense of another, Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>The truth, however, is something altogether different.<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>The notion that a sovereign state of \u201cPalestine\u201d existed in 1917\u2014as depicted in Abbas\u2019s map\u2014is a fantastical reinterpretation of history. The ancestral homeland of the Jewish people and site of two temples and numerous kingdoms, the Romans renamed this land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean \u201cPalestine\u201d after destroying the Jewish kingdoms of Judah and Israel in 70 C.E. in an attempt to expunge the Jewish connection to the land from the historical record.<\/p>\n<p>For the next millennia-and-a-half, sovereignty would shift as empires competed for control of the Holy Land. By the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire had been the sovereign power for 400 years, but abdicated control of \u201cPalestine\u201d to include its Jewish and Arab populations to the League of Nations in 1917 following its dissolution.<\/p>\n<p>To this day, a sovereign \u201cPalestine\u201d has never existed, contrary to the second deceit in Abbas\u2019s map: that Palestinians have made historic \u201ccompromises.\u201d In the 1930s, Chaim Weizmann (later the first president of Israel) suggested that the Jewish community would agree to a state even if it were \u201cthe size of a tablecloth.\u201d While the Jews of Palestine were prepared to accept even the minimum levels of sovereignty, the Arabs of Palestinian were unwilling to entertain anything but the maximum. For them, Arab sovereignty was contingent on denying Jewish sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>Compromise is necessary when dividing a finite amount between multiple parties. But the Arabs\u2019 zero-sum calculus has bred a culture of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jns.org\/opinion\/history-will-remember-abbas-as-peace-rejectionist\/\">rejectionism<\/a>. As the Jews continually agreed to international offers for partition\u2014the 1937 Peel Commission Plan, the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan, and offered territory for normalization in 1967\u2014the Arabs\u2019 and Palestinians\u2019 response each time was \u201cno\u201d to compromise. By presenting these maps has \u201ccompromises\u201d on the part of the Palestinians, Abbas is trying to rewrite history.<\/p>\n<p>If a picture is worth a thousand words, Abbas has inflicted untold damage on the truth by displaying a graphic before the international community that erroneously suggests the Palestinians have continuously compromised on a historic homeland where they supposedly enjoyed political sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>That Abbas brought his map to the highest level of international diplomacy suggests that he believes that the world is ready to entertain this revisionist history of the Middle East. Sadly, in this regard, he may not be mistaken.<\/p>\n<p>Rewriting history has long been a tactic of overtly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic organizations. On college campuses, anti-Israel groups regularly use a version of this map during the notorious Israel Apartheid Week. The anti-Semitic BDS movement features this graphic in its campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/bdsmovement.net\/files\/fifa-mapsjpg-0\">materials<\/a>. Al Jazeera, the propaganda arm of Qatar that has a growing audience among younger generations in America, has a \u201cVanishing Palestine\u201d interactive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/indepth\/interactive\/2016\/06\/vanishing-palestine-making-israel-occupation-160605090749034.html\">video<\/a> as part of its \u201cPalestine Remix\u201d channel.<\/p>\n<p>What is most insidious, however, is the growing use of the map in mainstream venues. In October 2015, MSNBC displayed these maps during a live segment discussing a recent spate of Palestinian violence on the Temple Mount (for which it later apologized). In 2017, Columbia University published the maps on <a href=\"http:\/\/246mag.com\/columbia-university-poisoning-k-12-teachers-with-anti-israel-propaganda\">advertisements<\/a> for a workshop on \u201cCitizenship and Nationality in Israel\/Palestine.\u201d Last September, a high school matriculation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/International\/Finnish-matriculation-exam-used-debunked-Palestinian-propaganda-map-606098\">exam<\/a> in Finland included the maps.<\/p>\n<p>The use of the \u201cMap of Lies\u201d in mainstream media and academic circles in particular will have the effect of normalizing its content and message.<\/p>\n<p>For Israel and the Jewish people, this presents a real danger. Efforts to delegitimize the Jewish State are growing louder, with the United Nations recently releasing a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jns.org\/un-releases-blacklist-of-firms-with-ties-to-israeli-settlements\/\">blacklist<\/a>\u201d of Israeli companies that operate in Judea and Samaria being only the latest example of revisionist history having tangible consequences.<\/p>\n<p>One\u2019s interpretation and understanding of the past forms their assumptions about the present and determines their vision for the future. Believing Abbas\u2019s \u201cMap of Lies\u201d will do more than dishonor the past; it will irrevocably damage the cause of peace.<\/p>\n<p><em>Danny Danon is Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations.<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"OP-ED%3A%20Mahmoud%20Abbas%E2%80%99s%20map%20of%20lies\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[8781,8790,8795,8788,380],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53647,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53645\/revisions\/53647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}