Short Quiz – REPRISE: A Marshall-Type Plan For Palestinians

[johnkarls]

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The Topic Proposal for our 15 Jan 2020 meeting was to study --

“Criminal Defamation of Israel (and Civil Defamation Liability). With an eye to a REPRISE of our 10/14/2009 Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaign to President Obama calling for “A Marshall-Type Plan” for the Palestinians which concluded with --

“What is necessary is a good education for the Palestinian children and training for the adults so that they can handle jobs that would go with economic development (construction, irrigation, manufacturing, etc.), following a careful assessment of the comparative strengths that Palestine would possess. The U.S. began providing Egypt and Israel with $6 billion/year of economic aid when they signed their 1979 Peace Agreement. It would seem a comparable amount would be a small price to pay to provide a real solution to a conflict that has festered for 60 years and, with nuclear arms soon to permeate the area, could soon produce a nuclear holocaust that might lead to ‘the twilight of the humans’!”

But this time, of course, to President Trump.
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Accordingly it is appropriate to review the Short Quiz for our 10/14/2009 meeting which follows immediately below and is labeled “Part I.”

In addition, the last clause of the 10/14/2009 E-mail Campaign (as quoted above – “a conflict that has festered for 60 years and, with nuclear arms soon to permeate the area, could soon produce a nuclear holocaust that might lead to ‘the twilight of the humans’!”) has become more urgent because The Iran Nuclear Agreement was negotiated in the 10-plus years since the 10/14/2009 E-mail Campaign.

Therefore, Part I (our Short Quiz from 10/14/2009) is supplemented by an update labeled “Part II.”


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Part I – 10/14/2009 Short Quiz - American Policy Toward Israel
Originally posted by johnkarls - Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:19 am
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1. When did the Jewish Diaspora occur? What caused it?

2. Following the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine by the Romans, how much longer did Palestine remain a part of the Roman Empire?

3. Following the fall of Rome and the Western Roman Empire in 476, how much longer did Palestine remain a part of the Eastern Roman Empire (aka the Byzantine or Greek Empire governed from the Greek capital of Constantinople)?

4. After the Byzantine/Greek Empire (aka Eastern Roman Empire) was evicted from Palestine and the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean in 632-655 by the first three Caliphs in the initial expansion of Islam following the death of the Prophet Mohammed, how long was the new Arab Empire able to hold it?

5. Who were the Seljuk Turks sweeping in from Central Asia (Chinese Turkestan, aka Sinkiang Province, and Russian Turkestan which later fragmented into all of today’s "stans" (except Afghanistan which had always been independent and Pakistan which had been part of India)), and how long were the Seljuk Turks able to rule Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean?

6. Why did all of the Crusades occur “on the watch” of the Seljuk Turks?

7. Why did the Ottoman Turks sweeping in from Central Asia (Chinese Turkestan and Russian Turkestan) seem so different from the Seljuk Turks if they came from the same place and from the same ethnic people?

8. For how many centuries did the Ottomans rule Palestine?

9. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Turks by the British as part of World War I, how long did Britain rule Palestine (and the other Ottoman Turk areas of the Eastern Mediterranean such as Lebanon, Syria, etc.)?

10. According to the 31 Aug 1947 Official Report of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, what was the break down of Palestine's population?

11. Was the UNSCOP report the basis for United Nations Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947 dividing Palestine into a "Jewish State" and an "Arab State" based on who owned what?

12. What two things happened on 14 May 1948?

13. What was the reaction of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon?

14. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War (known in Israel as the War for Independence and in Arab countries as The Catastrophe), how many Jews were expelled from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, and had to flee to Israel? How many Arabs were displaced from Israel?

15. Following the 1948 war, what happened to the West Bank? to Gaza?

16. What happened in 1956?

17. When was "The Six-Day War"? What happened to the West Bank? to Gaza?

18. What was the Yom Kippur War?

19. In the Yom Kippur War why, according to Pulitzer-Prize winner Seymour Hersh (in his book "The Samson Option") did Israel NOT follow its long-standing policy that if it ever reached the point that it had fewer than 24 hours to go until complete annihilation, it would launch all of its nuclear weapons (about a dozen at the time) which, interestingly, were trained on Russian cities rather than Arab capitals?

20. When did Egypt get the Sinai Peninsula back? Why wasn't the return of Gaza included?

21. When did Israel withdraw from Gaza, including the abandonment of all of the Jewish "settlements" in Gaza?

22. Despite Israel PR claims that the 2006 invasion of Southern Lebanon and the 2008 invasion of Gaza were unsuccessful, did both invasions in fact achieve their objective?

23. What happened to all the suicide bombers that used to dominate the world headlines by blowing up Israel restaurants, buses, etc.?

24. Why couldn't Yasir Arafat simply say "yes" to the Peace Plan he negotiated with Israel and President Clinton in 2000 which would have resulted in a Palestinian State?

25. Did the same unofficial group of Israel and Palestinian experts and former official negotiators that produced a 2003 report on a "two-state peace plan" based on the 2000 Clinton-Arafat-Israel Agreement on which Arafat reneged, produce a much more detailed 424-page blueprint based on the 2000 Agreement this past Tuesday? Did it, among other things, call for the division of Jerusalem, an underground highway between Gaza and the West Bank, and 100,000 Jewish settlers to move from the West Bank (in similar fashion to the way Jewish settlers were forced by the Israeli government to move from Gaza in 2005)?

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And for extra credit, a few geo-political questions that relate to the Israel-Palestine imbroglio -

A. If ethnic-cleansing and forced migrations have been common throughout the 20th century (and even the 21st so far), why has there been so much trouble with the Israel-Palestinian imbroglio which did NOT involve ethnic-cleansing and only a small displacement of fewer than a million in each direction off-setting each other?

B. What are some of the major tragedies of ethnic cleansing and forced migrations that have occurred recently in Europe?

C. What are some of the major tragedies of ethnic cleansing and forced migrations that have occurred recently in Africa?

D. What was the cause of the genocide in Sudan/Darfur?

E. What was the cause of the genocide of Rwanda’s Tutsis by its Hutus? Was there even a Tutsi tribe and a Hutu tribe, or was the distinction an invention of European colonial masters?

F. Why do commentators frequently refer to Islam as the religion that always has "bloody borders"? How many of the major tragedies in Questions B-E involved Islam?

G. What is the Battle of Armageddon? Is it likely to occur in the near future, the way matters are being handled?

H. What is “The Right of Return”? Wouldn’t it be cheaper for the United States to simply offer to make each Palestinian a millionaire by offering to buy her/his “right of return” on condition s/he move out of the refugee camps and start a real life – rather than spending so much of American attention and resources on a conflict that may otherwise continue for another 60 years – IF NOT ENDED SOONER BY A NUCLEAR BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON IN A WORLDWIDE “TWILIGHT OF THE HUMANS”?



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Part II – Update for Post-10/14/2009 Developments (e.g., The Iran Nuclear Agreement, aka "The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” or “JCPOA”)

1. Have both Egypt and “The Gulf-State Six” (the 6 members of the Gulf-State Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman) long-since announced that they will acquire nuclear weapons the moment that Iran does?

2. Could they become nuclear powers “overnight” by simply buying nuclear weapons? In other words, “does everything have its price”?

3. Was the Iran Nuclear Agreement concluded 7/14/2015 in Vienna between Iran and the so-called “P5+1” (the 5 permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – China, France, Russia, UK and US – plus Germany)?

4. Did President Obama refuse to submit the Iran Nuclear Agreement to the U.S. Senate for ratification (the U.S. Constitution requires treaties to be ratified by only one house of Congress - the Senate by a 2/3 vote)?

5. Is one of the most important drawbacks of the Iran Nuclear Agreement that it guarantees Iran the right to nuclear weapons after 10 years?

6. Is another important drawback that it does NOT prevent Iran from developing immediately missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads?

7. Is another important drawback that it does NOT require “anytime, anywhere” inspections?

8. Have large Iranian demonstrations since the Iran Nuclear Agreement continued to feature chants of “DEATH TO AMERICA” and “DEATH TO ISRAEL”?

9. Have Iranian missiles continued to be tested since the Iran Nuclear Agreement sporting “DEATH TO ISRAEL” painted on their sides?

10. Do apologists argue that Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (who has ruled Iran since 1989) will probably have departed the scene by the time Iran is guaranteed permission under the Iran Nuclear Agreement to become a nuclear power in another 6 years?

11. Since Ayatollah Khamenei is only 80 years old (born 4/19/1939), what makes apologists so confident that he will have departed the scene in another 6 years?

12. Even if Ayatollah Khamenei has departed the scene within the next 6 years, what makes apologists so confident that his successor will be any different regarding nuclear issues – and regarding “DEATH TO AMERICA” and “DEATH TO ISRAEL”?

13. After all, aren’t Ayatollah Khamenei’s policies regarding nuclear issues and regarding “DEATH TO AMERICA” and “DEATH TO ISRAEL” the same as his predecessor – Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who ruled Iran from 1979 until his death on 6/3/1989?

14. BTW, during the 1.5 remaining years of the Obama Administration following the Iran Nuclear Agreement of 7/13/2015, did President Obama and his Secretary of State, John Kerry, dare to remove the designation of Iran as “The Number One State Sponsor of Terrorism” – a judgment continuously required by Sec. 6(j) of the Export Administration Act, Sec. 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and Sec. 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act?