"Palestinian" autonomy as a "Failed State", or why we sympathize with the Jews today

Exclusive. There is no state of "Palestine" and most importantly, it never existed. Let me remind you that a sovereign state is a self-governing territory with its own legitimate administration. This administration should be able to perform its functions of managing the people and the territory for the common good. When the state administration is completely subordinated to the interests of terrorist groups, such a state does not exist. There are no such states as the so-called DNR and LNR, PMR ("Prydnestrovskaya Moldavskaia Respublika") or the Republic of Somaliland.

In this article, I will break down many assumptions and myths that have been in the minds of our compatriots since Soviet times. And then, in a stupid and conformist way, it was "accepted" to scold Israel for what the world stands for, to praise the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a terrorist at the same time, known as Yasser Arafat, and to express empathy for the so-called "Palestinian people". But all this is completely wrong, and de-communization must be started and continued with a loved one. Otherwise, no way. This, first of all.

And, secondly, any policy is not permanent, but situational in nature, and now the truth is on the side of those whom it was previously "customary" to scold.

In order to justify my thesis, I will give a historical digression necessary to refute the lie that there was a certain "Palestinian state" among the Arabs, which the Jews came and captured. The well-known Ukrainian analyst, political scientist Vitaly Portnikov, who begins his review of the suppression of Jewish uprisings by the Roman emperors, followed a similar path. Not only does he hint at the fact that the rulers of Ancient Rome could not even imagine how everything would turn out even after the 19th century.

But we will go the other way, and start with that key date, which is now being talked about a lot at the salon-sofa level, as well as at the para-academic level. In other words, since 1948, when I will remind those who have forgotten, the Second World War ended and the process of forming the state of Israel began.

So, between 1917 and 1948, Britain had a mandate to control the former provinces of the Ottoman Empire, most of the provinces before the end of the mandate became sovereign states, for example, the Kingdom of Iraq or the Kingdom of Jordan. But no sovereign state has emerged on the territory of Palestine. No administrative structures other than the British colonial administration.

Here is the king of Iraq, with a court, a money issue, ministries and a council of ministers - a voziz, but there are no Arab structures on the territory of "Palestine". Jewish only.

From 1517 to 1917, this territory was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and was part of the province - vilayat with the capital in Damascus. And here in it, the Jews had political autonomy as a "zimma" and were subject to the rabbis in matters of civil and marriage law.

There were simply no "Palestinian Arabs" at that time, since they all belonged to the "Muslim" community - the head of which was the caliph of the faithful (supreme spiritual person) and the Sultan of the Shining Port (supreme monarch) in one person.

This "idyllic" was interrupted in the period 1832 - 1840, when this territory was conquered by the former Albanian officer Muhammad Ali, and at that moment by the king of Egypt, who was more Europeanized than the Turkish lands themselves; then the enlightened Muhammad Ali allowed Europeans to be present in "Palestine", but again no separate administration was organized for the province. Then the Turks won back the provinces, but they did not drive out the Europeans, because they themselves went on the path of Westernization.

From 1291 to 1517, this territory was controlled by the sultans of Egypt, whose dynasties are distinguished as the "Mamluk period" and the "Ayubid period".

By the way, in 1260, the Ayyubids repelled the Mongol invasion under the leadership of Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and, accordingly, the cousin of Batu Khan (Batiya), who had previously devastated Baghdad in 1258 and crushed the Abbasid empire as an ally of the Crusaders.

And from 1099 to 1291 there was a state on the territory of Palestine, but it was called the "Kingdom of Jerusalem" and was founded by the Franks-crusaders. The first ego king was Godefroy, formerly the Duke of Boulogne, and the last was Henri II de Lusignan.

Naturally, this administrative structure was not a state of the "people of Palestine", but a normal occupation administration, albeit a sovereign one.

From 640 to 1099 - a province in the Abbasid Empire with the capital in Baghdad. From 629 to 640 - under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire, which for convenience is called "Byzantium", to distinguish it from the Roman Empire. (It's the same as calling the "Russian Empire" the "Ingermanland Empire" to distinguish it from the Moscow Empire, but that's how historians judged it); from 614 to 629 - part of the Sassanid Persian Empire.

And conditionally from 325 (the return of Jerusalem to its historical name instead of the Roman "Elijah Capitoline") and until 614 - the period as part of the Eastern Roman Empire, where the province of Palestine existed as, again, a non-sovereign administrative unit and in which the Jews had independent administrative control under under the authority of the chief rabbi with the title ‏נָשִׂיא, which the Greeks translated as "patriarch", and the structure of the rabbinate headed by ‏נָשִׂיא was called the "Jerusalem Patriarchate". True, for such autonomy one had to pay large taxes, including a tax on exemption from military service - aurumtironicum.

In the Roman Empire, which, however, is not a monarchy but rather a republic, in the period from 135 to 325 it was part of the province of Syria Palestine with its capital in the city of Caesarea (aka Caesarea).

The very term "Palestine" was introduced by the emperor Hadrian (therefore the lover of Antinous) instead of "province of Judea". From 6th AD until 135 - the province of Judea under the authority of the Roman procurator (the most famous - everyone knows who) with residence in the same Caesaria (Caesaria).

Not a sovereign state at all. They had autonomy in religion and the tax system (the institute of publicans-publicans), but criminal law was Roman. Money issue too.

From 64 BC 6 g each - the quasi-sovereign, vassal kingdom of Rome, the Judean kingdom. And then you can continue to list all the kingdoms and dynasties that conquered this territory or ruled it. For example, the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Seleucid dynasty, Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, Nebuchadnezzar, which were preceded by the ancient Jewish states, the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel. But at the same time, it doesn't matter - no "Palestinian state" was ever born.

That is why, to begin with, we should stop speculating on the term "Palestinians", since there are no Palestinians. The Palestinian Arabs are no different from the Arabs of Jordan, which, by the way, just tried to annex the territory of the "Palestinian State".

Meanwhile, the Arabs have 22 states in which they can live, not two, like the Germans, not the same as the Jews, but all 22. Finally, they can integrate into the Israeli society, where many Muslim Arabs live, they work there, succeed in business, have their own faction in the Israeli parliament and (horror for the Russians and representatives of Hamas) serve in the army, and even (not only now) fight against terrorists.

So, let's emphasize once again that the Arabs have two dozen states, they can choose any. And there is no "Palestinian" people, so it is impossible to talk about the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. This is the same as the right of the Donbass, if I may say so, post-Soviet people to self-determination.

Moreover, the residents of the Palestinian Authority do not have representation in the parliament (they have Israeli residence permits, but not citizenship) - and this is done deliberately so as not to give them electoral rights at the national level. And they don't have Israeli citizenship, because they don't recognize Israel's right to exist, and whoever recognizes it can get citizenship. By the way, it is a good scheme, it can be implemented in relation to the population of the LDNR and Crimea after liberation, at least for a while.

A Palestinian is not an ethnic group, but a place of residence. Once again, Palestinian Arabs are no different from Jordanian Arabs. Who is really different there are Negev Bedouins, only for some reason they are loyal to Israel and many of them voluntarily serve in its army.

Moreover, I will say (especially for scoops, perhaps) that Fathi Hamad, one of the political leaders of Hamas, admitted that there is no such nation - the Palestinians. And there is no such people. Here is a quote from his speech: "Half of the Palestinians are Egyptians, and the other half are Saudis! Who are the Palestinians? Yes, these are people whose ancestors moved here from Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan, and Upper Egypt. We are all Egyptians!"

I will note that not only odious political leaders, but also many others recognized that there is no Palestinian language, no Palestinian culture, and no other signs by which the Palestinian Arabs could be distinguished from the Arabs of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon or Jordan.

We will then consider not ethno-historical, but legal and political issues. In this regard, it is worth noting that a repressive, anti-democratic regime cannot claim any speculative "historical" rights to any territory. From a practical point of view, the transfer of these territories to him will mean an increase in lawlessness and lawlessness. And legally, this is unacceptable, because the population of such regimes is deprived of political representation, and the government is illegitimate.

And it is quite obvious that lefties in Europe oppose Israel and support Islamist terrorists (for example, the BBC stubbornly does not call Hamas terrorists). And this happens because lefties are the enemies of all people, organizations (including churches) and countries that are successful and have achieved some kind of positive results.

If only Israel were poor failed state like Somalia, unable to organize either the economy or the administration in the controlled territories, and the power would be seized by rabid fanatics with machine guns obsessed with malice towards the rest of the world, - lefties would love him. They would send humanitarian aid there, build their representative offices there, and go to rallies with Israeli flags. And yes, Israel is a rich and efficient state, with a high level of education, medicine and society in general. And a developed economy and business. Therefore left-handed people hate ego.

Rich and especially effective is, of course, an overstatement, but by the standards of the region it is more than that. Although, of course, if it weren't for the neighbors in the region, it would be much richer (and, I'm afraid, much less efficient - and that's how you have to stay in shape somehow).

And another important nuance, radical Islamists are supported by Putin's Russian Federation, and this indirectly indicates that the truth is not on the side of the Arabs.

The truth is on the side of ordinary peaceful people who want to live on their land. This concerns both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, and others who suffer from radicals on both sides.

And when I hear about ordinary and unfortunate Arabs who have nothing to do with anything, and at the same time suffer from scoundrels, Zionists, it reminds me of the rhetoric about unfortunate Russians who do not deserve to suffer because of Western sanctions, and therefore the sanctions must be lifted. The majority voted for Hamas themselves, they gloated over the murders, they did not go to protest actions, they did not flee from the power of Hamas, they contributed to the arrival of such power, they mentally sympathized with it.

In Gaza, there is a real dictatorship of terrorists, and if someone says a word against them, he will immediately receive a bullet in the forehead. And then to the Russian Federation Bolotnaya Square In fact, there was no voting either, but does this absolve the Russians of responsibility for bringing Putin to power and allowing them to usurp power? Answer: no.

So, for "many years" how many Palestinians died? The most massive victims of the past years have gone to the Palestinians after October 7, 2023. That is, after "active defense", in which independence fighters had to kill civilians, citizens of another country. And the Palestinians did not care, after all, no one went to the protest. From what drunkenness do I have to empathize with them? Can I still sympathize with the Russians because they are suffering because of the sanctions? Will they send a humanitarian aid?

Alexey Belsky, columnist