Research suggests shared anti-colonial themes with Palestinian struggles, but direct parallels are interpretive; Sands focused on political status in UK prisons, not territorial sovereignty like Palestinian claims.
Bobby Sands, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), died on May 5, 1981. As an Israeli who condemns the illegal occupation of Northern Ireland by the British, I made a 6 Day support hunger strike, Shabbat to Shabbat no food and no water. Years later, while learning in Yeshiva made a second Shabbat to Shabbat hunger strike in protest against the Rabin ‘peace plan’. The British/French Two State “Solution” directly compares to the Nazi “Final Solution”. Never Again! Post Shoah oath sworn by Israeli Jews to ever again permit Europeans to dictate Jewish Problem solutions.
Bobby Sand’s hunger strike unto death, emblematic of the fight against perceived oppression and injustice. His refusal of food, a potent act of defiance, underscored the desperation of those within the Northern Irish prison system. Sands and his fellow strikers sought recognition not merely as criminals as British propaganda promoted, but as political prisoners fighting against colonial rule.
Bobby Sands and other hunger strikers in Northern Ireland framed their struggle for political recognition and autonomy in terms similar to the language used regarding “occupied territories,” drawing parallels between their situation and that of Palestinians in areas like Samaria and Gaza. This comparison is often seen as part of broader narratives around occupation and resistance in both contexts.
Common law stands upon open debate between the precedents brought by the prosecution and defense attorney judicial brief. Obviously all precedents do not exactly duplicate the current case heard before the court. The Bobby Sands IRA opposition to British “nationalization” of Northern Ireland compares to the UN condemnation of Jordan’ss “nationalization” of the West Bank in 1950.
The comparison to UN anti Israel Resolutions started with the genesis of post June 1967 War, where France prior to the outbreak of that war made a arms embargo against Israel, and England declared its neutrality. Yet both countries, once obvious that the Arabs had lost demanded an immediate cease fire! The cease-fire that ended hostilities, primarily enforced by the United Nations through diplomatic pressure. The UN Security Council did not impose a Cease-Fire after 6 Days of War, comparable to the British propaganda which white-washed Sands as merely a “criminal”.
The red-herring propaganda which depicts PLO\PA/Hamas\Islamic Jihad etc etc etc “struggles”, as most essentially related to land rights and statehood — completely and utterly false. Arafat’s rejection of Clinton’s “peace” conclusively proved that the PLO then and now view Jews as a dhimmi sub-class, that has no rights to self-determination. The famous Three-NOs post June War functions as a strong precedent when coupled with the Hamas multiple wars against Israel — post their election victory where the slaughtered and expelled Arafat’s PA. Hamas not only invalidated Arafat’s absurd claim that the PLO functioned as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, which virtually all Quartet media press propaganda organs promoted as false. But Hamas. in conjunction with Arafat initiation of the 2nd Intafada distinctly proves that a Palestinian state “objections to the Jewish State rhetoric”, merely fig leaf to conceal Arab embracement of the Nazi Shoah ideals. Just as the Nazi defeat uprooted Hitlers’ Fascist Germany so too and how much more so the Arab countries whose schools promote pro Nazi literature taught to their children by “neutral” UNWRA criminals likewise invalidate any and all post defeat Arab claims to any Israel lands captured through wars which Arab states themselves promoted with the aim to throw the Jews into the Sea.
Clearly the domestic politics of the PA and Hamas or Islamic Jihad differ from one another. Just as do the policies of Sunni Arabi differ from Shiite Iran. But the hatred of the continued existence of the Jewish state, at least in the minds of Israelis who have witnessed bus bombings of children school buses merits deep consideration. Israeli strategic foreign policy views Saudi Arabia as the chief cornerstone of the acceptance of Israel by Arab countries as viable partners in the community of Middle Eastern states. This vision remains as the key Israeli foreign policy to integrate the Jewish state into the Middle East. The Saudi kingdom holds tremendous respect among the other OPEC states. Just as Nasser in his day cast a huge influence among other regional Arab state powers.
Equating the Quartet two-state solution to the Nazi Final Solution clearly political hyperbole; comparable to South Africa’s blood libel slander accusation of genocide before the UN. Any and all foul attempts to slander Israel by unilateral equivocations which declare Israeli guilt equal to the Nuremberg conviction of Nazi arch fiends of Humanity – hyperbole without humor or shame! To grasp the seriousness of this propaganda disgrace, requires context and precedents. The ’48 cease fire lines left an exposed Jewish state with a narrow 9 mile waste-line enticement for further invasions with the goal to throw the Jews into the Sea. All Arab-Israeli “extermination-wars” fought on multiple fronts. Hitler condemned the Kaiser’s defeat due to a two front war! Syrian control over the Golan Heights permitted Syrian bombardments of Tiberias Galilee between 1948 to 1967. Just as Russia, by precedent, experienced huge trauma from two Western European invasions through the plains of the Ukraine, so too the European collective guilt for ‘Final Solution’ has permanent consequences which evoked the Torah oath: “Never Again”!
Jordanian defilement of Jewish grave-stones coupled with destruction of ancient Jewish synagogues in ’48 captured East Jerusalem has permanent consequences. Israeli victories in wars against multiple Arab countries has enforced the Will of our people to embrace the strategy of Patton. Patton’s rebuke of Montgomery: “We should be fighting on the continent, not on this island,” emphasized the strategy of fighting wars on enemy territory.
The UN/Quartet appeasement of Arab hostility repeatedly expressed through the treatment of Israel as a protectorate territory rather than an Independent State who twice won its National Independence through Wars. These foreign imperialist powers not only promote the lie that the UN “created Israel”, they seek to dominate and control the balance of power across the Middle East! They pretend to this very day that ‘they’ determine the national borders of the Jewish state and where Jews in Israel can establish our Capital City. Only Israel among all UN member States excluded as a recognized member of their own region! This UN Apartheid racism – stinks.
Hamas’s charter catagorically rejects Israel’s existence, viewing it as illegal occupation. No different from the PLO charter which declares only ’48 Israel and not the UN condemned illegal Jordanian nationalization of the “West Bank” as occupied territory. The post 1922 Mandate which the League awarded as “spoils of war” to the British, witnessed the almost immediate British separation of Trans-Jordan from its “Palestine Mandate” at the Jordan river.
Furthermore, Arafat’s initiation of the 2nd Intifada on the heals of the Oslo Accords further supports Israeli fundamental distrust of “Palestinian war propaganda”. Israelis, like myself, we tend to the view: that Arabs learn to lie and steal straight from their mothers’ milk; comparable to the ‘Quartet’ language of peace. Merely pie in the sky – empty noun/rhetoric. The verb shalom stands upon the foundation of trust. Repeated attempts by foreign states outside the Region, to dictate and/or dominate the Arab Israel dispute/narrative; examples such as: the continuous stream of UN anti-Israel condemnations, forces Jerusalem to view declarations made by foreign states which share no common border with the Jewish state as extremely suspect.
An obvious over-simplified political argument: “All Arab/Israeli Wars” fought not over “borders” but rather Arab absolute rejection of dhimmi Jews possession of equal rights to achieve self-determination in the Middle East. Classically wars fought between nations determine the international borders of nation-states. The Arab/Israeli conflict not a black & white single issue conflict. The 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 1922 League of Nations Mandate awarded to post WWI Britain, based upon the central premise to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine; the Arab reaction condemned both it and later UN Resolution 181 as an affront to Arab pride – akin to machismo masculine roles in Latin American societies. None the less, it seems to me that the פרט Oct 7th 2023 Abomination War, serves to define the כלל “All Arab/Israeli Wars”. The ’73 War Sadat fought to restore Arab pride following the over whelming Israeli victory in 1967 brought as witness.
Zionist Jews immediately denounced this first 1922\23 White Paper, no different than how the Arabs viewed UN 181. But the British betrayal of Chamberlain’s Nazi Appeasement policies which later betrayed both the Czech Republic in 1938, and a year later imposed a blockade of Palestine to prevent Jews the avenue to escape from the Nazis have permanently stained Jewish trust in European states – especially post Shoah. This 2nd White Paper, its tremendous impact upon Washington political decision. Similar to how US Presidents supports UN 242 and 338 Resolutions until President Trump! Contrast the open door policy where pre WWI Washington invited Jewish refugees fleeing from the death spiral collapse of Czarist Autocracy of 3 Centuries duration (about equal to the ghetto gulags the Catholic Church imposed upon Western European Jewry) to FDR’s decision to close the borders of the US to prevent Jewish refugees to flee from the Nazis. His Administration focused upon the immediate war effort, and Depression economic strain as justifications. Who could have imagined the horrors of European moral depravity defined by the gospel: by their fruits you shall known them.
The post-June 1967 War context, where France’s arms embargo and Britain’s neutrality shifted following the Arab defeat, highlights attempts by these two defeated former ‘Great Powers’ to re-impose their domination over the balance of power in the Middle East following their post 1956 failed attempt to seize control of Nasser’s Suez Canal!
UN resolutions as a form of perceived “apartheid” illustrates a sentiment that resonates with many who feel marginalized in discussions about their national identity. The insistence that foreign powers dictate borders and political statuses — provoke significant anger and resentment, particularly in the context of a nation that has fought for its existence through multiple Wars consequent to British imperialism which promoted from day ONE of their British “Palestine Mandate” a divide & conquer “gospel” which likewise exploded in multiple wars fought between the India Pakistan British Two-State Solution/imperialism.
All Arab/Israeli Wars fought over Arab rejection of the Balfour Declaration/League – Palestine Mandate. Arab countries view “dhimmi Jews” on par with failed Crusader States of the Middle Ages! Britain nor France ever a “neutral power” in Middle East and North African Sahel-MENA, despite the collapse of both empires across the world. Their colonial ambitions shaped many of the political and social structures that persist today. The ongoing interventions and pressures from these nations often manifest in support for certain regimes or factions, solidifying their roles as active players rather than neutral observers. This involvement has contributed to entrenched conflicts, making it challenging for the region to achieve self-determination. Hence Britain and the later EU share an open alliance against the continued existence of the Jewish State.
During the Oct7th 2023 Abomination War, both countries sided with the South African blood libel slander which falsely accuses Israel of genocide. Contrast the British guilt during the invasion of Iraq that killed some 650,000 Iraqis and resulted in millions of wounded which threw Iraq and later Libya into utter chaos and anarchy.
French imperialism stand out through the criminal war crimes in both Algeria and Vietnam! Accusations made against Israel accusing it of genocide/Nazism exposed the repeated racial anti-Jew Christ Killer themes which culminated in the European Shoah slaughter of 75% of Western European Jewry in less than three years of Europe’s 2nd General Civil War of the 20th Century.
The leadership of President Trump’s Abraham Accords achieved in his first Administration and his Gaza Peace Board reject British and French imperialism which initiated their Two State Solution UN 242, 338, etc “dictates”; wherein the UN Frames the Two State Solution as the only viable way to achieve peace in the Middle East political rhetoric propaganda. Post the Oct7th Hamas defeat the UN, Britain, France, Russia, “Quartet” excluded from the Board of Peace. While Saudi Arabia sits together with Israel on this board of Peace! This accomplishment represents a radical and total rejection of the post ’67 attempts by these hostile imperialist 2nd rate powers to dictate terms imposed upon the Jewish state which seek to return Jewish international border to the post ’48 cease fire lines.
Debates among historians who often frame the Middle East conflict viewed through the lenses of statehood and territorial sovereignty while ignoring that States have interests rather than friendships, invalidates post war “historical” comments made by foreign peoples not directly touched by the wars fought. Something akin to an American citizen condemning Putin’s war to prevent the Ukraine joining the NATO alliance completely oblivious due to a shallow reactionary understanding that Russia permanently shaped by two European invasions of Russia through the flat plains of the Ukraine. Reactionary ignorance on this scale resembles the Cuban missile crisis during the Kennedy Administration.
The UN and ICC open condemnation of Israel for genocide exposes foreign state hostile diplomacy of “genocide” compared to the Nazi Shoah. As the trivialization of the Shoah, 80 years after these war crimes against humanity. No different from how Turkish diplomacy minimizes the Armenian Genocide.
The Arab propaganda which emphasizes the false pie in the sky claim of “focus on ending occupation and achieving statehood” hides and conceals the cold hard FACT – post the 1948 Independence War the League of Nations AND UN Protectorate of Palestine ceased to exist. Furthermore, this Arab lie conceals that the Ottoman empire referred to this region of its empire as: “Greater Syria”; the Sick Man of Europe being bankrupt relied upon European cartographers to make maps of 19th Century Ottoman ‘Greater Syria’. During the entire British mandate, all Arabs unilaterally rejected the Balfour foundation of the League Palestine mandate. In point of FACT, Arabs cannot even pronounce the letter P of this foreign European word!
Arab “Filastin” embraces the defunct Roman imperialism which changed Judea unto the European word “Palestine”. The renaming of Judea to Palestine by both Greek and Roman European empires exactly matches the interests of Arab propaganda today. Had Ben Gurion named the new Jewish State Palestine, the Palestine Post would not be the Jerusalem Post today!
The UN partition plan – 181 rejected consequent to all Arab state refusal. Modern revisionist history by Quartet hostile powers and Arab states “acceptance” of 181 – utter pie in the sky non sense. Israeli Independence permanently terminated the influence of 181. 1948 simply not 2026 not for Arab Israeli disputes nor any other country in the annuls of history. Arab and Quartet attempts to “internationalize” the Arab/Israeli dispute only expose their State interests of imperialism.