A Different Map

Wow. Did I get a blast from readers for posting the map that was merely designed to illustrate the current Israeli government's indifference to the US and apparent determination to annex all of Jerusalem and the West Bank permanently. The main and valid criticism is that vast parts of the map designated 'Palestinian" were actually just desert and run as public lands by the Ottomans and the Brits. The map, I'm told, has been used by anti-Zionists, but my intent was to show just how an apartheid system could become inevitable, if it isn't already, if current policy continues. So below is what a reader proffers as a less inflammatory map. Think of it as the difference between the cruder red and blue maps in US elections, and the maps that show shades of purple in every state. It's also clearer about land-ownership.

One thing apposite to the current attempt to force Palestinians out of parts of East Jerusalem and give their homes to extremist Israelis, celebrating the mass murder of Muslims at prayer, and to build Jewish settlements there as rapidly as possible, is that Jerusalem was 84 percent Arab in 1946 and well within Palestinian authority under the partition plan the Palestinian Arabs rejected. It is undoubtedly true that Palestinian and wider Arab refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist has been a huge part of this problem - arguably the central reason for this conflict. But it remains true to my mind that the current Israeli government needs an attitude adjustment, and soon.