From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free | Explained

it's plunged college campuses into chaos ignited Congressional hearings even ended careers he was fired for using the following six words from the river to the Sea pal will be fre this slogan is anything but simple because depending on who you ask it's either a path to a brighter future the main message is for everyone to live in harmony regardless of your religion or whatever it is or a direct call for genocide those who chant from The River To The Sea are either useful idiots who do not understand what they are saying or Worse people who

wish to wipe the Jewish state from the map so who's right what does from The River To The Sea really mean for all their passion many of the people chanting the slogan have no idea which river or sea they're talking about what's the river um I forgot the river's name but the sea is the Red Sea I think it's the Black Sea and the River on the other side of Gaza from the from the mountains to the sea from the mountains to the Sea which mountains what you got to be kidding me I'm not trying

to make fun of anyone but we do have to set the record straight because if most of these people understood exactly what they were calling for they might not be so enthusiastic from The River To The Sea Palestine will be free what happens to Israel in fact a small survey of American college students around the country revealed that most had no idea what they were saying nearly 70% walked back their use of the slogan when they learned what it really meant I think could made a terrible mistake so what does it really mean the answer

is right here on the map this is the river this is the sea this is what's in between you see the problem there's already a country there now it's entirely possible that one day there will be another country called Palestine there flourishing right next door to Israel that was the original Vision proposed by the United Nations the United Nations special committee had advocated separate Jewish and Arab states as the uneasy compromise the Jewish state will include the ports of haer and Tel Aviv and the whole of the neev valley the Arab will occupy the fertile

Eastern part Jerusalem will come under United Nations tresia but calling for a Palestine that stretches from The River To The Sea means destroying the sovereign country that is already there that leaves 9 million Israelis in quite a predicament not so fast you might be thinking freeing Palestine doesn't have to mean killing or expelling all Israelis okay maybe that's true you have to remember Israel as a modern nation state was founded in 1948 but is the concept of a Jewish homeland in this region has been inextricable from Jewish identity and Jewish practice for thousands of years

that's a long time similarly Palestine as a region as an identity as an aspiration unites Palestinian people all over over the world so when we talk about Israel and Palestine we're not just talking about Modern Nation States or aspirational nation states we're talking about the deeply held identities that Define both sides that's why from The River To The Sea Calls up so many emotions no matter what it means to the people saying or hearing it for some it means the creation of a single Democratic state where anyone can live freely Jews will still be safe

in their ancestral Homeland even if their state ceases to be Jewish Palestinians will find fin get a state albeit not one that's exclusively Arab and everyone gets to live happily ever after wait do we all just solve the conflict why has no one ever tried to implement this one- state solution before well because it's a fantasy snap out of it most people who live there just aren't interested less than a third of Palestinians and Israelis would be okay with a single Democratic state that is neither explicitly Jewish nor explicitly Palestinian like we said these identities

Jewish Palestinian are deeply rooted they've spent the past Century fighting each other two states have been born for the Holy Land the immediate future would not bring peace for the third time since its birth as an independent state Israel is embroiled in a war with the Arab Nations that surround her it is an allout War that's how Israeli defense minister moosha Dian describes an invasion of the Golan Heights and the East Bank of the suaz by Syria and Egypt and after October 7th trust is at an all-time low most people don't really want to share

a state with neighbors who want to kill them history is very clear about what happens when you smash together a bunch of hostile populations into one country and tell them to play nice take a look at Israel's neighbor to the north Civil War tore Lebanon apart for 15 years and today their government is more or less controlled by an internationally recognized terrorist group a group of six Gulf Arab Nations has officially declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization but this isn't just a middle eastern process there's a reason the former Yugoslavia is well former and just ask

the folks in Belfast whether they'd like to unite with their neighbors to the South for a one-state solution to work both sides have to actually want it I tell you I don't see it happening and while some of the folks chanting from The River To The Sea think they're calling for a bational Utopia the original Arabic slogan tells a different story well three stories the first part is more or less the same from the river to the Sea in some versions it's May May from the water to the water but things get spicy in the

latter half of the slogan because while some call for Palestine to be free Philistine others call for Philistine AR which means Palestine will be Arab or even Philistine Muslim Palestine will be Muslim what was that about a single Democratic state for everyone I don't have any recollection of that at all no one is quite sure when from The River To The Sea gained traction among Palestinians some claim it came into the Palestinian mainstream in the 1960s with the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization others say that it only became popular in the mid to late

1980s but it doesn't matter when it came to be adopted because until the 1990s every Palestinian faction shared the same goal the destruction of the Jewish State don't take my word for it just have a look at the pl's 1968 Charter which calls for holy war until complete and final Victory the complete restoration of our lost Homeland that restored Homeland had no room for Jewish self-determination The Liberation of Palestine aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine the demand for security and peace require all states to consider Zionism an illegitimate movement to Outlaw its existence

and to ban its operations in other words the Palestinian position was that Jews had no right to self-determination in their ancestral Homeland parts of the Israeli right were just as adamant that the territory had only one rightful owner in 1977 the leud party ran on a platform whose very first line read the right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable between the sea in the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty sound familiar now lukud was not the only voice in Israeli politics but it was and remains one of

the loudest which meant that both Israelis and Palestinians were playing a zero sum game until the 1990s from the river to the sea was a pretty explicit call for either a Jewish state or a Palestinian one in the entire territory a free Palestine meant no Israel and Israel from The River To The Sea meant no Palestine it was a real win or takeoff situation but things got a little more complex in the 9s and a little more hopeful for the first time Palestinian Representatives actually recognized Israel's existence we want to live to live in peace

with all our neighbors including including the Israelis and Israel recognize them right back let me say to you the Palestinians we are distained to live together on the same soil in the same land it took a long time and a lot of arguing but the two sides signed a couple of peace agreements that were ideally meant to usher in an eventual Palestinian state that would exist next door to Israel for the first time ever the two sides stopped playing a zero sum game in which the existence of one state meant the destruction of the other

free Palestine no longer had to mean no more Israel or so it seemed and I think we were making a lot of progress the peace talks failed islamist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad believed that the territory from the river to the sea was sacred Muslim land which meant that the Palestinian government had no right to give it up they were absolutists whose Charters went something like from The River To The Sea Palestine is ours Israel no such thing thing okay that's not a word for word translation but this is Israel will exist and

will continue to exist until Islam will obliterated just as it obliterated others before it Hamas and Pi weren't the only ones who objected to the peace agreements that as the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad by their Terror try to kill the peace negotiations we have decided to take measures against this extremist to try to find ways to put kah and out of the law some Israeli Jews felt that a Palestinian state would make Israel less safe they pointed to the near constant terrorist attacks from the West Bank in Gaza which were explicitly endorsed by Arafat

the guy signing the peace agreements many Jews were outraged that the Israeli Prime Minister was shaking the hand of a man who called for peace out of one side of his mouth and called for Jihad from the other The Divide in Israeli Society became heartbreakingly clear when a Jewish extremist assassinated the Israeli Prime Minister who had spearheaded the talks and still the peace process limped on but by 2001 the two-state solution seemed further away than ever a handful of Israeli and Palestinian activists continued to keep hope alive calling for a free Palestine alongside a safe

Israel but the situation simply kept deteriorating Hamas took over Gaza the PA continued being corrupt and incompetent Israel continued building communities in the West Bank both sides grew increasingly entrenched in their positions the status quo was shall we say not great and then it shattered we have breaking news out of Israel this morning where Hamas has launched a surprise attack within Israel's borders overnight on October 7th 2023 Hamas invaded Southern Israel butchering 1200 Israelis kidnapping another 240 Israel responded harshly vowing to destroy the terrorist group once and for all and all around the world Ordinary

People took to the streets protesters waving his is Flags called for the return of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas meanwhile protesters in kuas shatter for the elimination of Israel we demand an end to the colonization of Palestine and all Arab lands we're back to the old zero some game and this time the stakes are higher than ever once free Palestine might have meant build a Palestinian State alongside Israel it might even have meant build one peaceful state for everyone but these days from the river to the sea is a aned by other lovely

slogans there is only one solution there is only one solution it's for the revolution for reolution everever lived through an inata this is what it looks like the second inata caused the deaths of over 300 Israelis from sniper attacks ambushes and suicide bombings this is what protesters want to globalize and bring to the rest of the world these are the means necessary to free Palestine from The River To The Sea this is the so-called Only Solution which by the way carries some highly unpleasant associations for Jews and this is how Jewish students are treated on

campus by the same people calling to free Palestine take a look at this demonstration near Tain University in New Orleans turning violent after amassed Pro Palestinian protestor tries to burn an Israeli flag at Cooper Union Jewish students were locked inside the library after telling security staff that nearly two dozen student demonstrators made them feel unsafe that they were banging on the door in an attempt to intimidate and cause fear according to those students this is why the presidents of Penn and Harvard have resigned last night second gentleman Doug mhof said the presidents of Harvard MIT

and the University of Pennsylvania quote lacked moral Clarity end quote in their responses during the hearing they would not explicitly say whether calling for the genocide of Jews would necessarily violate their codes of conduct it is a context dependent decision congresswoman it's a context dependent decision that's your testimony today calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context that is not bullying or harassment this is the easiest question to answer yes Miss mcel and this is why so many Jews interpret from the river to the Sea as an explicit call for our destruction

former Harvard president claudian gay got one thing right when she said it depends on the context this is the context this is the cause that so many are rallying behind this is why Jews and Israelis including Arab Israelis have zero interest in giving up their self-determination like it or not Israelis and Palestinians are intertwined neither of us is going to magically disappear we can't suicide bomb or air strike one another out of existence we can kill one another but we can't kill each other's dreams of self-determination of safety of Liberation until both sides realize that

neither will be truly free no matter what the maps end up looking like