Full transcript
0:00So, the Oxford Union hosted a debate
0:02with the most insane debate title that
0:05I've ever seen because I would have I
0:07thought it would be the other way
0:08around. In a normal universe, it would
0:10be. The title was, "This house believes
0:12Israel never truly wanted peace with
0:15Palestine."
0:17Insane. I mean, if you study the
0:20history, as you're going to hear from
0:21Emily Shrader in her uh brilliant
0:24barnstorming speech, uh it has been so
0:27clear who is the one that's wanted
0:29genocide, who has not been prepared to
0:31have peace with the Jews. It has been
0:33the Arab side. And actually, the whole
0:35Palestinian identity was concocted as a
0:37cynical ploy to pull at the heartstrings
0:38of the West in order to bring down the
0:40Jewish state. But more on that from
0:42Emily where she actually shares
0:44something about the Palestinian football
0:47team in the 1930s that will I think for
0:49many people give you a great deal of
0:52surprise. Have a watch of Emily's speech
0:54at the Oxford Union. And just a
0:56reminder, if you haven't already, please
0:58hit that subscribe button. Two out of
0:59three viewers don't do it, but it helps
1:00us to grow so much. It's free and keeps
1:02you up to date with all our content.
1:04Have a watch.
1:06[applause and cheering]
1:15All right. I want to begin by saying
1:16that I won't be taking any points of
1:18information during my speech. If I do
1:19have time, I'm happy to answer any
1:21additional after the fact. Ladies and
1:23gentlemen, tonight's motion is not just
1:26merely wrong. It's intellectually
1:27unserious. This house believes that
1:29Israel never truly wanted peace with
1:31Palestine. Never.
1:34That single word should immediately
1:36alarm anyone who values historical
1:38accuracy, nuance, or basic intellectual
1:41honesty. Because never is not a casual
1:44word. It's absolute, total, and
1:46maximalist. To vote for this motion,
1:48you're not being asked to believe that
1:49Israel sometimes undermined peace or
1:51that Israel made mistakes. You're not
1:53even being asked to believe that Israel
1:55bears major responsibility for the
1:57conflict. No, you're being asked to
1:59believe that across nearly 80 years of
2:02modern history, across every Israeli
2:04government, negotiation, territorial
2:06concession, treaty, withdrawal, every
2:08diplomatic initiative, Israel as a state
2:12never really wanted peace. Not once.
2:15Clearly, such a claim does not stand
2:17under the weight of history. From the
2:20modern state's inception, Israel
2:22accepted the 1947 UN partition plan
2:24despite receiving non-Arabable land and
2:26almost no resources. The Arab leadership
2:29rejected it and launched a war instead.
2:31In 1993 1995, Israel signed the Oslo
2:34Accords and received suicide bombers in
2:36the aftermath. At Camp David in 2000,
2:39Israel offered 94 to 96% of the West
2:41Bank, 100% of Gaza, and a divided
2:44Jerusalem. In 2008, Prime Minister Omar
2:47made another proposal for 94% of the
2:49West Bank, plus an additional 5.8% more
2:52territory in the form of land swaps.
2:55Palestinian leadership said no to both
2:57offers. In 2005, Israel withdrew every
3:00soldier and civilian from Gaza in an
3:03effort for peace. The response, Gazins
3:05elected Hamas, and Israel received over
3:0725,000 missiles over the next two
3:10decades, plus multiple wars and the
3:12October 7th massacre. The problem with
3:14this motion, however, goes significantly
3:16deeper. What exactly is meant by peace?
3:19Peace is not simply the absence of war.
3:22It requires two peoples accepting each
3:24other's right to self-determination and
3:26national existence. For much of this
3:28conflict, major Palestinian factions and
3:30surrounding Arab states have and still
3:32do reject Jewish self-determination
3:35outright. In fact, several, if not all,
3:37of our speakers for the proposition
3:39today are on record rejecting even the
3:41idea of a two-state solution. And yet we
3:44as Israelis are being asked to show that
3:46we really wanted peace. On this question
3:49of the partition plan, the secretary
3:51general of the Arab League at the time,
3:53Azam Pasha, warned that the
3:54establishment of a Jewish state would
3:56lead to what he called a war of
3:58extermination and momentous massacre of
4:01the Jews. other Arab League.
4:02>> Let's not forget, by the way, Hajamin
4:04Al-Husini, the leader of the Arabs in
4:06Britishmandate Palestine, went to see
4:08Hitler and the concentration camps, and
4:10they spoke about how they're going to do
4:12uh what the Nazis did in Europe to the
4:14Jews in British mandate Palestine.
4:17Where was Israel occupying then?
4:20>> Leaders and factions openly spoke about
4:22driving the Jews into the sea. One of
4:24them being Hajamin Al Husseini the Grand
4:26Mui of Jerusalem who stated and I quote,
4:29"Arabs rise as one and fight for your
4:31sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever
4:33you find them. This pleases God,
4:36history, and religion." This was never a
4:39dispute over borders. Rather, it was a
4:41rejection of Jewish sovereignty itself.
4:43Today, we routinely hear slogans from
4:45the Palestinian movement globally, such
4:47as from the river to the sea, Palestine
4:49will be free. Something heard here at
4:50Oxford on the streets last night. a
4:52phrase which by definition involves
4:55replacing Israel entirely with a
4:56Palestinian state stretching from the
4:58Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
5:01At protests around the world, including
5:03outside Jewish institutions and
5:04synagogues, activists have openly
5:06declared, "We don't want two states. We
5:08want all of it." So again, I ask, what
5:11exactly does peace mean when one side
5:14refuses to accept that the other has any
5:16legitimate right to exist at all?
5:18Because despite all the rhetoric that
5:20you'll hear tonight from the
5:21proposition, Israel has repeatedly shown
5:23willingness to accept Palestinian
5:24national aspirations and coexistence,
5:27even if the trend is downwards in public
5:29opinion.
5:31>> And by the way, this was a mistake that
5:33we must never do again because we've
5:34seen that it's entire an entirely
5:36cynical identity. But more on that
5:37later.
5:38>> Even if there are individuals in the
5:40government who have made distasteful and
5:41inappropriate comments, what has
5:43consistently characterized Israel's
5:46decision-making from left to right in
5:49the Israeli government is an effort to
5:51make peace. In contrast, however, the
5:54Palestinian National Movement has often
5:56defined peace not as coexistence with
5:58Israel, but as a world without Israel
6:00entirely, and not as off-hand
6:02inappropriate comments like you may see
6:04from Israeli extremists over the years,
6:07but as a matter of written policy, such
6:09as the 1968 Palestinian National
6:11Charter, which even after the Oslo
6:13Accord supposedly canled the clauses
6:15denying Israel's right to exist in any
6:17borders, a new charter until today has
6:20never been released. I'd also like to
6:22add by the way that charter said that
6:24they the Palestinians are an inseparable
6:26part of the Arab nation. Do you hear
6:28that? Part of inseparable part of the
6:31Arab nation. So when you want to tell me
6:33that there are distinct people with a
6:35national indigenous claims this land
6:38they identify themselves as Arabs. How
6:40many Arab states are there? How much
6:41Arab land is there? And Israel is not
6:43Arab land. It's Jewish land.
6:46The reality is that a state which
6:48repeatedly offers negotiations,
6:50territorial concessions, withdrawals,
6:52recognition clearly wants to achieve
6:54some form of peace, even if imperfectly,
6:56even if unsuccessfully. Now, let me
6:59address another deeply misleading
7:00element of the motion itself, the phrase
7:02peace with Palestine. In 1948, there was
7:04no sovereign state called Palestine. In
7:06fact, there has never been an
7:07independent Arab Palestinian state in
7:09human history. The war in 1948 WAS NOT
7:12FOUGHT [applause and cheering]
7:17THE WAR in 1948 was not fought between
7:20Israel and a state called Palestine. It
7:22was fought between the newly declared
7:23Jewish state and surrounding Arab
7:25armies. Even the term Palestine itself
7:27did not originate as part of Arab
7:29national identity. After crushing the
7:31Barova revolt in the second century, the
7:33Roman Empire renamed Judea Syria
7:35Palestina. widely understood by
7:37historians as an attempt to sever Jewish
7:40connection to the land following
7:41repeated Jewish revolts against Roman
7:43rule. There was no Arab Palestinian
7:46civilization there at the time and there
7:48was no Arab or Muslim sovereign power.
7:50In other words, the very name Palestine
7:53entered imperial usage as part of the
7:55eraser of Jewish sovereignty. Much
7:58later, the modern Arab Palestinian
8:00national movement emerged primarily
8:02through the PLO under Yasu Arafats in
8:04the 1960s. Now, that doesn't mean that
8:06Palestinians aren't a real people today
8:08or anything like that. After all, every
8:10national identity evolves over time, but
8:12it does expose how much modern rhetoric
8:14attempts.
8:15>> Sorry, I'm actually going to disagree
8:16with Emily there. And this is why why
8:19people say, "But nationalist national
8:22identities can develop over time. Some
8:23of them emerge more recently." And so
8:25maybe, you know, you're saying the
8:26Palestinians didn't see themselves as a
8:28distinct people a few decades ago, but
8:30now they do. Okay. Uh well, I still
8:34believe that the Jewish people's right
8:35to the land completely supersedes uh any
8:39other national claim on every front,
8:41spiritual, uh historical, international,
8:44from an international legal perspective,
8:46even though I don't necessarily believe
8:47that's the final say on all matters at
8:49all. Um but even if you want to go along
8:52with that, my point is this, that even
8:54if you want to say national movements
8:56can emerge later and they have to have
8:58some legitimacy. Okay, but the
9:01Palestinian national cause is entirely
9:05cynical. They don't actually care about
9:07their own self-determination and and
9:10political aspirations as a distinct
9:12people. And that's why it's completely
9:14illegitimate no matter how long it's
9:16been around for because they are simply
9:18creating it to pull at heartstrings of
9:20the world so that they can get rid of
9:22the Jewish sovereignty because it
9:24threatens their their narrative of Islam
9:26dominating the region and the world. And
9:29so that this is so important to
9:32understand and I really strongly
9:33disagree with with Emily on this point.
9:35we have to stop indulging this. Uh and
9:37this is part of the problem actually
9:39that we keep indulging uh the idea that
9:41there is some kind of legitimate
9:43national claim here. There isn't. It's
9:46not they're not interested in that. So
9:48if your identity is purely based on just
9:50trying to destroy the Jewish state and
9:52the proof being that if let's say
9:53another Islamic country came and took
9:55over the territory, I guarantee you most
9:57of the Arabs would prefer that uh over
10:00having let's say a free Palestine but
10:03you have just a bit of Jewish
10:04sovereignty in the north of Israel just
10:06even one mile wide. That would be
10:08unacceptable to them. They'd rather have
10:10another Muslim state. In fact, the
10:11Hajimin Al Husseini, the leader of the
10:13Arabs in uh British mandate Palestine,
10:16uh wanted it to be part of southern
10:18Syria. So, I think it's really important
10:20to get clarity on that point to invert
10:22the historical record by portraying Jews
10:25as foreign colonial intruders while
10:27depicting modern-day Arab Palestinian
10:29nationalism as somehow indigenous. In
10:32fact, in the early 1900s, the term
10:34Palestinian often referred to Jews.
10:37We have the Palestine Post which later
10:40became the Jerusalem Post that was
10:42Jewish. We also have the Palestine
10:44Symphony Orchestra later became the
10:46Israel Filarmonic Orchestra as you can
10:48hear see here a program from the 1930s
10:52all in Hebrew and in English. Later
10:55became the Israeli Filarmonic and of
10:57course was Jewish. We also have the
10:58Palestinian football team from the
11:00mandate period Jewish. As you can see
11:02here there is a Star of David on the
11:04official uniforms of this team.
11:06Palestine Airways, a national Zionist
11:10Jewish airline. Palestinian passports
11:13were carried by Jews. As you can see
11:15here, a copy of a Palestinian passport
11:17with Hebrew on top of it. Even the
11:18former Israeli prime minister Goldener
11:21was in possession of a Palestinian
11:23passport. And even the coins that are
11:25issued during the British mandate
11:27featured Hebrew, Alfud, noting Erit
11:30Israel, translating directly to the land
11:32of Israel.
11:34Even the coins issued under the British
11:36mandate featured a recognition that the
11:38Jews had a connection to this land. Now,
11:41contrary to modern activist claims, the
11:43demographic history of the region is far
11:45more complex than a story of colonialist
11:48European Jews displacing a static
11:50indigenous Arab population. In fact, you
11:53may be surprised to learn that Arabic as
11:55a language isn't even a native language
11:57to the Levant. The largest influx of
11:59Arabs to the Levant came with the
12:01Islamic conquest of the 7th century. And
12:03while a limited presence of Arabs
12:05existed sporadically prior to that,
12:07there was never a sovereign Arab
12:08civilization in the land of Israel prior
12:10to that encompassing the land of Israel.
12:13This is not an argument about
12:15Palestinian rights or even statehood.
12:17Rather, it's an argument against
12:19historical revisionism because there is
12:21simply no basis for the claim that Jews
12:23are uniquely foreign to the land while
12:25modern Arab Palestinian identity somehow
12:28represents an unchanged ancient
12:30sovereignty.
12:31>> I would add more to that. If anyone in
12:33the world, any people in the world have
12:35a claim to a piece of territory, it's
12:38the Jews to the land of Israel. Okay?
12:41[laughter] More so than any other claim
12:43because on every uh ground you want to
12:46go on the indigenous claim, you want to
12:48go on the historical claim, the uh from
12:52even from an international law
12:53perspective, you look at the Balfa
12:55declaration and the League of Nations,
12:56the Sanreo conference agreement, so much
12:59is there. the you know the UN partition
13:00plan even though by the way that wasn't
13:02binding international law so actually if
13:03you want to go back to the what were the
13:04borders coined to international law
13:06according to the principle of whatever
13:09is handed over from the old uh rulers or
13:12colonizers to the new national
13:14government you just go by the same
13:15borders so it really would be from the
13:16river to the sea that the Jews have uh
13:19the claim to ultimately um and even if
13:23you want to go and coins the law of war
13:24and conquest or self-defense
13:27uh and conquering a territory and
13:29self-defense uh on every front and even
13:31of course the most important one the
13:33biblical spiritual front and for those
13:34who say ah you can't bring that into the
13:36discussion here well I can the the the
13:39uh Muslim Arab side is is is uh you know
13:43um informed by their faith and so should
13:47we and you know actually most of the
13:49world worships the God of Abraham so
13:51we're saying what the God of Abraham has
13:52to say about uh this plot of land
13:55>> it's simply not True.
13:59[applause]
14:08And then unfortunately today we see an
14:11increasing uh tendency for historical
14:14inventions replacing factual history
14:17altogether. The truth is that the the
14:19ideology of Zionism doesn't negate the
14:21right of self-determination of any other
14:23people including Palestinians. But the
14:25traditional Palestinian
14:27>> well I think it it has to I'm afraid uh
14:30it can allow for non-Jews living in the
14:31land of Israel but this is this place is
14:34for Jewish sovereignty
14:36>> position does deny this
14:37>> to be clear we have tried to indulge the
14:40Palestinian cause as a just a genuine
14:42legitimate nationalist cause for 100
14:45years and we've seen that it's not
14:47working. So this idea that we're going
14:48to keep doing that when we've tried it
14:50is the definition of insanity. trying
14:53the same thing and expecting a different
14:54outcome. That's the only thing that I
14:55really push back on here and I and I do
14:57it strongly because it's costing lives.
14:59It's costing lives that we keep playing
15:01this game of look, if you can change
15:03your ways and f then maybe we'll make it
15:04work. No, no, no, no, no, no. There's
15:08too much in their culture. Number one,
15:10from the negative standpoint that's
15:11going to inevitably lead to their
15:12leaders choosing for I mean, Islam is
15:15about superseding the Jews. So, it's
15:17just they're going to reach for that
15:18sooner or later. That sense of we're in
15:20the land of Israel. We have to wage war
15:22against them, against the Jews. But on
15:24the positive front, this is our land.
15:26It's the Jewish people's land. This is
15:29our destiny.
15:31>> The self-determination of the Jewish
15:33people to the land that they're actually
15:34from. We are told that Palestinian
15:37identity stretches back thousands of
15:38years in its modern nationalist form. We
15:41hear claims that Palestinians are direct
15:43descendants of Canaanites, while Jews
15:44are supposedly European interlopers.
15:46>> Well, by the way, the Canaanites were
15:48actually thieves as well. The lamb was
15:49originally allotted to Shem uh and uh
15:53one of Noah's sons and he was the
15:54forefather of the ancestor of Abraham
15:58and then the Canaanites Canaan was a
16:00descendant of Ham stole the land and so
16:03actually the Jews going uh to the land
16:05of Israel. They were actually reclaiming
16:06the land.
16:08>> Palestinians have repeatedly
16:09>> not by the way not that the Palestinians
16:11are Canaanites. Okay. In fact, they are
16:13Arabs and actually the term Palestine
16:15comes from the Philistines who were from
16:17ancient Greece and they're an extinct
16:18people now. All things so messed up or
16:21minimized Jewish historical ties to
16:23Jerusalem and the Temple Mount which
16:25predates Islam itself. But the
16:27historical and archaeological record is
16:29overwhelming. Even when it comes to the
16:31Torah, the Bible, and yes, the Quran,
16:34the Jewish people originated in this
16:36land. Their language originated in this
16:39land. Their civilization, their
16:41religion, their holidays, their
16:43collective memories are all rooted in
16:45this land. Jews maintained a continuous
16:47presence there for thousands of years
16:48despite conquest, exiles, massacres,
16:50forced conversions, expulsions, and
16:52imperial occupation by colonizers. Yes,
16:55some of them Arab colonizers. And the
16:57reason why so many Jews are dispersed
16:59around the world was only because
17:01invading empires repeatedly drove them
17:03out of their indigenous homeland.
17:06Instead of recognizing that the Jewish
17:07people are an indigenous people to the
17:09land and negotiating in good faith for
17:11the betterment of both peoples and the
17:13establishment of a Palestinian state,
17:15decades of Palestinian leadership have
17:17opted instead to craft a
17:19self-destructive, ahistorical and
17:22delusional narrative of replacement,
17:24teaching generations a story that they
17:26are in fact indigenous and the Jews are
17:29not. condemning generation after
17:31generation to a neverending conflict
17:33that they feel is their duty to continue
17:35because they've been indoctrinated with
17:37a sense of perpetual ve v victimhood
17:39where everything is always someone
17:41else's fault and imbued with the
17:43ideology of Palestinian rejectionism.
17:46Despite all this, Israel has repeatedly
17:48demonstrated a willingness to
17:49compromise. The proposition's argument
17:51collapses under its own historical
17:53contradictions. It denies every Israeli
17:55concession, negotiation, and peace
17:57treaty. Most of all, it denies the
17:59repeated refusals by the Palestinian and
18:01broader Arab leadership to accept Jewish
18:03self-determination in any form. Ladies
18:06and gentlemen, the motion before this
18:08house claimed that Israel never truly
18:09wanted peace with Palestine. But the
18:11historical evidence simply does not
18:13support that claim. The motion is
18:15reductive, his intellectually
18:16maximalist, and fundamentally
18:18disconnected from the regional reality.
18:20And for that reason, I urge this house
18:23to reject it.
18:25>> A great speech from Emily. And you know,
18:26I have to say that I think one day we're
18:28going to look back on this and think,
18:29how are we so fooled by the whole
18:32Palestinian cause? How do we not realize
18:34it's a lie from start to finish? How is
18:36it that great intellectual institutions
18:38are indulging in these lies? Well, I
18:41think that the way it starts is by all
18:43of us speaking clearly and confidently
18:45about the actual truth of the matter
18:47from every perspective, historical,
18:49moral, and yes, even spiritual and
18:52biblical. And I think it starts off by
18:54just understanding the facts as they
18:56actually happen. We've been too scared
18:57to actually say them as they really are.
18:59Um, and so, and I think that's because
19:01we've been intimidated as if they're
19:02somehow wrong for, you know, what
19:04Israel's done something that's
19:05egregious. And a lot of it stems from
19:07the narrative around what they say
19:08happened in 1948. As if there's some
19:10kind of original sin that Israel needs
19:12to repent for. That is what many people
19:14think. So, we created a documentary
19:16called What Really Happened in 1948? The
19:19truth behind the lies. Let me play for
19:21you the trailer. This is so important.
19:23If you're equipped with this, you'll be
19:25able to stand strong in the face of lies
19:26and educate others as well. Here's the
19:28trailer, and if you want to watch the
19:29full thing, just click on the link below
19:31in the video description. In 1948, the
19:34world witnessed the rebirth of the
19:36Jewish state, the state of Israel. A
19:39moment celebrated as a miracle of
19:41survival and self-determination after
19:43centuries of persecution and the horrors
19:46of the Holocaust.
19:48Yet, for decades, this event has been
19:50twisted into a narrative of theft and
19:53catastrophe, with the so-called Nakba
19:55portrayed as Israel's original sin,
19:58where Jews allegedly stole Arab land and
20:00displaced innocents in a premeditated
20:03act of ethnic cleansing. But what if
20:05this story is fundamentally inverted?
20:09What if the cause and effect are the
20:11other way around? Not Israel
20:12aggressively seizing territory and Arabs
20:15responding in self-defense, but Arabs
20:17driven by deep-seated hatred, rejecting
20:20the Jews legal and historical rights to
20:22live in their ancestral homelands and
20:24waging a genocidal war long before
20:27Israel's reestablishment.
20:29In this JTV Plus documentary, we're
20:32going to uncover the unvarnished truth
20:34about 1948, the centuries of pograms and
20:38anti-semitic violence that set the
20:39stage. the Arab leaders explicit calls
20:42for extermination and the defensive war
20:44Israel fought to secure its existence.
20:47We'll challenge the pervasive lies head
20:49on, showing how Arab rejection of peace
20:52wasn't about creating a Palestinian
20:54state, but about denying Jews the right
20:56to live at all. From the Nazi allied
20:58leader of the Arabs in Palestine, the
21:00Mui [music] Al-Husini, to the forgotten
21:02occupations by Jordan and Egypt, where
21:04no Palestinian state was even
21:06considered, this is the story of a
21:08conflict rooted not in displacement, but
21:10in [music] whether the Jews deserve to
21:12live in their homelands. Join us as we
21:14debunk the myths with facts, confront
21:16the historical record fairly, but
21:18firmly, and reveal why 1948 was not an
21:22act of aggression, but a righteous
21:24response to annihilation. This is what
21:27really happened in 1948. To watch this
21:30JTV Plus documentary and access much
21:33more premium content, click on the link
21:35in the video description.
21:43[music]