#OneStateSolution #PalestinianState #TwoStateSolution #AntisemitismAwareness #rivertothesea #SupportIsrael #Barbados2024 #friendsofall #satellitesofnone #ErrolBarrow
Mr. Kerrie Symmonds, Minister of Foreign Affairs has announced that Barbados was now officially recognizing Palestine as a state. That announcement was made in a GIS release on April 19. That press release is available here.
The move should come as no surprise to anyone who is following the course of this government. In our article, Barbados Sides With UN Resolution Against Israel, dated 3 November 2023, we reported that Barbados government had voted with 119 other countries to call for Israel to cease fire and “stop its military operation against Hamas, the terrorist organization headquartered in Gaza”.
Ingenuous?
The government’s decision is NOT surprising for another reason. Most Barbadians have forgotten that the PM of this country is still vying to become Secretary-General of the United Nations. Therefore, even though Mr. Symmonds is the one making the announcement, he is only an official scape goat in this matter. Do the rest of the math.
Of course, Mr. Symmonds is no stranger to controversy. We remember him surprisingly siding with the Barbados Light and Power Company in its cold war with the government and people of Barbados a few years ago.
We can only assume that the two spiritual advisers recently employed by the government were not consulted on this complex emotional, political and deeply religious matter. Perhaps, they were consulted but their advice ignored. Perhaps, they were in total agreement. Hopefully, we will know some day.
Perhaps, if Mr. Symmonds had consulted his relative, Pastor Andre Symmonds, he might have at least been advised of the spiritual dynamics of what he was setting in motion.
Perhaps he did, but still chose to take the path he has. After all, Jesus told Judas directly that he was going to be the one to betray him (See Matthew 26:25) but he did it nonetheless. You might want to call Judas an SOB but Scripture gently prefers to call him a “son of perdition”.
But this is not really about Mr. Symmonds. Even if the Foreign Affairs Minister had taken it upon himself to initiate this unfortunate action, it could have gained no traction unless the Minister of Big Works had given it the thumbs up. But six is still the same as half-a-dozen!
River to the Sea
The government’s decision is not surprising for another reason. Just as how this government and many across the world, bought into the recent, deadly plandemic, many have bought into the narrative that the so-called Palestinians are the rightful inhabitants of the land from the “river to the sea”.
By the way, at least one survey showed that a significant percentage of people who chant “from the river to the sea” did not really know which river and which sea was being referred to!
Many of those surveyed were students of so-called ivy league universities! So much for “higher education”!
According to Ron Hassner, a professor of political science and Israel studies chair at the University of California, Berkeley and author of the survey, “After the students were confronted with their misunderstandings, 67.8% of them changed their minds and rejected “From the river to the sea,”
The claim of the Palestinians is a historical myth which can be unravelled, albeit not easily. The interested reader who wants to rid himself of miopia cronica can start with this low-level Wikipedia article here. He or she might also find this article useful.
It was the Romans, following the example of the Greeks, who gave the region the name “Palestine” as an insult to the rebellious Jews living there. The Romans’ definition of Palestine included part of what is now the failed state of Syria.
This means logically, that all the people living in this region – including the Jews – could justifiably be called Palestinians!
What brings the trouble is the claim that “the Palestinians” meaning “the Palestinian people” were (and are) a singular, integrated, ethno-religious, geographically defined national group like the Jews. Nothing could be further from the truth! #PalestineState
Big Government Faus Pas
And this is exactly the embarrassing trap the Barbados Government has put itself into. If you have not got it yet, the government is declaring that the Palestine region is a state, not the Palestinian people, whoever they are! Are you there? Read the GIS release again.
If you follow what we said above and take the government’s declaration literally, it means effectively, that the Barbados Government is declaring that the land that is now called Israel plus Syria plus parts unknown or unstated (or both) is now a single state! Unbelievable!
But that is exactly what ISIS declared years ago under the banner of ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and proceeded to implement it with unthinkable persecutions and beheadings not only of Christians but also Muslims and anyone who did not agree with them.
According to this Encyclopedia Brittanica article ISIL included the following areas in their definition the Levant: Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey.
But there is more. The goodly Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed in the release that “the acknowledgment of Palestine as a State does not affect the relationship Barbados has with Israel”.
Supposedly he means the state of Israel. However, since Israel, by his implied definition, is now subsumed under the bigger region of Palestine, all we can do at this point, even though this is so serious, is LOL!
In the meantime, we wait to find out who is the president or prime minister or leader of this Palestinian state, their diplomatic credentials, their other ministers of government etc.
Will the current Barbados government ever get tired of putting its big foot in its equally big mouth?
Solidarity By Similarity
There are those in the Caribbean who have a penchant for equating the self-imposed plight of the Palestinians with our experience of slavery or the former apartheid state of South Africa. They use a syllogistic argument which we at Barbados Uncensored call: solidarity by similarity.
It is the form of argument used by the pro-Palestinian demonstrators: something just has to look or sound similar to another issue and immediately mindless cause-hunters converge on the nearest consulate, bridge or highway taking the side of those whom they regard as the underdog.
For comparison, it is quite unlike the carefully thought-out, debated and justified protests that the Marcia Weekes Show has been able to generate here. Scripture has well said:
Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish. Proverbs 18:13 New Living Translation
In other words, such person are fools, plain and simple!
Horse’s Mouth
The next point we are going to make is based on our unrepentant Judeo-Christian worldview. It will incense many, but we stand by it anyway.
Given the multiple and contradictory opinions regarding who owns what is being called “Palestine” whatever that is, there can be only one source of truth regarding the matter: that source is God’s Word, the Bible.
The last time we checked, that book had this to say:
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Psalm 24:1 NIV. And, “For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me”. Ezekiel 18:4
In case you don’t get it, these are affirmations of God’s absolute sovereignty. We understand geo-politics, historical precedent, politics of war or whatever diplomatic or intellectual gymnastics one wishes to perform but none of these will change the basic fact of the matter: the land of Israel was given in an eternal covenant or agreement to the descendants of Abraham through his son, Isaac. Period!
None Left Behind
But what some people forget – or choose to be voluntarily ignorant of – is that God also promised that He would make Abraham’s other son, Ishmael, a great nation (Genesis 21:18). Ishmael was the son Sarah (Abraham’s wife) “forced” Abraham to have with their servant Hagar. You can read the whole story in Genesis chapters 16 – 21.
And God has kept his word. Ishmael’s descendants are the Arabs: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE etc are some of the richest states on the earth. And everyone reading this article hopefully knows why!
Not all of the Palestinians are Arabs; that is one good reason why their “cousins” in Jordan, for example, have not and will not take in the Palestinians as a group or give them their own autonomous region, which they easily can, as several analysts have pointed out. The other reason? The bloodthirsty terrorist activity of the Palestinians which is premised on their erroneous religious beliefs.
So, the tiny piece of land that is Israel (from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea) is for the “legitimate son” of Abraham; “the rest” is for the descendants of the other son. It is that simple and the framers of the recent Trump-brokered Abrahamic Accords understood this very well!
Government out of Whack
We submit therefore, that besides the faux pas embodied in their official statement, the Barbados Government is out of whack because it is still talking about a two-state solution. This is not surprising; it is the same tuneless melody in the key of D-flat that the UN (the PM’s new domicile) and the permanent bureaucrats of Washington are humming.
The more enlightened analysts are now talking about a one state solution which has its own problems. But we shall come back to that shortly.
Not that we need their input. Scripture assures us that God has made an oath about the land of Israel.
And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing-all the land of Canaan-as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:8
What does “eternal” mean again? We wait patiently to see which country or which version of the UN is going to overturn God’s oath about the land “from the river to the sea”! And with respect to Jerusalem here is God speaking again:
“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:2.
So prophesied, so done!
One State Solution
The one-state solution we alluded to earlier is not the one-state solution that the intellectually feeble and morally bankrupt pro-Palestinian supporters mean when they chant “from the river to the sea”. Their version means that all Israelis and Jews would then have to be wiped completely off the map.
That calls for a de facto genocide on the Jews; not the type of false genocide they claim is being made on the Palestinians.
As some commentators have pointed out, it is truly amazing that people are claiming that Palestinians are experiencing a genocide although their numbers keep increasing!
And remember this. The Palestinians were offered a separate state several times under the Oslo Accords but rejected it each time. That is a historical fact.
There can be (and will be) a one-state solution where Jews, Arabs and other ethnic groups (such as Armenians) can and will eventually live in peace with equal rights; with Israel firmly in control of the economy, security etc. of course!
Let’s be practical. Nothing that we have seen tells or assures us that a state under a Palestinian leader like Abbas will prosper like Israel under “the Jews” has. We have the example of Gaza under Hamas as a benchmark.
Nothing that we have said or will say on this matter means that we agree with injustice or brutality from any side. By no means.
But we fail to see how lying about who is committing injustice, rape and genocide is going to help anyone. Or for that matter, talking about “disproportionality’ or “disproportionate retaliation”, a stupid phrase which has an unattainable, unmeasurable empirical mathematical implication.
If we cannot get justice, fair play and truthfulness in Barbados how are we going to achieve that in a place thousands of miles away with a declaration which not even the UN can agree on?
Sorry Mr. Minister but we are not falling for this attempt to deflect the focus of the people from the corruption in this government and the impending Budget Speech especially since the PM is trying to do a Bidenomics move by telling us that the cost of living has gone down!
Under Pressure
The Palestinians are lobbying at the UN to be declared a state and we have no doubt the Barbadian delegation at the UN has been “under pressure”.
We will not speculate on the issue of whose palms have been greased to facilitate this overture. We know that was done in the matter of South Africa bringing charges of genocide against Israel at the ICJ. What we say in faith – and not at all lightly is this: “Come out things!”
Mr. Symmonds has openly admitted in his GIS release that this country has been the recipient of aid and assistance from Israel for many years. We do not see any corresponding assistance from “the Palestinians”; or for that matter from the Arab nations until very recently, specifically because we went a begging!
So, while this government has attempted – we emphasize “attempted” – to issue a “politically correct” edit, it has brought itself under the universal judgment God intimated to Abraham as part of his covenant:
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:3.
We, therefore, speak for the more enlightened among us when we disavow and distance ourselves from this Government’s declaration. Like Pilate, we wash our hands of this proclamation. Let Mr. Symmonds, the PM and the government bear their own judgement.
