Hamas is a terrorist organization, and Israel just protects themselves

Let me start by showing you a photo you might have seen on social media. People start chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” because other people chant it. Most of them don’t even know what they’re chanting; neither do they understand what river and sea they’re talking about. However, hopefully, by the end of this talk, you will understand.

Hi, my name is Adam. I am a Jew who lives in Miami and was born in Israel.

Let's go back in time to the voting of the United Nations in 1947. The UN Member States were voting on how to split the British Mandate territory, now known as Israel, between the Jews and the Arabs. (Show map) The proposal stated that the Jews would get the orange parts, and the Arabs would get the yellow ones. Jerusalem would stay as an international territory. For it to be accepted, two-thirds of the U.N. member states would need to support the plan.

“Here is the vote”

(Chart of voting)

33 countries voted for the plan, including the U.S.A, France, the U.K., and the Soviet Union, and only 13 voted against it. Thus, the Jews got part of the British territory. This was the first time the Jews had a legal right to their land, Israel.

The Arab countries included in the Partition Plan were not happy, so four months later, they started a war against the newly formed Jewish state, called the War of Independence.

The Jewish state defeated the Arabs, conquering additional territories. [show the map] Here in the map, the blue represents what the Jews got in the Partition Plan, the orange and that little gray dot representing West Jerusalem are what Israel captured in the War of Independence, and the green and pink are what the Arabs still had after the war. These borders were recognized, or legally accepted, when Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan signed legal ceasefire agreements with Israel, known as the 1949 Armistice Agreements,

and the war ended.

So, is that it? Does Israel finally have peace?

No. Only 18 years later, in June 1967, the Six-Day War emerged between Israel and the Arab states surrounding it. (Show map) Israel won the war and captured the West Bank (including East Jerusalem,) the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. After the war, the U.N. offered a resolution, Resolution 242, in which Israel would give the Arabs the land they captured in the Six-Day War in exchange for peace. Israel accepted, but the Arabs declined.

However, [show the map] the borders are different today. Here is how we got there: A few years later, in 1979, Israel made peace with Egypt. (((Show Map))) As part of the peace treaty, Israel gave Egypt back the captured Sinai Peninsula (((Zoom in))) and Egypt legally recognized Israel’s borders. The same happened with Jordan in 1994 (((Show Map))) when Israel gave Jordan some territories for peace and Jordan officially recognized Israel's border. Also, In the Oslo Accords, starting in 1993, (((Show Map))) Israel made an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization in which Israel gave them almost full control over Judea and Samaria. (((Zoom in))) Lastly, the most relevant for now, in the disengagement plan in 2005, (((Show Map))) Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip. (((Zoom in)))The only borders that are still not fully recognized are the Lebanese, Syrian, and East Jerusalem ones.

As you can see, several events changed Israel’s borders. The U.N. Partition Plan, wars, the ceasefire agreements, and peace treaties. So let’s go back to the phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine should be free.”

(Go back to the 2024 map.)

“You see this river? It is the Jordan River. Do you see this sea? It is the Mediterranean Sea. Do you see what’s in between? Israel. The phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” calls for the establishment of an Arab state called Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and the removal of Israelis from the whole piece of land that we know as Israel.

I challenge you to explain this to the next person you hear chanting this phrase.

So, what do you think? Should from the river to the sea Palestine be free?

These are the pictures that go with it: