On Jewish calendar date 17 Kislev 5708 (the evening of November 29, 1947 in Israel), 46 countries voted on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 - the proposal to partition the Land of Israel (known then as Palestine) into two states, one Jewish, the other Arab.

Thirty-three voted in favor, 13 voted against. The Arabs rejected the outcome, immediately initiating hostilities that erupted into the War of Independence after Israel was established and recognized internationally six months later.

Next week, on 17 Kislev 5768, 60 years to the day after that UN vote, nearly 50 nations have been invited to Annapolis for the US-hosted International Conference on the Creation of Palestine - an Arab state the international community wants to see erected on the biblical heartland of the Jewish people.

Of these nations, only 15 are Arab states. Included among the rest are France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Canada, Poland, Sweden, Norway, South Africa and India.

Observers have noted that this will indeed be a gathering of the nations of the world in a united stand against the rights of the Jews to their sacred soil.

The international community is virtually single-minded on this issue: the theft of Jewish lands for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Not a single invited national representative nor journalist is expected to challenge this position at Annapolis on Tuesday.

BACK