The Beginning of the End of Israel Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gave a hate speech in Paris that may have begun the . “There are no Palestinians because there isn’t a Palestinian people,” he said on March 19. He also displayed a map of “Greater Israel” which included Syria and Jordan. Smotrich was born in 1980 in the Golan Heights in Syria but holds Israeli citizenship.  His grandfather Yaakov Smotrich immigrated from Ukraine to Palestine before WWII, and Yaakov’s wife Bruria came to Palestine from Europe. Smotrich is a European Jew. The country he lives in today is called Israel since 1948, but it was never called Israel before, except during the 100 years of a Jewish kingdom that began with King David more than 2,000 years ago. Golda Meir was the first Israeli leader to make a similar statement. In an interview in 1969 with Frank Giles, Meir said, “There was no such thing as Palestinians.” The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan condemned Smotrich’s statement as racist, and Amman summoned the Israeli ambassador for a rebuke. Jordan is populated by a majority of people who are Palestinians, and that includes Queen Rania, the wife of King Abdullah.  Before, and since the … Meer lezen over Mid East Discourse | Steven Sahiounie – The Beginning of the End of Israel