Jordan Foreign Ministry slams Smotrich over 'Greater Israel' map

Amman slams treasurer for presenting chart of Israel encompassing neighboring kingdom's territory; Jerusalem says recognizes Jordan's territorial integrity in response
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The Jordanian Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for his appearance in Paris the night before where a map of "Greater Israel" was presented that included the West Bank and the Kingdom of Jordan within Israel's borders.
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    • In an apparent act of damage control, the Foreign Ministry had to issue a statement clarifying that Jerusalem was committed to the peace agreement with the neighboring monarchy.
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    בצלאל סמוטריץ'    בצלאל סמוטריץ'
    Bezalel Smotrich and a 'Greater Israel' map that includes Jordan
    "Israel is committed to the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan. There has been no change in the position of the State of Israel, which recognizes the territorial integrity of the Hashemite Kingdom," a Twitter statement read.
    During his trip, Smotrich also claimed that "there is no such thing" as a Palestinian people. A spokesperson for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry called the Israeli treasurer's presentation “incitement” and a violation of the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan.
    "We also condemn the racist, inciting, and extreme statements of the extreme Israeli minister against the Palestinian people and their right to exist. These are dangerous statements. The Israeli government must express a clear position towards this extreme conduct and against these inciting statements,” the ministry’s statement said.
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    בצלאל סמוטריץ'    בצלאל סמוטריץ'
    Bezalel Smotrich
    (Photo: Shaul Golan)
    Smotrich, who is a leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party, paid a private visit to Paris to honor Zionist activist and former local Likud chairman Jacques Kupfer. In an interview on Sunday, he said there was “no question about considering the creation of a terrorist Palestinian state.”
    Smotrich has been roundly criticized earlier this month for his controversial comments about the Palestinian village of Huwara needing to be “wiped off the map” following a terrorist attack that killed two Israelis.
    Smotrich said that he “perhaps did not choose the right words” but reiterated that “the State of Israel must fight more resolutely against terrorism."

    Reprinted with permission from i24NEWS.
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    3.
    Truth Talk
    The words “Palestine” or “Filastin” do not appear in the Koran. “Palestine” is also not mentioned in the Old or New Testament. It does occur at least eight times in eight verses of the Hebrew concordance of the King James Bible. Though the definite origins of the word “Palestine” have been debated for years and are still not known for sure, the name is believed to be derived from the Egyptian and Hebrew word peleshet, which appears in the Tanakh no fewer than 250 times. Roughly translated to mean rolling or migratory, the term was used to describe the inhabitants of the land to the northeast of Egypt – the Philistines. The Philistines were an Aegean people – more closely related to the Greeks and with no connection ethnically, linguistically, or historically with Arabia – who conquered the Mediterranean coastal plain that is now Israel and Gaza in the 12th Century BCE. Before the Israelite conquest, the Egyptians called what is now Israel, Syria, and Lebanon Retenu. The term Canaan appeared in the fifteenth century BCE and was subsequently referred to as Eretz Bnei Yisrael,” the “Land of the Children of Israel” (Joshua 11:22) or Eretz Yisrael (I Samuel 13:19) after the Jewish return from Egypt. The name “Israel” was first used in the tenth century BCE to refer to the northern Jewish kingdom following the division of Solomon’s kingdom. During the Persian period, the area that is now Israel and Syria was referred to as Coele-Syria. A derivative of the name Palestine first appears in Greek literature in the 5th Century BCE when the historian Herodotus used the word “Palaistine” to refer to the coastal strip inhabited by the Philistines.
    Rose| 03.21.23
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    2.
    smoritch acts like the Palestinians
    I don't care about trivial things connected to the Israel / Jordan peace treaty but what Smoritich is doing is acting just as childishly as the Palestinians who say they have been here since the original Cananties were their ancestors, Jews have no connection to the land and despite they claim they want a state in just the West Bank & Gaza all their official maps show all of Israel being part of Palestine. Smoritch as a government minister should act more like a diplomat and less like a Palestinian activist.
    zionist forever| 03.21.23
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    1.
    Fake kingdom invented by Britain never condemns
    "palestinians" when they show maps of "their" land encompassing all of Israel. Hypocritical cowards!
    03.20.23
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