Just some historical detail for you, in light of the drive for statehood by the Palestinians.

On the afternoon of May 14, 1948, Jewish Zionist leader David Ben Gurion rose to speak at a theatre in Tel Aviv, steps from the beach.

Ben Gurion read Israel’s declaration of independence, as an international radio audience listened. He was surrounded by other Zionist leaders. The whole thing lasted just minutes.

The next day, a promised invasion of the new country, by neighboring Arab armies, was launched and a months-long bloody conflict ended with the 1949 armistice lines. Thus, a sovereign Jewish presence in that ancient land of their forefathers was established after an historical gap of almost 2,000 years.

Israel was born, politically, from a vote in the UN on November 29, 1947, in which a majority of the Security Council voted to partition what was left of Palestine, after Transjordan was formed in 1946.

One wonders if we are on the cusp of a new state, literally on top of the state of Israel. Interestingly, Independence Hall in Tel Aviv is today almost an afterthought for most tourists.

If the Palestinians win their bid for statehood, at what symbolic place will they declare it so?