The Israel/Palestine Conflict
Part 1
It’s hard to believe that in the 21st century, awash with technology and information, the hardest thing to come by is truth. There are people today convinced the earth is flat. Deepfake videos and bots are everywhere online and news organizations are no longer in the business of reporting facts but shaping public opinion. Grabbing a headline or soundbite is not enough information to fully understand issues, especially a topic as nuanced and complicated as the Israel/Palestine conflict.
It is in this climate that Israel finds itself fighting wave after wave of propaganda, disinformation, and blatant lies to justify her existence.
Some of the Palestinians have lived on this land for centuries and also deserve a home. The question is who has the legal right to what land and what is the best solution for both peoples.
This article is an attempt to show how we got to where we are today using historical facts and what I think are the two main reasons this conflict has seemed impossible to solve.
After leaving slavery behind in Egypt, the 12 tribes of Israel settled in what was then called the land of Canaan circa 1450 B.C. After defeating the various indigenous tribes in the land, Israel would become a kingdom in 1050 B.C. It ceased being a unified kingdom after the northern 10 tribes broke away in 922 B.C.
The Assyrians would conquer those northern 10 tribes in 721 B.C. and take them captive back to Assyria.
The Babylonians then conquered the southern kingdom of Judah comprised of the remaining two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. They destroyed the capitol of the Jewish kingdom, Jerusalem, in 586 B.C.
The Jews returned to Jerusalem after being freed by the Persian King Cyrus and would rebuild their society in 516 B.C. under Persian jurisdiction.
Following Babylonian control of the region, the Greeks under Alexander the Great, assume control over the area.
The next empire to take control of the region is Rome. After putting down the second Jewish revolt in 135 A.D., Roman Emperor Hadrian, knowing the power of propaganda and to further enrage the Jews, would rename the area Philistia. He chose this name knowing it was derived from the much hated bitter enemies of Israel, the Philistines. This is where we get the term Palestine which has nothing to do with Arabs. Philistines were not Arabs but of Greek origin. Hadrian had hoped by doing this and forbidding Jews from living in Jerusalem he could erase the name of Israel once and for all and separate the people from the land.
After the Romans, Palestine would be occupied by one empire after another including the Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders and Mamelukes. In 1517 it became part of the Ottoman Empire until the end of World War I when Britain captured the area.
There were no countries in these empires, just provinces. No kingdom or country has ever existed on this land other than Israel. This means that there has never been an Arab or Palestinian country on this land during this time or ever.
With Palestine under Ottoman control, a census was taken in 1844 estimating the population of Jerusalem to be about 15,000 people with the majority being around 7,000 Jews. Palestine was a desolate backwater region with a mixture of people. There were Jews, Arabs Christians, Greeks, Armenians and many others all under Ottoman rule.
Even though there has been a constant Jewish presence in this land for almost 3,500 years, regardless of who was in control, the area was so barren and desolate that Mark Twain described it in this manner in his book The Innocents Abroad in 1867:
It is a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds – a silent mournful expanse… a desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action… We never saw a human being on the whole route… There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.
In the late 19th century Jews begin migrating into Palestine as a response to growing anti-Semitism in Europe. A political movement called Zionism is established in 1897 led by Theodor Herzl who sought an internationally secured charter and legal status for a Jewish homeland.
At this same time there was an influx of Arabs escaping French colonialism in North Africa. They joined the small Arab presence that had long been in Palestine. Arabs worked and lived in peace side by side with the growing Jewish population that had legally purchased the land they were developing. The trend continued even prompting Robert Kennedy later to note in a statement in the Boston Post, “The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs, in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state.”
During World War I the British began making promises to those who they thought would help them win the war. To garner Arab support they produce a document in 1915 and send it to Arab officials that promised to make an Arab homeland out of the Ottoman Empire should the British defeat them in the war.
In 1916 the British create the Sykes-Picot agreement that stated there will be an Arab state but it will not include Lebanon or Syria which will become part of the French Empire.
At the end of World War I on November 2, 1917, the British produced the Balfour Declaration that states:
His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
This statement not only insinuates a two-state idea but does so with the complications that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine…”, i.e., Arabs. It also states that it should not undermine the status of Jews in other countries. The idea that you could create a Jewish state in Palestine without disrupting the lives of Arabs who had also lived in this land for centuries is where the Arab-Israeli conflict really begins.
After the war, out of what was the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France carve up the Middle East and create the countries and boundaries of Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and many others. If the country of Israel is in doubt today, then so is every one of these countries created at the same time by the same world powers.
In 1919 the Faisal-Weizmann agreement was made between the Zionist Chaim Weizmann and Emir Faisal I who was set to become the ruler of the Arab Kingdom of Greater Syria. Emir Faisal said he would welcome Jews with open arms, unfortunately, he was removed from Syria in 1920 and relocated to Iraq.
In a conference in San Remo, Italy on April 24, 1920, the League of Nations issues a mandate for Britain to rule the area of Palestine/Trans-Jordan pending Jewish independence. This cements the Balfour Declaration into international law. The Jewish state would include Gaza, Israel as it stands today, the West Bank and all of Jordan, approximately 120,466 square kilometers.
To sooth the anger of the Arab countries over the establishment of the sole Jewish state, Israel gave its first of a long line of land concessions to the Arabs by accepting the creation of Jordan for any Arabs not wishing to be part of or displaced by the Jewish state.
On July 24,1922, at another San Remo conference, Britain split the mandate into two parts. 92,300 square kilometers for the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan for Arabs and 28,166 square kilometers for a Jewish state. This was a reduction of 77% from the original mandate for Israel yet the Jews accept it.
Just to clarify, there is no such thing as a Jordanian other than by being a person that lives in Jordan. A Jordanian is not a unique race, they are Arabs. The population of Jordan today is made up of more than 70% Palestinian Arabs.
In 1923 Winston Churchill produces a British government report, or White Paper, declaring the Balfour Declaration applies to everything west of the Jordan River being Israel’s and everything east of the Jordan River belonging to the Arabs. This seemed to be a fair compromise for the Jews who claimed Palestine to be their Biblical homeland and a place of refuge, and the Arab claim to the land.
World War II is now fast approaching. In 1938 the British fear the Arabs could cause problems for them in the war so they flip their allegiance in Palestine from the Jews to the Arabs in the hopes the Arabs will stay neutral. They produce another White Paper in 1939 restricting Jewish immigration. It limits Jews entering Palestine to 75,000 over the next 5 years and future Jewish immigration would be subject to an Arab veto. It also proposes an establishment of an Arab state in 10 years.
The League of Nations declared in 1940 that the White Paper violated the mandate given to Britain under the Balfour Declaration and international law. It seemed the British were more interested in courting those who could further their causes rather than solving the Arab-Israeli conflict they helped create.
The Arabs will eventually align themselves with Germany thinking the Nazi’s final solution for the Jews would also solve their land claims. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem aids the Nazi’s in their war effort by filling the 13th Waffen S.S. division of the German military with Bosnian Muslims. Unfortunately for them, Germany loses the war and the Arabs are back to square one.
In 1945 the United Nations is established to replace the now defunct League of Nations. In the U.N. charter, Article 80 declares that all treaties that existed before the establishment of the U.N. remain valid and in force. This means all international laws and treaties created by the League of Nations regarding the Jewish state were to remain in place.
In 1947 the United Nations proposes yet another partition plan. This time Israel loses an additional 46% of the land offered in 1922. The partition plan calls for the land to be split into two parts. Israel would get 56% of the land west of the Jordan River which was mostly desert. The Arabs would get a contiguous country with 43% of the land including a third of the Mediterranean coastline and nearly all the highlands in Judea and Samaria. Under this plan, Jerusalem would become an international city. This resolution envisions a Jewish state and an Arab state which is essentially Jordan. The U.N. resolution never references a Palestinian state.
The Jews again agree to give up more land for a peace agreement. The members of the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, not only reject this offer, but they launch a war intent on eliminating any Jewish presence in the region. This action voided the U.N. partition plan. The Arabs have no intentions of a Jewish homeland in their midst of any kind and fighting between the Jews and Arabs continue until the expiration of the British Mandate.
By 1948 the world was still dragging its feet on the status of Israel, even though six million Jews had just been murdered right before their eyes. Having survived the holocaust with virtually no help from the world and no where to go, the Jewish people vowed to prevent this from ever happening again by establishing a refuge in their ancestorial homeland.
Upon the expiration of the British Mandate and the departure of British troops in 1948, the Jews proclaim their independence on May 14, 1948, on the sliver of land they had left based on U.N. recognition. Israel offered Arabs, and anyone else living there, a part in this new nation with citizenship, full rights, religious freedom, and even participation in a democratic government.
The Arab world would have none of this. Arabs living in Israel are warned by their leaders to leave the area so that the combined Arab armies of the region could destroy Israel and after their presumed military victory, they could return to take possession of the land.
The day after Israel announces its independence, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria attack Israel. Even though Israel had a population of about 600,000 at the time, it holds off the combined Arab armies representing 100 million Arabs from wiping them off the map. Even though it gains 60% of the Arab land partition, it loses the West Bank and East Jerusalem which become occupied and governed by Jordan.
The war creates both Jewish and Arab refugees. Israel absorbs the Arabs that wish to remain in Israel and gives them full citizenship. In addition to absorbing Arabs that wish to stay, they set up a trust to ensure any Arabs who had lost their land would have an opportunity to return to it or be compensated for their lost.
Israel also stated that it would be willing to take in 100,000 Arabs annually in exchange for a peace agreement, which of course the Arabs rejected. In addition to taking in Arabs, Israel takes in Jews expelled from the West Bank by Jordan and all Jewish refugees expelled from all other Arab countries.
In 1945 there were about 1 million Jews in Arab lands who had lived there for centuries. By 1970, the Arabs had cleansed the Middle East of Jews, confiscated their property and frozen their bank accounts. By contrast, 20% of Israel’s population today are Arabs having full rights as citizens and democratic representation in the government.
Arab leaders, however, put their estimated 700,000 refugees into refugee camps in Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
The U.N. creates the United Nations Relief and Works Agency or UNRWA. It’s the only U.N. organization dedicated solely to a single group of refugees. One of the problems with this arrangement has been that every refugee and their descendants are confined in the camps indefinitely until there is an agreement. This means the original 700,000 refugees now number around 5 million. They’re not allowed to live or seek employment outside the camps amongst their own people. Using them as political pawns like this insured continual Jew hatred and created a constant source of terrorist for the Arab cause.
This is not to say that there were no acts of terrorism by Jews or that the Jews did no wrong in this conflict. Some committed horrible acts and there were Arabs murdered and forced from their land. Jewish military groups such as the Haganah, Lechi and the Stern gang most certainly contributed to the violence in the conflict. Both sides had blood on their hands.
However, at this point Jews occupied no country but their own. In a defensive response they defeated the much larger and more well-equipped Arab armies. After nearly 2,500 years the Jews had finally re-established a home for themselves.
After the war of Independence for Israel in 1948, Egypt takes control of the Gaza strip and Jordan occupies the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Jordan gives Arabs living in the West Bank Jordanian citizenship.