The Israel/Palestine Conflict
Part 2
At this point in history, Arabs were now in control of the very land they are demanding today. Jordan could have annexed the West Bank and made it part of a larger Jordan, especially after giving Jordanian citizenship to the Arabs living there, but they didn’t. They could have given it to the Palestinians for a homeland since they were in control of the land, but they didn’t. A state for the Palestinians was never the end game. The Arabs wanted to eradicate all Jews from the area and to take all the land for themselves.
In 1955 Egypt buys a large cache of weapons from the Russians and prepares for another war. They close the straights of the Red Sea and use of the Suez Canal. The war begins in 1956 with the French and English coming to Israel’s aid in what would be the last colonial war. This ends in disaster for the French and English but Israel manages to destroy Egypt’s weapons, reopen the Red Sea and Suez Canal, and have U.N. observers re-installed.
In 1967, even though the Arabs are still in possession of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Egypt blockades Israel once again and mobilizes its army on Israel’s border for another attack. President Gamal Nasser of Egypt tells the U.N. peacekeeping forces at the border to leave.
Not wanting to wait around for the attack, Israel initiates a pre-emptive strike wiping out Egypt’s air force. President Nasser confers with King Hussain of Jordan showing him radar images of Israel’s air force returning to Israel, however, he tells King Hussain they are Egyptian air forces currently attacking Israel thus prompting Jordan to join the war.
Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordon then attack Israel once again. Rather than wiping out Israel, the Arabs lose the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Gaza strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai in what becomes known as the six-day war.
Israel offers to give the West Bank back to Jordan, the Golan Heights to Syria, and the Gaza Strip to Egypt in exchange for a peace treaty. In Khartoum the Arab leaders respond to this peace overture with their doctrine of the 3 no’s:
No peace with Israel.
No negotiations with Israel.
No recognition of Israel.
Historian Avi Shlaim stated:
First, the Israeli government had no intention of capturing the West Bank. On the contrary, it was opposed to it. Second, there was not any provocation on the part of the IDF (Israel Defense Force). Third, the rein was only loosened when a real threat to Jerusalem’s security emerged.
The U.N. issues Resolution 242 at the end of the war which Alan Dershowitz states:
…was intended of course to legitimate not only Israel’s existence and right to defend itself, but its right to hold on to some of the territories it captured in a defensive war and both justice Goldberg, who was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and the British ambassador to the U.N. made it clear in the legislative history of 242 that Israel was to hold on to territories essential to its security…
The Green Line that the international community insist Israel return to today are simply cease fire lines, not borders. It was at Arab insistence that these cease fire lines not become permanent.
International law allows victims of aggression to keep the land they acquire in a defensive war. This means Israel has every legal right to Judea and Samaria or “the West Bank” as Israel’s critics call it. However, they’ve made every attempt to give this land back in exchange for peace.
It is around this time that the ongoing conflict gets a re-branding. The conflict’s name is changed from the “Arab-Israeli” war to the “Israeli-Palestinian” conflict. The thinking was that if the term “Palestinian” was used for these Arabs, it would make them seem like a unique group of people and garner much more international sympathy for their cause.
Even though the term “Palestinian” was used in 1936 by the Peel Commission, it meant anyone living in the area, Jew, Greek, Armenian, Christian or anyone else, not just Arabs. The commission suggested a partition of the land into a Jewish Palestine and an Arab Palestine. In 1937, Awni Abd al-Hadi stated to the Royal British Peel Commission, “There is no such country as Palestine. Palestine is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Palestine is alien to us.”
In 1946 Phlip Hitti, a Lebanese professor from Princeton who created the discipline of Arab studies in America, stated that there is no such entity as Palestine and that the area had historically been part of Syria.
A Saudi representative to the United Nations stated in 1956, “It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria.”
This was also pointed out by President Hafez al-Assad of Syria to PLO chairmen Yasser Arafat when he said, “Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian people. There is no Palestinian entity. Palestine is an integral part of Syria.”
Obviously, Ahmad Shukeiri disagreed with Assad. In 1964 he founded and was the first chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) which championed these people as a unique people indigenous to the land. He completely switched the world view of the conflict from one of a small group of Jews defending themselves from a large alliance of Arab countries bent on their complete annihilation to a conflict of the poor small group of Palestinians against the mighty Israel.
Thus a new people emerged, the Palestinian. Even though nearly all the Arabs, or “Palestinians” as they began to call themselves, arrived at the same time as the Zionist, they were now being promoted as a unique indigenous people.
The president of the organization Myths and Facts, Eli E. Hertz, stated:
Family names of many Palestinians attest to their non-Palestinian origins. Just as Jews bear names like Berliner, Warsaw, and Toledano, modern phone books in the Territories are filled with families named Elmisri (Egyptian), Chalabi (Syrian), Mugrabi (North Africa). Even George Habash – the arch-terrorist and head of Black September – bears a name with origins in Abyssinia or Ethiopia…
Just as the Romans had done in 135 A.D., the Arabs had devised a plan to disassociate Jews from the land by renaming themselves.
Egypt and Syria would try one more time to destroy Israel in the Yom Kipper war of 1973 but this war also fails. This would be the last grasp for the Arab nations in eliminating the Jewish state.
Egypt finally comes to its senses and signs a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 in exchange for the return of most of the Sinai including its oil fields. However it wants no part of the Gaza strip leaving the Israelis to deal with the problem. For this gesture of peace, Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by his people.
In 1980 Israel then officially annexes East Jerusalem, which it had won in the Six Day War from the Jordanians, making Jerusalem the undivided capitol of Israel. However, they allow the Jordanians to remain in control of the day to day workings of the Temple Mount in order to solidify the peace.
In 1988 Jordan gives up its claims on the West Bank and strips all Palestinians of their Jordanian citizenship.
In 1993 the Oslo Peace Accords were signed by Israel and the Palestinians. These accords created the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) and a framework for peace. It too failed and devolved into a nearly five-year reign of terrorism by the Palestinians known as the second Intifada.
The Oslo agreement also cost the life of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who was assassinated for this peace overture by a Jewish nationalist. Again, neither side is without blood on their hands.
Another peace overture was promoted by then Prime Minister Ehud Barak which the Palestinians again quickly rejected.
In 2005 the Palestinians negotiated the return of the Gaza Strip but only if it was cleansed of all Jews. Israel agreed to this demand and forcibly removed their people from their homes in Gaza. They also left behind turn key businesses.
International foreign aid was set to flow into Gaza to build a hopeful future of self governance for the Palestinians. This would be a test run for a two state solution.
Once in control of Gaza, they destroy the businesses that had been left behind including industrial green houses ready to operate solely because they were built by Jews.
They then hold elections. Against the warnings of The Middle East Quartet consisting of The United Nations, The European Union, Russia and the U.S. in conjunction with Israel, the Palestinians elect a terrorist group called Hamas to lead them. This organization exists solely for the purpose of killing Jews and taking all of the land as stated in their charter.
The Palestinians immediately began militarizing the Gaza Strip and within 12 days began attacking Israel with rockets. Contrary to current reporting, it was the Middle East Quartet along with Israel that instituted a blockade of Gaza for this action, not just Israel. Even Egypt, who also fears Hamas, assists in maintaining the blockade to this day.
In 2008 and in 2009 Prime Minister Elmer Olmert again tried making a peace deal with the Palestinians but they too were rejected by the Palestinians.
There were peace attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and American President Donald Trump, but these also were rejected by the Palestinians reinforcing the old saying, “The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity!”
In Summary
The Arabs claim the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be occupied territories even though international law is squarely on Israel’s side. There has never been a determination or decision in any legal forum granting Arabs an independent and sovereign Palestinian entity.
The West Bank or “occupied territories” as it is called by the rest of the world today is the biblical land of Samaria and Judea. Judea is where the term Jew comes from. How can Jews be called occupiers today of a land in which they are named after? This would be akin to saying Arabs have no claim to Arabia.
This is just one of those nuances that make this topic much more complex than just a headline, soundbite, or a social media post.
Israel controls the West Bank for their own protection, not because they want to. Remember, they offered the land back to Jordan in exchange for a peace treaty in 1967. There is no benefit in Israel ruling over the Palestinians. There is a saying in the Middle East that when the Palestinians lay down their arms there’ll be peace. When the Jews lay down their arms their will be no more Jews.
The settler movement in the West Bank however is another complicated aspect of this problem. Being a Christian I understand the Jewish people wanting to live on their God given land. Being a member of a ever secular world however, I understand the problem with settlers taking land away from what could eventually be a Palestinian state.
Even though Arabs and Jews share a common ancestor in Abraham, the Israelites settled in their ancestral homeland of Israel while the Arabs settled in their ancestral land of Arabia. Given the constant upheaval of people in this region over the centuries things are not so well defined anymore.
Jerusalem is also an issue. Both sides claim it as their capital and both claim it as a holy site.
First of all, Jerusalem’s name is Hebrew, not Arabic. It has never been a capital of any country except Israel. It is regarded as holy to the religion of Islam even though it’s not mentioned once in the Koran.
On the other hand, Jerusalem is the center of the universe for the Jewish people. It’s what makes a Jew Jewish. Muslims have two holy sights in their possession in Mecca and Medina. Do they have to have all three?
Even though compromises are needed, most Muslim and Arab countries will not accept a Jewish state on this land and will continue to call for Israel’s destruction.
They create the impression that Palestinians are a unique ethnic group and that their country was stolen from them when in fact they’re simply Arabs that have the same language, history, religion, last names, and culture of all other Arabs. Neither Palestinians nor Arabs have ever had a country on this land. Even though some may have lived on this land for centuries and have every right to do so, does anyone really think that if Israel gives up more land that it would not become a staging ground for the destruction of Israel just as Gaza, Syria and Lebanon have become?
The Palestinians do have a legitimate case for a homeland even though there are more than 20 Arab countries already in existence and only a single Jewish state. The problems they and the Jews face today can be traced back to two main issues.
The first being the colonial powers creating countries and borders irrespective of the demographics on the ground. The Balfour Declaration stated that “…nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine…” was doomed and unworkable from the very beginning. How can you create a Jewish homeland in Palestine without disrupting the “non-Jewish” inhabitants of the land?
The second problem is probably the biggest, Arab rejectionism. Arabs refusal of peace and a Jewish state in 1917, 1920, 1922, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1967, 1973, 1978, 1993, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2019 is the real problem. It’s not Israel’s lack of acceptance of Arabs in Palestine but the Palestinian doctrine of the three no’s – no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel and no recognition of Israel. This is what’s keeping the Palestinians from having a country of their own.
The Palestinian people deserve better. What they need are new leaders and a whole new social paradigm. Their leaders have used them as military shields and pawns while enriching themselves at the expense of their own people.
Hamas leaders, such as Mussa Abu Marzouk, has a reported net worth of 3 billion dollars while Khaled Meshaal and Ismall Haniyeh both have a reported net worth of 4 billion dollars. Even Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the West Bank, has a net worth of over 100 million dollars. All of this money stolen from international aid and from the Palestinian people could have given them a better life.
The Palestinians have been victims of propaganda too, but from their own leadership. Decades of programming through movies, cartoons, T.V. and school books teach them to hate Jews and refer to them as descendants of apes and pigs. Much of this is actually done in United Nations run camps and schools. Palestinian maps show only one state, not two.
In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), has a program referred to as “pay for slay” by the West. It pays families monthly payments in perpetuity if one of them kills a Jew. The more heinous the act, the higher the monthly payment is. This was the reason the U.S. enacted the Taylor-Force act to try and stop this policy by cutting off funding to the P.A. Rather than trying to build a vibrant economy and better the life for the average person in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority uses their money and energy to bribe their people to kill Jews.
In addition to the corruption, there is the division between the two opposing governing bodies of Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. This makes it impossible to negotiate a two state solution. Are they one state or two and who’s in charge? The current destruction of Hamas should solve at least this issue.
The Saudis may be the ones to solve some of the other issues as well. In ongoing trilateral talks with America and Israel, one of the Saudi elements of the deal is stated to be an infusion of billions of dollars by them to reconstruct Palestinian infrastructure and remodel its society. I believe most Palestinian people are like any other, they just want to live in peace and raise their families. The thinking is if you rebuild the infrastructure, have a single governing body, hold new elections, and dramatically raise the standard of living you can neutralize these radical ideologies and everyone can finally live in peace. Let’s hope for all involved that this becomes the case.
Until then, we have to do our due diligence to beware of the lies and propaganda being spread. There has never been another country on this land, ever. Jerusalem has only been a capitol to one country ever, Israel. They have a historical, legal and legitimate need of refuge in a land they named over 3,000 years ago.
Jews have accepted every offer of peace from the international community for more than 100 years. It’s time for the Palestinians not to miss another opportunity and do the same.