Ten Basic Facts about the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian Conflict
Not only does this do a disservice to history, but it also contributes to prolonging the conflict by perpetuating false assumptions and mistaken notions.
Consider:
Fact #1: There could have been a two-state solution as early as 1947. That’s precisely what the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) proposed, recognizing the presence of two peoples – and two nationalisms – in a territory governed temporarily by the United Kingdom as trustee. And the UN General Assembly decisively endorsed the UNSCOP proposal. The Jewish side pragmatically accepted the plan, but the Arab world categorically rejected it. Which a nulls the proposal.
Fact #2: When Israel declared sovereignty and independence on May 14, 1948, it extended the hand of friendship to its Arab neighbors, as clearly evidenced by its founding documents and statements. That offer, too, was spurned. Instead, six Arab armies declared war on the fledgling Jewish state, seeking its total destruction. Despite vastly outnumbering the Jews and possessing superior military arsenals, they failed in their quest.
Fact #3: Until 1967, the eastern part of Jerusalem and the entire West Bank aka Judea and Samaria were in the hands of Jordan, not Israel. Had the Arab world wished, an independent Arab-Palestinian state, with its capital in Jerusalem, could have been established at any time. Not only did this not happen, but there is no record of it ever having been discussed. To the contrary, Jordan annexed the territory, seeking full and permanent control. It proceeded to treat Jerusalem as a backwater, while denying Jews any access to Jewish holy sites in the Old City and destroying the 58 synagogues there. Meanwhile, Gaza was under Egyptian military rule. Again, there was no talk of sovereignty for the Arab-Palestinians there, either.
Fact #4: In May 1967, the Egyptian and Syrian governments repeatedly threatened to annihilate Israel, as these countries demanded that UN peacekeeping forces be withdrawn from the region. Moreover, Israeli shipping lanes to its southern port of Eilat were blocked, and Arab troops were deployed to front-line positions. The Six-Day War was the outcome, a war that Israel won. Liberating the territory and coming into possession of the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Sinai Peninsula, West Bank aka Judea and Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem, Israel extended feelers to its Arab neighbors, via third parties, seeking a “land for peace” formula. The Arab response came back on September 1, 1967, from Khartoum, Sudan, where the Arab League nations were meeting. The message was unmistakable: “No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel.” Yet another opportunity to end the conflict had come and gone.
Fact #5: After the 1973 Yom Kippur war. In November 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke with the Arab rejectionist consensus. He traveled to the Israeli capital of Jerusalem to meet with Israeli leaders and address Israel’s parliament and speak of peace. Two years later, underscoring the lengths to which Israel was prepared to go to end the conflict, a deal was reached, in which Israel – led, notably, by a right-wing government– yielded the vast Sinai Peninsula for the third time, with its strategic depth, oil deposits, settlements, and air bases, in exchange for the promise of a new era in relations with the Arab world’s leading country. In 1981, Sadat was slain by the Muslim Brotherhood for his alleged perfidy, but his legacy of peace with Israel, thankfully, has endured.
Fact #6: In September 1993, Israel and the Arab Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reached an agreement, known as the Oslo Accords, offering hope for peace on that front as well, but eight months later, Arab PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat confirmed the suspicions of many that he was not honest, when he was caught on tape in a Johannesburg mosque asserting that this agreement was nothing more than a temporary truce until final victory. (The Oslo Accords are null and void as stated by Mahmmoud Abbas the Arab-Palestinian leader at the UN)
Fact #7: In 1994, Jordan’s King Hussein, following in the footsteps of Egyptian President Sadat, reached an agreement with Israel, again demonstrating Israel’s readiness for peace – and willingness to make territorial sacrifices when sincere Arab leaders come forward.
Fact #8: In 2000-1, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, leading a left-of-center government and supported by the Clinton administration, offered a groundbreaking two-state arrangement to Arafat, including a bold compromise on Jerusalem. Not only did the Arab Palestinian leader reject the offer, but he shockingly told Clinton that Jews had never had any historical connection to Jerusalem, gave no counter-offer, and triggered a new wave of Arab-Palestinian violence that led to more than 1,000 Israeli fatalities (proportionately equivalent to 40,000 Americans). This should have terminated the Oslo Accords and Israel taking full control of all the territory west of the Jordan River.
Fact #9: In 2008, three years after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unilaterally withdrew all Israeli soldiers and settlers from Gaza, only to see Hamas seize control and destroy another chance for coexistence while turning Gaza into a terrorist entity. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert went even further than Barak in extending an olive branch to the Arab-Arab-Palestinian Authority. He offered a still more generous two-state proposal, but got no formal response from Mahmmoud Abbas, Arafat’s successor. A Arab-Palestinian negotiator subsequently acknowledged in the media that the Israeli plan would have given his side the equivalent of 100 percent of the disputed lands under discussion.
Fact #10: At the request of the Obama administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a ten-month freeze on settlement-building in 2010 (which was a major mistake), as a good-faith gesture to lure the Arab-Palestinians back to the table. Regrettably, it failed. The Arab-Palestinians didn’t show up. Instead, they have continued to this day their strategy of incitement; attempts to bypass Israel – and face-to-face talks – by going to international organizations instead; denial of the age-old Jewish link to Jerusalem and, by extension, the region; and lifetime financial support for captured terrorists and the families of suicide bombers. Furthermore, they teach their children and the masses to hate, commit terror and violence, honor suicide bombers and incite their masses to terror and violence.
Isn’t it high time to draw some obvious conclusions from these facts, recognize the many lost opportunities to reach a settlement because of a consistent “no” from one side, and call on the Arab-Palestinians to start saying “yes” for a change?
Actually, we must face reality; the Arabs cannot make and live in peace among themselves; they kill each other by the millions. Do you expect them to make peace with Israel? The Arab/Muslim Mantra is terror, violence and subjugation.
Concessions and appeasements are detrimental to the safety of Israel and its citizens. The Arabs see it as a sign of weakness. Thus, they pursue more terror and violence. Only a strong and crushing response with no holds barred to every Arab uprising and crime will bring safety and security to Israel and its citizens. It is time to leave behind the Ghetto mentality. Rocket being fired the response must be carpet bombing. Maybe even to take over Gaza and install a non-terrorist Arab leadership.
ReplyDeleteThe San Remo Conference of April 1920, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration as international treaty and law; reconstituted the Jewish National Home in all of Palestine as international law; thus, they assigned its implementation to the League of Nation with the Mandate for Palestine and the British as trustee to promote Jewish immigration, development of the land and bring about the sovereign Jewish State in all of Palestine. These terms was confirmed by the 1920 Treaty of Sevres Article 95 that all the Allied Powers signed and which terms were incorporated to the Mandate of Palestine.
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish National Home in all of Palestine was reconstituted to take affect in 1920; with a provision that sovereignty will be reached when they become majority.
Faisal Weizmann Agreement signed January 3, 1919, stated that The Jewish National Home will be in what is known as Palestine.
The Inquiry academics accompanied President Wilson to Paris in 1919. For Palestine, they recommended that the dispersed Jewish People settle there and later, rule in Palestine. Initial rule was to be carried out by a trustee for the Jewish People (Great Britain under the Mandate for Palestine).
American Proposal for Jewish Homeland, January 21, 1919
An excerpt from the Tentative Report and Recommendations of the Intelligence Section of the American Delegation to the Peace Conference, in accordance with instructions, for the President and the Plenipotentiaries, January 21, 1919*
26. Palestine
It is recommended:
1) That there be established a separate state of Palestine.
2) That this state be placed under Great Britain as a mandatory of the League of Nations.
3) That the Jews be invited to return to Palestine without boundary restrictions and settle there being assured by the Conference of all proper assistance in so doing that may be consistent with the protection of the personal (especially the religious) and the property rights of the non-Jewish population, and being further assured that it will be the policy of the League of Nations to recognize all of Palestine as a Jewish state as soon as it is a Jewish state in fact.
4) That the holy places and religious rights of all creeds in Palestine are placed under the protection of the League of Nations and it’s mandatory.
For discussion:
1) It is recommended that there be established a separate state of Palestine.
The separation of the Palestinian area from Syria finds justification in the religious experience of mankind. The Jewish and Christian churches were born in Palestine, and Jerusalem was for long years, at different periods, the Jewish capital. And while the relation of the Mohammedans to Palestine is not so intimate, from the beginning they have regarded Jerusalem as a holy place. Only by establishing Palestine as a separate state can justice be done to these great facts.
As drawn upon the map, the new state would control its own source of water power and irrigation, on Mount Hermon in the east to the Jordan; a feature of great importance since the success of the new state would depend upon the possibilities of agricultural development.
2) It is recommended that this state be placed under Great Britain as trustee and a mandatory of the League of Nations.
Palestine would obviously need wise and firm guidance. Its population is without political experience, is racially composite, and could easily become distracted by fanaticism and bitter religious differences.
The success of Great Britain in dealing with similar situations, her relation to Egypt, and her administrative achievements since General Allenby freed Palestine from the Turk; all indicate her as the logical mandatory.
3) It is recommended that the Jews be invited to return to Palestine in its entirety and settle there, being assured by the Conference of all proper assistance in so doing that may be consistent with the protection of the personal (especially the religious) and the property rights of the non-Jewish population, and being further assured that it will be the policy of the League of Nations to recognize all of Palestine as a Jewish state as soon as it is a Jewish state in fact.
ReplyDeleteIt is right that Palestine without boundary restrictions should become a Jewish state, if the Jews, being given the full opportunity, make it such. It was the cradle and home of their vital race, which has made large spiritual contributions to mankind, and is the only land in which they can hope to find a home of their own; they being in this last respect unique among significant peoples.
At present, however, the Jews form barely a tenth of the total population of 550,000 in Palestine, and whether they are to form a majority, or even a plurality, of the population in the future state remains uncertain. Palestine, in short, is far from being a Jewish country now. England, as mandatory, can be relied on to give the Jews the privileged position they should have without sacrificing the rights of non-Jews.
4) It is recommended that the holy places and religious rights of all creeds in Palestine be placed under the protection of the League of Nations and it’s mandatory.
The basis for this recommendation is self-evident.
YJ Draiman
A heavenly maiden with an orb of gold
ReplyDeleteSits by the Mediterranean Sea
She gazes at the sailors and ships
That pass by for eternity
Who are you? fair maiden, they ask
What is your pedigree
I am a Jew, she answers, and that's my destiny
I am called Israel born of steel and fire
I have gathered my children from many lands afar
From East and West and South and North
They came in multitude
And they have made me what I am
In everlasting gratitude
I am their mother and they are my children
That's how we both feel
Israel (my name) is a reality
That adversity could not kill.