Originally published by San Diego Rostra on March 25, 2010
When North Korea and Iran defy U.S. protests and U.N. sanctions, the response of the Obama administration is a call for calmness, patience and more negotiation. But when Israel dares to build some apartment buildings in its own capital city, we see our president express more anger and more indignation than he has ever voiced toward another nation. While meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama saw to it that no joint public statement was made and no cameras were allowed. It was almost as if he was ashamed to be having the meeting. But he didn’t mind giving a large scale photo opt speech in Egypt last year calling for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Is this the way we treat our allies now? Some would say that Egypt is an ally too, but then Egypt frequently has anti-American headlines in its newspapers. Israel does not.
There are few subjects with more historical revision than the subject of the Middle East. Unfortunately, we have reached a point where one cannot defend Israel anymore without sounding as if he is supporting some imperial aggressor, even though Israel is a tiny country smaller than the state of New Jersey. And yet, despite this size, Israel seems to be the concern of countries all over the world, regardless of which hemisphere they inhabit or which ocean they border. And so, in order to defend Israel more accurately and show you how the Obama administration is naïve and inept at the very least, or devious at the very most, I will challenge the mythology by answering some commonly asked questions.
“But isn’t Israel in half of Jerusalem as a result of an illegal occupation?”
Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jews and the heart of the Jewish homeland for thousands of years. Although Palestinians do not recognize Israel’s right to own the entire city, it should be quickly pointed out that Palestinian authorities do not recognize Israel’s right to exist, period. The Palestinian Charter calls for the complete elimination of Israel and Palestinian children are taught, even at the kindergarten age, to hate all Jews.
“Well sad as that attitude may be, isn’t it understandable? Did the Jews even have a right to be in the Middle East at all? Wasn’t there a group of indigenous people called the Palestinians, living there since the beginning of measured history? Didn’t Jews arrive after World War Two and conquer land that did not belong to them?”
Utterly and completely false. The Jews lived in that land since the time of Moses and despite some upsets from the Syrians and Babylonians, remained in the land for some two thousand years until the Romans displaced them. Prince Titus destroyed the temple in 70 AD. Then in the second century, Emperor Hadrian crushed a new Jewish rebellion. This time, many of the Jews were banished and others were made slaves of the Romans. A small number of Jews did stay in the land and remained there right up through the twentieth century. However, the name of the land at this time was changed because Hadrian wanted to destroy Jewish identity. He renamed the land “Syria-Palestinian.” Palestine was a Latin version of the word Philistine, an ancient enemy of the Jews who were now extinct as a people. Hadrian was deliberately insulting the Jews. There has never been a country called Palestine. This was a nickname for the Holy Land under the Romans. The people who today call themselves Palestinians are Arabs and they referred to themselves as Arabs for centuries until they were dubbed “Palestinians” as a publicity ploy by the terrorist and founder of the PLO , Yassir Arafat, who himself did not use the title “Palestinian” until after the year 1964.
“Even if this is true, well then, OK. These Arabs lived in the land for centuries.”
Yes, but not until after the time of Mohammad and the spread of Islam. Muslims conquered the land from the Byzantine Church (remnants of the converted, Roman Empire) Through the years, with Crusades and other wars, the land switched ownership back and forth between the Catholic Church and the Muslims. Eventually it fell into the hands of another Muslim empire, the Ottomans. After defeating the Ottomans in World War One, the Middle East found itself under the domain of Great Britain.
Even though the Middle East became the prize of the British Empire, England had neither the desire nor the ability to run that region of the world forever. For this reason, they began working to create a series of new states in which the Arabs (who had helped them defeat the Ottoman Empire) could administer their own affairs. Although the term “Arabia” was already a general description of a large part of this area, many of the Middle East countries we know of today did not officially become independent nations until the British occupation and subsequent withdrawal from this turbulent region of the world.
While working to create new, multiple states, Great Britain (with the cooperation of the League of Nations, an early proto-type of the United Nations) decided they would also offer an opportunity for Jews all over the world to return to their homeland. This invitation was called the Balfour Declaration. Needless to say, grateful Jews responded with terrific enthusiasm. Indeed, many children of Abraham did migrate from Russia, Western Europe and other corners of the globe where they had lived for some two thousand years in ghettos, at the mercy of pogroms or harsh policies of Ant-Semitic governments. A homeland of their own had been a hopeful vision to the Jews for two millennia. The most familiar Jewish toast (common at Passover celebrations) said “Next year in Jerusalem.” But few thought they were reciting much more than a pipe dream. Now they could really, truly return to Jerusalem! Just imagine how this must have felt! The Jews were going to sojourn to a country of their own, and not just any country; the very land of their ancestors, a land where a remnant of Jews had remained since ancient times, living side by side with Muslims and Christians who also had interests in Palestine and who viewed it as their Holy Land too.
What exactly was offered to the Hebrew immigrants by the League of Nations? Everything we would today call Israel, everything we would today call Jordan and most of what we would today call “the occupied territories.”
When the Jews arrived, many of them purchased land from Arab lords. In time, a terrain that had been little more than a desolate, flee bitten combination of swamp and desert, swiftly turned green with farmland and transplanted trees. The economy also boomed, transforming this area in such an amazing way, that the term metamorphoses barely does justice. New jobs were created, resulting in an influx of Arabs from other regions who now saw Palestine as a land of opportunity and employment made possible by Jewish farmers and businessmen recently arrived from Europe.
What was the proportion of Arab and Jew in Palestine prior to the Balfour Declaration? There were more Arabs than Jews in the land (resulting from Muslim expansion) but the truth is, there was really only a handful of each people group, because again, the swamp like conditions limited the kind of life one could realistically enjoy in the Holy Land. The famous author, Mark Twain wrote as much after his own personal visit. He was surprised how desolate the Holy Land was, how little was going on there and how few people inhabited the area.
All of this changed when the League of Nations invited Jews to resettle their ancient home. Ironically, it was after Jewish business created a surplus of jobs that Arabs flooded into the territory in mass, creating a situation where the Arabs greatly outnumbered the Jews.
In paradoxical fashion, the British, after inviting the Jews to return, sold over 75 percent of Palestine to the Arabs,, creating a new country called, Trans-Jordan. This is an extremely important and seldom taught fact. Please catch this: 75 percent of what had been offered to the Jews was sold behind their backs to the Arabs instead! Not only were the Arabs offered a “separate Palestinian state,” long ago, but they have been living in one since the early part of the Twentieth Century. It’s called Jordan, a country three times the size of what remained for the Jews.
The Jews accepted this betrayal, only because they had no choice. After, all a sliver of the promise was better than no land at all.
But the Arabs didn’t want the Jews to have even a sliver and fresh controversy broke out over what to do with the remaining 25 percent.
To appease the Arabs, the United Nations voted to divvy up the remaining 25 percent between the Jews and the Arabs. The Jews accepted this partition. The Arabs did not.
After the partition vote from the United Nations, Israel declared its Independence on May 14, 1948. One day later, five Arab armies invaded Israel from Egypt, Tran Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
Important Note: This war had nothing to do with allowing a two state solution. Indeed, the Arabs waged war because they were rejecting a two state solution. Their stated goal was the complete extermination of Israel!
From Abid Saud King of Saudi Arabia 1947:
“ There are fifty million Arabs. What does it matter if we lose ten million people to kill all of the Jews. The price is worth it.”
From Azam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arabs League 1947:
“This will be a war of extermination and momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian Massacres.”
From Haj Amin El Hussein Mufti of Jerusalem 1947
“ I declare a holy war my Moslem brothers. Murder the Jews! Murder them all!”
Jews pleaded with Palestinian Arabs to remain in their homes. Although many of the Arabs did flee or join the invading armies, a considerable portion of Arabs remained in Israel. This interesting fact is seldom discussed. About 300,000 Arabs fled Israel and about 160,000 remained. Today Israel still contains a vital Arab population and these Arabs have more rights in Israel than any other Arab in any Arab country! In fact, shortly before Yassir Arafat’s death, when there was talk (once again) under the Bush administration, of a “separate Palestinian state” the Arab citizens in Israel were asked if they wanted to move, renouncing their Israeli citizenship, and live in the Palestine sector. Guess what they decided! Some of them probably fell on the floor laughing before saying to the Israeli government, “Oh, I’m sorry. You were serious.”
In 1948, when Israel beat the odds and defeated five invading nations, the problem of refugees came up. We always hear about the Arab refugees from Israel. But they were not the only refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were kicked out of Arab lands too. All of the Jewish refugees were welcomed into Israel where as Arabs who wanted to resettle in Arab countries were (for the most part) denied admission. Jordan was an exception but even in Jordan most of the refugees were confined to camps. They lived in that condition all the way up to 1967, when Israel annexed Jordan’s West Bank. Prior to 1967 there was no significant ongoing discussion amongst the countries of the world regarding Jordan’s treatment of the “poor Palestinians.”
On December 11, 1948, the United Nations drafted and ratified Resolution 194. This was a call for the Arab states and Israel to resolve the refugee/resettlement issues but the condition was that all returning citizens would agree to live in peace. Receiving no such guarantee from the Arabs, Israel decided to postpone repatriation until her neighbors would recognize her right to exist.
In 1967, 9 different nations (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq), declared war on Israel and promised to exterminate every Jew.
“Egypt is ready to plunge into a total war that will be the end of Israel.” (Radio Cairo, May 17, 1967)
Surprising the world with a preemptive strike, Israel defeated the Arabs in just six days. At that time, their territory was expanded to the West Bank, The Golan Heights, The Gaza Strip, the Sinai, and the remainder of Jerusalem (half of which had been taken over by Jordan after the 1947 war. This territory is frequently referred to as a part of Israel’s “illegal occupation.” I tend to hate that term and I argue against it for the following reasons:
1) When we think of occupying countries, what usually comes to mind is an aggressive empire seeking to conquer and expand, not a tiny little nation that expanded its borders only as a means of survival, to prevent her untrustworthy neighbors from attacking again.
2) Most of this land had been legally offered to Israel in the Balfour Declaration anyway, before Great Britain sold it behind Israel’s back.
3) Historically, the land had been the home of the Jews for literally thousands of years.
4) The United Nations has become so corrupt, I no longer accept their standard as to what is legal or illegal.
This is not to say that Israel has not given back land or made peace treaties. The Sinai has been returned and other territories have been slowly transferred to the Palestinian authorites. But, when two nations make a peace treaty, there is supposed to be give and take on both sides. Israel’s deal (brokered by the U.S) always goes like this. “You give the Palestinians back some land and here is what they will do: They’ll promise to stop killing you.” That’s the deal. Then, one day after the deal, the promise is broken and missiles are fired into Israel from Gaza (where the Palestinians were finally offered their own autonomous rule) or a suicide bomber kills women and children on a bus.
Let me be as straight with my readers as I possibly can. Nothing Israel does, no gesture, no concession, no discussion, will make a hill of beans of difference. They can sign a peace treaty. They can jump on board for a two state solution. It doesn’t matter. Hezbolah wants Israel dead. Al-Qaeda wants Israel dead. Hamas wants Israel dead. But it isn’t limited to the terrorist groups. Palestine itself wants Israel dead. The surrounding Arab nations want Israel dead. The Persian nation of Iran wants Israel dead.
My advice to Israel: Just do what you have to do. Do what you need to do. Do what is right. The world will hate you no matter what action you take and the Arabs will try to kill you no matter how much flowery talk you participate in with our State Department. You may as well just do what’s right.
NOTE: Portions of this article were taken from my 12 part series, The Truth About Israel and Palestine. For a fuller, lengthier, documented look at the history of the Jews and the Palestinians, just clink into the link below.
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