In the wake of the cease fire in yet another bout of senseless killing and destruction between the Israelis and Palestinians there is an urgency to re examine the conflict and look to a change in the paradigm to resolve the impasse. Simplistic solutions abound for the complex situation that exists in the Middle East mess as the cycles of violence repeat and repeat themselves. Misconceptions of history flourish forgetting the cut and paste solutions of the colonial powers of that locale at the beginning of the twentieth century. Also there are attempts to pretend that the past did not exist. There are many wrongs none of which make a right.
Israel's existence itself evokes strong emotions and incidents there create waves of antisemitism with the strangest bedfellows forming coalitions. There is also, to a certain extent, a lack of awareness of the fact that the Sunni/Shia vendetta is reflected in the Palestinian Israeli conflict and a total denial that there is no common cause between Hamas and Abbas. Barely mentioned in the analysis of the recent conflagration was the key role of three individuals, Israel’s Netanyahu and his thug henchman Gvir and Hamas’s military leader opportunist Dief without whom there wouldn't have been a war. (See Blog ISRAEL, HAMAS AND NETANYAHU).
RECENT HISTORY.
The current mantra and bedrock argument by the Palestinians and their supporters is that Israel has no legitimacy and that the Israelis should go back to where they came from. This sentiment was unequivocally restated by the co founder of Hamas, Mahmoud Al - Zahar in an interview with Sky News on May 24, 2021. This should come as no surprise as like Iran and Hezbollah they have as part of their constitutions wiping Israel of the map.
The Palestinians are depicted as the persecuted Jews and the Israelis are depicted as the Nazis. In the light of the current day criticism of the very existence of a Jewish State it is important to revisit certain indisputable facts of its establishment.
There is no need to go back four millennia as to the historic “justification” for a Jewish presence but just to the nineteenth century and twentieth century when the land which represents “Palestine” was under control of the Ottoman Empire and then became the mandate of the British Empire. Historically there was never a country named Palestine which was ruled by Arabs. While there were always Jews in the area even following their expulsion by the Romans in 70 CE. a succession of five Aliya’s, (Jewish immigrations) starting in the 1880’s arising out of persecution of Jews predominantly in Russia and Eastern Europe, populated the area, When anti semitism reached a peak in Western Europe with the Dreyfus case the Balfour Declaration in 1917 ceded a Jewish Homeland in the “Palestine” territory, which should exist side by side with one for the Arabs.
The largest influx of Jews to Israel followed the second World War when survivors from Europe flooded in soon to be followed by caravans of Jews from the Arab countries where they were thrown out.
Following World War I the League of Nations ceded the mandate of the territory to the United Kingdom. The latter managed the land limiting the inflow of Jewish refugees as a result of Arab pressure. The fifth Aliyah resulted in the largest prewar influx of Jews, two hundred and fifty thousand, as a result of the Nazi movement and accession to power in 1933. By 1939 there were both Jewish, (Israeli) and Arab, (Palestinian), National movements. In the Second World War the Arabs sided with the Nazis and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, operating from Berlin, was responsible for pro Nazi propaganda. The Jews of the area volunteered on the side of the Allies. Following the defeat of the Axis powers the British ceded their mandate and in 1947 the newly formed United Nations declared the territory to be divided into two States with the areas occupied by each to delineate the boundaries. (It is fair to say that had the Axis Powers won the war the whole territory would have been straight out ceded to the Arabs).
While the Israelis accepted the United Nations decision it was both the local Arabs, (Palestinians), and five Arab nations that refused point blank to the concept of two nations and attacked the Jews in the area that they controlled and resided. The majority of the Palestinian Arabs either fled or were forced out by the war that ensued. Those that remained behind are citizens of Israel to this day. What has to rate as a miracle was that the rag bag Israeli army defeated the aggressors and gained a small amount of territory. The group now known as the Palestinians were under the control of Arab nations - Gaza by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan. No attempt was made to integrate the Palestinians into the Arab nations. Put another way for decades the Palestinians were “used” by the Arab nations as a wedge against the Jewish State of Israel.
In 1967 following threats by the Arab nations and their forcing out a UN presence, Israel, in the Six Day War smashed the Arab armies and gained territory - the Golan Heights, Gaza, the West Bank and the Sinai Peninsula. All the while Israel maintained as a cardinal policy the decision of the United Nations of a two state solution. Following yet another major attack by the Arab nations in 1976 Israel narrowly won the Yom Kippur war. In the aftermath, in return for peace Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula with all its oil back to Egypt.
To short circuit the history a bit, in 2000 at Camp David at a meeting convened by President Clinton the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak conceded every point that Yasser Arafat demanded. While nothing was signed Clinton and his negotiators unequivocal understanding was that Arafat accepted the outcome. Politically, Arafat’s response was to initiate the Second Intifada. The Clinton summit had been preceded by the Oslo Accords 1993 to 1995 where Israeli Prime Minister Olmert was in pursuit of fulfilling the United Nations resolutions creating a two state solution. There was one final gesture in 2005 when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon evacuated a flourishing Gaza and gave it over to the Palestinians to govern and run. Sharon even got Israeli soldiers to forcibly remove Settler groups from the area. Then came the reign of Bibi Netanyahu who had no intention of carrying out a two state solution.
In the light of the preceding history Jay H. Ell, who has no time at all for Netanyahu can understand why he was successful at abandoning any pretense of wanting a Palestinian State and he accommodated those who believed that the territory belonged to the Jews and sanctioned more and more Settlements. Bibi’s policies galvanized the Palestinian opposition in Gaza and strengthened the Iran backed Hamas group who attacked Israeli citizens indiscriminately. So confrontation followed confrontation with weaponry, walls and iron domes making the fight more and more one sided and now we are where we are.
The most recent outcome of a war wanted by both Bibi and Hamas has given Hamas the martyrdom status that it needed at the expense of its citizenry and the death of its children. The narrative however is the same old same old that Israel is illegitimate and that they are fascist genocidal neo colonial pigs. It is interesting to note who make up the coalition of that mantra.
THE PRO PALESTINIAN COALITION
As world wide protests against Israel took place in the wake of the eleven day war anti semitic incidents including violence increased exponentially. For the most part those that attack Israel are attacking its right to exist and not its internal politics. The anti Israeli coalition ain’t what it used to be as a result of the Sunni - Shia split. The Gulf Arab States, Egypt and Jordan have both formal and informal relationships with Israel in the fight against the Shia countries led by Iran and its ally Russia. Also the governments of the world have grown tired at the futility of intervening. Hamas has complained that it had been abandoned at that level. Rather, for the most part Hamas’s support comes from activist groups and a hodge podge of entities with differing agendas, some of which are far from pure.
The blurring between support for the Palestinians and Israel’s right to exist and anti semitism is outlined in an article in The Guardian by Keith Khan- Harris. This piece must be viewed in the light of a mass protest in London against Israel’s attack on Hamas with the collateral civilian damage. The fact that the United Nations Relief and Work Agency after an inspection of Israel’s response to the four thousand rockets fired indiscriminately at it, stated that the Israeli attacks were “precise”, is ignored. No one mentions that the Hamas military installations are deliberately located in civilian structures with the inevitable collateral killings of children and citizenry, rather they label the latter genocide. It is also conveniently ignored that Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah have as a central mission the destruction of Israel.
While antisemitic incidents rose dramatically nowhere was this more pronounced than in London where motorcades with Palestinian flags drove through Jewish neighborhoods terrorizing inhabitants and desecrating synagogues. Mr. Khan - Harris states the question is whether these protests attract anti semites or whether they are outright anti semitic.
Then Kahn - Harris enumerates the attendees at the London rally which ranged from known anti semites, wearers of Saddam Hussein teeshirts and bearers of Turkey flags. The far left as well as the concerned left were present whose number included many Jews. Jeremy Corbin whose known anti semitic proclivities have been condemned was a key speaker. In America particularly there were large numbers of Muslims few of whom have come out in active protest against the genocides perpetrated by Assad in Syria who literally slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Muslims nor the Uyghur genocide in China nor anywhere else.
Khan - Harris didn’t mention the far right who are a key component of other actions whose sole motivation is anti semitism.
The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks likened anti semitism to a virus that mutated according to the political realities of the time. First it was on the basis of religion and then race in Germany. Today it is on the basis of the nation state of Israel. There is no real attempt to criticize policy but an attack on the existence of the Jewish nation state and all Jews, regardless of their opinions, everywhere. What did the Jews in a supermarket that were slaughtered in France have to do with Israel or the congregants of a Pittsburgh Synagogue whose only crime was providing support to refugees stranded at the Mexican border?
What should be worrying Israeli politicians is that the Jews in America that make up nearly half of the Jewish world population are less and less enchanted with Netanyahu’s Israel. The latter does not share the values that they associate with their faith. This is reflected in the stance of several legislators in the Democratic Party who don’t back Biden’s traditional unconditional support. The latter too has made it quite clear the American Government expects the Israeli policies to change especially in relation to their own citizens. The United States also appear to be going to act more evenhandedly in the future.
SOLUTIONS.
It is fair to say that the Palestinian politicians never wanted a two State solution and more recently they have been joined by Bibi Netanyahu’s government. The Palestinian position has been aided and abetted by the United Nations who have not told them to get their act together and form one nation. Who does Israel ostensibly belong to Hamas or Abbas? Hamas has spent the major part of their budget on military assets and place all the blame of their poverty on Israel.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned Israel are not blameless. Over the last decade and a half they have increased settlements which if not legally part of a future Palestinian State are morally so. In addition Israel has to rectify the second class status of their own Arab citizens pronto. The present Government need to ban terrorists, like Gvir, from becoming Knesset members.
One State solutions will end in apartheid with Gaza and The West Bank becoming Bantustans. On the other hand to expect Israel to accept seven hundred thousand Palestinian families is akin to telling America to give back California to the Mexicans. There just has to be some form of a two state outcome
Z’ev Jabotinsky founder of the Jewish Revisionist Party and the idol and icon of the right wing Likud Party long before the establishment of Israel muted a binational State where an Arab State would operate alongside an Israeli one. His solution, written in 1934 was radical to say the least by modern day standards, even believing in a joint government where “The two communities would share the State’s duties…”. The Jews and the Arabs would have equal status and alternate the Premiership! The principle however is a valid one. The Palestinians will have self government and there would be obvious sharing of services like electricity. The devil will certainly be in the details and it is a terrible option but all the others are worse. Also to have a true binational solution both sides have to have, as Jabotinsky argued, "equal status".
Before a binational state can become a reality there has to be a vast change from the Netanyahu world view in Israel. On the Palestinian side Abbas has to hold elections. If Hamas wins then there’ll be one negotiating partner. An Abbas victory would give him and Fatah some much needed credibility. The Palestinians have to know that they have been given another chance at survival. They need a hundred million dollars to rebuild Gaza and Iran is not going to give it to them. Biden has offered to broker the concept but he knows the Congress will not pass it without strings and participation of other allies. The European Union have already bucked at the prospect of giving one cent. The Gulf States haven’t offered so it will be left to the Western democracies. After the protests and the orgies of anti semitism what will Hamas have to show for their efforts - dependency on the Americans to rebuild their nation?
Any movement from the status quo depends on Israel who hold all the cards. In the assessment of Fareed Zakaria they are the super power of the Middle East both economically and militarily. They were founded as a Jewish State on the principles of morality and justice. The country needs a Government of national unity inclusive of Arab Israelis. Negotiations with the Palestinians need to start and need to include religious leaders as at bottom this is a religious war as well. Where is former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Lau now that he is needed? There are Muslim Imams who also are imbued with peace.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
The State of Israel is a legitimate and legal entity. It has been sanctioned by the League of Nations and its successor the United Nations. Furthermore it has successfully defended itself against the allies of the Palestinians in several wars. It is not a land grab by the Jews.
As the powerhouse of the Middle East the onus is on Israel to initiate and try to resolve this seventy five year old dispute. it has a moral and self serving interest to do so. Israel has to show empathy with the Palestinians citizenry who are to this day pawns of more powerful nations.
Governments throughout the world need to recognize and act on the anti - semitism that is spreading like a pandemic - “What starts with discrimination against the Jews never ends with them only”.
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