Logic in the Discussion Regarding Palestine & Israel Throughout history, this area of the Middle East has been under various rule. From Canaanites, to the Egyptians, then the Mosites which became the Israelites. Then came the Phillistines, pre-Muslim Arabs, Ethiopians, Turks, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, etc. Regardless of rule, until the seventh century, the land was primarily inhabited by Jewish or Christian peoples. In the mid-seventh century, Arab Muslims invaded and took the land by force. The Jewish and Christian population scattered throughout the world rather than be massacred or enslaved. Rule again continued to shift from one to the other as the Egyptians, Turks, Arabs, and Romans fought for control of this fertile land. By the late 1800’s, under primarily Ottoman rule, the land had fallen to waste. The Jews had already begun mass immigration into the area in the 1880’s in an effort to rid the land of swamps and malaria and prepare for the rebirth of Israel. This Jewish effort to revitalize the land attracted an equally large immigration of Arabs from neighboring areas who were drawn by employment opportunities and healthier living conditions. There was never any attempt to “rid” the area of what few indigenous Arabs there were or those Arab masses that immigrated into this area along with the Jews. In 1916, following the defeat of Germany and the Turks in World War I, control of the southern portion of their Ottoman Empire was “mandated” to France and Britain under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence. Lebanon and Syria were assigned to France… and “Palestine” (today’s Jordan, Israel and “West Bank”) was mandated to Great Britain. Due to growing conflict, and the declaration of Muslims to kill any Jews or Christians that remained, in 1923, the British divided the “Palestine” portion of the Ottoman Empire into two administrative districts. Jews would be permitted only west of the Jordan river. In effect, the British had “chopped off” 75% of the originally proposed Jewish Palestinian homeland to form an Arab Palestinian nation called Trans-Jordan (meaning “across the Jordan River”). This territory east of the Jordan River was given to Emir Abdullah (from Hejaz, now Saudi Arabia) who was not even an Arab-“Palestinian.” This portion of Palestine was renamed Trans-Jordan. Trans-Jordan would again be renamed “Jordan” in 1946. In other words, the eastern 3/4 of Palestine would be renamed TWICE, in effect, erasing all connection to the name “Palestine.” However, the bottom line is that the Palestinian Arabs had THEIR “Arab Palestinian” homeland. The remaining 25% of Palestine (now WEST of the Jordan River) was to be the Jewish Palestinian homeland. Encouraged and incited by growing Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East, the Arabs of that small remaining Palestinian territory west of the Jordan River launched never-ending murderous attacks upon the Jewish Palestinians in an effort to drive them out. Most terrifying were the Hebron massacres of 1929 and later during the 1936-39 “Arab Revolt.” The British at first tried to maintain order but soon (due to the large oil deposits being discovered throughout the Arab Middle East) turned a blind eye. It became painfully clear to the Palestinian Jews that they must fight the Arabs AND drive out the British. The 1947 U.N. Resolution 181 partition plan was to divide the remaining 25% of Palestine into a Jewish Palestinian State and a SECOND Arab Palestinian State (Trans-Jordan being the first) based upon population concentrations. The Jewish Palestinians accepted… the Arab Palestinians rejected. The Arabs still wanted ALL of Palestine… both east AND west of the Jordan River. On May 14, 1948 the “Palestinian Jews” finally declared their own State of Israel and became “Israelis.” On the next day, seven neighboring Arab armies… Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen… invaded Israel. Most of the Arabs living within the boundaries of the newly declared “ISRAEL” were encouraged to leave by the invading Arab armies to facilitate the slaughter of the Jews and were promised to be given all Jewish property after the victorious Arab armies won the war. The truth is that 70% of the Arab Palestinians who left in 1948 – perhaps 300,000 to 400,000 of them – never saw an Israeli soldier! They did not flee because they feared Jewish thugs, but because of a rational and reasonable calculus: the Jews will be exterminated; we will get out of the way while that messy and dangerous business goes forward, and we will return afterwards to reclaim our homes, and to inherit those nice Jewish properties as well. They guessed wrong; and the Arab Palestinians are still tortured by the residual shame of their flight. When the 19 month war ended, Israel survived despite a 1% loss of its entire population. Those Arabs who did not flee became today’s Israeli-Arab citizens. Those who fled became the seeds of the first wave of “Palestinian Arab refugees.” The Arab propagandists and apologists almost never mention that in 1948, Arab armies launched a war against a one-day-old Israel. Instead they focus on the main consequence of that war: the creation of Arab refugees, stating that Israel’s “war of genocide” expelled 800,000 of them. This not only disagrees with UN estimates of a bit over 400,000 refugees but also ignores the fact that most of the Arabs/Palestinians were encouraged to leave by the Arab World itself. The end result of the 1948-49 Israeli War of Independence was the creation of a Jewish State slightly larger than that which was proposed by the 1947 United Nations Resolution 181. In the final analysis, the Arabs of Palestine ended up with nearly 85% of the original territory of Palestine… called Jordan but in reality their ARAB Palestinian state. From 1948 to 1967, Egypt ruled Gaza, Syria ruled the Golan Heights, while Jordan ruled the West Bank. They could have set up independent Arab-Palestinian states in any or all of those territories, but they didn’t even consider it. Instead, in 1967 they used the Golan Heights, Gaza and the West bank to launch a war that was unambiguously aimed at destroying Israel, which is how Israel came into possession of those territories in the first place. After ONLY six days of air, sea and hand-to-hand ground warfare, Israel defeated all three Arab armies along three separate fronts, capturing the entire Sinai Desert from Egypt, the 37mile x 12mile Syrian Golan Heights and the so-called “West Bank” (including East Jerusalem and its Old City) from Jordan. Following the Camp David Peace Accords of 1978, Israel relinquished control of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. Israel still maintains control of Syria’s Golan Heights which, prior to the 1967 war, had been used by Syria solely for terrorist incursions into and artillery bombardment upon Israel’s northeastern settlements. And of course, Israel still maintains control of the West Bank with its ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND and Gaza with its EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND “Palestinian” Arabs. Had Israel done to these Arabs what the Arabs would have done to the Jews had THEY won, she would have expelled these hostile Arabs and made it officially part of a Greater Israel. But by remaining an “occupier,” Israel set herself up for a campaign of vicious propaganda… Ultimately, the complaint and disdain with the region is not one between “Palestinians” and “Israelis,” but between Muslims and Jews. According to the Arabs argument, they have no problem with Jews and Muslims living together in the same geographical area. Their complaint lies solely with non-Muslim governmental control. If you examine history, the term “Palestinian” has been bastardized to include only those Arab Muslims who formerly occupied, or want to occupy, the current State of Israel. Whereas, historically, it included both Arabs AND Jews. For thousands of years, there was no “Palestine.” It was not until 1916, as noted above, that a new Palestinian State was created. Within that state, the Muslims swore to kill any Jews or Christians that remained. It was that reason that the state was divided in 1923, to create a “Jewish Palestinian State” and a “Muslim Palestinian State.” “Palestine” exists. It is currently known as “Israel” and “Jordan.” They just don’t like that Jews have any say in its governance. Fair and square (in love and war), the Israelis won their independence. Arab Muslims who lost that 15% of their “Palestinian State” have no claim to the territory now known as Israel.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 19:35:13 +0000
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