Hi Bo, Gavin, Rasheed and all,
I suppose that since I am definitely the closest to the current MidEast
woes, it is about time I chime in.
The present situation is horrible. Over 400 Israeli's were killed in
terrorist attacks over the last 18 months.
The vast majority of them were civilian non-combatants. I also cry for
the tens, maybe hundreds of innocent Palestinian victims, but not for
the many hundreds of Palestinian aggressors. I don't buy the figure of
over 1000 Palestinian victims - most of them weren't victims at all.
Israel's 6 million population suffered over a 100 civilian deaths to
terrorism in March. Imagine the USA suffering a similar casualty rate
(4000 people) - the USA would probably bomb the hell out of the
perpetrators and anyone supporting them!!!!!!!
I do believe that the violence will end, but I think it is simplistic
just to blame Israel. I wish it was in our hands to find a smarter,
higher quality way to proceed, but I have no magic solutions. Let me
remind everyone that the MoQ is supposed to be a pragmatic metaphysics -
requiring us to learn from experience and history, so for the benefit of
all, I will provide a history lesson.
Let me start off though by mentioning that for several days now, things
have been reasonably good for something close to a million Palestinian
Arabs. They've been able to go about their normal lives, and have not
been among the victims of terrorist suicide bombings as in previous
weeks. CNN won't tell you this.
I'm talking about those Palestinians who are citizens of Israel - the
ones who live in Haifa, Jaffa, Nazereth and dozens of other towns and
villages in Israel as they have for decades. Just like all other
Israelis, they have now enjoyed several days without turning on the news
to hear about another suicide bombing!!!!!
The reason I am talking about Israel's Arab citizens is to draw a
contrast between them and their Palestinian brethren living under siege
in the West Bank. The two groups took alternative paths in 1948 - by a
mixture of personal choice and circumstance. Anyone proposing rolling
back history by a few decades should make sure that they understand the
history properly. In 1947, the UN decided that the territory of
Palestine then under British mandate should be split into a new Jewish
state (Israel), a new Arab state and a internationalized area that would
include Jerusalem. This plan was violently rejected by the local Arab
leadership and the surrounding Arab states. After a costly war, Israel
had managed to hold onto most of its territory, but had lost a
strategically important slice to Syria. Israel had also taken over some
chunks of the proposed Arab state, but most of it had been occupied by
Egypt (Gaza) and Transjordan (the West Bank). Jerusalem was divided
between Israel and Transjordan. When people talk about Israel's pre-1967
borders, they are talking about the ceasefire lines of 1949, not
universally recognised international boundaries.
This was a costly war for Israel, with about 1 per cent of the
population killed. It was costly for the Arabs too - with hundreds of
thousands became refugees, mostly ending up in Gaza and the West Bank.
1949 would have been a great time to set up a state for the Palestinian
Arabs, but with Jordan and Egypt holding most of the territory it didn't
happen. Here is the scenario as it was . . . Israel was sitting inside
the "1967" borders, absorbing millions of Jewish refugees from Europe,
N. Africa and Iraq, and with a large population of Israeli Arabs
coexisting peacefully. However, things were far from peaceful because of
frequent terrorist raids from the West bank and Gaza (the Fedayeen raids
of the 1950s and early 1960s). Although Israel was WITHIN the 1967
borders now touted by the Saudi peace proposal, no Arab nations then
offered Israel any sort of recognition. Had Israel been left in peace,
she would probably STILL be inside those borders (and maybe still
without recognition). However, the situation suddenly changed in 1967
when Israel scored a massive military victory over her neighbours.
1967 would have been a great time to set up a state for the Palestinian
Arabs. The Israeli Government of the day was eager to reap the political
capital and trade their territorial gains for a comprehensive peace
plan. It didn't happen because of the Arab nations were still in a state
of denial. It took another major war (1973) when Egypt's Anwar Sadat
finally made a positive move towards doing something for the Palestinian
Arabs (the Camp David agreement). Unfortunately, the Palestinian Arabs
themselves didn't follow through and didn't realize any practical gains.
The Palestinians themselves remained in denial till 1993 (the Oslo
accords), when finally they accepted the idea of negotiating for a state
alongside Israel (instead of a state to replace Israel).
1993 would have been a great time to set up a Palestinian state, but it
wasn't easy. By now, a large segment of the Israeli population had no
trust whatsoever for the Palestinians, and some tens of thousands had
pursued their dream of settling parts of ancient Israel outside the 1967
borders. With a few horrific terrorist attacks from Palestinian
extremists and the assassination of an Israeli prime minister, the
momentum of Oslo was lost, never to return.
The irony is that I believe that probably the majority of Israelis and
Palestinians can imagine a mutually acceptable final scenario of living
together in coexistence, but we don't seem to be able to find the path
to get there. The bloody strategy pursued by the Palestinians has been a
tragedy for both sides.
Thanks for reading,
Jonathan
writing from somewhere inside Israel
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