It was around 1400 B.C., when Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt into Palestine, the "promised land". After the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Jewish state came to an end and the Hebrew (Jewish) people were dispersed. In the 1890's, Jews driven by Zionism to establish a modern Jewish nation-state and flocking back to their ancient biblical homeland in British controlled Palestine, eventually became embroiled in a modern day conflict between themselves and Palestinian Arabs.
During WWI, British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration; Britain would view establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, favorably. Thus, Palestine was carved into "Emirate of Transjordan" (later simply "Jordan"); the area east of the Jordan River, where Britain installed a Saudi Arabian Bedouin tribal chieftain, Abdullah ibn Hussein, to rule over Bedouin and Palestinian Arabs, and the western half; between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, where Palestinian Arabs and Zionist Jews wrestled for control.
Britain handed responsibility over the western half of Palestine to the United Nations; which partitioned it into two states, one for the Jews; which would consist of the Negev Desert, the coastal plain between Tel Aviv and Haifa, and parts of the northern Galilee, and the other for the Palestinian Arabs; which would consist primarily of the West Bank of Jordan, the Gaza District, Jaffa, and the Arab sectors of the Galilee. Jerusalem would stay under UN control. Led by David Ben-Gurion, Zionists accepted this partition plan while Palestinian Arabs and surrounding Arab states rejected the proposal.
On May 15, l948, Palestinians, aided by Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, launched a war to prevent Jewish independence and to secure control of Western Palestine. This resulted in Zionists seizing part of the land designated for Palestinians, Jordan annexing the West Bank and Egypt controlling Gaza. Arabs and Jews both battled for Jerusalem and Israeli forces gained control over West Jerusalem, which became the capital of Israel. 725,000 Arabs fled to neighboring Arab countries, becoming known as the Palestinian refugees.
Palestinians weren't allowed to form independent governments in areas annexed by Jordan or Egypt. However, Arab states allowed Palestinian resistance groups, organized in l964 by the Arab League into the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), to use their territory to launch raids against Israel. The stated goal of the PLO was to use armed struggle to establish an independent Palestinian state. Miserable living conditions and treatment as second class citizens led many Palestinians in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, to become guerrillas.
Because of continuous guerrilla attacks launched from Egypt against Israeli settlements, Israel and Egypt fought a brief war in the Suez Canal area in l956. Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza strip. The UN set up an Emergency force to patrol the border.
In l967, Egypt's President Nasser moved large numbers of troops and tanks into the Sinai Peninsula and demanded that the UNEF peacekeeping force leave Egyptian territory. Israel launched a preemptive strike, resulting in the Six Day War. Israel now occupied Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Syria's Golan Heights, and Jordan's West Bank. The Israel government annexed East Jerusalem. Following the Arab defeat, radical underground Palestinian guerrilla organizations (fedayeen) took control of the PLO under the direction of Yasir Arafat.
Receiving their funding from the Arab states, the PLO was charged with carrying on the fight against Israel. The organization was based first in Jordan, and later, Lebanon. This is because, in l970, King Hussein feared losing control over his country and kicked the PLO out of Jordan after a war between them and his government.
It was discovered in Munich, during the 1972 Olympic Games, that terrorists could not be dissuaded from carrying out heinous acts of cold blood against innocents when motivated by ethnic hatred or religious fanaticism. It also became apparent that the rest of the world could and would carry on as though the fedayeen's (men of sacrifice) acts of barbarism were of no particular cause for concern. To emphasize this, The Olympic Games continued with full media coverage after the murder of 11 members of the Israeli team by PLO affiliates referred to as "Black September".
During the incident, Israel was portrayed as unyielding but the reality was that they determined no Israeli anywhere in the world would be safe if they were to negotiate with the terrorists. Yet, instead of focusing on the unreasonable demands of these terrorists who in that particular instance demanded the release of 234 jailed Palestinians in Israel, Israel was condemned by the UN Security Counsel for retaliating against PLO bases in Syria and Lebanon. To rub salt in the wound, Germany negotiated the release of three of the hostage takers that survived.
In l973, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Israelis were caught off guard when Egypt attacked Israeli troops, stationed in the Sinai Peninsula and Syria attacked Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. After heavy casualties, the Israeli army eventually began to win the war. The Soviet Union and United States pressured Israel to accept a U.N. cease-fire. Henry Kissinger brokered agreements with Israel and Syria and between Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt's President Anwar Sadat.
In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel and granted Israel full diplomatic recognition. Consequently, most Arab states broke off diplomatic relations with Egypt. In 1981, Sadat was assassinated. PLO official, Nabil Ramlawi, responded to the news, "We were expecting this end of President Sadat because we are sure he was against the interests of his people, the Arab nations and the Palestinian people."1
Welcomed by Muslim and Druse factions in Lebanon, Arafat's PLO demanded Maronite Christians restructure the political system; to give Muslims, now a majority of the population, more power. Civil war between religious sects resulted in a partition of Lebanese territory. In effect, South Lebanon and the Muslim western half of Beirut became the power base of the PLO. In l982, Israel teamed up with Bashir Gemayel and his Maronite Phalangist Militia to fight the PLO. Prime Minister Begin and his Minister of Defense, Ariel Sharon, assumed if they could get rid of the PLO, they would get rid of the Palestine Problem.
After the Israeli army bombarded West Beirut, Sunni Muslims asked Arafat and the PLO to leave. Shortly afterwards, Bashir Gemayel was assassinated by a bomb, set off by Habib Tanious Shartouni, a member of the pro-Damascus national Syrian Socialist Party; whose mandate was to merge Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Israeli leadership then permitted Israeli troops to pilfer the PLO archives, and turned their heads while Phalangist militiamen avenged Bashir's death, as well as, past tribal killings of their own people by Palestinian guerrillas. Allowed entrance to the neighborhoods of Sabra and Shatila, Phalangists massacred most of whom they encountered.
Begin resigned as Israeli Prime Minister in August, l983. That same year, Israeli military began to unilaterally withdraw from Lebanon. Shiites, who initially welcomed Israelis as liberators from the PLO, grew to resent them for staying in South Lebanon in order to protect the northern Israeli border. Because of their insensitivity to Shiite religious customs, what began as a Palestinian threat turned into an Israeli Shiite conflict. All of this had the effect of ingratiating Arafat to the Palestinians.
In fact, Arafat became the symbol of the Palestinian refusal to disappear. Palestinians adopted a policy of la' am, a combination of the Arabic words for yes and no. The PLO would reject peace initiatives, but not out of hand; Palestinians living in occupied Israel would not formally recognize Israel, yet continue holding out for liberation. This was easiest for all concerned, for as much as Israeli's expected Arabs to negotiate land for piece, few Israelis wanted to give West Bank and Gaza back. Palestinians, seemingly resigned to their second class status, benefited from improved housing, health care, electricity, jobs and economic opportunities. However, as more and more Jews built settlements in the occupied territories, the Israeli government gave both Jews and Palestinians the impression that the West Bank would never be returned.
Beginning in 1987, Palestinians living in the Israeli occupied areas, instituted an Intifada; uprising, against the Jewish settlers of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In addition, terrorist groups, such as Hamas emerged in the occupied territories; preaching violence, inciting Palestinians to attack Israelis and Israeli targets, and calling for an Islamic state in both Israel and the West Bank and Gaza. This resulted in Israel restricting Palestinians' entry to Israel. Continued acts of terror by Arabs, led to increased restrictions. The Israel Defense Force presence increased after each new wave of violence. Expanding defensive measures were in a sense self-inflicted by the Palestinians. The Israeli occupation became more and more difficult for the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Hamas was established for the sole purpose of destroying Israel. The Muslim religion requires total submission to God's will, regimentation of life under Islamic law, and death to infidels.
After Kuwait, which supported the PLO and the Palestinian cause, was invaded by Iraq, the PLO threw their support behind Saddam Hussein, who promised to destroy Israel and create an independent Palestinian state. Upon Hussein's defeat, many Palestinians ended up fleeing Kuwait and those who remained lost their jobs and many social services, such as free medical care and education. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Persian Gulf States won't allow Palestinians left behind in Kuwait to immigrate into their countries.
Instead of learning from Israel's experience with terrorism, each new act of violence since then has been rationalized by pacifists as deserved retaliation for some catalyst or another. Instead of determining to beat them at their own game, guerillas are given more and more recognition; legitimized if you will. They have been given roles in the United Nations, representation at the Olympics, and invitations to meet with world leaders who hope to appease their unmitigated demands. Arafat was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for for a plan to bring peace to the region, negotiated with assassinated President Anwar Saddat and President Jimmy Carter.
Ironically, only six years ago, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected an offer of a Palestinian state in the areas of Israeli withdrawal (brokered by the Clinton administration) and proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. A second intifada against Israel erupted, and there have been no substantive negotiations since then. Arafat's recent demise offered hope that his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, would be a real negotiating partner for Israel. But he has been unable to control Palestinian militants, and now his party has lost control of the Palestinian parliament to the radical, militant, terrorism-supporting Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians believe the recent Israeli decision to withdraw from Gaza and surrender control of the area over to the Palestinians resulted from the Intifada. Officially, Israel was offering a concession to the Palestinians to help bring peace to Israel. The most likely scenario is that Sharon was trying to secure Israel's boundaries, while providing the Palestinians the opportunity to create a state of their own. Regardless of his reasoning, the pullout was made in good faith, in the hope that Palestinian militants would cease their acts of terror against the Jewish citizens and further negotiations toward a Palestinian state could resume.
Unsurprisingly, Israel's recent appeasement did not mollify the Palestinians; it encouraged greater aggression towards Israel. Upon the withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas claimed that their attacks drove the Zionists away. Recruiting more Arabs into their organization, Hamas declared their intention to expand their war against Israel. To that end, Hamas has smuggled weapons into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing which was placed under Palestinian control and European supervision, as part of a U.S.-brokered deal with Israel. Forced to shut down the crossing several times, during attacks by gunmen, Israel finds itself threatening to close it, if the breach is not repaired. Meanwhile, fugitive terrorists, along with Iranian terrorism and missile technology specialists, have crossed into Gaza. They have already begun launching rockets from Gaza into Israel. Ultimately, appeasement helped Hamas to victory in the elections and gave it the power and support to launch a third Intifada.
Sharon led his party to this course of action despite evidence indicating the policy would fail. Much infighting took place within the Likud party over the Gaza pullout. Benjamin Netanyahu actually resigned fearing that Gaza would become a "base of Islamic terror. Natan Sharansky also resigned; his reason being that any concessions made by Israel must be conditioned on Palestinian democratic reform. Sharon himself was compelled to leave the Likud and started a new party, with a more moderate stance toward the Palestinians.
Given their violent history, it should surprise no one that Palestinian militants continue to fire rockets at what it considers to be occupied land. Hamas opposes the existence of the Jewish state and has carried out dozens of suicide bombing attacks against Israelis. They reject a two state solution. Becoming the first Palestinian prime minister from the Islamist group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh recently took the oath of office in front of President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza. Hamas, whose "democratically elected" Palestinian Authority Cabinet was sworn in the day after Israel's parliamentary elections, wants to talk to Israel about daily-life issues while ignoring fundamental political differences. Israel, on the other hand, wants Hamas to recognize the Jewish state, renounce violence, and respect previous peace agreements or face international isolation.
If Hamas does not change, leaders of the Kadima party say the government would either implement a unilateral solution or negotiate directly with the Palestinian Authority, formerly the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group headed by the relatively weak Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, is planning to forge ahead with further withdrawals and concessions, applying Sharon's policy of disengagement to the West Bank.
Wanting Hamas to recognize Israel and honor all previously signed peace agreements, the Bush administration is refusing to negotiate with any member of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government. The US-sponsored ''road map" to peace, calls on Palestinians to crack down on militant groups and calls on Israelis to stop expanding settlements as first steps toward reopening negotiations. In response, Ismail Haniyeh maintains that he is waiting for Israel to recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, release Palestinian prisoners and recognize the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel. Hamas speaks of a ''long-term truce" if Israel pulls back to the pre-1967 lines, while Kadima speaks of pulling out of most of the West Bank and swapping Israeli land for some of the larger Jewish settlements there. Because Hamas is Muslim, and those who practice Islam believe that there are only two groups of people in the world, followers of Mohammed and infidels, how long can a truce actually last?
Related Reading:
Cambanis, Thanassis and Anne Barnard. "
Hamas, Israel vow new focus"
Friedman, Thomas.
From Beirut to Jerusalem. New York: Doubleday, 1989
Jamal Dajani "'Dialogue of the Deaf' -- Hamas, Israel Won't Talk; Arab-Isrealis Aren'tHeard."
Arabic Media Interest Network April 9, 2006.
"
One Day in September"
Rolef , Susan Hattis. "Menahem Begin (1913-1992)"
Political Dictionary of the State ofIsrael April 9, 2006
Rosenfeld, Erwin, and Harriet Geller. Global Studies I. New York: Barron's EducationalSeries, Inc., 1979.
Salvato, Nancy. "Terrorism Allows No Room for Negotiation"
Opinion Editorials April 9, 2006
The road ahead Newsday.com April 9, 2006
The Roots of the Hamas Victory The Undercurrent
1981: Egypt's President Sadat assassinated On This Day 6 October April 9, 2006
