The Real Story of Israel: Part 4
by The Committee for Truth and Justice
contact@truthandjustice-online.com
This is the last of a series on the history of Israel, aka Palestine. In previous articles we learned that Jews have lived continuously in Israel for over 3500 years and a Jewish state of Israel has been in existence for over 1000 years. Although the Arabs had ruled this land for approximately 400 years, a state of Palestine never existed. Following WWI, the land of Palestine came under the sovereignty of the British by the legal authority of the League of Nations as part of the British Mandate for Palestine.
One of the goals of this Mandate was the establishment of a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. The Arabs fought to prevent the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine, even to the extreme of turning down a state of their own in both 1936 and 1948, in order to prevent the formation of a Jewish state. When the Jews announced the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, all the surrounding Arab states launched a war of extinction against Israel, but they failed. Again, in 1967 the surrounding Arab armies declared war on Israel, this time losing Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. In spite of the enmity Arabs have displayed toward Jews for over 50 years, Israel gave more rights and freedoms to the large (15%) Arab population living in Israel than Arab nations had given to their own Arab citizens.
In addition, Israel supported the Arabs living in the captured territories such that by the 1980’s, the territories of Gaza and the West Bank had the fourth highest per capita growth rate in the world, as well as significantly higher life expectancy and birth rates, and lower illiteracy rates than in any of the Arab countries. This period between 1967 and the early 1990’s was one of good relations between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine. There was a free flow of populations between Israel and the territories, and over 100,000 Arabs who lived in the territories worked in Israel. Unfortunately, the return of Arafat to Israel in 1994 changed all of this.
Until the formation of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) in 1964, the Palestinian Arabs had no national representation and relied on support from surrounding Arab states. But, in 1964, the PLO became the main representative of the Palestinian Arabs as well as Israel’s major enemy and antagonist. Therefore, understanding the history of the PLO is essential for understanding the history of the conflict.
In 1964, the PLO was founded in Jordan. It should be remembered that the land that now comprises Jordan was part of the original Mandate of Palestine and therefore the great majority (75%) of its citizens were born Palestinian Arabs. In 1964, Gaza was occupied by Egypt and Jordan had annexed the West Bank, but article 24 of the original PLO Charter read “(The PLO) does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom or in the Gaza Strip.” Therefore, the goal of the PLO was not the formation of an independent Palestinian Arab state on the West Bank and Gaza, but the destruction of Israel.
Before presenting further history of the PLO it is important to understand the term “Palestinian” as its meaning and use have changed over time. The term “Palestine” was coined by Roman Emperor Hadrian after the Romans had sacked Judea. Hadrian wanted to not only destroy Israel, but erase it from history by renaming the land. Thus, he renamed “Judea” to “Syria Palestina” in honor of Israel’s ancient enemy: the Philistines. “Palestina” was the Latin version of the Greek name for “Philistia” which was further anglicized to "Palestine". Thus, the term “Palestinian” refers to pagans from near the Aegean Sea and not Muslims from Arabia.
Following WWI when the Ottoman rule of Palestine ended, there were two populations of modern Palestinians: Arabs and Jews. However, the Arabs referred to themselves as ‘Arabs’, as they did not see themselves as different from Arabs from other countries. On the other hand, Arabs and Jews referred to Palestinian Jews as Palestinians. Thus the Weitzman-Feisal Agreement of 1918 referred to the creation of two states: “Arab and Palestinian”, where Palestinian meant Jewish. In 1977, Zahir Muhse, the PLO Executive Committee member, told Trouw, an Amsterdam newspaper: “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is a means for continuing our struggle against Israel….In reality there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political reasons do we speak about the existence of a Palestinian people…to oppose Zionism. The moment we reclaim our right to all our Palestine we will unite Palestine and Jordan.” Therefore, according to the PLO itself, there is no such entity as a “Palestinian”.
The main action of the PLO was terrorism against Israel. This terrorism was not only directed at Israel, but also included attacks on Western interests including skyjackings, the 1972 Olympic murders, etc. Yasser Arafat, the Egyptian nephew of the Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, became chairman of the PLO in 1968. Considering that the PLO had controlled much of Jordan, King Hussein, the non-Palestinian Arab ruler of Jordan, was not sympathetic to the PLO. In fact, the PLO was a threat to Hussein’s rule, and King Hussein looked for an opportunity to expel the PLO. His opportunity came in September of 1970 when the PLO hijacked four planes, flying three to Jordan, and exploded them. In response, King Hussein expelled the PLO, killing about 10,000 in the process. Then PLO relocated to Lebanon.
While in Lebanon the PLO launched further terror attacks against Israel and just as in Jordan, took over local government-- primarily in southern Lebanon. Lebanon had had a mixed Muslim, Christian, and Arab population for centuries and had shared power peacefully for decades. This changed with the entrance of the PLO into Lebanon. The PLO destroyed churches and terrorized the local Arab Christian population. In response, the Lebanese Christians formed their own militias which became allied with Israel in their fight against the PLO. In 1982, after years of terror attacks, Israel launched a campaign to expel the PLO. The PLO was pushed to Beirut, from which they relocated to Tunisia.
From Tunisia the PLO continued its terror attacks against Israel and Israel interests abroad--however their influence was eroding. Israel launched an attack on the PLO headquarters in Tunisia in 1985, and in 1988 Israel assassinated Arafat’s deputy. Sensing a coming military defeat of the PLO, Arafat changed tactics. Knowing that the USA had promised that it would not recognize the PLO as long as the PLO did not recognize Israel's right to exist, Arafat told the UN (in 1988) that the PLO renounced terrorism and recognized Israel's right to exist. After this superficial change of policy, seventy countries recognized the PLO as the government of the Palestinian Arabs. Thus Arafat was able to reverse his decline, and reemerge as the clear Palestinian leader, as evidenced by his involvement in the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference and the 1993 Oslo agreement.
The Oslo Agreement was signed in 1993 with the PLO (now called the Palestinian Authority (PA)), and has governed relations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs since then. This agreement transferred power over parts of the territories to the PA, but border security remained Israel’s responsibility. The PArecognized the right of Israel to live in peace and security, accepted UN resolutions 242 and 338, resolved to solve disputes through negotiations, renounced terrorism, and promised to change the PLO charter to not call for the destruction of Israel. Israel recognized the PA and implemented every charge of the agreement while the PA implemented none of its charges. Thus, today the PA has full security and civilian control over much of the West Bank and Gaza (the PAlost this to Hamas in the 2006 election).
The decision to transfer control of much of the territories to the PA as part of Oslo resulted in the deterioration of economic conditions in the territories in the early 1990s. Real per capita GDP for the West Bank and Gaza declined 36.1% between 1992 and 1996. This downturn in economic activity was due to extensive corruption in the PA, and increased the unemployment as the PAno longer allowed Palestinian Arabs to work in Israel. Average unemployment rates during the 1980s were generally under 5%; by the mid-1990s this level had risen to over 20%.
The Oslo Agreement was followed by a series of Israeli concessions that included the return of Arafat to the territories, and the return of the ancient Israeli city of Hebron, the second holiest site of Judaism, to the PA in 1997. In the year 2000, Israel offered Arafat a state on 100% of Gaza and 95% of the West Bank--including East Jerusalem as their capital--but Arafat turned down a state for the third time in history. In response to Israel’s generous offer and multiple concessions over the preceding 7 years, Arafat unleashed a well planned “Intifada”, which lasted for two years. This terror campaign included over 14,000 attacks on Israeli citizens, murdered approximately 600 people, and injured over 3200. In 2002 the boat the Karine A, loaded with 50 tons of weapons ordered by Arafat and destined for Gaza was captured by Israel. In response to this event President Bush refused to have any further association with Arafat, and eventually Mahmud Abbas was elected Chairman of the PA. In another concession for ‘peace’, Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza in 2005, forcefully expelling about 8000 of its own Israeli citizens.
Although the Intifada was supposedly over, terrorism had not ceased. Between the years 2000 and 2003 over 900 more Israelis were murdered. This terrorism continued, causing Israel to begin building a security fence in 2003 to prevent infiltration of terrorists into Israel from the West Bank. A fence had been in place between Israel and Gaza for years and very few terror attacks had ever been conducted from Gaza. The fence worked very well as the terror rate dropped precipitously after its construction. The number of Israeli deaths due to terror attacks dropped from 451 in 2001, to 11 in 2007. The fence not only saved the lives of Israelis but actually saved far more lives of Arabs as well; the fence reduced the need for Israel to retaliate or pre-empt terror attacks. The Palestinian Arab deaths per year due to the Arab/Israel conflict fell from 1032 in 2002 to 61 in 2009.
While terror attacks due to land infiltration have been greatly reduced by the security fence, the number of terror attacks has actually increased as the new terror tactic became the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon. Hamas sent over 8000 rockets into Israel, killing 28 people and injuring over 1000 between 2001 and 2008 before Israel finally invaded Gaza in 2008 to stop these rocket attacks.
In summary, Israel has made peace with Egypt and Jordan, allowed Arafat and the PLO to return to the territories, has unilaterally withdrawn from Gaza, and has given full control of much of the West Bank to the PA, while the Arabs have given up nothing for peace. The terrorism and incitement to violence continues unabated as it has since 1920. It is clear that the Arabs do not want peace. What they want is the destruction of Israel.