Palestinian refugees, according to the UN, are any Arabs who lived in the country for 2 years prior to 1948. This obviously includes a lot of migrant workers who had no previous link with the land. In 1948, when the State of Israel came into being, they and thousands of other Arabs, who had been resident in Israel for many generations, left for neighbouring countries.

Why did they become refugees?

Five Arab countries attacked the fledgling State of Israel directly the British Mandate forces left. They told the people to leave, assuring them that they would “push the Jews into the sea” and create a Palestinian state for them to return to (there had been no Palestinian state before this; the country had been occupied by various powers between AD135 and 1948). Although they captured the West Bank and Gaza, their hoped-for victory over Israel proper did not materialise and the refugees were left stranded.

Didn’t Israel expel them?

There was no official policy to do so and, while some renegade paramilitary groups destroyed Arab villages, other Jews pleaded with their neighbours to stay. Most of those who left did so on the orders of their Arab leaders, e.g. “The most potent factor was the announcements made by the Arab-Palestinian Higher Executive, urging all Haifa Arabs to quit. It was clearly intimated that Arabs who remained in Haifa would be regarded as renegades” (The Economist, 2/10/48) and “[Arab leaders] are responsible for the flight. They disseminated rumours…they instilled fear in the hearts of the Arabs, until they fled” (Jordan’s Al-Urdun, 9/4/53).

How many people were involved?

About 630,000 Arabs left Israel (450,000 of them voluntarily). Of these, 100,000 were allowed to return after the War, 100,000 were absorbed into Arab countries, 50,000 Bedouins joined their tribes in Jordan and Sinai, and 50,000 migrant workers returned home. That left 330,000 refugees whom nobody wanted.

Isn’t it Israel’s fault?

At the same time as the Arabs were leaving Israel, Jews were being forcibly evicted from Arab countries. Israel welcomed all 820,000 of them without question, so had no room to absorb the 330,000 homeless Arabs as well. They offered compensation but it was rejected. The Arabs who had chosen not to flee were made Israeli citizens, with the same rights as Jews.

Why are they still refugees?

The obvious solution would have been for the Arab nations, left with vast amounts of confiscated Jewish wealth and lands, to offer the refugees a home. They refused, so the UN set up refugee camps. “We brought disaster upon the refugees by inviting them to leave their land, their homes, their work and their industry… We have rendered them dispossessed” (Khalid al-Azm, former PM of Syria). “The Arab armies abandoned the Palestinians, forced them to emigrate, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos where the Jews used to live (Mahmoud Abbas).

Where are the camps?

There are 27 in the West Bank and Gaza and a further 32 in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, all administered by the UN. The West Bank camps have been the source of numerous terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, e.g. when the IDF raided Jenin in 2002, they discovered arms caches, bomb factories and rocket-making plant. “The decades of humiliation and deprivation in the refugee camps would ultimately turn generations of Palestinians into potential or active terrorists” (Benny Morris).

Why do the refugees still live in camps?

They could easily have been integrated into the West Bank and Gaza while these areas were under Arab occupation (1948-1967), but they were left homeless. The West Bank has been administered by the PA since 1993 and Gaza by Hamas since 2005, but they too have not attempted to rehabilitate their people into permanent housing.

Are they being exploited?

The refugees have been left in squalid camps for 60 years, sacrificed by their Arab “brothers”, because their misery is good propaganda and a useful bargaining tool. “We exploited them in the service of political purpose” (Khalid al- Azm, former PM of Syria). “We will give the land to anyone – Ibos, Koreans, Americans – anyone but the Palestinians, because we must keep their hatred directed against Israel” (a Syrian official when asked why, since they were seeking immigrants, they would not admit Palestinians).

Why don’t they have the right of return?

The Second World War created 100m refugees and the partition of India 5m, but nobody has ever suggested that their descendants should have the right to return to their ancestral lands. The Palestinians are the only refugees to whom the UN applies a definition that includes descendants.

Palestinian refugees now number over 4m and all of them are demanding the right to return to Israel, a country neither they nor their parents have ever seen. To absorb all of them would dangerously alter Israel’s demographics, since 20% of its population is already Arab.

The right of return is based on a desire not of individuals to return to a particular home or village, but of a people to return as a majority so as to eliminate the State of Israel. “It is well known and understood that the Arabs, in demanding the return of the refugees to Palestine, mean their return as masters… they intend to annihilate the State of Israel” (Foreign Minister of Egypt, 1948).

What is the UN’s role in all this?

The UN includes in its membership dozens of Arab/Muslim states who deny Israel’s right to exist. In 2002, the year that a bomb factory was found in one of its refugee camps, a UN Human Rights Commission Resolution condoned “all available means, including armed struggle to establish a Palestinian State”. The Palestinian camps are administered by the UN Relief and Works Agency, which was set up specifically for Palestinian refugees (all others are looked after by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees). UNRWA not only has a much broader definition than UNHCR of who is a refugee, but it has a different mission: It is not concerned with finding permanent homes for the refugees but only with maintaining and supporting them in the camps.

Given that it is geared towards dependency, it could be argued that their administration of the camps is only exacerbating the situation.

See also:
Who are the Palestinians?
Is Israel occupying the West Bank?
Are the settlements Illegal?
Is the media biased against Israel?

October 2009

Palestinians who work with foreign journalists attend a course in media manipulation at Bir Zeit University in Jerusalem. The journalists are left in no doubt that, if they want interviews and access to sources of information, they must work with Palestinians and hire Palestinian directors and producers. It is these people, not the journalists, who determine what is broadcast.

But surely the BBC is unbiased?

A BBC correspondent in Gaza for 10 years told a Hamas rally: “We journalists stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Palestinian people in their struggle”. And a London correspondent of the Jerusalem Post said in 2002 that he had stopped contributing to Middle East discussions on the BBC because of their “profound anti-Israel bias”. He felt that the BBC had “crossed a dangerous threshold” and had become “the principal agent for re-infecting British society with the virus of anti-Semitism”. The results of a 2009 report, examining whether the BBC was anti-Israel or not, were suppressed by them.

How can news be manipulated?

The Israeli Government Press Office said in 2002 that they knew of journalists who were co-ordinating their reports with Manwar Barghouti, the terrorist leader. He would tell them when the Palestinians were about to open fire on the Israelis, but they wouldn’t be allowed to film the Palestinian attack, only the resulting Israeli fire. This was to make it appear as though the Israelis were the aggressors.

The media constantly starts off its reports with Israeli responses, rather than with the Palestinian attacks which initiated the responses. Or they invert the events, eg in 2008 when Israel re-opened the Gaza crossings after temporarily closing them in response to rocket attacks, the Associated Press had the headline: “Israel closes Gaza, Palestinians fire mortars”; this gave the impression that the mortars were in response to the closure rather than the reason for it.

But pictures can’t lie, can they?

Foreign news agencies pay high prices for good pictures, and they or the Palestinians will sometimes set up a scene to get a good photo. For instance, if the IDF demolishes an empty house, the photo that appears in the press shows a child sitting crying in the rubble; what does that imply?

In 2000, a photograph appeared in western newspapers of an Israeli soldier, brandishing a baton, standing in a threatening pose over a blood-spattered young man. The caption, “An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian on Temple Mount”, gave the impression that the young man was a Palestinian who had been beaten up by the soldier. This lie would have gone uncorrected but for the fact that the young man’s father wrote the following letter to the Times: “The ‘Palestinian’ is actually my son, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago. He and two of his friends were pulled from their taxicab by a mob of Palestinian Arabs and were severely beaten and stabbed…The Israeli soldier was attempting to protect my son from the mob”.

Don’t newspapers issue corrections when they discover the truth?

No papers, apart from the London Times, printed the above correction, leaving the lie to stand in most people’s memories. Similarly, when a 12-year old boy was shot at the beginning of the Intifada and the Israelis were blamed, no newspaper reported that an investigation had discovered that he was killed by a Palestinian gun. And in 2002, when the Israelis attempted to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in Jenin, it was widely reported that a massacre of 500 innocents had taken place; this Palestinian propaganda was eagerly believed, whereas the truth that only 52 Palestinians were killed, of whom half were terrorists, was never subsequently disclosed.

So is the media is biased against Israel?

We must remember that most of what we read in our newspapers and see on the BBC News has been written with the approval of those who hate Israel. If we expect honesty and neutrality in the reporting, we are being naive.

See also: Who are the Palestinians?
Is Israel Occupying the West Bank?
Are the Settlements Illegal?

As we have seen, Israel is not occupying the West Bank and, if they have a legal right to be there, they have a legal right to build settlements.

Jews have lived in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) since Biblical times, and those who returned there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries built communities on the land they purchased. Other settlements, like the Etzion bloc, were founded under the British Mandate, which gave the Jews the right to settle in all parts of Israel. No land was requisitioned and no Arabs displaced in the building of them. The word “settlements” conjures up shanty towns or tented communities, but they are established towns – some large, some small – which have been there for up to 100 years. The Israeli government has no intention, nor should it, of bulldozing all these homes (although it has voluntarily got rid of “outposts”, for which it had given no authority).

Should the West Bank be for Arabs only?
The area occupied by these settlements takes up less than 3% of the West Bank. For the Palestinians to demand that all Jews leave their future state is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. By contrast, 20% of Israel’s population are Arabs who enjoy equal rights with Jews.

Don’t the settlements go against agreements between the Israelis and Arabs?
The Oslo Peace Accords of 1993 contained no prohibition on the building or expansion of settlements; they only prohibited unilateral action being taken that would alter the legal status of the West Bank (such as annexation or a declaration of statehood). Prior to the signing, Yasser Arafat instructed his negotiators to seek a “settlement freeze”, but Rabin refused to agree and Arafat signed anyway. The issue of settlements was reserved for final status negotiations, but the Arabs are now saying they won’t even start negotiating until the Israelis have dismantled all the settlements.

Aren’t the settlements a barrier to peace?
One objection to the settlements is that they are a barrier to peace. But the Jews dismantled all the settlements in Gaza when they withdrew in 2005 and it has not led to peace – rather the opposite.

But surely, the building of settlements goes against the Geneva Convention and international law?
In 2009, the international community added to the pressure on Israel by saying the settlements contravened Article 49 of the 1949 Geneva Convention (a new charge, which had never been levelled against them before). This prohibited the “mass forcible transfers of protected persons from occupied territories” and said that “the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”. As we have seen, the West Bank is disputed territory, not occupied, and Israeli citizens were neither deported, nor did they displace anybody else.

Isn’t the building of settlements a War Crime?
Article 49 referred to the forcible deportations practised by the Nazis and is in no way relevant to Israel. A US Ambassador to the UN said in 1990 that he had been on the staff during the Nuremberg trials (when Nazi leaders were held to account for their crimes). He said he was familiar with the “legislative intent” behind the Convention and it did not apply to voluntary settlers. The Red Cross agreed and said it was intended to prevent the forcible transfer of civilians, thereby protecting the local population from displacement.

But why should I change my mind?
Former President Jimmy Carter, who was opposed to the settlements while in office, has had a change of heart after visiting the Etzion bloc. “I have been fortunate in learning a perspective that I didn’t have”, he said. Many people accept without question the media view of Israel. It is up to each of us to learn the facts and try to understand both sides of the argument.

See also:
Is Israel occupying the West Bank?
Who are the Palestinians?
Is the media biased against Israel?

Oct 2009

In 1917 the Balfour Declaration promised to establish “in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people”, and Britain was given the Mandate by the UN to administer the area for the future Jewish nation. This land had been under occupation since the Romans conquered Israel in AD135 and had never belonged to a people group called Palestinians.

So who’s on which piece of land and why?
Arab revolts against Jewish immigration led the British to take 75% of what they had promised to the Jews and give it to the Arabs, creating the state of Jordan (i.e. Jordan is a Palestinian Arab State.) But the Arabs continued the violence, so the UN decided to partition the land still further and give them the West Bank and Gaza. Although this left the Jews with just 17% of what they’d originally been promised, they accepted as they were desperate for peace. The Arabs (hoping they’d get the whole of Israel if they continued the violence) rejected the partition and declared war.

In 1948, as the State of Israel came into being and the British Mandate forces left, five Arab armies invaded. Jordan occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Egypt took Gaza and Syria the Golan Heights. These areas were Illegally occupied from 1948 until 1967 when Israel retook them in the Six Day War.

But surely, Israeli Forces are in the West Bank illegally?
International law says that, if a country is subject to an unprovoked attack (as Israel was in 1967), any land she takes in self-defence is legally hers. The UN agreed, stating that Israel wasn’t the aggressor and was therefore entitled to her new boundaries. Security Council Resolution 242 gave Israel the legal right to be in the Territories and to administer them “until a just and lasting peace is achieved.” Israel is therefore not occupying the West Bank (they voluntarily withdrew from Gaza in 2005).

Shouldn’t Israel give back the West Bank for the sake of peace?
Jordan has renounced all claims to it and during their occupation, they never attempted to give the land they had “liberated” back to the Palestinians, since they never saw them as a people group in need of their own country. If the Arabs of the West Bank now see themselves as a Palestinian people entitled to their own State, they must make compromises (as the Israelis have done) in order to achieve “a just and lasting peace.”

Isn’t Israel unwilling to compromise?
In 1993 Israel voluntarily accepted the demands of the Oslo Peace Accords and handed over the administration of 98% of the West Bank and Gaza to the PA. They gave them every encouragement to make a success of it, including finance and arms, but the PA responded by using those arms to attack Israel.

World opinion, however, continued to see Israel as the stumbling-block to peace, and put pressure on her to give up even more land. In 2000, therefore, in a desperate bid for peace, she offered the PA 96% of the West Bank and Gaza (to own, not just to administer), plus 4% of Israel’s land along the Gaza border.

This offer was rejected out of hand and Israel was again blamed. In 2002 the Quartet (USA, UN, EU and Russia) called on them to withdraw from all the land they’d taken in the Six Day War, which would have altered Resolution 242 retrospectively. Israel, fearful for her safety, justifiably refused to comply.

But don’t Palestinian Leaders have a peaceful intent?
“Every time you hear me declare a ceasefire and halt to the violence, ignore these declarations. You know that I am under heavy pressure from the US and Europe… We are in difficult financial situation because of the Intifada. We will not receive any more money from the US, and Israel will stop the monthly transfer of funds. Our only hope for getting money is from the Arab states. But the Arab states will not give money if there is not blood.” (Yasser Arafat in the West Bank, 2000.)

“I have issued strict instructions for a total commitment to the ceasefire” (Yasser Arafat to the Jerusalem Post). Compare this with: “This ceasefire declaration is nothing more than a tactical initiative and a political manoeuvre on the part of the PA, so that Palestinians won’t be perceived as hostile towards the peace process.”(A member of the Fatah leadership to the PA official daily newspaper 2001).

“The goal of all of us is to liberate Palestine from the Israeli aggressors… There is no middle ground. Coexistence is total nonsense” (Chairman of the Arab Psychiatrists Assoc. In Cairo, 2002).

What does the PA really want?
The PA has made no secret of the fact that they see the West Bank, not as an end in itself, but merely as a stepping-stone into Israel proper. Although they speak peace to the West, their speeches in the Arab press make it clear that they will not stop until the whole of Israel is under their control and all the Jews “thrown into the sea”. Even school textbooks teach that Jews are pigs and cockroaches and should be killed.

Won’t everything be peaceful if Israel just gives the West Bank to the PA?
If we want to see what the West Bank would be like as a Palestinian State, we only have to look at Gaza, which has descended into chaos since being handed over to Hamas. If the Palestinians want a State, they must behave in a statesmanlike way.

So far, Israel has made all the concessions in the search for peace. Until the Palestinians are prepared to live side-by-side with the Israelis, and acknowledge their right to exist, there will be no peace, and Israel will continue (as is her right) to “administer the Territories”.

See also: Who are the Palestinians?
Are the Settlements Illegal?
Is the media biased against Israel?

October 2009

Palestine was the name given to Israel by the Romans when they conquered the Jewish state in AD135.  It was intended as an insult, named after the Jews’ ancient enemies, the Philistines (The Arab name for Palestine is Dawlat Filastin). Between AD135 and 1948 Jews and Arabs who lived there were all called Palestinians.

Where did they live?

Palestine at that time included Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights (The West Bankis the biblical land of Judea and Samaria, home to many of the most ancient and holy Jewish sites).

Since when have Jewish people lived there?

They never left.  There was a continuous Jewish presence in Israel between 135-1948 (especially in Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed), during which time Palestine continued to be occupied by one power or another.

What was the land like?

When the Jews started returning to Israel in large numbers in the late 19^th and early 20th centuries, the land was (according to Mark Twain) “a desolate country…given over wholly to weeds…hardly a tree or shrub anywhere”, and (according to a British report) “a desolation; four or five small and squalid Arab villages, long distances apart from one another…for the rest, the country was uninhabited, there was not a house, not a tree.”  Actually, 470,000 Arabs lived there, but most were tenant farmers of absentee landlords, and not landowners.

Did the Jews steal the land?

The Jews bought the land from the Arab landlords, paying high prices for barren and marshy ground; they drained the swamps and irrigated the desert, bringing in machinery which helped to make the land productive.  This provided work for both Jews and Arabs, and many of today’s “Palestinians” are descendants of immigrants from other Ottoman Empire countries who rushed to Palestine to find work.

Are the Jews occupying Palestinian land?

There has never been a Palestinian state for the Jews to occupy (no-one has even had a state there apart from the Jews).  There has never been a Palestinian country for the Jews to steal nor a Palestinian people for the Jews to displace.

So who are the Palestinians?

The word ‘Palestinians’ was first used in the late 1960s for political reasons, to give an identity to those disparate groups of Arabs now living in the Territories.

“The Palestinian people do not exist.  The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the State of Israel…  Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.” (A PLO Committee member in 1977).

Oct 2009

See also: Is Israel “Occupying” the West Bank?
Are the Settlements “illegal”?
Is the media biased against Israel?

1. 96% of West Bank and Gaza (to own, not just to administer) plus 4% of Israeli territory along the Gaza border.
2. A Parliament building within sight of the Old City.
3. A right of return for 10,000 Palestinians.
4. Sovereignty over Temple Mount.

He also makes a last-minute offer of half of Jerusalem (saying, “If he doesn’t accept this, he’s just a terrorist”), but Yasser Arafat, who tells President Clinton there never was a Jewish temple in Jerusalem, walks out – he is looking for an excuse to start a conflict and does not expect Barak to offer so much (he has announced his intention of unilaterally establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and before the meeting says, “I am not going in order to negotiate”)..

Two months later, the El Aksa War begins.  The PA Minister of Communications states: “Those who think that the Intifada started as a result of Sharon’s visit to the El-Aksa mosque are in error.  It was already planned since the President’s return from Camp David”.  Yasser Arafat tells Fatah: “ Every time that you hear me declare a cease-fire and a halt to the violence, ignore the declarations.  You know that I am under heavy pressure from the United States and Europe… We are in a difficult financial situation because of the Intifada.  We will not receive any more money from the US, and Israel will stop the monthly transfer of funds.  Our only hope for getting money is from the Arab states, but they will not give money if there is not blood”.

Two Israeli reservists are lynched in Ramallah. Kofi Annan (UN Gen. Sec.) meets Yasser Arafat who agrees ˝to lower the level of violence”; at the same time, a Fatah leaflet urges Palestinians to continue fighting.

The Waqf (the Muslim Council), who own Temple Mount, refuse access to Jews and Christians and try to destroy all evidence of Jewish history.  They scrape the area down to bedrock and crush thousands of tons of artefacts into rubble.  They deny that there was ever a Jewish Temple there and claim that the area has always been Muslim. Yasser Arafat, in an attempt to divert the worlds attention from the fiasco at Camp David, casts himself as “defender of Islam’s third holiest shrine”.

Israel continues to make overtures of peace.  They withdraw from Lebanon and offer to relinquish most of the Golan Heights (even though it is home to 18,000 Jews and the source of a third of Israel’s water supply).  Syria rejects the offer, wanting the entire Golan Heights.  A cease-fire exists with both countries while negotiations continue.  However, while the Israeli press promotes peace, the Syrian press is filled with anti-Semitic articles and Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon continue their attacks. 2001 Palestinian-Israeli Summit in Egypt – Israel retreats and accepts the rewording of Security Council Resolution 242 (1977) to mean withdrawal from all the territories, and the right of return of 200,000 refugees; this is rejected by the Palestinians in the hope that it will be the starting point of future negotiations.

Ten thousand Arabs living in Jerusalem sign a petition, pleading to be allowed to remain under Israeli sovereignty (where they have full democratic rights) and not be handed over to the PA. (At Camp David II Barak, under pressure to come up with something concrete, had offered to divide Jerusalem).  Christian Arabs living in PA-administered Bethlehem are continually harassed by and suffer violence  from Fatah “thugs”.

Faisal Husseini, PA Minister of Jerusalem Affairs (and nephew of the pro-Hitler Grand Mufti) says in an interview to an Egyptian newspaper (echoing Yasser Arafat’s remarks in 1974 and 1993): “The Oslo Agreements were a Trojan Horse… The strategic goal is to liberate Palestine from the River to the Sea”.  He adds that it is the obligation of all the Palestinian forces and factions to see the Oslo Accords as temporary steps or gradual goals, because in this way “we are setting an ambush for the Israelis and cheating them”.

Ariel Sharon replaces Barak as Prime Minister of Israel and forms a government of national unity.

Yasser Arafat calls for renewed negotiations but Ariel Sharon will not concede to his unrealistic demands. Arafat, as usual, resorts to violence, including the assassination of the Tourism Minister and the bombing of a Tel Aviv disco, but Israel reacts with restraint. Sharon eases the restrictions on Palestinians who, he knows, are suffering as much as the Israelis. Continued violence, however (there are more than 12,000 terrorist attacks in a year), leads to condemnation from the US.

2002 Yasser Arafat, in a speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council, condemns the recent suicide attacks because “they do not serve our cause but rather subject us to angry criticism on the part of the international community”.

The Palestinian ship Karim A (loaded in Iran) is boarded by Israelis and weapons found; Yasser Arafat is condemned as a terrorist and part of his compound in Ramallah flattened.  In response, a suicide bomber kills 30 elderly Jews during a Passover meal in Netanya.  Israel retaliates by confining Arafat to his Ramallah HQ and by launching operation Defensive Shield, invading many towns including Jenin (a refugee camp administered by the UN).  Amid international condemnation, they destroy much of the terrorist infrastructure which Arafat has built up in violation of Oslo.  The so-called “massacre” is proved to be an invention of Palestinian propaganda, eagerly believed and repeated by an anti-Semitic western press. In fact only 52 Palestinians were killed (not 500 as claimed), and half of those were terrorists. Israel lost 23 IDF soldiers.

A British bomb disposal officer, subsequently clearing Jenin for the Red Cross, finds 200 explosive devices which he says are exact replicas of those found in Northern Ireland, ie they were either supplied by the IRA or made under their supervision.  The UN does not explain how illegal arms caches and bomb factories have been allowed to exist in one of their camps.

The Quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia) put forward a Peace Plan.  They call on Israel to:

1. Withdraw from land taken in the Six Day War.
2. Dismantle ‘illegal outposts’ (ie settlements).
3. Cease military operations in Palestinian areas.

The Plan ignores the fact that:

1. West Bank and Gaza had been illegally occupied prior to the Six Day War and Israel was recognised in 1967 as having a right to them.
2. The settlements are on land Israel has purchased legally.
3. Israel would not be able to root out terrorists.

The Palestinians, in contrast, are asked only to reorganise their security forces and co-operate with Israel.

Iran deploys missiles in southern Lebanon, aimed at Israel’s northern cities, and sends Revolutionary Guards to train Hezbollah in their use.

A former US ambassador to the UN speaks of her “very deep shock” over the anti-Semitism which pervades the UN, and describes their treatment of Israel as insulting and outrageous. She points out that, while more than 1,000 resolutions have been passed condemning Israel, not one has condemned Arab atrocities against civilians. 2003 Between Sept 2000 and Feb 2003, 750 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks (in American terms, that is equal to more than 28,000).  The suicide bombers are financed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, who are thought to have paid out over $20m. to their families. Saddam Hussein is deposed.

The UN Human Rights Commission passes a resolution condoning Palestinian violence against Israel.

In order to get the Arab states on its side, America announces a Road Map for Peace which, for the first time, suggests a two-state solution.  Israel is urged to make concessions, including dismantling 100 “illegal settlements” and limiting military strikes, whilst the Palestinians must “undertake an unconditional cessation of violence” and announce its belief in the right of Israel to exist as a nation.  The aim of both should be for a Palestinian state “living side by side in peace and security with Israel” by late 2005.

Israel refuses to negotiate with Yasser Arafat and, in May, America oversees the election of  a Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, who is acceptable to both sides.  European leaders undermine his leadership by continuing to do business with Yasser Arafat and, in September, he resigns, worn out by his power struggle with Yasser Arafat and his inability to stop the violence.  Ahmed Qureia takes his place.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, after declaring a 3-month cease-fire, soon resort again to suicide attacks; Israel responds with targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders, and the EU puts Hamas on its black-list of terrorist organisations.

Israel returns to Gaza, having earlier withdrawn, and starts work on the construction of a 26ft high barrier (part fence, part wall) around Gaza and the West Bank to keep the suicide bombers out of Israel.  Palestinians complain that they are unable to get to work, but Israel has an obligation to protect their own citizens rather than to find work for Palestinians. 2004 Suicide bombings continue, despite the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of a deal with Hizbollah.  A wrecked no. 19 bus, in which 10 Israelis were killed and 50 injured, is put on display at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, where a case against Israel’s security barrier is discussed.  Despite the Court having no jurisdiction, since the issue is a political rather than a legal one, they nevertheless rule that the barrier “cannot be justified by the military exigencies or by the requirements of national security”.  Israel, however, reports a marked drop in the number of attacks since the fence was started. (Israel’s barrier can be compared with the concrete and steel wall that has divided Belfast since 1969, drastically cutting down sectarian attacks.  Britain euphemistically calls it a “peace line”).

Arab members of the UN sponsor a General Assembly resolution, calling for Israel to take down its barrier in the West Bank (although Israel is dismantling four settlements there in order to link up Palestinian land that would otherwise be separated).  Yasser Arafat, while condemning the wall as a “crime against humanity”, allows Palestinian businessmen to bribe his officials in order to make huge profits supplying Israel with cement.

Arafat’s relations with his PM, Ahmed Qureia, reach breaking point over Arafat’s failure to curb corruption, and Qureira describes the security situation in Gaza as being in an “unprecedented state of chaos” following the kidnapping of 4 French aid workers.  The Palestinian Journalists syndicate warn that any reporter caught covering clashes between rival groups in Gaza will be “punished severely”.

Ariel Sharon announces the withdrawal of settlers from Gaza, calling them “a security burden and a cause of continuous friction”.  Sharon who, as Foreign Minister, encouraged the settler movement, now insists that the 8,800 settlers must move out “for the sake of the country”.  Israel, meanwhile, continues its policy of “search and destroy” and “targeted assassinations”, in order that its withdrawal is not interpreted as weakness.

Israel kills the Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and also his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.  An Arab-sponsored UN Security Council resolution condemns the killing of Yassin, but Israel’s UN Ambassador protests that “not one resolution, not one presidential statement, has been adopted by this Council to specifically denounce the deliberate massacre of [Israel’s] innocent civilians”.

A huge car bomb destroys the Hilton Hotel in Sinai while it is packed with Israeli holiday-makers.  Israel attempts to destroy tunnels between Sinai and Gaza which are being used to bring in weapons illegally; Egyptian officials turn a blind eye to the smuggling, infringing Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.

Yasser Arafat dies in Paris, where he has gone for medical treatment.  Grief in the PA is muted, most Palestinians being relieved – Arafat never behaved like a head of state but remained a terrorist at heart, rejecting offers from Israel which would have benefited his people.  He is also known to have been diverting into secret bank accounts funds given by other countries for the development of the territories ($1bn over 5 years according to the IMF).

Mahmoud Abbas replaces Yasser Arafat as head of the PLO.  Britain sends police officers and MI6 agents to Gaza to help the Palestinian security services maintain control following Arafat’s death. 2005 The PA hold their first Presidential Election, which is won by Mahmoud Abbas.  At a summit in Egypt, he and Ariel Sharon agree a formal ceasefire, Sharon saying: “To our Palestinian neighbours, I assure you that we have a genuine intention to respect your right to live independently and in dignity”, and Mahmoud Abbas speaking of the “start of a hopeful peace”.  Israel releases 900 prisoners and withdraws from Jericho, but Mahmoud Abbas’ promise to stop the violence is hollow.  Hamas and Islamic Jihad (who boycotted the election) refuse to obey him and, in separate attacks, kill at least 27 people and wound 212.  A female suicide bomber is thwarted in her attempt to “kill 20, 50 Jews… even babies and children”, as her bombs fail to explode; another female suicide bomber is arrested moments before she can blow herself up inside a crowded Israeli hospital.  The Quartet demand “immediate action” by Mahmoud Abbas to find the suicide bombers and “further sustained action” to stop terrorism.  A Palestinian official responds, “We are very upset at the Quartet statement”, and Mahmoud Abbas tells Egyptian journalists that any attempt to rein in terror groups would lead to “civil war”.

There is disarray amongst soldiers and police in the PA, with a report citing extortion, racketeering and nepotism.  Israeli military intelligence identifies Egypt, Libya and Yemen as the chief suppliers of weapons, and an UN report says there is “an increasing influx of weaponry and personnel from Syria”.  Christians speak out against acts of violence, intimidations and land theft by Muslim extremists, and accuse the PA of doing nothing to stop the attacks.  Mahmoud Abbas approves financial aid to the families of “martyrs”, now spending a tenth of the PA budget supporting and encouraging terrorism.  Hamas win control of 30 Palestinian municipalities in local elections after Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party is accused of corruption.

The Israelis accuse the Palestinians of archaeological vandalism and an attempt to rewrite history after 100 truck-loads of rubble from Temple Mount are found in a dump in the Kidron Valley (a seal from the time of King David is amongst the artefacts discovered).  They also condemn the carving of the word “Allah” in one-foot high letters on the eastern wall of Temple Mount (by Jordanian Arabs employed to shore up the wall).

Israel unilaterally withdraws from 25 settlements in Gaza and northern Samaria, in order to aid the peace process; there are distressing scenes as settlers are forcibly evicted from their homes by Israeli soldiers.  The Palestinians claim that terrorism has won, but Ariel Sharon has a different reason for the withdrawal.  The 1977 offer of citizenship to all Arabs in Greater Israel still stands but, because Arabs will soon outnumber Jews, Israel needs to get rid of Gaza to protect itself (“The future of the Jewish people depends on the nature of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.  In this spirit we initiated the disengagement plan that would secure the Jewish majority in the land of Israel”, Sharon says).

The PA asks Israel, as it leaves Gaza, to destroy the single-family houses that have been vacated as they want to build multiple-occupancy homes – these are more suitable and will provide employment, as will the rebuilding of the seaport (most Arabs in Gaza are of Egyptian descent who emigrated there when the Jews provided employment, and their withdrawal has left hundreds of thousands out of work).  The West condemns the destruction of the houses, but not the tearing down of Jewish synagogues by Arabs who threaten that violence will continue.  The PA motto is “Today Gaza!  Tomorrow an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital!”

Hamas fires 40 rockets into Israel, blaming them for 16 deaths at a rally; the PA says it was an accident caused by Hamas members carrying explosives.  Israel responds with air strikes. The Hamas website states, “We succeeded, with Allah’s grace, to raise an ideological generation that loves death like our enemies love life. We will not abandon the way of Jihad or martyrdom as long as one inch of our holy land is in the hands of the Jews”.

Israel seals the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to prevent smuggling of arms and terrorists, but later America secures an agreement whereby the PA will run the border (though it will be monitored by the Israelis and the EU).  A British aid worker and her parents are kidnapped, there are persistent rocket attacks into Israel, and running battles between the PA police and different military factions.  Mahmoud Abbas has lost control of the situation.

Israel plans to build a railway linking Gaza with the West Bank and new settlements linking the West Bank and Jerusalem.

One and a half million children live below the poverty level (up 50% since 1988) and many pensioners are destitute. 2006 In January, Ariel Sharon has a massive stroke and remains in a coma. Ehud Olmert is elected P.M. and chooses a team with no military experience; this has repercussions when Israel is attacked on two fronts. Firstly, Gaza-based Hamas militants kidnap 19 year old Cpl. Gilad Shalit and kill two other soldiers on Israeli soil. Israel responds with Operation Summer Rains, destroying bridges and power stations in Gaza, which Britain condemns as “collective punishment”. Hamas fires rockets into Israel and they respond by reoccupying three of the settlements they evacuated in 2005.

In the North, Hezbollah launch a cross-border raid from Lebanon, abducting two soldiers and killing eight others (Iran has sent Revolutionary Guards to help them by setting up a network of control towers and monitoring stations along the border, at the same time as Syria is passing them intercepted Israeli communications). Olmert calls it an act of war and responds with a bombardment of S. Lebanon and a naval blockade. Tens of thousands of civilians flee, and Hezbollah hits back at Israel with rocket attacks on Nahariya, Safed and Haifa (its long range missiles provided by Iran).

Britain calls on the UN to condemn Israel, but many Lebanese blame the Hezbollah leader, Nasrullah, and want Israel to finish the job. Their government has allowed Hezbollah to maintain a permanent armed presence there, although the UN in 1982 demanded that all foreign forces leave Lebanon (Israel did, but no effort was made to force Syria and Iran to leave). The UN condemns Hezbollah for “cowardly blending” among the civilian population and locating its rocket sites in densely populated areas (causing civilian casualties for which Israel is blamed by the world media). In contrast, some IDF pilots deliberately miss their targets because of fears that innocent civilians will be killed.

After five weeks of war, Hezbollah (who have manipulated the media) gain a strategic victory and Israel, who accepts a cease fire without achieving its stated aim of recovering the kidnapped soldiers, is seen as no longer being the unbeatable force it once was. Lebanese Christians say that, although Israel has lost the war, it doesn’t mean that Hezbollah has won (they don’t like their triumphalism).

Olmert and the head of the IDF are accused of ineffective leadership and “failures in logistics, ops and command”. Nasrullah with an “unlimited budget” from Iran, pledges compensation to those who have lost their homes, and Arab countries promise more than £500m in reconstruction aid (Israel believes Syria and Iran are helping Hezbollah rebuild its arsenal). UN Security Council Resolution 1701 blames Hezbollah for starting the war but puts the onus on Israel to respect the borders. UNIFIL is given authority to enforce the disarmament of the militias, but nothing is done.

P.A. elections are won by Hamas after complaints of corruption by Fatah. Because Hamas is a terrorist organisation, the US and EU cut their support to the P.A. but then resume it for medical, educational and social needs, though most of the money goes towards paying P.A. salaries (685,000 Palestinians rely on public sector salaries). Palestinians are the largest per capita recipients of overseas aid in the world, leading for calls for aid to be conditional on reform. Hamas, who has won the election by saying they accept Israel’s right to exist, now withdraw that statement, but offer a long-term cease fire if Israel will withdraw from land “occupied” in 1967.

In the Gaza Strip, there is a total collapse of law and order, but the head of Gaza Force says, “we cannot arrest [the militants] – they are our people”, and Fatah security forces say they will never take orders from Hamas, as “this is not our faction”. There is a stand-off between the President and his government and effectively a civil war, with Hamas ruling in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank.

A senior Hamas member says, “We’re used to blaming our mistakes on others [but] the reality in which we are living in Gaza [the anarchy, chaos, pointless murders, etc.] can only be described as a failure”. The Gaza-based editor of a P.A. daily agrees: “While most Palestinians find it easy to blame the occupation for all our ills, it is a fact that the occupation was not as bad as the lawlessness and corruption that we are now facing”.

Hamas ends its five-month long cease-fire after 7 civilians are killed and 30 wounded on a beach (they blame an Israeli gun boat, but Israel says it could have been a malfunctioning Palestinian rocket) and after 3 civilians are killed in what was thought to be an air strike on their car (later proved to be a Palestinian mine). Mahmoud Abbas admits there are Al-Qaeda cells in the West Bank and Gaza.

A rocket fired from the border town of Beit Hanoun kills an Israeli woman. The Israelis respond to this and numerous other rocket attacks with Operation Autumn Rains, designed to neutralise the militants. In Beit Hanoun a crowd of 3,000 women act as human shields to allow dozens of gunmen to escape, although 3 are shot dead by Israeli snipers targeting the gunmen hiding in the crowd. Netanyahu says, “We left Lebanon and they are firing. We left Gaza and they are firing. What we have learnt is that if they lay down their arms there will be peace; but if we lay down our arms they will slaughter us”.

An Egyptian journalist writes that most Arabs have abandoned the notion of the eternal struggle against Israel and that “Egypt and Jordan have no intention of fighting Israel for the Palestinian cause… Only Syria continues to feed their fantasies that it will one day join the Palestinian struggle”. He criticises the Palestinians for allowing their children to grow up to be illiterate, sick and suicidal and depend on the West for food, while “the extreme, criminal Muslim government led by Hamas continues to fan the flames of war”.

Hamas plans to re-institute the Sharia law of a poll-tax on Christians and to convert churches into mosques. Other Muslims in Gaza threaten to kill all Christians living there and tell them, “You have no other choice but Islam or death. We shall break the cross and spill the wine”. Many Christians have emigrated and others, facing persecution, have found refuge in a Christian housing project in Bethlehem.
]]> http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/2000-%e2%80%93the-present-camp-david-ii-onwards/feed/ 0 Virginia http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1982-%e2%80%93-1999-war-in-lebanon-to-the-hebron-protocol/ http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1982-%e2%80%93-1999-war-in-lebanon-to-the-hebron-protocol/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 20:44:37 +0000 Virginia http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/?p=28 ]]> 1982 Operation Peace for Galilee is a campaign by Israel to get the PLO out of Lebanon from where they have been attacking Israel.  They shoot down 90 out of 100 Syrian planes without suffering any losses themselves, and see this as a miracle. However, many soldiers on the ground are killed and wounded and Israelis protest at this, the first non-defensive war that Israel has fought.

The Lebanese leader, Gemayel, wants to rid the country of the remaining terrorists and it is decided that, while the IDF takes West Beirut, the Arab Phalangists will deal with the refugee camps.  To Israel’s horror (having warned them not to harm civilians), they massacre hundreds in Sabra and Shatila.  Ariel Sharon, Israel’s Defence Minister, fails to stop the killing and is dismissed. Suicide strikes are first used by the newly formed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The PLO try to return to Syria, but, when Syria refuses to have them, they move their base to Tunisia. Yasser Arafat loses Moscow’s confidence – his credibility is undermined by his deviousness. 1983 Yitzhak Shamir is elected Prime Minister of Israel. Hezbollah kill 241 US servicemen in a bomb attack on their barracks in Beirut. 1984 Shimon Perez becomes Prime Minister of Israel. 1985 Israel unilaterally withdraws from most of Lebanon.

Yitzhak Shamir is re-elected as Prime Minister.  The cost of living has risen by over 1000% in the last 5 years. 1986 King Hussein announces, “I and the government of the Kingdom of Jordan hereby announce that we are unable to coordinate politically with the PLO leadership until such a time as their word becomes their bond”. 1987 Second Intifada in West Bank and Gaza, which has been relatively peaceful since 1967.  This uprising lasts until 1993. 1988 The Palestine National Council declares an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital.  Hamas publishes its “Islamic Covenant” which makes clear its opposition to Israel’s existence in any form.  Jordan renounces all claims to sovereignty of the West Bank following pressure from the PLO.

The PLO claims to accept Security Council Resolution 242 (1967), while declaring, “We make a clear distinction between covenants and political programmes… the latter are tactical by nature [with] this difference… our continued adherence to the Palestinian National Covenant”.

1991 The UN repeals its denunciation of Zionism at the instigation of the US who said: “To equate Zionism with the intolerable sin of racism is to twist history and … to reject Israel itself, a member of good standing of the UN”.

Iraqi Scud missiles hit Israel during the first Gulf War.  The USA and USSR convene the Madrid Peace Conference, bringing Israel into talks with Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinians. 1992 Yitzak Rabin becomes Prime Minister and begins negotiations with the PLO via a secret “Oslo Channel”.  Inflation falls to below 10%. 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. All the compromises are on Israel’s part; the Palestinians give nothing except promises, which they have no intention of keeping.  On the same day that Arafat signs the Declaration of Principles on the White House Lawn, he says on Jordan TV: “Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages.  We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more.  When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel”.

Israel, in contrast, makes every effort to make the plan work:

They accept the idea of a two-state solution west of the Jordan and endorse the creation of a second Palestinian State (Jordan was the first).

They bring in Yasser Arafat and 50,000 of his Tanzim fighters from Tunisia.

They place 98% of the population of the West Bank and Gaza under the control of the newly formed Palestinian Authority.

They send diplomats around the world to raise funds to help the Palestinian Authority develop infrastructure.

At great risk, Israel arms the Tanzim fighters in the hope that they will work alongside the IDF for civil peace.  Instead, they encourage the Palestinians to attack Israelis.  King Hussein warns Israel that Arafat is certain to violate the peace agreement, as he “has proved time and again that his word cannot be trusted”. Sure enough, he breaks his undertaking to arrest terrorists, destroy the terrorist infrastructure and confiscate illegal weapons.

Residents of the camps in PA areas are left as refugees, instead of being rehabilitated into permanent housing. The PLO denies on Jordanian TV that “the mutual recognition document between Israel and the PLO pledged to stop the violence”. Netanyahu warns that Oslo is “a prelude to a future war that the PLO is planning from a West Bank state”. 1994 Israel makes a peace treaty with Jordan.  Israel and the PLO complete details for Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho, and Israeli troops withdraw.

A Jewish settler fires into a crowd of Muslims praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and kills 29. 14 Palestinians are killed and 100 wounded in clashed between Hamas and Fatah. A Lebanese member of Hezbollah kills 85 Jews and wounds 200 in Argentina.

1995 Three thousand years of Jerusalem’s existence – the festivities are boycotted by the EU.

Shimon Perez is re-elected Prime Minister, following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin at a peace rally.

Paris Agreement – Israel agrees to transfer 20% of Palestinian VAT direct to Yasser Arafat.

The Saudi Mufti says: “Peace with Israel is permissible only on condition that it is a temporary peace, until the Muslims build up the military strength needed to expel the Jews”.  (Muhammed used this tactic with the people of Mecca).

In violation of the Oslo Accords the Palestinian Authority has not changed the PLO Charter, confiscated illegal weapons or locked up terrorists; also Yasser Arafat repeatedly declares his intention of unilaterally declaring a sovereign Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital. He says, “The Palestinian people is willing to sacrifice its last boy and girl so that the Palestinian flag will fly over the churches and mosques of Jerusalem”. Rabin says, “Initially I thought that Yasser Arafat was the solution; now I am convinced he is the problem”.

An Arab journalist says it is “simply nonsense [to] claim that Islamic terrorism…  is the product of poverty, backwardness and ignorance…  Several studies have shown that a substantial majority of Islamists and their supporters come from the middle and upper socio-economic strata.” 1996 Solomon’s Stables, under Temple Mount, are converted into a mosque.  They date probably from as far back as the construction of Solomon’s Temple and were certainly in existence in the 1^st century AD when (according to Josephus) they were used by the Jews as a place of refuge at the time of the Roman Conquest.

The Supreme Leader of Iran states, “The Israeli entity is false and artificial. In fact, there is no nation named Israel”.

Benyamin Netanyahu becomes Prime Minister and has his first meeting with Yasser Arafat, who had been elected President of the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu insists that the rules have changed and the PA will be expected to keep their promises (the Wye Agreement). Shimon Peres received a letter from Yasser Arafat stating that, as promised at Oslo, the PLO charter has been changed so that it no longer calls for the destruction of Israel. This is a lie; the Charter remains unchanged.

1997 Yasser Arafat says: “There will be no peace in the region until Jerusalem is returned to its legal owners and becomes the capital of Palestine” (Palestine, as shown on PA stationery and maps, includes all of Israel, not just West Bank and Gaza).  However, he tells Jewish leaders in New York: “The PLO confirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant which deny Israel’s right to exist… are now inoperative and no longer valid”.

Hebron Protocol commits to the redeployment of the IDF from all major Palestinian towns in the West Bank. Israel continues to hand over territory to the PA and withdraws from Hebron, despite terrorist attacks (i.e. they are keeping their side of the bargain while Yasser Arafat is breaking his). 1998 Sheik Ahmad Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, is quoted as saying: “We are protecting ourselves. From the first drop of blood the bomber spills, he goes to paradise.  The Jewish victims immediately go to hell.” 1999 The EU resurrects the abandoned Partition Plan as a legal basis for negotiations to internationalise Jerusalem.  Israel rejects it, saying: “The united Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel”.

Ehud Barak becomes Prime Minister.
]]> http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1982-%e2%80%93-1999-war-in-lebanon-to-the-hebron-protocol/feed/ 0 Virginia http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1969-%e2%80%93-1981-palestinian-nationalism-to-the-first-intifada/ http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1969-%e2%80%93-1981-palestinian-nationalism-to-the-first-intifada/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 20:32:52 +0000 Virginia http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/?p=26 ]]> 1969 The word “Palestinian” starts to be used, to give identity to a collection of Arab immigrants who have come to Israel to find work. The Palestinian National Council says, “Palestinians are those Arab residents who, until 1947, lived permanently in Palestine, regardless of whether they were expelled from it or stayed there”. And UNWRA defines as Palestinian refugees any Arabs who lived in Palestine for a minimum of two years before 1948, plus all their descendents (therefore Yasser Arafat is neither a Palestinian or a refugee, as he claims, since he grew up in Cairo and didn’t move to Palestine until 1994).

The UN General Assembly, in an effort to appease the terrorists, recognises the “inalienable rights” of the Palestinians (RES 32/40B), although two years earlier they failed to mention their existence!

Yasser Arafat, leader of al-Fatah, is elected Chairman of the PLO and accompanies Nasser on a visit to Russia, where he is promised weapons and cultivated (unsuccessfully) as a KGB agent.

Golda Meir becomes Prime Minister of Israel following the death of Levi Eshkol.

1970 The PLO are forced out of Jordan by King Hussein following their attempt to topple him; he cedes the rights to the West Bank to the PLO, and they move to Lebanon from where they shell Israel.  President Assad of Syria, who has invaded Jordan in support of the PLO, says: “We have never committed ourselves, nor shall we ever do so, to restrict terrorist activities.  Syria is the lung through which terrorist activity breathes.”

Egypt launches a War of Attrition on Israel and Israel responds by bombing targets deep inside Egypt.  Russia comes to Egypt’s help but their MiGs are shot down by Israel. 1972 Eleven Israeli athletes are murdered in Munich by the Palestinian terror group, Black September. 1973 Yom Kippur War. Using the pretext that Israel has attacked Zafarana on the Red Sea, Syria (from the north) and Egypt (from the south) strike against Israel on the most holy day of their year.  Golda Meir says: “When President Sadat said the other day that [if Israel does not withdraw from Sinai] war must go on and he is prepared to sacrifice a million men every year, one shudders not only at the thought of a million men giving away their lives, but that the head of a people can say it…  We have no joy in causing the death of others.  But…  we will win because we must live.  Our neighbours are fighting not for their lives, not for their sovereignty, they are fighting to destroy us. We will not be destroyed”.  Against all odds (Israel is taken by surprise and Britain blocks all arms shipments to them), Israel fights them back across the Suez  and into Syria.  UN Security Council Resolution 338 again does not mention the Palestinians.  (Resolutions 242 and 338 are under Part VI of the UN Charter and as such are only recommendations and have no legal force).

Arab nations introduce an oil embargo on Israel’s supporters. The EEC, in panic, meet with them and agree to support them against Israel (i.e. defend their claims to Jerusalem and the “occupied territories”, and to recognise an autonomous Palestinian people).

Golda Meir says: “We will have peace in the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews”. 1974 An Arab summit in Morocco sets out conditions for providing oil to the EEC. These include the demand that churches explain the Palestinian question and solicit support for their sovereignty over Jerusalem, that the EEC arrange for news coverage favourable to the Arabs, that they allow free movement of Muslim immigrants in Europe, that they share military and nuclear knowledge, and that they affirm that the PLO is the “sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”.

Yasser Arafat presents his “Phased Program” to the Arab League.  Phase I is to be a Trojan Horse, getting into the West Bank by any means and then using it as a launching pad for the rest of Israel.  Phase II will be the Battle for Jerusalem (this is the first time they have mentioned its importance to them).

Following fatal terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians (including the machine gunning of 90 school-children), Yasser Arafat is rewarded by being invited to address the UN General Assembly – the first non-state leader to do so. The USSR allow him to set up a PLO office in Moscow.

Yitzhak Rabin replaces Golda Meir who is forced to resign as Prime Minister of Israel.

UN Res 3236 says that the concept of “refugees” should be replaced by “Palestinian people”, so they are in a position to have a state. 1975 Muslims declare Jihad on Christians in Lebanon – the so-called “civil war” is not between Lebanese but a holy war declared on Christians by Muslims of many countries.

A UN resolution (3379) denounces Zionism as a form of racism (Zionism supports the idea of Israel as a Jewish homeland – not all Jews are Zionists, some Christians are). For the Arabs, this resolution is a stepping stone towards their next objective, Israel’s expulsion from the UN. The US ambassador to the UN states: “A great evil has been loosed upon the world.  The abomination of anti-Semitism has been given the appearance of international sanction. It is not an attack on Zionism but on Israel; as such, it is a general assault by the majority of nations on the principles of liberal democracy.”

The British Chief Rabbi visits USSR and meets Russian Jews, who tell him that the “bulk of Soviet Jewry” don’t wish to emigrate – unknown to him, 11 of them are KGB agents. 1976 The PLO in Lebanon disregard the country’s sovereignty and treat parts of Beirut and southern Lebanon as their personal fiefdoms. The Lebanese government asks Syria to help to expel the PLO.

A Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut is besieged by Christian militias backed by the Syrian army. Yasser Arafat orders the inhabitants not to surrender (3.500 are killed), because he needs martyrs to attract world attention to their plight. 1977 In an interview with a Dutch newspaper, a PLO committee member says: “The Palestinian people do not exist.  The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity”. UN Res 242 is altered from “de territoires” (from territories) to “des territoires” (from the territories), meaning all not some.

Menachem Begin becomes Prime Minister of Israel and promises the construction of settlements in Samaria.  “A resident of Judea, Samaria and Gaza who asks for Israeli citizenship will obtain it in compliance with the citizenship law of Israel”, he proposes. 1978 Talks at Camp David lead to Anwar Sadat of Egypt signing a peace deal with Israel.  This involves Israel withdrawing from Sinai, and the West Bank and Gaza becoming self-governing following a period of administrative autonomy.

Yasser Arafat tells Ceauçescu that Palestinians lack the tradition, unity and discipline to become a formal state, but agrees to pretend to seek peace in order to get help from the West. The head of the Romanian External Intelligence Service says re a report on Yasser Arafat, “the report was of an incredible account of fanaticism, of devotion to his cause, of political manoeuvres, lies, embezzled PLO funds and homosexual relationships”.

Golda Meir dies. 1979 An Iraqi oil ministry spokesman says, “Europe should play its part in putting an end to injustice and restoring the people of Palestine to their rights. Unless these aims are adhered to, it will be difficult for Europe to have her petroleum supplies guaranteed.” 1980 First Intifada (uprising) in Jerusalem. Arafat says, “Peace for us means the destruction of Israel”. Saudi Arabia declares a “jihad” (holy war) “to protect the Holy City against Zionist aggression”.  Israel re-affirms a united Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (it has never been any other country’s capital).  Foreign governments move their embassies to Tel Aviv.

Inflation is now out of control at 131%, having risen 250% in the last 7 years; the lira is replaced by the Shekel.  Immigration and the cost of defence have left many Israelis poverty-stricken.

The UN Security Council condemns Jewish settlements in the “occupied” regions and demands they be demolished.  Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) gave Israel the legal right to be in these territories, but the make-up of the Council has now changed: of the 189 member states of the UN, 188 take turns on the Security Council (including terrorist regimes), the only country not allowed a place being Israel (the only democracy in the Middle East).  SC Resolutions, therefore, tend to  favour Arab states at the expense of Israel.

The UN World Congress of Woman is hi-jacked by Russian-trained PLO supporters who interrupt every panel with anti-Israel propaganda. Panels are rigged so only pro-PLO speakers are called, and Conference votes 94-4 for a “plan of action” which includes listing Zionism as one of the worlds main evils. 1981 Sadat is assassinated. Moscow provide military training for 194 men from 10 different PLO factions.
]]> http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1969-%e2%80%93-1981-palestinian-nationalism-to-the-first-intifada/feed/ 0 Virginia http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1948-%e2%80%93-1968-founding-of-the-state-of-israel-to-the-six-day-war/ http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1948-%e2%80%93-1968-founding-of-the-state-of-israel-to-the-six-day-war/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 20:26:26 +0000 Virginia http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/?p=23 ]]> 1948 Founding of the State of Israel. As the British withdraw from Palestine, the Jews gradually extend their authority so that, by May 14^th, David ben Gurion (head of the Provisional Government) is able to call the State of Israel into being and to extend the hand of friendship to its Arab neighbours.  Chaim Weitzmann is declared President and David Ben Gurion Prime Minister.  The 37^th chapter of Ezekiel is read in Hebrew over the radio – the “dry bones” have come to life.

War of Independence. At midnight that night, directly the British Mandate expires, the Arab nations attack, saying:  “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre.”  Transjordan occupies the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Egypt takes Gaza, and Syria takes the Golan Heights.  Transjordan has the help of the Arab Legion under the command of the British general, Glubb Pasha.  Although he has given assurances that the Legion will respect sacred sites, they completely demolish the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem, along with its 58 synagogues, and deny the Jews access to the Wailing Wall.  Jerusalem is under complete siege for one month, and virtual siege for a further 6 months.  Ten members of the provisional government are stuck in Jerusalem and have to be air-lifted to Tel Aviv so they can sign the Declaration of Independence.

When the British withdraw, most of their arms and equipment pass to the Arabs at a time when the Jews are under an arms embargo.  Despite this disadvantage, the Jews hold on to the territory assigned them by the UN and, two months later, the Arab nations readily agree to a cease-fire (though they refuse to make peace). Israel has lost 1% of its population.

Some Arab leaders have been so sure of victory that, before the War began, they encouraged the peasants to leave the country, promising to “push the Jews into the sea” and leave a Palestinian state for them to return to.  Other Arabs left because they were expelled by Jews (350 villages were erased), but there was no systematic campaign, e.g. in Haifa the Jews pleaded with them to stay, and in Nazareth those who surrendered were allowed to remain.  About 650,000 Arabs become refugees in camps in Lebanon and Jordan and are now left stranded.  A similar number of Jews were turned out of Arab countries and are now absorbed into Israel.  But the Arab states, rich with confiscated Jewish wealth and land, refuse to take the Palestinians.  The fledgling State of Israel, having taken all the evicted Jews, is unable to absorb them and, though they offer compensation, this is rejected. A former P.M. of Syria later writes, “We brought disaster upon 1m Arab refuges by inviting them to leave their land, their homes, their work and their industry… We exploited them… in the service of political purposes in Lebanon and Jordan”; and in 1976 Mahmoud Abbas writes, “the Arab armies abandoned the Palestinians, forced them to emigrate, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos Jews used to live in”.

The Arabs have kept the refugees in camps for over 50 years, callously using their misery and squalor as a bargaining tool.  In contrast, the Arabs who remained in Israel were made Israeli citizens, enjoying full rights of citizenship.

Russia is the first country to recognise Israel, seeing its creation as a blow to British imperialism in the Middle East. Soviet Jews allowed to emigrate include Communist agents infiltrated into top jobs. 1949 Occupation. Arab Palestine is occupied illegally until 1967. Neither Jordan nor Egypt gives the territories they’ve “liberated” back to the Palestinians, who are not regarded by them as a people group in need of their own country. A British fact-finding mission to Gaza states that, though the refugees “express no bitterness against the Jews, they speak with the utmost bitterness of the Egyptians and other Arab states… Their Arab brothers, they declare, persuaded them unnecessarily to leave their homes… Many of the refugees would give a welcome to the Israelis if they were to come in and take the district over”. Under occupation, life expectancy is low and child mortality rife, with high levels of illiteracy and unemployment.

Having rejected Partition, the Arabs now insist that Israel should respect the 1947 borders – this makes them appear as the defenders of the UN decision and Israel as the violators.

Britain and Pakistan are the only countries to recognise Jordan’s annexation of the West Bank; it is not recognised by any of the other Arab states nor the rest of the international community. The border between Israel and Lebanon is called the “Blue Line”.

Armistice Agreement. This gives free access for all religions to all the holy sites, but Jordan (now so-called because it controls both banks of the River) continues to deny Jews access to the Wailing Wall, and to prohibit Israeli Arabs from entering churches and mosques in the areas they occupy.

1950 Britain brokers a secret deal between Israel and Iraq (one of the nations which attacked in 1948): the Jews of Iraq can go to Israel and in return Iraq will  resettle the Palestinians.  Iraq lets the Jews go (confiscating all their property  and assets) but then refuses to take the Palestinians.

The US, UK and France issue “The Tripartite Declaration” in which they “recognise that the Arab States and Israel all need to maintain a certain level of armed forces for the purposes of assuring their internal security and their legitimate self-defence”.

During the 1950’s, 2,000 Nazis (and their collaborators, including the Grand Mufti) find asylum in the Arab world, esp. Egypt, where they continue their anti-Jewish propaganda.

1953 King Abdullah I of Jordan is murdered on a visit to the Al Aksa Mosque, probably on the orders of the Mufti  (the Arabs are angry that Jordan did not win them an independent Palestinian state). The new King Hussein says, “Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan”.

Israel responds to the killing of 3 civilians by attacking a Jordanian village and killing 69 people. The Arab Nationalist Movement is formed; its aim is the creation of an Arab superstate surrounding Israel. 1954 Moshe Sharett becomes P.M., replacing David Ben Gurion, who is forced to resign following the Lavon Affair.  West Jerusalem is bombed by Jordan, and Muslim nations continue their harassment of Israel.  Terrorist groups, supervised by Egypt, are formally established in Gaza and NE Sinai where, for the past 3 years, they have been attacking Israeli vehicles and farms and mining roads.

Russia, which had quickly recognised the State of Israel, now changes sides because of its need of Arab oil and because too many Jews want to emigrate. It declares Israel “a tool of the capitalist West” and condemns Zionism as an imperialist plot  It supplies Egypt with arms and stops Jews  emigrating from Communist countries. 1955 Emboldened by Russian support, Nasser of Egypt subjects Israel to nightly raids and seizes the Suez Canal.

David Ben Gurion is again elected as Prime Minister. 1956 Sinai War. Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula in defence of its security, and Britain and France attack by air, demanding the return of the Suez Canal (originally a French company, Britain had bought 40% of the shares when it was in financial trouble).  The USA and Russia demand an end to the hostilities, and Britain and France comply.  Israel first demands assurances from Egypt that it will (a)stop its raids into Israel, (b)keep the Canal open, and (c) stop interfering with Israel’s shipping in the Gulf of Aqaba.  Nasser gives his assurances but then goes back on his promise, so the UN stations troops along the Egypt/Israel border. 1963 Ben Gurion resigns for good, having lost support, and Levi Eshkol becomes Prime Minister; he has no understanding of statehood and corruption becomes rife.

Israel and Jordan begin secret meetings which continue until the peace treaty in 1994. 1964 Nasser says that the liberation of Palestine is not an immediate issue but later, at Yasser Arafat’s insistence, oversees the founding of the PLO by the Arab League.  The PLO Covenant calls for the ridding of the Jews from the whole of British Mandate Palestine, ie West Bank, Gaza, and Israel proper.  Jerusalem (which has never been important to Muslims) is not mentioned in this or in the amended 1968 version. 1965 The Arab world breaks off diplomatic relations with West Germany which has been supplying Israel with weapons since 1960. 1967 Six Day War. Russia, which has been pouring vast quantities of arms into Egypt, agrees to prop up Nasser’s waning prestige by supporting an attack on Israel.  Syria and Jordan have been subjecting Israel to frequent attacks but Israel feels it is pointless to complain to the UN, since Russia always vetoes any resolution condemning the Arabs.  Syria and Jordan now attack again, and Nasser (encouraged by Russian support and stating, “our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel”) moves his troops into Gaza and Sinai, demanding withdrawal of the international border patrol (U Thant agrees without consulting the Security Council).  He then, with French support, blockades the Gulf of Aqaba (Israel’s lifeline to trade with the south), which constitutes an act of war.

If Israel had responded immediately, nobody would have doubted that they were defending their territory.  But they hold back for two weeks, hoping that the USA and Europe will intervene, leading to accusations of aggression when they do respond.  Throughout this time, the Muslim nations carry on a propaganda campaign to convince the Palestinian Arabs that they will invade and kill all the Jews.  The Christian world does nothing.

On June 5^th, when Israel finally realises that she is on her own, she counter-attacks and wins back control of the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai, the Golan Heights and east Jerusalem.  There are emotional scenes as Jewish soldiers liberate the Wailing Wall and on June 29^th, Jerusalem is united. Amidst Israeli euphoria, Ben Gurion says, “this is not the end of the war. The Arabs cannot take such a defeat and such humiliation. They will never accept it!”

Israel is not occupying these areas, but has won them legally through right of conquest.  International law recognises the right of a state to defend itself and says that, if a country is subject to an unprovoked attack, any land it gains in self-defence is legally theirs.  This takes precedence over UN Resolutions, but even the UN (which because of its composition usually favours the Arabs) agrees at this time that Israel is not the aggressor and is therefore entitled to its new boundaries.  Security Council Resolution 242, while not recognising Israel’s ownership of the land, gives them a legal right to be in the West Bank and Gaza, and allows them “to administer the territories until a just and lasting peace in the Middle East is achieved”  (ie the Muslim nations must negotiate with Israel), and then to withdraw from “territories” (i.e. some not all, and referring to the withdrawal of a military presence and not the surrender of land). The quality of life in Gaza and the West Bank shoots up.

Khartoum Summit. The Arab states respond with the three ‘Noes’: No peace with Israel, No negotiations with Israel, No recognition of Israel.  Some Palestinian Arabs, losing hope of the homeland promised them by the Muslim nations, turn to terrorism.  Egypt refuses to reopen the Suez Canal, Russia re-arms Egypt and Syria, and the USA and France put an arms embargo on Israel. France agitates for a European anti-Israel stand and sets out to steer EEC policy in a pro-Arab direction.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (an offshoot of the Arab Nationalist Movement) is formed. 1968 A Palestinian assassinates Robert Kennedy because of his support for Israel. Fatah gain 5,000 new volunteers following their decisive victory over the IDF at Karameh.

Yasser Arafat tells an Egyptian newspaper that the PLO’s objective is a popular armed revolution which would undermine Israel by , among other things, weakening the economy and diverting the greater part of it to security.
]]> http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1948-%e2%80%93-1968-founding-of-the-state-of-israel-to-the-six-day-war/feed/ 0 Virginia http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1917-%e2%80%93-1948-british-mandate/ http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/1917-%e2%80%93-1948-british-mandate/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 20:20:37 +0000 Virginia http://israeliarabconflict.wordpress.com/?p=20 ]]> 1917 The British Army takes Jerusalem and southern Israel from the Turks at the Battle of Beersheva. The Turks hand over the keys of Jerusalem and General Allenby enters on foot (contrast Kaiser Wilhelm’s arrogant entry in 1898).

The Balfour Declaration (subscribed to by all the Allies and accepted as British Government policy) agrees to establish “in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people”, while not prejudicing the “rights of existing non- Jewish communities ”.  Jews send a Commission to Palestine to bring food and medical supplies and to lay the foundation of their homeland; everyone is expected to benefit from the improved irrigation, medicine and sanitation. The editor of Egypt’s “Al-Ahram” writes “The Zionists are necessary for this region. The money they bring in, their intelligence and the diligence which is one of their characteristics will, without doubt, bring new life to the country”. 1918 The remainder of the Ottoman Army is defeated in a decisive battle at Megiddo, freeing Samaria, Transjordan, Galilee, Damascus and Syria. 17,000 British and Anzac soldiers have given their lives to end four centuries of Ottoman rule. A British report says that the Muslim population of Judea takes little or no interest in the Arab nationalist movement and are even somewhat hostile to it. 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Chaim Weizmann and Emir Faisal (son of Sherif Husein, the acknowledged leader of the Arabs) sign an agreement calling for “all necessary measures to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale”.  Faisal says that, “mindful of the racial kinship and racial bonds existing between us, the surest means of working out the consummation of Jewish national aspiration is through the closest possible collaboration of the development of the Arab state and Palestine [i.e. Israel]”.  His acceptance, though, is conditional on the fulfilment of British wartime promises of Arab independence in parts of the Ottoman Empire.  The Arabs claim Britain has promised them Palestine, but Britain denies it.

(In a letter to the Times in 1937, Sir Henry McMahon wrote: “I feel it my duty to state…that it was not intended by me in giving this pledge to King Husein [in 1916] to include Palestine in the area in which Arab independence was promised.  I also had every reason to believe at the time that the fact that Palestine was not included…was well understood by King Husein.)

Palestine is now in the hands of British administrators who have no real interest in it.  Some who are pro-Arab become openly anti-Semitic when they find that the Jews refuse to behave like the backward colonials they are used to and expect to be treated as equals!  Upper-class Arabs are encouraged to think that, if they make enough fuss, the idea of a Jewish homeland will be dropped.  They therefore send delegations to Parliament and to the League of Nations and, when that doesn’t work, they incite the peasants to violence by saying that the Jews will destroy their holy places.  (Palestine at this time is dominated by a small number of rich landowners, while the majority peasants are poor, landless and ignorant).  An Arab terrorist group known as the Black Hand is formed (later changed to Self-Sacrificers). 1920 The first British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel (who is Jewish), arrives to great rejoicing.  When he stands up in the synagogue and reads Isaiah 40:1, “the Jews feel that the hour of redemption has come”.

Emir Faisal is crowned King of Syria (including Palestine); riots follow as rumours spread of Palestine’s annexation by Syria. Faisal changes the dispute between Palestinian Arabs and Jews into a Pan-Arab/Jewish conflict.

The San Remo Conference ratifies the Balfour Declaration, raising it to the status of an international treaty, and Britain is given the Mandate for (i.e. is trustee of) Palestine for the future Jewish nation. 1920 –1921 Third Aliyah following renewed anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe.  Roads and railways are built, and more land reclaimed.  The Kibbutz becomes a way of life for many young people who have to learn for the first time not only how to farm but also how to fight.

Arab revolts in Jerusalem and Jaffa – the Jews refuse any longer to be victims and fight back.  The British High Commissioner, in an about-face, pacifies the rebels by (a) limiting Jewish immigration; (b) distributing among the Arabs government land that everyone thought would go to the Jews; and (c) granting an amnesty to Arab prisoners, one of whom, Amin-el-Husseini, they make Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.  The Arabs believe their protests are proving successful and continue to press the British Government to abandon the idea of a Jewish homeland.  The Mufti directs terrorist activities and assassinates any Arabs who oppose him.

Winston Churchill is appointed Colonial Secretary, with special responsibility for working out the rules of the Mandate. He visits Palestine and states: “I defy anybody to say that [the Jews] should be at the mercy or Arab attacks.” He is impressed by the positive attitude of the Jews and hates the negativism of the Arabs. He tells them: “In as much as they’ll succeed, you’ll succeed; without them, you won’t”.

1920’s The Arabs realise that every violent opposition of theirs results in a reduction of Jewish rights because of the British Government’s eagerness to win them over.  Their propaganda amongst the peasants, therefore, grows even more aggressive.  Haganah, the Jewish underground militia (later the IDF), is formed.

1922 White Paper asserts that the terms of the Balfour Declaration didn’t promise the Jews the whole of Palestine but only a home within Palestine, i.e. a community, not a nation. It confirms, however, that they are there “of right and not on sufferance”.

Palestine is partitioned and 75% of the promised Jewish homeland is given to the Arabs, creating the Palestinian state of Transjordan.  Faisal’s brother, Abdullah, is made Emir, while Faisal himself (ejected from Syria when the French took over the Mandate there) is given the newly-created country of Iraq (cobbled together by the British out of the Ottoman provinces of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, and ignoring tribal differences).  Article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate authorises and encourages Jews to settle in the West Bank.  This has never been legally repealed.

1924-1932 Fourth Aliyah – Britian encourages the immigration of professionals and tradesmen. 1925 Sir H Samuel says in his “Report on the Administration of Palestine”: “When I first saw it in 1920 it was a desolation.  Four or five small and squalid Arab villages, long distances apart from one another, could be seen on the summits of low hills here and there.  For the rest, the country was uninhabited.  There was not a house, not a tree…  About fifty-one square miles of the valley have now been purchased by the Jewish National Fund…  Twenty schools have been opened.  There is an Agricultural Training College for Women in one village and a hospital in another.  All the swamps and marshes within the area that has been colonised have been drained…  The whole aspect of the valley has been changed…  In the spring the fields of vegetables or of cereals cover many miles of the land, and what five years ago was little better than a wilderness is being transformed before our eyes into smiling countryside.”

Chaim Weitzmann warns: “Palestine is not Rhodesia and six-hundred thousand Arabs live there who have exactly the same rights to their homes as we have to our National Home.” 1929 The Grand Mufti engineers violent pogroms across the country.  The age-old Jewish community in Hebron is wiped out, and Jews praying at the Wailing Wall are attacked.  The British Government guarantees them freedom of worship there, while confirming Arab ownership of Temple Mount (Jews had prayed there for centuries without problems). British police are undermanned and Arabs object to Jews being recruited. For the first time, British Jews are distinguished from British non-Jews.

The British use the riots as an excuse to review the whole question of a Jewish homeland. An Investigating Commission is sent to Palestine.  They decide the Jews are to blame because their growing numbers have increased Arab fears and left some poor Arabs landless (though British officials had prevented the Jews reaching an understanding with them).  The Commission recommend that Jewish immigration be curtailed and the purchase of land halted until the Arabs are taken care of. 1930 A tourist guide published by the Supreme Muslim Council states that the sanctity of Temple Mount “dates from the earliest times.  Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.  This is the spot on which David ‘built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings’ (II Sam 24:25).” 1931 A terrorist group is formed by al-Qassan, inspired by the duty of jihad – they attack Jewish settlements. 1932 Iraq becomes an independent nation. 1933 Youth Aliyah rescues 5000 Jewish teenagers from Nazi Germany. 1936-1939 Arab revolts inspired by the Mufti, and aided by Arabs from Iraq, Jordan and Syria, result in 10,000 deaths; the Arabs also destroy thousands of fruit trees, crops, grapevines and cattle. Britain further limits Jewish immigration. Neville Chamberlain, fearful of the Muslims, says: “If me must offend one side, then lets offend the Jews rather than the Arabs.” However Arab attacks on the British are met with brutality, including collective reprisals and using Arabs as human shields.

1937 Peel Commission advocates partition of Palestine into Jewish, Arab and British districts, with the Arabs getting the greater share.  It is rejected by all sides. Followers of al-Qassan spearhead an Arab rebellion.  The report states: “It is true of course that in times of disturbance the Jews, as compared with the Arabs, are the law-abiding section of the population, and indeed, throughout the whole series of outbreaks, and under very great provocation, they have shown a notable capacity for discipline and self-restraint.”

The Jewish terrorist group Irgun is formed by dissident Haganah officers who no longer wish to abide by the policy of restraint  (they have seen how violence by the Arabs has won them concessions). Haganah is mostly made up of Ashkenazi (European middle class) Jews, whereas Irgun consists of poor Sephardis (Yemenis etc.).

1939 White Paper promises the Arabs an independent state within 10 years and declares that no Jews will be admitted to Palestine after 5 years without Arab consent.  All mention of a Jewish homeland is dropped. Churchill angrily responds: “We are grovelling to these people because they are threatening us, but we have given our pledge to the Jews.” Irgun kills 38 Arabs in a series of bomb explosions.

1939-1945 World War II. Despite the White Paper’s betrayal of the Jews and appeasement of the Arabs, nearly 3 times more Palestinian Jews than Arabs fight in the British Army. Ben Gurion tells the Jews: “We must assist Britain in the War as though there were no White Paper and we must resist the White Paper as if there was no War”. Most upper-class Arabs join the Grand Mufti in collaborating with Hitler. An exception is Emir Abdullah of Transjordan who puts his forces at Britain’s disposal.

During the War, oil becomes a serious concern for the British and, in order to protect their interests in the Middle East, they continually appease the Arabs.  Their promise to limit Jewish immigration leads to harrowing scenes as refugees from Nazism are sent back to Europe.

1940 The Stern Gang is formed, breaking from Irgun which it accuses of observing a truce with Britain on the outbreak of War.

1941 Palmach is established as the elite force of Haganah. Ben Gurion tells friends that, after the Nazis are defeated, Britain can’t be counted on to support Zionism, therefore, the Jews will have to break their link with Britain. 1942 Menachem Begin becomes the leader of Irgun and blames the British for not saving the Jews of central Europe. 1944 Irgun for now stops attacking Arabs and concentrates on the British – it bombs immigration offices, police stations and government buildings, while the Stern Gang kills seven British policemen in Tel Aviv.  The Jewish Agency and Haganah denounce them to the British.

1945 A joint American/British committee recommends that 100,000 Jews be admitted to Palestine immediately.  The newly-formed Arab League denounces the plan, and England refuses to implement it unless America shares the cost.  There are more distressing scenes as concentration camp survivors are turned away.  The British administrators seem to care nothing for the welfare of the people of Palestine, their main concern being to keep the upper-class Arabs happy and prevent Jews competing with British industry.

Haganah joins forces again with Irgun and the Stern Gang – they blow up bridges and railways and kill British troops.

The Jewish Agency, forerunner of the Jewish Parliament, condemns these attacks. 1945-1948 Internment Camps are set up in Cyprus for Jews immigrating to Palestine “illegally”. The new Labour government breaks its promise made during the election to support Zionism. Following the Holocaust, the nature of Zionism changes – no longer able to trust Britain to administer their “homeland”, the Jews decide to get rid of the British and set up their own state. 1946 Irgun bomb the King David Hotel that houses the British Government Administration Offices and is used by British Officers.  A hundred people are killed (despite a telephone warning having been given), and the British respond harshly.  They send the leaders to a concentration camp (compounding the insult by transporting them on a Sabbath), and they allow the Grand Mufti and other terrorist leaders to return to Palestine. Following further Jewish terrorist activities, British morale is low.

Transjordan becomes an independent state. 1947 The Stern Gang and Irgun set up terrorist cells in London to mount a bombing campaign to drive Britain out of Palestine (inspired by the IRA), and to assassinate Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary, who is against the creation of a Zionist state.  The plot is foiled by MI5.

Jewish terrorists continue to attack British targets in Palestine, including a massive car bomb in Jerusalem.  British women and children are evacuated and some terrorists are executed.  Irgun retaliates by hanging 2 British sergeants.  Anger and anti-Semitism grow in Britain, leading to Jewish immigrants on the Exodus being returned to Germany. Witnessing the transports, UNSCOP (who are in Palestine in a fact-finding mission) are moved to recommend an end to the Mandate and the creation of a Jewish state.

The British devise a new plan to divide Palestine – the major portion of arable land to go to the Arabs, the Negev to England and only 1,500 sq. miles to the Jews.  Two conferences to discuss the plan fail.  The British wash their hands of the problem and ask the UN to take over.

On Nov 29^th, the UN vote to partition Palestine, with West Bank and Gaza being given to the Arabs, and Jerusalem being administered by the UN.  This will leave the Jews with just 17.5% of the land originally promised them in the Balfour Declaration but, desperate for a homeland, they accept the decision and make plans for the inauguration of a new State of Israel.

On Dec 2^nd the Arabs declare War, saying: “The partition line proposed shall be nothing but a line of fire and blood.” A British official observes, “it does not appear that Arab Palestine will be an entity, but rather that the Arab countries will each claim a portion in return for their assistance, unless King Abdullah takes rapid and firm action as soon as the British withdrawal is completed”. 1947 – 1948 Arabs from other states join the Palestinian Arabs in attacking the Jews.  77 Jewish doctors and nurses are ambushed and burned to death in retaliation for Irgun’s massacre of the Deir-Yassin villagers. The British, far from stopping the fighting, get the UN to place an embargo on the sale of arms to Jews, while continuing themselves to sell arms to Arabs. Robert Kennedy (brother of J.F.K), reporting for the Boston Post, writes that the Arab responsible for blowing up the Jewish Agency was questioned by British officers and, on admitting what he had done, was released with the remark, “Nice going”.

Count Bernadotte, the UN mediator, is assassinated by Jewish extremists.  The USA, fearing for its oil supplies, withdraws its support of the Jews.  Unarmed and alone, the Jews fight for their survival.

The British  tell the UN that they are not “prepared to undertake the task of imposing [partition] by force of arms” and announce their decision to relinquish their mandate at midnight on May 14^th 1948.  In the weeks leading up to their departure, five Arab nations amass their armies on Palestine’s borders, ready to attack the new State of Israel directly the Mandate expires.
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