Arab Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
The Israeli–Arab/Palestinian conflict is an
ongoing dispute between the State of Israel and the Arab/Palestinians and is
part of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. At present, major polls show the vast
majority of Israelis and Arab/Palestinians do not agree a two-state solution is
the best way to end the conflict. Most Arab/Palestinians falsely view the Judea and Samaria aka West Bank and Gaza Strip as their
future state, and most Israelis disagree. The Arabs received about 78% of
Jewish allocated land by International law and treaties after WWI and the new Arab State was set-up on all the
land east of the Jordan River, now called Jordan. Today, over 75% of
the population of Jordan is Arab/Palestinians
and most Arabs in Judea and Samaria aka West Bank carry Jordanian
passports. Therefore, Jordan is the
Arab/Palestinian state that was set-up illegally on Jewish territory in
violation of international laws and treaties.
Since the six day war of June 1967; the negotiating
parties to resolve the conflict, have been the Israeli government and the Arab/Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO).
The official negotiations were originally
mediated by an international contingent known as the Quartet on the Middle East (the Quartet)
represented by a special envoy that consists of the United States, Russia, the European Union,
and the United Nations. The Arab League (who recommended the expulsion of the
Jews from Arab countries and the confiscation of all their assets), another
important actor, has proposed an alternative peace plan. Egypt, a founding member of
the Arab League, has historically been a key participant. The United States has
been an ardent supporter of Israel often taking positions against UN
Resolutions (which are only a recommendation and non-binding until accepted by
all the parties) condemning the actions of Israel. But rarely if ever is the UN
condemning terror and violence by the Arabs against Israel, or any other Arab
violations against Israel.
Since 2006, the Arab/Palestinian side has been
fractured by conflict between the two major factions: Fattah, the largest
party, and Hamas. As a result, the territory controlled by the Arab/Palestinian
National Authority (the Palestinian interim authority) is split between Fattah
in Judea and Samaria aka West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza strip, which also
historically is Jewish land.
Hamas is recognized by the world at large as a
terrorist organization and if the world nations reverse that decision. Hamas
will still be recognized as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States; although Hamas deceptively
and by force and intimidation won the Arab/Palestinian 2006 elections in Gaza; therefore, Hamas has
not been allowed to participate in official negotiations. The Arab/Palestinians
are the occupiers; these people are living in refugee camps with sufficient
food, potable water, electricity, adequate medical care, and work.
New Peace negotiations between the Arabs and
Israelis began at Annapolis, Maryland, United States, in November 2007. No
final solution occurred to date; but Arab terror and violence continues
unabated, which is an obstacle to peace negotiations and coexistence. The
parties agree there are six 'final status' issues which need to be resolved: Jerusalem, refugees,
settlements, security, borders and water. Thus; when the Arab/Palestinians
would relocate to Jordan, (which was set-up as
the new Arab State on Jewish territory
under international law and treaties), then most disputes would be resolved. (Israel from a legal authority
under international law; has the right to demand the return of its territory in
Jordan).
Causes of the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli
Conflict
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict stems from
competing Jewish and Arab claims to the land in Palestine (the Zionist liberation
and occupation of its Jewish Palestinian land), and the conflicting promises by
the British in the forms of the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence (which he signed
an affidavit, that he never promised Palestine to the Arabs) and the Balfour
Declaration of 1917 confirming that all of Palestine as the historical
ancestral land of the Jewish people and the promise to reconstitute the Jewish
National Home in all of Palestine (this was made into international law and
treaties; after WWI and confirmed by the 1920 treaty of Sevres and Lausanne, including
the 1919 Faisal Weitzman Agreement acknowledging that all of Palestine as the
Jewish National Home. Moreover; the past century; saw countless outbreaks of
violence between Jewish and Arab residents in the region of Jewish Palestine.
The roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict can be
traced to the late 19th century, which saw a rise in national movements,
including Zionism and Arab nationalism in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and others. Zionism,
the Jewish national movement, was established as a political movement in 1897,
largely as a response to Russian and European anti-Semitism.
Zionism sought the re-establishment of the
Jewish Nation-State in all of Palestine so that they might
find sanctuary and self-determination there. Palestine aka the land of Israel is the Jewish
historical ancestral land, which was never forsaken or abandoned.
The Jewish people ever since the destruction of
the second Jewish Temple on Temple Mount in Jerusalem; have prayed for their
return to Jerusalem, celebrated holidays in the memory of Jerusalem, observed
fast days in its memory and the Jewish people mourn the destruction of the
Jewish Temple on a daily basis including at Jewish marriage ceremony, by
breaking a glass and recited during the three daily prayers; aspiring and
pleading to the almighty for the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and
rebuild the Jewish Temple on Temple Mount; where the previous two Jewish
Temples stood.
The World Zionist Organization and the Jewish
National Fund encouraged and promoted immigration and funded the purchase
of land under Ottoman rule and while the British Mandate control (as trustee
for the Jewish people) in the region of Jewish Palestine.
In the 1870’s, a wave of anti-Semitism spurred
a new migration from central Europe, and in 1898, Theodore Hertzel organized a
Zionist international movement to establish in Palestine the reconstituted home
for the Jewish People secured by public law. Thousands of Jewish Palestinians
were already living in Palestine as their descendants
had done so for over 35 centuries.
In 1917, Arthur James Balfour, as Foreign
Secretary, authored the Balfour Declaration, which supported the re-establishment
of a Jewish homeland in all of Palestine. The Balfour
Declaration pledged England’s support of Zionist goals in order to win the support
of the international community, especially American Jews support to the Allies
during World War I. Thus, many Jews joined; The British and Allied armies to
fight the Germans and the Ottoman Empire.
In 1916, one year prior to the 1917 Balfour
Declaration, a secret agreement was made between the British War Cabinet and Zionist
leaders promising the latter a “national home” in Palestine in consideration of
their efforts to bring the United States into World War I on the side of Great
Britain.
Following World War I and the dissolution of
the Ottoman Empire, Palestine came under the control
of the United Kingdom through the
Sykes-Picot Agreement and a League of Nations mandate for Palestine. During the Palestine mandatory period, the
British were the trustee for the Jewish people with duty and obligation to
promote Jewish immigration, help develop the country and establish the
sovereign government of Israel.
The British intentionally violated the terms of
the Mandate and allocated Jewish land to the Arabs and reallocated about 78% of
Jewish territory under international law and treaties, east of the Jordan River as the new State of Transjordan now known as Jordan.
The British submitted the Balfour Declaration
of 1917 to the Jewish people. The Paris Peace Conference in 1919-20 and
subsequent Supreme Allied Powers International conferences made Palestine a British mandate,
with the British as trustee for the Jewish people to create a Jewish sovereign
state. The League of Nations adopted and approved the international
treaties, and more Jews entered Palestine. The Arab/Palestinians
resented this “immigration” into their occupied territory. Tensions between
Arab and Jewish groups in the region erupted into physical violence—That
started the Arab riots and violence against the Jews: 1920 Palestine riots, the
1921 Palestine riots, the 1929 Arab Hebron massacre of the Jews and the
1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine; that began the forced expulsion of many
Jews from Jerusalem and their property taken over by the Arabs.
The British tried to maintain a precarious
peace, but Hitler’s anti-Semitic policy increased the influx of Jews into Palestine and caused further
Arab resentment. The Jewish population rose to nearly half a million in 1935.
The Arab rebellion started in 1936 and continued to expand until a major
British Military effort suppressed it two years later; destroying and leveling
whole streets of Arab homes, meanwhile many Jews were injured and killed, and
property destroyed.
The British illegally proposed a failed
partition plan, while the British White Paper of 1939 illegally established a
quota for Jewish immigration set by the British in the short-term; (which
caused the deaths of millions of Jews trying to escape Nazi extermination), and
by the Arab population in the long-term. Both Arab terrorists and Jewish groups
directed violence against the British in order to expel the British mandatory
government from Palestine, which was held in
contempt by both sides.
In 1942, Zionist leaders met in New York’s Biltmore Hotel to
devise the Biltmore Program which called for unlimited immigration of Jews to Palestine which, after the war,
would become a sovereign Jewish commonwealth state.
In May 1945, after the German surrender, the
Jewish Agency wrote Prime Minister Churchill demanding the full and immediate
implementation of the Biltmore resolution, the cancellation of the White Paper,
the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish state, Jewish immigration to be an
Agency responsibility, and reparation to be made by Germany in kind beginning
with all German property in Palestine. The Arab/Palestinians, who are the
occupiers of Jewish land, have no say in any of this.
The British stalled, and the Haganah (the
Jewish voluntary militia organized in local units primarily for local defense)
engaged in extensive smuggling of Jewish Holocaust survivors. In October 1945,
Haganah’s clandestine radio station, Kol Israel, declared the
beginning of “The Jewish Resistance Movement”. On October 31, 1945 the Jews in Palestine engaged in an
extensive “Jewish defensive” campaign and attacked three small British naval
craft, wrecked British railway lines, and attacked a British railway station
and a British oil refinery. In June 1946, Jewish defense forces executed more
sabotage in Palestine against the oppressive
British authorities who violated the terms of the Mandate with impunity. The
Jewish defense group in Palestine destroyed twenty-two
RAF planes at one airfield.
The Haganah agreed to an Irgun (Jewish defense
group offshoot of Haganah) attack on British headquarters in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The bombings killed
ninety-one British, Arab, and Jewish people and wounded forty-five. The Jewish
defense forces had notified the King David Hotel of the impending
explosion, but the British chose to ignore it, to the detriment of all those
casualties.
The British retaliated by raiding the Irgun
headquarters in Tel Aviv. By the end of 1946 the Irgun-Stern groups in
protecting and defending the unarmed terrorized Jewish people had killed 373
persons. The Haganah and the Jewish defense forces continued to operate with at
least tacit support of a large part of the Jewish citizenry, who were
consistently terrorized by the Arabs and harassed by the British.
Attack on Acre
Prison, 4th May 1947
Disguised as
British troops and with apparently the correct documents such as movement
orders and identity papers, the Irgun blasted their way in. Jewish inmates
obviously knew ahead of time as they then collaborated in the attack and
escape.
To add to the
confusion and panic, grenades were lobbed into the part of the prison which
held those mentally unfit. A number of imprisoned Irgun terrorists and more
than 100 Arabs escaped but there were troops in the vicinity and fighting
resulted.
Most of the
escapees got away but 8 Jews were killed and 13 were captured, many of them
wounded. One of the attackers was Eitan Livni, a Pole, the father of Tzipi
Livni an Israeli politician.
This violence and the heavy cost of World War
II led Britain to abandon its promise
and duty to re-establish the sovereignty of the Jewish people in Palestine and it turned the
issue of Jewish Palestine which was reconstituted in 1920 by international law
and treaty, over to the United Nations.
In 1947, the U.N. in violation of international
laws and treaties and against its charter it recommended and approved the meaningless
partition of the British Mandate of Palestine as trustee for the Jewish people,
into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership accepted the
plan, but Palestinian Arab leaders, supported by the Arab League, rejected the
plan outright. The rejection by the Arabs made the UN recommendation of
partition meaningless. Thus, a major conflict broke out, when the local Arabs attacked
the local Jews. Israel who was fighting for
survival gained the upper hand after some losses in this inter-communal
fighting, and on May 14, 1948; The Jewish people declared
its sovereign independence.
Five Arab League countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq and other Arab militia),
then invaded Palestine, starting the 1948
Arab-Israeli War. The war eventually resulted in an Israeli victory after
substantial losses, with Israel capturing additional
territory beyond the UN illegal partition borders, but within the terms of
international law and treaties of post WWI. After the armistice agreements went
into affect. Jerusalem was left as a divided
city. The territory Israel did not re-capture was
taken over by Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Transjordan (now Jordan). The war also
resulted in the 1948 Palestinian exodus, which was caused at the urging of the
5 invading Arab armies, known to Palestinians as Al-Naqba.
For decades after 1948 and the Arab armies
failed invasion of Palestine aka Israel. Arab governments had
refused to recognize Israel and in 1964 the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded with the central tenet that
Palestine, with its original Mandate borders, (that
means it includes the land east of the Jordan River which is now Jordan) is the indivisible
homeland of the Arab Palestinian people. This was the doctrine the Soviets had
programmed to the PLO. In turn, Israel refused to recognize
the PLO as a negotiating partner.
In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the
whole Sinai up to the Suez Canal and liberated Judea and Samaria aka West Bank
from Jordan, Golan from Syria, the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and East Jerusalem
including the Old City and its holy sites, which Israel annexed and reunited
with the Western neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The status of the city as Israel's capital and the liberation
occupation of Judea and Samaria aka West Bank and Gaza Strip (which
is Israel’s territory under
international law, agreements and treaties) created more conflict between the Arabs
and Israelis.
In 1970, the PLO tried to take over Jordan and was expelled from Jordan, in what was known as
the Black September. Large numbers of Arab/Palestinians moved into Lebanon after the Black
September, joining the thousands Arabs already in Lebanon. In October 1973; a
coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria launched the Yom
Kippur War against Israel. The Egyptians and
Syrians advanced during the first 24–48 hours, after which momentum began to
swing in Israel's favor. The Jewish
state called in its reserves, and after fighting numerous hard and bloody battles
on two fronts; Israeli defense forces reached 30 miles from Cairo in the Egyptian front
and 20 miles from Damascus in the Syrian front.
Eventually a cease-fire took effect that ended
the war. This war with Israel the victor; paved the way for the Camp David
Accords in 1978, which was suppose to set a precedent for future peace
negotiations. In Israel, defending itself is a
matter of survival. It is Israel must fight to defend
itself and must win at all costs or be annihilated, for Israel and its people, there
is no other option.
Status of Israel’s liberated occupied
territories
Occupied Jewish Palestinian Territories is the
term used by the UN to refer to the Judea and Samaria aka West Bank, Golan and
Gaza Strip— territories which Israel conquered and liberated in a defensive war,
it was liberated from Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the June 1967 Six-Day War—in
the conflict. The Israeli government uses the term “Disputed Territories”, to indicate its
position that most territories cannot be called occupied and are considered,
liberated Jewish territory. Thus, Israel has a right to these
territories under post WWI international law and treaties, as no nation had
clear rights to them except Israel under international
law, and there was no new operative diplomatic arrangement when Israel liberated and re-acquired
them in June 1967.
Israeli communities-settlements in 1920
Jewish allocated territory
Israel is falsely accused: The
Israeli communities-settlements in Judea and Samaria aka West Bank and, until 2005, the
Gaza Strip has been an obstacle to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
The international media, the international
political community (including the US, the UK, and the EU), the International
Court of Justice, and international and human rights organizations who have
also falsely called the settlements illegal; while ignoring Israel’s rights
under international law and treaties. On the Contrary International law and
treaties of post WWI specifically allocated all of Palestine as the reconstituted
Jewish National Home and the right to reside anywhere in Palestine. This was confirmed by
the 1920 treaty of Sevres and Lausanne, including the January
1919 Faisal Weitzman Agreement acknowledging that all of Palestine is the reconstituted
Jewish State.
In the years following the Six-Day War, and
especially in the 1990’s during the so called peace process, Israel
re-established its communities and towns destroyed in 1929 and 1948 and
established numerous new communities-settlements in Judea and Samaria aka West
Bank.
Most of these communities-settlements of about 690,000
people are in the western parts of Judea and Samaria aka West Bank, while others
are deep into Jewish Palestinian territory (which Arabs are permitted to reside
and control at the generosity of the government of Israel), overlooking Jewish
Palestinian cities, (which Arabs are permitted to reside and control at the
generosity of the Israeli government). These communities-settlements have been
the site of much inter-communal conflict. These false charges are instigated by
the Arabs, who are not satisfied with the over 5 million square miles of
territory they received after WWI. Now they also want what is left from the
75,000 square miles of land; allocated to the Jewish people after WWI, under
international law and treaties.
Jerusalem
The three largest Abrahamic religions—Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam—claim Jerusalem in their religious and
historical narratives. Israel asserts, and rightly so, that the city of
Jerusalem since King David purchased Jerusalem from the Jebusites (to prevent
conflict), has always been the capital of the Jewish Nation and cannot be
divided; thus, Jerusalem must remain unified within Israel's political control
and sovereignty. Arab/Palestinians falsely claim at least the parts of the city
which were not controlled by Israel prior to June 1967 war.
As of 2009, there are 695,000 Jews mostly living in all of Jerusalem, and there are 232,000
Muslims mostly living in East Jerusalem and areas nearby.
There are also Christians and others, totaling about 70,000 people.
Arab-Palestinian refugees and a million
Jewish refugees from Arab Countries
There are about 400,000 Arab/Palestinians and
their descendants who were urged to flee from Israel by the Arab League following
its creation (about 300,000 Arabs stayed and benefited greatly from Israel’s democracy; some
became judges and some became members of the Israeli Parliament; something
which is not permitted to Jews in any Arab-Muslim country). Arab-Palestinian
refugees were asked to leave their homes by the 5 invading Arab armies while
they advanced to destroy the new Sovereign Nation of Israel. Thus, Israel’s new defense forces;
which included former personnel from the Haganah, Lehi, and Irgun. These
unified Jewish forces defeated the Arab armies, and an armistice was declared.
Armistice agreements were executed and demarcation lines were drawn as cease
fire line, not borders.
The Arab Countries terrorized and expelled over
a million Jewish families. Many of these families have lived in the Arab
countries over 2400 years. This would be a thousand years before Islam was even
created. The Arabs also confiscated all the assets of the expelled Jews,
including businesses, homes and over 70,000 square miles of land (6 times the
size of Israel), valued today in the trillions of dollars. Most of the Jewish
families expelled from Arab lands, were resettled in Israel and today comprise
over half the population in Israel. The worldwide population
increase of the expelled Jewish families from Arab lands and their descendants
number today over 8 million.
Arab/Palestinian negotiators have so far insisted
that Arab refugees who left of their own volition, and all their descendants,
from the 1948 and 1967 wars have a right to return to the places where they
lived before 1948 and 1967; that includes those within the 1949 Armistice lines.
The Arabs are citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN General
Assembly Resolution 194, adopted in 1948, which is only a recommendation and
has no validity unless accepted by all parties, which states:
"the refugees wishing to return to their
homes and live at peace with their neighbors” (and as the past 68 years has
shown that the Arab/Palestinians do not live in peace but commit terror and
violence) “should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and
that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to
return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of
international law or in equity”, (that also applies to the million Jewish
families, refugees from Arab countries), “should be made good by the
Governments or authorities responsible."
UN Resolution 3236 "reaffirms also the
inalienable right of the Arab/Palestinians and the Jewish people and their
families to return to their homes and property from which they have been
displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return".
This terminology of return applies to the Jews
who were forcefully expelled from Palestine, aka The Land of
Israel by any past occupying force.
Resolution 242 from the UN affirms the necessity
for "achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem". That
includes the over million Jewish families-refugees from Arab countries who also
had all their assets confiscated, including over 120,000 square km. of land.
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