Once again violence between Palestinian arabs and Israel is in the news. I am angered and revolted by the entire string of events. Understanding the history helps understand the intensity of the current conflict.
Israel was formed as a kingdom, lasting only a brief time before being divided in two. The area was then sequentially conquered by the Babylonians, the Assyrians and then the Persians, who controlled it until the conquest by Alexander the Great in 336 BC. After Alexander's death the area was ruled by either the Seleucid or Ptolemaic kings until being conquered by Rome. Roman and then Byzantine rule continued until Muslim arabs conquered the area in 634 AD. Palestine was controlled by the Christian Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem for about 110 years, but then reverted to Ottoman Turkish rule. This continued until the collapse of Ottoman Turkey with the end of WW 1 in 1918.
The Treaty of Versailles formalized the British administration of Palestine. Britain had assumed control of the area after it was taken by Allenby in 1917. This led Britain to issue the first of a string of significant documents about Palestine, the Balfour Convention. It stated that Britain intended to create a homeland for Jews out of their protectorate of Palestine. During the interwar years there was slow immigration of Jews into Palestine in anticipation of the execution of the Balfour Convention, which never came.
WW 2 found the area retained under British control. Following the war and the Holocaust there was substantial interest in and pressure for a Jewish homeland, and the obvious choice was Palestine, both in historical and in modern political terms, based on the Balfour Convention. As interest gathered immigration of Jews snowballed, leading to complaints by Palestinian arabs and to Britain outlawing Jewish immigration into Palestine. This continued illegally but briskly through 1946 and 1947. In the face of a growing Jewish population, international pressure for a Jewish home, and their own Balfour Declaration, Palestine was turned over to its indigenous populations in 1948. To accommodate Jews and arabs the territory was divided in a way that gave most police stations, weapons and arable land to the arabs.
This division did not satisfy the arabs, and Egypt, Syria and Jordan declared war on Jewish Palestine, leading to the War of Independence in 1948-49. Despite being outnumbered the Jews handily defeated their arab opponents, taking control of almost all of Palestine except for the Gaza Strip and the enclave of Jordan west of the Jordan River. These became the borders of Israel. In their arguments about Israel, most arabs point to the illegal immigration of Jews during 1947-48 as proof that the area is arab and not Jewish. This is not a complete understanding of either Jewish immigration or of the history of Palestine.
Israel has governed this area ever since. The surrounding arab states have tried 3 times to win a formal war against Israel, losing each time. During the 1967 war Israel took control of the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza. After the 1967 war the UN issued declaration 242, recognizing Israel's right to exist. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2004, and Egypt turned it over to the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian Authority, whether called the PA, the PLO or Hamas, has always had a militant and armed wing whose charter has as an expressed goal the destruction of Israel and the taking of what they call the Occupied Territories. This violent agenda of revanche was prosecuted by the PLO until its politicization, and then by Hamas. Hamas has also been partially politicized, winning election in Gaza for control of that area.
Sine 2004 arabs have launched thousands of rockets into Israel. These are unguided and targeted specifically on civilian areas. The rocket launchers are highly mobile, and are launched deliberately from civilian areas to make aerial retaliation by Israel difficult. In response Israel has three times made incursions into Gaza. Each time the incursion was halted by world outcry over loss of Palestinian life and the death of civilians, especially children. And here we are today.
There are several parts of this long story that are offensive to me-
-the legal rulers of Palestine made a decision to turn it over to Jews;
-the world legitimized this decision in 1948, and has reaffirmed it by UN 242 in 1967;
-Arabs have not accepted this decision, going to war 3 times and continuing a campaign of terrorism with rockets, bus bombs and suicide bombers;
-the world, in a volte face, objects to Israeli retaliations and is concerned for arab children while ignoring Israeli ones.
There is no question of Israel's legitimacy as a country, except from the surrounding arab states. Israel is urged to negotiate. How do you do so with a group openly dedicated to your destruction? And what is wrong with Israel's response? It is planned, minimizes civilian casualties and is in response to intolerable goading. If it were my choice I would have responded much more strongly.
If attacked by an organization dedicated to my destruction, supported by a people who participate in the attacks, I would give full, full warning to such people. In this case it is Hamas and the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. After 7-10 days of warning, I would advance with armored forces. The Gaza Strip is 25 miles long and 3-8 miles wide. Israel has 1800 Merkava tanks, each of which is 12 feet wide. 400 tanks will cover one mile of ground, allowing for minimal maneuver space. A more realistic spacing is 200 tanks per mile, or a tank every 26 feet. If you are not familiar with the effects of a tank on a building, a tank can drive right THROUGH most buildings.
I would simply drive my armor through the entire Gaza Strip, and destroy or damage every single building there. I would use targeted airstrikes or ground fire to destroy wells, power stations, cell phone towers, all bridges, every intersection, every airport. I would in short completely devastate the entire area without killing anyone. I would then re-occupy the area to prevent it being used as a base by Hamas, and settle Jews into it for the purpose of rebuilding.
Why the world tolerates the indiscriminate lobbing of rockets into a sovereign state and then complains when that state retaliates in a controlled manner is beyond me. When you throw rockets at a country armed with tanks and modern aircraft there is no really 'proportionate' response. Should Israel assume that Hamas 'doesn't know any better', as if they were some over-eager younger brother, and restrain their response in the assumption that Hamas will 'grow up'? That is not called for when one side wants you to be destroyed.
And I think anyone who does throw rockets like that has no right to complain about the 'inhuman' treatment they receive from the people they targeted.
Ted
Israel was formed as a kingdom, lasting only a brief time before being divided in two. The area was then sequentially conquered by the Babylonians, the Assyrians and then the Persians, who controlled it until the conquest by Alexander the Great in 336 BC. After Alexander's death the area was ruled by either the Seleucid or Ptolemaic kings until being conquered by Rome. Roman and then Byzantine rule continued until Muslim arabs conquered the area in 634 AD. Palestine was controlled by the Christian Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem for about 110 years, but then reverted to Ottoman Turkish rule. This continued until the collapse of Ottoman Turkey with the end of WW 1 in 1918.
The Treaty of Versailles formalized the British administration of Palestine. Britain had assumed control of the area after it was taken by Allenby in 1917. This led Britain to issue the first of a string of significant documents about Palestine, the Balfour Convention. It stated that Britain intended to create a homeland for Jews out of their protectorate of Palestine. During the interwar years there was slow immigration of Jews into Palestine in anticipation of the execution of the Balfour Convention, which never came.
WW 2 found the area retained under British control. Following the war and the Holocaust there was substantial interest in and pressure for a Jewish homeland, and the obvious choice was Palestine, both in historical and in modern political terms, based on the Balfour Convention. As interest gathered immigration of Jews snowballed, leading to complaints by Palestinian arabs and to Britain outlawing Jewish immigration into Palestine. This continued illegally but briskly through 1946 and 1947. In the face of a growing Jewish population, international pressure for a Jewish home, and their own Balfour Declaration, Palestine was turned over to its indigenous populations in 1948. To accommodate Jews and arabs the territory was divided in a way that gave most police stations, weapons and arable land to the arabs.
This division did not satisfy the arabs, and Egypt, Syria and Jordan declared war on Jewish Palestine, leading to the War of Independence in 1948-49. Despite being outnumbered the Jews handily defeated their arab opponents, taking control of almost all of Palestine except for the Gaza Strip and the enclave of Jordan west of the Jordan River. These became the borders of Israel. In their arguments about Israel, most arabs point to the illegal immigration of Jews during 1947-48 as proof that the area is arab and not Jewish. This is not a complete understanding of either Jewish immigration or of the history of Palestine.
Israel has governed this area ever since. The surrounding arab states have tried 3 times to win a formal war against Israel, losing each time. During the 1967 war Israel took control of the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza. After the 1967 war the UN issued declaration 242, recognizing Israel's right to exist. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2004, and Egypt turned it over to the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian Authority, whether called the PA, the PLO or Hamas, has always had a militant and armed wing whose charter has as an expressed goal the destruction of Israel and the taking of what they call the Occupied Territories. This violent agenda of revanche was prosecuted by the PLO until its politicization, and then by Hamas. Hamas has also been partially politicized, winning election in Gaza for control of that area.
Sine 2004 arabs have launched thousands of rockets into Israel. These are unguided and targeted specifically on civilian areas. The rocket launchers are highly mobile, and are launched deliberately from civilian areas to make aerial retaliation by Israel difficult. In response Israel has three times made incursions into Gaza. Each time the incursion was halted by world outcry over loss of Palestinian life and the death of civilians, especially children. And here we are today.
There are several parts of this long story that are offensive to me-
-the legal rulers of Palestine made a decision to turn it over to Jews;
-the world legitimized this decision in 1948, and has reaffirmed it by UN 242 in 1967;
-Arabs have not accepted this decision, going to war 3 times and continuing a campaign of terrorism with rockets, bus bombs and suicide bombers;
-the world, in a volte face, objects to Israeli retaliations and is concerned for arab children while ignoring Israeli ones.
There is no question of Israel's legitimacy as a country, except from the surrounding arab states. Israel is urged to negotiate. How do you do so with a group openly dedicated to your destruction? And what is wrong with Israel's response? It is planned, minimizes civilian casualties and is in response to intolerable goading. If it were my choice I would have responded much more strongly.
If attacked by an organization dedicated to my destruction, supported by a people who participate in the attacks, I would give full, full warning to such people. In this case it is Hamas and the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. After 7-10 days of warning, I would advance with armored forces. The Gaza Strip is 25 miles long and 3-8 miles wide. Israel has 1800 Merkava tanks, each of which is 12 feet wide. 400 tanks will cover one mile of ground, allowing for minimal maneuver space. A more realistic spacing is 200 tanks per mile, or a tank every 26 feet. If you are not familiar with the effects of a tank on a building, a tank can drive right THROUGH most buildings.
I would simply drive my armor through the entire Gaza Strip, and destroy or damage every single building there. I would use targeted airstrikes or ground fire to destroy wells, power stations, cell phone towers, all bridges, every intersection, every airport. I would in short completely devastate the entire area without killing anyone. I would then re-occupy the area to prevent it being used as a base by Hamas, and settle Jews into it for the purpose of rebuilding.
Why the world tolerates the indiscriminate lobbing of rockets into a sovereign state and then complains when that state retaliates in a controlled manner is beyond me. When you throw rockets at a country armed with tanks and modern aircraft there is no really 'proportionate' response. Should Israel assume that Hamas 'doesn't know any better', as if they were some over-eager younger brother, and restrain their response in the assumption that Hamas will 'grow up'? That is not called for when one side wants you to be destroyed.
And I think anyone who does throw rockets like that has no right to complain about the 'inhuman' treatment they receive from the people they targeted.
Ted
I think you have correctly summarized the history, as well as the variety of worldwide responses to what is going on in Israel.
ReplyDelete-D-