Palestinians’ Colonizationⁿ & Dispossession^o

(An Attempt To Present A More Balanced* Perspective, Chronologically Arranged)

Introduction

This short essay was prepared in order to continue trying to bring some more balanced* understanding to the average American about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (multiple tragedies) focused in the Middle East that has been concealed with deliberate deceptions^h for the Western World’s consumption by successive Israeli governments, and misrepresented here (US) by mainstream American news media. Nothing in my Position Paper (on the Web) has been invalidated during the past 3½ years; however, a very bad situation has become much, much worse. The “fundamental change” that I predicted in my Addendum I (11 Nov. 2005) has turned out to be an ongoing worsening of trends already then clearly established.

“The pre-eminent obstacle to peace is Israel’s colonization of Palestine,” Jimmy Carter, March 2006.^{t, back cover}

* Balanced by including a Palestinian/Arab viewpoint to counter the American mainstream news media’s historic—and ongoing—Israeli-centered presentations of facts and analyses on the Middle East to the American public.

A Short Historical Summary Prior to 1948

Britain must share some primary responsibility for the present day reality of the Israeli-Palestinian Tragedy. Christian Zionists trace their origin to John Darby and the Plymouth Brethren in England (ca. 1830s).^{q, r} The well-known Jewish Zionist slogan, “A land without a people for a people without land,” was introduced by an English fundamentalist Christian (the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, as noted in his diary dated 15 May 1854).^{z, p. 152} During WWI Britain and France reached a secret agreement called Sykes-Picot (9 May 1916) that divided the collapsing Ottoman Empire between them. Britain got Palestine. Britain falsely encouraged Arab tribal leaders to believe that they would be awarded freedom to establish a new Palestinian nation for their aiding in the defeat of the Turks (read Lawrence of Arabia). The Balfour Declaration (2 Nov. 1917) stated that a national home for the Jewish people should be established in Palestine. This Declaration further stated that “Nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” [Ed.’s italics] Both Lord Balfour and then Prime Minister Lloyd George were Christian Zionists. After the Ottoman Empire was defeated (WW I), the League of Nations confirmed (1922) British mandates over Iraq and Palestine, and French mandates over Syria and Lebanon. Transjordan was separated from the Palestinian Mandate and became Jordan.^{y, p. 3} Palestinian Arabs violently rebelled with a general strike (1936–1939), demanding a halt to Jewish immigration and a ban on land sales to Jews. The British Peel Commission (1936–1937) recommended that the Mandate be eventually abolished, except in a corridor surrounding Jerusalem. The Mandate was to be apportioned between two contiguous states, an Arab and a smaller Jewish state with an “exchange of populations.” Arab leadership rejected the plan, and Jewish opinion was divided. Later the UN decided (General Assembly Resolution 181, 29 Nov. 1947) that Palestine should be divided between Jews (55%) and Arabs (45%). Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to become international areas.^{y, p. 4}

Highlights of the Past 58 Years

The Nakba (The Great Catastrophe): Ilan Pappe’s new book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,^ee provides a very long overdue, and very detailed, account of the savage ethnic cleansing operations that began in December 1947 and that had brutally “expelled almost a quarter of a million Palestinians” by the end of the British Mandate (15 May 1948).^{ee,
p. xv} Weak Arab forces did not enter Palestine to fight until after the Mandate ended. “Between 30 March [1948] and 15 May, 200 villages were occupied and their inhabitants expelled.” [Ed.’s italics] “This is a fact that must be repeated as it undermines the Israeli myth that the ‘Arabs’ ran away once the ‘Arab invasion’ began. Almost half of the Arab villages had already been attacked by the time the Arab governments eventually and, as we know, reluctantly decided to send in their troops.”^{ee, p. 104}

“Throughout 1948, Jewish forces expelled many thousands of Palestinians from their villages, towns and cities into Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of others fled in fear. The [Israelis’] purpose was to create a pure Jewish state, ethnically cleansed of the original inhabitants who had lived there for centuries. The creation of the state of Israel was the heart of this cataclysmic historical event for the Palestinians—the mass forced expulsion of a people; the more than 50 massacres carried out over the summer of 1948 by various armed Jewish forces; the demolition of villages to ensure the refugees could not return—all this is summed up in a single word for Palestinians: Nakba, the catastrophe.”^b “Most Israeli historians now agree that 750,000 Palestinian civilians were either forced to leave Palestine or fled for their lives [during 1948].”^f [See Palestinian Refugees (p. 12).] UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948) asserts that refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace should b allowed to do so, with compensation paid to the others. Free access to the Holy Lands should be assured.^{y, p. 4} Israel has ignored this Resolution. David Ben Gurion was the Israeli PM (Mapai Party, 1949–1953). Harry S. Truman was U.S. president (Democrat, 1945–1953).

Israeli authorities expropriated money (estimated at 100 million pounds, including property values) from 1,300,000 Palestinian ex-citizens of Mandatory Palestine whose finances, invested in banks and institutions, were all seized after May 1948.^{ee, p.
212}

Several Nakba massacres have been well documented, including one at the Palestinian village of Tantura.^{ee,
pp. 133–37}

Israel’s ethnic cleansing operations continued until the summer of 1949.^{ee, p. 190}

“Many churches and mosques were never properly destroyed, but left to look like ‘ancient’ historical ruins—vestiges of the ‘past’ to remind people of Israel’s might of destruction.”^{ee, p.
217} “In retrospect, however, it was the abuse of their Islamic holy shrines that proved the most painful to a Palestinian community. . . .”^{ee, p. 217}

After the Nakba, Israel controlled 77% of Palestine. Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip, and Jordan controlled the West Bank (including East Jerusalem).^{y, p. 4} “The Palestinian minority in Israel, seventeen percent of the total population after ethnic cleansing, has been forced to make do with just three percent of the land.”^{ee, p.
222}

“In these forests Nakba denial is so pervasive, and has been achieved so effectively, that they have become a main arena of struggle for Palestinian refugees wishing to commemorate the villages [actually their ruins] that lie buried beneath them.”^{ee, p. 227} These new national forests reinforce the “familiar myths of the narrative—Palestine as an ‘empty’ and ‘arid’ land before the arrival of Zionism—that Zionism employs to supplant all history that contradicts its own invented Jewish past.”^{ee, pp. 228–29}

UN General Assembly Resolution 194 was established (1948) by a conciliation commission asserting that refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace should be allowed to do so, that compensation should be paid to others, and that free access to the Holy Places should be assured.^{y, p. 4} Israel has ignored this Resolution.

The following Ben-Gurion quote well illustrates the planned viciousness of this War. “In each attack, a decisive blow should be struck, resulting in the destruction of homes and the expulsion of the population.”^{aa, p. 40} Dr. Burge further states “In order to guarantee that the Arabs would not return, the villages were generally destroyed and their village wells poisoned, generally with typhus and dysentery bacteria. . . [Israeli] soldiers poisoned virtually every Arab well they captured.”^{aa, p. 40}

“If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. . . . There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz . . . but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?” David Ben-Gurion, Israeli Prime Minister, 1956^{t, back cover}

“Palestinians for a decade after 1948 adopted ‘a politics of accommodation’ to the Arab and Israeli realities all around them: They became Egyptian Palestinians, or Israeli Palestinians . . . .”^{o, p. 35}

Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal (1956) and Israel joins Britain and France in occupying the canal area, The U.S. (President Eisenhower) pressured events so that Egypt retained control of the Canal with UN forces patrolling the strategic area of the Sinai.^{y, p.
5}

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was established.^{y, p. 5}

Six Day War (June 1967): Israeli armed forces occupied the remaining 22% of Old Palestine, i.e. the West Bank (from Jordan), Gaza (from Egypt), and the Golan Heights (from Syria). Levi Eshkol was the Israeli PM (Ma’arach Party, 1963–1969). Lyndon B. Johnson was the U.S. president (Democrat, 1963–1969).

“. . . the fact that the Israelis opened the war with Egypt without a prior ultimatum was fully consistent with their tactical doctrine of preemptive offensive—an understandable but hardly laudable reflex of a nervous nation surrounded by enemies. It wished to exploit the factor of surprise for which its army was especially equipped. So early on the morning of 5 June, as reported by the UN observers, Israel attacked the Egyptian forces and airfields. While Israel at the time denied this claim, Prime Minister Begin would later clarify the question when, in a speech on 8 August 1982, before the National Defense College in Jerusalem, he classified the 1967 conflict not as a ‘war of necessity’ but as a ‘war of choice.’ . . . Nasser did not attack us. We decided to attack him. . . . The Israelis quickly subdued the Arab armies, destroyed or captured their equipment, and humiliated their governments—all in six days.”^g [See Palestinian Refugees (p. 12); see also withdrawal from the Sinai (p. 7), and The Gaza Strip (p. 12).]

“Palestinian society used to be, by and large, remarkably docile. Hardly a shot was fired [by Palestinians] in 1967 during the Israeli takeover of the West Bank; the only resistance encountered by the advancing Israeli forces came from the Jordanian troops. Remembering that period, one begins to realize what thirty-five years of Israel’s mean, arrogant land grabbing; and deeply humiliating occupation have wrought in this society. There was no [Palestinian] rage in 1967. Israelis were greeted in most Palestinian towns with cries of ‘Welcome, Welcome’ and ‘Have a cup of coffee.’ Little boys ran after Israeli tanks crying ‘Shalom, Shalom.’ I knew a Palestinian who during the first weeks of the Israeli occupation was so impressed by the kindness of the soldiers that he was ready to join the Israeli army. It took Palestinian society almost twenty years to launch the First Intifada 1987; its main weapons consisting then only of stones thrown by similar young boys.”^l

Israel had its best opportunity, after the Six Day War, to begin implementing the two-state solution. I was in Saudi Arabia at the time, and then hoped that they would.

UN Security Council Resolution 242 (Nov. 1967): There can be no acquisition of [Palestinians’] territory by force.^{a, p. 166} This applies to the territories occupied by Israel: West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and The Sinai. “The official position of the United States, for example, was that only ‘insubstantial alterations’ of the pre-June 1967 borders [the Green Line] would be allowed.^{e, p. 41} “Note that this consensus was rejectionist in that it denied the national rights of Palestinian Arabs, referring to them solely in the context of a refugee problem.”^{e,
p. 41}

Allon Plan: Formulated by Yigal Allon (this was also Ben-Gurion’s perspective) after the Six Day War (1967), presented a solution “. . . that Israel should create established facts—military and other settlements—in order to strategically control the West Bank, especially along the Jordan River, and give back to Jordanian control of the areas where the Palestinian population was concentrated. This was the Allon Plan, and this has been pursued by Israel ever since 1967.” [Ed.’s italics]^{a, p. 175}

“. . . the Allon Plan, which is: ‘We take it step by step.’ Moshe Dayan—who among the Israeli leadership has probably been the one most sympathetic to the Palestinians—recognized that the Palestinians were right in charging that Israel had been stealing everything from them. He was in charge of the occupation under the Labor Government, from 1967 to 1974. And his opinion was very explicit in describing the same policy: We’ll take little bits at a time; Israel was going to be the ‘permanent government’ in the Occupied Territories [Jay Bushinsky, Christian Science Monitor, 21 Aug. 1971] We’ll take it piece by piece, quietly; we will tell the Palestinians, ‘We have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes to leave, and we will see where this process leads.” [Ed.’s italics; quoted from internal discussions in Yossi Beilin, Mehiro shel Ihud (Revivim, 1985), p. 42.]^{a, pp. 179–80}

Gamal Abdel Nasser assassinated (1970). Sadat, the vice president, succeeds him as Egypt’s president.

Black September (1970): “[The Palestinian refugee presence took] the form of a para-government, in some ways bureaucratic, presence in Jordan, against which it was politically inevitable for the king to react. . . . Indications are that Hussein had been preparing for war against the Palestinians since 1969. . . . Palestinians were seduced by the ease with which they momentarily filled the lusterless vacancy of post-1967 Arab regimes. . . .”^{o, p. 27}

Yom Kippur War (6–25 Oct. 1973): Egypt and Syria attacked Israeli forces.): “The arrogance of Israelis toward Arabs resulted in misleading not only the world but also themselves.”^{h, p. 54} “Israel ‘won’ the 1973 war much like Lyndon Johnson ‘won’ the disastrous Tet Offensive of 1968 in Vietnam.”^{h, p. 55} “It is now clear that the Arabs went to war out of desperation to regain their land, not, as Israel claimed, to destroy the Jewish state.”^{h, p. 56} UN Security Council Resolution 338 (21–22 Oct. 1973) called for immediate implementation of SCR 242.^{y, p. 219} Golda Meir was the Israeli PM (Labor Party, 1969–1974). Richard M. Nixon was the U.S. president (Republican, 1969–1974).

Civil War in Lebanon (1975): Syria sends troops to establish order.^{y, p. 6}

UN Security Council draft resolution (1976): “. . . calling for a two-state solution on the Green Line [pre-1967 War Israeli boundaries].” Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and most of the Arab states supported this Resolution and, in fact, the PLO tacitly supported it. The United States vetoed it.”^{a, p. 169}

Sadat visits Jerusalem (1977): He called for a Palestinian state.^{a,
p. 168} Sadat assassinated in October 1981 for his overture to Israel.

Camp David Accords (1978): These agreements now included a Palestinian state; however, they never took place.^{a, p. 168} Israel agreed to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 242.^{y,
p. 6} No Palestinians were present during these meetings, per E. W. Said, The Politics of Dispossession, 1995, pp. 66–67. Menachem Begin was the Israeli PM (Likud Party, 1977–1983). Jimmy Carter was the U.S. president (Democrat, 1977–1981).

Peace treaty signed (1979) between Israel and Egypt guaranteeing Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai.^{y, p. 7}

“In April 1982, Israel completed the withdrawal from the Sinai as arranged at Camp David [Accords], evacuating the town of Yamit in northeastern Sinai with a ‘national trauma’ that appears to have been largely staged for a domestic and American audience.” [Ed.’s italics]^{e, p. 193}

A UN Security Council draft resolution (similar to the 1976 draft resolution for a two-state solution) was again vetoed by the United States in 1980.^{a, p. 169}

First Israeli-Lebanese War (1982–1983): “[This] war in Lebanon differed from other Israeli wars in that it was, without any doubt, and offensive war, fought less for the benefit of Israel than for the personal aggrandizement of certain of its leaders, Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon.”^{k, p. 171} The tragedies of the massacre at the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila [Read Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle for details and analysis.], and the bomb attack on the U.S. Marine barracks, were results.^{k, p. 172} Menachem Begin was the Israeli PM (Likud Party, 1977–1983). Ronald Reagan was the U.S. president (Republican, 1981–1989).

The First Intifada (1987–1993): “The Intifada—Arabic for ‘shaking off’—erupted on 9 December 1987, in the crowed Gaza Strip and quickly spread to the West Bank, involving all 1.7 million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation since 1967. The immediate stimulus for the uprising occurred on 8 December, when an Israeli army truck ran into a group of Palestinians near the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing four and injuring seven. A Jewish salesman had been stabbed to death in Gaza on 6 December, and Palestinians suspected that the traffic collision had been deliberate. Observers speculated that the Palestinians also were motivated by two dramatic events of the previous month: by the daring exploit of a Palestinian guerrilla who single-handedly killed six Israeli soldiers in a hang glider attack and by despair at the apparent lack of support for the Palestinians’ plight among Arab states at the Arab League summit in Amman. Significantly, the Intifada has involved confrontations between heavily armed Israeli soldiers and thousands of young children and women armed only with stones. Israel’s violent methods in trying to suppress the uprising have claimed well over one thousand lives and been widely condemned throughout the world. As of March 1993 the Intifada continues.”^h

“The suffering, fury, and hatred caused by twenty years of occupation suddenly exploded.”^{z, p. 29}

Palestinian National Council, meeting in Algiers, formally accepted a two-state settlement (1988).^{a, p. 169, o, p. xx} “A majority vote carried the motion: Divide historical Palestine into two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian. A month later in Geneva, Arafat made his famous renunciation of terrorism.”^{o, p. xx} Jordan officially abandoned its claim to the West Bank in 1988.^{a, p. 176} “PLO leadership recognizes Israel’s right to exist, but Israel still fails to recognize Palestine’s right to exist.” [1988, Ed.’s italics]^d [To read this entire statement (in English), see Appendix 1 in Dr. Raheb’s book.^z]

Israeli government’s (Likud Party, Yitzhak Shamir PM, 1986–1992) formal statement (14 May 1989): No Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, i.e. not to include the West Bank.^{a, p. 170}

The Persian Gulf War (2 Aug. 1990 to 28 Feb. 1991): “A conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of approximately 20 nations led by the United States and mandated by the United Nations in order to liberate Kuwait.” [See Wikipedia: Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.]

Madrid Negotiations (1991): Palestinians “. . . insisted that any political settlement must stop Israeli expansion into the Territories [West Bank and Gaza]. U.S. would not accept this.^{a, pp. 170–71} “There is little question that the chief obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace, at least since the 1980s, has been the Israeli settlements, established by the Israeli government for Jews only in the occupied Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the rest of the West Bank.”^c Yitzhak Shamir was the Israeli PM (Likud Party, 1986–1992). George H. W. Bush was the U.S. president (Republican, 1989–1993).

“The Palestinian delegation was headed by Haydar ‘Abd al-Shafi, a conservative nationalist known for his integrity and one of the most respective Palestinian figures. The delegation refused to agree to continued Israeli settlement programs in the occupied territories, thus deadlocking the negotiations, because the U.S. and Israel refused to agree to this condition, even to consider it seriously. Recognizing that his public support was collapsing within the territories and the Palestinian diaspora, Yasir Arafat undercut the Palestinian delegation by secret negotiations with Israel, leading to the ‘Oslo process, . . .’”^{i, p. 169}

Oslo Agreement (Sept. 1993): No mention of Palestinian rights; much, however about Israeli rights. Hamas denounced the Oslo Agreement.^{a, p. 171} “. . . actually [this Agreement was] the realization of the Allon Plan.”^{a, p. 176} Yitzhak Rabin was the Israeli PM (Labor Party, 1974–1977, 1992–1995). Bill Clinton was the U.S. president (Democrat, 1993–2001).

“What was most troubling in the White House ceremony was that Rabin in effect gave the Palestinian speech, whereas Arafat pronounced words that had all the flair of a rental agreement, words that made no mention of the extent of his people’s suffering and loss. The Palestinians saw themselves characterized before the world as its now-repentant assailants—as if the thousands killed by Israel’s bombing of refugee camps, hospitals, schools in Lebanon; its expulsion of eight hundred thousand people in 1948 (whose descendants now number about three million, many of them stateless refugees); the conquest of their land and property; its destruction of more than four hundred Palestinian villages; the invasion of Lebanon; to say nothing of the ravages of twenty-six years of brutal military occupation—were reduced to the status of terrorism and violence to be renounced retrospectively or dropped from reference entirely.” [Ed.’s italics; this was written in 1995.]^{o, pp. xxxvi, xxxvi}

“Refugee rights, entitlements to compensation or restitution and the rights to protection of those Palestinians living under continued military occupation were not central to the now-moribund Oslo peace process. . . .”^{t, front cover}

The Palestinian National Authority is established (1994).^{y, p. 8}

Rabin assassinated on 4 Nov. 1995 by Yagal Amir an Israeli right-wing fanatic.

The Wye River Memorandum is issued (1998) after talks between Israel and the Palestinians. An airport is opened in Gaza with flights to Arab nations.^{y, p. 8}

Camp David Negotiations (July 2000): Israeli forces withdrawn from Lebanon.^{y, p. 8} Arafat and Barak hosted by Clinton. Peace negotiations break down.^{y, p. 8} “Israeli proposals couldn’t possibly have been accepted [by Arafat] . . . it’s clear that the Palestinian objections made perfect sense. . . . [The] standard story in the United States coming from Dennis Ross . . . is that Barak—Israel—accepted the parameters and that Arafat rejected them, showing himself to be a man of violence who couldn’t be dealt with.”^{a, p. 172} Ehud Barak was Israeli PM (Labor 1999–2001). Bill Clinton was the U.S. president (Democrat, 1993–Jan. 2001).

“There was no possibility that any Palestinian leader could accept such terms and survive, but official statements from Washington and Jerusalem were successful in placing the entire onus for the failure on Yasir Arafat.”^{y, pp. 151–52}

Taba, Egypt (21–27 Jan. 2001): “Reported prominently in Israel, but ignored in the mainstream press here [U.S.]. . . . Israeli commentators said that substantial progress was made. . . . Barak called off negotiations [27 Jan. 2001] ten days before the [Israeli] elections and before the planned termination of the talks.” [Ed.’s italics]^{a, p. 173}

The following is from Jimmy Carter’s new book: “A new round of talks was held at Taba in January 2001, during the last days of the Clinton presidency, between President Arafat and the Israeli foreign minister, and it was later claimed that the Palestinians rejected a ‘generous offer’ put forward by Prime Minister Barak with Israel keeping only 5 percent of the West Bank. The fact is that no such offers were ever made. Barak later said, ‘It was plain to me that there was no chance of reaching a settlement at Taba. Therefore I said there would be no negotiations and there would be no delegation and there would be no official discussions and no documentation. Nor would Americans be present in the room.’” [Ed.’s italics]^{y, p. 152}

George W. Bush becomes president of the United States (2001–to date): The Washington, DC Neocons gain more influence with U.S. Middle East Policy.

Sharon elected Israeli prime minister (2001): Gaza airport bulldozed by the IDF.^{y,
p. 9}

The Second Intifada (Jan. 2001 onward): “This humiliation [Arafat’s treatment by America and Israel after he refused to sign the 2000 Camp David proposals], further compounded by the provocative visit of Ariel Sharon to the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem in September 2000, triggered the outbreak of the second Intifada.”^{ee, p. 243}

“The second Intifada was different [from the first]. This time the orders to crush Palestinians relentlessly and teach them ‘not to raise their heads’ escalated the cycle of violence, spilling into Israel itself, which had lost the substantial immunity to retaliation from within the territories that had prevailed for more than three decades of military occupation. Echoing the concerns of twenty years earlier, an editorial in Israel’s leading daily concluded that: ‘Two-and-a-half years of intense fighting against Palestinian terrorism have turned the Israeli Defense Forces into an obdurate and callous army, focused on its mission out of an indifference to the consequences of its actions. The IDF, which brought up generations of soldiers on the myth of purity of arms and educated its commanders with the ideal of the moral, deliberating soldier, who takes tough decisions, while thinking of humane considerations, is turning into a killing machine whose efficiency is awe-inspiring, yet shocking.” [Ed.’s italics; from Ha’aretz, 16 Mar. 2003; see articles by correspondents Gideon Levy and Amira Hass.]^{i, pp. 184–85} Ariel Sharon was the Israeli PM (2001–2006). Sharon suffered a massive stroke, January 2006. George W. Bush U.S. president (Republican, Jan. 2001–present).

Saudi Peace Plan (2002): “. . . accepted by the Arab League, which offered full recognition and integration of Israel into the region in exchange for [Israel’s] withdrawal to the 1967 borders [green line], yet another version of the long-standing international consensus that the U.S. has blocked.”^{i, p. 169} Of course, Israel ignored this Plan; however, Noam Chomsky believes that the Plan was “. . . supported by a majority of the American population. . . .”^{i,
p. 174}

Quoting from Jimmy Carter’s new book: “Most Arab regimes have accepted the permanent existence of Israel as an indisputable fact and are no longer calling for an end to the State of Israel, having contrived a common statement at an Arab summit in 2002 that offers peace and normal relations with Israel within its acknowledged borders and in compliance with other U.N. Security Council resolutions.”^{y, p. 14} “Perhaps the greatest missed [peace] opportunity [by Israel] came during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, when Sharon refused to even acknowledge a Saudi-led initiative by the Arab League, which offered recognition, peace, and regional integration in return for ending the Occupation.”^{v, p. 60}

Yasser Arafat dies (Nov. 2004).

Sharon suffers a massive stroke (Jan. 2006).

Second Israeli-Lebanese War (2006): This war was not successful for Israel. Instead of destabilizing Hizbullah exactly the opposite has resulted. The dire straights of the Palestinians will surely forge a bonding between Hizbullah and Hamas. Both groups give a priority to providing survival needs to Arab civilians (in addition to providing them with an armed defense). The present Hamas representation in the Palestinian Authority was the result of a valid democratic election in 2006. Israeli squads have kidnapped and imprisoned some Hamas representatives to the PA. Ehud Olmert, Israeli PM (Kadima Party) succeeded Sharon in January 2006. The humanitarian conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank, and especially the Gaza Strip, become ever more desperate. [See Addendum II, Part 2.]

Analyses and Comments

Israeli Imprisonment and Abuse of Palestinian Children^m: Starting in December 1947 Jewish forces would typically select groups of Palestinian village “men” (all males between 10 and 50) for execution.^{ee, p. 134}

“Israeli Forces [IDF] have arrested around 4,000 Palestinian children [Ed.’s italics] since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa [Second] Intifada in September 2000. Indeed, in the first quarter of 2006 alone, some 350 children were arrested—compared to around 700 child arrests in the whole of 2005. [The violent arrests of the child typically includes] curses, offensive or threatening language, sexual harassment and physical beatings.” The problem for arrested Palestinian children begins with the fact that Israel does not apply Israeli civil law to them. . . . Because the OPT [Occupied Territories] are not governed by Israeli civil law. . . . Israel’s treatment of arrested Palestinian children violates virtually every requirement of the CRC [UN Convention on the Rights of the Child].” We can only guess what these children are being subjected to inside the special IDF prisons for Palestinians.

A quote from Jimmy Carter’s new book: “Between the ages of twelve and fourteen, [Palestinian] children can be sentenced for a period of up to six months and after the age of fourteen Palestinian children are tried as adults, a violation of international law.”^{y, pp. 196–97} One example well illustrates the vicious long-term physical abuse of Palestinian children by the IDF. Four-year-old Ali was brutally battered, and his arm broken, in 1989 just for aiming his toy gun at a passing Israeli patrol.^{aa, p. 160}

“Since the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000 over 2,500 children have been arrested. Currently there are at least 340 Palestinian children being held in Israeli prisons.”^{ee, p. 199} Note that the IDF has a history of arresting Palestinian males between the ages of 10 and 50. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN rules) defines a child as every human being under the age of 18.^{ee, p. 199}

Israeli Settlements: “There cannot be a viable Palestinian state without evacuation of most Israeli settlements. In mid 2006, there are about 240,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank in about 127 settlements. Another 220,000 live in East Jerusalem on land taken from Palestinians after 1967. Settlements occupy much of the best land and dominate underground water resources. [Ed.’s italics] An extensive road network is dedicated exclusively to settlers. This and military checkpoints severely restrict Palestinian mobility and economic activity. The result is severe hardship and poverty against three million Palestinians that breeds continued anger and violence against Israelis, [Ed.’s italics] notwithstanding the barrier [The Wall^dd].”^f

Bush II Administration (2001 onward): “The Bush administration is extreme. . . . To endorse the annexation of Jerusalem just terminates any hope for political settlement. . . . So if the Bush administration really means that it now favors the annexation of Jerusalem, then that’s the end of any political discussion.” [Ed.’s italics]^{a, p. 173}

“The Bush administration has also endorsed the Separation Wall. . . . Israel pretends that it’s for the security of Israel, which is nonsense.”^{a, pp. 173–74} [For a very graphic depiction of The Wall, see the DVD entitled Sacred Space Denied-Bethlehem and The Wall, obtainable from Friends of Sabeel-North America.^dd]

Note how the official U.S. position re the Green Line (pre-1967 War western boundary of the West bank) has now changed since defined 58 years ago. It changed from “insubstantial alterations” [see above] to acceptance of The Wall positioned well within the West Bank.^dd

“Early in his presidency, George W. Bush avoided substantial involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After September 11, 2001 a number of factors: escalating violence in the area and Israel’s attempt to link September 11 with Palestine suicide bombings; pressure from the Israel lobby [AIPAC] and the Christian Right; and the desire for an increasing U.S. influence in the oil-rich Middle East prompted Bush to take an active, personal role in promoting an agreement. That proposed agreement is the Road Map. . . . The Road Map provides no mechanism for actually ending the violence, leaves uncertain the borders of the proposed state, and postpones determining the status of the 380,000 Israeli settlers and four million Palestinian refugees [possibly 7 million.^{t, front cover}]”^u The Road Map is now “dead in the water.”

Quoting Jimmy Carter: “In April 2003 a ‘Roadmap’ for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was announced by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on behalf of the United States, the United Nations, Russia, and the European Union (known as the Quartet). . . . The Palestinians accepted the Road Map in its entirety but the Israeli government announced fourteen caveats and prerequisites, some of which would preclude any final peace talks.” [Ed.’s italics]^{y, p. 159}

This administration’s Middle East foreign policy has been strongly influenced by Christian fundamentalist theology, especially the Washington, DC Neocons’ cynical use of Dispensationalists who eagerly look for the Second Coming with its prerequisite that modern Israel completely (and exclusively) occupy all of the land of ancient Israel. [See Religion below.]

The Washington, DC Neocons’ theoretician is Leo Strauss whose political philosophy included an acceptance of “the end justifies the means.”^bb Dr. Strauss taught at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and ‘60s.^{cc, Preface}

Palestinian Refugees: “Over 4.2 million Palestinian refugees now living [2006] in neighboring states and in [refugee] camps in the Palestinian territories are one of the gravest of all the unresolved problems. [Forced Migration Review gives this number of refugees at 7 million.^{t, front cover}] They or their parents, grandparents and other relatives fled in the 1948 and 1967 wars, and many demand their ‘right of return.’ Virtually all Israelis, including those willing to make major compromises, oppose this since it could threaten the character of the Jewish state. There will be no peace if the Palestinians demand a literal implementation of the right of return. Many Palestinians would accept return to a new [Palestinian] state and/or compensation. There is no clear solution yet to this issue. But many believe that it is soluble in the context of a peace agreement.”^f “Palestinians may be the world’s largest refugee population.”^{t, front cover}

The Gaza Strip has become (2006) an immense open-air prison for 1.4 million Palestinians since the evacuation of Israel’s illegal settlers during fall 2005.^p [See Gaza Notes, Addendum II, Part 2 to my Position Paper.]

Religion: The previous comment (Bush II Administration), concerning Christian fundamentalist theology, is a concern that increasingly is becoming an unfortunate major element in this ongoing multiple tragedy. It must be emphasized that the Holy Land (Palestine and Israel), and especially Jerusalem, are sacred to all three related, great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Jerusalem must become a shared city by all three religions in order to avoid fueling a religious based conflict adding to this already tragic situation

Christian Zionists, the extreme right wing of Evangelical Christians, are strongly influencing the Bush II administration. Additionally, the historic Christian presence is now at risk in the Holy Land.^s Christian Zionists have their roots in dispensationalist theology that began with John Darby and the Plymouth Brethren (ca. 1828 in Dublin, Ireland).^{q, r} This core belief includes: (a) the ancient nation of Israel must be reestablished by modern Israel in the same geographical location;^{q, r} (b) the ancient Jewish Temple must be rebuilt (this would require the destruction of Islam’s historic al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock);^{q, r} (c) Christ will then return for the second time to separate out “true” Christian believers. Those left behind (including all Jews who do not convert to Christianity) will perish in the climactic battle of Armageddon.^{q, r}

A must read, especially for Christians, is Challenging Christian Zionism.^x This collection of short essays provides an excellent understanding of the present threat that Christianity is under in the Holy Land. This threat now jeopardizes the very continuing existence of the Christian presence there as it has been known for 2000 years!

A second must read is I Am A Palestinian Christian.^z A cautionary optimistic view (in 1995) is presented that subsequently began to unravel with the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Rabin.

Some final words from two Israeli Jews: “. . . the window of opportunity [for peace with a just settlement] will stay open only for a while. If the last postcolonial European enclave [Israel] in the Arab world does not willingly transform itself into a civic and democratic state, it will become a country full of anger, its features distorted by the wish for retribution, by chauvinism and religious fanaticism. [Ed.’s italics] If this happens, it will be almost impossible to demand, or expect, moderation from the Palestinians.”^j [Ilan Pappe, 2005.]

“The Israeli Jewish Public . . . would prefer peace and normalization to territorial gains in the occupied territories, though it definitely favors separation from the Arab world to regional integration. If this is the case, then why do Israelis repeatedly vote for governments that pursue the exact opposite? Mystification of the conflict by Israeli leaders plays a large role, as does the ‘clash of civilizations’ discourse in other Western countries. Since Israel’s strategy of enduring a certain level of conflict as an acceptable price for territorial expansion would not be tolerated if it were stated to Israelis in those precise terms, successive governments throughout the country’s history have instead convinced the public that there is simply no political solution. The Arabs are our intransigent and permanent enemies; we Israeli Jews, the victims, have sought only peace and a normal existence, but in vain. And that’s just the way it is. As Yitzhak Shamir put it so colorfully: ‘The Arabs are the same Arabs, the Jews are the same Jews and the sea [into which the former seek to throw the latter] is the same sea.”^{v, p. 61} [Dr. Jeff Halper, 2006.]

My Ending Comments

I have now very reluctantly come to the conclusion that Israeli military forces have long practiced a seldom articulated (to the outside world and even to the Israeli people) but increasing clear, policy against the Palestinians. Initially, starting with the 1948 War (The Nakba) this policy included brutal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.^ee A relatively weak Palestinian resistance finally began to form, nineteen years later, after the Six Day War. During the First Lebanese War the Israeli military (IDF) orchestrated blatant massacres of defenseless women, elderly, and children (Sabra and Shatila). A pattern is seen to emerge of Israeli governments’ cynical use of Palestinian’s very late forming “terrorism” (the only defense of the weak) to justify ever more disproportionate, illegal, and brutal retaliations (state terrorism, targeted assignations, collective punishments). Throughout the last 39 years, Israeli governments have practiced unremitting colonizations of The West Bank, the last remnant of Palestinian land (22% remaining from the British Mandate) by appropriating water resources and creating many settlements connected by Jews-only roads—illegal per UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (22 Nov. 1967) and 338 (21–22 Oct. 1973).^dd The United Nations deemed this policy (of ongoing colonizations, humiliation of a people coupled with disproportionate military retaliations) a crime against humanity and proffered more than 40 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel which the U.S. has consistently blocked.^{y, pp. 209–10} The Israeli governments’ financial cost of this policy has been very high, and it is patently clear to the Arab world that the U.S. has indirectly provided the required funds.

There is a direct relationship between the still unresolved 58-year Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the present Iraqi War quagmire that the U.S. finds itself ensnared in. “Instead of pulling the rug from under al-Qaeda and related terrorist organizations by removing at least some of their [Bin Laden’s, et al.] causes for violence, it [the Bush II administration] created new causes.”^{w, p. 38} Ms. Richardson very clearly makes the case that I tried to define in my Position Paper (Mar. 2003), i.e. that Bin Laden’s anger about U.S. policies regarding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, plus the U.S. military’s then presence in Saudi Arabia, etc. should be immediately addressed by the U.S. government. That this was not done has led the U.S. to commit “a terrible mistake and is [the U.S.-Iraq War] doomed to failure.”^{w, p. 38} [See the twelve basic points for understanding and acting on terrorism.^{w, pp.
34–35}]

Does the following sound familiar? “A climactic [peace] summit could always be arranged later on, as now it appears a summit will occur after the [U.S.] elections in November. Israeli spokesmen in the meantime have been unyielding on important points: no Palestinian self-determination, no Israeli withdrawal [from the Occupied Territories], no change in an increasingly aggressive settlements policy, no Palestinian control over anything as important as water resources or security, or foreign policy, or immigration, or East Jerusalem. . . . Undeterred by world opinion and international law, Israel for its part formally annexed East Jerusalem on 22 July, and a few days later announced four new illegal settlements. Repression on the West Bank and Gaza continued, as did the bombardment of South Lebanon.”^{o, p.
43} You may be surprised to learn that this was written by the late professor Edward W. Said in 1995 regarding events that occurred twenty-six years ago.

Two developments during 2006 have (hopefully) begun to open up American public discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: (1) the publication in The London Review of Books (23 Mar. 2006) of “The Israel Lobby,” by the American academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, and (2) the publication of former president Jimmy Carter’s new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid^y that openly uses the forbidden word “apartheid.”

Using Ilan Pappe’s quote and applying it to the U.S: there is still time left to begin to be seen by the Arab world to correct our failing Middle East foreign policies; however, time continues to run out. Also, refer to Ilan Pappe’s new book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.^ee

Quoting Oxford scholar Dr. Karen Armstrong’s speech, on Washington, DC’s Capitol Hill (Nov. 2006): We are “living in such peril . . . on a knife’s edge. The white-hot center of the troubles is in Israel-Palestine. We must sort this out.”

A Disclaimer

This short essay was not written from an anti-Semitic perspective. It cannot be over-emphasized that negative criticism of Israeli secular government’s military policies does not automatically imply criticism of the Jewish People or of Judaism. Both Israeli and American Jews wrote some of the sources that I reference. The Palestinian tragedy is equally a new and additional tragedy for the Israeli People and for world Judaism.

Reference Sources

a. Perilous Power, The Middle East And U.S. Foreign Policy, by Noam Chomsky and Gilbert Achcar, Paradigm Publishers, 2007.

b. “The Great Catastrophe,” The Guardian, by Karma Nabulsi, dated 12 May 2006.

c. Tinderbox, by Stephen Zunes, Common Courage Press, 2003, p. 128.

d. Blessed Are The Peacemakers, by Audeh G. Rantisi & Ralph K. Beebe, Zondervan Books, 1990, p. 167.

e. Fateful Triangle, Updated Edition, by Noam Chomsky, South End Press, 1999.

f. Searching for Peace in the Middle East, A film by Landrum Bolling (president emeritus Earlham College), director of the Foundation For Middle East Peace, Oct. 2006.

g. The Passionate Attachment, America’s Involvement with Israel, 1947 to the Present, by George W. Ball and Douglas B. Ball, W. W. Norton & Company, 1992, pp. 56–57.

h. Deliberate Deceptions, Facing the Facts about the U.S.-Israeli Relationship, by Paul Findley, American Educational Trust, 1995, p. 77, etc.

i. Hegemony Or Survival, America’s Quest for Global Dominance, by Noam Chomsky, Henry Holt and Company, 2003.

j. “Fortress Israel,” by Ilan Pappe, London Review of Books, 19 May 2005.

k. One Nation Under Israel, by Andrew Hurley, Truth press, 1999.

l. “No Exit,” by Amos Elon, The New York Review of Books, 23 May 2002, pp. 15–16, 18, 20.

m. An Email, dated 28 June 2006, from Dr. Fred Bush, a retired Fuller Seminary professor of Middle East geography and languages. Dr. Bush based his comments on his visit to the Holy Land during Easter Week (2006). His source references are: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989); and Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel’s Detention of Palestinian Children, by Catherine Cook, Adam Hanieh and Adah Kay, London: Pluto Press, 2004.

n. Israel A Colonial-Settler State?, by Maxime Rodinson, ISBN 0-913460-48-6, Monad Press, 1980 (fourth printing).

o. The Politics Of Dispossession, by Edward W. Said, Vintage Books, 1995.

p. “Gaza Notes,” Part II, by the author, 11 Oct. 2006.

q. “The Ideological Roots of Christian Zionism,” by Dr. Tony Campolo, Tikkun Magazine, Jan.–Feb. 2005.

r. “Welcome to Doomsday,” by Bill Moyers, The New York Review of Books, 24 Mar. 2005.

s. Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, PO Box 49084, 91491 Jerusalem, Email <sabeel@sabeel.org>, Website: <http://www.sabeel.org>.

t. Forced Migration Review: Palestinian displacement: a case apart?, Issue 26, Aug. 2006, University of Oxford, Refugee Studies Center, Department of International Development, 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, UK. Website <http://www.fmreview.org>. This is a must read for anyone trying to understand the Palestinian refugee problem.

u. “The Israel-Palestine Road Map,” MoveOn Bulletin, Noah T. Winer, Editor, email dated 20 June 2003. <noah.winer@moveon.org>

v. “When a Country Doesn’t Take Responsibility,” by Jeff Halper, Tikkun, Nov./Dec. 2006.

w. “How Terrible Is It?,” by Max Rodenbeck, New York Review of Books, 30 Nov. 2006. Max Rodenbeck, the British Economist’s Mideast Correspondent, reviews three relevant books (What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat, by Louise Richardson, Random House; Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them, by John Mueller, Free Press; and Winning the Un-War: A New Strategy for the War on Terrorism, by Charles Pena, Potomac), plus two U.S. National Security publications (“The National Security Strategy of the United States of America,” Sept. 2002, and Mar. 2006) that are available on the Web <http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html> and <http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss/2006>.

x. Challenging Christian Zionism, edited by Naim Ateek, Cedar Duaybis, and Maurine Tobin, Melisende London, ISBN 1-901764-427, Sabeel Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem, first published 2005.

y. Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-7432-8502-6, Nov. 2006.

z. I Am A Palestinian Christian, by Dr. Mitri Raheb, Fortress Press, ISBN 0-8006-2663, 1995.

aa. Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told About Israel and the Palestinians, by Dr. Gary M. Burge, The Pilgrim Press, ISBN 0-8298-1545-7, 2003.

bb. What Is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies, by Leo Strauss, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-77713-8, 1959

cc. Leo Strauss and the American Right, by Shadia B. Drury, St. Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-21783-8, 1999

dd. Sacred Space Denied—Bethlehem and The Wall, Nov. 2006, a DVD obtainable from Friends of Sabeel-North America, PO Box 9186, Portland, OR 97207.

ee. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappe, 2006, Oneworld Publications Ltd., England. Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian and senior lecturer of Political Science at Haifa University. He is also Academic Director of the Research Institute for Peace at Givat Haviva, and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies, Haifa.