Isaac and Ishmael
Isaac and Ishmael
The descendants of the sons of Abraham continue their millennia-long senseless war.
The brutal attack on civilians in southern Israel, planned by Iran and executed by Hamas has devastated the Country. I am no expert on the history of Israel and Palestine. So this weekend I did a lot of reading and reflecting. I listened to a Coleman Hughes podcast with Dr. Benny Morris, an Israeli history professor whose, “work on the Arab–Israeli conflict and especially the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has won praise and criticism from both sides of the political divide,” according to Wikipedia. I read Tablet Magazine’s description of the crisis by Alana Newhouse and Jeremy Stern and Al Jazeera’s reporting on events as well as other reports and opinions on cable news and elsewhere.
I am still no expert, but here’s what I think we know. I’m sure I am getting some of this wrong - I am hoping to learn more from readers and experts as we go, please send in your comments - but here’s the gist.
Jewish kingdoms existed in Canaan/Palestine/Judea/Israel as far back as biblical times, led by Kings like David, Solomon and later the Macabees. When the Romans showed up and occupied what they called the Levant, Jews rebelled twice and lost, eventually began relocating elsewhere in what’s now known as the Diaspora. They settled across Europe, Russia and elsewhere over the next milennia.
The modern version of the oldest tribal conflict in the history of the world (see Abraham and his sons, Isaac and Ishmael) began in earnest in the 1880s. At that time, the area now known as Israel and/or Palestine was controlled by the last great Arab empire - the Ottoman Empire based in Turkey. It was predominantly an Arab state, with Jews making up about 10% of the population, Arab Muslims 80% and Arab Christians the last 10%, give or take. Nationalism was on the rise in Europe, especially Germany and Russia. Anti-semitism was also flourishing and this caused many Jews to consider another mass migration. Here was born Zionism - a mostly secular, nationalist movement among Jews to create a Jewish state where they would be safe from hate, violence and persecution due to their religion/ethnicity.
Despite the local Arab population’s general views on Jews, the Zionists were nonetheless able to pay their way back into Palestine through leveraging corrupt elements of the Ottoman Empire. By the outbreak of World War I, the Jewish population in Palestine had grown slightly, to about 15%.
But World War I changed a lot. The Ottomans fought on the losing side and eventually lost the area to the British, who named it British Palestine (most call it Mandated Palestine) and took colonial control of the area after the war ended. The new control by Britain encouraged the Zionist movement, and by the end of World War II there were approximately 630,000 Jews in British Palestine, about a third of the population.
Under British control between the two World Wars, unrest continued as Jews fled in record numbers to escape persecution and the Holocaust in Europe. Zionists believed Palestine (based on the biblical history) was their land, and the only place where Jews could go to establish a state to protect themselves. Arabs, however had lived in and governed the area for centuries, and felt both British rule and Jewish relocation to the area was unacceptable. Violent protests and atrocities began to heat up, which continue to this day.
The British government, in an attempt to solve the Zionist-Arab question after a long strike and armed insurrection by Arabs in the region, commissioned a report led by Lord Peel, called the Peel Commission in 1936-37. The commission did an exhaustive investigation and determined the following causes to Arab unrest:
First, the desire of the Arabs for national independence; secondly, their antagonism to the establishment of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, quickened by their fear of Jewish domination. Among contributory causes were the effect on Arab opinion of the attainment of national independence by ‘Iraq, Trans-Jordan, Egypt, Syria and the Lebanon; the rush of Jewish immigrants escaping from Central and Eastern Europe; the inequality of opportunity enjoyed by Arabs and Jews respectively in placing their case before Your Majesty’s Government and the public; the growth of Arab mistrust; Arab alarm at the continued purchase of Arab land by the intensive character and the "modernism" of Jewish nationalism; and lastly the general uncertainty, accentuated by the ambiguity of certain phrases in the Mandate, as to the ultimate intentions of the Mandatory Power.
The commission concluded that a single state in Palestine was unattainable, and suggested a 2-state solution - partition up the area so that Arabs control one and Jews the other. The plan was rejected immediately and outright by the Palestinian Arabs. It was slightly more accepted by the Zionist Congress, but they did not like the borders suggested by Lord Peel’s report.
After World War II and the atrocities of the Holocaust became fully transparent, support for a Jewish state grew in the western world. The United States advocated for the British to allow Jews escaping the Holocaust to settle permanently in Palestine. And indeed the UN (whom Britain asked to take over Palestine after they withdrew in 1947) voted in 1947 to pursue a partition plan not unlike the Peel Commission’s two-state solution.
The UN plan was not popular for either Arabs or Jews in the region for different reasons. Arabs made it clear they wanted no Jews in their territory, and to this day proclaim Palestine should be an Arab state. The Zionists were not happy with the borders drawn up by the UN and therefore continued to resist its implementation.
Civil War broke out in 1947, and later included attacks from other nations on the Zionist forces by Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. Despite these odds, the Zionists prevailed and the Jewish state of Israel was declared in 1948.
I think it is very important to remember that the Palestinian Arabs and their neighbors and allies in the region fought to rid themeselves of the Zionists and Israel and they lost. These Arabic forces have nonetheless spent the last seventy five years attempting to reverse this loss and destroy the Jewish state in the Middle East. Since the end of World War II, Wikipedia lists 17 wars (including the 1948 Civil War) between Israel and its Arab insurgents and neighbors, with the latest clash in Southern Israel being the 18th. In fact, Gaza was under Egyptian control until the 1967 war in which Egypt invaded Israel and lost, thus losing the territory to Israel which has controlled the region ever since.
Since Israel unilaterally retreated from the Gaza Strip in 2005 in an effort to come to a peaceful resolution on the Palestinian question, Hamas has taken over authority in the Gaza strip. Hamas is a brutal, militant dictatorial regime sponsored by Iran. The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have all declared Hamas a terrorist organization, and Hamas has carried out terrorist attacks regularly since taking power. Hamas declared the Jewish state in Palestine illegitimate and campaigned in 2006 to end the occupation of Gaza through violence. After the Oslo Accords and Israel’s retreat from Gaza, Hamas won those elections and expelled the PLO from Gaza. There have been no elections in Gaza since.
Despite pleas from the United Nations and elsewhere, Israel has however maintained a blockade around Gaza including sea, land and air in an effort to protect itself from attacks. Egypt participates in this blockade on their border with Gaza. Human Rights Watch likens living in Gaza under the blockade to an, “Open-Air Prison.” Palestinians are restricted from leaving the area or traveling to the West Bank and the area suffers from poverty rates as high as 30% and unemployment rates as high as 40%, according to the World Bank. Living in Gaza is bad, and likely to get worse with the newly-started war against Israel.
Many believe this new engagement has much more to do with Iran, and its enemy Saudi Arabia. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Iran planned and approved the latest attack from Gaza. Many believe this is a response to reports that Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel are close to a peace deal. As we established, Hamas, Iran and other elements in the Arab world do not accept the idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Destabilizing Israel and potentially causing collateral escalations could be the proximate reason for the attack.
As Israel responds and the war escalates, we can only hope for peace. I am constantly reminded of a quote from President Kennedy when the topic of peace arises. These are man-made problems, and men and women with the right attitude, discipline and perseverance can solve them. Here should be their mantra:
“What kind of a peace do I mean? What kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”
President John Kennedy