Israel and Palestine

Posted June 18, 2009

When European nationalism was at its height in the late nineteenth century, many European Jews thought there should a Jewish national home.  Many argued that they should return to land of the ancient Israelites, which the Romans had expelled them from 1,800 years prior.  Thus was born the Zionist movement.  In the following decades, many Jews left Central and Eastern Europe, where they faced discrimination and often bloody pogroms to settle in Ottoman Palestine.

During World War I, British forces invaded Palestine as the Ottoman Empire was allied with Germany.  To curry favor with Jews during the war, Britain issued the now famous Balfour declaration, in which they promised to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine.  They also promised Sharif Hussein, guardian of Mecca, that he would become king of an Arab state that included Palestine if he rebelled against the Ottomans in the almost as famous MacMahon-Hussein correspondence.  The British were not keen to honor either promise, and instead made Palestine a de facto colony under a Mandate from the League of Nations.  In between the world wars, Jewish immigration to Palestine surged as more and more Jews fled persecution in Nazi Germany.  Relations between Jews and Arabs deteriorated as Jewish population grew exponentially and Jews bought more and more Arab land.  By the late 1930s, both Jewish and Arab extremists were engaging in violence and terrorism against each other and the British authorities.

During World War II, many Jews served with the British military, as they were horrified by Germany’s attempted extermination of Jews.  The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem sided with Germany, where he took refuge, under the theory of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

After the war, many Jewish survivors of Nazi death camps sought refuge in Palestine.  The British sought to limit Jewish immigration to prevent unrest, as it was a major source of Arab-Jewish tension.  Still, many Jews immigrated illegally and violence between Arab and Jew continued to smolder.  Britain, cash-strapped and war-weary, wanted out of Palestine but could find no ready solution.  They turned the matter over to the newly formed United Nations, which voted to partition the territory into an Arab and a Jewish state, while leaving Jerusalem as a free city open to all.  Jewish leaders publicly accepted partition, while Arab leaders inside and outside of Palestine rejected any partition as a theft of Arab land.  War seemed inevitable.  As the British prepared to depart, intercommunal conflict became more and more frequent as both sides armed and prepared for the coming conflict.  Gunmen from both sides “ethnically cleansed” mixed neighborhoods.

Despite their smaller numbers, the Jews were better prepared for the coming conflict.  In the Jewish Agency, the Jews had built their own state within a state.  They even had their own secret army, the Haganah, many of whose leaders had served in the allied armed forces in WWII.  They also had the moral support of both superpowers.  The Arabs in Palestine and the neighboring states had very few veterans and did not have the socio-political organization of the Jewish Agency and Haganah.

On May 14, 1948, Israel declared independence as the last British troops sailed out of the Palestine Mandate.  The Palestinian-Israeli War had begun in earnest before the British had even left, and the Palestinians generally got the worse of it.  With the Israeli declaration of independence, elements of the Lebanese, Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian armies invaded.

The issue of Palestinian statehood has been at the forefront of that majority of Middle Eastern peace processes for decades.  Today we are closer than ever to normalizing relations between Israel and the Palestinians, but there is still a large potential for increased hostility, abuse, and terrorism.  Therefore, it is imperative for the U.S. to approach Israeli / Palestinian relations evenhandedly while taking into consideration the facts on the ground and the obligations of all parties.

The state of Israel as it exists today was formed as a result of the 1967 War between Israel and its neighbors.  In this conflict, Israel expanded its reach into the territories of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.  The occupation of these territories was conducted under questionable legality, and currently the UN considers Israeli settlements in these areas illegal.  Despite this fact, Israel has over the last forty years continued to expand and develop these settlements and has furthermore provided economic incentives for its citizens to live in them.

The price of these settlements has been the continued abuse, humiliation, and sidelining of the Palestinian people.  While continuing to expand the reach of its own people, Israel has established hundreds of blockades and checkpoints and has also carried out numerous human rights violations, most undertaken in the name of “security”.  For decades, the Palestinian people have taken this mistreatment while Israel continues to illegally develop its own interests.

It is agreed upon by most experts that a two-state solution is the best way to foster peace between these two warring factions.  For this to occur, Israel must begin the difficult process of ending settlement development and withdrawing its citizens from the occupied territories.  If the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2006 is any indication however, this must also be conducted while respecting the human rights of the Palestinians and allowing for the free trade of goods and services to the region.  Without these essential steps, Israel and the Palestinian territories will continue to be a breeding ground for animosity and terrorism.

Although the “Road Map” peace agreement set up in 2003 calls for a stop to settlement expansion, Israel has done little to follow these guidelines.  However, it is clear that the United States is beginning to once again put pressure on the Israeli government to own up to its obligations.  As evidenced by President Obama’s recent speech in Cairo and meeting with Israeli President Netanyahu as well as by Senator George Mitchell’s trip to the region, the time is now to implement real change.

By establishing an independent and actualized Palestinian state, Israel can once and for all create normalized relations with its Arab neighbors and the greater global community.  It is in the best interest of the United States to do everything that it can to see that this happens.

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