Arab Palestinian-Israeli Conflict – Over a century of ongoing dispute - YJ Draiman

Arab Palestinian-Israeli Conflict – Over a century of ongoing dispute

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 theUnited 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 Nationsadopted 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”. OnOctober 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 inPalestine 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 invadedPalestine, 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, andTransjordan (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 theJordan 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 akaWest 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 Syrialaunched 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 Cairoin 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.

Is the world just plain stupid? - An interesting questionnaire for Palestinian Advocates - Draiman

Is the world just plain stupid? - An interesting questionnaire for Palestinian Advocates

Is the world just plain stupid?   An interesting questionnaire  for Palestinian Advocates 

If you are so sure that " Palestine , the country, goes back through most of recorded history," I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of Palestine :
 

1.  When was it founded and by whom?
 

2.  What were its borders?
 

3.  What was its capital?
 

4.  What were its major cities?
 

5.  What constituted the basis of its economy?
 

6.  What was its form of government?
 

7.  Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before  Arafat?
 

8..  Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
 

9.  What was the language of the country of Palestine ?
 

10. What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine ?
 

11. What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese Yuan on that date.
 

12. And, finally, since there is no such country today,  what caused its demise and when did it occur?
 

You are lamenting the "low sinking" of a "once proud" nation.. Please tell me, when exactly was that "nation" proud and what was it so proud of?
 

And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call "Palestinians" are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over -- or thrown out of -- the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?
 
 I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day "Palestinians" to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won't work here.
 

The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned the dream of destroying Israel ; they still cherish it today. Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal with military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it "the Palestinian people" and installed it in Gaza , Judea, and Samaria . How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the "West Bank" and Gaza , respectively?
 

The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less claim to nationhood than that Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them. The so-called "Palestinians" have only one motivation: the destruction of Israel , and in my book that is not sufficient to consider them a nation" -- or anything else except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled.
 

In fact, there is only one way to achieve peace in the Middle East . Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side should, pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited on it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and accepting Israel 's ancient sovereignty over Gaza , Judea, and Samaria .     That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?

A beautiful prayer - Draiman

A beautiful prayer

I asked God to take away my habit.

God said, No.

It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.

God said, No.

His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience.

God said, No.

Patience is a byproduct of tribulations;

It isn't granted, it is learned.

I asked God to give me happiness.

God said, No.

I give you blessings; happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.

God said, No.

Suffering draws you apart from worldly care;

and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.

God said, No.

You must grow on your own!,

but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.

God said, No.

I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.

I asked God to help me LOVE others, as much as he loves me.

God said,

Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.

A beautiful prayer - YJ Draiman

A beautiful prayer

I asked God to take away my habit.

God said, No.

It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.

God said, No.

His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience.

God said, No.

Patience is a byproduct of tribulations;

It isn't granted, it is learned.

I asked God to give me happiness.

God said, No.

I give you blessings; happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.

God said, No.

Suffering draws you apart from worldly care;

and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.

God said, No.

You must grow on your own!,

but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.

God said, No.

I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.

I asked God to help me LOVE others, as much as he loves me.

God said,

Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.

Arab Israel Conflict - Questions and Solutions - YJ Draiman

Arab Israel Conflict - Questions and Solutions

There is no glib or ready solution to the present confrontation.  Enmity bread over decades cannot be easily defused.  The Arab-Palestinian "refugees" have found their "myth" as Mousa Alami prescribed.  They found an identity in that myth.  And a dream.  But surely a dream of destruction, mayhem and bloodshed, of "injustice" masquerading as justice, of and "rights" based upon deception and falsehoods, cannot and should not continue to capture the sympathy and imagination of the gullible outside world at the expense of the Jews, whose identity the Arab-Palestinians would usurp. 

If Egypt and the late president Anwar Sadat could make peace with Israel, however tenuous, after a saber rattling and the religiously inspired anti-Jewish sentiments that created a warm bond between Egypt and Nazism, then so might the other "moderates" and "rejectionists" in the Arab world today.  Once, during Solomon's reign (965-928 BC), "United Israel" which extended all the way to Iraq, was so "highly honored as the leading state between Egypt and Asia minor," that Egypt's pharaoh "had given his daughter in marriage" to Solomon, for "good diplomatic and political reasons." 

As the minister of agriculture of Syria, an avowed supporter and supportee of the Soviet Union, had illustrated, it was "American" technological assistance that Syria wanted and needed.  But might it have been the irrigation expertise of Israel that he really needed?  The result of the peacemaking process depends greatly on the international community continued adherence to the truth as it is sometimes tacitly acknowledged, and not the totalitarian-sponsored pan-Arab deception and inversion of truth.  To achieve their short-sighted ends -- a "peaceful" piece of the Arab oil action -- some nations among the free world community appear to be buying the turn-speak (false and deceptive propaganda).

For sixty-five years, while the real nature of the Arab "refugee problem" has often been identified, the affluent Arab world has paid only a relative pittance to the care of the "refugees";  on the other hand, prodigious Arab funds have supported terror and violence.  The Arabs have, in addition, rejected every genuine humanitarian attempt to solve the "problem" of their brethren, whose right to dignity of citizenship is their legitimate human right. But The Arab nations chose to use then as a pawn against Israel.

The world community has made the mistake of unwittingly creating a breeding ground of violence and terror.  Through perpetuation of the "humanitarian" conditions of the "temporary" camps, it hoped perhaps to avoid having to exact from the Arab world an attitude towards its refugees that conform to the customary requirements expected from other nations; the penalty for such demand was perceived to be the possible loss of substantial Arab oil benefits (which today has diminished greatly).  The wound was allowed to fester until it began to burst into the terrorism of the PLO and other offspring of the earlier terror tactics in Western Palestine organized by the Mufti after WWI, in consultation with his Nazi soulmates.  Now, the world community is being faced with a Pan-Arab suggestion for another blunder, this one even more difficult to retrieve.  The new "moral" flame is presently offered, to take the place of justice.  Through the deceptive revisionist history of Arab propaganda, it is asserted that Israel must bear the guilt for the Arab "refugees", since the Jews "in 1948 excluded the Arabs from their homeland since time forgotten."  Unfortunately, and perhaps not surprisingly to those sophisticated in the art of politics, the case as it has been falsified and distorted by propaganda does not benefit the "Palestinian" Arab refugees themselves.  As the Palestinian writer Fawaz Turki summed it up, although it was "Arab governments" who "continued to oppose... integration,"  the price for this intransigence and inflexibility was paid by the Arab-Palestinians alone and not by the Arabs.... Pawn politics and indifference were the two foci of a problem of tragic and human dimensions. 

The Arab Soviet distortion has prolonged the refugees frustration, and supports -- indeed rationalize and justifies -- Arab terrorist activities, even against Arab-Palestinians.  The very political process by which the refugees plight has been highlighted has condemned many Arab "refugees" to encampment psychologically if not physically (the situation today in Syria is no different).  However, hundreds of thousands of other Arab "refugees" are already living and working in the critically labor-needy Arab states, in some instances running those countries (Jordan's population is about 75% Arab-Palestinians), and they feel that citizenship is "owed" to them.  Indeed, unpublicized and largely unknown, many are in fact already bona fide citizens.

The present propaganda argument is based on the deceptive "historical claims" of the "native Arab Palestinians on his land" -- now called Israel (The real truth is we all know that the Arabs are the occupiers of Jewish territory).  According to the propaganda claim, it is from the Jewish settled area of Western Palestine that the "Arabs were excluded from their homeland since time forgotten".  That claim cannot be sustained.  If the "historical" claim is measured against documented history, which contradicts that claim, the Arab propagandist and their supporters often shift to an argument based on pragmatics:  the " Arab-Palestinian people" exist, therefore they must have a "homeland".  That argument must run head on into the realities of justice, of Jordon, and the Arab-Jewish exchange of refugee population in 1948 (the Arab state of Jordan consists today over 78% of Jewish Territory). 

The Arabs recognition of how vulnerable was their "return of the Arab refugees" argument inspired the transformation of the "refugee" into a false "historical" claim.  "Arab-Palestinian self-determination" was the "new tool"; claim is based on the specious and misconceived comparison of the "90% Arab-native including Christians etc. and 9%-Jewish population," in all "Palestine"-- what we now know should properly be limited, for comparison, to the Jewish settled area of Western Palestine.  As a few Arab strategists have admitted, the real "refugee" rights could too easily become evident.  The "consequences" of the obvious Arab Jewish refugee exchange of populations were frankly assessed by the Arab writer Sabri Jiryis; "Jews have absorbed the million Jews who were terrorized and expelled from Arab states and the Arab states, in their turn, must settle the Palestinians "Arabs" within their borders and solve their problems."

Although the Arab-born segment of the Jewish population has finally been recognized, inevitably, as the bulk of the "Sephardic" majority within an "Orientalized" Israel, which amounts to over half the current population. Western observers are seldom reminded that the Sephardic Israeli majority is in fact mainly composed of either the descendants or of those who were themselves the Jewish Arab refugees who were terrorized and expelled from Arab-Muslim countries. Thus, the accompanying social problems, the Arab-born Jews' distrust of the Arab world and their Support of a "hard-line" government position toward the Arabs--all conditions that are predictable and logical when seen in context--are not evaluated in context. That the social problems are the results of Israel's attempt to absorb a refugee population at least double to the number of Arabs who purportedly left Israel in 1948--a massive Jewish refugee population that doubled the number of Jews already in Israel in 1948--and that all the Arab-born Jewish refugees converged on the Jewish State at about the same time that the Arabs left, while Israel was improvising its urgent defense against Arab warfare--the connection is rarely if ever made. What was obvious, literal exchange of Jewish and Arab refugee population, which is double the amount of Arab refugees, even if one accepts the inflated Arab counts, goes unrecognized and ignored or is shrugged aside as an unwelcome complication.

Moreover, to judge the attitudes and viewpoints of the million Sephardic Jewish refugees from terror and oppression in Arab lands, who had their all their personal assets confiscated, including businesses, homes and over 120,000 square km. of land, apart from the critically significant historical circumstances that made them that way is as faulty and incomplete as it would be for an observer to try to judge the reactions and activities of American blacks toward civil rights without ever having heard of slavery or the history of the blacks in America and the genesis of the civil rights movement. Yet the Sephardic Jews' attitudes toward their former masters--attitudes born of harsh experience in the Arab lands and the Arabs' continued avowed hostilities toward the dhimmi Jewish state--are scarcely ever related to the bitter history and the circumstances surrounding the pivotal Jewish brutally forced exodus from the Arab world.

Meanwhile the Arab émigré-refugees remain exploited by the Arab leaders in that Arab world, their own milieu. Most are actually already absorbed; a small percentage are still in their camps. All remain without a moderate leadership, and many fear for their lives; were they to take a truly moderate stance, they might well be murdered, as others have been.

One must care about the Arab "Palestinian" peoples, whatever their heritage. They are Arabs and Jews and "others" who have been long abused in a world misled by its torturous deceptive misconceptions. Instead of permitting those Arab "refugees" who are outside of Jordanian Palestine to suffer the planned discrimination of adamant Arab governments in land where many "refugees" have lived for a generation or more, the free world might begin a fair and realistic effort to solve the problem once and for all.

The possibility of solution is there. An Arab Palestinian State already exists in Jordan, many Arab Palestinian carry a Jordanian passport. The other Arab states can be encouraged to make room for those among the Arab refugees who have not yet been absorbed, and to give citizenship in their respective states of asylum to those outside Jordan. There is no bromide here for facile solution, or one that would not be fraught with bitterness and antagonism. Before the India-Pakistan exchange of refugee populations was resolved, years of rancor and violence elapsed.

What must not continue, what cannot be allowed to continue, is the cynical scapegoating of the Jewish State and the Jewish refugees herein, or the sacrifice of the Arab refugees who are, in the name of "humanitarianism," being employed inhumanly as a war weapon against Israel by the Arab world. In the face of these major problems, too many politicians and persons of influence choose to shut their eyes to the facts. Too many refrain from critical analysis of false and deceptive propaganda in order to preserve their illusions about the price of oil. And far too many, the overwhelming bulk of us, had never been furnished with enough data to understand what the problem really was and do not care, since it is easier to be ignorant, than take a logical stand.

A program calculated to furnish incentives to the Arab states and others--a "Marshall-type" plan to cooperate for peace--has been proposed by many eminent bipartisan political figures. Such a program would ---

convert the bilateral peace into a truly regional peace, by demonstrating that "the fruits of peace exceeds the spoils of war." The plan could be financed by all the countries which have a great interest in peace and stability in the Middle East because of their dependency of the oil in that region. it would be based on the knowledge that there is also an Arab dependency upon the free world to continue its present relationship with Arab states. Such a plan ought to create an incentive to solve the problems that stands in the way of regional space.

To the extent that we render aid, it would necessarily be linked with "the settlement of the refugees" or, if they are already settled, then citizenship for the Arab refugees within these various Arab lands. 

The United States has provided over a billion dollars in UNRWA funds over the last fifty-plus years, for what was to have been "temporary relief before settlement."  It is not possible that the fund which has prolonged the refugee status of the "Arab refugee" could be replaced by aid in conjunction with development, and that permanent Arab refugee resettlement in the Arab regions could follow? The Arab world wants the benefits of co-existence with the "West" and therefore a major roll can be played by the United States in helping to resolve the Arab refugee-émigré problem.

All the necessary ingredients exist; recent reports of migrant labor in the Arab states have shown that the Arabs are urgently in need of labor, skilled and unskilled. Within the Arab world there is now an abundance of capital to pay the costs of integrating the refugees. Foreign funds, once freed from no-longer necessary UNRWA camps, could assist the rehabilitation of the Arab refugees. The million Jewish refugees from Arab lands have already been absorbed by the Israelis, but those of their properties that were confiscated would far exceed what even the Arab refugees left behind. The de facto exchange of Arab and Jewish refugee populations is undeniable, a fait accompli. Its recognition by the Arabs should be facilitated with the West's endorsement. Recall the Syrian official's offer to "give land away to workers who come--except the Palestinians," whose "hatred must be directed at Israel." Syria's request for "American technology," along with United States and other Western assistance now in effect or projected in many Arab "rejectionist" states, ought to be reciprocal; cooperation should be enlisted and required from nations that are aided by the United States and the West.

If the Arab world political and unjustified discrimination against its refugees-émigré brothers were to cease, and if the camp indoctrination could no longer act as a catalyst to the rejection of peace with Israel, if the Jordanian-Palestinian state, the Arabs' "displacement" of Jews, and the exchange of populations that took place between Jews and Arabs are all finally understood and recognized by the free world , then the Arab "rejectionist" front dedicated to the Jihad (holy war) against Israel may finally realize that the program of propaganda deception cannot succeed. They may then accede to a policy of genuine moderation, of a kind which in Western sense means toleration and peace.

At long last the Arab refugees would then be allowed the right to live in a more normal environment, to the refugees' optional benefit, and to the ultimate advantage of the Arab host nations. This possibly peaceful and ultimately most humane course of action would entail only a relatively minor financial transaction for the Arab nations. It would dignify the refugees and enable the Arab countries of asylum to observe the universal laws of hospitality and decency toward their refugees. It will also, if done, demonstrate that the Arabs are genuinely concerned for the welfare of their brethren, that they have finally observed the humanitarian requirements expected of any government that wishes to benefit from mutual relationships in the free world, and that they are not primarily interested in utilizing the refugees, human beings, flesh and blood, as their weapon in their war.

Thus far, merely mouthing the deceptive words of turn-speak has achieved an amazing measure of success for the revisionist history and the propaganda of the "Arab Israeli Conflict." As the late PLO-Saiqa (Syrian PLO) leader Zuheir Muhsein observed in PLO strategy discussions in 1974, many nations had already accepted the calculated interchange of images: the Arabs had managed 'to juxtapose the Israeli existence with a 'Palestinian' one.' Muhsein went on to explain the proposed "Independent Palestinian State" on the West Bank aka Judea and Samaria;

Our purpose is a democratic State in the whole of Palestine.... A State in the occupied area will not constitute an obstacle. The contrary is true--it will be a point of departure.... This State will be the backbone of  our struggle against Israel."

The Arabs, through terror and enticement of oil power, actually manipulated the prevention of the Jewish majority that should, as mandated in 1920, have become in turn the sovereign Jewish State of Palestine before WWII. Had the Arabs not succeeded, the "final solution to the Jewish problem" might have been haven, not Holocaust.

The cruelest instance of willful blindness to the nature of ones actions is attributable to British exceedingly restrictive Jewish immigration policy. It is horrifying to learn that the British--a supposedly 'civilized people"--were willing to see Jews in Europe put to death by the Nazis for "fear" of "Arab reaction and comment," the British falsely claimed that "Palestine" had "no more places" for Jews, while at the very same moment the British were imposing "illegal" Arab immigrants by tens of thousands into Palestine to do "necessary" work--work and place that they denied to the Jews.

In the end, Britain's systematic policy of virtual exclusion of Jews had resulted in utter disaster. It was disaster in the eyes of the British because they left Palestine defeated  and in a state of war until today; for the Arabs, who had won a battle against the entry of perhaps six million prospective Palestinian/Israeli Jews, it was disaster then to be faced, ironically, with anathema of a dhimmi nation that the Jews achieved ultimately additionally because of the world's horror at the senseless slaughter of those six million; for the Jews, there was disaster in the tragic timing of Israel's declared sovereignty and independence; had it been unrepressed it would have culminated its control and sovereignty in time to preclude the Holocaust. As it turned out, Israel emerged just in time to gather in not only the survivors of Hitler's savagery, but that great swell of persecuted and terrorized million Arab-born Jews who fled the Arab countries seeking refuge. the probable fate of those terrorized refugees from Arab lands, had the Jewish state been voted down (even-though according to international law and treaties, Israel was reconstituted in 1920 and required majority to take full control) due to lack of numerical majority, became, mercifully, only a matter for abstract speculation.

Today, the explicitly stated Arab goals appear to be gaining credence once again through the medium of false and deceptive propaganda and twisted rhetoric, unquestioned by those of us who haven't known the questions to ask and do not care, and unhindered by many who have guessed. Those who understand the reality ought to demand more.

Throughout the Mandate for Palestine, the British attempted to gain peace by appeasing Arab intimidation and terror. It was a self-imposed intimidation to a perception of oil-power and force that the Western powers themselves in fact evoked. Yet, others are considering a similar catastrophic course. But the lesson ought to be clear by now that the West's continuation of the protracted British policy of submission to Arab pressure has not brought a peaceful life to the region, on the contrary, it inflames the regional conflict for the foreseeable future. As Winston Churchill cautioned in 1939, the acts that we engage in for appeasement to the Arabs today we will have to remedy at a far greater cost and remorse tomorrow.