There is so much that people do not know, or have been given misinformation about, concerning Israel and Palestine.
Without knowledge of the most basic facts it is difficult to have views or opinions that are both principled and credible.
Let's consider five things that most don't know about Israel/Palestine.
Does Israel or Palestine have the strongest argument for arguing that they are entitled to the land?
First of all, it needs to be understood that Palestine has never been a country or nation state at any time.
Jewish people populated what is now Israel dating back to when the area was referred to as Judea.
Judeans or Jews were indigenous to Judea and Arabs were indigenous to Arabia.
The Romans started using the name "Palestine" (more accurately Syria Palestine) in the second century A.D. after an insurrection in the Judea territory as punishment to remove the link between the Jews and the province of Judea.
Further, the Jewish faith dates back to 640 B.C. while Islam did not appear on the scene until some 1,200 years later in the area around Jerusalem.
If there is any claim on the area being their "holy lands" based on the timeline of history, the Jews have the more compelling argument as to who has an indigenous right to the land.
Where Did The Early Settlers Of Israel Come From?
A popular misconception is that almost all of the early settlers of Israel came from eastern European countries and came to the Middle East where they were complete foreigners and interlopers to the area.
The fact is that the majority of the early settlers to Israel in the period 1948-1952 were from other Middle Eastern countries where they were seeking freedom from Muslim persecution and violence or were explicitly expelled from Middle Eastern Muslim countries.
The rest were Holocaust survivors from Europe.
You can see how the trend of Jewish populations moving away from most Arab countries continued in the succeeding years in the chart below. By 1980 there were almost no Jews living in any other country in the Middle East except Israel.
Jews ended up in Israel because quite literally they were not welcome in most of Europe or the Middle East and had nowhere else to go.
This is put into even starker perspective when you consider that 86% of the entire Jewish population in the world today lives in just two countries--- Israel (46% of the total) and the United States (40% of the total).
There are only 15.3 million Jewish people in the world today.
Most people are also not aware that almost 20% of the population of Israel are Muslims who have the same rights and privileges as Jews. They can vote, hold political office and serve in the military (although not required to like general Israeli citizens).
There are approximately 1.8 billion Muslims in the world.
1.8 billion Muslims aren't able to find a way to have peace with a mere 15 million Jews?
The Land
The Palestinians argue that Israel is on "their land". However, as stated above, Palestine has never been a country or nation state.
The Jews settled in what is now Israel as far back as the 13th century B.C. when Moses led their exodus from Egypt to the land of Israel on what was referred to as "the promised land" in the Bible.
The Jews were in and out of control of the land surrounding Jerusalem for long periods of time under various Kings including Saul, David and Solomon which are all well documented in the Bible
The Jews were in control of the area in 63 B.C. when Roman general Pompey conquered Jerusalem after which the Jews were then subjugated under Roman rule. This was the situation when Jesus Christ was born.
The Romans controlled the area until 313 A.D. The Byzantines (which was the Eastern Roman Empire after the Western Romans collapsed) ruled the area until the seventh century when the Arabs gained control. It was during this time that Islam was founded.
The Arabs lost control of the land area to the Crusaders during the 1100-1291 A.D. period.
Muslims gained back control during the Mamluk period (1291-1516 A.D.)
The Ottomans then took control in 1517 and ruled the area for 400 years until they were on the losing side in World War I and lost control to Great Britain in 1917.
This is the map of Israel as it existed from 1917 to 1946 under the control of Great Britain.
All of the following maps are from this source.
After World War II, the United Nations put forth a proposal that would create the Israel state out of the British territory. The UN also proposed that Palestine would also be recognized as a country for the first time with territory of its own. A two-state solution was devised for both Jews and Palestinian Arabs.
Israel accepted the plan. The Arabs rejected the plan.
Five Arab nations attacked Israel in 1948 immediately after Israel declared its independence based on the U.N. Resolution granting Israel the land in the proposal.
Despite being a fledging nation and receiving almost no support from around the world (including the Untied States which largely remained neutral in not supplying arms to either of the belligerents) Israel prevailed in the war.
As a result, after winning the war Israel actually gained territory beyond what was in the U.N. proposal.
Jordan took control of the West Bank and Egypt took control of Gaza. Both the West Bank and Gaza would have made up a Palestine state based on the U.N. proposal if the Arabs had accepted the proposal. Instead, these areas ended up under the control and occupation of Jordan and Egypt.
In 1967, war broke about between Egypt and Israel.
This war became known as "The Six Day War" as Israel defeated Egypt (and Jordan and Syria who joined the war against Israel).
As a result to is victory in the war, Israel gained massive amounts of territory including Gaza, the West Bank and the entire Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
In 1979, Israel reached a peace agreement with Egypt and agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula to them as part of the deal. Sinai was returned to Egypt by 1982.
However, the agreement cost Egyptian President Anwar Sadat his life as he was assassinated by people in the Egyptian Army in 1981 unhappy with the peace agreement with Israel.
In 1993, the Oslo Accords saw Israel agree to withdraw most military assets from Gaza and the West Bank and establish a process for self-determination for the Palestinian people with the long-term objective of establishing a Palestinian state.
In 2005, Israel fully withdrew from Gaza and opened the way for the Palestinians in Gaza to elect their own government leaders. As part of the deal, Israel relocated Israeli settlements out of Gaza leaving Gaza completely to the Palestininans. The Palestinian people elected Hamas to govern their affairs in 2006.
Therefore, the Palestinian people actually elected what was then (and remains to this day) a listed foreign terror organization to be their government representatives.
The main objective of Hamas has been to terrorize Israel ever since.
Israel is referred to as an "occupier" but has not occupied Gaza since 2005.
A wall and fencing have been placed around Gaza but that was done due to continuing attacks from the Palestinians against Israel citizens.
Israel controls the northern entrance to Gaza and Egypt the southern entrance. However, Israel has been much more willing to allow traffic to flow through the entrance than Egypt has since Hamas took control. As Israel has closed the entrance at the border since the Hamas war began, the Egyptian crossing is the only way in and out and Egypt right now. Egypt is controlling it more tightly than ever seeing to it that much goes in or out of Gaza.
Why Has Palestine Not Been Allowed Full Sovereignty As A Nation?
Why?
It is because they refuse to agree to the right of Israel to exist.
NO #1 The British originally offered in the late 1930's to divide the British mandate between a state of Israel and state of Palestine based on recommendations of what was called the Peel Commission. Its terms would have given only abut 20% of the territory to the Jews and 80% to the Arabs. The Jews accepted the offer and the Arabs rejected the opportunity claiming it was insufficient.
NO #2 After World War II, the UN took up what the British started and proposed a two state solution. Israel accepted and was granted land. The Arabs said no again. The Arabs attacked Israel one day after it declared independence based on the UN resolution it had agreed to. Israel prevailed in the war. Most of the land set aside for the Palestinians became occupied by Jordan--the West Bank and East Jerusalem---and Egypt---Gaza.
NO #3 Jordan joined in the Six Day War with Egypt and Syria against Israel. After Israel won the war they took over the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Eqypt. After the war Israel began peace discussions with the two countries about returning the land in return for a peace treaty with the two countries.The Arab League responded with three NOs--No peace with Israel. No recognition of Israel. No negotiations with Israel.
NO #4 President Bill Clinton attempted to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2000 to cement a lasting legacy to his presidency. He got Israel to agree to allow a Palestinian state to be formed out of Gaza, East Jerusalem and 94% of the West Bank. However, PLO leader Yassar Arafat said NO. In fact, Clinton later said that Arafat said NO to every proposal made during the discussions.
NO #5. In 2005, Israel unilaterally left Gaza to the Palestinians instead of developing it for themselves. Israel allowed Gaza to hold their own elections in which they elected Hamas. Hamas turned the territory into a terrorist base diverting most humanitarian aid meant to develop the infrastructure to spending on terror tunnels, military equipment and rockets. In 2008, Israel again offered a peace plan and sovereignty to Palestine with even more land concessions than in 2000. The Palestinians once again said NO.
Palestine has consistently refused any peace deal with Israel or a two state solution because they refuse to recognize that Israel has a right to exist.
Hamas remains resolute today in a"all of nothing" position. There is no interest in a two-state solution. Palestine must have all the land "from the river to the sea" according to its mission statement. Nothing else is acceptable.
It also needs to be considered that even when Egypt and Jordan controlled and occupied so-called Palestinian territory (West Bank and Gaza) these Arab countries never offered to provide Palestine statehood sovereignty or provided citizenship to Palestinians of their own countries.
Has Israel been committing genocide against the Palestinians for years?
This is a statement that is often made by those who support Palestine.
It has been a common narrative for years.
If Israel has been perpetrating genocide on the Palestinian people over the years they have been doing a very poor job of it based on the chart below.
This chart compares the growth in population between Israel and Palestinians between 1960 and 2020.
Israel's population has grown 3.85x since 1960.
Palestine's population has grown 4.6x.
More sobering is the fact that before the Holocaust and World War II there were an estimated 15 million Jews in the world. That is almost exactly the same number that exist today.
In 1930, there were 2 billion inhabitants on earth of which 15 million were Jews.
In 2023, the world's population is over 8 billion but there are the same number of Jews.
World population is up 4x but the Jewish population has not changed in almost 100 years.
Think about that for a minute.
Do those protesters even know what genocide really is?
I have to think that if most of those "smart" students who march around their college campuses supporting Palestine and Hamas with posters reading "From The River To The Sea" knew a few of these things they might decide it would be better to sit this one out.
All that being said, it is understandable that the Palestinian people feel aggrieved, isolated and desperate based on their circumstances.
However, that does not mean they have the right to deny Israel's right to exist.
Does anyone remember the John Lennon and Yoko Ono song that was released in 1969 with this famous refrain and chorus line?
"All we are saying is give peace a chance."
The problem has been, and remains the case, that the Palestinians have not offered to give peace a chance. one time in the last 75 years.
It is hard to have peace if one side has absolutely no interest in it.
Unfortunately, that is where we are.
Fantastic summary.
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