To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 03:05:50 -0500
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Political Inventions
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

On Thu, 04 Apr 2002 19:11:21 -0500 Elspeth Kovar <ekovar at radix.net>
writes:

> Couple of things that I've never understood.  It's my understanding
> that in 1967 Israel had armies on it's borders, the Straights were
> closed, and Israel decided to fight.

It was the Gulf of Aqaba which had been closed, by Egypt.  Israel had
threatened to retaliate against Syria for border raids (and Syrian
shelling from the Golan Heights).  Syria appealed to Egypt for help,
Egypt demanded the removal of UN peace-keepers from Suez (there since
1956), and moved troops into the Sinai.  (The Sinai had been
demilitarized after the 1956 war.)  Israel struck pre-emptively against
Egypt and Syria, and the 1967 war was on.

> And, to everyone's surprise, when the
> fight was over not only had they survived but they'd gain land
> rather than lost it.

Well, perhaps not everyone's surprise.  Israel had captured the Sinai,
the east bank of the Suez Canal, Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the
Golan Heights.  Israel withdrew from Suez and the Sinai in 1973 (another
war), after heavy losses and a peace agreement with Egypt.

> Now, 35 years later, if they want people to stop
> blowing themselves and civilians up, they have to give the land back.
> Perhaps I'm naive but this doesn't make sense to me.

It would not make much sense (justice-wise) if the land Israel 'gained'
(Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Golan) were rightfully Israel's, or if
the only argument for giving it back is based on terrorist extortion.
But the return of the land is pretty much the crux of the current
controversy - whether the land should be returned, and what should be the
conditions for returning the land.  Also, most of the aggrieved
Palestinians are not terrorists, and their grievances may have a sound
basis.

The parts of the occupied territories Israel most wants to keep are
Jerusalem (for the Temple Mount, and to be the capital of Israel) and
Golan (a vital water source).  Some Israelis have built settlements in
the West Bank, in an apparent move to eventually claim the whole West
Bank as part of Israel, but other Israelis are willing to have the
settlements removed, and return the West Bank to Jordan (or even give it
to the Palestinians).  Jerusalem is a major sticking point, because
Israel wants to keep it, and the Palestinians, Jordan, and Muslims far
and wide don't want it to be under Israel.  The Temple Mount is holy to
both Jews and Muslims.

>
> The other is that the Palestinians say that they just want a
> Palestinian
> state.  When Israel was formed land was also set aside for just such
> a state but was absorbed by the surrounding Arab countries --
> countries that are now in full support of Israel giving up land to
create a
> Palestinian state.
>
> Elspeth
>

A fuller description of what happened:  Palestine was (is) the land west
of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.  Trans-Jordan was to the east of
the river.  Trans-Jordan is now called Jordan.  Israel was proclaimed in
May 1948, the same day the British withdrew from Palestine.  Egypt and
Jordan immediately attacked, and the cease-fire in Jan. 1949 established
the boundaries of 'Israel proper', basically, Palestine minus the West
Bank, Gaza, and west Jerusalem.  (The Temple Mount is in east, or old,
Jerusalem).

So the 'left over' land (Gaza and the West Bank) might be thought of a
being 'set aside' for the Palestinians (after all, they had long been
living there in great numbers, then swelled by refugees from 'Israel
proper'), but in fact Gaza was placed under Egyptian administration, and
the West Bank under Jordanian control, and the Palestinians remained,
though some refugees ended up in Lebanon, Jordan, or Egypt proper.  In
1950, Jordan formally annexed the West Bank, so in that sense the West
Bank was 'absorbed' by Jordan.  But of course the territory Israel is
being asked to 'return' is mainly the West Bank and Gaza, and none of the
territory Israel is being asked to return is part of 'Israel proper'
described above.

But it should be added that 'Israel proper' (sometimes called the
pre-1967 boundaries), is far larger than the territory of Israel was at
the time the state was proclaimed in May 1948.  The extra land was seized
by Israel in the following months, during the war which was ended by the
cease-fire of Jan. 1949.  That seizure of land, I suppose, was largely
responsible for creating the Palestinian refugee problem.

Zionist settlement in Palestine began in 1882, and accelerated after the
first Zionist Conference in 1897.  In 1899, the Jewish Colonial Trust
 (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Zionism/jct.html)
was established in London to raise money to buy Palestine (or part of it)
from the Sultan, and thus create a sovereign territory, but it did not
succeed.  Until the declaration of the State of Israel in May 1948, as
far as I know, all the land in Palestine which was acquired by the
Zionists was acquired peacefully, by purchase.  However, it may be that
when the State was first declared, its boundaries included land which was
owned or inhabited by people who did not want to be part of the State.
If that is the case, it may be one reason why fighting broke out
immediately upon the birth of the State of Israel, especially if that
situation affected a large number of people.  I would like to find out
more about that point.  In 1946, there were some 780,000 Jews in
Palestine, and nearly twice as many Arabs.

Ron Kean

.

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