Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 16:40:54 -0500
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Political Inventions
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

ronkean at juno.com wrote:

> 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.

Excellent summation.

--Ted White