Saturday, April 9, 2022

Trip of a Lifetime - Day 16 (Israel-Palestine Part 1)

Israel/Palestine - Part 1

My sunrise camel ride began our day. I discovered I'm not allergic to camels!! Then it was a road trip north to the Dead Sea, where we have checked into our Crowne Plaza Dead Sea Resort and Spa. It's the largest hotel in Jordan. They gave us a map to orient us to all the buildings on the grounds. The pool is enormous. I'm overlooking the pool from our 3rd floor balcony right now!

Today isn't packed with activities, so this is when I get to address the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. 

Both sides of the dispute would tell you that the solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict is simple. "Just tell them to leave our country." Regrettably, neither side wants to leave the country, so that's not going to happen. Israelis and Palestinians need to maneuver through the difficult conflict with an approach that's more reasonable, if not more likely.

As I give the background to this conflict it's difficult to choose a starting point. Do I start in 1948, when Israel became a nation? Do I choose 1918, when the British Mandate gave control over Palestine to Great Britain, after the defeat of the Ottomans? Do I go back to 70CE, when Rome told the Jews to get out of Israel, and exiled them for the next two millennia? 

In "Trip Of A Lifetime - Day 1" I addressed Jerusalem's importance for three faiths, and its role in some pretty big historical events. Rome expelled the Jews in 70CE, the next 1,848 years saw the Jews living in other nations with varying levels of acceptance, the Muslim world took control of what is now Palestine, the region was a battleground for Holy Wars between Muslims and Christians during the Crusades, and after World War I the area that is now Israel, Palestine and Jordan came under the control of Great Britain with The British Mandate.

With the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 came a strengthened Zionist movement. Zionism is an effort to reclaim a homeland for the Jewish people. It has existed since the destruction of the Temple by Rome, but it really saw an increase in the early 20th century. Jews around the world were NOT quick to assimilate into the general population. Part of this was because they wanted a community where they could practice their faith and observe kosher dietary laws. But even more responsible for their segregation was the anti-Semitism that has pervaded history. For an excellent look at antisemitism, you should read A Convenient Hatred: The History Of Antisemitism. Remember the khakhi-wearing, tiki-torch-waving, white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia who kept repeating, "JEWS - WILL NOT - REPLACE US."? Here's a reminder, if you've forgotten:


Antisemitism has been like this, and much worse, for two thousand years! If you're a Jew, maybe you won't build your synagogue in the neighborhood near the guys in khakis (or Nazi flags, or KKK hoods, ...). Maybe you and some other Jews set up your homes, and a synagogue, and a kosher deli in an area that's far away from people who want to kill you because they think you make mazo with the blood of Christian babies. (Seriously! that's what they think!). 

So anyway, Jews in Russia were experiencing violent attacks called "pogroms" in the 1800s. Of course they thought it would be better to live in a Jewish nation, if only Israel still existed. Jews in Poland, and Lithuania, and Estonia, and Romania, and Italy, and countries all over Europe were experiencing such hostility. Even progressive Germany, which was the most educated population of people in the world in the 1930s, fell for Hitler's nonsense about Jews being to blame for all of Germany's problems, and they fell for that garbage about blood libel (that Jews were using the blood of Christian children). It's no surprise that the Zionist movement grew in popularity as the hostilities against Jews increased. Jews began migrating to Palestine, setting up homes, setting up kibbutzes, and setting up life in a territory that used to be Judea.

Then the world experienced World War II, and Jews and other minorities in Europe experienced the Holocaust. The world saw the horrors of a genocide that was based on Antisemitism. At that time a brand new organization called The United Nations was formed. They decided, with Great Britain still holding "The British Mandate" over Palestine, that a modern state of Israel would be established. They created a map that they considered fair. 

On May 14th, 1948 the British Mandate expired, and Israel took control of the territory they had been granted. All Jews had permission to settle there, no matter where they lived before. But there's a problem: it wasn't empty. There were hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living there. What happens to them? The book The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan gives the first person account of her Jewish family who relocated to Israel from post-Holocaust Europe in 1948, and moved into a house her parents were told had been abandoned. In the yard was a beautiful lemon tree. The Palestinian owners of the house had, in fact, been forced out at gunpoint. One day there's a knock at her door, and a young man her age is standing at the door. He was born in that house, and wanted to see it again. He took lemons home, and his father, who had planted the tree, cried. He put them in a special case. The story is true, and it illustrates the complexities of this conflict. Over 700,000 people "left" or were forced out of Israel to Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other surrounding areas. 

Every person in this region knows May 15, 1948. Israel celebrates this as their Independence Day. Palestine acknowledges this date as a national day of mourning. It's called "Nakba Day" or Day of Catastrophe. Protests against Israel in neighboring nations and communities around the world are held on May 15th. Imagine the discomfort if you live in Israel.

Almost immediately after Israel declared independence, the nations surrounding Israel launched a war against the new nation. This is not a small thing. It would be as if New Jersey was suddenly attacked by New York, Deleware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio. This is a pretty good comparison, because Israel is just about the same size as New Jersey, it is bordered on one side by the sea, and all other sides are held by larger states that want it gone. Clearly Israel was the underdog in this situation, right?

Wrong. Israel defended itself against all these other nations, and they defeated them all. The United States stayed out of the fighting, and didn't provide weapons to anyone, hoping that a shift in the balance of power wouldn't destabilize the fragile peace between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. 

Unbelievably, Israel GAINED territory! Wars have consequences, and if all those other nations wanted to keep the original boundaries, they shouldn't have attacked Israel in the first place. Here's what the map looked like before and after the war. When the boundaries were being drawn they used a green pen on the map, so they refer to these borders as "the green line." While walking through Jerusalem we were continually reminded "this is where the green line used to be" or "this is where the green line is".

Things went along like this for another twenty years or so, and then Israel discovered a plot against them. Rather than being caught on the defensive of another multi-national attack, Israel decided to do a preemptive strike. At the end of just six days, Israel had crippled and humiliated the military might of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon.

At the end of the Six Day War in 1967 the borders looked like this:


Preemptive strikes are tricky. It's like grounding your son for planning a party when you're away on a trip, because you found the invitations before you left town. He hasn't really done anything wrong... YET. Can you ground him for throwing a party that never happened? The world is united on the consequences of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, because Israel was attacked by several nations, it defended itself, and it won. The Arab world might be upset about the outcome of that war, but they can't argue what happened. But the world is mixed on how they feel about the consequences of The Six Day War. Israel's Arab neighbors can claim they were attacked without provocation, but Israel and her allies can claim it was only preventing its own annihilation. Both sides have evidence to prove they're right. Regardless, the outcome was a 30% increase in Israel's territory.

The Arab world wasn't pleased with this outcome. Things went along like this for another ten years, and then Anwar Sadat (president of Egypt) met with Menachem Begin (Israel's Prime Minister) and President Carter at Camp David to hammer out a new treaty. Israel gave the Sinai Peninsula (lower part of the map above). This proved that it was possible for an Arab nation to negotiate peace with Israel! Sadat and Begin were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

For this Anwar Sadat was assassinated by Egyptians who thought he should have consulted with the rest of the Arab world first.

Here's what the map looked like after the treaty with Egypt.


The next big step toward lasting peace in the region was when Israel met with Palestine in Oslo, Norway. The reason this was important is because it was the first time the Palestinian Liberation Organization acknowledged the existence of Israel. Until Oslo they had argued that Israel's establishment was a violation of international law. Israel also acknowledged the PLO as a body that could represent the Palestinian people, rather than simply calling them a terrorist organization. These things didn't change the borders, but they were very impactful. The leaders in this process were Yitzhak Rabin (Israeli Prime Minister), Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat. All three were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated soon thereafter, by an Israeli who opposed the terms of the Oslo Accords.
After the Oslo Accords the borders were believed to be the borders-for-now, with more negotiating needing to happen. But the rest of the anticipated talks fizzled. 

...and this is where we are today. 

Enter three men who shared their lived experiences with us.

This is Assaf Gamzou, the Director of Jewish Education in Israel at ANU - Museum of the Jewish People.

This is Abu Muhammed, a man who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem.

This is Ahmad Muna, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem.


Our first lecture of the trip was delivered by Assaf Gamzou, whose great grandparents established a small village in Israel during the Zionist movement. His grandfather was the first child born in that village, and his grandfather's wife was a survivor of Auschwitz. As mentioned above, some moved to this region for ideological reasons, and some came because they were fleeing for their lives. Assaf's family exhibits both of those.

Assaf's formative years were shaped by the Oslo Accords. Yitzhak Rabin was elected as a left-wing representative, and the left-wing usually favors peace. He defeated the Likud (Right-wing) party, which tends to favor a stronger position against Palestine.  Netanyahu is notorious for saying "Peace With Security" as a slogan, and he represents the Right-wing Likud party. When Rabin was elected, the hope was that he would usher in peace with the Arabs. This started, as mentioned above, but it was expected that this would be the start of a multi-year effort to come to terms about Palestinian rights, borders, Israeli settlements, citizenship, and Jerusalem.

Assaf explained that the real blow to the peace effort was when Ehud Barak, Israeli Prime Minister from 1999-2001, went to Camp David in 2000 to negotiate peace with Yasser Arafat, mediated by President Clinton. As a left-wing leader who campaigned for peace, he was very invested in negotiating terms that would be agreeable to both sides. From the Camp David summit he went on television and announced, "There is no partner for peace." Assaf said this was completely horrific to the peace process, because while one might expect this from a war-loving, right-wing Prime Minister, one doesn't expect it from a Left-wing leader who campaigned for peace with Palestine. It seemed that peace would be unattainable.

Running against Ehud Barak in the upcoming election was Ariel Sharon, the right-wing leader of the Likud party. In the 1980s Sharon had to resign as Israel's Defense Minister for his responsibility in a massacre against thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese Shi'ite civilians. Palestinians called him "The Butcher Of Beirut." Eighteen years later, on September 28th, 2000, he took more than 1,000 military police to the Dome Of The Rock mosque and entered it. Muslims in Palestine and beyond were outraged at this desecration of their third-holiest site.

This desecration launched the second intifada. 

Sharon was elected Prime Minister three months later.

The Second Intifada started with Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount, in September of 2000, and ended in February of 2005. During these years Palestinians orchestrated violent protests against Israel, which included suicide bombings of civilians. One thousand Israelis were killed. Reprisals against these attacks resulted in the deaths of 3,000 Palestinians.

With Sharon as Prime Minister, hope for peace was non-existent. He was provocative, urging Israel to build settlements in Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza. 

In 2006 Sharon stunned the world when he called for a unilateral exit from the Gaza Strip, asking for nothing in return from Palestine! His own Likud Party was opposed to this move, so Sharon left the party, of which he was the head, and created his own party! Assaf was in the Israeli Army at the time, and he happened to be serving with Sharon's son, who told everyone to be quiet so they could listen to his father's announcement as it happened. Everyone was stunned. Sharon was conidered "The Father Of The Settlers," and now he was ordering them out of their settlement. 

A few months later, amidst plans to do more unilateral changes, Sharon had a stroke and ended up in a permanent vegetative state until he passed away eight years later. 

Assaf concluded his presentation with the three possible solutions to the conflict:
  • Two-State Solution -- Israel would be its own nation, Palestine would be its own nation, and Jerusalem would be split between the two. No Israeli settlements in Palestine.
  • Two-State Confederation - One thinner political entity, which keeps both nations together but separate. 
  • One-State Solution - Everyone in Palestine and Israel would be a single nationality. This is not acceptable to any of the devout Jews who desire a Jewish State, and would likely end in Civil War.
This is where I'll stop today, or else this blog post will become EVEN LONGER, and if you've made it this far on a post about politics in the Middle East it's already quite impressive. 

Did I mention I'm not allergic to camels?!