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