Israel’s Right to Exist Part VI
1-10-09
They lived among different peoples for thousands of years until the Babylonian Captivity and the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 CE destroyed their country. If any one group, nation state, or people have an historical legacy to a land, it is the Jews in Israel. It was the converted Arabs under their Moslem leaders who came hundreds of years after the Jewish exile by Rome. Even up until there was renewed Jewish interest in Palestine by Theodore Herzl in the 1890's few people live in that area, but always there were Jews. When European Jews showed interest in that region and invested there, with permission and blessing of the Ottoman Turks, who controlled that region for hundreds of years, poor stateless Arabs moved in looking for work, and a better life and reproduced in greater numbers. They had never lived there before most were from the Hashemite Arabian peninsular. Arabs benefited by Jewish investment in Palestine since the 1920’s. What few Arabs lived there from the Napoleonic Era until the WWI did nothing to improve either the land or the region. After Jewish success in the 1920's the grand Mufti and his allies sought to destroy the Jewish settlements and take their work as their own. Were they any different in Gaza after the Israelis left? No!
Israel does not have a “divine right” to exist and no one with any sense has stated that. You are afforded free speech in this country, and if you are opposed to Israel so be it. We, who support Israel, and feel that they are western, and a democracy, believe in religious freedom and toleration. In fact, it was the Arab majority that has abused both Jew and Christian for hundreds of years. The Arabs may have some issues with the Crusaders, but what did the Jews do to the Arabs? The Palestinian people are Arabs by the way, and they look the same, speak the same language, practice the same religion, eat the same cuisine and have the habits as most other Arabs of that region. They are identified as Palestinians as part of a political classification. What have their fellow Arabs done for them? Virtually nothing! They have kept them in refugee camps for 60 years, never assimilated them into the mainstream of their own countries, and kept them as a festering abused group. In fact, since the 2nd World War, they are the only group in the whole world, from that era, which has been left in that condition. Pakistanis, Indians, Hindus, Yemenis, Koreans, Vietnamese, and scores of other displaced people have been re-assimilated into new societies. What happened with the Arab Palestinians, I ask?
Whether one or many believe that Israel has a divine right of existence, or should be representative as the “Chosen” people, or have been too aggressive in their own self-defense, begs the issue. The have a right to a portion of the land through history, the UN sanction, and the ability to hold onto that land. Nation-states are really only a modern convenience that goes back a short period of geological time. Through the millennia, peoples have come and gone. But in the modern era, the world has seen the rise of the nation-state, and generally this nation-state has survived by the will of its own people to insure that survival. I assume Israel will survive because they desperately want to. As to the Arabs and their subsets, they have wanted it both ways. They want the individuality of the nation-state and the collectivity of race (The Arab race) and religion (Muslim) reflective of their convenience. That paradox is an issue for the rest of the civilized world. If the western world wants to tolerate their nation-states with all this dualism, and therefore tolerate their encouragement and exportation of radicalism and terror, something has to give. As to the Arabs, as I have said before, if it weren't for oil, which the west found and exploited for them, they would still be a nomadic people, as Sa'ud described themselves to FDR only 63 years ago. Without oil, they would still be backward captives of their pre-Enlightenment Age culture. But, of course, all peoples can choose their own poison, and if they wish to dwell in the 7th Century so be it. But if that choice intrudes on the peace of the rest of the world, conflicts inevitably arise.
When the Zionist pioneers and settlers, who mostly non-religious Jews, came to Palestine, it was not Arab, but Turkish, and virtually no one lived there, The Arabs didn't own or rule the land! The Jews bought whatever land they lived on! Plain and simple! I told you that in 1922 the land had only 1/16th of today's population. If you were ever there you would see that there is still plenty of open land even with 6.5 millions in today's Israel. You continually insist, with a high level of arrogance the denial of the history of that region in the 20th Century, not the 7th century. The Zionists never were out to destroy Islam and I have never heard one sane Jew talk about the killing of Arabs or the destruction of Islam.
At the start of the 1948 war, the Arab governments and the Mufti's supporters called for the evacuation of Arab towns so that their armies could come in and crush the new born country, and push the Jews into the sea. Those are the cold historical facts. Most of the 800,000 Palestinians left voluntarily and settled in the West Bank. Many went to refugee camps where they have remained today. They could have been assimilated, but weren't. Jordan had ample opportunity to create a Palestinian Country out of the West Bank at any time from 1948 through 1967. Why didn't the Little King (Hussein) do it? He was afraid; because he remembered that his grandfather wanted to make peace with Israel and was assassinated. Same thing happened to Sadat and all the other enlightened Arab moderates!
As to the “stolen land” remark, Hitler and his Nazi brigands often repeated, “When you tell a lie, tell a big one and repeat it often and loud.” Since when have the 100 million Arabs ever really cared about their own? Hamas has destroyed more Palestinian lives by far then all the actions by the IDF. They are a world-wide, recognized terror group, which even most Arab governments shun. But you celebrate their right to hurl 10,000+ missiles at a sovereign state. But when that state retaliates against their leadership, warns the civilian population and attempts to avoid the loss of innocent civilians, you are indignant. These brigands imbed themselves in densely populated civilian areas to hide and shield their nefarious activities. They are killers and it is too bad that the average decent Arab citizen is held hostage to their lies and corruption. As it has been said before, “the last refuge of a scoundrel is patriotism.”