1947/48 Cherry picking history
Apologists for the atrocities committed October 7 will claim that the conflict was alive and well before that day that will live in infamy and that it was the result of 75 years where the Arabs known as Palestinians were the perfect victims of Jewish national interests. They are counting on your ignorance. They generally point to an event that they call the “Nakba” or the Disaster when in 1948 the state of Israel was formed, and Arabs were forced to flee lands that were designated by the United Nations to come under the sovereignty of the Jewish state.
Indeed the conflict was ongoing way before October 7, but Arabs known as Palestinians can hardly be considered perfect victims.
What else was happening during the Nakba
If we view the events through a lens less blurred by pro Palestinian fanaticism, you will see that there’s a bit more to the history here. It was a failed attempt by local Arabs and the surrounding Arab countries to eradicate the nucleus of the Jewish state. The Arabs rejected a 1947 UN resolution calling for the partition of the land “between the river and the sea” and went on the offensive. There were fierce battles throughout the country and the Jews managed to capture territories not awarded to them by the UN partition. Many Arabs fled those lands and also lands that the partition allotted to them that they rejected.
The other Nakba: A forgotten historical detail
The Jewish state would capitalize on the Arab rejection of the partition plan and use it as the pretext to annex territories to the Jewish State of Israel, but the Jews were not the only ones to capture territory in the land “between the river and the sea”. The Arab states captured land and it should be noted that these lands captured between the river and the sea by the Arabs were completely ethnically cleansed of their Jews. Not one Jew was permitted to remain and others were slaughtered. The Gaza Strip was captured by Egypt and Judea and Samaria (West Bank) was captured by Jordan. Those Jews who made it into Israeli held territory were granted citizenship, but also the Jews who were forced to flee Arab countries. The one and only Jewish state solved the Jewish refugee problem, but the 22 Arab countries with the exception of Jordan have refused to solve the Arab refugee problem that was created in the context against an Arab war of aggression against the Jewish State. In 2024 Palestinian Arab refugee camps still exist in Arab states. In the meantime Arabs who remained in the lands captured by Israel in 1948 would ultimately be granted Israeli citizenship.
1967- The Six Day War
Between 1948 and 1967 no Palestinian state was created in Egyptian controlled Gaza or the Jordanian controlled West Bank. The Six Day War of June 1967 started as preemptive action by Israel in order to deal with Egypts threats to destroy the Jewish State. Israel captured the Gaza Strip as well as the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, The West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria after those countries had joined the fighting. Israel’s policy immediately following the war was to hold on to the territories captured in exchange for peace and recognition, however the Arabs at the Khartoum conference declared “no peace, no recognition and no negotiation” with Israel. Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) made it clear that what was taken from the Arabs by war would be returned to the Arabs by war.
1973- Another war, peace with Egypt, and an Israeli dilemma
Israel was able to turn the tables on the Egyptians after its surprise attack on Israel which started the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but initial success against Israeli forces was considered a victory by Egypt and a restoration of its pride lost after its devastating defeat of 1967. This restoration of Egyptian pride was a factor in the establishment of peace between Israel and Egypt. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace but did not feel the need to include Gaza in the agreement. Israel would remain in control of Gaza.
Palestinian rejection of Israel made it easy for Israel to justify its continued control of Gaza and the West Bank. Jewish communities were created in Gaza and the West Bank, but there was a dilemma of what to do with the Arab residents of the territories. They presented a demographic threat to the one and only Jewish state and this is one reason why annexation never took place. Even those Israeli leaders in favor of annexation recognized the demographic threat to Israel and understood that the Arabs in the territories should be granted autonomy.
Hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace
In 1988 and in the midst of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule known as the first intifada Jordan rescinded its claim to the West Bank and so by this time with Egypt and now Jordan out of the picture, it was up to Israel to negotiate peace with the Palestinians themselves. Other global and regional developments led to direct negations between the two parties.
In the context of these negations a Palestinian Authority under the rule of Yasser Arafat took control of territories that included 98% of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hopes dashed and Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza
In the year 2000 an Israeli offer to create a 23rd Arab state that would have included 97% of the West Bank, parts of eastern Jerusalem and all of the Gaza Strip was violently rejected by the Palestinian Authority in what would quickly come to be known as the second intifada or second Palestinian uprising.
In 2005 in the absence of a final peace deal and having concluded that there was no real Palestinian partner for peace Israel decided to withdraw all of its citizens and military forces from Gaza.
Do the Palestinians really want a country of their own
Instead of building the infrastructure for a 23rd Arab state Hamas just like the Palestinian Authority which it replaced in Gaza opted instead for endless Jihad. The Arabs known as Palestinian have a long history of opting for jihad instead of peace and it has cost them dearly. This leads the author to conclude that when we talk about the true nature of the “Palestinian cause” we are really dealing with a jihadist movement and not a nationalist movement. Nationalists create states for their people, while jihadists only wage war.
