The history is complex. Palestine, before it was split in
two, had been occupied by Ancient
Egyptians, Canaanites,
Israelites,
Assyrians,
Babylonians,
Persians, Ancient
Greeks, Romans, Byzantines,
the Sunni Arab
Caliphates, the Shia
Fatimid Caliphate, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mameluks, Ottomans.
In 1922, after the defeat of the Ottomons, the League of Nations gave Britain a Mandate to rule Palestine (what today we call Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan). It faced constant revolt by warring factions, a legacy of the region's chequered and violent history over thousands of years. It is not surprising
that the administrators were happy to relinquish governance at the first opportunity.
Here is a simplified summary of post-British Palestine and
Israel, which I hope is fair.
Origination of Palestine and Israel
The world after WW II had been shocked by the unprecedented
horror of the holocaust and so felt a need to recompense the Jewish people by
giving them a homeland. This was done through the UN General Assembly. The UK
relinquished its administration of Palestine in 1947 and part of Palestine was
made into Israel - a new state for the scattered Jews. This process trapped a lot of Palestinian
Arabs inside Israel, which they understandably resented. This was followed by
the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, since when Israel has been repeatedly threatened
by the surrounding Arab states. The 6 day war of 1967 was technically started
by Israel in response to a military build up by Egypt on its border. Jordan and
Syria joined in. The outcome was that Israel not only fought off what most
observers regarded as aggressors but acquired extra territory: the West Bank
(so-called because it is to the west of the river Jordan, while Israel is to
the west of the West Bank). Jerusalem is situated on the south west border of
the West Bank and is divided into sectors for Moslems, Jews and Christians
under an international agreement.
Obstacles to peace: Palestine
The Palestinian cause was initially advanced by the
Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO, of which Fatah is the largest faction)led since the 1950s by Yasser Arafat, who died a few years ago. This is a
military movement; but unlike jihad groups it is primarily political in its
objectives. To the best of my knowledge it does not preach hatred of Jews or
target civilians or use them as human shields or destroy sacred places or
murder people at worship.
Over the decades there have been numerous attempts to
negotiate peace with Israel and create a viable Palestinian state. Palestine
now consists of the Gaza strip together with the West Bank and is represented
internationally by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), with elected
members from Hamas and the PLO. Since 2013 the PNA has become known as the State of Palestine but is thwarted in its attempts to achieve a peaceful
settlement with Israel by the growing power of Hamas, a jihad group dedicated
to the complete destruction of Israel and to an Islamic theocracy in Palestine.
Unfortunately, Hamas has a lot of popular support and grew from the Moslem
Brotherhood, while Fatah (the main part of the PLO) has a top-down history.
Quoting the
Wikipedia entry “Since the Battle of Gaza (2007), the two separate
territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, are divided into a Hamas
leadership in the Gaza Strip and a Fatah civil leadership in the autonomous areas of the West
Bank. Each sees itself as the administrator of all Palestinian Territories and
does not acknowledge the other one as the official government of the
territories. The Palestinian Territories have therefore de facto split
into two entities.”
So Palestine as a
single negotiating entity does not exist. The PNA (State of Palestine) has
tried to serve as the negotiator and act as a state but obviously has little
authority, notwithstandong the UN’s best efforts to bestow such authority on
it.
There is also the
problem of another terrorist group: Hizbollah. This was started in the Lebanon
in 1982 in response to Israel’s occupation, which ended in 2000. It is financed
and supported by Iran and Syria and is has seats in Lebanon’s parliament. It is
indirectly active in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself and is in fierce
conflict with Hamas (Gaza-based), since it comprises Shi’a Moslems, while Hamas
comprises Sunni Moslems. It shares one long term goal with Hamas: the complete
obliteration of Israel.
The only hope of peace being secured with
Israel rests with the moderate elements of Hamas and Hesbollah which may be
willing to observe truces and cease fires while seeking Israel’s eventual
destruction. Whenever the State of Palestine tries to reach an agreement with
Israel it is thwarted by extremists who generate death and chaos out of all
proportion to their support.
So on the
Palestinian side of the repeated peace initiatives we have the so-called State
of Palestine alongside Hamas and Hesbollah – who are unable to agree amongst
themselves and represent different parts of Palestine.
Obstacles to
peace: Israel
Israel is a true
nation state of 7.2 million, with a parliament recognised internationally as
legally representing all those within its borders; but it too is hampered by
irreconcilable differences within its borders, making it difficult to reach accord
with hostile peoples surrounding it.
The populace is
fairly diverse. Jews form 76% of Israel’s population with Moslems making up
most of the rest. Two thirds of Jews were born in Israel and about a quarter
are immigrants from Europe and the USA. The remaining 10% are immigrant Arabs
and Asians.
The
ultra-Orthodox Jews now form 10% of the population. They will never countenance
compromise with the Palestinians and have enough representation in parliament
to skupper peace initatives, e.g. by encouraging settlers to move into the West
Bank whenever peace negotiations are making progress. There are currently
700,000 settlers in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights (in
Lebanon). There are also individual fanatics able to prevent peace agreements,
such as the one who assassinated Rabin in 1995 while he was negotiating the
Oslo peace process.
Israel has had nuclear weapons since the late
1950s in contravention of international agreements. Being the only Middle East
power so armed gives it some sense of security when surrounded by hostile
nations. If Iran, which supports Hizbollah, gets nuclear weapons, then Saudi
Arabia (Sunni Moslem) , a long term enemy of Iran (Shi’a Moslem), will also
want them and have the resources to get them. Israel is therefore tempted to
take pre-emptive action against Iran, which is not likely to be more than
nominally opposed by Saudi Arabia. It
would only be a matter of time before a jihad group acquired some kind of
nuclear capability. This all adds to confusion and a sense of insecurity in
Israel and this must affect its negotiations.
Israel's sense of insecurity has recently increased due to the migration of Sunni jihad groups towards its border with Syria. Such groups were formerly restrained by the Shi'a government of Assad.
Their military power has recently been increased by weaponry stolen from Libya during the general chaos of the Arab Spring.
International
pressure for peace
What peace moves
have been taken result partly from outside pressure, mainly from the USA and
Europe, which obviously have different agendas, both from Israel and from each other. In particular, the USA has a
powerful Jewish lobby: AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
This lobbies both Congress and the government.
Public opinion in the west is influenced by both Israel and Saudi Arabia
both of which finance some western
universities. Financing of universities is important in forming the concensus
view of a nation’s intelligentsia and press. Oil has always been a big factor
in attracting outside influences. Will this continue as foreign powers become
increasingly energy self-sufficient? Will the problemsof jihad and its threat to western civilisation weaken or strengthen its resolve to pressurise Israel and Palestine into reconciliation?
Solutions?
So you could sum
up the Israel-Palestine problem in one word: complicated.
One possible
route to peace could be through Hamas’s links to the Muslim Brotherhood, from
which it was spawned. The Muslim Brotherhood
forms the power base in Egypt after the 2012 election which followed the
revolution and President Mohammed Muri renegotiated
an expired peace deal with Israel before
putting Egypt under Shi'a law. Maybe this is where the hope lies. Egypt is a
large country of 84 million, comprising 90% Sunni Moslems and 10% Christians. If
Israel can trust a Muslim Brotherhood president to keep order and honour an
agreement with Israel, as did the deposed president Mubaki for several decades, it may also be able to
reach informal agreements with Hamas which could lead to a more unified
Palestine state, one with which Israel could have meaningful negotiations. So
it falls on Muri to put pressure on Hamas to give up violent attacks on Israel and cooperate with the government in the West Bank.
Unfortunately, this would not deal with the problem of Hizbollah, who are as opposed to Hamas as they are to Israel.
In the USA the
Jewish lobby needs to encourage the US government to put pressure on Israel to
stop building settlements, i.e. to take steps to curtail the influence of
ultra-Orthodox Jews on government policy. They could start by withdrawing
financial benefits to them for having larger families and by rewarding settlers
who return to Israel. If the western powers could help finance the rewards to
settlers this should help.
Another approach,
perhaps a complementary one, could be for the UN to finance a major project in
the most ordered parts of Palestine. Unemployment is a major a cause of
instability and this could be dealt with if the project in question led to
careers and prospects for many local people, who might be tempted away from AK
47s and suicide bomb kits. It would have to be long term, inspirational to
young people in the area and provide long term prosperity. Perhaps an entire
state-of-the-art city could be built in the desert – or a solar power plant to
serve a large area of Palestine.
There is nothing
like offering people a strong incentive to work together to get them to forget
their differences and I have heard of medical organisations working across boarders and employing practitioners from more than one faith. These need to be encouraged and built upon.
These are
possible, though difficult to implement, practical solutions; but the only long term solution
must be a spiritual transformation.
A
politically incorrect approach
The Middle East is where a divine message of love,
forgiveness, rescuing of the needy and the elevation of humility as a strength, broke into the
world 2000 years ago. A world of
multiple whimsical anthropomorphic gods, human sacrifice, slavery, female
subjugation, rigid hierarchy, pride, brutal punishment, vengeance, man-centred arbitary judgement and king
worship – not only in the Middle East but in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
From the very humblest of beginnings the message has spread
to influence world history. It has been and continues to be a struggle, and a
long, continuing one, with many departures from the message. But today, all
societies which have held sacred this message enjoy peace, technological
innovation, thriving science, good health and prosperity by comparison with
those which have not. Whenever they move away from it and fail out of hubris to
recognise its divine source, there is trouble.
In countries like the UK there has been an upsurge in atheism and
spiritual dilution in the established church which is leading us into a
downward spiral of economic, financial, social and spiritual disorder.
So it is tragic that the place from which the divine message
emanated is now in turmoil. The various religious groups which have rejected it
hate each other and interminably seek revenge.
God alone knows what is really happening and what will happen next. So what can be done?
Recently I was sent details of a Middle East ‘Peace House’ situated on the Mount of Olives. I learned of the
continuing life work of Haj Ibrahim Ahmad Abu El-Hawa, who set up a refuge for
all faiths called the Peace House on the Mount of Olives. This is the effort of
one man, talking to crowds and helping individuals, regardless of religion. There are others, all needing financial support. What the Middle East needs is hundreds of
such inspired people on this or similar missions. Only in this way can the
spirit of hatred and revenge be conquered. Without such a transformation the
troubles between Jews and Moslems, Sunnis and Shi’as, will go on until some
catastrophic event like a nuclear exchange finally ends the seemingly
interminable conflict.
