Is Peace Possible Between Israel And Palestine?
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Is Peace Possible Between Israel and Palestine?
“The Arab world is not in a compromising mood Nations never concede; they fight. You wont get anything by peaceful means or compromise. You can, perhaps get something, but only by the force of your armsBut its too late to talk of peaceful solutions” (Bard 1). The Arab League Secretary Azzam Pasha said this statement on September 16, 1947, eight months before the state of Israel was established. The Arabs held this mentality in a time when Israel was not yet a fact. This trait was hereditary in the sense that it was taught to their children, who taught it to their children, and so on. Those are the people who are living in Arab countries, and still despise everything about Israel and believe that, no matter what, negotiations are useless. This is especially true today with the Palestinians, for as Suha Arafat, wife of Yasser Arafat, stated, “I have always rejected normalizing relations with (Israeli) women They always invite me to their functions and I categorically refuse because I hate Israel” (Bard 2). This statement proves that though the Israelis try to normalize relations with the Palestinians, they refuse because they want nothing to do with Israel. From the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 to the present, there have been five wars, all of which have ended with peace treaties that did not do much. A peace treaty will never normalize the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East because so many have failed in the past.
May 14, 1948 was a victorious day for the Jewish people; the state of Israel was born. The excitement, however, was short lived because the armies of Syria, Iraq, Trans-Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon entered Israel the next day in an effort to erase it off the map. “The Arabs themselves expected the new state to be swept off the map in months if not weeks” (Ross 30). The majority of the Arab world fiercely opposed the state of Israel and refused to recognize it in any way. As Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League said on May 15, 1948, “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre” (Bard 1). So it was; over 6,300 Israelis were killed in the War of Independence (Israeli Casualties in Battle). Rhodes Peace Pact did not force the Arabs to recognize Israel as a state, allowing its legal existence to be ignored. This peace treaty did not bring true peace because it would take decades before Arab countries would recognize the state of Israel (Blumberg 84). Even though a cease-fire was in effect, the war continued as Arabs closed the Suez Canal to Israel shipping and Israel (in retaliation) did not allow the 700,000 Arab refugees return to their homes (Regan 22).
The problem was that no Arab State wanted those refugees so camps were set up in Gaza Strip, which was controlled by Egypt, and the West Bank, which was controlled by Jordan (23). This inability to find a “home land” for the people now called Palestinians would lead to many of Israels conflicts with the Arab world. The Arabs did not want their Palestinian brothers in their countries but, for some reason, Israel, the Jewish State, was supposed to take them in even though it had the best reason not to. Was Israel, which had just won the war, now supposed to take back their enemies? Of course not.
From 1949 to 1956, there was no peace in Israel, because Egypt continued attacking Israel from one side while Syria continued attacking from the other. In 1953, in order to try to stop the violence, Israel passed the Land Acquisition Law, offering payment for property taken from Arab citizens of Israel who lived there between May 4, 1949 and April 1, 1952 (Silverman 54). However that did not appear to stop the terror in the region or make peace with its neighbors. On October 14, 1956 Egyptian President Nasser said, “[o]ur hatred is very strong. There is no sense in talking about peace with Israel. There is not the smallest place for negotiations” (Bard 1). This statement represents how Arabs felt–and still feel–about trying to negotiate with Israel: it was useless. Just ten days after those horrific words were uttered, Jordan, Syria and Egypt established a pact against Israel. On October 29, 1956 Israel attacked Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula, starting the Suez War. Israel began bombing military targets, while Britain and France sent in their troops to seize the Suez Canal; Egypt sank three cement filled ships, which effectively closed the canal for many months. Great Britain and France fought side by side with Israel. This war was a major victory as well as a loss for Israel. It lost 231 soldiers in the war for nothing; because although it captured the Gaza Strip and Sharm el Sheikh, Israel had to give it up to the UN in 1957 in a cease-fire agreement. After the cease-fire there were still much tension between the Arabs and the Israelis, and among the Arab states themselves. “The Arab states competed against each other for dominance in the Arab world”(The 1956 Sinai Campaign1). In order to be the best they had to show off how strong and powerful they were; unfortunately Israel became the guinea pig.
In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was created; it was founded by Egypt, directed against Jordan and then taken over by Syria. “1967 the PLO had decided that their primary goal was the destruction of the state of Israel” (PLO 1). After a period of relative calm, border incidents between Israel and Syria, Egypt, and Jordan increased. In May 1967, President Nasser requested the withdrawal of UN forces from Egyptian territory, and he mobilized his units in the Sinai, and closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israel. At that point Israel, which had no UN forces stationed on its territory, responded by mobilizing. On June 5, 1967 Israel launched a massive air assault that almost destroyed the Arab airforce. With air superiority safekeeping its ground forces, Israel captured and controlled the Sinai Peninsula within three days and then focused
on the Jordanian frontier, capturing Jerusalems Old City, and on the Syrian border and gaining the Golan Heights and the West Bank. The war, which ended on June 10, is known as the Six-Day War.
On November 22 the UN passed Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Territories; in return Arab states would recognize Israels independence and guarantee secure borders for Israel. However the events did not follow Resolution 242. The Arabs and Palestinians declared their intention to continue fighting Israel, and in turn Israel refused to return the Occupied Territories under such conditions. Terrorist attacks persisted, and Israel and Egypt continued to engage in fire for several years.