The People – Deflating Popular Myths
Jews. Today Jews number 13.2 million worldwide (0.2% of the world population); 5.3 million live in Israel, 5.3 million in the U.S., and the remainder elsewhere. The word "Jew" is used to refer to all of the physical and spiritual descendants of the Old Testament prophet Abraham. Jews are the ancestors of the Israelites who were called “Hebrews” before the conquest of the Land of Canaan (today the region encompassing Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon). Being a Jew has less to do with what one believes than nationality/ethnicity. Therefore being Jewish is like a citizenship. http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrews
Arab Muslims. The definition of who is an Arab is similar to that of a Jew connoting citizenship. Arabs should not be necessarily confused with Muslims. Although 90% of Arabs are Muslims, some are Christians and some are Jews. Arabs were living on the Arabian Peninsula 1,500 years before the father of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, was born. The 388 million Muslims who are Arabs are not even a majority of the world’s 1.1 billion Muslims. In the modern era, an Arab is designated on the grounds of one or more of the following four criteria: (1) someone who can trace his or her ancestry to the tribes of Arabia - the original inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula; (2) someone whose first language and cultural expression is Arabic; (3) someone who is a citizen of a country where Arabic is one of the official languages; and/or (4) a citizen of a country which may simply be a member of the Arab League. Most people who consider themselves Arab do so based on the overlap of one or more of these criteria. At 388 million, Arab Muslims are 35 times more proliferous than Jews (13.2 million Jews). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab
http://www.israelmybeloved.com/channel/history_prophecy/section/islam_arabs
Palestinians. Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River and includes Israel, parts of Jordan, parts of Lebanon, and Syria. Today both the Jews and Arabs are the people of Palestine. The Palestinian Arabs in the region are members of families who migrated into the area beginning in the late 1890’s. In a public relations attention-grabber the Muslim world repackaged conflicts there as conflicts between Jews and Palestinians, but the real Middle East conflict continues as a Muslim-Jew back yard brawl that started 4,000 years ago. The Palestinian State of Israel is the only official country in the region. As for an Arab Muslim Palestinian state, the current position of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is that all of the West Bank (administered by the PNA) and Gaza Strip (currently controlled by Hamas) should form the basis of a future Arab Muslim Palestinian state. http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_a_Palestinian_state
Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist paramilitary organization and political party which holds a majority of seats in the elected legislative council of the Palestinian National Authority. Hamas is described as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, and the U.S. However, Hamas won the leadership of the Gazan people in a 2006 election when Ismail Haniyeh became Hamas’ senior political leader. He was dismissed from office on June 14, 2007 by Palestinian President Abbas; however, he has refused to acknowledge the dismissal and continues to exercise de facto authority in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Legislative Council continues to recognize his authority. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_Haniyeh
A History of Hardship
In 2000 BC, the Hebrews believed that a Prophet named Abraham was chosen by God to have his heirs rule a great nation in a Promised Land, i.e., Canaan. Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren, and so his Egyptian servant Hagar would have his first born, Ishmael. Later Sarah did have a son, Isaac. Muslims claim the first born son, Ishmael, while Jews claim Isaac as their spiritual heir. http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/three_religions.html
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/hillel/goldberg050808.php3?printer_friendly
http://desertpeace.blogspot.com/2007/09/oasis-of-peace-in-desert-of-war.html
2000 BC to 0 AD. For the next 2,000 years the Hebrew Bible admits that the Hebrews disobeyed God time after time, losing their wealth and lands to invaders, only to be rescued by strong Hebrew leaders who rebuilt the Promised Land into a stronger nation. Finally, after a host of cruel kings, Israel fell to the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires (606 BC). Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people were sent into exile. In 536 BC the Persian King Cyrus allowed the Hebrews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their city.
0 AD to 1917. For almost the next 2,000 Jews were butchered, gassed, burned, and exiled from Palestine in noteworthy conflicts such as the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Arab rampages of early Palestine. Throughout this time as both Jews and Arab Muslims faced cruel persecution they often found refuge with one another. Arabs sheltered Jews and protected them after maltreatment at the hands of the Romans and their expulsion from Spain in the Middle Ages. http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html
Near the end of WWI Palestine (today's Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank) was mandated to Great Britain who made Palestine a national homeland for the Jewish people (the British Balfour Declaration of 1917). At this time the Jewish population of Palestine was a mere 7% of the 700,000 inhabitants. The rest were Arab Muslims with a small number of Arab Christians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917
In 1923 Britain divided Palestine into two administrative districts. Palestinian Jews would be permitted only west of the Jordan River (25% of the land), and the other 75% of the land would form an Arab Palestinian nation called Trans-Jordan. In addition, the Jews would have to share their land with many Arabs who had settled there. The Arabs and Jews now had their homelands and prospects for peace; but encouraged and incited by growing Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East, Arab Muslims launched attacks on the Jewish Palestinians in an effort to drive them out. Most terrifying were the Hebron massacre of 1929 and later the 1936-39 "Arab Revolt." The British at first tried to maintain order but soon turned a blind eye, and finally in 1947 the British turned the matter of Palestine over to the United Nations.
http://www.agsconsulting.com/articles/isrwhere.htm
On May 14, 1948 the Palestinian Jews declared their own State of Israel. On the very next day, seven neighboring Arab armies (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Yemen) invaded Israel. The invading Arab armies encouraged most of the Arab Muslims living within the boundaries of the newly declared Israel to leave in order to facilitate the slaughter of the Jews. These Arabs were promised not only their lands but Jewish property after the Arab armies had won, and so 70% (350,000) of the Arab Muslims left. As a result they not only lost the battle, but also their land. This decisive defeat established in Arab Muslims’ minds an everlasting hatred that could only be overcome by the eventual banishment of the Jews from the lands they lost. The Arab Muslims that had remained kept their land and became Israeli citizens (today 19% of the Israeli population). The territory not claimed by Israel was acquired by Egypt (occupying the Gaza Strip) and by Trans-Jordan (occupying the West Bank and Jerusalem). http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html
In 1950 Trans-Jordan formally appropriated the West Bank territory, granted all those Palestinian Arabs living there Jordanian citizenship, and renamed itself simply "Jordan." The Arab Muslims of Palestine had now nearly 85% of the original territory of Palestine. http://www.serendipity.li/zionism/khazars.htm
From 1950 to 1967 when all of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza were 100% under Arab Muslim control, Arab countries and the local Arab Muslim Palestinians made no efforts to create an Arab Muslim Palestinian State. Instead in 1964 Arab Muslims formed a militant group called the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) bent on destroying Israel.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0776421.html
In 1967 the Arabs used the Golan Heights, Gaza, and the West bank to launch a war to destroy Israel. But the Jews planned and executed a perfect pre-emptive strike against Egypt and went on to win the 1967 war and come into possession of the Golan Heights, Gaza, the West Bank, and the return to Israel of the Jewish 3,000 year old capital city of Jerusalem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War
In 1982 Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula in the Camp David Peace Accord. Since that time the main threat to Israel has been not from conventional armies, but from terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Peace_Accord
On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah militants fired on an Israeli patrol on Israel’s side of the border fence, killing three Israeli soldiers and seizing two of them. This led to a 34-day all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel. The 2006 war killed many, destroyed much, but advanced neither Israel’s objectives nor Lebanon’s. Hezbollah, however, emerged from the conflict stronger than before it began. With tensions still high between Israel and Hezbollah, the future to the north with Lebanon and Syria remains uncertain.
http://middleeast.about.com/od/lebanon/a/me070918.htm
In 2005 Israel withdrew its control of Gaza, a small coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, but continued control of Gaza's essential resources. In 2006, Hamas won elections. Israel, in an effort to discredit Hamas, tightened controls around Gaza to make it into a virtual prison for well over a million Arabs. In retaliation Hamas began firing rockets into Israel. An Egyptian-mediated ceasefire took effect 19 June 2008 and largely held for some four and a half months until Nov, each side accusing the other of breaching it, both with some justification. On Jan 2, 2009, following a week of air strikes, Israel launched a full scale attack on Gaza in retaliation for the resumption of Hamas missile attacks. On Jan 18, 2008, after hitting Gaza hard claiming over 1,300 Arab Muslims deaths (Israel suffered only 13 dead), Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire followed immediately by Hamas declaring the same. Israel hurriedly withdrew troops in the wake of the inauguration of Barack Obama because Israel wants Obama to concentrate on supporting a more moderate Gaza leadership rather than be pressuring for an Israeli withdrawal. In Kuwait, leaders at an Arab summit showed signs of deep divisions over the Gazan war. The Saudis pledged a $1 billion contribution to rebuilding Gaza and pressed Arab nations to embrace Arab peace plans, while Syria called for declaring Israel a terrorist state. There is growing pressure for Hamas to hold elections and to take a more moderate stance against Israel, and for Israel to moderate its strangle hold on Gaza.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932009_Israel%E2%80%93Gaza_conflict
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10140.shtml
http://www.startribune.com/world/37852864.html
Analysis
Israel may have won a decisive battle with Hamas, but in the end they may lose. If Israel does not want terrorist attacks to continue indefinitely, they must settle contentious issues including the status of Jerusalem, return of Palestinian refugees, and Israeli settlements. For instance, despite Israel's claims of a freeze on settlements in the West Bank, Israelis continue to build new homes. Arab Muslims have interpreted continued settlement construction as proof that Israel doesn't really want peace, an example of deep Arab Muslim frustrations that have fueled hatred. Israel has overwhelming military superiority, but the Arab Muslims have overwhelming numerical superiority (nearly 35 to 1). Can an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth work with these odds?
Under current political realities an independent Palestinian state is recognized by both sides as the most achievable option, but mistrust remains high. So what’s the position the U.S. must take? Ever since the Carter administration, the U.S. has tilted in favor of Israel. Is this a correct position if the U.S. is to be truly a neutral arbiter and will the Obama administration take a more balanced approach? Obama certainly will be taking a more involved role than the Bush administration in that on his first day in office he called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Jordan's King Abdullah, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to urge them to pursuit an Arab-Israeli peace. And there are signs that Obama will press Israel hard to move forward now with more constructive options rather than punitive ones.
“Obama Calls Middle East Leaders,” 21 Jan, 2009 in Yahoo News - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090121/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_middle_east
“Mideast Needs a More Engaged U.S. to Help Broker Peace,” 18 Jan, 2009 by Trudy Rubin, a Philadelphia Inquirer Opinion Columnist
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/20090118_Worldview__Mideast_needs_a_more_engaged_U_S__to_help_broker_peace.html
“The One-State Solution,” editorial in the New York Times, 21 Jan 2009 by Muammar Qaddafi, the leader of Libya http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/opinion/22qaddafi.html
Questions and Points to Ponder
Question 1: Which scenario do you favor, (1) - A “Marshall Plan” type approach where Israel helps to improves Gazans' living conditions significantly, or (2) where Israel keeps hitting Hamas and Hezbollah hard until more moderate Arab Muslim voices prevail?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/08/opinion/edlichfield.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100022450&docId=l:908852449&start=7
Question 2: Do you agree with the assessment that the U.S. has damaged its credibility in the Arab world by giving unquestioned support to Israel thereby encouraging terrorism, stymieing solutions, and making America’s international position weaker and more dangerous? http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/books/06grim.html
Question 3: In early Nov 2008, the U.S. mainstream media ignored a key Israeli military attack on a Hamas target during the ceasefire in which Israel ground forces killed six members of Hamas’ military wing. Palestinians claim this marked the effective end of the ceasefire between the two sides and set the stage for the current round of bloodletting. Major U.S. news reports only picked up the fact that Hamas, seemingly unprovoked, sent rockets into Israel. Do you think the Israel Lobby holds sway over the American press? http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10140.shtml
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