FAIR Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East

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THE ELUSIVE PEACE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND ITS NEIGHBORS

There are some people who have tended to blame only Israeli policy for the on-going violence between Israel and its neighbors. We invite you to take a look at the history of this conflict and then ask yourself if this an honest and fair assessment.

There was violent resistance to Jewish immigration into the region prior to the creation of the Jewish state

• While there had been a constant but small Jewish presence in Israel/Palestine since the Romans defeated the Jewish revolt in 135 A.D., serious Jewish resettlement of Palestine/Israel began during the Ottoman Era in the early1880s.

• Jewish immigration was met with violent resistance by Arabs who regularly attacked Jewish neighborhoods. In response, Jews in Palestine formed first the Hagganah and later the Irgun.

The new Jewish state was attacked by every one of its Arab neighbors one day after its creation in 1948

• In November1947 the U. N. General Assembly recommended partition based on population demographics -- majority Jewish areas would be part of a new Jewish state, majority Arab areas would be part of a new Arab state. The Jewish Agency accepted the U.N. partition plan.

• Violence broke out immediately following U.N. approval of the partition plan. The Arab League announced that it would prevent partition by force if necessary. According to the U.N. Special Commission nearly 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 people injured from December 1947 through January 1948.

• The actual war began when Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948. Over the next few days the Arab States surrounding Israel (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq ) attacked the new Jewish State, vowing to destroy it. The resulting war lasted from May 1948 until February 1949 with cease fire agreements that did not establish legal or internationally recognized borders. Jordan seized and annexed the West Bank, while Egypt occupied Gaza.

Israel did not seek to occupy Palestinian territory in 1967

• In 1967, Egypt announced that “[t]he battle has come in which we shall destroy Israel” (Cairo Radio). President Nasser blocked the Straits of Tiran cutting off what was Israel’s only oil supply at the time and the collective armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria with assistance from Iraqi, Saudi, Algerian and Kuwaiti troops surrounded Israel’s borders.

• Israel acquired the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and Golan Heights defending itself from the onslaught of the combined Arab armies. Within days after the 1967 war ended, Israel tried to negotiate land in exchange for peace. But the League of Arab States refused, announcing that there would be no peace, no recognition and no negotiations with Israel.

The Failure of Oslo and Camp David

• By the mid-1980s the vast majority of Israelis supported a two-state solution. The First Intifada in 1987 (the “war of stones”) was probably a turning point for many Israelis who came to see the Palestinians as a people prepared to sacrifice for their nationhood, just as the Israelis had been doing since 1948, and they began to accept the Palestinians’ claim for nationhood, in spite of the enmity that existed between the two people.

• Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) and established permanent and legally recognized borders with both of these countries. However, neither Egypt nor Jordan would take the Palestinian territories. Therefore, to begin negotiations over the West Bank and Gaza and to create a Palestinian state, Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords (1994) which were supposed to lead to a final peace treaty by 2000.

• Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made an opening offer at Camp David (July 2000 ) of about 87% of the West Bank. President Bill Clinton later made a proposal of about 91% of the West Bank. Yasser Arafat rejected both offers, made no counter offers and walked out of the summit. On September 29, 2000 the Second Initifada began -- four years of sniper attacks and suicide bombings all over Israel.

• In December 2000, President Clinton made a final proposal in Washington, D.C.. It was offered expressly as a last deal -- with no more negotiations allowed. The Palestinians would get all of Gaza, about 97% of contiguous West Bank territory, East Jerusalem for their capital, three out of four Quarters in the Old City, sovereignty over the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosques and $30 billion. Prime Minister Barak accepted and agreed to dismantle some 200,000 Israeli settlers to make this happen. Yasser Arafat said no. So there was no peace agreement -- and instead, the Second Intifada continued.

Annapolis Peace Talks in Washington D.C. November 2007 Not Hopeful

• Unfortunately, prior to the Annapolis peace talks, Saeb Erekat, head of the PLO Negotiations Department and PA chief negotiator announced that “Israel could call itself whatever it wanted, but the PA would never acknowledge Israel’s Jewish identity.”

• Peace will come to this region only when both Arabs and Jews recognize the others’ “peoplehood” and their mutual right to exist as sovereign nations.