ETERNAL WARFARE IN THE HOLY LAND?

History and religion created two communities with a national consciousness that
fixated them on the same territory of Palestine.

The Making of Jewish Nationalism

Jewish peoplehood is rooted in the Holy Land and in the Holy Scriptures. They
were conquered by many nations and so became a dispersed people but still
preserved a sense of their nationhood through the books of the Bible. Over the
years Jews assimilated their new way of life in foreign countries and mixed with
other people. In the nineteenth century nationalism taught that people were
supposed to have their own country, and Jews began devising their own
nationalism, Zionism.

In the Dreyfus Affair of 1890s a French officer who happened to be Jewish was
convicted with fake evidence of spying for Germany. France split into reactionaries
who reviled Jews and liberals who defended them. Theodor Herzl, a journalist of
the case, concluded that Jews could be safe only with their own country. Later he
became the principal advocate and organizer of modern political Zionism and in
1897 he organized the first Zionist Congress. In 1948 Israel was proclaimed a
state.

Herzl’s movement was helped by Russia, which included Poland (high quantity of
Jews). The tsarist government encouraged anti-Jewish riots to deflect mass
discontent onto Jews. Many Jews emigrated to different places, but a few settled in
Palestine. In 1900 Palestine’s population was mostly Arab, and Jews paid little
attention to them. Young Zionists were secular, socialistic and pioneering; their
religion was Jewish nationalism. Zionism managed to raise money abroad, buy
land and train young Jewish settlers. Land began to bloom, Hebrew was revived as
a spoken language, and in 1903 Tel Aviv was founded as a modern Jewish city.
The Making of Arab Nationalism
It also rooted in religion, in the Islam. Muhammad’s revelations of God’s word
formed the Koran, or holy book. This way, Arabic became the liturgical language of
Muslims. As Islam spread, so did the Arab language and culture. Muhammad’s
message spread all over Middle East, Persia, Central Asia, Western India, North
Africa, and Spain. Culturally, the Arab empires were far ahead of Europe.
However, wars and invasions in the thirteenth century weakened the Arab
civilization and it atrophied. Islam turned into a narrow and reactionary faith; the
Ottoman Turks took over the Middle East finding little Arab resistance, and their
lands turned into backwater provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

In the nineteenth century, thanks to nationalism, some Arab officers in the Ottoman
army were resented for not being treated as equals with Turkish officers and
formed conspiratorial cells aiming for Arab independence. The “Arab awakening”
began with a revival in Lebanon in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1913 the first
Arab Congress met in Paris to seek Arab self-rule within the Ottoman Empire, but
Istanbul refused. The Arabs nationalists realized on the eve of WWI they needed a
powerful ally to free them from Turks, and like the Zionists, they lined up British
power for their own nationalist ends. In WWI Britain launched them both into a
contest for land.

World War I and the Mandate

In the World War I Istanbul already knew that Britain, France and Russia wanted
pieces of the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs, organized by a British officer and led by
Saddam Hussein, ousted the Turks and expanded the British Empire, but were
deceived by thinking they were fighting for Arab self-rule. Meanwhile, British
encouraged the Zionist movement for mobilizing Jewish opinion in the U.S. and
Russia to support the war effort.

In 1922, the new League of Nations, dominated by Britain and France, gave them
mandates over the Arab region. However, Britain honored the Balfour commitment
by letting the Jews have a national home in Palestine. Angered and scared for a
massive Jewish immigration, Palestinian Arabs rioted against Jews in 1920 and
1921, leaving hundreds of dead. This began the violent confrontation between the
two communities.

In 1936 civil war between Arabs and Jews broke out given to the Jewish new
acquisitions of lands. By 1939 Britain knew that war was coming and that Germany
wanted the region’s strategic position and petroleum. Hitler sent two armies toward
the area; German agents encouraged the Arabs to revolt against the British. In
1939 Britain issued a White Paper restricting Jewish immigration. Now the Arabs
were calmed but the Zionists felt betrayed.

The war turned Zionism into a tough demand for a Jewish state. No Jew was being
received in Europe, and the British barred them from Palestine. For that reason
some Zionists turned to terrorism against the British mandate. The Nazi death
camps proved Zionists argument: Jews would never be safe until they had their
own country. Survivors demanded to be let into Palestine, and Zionists demanded
a Jewish state. To fight for a Jewish state became the highest morality. Israelis will
never trust their fait to others again.

The 1948 War

Britain passed the problem of Palestine to the UN, which recommended partition of
the country into a checkerboard of Arab and Jewish areas with a neutral
Jerusalem. The U.S., the Soviet Union and most of their allies voted for the plan,
but all of the Middle East states voted against. The U.S. and Moscow recognized
the new state of Israel. Jews accepted partition but the Arab states and the
Palestinian Arabs rejected it.

On May 14, 1948, the British mandate ended and Ben Gurion proclaimed the state
of Israel, and five Arab armies moved in to grab a piece of Palestine. The Arab
armies fought poorly, Israel beat all but the Jordanians, who had occupied the
West Bank and the eastern part of Jerusalem that includes the Old City and most
holy sites. Israel held West Jerusalem. In 1949 all the armies with the exception of
Iraq’s, agreed to truces with Israel who now held 80% of the Palestine mandate.
Many Palestinian Arabs fled Israel and their property was declared abandoned and
seized.

The 1956 War

Also known as the Suez Crisis, and Sinai Campaign. Britain and France attacked
Egypt, and the United States and USSR pressured them to clear out. Egyptian
Colonel Nasser, who was now in the power because of the coup against King
Farouk in 1952, saw himself as the leader of the pan-Arab movement.

War began with Palestinian refugees, trained and armed by Egypt, in the Gaza
Strip under Egyptian control. Some Palestinians made raids into Israel. Nasser’s
policy was the using of conflict with Israel to arise and unify all Arabs under his
leadership. Israel retaliated with major raids on Egyptian posts in the Gaza Strip.
After this, Nasser sought arms. With Soviet weapons he built up his forces in the
Sinai facing Israel.

The U.S. and Britain withdrew their offer to help fund construction of the Aswan
Dam on the Nile. In response, Nasser nationalized the British -and French- owned
Suez Canal on July 26, 1956. This made Britain and France to quietly collude with
Israel to recover the canal. On October 29, 1956, Israeli forces streaked through
the Sinai toward the Suez Canal. London and Paris issued ultimatums to both
sides to withdraw ten miles from the canal, and invaded and seized the canal zone
on November 5.

The war ended with Israel in possession of the Sinai and Britain and France in
possession of the canal. The U.S., angry at London and Paris for moving on Egypt
against their advice, used economic pressure to get the British and French to
withdraw for Suez, which they did in December. Ike threatened economic sanctions
and promised to get Egypt to open the Tiran Strait to Israeli shipping. Israel pulled
out in March 1957.

The Six-Day War

One result of the 1956 war was that Egypt and Syria became Soviet clients. In
1963, Israel began a project to divert water from the Jordan River, angering Syria
and Jordan. By spring 1967, Nasser went to war with Israel. Much of the blame for
this war rests on Syrian and Soviet lies. Syria shelled Israeli farmers; in response
Israeli jets hit Syrian gun positions. Damascus lied, saying that Israel was massing
troops in the Galilee to attack Syria. Israel denied it and invited the Soviet
ambassador to witness it, but he didn’t.

Nasser had to show he was coming to Syria’s rescue. He ordered the UN forces
out of the Sinai, closed Tiran to Israeli shipping and ordered a troop buildup in the
Sinai. On May 30, 1967, he signed a defense pact with King Hussein of Jordan,
who until then hadn’t threatened Israel. This way Israel was surrounded by hate-
filled Arabs, and had to attack first or they would be doomed. Israel realized the
U.S. wouldn’t force open the Tiran Strait as pledged in 1957, and preempted on
June 5. On June 8 they reached the Suez Canal.

Jordan shelled Israel and in response they took the Old City of Jerusalem and the
entire West Bank. Jerusalem was declared reunified and forever the capital of
Israel. Israelis incorporated Golan into the country in 1981. Moscow threatened to
intervene as its clients’ armies collapsed, and Washington told Jerusalem to wrap it
up fast. Again, the war settled nothing. Israel didn´t take neither an Arab capital nor
the heartlands of its three forces. Arabs announced in a Khartoum meeting: “no
negotiation, no recognition, no peace”. The UN passed the evenhanded Resolution
242, which asked Israel to withdraw and the Arabs to accept Israel’s existence on
peaceful terms. Both sides ignored 242 claiming it could not trust the other side.
The stage was set for 1973 war.

Israel acquired a major problem. The recently seized West Bank and Gaza Strip
contained 1.3 million Palestinians, most of them refugees from the 1948-49 war.
Israel would now have to govern the people it wanted to get rid of in 1948.

The 1973 War

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat believed that Israel’s occupations had to be
challenged for two reasons: to change the defeatist psychology of Arabs and the
victorious psychology of Israelis, and to make the superpowers take an active
interest.

On October 6, 1973, Egyptians and Syrians stuck Israel. Israelis repealed Syrian
tanks in Golan Heights. Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and broke into the
Sinai. At this point, the U.S. and USSR tried to enforce another UN cease-fire.
Moscow threatened to send troops to aid the Egyptians. President Nixon then put
U.S. forces on worldwide alert to deter Soviet Intervention.

The October was jolted the world. Arab oil exporters embargoed oil shipments to
countries deemed pro-Israel and then quadrupled the price of petroleum. This
kicked up world inflation for years. In 1977 Anwar Sadat flew to Jerusalem for face-
to-face talks with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. This led to the Camp
David talks in 1978. President Carter mediated and cajoled Begin and Sadat into
the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty, completed in 1979. Sadat got the Sinai back;
Egypt was expelled from the Arab bloc so Begin got an opportunity to split Israel’s
Arab enemies and increased U.S. financial support.

The Rise of Palestinian Nationalism

The 1978 Camp David agreement led to another war. Land seizure for new Israeli
settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank increased. Palestinian
nationalism grew; they had been treated badly by the British, Israelis, and other
Arab countries. No Arab country wanted them; they have no national home and
concluded they needed their own county. Palestinians living in Israel were treated
with disdain and there was no contact between two communities.

Factors that led to two bloody intifadas:

1. The unresolved fate of Palestinians;

2. Palestine’s extremely high birth rate;

3. The Israel’s taking of more Palestinian lands and hacking the territory into
small pieces;
 4. Muslim extremism growth across the Middle East;

5. Every act of Palestinian terrorism had brutal Israeli reprisals.

PLO1 is the main vehicle for Palestinian nationalism. It set up its headquarters in
Lebanon, from which they mounted raids and rocket attacks on Israel.

The 1982 War

PLO set up a state within a state, “Fatahland”, given to the 1975 Lebanon civil war
between Christians and Muslims. Syria took advantage of the situation and took
over eastern Lebanon. Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982 to knock out
Palestinian bases and help put Christians back in power, but weren’t able to do so.
U.S. forces supported the Christians until a militia’s truck bomb killed 241 U.S.
Marines and forced them to withdraw. Israel pulled back but kept a security zone in
southern Lebanon. They withdrew completely in 2000.

Is There Hope?
The three previous wars were trigged by terrorist attacks on Israel. Palestinian
militants say only violence works, because Israel sizes their land and ignores their
rights. And Israeli militants way they are entitled to retaliation because the Arabs
want to kill them. However, both sides know they must strike a deal but hadn’t
done it because of the fear. Israel needs to become an authoritarian police state in
order to govern angry Palestinians, but they fear that a Palestinian state would be
a terrorist training camp aimed to destroy Israel.

Rightist Israelis claimed the areas of West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights,
saying these are theirs by biblical right and to turn them over to Israel’s sworn
enemy would be suicidal. Liberal and leftist Israelis say that giving up these
settlements for a lasting peace would be worthwhile. Moderate Palestinians know
they must come up with a Palestinian state soon Israel may expel thousands of
Palestinians out of the West Bank and take over most of it. Rejectionists on both
sides are happy to block the peace process.

1
Palestine Liberation Organization
Arafat refused to negotiate; in 2003 and 2004 Israel constructed a wall to keep
Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israel and many Jewish settlements in
the West Bank, but many realized that a simple wall wouldn’t do much. Egypt and
Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, Jordan and Israel in 1994, but it led only to
“cold peace” with little contact, commerce, or good feeling. Both treaties were
sponsored by the U.S., which has some leverage in the region.

Three issues block a Israeli-Palestinian deal:

1. Israel must give up many of its settlements in the West Bank and Gaza to
make a territorially coherent Palestinian state.

2. Palestinians want the right to go back to the homes and farms that they fled
in 1948.

3. Palestinians insist on sovereignty over East Jerusalem, including the Old

City with most of the holy sites that had been under Jordan from 1948 to
1967.

All these issues can’t be overcome for many reasons, some of them emotional and
symbolic ones. In 2003 moderate former Israeli and Palestinian officials met to
compromise on an informal but plausible peace deal. It carried no weight, but it
demonstrated that compromise is possible.

Lessons of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

1. Nothing gives an eternal claim of land; nor history or religion.

2. For peace, memories must fade.

3. Outside powers start conflicts.

4. Terror begets terror.

5. One war leads to another.

6. Do not lie or bluff about war.

7. You cannot ignore inconvenient people.

8. A few extremists can upset the peace process.

9. A committed outside mediator is essential for the peace process.

10. U.S. is entitled to despair but better not.

 Conclusion

Conflicts with religion and history as laying basis can be pretty hard to overcome
for they will be handled in a subjective way. In this sense, fait wasn’t nice to Israelis
and Palestinians. However, we have to recognize the enormous nationalism shown
by both sides. In spite of being a dispersed people, Israelis managed to “conquer”
their old land, and in some way Palestinians did the same. Both Arab and Jewish
nationalism is rooted in religion, so giving up to their wishes is going to be a hard
task, perhaps an impossible one. Both of them have been attacked through history
by foreign countries, and some of them have taken advantage of the Arab-Jewish
situation.

Something clear in this story is that wars aren´t independent from one another.
Unfinished business always leads to another war until it transforms into a
downward spiral. The increasingly violence has reached a point where ending the
war seems an impossible task, for one side won’t be willing to stop as long as the
other one doesn’t stop too. In a war where no side is willing to stop first, the ending
of it might be just an illusion.

Extremist on both sides don’t want the war to be over. They refuse to settle an
agreement with their major enemies saying that it would be suicidal. Luckily, not
everybody think like this. For peace to come, the fainting of extremist groups is
essential. The help provided by other countries like the U.S. might help to speed up
the process. Both Israeli and Palestinian former officials have shown a compromise
to finish the war, so we must not lose hope. If both sides don´t come up with an
agreement, and stick to it, a major war could begin soon.