I am always pleased to see Letters to the Editor commenting on my articles, critical or otherwise. I was pleased to see two last week.
As the Middle East continues to dominate the news, I thought I would answer some of the points raised in those letters, and put this conflict in context.
A few facts first. The Jews actually were the first known inhabitants of the region known as Palestine/Israel, and have been there in one form or another for well over 3,000 years. Even after the diaspora after 70 AD, when they were largely banished by the Romans [following the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple], a number still stayed. There have always been Jews in what is now Israel. The current Palestinians came sometime after Christ, and were the dominant group in the 19th century, when the region was part of the Ottoman Empire.
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, many Jews arrived from the Pale of Settlement (western Russian Empire) to escape the regular pogroms they suffered under the Tsars. The new Zionist movement in Western Europe bought up quite a lot of land for Jewish settlement, and this continued under the mandate given to the British after WWI.
The British promised Israel to the Jews in 1917, but also promised the Arabs a nation of their own. They effectively shafted both Jews and Arabs, and satisfied no one.
After WWII, most surviving Jews from the Holocaust went to Israel. In 1948, Israel declared independence from Britain, but it’s been a never-ending series of wars ever since. However, there are some bright spots.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has actually got on rather well with Israel, and it and Egypt made peace – Egypt in 1978 and Jordan in 1994. The Gulf states have also made peace recently.
Saudi Arabia was going to, but this murderous outburst from Hamas has shelved that. The last thing Iran, which runs Hamas, wants is peace between Saudi Arabia, its main Arab rival, and Israel. So, it appears Iran has deliberately set Hamas loose to torpedo any accord between Israel and the Saudis.
Hamas, with its recent atrocities against women and children has surpassed even the Nazis, and makes the old Fedayeen of the 1950s, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) of the 1970s/80s on the Arab side and the Stern Gang on the Israeli side (1946 to 1948) look like boy scouts.
Golda Meir, when she was PM in the 1970s, said that you can’t make peace with someone who wants to kill you. That is the problem with Hamas and Hezbollah. They want to push all the Jews into the sea – which means killing them.
After the monstrous crimes Hamas committed in southern Israel, Israel has no choice but to try to destroy Hamas. The Israel Defence Forces are trying to limit civilian casualties, but it’s hard to do when Hamas orders their people to stay put. Hamas wants as many civilian casualties as possible in Gaza so they can blame Israel.
Next week, I will attempt to come up with a possible solution.
