At the end of What Israel Means to a Jew: Part II I asserted that the one real threat to the existence of Jews that remained after the creation of the State of Israel was the re-emergence of anti-Semitism - especially because of the actions of Palestinian, Arab and Moslem leadership generally and, with it, of a growing tolerance for its various manifestations in the world.
In its simplest terms, what this means is that, despite the important role they might play in the formulation of a just peace in that region, the conflict in the Middle East is not a question about Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, borders, refugees, etc. - nor is it restricted to the Middle East. Rather it is about all of these and anti-Semitism. Unless and until anti-Semitism is dropped as an instrument by Palestinian and Arab leaders generally there will be no peace, nor will the threat to Jews everywhere represented by the renewed promotion of anti-Semitism, be finally laid to rest. Simply put, real peace in the Middle East will come not, as my friend said, (see: What Israel Means to a Jew: Part I), when Jews and the world community admit their mistake in creating a Jewish homeland in Israel - but, rather, when that community re-asserts that anti-Semitism and what that inevitably leads to is not acceptable.
Many non-Jews and non-Arabs would, I suspect, be more than willing to accept this condition. But far too many, my friend included, would argue that anti-Semitism is not involved in the current Middle East situation, that it is wrong for Jews to assert this, to “drag up” Hitler’s holocaust or all the past holocausts when discussing it. It is this belief that keeps them from understanding the uncompromising insistence, on the part of Jews everywhere, on security for Israel and its irrevocable place in a world where Jews can live as others live - without the fear of seeing their granddaughters thrown into the ovens.
Palestine vs. Israel - Some background
Palestinian leaders and others have put about an image of the origins of the conflict in the Middle East that is somewhat at variance with the facts.
There is the image of a Palestine, home to the Palestinian nation, which is somehow descended from the inhabitants of ancient Canaan. This land has no Jews, and its people, distinct and separate from all other Arab and/or Muslim nationalities have no meaningful contact with Jews and nothing to do with anti-Semitism - whether in the twentieth century or in earlier times. Jews live primarily in Europe and periodically are subjected to various forms of persecution. In the first half of the twentieth century this anti-Semitism becomes particularly vicious and culminates in a massacre of Jews by German Nazis, (not nearly so serious as Jews, anxious for world pity, would have you believe mind you - but, serious nonetheless), and this causes thousands of Jews to turn up, suddenly, in Palestine.
Using the guilt of Europe and that of the rest of the West in general - a West which did nothing to stop the excesses of the Nazis or earlier persecutors - to garner support, Jews insist on creation of a homeland and the West decrees that one be established. Citizens of the newly created ‘Zionist entity’ then proceed to drive out all Palestinians, steal their land, desecrate their holy places and establish the current State of Israel. So long as it is allowed to exist, Israel threatens not only continuation of the Palestinian nation but, also, all of Islam and, therefore, must be eradicated. Palestinians left homeless have no choice but to reclaim their homeland and together with their Arab and Muslim brethren to take up the struggle - leading to the current conflict.
The conflict will be resolved when the State of Israel is destroyed, and those Jews still left living and desiring to stay in Palestine do so as citizens of a pluralistic Arab democracy.
So much for the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim version
Palestine vs. Israel - The Reality
“There is the image of a Palestine, home to the Palestinian nation which is somehow descended from the inhabitants of ancient Canaan its people are distinct and separate from all other Arab and/or Muslim nationalities....”
How nations define themselves is largely a matter for nations themselves to decide. “Palestine” and “Palestinian” are derived from the Roman corruption of the word “Philistine” referring to the earliest inhabitants of what is now Greece who were driven out of that country by the ancestors of the current Greek nation and who crossed the Mediterranean and landed along the coast of “Palestine" sometime during or before the Hebrew exodus from Egypt. They were neither Arabic in language or culture nor Muslim in religion. In fact, they were only one, and not the first, of a whole series of nations for whom “Palestine” was home.
The only one of all of these nationalities to maintain a continued existence, (language, religion, culture, etc.), over the last four thousand years is Israel, the nation of Jews.
That there is now a nation of Palestinians defined, I presume, by location, (Palestine), religion, (Islam) and language, (Arabic) - is not something that anyone but they can determine. However, Palestinians are not Canaanites nor any of the other ancient peoples of that region. Whatever claim they may have to Palestine as a homeland is most definitely not exclusive and cannot in any way detract from a similar claim by the people of Israel who had established a homeland in that same area hundreds or even thousands of years before the word Palestine was first uttered, the Arabic language first used there or the Muslim religion first practiced there.
“Palestine has no Jews ....”
Simply put, from the Exodus, (1600 BCE) until now, there has never been a time when Jews did not live in Palestine or when they did not regard it as there historical homeland. The history of Mohammed himself, of the crusades, of the Turkish era of control of the area, of the twentieth century, etc., etc. of Palestine is replete with references to its Jewish community.
“Since Roman destruction of ancient Israel, Jews live primarily in Europe and periodically are subjected to various forms of persecution which, in the twentieth century culminates in a massacre of Jews by German Nazis, causing thousands of Jews to turn up, suddenly, in Palestine.....”
That the bulk of Jews have lived outside of Palestine since the Roman conquest is undeniable. But it no more negates the concept of Palestine as the homeland of the Jews than the fact that the number of Irish or Scottish who live outside Ireland or Scotland greatly outweighs the number who do detracts from the status of those two lands as homelands.
Since the Roman expulsion in 70 A.D. a very substantial portion, and, for long periods - a majority - of Jews have lived in Arab/Moslem countries. In fact, there are few Arab/Moslem lands where Jewish communities have not been in continual existence for more than a thousand years. In virtually each instance, there is a history of protracted periods of discrimination, persecution, mass expulsion and even murder - which have continued to the present day.
The Hitler holocaust brought many more Jews to Palestine - but this had been going on for centuries. By the mid 1930's Jews made up one-third, (approx. 400,000 out of 1.2million), of the population of Palestine.
Finally, Palestinians and Moslems in general were not mere bystanders to WW II - or to the holocaust itself. Their involvement in both the Nazi search for world domination and, more specifically, in the systematic persecution of Jews can be demonstrated in many ways. The simplest of these is to outline some of the “highlights” of the career of Arafat’s predecessor as leader of the Palestinians - Haj Amin Al-Husseini, (1895 - 1974), the so-called Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. - 1920 - sentenced to twenty years imprisonment by the British authorities in Palestine for helping to organize bloody, anti-Jewish riots in Palestine - 1921 - in an attempt to appease and control Arab population of Palestine, released and appointed ‘Mufti of Jerusalem[1] - essentially, religious head of the Palestinian population - 1922 to 36 - consolidated position as leader of Palestinian Arabs using a combination of his clerical position, family ties, application of terror tactics to potential rivals and adoption of the most radical position against the Jewish community in Palestine and the concept of Palestine as a Jewish homeland - 1933 - Husseini congratulates Hitler on coup in Germany and seeks to ally himself with Nazi regime, via exchange of emissaries, etc. in order to find support for opposition to British rule of Palestine and for on-going terror against Palestinian Jews - 1936 to 39 - takes leadership role in revolt against British rule and anti-Jewish riots and, also, ties opposition to Palestinian Jews to global “Jewish Problem” - 1939 - flees Palestine for Iraq to avoid imprisonment by British for pro-Nazi stance, helps organize pro-Nazi revolt in Iraq and the Baghdad pogrom[2] - 1941 - flees Iraq for Italy and then Germany and undertakes a variety of actions designed to: garner Nazi support for himself as leader of all Muslim countries in the Middle East, establish various Muslim military formations within the German army, etc. - finally succeeding in obtaining German support for creation of the “Islamic Institute” in Dresden used primarily to provide ideological training for Moslems from the Caucasus and various Asian republics in the Soviet Union who fought with Nazis against the Soviets and in creating a twenty thousand man Bosnian Muslim unit within the Waffen-SS to aid fascist forces in Bosnia and Croatia oppose pro-Allies partisans and exterminate Serbs, Jews and Gypsies[3] - 1944 - unsuccessful in efforts to convince Nazis to extend the “final solution” to the Middle East or bomb Tel Aviv he does succeed in ensuring the deaths of thousands of Hungarian Jews - primarily children - by using his influence to end various efforts to barter Jewish lives for POW’s or trucks and other equipment - 1946 - escapes from French internment centre to Egypt and is saved from Yugoslavian demands for extradition and trial as war criminal by combined efforts of Arab League, Egypt and Western determination to cultivate Arab support and support its oil interests in Middle East - 1948 - urges Arabs to flee Jewish held Palestine to avoid obstruction of invading Arab armies with promise of sharing in spoils of destroyed Israel - making most significant contribution to “Arab refugee” population. - 1949 onwards - Al-Husseini gradually loses ground in his efforts to gain recognition of all Middle East Muslims or even Palestinians and dies in relative obscurity, in Lebanon in 1974.
“Jews, newly arrived in Palestine, exploit guilt of Europe and the West generally to garner support, for creation of a homeland which is established by the UN in 1948...”
The need for official creation of a Jewish homeland and for international recognition of it goes far beyond the horrific events of the holocaust. It goes as far back in time as the enslavement of Hebrews by the ancient Egyptians, and includes, among other events, the Babylonian exile, the enslavement by the Romans following destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D., the periodic persecutions of Jewish communities across the entire Moslem world from the seventh century until now, further persecutions by the Crusaders, the Spanish Inquisition of 1492, the pogroms of Czarist Russia of twentieth century Poland and a hundred lesser known events. Similarly, symbolically at least, the UN decision of 1947 went beyond the events of WWII and constituted a universal declaration that, after 4,000 years the Jews remain a nation, that this nation cannot live as a free and equal people without recognition of that fact and of a homeland.
“Once created, the new ‘Zionist entity’ then proceeds to drive out all Palestinians, steal their land, desecrate their holy places and establish the current State of Israel...”
The single biggest motivation for Arabs leaving the newly established State of Israel was urging in that regard by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the remainder of the Palestinian leaders. As fighting between Jews and Arabs increased there were incidences of Arabs being forced from their villages and even outside the country entirely. But wholesale expulsion of Arabs was never, and is not now, government policy. Of this fact, the hundreds of thousands, (now approximately two million), Arabs left in Israel at the end of hostilities in 1948 - constitute obvious, irrefutable proof.
Moslem religious sites abound throughout Israel. This stands in very obvious contrast to the ruins, if that, which mark Jewish sites in Arab/Jordanian controlled Palestine - as is immediately obvious to any tourist.
“The existence of Israel threatens not only continuation of the Palestinian nation but, also, all of Islam and, therefore, must be eradicated...”
Israel has existed for sixty years the Palestinian nation exists both within and without its borders. The Israeli “threat” to the continued existence of Islam is too ludicrous to comment upon.
“Palestinians, left homeless, have no choice but to reclaim their homeland and, together with their Arab and Muslim brethren to take up the struggle - leading to the current conflict...”.
Arabs have continued to live in Israel, to be members of the Israel parliament and, in general terms, to enjoy a status that is nothing short of remarkable given the fact that most Arab states continue to maintain a state of war with Israel and call for it’s destruction - a status which stands in very stark contrast to that of Jews across the Arab world.
Arabs who left Israel in hope of returning to feast upon the spoils after its destruction by invading Arab armies have less right to be treated as refugees and return than the Germans driven from the Sudetenland. Those who were actually expelled share the fate of an equivalent number of Jews driven from their ancient communities in Arab countries. They should be allowed to become citizens in a Palestinian state, take up citizenship in other Arab states or simply emigrate to any other country of their choice.
“The conflict will be resolved when the State of Israel is destroyed, and those Jews still left living and desiring to stay in Palestine do so as citizens of a pluralistic Arab democracy...”.
The conflict started because of the refusal of Arabs to tolerate a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The justification for such a homeland is irrefutable - for all Jews, whether they decide to live in Israel or not. Even if there were a single example of a pluralistic, democratic state, it would not change this fact. That no such state has ever existed makes the argument futile as well as unreasonable.
The United Nations sought to end the conflict by creating two national states. One for Jews and another, the first ever, for a people who consider themselves Palestinian. The fact that Palestinian leadership refused this compromise and that surrounding Arab states simply appropriated the territory of the proposed Palestinian state and have, for the most part, sought to retain Palestinians as stateless persons forced to live in wretched conditions to be used as pawns in an on-going war on Israel - is far closer to the cause of the current conflict than anything Israel has ever done.
In the end, the conflict is about the right to a Jewish homeland. The underlying justification for that homeland, is the essential concern of these articles - anti-Semitism - two thousand years of a brutal anti-Semitism that is an all-too-real life-and-death threat to all Jews, everywhere. Anti-Semitism can take many forms. At present, destruction of the State of Israel or even acceptance of the concept of that destruction is the most tangible form of anti-Semitism and like all forms everywhere must be resisted by all Jews with all means possible.
Is Peace Possible?
Without anti-Semitism, peace is possible and, just for the record, here is my personal recipe for the basis of such a peace - presented here, not because it is so novel, but, on the contrary, because it is so common, so acceptable to a very, very wide spectrum of Jews - both in and outside of Israel.
Both the ancient nation of Israel and the more recently defined Palestine require homelands. Ceding the West Bank and Gaza by Israel, including evacuation of its settlements in those areas, would provide the basis for two nation states, side by side - in a format essentially the same as that advocated by the UN almost sixty years and many thousands of lives ago. Leaving Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza in tact would also constitute a meaningful and eminently practical gesture of support for creation of a new Palestinian society and could, at least in part, be paid for by the United Nations, which has spent millions supporting the dead end of Palestinian refugee camps.
Practical matters of communication between the two parts of the new Palestine could be solved with creation of rail and tele-communications corridor - construction of which would constitute another valuable, practical contribution to the new Palestinian state.[4]
Jews and Arabs wishing to live as citizens of Palestine and Israel respectively could request such status subject to their explicit recognition of each state as a national homeland and, also, to each state’s own determination of the requirements of such nationhood. It is unlikely that large movements of this type would be requested and accepted - but it is important that the possibility exist.
Jerusalem was established as the capital of ancient Israel and centre of its religious and cultural life. It has since become a cultural and religious centre for Palestinians. In recognition of this, it should remain the capital of the State of Israel with guaranteed access, for religious/cultural purposes, to Palestinians and citizens of other Arab/Moslem states who have formally recognized and made peace with both Israel and Palestine. Similarly, Jews should be given access to their ancient religious and cultural centres throughout the Arab world.
Going somewhat further than it did fifty years ago, the UN, representing the world community, should help bring about the arrangements described above, provide explicit security guarantees to both Israel and Palestine and declare racism in general and anti-Semitism, in particular, a crime against humanity that it is prepared to combat by all means at its disposal.
The practicality of the above or any similar solution seems to ebb and flow with the latest news and one’s mood. The key to it all is the first statement: “without anti-Semitism....” I wrote this on a day when I thought that the sheer horror of current events in the middle east, the obvious sufferings of both Israelis and Palestinians could overcome the faults in their respective leaderships and move towards peace. And then....., I read that the government of Egypt was about to broadcast a series of programs based on the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and I began to think of my granddaughter. Only a few weeks later I sat and listened, in shock and disbelief, to what David Ahenakew, former Chief of the Assembly of First Nations had to say about the Holocaust, Jews in general and what should be done to them – and I knew that it would take a lot more than thinking to combat the menace of anti-Semitism.
[1] He later changed the title to Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. It is widely believed that Yasser Arafat changed his name, (originally: Abd al-Rahman abd al-Bauf Arafat al-Qud al Husseinin), and spent considerable effort to obscure his antecedents and hide familial relationship to Al-Husseini. [2] Al-Husseini was not the only post war Arab leader with a Nazi background, among the members of the “Young Egypt” a Nazi look-alike party formed in 1933 - replete with storm troopers, anti-Semitic progaganda of all sorts, attacks on Jews, etc.- was Gamal Abdul Nassar. [3] The Muslim formation was called the “Handjar”, (sword or sabre), wore combination Nazi/Moslem insignia and were indoctrinated in a pan-Muslem version anti-Semitism. They contributed to the approximately 800,000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies massacred during WWII. [4] In fact, creation of such a corridor is the kind of practical contribution to a peace agreement that a country such as Canada could make.
