29 November 2018

A short history of Palestine: Why the modern Palestianians are historically irrelevant.

Marc Lamont Hill said today, "... That will give us what justice requires, and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea."

So, let's look into what that entails.  Many conservatives are saying that he wants the destruction of Israel.  If you choose to look at a map of Palestine, you'll see that "Palestine" exists inside the borders of the state of Israel, which would indicate that to give Palestine that much land, you're gutting the state of Israel.

To learn about this, you have to go back to the Ottoman Empire (sometimes just referred to as Turkey).  Islam split when Muhammad died in 632 AD, and deciding who would take over created the rift that lead to decades of war between the factions.    The Ottoman Empire was what became from the Sunni Islamic empire, the larger of the 2 factions.  

Now how did Britain get control of any of the Middle East?  The Ottoman Empire in decided to join Germany in the Central Powers in 1914, after Germany had won some early victories in World War 1.  Russia was threatening them, as well, after fighting with them over the Balkans in 1912-13. When Germany was defeated, the land was being split off from the Ottoman Empire and taken by France, Britain, and Russia.  "To the victor, go the spoils".

It was around this time that the British government really began talking about a Jewish state back in the Middle East.  The Arabs in British "Palestine" were not different than the Arabs in French controlled Syria, or what became the TransJordan, and these areas became Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.  They had been politically united for centuries.  "Mandatory Palestine" was to be under direct British control from 1918 until 1948. Arabs expected, to regain autonomy in the entire area, thanks to stupid British promises.  They wanted control from Syria all the way to Yemen, as if they hadn't joined the wrong side of World War 1. European nations did what they do best, they made plenty of mistakes; they made secret treaties with everyone that didn't match up.

The original map of "Palestine", from the British in 1920.

The area was generally just left under the control of these nations until World War 2, when France fell to Nazi Germany in 1940.  Syria came under the control of the Vichy French until Free French and British troops occupied the area in 1941, even after they declared their own independence.  In 1944, they were recognized as independent. 

Palestine was still under the authority of Britain, since they never were taken over.  It was back in 1922, with the full backing of the "League of Nations", that gave rise to the initial discussions of the Jewish State in Palestine.  Jews started migrating there, very slowly. Land was purchased, not stolen, and settlements grew. The Peel Commission recommended a partition of "Palestine" into Jewish and Arab states, and Arabs rejected the idea.  In 1947, the British said they couldn't control the area, and handed it over to the newly created "United Nations". The UN said that a 2-state idea was a good one. Arabs didn't like it, and they attacked the Jewish settlements. 

The UN's version of a 2-state solution was far different from Great Britain's early ideas.  Since the "TransJordan" part of the British Mandate had become just "Jordan", they still thought that what was left of Palestine was enough to split between the Jewish state and a somehow different Arab state than the surrounding independent states.

At 4:00 PM local time, on May 14th, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel and became the first Prime Minister, hours before the British Mandate was to end at midnight.  Five Arab states attacked the territory of the British Mandate on May 15th. Israel didn't even have a coherent defense force until the creation of the Israel Defense Forces on May 26th.  On December 1, 1948, the Palestinians wanted to unify with TransJordan, but no state was created for the Palestinians. Jordan just ended up with the land east of the Jordan River to themselves.

The UN's 2-state plan almost ensured that Israel could not exist as a nation.  They lacked defensible territory, and didn't even get all of the land between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.  There was a zero percent chance that the country would have lasted had they been forced to only keep those lands. In 1967, Arab nations tried again to forcefully remove Israel from the map and lost handily.  Israel took much land from them, and willingly gave much of it back for peace. They were forced to give back key defensible positions by the UN, which the Palestinians still use to launch rockets at civilians, today.

Today, the UN still stupidly pushes for the same 2-state solution.  It doesn't seem to the matter that Palestinian Arabs were only "different" from Syrian Arabs, and TransJordanian Arabs, and Egyptian Arabs in a political sense for less than 30 years.  The state of Israel is surrounded by Arabs, the Palestinians could easily integrate into those countries.

I disagree with Marc, and most Leftists, that the Palestinians are a unique people who deserve to split Israel in half. They don't want to assimilate into the culture of the state of Israel, they don't want to work towards a peaceful solution that includes the state of Israel having full control of its own capital.  They can assimilate into Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and they'd be out of a state they don't want to be a part of, out of extreme poverty. Another option is assimilating into Israel, like Jews did for centuries of Islamic rule all around the Middle East. About 700,000 Arabs fled the area during and after the war in 1948.  About 850,000 Jews have fled into the state of Israel during the same period of time.

Israel has become a great technological nation, with many inventions that could help it's surrounding Arab neighbors and has enriched the world.  The Palestinians grow up learning to hate Jews and how to kill them. It's time to end this insane experiment, and give Israel full control of the land within its borders. If the Palestinians want to stay, that's fantastic, and they can assimilate. Otherwise, they need to join their Arab brothers and sisters in the neighboring countries, and bring stability and peace to the region. There is neither legal, nor logical reasons to split up "Palestine" in accordance with the 1947 idea, rather than the 1922 idea.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

For more reading, check out these sources:

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2007/02/12/7332087/the-origins-of-the-shiite-sunni-split

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/The-empire-from-1807-to-1920

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/partition-of-the-ottoman-empire

https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/creation-of-the-state-of-israel

http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm

No comments:

Post a Comment