What is this idea known as a "Palestinian State"?
Where did it come from?
Is it a fight for independence by an oppressed indigenous people like Vietnam, Cambodia, Ireland, India, South Africa and so forth?
The reality is somewhat different.
The idea of the current push for a separate Arab Palestinian state is, as incredible as it may seem, the result of Israel's victory in the Six Day War in 1967.
UN Partion 1947
The idea of two separate states - one Arab, the other Jewish, living alongside each other in the Holy Land was the backbone of the UN Partition plan of 1947.
However it was never allowed to happen. The Arab League, led by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and other Arab states, rejected the partition plan.
The Jewish inhabitants of the British Mandate known as Palestine, accepted the partition and named their section Israel.
The area that is today called the West Bank (by Israel) or the Occupied Territories (by everyone else) never was an independent area.
For the past several hundred years it had been a province of the Ottoman Empire known as Palestine, then it became part of the British Mandate (after WWI) and finally, after the UN Partiton of 1947/48, it was annexed by Jordan.
Only when Israel drove Jordan out, did the idea of forming a separate state , side-by-side with Israel gain credence.
It almost came into being when Moshe Dayan and others tried to persuade the Israel government to elect a Council of Elders to self-govern the West Bank. Unfortunately Golda Meir and others didn't allow that to happen.
Arafat, in 1965, created the Palestine Liberation Organization and in effect, the concept of a Palestinian people.
Few of the Arabs living in the West Bank at that time went back more than a few generations. Most had arrived in the early 1900's drawn by the development of the country by the early Zionists and later, after WWI, by the British administration.
It is an important difference since Israel is often compared by its detractors with the early European colonists who settled in Africa, India and other countries.
It was only after the Oslo Accords in 1993 that a Palestinian Authority, for the first time ever, took over the administration of its own people. It was the first time ever that the Arabs living there had an opporunity to elect leaders.
Like many other aspects of life here, this is another example of the myth versus the reality.
There is an old Irish proverb that says " You can't get where you're going if you don't know where you're starting from". It certainly applies here.
In no sense am I claiming that Israel has been ready for a two state solution while the Arabs have not. Certainly Israeli leadershiop has much to answer for in the lost opportunities and mistakes of the last 40 years since 1967.
But today, the majortiy of Israeli's accept that there must be a two state solution. The question is - how do we get there with so much mistrust? Add to this the dilemna of a Hamas which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. The result taxes the abilities of the best negotiators.
I feel sad about the people there who are affected by this mess. The government must separate them in order to avoid casualties.
Posted by: cash advance llc | June 01, 2011 at 08:39 AM