THE MIDDLE EAST PROBLEM IN A NUTSHELL — DOES ISRAEL HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST?
THE MIDDLE EAST PROBLEM IN A NUTSHELL — DOES ISRAEL HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST?
By
Ken Eliasberg
Recent dialogue in the Middle East is once again focused on the subject of peace — producing peace in that region seems to be a project that every outgoing President puts at the top of his list for a last minute effort at a gesture that might shore up his legacy. So far it has not produced any meaningful results (and not too many burnished legacies). Now, we have an incoming President singing the same Middle Eastern kumbiya song, and the prospects for the melody having a more harmonious ending are no better than they have ever been. Indeed, with Obama sucking up to every tin horn Arab dictator in the Middle East, Israel is probably more worried about the heightened threat to its continued existence than it is concerned about the prospect of peace with its Arab neighbors.
Whenever you talk about peace in the middle East, sooner or later, typically sooner, all roads lead to the Arab-Israeli conflict, a conflict that began even before Israel was recognized by the U.N. (and the U.S.) as an independent nation (in this connection you may recall that both parties, Israel and the Palestinians, were offered a two state solution; Israel accepted, the Arabs refused and have continued to refuse). The conflict raged out of control almost immediately after such U.N. & U.S. recognition was formally acknowledged when 5 Arab armies invaded the miniscule territory granted to the now sovereign nation. In one of the great David vs. Goliath confrontations of all time, little Israel and its then ragtag army repulsed the Arab invasion. And time and again after that (e.g., 1967 and 1973) Arab armies either prepared to invade or actually invaded Israel; on each such occasion they were once again beaten back (on these occasions, however, Israel’s army was no longer a bunch of former underground operatives but a formidable military presence). However, notwithstanding these defeats, in one position the Arabs remained resolute — they would not, and will not, concede the independent status of the state of Israel, i.e., Israel’s right to exist.
You can talk about things like “occupation,” “refugees,” “the 1967 borders,” “land for peace,”“settlements,” “the allegedly adverse effect of the construction of the security wall (which, by the way, has dramatically reduced the number of Israeli deaths at the hands of those peaceful suicide bombers),” “the oppression of the poor Palestinians by those heartless Israelis,” etc. etc., but scratch below the surface (and not very far below the surface at that) of those diversionary topics and you reach the only question that makes any real difference and the answer to which will determine the prospects for peace in the Middle East. What’s that question? Does Israel have the right to exist? And, judging from Arab behavior over the last 60 years, the Arab answer is quite clear — A RESOUNDING NO!!! We’ll take a close look at the Israeli-Arab conflict in this and ensuing columns, but that effort leads to only one conclusion; the Arabs don’t want peace with Israel; the Arabs just don’t want Israel, which makes it rather difficult to establish any basis for negotiations. Aba Eban, Israel’s articulate foreign minister for many years, put it this way: The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. In my opinion, Eban’s assessment was not just optimistic, it was entirely misguided. The Palestinians didn’t miss an opportunity; they were never looking for an opportunity for a peaceful resolution of their problem with Israel. The Palestinians and their Arab sponsors do not want peace with Israel under any circumstances (indeed, it is questionable whether they are capable of living in peace, with or without Israel). And we did not need Ahmadinejad’s threat to annihilate Israel to bring that point home; it has always been clear to any open-minded and reasonably astute observer of the situation in the Middle East.
Let me make a couple of points clear up front. When I speak of “Arab” in this context, I am referring only to Arab Muslims. From reading some Arab propaganda one might get the impression that there is some form of solidarity among Arab Christians and Arab Muslims. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. You don’t need Bridgette Gabriel’s book (Because they hate) to drive this point home. Speak to many Christians either currently residing in, or those who have recently left, Arab lands and see how much affection and trust they have for their Muslim neighbors. Also check the numbers on the Christian exodus from Arab lands over the last decade, and you will get some idea of the diminished safety that Christians are feeling in most Arab countries. So in this discussion, or any other discussion into which I enter on the Middle East, when I refer to Arab, I am referring only to Arab Muslims, i.e., Muslims residing in, or emigrating from, Arab States (or, for that matter, Israeli Arabs, who, notwithstanding the fact that they enjoy the highest standard of living of any Arabs in the Middle East, most are not loyal to Israel, only to Islam).
Second, I don’t believe that Arab Muslims would have peace even if Israel never existed. Small matters like the Sunni-Shiite difficulties in Iraq, the Iraq-Iran war (in which some 1,000,000 Muslims were killed), Black September in Jordan in 1970 (during which time King Hussein of Jordan killed some 10,000 of those peaceful Palestinians), Hafez al-Assad’s slaughter of between 10,000 and 40,000 of his countrymen (depending on whose estimates you believe) in 1982, the ongoing slaughter resulting from the difficulties that Hamas and Fatah (the 2 warringPalestinian parties) are experiencing, etc., etc. These are essentially a people who have never emerged from the Dark Ages, are tribal in nature, and, as a consequence, violence is a quite natural way to settle any and all differences. Were it not for oil, these countries would remain populated primarily by a bunch of backward, barbarian Bedouins, who would still be bathing their hair with camel urine and killing each other for sport. I have often pondered what the Middle East would look like if Israel had been set down in Texas or Brazil or some other spot, or, in the alternative, oil were not discovered in the Middle East (or, on the other hand, if the eco-crazies in this country would let us explore and develop our own oil and natural gas resources, or, at the very least, permit us to develop nuclear energy).
Over the last 60 years Israel has made every effort to reach out for peace, such efforts being highlighted by events like the Oslo Accords and then the Taba and Wye Plantation meetings. The Arab response to each overture was an intifada. As Netanyahu once observed: If the Arabs laid down their arms, there would be peace in the Middle East; if, on the other hand, Israel laid down its arms, there would be no more Israel
And nothing has changed! You will note that in all of the dialogue relating to the current effort at peace — i.e. a Two State solution — neither Hamas nor Fatah will acknowledge that Israel (the second state in this 2-state situation) has the right to be a separate state. How do you make peace with someone who refuses to acknowledge your right to exist? Or, more to the point, how do you make peace with someone who not only hates you, but is dedicated to your extermination? With great difficulty, if at all! The prospect of Israeli’s demise is much closer than the prospect of a peace with its Arab neighbors, who are only waiting for a chance to strike, and, with Obama tap dancing around Ahmadinejad, that chance seems close at hand. And that’s not just my opinion, that’s the way it is — check it out. (to be continued).