Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihlpg.UUCP Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!ihlpg!tan From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum) Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: Middle East, Oil and the costs of Militarism Message-ID: <1458@ihlpg.UUCP> Date: Thu, 28-Nov-85 00:39:58 EST Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1458 Posted: Thu Nov 28 00:39:58 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 29-Nov-85 22:10:05 EST References: <1653@utcsri.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 100 Xref: lsuc net.politics:2189 net.religion.jewish:1621 > [Vassos Hadzilacos] > The fact is that Palestinians are resisting today exactly what Jewish > people have more than once resisted in their history: being uprooted > from their land. > > How can a person at once celebrate the resistance demonstrated by the > Jews and denounce (indeed hate) the Palestinians for doing the same? > Simple: abandon reason and resort to racism. Well, such a person says, > if Palestinians do so, it's because there is something so peculiar and > devious about the "Arab mind" that it requires a psychiatrist's attention. > > Such brazen racism deserves the contempt and condemnation of all > decent people. ------- Vassos Hadzilacos is correct that the remarks about the "Arab mind" made by the previous poster have racist overtones, and are not to be condoned. However, his view of the events behind the plight of the Palestinians is blatantly one-sided. Trouble between Jews and Arabs in Palestine predates 1948 by a wide margin, and thus cannot totally be blamed on the existance of Israel or Israeli policies. As early as the 1920s, there were violent clashes. The U. N. partition plan of 1947 divided Palestine roughly in half, with a Jewish majority state, and an Arab majority state. The Arab states rejected the agreement and invaded en masse. The new state of Israel accepted the agreement. As a result of this invasion, Israel fought back and managed by the time of the Armistice to have occupied sizeable chunks of the Arab palestinian state, notably in Galilee and the Negev. The portions of Palestine still in Arab hands were annexed by Jordan (West Bank & East Jerusalem) and Egypt (Gaza). For 19 years (1948 - 1967), nothing was heard from any Arab Leader about a Palestinian State on the West Bank and Gaza. All Arab leaders would accept nothing less than the destruction of Israel and the setup of a "Secular Democratic State" in all of Palestine, as if such an animal existed anywhere in the Middle East. (Note: Two exceptions: King Abdullah of Jordan (Hussein's Grandfather), who was assassinated for talking peace, and Bourguiba (sp.) of Tunisia, who once commented that Israel's existence should be accepted.) More important, the various Palestinian groups (predecessors of the PLO) all spoke of the destruction of Israel, not of the establishment of an Arab State in a portion of Palestine. After the 1967 war, what a difference! All of a sudden, with Israel occupying the West Bank and Gaza, the tune changed. Except for Qaddafi and some of the more extreme splinter groups, an Arab Palestinian State became the rallying cry of the Arab States, although the PLO never revoked its covenant calling for Israel's destruction. Where were all the cries for such a state in 1948 or 1950, when it was the ARAB states which opposed a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Jordan. Two questions for Mr. Hadzilakos: 1) Who started the 1948 war, leaving Israel in posession of more of Palestine? 2) Who provoked the 1967 war, leaving Israel in posession of all the rest of Palestine? The Palestinians are certainly victims. One cannot hate them for this, nor can one fault them for resenting and opposing the current Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. However some things should be kept in mind: 1) Hostile actiona against Israel by it's neighbors are responsible for the occupation. 2) While there is some merit in the Palestinian case, their only vocal leadership (PLO) conducts terrorist operations primarily against unarmed civilians, often children, and only rarely against Israeli soldiers and other military targets. To attack Israeli soldiers in Lebanon or armed vigilantes on the West Bank could be considered military resistence, but that is not the PLO's usual style. PLO acts of terrorism are not occasional aberrations, but policy, and rearely are condemned by most Arab Leaders. 3) Israel can hardly be faulted for not wanting to turn the West Bank and Gaza over to the Palestinians as long as their "sole legitimate representative" is the PLO, who would certainly be running the new state. 5) Israel could try to turn much of the West Bank or Gaza to Jordan. This was a real possibility a few years after the 1967 war, but the Arab League, in its "wisdom", passed a resolution saying only the PLO could speak for the Palestinians, thereby pulling the rug out from under Hussein. 6) When the PLO talks about "occupied Arab land", they mean not the West Bank and Gaza, but all of Palestine. Read their covenant. It contains no recognition of the 1967 borders or even the original 1948 borders. 7) We hear much talk about the "rights of the Palestinians." The rights of the Palestinians certainly must include the vote in truly democratic elections. Guess what the name of the only country in the Middle East to give its Arab citizens the vote. 8) The Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza do not have full rights, not being Israeli citizens. This is not good. But lets face it, the Arab states lost the 1967 war. The people of occupied Germany and Japan after WWII did not have full rights either. The difference is that Germany and Japan were no longer at war with the allies, and self-rule could be restored. On the contrary, the Arab states (except Egypt) are still at war with Israel. Look at a map. Israel cannot give up the land without a secure peace. Unfortunately, attitudes within Israel have hardened, primarily due to PLO terrorism, the rise of religious fundamentalism, and the Lebanese internal strife. Even so, the Labor party is still on record as willing to give up land for peace. A bonafide move by the Arab States might allow this to happen. Jordan will not go it alone. Let's wish for the best. -- Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL ihnp4!ihlpg!tan