Israel

by Mark Hopkins

Created on: November 09, 2007

Israel is a small nation, but is reckoned to have the fourth most powerful Armed Forces in the World. With massive military, financial and political backing from the United States it can pretty much do as it pleases. Its arsenal of some 200 nuclear weapons, developed secretly in defiance of world opinion, has attracted little of the opprobrium heaped upon some Middle Eastern neighbors.

A hundred years ago there were hardly any Jews at all in present day Israel/Palestine. The area was under the control of the Ottoman Turks and populated by Arabs. Since Roman times, Jews had been scattered across Europe and north Africa. It was in parts of Europe and Russia that they faced discrimination and pogroms, not in moslem north Africa. It was the rise of Zionism amongst European Jews in the late nineteenth century which first set in motion the chain of events which was to lead to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948 after a gap of almost 2000 years.

Zionists such as Theodore Herzl saw the need to gain Great Power support for their dream to succeed. Their chance came in 1917, when a beleaguered Britain offered the Balfour Declaration in the hope of winning the support of influential Jewish Americans. With the end of the First World War in 1918, the new League of Nations directed that Britain should facilitate the conditions for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, subject to not prejudicing the rights of the existing population, the Palestinians. This was 'mission impossible'. Jews began to move there in increasing numbers, mainly from Europe and Russia. Their culture and religion were alien to the existing population and there was friction from the start.

The creation of the modern state of Israel has inevitably been at the expense of the Palestinians. For decades their plight was largely ignored, so great was the feeling of sympathy towards the Jews following the Germans' attempts to exterminate them. The wars of 1948 and 1967 led to further territorial losses by Palestinians. Only when the PLO turned to terrorism in the 1970s did the world seem to take any notice of what it had allowed to happen.
Mostly, it condemned the Palestinians.

Israel though found itself in the position of trying to subdue a resentful Palestinian majority in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Despite arming the settlers whose illegal influx into the occupied lands was subsidized by the Israeli government with American financial backing, Israel found peace unattainable. Lacking Israel's firepower, the Palestinians launched the 'Intifada' campaign of unrest and disobedience and ground down Israel's moral authority as surely as its intransigence. Since then, Israel has tried to placate moderate Palestinian opinion by offering to return some of what it has taken. Always, it has sought to keep the most valuable parts.

Palestinian leaders such as Yasser Arafat who were tempted to 'do a deal' with Israel found themselves outflanked by radicals who made accusations of 'selling out'. Hamas, which now controls Gaza, was one such group to emerge. Since withdrawing from Gaza, Israel has done everything it can to prevent the population from thriving. Funds have been frozen, the economy strangled, movement of people into Israel to work has been restricted and at times banned. The Gaza Strip has been turned into a ghetto, swept by Israeli gunships and invaded by its tanks and snatch squads at frequent intervals. Unsurprisingly, the Palestinians who have to endure this show little love for their Jewish neighbors and crude missile attacks into Israel only make matters worse.

It is easy to condemn the Palestinians for their attacks on Israeli civilians, particularly suicide bombings. At the root of all this though, whether in Gaza or Tel Aviv, lies the denial of Palestinian rights. Many other Peoples would resist the theft of their land, the humiliation and despair which has been the lot of the unfortunate Palestinians. Israel's overwhelming might necessitates a form of bloody guerrilla warfare, of which suicide bombing and missile attacks form modern components. It is disingenuous to attempt to characterize these as somehow more barbaric or beyond the pale than many another atrocity of war.

Unrest in Gaza has as its root cause the actions of Israel. Most Palestinians wish to co-exist with Israel, but on the basis of a fair settlement with mutual respect; a two State solution. Israel's present right wing stance is unable to contemplate this in any realistic way. Many Israelis seem to regard themselves as superior to Palestinians (among others) due to their supposed position as 'God's chosen people'. Until this changes, groups such as Hamas will exist and will not lack for support.

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