By Bob Taft
After WWI the British arm of the Rothschild family wanted to settle the Jewish people in the former Ottoman Empire land of Palestine. (1) While the Arabs universally rejected the idea, the family of Saud agreed to support it and for their support, the British granted most of the Arabian Peninsula to the Sauds. In 1932 they established a new country in their name: Saudi Arabia.
Just when the Palestinians were coming together after World War I, the British decreed that their homeland would be split. Although 90 percent of Palestine was Arab, the British referred to them as “non-Jewish communities.” The massive influx of Jewish immigrants and sudden British control sparked an Arab uprising. Arabs throughout the Middle East were outraged at the West for partitioning Palestine, even though the incoming Jews provided employment opportunities which boosted the Palestinian quality of life. Nonetheless when Israel declared its independence in 1948, war broke out in a vain attempt to stop the move. Israel won the battle against several surrounding Arab neighbors which only exacerbated the situation.
Again in the 1960s more trouble for the Israelis brewed. Vowing to destroy Israel, the Jordanians and Egyptians set their weaponry on Israeli targets and Palestinians raided the Jews often. Syria tried to cut off Israel from their water supply. Egypt ordered out UN peacekeepers stationed in the Sinai and the UN secretary general at the time meekly complied. Bolstered by the UN’s quick submission, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, a clear violation of international law. On May 30, 1967, King Hussein of Jordan announced that “All of the Arab armies now surround Israel.” (2)
But the following month Israel launched a surprise attack. They defeated the Syrians, Jordanians and Egyptians, wrestling East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel claimed these territories to protect isolated Jewish communities in the region and to expand their territory to defend themselves better against neighboring enemies. Their expansion beyond the limits of the 1947 partition though alienated UN members and incensed Middle East countries, which intensified their vow to eliminate Israel.
Moreover, not too long ago, it appeared that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had resolved his differences with Hamas, the terrorist organization in Palestine which continues to use rockets and mortars against Israel and whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. For a while Abbas tooted that the PA and Hamas complemented each other. This new alliance bolstered the world narrative: the Palestinians were the “victims” of Israel and Hamas attacks were strictly defensive measures to retaliate against big bad Israel.
Abbas pushed this message of the victims versus the oppressive occupiers. And the world bought it ignoring, of course, that the Jewish people originally lived across the entire area only to be shoved out in a bloodbath around 600 B.C. and that the United Nations created the current situation in the first place.
It is perhaps marginally understandable that this narrative plays well when the PA and Hamas are on the same frequency. But currently they are not. Israel left Gaza voluntarily in 2005, a move both the PA and Hamas did not interpret as a sign of peace, but one of weakness. Since Hamas took over the region in 2007, the relationship between the PA and Hamas has been rocky at best. The thaw described above, however, dissolved rather quickly and hostility between the two tenuous partners escalated even faster. Ironically it peaked when Abbas stopped paying Israel to supply Gaza with electricity. Abbas claimed that he was done propping up the Palestinian Authority’s political rival. For good measure, he also slashed the salaries of thousands of Gazan employees working in his government. (3)
Mahmoud Abbas (and the PA which controls the West Bank) wants to reassert his authority over Gaza and scuttle any US or Israeli-backed peace plan that would cut the PA out of the West Bank. Hamas, on the other hand, wants Abbas to resign. That terrorist organization claims East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza – territories under Israel’s control since the 1967 Six Day War – for their future state. (4) Abbas is seeking total control of the territory. In short, both parties want all of what they believe is the future Palestinian state for their own.
But where does that leave the Palestinian people? They have been used by both the PA and Hamas. They have been trained to show allegiance to Palestine, view Israel as their mortal enemy and fight to destroy them. Recently Israeli and Palestinian woman marched in solidarity for better relations between the two peoples. Curiously the Palestinians scorned these women, but turned around and called Hamas “heroes.” Palestinian conditioning seems to be working quite well.
So how do the Palestinians exist? Quite horribly and it’s not Israel’s fault. The PA gives about $100 million in aid to the two million Palestinians in Gaza each month. Nonetheless, “unemployment exceeds 50 percent, tap water is undrinkable and electricity is only available for a few hours every day.” (5) Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since Hamas seized power to prevent Hamas from importing weaponry. But by slashing the salaries of former government workers in Gaza much less cutting fuel subsidies to pay for electricity, Abbas has worsened the situation for purely political reasons.
Where does the PA get the money to fund Gaza at the tune of $100 million a month?
They rely primarily on the ample donations they receive from international institutions, like the $221 million President Obama gave them just before he left office and the billions the European Union has poured into their institutional building. The fact is Hamas and the PA have done little to advance the economy of Palestine. Perhaps because of this significant investment, the West has to prop up Palestine and blame Israel for the region’s misery. Fact be known – which is frequently ignored, overlooked or simply denied these days – Palestine doesn’t have the critical mass and resources to become an independent state.
Further the rest of the Middle East generally doesn’t give a whit about the stateless Palestinians. Most of the countries there see Palestine as the spearhead of Arab animus not just toward Israel, but the West. Saudi Arabia claims to be opposed to fighting Israel while arch enemy Iran wants the country gone for good. As Saudi Arabia and Iran battle for hegemony in the Middle East, the Palestine-Israeli conflict will continue to be a major rallying point. Several attempts at peace have failed mainly because the Palestinians will only agree to a settlement where Israel is eliminated, a condition even the EU won’t accept.
The only real interest the Middle East has in Palestine is not the welfare of the people there, but the continued war with the West. Any peace process has always failed because the Palestinian bar is set way too high and Abbas and Hamas, along with Iran and others, know it. Israelis and Palestinians are but pawns in a conflict through which the PA hopes to secure broad-based sympathy and support, while nations like Iran hope never gets resolved.
Meanwhile although the United Nations created this seemingly endless conflict, members increasingly condemn Israel which daily must fight to keep their independence. The West, especially Europe, saves face for their fiasco by making the traditional victim, Israel, their scapegoat.
NOTES
- Bitcom Briefing, “Causes and Consequences of the Six-Day War (1967),” March 10, 2017
2. Toameh, Klaled Abu, “The Palestinian Jihads against Israel,” Gatestone Institute, December 13, 2016
3. Rubin, Shira, “Palestinians have spent decades battling Israel. Now they’re battling each other,” Vox, August 22, 2017
4. Agencies, “In role reversal, Abbas pressures Hamas as Israel allows aid,” The Times of Israel, January 2019