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Israel’s Dilemma

TruthNews Commentary, February 20, 2000

As Israel prepares to install yet another prime minister who vows to provide peace and security for the Jewish state, it will be helpful to review why Israel’s security problems appear so insoluble. Israel’s national security problems began with the very founding of the nation in 1948. At that time, the United Nations had approved a partition plan for what was then called Palestine. Under the partition plan, part of Palestine would become a Jewish homeland while the remainder would become an Arab homeland. The Jews of Palestine accepted the partition, even though it did not include any part of Jerusalem, which under the partition plan would become an international city. The Arabs did not accept the partition, and the armies of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon immediately attacked the fledgling Jewish state. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a former Nazi collaborator, called for all Arabs in the Jewish sector to flee the country so that the Arab armies could destroy Israel. He promised that, not only would the Arabs then be allowed to return to their homes, but they could also take possession of the property stolen from the Jews. Many Arabs listened to the Grand Mufti, and fled to the Arab held lands, where they and their descendants remain as refugees. Others remained in the Jewish partition and are today the Arab citizens of Israel.

In the ensuing war, Israel’s war of independence, the Arabs were not as successful as they had hoped. Not only did they fail to destroy the new Jewish state, but Israel was also successful in holding on to the western part of Jerusalem, which has had a large population of Jews since the 1890s. However, the Arab armies were successful in capturing and destroying the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Jews who had lived there since the 1700s were driven out. In addition the Jewish population of the neighboring Arab countries were evicted and their property confiscated. Eventually 500,000 Jews from these Arab countries ended up in Israel.

The war ended with a cease-fire in 1949, and the ceasefire lines became the borders of Israel. With Britain and France, Israel fought another war with Egypt in 1956, capturing the Sinai Peninsula but later returning it. Then in 1967, threatened by joint attack from Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, Israel again went to war with its Arab neighbors. In this, the Six Day War, Israel succeeded in capturing the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and the old city of Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The three nations attempted to recapture their lost territory in 1973 in the Yom Kippur war, but were unsuccessful. However, in a 1977 peace treaty with Egypt, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula.

The remaining territories are problematic for several reasons.

• The West Bank and Jerusalem’s Old City are vital parts of the Jewish heritage. The first and second temples once stood in Jerusalem, where the Moslems’ Al Aqsa mosque now stands. The Wailing Wall, which is a surviving remnant of the second temple, is the most revered site in Judaism. The West Bank encompasses the ancient territories of Judea and Samaria, and includes such sites as Hebron, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were buried, Bethlehem, where King David was born and Rachel was buried, and Nablus (Shechem), where Joseph was buried.

• The West Bank and Golan Heights are important from a security aspect. Prior to its capture by Israel, the Golan Heights were used by Syria to shell Israel. Without the West Bank, Israel’s borders as delineated in the 1949 cease fire results in only a 12-mile wide strip of land connecting the northern part of the country, which includes the Galilee and Haifa, to the south. In a war, Israel could be easily cut in half. In addition, with the old borders, Jerusalem, Israel’s capitol, would be surrounded on three sides by a foreign power.

• A large Arab population continues to live in these "occupied territories," although many Jewish settlements have also been established in order to lay claim to the land as Israeli.

Many Israelis would simply like to keep the land that was captured in 1967. However, 2.5 million Arabs continue to live in this land. Israel thus has to face the following alternatives:

• Keep the land and drive the Arabs out. If Israel were a dictatorship like its Arab neighbors, this would be an easy solution. However, Israel is a democracy with western Judeo-Christian values, so this option is not palatable to the Israeli citizens. In addition, this solution would result in world condemnation and Arab invasion.

• Keep the land and make the Arabs full citizens of Israel. With this option, Israel would cease to be a Jewish state. There are only 4.7 million Jews in Israel along with 1.2 million Arabs. Add to this the 3.2 million Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza, along with the 1.5 million Arabs now living in Jordan, descendants of those Arabs who fled from Israel in 1948 but still claim the right of return, and Israel would end up being a nation of 4.7 million Jews and 5.9 million Arabs. Since Israel was established as a Jewish homeland primarily because the Jews were not safe under the rule of other countries, this option is not viable.

• Re-impose Israeli martial law on the occupied territories. This might establish peace but would keep the West Bank and Gaza as occupied territories. The Arab occupants would continue their resistance, and Israel’s neighbors and the international community would condemn and boycott Israel.

• Return the land captured in 1967 to Jordan and Egypt. However, this would place Israel’s security at great risk. In addition, Egypt and Jordan do not want the land because of the problems associated with governing the Palestinian Arabs. The Palestinian Arabs living in Jordan have long been a source on instability to that nation, and adding the West Bank would further destabilize the Hashemite kingdom. Likewise, Egypt sees the Gaza Strip as a drain on its national treasury with little benefit in return.

• Establish the land captured in 1967 as a separate but demilitarized Palestinian state. This is what Ehud Barak, the recently defeated Israeli prime minister tried to do. The problem with this alternative is that it requires the cooperation of the Palestinian Arabs, who have so far been uncooperative. Barak went so far in proposed concessions as to alienate many of his supporters, including giving up most of Jerusalem’s Old City, dismantling many of the territories, and swapping Israeli land for the remaining settlements. However, the Arabs insisted on the unconditional right of return (which as noted above, would destroy the Jewish state) as well as control over the entire Old City, including the Wailing Wall. Even Barak was unwilling to offer these, and it is questionable whether even these concessions would be enough to satisfy the Palestinian Arabs.

This, then, is Israel’s dilemma. There is no solution other than to muddle along and to hope for a change of heart by the Palestinian Arabs. The risk to Israel is that muddling along with continued Arab resistance invites an international solution imposed in a Kosovo fashion—which Yasser Arafat, the PLO’s chief terrorist, has already demanded.