Posted 3/20/2002
By U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe
Editor's Note: The following is a slightly condensed version of a remarkable statement of principle delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate earlier this month by Sen. James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma.
I was interested the other day when I heard that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah made a statement which was received by many in this country as if it were a statement of fact, as if it were something new — a concept for peace in the Middle East that no one had ever heard of before. I was kind of shocked that it was so well received by many people who had been down this road before.
I suggest to you that what Crown Prince Abdullah talked about was not new at all. He talked about the fact that under the Abdullah plan, Arabs would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for the Jewish state surrendering the territory it received after the 1976 Six-Day War as if that were something new. When it gets right down to it, the land doesn't make that much difference because Yasir Arafat and others don't recognize Israel's right to any of the land. They do not recognize Israel's right to exist.
I would like to emphasize seven reasons why Israel has the right to its land.
1. Israel has the right to the land because of all of the archeological evidence.
Every time there is a dig in Israel, it does nothing but support the fact that Israelis have had a presence there for 3,000 years. The coins, the cities, the pottery, the culture — there is no mistaking the fact that Israelis have been present in that land for 3,000 years.
The ancient Philistines are extinct. Many other ancient peoples are extinct. They do not have the unbroken line to this date that the Israelis have. Even the Egyptians of today are not racial Egyptians of 2,000, or 3,000 years ago. They are primarily an Arab people. The land is called Egypt, but they are not the same racial and ethnic stock as the old Egyptians of the ancient world. The first Israelis are in fact descended from the original Israelites.
2. The second proof of Israel's right to the land is the historic right.
History supports it totally and completely. We know there had been an Israel up until the time of the Roman Empire. The Romans conquered the land, although Jews were allowed to live there. They were driven from the land in two dispersions: One was in 70 A.D. and the other was in 135 A.D. But there was always a Jewish presence in the land.
The Turks took over about 700 years ago and ruled up until about World War I, when the land was conquered by the British. The British government -- grateful to a Jewish chemist named Weizmann who discovered a way to manufacture nitroglycerin from materials that existed in England and to Jewish bankers who helped finance the war — promised to give the Jewish people a homeland. That is all a part of history. It is all written down in history.
The homeland that Britain said it would set aside consisted of all of what is now Israel and all of what is Jordan — the whole thing. That was what Britain promised to give the Jews. In the beginning, there was some Arab support for this action. There was not a huge Arab population in the land at that time, and there is a reason for that. The land was not able to sustain a large population of people. It just did not have the development it needed to handle those people, and the land was not really wanted by anybody. Nobody really wanted this land. It was considered to be worthless land.
I want the Presiding Officer to hear what Mark Twain said. Mark Twain — Samuel Clemens — took a tour of Palestine in 1867. This is how he described that land. We are talking about Israel now. He said:
"A desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country."
Where was this great Palestinian nation? It did not exist. It was not there. Palestinians were not there. Palestine was a region named by the Romans, but at that time it was under the control of Turkey, and there was no large mass of people there because the land would not support them.
The report of the Palestinian Royal Commission, created by the British, quotes an account of the conditions on the coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea in 1913:
"The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track, suitable for transport by camels or carts. No orange groves, orchards or vineyards were to be seen until one reached the Yavnev village. Houses were mud. Schools did not exist. The western part toward the sea was almost a desert. The villages in this area were few and thinly populated. Many villages were deserted by their inhabitants."
In short, under the Turks the land suffered from neglect and low population. That is a historical fact. The nation became populated by both Jews and Arabs because the land came to prosper when Jews came back and began to reclaim it.
If there had never been any archaeological evidence to support the rights of the Israelis to the territory, it is also important to recognize that other nations in the area have no longstanding claim to the country either.
Did you know that Saudi Arabia was not created until 1913, Lebanon until 1920? Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932, Syria until 1941; the borders of Jordan were established in 1946 and Kuwait in 1961. Any of these nations that would say Israel is only a recent arrival would have to deny their own rights as recent arrivals as well.
3. The third reason that land belongs to Israel is the practical value of the Israelis being there.
Israel today is a modern marvel of agriculture. Israel is able to bring more food out of a desert environment than any other country in the world. The Arab nations ought to make Israel their friend and import technology from Israel that would allow all the Middle East, not just Israel, to become an exporter of food. Israel has unarguable success in its agriculture.
4. The fourth reason I believe Israel has the right to the land is on the grounds of humanitarian concern.
You see, there were six million Jews slaughtered in Europe in World War II. The persecution against the Jews had been very strong in Russia since the advent of communism. It was against them even before then under the Czars. These people have a right to their homeland. If we are not going to allow them a homeland in the Middle East, then where? What other nation on Earth is going to cede territory, is going to give up land? They are not asking for a great deal. The whole nation of Israel would fit into my home state of Oklahoma seven times.
5. The fifth reason Israel ought to have the land is that she is a strategic ally of the United States.
Israel is a detriment, an impediment, to certain groups hostile to democracies, hostile to what we believe in, hostile to that which makes us the greatest nation in the history of the world. Israel has kept them from taking complete control of the Middle East. If it were not for Israel, they would overrun the region.
Israel is our strategic ally. It is good to know we have a friend in the Middle East on whom we can count. They vote with us in the United Nations more than England, more than Canada, more than France, more than Germany — more than any other country in the world.
6. The sixth reason is that Israel is a roadblock to terrorism.
The war we are now facing is not against a sovereign nation; it is against a group of terrorists who are very fluid, moving from one country to another. They are almost invisible. That is whom we are fighting against today. We need every ally we can get. If we do not stop terrorism in the Middle East, it will be on our shores.
One of the reasons I believe the door was opened for an attack against us is that the policy of our government has been to ask the Israelis — and demand it with pressure — not to retaliate in a significant way against the terrorist strikes that have been launched against them.
There were 39 Scud missiles that landed on Israeli soil during the Gulf War. Our president asked Israel not to respond. In order to have the Arab nations on board, we asked Israel not to participate in the war. The Israelis showed tremendous restraint and did not. Now we have asked them to stand back and not do anything over these last several attacks. We have criticized them. We have criticized them in our media. Local people in television and radio often criticize Israel, not knowing the true facts. We need to be informed.
Back in December the Israelis went into Gaza with gunships and into the West Bank with F-16s. With the exception of last May, the Israelis had not used F-16s since the 1967 Six-Day War. And I am so proud of them, because we have to stop terrorism. It is not going to go away.
If Israel were driven into the sea tomorrow, if every Jew in the Middle East were killed, terrorism would not end. You know that in your heart. Should they be successful in overrunning Israel — which they won't be — it would not be enough. They will never be satisfied.
7. The seventh, and most important, reason why we ought to support Israel is because G-d said so.
Look it up in the book of Genesis. In Genesis 13:14-17, the Bible says: The L-rd said to Abram, "Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are northward, and southward, and eastward and westward: for all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever....Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it to thee."
That is G-d talking.
The Bible says that Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar before the L-rd. Hebron is in the West Bank. It is at this place where G-d appeared to Abram and said, "I am giving you this land" — the West Bank. This is not a political battle at all. It is a contest over whether or not the Word of G-d is true.
Israel's Hand Of Peace Rejected
Eight years ago on the lawn of the White House, Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with Yasir Arafat. It was a historic occasion. It was a tragic occasion. At that time, the official policy of the government of Israel began to be, "Let us appease the terrorists. Let us begin to trade the land for peace."
This process continued unabated up until last year. At Camp David in the summer of 2000, the then-prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, offered the most generous concessions to Arafat that had ever been laid on the table. He offered him more than 90 percent of all the West Bank territory, sovereign control of it. There were parts he did not want to offer, but in exchange for that he said he would give up land in Israel proper that the PLO had not even asked for.
And he also did the unthinkable. He spoke of dividing Jerusalem and allowing the Palestinians to have their capital there in the East. Arafat stormed out of the meeting. Why did he storm out of the meeting? Everything he had said he wanted was offered there. It was put into his hands. Why did he storm out of the meeting?
A couple of months later there began riots and terrorism. It began when the current Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, went to the Temple Mount. Did you know that Sharon did not go unannounced and that he contacted the Islamic authorities before he went and secured their permission and had permission to be there?
It was no surprise. The response was very carefully calculated. The Palestinians knew the world would not pay attention to the details. They would portray this in the Arab world as an attack upon the holy mosque and use it as an excuse to riot.
Over these past eight years of the peace process, when the Israeli public pressured its leaders to give up land for peace because they were tired of fighting, there has been increased terror. In fact, it has been greater in the past eight years than any other time in Israel's history. Showing restraint and giving in has not produced any kind of peace.
Israel did offer a hand of peace, and it was not taken. Even today the stationery of the PLO still has on it the map of the entire state of Israel, not just the tiny little part they call the West Bank that they say they want. They want it all.
I yield the floor.
Readers wishing to respond directly to Sen. Inhofe can contact his office by phone at 202-224-4721; by fax at 202-228-0380; by e-mail at jim_inhofe@inhofe.senate.gov; or by letter at 453 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510-3603.
The media and academia are busy spreading their propaganda, along with their co-conspirator, the New World Church. The Middle East from God's Perspective