Israel is Palestine

Enter Stage Right ^ | April 8, 2002 | Charles A. Morse

[gordgekko]

I spent time working in a factory in Israel near Gaza in 1988. During that time, I became friendly with several Palestinian Arabs who would come in from Gaza to work. My impression, based on discussions with them, was that while they insisted on a Palestinian state, they also liked and respected Israel and hoped that their state would co-exist peacefully alongside Israel. I doubt if they feel that way today and I no longer believe that their dream, one that I shared at the time, is now possible or probably ever was.

This is because the Palestinian elite, along with their Arab and Islamic allies, will never give up their dream of annihilating Israel. As Muslims, the Arabs view Israel as a non-Islamic state in the very heart of the "Ummah" or the Islamic motherland. The true believing Muslim believes that all of the Ummah must be under the rule of Islam, which, in Arabic, means submission. In this context, Arab rulers view any "peace" treaty with Israel as simply a temporary way station on the road to eventual conquest. Palestinian statehood and identity is nothing more than a ruse to incite jihad. The Arabs are willing to wait hundreds of years to achieve this end and they will never give up.

The Arab rulers have won the propaganda war against Israel by shrewdly forming an alliance with the international left and their media mouthpieces. The left has transformed the Arab struggle to destroy Israel into one in which the Arabs are cast as the victims of a big and cruel Israeli "occupation." Leftist intellectuals and savants, either wittingly or otherwise, have sold the world on the idea that Israel is "occupying" the West Bank and Gaza while the Arabs consider any part of Palestine that has not "submitted" to Islam to be "occupied." The left media provides an echo chamber for Arab atrocity propaganda while providing a "scientific" justification for Arab atrocities.

How should the State of Israel deal with this ongoing threat? First of all, Israel is Palestine for the same reason that British Honduras is Belize or Rhodesia is Zimbabwe. Upon independence in 1948, the Palestinian Jews adopted the name of Israel because this was the ancient and indigenous name of the land of the Torah. Israelis are as Palestinian as Arabs as both populations immigrated en masse to the area around the same time. For reasons that are interesting and worth studying, Israel failed to achieve sovereignty in all of Palestine west of the Jordan in 1948. This failure is the cause of today's conflict and confusion regarding who is a Palestinian. In addition, Jordan is also actually Palestine east of the Jordan.

If Israel had achieved sovereignty in Palestine west of the Jordan in 1948, the Palestinian Arabs would be Israeli Arabs today. Israel is now backed into a corner and is probably going to be pressured into recognizing yet another Palestinian state west of the Jordan. If this state comes into being, it will probably continue to agitate for conquest regardless of who is in charge and, therefore, Israel will have to go to war periodically, at great sacrifice to all parties, in order to maintain the peace. This may be a moot point, however, as the Palestinians will, no doubt, not budge from the same positions they've maintained all along which is that Jewish cities and towns will have to be evacuated, Jerusalem will have to be surrendered, and millions of Palestinian Arabs will have their right granted to return to Haifa and Tel Aviv.

While I don't think this will happen in the near future, I do believe that Israel will eventually have no choice but to annex the West Bank and Gaza. If and when this happens, it would be appropriate for the Palestinian Arab residents to be given the option of becoming Israeli, Jordanian, or Palestinian citizens. The Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza should, at that time, be granted as much autonomy as possible with Israel maintaining overall control.

Palestinian Arabs should be allowed to return to live behind the pre-1967 Armistice lines as long as they agree to swear a loyalty oath to the State of Israel. A violation of this oath, such as engaging in subversive activity, should be cause, if a conviction occurs after a civil proceeding, for expulsion.

Chuck Morse is a talk show host on WROL 950 AM in Boston.

[philosofy123]

The hand of God was also present in my selection of hamburger with no onion at lunch today! Will you give it a rest! God is laughing at us using his name any time we want to justify any thing. You pray to God to win in sport or to pass a test; what happen then when the results is not what you were hoping for? Please leave God out of this mess!

[katana]

"Forcing" Semites (Arab or Jew) to do anything against their will is about as tough as it gets. Personally, I think you should be forced to repeat the sixth grade until you learn to spell "philosophy" and count past the number 3.

[philosofy123]

Never mind with my education level, do you think that state sponsored religion is a good thing?

[philosofy123]

If we and the Europeans discovered that secular government can lead to harmony between people, why do you think it would be impossible to force that on the Arabs and the Israelis. I know the word FORCE is not easy to swallow; however, we can use diplomatic/financial/international pressure to achieve such goal?

[rmlew]

Yes.
What you are doing is asking for your bigoted anti-religious beliefs to be thw law around the world.

True freedom and tolerance allows peoples and countries to choose a system of government that works for them.

[wheezer]

You should probably point out this obvious oversight to the Creator at the judgment...

Oh I will alright. I figure me and God are going to have quite a conversation, and at the end I will have convinced him of the errors of his ways. ;o)

[philosofy123]

Do you support a declaration that the USA is a Christian nation with special privileges to any person who is Christian, and lots of abuse to non-Christians? If you said yes, you would be a fool, and if you said no, then you are inconstant!

[Woodkirk]

Good Article. The problem with any Palestinian state is that it will be run by the Palestinian outlaws who terrorize not only Israel but its own people. Annexation by Israel is the only way for there to be peace in the West Bank and Gaza, and then the land may begin to prosper.

[onedoug]

God cares.

[theoutsideman]

This guy is a patsy. He was duped. What an idiot!

[crystalk]

Religious faith is the very heart of what makes a human what he is. No Christian, Jew, or Muslim would ever give up his faith for a little temporary prosperity--if he did, it would only show he never had it in the first place.

You say you would FORCE persons to give up their faith. That would involve several guards for each person, to make sure he or she did not lapse into prayer or meditation...you would have to guard them in bed at night, and 24 hrs. a day, and blow them to pieces if they happened to mention God or to pray, or to read/study religious papers or books, etc.

Some tyranny YOU are proposing! I think I'll take the status quo!

[Prodigal Daughter]

These guys must learn to keep religion as a private thing.

Stalin did that already. The religious people got a new church/synagogue. It was called "Siberia".

[headsonpikes]

Your #16 a necessary antidote to the stupid pali crap on this thread..

[norton]

Just a couple of points here:

Israel is a secular state, most citizens are Jewish, many are Islamic, some are Christian. All relegions appear to be allowed to freely exercise their faith and, apart from what we might consider illegal aliens in this context, do not seem to be at war with each other. Iran also, I believe, is a secular state, voicing support for islamist causes only when it serves their interests.

Egypt is NOT a secular state, however it is also NOT an Arab state and was therefore able to achieve both a degree of success against the Israeli armed forces and a reasonable peace with Israel. It is nonetheless an islamic state, generally less fundamentalist but prone to lose it's more assertive faithful to causes such as Al Qaida or the DNC.

Jordan is the other half or so of Palestine and has steadfastly refused to accept any palistinian/jordinians into its society. Those pal/jordinians are fortified into 'camps' because Jordan and other Islamic states instructed them to leave the Israeli side in 1948 and put them into the hands of the UN rather than taking any of them in.

Any neighboring states, including then mostly Christian Lebanon, that DID allow Arafat et al to stop over soon tossed them out as threats to ANY presiding government.

I presume you refuse to vacation in, or pass through, Utah for the same reasons you demand that Israelis stop shooting back...after all, most of them are Mormon, they did once actively resist US occupation, and even flirted with the Confederacy. I presume it means nothing to you that all religeons are practiced there, the standard of living is good, and it's the home of the Browing Museum. After all, they do go to church a lot.

There is no moral equivalency in this mess unless you want to link Hitler with any given Islamic leader at any given time....Oops...that won't work either, Hitler was elected.

[Prodigal Daughter]

Thanks for the flag. I don't think you can give Palestinians any land that rightfully belongs to Israel. First of all, it's not theirs. Secondly, they would just chalk it up as a victory for their demon-god and they'd enact Mohammed's Plan C (when he beheaded 800 Jews who wouldn't convert to the religion of forced submission).

Any Palestinians, Christians, Muslims or Agnostic, who haven't been brainwashed by the enemies of Israel, did well to leave. Any Palestinians sympathetic to Israel live in great danger too.

Photo by Musa Al-Shaer, AFP, Caption: Vigilante justice
Masked Palestinians pull the body of Mahmoud Sabatin up the stairs of a building in the Bethlehem on March 14, intending to hang it from the roof. Sabatin, who was sentenced for collaborating with Israel by the Palestinian Authority, was shot dead by armed Palestinians not affiliated with Palestinian security.

[mikeIII]

If the rest of the world and the UN have their way, an Islamic State of Palestinian State will be created with East Palestine and West Palestine, on either side of Israel. The East and West parts will split after having political and idealogical problems. Both will blame Israel for their problems and subject it to constant attacks of terrorism.

Substitute India for Israel, Pakistan and Bangladesh for the 2 parts of the Islamic nation of Palestine, and there you have it - a historical renactment in the creation of Islamic States that fail and resort to Islamic terrorism.

[Tom Jefferson]

If the rest of the world and the UN have their way, an Islamic State of Palestinian State will be created with East Palestine and West Palestine, on either side of Israel. The East and West parts will split after having political and idealogical problems. Both will blame Israel for their problems and subject it to constant attacks of terrorism.

Substitute India for Israel, Pakistan and Bangladesh for the 2 parts of the Islamic nation of Palestine, and there you have it - a historical renactment in the creation of Islamic States that fail and resort to Islamic terrorism.

Not a very pretty future for the area, but you are probably right. Israel will be forced to spend a substantial part of its budget on the military and security as it has been doing.

[Brian Allen]

I believe God trumps Rome.

I believe that for an impressive stretch in history, Rome trumped God in regards to that particular real estate.

Really?

Well I'll be darned.

And then what happened?

"Romans," you say -- and "Rome?"

Who are they?

And what is that?

And where may I find it?

I believe God trumped Rome.

[wheezer]

I believe God trumped Rome.

Maybe...or maybe (and more likely) the Roman Empire just ran into the same problems that others Empire's have.

Either way ya' gotta' admit, the Romans had a very impressive run.