When viewed in the correct historical context, Israel does not ultimately hold moral responsibility for the many deaths, both civilian and fighters, inside Gaza during the latest incursion. The history of the conflict shows, going back to the time just preceding the establishment of Israel in 1948, shows that Israel has been fighting virtually the same foe in all this time: Arab and Muslim extremism. There are two basic historical points that need to be remembered.
The Arab parties to the conflict have never considered negotiation as an option. After the U.N. vote on Nov. 29, 1947, in support of a plan to partition the then-territory of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states with an international zone in Jerusalem, the Arab nations refused the partition plan and instead intended to massacre the Jewish inhabitants. “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre,” Azzam Pasha, secretary-general of the Arab League, said on the radio.
Supporters of a Jewish state in Palestine were eager to accept any U.N. proposal that mandated a Jewish state and were open to negotiating for a final settlement. However, in response to murderous raids on Jewish towns and the gathering together of several Arab armies on their non-secured borders, the pre-Israeli forces united the various Jewish enclaves in preparation for the outbreak of war, which began on May 15, 1948.
Afterwards, the Arab nations refused to consider the 1950 U.N. plan for re-settlement without discussion, as well as any other plan over the next several decades. Any treaty would have been viewed as a defeat for the Arabs, and therefore the refugees were forced to await a victory which never came. As Cairo radio put it in 1957: “The refugees are the cornerstone in the Arab struggle against Israel. The refugees are the armaments of the Arabs and Arab nationalism.”
It is the record of terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens that has prevented the full integration of Palestinian refugees into Israeli society. During the period of war in 1947-1949 and for years afterward, Israel accepted about 550, 000 Jewish refugees, many of whom were fleeing persecution in Arab countries. All of these refugees were re-settled into Israel. Arab countries, however, refused to settle refugees in their own countries or to agree to a structured, negotiated settlement.
The development of a resistance movement in the occupied territories of Gaza and the West bank was inevitable, as was the increased vigilant defense by the Israeli military. What has kept the conflict fueled is the blind eye turned towards the history of the refugee problem by the Arab nations and the world. This has allowed Hamas its continued existence, despite its charter’s call for the “destruction of Israel.”
The truth of the Arab-Israeli conflict is that a peaceful solution has been impossible, and will continue to be impossible, as long as Arab governments and other inciters continue to use the historical refugee situation as a reason for their people to hate Israel. This deliberately fomented hatred is used to help control populations by redirecting their political anger. In the end, it is simply irrational to hold Israel responsible for a refugee situation held in place by the deliberate refusal of Arab governments to seek peace and re-settlement.
