Bungling Arab brethren share blame for plight of Palestinians: 53 yrs ago, Palestinians had a State

That the predicament of the Palestinian Arabs is lamentable no one can dispute. After a half-century as a stateless people, they are among history's orphans.

Generations of their young, born in the refugee camps, have no profession but violence, no ambition but martyrdom, no creed but rage.

Militant Islamists have come very late to the Palestinian cause, blaming Israel and its U.S. ally for the woes of that unfortunate people.

But in decrying the condition of the Palestinians, it is at least worth getting the facts straight.

In November 1947, the U.N. General Assembly voted to partition the British mandate of Palestine into two territories that were envisioned as future states -- one predominantly Jewish, the other Arab.

Six months later, on May 14, hours before the British withdrew, the state of Israel was proclaimed and immediately was recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union.

At that moment 53 years, four wars and tens of thousands of Arab and Israeli deaths ago, the Palestinians had a state -- or at any rate a territory designated for the creation of their state-to-be.

True, they were not wholly satisfied with its shape. Nor were the Jews comfortable with the configuration of theirs. But if reason had governed, it is possible to imagine that those two small nations might ultimately have thrived as neighbors at peace.

For on May 15, one day after Israel's declaration of statehood, the Arab regimes of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria set their armies in motion with the stridently declared objective of driving the Jews into the sea.

They failed again, even more decisively, in the war of 1967 -- a conflict that lasted only six days and ended humiliatingly, especially for Egypt, whose soldiers flung down their weapons and fled on foot back across Sinai, with some 10,000 perishing in the retreat.

The final failure was in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, which began with an Egyptian and Syrian attack on Oct. 6 -- the Hebrew Day of Atonement and also the 10th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

With that defeat, the Arab states had had enough. In a series of historic blunders, they had ensured the Palestinians continued statelessness. Having spent lives and treasure to no point, Egypt and eventually Jordan agreed to peace.

Through all those 25 years of confrontation and in the 28 troubled years since, the Arab regimes, except for Jordan, refused to allow Palestinians to immigrate in significant numbers, or extend to those they did admit the rights of citizenship, or even to commit serious resources to relieving the misery in the refugee camps.

Thus, today, Palestinian youths strap explosives to their bodies and blow themselves to eternity, somehow imagining it will help secure for their people the state they would have had years ago, except for the tragic miscalculations by their Arab brethren.

Muslims, including those fanatics who have declared a holy war of terror against the developed West, find it expedient to assign all blame to the United States and Israel for the Palestinians' plight.

But no honest reading of history can ignore the pivotal and altogether shameful role the Arab regimes themselves have played in the endless agony of the Middle East.

Will the Palestinians one day have a state? Of course they will. No reasonable person doubts it. Had it not been for Arab bungling, they'd have had one a lifetime ago.

I continue to wonder why America's liberal left stand with Palistinian terrorist causes. Palistinians and the Arabs have shown that their worst enemies are themselves.

Ashland, Missouri

rface, I think it's simply because (what's LEFT of) the Left has always resonated to what they perceive to be the "romance" of terrorism, the "nobility" of the archetypal Victim stereotype, and I frankly believe that many of them are simply neurologically hardwired, from birth, to believe that they are morally superior to all us inferior untermensch(sp??) who simply do not espouse their drivel. Ya know, "ALL OTHERS=infidels" not merely according to OBL, but particularly to our own putrid puffy all so proud of themselves Leftist Intelligentsia.

Moving on is a natural solution to undesirable situations. In the past 50 years, several millions of people world wide have solved their problems by doing just that and they and their descendants are living better lives today because the people used some common sense. The plight of the Palestinians rest mostly on their own and the shoulders of the Arab world. The Arabs, including the Palestinians, don't want a workable solution that includes a Jewish State in Arab lands. They only have one goal. Get rid of the Jewish State.

"...America's liberal left stand with Palistinian terrorist causes"

Because both are lacking in any objective, analytical, critical thinking skills whatsoever, instead giving way to elementary and rudimentary emotionalism?

Another article which tells it like it is....

They stand with terrorist causes because it suits their aim and that is to destabilize capitalism and the democracies that operate under capitalism. The left believes in a socialist utopia that has been proven wrong time and time again. Yet, the lefties still hang tough to their idea for they have nowhere else to go lest they admit defeat.

I would like to add, that it is the ignorance of political peoples, not even knowing this history, nor where or why what action that caused the name "Palestine" to be used. It goes back to HADRIAN, the Roman Emperor from 117-138 A.D. He re-named The Land of Israel to be "Syria et Palestina" and he also re-named The City of Jerusalem to be "Aelia Capitolina". It was his desire to wipe the Jewish capital from memory for all time. There is a very informative book called "Jerusalem Betrayed: Ancient Prophecy and Modern Conspiracy Collide in the Holy City" written by Mike Evans, that was published in 1997. That in 1947....The Land of Israel, that was called by Palestine for many centuries...actually got its true name back. It is as simple as that.

The article's premise is incorect.
Since 1923, the PAlestinians have had a country, composed of 2/3 of Palestine, east of the Jordan river.
That country was founded as TransJordan.
In 1947, the Palestinians were offered a second state composed of 16% of the 1922 Mandate of PAlestine West of the Jordan river. The PAlestians rejected teh UN Deal.
Instead, they along with every Arab state declared war on Israel, trying to destroy it/ They failed and Israel survived.
The Arab held land on the West Bank of the Jordan river was annexed by Transjordan, which was renamed Jordan. The Gaza strip was annexed by Egypt.
Israel conquered these territories as well as the Golan heights ( ceded to Syria as part of the abbrogated 1923 agreement, which should have created a Jewish state) and the Sinai.

Quoting from "From Time Immemorial - The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine" by Joan Peters: "The Syrian Minister of Trade and Economy asked that a message be given to the American government. Syria hadn't the population to develop that land, he said, because there was virtually 100 percent employment in Syria, so that they needed people as well as technology. They would give plots of valuable land in Syria to anyone who would come to work it...I asked various Syrian officials, "Why not give the land to those Palestinian Arabs who would choose to accept your offer?" The answer was always the same. As one of the Syrians responded angrily, "We will give the land to anyone - the Ibos, the Koreans, Americans...anyone who comes - anyone but the Palestinians! We must keep their hatred directed against Israel."

True, the israelis recieved only 4% of the mandated land. Everything else was swallowed up by eygpt,jordan and syria. I believe that the land given to the palestinians was annexed by their fellow arab countries

"I continue to wonder why America's liberal left stand with Palistinian terrorist causes."

Here's an insightful article from the Wall Street Journal (Europe) that addresses your question.

Why Europe Hates Israel

In essence, the writer asserts that the socialist left has abandoned Israel because Israel has abandoned its peaceful socialist vision in favor of right-wing militarism. Israel, the heretic, has traded in the kibbutz for F-16s, so to speak.

A willingness to act in your own defense apparently does not wash with the spirit of Kumbaya...

Accordingly, the left makes common cause with those whom they perceive to be the "victim" of this "heresy".

Good article.

I suspect that you are right. The left is looking to grasp any straw, or oppose any cause that G.W. Bush or any major conservative group supports. The liberal left wants to fight, and they don't care what the fight is about. Its too bad the have aligned themselves with causes that are so demonstratably wrong...and downright evil, but that's a liberal for ya.

Ashland, Missouri

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