A VIEW OF ISRAEL & PALESTINE FROM AN AMERICAN OBSERVER

Two Hamas terrorists sending rockets into Israel

The issues that started the conflict after the war in 1948 are still the basic problem.

As an Op-Ed writer that focuses on politics and current events, I have in the past, purposely avoided writing about the on-going Middle East conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. This is because, there have been plenty of long-time, qualified journalists already telling the stories from both sides of the equation.

But with the latest escalation, I have decide to write about the current episodes between these two, from the point-of-view as an unofficial "third party American observer". This is a view that may not have all of the details and may not even be correct, but it is probably as close to what many non- Muslim or non-Jewish Americans know or feel about what is going on now with the long-time conflict between Israel and Palestine.

IN THE PAST:

Up until the Internet opened up to the world, the ability to more easily discover both sides of the Israeli / Palestinian conflicts, all of America was mostly subjected to what the main-line media wanted to present to the country. Unless an individual made a lot of personal, outside effort, most of what was presented by the networks was usually slanted toward the positive side for Israel, while the negatives issues were against the Palestinians.

With the US being the largest and long-time "world-supporter" of Israel, it is understandable that the media focus of the past was on the US showing the majority of its support for the Jewish side of the equation.

But with today´s world-wide access to a plethora of available information from many points-of-view, both for and against both sides of the conflict, one would hope that the potential answer for how to solve over 60 years of conflict could be somewhat more easily determined.

Unfortunately, it´s issues have only gotten even more difficult, confusing and complex, not less.

BRIEFLY, JUST WHAT IS THE BASIS FOR OVER 60 YEARS OF WAR?

When I say that the issue is complex, that is a major understatement.

First, we must go back to the formation of Israel and what the UN Partition Plan of 1947 was, and what did it look like after the Israelis won the first war with the Palestinians in 1948.

Most average Americans don´t realize today that after losing the 1948 War between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jews, the Palestinians ended up conceding fully "one half of the territory that was originally assigned to them by the United Nations Plan of 1947".

Most experts agree that in addition to these concessions, Israel proceeded to have four decades of aggressive Israeli settlement expansion into those remaining territories that were assigned to the Palestinians "after" the 1948 war. Many historians feel that this has virtually made the potential of a Palestinian state today almost impossible. And it has become obvious that the expansion was Israel´s real purpose at the time.

What is also very clear, is that the only way these "facts on the ground" could even possibly be reversed, would be if the new President Obama is prepared to become a strong, outside third-party. He would then need to use the political capital that the US has established over the last 60 years of support for Israel. This type of territorial reversal could never be possible without the help of a very strong third-party nation, such as the US, as well as having strong international support.

AND NOW TODAY:

The on-going illegal Israeli expansion, combined with the Palestinians lack of coming together as a civilized and unified group is at the base of today´s conflict.

This is why the Palestinian tribal Arabs have resorted to all they have known for dealing with their conflicts for centuries. This being the use of force, and now, suicide-self martyrdom in order to achieve their ultimate goals.

To be fair, what the Palestinians have been asking for today is very reasonable from an outsider´s point-of-view. They have not asked for reinstating their original territory as stated in the UN´s 1947 plan.

They have instead wanted Israel to return the Palestinian territory on which they have illegally established settlements and to which it has transferred its own Jewish population. This is in violation of the original treaty obligations and international law.

Israel has obviously taken the ancient position of "Possession is nine tenths of the law". It would be very difficult to reverse the Israelis past aggressive approach of ignoring the treaty agreements and continuing territorial expansion over the past 40 years.

Unfortunately, America´s pre-emptive war with a Muslim Iraq has done even more to help consolidate many of the Arabs in the Middle-East and it helps to intensify the grievances against Israel. It has even generated sympathy from all over the Muslim world and has encouraged the support for extreme Muslim terrorists and organizations such as Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and Hamas.

What is going on with today´s hot exchanges of military activity could be the beginning of the last opportunity for the US to salvage the "two-state solution" between Israel and Palestine. And the loss of the "two-state solution" would also severely damage US national interests.

The Shiite Muslims of Iran have continued to exploit the negative plight of the Palestinians for their own political gain in the Muslim world. And with al Qaeda´s internal goal to "destroy America", they would also obviously feel that the loss of the two-state solution would be the "ultimate gift that keeps on giving".

With all that´s already on President Barack Obama´s plate for 2009, this possible last chance for peace in the Middle-East will now be one of his key and urgent international relations agenda items starting on day one.

THE ISRAELIS BASIC VIEW TODAY:

Regardless of their on-going illegal territorial expansion activities, most Israeli´s believe that since the formation of the State of Israel, approved by the United Nations in 1948, the Palestinians main goal has been to "drive the Jews into the sea".

Another reason why the modern Israeli Jews have learned to hate Palestinians is because of the relatively recent phenomenon of "suicide bombers" which have mainly targeted Israeli civilians. This "self-martyrdom" has caused most Palestinians to be viewed by the vast majority of the Israelis, and most Americans, as "extreme Muslim terrorists".

THE PALESTINIANS BASIC VIEW TODAY:

The Palestinians believe that Israel's continued settlement expansion into Palestinian land is slowly destroying any future hope of an independent Palestinian homeland, promised to them by both Israel and the International Community.

The Irony is that in 2005, Israel actually withdrew from the Gaza Strip and turned it over to the Palestinians. (Which was never done by Turkey, Britain, Egypt or Jordan as the previous rulers of Palestine)

By doing this, the Israelis gave the Palestinians their first "sovereign territory" ever. Even so, the Palestinians, and many other Middle-East Muslims, still feel that it is the State of Israeli, through continued expansionism, that is actively "driving the Palestinians into the sea".

And the Palestinians see the use of "suicide bombers" as a natural Muslim reaction by an oppressed people and they often cite statistical figures such as; "on average, 15 Palestinian civilians are killed by Israel's military for every one Israeli who is killed by a Palestinian militant".

For this reason, organizations like al Qaeda and Hamas are seen as "freedom fighters" by many Muslims, but are viewed as "terrorists" by the vast majority of Israeli and American Jews.

OTHER REASONS FOR THE ON-GOING HATE:

1) Palestinian children may grow up hating Jews, as in most cases the only Jews they have actually seen have been armed Israeli soldiers.

2) Israeli Jews often have never met any Palestinians. All they know of Palestinians is what they have seen on TV or read in the news.

3) Thousands of Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, often without charge or trial for months on end.

4) Israeli Jews may see the Palestinians in Israel as a long-term potential burden to the realization of a "Jewish state", as the Muslims tend to have much higher birth rates.

5) Palestinians feel humiliated as they are often held at Israeli checkpoints for hours on end and in many cases are harassed by Israeli soldiers. One extreme case was the recent video footage of an Israeli soldier shooting an unarmed, bound and blind-folded Palestinian in the foot, apparently for no reason.

There have been reports by human rights organizations of pregnant Palestinian women giving birth at checkpoints because Israeli soldiers refused the woman entry for getting to a hospital.

Even the Israel Human Rights Organization BT 'salem has many reports on Palestinians who have died at Israeli checkpoints because they were refused access to medical treatment.

THIRD PARTY OBSERVATIONS:

As the aforementioned, self-described unofficial "third-party observer", here is some of the latest available information of the current conflict.

The following recent accounting shows how, considering that many Americans are not aware of Israel´s past illegal expansion activities, and of the documented oppression of the Palestinians in Israel, one can still see and understand why many Christian and Jewish Americans today have such a hard time in seeing the Palestinian point-of-view of the on-going conflict:

AN ACCOUNTING OF KEY ISSUES SINCE 2007:

The democratically elected Palestinian Government of Hamas, started this latest conflict with Israel from Gaza, by sending random rockets and mortars into Israel on unarmed Israeli citizens. This has supposedly been in opposition to various approaches by the Israelis to hinder or blockade Hamas after its majority win in the Palestinian Parliament election. To date, over 6,400 attacks have been launched on Israel over the past 3 years. Hamas' stated goal is for "Muslim Islam to obliterate Israel".

Hamas has built tunnels to sneak in weapons and explosives from Iran into Gaza cities. The Hamas then deliberately places these weapons and rocket launchers in and around the homes within civilian Muslim Gaza communities. By knowing that Jewish and other non-Muslim cultures do not believe in "self-martyrdom", having many dead Palestinians citizens from Israel´s counter-attacks, allows Hamas to claim to the world outside that Israel´s returning of fire at the Palestinians is killing innocent Palestinian citizens.

Unfortunately, the Israeli blockage of Gaza for the stopping of bringing in weapons has also stopped medical supplies and food supplies and the returned fire from the Israelis has also knocked out the Gaza´s electrical power and some water supplies.

Even going back to the 2006 conflict between Lebanon and Israel, both then and now in Gaza, Israel has given warnings to the Muslim homes and villages. They send warnings, make telephone calls, drop leaflets, broadcast on radio and TV and they send text messages in Arabic. These warnings state that if anyone is "in or near an area for storing or protecting weapons", they should leave the site as soon as possible. This is done because Israel will be attacking those weapons locations, as they are able to be pinpointed. Unfortunately, in the severely crowed Gaza Strip, the local people have nowhere to go.

EXAMPLE: The recent Israeli bombing of the personal residence of a Hamas senior leader in Gaza, Nizar Rayyan, is an example of how the Israelis operate regarding their air strikes into Gaza. The Muslim leader and his family were warned of the air strike, as Israel had learned that weapons were being stored in and under Rayyan´s home. It was learned that Rayyan had refused to leave his home on "ideological grounds". He and his 4 wives and 9 children were all subsequently killed. Rayyan´s house continued to have multiple explosions after the Israeli strike, proving it had been a storage facility for weapons and explosives.

Nizar Rayyan had been a long-time Muslim extremist and it was well known that he had planned a deadly suicide bombing in 2004. He believed strongly in martyrdom and had previously sent one of his own sons on a suicide mission in 2001.

Since Israel turned over Gaza to the Palestinians, they have done nothing for building their new nation. No roads have been built, no industries started, no courts or civil society´s have been formed. Even the excellent rows of greenhouses that the Israelis had abandoned when they left, have all been destroyed.

Instead of trying to build their first sovereign state into to something for their people to be proud of, Gaza has become a terror base for importing and storing weapons and for training other terrorists.

So that you can understand the size of the Gaza Strip, it is approximately the same territorial size as Washington DC. It is also considered to have one of the highest population densities in the world.

According to all of the available international intelligence sources, the Hamas Government is funded mostly by the Shiite Muslims of Iran. They are also the main supplier of offensive weapons for the Palestinians.

In order to make it even more confusing, the Palestinians in Israel are represented by two different organization; Hamas and Fatah. The current peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority´s Fatah Party regarding Israel´s West Bank Palestinians, is similar to the one reached with Yasser Arafat during the National Council meeting in Gaza in 1996. The Fatah Party and the Hamas are enemies of each other.

And Hamas and Iran have made it very clear of their goal by stating: "Israel must be removed from the face of the earth."

THE CONFUSION………….

Religion and ignorance are also a big part of the problems of hatred.

Many Israeli Jews believe that Islam, which most Palestinians follow, is intolerant toward other faiths.

However Judaism, Islam and Christianity had lived in Palestine for over 1500 years. This is the reason why synagogues, mosques and churches still remain standing today in holy cities such as Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

On the other hand, some Palestinians believe that all Jews wish to "ethnically cleanse" Palestine of all non-Jews.

This is understandable, because many devout religious Jews in Israel view Palestine-Israel as a land for the Jews only. They believe that the land was promised to them by God. They also believe that they have divine permission to drive the Palestinians out from their homeland.

Then there are the many secular Jews who do not hold any of these fundamental Jewish tenants.

And then again, there are also some (1%) of Orthodox Jews who are completely anti-Zionist, meaning they do not even recognize the state of Israel.

Yes, it´s very confusing…….

CONCLUSION FROM A THIRD-PARTY AMERICAN OBSERVER:

As we can see, the conflict between those living in Palestine-Israel is both basic and yet very complex.

As was the case with South Africa, peace and reconciliation could only be achieved among those that regarded each other as equals.

Therefore, the simple conclusion "appears" to be that the issue which started with the initial conflict in 1948, is still the foundation of the problem. But as you can see, if my short review is correct, the conclusion may be simple but the solution continues to be highly difficult and complex. And based on all of the available conflicting evidence out there, my conclusion could also be way off the mark.

But surely, as long as Israel continues its expansion in Israel, the Palestinians, and other Muslim countries will blame Israel and will continue to wage war.

Until both cultures agree to recognize each other as having the right to exist and to each having their own sovereign state, the war will continue.

And as of today, there is absolutely no end in sight of the 61 year old conflict.

Copyright, G.Ater 2009