‘Nakba Day’ Incidents Worry Israelis and Embarrass the IDF
As Israelis looked back on a day of unprecedented and worrisome unrest, the question on the national mind was whether the vaunted military and intelligence apparatus had been caught with its pants down — utterly unprepared for protests and accompanying mass infiltrations on multiple borders.
The answer is both yes and no.
Certainly, the IDF was braced for a measure of trouble on what is known as Nakba Day, the annual commemoration of what the Palestinians and the Arab world consider the “catastrophe” of the creation of the state of Israel.
But by the end of the day, it was clear to Israelis that their military was prepared — but that they had been expecting the worst unrest in the wrong places.
For days, the military — and, to be fair, also the Israeli and the international press — had been focusing on expected violent protests and provocation in Jerusalem and the West Bank, when it should have been looking northwards, where the worst “Bloody Sunday” clashes took place in the Druze village of Majdal Shams and on the Lebanese border.
It was the infiltration of the Syrian border by hundreds of unarmed civilians, who successfully trampled the border fence and crossed into Israeli territory near Majdal Shams, that was the real shock of the day. Protests in that area were a matter of routine on Nakba Day and were expected: for nearly 1000 Syrians to gather at the border and for hundreds to rush across the fence into Israeli-controlled territory was not a scenario that was forseen or prepared for.
Israeli politicians and pundits quickly theorized that the infiltration was a Bashar Assad production. Israel was clearly being used in a public relations exercise, they said, deliberately orchestrated by the Assad regime in an effort to take the spotlight off of their brutal suppression of protest movements in Syria and draw attention instead to the border with Israel. The infiltrators reportedly were Palestinians from refugee camps in Syria. Presumably, for the operation to succeed, it had to have been tolerated, if not actively assisted, by the strong Syrian government. The IDF intelligence failure appeared even more embarrassing when it was reported that the operation was planned carefully over the past several months — and that participants were recruited and logistics organized on Facebook. (As of this writing, Israeli journalists poring over Facebook have not yet found evidence to back up the claim.)
If Syria was indeed an active player, it was successful: international headlines emphasized the events on the Israeli border and downplayed a continuing crackdown in a Syrian city on the Lebanese border on the very same day that claimed more Syrian lives than the IDF incident. (If, indeed, the events in Majdal Shams were Assad-instigated, some of the Palestinian participants weren’t sticking to his script. One infiltrator told Ynet: “I’m tired of living in Syria. We’d rather die than see more bloodshed.…We’ve crossed the border in order to stay with our families, away from all the killing in Syria. We ask the powers at be in Israel to help us stay and not send us back.”)
But if such requests were made to the IDF, they fell on deaf ears — all of the infiltrators made their way back to Syria by nightfall.
What’s embarrassing for the IDF is the government not allowing them to unleash HELL on the Arabs.
Crusader, you are precisely on point.
Let’s be clear-the IDF rank and file know EXACTLY what needs to be done to vanquish the enemy, in fact, they are chomping at the bit to let loose.HOWEVER, the political leadership keeps them on a tight leash, and herein lies the humiliation and psychosis.
It has been known for months that breaches to ALL our borders would be severe, in fact, the Butcher of Damascus was planning his attack for some time.Not only were the impending marches advertised over the internet, but Israel’s security services have many ears to the ground.
Barak, our leftist DM and serial bungler too, deployed a handful ! of forces to guard the Golan.Imagine that.Not only were their plans known that thousands would amass, but ANY rational leader would have extrpolated that Syria needed a huge diversion from their own bloody crackdown.Moreover, Syria is in a pissing contest with Egypt over who gets to control Hamas, as its Hamas leadership departs for Cairo.Not only were the Syrians waging war against Israel, but also against Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood over ultimate control.
Be that as it may, our leaders understand that breachers to our borders ARE always an act of war,just like in any country.As such, the ONLY way to stop them in their tracks is to show ABSOLUTE non-restraint.This is NOT the same as shooting peaceful protesters in ones own country, these infiltrators INVADED our territory.There is NO comparison between both events.None.
Israel’s leftists-the real power brokers in Israel, regardless of who is in charge-believe that havlaga/restraint is strength is a way to run a moral army.Not exactly.Not only is it an oxymoron to equate restraint with strength, but in the Middle East ONLY the strong horse survives.
Barak(and his alter ego, Netanyahu)are responsible for GRAVE dereliction of duty by allowing delusional restraint to supplant their sacred duties to protect our land/people.In a normal reality Barak would be summarily dismissed for breach of conduct, perhaps tried with treason for exposing our borders to the enemy, thus making the next go around a sure fire disaster.
The fact that Israel’s derelict leadership has the authority to send my sons into battle, without caring for the Zionist public at large,should send shivers up every parent’s spine in Israel.MANY feel the same and must make their voices heard.
Enough appeasement.Maspik!!
By the way, those who think that ‘unarmed’ infiltrators are NOT a threat better rethink their calculus.
Less than a decade ago two IDF soldiers had the misfortune of wandering into a PA controlled town by accident.Guess what happened?’Unarmed’ Arabs ripped them limb by limb, going so far as smearing the soldiers blood all over their own bodies, sort of like a ritual sacrifice.Needless to say, these poor souls became the left’s hallucinatory ‘sacrifices for peace’.
We are not talking about normal,rational people.We are dealing with Islamists who are whipped into frenzies, the likes of which can only be compared to the heights of orgasmic joy.Recall, cartoons of Mohammed sent them on a multi pronged killing spree.
I rest my (Zionist) case.
Put back the minefields and if 1000′s try crossing, try LRADS, the rock gattling gun and then if they do not stop immediately, bring up the tanks, open fire and kill as many as possible – let their bodies rot in the fields.
Yup. From what I understand, there are still large areas of the border that could use better security – stronger fences, barbed wire (to hell with the leftists who will scream “Nazis”), and land mines at least 1/4 mile deep.
I agree whole heartedly if they do not do it now it is to come soon..so start out on the right path..do not be like the USA protect your borders with all your might…
What’s absurd in all of this is Netanyahu doing his usual shtick of making an issue of the military being cautious and conservative in their approach. Does he think this will win him friends among the Jew-haters of the world? I think not. All it does is weaken their might. When a nation needs to defend itself, it needs to do so in any and all ways it sees fit without all sorts of disclaimers and advance apologies. Thank goodness the IDF weren’t armed with paint guns this time around. Israel must stop acting defensively and start being offensive as well. Those who hate her, always will. That’s the nature of such hatred. Israel must be strong and confident.
I keep saying this, but it doesn’t seem to get across. The restraint that we show is NOT primarily for the PR war of to win over the people who hate us. It is to maintain our own unity and strength of purpose. If we, here in Israel, start to lose faith in the justice of our position or the honor of our army, that would weaken our resolve. We send our children proudly to serve in the IDF because we are convinced of its morality and honor. It is a constant balancing act between the strength necessary to create deterrence and the restrain necessary avoid all possible lose of life.
Thank you so much for your perspective. I have taken your words to heart. Much to think about…
Diana,
So true…however much I would be satisfied to see Israel “finally” cut loose, and let those bastards have it, I guess the fact is they dont really NEED to in most cases.
They do indeed lack the barbarity to simply shoot unarmed protesters en masse in such situations, and thank God for that.. We sometimes forget the long term harm that would come to our sons and daughters if we allowed gratuitous ‘frustration/payback” spectacle killings, beyond what is actually necessary for a given situation, to get into the hearts of our children…
The soul of Arabs and Muslims has been utterly destroyed by such love of violence. Mohammed’s lust for unfathomable cruelty, beyond all purpose or reason, has corrupted them beyond beyond any possibility redemption.
They are lost.
Their perpetual orgy of violence, among themselves and for the slightest of cause, has corrupted and condemned them to darkness, forever. They are human beings, yes, genetically and biologically the “same” as us, but they are a living testament to what WILL go wrong in the soul of a people, when death and a love of death becomes the cornerstone of your culture
They are a lesson on how steep the cliff, how deep the chasm, and how bottomless the pit that human grace can fall. They have lost all capacity to love their own children, and we should not be willing to send ours into the same dungeon of no return.
Because they are not worth the soul of OUR children.
… but for most Israelis this restraint is not necessary to feel justified – only for a dwindling bunch of leftie peaceniks.
The vast majority of Israelis quickly understood that Oslo was a mistake, and that the Palis would take any concession and use it to continue their attack. We have been trying to elect a strong, patriotic leader for over a decade – remember that both Netanyahu’s first government and Ariel Sharon won handily running on what the leftie press called “hard line” platforms.
Unfortunately left-wing power brokers blocked the will of the people. But the vast majority of Israelis have no use for PC platitudes about “keeping our arms pure” – we see that our enemies are not playing by any “honorable” rules when they target our children and civilians. And we see the Arabs using the “politically correct” West as useful idiots in the larger cultural conflict.
Most Israelis have seen how dithering, compromise, and “containment” have eroded our international support, and played into our enemies’ hands. We are quite comfortable with strong deterrence – and don’t want their soldier-sons to be sacrificed to the false god of politically-correct “restraint”.
The problem – as it has been for the past 30 years of Oslo – is the thin layer of hard-left peaceniks lodged in the Supreme Court, the media, and other unelected power bases.
PR victory?! Israel and Jews could cure all cancer tomorrow (and they’ve done the equivalent in all the sciences) and they’d still be vilified. If Israel never existed, it would have to be invented just so Muslims and the leftist dhimmi west could have an object to hate.
Time to just start firing at will and let the chips fall where they may.
The border can be infiltrated in both directions, can’t it? If the phakestinians continue their attempts at crossing the border, well, the IDF should return the favor. Nip it in the bud at the source, as it were. I’ll never understand why they continue to put up with this crap, they will never win the hearts and minds of the western leftist and muslims who would see them destroyed.
Another win for the Lawyers. Peace will be declared as soon as the soldiers who killed the peacefull protestors have been prosecuted, and their commanders cashierd.
“If, whether through the power of Facebook or the power of Hezbollah, the hundreds of civilians marching over the border fence become thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands — then what will Israel do?”
Of course the IDF must shoot them after giving adequate warnings and an opportunity to retreat. World opinion be damned. The elites of the world already hate Israel and secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) yearn for its annihilation. Israel has nothing to lose by standing up for itself.
Light ‘em up! Israel has nothing to gain by showing restraint, no pats on the back, no atta boys. When faced with fanatical, bloodthirsty heathens the only thing to do is destroy them. We put rabid dogs down, so put these rabid feral humans down.
Essentially, the muslims acting in concert know that by forcing Israel to use the force necessary, especially against “peaceful” marchers, to defend its nation will give the Obama administration cover to further distance America from Israel. That is what Obama wants and for all we know, considering Obama bud Bill Ayers and friends involvement with the flotilla, Obama may actually be in the loop. I don’t put anything past this vile worldwide anti-west, anti-Israel cabal.
Does anyone else see the parallels between Israel’s border, and our southern border?
The Mohammedan ARAB INVADERS who assume that only THEY have rights to reside in the Holy Land by the RIGHT OF CONQUEST are followers of an evil CULT invented by a paedophilic, polygamous, misogynistic, slave holding, megalomaniacal, desert dwelling, murderous war lord who they revere as the ‘BEST of men’ who is to be emulated by ALL Mohammedans. So what morals do you think they have.
My take on the Incondite Koran
This is what happens when you have what is the self proclaimed ‘clear and easy to understand’ and the ‘ACTUAL and UNALTERABLE word of God’ written in a language which is at best ambiguous and at worst untranslatable. It seems to me that any self professing ‘Supreme being’ and predestinator and creator of all who causes his book to be disseminated in such a primitive language as ambiguous 7th Century Arabic is either a ‘supreme joker’ or what is much more likely is that it is simply the invention of a 7th Century epileptic,megalomaniac,in a cave. The fact that after 1400 years the Koran does not have a universally accepted translation and interpretation completely repudiates its claims to be ‘clear and easy to understand’ and it being ‘a book for ALL men for ALL time’ and if these claims it makes for itself are so demonstrably untrue then the whole edifice of Islam is untrue and we should not be discussing the semantic nuances of a religion just the self justifications of followers of a CULT and should treat it and its adherents in an appropriate manner.
“The fact that after 1400 years the Koran does not have a universally accepted translation…”
The lack of a “universally-accepted” translation can be a positive. When the grand, high, exalted, mystic Pooh Bah of CAIR explains how “kill the infidels” DOESN’T mean “kill the infidels,” it’s downright amusing.
Israel should have acted to secure their future these past months when the rest of the world was in turmoil. Had they acted to secure their border with Syria it would have neutralized Lebanon and Jordan as well as Gaza and the west Bank. They now stand or will very soon surrounded by hostiles, assuming as I do that Egypt will very soon complete the MB conversion and be a serious threat to Israel. I feel that Israel by not acting has left themselves in a very vulnerable position, a position that very well may see their demise. As has been said on a number of occasions these past couple of years, never let a good crisis go to waste, they did.
There is still hope that this terrible situation of Arab government’s sponsoring border infiltrations by thousands into Israel can be diplomatically and peacefully solved.
If not, there are many unpleasant and lethal solutions available to the Israeli government, including mining the border, using planes and artillery to prevent the vehicles carrying the infiltrators from reaching the border, arming Israeli civilians and allowing them to use lethal firepower to kill illegal enemy civilians from crossing the border, and of course, allowing the IDF to target and kill the civilian Arab leadership which is inciting and supporting these illegal and actually warlike border incursions.
But it is important that all the diplomatic and political means be used first to quell these attacks on Israel.
Only then will the Jewish Israeli mentality reach the gold standard fighting back and killing our enemies that was reached after the Holocaust in Europe, that is,
NEVER AGAIN!
Israel’s government performed very poorly yesterday. Three points:
1. How come the IDF et. al. didn’t know this was gonna happen? TV Channel 2 news interviewed a Druze from Majdal Shams who knew, and set up cameras to film the events, because he’d been following the relevant Facebook pages for a while.
2. Attacking the Syrian or Lebanese governments is probably not gonna help. Attacking Assad would be the best thing that could happen to him at this point.
3. As of yesterday, Israel’s deterrence is at an *all time* low. Steps must be taken *immediately* to restore it.
Israeli government to-do items:
1. Whoever is supposed to monitor these things should be monitoring Facebook constantly. With the publicity generated yesterday, another, much larger attack can be expected, and could be organized in days.
2. The borders between Israel and Syria & Lebanon must be reinforced ASAP with more barbed wire. More soldiers should be posted, ready to shoot rubber bullets at those who try to destroy the fences. When countermeasures to the rubber bullets are put into use, it’ll have to be real bullets. That goes for anyone who tries to wreck the fences. And yes, children will be sent to wreck the fences, so that adults can enter Israel.
Israelis are, understandably, feeling vulnerable right now due to the government’s poor performance yesterday. It’s up to Netanyahu (I’ve given up on Barak) to show real leadership here.
Jonathan, I think you would appreciate Caroline Glick’s piece just up where she raises many of the same points you have in your comment.
As Patton said, you win a war by letting the other bastard die for his country. This “courageous restraint” only emboldens the enemy and snatches defeat out of the jaws of victory, which seems to be the nodus operandi of the IDF these days. Having a noble, restrained army in the face of 7th century barbarians ensures your eventual defeat. And the world could care less if the IDF started committing suicide on the battlefield to show their restraint; if an Arab got a hangnail, Jews would still be vilified. Wake up!! Will it take a new Holocaust to get Jews to defend themselves by any means necessary, world opinion be damned?
For here is the bottom line in the world:
Dead Jews= price of peace, cycle of violence, legitimate Arab response to oppression.
Offended or oppressed Muslim= crime against humanity.
Why will Israelis not fight for their survival when world opinion would only be satisfied with them going like sheep to their slaughter?
That is just plain wrong!
We DO fight for our survival. More than our survival, we fight for our wonderful way of life, the thriving economy, our bustling fun cities, and the natural and archeological wonders which abound in our country side. We DON”T fight by being savages like our enemies, instead we fight smart which means we don’t have to shot down unarmed idiots who storm our borders.
(Of course we should have known that the Syrian Border would flare up yesterday, not being prepared there was a blunder, but not a serious one, and you can be sure it won’t happen again.)
There is a balance between deterrence and savagery, the golden way is that difficult place to find in the middle.
I’ve read your previous comment also, Diana. As much as I respect your perspective, you seem otherwise unalert and unrealistic when it comes to opposing the genuine evil posed by Islamists. Take Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”, for instance. When Bilbo took pity on Smeagal (that uncthous creature who lived half in water in the dark caverns), he (Smeagal) came back to try to obliterate Bilbo and nearly succeeded. The lesson here is that in dealing with evil once must be prepared to utterly destroy and without pity stamp it out. Roosevelt and Churchill understood that in the bombing of Dresden, Nagasaki and Hirojima, thereby saving many many allied lives. Your point of view is also in direct opposition to our own Scriptures (See Moses and the Red Sea Exodus as well as Joshua at Jericho). Our problem in Israel is liberals who fantasize for peace without understanding the rugged necessity for war. In fact, it’s due to sophisticated and well-meaning people like you whose heart-wrenching cries for restraint will result in our (Jewish Israeli) extinction. So in fact, nice as you appear to be, people like you with your overwhelming influence are really quite dangerous.
I like the way you used “unrealistic” and “Bilbo” in the same paragraph without a trace of irony.
Are you a trained mime or puppeteer or what’s the discipline involved?
“I was yelled at and applied for the medal of honour.” Good one! Now try re-evaluating and see if you can learn to comprehend myth, fiction and how these may apply to reality. In other words, interpret! but keep up the humour.
Liberal ? me!! ?? God forbid.
Anyway as for the ‘Lord of the Rings’. Your analogy doesn’t support your position.
Right at the beginning Frodo says to Gandalf,
“What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!”
Gandalf answered,
“Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not strike without need…”
And because of Bilbo’s pity, Gollum lived. And if he hadn’t lived then Frodo would not have been able to throw the “One Ring to rule them all” into the fire at Mount Doom! So you see, Bilbo’s pity and mercy saved Middle Earth.
You would be a poor ally, Diana, and I wouldn’t want to go into battle with you given all your rationalizations for “staying the hand”. Your logic doesn’t hold. “Staying the hand” just confused the situation all the more. The problem is, Israel has too many secular Jews like you who do not, and apparently cannot, benefit from our own ancient traditions. If we are unable to survive, it will be internal and due to liberalized Jews like you. The soul of the Jewish state lies amongst the Yeshuveem, rough and generous Jews with a sincere purpose who value their land and their traditions.
- yet your posts reflect the opinion of self-styled “liberal” PC lefties in Israeli discourse.
Those who want to gauge real Israeli opinion should run this link through Google translate – and compare the leftie-journalist opinion with those of the talkbacks:
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/240/928.html
Here is a similar link, from the English language site of an Israeli daily newspaper:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4069403,00.html
Most Israelis understand that “restraint” has done nothing but (a) emboldened our enemies, and (b) earn the world’s suspicion that our cause is not just – since we don’t defend it.
“Stay close to Pajamas Media for more on the situation.”
Please. I can tell ya all you need to know.
HAMAS sells Drinking Mugs, on their web-site, with Barack Hussein Obama’s face on them. He has on a Muslim/Arab Hat, and the Traditional Muslim Holy Dishrag around his neck. You can go to their site, and get one of your own. Why, you say? Why would HAMAS be selling Drinking Mugs with Effeminate Barry’s face on them? Why, indeed.
HAMAS believes that ABU HUSSAIN has been sent by Allah. They believe that ABU HUSSAIN is their DELIVORER. And they have given him the name: ABU HUSSEIN.
Think about it. Obama’s situation, quite frankly, is a mirror image of MOSES. (You JEWS, pay attention.)
Born to a MUSLIM Father. Taught in MUSLIM SCHOOLS. Raised in MUSLIM MOSQUES. He is now the Leader of the most POWERFULL ALLY of Israel. The United States is THE ONLY REASON that the MUSLIMS haven’t descended on Israel, in waves. And, not only is he ONE OF THEM, but he’s already stated IN HIS BOOKS, that if things flare up, between the ARABS and the JEWS, he’s gonna take the side of the ARABS.
He’s the DELIVORER. He’s their MOSES.
So. If you’re the MUSLIMS, and you’ve been waiting for the RIGHT TIME for all out WAR with Israel? When would you do it?
While your DELIVORER is still in charge of AMERICA? Or would you wait and see if he gets Re-elected?
Get the picture?
There is a myth hanging over all discussion of the Palestinian problem: the myth that this land was “Arab” land taken from its native inhabitants by invading Jews. Whatever may be the correct solution to the problems of the Middle East, let’s get a few things straight:
* As a strictly legal matter, the Jews didn’t take Palestine from the Arabs; they took it from the British, who exercised sovereign authority in Palestine under a League of Nations mandate for thirty years prior to Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. And the British don’t want it back.
* If you consider the British illegitimate usurpers, fine. In that case, this territory is not Arab land but Turkish land, a province of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years until the British wrested it from them during the Great War in 1917. And the Turks don’t want it back.
* If you look back earlier in history than the Ottoman Turks, who took over Palestine over in 1517, you find it under the sovereignty of the yet another empire not indigenous to Palestine: the Mamluks, who were Turkish and Circassian slave-soldiers headquartered in Egypt. And the Mamluks don’t even exist any more, so they can’t want it back.
So, going back 800 years, there’s no particularly clear chain of title that makes Israel’s title to the land inferior to that of any of the previous owners. Who were, continuing backward:
* The Mamluks, already mentioned, who in 1250 took Palestine over from:
* The Ayyubi dynasty, the descendants of Saladin, the Kurdish Muslim leader who in 1187 took Jerusalem and most of Palestine from:
* The European Christian Crusaders, who in 1099 conquered Palestine from:
* The Seljuk Turks, who ruled Palestine in the name of:
* The Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, which in 750 took over the sovereignty of the entire Near East from:
* The Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, which in 661 inherited control of the Islamic lands from:
* The Arabs of Arabia, who in the first flush of Islamic expansion conquered Palestine in 638 from:
* The Byzantines, who (nice people—perhaps it should go to them?) didn’t conquer the Levant, but, upon the division of the Roman Empire in 395, inherited Palestine from:
* The Romans, who in 63 B.C. took it over from:
* The last Jewish kingdom, which during the Maccabean rebellion from 168 to 140 B.C. won control of the land from:
* The Hellenistic Greeks, who under Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. conquered the Near East from:
* The Persian empire, which under Cyrus the Great in 639 B.C. freed Jerusalem and Judah from:
* The Babylonian empire, which under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. took Jerusalem and Judah from:
* The Jews, meaning the people of the Kingdom of Judah, who, in their earlier incarnation as the Israelites, seized the land in the 12th and 13th centuries B.C. from:
* The Canaanites, who had inhabited the land for thousands of years before they were dispossessed by the Israelites.
As the foregoing suggests, any Arab claim to sovereignty based on inherited historical control will not stand up. Arabs are not native to Palestine, but are native to Arabia, which is called Arab-ia for the breathtakingly simple reason that it is the historic home of the Arabs. The territories comprising all other “Arab” states outside the Arabian peninsula—including Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as the entity now formally under the Palestinian Authority—were originally non-Arab nations that were conquered by the Muslim Arabs when they spread out from the Arabian peninsula in the first great wave of jihad in the 7th century, defeating, mass-murdering, enslaving, dispossessing, converting, or reducing to the lowly status of dhimmitude millions of Christians and Jews and destroying their ancient and flourishing civilizations. Prior to being Christian, of course, these lands had even more ancient histories. Pharaonic Egypt, for example, was not an Arab country through its 3,000 year history. The recent assertion by the Palestinian Arabs that they are descended from the ancient Canaanites whom the ancient Hebrews displaced is absurd in light of the archeological evidence.
There is no record of the Canaanites surviving their destruction in ancient times. History records literally hundreds of ancient peoples that no longer exist. The Arab claim to be descended from Canaanites is an invention that came after the 1964 founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the same crew who today deny that there was ever a Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Prior to 1964 there was no “Palestinian” people and no “Palestinian” claim to Palestine; the Arab nations who sought to overrun and destroy Israel in 1948 planned to divide up the territory amongst themselves. Let us also remember that prior to the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the name “Palestinian” referred to the Jews of Palestine.
The only nations that have perfect continuity between their earliest known human inhabitants and their populations of the present day are Iceland, parts of China, and a few Pacific islands. The Chinese case is complicated by the fact that the great antiquity of Chinese civilization has largely erased the traces of whatever societies preceded it, making it difficult to reconstruct to what extent the expanding proto-Chinese displaced (or absorbed) the prehistoric peoples of that region. History is very sketchy in regard to the genealogies of ancient peoples. The upshot is that “aboriginalism”—the proposition that the closest descendants of the original inhabitants of a territory are the rightful owners—is not tenable in the real world. It is not clear that it would be a desirable idea even if it were tenable. Would human civilization really be better off if there had been no China, no Japan, no Greece, no Rome, no France, no England, no Ireland, no United States?
Back to the Arabs: I have no problem recognizing the legitimacy of the Arabs’ tenure in Palestine when they had it, from 638 to 1099, a period of 461 years out of a history lasting 5,000 years. They took Palestine by military conquest, and they lost it by conquest, to the Christian Crusaders in 1099. Of course, military occupation by itself does not determine which party rightly has sovereignty in a given territory. Can it not be said that the Arabs have sovereign rights, if not to all of Israel, then at least to the West Bank, by virtue of their majority residency in that region from the early Middle Ages to the present?
To answer that question, let’s look again at the historical record. Prior to 1947, as we’ve discussed, Palestine was administered by the British under the Palestine Mandate, the ultimate purpose of which, according to the Balfour Declaration, was the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. In 1924 the British divided the Palestine Mandate into an Arabs-only territory east of the Jordan, which became the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan, and a greatly reduced Palestine Mandate territory west of the Jordan, which was inhabited by both Arabs and Jews. Given the fact that the Jews and Arabs were unable to coexist in one state, there had to be two states. At the same time, there were no natural borders separating the two peoples, in the way that, for example, the Brenner Pass has historically marked the division between Latin and Germanic Europe. Since the Jewish population was concentrated near the coast, the Jewish state had to start at the coast and go some distance inland. Exactly where it should have stopped, and where the Arab state should have begun, was a practical question that could have been settled in any number of peaceful ways, almost all of which the Jews would have accepted.
The Jews’ willingness to compromise on territory was demonstrated not only by their acquiescence in the UN’s 1947 partition plan, which gave them a state with squiggly, indefensible borders, but even by their earlier acceptance of the 1937 Peel Commission partition plan, which gave them nothing more than a part of the Galilee and a tiny strip along the coast. Yet the Arab nations, refusing to accept any Jewish sovereignty in Palestine even if it was the size of a postage stamp, unanimously rejected the 1937 Peel plan, and nine years later they violently rejected the UN’s partition plan as well. When the Arabs resorted to arms in order to wipe out the Jews and destroy the Jewish state, they accepted the verdict of arms. They lost that verdict in 1948, and they lost it again in 1967, when Jordan, which had annexed the West Bank in 1948 (without any objections from Palestinian Arabs that their sovereign nationhood was being violated), attacked Israel from the West Bank during the Six Day War despite Israel’s urgent pleas that it stay out of the conflict. Israel in self-defense then captured the West Bank. The Arabs thus have no grounds to complain either about Israel’s existence (achieved in ’48) or about its expanded sovereignty from the river to the sea (achieved in ’67).
The Arabs have roiled the world for decades with their furious protest that their land has been “stolen” from them. One might take seriously such a statement if it came from a pacifist people such as the Tibetans, who had quietly inhabited their land for ages before it was seized by the Communist Chinese in 1950. The claim is laughable coming from the Arabs, who in the early Middle Ages conquered and reduced to slavery and penury ancient peoples and civilizations stretching from the borders of Persia to the Atlantic; who in 1947 rejected an Arab state in Palestine alongside a Jewish state and sought to obliterate the nascent Jewish state; who never called for a distinct Palestinian Arab state until the creation of the terrorist PLO in 1964—sixteen years after the founding of the state of Israel; and who to this moment continue to seek Israel’s destruction, an object that would be enormously advanced by the creation of the Arab state they demand. The Arab claim to sovereign rights west of the Jordan is only humored today because of a fatal combination of world need for Arab oil, leftist Political Correctness that has cast the Israelis as “oppressors,” and, of course, good old Jew-hatred.
Well done. I take off my hat to you, sir.
Thank you for your mini dissertation, “Pragmatist”. It’s not altogether uncommon to read a really erudite and literate piece published in the commentary like yours but I am always appreciative when I able to read such a piece. Perhaps you would consider writing an article for Pajamas Media or even a book, your standards are so high. One minor correction, however: You might consider the Native people (Indians)of North and South America plus the Haidas of northern British Columbia as truly indigenous people who were and remain in place.
Brilliant bit of sarcasm.
Bravo.
Sounds like the same wit who signed himself “I was yelled at and applied for the medal of honour”: “Pragmatist” actually added to the communal endeavor whereas you… at any rate, you’re not adding to the fund of knowledge. Can you? Do you have the wherewithal?
Pragmatist-you DO know your history, I thought it was a dying art.Pleased to know I was wrong.
In any case, you state the historical case perfectly.Thanks for the HISTORY lesson, it makes me feel less guilty for not having done the same!
You can teach many in Israel a thing or two about our historical/legal rights to OUR land!Simply brilliant.
6 1/2 generations of self-nominated empathy seeking trans-Jordanians (whereas neighboring Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt DOESN’T WANT THEM EITHER except for terrorist supporting purposes/world-dhimmitude emotions of course) and the utmost accomplishment (?) in their 64 years of existence? Why their overwhelmingly Hamas elected government imploring muslims to not recognize their Jewish neighbors as a state.
Real classy bunch the trans-Jordanians elected.
6 + generations of stupid and only getting more bold and ignorant in their message..
The IDF, Mossad and Israel’s ally intel/spec ops NEED to combine intel, resources and cut the head off these extreme diaper-headed snakes with no recourse.
I thought a generation was a million years.
Here you go again, hijacking an interesting thread. Are you proud?
Is that a rhetorical question?
IDF are the great soldiers,but find the only article among millions that support any of their operations! Ten soldiers with toy guns agains hundreds of bandits,who used ther pistols to save their lives at the last moment.The Israeli and the world media critisised them furiously.Though they act with fortitude and humanly.
The arabs have no right to any part of Israel. They invaded more than 13 centuries ago from arabia and immediately plunged the region into a dark age that remained until the return of Jews that began a century ago. muslims also invaded most of the rest of the Middle East and have since institutionalized barbarism and violence, the death cult that was formulated by the pedophile mohamad.
I dont think IDF should be embarresd. I think IDF was trapped by the UN. I served in this area, this particual area is supposed to be controlled by UNDOF (United Nations Disengagement Forces) and peace keeping troop to observe and hold the peace on the no-mans land. UN has a standard procedere for protests and that is called EGG alarm: UN troops (in this area Austrian Units) get into alarm mode, draw out barbwire and guard the same preventing Arabs to enter the Mine field and no mans land. This is tricky because the land is on syrien side but belongs officially to israel. So my question is UN knows about those riots, they happen every year – why was no alarm given, why was no UN presence – I THINK THE UN TRICKED ISRAEL ON THAT AND ALLOWED ARABS TO RIOT – ENTER ISRAELIAN PROPERTY AND SO PROVOKE AN INSIDENT IN ORDER TO BLAME IT ON ISRAEL
That is an extremely interesting and worthwhile perpective. I have not read it anywhere. I hope you might consider writing a piece and expanding on this more and submitting to some blogs. It deserves a wider audience.
Caroline Glick has an outstanding (as usual) piece posted about this on her site. A worthwhile read.
The Rodney King Riots. !991. Hordes formed! (Oh, and Russian TV showed this. So, russians saw, for the first time, that America had stores just loaded with goods! And, “poor people” had cars. Which they drove around in. Looting stores.)
The first victims were South Koreans. Until they discovered America’s 2nd Amendment. And, they hired snipers to shoot from their rooftops.
While the hordes spread. Here, in Pasadena, where I brought my car for routine maintenance, the woman of the owner told me that for days she, and her husband. And, friends. Stayed up on their roof. With the doors sealed. And, a truck outside (in case they had to dispose of bodies.)
3 days into the rioting, a crowd of blacks from pasadena started forming up on Walnut. The Street above Pasadena City College. At Colorado and Hill. This is when the men took aim. Only one shot was fired. Reaching “the leader” who was going to be in charge of the charge. The shot came close enough to his toes. And, you should have seen the hordes dispersing.
Meanwhile, Obama is trying to find a way to give a speech that Israel should be “loose” at its borders. And, not try to stop these arab idiots from getting access. I am sure he will also mention Eygpt’s “easement” at the Gaza Border. So take what you hear with a grain of salt.
Next time? Next time citizens will stay on their roofs with rifles. It won’t be just the IDF that shoots. And, most of the time? When you want to travel you still need a passport. Unless you’re obama.
3 years after Katrina devastating floods hit Iowa; the lack of looting and whining was notable.
They’re still whining about Katrina because remember, politically correct ideology, those most responsible are the least responsible and vice versa. People who didn’t have jack to do with New Orleans had their feet held to the fire.
On the other hand, any least cultural innovation that comes out of New Orleans they guard as jealously as Incan Gold. Unfortunately that doesn’t extend to flood control issues.
Fiftyeight people were murdered by the rioters. Police openly told us that they couldn’t protect us. This shows you that the way to remain unscathed is to have a gun in your hand.
Machine gun them all the instant they cross the border. Problem solved.