Israel - why all the fuss ? (part 4)

Miracles, schmiracles!

Miracles? Bah! There's no such thing as a miracle! Then how do we explain ...

(iii) 1948 : Israel's War of Independence

The odds were 200 to 1, seven Arab nations with population of over 140 million, against one with 650,000 people. The Arabs driven by hatred and pride, the Jews driven by the need for survival and the desire to put the Holocaust behind them.

The Jews had no backing from any other country, the Arabs had, amongst other advantages, a British-sponsored army called the Arab Legion, in Transjordan. The Jews had little military equipment, especially arms and ammunition - at times two soldiers had to share a single rifle. Israel was fighting on four fronts! Transjordan to the east and Northwest, Syria and Lebanon to the north, Iraq and Syria in the north east and Egypt in the south.

The war lasted over eight months, punctuated by the occasional truce. The Israeli victory was such that only a quick intervention by British delegates in the U.N. saved the Arabs from a more disastrous defeat.

(Interesting thing to note : notice how Britain's attitude to Jews had now changed so dramatically and look in your history books as to what was happening to the British Empire - in India for instance - at this time, then wonder if there is a connection).

The war that was provoked by the Arabs to annihilate the new State of Israel not only brought a pride-thrashing defeat for them, but rewarded the Israelis with an increase of over 40% of extra land, over and above that promised to them through the U.N. Partition Plan, including West Jerusalem! It was only through the effectiveness of Sir John Glubb and his Arab Legion that the Israelis didn't take the whole of Jerusalem, including the Wailing Wall, the holiest site in Judaism.

Palestinians - a stumbling block

There was never, historically, a Palestinian nation. The name itself is not even Arabic, being a name given by the Ancient Romans in order to blot out any connection to the troublesome Jews. Until 1948 the country had always been 'owned' by someone else, sometimes by default.

'Palestine' is only mentioned once in the Koran, the Muslim holy book and then only as a reference to the 'holy land' of the Jews and Christians.In 1200 years of Arab influence in the land they only built one town, Ramleh. All other towns had names that derived from the ancient Jewish names. The Arabs only 'discovered' Palestine after the Jews made a nation out of the land and called it Israel, in 1948.

Now let's be sensible here. Let's ignore the politics and the posturing and look at the facts without prejudice. Let's ask these questions:

* Why is the Arab world so concerned by the fate of the Palestinians, when it seems indifferent to suffering Moslems in other parts of the world, e.g. the Bosnians?

* Why is the Arab world so concerned by the fate of the Palestinians, when it makes no effort to integrate them into their own (very large) countries and, in the few cases when it has done, has eventually forcibly thrown them out, usually after a major scuffle, e.g. Jordan and Kuwait?

* Why is the Arab world so concerned by the fate of the Palestinians when they have never existed in their own right as a nation?

The only conclusion that I can come to is that, just like in the case of Jerusalem, the situation serves a larger, political, purpose. This book is not about politics and I am certainly not qualified to talk on such matters, so I won't say any more about the Palestinians. You can come to your own conclusions.

Another thing to consider is that a whole volume of books could be written on the hostility of the World Media towards Israel and many people's conception of the State of Israel is influenced by the misleading reports and downright lies told about it.

While thousands die all over the world in countless disputes and wars, it only takes the shooting of one stone thrower in the West Bank to bring the World Media down on Israel like a ton of bricks. One then needs to ask , why is this? The only answer, as with the case of Jerusalem and the Palestinian issue, lies in the murky world of politics and, ultimately, Arab oil. You can see the equation when you consider the world reactions to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and compare it with the general indifference to the Russian invasion of Chechnya.

Ultimately the nations of the world are selfish and will only react in righteous anger when their own interests, such as the continued supply of cheap oil, are involved. Take away oil and its political ramifications and you'll see a different attitude paid by countries such as Britain to Israel - they might even start setting up Embassies in the capital city, Jerusalem.