President Bush the other day came out and said that the Palestinians need to have new elections and in those elections, Yasser Arafat needs to be ousted. I agree with the President that the Palestinians need to have new elections. It has been six years since Arafat was elected the leader of the Palestinian Authority, and appropriately, it has been announced that there will be new elections in January. However, it is inappropriate to tell the Palestinian people who they should and should not choose as their President.
To understand the anger of the Palestinian people over the situation, one must go back to World War I. In the several hundred years leading up to that war, much of the Arab lands, including the areas along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, were ruled by the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Empire joined with Germany and the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary against Russia, France and the United Kingdom. The British promised the Arabs statehood (McMahon-Hussein Correspondence) in the areas south of what it today Turkey if they helped the British fight the Turks. They did. As the Arabs were keeping their side of the bargain, the British were working behind their backs and signed an agreement with the French called the Sykes-Picot Agreement. In this agreement, France and Britain divided much of the Upper Arabian Peninsula amongst themselves. As it turned out, Britain received three territories called Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq. France received Syria and Lebanon. These territories were granted to these European powers under the guise of mandates granted by the League of Nations where the European powers would prepare the natives of the area for self-governance. There was nothing in the mandates granted that said anything about brining in a foreign people and carving out a homeland for them.
In 1918, there were some Jews living in Palestine. They were a small minority however. Most of the Jews there were there as a result of Turkish and Islamic tolerance. Jews were kicked out of France and England in the 13th century, and Spain in 1492. Many of the Jews went to Turkish controlled territories in Europe, Asia, and Africa, including Palestine. Others were more recent arrivals as Zionism began to rise through parts of Europe. Following the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the British promised the Jews a homeland in the Middle East in accordance with the Balfour Declaration. In summary, the British promised the Arabs statehood. They reneged on the promise. Britain was granted a mandate to prepare the locals for self-governance, NOT to bring in an alien population. However, this is exactly what the British did.
Through the 1930s, as Fascist and Communist dictators in Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union and other countries were increasingly persecuting their Jewish populations, Zionism gained favor and an increasing number of Jews began immigrating to Palestine. This was especially true in the later years of the 1930s. We all know what happened after that. World War II broke out, Jews by the millions were massacred in Europe and they had no where to turn to. Jews weren�t safe in the Middle East either, because after being betrayed in World War I, the Arabs generally sided with the Axis Powers in World War II.
Following World War II, large numbers of Jewish migrants made their way to Palestine, creating a terrible problem for the British. There were large numbers of Arabs living in Palestine, and they were there for over a thousand years. There was also a large number of newly arrived Jews who had no where else to go. The United Nations then came up with a partition plan. This partition plan was manifestly unfair to the Palestinians. It created two states. An Israel was created that was territorially contiguous. A Palestine was also created. However, this state was not to be contiguous. It was divided in two pieces separated by the Israeli State. Jerusalem was to be an international city. Given that Palestine was to be geographically separated by a state populated by recent arrivals was an anathema to the Palestinians. Can anyone blame them for not accepting this plan written up by the Western Powers? The neighboring Arab powers attacked Israel, and against all odds, Israel won, expanded their boundaries and leaving two shrunken areas of the �Palestinian State� under the control of Egypt and Jordan (formerly Transjordan).
In 1956, Israel, along with France and Britain, launched an aggressive war against their neighbor Egypt. Why? Simply because Egypt wanted to assert national control over the Suez Canal. Since the Suez Canal is entirely within Egyptian territory, isn�t it in their sovereign rights as a state to control this territory? Israel, Britain, and France didn�t think so. Fortunately, U.S. pressure eventually forced them to withdraw and restore the Suez Canal to Egypt.
1967 saw another aggressive war by the Israelis. Egypt was conducting military exercises in their territory in the Sinai Peninsula. The Israeli�s launched a devastating air attack on Egypt and Jordan a la Japan and Pearl Harbor in 1941. Israeli land forces rolled through the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the West Bank. Four days into the war, Syria, which posed absolutely no threat to Israel and was not involved in the war that was initiated by Israel, was attacked and the Golan Heights was detached from Syrian sovereignty. All of this took six days. It was a devastating victory for Israel, which caught its enemies by surprise. It was also a violation of international law and the rights of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria as sovereign nations.
There was another war in 1972. This one was initiated by the Arabs, largely to reclaim territory that was earlier conquered by Israel. It was unsuccessful.
This brings us recent times. The Palestinians would like their right as a people to have their own state. Israel has set up hundreds of settlements in Palestinian territories. This is conducive to peace? I think not. The Israelis must abandon their illegal settlements in the occupied territories. I would agree that the terror campaign launched by the Palestinians is reprehensible. However, so long as the Israelis maintain their illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, they should expect it.