The Big Mess

Written on December 5, 2023 - a couple months after the October 7 attack by Hamas

[Please note that this piece was written in December of 2023, before Israel continued and extended its brutal and inhumane war on Gaza. Here's my current thoughts.]
While I completely understand the desire for revenge for a bloody sneak attack - the slaughter of innocents - and I understand that Hamas continually provoked Israel with deadly missle attacks and I understand that Hamas embedded itself in its own population, inviting the horror that has been visited upon the people they are supposed to represent - I now have exhausted my sympathy for the Israeli government (not the Israelis as a whole, I'm sure many or most of them want this horror to end). The Israeli government has had every opportunity to moderate their behavior and the world (up until the Trump era) has pressured them to STOP. Their rage and lust for vengence and possibly their cold-blooded plan to "end this all" impel them into more and more horrible actions. Way too many innocents have died. This must end, but in the current political climate, the hope is draining from me. I can only remind myself of the pendulum.

This was a horrible incident, and the horror has increased, not abated. There are so many (too many) passions around this whole big mess, and I delved into the topic to see if I could make some sense of it.

I started with some basic research. This Wikipedia page is rich with information and citations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Israel

To sum it up - it’s a big mess and has been a mess since the beginning. I think a lot has to do with that area being a corridor for all the Great Powers throughout history. One conqueror after another.

Looks like the Jews have been around the area since the Iron Age, definitely since the 10 Century BC. Then – invasion after invasion from the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greece, Rome. Then the fecal matter really hit the rotating blades with the 132 AD revolt against Rome. Basically, the Romans either killed, exiled or sold into slavery most of the population of Judea. The Jewish population dwindled and after 400AD they were no longer in the majority, and in 635AD the Levant was conquered by the Arabs and became a Caliphate. Then came the horrible Crusades. If that wasn’t enough, here comes the Tartars in 1244 who killed the Christians, drove out the Jews and razed Jerusalem. Will the fun never end?

Oh, yeah – now we’ve got the Mamluks of Egypt. More devastation. But many Jews returned after 1492 and the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Then here comes the Ottomans. More occupation but slightly less death.

Fun fact: In 1799 Napoleon briefly occupied the country and planned a proclamation inviting Jews to create a state. The proclamation was shelved following his defeat at Acre.

Now we’re getting to the “modern” era. Russia was awful to the Jews, yet half the world’s Jews lived there. Severe pogroms and repression led to 2 million Jews emigrating – most to the US but Palestine was also a destination. The first migration (First Aliyah) brought 35,000 Jews. They were extremely poor “but established farming communities (with funding by the Rothschilds)”. Apparently, the land was legally purchased and the Jews worked their butts off to improve it. Theodor Herzl wrote “The Jewish State” and that kind of codified the movement.

Up to World War I, tens of thousands of Jews migrated to Israel but they were definitely living on a knife’s edge. There was growing sympathy for the aims of Zionism in Britain - notably Lloyd George. The Jews were useful in fighting the Turks. In 1917 you have the Balfour Declaration which stated: “the British Government "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" This turned into the "British Mandate" which was supported by the League of Nations and the US. It was approved unanimously by the US Senate and House. Jews kept coming – mainly from Russa and Poland (another horribly antisemitic country). They started to establish schools and other civic organizations.

(This history is pockmarked with horror. Apparently there was a series of riots in 1929 leading to an ancient Jewish community at Hebron being massacred. This led to the formation of Jewish militias.)

Interesting statement:
“During the interwar period, the perception grew that there was an irreconcilable tension between the two Mandatory functions (meaning – the Arab and Jewish areas), of providing for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and the goal of preparing the country for self-determination. The British rejected the principle of majority rule or any other measure that would give the Arab population, who formed the majority of the population, control over Palestinian territory.

The Brits (and the West in general) had their own geo-political reasons for their actions and policies. They were major colonialists up to the end of the WW2 and they played chess with the Arab territories. Why aren’t the Brits screamed at with the same ferocity as the Jews? Sure, the Jews wanted and lobbied for this but they did not have any real authority. This was a decision by the Great Powers.

Now the lovely Nazis enter the picture. Another fun fact:
“The Nazis proposed their own solution: that the Jews of Europe be shipped to Madagascar (the Madagascar Plan). The agreement proved fruitless, and the Jews were stuck in Europe”

The 30’s seem like the absolute nadir for the Jews. Most countries in the world, including us, shut their doors to the Jews right when they needed to escape the looming catastrophe. The Brits closed Palestine too. It’s like the whole world decided to box in and/or eliminate them. The Jews had to resort to illegal immigration, but few got out.

“Those Jews who survived in central Europe, were displaced persons (refugees); an Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, established to examine the Palestine issue, surveyed their ambitions and found that over 95% wanted to migrate to Palestine.” There continued to be pogroms after the war, esp. in Poland, triggering more illegal migrations. By 1947, the Brits had had it and referred the problem to the UN. They came up with the partition plan after going to Palestine and meeting with the Jews and Zionists but not the Arabs – who boycotted the meeting! (Kind of their go-to strategy).

“The majority report of UNSCOP proposed 'an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem', the last to be under 'an International Trusteeship System'".
And:
“The General Assembly's vote caused joy in the Jewish community and anger in the Arab community”

According to this article, up to 100,000 Arabs left or were evacuated (again, mostly by the "Great Powers"). Ben-Gurion pushed a plan which shifted their posture from defensive to offensive. This plan resulted in the “flight of more than 250,000 Palestinian Arabs” and was one of the catalysts for the 1948 invasion of Israel by the Arab League.

As often happens in these Arab-Israel wars, Israel was at first taken aback but quickly recovered and starting kicking ass and took over a large percentage of the country. This opened up immigration and hundreds of thousands of Jews immigrated. Now, Israel was a real state with its own government and more importantly, a serious military. Jews with tanks!

Found this on Quora. Looks like this was the distribution of land ownership before the 1948 war.
According to British Mandate land registries, land ownership was divided roughly in these percentages:
76% was state land.
8% was owned by absentee owners, mostly from Egypt or Turkey.
8% was owned by local Arab clans.
8% was owned by Jews and Jewish organizations.

Interesting how little was actually owned by Arab clans.

Something else from Quora:
I think the clearest indication that Jews did not steal land was that when the Arabs vehemently objected to the UN’s Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, they did not raise the issue of stolen lands. Arab rejection of the plan was based solely on demographic considerations. If there was actual land theft, the Arabs would have had an incontrovertible case against partition.

So – to try to sum this up:

• It’s clear that the Jews have occupied this land for a very long time. They consider it their homeland.
  
• Most of the other cultures who claim the same came later and weren’t as invested.
  
• From what I can read, Palestinians have only recently started claiming Jerusalem as their capital but have only been a recognized political entity since 1920. The small town of Ramla is what they used to claim as their capital.
  
• Jerusalem was recognized as the Capital of the Jews by the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Christians, Arabs, the European powers and America.
  
• The Jews have been the victims of a thousands and thousands of years of oppression and violence from almost every direction. This culminated in the Holocaust. The Zionist movement was dedicated to establishing a new and defensible homeland for these actively persecuted people.
  
• The Great Powers (mainly Britain, the US and the UN) had their own geo-political reasons for supporting a Jewish homeland – and THEY WERE THE ONES who built the legal structures, issued the declarations, supported the actions with money and material – despite having second thoughts once things started to take shape.
  
• The obvious tensions the large post-war migration of the Jews into Israel triggered the 1948 Arab invasion.
  
• The Jews fought back and secured a large percentage of the country – definitely displacing the native dwellers, but there is a serious question of actual ownership (see above). The Palestinians kept the West Bank and Gaza. One can characterize this land seizure as “spoils of war”. I can’t really think of an instance in which the victors of a war voluntary gave their gains back.

OK – so far so good (or bad).

There’ve been lots of wars and skirmishes and of course, lots of peace talks – aiming to settle the issues once and for all. Nothing ever works. Why?

• Jews continue to encroach on the West Bank. This must stop.
• Palestinians (mainly Hamas but also the PLO) have in their charter the destruction of Israel and death to the Jews. This must be removed.
• There is a horrible desire amongst the hard-core right-wing Israeli's to wipe Palestinians (starting with Gaza) out. This is as bad as the charter but worse because they have the means to accomplish it. This must abate.
• Gaza was in lockdown to try to prevent the very thing that just happened. Israel took their eyes off the ball, getting distracted by their own right-wing. Hamas had apparently been working on this plan for well over a year and the Israeli government knew of it but dismissed it as a non-threat. This was stupid and arrogant.
• The Arab position is “we waited a thousand years” to get rid of the Crusaders. We can wait as long as it takes to get rid of the Jews. They’re not interested in negotiating. They’ve made up their mind and indoctrinate their population in this hateful thinking with the add of their religious institutions. This must change.
• They also treat their own people like crap. Forgot about human rights. Try to get aid into Gaza after their own leaders pilfer it all.
• Hamas wanted to engineer a provocation that could not be ignored, which triggered exactly what they wanted – an Israeli invasion. They’re willing to sacrifice their own people to make Israel look bad. This is sick!

After my research, my pondering, my discussions, my YouTube browsing - I must conclude that the facts and history and general behavior are on Israel’s side here for the most part.

Clearly, they do not have clean hands, but it’s not hard to understand their desire to find someplace safe. It's also not hard to see where their over-reactive nature comes from. They are under constant threat and they follow the “peace through kicking ass” philosophy. The decisions that have resulted in this ongoing mess were made by the Great Powers and the Great Powers alone. The Great Powers were in the last phase of their “we own the world” mentality and did what they felt entitled to do. Obviously, this was actively lobbied for by influential Jews but the lobbyists have no decision-making power. It’s like blaming the Jews for killing Christ when it’s a known fact that only Rome could order a crucifixion.

Looking at it from the POV of the Arabs – yeah, it sucks in the extreme that some of their land was taken from them and they had to migrate - but they’re nowhere near the first or only victims of this M.O. – the entire history of the world is full of this, every people and every land.

I think some of us have developed an over-sensitive, naïve view of the situation. For certain factions in the US, the Palestinians are OUR martyrs and they are the undeserving victims of genocide, ethnic cleansing and brutal oppression. What they did on October 7th was justified somehow and Israel is a total brute for retaliating especially the completely mis-matched way they did (and are still doing). [Current thinking: I actually agree with this point, the Israelis have now gone WAY, WAY too far.] Yes, Gaza is walled in and blockaded and services are inconsistent but some of this can be laid at the feet of their leadership. Yes, the current IDF approach is way more brutal than any of us want. However, Israel seems to have been persuaded to roll that back and open up to humanitarian aid, etc. Hopefully, this will continue. Hopefully, saner minds will prevail and this situation can be brought back from a boil. Throwing around words like genocide (the deliberate destruction of an entire nation or group - not happening (yet)) or colonization (blame Britain) or ethnic cleansing (not happening) really only serves to inflame the situation – heat without light.

The world seems to be in this overly raw state of mind. Everybody needs to chill a little. That’s my prescription!