In 1967 Israel launched a war against Egypt and Syria following acts of aggression by both countries (continued invasions of air space, backing guerilla attacks on the borders, trying to divert the river providing Israel’s water source, expelling UN peacekeeping forces from Israel’s southern border and eventually starting a blockade over Israel’s southern port connecting it with Asia.
Israel warned Jordan not to join the war, as Jordan was not seen as a real enemy to Israel. In 1948 Jordan didn’t really join forces with Syria and Egypt in the attempt to destroy Israel. Jordan only wanted to expand its kingdom to more Arab-populated areas and didn’t care much about the existence of the State of Israel. Jordan also welcomed all Palestinian refugees and gave them citizenship, instead if recruiting them to fight Israel with a promise to help them go back to their country, which was just the way of Arab nations to neglect these refugees.
Jordan did not listen to Israel’s warnings because it was pressured by the Arab states, so Jordan joined the war and attacked Israeli positions. Seeing that Israel managed to capture Sinai pretty fast, its troops then moved to the West Bank and also managed to occupy it in two days with little fighting.
Think about it, it took only two days to capture this territory. Israel had less than 500 casualties and Jordan had about 700. Think about it, only 1,200 people died fighting over this land in two days. This was probably one of the most insignificant battles in history.
Israel wasn’t used to rule these territories, and although many leaders in Israel wanted to keep the territories, the initial consensus was that these territories should be brought back and now is a chance to demand peace from the Arabs.
The problem was that Jordan refused to negotiate.
All Arab nations sat in the capital of Sudan and issued these statements:
The Arab Heads of State have agreed to unite their political efforts at the international and diplomatic level to eliminate the effects of the aggression and to ensure the withdrawal of the aggressive Israeli forces from the Arab lands that have been occupied since the aggression of 5 June. This will be done within the framework of the main principles by which the Arab States abide, namely, no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it, and insistence on the rights of the Palestinian people in their own country.
So on the one hand, Israel occupied the West Bank to ensure its security from Jordan, as well as from Egypt and Syria with their respective territories, but on the other hand these countries, who wanted Israel to be destroyed, have decided to then boycott any negotiations with Israel to bring these territories back and chose only means of war to bring them back.
Therefore Israel got stuck with these territories, whether if it is good for Israel’s security or not. In the meantime, Israelis who didn’t want to bring back the territories began establishing settlements, because they didn’t really believe the Arabs will ever make peace with Israel so the only way they will get these lands back will be with war, so settling there and turning it into Israeli territory the best thing to do and on the same time, also resettle ancient Jewish lands with religious significance.
Israel couldn’t decide what exactly to do with these lands because the Arabs couldn’t be trusted to keep peace, so the government never really decided. In the meantime, some Israeli leaders and military commanders either acted as if the territories are going to be returned so they didn’t support establishing settlements deep in the West Bank that were difficult to protect, while others supported building settlements all over the place. Some also made plans to withdraw, like Rabin, who initially withdrew from the Arab lands with the intention to at least let the local Arabs an autonomy. Slightly before, in 1987, Shimon Peres tried to convince the King of Jordan to agree to take back the West Bank for peace, but Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir who was not informed, prevented it from happening and the King was angry so he relinquished all Jordanian claims to the territory, further complicating things.
Netanyahu completed the separation between Jews and Arabs when he gave back Hebron, preventing radical dreams of turning the entire city into a Jewish city. Ariel Sharon withdrew from the Gaza Strip, seeing there is no real point in Israel controlling this territory (oh boy) and from settlements in the northern West Bank.
The Palestinians keep rejecting every Israeli offer and keep sending terrorists to attack Israeli civilians, so Israel continues to act as if the West Bank will never be brought back. Why give people who want to kill you a state?
We are stuck with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment