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Nancy Salvato on Talkback with Chuck
Wilder
as heard on the CRN Digital
Talk Radio Network
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About Nancy Salvato
Nancy Salvato
has worked in the
field of education since 1986, her experience spanning grades P-12 as a
classroom teacher and as a clinical instructor at the postsecondary level. She
is an experienced higher education administrator with demonstrated proficiency
in accreditation and licensure, governmental relations, operations, curriculum
and instruction, assessment, utilizing a student information system (SIS) and a
learning management system (LMS). She received her undergraduate degree in
History from Loyola University of Chicago and a master’s degree in Early
Childhood Development from National Louis University. Post graduate study has
focused the US Constitution, in particular, analyzing the historical,
philosophical, and religious influences which culminated in this covenant
amongst the citizens of this country and between those governed and those
elected to office. An accomplished writer, Nancy contributes regularly to The
World and I, a publication of the Washington Times, The New Media Journal,
Family Security Matters, and a host of new media publications. Highlights of
her career including being invited to the Department of Education to meet with
then Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, being selected to participate in the
National Academy for Civics and Government, and writing and publishing Keeping a
Republic: An Argument for Sovereignty for and through her 501c3,
BasicsProject.org. |
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Recent Articles
A Brief
History of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Should the Ends Justify the Means?
News
Fast
Making
Sense of the Legislative Branch...
The
Shot Heard Round the World
Counting the Votes Before They Are In
‘Excuse
Me...Can You Help Me with Some Change?’
For the
General Welfare, or An Encroachment...
The Turkey
That Is Obamanomics
An
Abridgement of Constitutional Rights
Utopia or Dystopian
Nightmare?
M-O-N-E-Y &
Influence
Political Science
101: Power Breeds Corruption
Two
Americas or One Nation with Liberty & Justice...
Setting New
Standards with Online Education
Necessity
is the Mother of Invention
Circumnavigating the Rule of Law
In Just 100 Days
Defining Article 2,
Section 1 in Context
A Constitutionally Illiterate Congressional Leadership
Natural Born Citizens
Impoverishment, Elitism & Apathy
An
Alternative to Impending Doom
Effective "Tools" in Education
Houston, We Have a Problem
Letting the Evidence Speak for Itself
The Right to Defend Sovereignty
Undermining Our Sovereignty from Without & Within
Risking Our
Nation’s Sovereignty
True
Patriots Put Country First
The Oath of a Citizen
The
Constitution, Two Candidates & An Election
Article II,
Section 1: Just Words |
Nancy Salvato, Senior Editor
A Brief History of the Palestinian-Israeli
Conflict
June 4, 2010
It was around 1400 B.C., when Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of
Egypt into Palestine, the “promised land”. After the Romans
destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Jewish state came to an end and
the Hebrew (Jewish) people were dispersed. In the 1890’s, Jews
driven by Zionism to establish a modern Jewish nation-state and
flocking back to their ancient biblical homeland in British
controlled Palestine, eventually became embroiled in a modern day
conflict between themselves and Palestinian Arabs.
During WWI, British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour issued the
Balfour Declaration; Britain would view establishing a national home
for the Jewish people in Palestine, favorably. Thus, Palestine was
carved into “Emirate of Transjordan” (later simply “Jordan”); the
area east of the Jordan River, where Britain installed a Saudi
Arabian Bedouin tribal chieftain, Abdullah ibn Hussein, to rule over
Bedouin and Palestinian Arabs, and the western half; between the
Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, where Palestinian Arabs and
Zionist Jews wrestled for control.
Britain handed responsibility over the western half of Palestine to
the United Nations; which partitioned it into two states, one for
the Jews; which would consist of the Negev Desert, the coastal plain
between Tel Aviv and Haifa, and parts of the northern Galilee, and
the other for the Palestinian Arabs; which would consist primarily
of the West Bank of Jordan, the Gaza District, Jaffa, and the Arab
sectors of the Galilee. Jerusalem would stay under UN control. Led
by David Ben-Gurion, Zionists accepted this partition plan while
Palestinian Arabs and surrounding Arab states rejected the proposal.
On May 15, l948, Palestinians, aided by Jordan, Egypt, Syria,
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, launched a war to prevent Jewish
independence and to secure control of Western Palestine. This
resulted in Zionists seizing part of the land designated for
Palestinians, Jordan annexing the West Bank and Egypt controlling
Gaza. Arabs and Jews both battled for Jerusalem and Israeli forces
gained control over West Jerusalem, which became the capital of
Israel. 725,000 Arabs fled to neighboring Arab countries, becoming
known as the Palestinian refugees.
Palestinians weren’t allowed to form independent governments in
areas annexed by Jordan or Egypt. However, Arab states allowed
Palestinian resistance groups, organized in l964 by the Arab League
into the Palestine Liberation Organization (the PLO), to use their
territory to launch raids against Israel. The stated goal of the PLO
was to use armed struggle to establish an independent Palestinian
state. Miserable living conditions and treatment as second class
citizens led many Palestinians in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria,
to become guerrillas.
Because of continuous guerrilla attacks launched from Egypt against
Israeli settlements, Israel and Egypt fought a brief war in the Suez
Canal area in l956. Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza
strip. The UN set up an Emergency force to patrol the border.
In l967, Egypt’s President Nasser moved large numbers of troops and
tanks into the Sinai Peninsula and demanded that the UNEF
peacekeeping force leave Egyptian territory. Israel launched a
preemptive strike, resulting in the Six Day War. Israel now occupied
Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Syria’s Golan Heights, and Jordan’s West
Bank. The Israel government annexed East Jerusalem. Following the
Arab defeat, radical underground Palestinian guerrilla organizations
(fedayeen) took control of the PLO under the direction of Yasir
Arafat.
Receiving their funding from the Arab states, the PLO was charged
with carrying on the fight against Israel. The organization was
based first in Jordan, and later, Lebanon. This is because, in l970,
King Hussein feared losing control over his country and kicked the
PLO out of Jordan after a war between them and his government.
It was discovered in Munich, during the 1972 Olympic Games, that
terrorists could not be dissuaded from carrying out heinous acts of
cold blood against innocents when motivated by ethnic hatred or
religious fanaticism. It also became apparent that the rest of the
world could and would carry on as though the fedayeen's (men of
sacrifice) acts of barbarism were of no particular cause for
concern. To emphasize this, The Olympic Games continued with full
media coverage after the murder of 11 members of the Israeli team by
PLO affiliates referred to as "Black September".
During the incident, Israel was portrayed as unyielding but the
reality was that they determined no Israeli anywhere in the world
would be safe if they were to negotiate with the terrorists. Yet,
instead of focusing on the unreasonable demands of these terrorists
who in that particular instance demanded the release of 234 jailed
Palestinians in Israel, Israel was condemned by the UN Security
Counsel for retaliating against PLO bases in Syria and Lebanon. To
rub salt in the wound, Germany negotiated the release of three of
the hostage takers that survived.
In l973, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Israelis
were caught off guard when Egypt attacked Israeli troops, stationed
in the Sinai Peninsula and Syria attacked Israeli forces in the
Golan Heights. After heavy casualties, the Israeli army eventually
began to win the war. The Soviet Union and United States pressured
Israel to accept a U.N. cease-fire. Henry Kissinger brokered
agreements with Israel and Syria and between Israel’s Prime Minister
Menachem Begin and Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat.
In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty
with Israel and granted Israel full diplomatic recognition.
Consequently, most Arab states broke off diplomatic relations with
Egypt. In 1981, Sadat was assassinated. PLO official, Nabil Ramlawi,
responded to the news, "We were expecting this end of President
Sadat because we are sure he was against the interests of his
people, the Arab nations and the Palestinian people."1
Welcomed by Muslim and Druse factions in Lebanon, Arafat’s PLO
demanded Maronite Christians restructure the political system; to
give Muslims, now a majority of the population, more power. Civil
war between religious sects resulted in a partition of Lebanese
territory. In effect, South Lebanon and the Muslim western half of
Beirut became the power base of the PLO. In l982, Israel teamed up
with Bashir Gemayel and his Maronite Phalangist Militia to fight the
PLO. Prime Minister Begin and his Minister of Defense, Ariel Sharon,
assumed if they could get rid of the PLO, they would get rid of the
Palestine Problem.
After the Israeli army bombarded West Beirut, Sunni Muslims asked
Arafat and the PLO to leave. Shortly afterwards, Bashir Gemayel was
assassinated by a bomb, set off by Habib Tanious Shartouni, a member
of the pro-Damascus national Syrian Socialist Party; whose mandate
was to merge Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Israeli leadership then
permitted Israeli troops to pilfer the PLO archives, and turned
their heads while Phalangist militiamen avenged Bashir’s death, as
well as, past tribal killings of their own people by Palestinian
guerrillas. Allowed entrance to the neighborhoods of Sabra and
Shatila, Phalangists massacred most of whom they encountered.
Begin resigned as Israeli Prime Minister in August, l983. That same
year, Israeli military began to unilaterally withdraw from Lebanon.
Shiites, who initially welcomed Israelis as liberators from the PLO,
grew to resent them for staying in South Lebanon in order to protect
the northern Israeli border. Because of their insensitivity to
Shiite religious customs, what began as a Palestinian threat turned
into an Israeli Shiite conflict. All of this had the effect of
ingratiating Arafat to the Palestinians.
In fact, Arafat became the symbol of the Palestinian refusal to
disappear. Palestinians adopted a policy of la’ am, a combination of
the Arabic words for yes and no. The PLO would reject peace
initiatives, but not out of hand; Palestinians living in occupied
Israel would not formally recognize Israel, yet continue holding out
for liberation. This was easiest for all concerned, for as much as
Israeli’s expected Arabs to negotiate land for peace, few Israelis
wanted to give West Bank and Gaza back. Palestinians, seemingly
resigned to their second class status, benefited from improved
housing, health care, electricity, jobs and economic opportunities.
However, as more and more Jews built settlements in the occupied
territories, the Israeli government gave both Jews and Palestinians
the impression that the West Bank would never be returned.
Beginning in 1987, Palestinians living in the Israeli occupied
areas, instituted an Intifada; uprising, against the Jewish settlers
of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In addition, terrorist groups, such
as Hamas emerged in the occupied territories; preaching violence,
inciting Palestinians to attack Israelis and Israeli targets, and
calling for an Islamic state in both Israel and the West Bank and
Gaza. This resulted in Israel restricting Palestinians' entry to
Israel. Continued acts of terror by Arabs, led to increased
restrictions. The Israel Defense Force presence increased after each
new wave of violence. Expanding defensive measures were in a sense
self-inflicted by the Palestinians. The Israeli occupation became
more and more difficult for the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Hamas was established for the sole purpose of destroying Israel. The
Muslim religion requires total submission to God's will,
regimentation of life under Islamic law, and death to infidels.
After Kuwait, which supported the PLO and the Palestinian cause, was
invaded by Iraq, the PLO threw their support behind Saddam Hussein,
who promised to destroy Israel and create an independent Palestinian
state. Upon Hussein’s defeat, many Palestinians ended up fleeing
Kuwait and those who remained lost their jobs and many social
services, such as free medical care and education. Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, and the Persian Gulf States won’t allow Palestinians left
behind in Kuwait to immigrate into their countries.
Instead of learning from Israel's experience with terrorism, each
new act of violence since then has been rationalized by pacifists as
deserved retaliation for some catalyst or another. Instead of
determining to beat them at their own game, guerillas are given more
and more recognition; legitimized if you will. They have been given
roles in the United Nations, representation at the Olympics, and
invitations to meet with world leaders who hope to appease their
unmitigated demands. Arafat was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for for
a plan to bring peace to the region, negotiated with assassinated
President Anwar Saddat and President Jimmy Carter.
Ironically, only six years ago, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
rejected an offer of a Palestinian state in the areas of Israeli
withdrawal (brokered by the Clinton administration) and proposed by
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. A second intifada against Israel
erupted, and there have been no substantive negotiations since then.
Arafat’s recent demise offered hope that his successor, Mahmoud
Abbas, would be a real negotiating partner for Israel. But he has
been unable to control Palestinian militants, and now his party has
lost control of the Palestinian parliament to the radical, militant,
terrorism-supporting Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians believe the recent Israeli decision to withdraw from
Gaza and surrender control of the area over to the Palestinians
resulted from the Intifada. Officially, Israel was offering a
concession to the Palestinians to help bring peace to Israel. The
most likely scenario is that Sharon was trying to secure Israel’s
boundaries, while providing the Palestinians the opportunity to
create a state of their own. Regardless of his reasoning, the
pullout was made in good faith, in the hope that Palestinian
militants would cease their acts of terror against the Jewish
citizens and further negotiations toward a Palestinian state could
resume.
Unsurprisingly, Israel's recent appeasement did not mollify the
Palestinians; it encouraged greater aggression towards Israel. Upon
the withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas claimed that their attacks drove the
Zionists away. Recruiting more Arabs into their organization, Hamas
declared their intention to expand their war against Israel. To that
end, Hamas has smuggled weapons into Gaza from Egypt through the
Rafah border crossing which was placed under Palestinian control and
European supervision, as part of a U.S.-brokered deal with Israel.
Forced to shut down the crossing several times, during attacks by
gunmen, Israel finds itself threatening to close it, if the breach
is not repaired. Meanwhile, fugitive terrorists, along with Iranian
terrorism and missile technology specialists, have crossed into
Gaza. They have already begun launching rockets from Gaza into
Israel. Ultimately, appeasement helped Hamas to victory in the
elections and gave it the power and support to launch a third
Intifada.
Sharon led his party to this course of action despite evidence
indicating the policy would fail. Much infighting took place within
the Likud party over the Gaza pullout. Benjamin Netanyahu actually
resigned fearing that Gaza would become a "base of Islamic terror.
Natan Sharansky also resigned; his reason being that any concessions
made by Israel must be conditioned on Palestinian democratic reform.
Sharon himself was compelled to leave the Likud and started a new
party, with a more moderate stance toward the Palestinians.
Given their violent history, it should surprise no one that
Palestinian militants continue to fire rockets at what it considers
to be occupied land. Hamas opposes the existence of the Jewish state
and has carried out dozens of suicide bombing attacks against
Israelis. They reject a two state solution. Becoming the first
Palestinian prime minister from the Islamist group Hamas, Ismail
Haniyeh recently took the oath of office in front of President
Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza. Hamas, whose “democratically elected”
Palestinian Authority Cabinet was sworn in the day after Israel's
parliamentary elections, wants to talk to Israel about daily-life
issues while ignoring fundamental political differences. Israel, on
the other hand, wants Hamas to recognize the Jewish state, renounce
violence, and respect previous peace agreements or face
international isolation.
If Hamas does not change, leaders of the Kadima party say the
government would either implement a unilateral solution or negotiate
directly with the Palestinian Authority, formerly the Palestine
Liberation Organization, an umbrella group headed by the relatively
weak Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Prime Minister of Israel,
Ehud Olmert, is planning to forge ahead with further withdrawals and
concessions, applying Sharon's policy of disengagement to the West
Bank.
Wanting Hamas to recognize Israel and honor all previously signed
peace agreements, the Bush administration is refusing to negotiate
with any member of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government. The
US-sponsored ''road map" to peace, calls on Palestinians to crack
down on militant groups and calls on Israelis to stop expanding
settlements as first steps toward reopening negotiations. In
response, Ismail Haniyeh maintains that he is waiting for Israel to
recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, release
Palestinian prisoners and recognize the rights of Palestinian
refugees to return to Israel. Hamas speaks of a ''long-term truce"
if Israel pulls back to the pre-1967 lines, while Kadima speaks of
pulling out of most of the West Bank and swapping Israeli land for
some of the larger Jewish settlements there. Because Hamas is
Muslim, and those who practice Islam believe that there are only two
groups of people in the world, followers of Mohammed and infidels,
how long can a truce actually last?
This article was originally published in 2006
Related Reading:
Cambanis, Thanassis
and Anne Barnard. “Hamas,
Israel vow new focus”
Friedman, Thomas. From Beirut to Jerusalem. New York:
Doubleday, 1989
Jamal Dajani “'Dialogue of the Deaf' -- Hamas, Israel Won't Talk;
Arab-Isrealis Aren't Heard.”
Arabic Media Interest Network April 9, 2006.
“One
Day in September”
Rolef , Susan Hattis. “Menahem
Begin (1913-1992)”
Political Dictionary of the State of Israel April 9, 2006
Rosenfeld, Erwin, and Harriet Geller. Global Studies I. New York:
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 1979.
Salvato, Nancy. “Terrorism Allows No Room for Negotiation”
Opinion Editorials April 9, 2006
The road ahead Newsday.com April 9, 2006
The Roots of the Hamas Victory The Undercurrent
1981: Egypt's President Sadat assassinated On This Day 6
October April 9, 2006 |
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