The Issue of Palestine

One of the most difficult and dangerous foreign-policy problems facing the United States is the struggle over Palestine between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East.

Peaceful Solutions?

So serious is the problem that it could draw America into another war in the strife-torn Middle East. The American people need to ask themselves whether they will allow this to happen. If the answer is "No," they need to ask themselves how the problem can be solved peacefully. And they need to seek information about the problem—to augment their wisdom and reason—in order to have any hope of contributing to a peaceful solution.

The absence of widespread American public concern—beyond Jewish and Arab communities in the United States—over the struggle for control of Palestine is attributable largely to the failure of America's news media to provide enough objective information about the underlying causes of enmity between Jews and Arabs.

The subject is constantly receiving the media's attention, but only in terms of terrorist activities, wars, and Israel's policy of resettling Jewish immigrants. If, as the news media so often trumpet, the public has "a right to know," then the media have a responsibility, to provide the information necessary to enable the public to learn and to contribute to reasoned and fair foreign policy on this issue.

The Media's Neglect

Many factors may be involved in the media's neglect of its duty to in form in this case. Among them are favoritism displayed toward Israel, long-held suspicion and distrust of Arabs due to an erroneous perception of what seems to be a predilection for violence and anti-Americanism, apprehension about being labeled anti-Semitic if the information reported is critical of Israel, and a lack of initiative on the part of the news media in acquiring knowledge and understanding of the underlying causes of Jewish-Arab enmity. Even the 1992 Persian Gulf War, fought in part to protect Israel, did not spur the news media to improve information conveyed to the American people about the conflict in Palestine.

The same dereliction of duty is evident in the current news media's coverage of Israel's request for 10 billion dollars in commercial bank loan guarantees from the United States to finance construction in Israel of settlements for Jews emigrating from the former Soviet Union.

Absent from media reporting are important details, such as the following: the number of Soviet Jews desiring to settle in Israel; the number of Palestinians, if any, these former Soviets would displace and what their ensuing hardships would be; identification of the actual individual or corporate owners of the land on which settlements are being and are intended to be constructed; and identification of the political/legal ownership of the land. Land is the heart of the problem in Palestine.

The Biblical Middle East

The land area known as Palestine lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from about Tyre in the north to and including the Gaza Strip in the south, and extending east to the Jordan River—including the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee—with Syria and Jordan one the east bank. This area is now encompassed by the nation of Israel.

Various peoples have occupied the land of Palestine, beginning about 10,000 years ago. The Amorites and Canaanites were occupants about 3000 BC. A group migrating from Mesopotamia called Hebrews or Israelites, arrived there about 1900 BC. Palestine was known as Canaan in 1000 BC, at a time when some of the occupants coalesced into the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

About 145-63 BC, Canaan became an independent Jewish entity known as Judah, provoking the hostility of the other occupants and generating a series of wars described in the Old Testament of the Bible. For 500 years after 63 BC, Judah became part of the Roman Empire. The Romans named the area Palestine in about 135 AD.

The Arabs conquered Palestine about 600 AD. They became the majority of the population by 1200 AD with minorities of Jews and Christians. In 1200 AD, Palestine was conquered by the Turks and became part of the Ottoman Empire.

Zionism

In the mid-1800's, Jews from Europe began to settle in Palestine motivated by a desire to live and die near the Holy Places. In the late 1800's, a larger influx of Jews came this time from Eastern Europe, where they were being persecuted. At about this time a group of Jews formed a political movement called Zionism. Its goal was to create a Jewish state out of Palestine, which provoked immediate Arab hostility.

During the first World War, the British, with Arab assistance, (see Seven Pillars of Wisdom), wrested control of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. In return for their assistance, the Arabs were promised control of the land. However, control was given to Britain at the end of the war.

In 1917, in an effort to gain Jewish support for the war effort, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, declaring inter alia support for creation of a Jewish "national home" in Palestine, to be established without violating the rights of the non-Jewish occupants. The Arabs, who had always opposed Jewish immigration, were adamantly opposed to the Balfour Declaration, particularly in light of allied promises to give control of Palestine to them after World War I.

As a result of Nazi persecution of European Jews leading to the holocaust, during the Second World War Jews flooded into Palestine. Many were convinced that the Balfour Declaration was a commitment to establish a Jewish State (as opposed to a home). The Zionist Movement pressed vigorously for political achievement of that goal. The Arabs just as vigorously opposed the goal. Britain, unable to control the fighting in Palestine, turned the problem over to the United Nations. In 1948 the State of Israel was created under auspices of the UN; with the United States playing the role of leading supporter.

The Battleground

The Arabs revolted. Arabs from neighboring nations subsequently invaded Israel. And Palestine, which had given birth to two of the world's great religions—Judaism and Christianity—and which was regarded as another home of a third great world religion—Islam—again became a major battleground for Jews and Arabs. The Arabs were defeated, and more than 600,000 of them who had lived in Palestine fled, becoming refugees in surrounding Arab states.

Several more wars have been fought since then, all initiated by Arab nations. As a result, Israel has added more Palestinian territory to her landholdings.

Stripped of all its complexities, current enmity between Jews and Arabs may be explained by answering the question, "Who owns the land of Palestine?" The land incorporated when Israel became a State is owned by Israel under an internationally recognized political/legal concept blessed by the UN. Land acquired by Israel since 1948 falls into two categories: conquered land and occupied land. The land being used currently for construction of settlements for Jews from the former Soviet Union falls into the latter category. The Arabs dispute Israel's ownership of all three categories of the land of Palestine: They dispute the very existence of a State of Israel.

A peaceful solution to land ownership in Palestine will not be easily achieved. Both Jews and Arabs, who are currently negotiating with one another, must compromise for their own good, the good of the United States, and the good of the world at large. The American news media's reporting on this issue must begin to convey to the American public both sides of this issue, if reasoned, right, and fair American foreign policy is to be made.

The media could go a step further and begin to address the advantages that would follow a peaceful solution—advantages for Israel, the Palestinian Arabs, and Arabs in surrounding nations. Objective reporting and analysis would offer encouragement for a peaceful solution to both Jews and Arabs.

For example, public recognition should be given to the remarkable changes in the Middle East that could flow from a peaceful solution. These changes, apart from substituting cooperation for hostility, could lead to joint development of scarce water resources, joint development of agriculture, joint planning and construction of the infrastructure necessary to support burgeoning populations, and joint efforts to protect the fragile environment of the Middle East.

As with other critical foreign policy decisions, America's politicians have become prisoners of time, tension, and tenure. They, in particular members of Congress, carry so much political baggage on the issue of Palestine that they may be incapable of right reason.

The American public must make its views known to Congress' members in order to save them from themselves. The American news media has the responsibility to provide the necessary objective information to the public. If there is to be freedom of the press, there must also be a responsibility of the press. The exercise of that responsibility could prevent a catastrophic war in the Middle East.

...Robert Sturgill...

© Copyright 1992
Institute for domestic Tranquility