This is a question that many are asking themselves and you have to go back into the late 1800’s to see how Israel was initially conceived and learn about: the Zionist Movement, British Colonial Rule, the Ottoman Empire, World War 1, 1920’s immigration, World War 2, the Holocaust, the United Nations, 1947/1948, Deir Yasin, the six day way, annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, Yon Kippur War are all pertinent background to the subject. Then there is the Balfour declaration, the Pogroms in Europe, the Nikba, violations of Human rights and the ignoring of UN declarations and of course the rise of terrorism all now cultivating in the terrorist attacks by Hamas upon civilians on October 7 and the on-going reprisals by Israel on the populations of not only Gaza but the West Bank as well.
There is no way to talk about all this in one Blog, not even close and in truth the mainstream media is not doing a good job of reporting the history and how the Israeli’s and Palestinians ended up here. The reality is Israeli’s have all the freedoms enjoy “democracy”, while the Palestinians in Israel live a life of checkpoints, restrictions, constant surveillance and no democratic rights. Israeli’s enjoy high employment and benefits, where as the unemployment rate in the occupied West Bank and Gaza is over 50%. In the occupied territories the Israeli government has allowed or built itself, over 200 settlements for Jewish Israeli’s, often displacing the local Palestinians in the process which is a violation of international law (UN Declaration ). Yet it happens and the Israeli’s get away with it as the US has veto power at the UN and uses it to shield Israel at the UN from any sanctions.
One thing I do want to talk about is Zionism. Zionism came about with Robert Herzgel in or around 1891, he determined it was time for the Jewish people to have their own homeland, because no matter where they would live at one time or another they would be persecuted (not exactly untrue). He envisioned it should be in the holiest spots for Jews, and that we see today as Israel. So essentially the call went out and Jewish immigration started to happen to the holy lands. Zionism brought about 4 basic tenets:
The Jewish People exist as a distinct people
Assimilation has not been proven viable
Jews have a historical right to the Promised Land (Palestine)
A Jewish Homeland must have an overwhelming Jewish Majority(ie: little or no indigenous population)
Herzgel and the Zionist movement had determined these tenets were necessary to create a Jewish State. With regards to the tenet of Assimilation, Herzel saw that European Society would never change its attitude and prejudices against Jews. Essentially they had tried to get along with everyone but it was to no avail as Jews were facing persecution throughout Europe. Pogroms or Government sanctioned attacks, against Jews across parts of Europe were common.
The tenet that the Jewish People are a distinct society has been written into Israeli law. The laws of Israel recognize it as a Jewish state and any Jew from anywhere is welcome to move there and live. Jews who immigrate will immediately get all the benefits of all Jews in Israel and citizenship. No one who is not Jewish receives those benefits. Christians, Muslims, Atheist none can move to Israel and become a citizen so easily.
Now the Tenet I love the most is that the Jews have a historical right to the Promised Lands……because it says so in the…..Bible. Genesis 15 and I paraphrase .. ”and from the Waddafi’s of Egypt to the Euphrates river, God gave the lands as far as Abraham sees and promised to build him a great nation and he would spite anyone who spite Abraham and his descendants….yadda yadda yaddah
I read the whole of Genesis as it pertains to Abraham and nowhere does it say …’oh and by the way, you can kick out the Arab population (Palestinians), kill them if you want’, nowhere! What it does say is this land would be for all his descendants. So could it not be reasonable to assume that the Palestinians would also be considered his descendants as they were part of the lands.
No legitimate land claim can start by referencing a book that is based on a belief and not in fact, period! To accept this interpretation as real, means all other religions are wrong but also tramples the rights of individuals like Atheists by expecting them to accept the existence of God and religion as a justification. As an Atheist and not afraid to burn in Hell, I can honestly say, I don’t fucking think so!! People can believe what they want. The faith or beliefs of one should not subordinate the individual rights of another with different beliefs.
Finally, the Zionist Tenet of a need for a majority of Jews in Israel and little or no indigenous population (Palestinians). Even prior to the formation of Israel, the Zionist movement went on two campaigns. The first campaign was to acquire lands from absentee owners, most of whom were Arab elite in the region ( they often lived in other kingdoms like Jordan or Syria) whose families held the properties for generations and allowed the local Arab population to live and work on the lands. After the First World War, as lands were purchased the local Arabs were displaced and this created a difficult situation and violence erupted in the region as Arabs rose up against the land sales and displacement. The British along with Zionist crushed the uprising of Arabs, but the British also suspended any more Jewish Immigrants for a time.
The second front the Zionists were fighting was the political one, where they were actively lobbying in Britain for a Jewish state. They were much more organized and familiar with the Western political system than were the Arabs and this helped in manipulating the British to support the Zionist militia’s in Palestine. After the first World War, the Ottoman Empire was divided into many of the countries seen today like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon by the British and French. Palestine was the name for the area that we see as Israel, with the West Bank and Gaza and this was under British control.
Lots of fighting and assassinations by the Zionists continued over this period until the end of the Second World War. By 1947 Britain was finished with Palestine and essentially handed it over to the UN to handle, which proposed a two state division of the area. Now at this time there were only around 150,000 Jews and over 1.2million Arabs, so what did the UN do? That’s right they gave the majority of the lands to the Zionists in this plan, 55% of the lands. So it came as no surprise that the Arab population rejected this proposal. With that war broke out between the Arabs and the forces of the Zionist like the Irgun and Stern Militia’s who were much better armed and trained than the Arabs capturing 72% of Palestinian lands by the time in 1948 Israel was officially formed and joined the UN a greater percentage of the lands initially proposed. It is estimated that over 700,000 Arabs were displaced from their homes and villages and placed into small enclaves in Gaza and the West Bank. This is referred to by Arab Palestinians as the Nakba.
Now in 1948 Gaza was under Egyptian control and the West Bank was under Jordanian control. In 1967 that all changed with the Six Day war. Egypt held military exercises in the Sinai dessert at a time where relations were strained. Israel took this as an opportunity claiming to perform a preemptive strike and attacked the Egyptians, Jordanians and Syrians over 6 days. Israel had been planning their offensive for a number of years and the Egyptian exercises gave the excuse to launch the attack with the purpose of expanding Israel’s territory. At the end, Israel had control of the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza. They had wiped out the Egyptian Air force and easily handled the unprepared and poorly armed Arab countries.
So now you are up to how Israel got control of Gaza and the West Bank. They have controlled these areas since and both areas are little more than refugee camps. If a Palestinian wants to travel abroad they have to go to either an airport in Egypt or in Jordan, they are not allowed to do so in Israel. In fact because Israel controls all entry in and out of Israel and occupied territories if a Palestinian leaves and wants to return that may be denied. Today there are nearly 8 million Palestinians between the two areas, 2.3 in Gaza and 5.7 in the West Bank. Israel controls all trade commerce, power, water, roads and infrastructure in these regions.
If people have no hope, no job, no freedom and democracy does not exist, you create the conditions for an act like what happened on October 7 to come to life. There is a tremendous amount of history to describe how they got to this point and that is going to make any peace very difficult if not impossible.
I do not support what Hama has done or agree on their tactics anymore than I agree with how Israel has treated the Palestinians for the past 75 years. I certainly do not approve of the loss of 1300 Israeli’s but the fact that Israel in response has gone on an unadultered killing spree of over 30,000 Palestinians, with over 10,000 being children is an over the top response and a violation of the rules of war.
Unfortunately Israel seems to have no interest in stopping the slaughter and humanitarian crisis, even though the leaders of Hamas are in places like Qatar and Lebanon for example and not in Gaza, Israel is taking its revenge on innocent civilians and I for one want to Canada to demand a ceasefire. Personally I believe and support that if Israel does not, then cut off all financial and military aid from all sources. However, I am expecting PM Photo Op to actually stand up and do something…..ha ha must be April Fools?
Now some might read this and say….AngryBob is an anti-Semite! Well I am, because I am an anti-Zionist meaning I don’t support the tenets or fable of Abraham, therefore I am an anti-Semite. Ok fine with me, and cancel culture ….well I welcome the attacks if it means getting people to realize that this history goes way beyond Oct 7 and time for people to acknowledge that.
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