Israeli–Palestinian conflict
![]() ![]() (Bombing, war) ![]() ![]() | |
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![]() Palestinian loss of land to Israel | |
Type | War |
Interest of | • Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed • Eva Bartlett • Jonathan Freedland • David Halpin • If Americans Knew • Frank Luntz |
For centuries there was no significant conflict between the native Jewish minority and Arab Muslim/Christian majority inhabitants of Palestine.
In the 19th century the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population – approximately 86 percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percent Jewish – living in peace.[1]
Within Israeli and Palestinian society, the conflict generates a wide variety of views and opinions. The majority of peace efforts have been centred around the two-state solution, which involves the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
However, public support for a two-state solution, which formerly enjoyed support from both Israeli Jews and Palestinians, has dwindled in recent years.[2]
Contents
Zionism
Why Israel Matters to Americans - AJ
The Declaration was written in 1917 by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur James Balfour, and sent to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, one of Britain’s most illustrious Jewish citizens. It expressed the British government’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. So why did it take another 30 years, until the United Nations passed UN Resolution 181, for a Jewish state to finally be established? Why was the Balfour Declaration so controversial? Why was it written so ambiguously and did the British even have the right to promise the Jews a homeland in British Mandate Palestine? |
In the late 1800s a group in Europe decided to colonise this land. Known as Zionists, they represented an extremist minority of the Jewish population. Their goal was to create a Jewish homeland, and they considered locations in Africa and the Americas, before settling on Palestine. [3]
At first, this immigration created no problems. However, as more and more Zionists immigrated to Palestine – many with the express wish of taking over the land for a Jewish state – the indigenous population became increasingly alarmed. Eventually, fighting broke out, with escalating waves of violence. Hitler’s rise to power, combined with Zionist activities to sabotage efforts to place Jewish refugees in western countries, [4] led to increased Jewish immigration to Palestine, and conflict grew.
UN Partition Plan
Finally, in 1947 the United Nations decided to intervene. However, rather than adhering to the principle of “self-determination of peoples,” in which the people themselves create their own state and system of government, the UN chose to revert to the medieval strategy whereby an outside power divides up other people’s land.
Under considerable Zionist pressure, the UN recommended giving away 55% of Palestine to a Jewish state – despite the fact that this group represented only about 30% of the total population, and owned under 7% of the land.
1947-1949 War
While it is widely reported that the resulting war eventually included five Arab armies, less well known is the fact that throughout this war Zionist forces outnumbered all Arab and Palestinian combatants combined – often by a factor of two to three. Moreover, Arab armies did not invade Israel – virtually all battles were fought on land that was to have been the Palestinian state.
Finally, it is significant to note that Arab armies entered the conflict only after Zionist forces had committed 16 massacres, including the grisly massacre of over 100 men, women, and children at Deir Yassin. Future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, head of one of the Jewish terrorist groups, described this as “splendid,” and stated: “As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosen us for conquest.” Zionist forces committed 33 massacres altogether. [5]
By the end of the war, Israel had conquered 78 percent of Palestine; three-quarters of a million Palestinians had been made refugees; over 500 towns and villages had been obliterated; and a new map was drawn up, in which every city, river and hillock received a new, Hebrew name, as all vestiges of the Palestinian culture were to be erased. For decades Israel denied the existence of this population, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once saying: “There were no such thing as Palestinians.” [6]
1967 War & USS Liberty
In 1967, Israel conquered still more land. Following the “Six Day War,” in which Israeli forces launched a highly successful surprise attack on Egypt, Israel occupied the final 22% of Palestine that had eluded it in 1948 – the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since, according to international law it is inadmissible to acquire territory by war, these are occupied territories and do not belong to Israel. It also occupied parts of Egypt (since returned) and Syria (which remain under occupation).
Also during the Six Day War, Israel attacked a US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, killing and injuring over 200 American servicemen. President Lyndon Johnson recalled rescue flights, saying that he did not want to “embarrass an ally.” (In 2004 a high-level commission chaired by Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found this attack to be “an act of war against the United States,” a fact few news media have reported.) [7]
Current Conflict
Newly-released prisoner Nelson Mandela takes a principled stand in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict |
Social Engineering
The main change from European societies has not only come from 9-11 and is symbolic of something deeper. Facing terror attacks increasingly shown on social media in the 2000s and 2010s with 9-11, Europeans have increasingly associated Israel as a country facing similar challenges, the canary in the coalmine for European democracies. Aurore Bergé, a French parliament spokesperson for the La République En Marche! party and head of the France-Israel friendship group, said: “We have a common front with Israel: the struggle against Islamist terrorism. More than ever, it’s what brings us closer and what explains the diplomatic shift in Europe.” This result of seemingly social engineering all Muslims as enemy image is controversial as deep lobbying argument as the Mossad and US Deep state have suspicious links to individuals involved in 9-11, and over 80% of all Muslims terrorist attacks victims are Muslims themselves, despite increased European-Islamic tension regarding immigrants and the sporadically polled support of Muslims for terrorist organizations.[8][9][10][11]
Post-9/11
There are two primary issues at the core of this continuing conflict. First, there is the inevitably destabilizing effect of trying to maintain an ethnically preferential state, particularly when it is largely of foreign origin. [12] The original population of what is now Israel was 96 percent Muslim and Christian, yet, these refugees are prohibited from returning to their homes in the self-described Jewish state (and those within Israel are subjected to systematic discrimination). [13] [14]
Second, Israel’s continued military occupation and confiscation of privately owned land in the West Bank, and control over Gaza, are extremely oppressive, with Palestinians having minimal control over their lives. [15] Thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children are held in Israeli prisons. [16] Few of them have had a legitimate trial; Physical abuse and torture are frequent. [17] [18] [19] [20] Palestinian borders (even internal ones) are controlled by Israeli forces. [21] Periodically men, women, and children are strip searched [22]; people are beaten; women in labor are prevented from reaching hospitals (at times resulting in death) [23]; food and medicine are blocked from entering Gaza, producing an escalating humanitarian crisis. Israeli forces invade almost daily, injuring, kidnapping, and sometimes killing inhabitants. [24]
According to the Oslo peace accords of 1993, these territories were supposed to finally become a Palestinian state. However, after years of Israel continuing to confiscate land and conditions steadily worsening, the Palestinian population rebelled. (The Barak offer, widely reputed to be generous, was anything but. [25]) This uprising, called the “Intifada” (Arabic for “shaking off”) began at the end of September 2000.
US Involvement
Largely due to special-interest lobbying, US taxpayers give Israel an average of $8 million per day, and since its creation have given more US funds to Israel than to any other nation. [26] As Americans learn about how Israel is using their tax dollars, many are calling for an end to this expenditure.
Examples
Page name | Description |
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2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla | A convoy delivering aid to Gaza. 9 of those aboard were murdered by the IDF. |
2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War | Hamas attack on dozens of illegal Israeli settlements in Southern Israel provoking mass retaliatory killings by Israel. Corporate media call it the Israeli "9-11", while critics of Israel refer to "10-7" as a staged, military operation in order to manufacture consent for a disproportionate response. |
2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/Israeli invasion of Gaza | After October 7, Israel invaded Gaza with widespread international support. The IDF went on a widely reported revenge killing spree. Even by Israel's own account, they killed 19,500 Palestinian civilians after half a year of bombing hospitals, schools and civilian towers, utilising numerous condemned tactics. |
2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/October 7 | Hamas attacks Israeli settlements in Southern Israel, mass raping and abducting, which get called an Israeli "9-11" by CCM. The NYT and Al Jazeera claimed the Israeli government knew of the impending attack, ignored warnings, shot some of their own civilians, made up several stories and used the resulting increased death toll to go on a revenge killing spree in the 2023 Israeli invasion of Gaza. |
2024 Gaza Freedom Flotilla | |
2024 Yemen airstrikes | An ongoing attack on Yemen |
Gaza War (2008–09) | Three weeks of assault launched against Gaza by Israel, including the use of white phosphorus, leaving over 1000 people dead and over 5000 injured. |
Gaza War 2014 | |
Israel/Borders | Israel's borders are unusual in having changed several times in living memory. Israel currently borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, the Gaza Strip and Egypt on the southwest. |
Yom Kippur War | A Bilderberg approved war in the Middle East to provide probable cause to increased the oil price, allowing US oil companies to cash in big time. |
Related Quotations
Page | Quote | Author | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Sucharit Bhakdi | “I admired the Israelis more than any people in the world. ... The greatest spirits were Jews, I adored them ... And now they are doing this. The people who have fled from this country [Germany], where the evil one [Hitler] was, have turned their own country into something even worse. It's unbelievable. There is no people who study better than them, but they have learned and implemented evil. And that's why Israel is now living hell.” | Sucharit Bhakdi | |
Craig Murray | “The International Court of Justice has stated definitively that the Israeli occupation is illegal and it is the duty of states not to support it. Yet in UK law it is perfectly legal to state that you support the IDF and hope that they kill all the Palestinians in Gaza But it is illegal in the UK - and carries 14 years in jail - to express support for named Palestinian organisations engaged, legally in international law, in armed resistance to illegal occupation.” | Craig Murray | 20 August 2024 |
Related Documents
Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Document:A Devastating Indictment of Israel’s War on Gaza | Article | 11 January 2024 | Mike Small Roshdi Sarraj | |
Document:Biden’s pier for Gaza is a hollow gesture that will change almost nothing | blog post | 8 March 2024 | Jonathan Cook | President Biden needs to look like Gaza’s saviour when Democrats are deciding who they are voting for. He and the Democratic party are betting voters are dumb enough to fall for this charade. Please don’t prove them right. |
Document:British Jewish Zionist MP Gerald Kaufman says Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza | Speech | January 2009 | Gerald Kaufman | "However many Palestinians the Israelis murder in Gaza, they cannot solve this existential problem by military means. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is the Israelis' real goal but which it is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply war criminals; they are fools." |
Document:Existence vs Expansion | blog post | 21 July 2024 | Craig Murray | The International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion is extremely lucid and decisive. The ball is now back in the court of the UN General Assembly, which requested the Opinion. The General Assembly now should move to suspend Israel’s membership of the United Nations. That is the next project on which I shall be working. |
Document:Former Labour leader honoured by Palestinian Forum | Article | 19 December 2021 | Steve Walker | Jeremy Corbyn receives award for ‘remarkable efforts’ to support Palestinians against oppression |
Document:Jeremy Corbyn says “I Condemn Violence Against All Civilians, Why Can’t Keir Starmer?” | Article | 12 October 2023 | Jeremy Corbyn | In an interview with LBC, Keir Starmer was asked whether “cutting off power and water” to 2 million people, half of whom are children, was appropriate. He agreed that Israel “has that right”. Where is the empathy for Palestinians who have lost their loved ones, their homes and their futures? What happened to the universal application of international law? |
Document:Jeremy Corbyn's speech to the United Nations in full | Speech | 8 December 2017 | Jeremy Corbyn | Jeremy Corbyn at the United Nations in Geneva upstages Theresa May at the European Union in Brussels |
Document:Keir Starmer's ‘antisemitism’ sacking is a signal that Israel is safe in his hands | Article | 29 June 2020 | Jonathan Cook | Crackdown by UK Labour leader on left-wing rival will subdue critics of Israel in his party ahead of Israel's annexation move |
Document:No Ceasefire in the Propaganda War | blog post | 24 November 2023 | Craig Murray | Since October 8 over 200 Palestinian children have been taken prisoner, none of whom had anything to do with the October 7 attacks. That rather puts the possible release of 33 children and six women today into perspective. But it is not a perspective the BBC would ever give you. |
Document:Open letter to Ban Ki-Moon from Richard Falk | open letter | 7 February 2016 | Richard Falk | On-the-button open letter from Richard Falk to Ban Ki-moon about Israeli attacks on the latter for his modest, reasonable and accurate criticism of Israeli policy - Schadenfreude would be understandable in light of Richard Falks experience at Moon's hands. |
Document:Palestine - The Illusion of Power and the Calculus of Dispossession | webpage | 12 November 2011 | Zahir Ebrahim | |
Document:Priti Patel's Israel links undermined British diplomacy in the Middle East | Article | 23 December 2021 | Martin Linton | Home Secretary Priti Patel, who was fired from her previous government post by Theresa May for holding secret meetings with Israeli ministers, spearheaded the blacklisting of Hamas as a "terrorist organisation" in a move that angered Palestinians and undermined British diplomacy |
Document:Pro-Israel outrage over BBC coverage of Holocaust memorial | Article | 25 January 2020 | Orla Guerin at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial: “Young soldiers troop in to share the binding tragedy of the Jewish people. The state of Israel is now a regional power. For decades it has occupied Palestinian territories. But some here will always see their nation through the prism of persecution and survival.” | |
Document:South Africa institutes Genocide Convention proceedings against Israel | statement | 29 December 2023 | International Court of Justice | South Africa's 84-page Application instituting Genocide Convention proceedings against Israel |
Document:The Curious Case of the Freedom Flotilla | blog post | 28 April 2024 | Craig Murray | Craig Murray: "I am therefore entirely perplexed that the organisers went with Guinea Bissau as the flag state rather than a state likely to stand up to Israel and the US. Of course it failed. Is the problem incompetence, or is it again security service influence?" |
Document:The House of Zion | Essay | November 2015 | Perry Anderson | Perry Anderson’s long essay, ‘The House of Zion’, is the Marxist equivalent of a Papal edict. He excommunicates the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and anoints an alternative: "the demand for one state is now the best Palestinian option available." |
Document:The UK government is on the wrong side of history… again | Article | 25 November 2021 | Ahmed Abu Artema | |
Document:The White Book And The Isratine Proposal | Book | 8 May 2003 | Muammar Gaddafi | The White Book's Fundamental Historical Solution: “Isratine” – a single-state solution for Jews and Palestinians to live in peace. Call it the Federal Republic of the Holy Land. |
Document:The corporate media’s world of illusions | blog post | 11 June 2018 | Jonathan Cook | Once one is prepared to step through the door, to discard the old Great Western Narrative script, the new narrative takes its hold because it is so helpful. It actually explains the world, and human behaviour, as it is experienced everywhere. |
Document:Verdict First, Evidence Later: Khan Sheikhoun Gas Attack | article | 11 April 2017 | James O'Neill | Three days before the tragedy at Khan Sheikhoun a convoy of TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) missiles, gas masks for up to 2000 persons and chemical warfare suits from Saudi Arabian stockpiles left Hatay in Turkey for Idlib in Syria where al Nusra are in control. |
Document:What is Left for Palestine? | blog post | 17 May 2021 | Craig Murray | It was a beautiful day in Glasgow yesterday for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign demo, and it was great to be able to meet up again with so many magnificent and public-spirited people. It was an especially young crowd, which was excellent, and I was able to meet many Palestinians who drew comfort from the public support at a traumatic time. |
Document:Who has Committed the Recent Gas Attack in Syria | Article | 6 April 2017 | Jean Périer | The plan to incriminate the Syrian government for the use of chemical weapons was finalised at a meeting in an Israeli army camp deep inside the occupied territory of the Golan Heights attended by leaders of a number of terrorist groups sponsored by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, Israel, France, UK and the United States. |
Document:Who really funds the Jewish Chronicle? | Article | 26 April 2024 | Alan Rusbridger | Two years ago, a mysterious consortium came to the rescue of the beleaguered publication—and nobody is really clear about who is behind the scenes. But openness matters, especially when politics is involved |
Document:‘Turning Gaza into ashes’: Israel propaganda vs the world | Article | 1 November 2023 | Ramzy Baroud | It is time to speak about Palestinian rights, Palestinian security and the Palestinian people’s right – in fact, obligation – to defend themselves. |
File:BBC on the Israel-Palestine conflict.pdf | paper | 22 February 2013 | Peter Allen | Peter Allen's University of Leicester MA dissertation, analysing the bias of the BBC Newsnight program in its reporting of the Israel/Palesine conflict. Although confined to the Newsnight series, it is a telling commentary on the subliminal official narrative nature of BBC News output and that of the Western Corporate media in general. |
File:Where Villages Stood.pdf | review | December 2007 | John Reynolds | |
Document:Massacres Against Palestinians | webpage | 2001 | Joe Vialls | |
Document:Pity the Children | webpage | October 2000 | Joe Vialls | |
Document:God's Gun Speaks in Palestine | webpage | 20 October 2000 | Joe Vialls |
References
- ↑ John W. Mulhall, CSP, America and the Founding of Israel - If Americans Knew
an Investigation of the Morality of America’s Role (Los Angeles: Deshon, 1995), 48; Mike Berry and Greg Philo, Israel and Palestine (Pluto Press, 2006) p. 1; Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle, includes a number of population tables in this book, which are available in his booklet, Palestinian Refugees Right to Return and Repatriation (http://ifamericansknew.org/history/ref-qumsiyeh.html); Justin McCarthy, author of The Population of Palestine: Population History and Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period and the Mandate, provides detailed information on population in the excerpt “Palestine’s Population During The Ottoman And The British Mandate Periods.” - ↑ "The Case for Peace: How The Arab–Israeli Conflict Can Be Resolved"
- ↑ John W. Mulhall, CSP, America and the Founding of Israel: an Investigation of the Morality of America’s Role (Los Angeles: Deshon, 1995), 47-52.
- ↑ In many places Zionists manipulated local Jewish populations into going to Palestine/Israel, in some cases using subterfuge and "terrorism".
Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 37: “Commenting, author Erskine H. Childers, wrote, “one of the most massively important features of the entire Palestine struggle was that Zionism deliberately arranged that the plight of the wretched survivors of Hitlerism should be a ‘moral argument’ which the West had to accept. This was done by seeing to it that Western countries did not open their doors, widely and immediately, to the inmates of the DP. (displaced persons) camps. It is incredible, that so grave and grim a campaign has received so little attention in accounts of the Palestine struggle – it was a campaign that literally shaped all subsequent history. It was done by sabotaging specific Western schemes to admit Jewish DPs.”
A number of authors have discuss Zionist connections with Nazis; for example:- Ben Hecht, Perfidy
- Edwin Black, The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine
- Lenni Brenner, 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis
- Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem
- Sami Hadawi, in Bitter Harvest 1914-79, pp. 35-39, discusses the use of manipulated, sometimes invented, anti-Semitism in promoting Zionism, e.g.: “Ian Gilmour [wrote] ‘In the Arab countries, Jewish difficulties and emigration to Israel were the result not of anti-Semitism but of Zionist activities and the existence of the state of Israel.’”
- In “The Jews of Iraq,” The Link, April-May 1998, Naeim Giladi describes Zionist activities to push Jews to emigrate to Israel. He describes this in greater detail in his book: Ben-Gurion’s Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews:
- “I write this book to tell the American people, and especially the American Jews, that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors. I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called ‘cruel Zionism.’ I write about it because I was a part of it.”
- ↑ Palestinian Refugees Right to Return and Repatriation - Norman Finkelstein, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict;
George W. Ball & Douglas B. Ball, The Passionate Attachment, on p. 29: quotes a message from future prime minister Menachem Begin, head of the Irgun Zionist terrorist group, commending them on the grisly massacre of women, children, and old men at the village of Deir Yassin: “’Accept my congratulations on this splendid act of conquest. Convey my regards to all the commanders and soldiers. We shake your hands. We are all proud of the excellent leadership and the fighting spirit in this great attack. We stand to attention in memory of the slain. We lovingly shake the hands of the wounded. Tell the soldiers: you have made history in Israel with your attack and your conquest. Continue thus until victory. As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosen us for conquest.’” - ↑ Sunday Times, 15 June 1969, quoted widely.
- ↑ Donald Neff, The Six Days War, Simon & Schuster
During the Six-Day War, Israel also attacked a US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, killing and injuring over 200 American servicemen. Many analysts believe that the fact that there were no consequences for this attack led Israeli leaders to conclude that they could commit any act of aggression without US complaint. While this attack has largely been covered up in the US media (see Alison Weir, CounterPunch, June 23/24, 2007 “American Media Miss the Boat: For USA Today, Freedom of the Press Means the Right to Report It Wrong” ), it is discussed in a number of books, including James Ennes, The Assault on the Liberty; William Gerhard, Attack on the USS Liberty; Dr. John Borne, The USS Liberty, Dissenting History vs. Official History; Stephen Green , Taking Sides: America’s Secret Relations with a Militant Israel; James Bamford, Body of Secrets - ↑ https://isgp-studies.com/arab-muslim-religious-beliefs-on-sharia-and-jihadism-also-including-immigrants
- ↑ https://www.trtworld.com/mea/overwhelming-majority-of-terror-victims-are-muslims-31586
- ↑ 9-11
- ↑ https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/20/how-europe-became-pro-israel/
- ↑ This is touched on in: John V. Whitbeck, “What ‘Israel’s right to exist’ means to Palestinians,” - Christian Science Monitor, Feb 2, 2007
- ↑ Qumsiyeh, Palestinian Refugees Right to Return and Repatriation- If Americans Knew
- ↑ United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
- ↑ More on the current situation and life under occupation - If Americans Knew
- ↑ Political Prisoners in Israel/Palestine - If Americans Knew
- ↑ “Absolute Prohibition: The torture and Ill-Treatment of Palestinian Detainees,” - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, May 2007
- ↑ Defence for Children International/Palestine Section
- ↑ Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
- ↑ Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
- ↑ Israeli Checkpoints and Their Impact on Daily Life - If Americans Knew
- ↑ Israeli Strip Searches: A Partial List - If Americans Knew
- ↑ 68 women gave birth on checkpoints,34 infants and 4 women died - If Americans Knew
- ↑ Major Israeli Invasions into the West Bank and Gaza - If Americans Knew
- ↑ “Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Camp David Peace Proposal of July, 2000 and Barak’s so-called Generous Offer,” - If Americans Knew
- ↑ U.S. Military Aid and the Israel/Palestine Conflict - If Americans Knew
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