The Falsehood of The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

We live in a dangerous era. You can call it disinformation, deception or fake news. Still, just the same, its intent is to turn black into white, up to down, terrorist to freedom fighter; at the most basic level, it's perpetuating lies to promote an agenda. Unfortunately, there are enough takers who imbibe the falsehoods and regurgitate them ad nauseum.

This is nowhere more apparent than in the current conflict between Hamas and Israel. Never mind the blatant antisemitism seen around the world; historical facts don't seem to matter. Those people chanting "from the river to the sea" are clueless. They have no idea; they make it up as they go. Below is a recent experience I had.

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I had a tradesperson complete a small job at my home a few days ago. He and his wife—both English—dropped by to finalize payment. Somehow, the topic of Israel came up, and I told him I was born during the time of the British Mandate of Palestine. He proceeded to make a couple of comments: "The Brits should have kicked the Jews out", and "They got what they deserved on October 7." His wife, to say the least, was embarrassed.

Then, as he was leaving, he said, "Anytime you need any help, let me know." Seriously, I went from wanting to belt him to thinking he is pathetic. I told him he obviously didn't know his history. I wonder how he would have felt if I was in his home and in front of others, I share similar sentiments about the British?

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Just like with COVID-19, for those who don't want to know, no amount of evidence will suffice.

Jews have been indigenous in the land of Israel for more than 3000 years, according to archaeological finds. The land of Samaria and Judea, now referred to as the West Bank, was conquered at various times by Assyrians, Babylonians, and the Romans. To try and erase Jewish identity from the land, the Romans referred to this provincial outpost as Palestine. It was derived from the word "Palestina", which was derived from Philistine.

Remember the story of David and Goliath? Goliath, a Philistine, was a giant of a man, but somehow, with a slingshot and then with a sword, David managed to slay the giant. David became the king of the Israelites. That was some 1600 years before the origin of Islam in 610 AD, and when Arab tribes conquered the region we know as Israel. You see, Arabs and Muslims were not indigenous to "Palestine". The Jews were the original "Palestinians", if you want to use that term.

For centuries, Palestine was an Islamic Ottoman province with no clear boundaries. Still, the empire had Muslims, Jews and Christians living in its occupied lands. After the Ottoman Empire was defeated during the First World War, the region of Palestine became a British Mandate. In the 1920s, the people in the area were called Jews and Arabs. Jews were subjected to massacres and slaughter by marauding Arab gangs. Pogroms against Jews were carried out in Palestine as they were in some European countries and Russia in the early part of the 20th century. In response, Jews created their own gangs, which attacked Arabs in retaliation. This tit-for-tat has been going on well before the modern state of Israel existed.

In modern times, after the British liberated Palestine from the Turks, the British referred to the Jews as Palestinians out of recognition of the fact that the Jews were the indigenous people there. And the Arabs called themselves Arabs because they did not regard the country as Palestine.

So, the term Palestine became commonly used throughout the centuries, but not because the inhabitants of the land were called Palestinians. Nobody referred to them as Palestinians because the word Palestine had no historical, religious, or other significance.

Once the United Nations in 1947 approved the partition of Palestine into Israel and an Arab state, the Arabs did not use the term Palestine. The two-state solution in 1947 was the state of Jordan and modern-day Israel.

Despite having their own land, five Arab countries attacked Israel in 1948, promising to drive Israelis into the sea. The Egyptian Air Force bombed Tel Aviv, where I was a two-year-old. Despite Israel's victory, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip, not Israel.

The Jews didn't kick the Arabs out of Palestine; it was a mass voluntary exodus because the Arab countries broadcast that they would drive the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea. Arab residents were told to leave their homes, and once victorious, they could return.

So, the vast majority of the Arabs who left Palestine during that first Arab invasion of the newborn Jewish state in 1948 did so because they wanted to get out of the way of the advancing Arab armies.

Of course, no one talks about the 800,000 Jews who were kicked out of North African nations, Jews who had been in Morocco, Algeria and other North African countries for hundreds of years.

The Jews did not kick a lot of Arabs out of its new state; in fact, many Arabs did stay, and today, Israel has a significant Arab population who are Israeli citizens. The Arabs did, however, kick Jews out of their countries and also persecuted them.

Looking at the partition map, while the two states were roughly equal in area, the Arabs got the better of the deal because much of Israel's territory was the southern Negev desert, which was arid and devoid of population. Looking at the narrow band where the red arrow is pointing, the piece of land between the two portions of Arab land was only a few miles across, and Israel could easily be cut in two by invading Arab armies.

This is why, after Israel's victory in the 1967 war, they held onto land now called the West Bank as a buffer to protect itself. The reason for the war itself was that Nasser of Egypt, along with his Arab allies, blocked the Straits of Tiran to the southern part of Israel.

It was only after the 1967 war, when five Arab nations again threatened Israel with destruction, that you started to hear the term "Palestinians". It was a rhetorical innovation by Arab propagandists as a way of trying to claim that the Arabs were actually the indigenous people of the land, which they were not. Unfortunately, many in the West lapped it up.

So, after several wars, constant terror attacks on Israeli civilians, unprovoked launching of rockets, and constant hostile rhetoric from its Arab neighbours, nothing much has changed. There is a tenuous peace between Egypt and Jordan, not because they love Israel but because their leaders are rational enough to realize that war can be devastating to its population and economy.

One intolerable thing is for a country to have terror groups on its border. The October 7 massacre of Israeli citizens demonstrated that fact. In addition, Hezbollah on Israel's northern border is another terror group facilitated by many in the Arab world.

The reality is Israel has offered peace repeatedly to its Arab neighbours with secure borders. If the Arab countries, including the "Palestinians", laid down their arms and militancy, including ceasing educational systems which teach hatred of Jews, there would be peace.

If Israel laid down its arms, it would cease to exist. I guess my anti-Jew neighbour would be happy.