Nabati is a third-year political science student.
By Benjamin Nabati
At a rally in front of the Los Angeles Federal Building on April
7, there was an exuberant aura of brotherhood and love for Israel
among the thousands in attendance. This attachment is ancient and
the love is deep.
Can the Palestinians say that about the West Bank and Gaza
Strip? I would venture not. They do not love the Palestinian
territories. In fact, there was never a Palestinian state. Arab
refugees in Israel began calling themselves Palestinians in 1967,
two decades after the birth of Israel. This name is a creation
originating from the Romans who intended to overshadow the Jewish
element by calling the natives an altered version of the term
“Philistine,” the Hebrews’ enemies of ancient
times.
There has been a continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land
dating back to 1312 B.C., two millennia before the dawn of Islam.
Up to and through World War I, the land that Israel now defends was
barren desert with only a few thousand inhabitants. Only when the
Jews sought a homeland after 6 million of them were murdered under
the hands of the Nazis did Jerusalem become a hot commodity in the
Muslim world.
Jerusalem does not appear once in the Quran, but does so several
hundred times throughout the Jewish Scriptures. Muslims pray in the
direction of Mecca and incidentally, when they do so, many of them
have their backs turned to Jerusalem. King David founded Jerusalem.
Muhammad never visited. As Shimon Peres once remarked, when Jesus
Christ strolled through the Holy City, he did not see the Al-Aqsa
Mosque, but he did see the Jewish Temple.
From 1948 to 1967, Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. They
did not renovate it, settle it or make it their capital. Not a
single Arab leader paid a visit. Jerusalem has never been the
capital of any Arab state. Jerusalem under Arab rule resulted in
the desecration of Jewish sites, but under Jewish rule, Muslim and
Christian holy sites have been preserved for members of all faiths
to attend.
This is not to say that the Arabs should leave. Israel has
always been willing to live alongside its Arab neighbors. The
Arabs, however, wish to drive the Jews into the Mediterranean. If
the Arabs were in the position Israel now holds, would they
demonstrate nearly as much restraint as Israel has toward them?
Would Arabs support creation of a Palestinian state, as Israel has
expressed intentions to, as soon as the murderous element is
removed and responsible leadership is at the helm? They certainly
would not.
If Israel has been willing to live side by side with Arabs, then
why, some might ask, didn’t the Israelis accept the Saudi
peace proposal last month?
The plan called for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza
Strip, and Golan Heights and for East Jerusalem to be the capital
of a Palestinian state. Up to here, this plan is nearly identical
to what former Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to Arafat at Camp
David in 2000. But Arafat was not ready to make peace ““ not
then, not ever. Soon after Barak’s offer, Arafat waged a war
against Israel beginning Sept. 28, 2000, when Sharon’s visit
to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was greeted with heaved rocks.
Sharon had the permission of Arab authorities for that visit, but
Arafat used that image as a pretext to retaliate against Israeli
encroachment, a convenient serving of propaganda to mobilize the
masses. Thus began the Al-Aqsa intifada that rages on today, most
recently claiming the lives of 13 soldiers in Jenin and eight bus
passengers in Haifa.
Where the Saudi plan diverged from Barak’s offer is the
most important sticking point for negotiations if they resume: the
refugee crisis. On top of withdrawing from those lands, Israel is
to allow Palestinians back into Israel proper under the guise of
“right of return.”
Why must Israel, land concessions included, also make itself
vulnerable to a security crisis by allowing possible terrorist
bombers into their land? Israel is willing to give up about 3,000
square miles for serenity. Maintaining a porous border between the
Palestinian territories and a shrunken Israel would not be a
compromise ““ it would be contract for Israeli suicide. Why
would the Palestinians need to return to Israel anyway if they were
granted all those lands? The Muslim world stretches from the
Maghreb of Northern Africa through Pakistan, and Palestinians
require returning to Israel? They could be absorbed into any of the
surrounding lands. Israel, the size of New Jersey, has absorbed all
Jewish refugees that have requested it. But of the approximately
100 million refugees resulting from the Second World War, only Arab
refugees have not been re-integrated into their native lands.
The Arabs must drop this last demand in order for Israel to
seriously appraise their calls for peace. By proposing plans that
they know Israel cannot agree to, they are only postponing a truce.
They must realize that the suicide bombings will not draw them
closer to attaining their aim of removing Israel ““ Israel is
a permanent fixture in the Middle Eastern landscape. Arabs’
continuous preoccupation with hatred of their neighbor only
sustains their suffering.
Arabs must acknowledge that Israel’s efforts to defend
itself and sustain its existence are just that ““ Jews of the
20th century have been subjected to enough carnage. In light of
Tuesday’s vigil for the 6 million killed by the Nazis, Arabs
must realize that Jews do not want to repeat brutal acts to which
they themselves have endlessly fallen victim to throughout
history.