Why Hamas-Fatah Don't Want Their Own State

Nadene Goldfoot
It's quite obvious why the Arab Palestinians haven't established their own state for the past 64 years.  They were given the same opportunity that Israel had at the very same time by the United Nations,  only refused it because they had empirical  goals.  Their goal was to have all the land and they would not allow Jews to have an island in their midst.  They were conditioned to the "Ottoman Empire" thinking. So for those leaders, they wanted it all and would only settle for all or nothing, which meant fighting for it all. A few Arabs would have had to live under a Jewish government in the way it was divided.  That wouldn't have been so bad considering that today 1.4 million Arabs are citizens of Israel living a much better life than any other Muslims in any other Muslim majority countries.

Nearly 80% of what had been promised to the Jews for a Jewish National Home was severed by the British in 1922 and turned into what became Transjordan with Jewish settlement there barred.  The UN divided the remaining 20% of Palestine into the 2 states; one for Jews and one for the Arabs.  This means that Arabs got 80% of the territory of the Mandate as it was while Israel held a bare 17.5%.  Gaza was still being occupied by Egypt.  What Israel wound up with was a small sliver of their own pie. Jordan then annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1950 but lost it again to Israel in the 1967 War against Israel.  It was land promised to be part of  the Jewish Homeland in the original deal!  Jordan's eyes were bigger than their ability to wipe out Israel, even with all their Muslim neighbors.    

At the time of the 1947 partition resolution, the Arabs did not have the majority population in the area allotted to the Jews or in Jerusalem.  They were even offered a bigger share of land and had the population there already.

The British restricted the Jewish immigration while Arabs were free to come into the land which they did, taking advantage of the rapid development stimulated by the Zionists in creating towns to live in.  They came in by the thousands.

Prior to the British Mandate in 1922, the Palestine Arab population had been declining.  Afterwards, Arabs began to come there from all the surrounding countries.  The Arab population grew along with the Jewish settlers who improved the quality of health conditions in Palestine.

Partitioning Palestine was based on the irreconcilable territorial claims of Jews and Arabs so a compromise had to be taken to create two states.  1947 was when the Arab members of the United Nations supported the partition of the India and the creation of the new state, predominantly Muslin, of Pakistan. That came about because Muslims and Hindus were attacking each other in India all the time.   This way they moved the Muslims out into their own space.   Palestine was a different matter in allowing a Jewish state of Israel within their Muslim midst.  Hindus have given up a piece of their land for the Muslims in order to have peace..

Fatah and Hamas have never considered their people in their decision not to accept the many times offered chance to create their own state, but are led by the Muslim Brotherhood goals of creating an empire again.  All they have had to do is to recognize Israel as their neighbor with rights of being Jewish.  Then they would have to tell their people to stop hating and shooting at this only Jewish state in the world and that the plan on the table is for peace instead of driving the Israelis into the sea.

It's time to realize that after 64 years, the Arabs are not up to creating their own state at all. The attack on Israel has not been stopping.  There is no reason to think that Judea and Samaria (West Bank) will be a Palestine State with the goals they presently hold.  When they discard the Muslim Brotherhood, that will tell us that they want to live in the present instead of their 15th century empire of the past.  The 3 generations of Arabs living in Gaza and Judea and Samaria need to have their own type of Arab Spring and throw out these Muslim Brotherhood terrorists of Hamas, and even of Fatah since they've turned toward the Hamas line and start from scratch.

Resource:  Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Mitchell G Bard and JOel Himelfarb page 34- 35.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_West_Bank_and_East_Jerusalem_by_Jordan

Israel's Fate Amid Arab Uprising

Nadene Goldfoot
The Jewish Review newspaper's front page April 15th article, "Can Israel weather Arab spring?" brings to mind the fact that Israel has many political factions, and that the important leaders in Israel questioning Netanyahu's stand in the peace struggles with Fatah's Palestinian faction are the doves who are not in power.  Their position is to give up Judea and Samaria.  Just as Israel has a group called "Peace Now" who were a part of the Labor Party, they are proposing doing what Israel has done in the past, give up land for peace.  After Israel did just that with Gaza and has received nothing but missile attacks for this, I don't believe the present Likud party will go along with it, though it has logical elements to it.  Another thing they propose is to make Jerusalem a shared capital.  They say nothing about expecting Arabs to accept Israel as a  Jewish state which is the first concession that Likud expects.  They do have expectations of a Palestinian state being demilitarized, which is also on Likud's agenda.  In fact, this proposal really doesn't differ from other plans of the past ten years that were brought up. 


The problem is that Israel is not dealing with logical advisaries right now.  If instead of the foe they are dealing with, they were confronted with Canada, they would be completely wise.  This isn't the fact which makes the solution difficult no matter which way you look at it.  One has to think out the problem with a psychological understanding of the advisary.

Yaakov Perry was the spokesman for the new Israeli Peace Initiative which was the topic of the article.  He is the type of Israeli that was the subject of the book, Start Up Nation, which was about Israel's position of being the number one country that is starting new businesses.  He has been the president and general manager of a cell company and was the head of a general security service.  Naturally he has had an IDF background of army service.  He's speaking about the concerns of businessmen in Israel who are confronted with blockades against their products and country. 
Netanyahu has begged Abbas to come to the peace table, but since he decided to go to the U.N. instead to create Palestine, Abbas has refused to address Netanyahu.  From his position, he feels there is no need to have a palaver.  He has shown that it's his way or the highway and has wanted conditions met before they break bread. 

Netanyahu is up against a jury that is out to lunch.  It's like he's on trial and the opposer is his estranged wife who has been beating the children as well as practicing other physical abuses on them, but the jury and judge are all females of the same ilk and behavior.  They are finding that this father will lose the children no matter that he is the kindest and wisest father in the land.  He's set up to lose his children. 

The above is my way of expressing that Israel has done everything correct in establishing Israel.  They bought land that was exceedingly expensive, but being holy land they bought it anyway.  They went through all the legal hoops and challenges and went through the United Nations to establish Israel.  They are not agressors but have wanted to live in peace since the first moment.  They have returned to their ancient land which holds a religious and cultural meaning to them developed over 2000 years of hope and prayer and we find that Jews had never completely left in the first place.  They have been attacked by Arabs even before their country's renewed birth and the attacks have continued for the past 63 years of its life.  They have lived in a constant state of anxiety and have had to be militarily prepared for their whole existence.   The bottom line is that they have no other choice of living and intend to do just that, for L'Chaim is their watchword:  To Life! 

Israel is a democracy and they have the same magnetic pulls as the United States, the Doves and the Hawks, or Democrats and Republicans.  Netanyahu is working on yet another proposal for a peace pact and we will see what he comes up with.  The religious groups will not be happy with giving up the even more ancient and important land of Judea and Samaria and allow it to become Judenrein or free of all the Jews who live there.  Neither will all the Christian groups who are backing and praying for Israel to have strength of mind and courage of body.  Israel didn't go after Judea and Samaria but received it after being bitterly attacked with a loss of life and blood.  Will Arabs ever learn to stop trying to carry out their goal of driving Jews into the sea if they are rewarded or will they continue to see Israel as weak?  Will they ever see that Israel has reacted magnaminously by having a democratic state with over a million Arabs as citizens?  After all, this was what our Jewish founding fathers saw as the Utopia they were trying to create. 

Resource: Jewish Review article by Dina Kraft from Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Analysis