Origins of the Middle East Crisis

By GEORGE BISHARAT

In early October, I meandered the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland with easy-laughing Mahmoud. We were bleary-eyed from international travel, and from many hours of animated discussions at our conference.

Scholars, lawyers and activists had converged to explore ways to implement the rights of Palestinians to return to and regain their homes, seized by Israel in 1948. This fate had befallen Villa Harun ar-Rashid, the Jerusalem home of my late grandfather, Hanna Ibrahim Bisharat. We had been inspired by accounts of successful campaigns for housing restitution for refugees and other dispossessed peoples in Bosnia, South Africa and Rwanda.

The sky was leaden, the wind off the slate lake bracing. But the fountain at the end of the lake lofted exuberant white plumes of water toward the heavens, and seemed to elevate with them our hopes and dreams for a more just and peaceful future.

Little did we suspect that in other conference rooms across the same city, Israelis and Palestinians had been conducting covert, informal negotiations for two years toward what are now touted as the "Geneva Accord." The agreement, while envisioning a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, studiously avoids mention of the very rights Mahmoud and I, and many others, are fighting to protect. The negotiators, prominent private citizens, include former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Information and Culture Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.

<snip>

http://www.counterpunch.org/bisharat12032003.html

And then begin the history in 1948 tells you all you need to know.

No more needs to be said.

so it is quite accurate...

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

To assume the origins of the modern situation began in 1948 is simplistic in that it assumes the declaration of the state of Israel was an initiating factor. The declaration of independence was almost anti-climatic and really represents a milestone in the I/P conflict, not a beginning.

Almost all modern histories written on the subject start at least with the assumption of the British Mandate after WWI. More comprehensive ones go further back and include the rise of Eretz Israel in the middle to late 19th Century, and include such topics as the rise of Nationalism - both in general and specifically Jewish, Ottoman, and Arab.

Any attempt to present this as commencing in '48 is nonsense, and it can be presumed an author who does so intends to take advantage of ignorance among the audience....

Most of what is today Israel is a generation of people that came here after WW2. So what does what was before that have to do with the present conflict?

Are you saying this goes hundreds of years ago?

Where would you suggest beginning a discussion of Slovenian secession from post-Tito Yugoslavia? Do you think a person could properly understand it who did not know something of events in the Second World War, or in the Kingdom previous to that, or even of relations with Austria-Hungary dating into the nineteenth century and beyond?

Certainly, in this question, what happened in '48 can hardly be understood without comprehension of what occured during the Mandatory period, and that cannot be understood without reference to at least the latter days of the Ottoman.

about that was made in the 70's not during WW2 or even in the first part of the century. That was the same generation or their direct descendents that was involved. Here we talk about several centuries ago if I understand correctly, entirely different generations and people. I fail to see how what happened then and what happened post WW2 and the whole British Mandate have to do with those times.

Has there not been a long history of irridentism relative to Croatia about the place? My study of matters Balkan is not so deep as my studies of the Orient, or partisan warfare, but there do seem to me to be some long roots there. My interest in history is long-standing, and it has always seemed to me an exercise in peeling onions: there is always a deeper layer.

In the Levantine matter, it is hard to overrate the importance of previous events. Both sides have long memories, and nurse grudges to a degree that would make an Irishman blush. To take just one minor example: why do you suppose Hebron was the locale of one of the first settlements contrived after '67, and that by an extraordinarily radical group? Because an old Jewish community in Hebron was driven out by massacre in 1929, and Arab Nationalists trumpeted this as one of their greatest successes down the years since. For another: why do you suppose Jenin was so fiercely defended, and is such a hot-bed of anti-Israeli sentiment? It was the point of origin for the Arab Revolt in the mid-thirties, and produced the first martyr of that rebellion.

was never completely independet before 1991. Before it was SFRY, before that Monarchy of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians and before that the Austro-Hungarian empire. There was a degree of self-government (as a republic within) but not complete independence, no.

As for Israel, thanks for explaining. I now see what you were reffering to. Always a pleasure discussing with you ;)

It is a mutual pleasure, and it is into the bargain always a delight to learn.

Happy hunting, my friend!

Such such things as the Maribor Program or the rise of South Slavic nationalism following the success of the Serbian state in the Balkan wars of 1912/13 had minimal impact on the idea of an independent Slovenia? Or perhaps the rather unique history which made and kept Slovenia the the most homogeneous of the Yugoslav states - a factor which contributed significantly to its easy independence?

The idea of independence were actually first brought to light in the 1970's among the intelectuals, prior to that there was no real serious discussion about it as far as I know my history. And even then it was more about a confederation then talk about complete independece which became actuality in the end of the 1980's with the rise of Milosevic. Anyway enough of this, I have gone off topic here ;)

The return of property and compensation has already been promised. No mention here of the terror attacks, the terrorists who have come to dominate the PA, and the victims of terror. They too deserve compensation. A reign of terror is not going to bring peace, as much as Arafat seems to believe it. The struggle for the Palestinians to dominate the Israeli Jews is over.