Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict

385 Pages·2006·4.04 MB·English

by  Mitchell G Bard

A GUIDE TO THE
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Mitchell G. Bard
By
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Table of Contents
Preface ....................................................................................................................................................v
1. Israel’s Roots .................................................................................................................................1
2. The Mandatory Period ............................................................................................................14
3. Partition .......................................................................................................................................26
4. The War of 1948 .......................................................................................................................33
5. The 1956 War ............................................................................................................................40
6. The 1967 Six- Day War ............................................................................................................45
7. The War of Attrition, 1967–1970 .........................................................................................60
8. The 1973 War ............................................................................................................................67
9. Boundaries .................................................................................................................................71
10. Israel and Lebanon ..................................................................................................................85
11. The Gulf Wars ............................................................................................................................93
12. The United Nations ................................................................................................................100
13. Refugees ....................................................................................................................................109
14. The Treatment of Jews in Arab/Islamic Countries .......................................................138
15. Human Rights in Israel and the Territories ....................................................................160
16. The Palestinian War, 2000–2005 ......................................................................................178
17. Jerusalem ..................................................................................................................................201
18. U.S. Middle East Policy ..........................................................................................................215
19. The Peace Process ..................................................................................................................241
20. Settlements ..............................................................................................................................289
21. The Arms Balance ..................................................................................................................300
22. The Media ................................................................................................................................309
23. Arab/Muslim Attitudes Toward Israel...............................................................................323
APPENDICES .....................................................................................................................................333
The Military Balance in the Middle East .........................................................................334
The Middle East Road Map .................................................................................................335
The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) .................................342
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 ..........................................................344
Recommended Internet Resources ...........................................................................................345
Suggested Reading .......................................................................................................................348
Index of Myths .................................................................................................................................350
Alphabetical Index .........................................................................................................................361
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise ................................................................................377
About the Author ............................................................................................................................378
iv Table of Contents
TABLES
1—Jewish Immigrants to Palestine ......................................................................................16
2—Palestinian Refugees Registered by UNRWA ...........................................................126
3—Jerusalem’s Population ...................................................................................................201
4—The Value of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) Orders by State ........................225
5—Jewish and Arab Populations in Key States .............................................................236
6—“Consensus” Settlements ...............................................................................................297
MAPS
1—Great Britain’s Division of the Mandated Area, 1921–1923 .................................15
2—The Partition Plan—1947—UN General Assembly Resolution 181 ......................27
3—Peel Commission Partition Plan, July 1937 ................................................................30
4—The Arab Invasion, May 15, 1948 .................................................................................34
5—Armistice Lines, 1949.........................................................................................................36
6—Terrorist Attacks, 1951–1956 ...........................................................................................42
7—The Sinai Campaign, 1956 ..............................................................................................42
8—The Golan Heights Prior to the 1967 War. Distances and Elevations ................46
9—Israel Before June 1967 ....................................................................................................49
10—The Egyptian Front, June 5–8, 1967 ..........................................................................50
11—The Battle for Jerusalem, June 5–7, 1967 ................................................................52
12—Cease-Fire Lines After the Six-D ay War, 1967 ........................................................54
13—Egyptian and Syrian Attack, Oct. 6, 1973 .................................................................68
14—Missile and Artillery Ranges From West Bank Positions ......................................72
15—The Golan Heights Ridge Line .....................................................................................75
16—Relative Size of the Golan Heights..............................................................................78
17—Flying Times to Israel ......................................................................................................80
18— Distances Between Israeli Population Centers and Pre-1 967
Armistice Lines ..................................................................................................................82
19—Israel’s Border with Lebanon (in 2000) ....................................................................88
20—Jewish Refugees from Arab States, 1948–1972...................................................110
21—UNRWA Refugee Camps (in 2000) ..........................................................................128
22—The Palestinian Authority’s Map of Palestine ........................................................258
23—Water Resources ............................................................................................................280
24—The Future Borders of Israel & Palestine? ...............................................................294
Preface
“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie—deliberate,
contrived and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive
and repeated.”
—President John F. Kennedy*
I am often asked to name the most prevalent myth about the Middle
East. The answer is the suggestion, in one form or another, that Israelis
do not want peace.
No one craves peace more desperately than Israelis, who have lived
through seven wars and an ongoing campaign of terror for nearly
six decades. This is why, as this book discusses, Israel has repeatedly
sought compromises, often at great risk, that would bring an end to the
confl ict.
Each time a new peace initiative is launched, our hopes are raised
that we will not need to publish another edition of Myths and Facts,
which was fi rst printed more than 40 years ago. We remain optimistic
that Israel’s neighbors will accept a Jewish state in their midst. In the
meantime, old myths, including ancient blood libels, continue to be re-
cycled and new calumnies promulgated. These must not be allowed to
go unanswered.
Myths and Facts pulls no punches when it comes to addressing Isra-
el’s responsibility for events and policies that tarnish its image. Friends
of Israel do not try to whitewash the truth, but they do try to put events
in proper context. That is also our goal. When friends criticize Israel, it
is because they want the country to be better. Israel’s detractors do not
have that goal; they are only interested in delegitimizing the country,
placing a wedge between Israel and its allies, and working toward its
destruction.
This new edition covers the basics of the history of the confl ict and
offers documented facts to respond to the most common myths. To learn
more, visit our Jewish Virtual Library (www.JewishVirtualLibrary.
org), where we continually update the online edition of Myths, archive
material we could not fi t in the book, and present key original docu-
ments. AICE is also pleased to offer Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian,
French, Swedish and Hebrew translations online. In addition, we have a
listserv for weekly myths/facts and other periodic updates. To sign up,
visit the News section of the Library.
*President John F. Kennedy, Commencement Address at Yale University, (June 11,
1962).
vi Preface
I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the distinguished
group of past editors: Sheila Segal, Wolf Blitzer, Alan Tigay, Moshe Dec-
ter, M.J. Rosenberg, Jeff Rubin, Eric Rozenman, Lenny Davis and Joel
Himelfarb. I would also like to thank Rafi Danziger, Rebecca Weiner,
Isaac Wolf, David Shyovitz, Alden Oreck, Elihai Braun, Sarah Szymkow-
icz, Avi Hein, Joanna Sloame, Stephanie Persin, Ariel Scheib, and David
Krusch for their invaluable assistance in the AICE editions.
AICE is especially grateful to the sponsors of this edition: the Harry
and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and Evelyn and Dr. Shmuel Katz
from Bal-H arbour Florida, who contributed in loving memory of the
AUSCH and KATZ family members O.B.M. H.Y.D. who perished during
the Holocaust in Europe. May their greatness be an inspiration to all
people of good will.
“Facts are stubborn things,” observed John Adams, “and whatever
may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they
cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” The following pages lay
out the stubborn facts about the Arab-I sraeli confl ict. They are the best
weapons we have to insure that truth triumphs over myth.
Mitchell G. Bard
January 2006
1. Israel’s Roots
MYTH
“The Jews have no claim to the land they call Israel.”
FACT
A common misperception is that all the Jews were forced into the Di-
aspora by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in
Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. and then, 1,800 years later, suddenly re-
turned to Palestine demanding their country back. In reality, the Jewish
people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than
3,700 years.
The Jewish people base their claim to the Land of Israel on at least
four premises: 1) the Jewish people settled and developed the land; 2)
the international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine
to the Jewish people; 3) the territory was captured in defensive wars
and 4) God promised the land to the patriarch Abraham.
Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and
the beginning of the exile, Jewish life in the Land of Israel continued
and often fl ourished. Large communities were reestablished in Jeru-
salem and Tiberias by the ninth century. In the 11th century, Jewish
communities grew in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea. The
Crusaders massacred many Jews during the 12th century, but the com-
munity rebounded in the next two centuries as large numbers of rabbis
and Jewish pilgrims immigrated to Jerusalem and the Galilee. Promi-
nent rabbis established communities in Safed, Jerusalem and elsewhere
during the next 300 years.
By the early 19th century—years before the birth of the modern
Zionist movement—more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout what is
today Israel.1 The 78 years of nation- building, beginning in 1870, culmi-
nated in the reestablishment of the Jewish State.
Israel’s international “birth certifi cate” was validated by the promise
of the Bible; uninterrupted Jewish settlement from the time of Joshua
onward; the Balfour Declaration of 1917; the League of Nations Man-
date, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration; the United Nations
partition resolution of 1947; Israel’s admission to the UN in 1949; the
recognition of Israel by most other states; and, most of all, the society
created by Israel’s people in decades of thriving, dynamic national ex-
istence.
2 MYTHS AND FACTS
“Nobody does Israel any service by proclaiming its ‘right to exist.’
Israel’s right to exist, like that of the United States, Saudi Arabia and
152 other states, is axiomatic and unreserved. Israel’s legitimacy is not
suspended in midair awaiting acknowledgement. . . .
There is certainly no other state, big or small, young or old, that would
consider mere recognition of its ‘right to exist’ a favor, or a negotiable
concession.”
—Abba Eban2
MYTH
“Palestine was always an Arab country.”
FACT
The term “Palestine” is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Ae-
gean people who, in the 12th Century B.C.E.*, settled along the Mediterra-
nean coastal plain of what are now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second
century C.E., after crushing the last Jewish revolt, the Romans fi rst applied
the name Palaestina to Judea (the southern portion of what is now called
the West Bank) in an attempt to minimize Jewish identifi cation with the
land of Israel. The Arabic word “Filastin” is derived from this Latin name.3
The Hebrews entered the Land of Israel about 1300 B.C.E., living
under a tribal confederation until being united under the fi rst mon-
arch, King Saul. The second king, David, established Jerusalem as the
capital around 1000 B.C.E. David’s son, Solomon, built the Temple soon
thereafter and consolidated the military, administrative and religious
functions of the kingdom. The nation was divided under Solomon’s
son, with the northern kingdom (Israel) lasting until 722 B.C.E., when
the Assyrians destroyed it, and the southern kingdom (Judah) surviving
until the Babylonian conquest in 586 B.C.E. The Jewish people enjoyed
brief periods of sovereignty afterward before most Jews were fi nally
driven from their homeland in 135 C.E.
Jewish independence in the Land of Israel lasted for more than 400
years. This is much longer than Americans have enjoyed independence
in what has become known as the United States.4 In fact, if not for for-
eign conquerors, Israel would be more than 3,000 years old today.
Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country, although Arabic
gradually became the language of most of the population after the Mus-
lim invasions of the seventh century. No independent Arab or Palestinian
*We use B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era), because they are neutral terms for
the periods traditionally labeled B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini—“Year of the Lord”).
1. Israel’s Roots 3
state ever existed in Palestine. When the distinguished Arab- American
historian, Princeton University Prof. Philip Hitti, testifi ed against parti-
tion before the Anglo- American Committee in 1946, he said: “There is
no such thing as ‘Palestine’ in history, absolutely not.”5
Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as hav-
ing a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim- Christian
Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian
representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution
was adopted:
We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been
separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national,
religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds.6
In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-H adi, told the Peel Com-
mission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: “There
is no such country [as Palestine]! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists in-
vented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centu-
ries part of Syria.”7
The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Na-
tions submitted a statement to the General Assembly in May 1947 that
said, “Palestine was part of the Province of Syria” and that, “politically,
the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming
a separate political entity.” A few years later, Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the
chairman of the PLO, told the Security Council: “It is common knowl-
edge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria.”8
Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post- World War I phenom-
enon that did not become a signifi cant political movement until after
the 1967 Six-D ay War and Israel’s capture of the West Bank.
MYTH
“The Palestinians are descendants of the Canaanites
and were in Palestine long before the Jews.”
FACT
Palestinian claims to be related to the Canaanites are a recent phenom-
enon and contrary to historical evidence. The Canaanites disappeared
from the face of the earth three millennia ago, and no one knows if any
of their descendants survived or, if they did, who they would be.
Sherif Hussein, the guardian of the Islamic Holy Places in Arabia, said
the Palestinians’ ancestors had only been in the area for 1,000 years.9
Even the Palestinians themselves have acknowledged their associa-
tion with the region came long after the Jews. In testimony before the
Anglo-American Committee in 1946, for example, they claimed a con-
nection to Palestine of more than 1,000 years, dating back no further