Middle-East Peace Agreement:

    Before 1947, Great Britain limited the number of Jews who could emigrate to Palestine.  It must be noted that the term "Palestine" is a made-up term and has nothing to do with the various inhabitants of the land.  Its actual name is "Judea and Samaria".  As the time for the nation of Israel to make its declaration approached, the Arabs who were left in control of Judea and Samaria by the British became worried that they might be killed by the Jews.  A great fear overtook Arabs living inside what would become the nation of Israel and outside of what would eventually become the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.  These Arabs allowed the rumors to insight a mass-exodus of Arabs to other bordering countries.  The offspring of those Arabs who fled in 1947-48 from the nation of Israel and settled in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon later settled in the Gaza Strip, which is in the West Bank.  Israel believed, and still believe, that Arabs ran out on their land and rights, and cannot be granted a Right of Return.  This angered the Arabs because they believed that they have the Right of Return like the Jews do.  The other reason that Israel denied the Arabs the Right of Return to the nation of Israel is because Israel is a democracy.  In a democracy, leaders and policies are often determined by popular vote.  Over time, if the Arabs were to have been granted the Right of Return, then the Arabs would be able to overthrow the Jewish State and replace it with an Arabic State.

    In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel conquered Egypt, Jordan and Syria.  Israel won the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.  The United Nations also divided Jerusalem in half in which Israel would have the eastern half while the Arabs would have the western half.  For us, the eastern half contains the burial sights of our patriarchs and matriarchs as well as the Wailing Wall.  However, Israel also inherited a loose confederation of warring Arab nationalities, who call themselves "Palestinians".  Ever since the Six-Day War ended, the Palestinians have been fighting to get the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and the Golan Heights back so that they could have their own Palestinian State.  They also want the entire city of Jerusalem as their capital.  Egypt did get the Sinai Peninsula back via the Cam David Accords, but this was not enough for the Palestinians.  They still want the remaining areas that Israel took over in 1967.

    During this last week, President George W. Bush has been meeting with the West Bank Palestinian leaders, excluding Hamas, and the Israelis in the hopes of producing a peace agreement before he leaves office.  However, George Bush said on Thursday, January 10, 2008 that he would like to see "an end to the occupation that was started in 1967".  If this occurs successfully, the Palestinians would have control over everything.  There would be no State of Israel.  Not only would us Jews have no homeland to return to, but we would lose access to the Wailing Wall and the burial sights of our patriarchs and matriarchs.

    When I first heard this on CNN, I thought to myself, "I could not have heard him correctly.  Did he really say this, was it a slip of his tongue, or did I misinterpret what he said?"  Later, Micaiah ben Malachi and I heard the same clip played on Israel National Radio.  George W. Bush did not speak with a tied tongue, nor did I misinterpret him.  How would he like it if the President of Mexico told him tomorrow that the US had to give back the southwestern part of the United States and Florida to Mexico?  Worse yet, how would he like it if a country that does not operate under a Democratic style of government told him tomorrow that the US had to give up Democracy for dictatorship?  He certainly would not settle for any of that without a fight.  Well, we Jews are not going to settle for his vision without a fight, either.  I cannot say for certain whether he is playing favorites or just shooting off with the lips because he cannot think of a better solution in such a short amount of time.  What I can say for certain is that, whoever becomes the next president will suffer the backlash from the Jews if such a vision as George W. Bush's comes to fruition.  I'm not saying that the next president wouldn't suffer a backlash from the Arabs if the vision was the reverse because they would.  I feel that, regardless of who the next president is, the best solution to the problem is for Israel's current borders to remain.  Besides, the Arabs have more countries than we do.  We only have the nation State of Israel.

 

Makedah bat Leah.