ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS, PART I

ISRAEL and the PALESTINIANS, PART I

PHOTOS FROM GUSH ETZION - see write-up below  

View from Tower

Nearby Arab Village

Gush Etzion Neighborhood Playground

Check-point entering the West Bank

Israeli Surveillance Tower with Long Range View to Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea

Israeli Townhomes

Israeli Vineyards

Israeli Winery (seen in a mirror)

Our Honest Reporting mission helped us to see and to understand Israel – its history, archaeology, diverse peoples, science and technology, political and military concerns – from complex and varying viewpoints. One day was dedicated to “The Struggle for the Land” in which Col. (Res.) Grisha Yakubovitch, a Russian immigrant to Israel, took us to the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank to view and discuss controversial questions regarding Israel’s presence there. This area is also referred to as Judea and Samaria, the geographical names of Biblical Israel and now the Israeli government's term for this administrative division.  

The mountain top of Gush Etzion and the long ridge going north to Jerusalem was a militarily strategic area for access to Jerusalem. In the early 1920’s, a small Zionist group that recognized its importance purchased the area from local Arabs but had only limited success in establishing a viable settlement on the dry rocky soil. In 1929, and again in 1937 the village was razed by Arab rioters in protest against the settler’s presence. In 1943, probably in anticipation of a new partition plan for Palestine, a stronger, better supported effort was made and several villages were located in this unpromising area and collectively known as Gush Etzion.  In 1948, Gush Etzion was attacked by the Arabs since it was a key to accessing Jerusalem. While the settlers evacuated their children, the adults stayed to fight…and fight they did until the very end.  Those who surrendered were murdered—the cellar where some of this killing took place is preserved as a memorial to these pre-State settlers. Finally, the village was destroyed and the land was occupied by the Jordanian Army.  

But the story did not end there. In 1967, after being convinced by Egypt’s dictator Nassar, the Jordanians attacked Israel. Israel defeated the Jordanians in the Six Day War who evacuated the West Bank and retreated to the line of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.  

Gush Etzion remains important geographically and now emotionally to the Israelis, especially to the children, now grown adults, of those who lost their lives there. This group of young survivors have resettled this land by building several villages which are now known as the Gush Etzion bloc. In doing so, they secured an essential water supply, uncovered sites of archeological interest, developed a nature preserve, planted vineyards --  in essence they built a new economy for this ancient site. Though well defended, its location is still perilous as numerous Arab villages surround both it and the roads leading to Jerusalem. In fact, it was the site of a recent terror attack with a car. Nonetheless, it thrives.

Here, in the West Bank, Palestinians and Israelis live in close proximity and in tension. The region was divided into three sections in the Oslo Accords of 1994 -  Areas A, B and C.  Without being too technical: one area was fully under the civil and security control of Israel and most likely to become Israel in the final agreement;  the second area had Palestinian civil and Israeli police and military control; the third area was under full Palestinian civil and police control;. The mind spins with these distinctions, but that’s the way they live.   

Colonel Yakubovitch was pessimistic that any peace process could succeed at this time due to major obstacles which one can see everyday.

1.   Palestinian education that teaches school children to demonize Jews and to deny Israel the right to exist. The system of propaganda in the schools poisons the minds of the young leading to subsequent radicalization of the people against Israel. This message of hatred is also conveyed through the mosques and in the Arab press.

2.   Governmental subsidies are given to families of suicide attackers who kill Israeli citizens. And if the suicide attacker survives, his family receives lifetime support and he receives a lifetime pension.  “7% of PA budget was given to terrorists.” December 10, 2018, HonestReporting.

3.   Right now there is no Palestinian leadership to work towards an agreement or compromise. In fact, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has little to no authority and is generally viewed as corrupt by the Palestinian people. 

4.   The allegiance of the Palestinian people is divided between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas (Gaza) with no one able to speak for the collective whole. Col. Yakubovitch suggested we might have to think in terms of a Three State Solution.

5.   And most significantly, neither the PA nor Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist as Jewish state, or for that matter, any kind of state. A genuine peace process can only begin when  Abbas acknowledges Israel's right to exist to his own people in Arabic, not just saying it in English to the western world.

After a day’s visit to this section of the West Bank, taken or retaken (depending on your point of view) by the Israelis in the 1967, Six-Day War, we came back to Jerusalem pondering the inherent difficulties in reaching any solution. Col. Y. felt that this conflict could take a generation or more to resolve.

One month later, we gained a new perspective and somewhat increased hope when reading our friend Max Singer’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed entitled REFUTE PALESTINIAN LIES TO PROMOTE MIDEAST PEACE. Max’s piece, and some further observations, are in our next blog entry: ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS PART II