I am halfway into my third week here. Four days until I leave Israel. I will have only seen part of the country on this trip. My perspective is obviously limited but still feels significant.
Several questions have been percolating in my mind. I wonder what the Palestinians could have done if they had chosen to accept their half of the 1948 UN partition plan and had spent the past 77 years building the best country possible for their people rather than focusing only on their hope to destroy Israel and ultimately control the entire region that previously had been the British Mandate for Palestine. (Established by the League of Nations in 1922.)
I understand that people could argue for the next 100 years whether or not the exact border proposed in 1948 were “fair” or reasonable. That is perhaps an interesting intellectual argument for some. However, the argument about whether the Jews have a historical tie to this land or a right to a nation of their own is simply stupid. Of course, Jews have been in the region since the time of the Bible and Israel has a right to exist. (this might be a natural segue in the discussion of whether anti-Zionism is antisemitic, but I will save that for a separate post).
In 1948, the other Arab countries in the region (notably Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon) invaded the newly declared Israeli state. Whether or not the invading Arab countries vowed to “kill all the Jews” seems to be uncertain. (I have not yet found verification). What is certain is that not only was there not an independent Palestinian leadership formed in 1948 to accept the partition and build their own state, it was stated goal of the Jordanian government to occupy and annex for itself the West Bank areas that were supposed to be the majority of the independent Palestinian state according to the UN Partition plan but also to annex and occupy the holy areas and the city of Jerusalem that was intended to remain internationally free and independent zone. It was also the stated goal of Egypt to occupy and annex the Gaza strip. There is actually substantial documentation that these were the stated goals of the Egyptian and Jordanian governments. There was never a plan or a promise by the invading Arab countries to create an independent Palestinian state if it won the 1948 war. More importantly, it is historical fact (not possible for any honest dispute) that at the end of the 1948 war Egypt controlled the Gaza strip and Jordan controlled the West Bank and most of Jerusalem. That situation lasted for another19 years until the 1967 war.
All of this of course leads to my big what if question. What could the Palestinians have been able to build on their half of the region if in 1948 they had the leadership to accept the promise of an independent homeland and had spent the last 77 years build a promenade along the beautiful Mediterranean coast in Gaza with restaurants and hotels and trains and hospitals and great universities and orchards growing fruit trees and industries to provide jobs that improved the quality of living for others. Imagine if anything near the sum of money that was spent building tunnels for the fighters of Hamas and to the families of the suicide bombers of Fatah had gone into the building of homeland. I have no doubt that such an independent Palestinian State (if founded in 1948) would have rivaled the Jewish State of Israel in beauty, productivity and quality of life for its citizens.
Imagine if instead of 7 wars and Intifadas since 1948 the independent nations of Israel and Palestine had lived in guarded peace and as economic partners for the past 77 years instead of as occupiers and terrorists. This post is really not intended to assign blame for the mistakes that were made. Mistakes were made on all sides. It simply to inspire our imagination as to the question of what if….
I hope this has been interesting for those of you following. Please continue to send me comments and questions at adrchildlaw@hotmail.com. If you are so inspired, please feel free to share the link for this post to your own friends and followers.