ADDRESSING ISRAEL AND THE "OCCUPATION" OF PALESTINE

So I'm on Facebook, as I am way too much often, when I stumble upon a post from an online friend that shows five teens who were on an Israeli Birthright Trip.  They decided mid-trip that the trip itself was too 'one-sided' or pro-Israel and wasn't showing the real issues that plague the country.  They decided to abandon the bus they were on to join a group called Breaking The Silence in going into the "occupied territories" to see the REAL story.

I want to address this from several points of view and present the issues with each.

First, know I am Jewish.  I have traveled now fairly extensively through Israel.  My wife was born in Israel originally, so there is probably some inherent bias here.  But also know, that at a point in my life back in 2008, I decided I knew zero Palestinian people and was therefore also being unduly influenced by my upbringing and my friends.  So I actually decided on my own, completely unpaid and without influence from any publication, to do a story on peace camps, one of which was starting out here in my own back yard of Los Angeles.  I stayed with the conference for most of the two weeks, met the Palestinian Israeli and Jewish Israeli participants and then went back to Israel to see what, of anything, had stuck with them from the experience of addressing the issues.  So, I, too, was very curious why Israel is such a hot-bed news item all the time.

Second, with that revealed - some factual backstory.

The idea of Israel and it's locale was born with Theodore Herzl, among others, who had witnessed the multiple injustices against Jews as minority guests in their home countries.  A famous trial of one loyal French Officer named Alfred Dreyfus convinced Herzl that even the noblest of Jews wouldn't be safe from those that held majority power, and that the only way for Jews to ever be safe was to have a land of their own.  Dreyfus was sentenced twice for crimes he didn't commit, but was eventually exonerated and reinstated in the French Army, where he further served in WWI (read more here).  Herzl became the leader of the Zionist movement, which was the desire to bring the Jewish people back to their original City of David, Jerusalem, and its homeland.

The Balfour Declaration

British Lord Balfour seemed to take sympathy to the plight of Europe's Jews and declared that the land of Palestine would be the rational place for a Jewish homeland, (Jerusalem has always been central to Judaism) and that the King would support the idea to achieve this.  Jewish immigration to Palestine increased, particularly as the Nazis rose to power and tore apart Western Europe and sought to exterminate Jews and other unwanted peoples.

Israel became a Jewish State officially under resolution 181 by the United Nations.  The resolution passed in 1947 and Israel declared their independence as a state in May 1948. The partition included a separate country for the Arabs who lived in Palestine at the time, which included Muslims and Christians and such. Israel's declaration included their desire to work and ally themselves with the new Arab State, as well as their neighbors.

The Arab countries in the area: Trans Jordan, which later would become several countries, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, rebuffed the declaration and swore they would not allow the establishment and simultaneously attacked.  The Arabs in the new Israeli State either joined the fight against Israel or fled for their lives, being displaced (see the Nakba below).  Israel survived, but the conflicts to keep their sovereignty would continue in 1956 (Suez Canal Crisis), 1967 (The Six Day War) and 1972 (The Yom Kippur War).  There have been several others since, but most have involved Israel taking action as the invasion force due to missile attacks from Lebanon's Hezbollah or from Hamas in the area known as The Gaza Strip.

When people refer to "the occupation" now, they generally are referring to the results of the Six Day War and Israel's capturing of the West Bank, Negev (desert), Gaza and the Golan Heights (Israel has since yielded all of Gaza, the majority of the Negev Desert and most of the Golan in peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt).  The West Bank has never been relinquished since 1967 and the Arabs that lived in Palestine since Britain's ownership have become known as the Palestinian people or nation.  They rallied around an Egyptian Arab, Yassar Arafat, who encouraged them to unite and form a nation to get their own homeland, even if that meant removing Israel from the picture.  Thus, he established the PLO- the Palestine Liberation Organization.  In 1991, he was able to garner with Israel a self-governing pact, so that the Palestinians could forge their own destiny.  However, peace agreements with Israel were never signed.

Ok, so that's a short history.  You can seek out more from many other sources, but that's a pretty factual summation of how things came to be.

The partition plan - FYI pretty
much the entire southern area is desert

Now, when one addresses "The Occupation" as it has come to be labeled, one must first differentiate between the Palestinian narrative on it and the Jewish one.  For many Palestinians, all of Israel is being "occupied," meaning they do not recognize Israel as a nation, but rather a force of occupiers which invaded their land, kicked them from their homes or murdered many in a travesty of injustice (referred to as the "Nakba" or catastrophe), and a force to be rebelled against, much like the Afghan rebels successfully repelled the invasion of Russia into Afghanistan over a period of years in the 1980's.  Others refer to "The Occupation" as the added lands Israel took in the Six Day War, of which, only the West Bank and a small part of the Golan has been retained.  Israel still controls the waters in the Mediterranean around Gaza, which they have used to their advantage in dealing with the Palestinian government and the violent factions of terrorist groups within (as recognized by the United States and others) such as Hamas, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Muslim Brotherhood.

So the question that is most important that has to be answered before addressing anything about the actions of both parties is does Israel have the right to exist?  Or more importantly, since it does exist, do you recognize Israel as a Sovereign Nation and Jewish State?

Assuming you DO NOT recognize Israel's right to exist as a sovereign nation. If the occupation of Palestine for you is the entirety of the land and you view the nation's government and army as foreign forces, then the actions of many of the factions within the Palestinian framework make sense.  You are captors in your own land, and you rebel, at will, and with violence if necessary, to free your people.  Plain and simple.  With this anything can be justified, even if it involves killing civilians. Because they are enemies and unwelcome occupiers, all our targets. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Government have no rights to defend their borders or their residents because both our falsehoods.  Any attacks from outside Israel committed by any factions or sympathizers of the Palestinian plight can be justified as resistance to take back the homeland.

This must be specified, because inside this belief system for many Jews contains ideas of anti-Semitism within it.  It is the complete disregard for the United Nations resolution, the accepting of the borders as laid out for two states.  For many Jews, it is the denying of the land simply because it was given to Jewish folks instead of somebody else.

Assuming you DO recognize Israel's right to exist but see the West Bank as Occupied Territory
If this is your viewpoint, then the argument changes in many ways because it becomes about how Israel goes about protecting its borders, its citizens and the Palestinians who still reside in their country and the occupied territory.  The Palestinian leadership, which in recent years became a split government of Fatah (Arafat's PLO led coalition) and Hamas, the radical terrorist wing that led a violent coup in Gaza and pushed Fatah out.  They have somewhat reunited under Abu Mazin (Mahmoud Abbas) the current Fatah President.

Israel today

Recognizing Israel as a country, which the Palestinian nation has never done as a whole (Arafat may have but the leaders of Hamas have not), changes things, because then violent actions committed by factions of Palestinians become less justifiable as resistance, particularly these mass protests where people hurl stones, burn tires and proceed to cut and cross border fences and walls with weapons.  There is also the case of rocket launches into Israeli territory from other nations, which immediately makes a case for putting the Israeli Armed Forces into action in a means of self -defense.

MY (BIASED) TWO CENTS (or more)
For me, the situation is untenable UNTIL the moderate Palestinians rise up against groups like Hamas and declare no more violence.  Until that day, it is impossible to ask any Jewish person to sit across a negotiating table and broker peace with a group whose charter (you can read here) is about killing Jews.

As for the difficulties that are bestowed on the residents of the West Bank and the border wall that has been built for many reasons, it isn't as black and white as some would believe, nor is it as easy a solution as the Palestinians assuring Israel there won't be any more terror attacks and we'll remove the barrier.  Money has been given to the Palestinian Government as aid many times over, yet little of it has reached the people that need it.  Corruption reigns huge within their fractious group of leaders, and weaponry has been at a premium for their radical factions.  That's not to say Israel's government doesn't have its own problems with corruption, etc.  However, it is a functioning government, with many parties and free elections.

As for the Israeli blockade of Gaza from the Mediterranean Sea, it is also a brutally tough double-edged sword.  Often I have read of medical supplies being allowed in.  I have also read and been told that Hamas will never let their people receive any of it, and will constantly blame Israel at the same time for all of their hardships.

You should note that per Israel's borders post 1967, Israel withdrew from the entire Sinai Desert and eventually removed their settlers from the Gaza Strip, all the while warning that their removal would result in increased rocket attacks with Gaza becoming the staging point.  That is exactly what has happened.  You should also take into account that Israel's peace accords with Jordan and Egypt have remained intact since the day they were signed, signaling that it would appear Israel is good to their word when signing peace deals.

I encourage everyone to go to Israel, speak to both Israeli and Palestinian residents in the many different areas.  There are compelling reasons for two states and for an amicable solution.  There are many myths which need to be dispelled, the first of which that this conflict is centuries old.  It is actually not.  Palestinian Jews and Arabs used to get along and work side by side before Israel, and you can find testament of this from many people who were raised there prior to the U.N. resolution.

AS FOR THE TEENS ABOVE
To address the posting on Facebook - the Jewish Teens that left their Birthright Trip --- what they did was horribly insulting and very immature.  Birthright is a sponsored trip to Israel provided by boosters among the Jewish Community and within Israel to provide those who can't ever afford to get to Israel, and even those that can, a free opportunity to visit the land JUST because they're born Jewish.  To go on this trip, take the free ride and money, and then insult the sponsors because you don't feel you're getting the real story or the picture you wanted to see is disrespectful and selfish to say the least.  To film it, and try to make a point, even more so.

ADDED 7/12 - I also want to add, that if you watch the video, it is astonishing that these teens who wanted to find "truth" did not supply any videos of the interviews they did, the things they saw, etc.  Instead, they chose at the end to provide a very unspecific joint statement about a city that has faced challenges... they didn't address what those challenges were and what the causation was for the resulting situation in Hebron at all.  I find that astonishing if their purpose was supposedly to shed light on a 'hypocritical' Birthright trip.  I think they should be ashamed of what they did -- there are tons of trips to Israel, and many will take on the liability of taking Westerners to the "Occupied" areas.  But do these things on your own dime like I did.  You should.  Go and see and interview and meet and get the whole story.  But don't take someone else's money to do it.  Have the guts to pay for it, set it up yourself, and find your own way.

I hope this was informative for my readers.  Please share and like the blog if you follow and feel free to comment.