Talk about chutzpah — and it’s ironic that I use that word when describing those Arabs who are looking to make peace with Israel. First off, a few days ago, when former President Jimmy Carter paid a visit to the Mideast to try and see if Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules over Gaza, would make some kind of a peace deal with Israel, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said his group would never recognize Israel, but would accept a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital, full sovereignty and the right of refugees to return. Geez, thanks Khaled. What a guy!
In return, we are led to believe, Hamas would stop firing rockets into Israeli towns and cities. I have a better solution. Why doesn’t Israel just declare war on Hamas and wipe them all out — forever. Without doubt, Hamas is the stumbling block between the Palestinians and Israelis, and unless and until Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cracks down on them and gets them under control, there will never be any kind of a peace deal between the two groups.
What to me is mind-boggling, however, is Meshaal’s, and Abbas’ conditions for peace and a Palestinian state. And here’s where the chutzpah kicks in. Both want Jerusalem as the capital of a new Palestinian state. So what if Jerusalem is now the capital of Israel? Then they want all of the lands taken by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. Hmmm….if you remember, Egypt, Jordan and Syria decided they were going to teach those pesky Israelis a lesson and drive them into the sea, as they had often promised to do. Despite being outnumbered by at least 1,000 to one, the Israelis kicked the shit out of the Arabs and took the land they controlled following the battle. Have the Arabs never heard the phrase: “To the victor go the spoils.”
And if that isn’t enough, they are demanding something called the “right of return”. What this means is that Palestinian refugees, both first-generation refugees and their descendants, have a right to return to the homes and villages they left or were forced out of in Palestine (currently Israel and Palestinian territories) as result of the 1948 Palestine war (which the Arabs also lost) and the 1967 Six-Day War.
The number of displaced Palestinians from the 1948 war is approximated at 700,000 and most sources tend to agree that 280,000 to 350,000 became refugees during the Six-Day War . Approximately 120,000-170,000 among the '67 refugees are believed to have also been refugees from the '48 war, fleeing a second time. Today the number of Palestinian refugees, including both first-generation refugees and their descendants, is estimated to be at least four million.
There are presently some 1.5 million Arabs living in Israel, making up almost 20 percent of the population. If four million more are allowed to return to Israel, there would be 5.5 million Arabs. This compares to less than 5 million Jews living there. So you can easily see why Israel rejects the “right of return” as a condition for peace and a Palestinian state.
Yesterday, King Abdullah II of Jordan urged President Bush to get the stalled negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians back on track. Bush, of course, has told the two parties that he wants a peace deal signed before he leaves office next January. This does not bode well for Israel as we can expect a lot of pressure from the U.S. administration over the next six months to try and get Israel to make concessions.
So far, Israel has been able to follow its own course and concentrate on doing what’s best for Israel — and not what the U.S. or Arab world wants. Bush and whomever the next President might be wants to realize that oil may be important, but a strong ally with military power in the Mideast is much more important in the long run. No-one in the world knows how to fight terrorists better than the Israelis. A fact the U.S. should not ignore.
