The contention that Israeli settlements built on land occupied by Israel after the war of June 1967 are the major obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is a red herring. That war, at that point the third in just 19 years that Israel was forced to wage in self-defense, was virtually universally recognized at the time as being necessary for Israel’s survival because of provocative and belligerent threats from its Arab neighbors.
In its first 19 years of existence as a democratic country – before the existence of a single settlement – Israel was under constant attack from Arabs who were intent on driving the Jews out of the Middle East. During that same time period, Israel absorbed survivors of mankind’s most despicable act of inhumanity, as well as countless refugees who were being persecuted in a variety of Arab countries where they had been living for centuries.
These newcomers, along with the Jews who were already in Israel (many of whose families had been there for generations) fulfilled a biblical dream by converting a land of swamps into one ‘flowing with milk and honey.’ In addition to setting up and maintaining a vibrant, responsible and responsive governmental structure, they founded and augmented various institutions that flourished in the arts and humanities, sciences and a host of technological fields, despite being in a constant state of war.
During that same period, the West Bank and Gaza were occupied by Jordan and Egypt, respectively. Never once did either of these countries offer the Palestinians, their downtrodden Arab brothers and sisters, even an acre of this land for a state. Rather, they and other Arab countries were content to allow the Palestinians to live in misery and nurture their hatred of Israel. In 1970, King Hussein of Jordan even went to war against the Palestine Liberation Organization, forerunner of the Palestinian Authority, trying to destroy it.
Prior to June 1967, the distance across Israel at its narrowest point was less than the distance from the northern to the southern tip of Manhattan. Therefore, from a military perspective alone, there was very good reason to hold on to the occupied land as a buffer against yet another attack.
The real reason why peace has not been achieved between Israel and the Palestinians is that many Palestinians – and other Arabs – still prefer that Israel not exist as a Jewish state in the Middle East. Since 1948, textbooks and other educational materials in schools throughout the Arab world have been filled with anti-Semitic distortions and propaganda, essentially ensuring that several generations of Arab youth would grow up hating Israel and Jews. The weekly Friday sermonizers at Arab mosques have spewed venomous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic diatribes, reinforcing a maniacal hatred of Jews.
A poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre, a respected Palestinian polling group (Public Opinion Poll No. 45; May 29-31, June 1-2, 2002), which used a random sample of 1,179 Palestinians over the age of 18 living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, produced the following results: 65.3% either oppose or strongly oppose the Oslo agreement, 52.3% either somewhat oppose or strongly oppose peace negotiations between Palestinians and
Israel and 51.1% want the end result of the current intifada to be the ‘liberation’ of all of historic Palestine.
Just last year, a professor at a university in Saudi Arabia published an article in which it was claimed that Jews use the blood of Muslim and Christian children to bake hamentaschen for Purim. How insane or immersed in hatred does one have to be to believe such outrageous propaganda?
After the Six-Day War of 1967, there were some prominent Israelis who, foreseeing a potential nightmare, urged the government not to settle the land Israel had just won (even though the Arab countries involved refused to take back the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace treaty).
We will never know what might have occurred had their advice been heeded. In view of the historical record, however, it’s nothing but a pipe dream to think that all would be peace and harmony if not for the existence of the settlements.