History Isn't on the Palestinians' Side
Arafat's strategy is suicidal in more ways than one.

BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON

opinionjournal.com| Tuesday, April 2, 2002 

For all the efforts of our contemporary theorists to harness and sometimes refashion history, the facts of the past belong to no one--and won't go away. Those who conjure it up often discover to their dismay that they themselves are subject to its brutal laws of truth. The Palestinians are fast learning of history's ironies and unintended reminders, as they seek to invoke the past to convince Americans of the righteousness of their present plight.

Take the idea of the occupation of Arab lands since 1967, which the Palestinians now cite as a singular historical grievance that needs immediate rectification through intervention of the U.S. But sadly occupation and partition are the bastard children of war; and history, rightly or wrongly, is not kind to states that repeatedly attack their neighbors--and lose.

Ask the millions of poor Germans who had their ancestral lands confiscated by Poland and France--and their country subsequently partitioned for a half century. Why do the Russians still occupy portions of the old Japanese homeland decades after the surrender? How is it that the British won't give up Gibraltar long after their successful battles against the Spanish fleet? And why must the world give far more attention to Palestine than it does to Tibetans, Irish and Chechens?

The situation on the West Bank is not only commonplace in history's harsh calculus, but prevalent even throughout the Arab world today. Right next door in Lebanon, Syria controls far more Arab land than does Israel. And if Palestinians suffer second-class citizenship under Israeli occupation, they are worse off in occupied Lebanon where, as helots, they are denied basic rights to employment, health care and government services.

Kuwait ethnically cleansed all Palestinians--perhaps a third of a million--just a decade ago. Well after the 1967 Six Day War, the Jordanians themselves slaughtered thousands. Before the intifada more Palestinians sought work in a hated Israel than in a beloved Egypt. History suggests that there is more going on in Palestine than the morality of occupation.

The Palestinians have turned to suicide bombers--terrorists boasting of a new and frightening tactic that cannot be stopped. But they should recall the kamikazes off Okinawa that brought death, terror and damage to the American fleet--before prompting horrific responses that put an end to them for good and a lot more besides. In general, the record of terrorist bombers--whether Irish, Basque or Palestinian--who seek to reclaim "occupied" lands is not impressive in winning either material concessions or the hearts and minds of the world.

Palestinian spokesmen decry asymmetrical casualty figures, as if history has ever accorded moral capital to any belligerents that suffered the greater losses in war. Again, ask imperial Japan or Nazi Germany whether the ghosts of millions of their dead today carry moral weight when their governments once sought war against their neighbors.

Deliberately trying to blow apart civilians will never be seen as the moral equivalent of noncombatants dying as a result of the street fighting in the West Bank. Afghans accidentally killed by errant bombing in Kandahar are different from those deliberately incinerated on Sept. 11. Somalis killed in Mogadishu by American peacekeepers--far more civilians dying there in two days than in two years on the West Bank--are not the same as those murdered by thugs in jeeps trying to steal food from the starving.

Americans learned in Vietnam and Mogadishu that it is hard to distinguish civilians from soldiers when gunmen do not always wear uniforms and take potshots from the windows of homes: They are real killers when alive, but somehow count as "civilians" when dead. The problem is not that the Palestinians are losing more than the Israelis due to their greater victimhood or morality, but rather that they find themselves losing very badly to a military far more adept at fighting.

Nor do the Palestinians' cries for justice exist in an historical vacuum. True, the current Arab-Israeli war--at least the fourth since 1948--is fought over the West Bank; but that is only because the theater of operations has changed somewhat since the Arab world lost the first three wars to destroy Israel proper. Less than two years ago, Yasser Arafat was offered almost all of the West Bank and would now be the unquestioned strongman of his own tribal fiefdom had he taken such a generous Israeli offer. His own scheming and the intifada--not Israeli extremism--brought back to him his old nemesis, Ariel Sharon.

Again, the problem for the Palestinians is not that Americans are ignorant of the historical complexities of the Middle East, but that we know them only too well.

Palestinian spokesmen give us moralistic lectures about remaining disinterested as "honest brokers"--even as they appeal to Arab anti-Semitism and racial solidarity on grounds of national, religious and ethnic empathy. That double standard puzzles America, because by any such measure we also find affinity in shared values, and so have almost none with the Palestinians, who, like the entire Arab world, do not embrace real democracy, free speech, open media and religious diversity.

Nor is it good public relations for illegitimate dictatorships of the Arab League to shake fingers at democracies in America and Israel on issues of equality and fairness. The problem is not that the Palestinians object to the idea of displaying preferences per se, but that their own biases and prejudices have so little appeal to Americans.

We are told that the Palestinians have a long memory of, and reverence for, the past--especially the injustice of 50 years of lost homelands. But Americans are not ahistorical. We remember Sept. 11, and the Palestinians who cheered our dead before being admonished by a terrified Arafat.

For the past three decades Palestinian terrorists and their sponsoring brotherhoods have murdered Americans abroad. Palestinians embraced Saddam Hussein's cause and clapped as Scuds plunged into Tel Aviv and blew apart American soldiers in Saudi Arabia. An entrapped Arafat now calls for American succor, but a few months ago scoffed that the U.S. was irrelevant as far as he was concerned. The problem, again, is not that Americans have forgotten Palestinian acts, but that we remember them all too well.

The Arab world warns of its martial prowess and deadly anger--as American flags burn, threats to kill us are issued, and "the street" shakes its collective fist. But we Americans remember 1967, when we gave almost no weapons to the Israelis--but the Russians supplied lots of sophisticated arms to the Arabs. In the Six Day War, the state radio networks of Syria, Egypt and Jordan boasted to the world that their triumphant militaries were nearing Tel Aviv even as their frightened elites pondered abandoning Damascus, Cairo and Amman. And we recall the vaunted Egyptian air force in 1967, the invincible Syrian jets over Lebanon, the Mother of All Battles--and the Republican Guard that proved about as fearsome as Xerxes' Immortals at Thermopylae.

A beleaguered Arafat now wildly works his Rolodex for support for his autocracy. But history answers cruelly that strongmen in their bunkers are as impotent as they are loquacious--and as likely to receive disdain as pity. Moammar Gadhafi was a different man after the American air strike proved his military worthless and his person no longer sacrosanct. The rhetoric of the Taliban in September promised death; in October they and their minions went silent. In wars against bombers and terrorists, the past teaches us that peace comes first through their defeat--not out of negotiations among supposedly well-meaning equals.

We all would prefer, and should strive for, peaceful relations with the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Syrians--and all the other 20-something dictatorships, theocracies, and monarchies of the Middle East--as well as a state for the Palestinians. But the day is growing late; our patience is now exhausted; and sadly an hour of reckoning is nearing for all us all. The problem is, you see, that we know their history far better than they do.

Mr. Hanson, a military historian, is author most recently of "Carnage and Culture" (Doubleday, 2002).

Some facts about the West Bank

What is the origin of this term?

In 1948 Jordanian forces captured a part of Israel called Judea and Samaria, which are the West Banks’ true Biblical names. After the Jordanians had captured it, they killed or displaced all the Jewish people living there.

In early 1950, Jordanian King Abdullah annexed the districts of Judea, Samaria and east Jerusalem ~ even though only two nations ~ Britain and Pakistan, recognized his move. In order to reduce Jewish claims to the area, the King dropped the biblical names Judea & Samaria and announced that the annexed land would be known as the West Bank of the Kingdom of Jordan, since it was located beyond the west bank of the Jordan River. Jordan occupied this area from 1948 to 1967, when Israel reclaimed it.

The Mountains of Israel (today's West Bank) are mentioned on many occasions in the Bible, and are the heart of the Land promised by God to the children of Israel. They are Judea and Samaria, the inheritance of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Joseph.

The importance of the West Bank, and the battle over it, are understood better when you realize what it is that the Arabs are trying to take away from Israel.

First of all, in this "West Bank" are the places of Bethel, Ai, Shilo, and Shechem.... these were made famous by Abraham, Jacob and Joshua. They are located in the Mountains of Israel. Joshua and the bones of Joseph were buried in this area (Joshua 24: 30 - 32).

Also in this area is BETHANY, the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. There is Bethlehem, the home of King David and of course the birth place of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua, Jesus.

Then we find Hebron is also situated in the Mountains of Israel, Hebron is where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Leah, and Jacob ~ whom God changed to Israel are buried. (All this is a huge and very important part of history to the Jewish people).

And of course there is Jerusalem, which is the only place the Palestinians haven’t fully got today. Of course it was in Jerusalem where the Jewish Temple stood, where David and Solomon ruled, and where Jesus (who was very much a Jew)died and rose again.... these are all located in the Mountains of Israel (or what the world calls The West Bank)

Now it may surprise you to learn that the so-called West Bank includes all the places mentioned. If Israel was seen as the man he originally was, then the West Bank would be his very heart.

Rip that out and there is no life left in Israel.

Take the mountains of Israel away, deny the biblical significance of this place and what we have, is a land ruled by a people who worship a false god, namely Allah, a people who even today offer their lives to Molech, as a human sacrifice (the suicide bombers).

These days we are living in are so evil, that today's Politicians have swallowed the big lie, and openly declare that ‘Islam is a religion of peace, and that there is religious freedom in the Islamic world.’ With this in mind, let me draw your attention to some news I received on November 06, 2001. It stated, "Several human rights organizations report that many Muslim-ruled countries have dismal records when it comes to religious freedom and tolerance. Christians are particularly discriminated against. In fact, Christianity is banned in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Kuwait. The latest U.S. State Department religious freedom report rates Afghanistan among the worst offenders -- along with Burma, China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam. Runners-up include Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, where ‘leaving Islam for another religion’ is a capital offence. Turkmenistan, where four Baptists were tortured for having religious literature in their car, made the list, along with Uzbekistan. Nigeria, Indonesia and Sudan lead the world in actual death tolls of Christians, according to the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, the number of Christians and animists who have perished in Sudan is estimated at 2 million." Yet, by contrast, roughly 1.8 million to 2 million Muslims in the U.S; not to mention those here in the UK, are free to construct mosques, set up their own non-profit groups, evangelize for their own religion and raise funds...and are protected by our law.

These are indeed ‘Days of trouble.’ Who would have expected, just seven days before the "Days of Awe" (Rosh Hashanah in the Jewish calendar) that the events which, according to the World’s media ‘changed the world’ (September 11) would happen. Yet none of us should have been taken by surprise really, especially when statements which I've printed above are made public: (i.e.. Israel shall pass. America, shall pass, the oppressing state Britain, shall pass,  make war on them in any place that you find yourself. Any place that you encounter them - kill them. Kill the Jews and those among the Americans that are like them...) As mentioned, the Palestinians repeatedly use Islamic sources to defend this religious hatred, even demanding the killing of Jews as a current obligation and the "will of Allah" and these statements have indeed brought us into these troubled times.  Where though, will they lead us to?

Thank you for your time.

Yours faithfully,

David Soakell

www.cfi-northeast.org.uk

See  Myths of the Middle East