Anton and Jules
Anton and Jules bump into each other at a local Starbucks. Anton is a vocal antisemite and Jules is a practicing Jew. They have a casual relationship and sit down to talk.
J: Anton, how’s it going? It’s been a few years.
A: Not bad. You know, life just goes on.
J: You got that right. But something significant is happening in the near east. How do you see it?
A: I see it as a long overdue protest against the Jewish occupation of Palestine. Israel is the historical Palestinian homeland and the Jews have taken it over and forced them out.
J: Anton, I don’t think that’s accurate. A reading of history shows that for the last 3,000 years the Jews have claimed the land of Israel as their homeland. The biblical book of Exodus describes this. The Arabs living in this area have never claimed it as their homeland.
A: For centuries the Arabs have lived in this area and it has been referred to as the Palestine area.
J: Yes, and Jews have been living in this area along with the Arab majority. Although it has been referred to as “Palestine”, there has never been a Palestinian state. The Arabs living in this rather desolate land were primarily nomadic and have never claimed it as their homeland.
A: Since the advent of Islam around 600 AD, the Muslim Arabs have claimed Jerusalem as a sacred Muslim holy site.
J: True. Along with both Christians and Jews, the Muslims do claim Jerusalem as a religious holy site and have been sharing it as such for centuries. But a religious site and “homeland” have different meanings. Mecca in Saudi Arabia is the holiest city in Islam, not Jerusalem. The Jews claim both Jerusalem as the holiest of sites and the surrounding area as their homeland for the last 3,000 years.
A: For the last 100 years Zionism has urged Jews around the world to immigrate to Israel and expel all the Arabs.
J: Zionism does exist and has urged Jews to immigrate to their homeland known as Israel. But Israel wants to exist as a Jewish state and to live in peace. Israel also recognizes the right of Palestinians to have their own state and to live in peace. The problem, however, is that most Palestinians and many other Muslims and Arabs, do not recognize the right of the Jewish state of Israel to exist. This has been true since 1947, when the United Nations voted to divide the land called Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
A: Arabs do not accept a two state solution and reject any UN solution that provides for a Jewish state.
J: The Jews accepted the United Nations partition but no Arab or any other Muslim country accepted it. When British rule ended on May 15, 1948, the armies of all the neighboring Arab states — Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, and Egypt — attacked the one-day old state of Israel in order to destroy it. The little Jewish state survived.
A: In this 1948 war the Israelis purposely drove all the Palestinians out of Israel and murdered many others.
J: The fact is that the Arabs states urged the Palestinians to leave the area before the invasion so that they would not be harmed. Approximately 200,000 did leave Israel. After their victory, the Israelis did not welcome back the Palestinians that left. It is interesting to note that none of the Arab states welcomed these Palestinians into their citizenship and they, and their offsprings, have remained in refugee camps ever since urging the destruction of the Israeli state.
A: Israel has never offered a solution or relief to the ejected Palestinians.
J: In 1967, the dictator of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, announced his plan, in his words, “to destroy Israel.” He placed Egyptian troops on Israel’s border, and armies of surrounding Arab countries were also mobilized to attack. However, Israel preemptively attacked Egypt and Syria. Israel did not attack Jordan, and begged Jordan’s king not to join the war. But he did. And only because of that did Israel take control of Jordanian land, specifically the “West Bank” of the Jordan River. Shortly after the war, the Arab states went to Khartoum, Sudan and announced their famous three “No’s: “No recognition, no peace, and no negotiations.” What was Israel supposed to do? Well, one thing Israel did, a little more than a decade later, in 1978, was to give the entire Sinai Peninsula — an area of land bigger than Israel itself, and with oil — back to Egypt because Egypt, under new leadership, signed a peace agreement with Israel. So, Israel gave land for the promise of peace with Egypt, and it has always been willing to do the same thing with the Palestinians – a “Two State” solution. All the Palestinians have ever had to do is recognize Israel as a Jewish state and promise to live in peace with it. But when Israel has proposed trading land for peace — as it did in 2000 when it agreed to give the Palestinians a sovereign state in more than 95% of the West Bank and all of Gaza — the Palestinian leadership rejected the offer, and instead responded by sending waves of suicide terrorists into Israel and launching deadly rockets into Israel. Meanwhile, Palestinian radio, television, and school curricula remain filled with glorification of terrorists, demonization of Jews, and the daily repeated message that Israel should cease to exist.
A: You tell me, Jules, what are these displaced Palestinians supposed to do to reclaim their land? Apparently, violence is their only answer.
J: The answer has been available ever since 2000. It is to accept a two state solution – land for peace. Gaza, a prime location on the Mediterranean coast, along with the west bank, are recognized by Israel as separate and apart from the Jewish state. They have their own elected leadership and are allowed to work within Israel and to conduct trade with Israel. Years ago the Palestinians living in Gaza elected the Hamas movement as their leaders. This leadership lies at the source of the ongoing problems. Hamas is a known terrorist organization and, along with Hezbollah, is funded and supported by Iran. Hamas, not the Palestinians living in Gaza, will never accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. Many protestors in our country shout “From the river to the sea”. This is what Hamas wants: the destruction of Israel which lies between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea. Please, Anton, remember this: There has never been a state in the geographic area known as Palestine that was not Jewish. Israel is the third Jewish state to exist in that area. There was never an Arab state, never a Palestinian state, never a Muslim state. History confirms that the land belongs to those who claim it and make it prosper.