Put not your trust in princes
. . . -- Psalm 146:3
The people of Judah were once warned by a foe that it is folly
to lean on a staff made of reeds that will break (Isaiah 36:6). Today's equivalent
of princes are the governments and international organizations that make
agreements, promises and guarantees to or about Israel, woven of reeds. Now,
the princes are dictating to Israel the necessity of getting negotiations
with the PLO "back on track" – a track woven of reeds.
* * * * * * *
1917 – The Balfour
Declaration, issued by the government of Great Britain, pronounced that:
His Majesty's Government looks with favor on the establishment of a Jewish
National Home in Palestine, to be open to close Jewish Settlement.
1922 – The League of
Nations approves the terms of the Balfour Declaration and bestows on Great
Britain a Mandate for temporary administration of Palestine, in which it
is to carry out the terms of the Declaration and the Mandate.
In 1922, the Emir
Abdullah, a protege of the British Government, is driven out of the Hejaz
in Arabia. To provide for him, Great Britain takes all of Mandate Palestine
east of the Jordan River and gives it to him as the Emirate of Trans-Jordan
– later to be the Kingdom of Jordan. It thereby cuts away a full 75 percent
of the land of the promised Jewish National Home, and Jews are banned there.
Thereafter, the
British Mandatory Government progressively bans Jews from more and more of
the remaining territory of Mandate Palestine. Jews are forbidden to live
in areas that were designated for close Jewish settlement. Immigration of
Jews into the Jewish National Home is progressively cut down, and after 1939
it is virtually halted. The Jews are abandoned to the Nazi Europe, while Arabs
from other countries are permitted to enter Palestine illegally and settle
the lands first promised to and then forbidden to the Jews.
1945
The
United Nations confirms the terms of the League of Nations Mandate.
1947 The
U.N. General Assembly passes a resolution approving the establishment of
a Jewish State in 17 percent of Mandate Palestine. The member states of the
Arab League inform the United Nations that it intends to prevent the establishment
of a Jewish State by war and slaughter.
1948 The
British Government withdraws from Palestine. Israel declares the restoration
of its ancient sovereignty. It is immediately attacked by the military forces
of six Arab states, including the Jordan Legion that is trained and led by
British officers.
Jewish Jerusalem is under siege by the Jordan Legion, commanded
by British officers. The civilian population is under constant bombardment
and shelling, cut off from food, water and medicine. The United Nations,
that had declared itself a guardian of the Holy City, votes to abandon them
to their fate. .
1948-1949 A series of
Israel-Arab ceasefires and truces become intervals for the influx of men
and weapons to aid the Arab forces, while there is an embargo on weapons to
Israel.
In the last years of the Mandate, the British had seized Holocaust
survivors trying to reach the Jewish National Home and imprisoned them in
camps on Cyprus. Israel now bestows citizenship on them, but the British
refuse to release them from the Cyprus prison camps.
1949 The
Arab states that attacked Israel and failed to destroy it, now negotiate
Armistice Agreements.
JORDAN
had seized and now holds control over East Jerusalem, including Temple Mount
and the Western Wall, and territories of historic Judea and Samaria that it
renames "the West Bank".
In the terms of the Agreement, Jordan is pledged to permit Jewish
access to the Western Wall and other Holy Places. From 1949 until the end
of its hold in 1967, it forbids any access at all, not only to Israelis but
also to all Jews of any nationality.
Between 1948 and
1967, the government of Jordan destroys and/or desecrates the Jewish holy
places and historic sites. It turns ancient synagogues into stables. It tears
up ancient tombstones from the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives and
used them to pave latrines.
None of this attracts any attention from the international community,
the United Nations, or the Vatican.
Throughout the war, Israel had held on to Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.
Ob the Mount are the campus of The Hebrew University, that houses the National
Library, and Hadassah Hospital, the foremost medical institution in the Middle
East, that has always treated all patients alike, Jews or Christians or Muslim.
The 1949 Armistice lines left Mount Scopus isolated and surrounded by the
Jordanians. It is set down in the Agreement that Jordan will allow Israel
access to Mount Scopus and its cultural and medical institutions there. Jordan
never fulfills this commitment. Israel builds another University campus and
another hospital in other parts of Jerusalem, while the treasures of the Library
are held hostage.
From 1949 through 1967, there are relentless terrorist attacks
on Israel by "fedayeen" based in Jordan, and free of any restraint by the
Jordanian authorities. The United Nations and individual members thereof
never criticize this terrorism but shrilly condemn any Israeli reaction to
it.
EGYPT
is left in control of the Sinai Peninsula. (The Sinai was not Egyptian territory.
It was part of the British Mandate, and the British left the administration
of it to Egypt.) When the British left Egypt, the Sinai was left to Egyptian
administration.) It is also left in control of the Gaza Strip, that it seized
by force, and of the islands it had seized flanking the Straits of Tiran
that are the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba.
The Constantinople Convention on Freedom of the Seas requires
that the Suez Canal be open to all civilian ships and cargoes of all nations,
but Egypt illegally bans Israeli ships, and all cargoes to and from Israel
on ships under any flag. When Israel sends a small ship called the "Bat Galim"
to test this illegal ban, Egypt seizes the ship and the civilian crew.
It uses its hold on the Straits of Tiran to prevent access to
Israel's port of Elath, banning Israeli ships and cargoes to and from Israel.
In Gaza, Egypt maintains military bases that regularly fire across
the lines at Israeli civilian targets. Fedayeen terrorist attacks are also
launched from Gaza.
SYRIA
is left in control of the Golan Heights, overlooking the Galilee of Israel.
From 1948 through 1967, it uses this control of the high ground to shell Israeli
homes and farms in the valleys below. It tries to deny Israel use of its
own water resources. Israeli civilians are repeatedly attacked, wounded, killed,
or kidnapped and imprisoned.
1950 The
United States, Great Britain and France issue the Tripartite Declaration in
regard to Israel and the Arab states. It says:
The three governments, should they find that
any of these states was preparing to violate frontiers or armistice lines,
would, consistently with their obligations as members of the United Nations,
immediately take action, both within and outside the United Nations, to prevent
such violation.
[ See further, 1967 below]
1951 The
United Nations Security Council passes a resolution calling on Egypt to cease
its illegal blockade of the Suez Canal. Egypt ignores this resolution. No
further action is taken.
This resolution is historic in one sense: It is the first, last
and only time that an organ of the United Nations disapproves of any act
of aggression by an Arab state against Israel, and calls upon said Arab state
to desist – albeit futilely.
Otherwise, 53 years of Arab wars of aggression, terrorism, incitement
to violence, hijackings, illegal blockades and boycotts and virulent anti-Semitic
propaganda have not moved the United Nations to a word of disapprobation.
Unilateral condemnation of Israel is a sport of which it never wearies.
1956 The
Gaza Strip has for years been a base for Egyptian military and terrorist
attacks against Israel. Now, Egypt's President Nasser is openly preparing
a military assault for the destruction of Israel. He also seizes the Suez
Canal from the owners and declares it Egyptian property. Great Britain, France
and Israel join in military action against Nasser. Great Britain and France
take the Suez Canal. Israel takes the Sinai and the Gaza Strip.
United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, acting through
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, forces Great Britain, France and Israel to
retreat. He refuses Israel's demand that Nasser be required to renounce belligerency
against Israel.
President Eisenhower goes on U.S. television and delivers a speech
calling for international sanctions against Israel if it does not obey the
Dulles dictation. He does promise that if Egypt re-imposes the illegal anti-Israel
blockade, there should be "firm action by the society of nations".
Israel withdraws from Sinai and Gaza on assurances that U.N. troops
will be stationed there to keep the peace, and Egyptian troops will not re-enter
Gaza. Within a few hours of the Israeli withdrawal, Egyptian troops do re-enter
Gaza, and it again becomes a base for terrorism.
Egypt also re-imposes the illegal anti-Israel blockade of the
Suez Canal. When President Eisenhower is asked about this, he says that he
cannot think of anything to do about it.
1967 Egypt
orders the U.N. force out of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Secretary-General
U Thant complies instantly.
Egypt
re-imposes the blockade of Israeli shipping and cargoes through the Straits
of Tiran. The U.S. government acknowledges there was a guarantee against
this in 1957, but cannot remember where it is filed.
Egypt, Syria and Jordan and the recently established Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) declare the imminent launching of a war for
the final destruction of Israel and annihilation of the Jews. Their mighty
forces are paraded on television. Their spokesmen at the United Nations trumpet
their resolve on war and genocide. Nobody at the United Nations suggests
that they refrain.
Great
Britain and France declare that they are no longer bound by the Tripartite
Declaration that they issued and signed in 1950 (see above). The day the fighting
starts, the U.S. State Department declares itself "Neutral in thought, word
and deed".
After a Six-Day War of self-defense, Israel is again in possession
of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, and also of the Golan Heights.
It now is also in possession of Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem
– portions of the Mandate Jewish National Home that had been forcibly seized
by Jordan in 1948. This portion soon emerges from the propaganda mill transmogrified
into "occupied Palestinian territory", a newly-invented place that has never
existed.
1969-1971 Egypt terminates the 1967 Ceasefire Agreement and launches a
bloody War of Attrition along the Suez Canal, causing heavy casualties. Soviet
Union military personnel train Egyptian forces for another war against Israel.
They build a model of the Suez Canal in the desert, for practice crossings.
The Soviet Union installs missile launchers along the Suez Canal,
to give cover to Egyptian forces when they are ready to start the next war.
The Israeli air force takes out the missile launchers. The Russians continue
to install them, and Israel continues to take them out.
United States Secretary of State William Rogers demands that Israel
cease these strikes, and guarantees that no more missile launchers will be
installed. Israel agrees. The Russians and Egyptians keep on installing the
missile launchers without a break of a single day.
Israel supplies the U.S. State Department with aerial photographs
showing the ongoing installation of the banned missile-launchers. The State
Department is miffed that Israel exposes the futility of its guarantee. Nothing
is done to stop the installation of more missile launchers. Without them,
Egypt could not have launched the Yom Kippur War, or would have lost it much
sooner than it did.
1973 Egypt
and Syria attack Israel during the observance of the holy day of Yom Kippur.
The announced goal is, as usual, the destruction of Israel and the annihilation
of the Jews.
Early in the war,
The Security Council meets and decides not to meet again until it knows which
side is winning. When it decides that Israel is winning,
it imposes a ceasefire.
1974 Archbishop
and Apostolic Vicar Hilarion Capucci is found to be using his official car
to run guns and other weapons to the PLO, to be used in terrorist attacks
on Jewish civilians. The Archbishop is arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced
to prison.
The Vatican expresses distress -- not that an Archbishop should
be a party to terrorism but that he should be sent to prison for it. The
Vatican promises that if Israel releases the Archbishop, he will be sent
to a monastery in South America and never permitted to return to the Middle
East or be involved in Middle Eastern affairs. Israel accepts this promise,
and releases Capucci.
Within a short time, the Vatican breaks its promise to Israel
and permits Capucci to return to the Middle East and resume his activities
on behalf of the PLO. When Israel points out this breach of promise, a Vatican
spokesman says, "We cannot prevent him from loving the Palestinian people".
Capucci later shows up in Teheran, as an accomplice to the imprisonment
of U.S. diplomats.
1978 Israel
and Egypt sign a peace treaty. Israel turns over the entire Sinai Peninsula
to Egypt, that now for the first time becomes Egyptian territory. Egypt
finally ends it illegal blockade of the Suez Canal.
Egypt
never permits the development of normal relations of nations at peace. The
government-controlled news media continue to pour out hatred and slanders
and libels against Israel and all Jews. On two occasions, Egyptian military
men massacre Israeli civilian tourists. President Mubarak dismisses the incidents
as insignificant.
The government of Egypt states that it will support any other
Arab state or entity against Israel, regardless of the Peace Treaty. From
time to time it threatens to abrogate the Peace Treaty, even if Israel has
not violated any of the terms.
1994 The Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan signs a peace treaty with Israel. It also from time to
time threatens to abrogate the Peace Treaty, even if Israel has not violated
any of its terms.
2000 Hezbollah
terrorists, who control Southern Lebanon, cross the border and kidnap three
Israeli soldiers. After nine months, nothing has been learned of their fate.
2001 For
nine months, the United Nations falsely denies that its peacekeeping forces
in Lebanon took a film of the Hezbollah kidnappers and the vehicles they
used. They finally admit that it has the film. It refuses to let Israel have
a copy of the film, and offers only to allow Israelis to view a showing of
the film after the identities of the terrorist-kidnappers are disguised.
The United Nations argues that to allow Israel to have information
about the kidnappers would violate U.N. neutrality. It does not cite which
clause in the United Nations Charter requires neutrality between terrorists
and the victims of terrorism.
2001 The
European Union, whose collective devotion to human rights and humanitarian
concerns compels it to embrace most warmly the arch-terrorists and tyrants
of the PLO, has made a sport of seeing which member can display the most contempt
for Israel.
In the name of supporting humanitarian causes, the EU finances
those political and quasi-political fringe groups within Israeli society
that it believes will help forward its own chosen program for Israel.
A
letter to the President of the European Union from members of the Israeli
Knesset and cabinet, defines this practice as:
. . . providing financial support to Israeli groups/institutions/organizations
that are all partisan and political in nature. This is a blatant attempt at
interfering in the internal affairs of the State of Israel. . . . . The European
Union represents democratic states. Its democratic character is an inherent
part of its nature. As such, it should refrain from any attempt to influence
the internal democratic process of another democratic state. We, the undersigned
members of the Israeli Knesset, would like to express our shock and outrage
at this attempt at achieving political purposes by extending financial support
to Israeli citizens and groups.
As the elected representatives of a democratic, free society,
we strongly oppose such attempts at influencing our state's domestic politics
and the policies of our government, by financial means. . . . . Considering
that the European Union is a democratic institution, that represents free
and democratic nations, we are certain that it will act out of similar respect
for the sovereignty and freedom of the State of Israel.
To be "certain"
that Europe will indeed respect the sovereignty of Israel is another example
of leaning on broken reeds.
* * * * * * *
Now, the chosen purpose of the world's princes is to get the Israel-PLO
negotiations "back on track".
Past negotiations have indeed brought forth agreements -- in which
Israel makes unilateral concessions to the PLO. Of course, the PLO does commit
itself on paper to certain commitments and obligations of its own:
Oslo Accords: PLO fulfillment of its commitments: 0
Oslo II Accords: PLO fulfillment of its commitments: 0
Hebron Agreement: PLO fulfillment of its commitments:
0
Wye Plantation Agreement: PLO fulfillment of its commitments:
0
Sharm el-Sheik Agreement: PLO fulfillment of its commitments:
0
Tenet Ceasefire Agreement: PLO fulfillment of its commitments:
0
All subsequent
ceasefires: PLO
fulfillment of its commitments: 0
The princes of
the broken reeds do not find this record any impediment to their conviction
that if only Israel and the PLO negotiate some more . . .
if only Israel can be forced to give away some more . . . . After
all, it will get promises and guarantees . . .
Addendum 2001 -- after the original publication
of this issue:
In 1991, during the administration of President George H. W. Bush,
the United States, sponsors the Madrid Conference at which Israel is invited
to meet with Jordan and other Arab States to negotiate peace. In a letter
to the Government of Israel, the Government of the United States pledges:
"In accordance with the United States traditional
policy, we do not support the creation of an independent Palestintian state.
[. . . .] Moreover, it is not the United States' aim to bring the PLO into
the process or to make Israel enter a dialogue or negotiations with the PLO."
In
2001, President George W. Bush announces that it is a "long-standing vision"
of U.S. policy to create a Palestinian State west of the Jordan River. Such
a state would, of course, be under the rule of the PLO. Israel must recognize
the PLO state and surrender the heart of its own homeland to it.