Neophytes look at the Israeli Arab conflict as one solvable struggle. But this volatile issue is really a multi-layered affair. Like the sediments on the bottom of a lake or a layer cake this war is violent war piled ontop of violent war. Its was very diagnosed carefully so it is very hard to solve.
The first layer was set down after the British occupied Palestine and later were given a mandate over the area. The Arabs had been ruled by muslim overlords since the Crusaders, whether it was the Mameluks or the Turks. But now the Europeans were in charge again. And like the Franks in 1099 the British were Christians. They had no Islamic religious authority like the Caliph in Istanbul. That was the first rude shock.
The second shock was Western values and culture. The West brought social progress, democracy, an aversion to tyranny, changing social mores, sexual revolutions, the industrial revolution, the transformation of womens roles as well as declining obedience to religion.
The third shock was the Balfour Declaration allowing Jews a homeland in Palestine. And the Jewish presence which had declined increased dramatically. And it continued to increase. To be clear Balfour did not set a Jewish government but only a haven from an increasingly anti-semitic world.
This was too much change for the people in British Palestine who included Christians, Muslims and Jews. They had lived in a stagnant practically medieval world since 1224. But there was even more horror as Arabs also saw young people attracted to the new ideas of the West. Islam was seen as old fashioned, even irrelevant. It was apparent that Islam was a fragile religion susceptible to the new ideas. Islam needed protection. They did not think to reform, improve or update the religion. Religious teaching precluded such changes. What was necessary was to remove people who brought the changes. To remove them from traditional Umma lands. First were the Jews and then the British would follow.
And so riots in 1920-1 and 1929 brought the first layer of war. Simple xenophobic riots born out of kneejerk fear. These riots weren’t planned. But The Mufti of Jerusalem decided to plan to rid the Jews and British as well as noderatate cooperative Arabs in the 1936-9 riots. The British retreated into their barracks and fortified areas and the Jews into fortified areas amd kibbutzim. The moderate Arabs suffered the wrath of the Mufti’s rage. This was the second layer of war. Organized violence with some spontaneity and ome control. As the approaching Holocaust drove Jews into Palestine, the Arab xenophobia went up several notches in absolute panic. Arab violence forced the British to end immigration into Palestine dooming many Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany. A year later after the death of 6 million Jews the Arabs still refused to budge from their xenophobic position. And so began the fourth layer of war.
This layer was really two years molded into one. We have the refusal of the Arab Palestinians to accept a westernized Jewish culture in close proximity to their own. They still had no faith in Islam’s invulnerablity to werstern values and materialism. Arabs through out the Middle East and North Africa recognized this as well from colonization by British, French, and to a lesser extent Italian and Spanish europeans. But what upset the Arab League founded after WW2, was the possibility of a non Muslim Non Arab state in their self declared umma lands. Their sacred Muslim territory granted in its self righteous egocentricity by Allah and the subsequent Arab conquest in the 7th to 9th centuries would not tolerate an infidel nation. This effort by Arabs outside Palestine combined with effort within Palestine. The Arabs declared they would “drive the Jews into the Sea”, This was to be a second genocide of the Jewish people in less than a decade. It would destroy the survivors of the Nazi holocaust.
The Arabs outside Israel respected the Jews as the people of the book. As long as they remained subservient to the Arab caste system of dhimmi. As Jews they had to endure centuries of humiliation and heavier taxes. With a new nation the Jews could stare back openly at the Muslim ex-masters. This was intolerable to Muslim Arabs!!!
But the Jewish Palestinians were militarily oriented in defending themselves against years of Arab attacks. They had fought the Nazis in the World War. They made up their lack of formal Army training and heavy weapons in fighting spirit; the spirit of survival. Newspapers gloomily feared for the Jews of Palestine. They prevailed over the better equipped Arab forces. They defeated the 5 Arab Armies of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq (whose border is far from Palestine) and Egypt. Meanwhile those 5 Arab Armies fearing collaterol damage of fellow Arabs asked they remove themselves from the arena of battle. Many did. And they went to the inland hills. There they would remain in the future West Bank fearing retribution, knowingly complicit in an attempted genocide. The newly emptied land became the home of Jews fleeing Arab countries along with Holocaust survivors.
And year one after the El Nabka brought the fifth layer of war.
This was the Arab fedayeen war. It was a war of raiders and terror. Border communities were especially vulnerable like Sderot of today. Raid brought retailiation and Arik Sharon proved himself in these operations. The West Bank and Gaza were staging areas for these raids and protected by Jordan and Egypt. Of course regular army contributed especially Syrian gunners in the Golan. The 1956 Suez war g cleared out the Gaza nest of vipers for awhile but it was the sixth layer of war that ended this strategy. It was the Six Day War created huge buffers in the Sinai and the West Bank that ended raiding missions. The Egyptian self declared president Gamal Nasser had called for a holy mission to once again “drive the Jews into the Sea”. But surprise tactics destroyed his army, the Syrian Army as well as bring Jerusalem and the entire Jordanian Palestine into Israeli orbit.
The seventh layer was the creation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. It was a conglomerate of Palestinian Arab terrorist fronts. This phase continued to the mid 1980’s with its most despicable hijacking of the ocean liner Achelle Lauro and the killing of a wheelchair bound Jew. One part called Black September killed Israeli Olympics in Munich in 1072, Sympathetic Japanese Red Guards machine gunned pilgrims in in Lod airport. Sympathetic German terrorists hijacked a plane to Entebbe airport and only Israeli commando action rescued most of the hostages in 1976. Hijacking and airport massacres throughout Europe marked this seventh layer. Yasir Arafat even engineered a propaganda coup by getting the Muslim, Arab and Communist blocs to pool their resources and have the United Nations Assembly declare Zionism synonymous with racism. Reactionary Arab nations embracing a police state version of socialism brought many nations to suspend judgment and give those states benefit of the doubt in relation to terrorist self righteous actions. They too joined those blocs.
The eighth layer of war was the Yom Kippur War. This was the last state action by Arab nations to destroy Israel. Despite its complete surprise during the holiest holiday of the Jews and an initial near defeat in the beginning , Israel was near the Nile and well into Syria at the end. This was in no small part of a huge arms shipment from the United States. The Egyptian leader realized he could not defeat Israel this way. Perhaps the Israeli read to use nukes spooked the US into the arms shipment. Nuclear war would have certainly brought the Soviet Union into it. They had armed the Arabs since the 1950’s. Peace brought Sinai back to Egypt and death by the Muslim brotherhood (many who are now in Al Qaeda) to Anwar Sadat. It alsi brought a cold peace.
But the PLO was not finished. In Lebanon it supported the Muslim half of the country and brought about the Lebanese Civil War which lasted 15 years. It then created a Palestinian state within Lebanon and began rocketing Israel in 1978 and again in 1982. Both resulted in Israeli invasions and a Christian buffer state. This was the ninth layer of war. Seeking to elimate Arafats state with in a state the Israelis pushed him to Beirut and eventually he left for Tunis. But the Israelis made the Amal Shia enemies and this was quickly exploited by the new Isalmic Republic of Iran a shia state. The amal militia became the Hezbollah state within a state later.
The tenth layer of war was the First intifada reaction by West Bank Palestinian Arabs. And this was ended by Arafat’s signing of the Oslo peace treaty. Hamas, Islamic welfare entity took up the “destroy Israel” mantra initiating the 11th layer of war
When Ehud Barak withdrew support of the Christian buffer state Palestinians felt Israel was weak enough to destroy. They used Arik Sharond visit to the Temple Mount to set off a six year war and terror campaign known as the Second intifada, Unlike the first the main feature was suicide bombers. These bombers went into many civilian situations to kill as many Israelis as possible. They were killed in weddings, pizza shops, buses (many buses). The bombers were like the PLO a conglomerate of terror groups. Aqsa group was affiliated with Arafat’s Fatah. There was also the Islamic Jihad among others. This brought IDF troops into the West Bank and Gaza but the solution was a huge security wall that ended the most horrendous attacks.
The 12th layer was war on the aforementioned Hezbollah was mostly a airborne missile exchange in 2006. And finally the 13th layer of war was the recent Gaza war to stop Qassam rocket attacks by Hamas. Remember that the Hamas war of suicide bombing had never ended since 1995. It had just been replaced by Qassam attacks. This war really hasn’t ended as Qassams still fly. Israelis wonder if the rockets that hit far inland like Beersheva will be a future norm and precipitate another Gaza war.
The layers have to be perceived for the Middle East conflict to be understood never mind solved. Intial layers were simple reactionary riots. These were followed by organized resistance. Then Arab national states intervenes. They supported guerrilla terrorist groups. Eventually these groups formed an umbrella the PLO. The Arab nations failed and were replaced by states within states developed by the guerrilla terror groups. These groups began operating from the Palestinian Authority territory but still failed and now guerrilla sub states like Hezbollah Lebanon and Hamas Gaza operate at the behest of Arab cabals and Iran have taken the helm of “driving the Jews into the sea”.
Its really an Islamic reaction this war on Israel. From simple outraged Arabs to international war to subnational war its always aggressive Muslim Arab efforts of many varieties with many Israeli reactions. Ots quite the miracle that despite changing strategies 13 mile wide Israel still exists.
1st layer 1920-1, 1929 Riots
2nd layer 1936-9 Rebellion
3rd layer The War of Independence, El Nabka
4th layer The Fedayeen Raids, Suez War,.
5th layer The Sixth Day War Victory
6th layer THE PLO terror campaign 1970-83
7th layer The Yom Kippur Disaster/War
8th layer The Lebanon Wars 1978, 1982-3
9th layer First Intifada
10th layer Hamas Intiation of Suicide Bombing 1995-2000
11th layer Second Intifada
12th layer Hezbollah War
13th layer Gaza War
