Where Blood Kin Fight (Conclusion)

Defining Terms

Being against Zionism and Semitism has evolved into being against the existence of Israel.

At its most basic definition, anti-Zionism is the “opposition to the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state.”  There are various shades of anti-Zionism as oppositions go.  Muslim anti-Zionism, the most problem-laden opposition, looks at the state of Israel as an intrusion into their territory.  The more militant groups, especially some Palestinian militant groups, call for the “total elimination of the Jewish presence in the region of Palestine, which includes the territory of Israel.”

Palestinian and other Arab militant groups and the government of Iran insist that the state of Israel is illegitimate and do not even refer to it as “Israel” but only as a “Zionist entity.”  Saudi Arabia, Syria and Malaysia do not recognize Israel formally.  Most countries in the Arab world for that matter do not recognize Israel.  I learned that transacting a bank transmittal to Israel from where I am now is not just a difficult task, it is no task to begin with.  That state does not exist, one is told straight-faced by a highly educated banker.

Egypt is an exception.  It recognizes Israel but is perceived by outsiders that, while it is not for the total destruction of Israel, it is more interested in unofficially continuing the fight against it as an outlet for public anger.

The PLO and the Hizbollah

When Israel gained military victory and additional territory after the Six-Day War of 1967, the dawning of new Palestinian dreams came to be.  The Arab defeat in that war brought about a million Palestinian Arabs under Israeli rule.

The fate of the Palestinians eventually took on a bigger role in the Arab-Israeli struggle.  Until now, no Middle East peace negotiation is without Palestinian issues, foremost of which are the refugees’ return and Jerusalem.
Two movements grew out of Palestinian aspirations; both were organized with charters aimed at destroying Israel and expelling Jews who immigrated after 1917.  The Movement for the Liberation of Palestine, or the Fatah organization, began in 1957.  It was headed by a young man fresh from college named Yasser Arafat.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO, meanwhile, was initially chaired by Ahmad Shukairy.  He was replaced by Arafat after the 1967 war.  All of Palestine was by then under the Israelis, so both the Fatah and the PLO were able to do what they wished without directly threatening neighboring Arab regimes.

The PLO was eventually recognized by all Arab states and went on to be recognized by the UN as the representative of the Palestinian people, with Arafat going all the way to address a session of the UN General Assembly in 1974.  The PLO was granted UN observer status in 1975.

The Hizbollah (Hizb Allah, or Party of Allah), meanwhile, was a 1982 creation in Lebanon helped by revolutionary guards sent by Iran.  It was a resistance movement against Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.  At this point, the PLO was operating from Lebanon, gathering strength and digging in at the country’s southern border and using it as the base for shelling Israel.

Palestinians joined the Muslim forces when civil war broke out in Lebanon.  The PLO and the Hizbollah aren’t that cozy with each other, but when it comes to facing a common enemy such as Israel, they know which side they are on.

Geopolitics is about national interests first

Israel retained large parts of the West Bank area it has gained in war and established an increasing number of settlements when it became clear that Arab states would not negotiate with it.

The October War (or Yum Kippur War) of 1973 compelled the Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, to declare an oil embargo.  It produced long lines for gasoline in many Western countries and economic upheavals in others.  The move awakened the rest of the world to the possibility that Arab countries could control the world’s oil supply as a political leverage.

Israel attacked Lebanon in 1978 after thirty Israelis were killed in an attack on a bus in a road to Tel Aviv.  The latest Israeli attack on Lebanon as we may know was in reaction to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by the Hizbollah.  Always, the world condemns Israel’s excessive reactions and always, the US is accused as always taking Israel’s side.

Political expediency cannot be disregarded on the Israeli-Palestinian Middle East issue.  The US is home to the most number of Jews, next only to Israel.  The US Jewish vote and lobby aren’t trifles.  And there’s the issue of Arab regimes which are accused of turning the Jewish question in their midst into decoys for their people’s discontent with undemocratic governance.

“No two historians ever agree on what happened,” US President Harry S. Truman had said.  “And the damn thing is they both think they’re telling the truth.”  The same holds true with quarrels and wars between nations.  There lies the tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a place where three of the world’s major religions came from, between nations who are the descendants of Abraham.

(Sept 2006)