I clearly remember, one year ago, being glued to NPR's coverage of the Gaza Flotilla Raid. A flotilla of six ships, organized by Free Gaza Movement and Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, tried to break the blockade Israel established in the Gaza strip to deliver humanitarian aid and construction materials to the Palestinian refugees living there. Stopped by Israeli military, inspections turned violent and nine passengers wound up dead. Predictably, controversy abounded. Israel accused the activists of attacking the officers with metal rods, and the activists accused the officers of sparking the violence. I didn't know what to believe.
Regarding the Israeli spokespeople, it seemed reasonable that they would have to inspect any equipment being delivered to the refugees as Hamas, the political entity governing the Gaza Strip, has been known for inspiring acts of terror against civilians in Israel.
Yet, a study coming out of the University of Glasgow in 2007, stated that "Half of the households surveyed had only one room; 44% had three or more people per room; 11% had no external ventilation; 49% had no heating; 54% had mould and dampness. The use of wood or charcoal for heating was associated with an increase in mould and dampness (p = 0.015). 135 Members of the population (31%) were aged under 15 years; 130 (30%) had a chronic condition. Logistic regression results showed that overcrowding (odds ratio (OR) 3.26) and a member of the household living in Gaza buildings for more than 15 years (OR 0.48) were significantly associated with children under 15 years. Age over 45 years (OR 5.32), a member of the household in full-time employment (OR 0.58) and a member of the household living in Gaza buildings for more than 15 years (OR 1.71) were significantly associated with chronic disease." There is a a crisis going on in this Israeli-controlled territory, and one must ask the question: why? At the time of the Flotilla Raid, I was also shocked and weary to hear that Israel refused an independent investigation of the raid, in favor of an Israeli-backed investigation.
As I struggled to understand how the Flotilla Raid Tragedy could occur, I realized that I didn't really understand what Israel was. I didn't know how it came to be a Nation-State, who the Palestinians are, or why a two-state solution that seems so reasonable is so difficult to attain. I've since studied the making of modern Israel, and I wanted to provide my understanding of how the state of Israel came to be because I think it helped me understand the context from which the Flotilla Raid evolved.
How did Israel come to be a nation?
There are a lot of naive assertions being spouted with regard to Israel. One of the most absurd I've heard is that it was a United States experiment. Nothing could be further from the truth. The United States was often unsupportive in the development of the nation of Israel, in large part because, during the Cold War, the US wanted to foster good relations with the oil-rich Arab nations who vehemently hated Israel.
Israel was created, I would contend, by a disgustingly anti-semitic Europe/Africa/Middle East which left thousand of people with little choice but to leave their homelands in search of an autonomous, self-governing, and militarily defended state.
The immigration of Jews into Turkish-controlled Palestine began with aspiring lower-middle class farmers escaping Russia as pre-planned and government inspired anti-Jewish riots emerged throughout the late 1800s. It became a political movement as the nineteenth-century was coming to a close and Theodor Herzl started the modern Zionist movement, a result of what he termed the "Jewish problem", the conclusion that the Jew's historical tribulation is the result of their statelessness. Migration to Israel became all the sweeter to Jews in Europe as anti-Jewish raids heightened in Russia during their revolution and 876 Jews were slaughtered in the Ukraine in October 1905 alone. Jewish housing associations started springing up in Israel and, predictably, an Arab nationalism started to emerge in response to so many foreigners moving in and settling land.
In September 1918, at the end of the first World War, Britain captured Jerusalem and brought Turkish rule in the area to an end. More Jewish migration ensued as, between 1915 and 1921 up to a quarter of a million Jews were slain or allowed to starve to death in the Ukraine and Russia. Additionally, Jews fled Poland as they passed legislation undermining Jewish economic life. Massive migration occurred throughout the 1930s as Central and Eastern Europe became overtly anti-semitic, and a large proportion of the immigrants came from Nazi Germany and Austria. In Palestine, the Arabs were quickly becoming outnumbered, violence erupted, and campaigns to cap the number of immigrants were sought after and awarded by the British. During World War II, Jews settled in Palestine fought alongside the British, while the majority of Arabs found themselves siding with the Axis Powers. In Iraq, for instance, the British had to unseat Rashid Ali al Gailani, who tried to place the Mosul oil fields at Hitler's disposal.
After the war, Britain held a largely anti-Zionist policy for fear of jeopardizing its valuable oil imports in the region, but their time controlling the area was coming to a close. They deferred all matters relating to Palestine to the United Nations. They debated what to do with Palestine. As Arab anti-semitism abounded, a high-ranking Syrian official at the time admitted, quite frankly, that if Palestine became an Arab-Palestinian regime, all Jews would be expelled. This led the UN to develop a two-state solution, where both a Jewish state and a Palestinian state would exist. This idea was uniformly rejected throughout the Arab world, and so on May 14, 1948, when Britain relinquished control and the UN declared the State of Israel, the Arab armies of Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, and Egypt invaded the following day, thus provoking Israel's war of independence.
Israel's Struggle to Survive
Starting with the war of independence, Israel has been in a fight for its life. With the Holocaust fresh in the memory of so many Israeli immigrants, the fear of a second Holocaust was a terrifying possibility. Israel, in its first twenty years, was surrounded by openly anti-Israel nations. Leading up to the Six-Day War that ended with Israeli control of the Gaza strip, Egypt, with the support of Russia, amassed tanks, planes, and arms, while it led Israeli-neighboring countries like Syria and Jordan in calls to destroy Israel outright. Here's an idea of what surrounded Israel, and still does to this day (on every extremist Muslim agenda is the destruction of Israel): "Lebanon, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, and Kuwait all announced that they were on a war footing, with some of them being in the process of sending token contingents to Cairo. In Gaza, hordes of armed Palestinians were filmed brandishing rifles and baying for Jewish blood. Cartoons appearing in the Arab press were intimidating. One from the Syrian paper al-Jundi al-Arabia depicted a heap of skulls, each marked with the Star of David, lying within the smoking ruins of Tel Aviv. The Arabs were certainly not coy in declaring that the demise of the Jewish state was avidly being sought. The Cairo-based radio station Voice of the Arabs made it clear that a total war would be waged against Israel 'which will result in the final extermination of Zionist existence.' Mullahs called for a jihad and one of Radio Cairo's hit songs exhorted the Arabs to smite, kill, burn, and destroy the Israelis. 'Itbah, itbah, itbah' (that is, 'massacre, massacre, massacre') ran its refrain. On June 2, General Murtagi, the commander of the Egyptian forces in Sinai, issued an Order of the Day that enjoined his troops to 'reconquer anew the robbed land of Palestine.' Just prior to the outbreak of the Six-Day War, on being asked in an interview on French television what plans he had for Jews born in Israel, Shukeiry, the head of the PLO, simply drew a finger across his throat. Elsewhere, in answer to the same question, Shukeiry responded 'those who survive will remain in Palestine, but I estimate that none of them will survive' (Leslie Stein - The Making of Modern Israel, 1948-1967, pp 284-285).
Such hatred and intolerance preceded each and every war Israel fought in its first years of existence. It's no wonder Israel has since presumably developed a nuclear warhead and reacts to antagonisms with strong military might. This might help explain its resistance to peace talks with Palestinian refugees and its resistance to a two-state solution. It must always be remembered that, from the beginning, Israel's existence was at stake, and this has modern cultural implications.
It should also be noted that the international community, in Israel's first twenty years, acted with indifference to Israel's challenges, and often with blatant opposition to her. Britain and France were responsible for denying Israel membership in the United Nations in 1948 and in its first 19 years, it only garnered UN support once, when Egypt denied Israel access to the Suez Canal. When Egypt didn't comply to the UN Security Council resolution to allow Israel access, in its seizure of the Israeli merchant ship Bat Galim, all the western powers showed indifference. Britain and the USA routinely condemned Israel throughout the 1950s as they sought to improve Arab-relations, fueled by the Cold War and antagonisms with Russia. The British officer Meinertzhagen said, "It is an odd fact that the Arabs can utter on platforms, in their Press and on the radio, the wildest, most savage threats of annihilating every Jew on the soil of what they continue to call Palestine; but if an Israeli says that his people intend to defend themselves, screams of shocked protest come from our Foreign Office and the world in general." Growing up with such international hostility, one can understand Israel's often critical stance toward international involvement in Israeli affairs, and this does perhaps provide context to their dismissal of an independent, international investigation of the Flotilla Raid.
The Challenges of a Two-State Solution
I don't want to sound like an Israeli apologist. I wholeheartedly believe in a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Israel should award Palestinian refugees their independence and there shouldn't even exist the conditions to make things like the Flotilla Raid possible. Israelis need to heed the advice of their most historically important political leader, the first prime minister of Israel, Ben-Gurion. He said, "historically this country (Palestine) belongs to two races... a Jewish state must at all times maintain within her own borders an unassailable Jewish majority... the logic of all this is that to get peace, we must return in principle to the pre-1967 borders" (which do not include the Gaza strip). Unfortunately, while this is not acceptable to those Israelis in power, it's also not acceptable to those in power in Palestine. In keeping with historically intolerant Arab politics, Hamas does not accept the sovereignty of the state of Israel, and it supports terror and the dissolution of the Jewish state.
One must never forget the historically tenuous position of Israel when considering their foreign and domestic policies. A historically oppressed people, the Jews cling to the state of Israel with pride and self-determination. Surrounded by openly hostile nations and terrorist organizations, they needed to foster a culture of defense and, at times, as with the Six-Day War, preemptive strikes. The thought of a Flotilla smuggling in arms to Hamas could devastate yet more Jewish lives. On the other side, Palestinians are suffering a humanitarian crisis that needs to be addressed, and this legitimizes the Flotilla's effort and puts Israel under a skeptical microscope.
Work Cited:
Stein, Leslie. The Making of Modern Israel, 1948-1967. Cambridge: Polity, 2009.
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