The Israeli government has come up with a ton of reasons why it won't negotiate a two-state solution that would establish peace in the region finally, but the above pictures show the real reason. Note the difference between the 1967 borders between Israeli and Palestinian land and the 2000 borders between the same. The truth is that Israel is stealing Palestinian land as fast as they can, and they're not done yet. A 2011 map would show even less green area in the West Bank. It looks like the Israeli government has decided it can get more through outright theft than through negotiating.
What do you suppose the map would look like had the Arab states actually won any of the wars they themselves started against Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973?
ReplyDeleteThe Germans tried this trick for a while after World War II. Having started (but lost) the war, many Germans wanted to return to the borders of 1937, as if the Second World War had never happened. By 1971, 26 years after losing, the West German government finally acknowledged the absurdity of this "heads - I win; tails - you lose" policy and officially accepted the post-war boundaries. Forty-four years after the '67 war, the Palestinians and their Arab compatriots are still clinging to this failed idea.
I used to work with a German veteran of WWII who was still whining about his country's fate in the late 1970's. So I asked him, "If Germany had won the war, would you have given up the Czech lands, the Generalgouvernement [the name they gave to the Polish puppet state they set up] and Alsace-Lorraine?"
"Of course not," he replied.
"Then how can you deny Poland and the Soviet Union the German lands that they gained for having won the war?" He didn't like it, but he didn't have an answer. No-fault war makes it easier and more attractive to wage it.
So I ask again: If the Arab states had succeeded in driving Israel into the sea, would they have returned to the 1967 borders, or would that whole map be green?
I think you know the answer.
But the Germans were left with a country weren't they?
ReplyDeleteIf the Israelis keep stealing land, there will be nothing left for the Palestinians to have for their own. Is that fair?
@ Curious Texan: Flawed analogy, really. The last war between Arab states and Israel took place in 1973 - 40 years ago; it should now belong in history textbooks, not policy-making. Besides, Palestinians were not a side in any of these conflicts since 1948.
ReplyDeleteThe last war between Arab states and Israel took place in 1973 - 40 years ago; it should now belong in history textbooks, not policy-making...Besides, Palestinians were not a side in any of these conflicts since 1948.
ReplyDeleteYou're forgetting about the Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000-2006).
If you want something even more recent, take a look at this List of 2011 Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks against Israel. These attacks occurred in every month this year, the most recent one being September 5 - just 18 days ago.
Consider this quote, not from 40 years ago, but from today, September 23, 2011, from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas:
"They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state,"
Is there still any question that given a free rein, the map would turn completely green?