Before 1947, almost a million Jews lived in Iraq. When the state of Israel was declared, they were invited to settle in the new Jewish country. Almost all of them had moved to Israel by 1952. The state of Israel welcomed them, and made places for them in the houses of Palestinians who had fled in fear of the 1947 war, when five Arab countries that protested the establishment of Israel attacked simultaneously. Miraculously, with extensive outside support, Israel won the war and survived. The world grudgingly gave them respect as fierce fighters, motivated by the knowledge they would not be allowed a second war to lose.
Looking back at the archives, one finds reference to a purported "population exchange" in which the indigenous Palestinians were exchanged for incoming Jews. Israel was conceived by the Zionists as a refuge for Jews only, after suffering persecution from Christians for centuries. The new state of Israel, eager to establish itself, made a place for the influx of new citizens by assigning to them the houses and other possessions of the departed native population. Israel said the houses were voluntarily abandoned, and therefore became the proper possession of the new state of Israel.
This 'population exchange' was said to have been an agreement between the new state of Israel and the surrounding Arab countries. The Arab countries were to find a place for the Palestinians. There was apparently a misunderstanding (the alleged agreement was not reduced to writing), because the Palestinians intended to return to their homes once the threat of fighting ceased. Israel refused to allow them to return. They thus became inadvertent refugees of war, temporarily displaced by the exigencies of the fighting. They did not want to be accepted and resettled in the surrounding Arab countries, nor did the surrounding Arab countries make any serious attempt to accommodate them. The Israeli's argue the Palestinians have voluntarily abandoned their homes and lands.
While the incoming Jews were settled as new citizens of Israel, the dispossessed Palestinians were collected in refugee camps on the periphery of the new Israeli entity. The Palestinians looked across the wires at what they viewed as their land, taken away by the Israeli army. The situation has not changed much over the intervening fifty plus years. The Israeli's consistently deny the Palestinians any right to return to their homes, businesses and farms, and the policy of building exclusively Jewish settlements on Palestinian land continues.
There is a sense of injustice that burns in the Palestinians, and the refusal of Israel to retreat from the notion they are courageously defending a prize of war, fuels the resolute hatred that threatens the survival of mankind. The resentment passes down through the generations, and increases with each new incident of violence. Israel is determined to protect its interests with increased military force, intent to claim ever-wider borders through steady encroachment. The world community from the beginning opposed the establishment of illegal settlements in the territories occupied after the 1967 war, and Israel was told repeatedly this would further inflame the situation.
Israel ignored the warnings, and the policy of taking more and yet more land has led to the present unfortunate situation, making it ever more irresolvable. The Iraqi Jews now living in Israeli have not forgotten their old home in Iraq. It was in Iraq that Abraham lived, and it was in Iraq that the Torah was written. The million plus Israeli Jews who immigrated from Iraq properly regard Iraq as the true homeland of the Jews, though the name they carry derives from Judea, a part of the old territory of Palestine.
Iraq since 1967 has been a supporter of the Palestinian war refugees, and an implacable foe of Israel. Iraq provides financial aid to families in Palestine, and Iraq sent SCUD missiles into Israel cities during the Gulf War. Of the Arab countries surrounding Israel, Iraq is the greatest threat to Israel. If anti-tank and anti-air missiles are delivered to the Palestinians, it is probable that funding and armaments will be provided by Iraq.
Israel was persuaded that active entry into the Gulf War would be a negative factor, threatening the fragile coalition, and the US quickly provided Patriot anti-missile batteries to give them protection against the SCUD missiles. Today the Israeli's feel sufficiently strengthened militarily to successfully engage Iraq, weakened by the Gulf War and the sanctions that followed. Because Israel openly advocates a policy of targeted assassination of political foes, and has demonstrated its intent to make war with a preemptive first strike, the world must watch Israel in the Middle East.
The US and England cannot show sufficient reason to attack Iraq, and the world cautions them to act with prudence and reason. They seem determined, however, and the source of their haste is generally attributed to the dependence on oil. Israel has been quiet throughout this prolonged debate, and one wonders why. It is Israel that feels the greater threat, and it is Israel that depends on the US and its UK ally for protection and survival. From the first establishment of Israel, these two countries have provided the support necessary for Israel's survival. Neither has complained against Israel's harsh treatment of the Palestinian war refugees.
The war on terror is a convenient distraction for the Israeli's to use increased military force against the defenseless Palestinians. This cruelty has not escaped the notice of the world community. When the adventure in Afghanistan failed to detract attention from the loss of Israeli standing, another distraction was needed. That distraction was provided in the form of alleged Iraqi preparation for another atrocity.
The US (Bush, et al) and the UK (Blair) appear as the de facto military arm of Israel. Bush and Vice-President Cheney both are subject to charges arising from their participation in the oil business, and both are vigorously generating war fever designed to keep the investigation of corporate misadventure off the front pages. The November elections in the US are a potential bomb threatening to destroy the Republican party power and presence in the US government, and a war is deemed necessary to return the votes lost by the declining economy. Patriotism is a certain vote getter, and nothing arouses patriotism like a call to war.
Unfortunately for Israel, Bush, Cheney, and Blair, the call goes largely unheeded. There is little enthusiasm to fight for either Iraqi oil or Israeli ambition. This failure to 'rally round the flag' is a great danger to the world, because it encourages the invention of a triggering incident, one that will camouflage a preemptive strike by Israel. There is a strong possibility that such an incident will be orchestrated, perhaps in the US or Great Britain, but most probably in the Middle East, that it will be used as a pretext to attack and occupy Iraq. If Israel is allowed to participate in a military humiliation of Iraq, it will then claim a right to participate in a subsequent occupation and administration of Iraq.
The response to such a dangerous plan is impossible to foresee, but the consequences for a world already de-stabilised by regional conflict are certain to be inflammatory. It is therefore urgent that the world, acting through the United Nations, give notice to all three belligerents, Israel, US and UK, that such planning is clearly transparent, and totally unacceptable. When the world is aware of the long-term objective of Israel to expand its borders, to defend its present gains, and to assume a greater presence and influence in world affairs, then only can the world anticipate the incendiary methods used to obtain these goals.
It is easy to understand the fear and paranoia that has arisen in the mind of Israeli's over the centuries. The anti-Jewish treatment is well reported, and culminated in the German holocaust. The Zionist dream of a Jewish homeland is certainly laudable, but as the Balfour Declaration clearly states, this is not to be at the cost of the native population. In the persecution and depopulation of the native people, Israel has from the beginning appeared tawdry and terrorist.
They cannot be proud of themselves. What is to be avoided, if possible, is the spread of the insanity. Paranoia is insanity, and causes people to commit irrational acts. It is contagious. Osama bin Laden (if he is the proper party) has shown how quickly the anti-Israeli feeling can be transformed into a worldwide conflagration.
To date, the US does not choose to connect the events of September 11, 2001 to the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Nor does the US government seem aware of the deep resentment caused by its support of dictators around the world, especially in Muslim countries. The foreign policy of the US is not under internal review. The unquestioning support of Israeli actions against the Palestinian war refugees continues. The stance of the democratic US is hypocritical in supporting dictators (and installing new ones) amenable to US economic blandishments. Are there no mirrors in the District of Columbia?
Bush and Blair are both willing to destroy NATO and the UN if they will not knuckle under to pressure to invade Iraq, and acquiese to other objectives collectively couched under the rubric of a worldwide war on terrorism. It is time to pull back the reins of superpower. The available evidence points to a period of economic and environmental crisis ahead, and every available resource must be directed toward the relief of human suffering. The world cannot afford the agony of another ill-conceived war, with the certain creation of yet more victims and refugees.
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