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Impasse at the West Bank: Striving for an Achievable Peace in the

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Richard L. Dixon

Project: Simulation on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

International Negotiations-IRLS613

Dr. Paul Clark-Instructor

American Military University


Abstract
For more than a century the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has made the Middle East a
dangerous region of instability and has threatened to engulf the global community into an
escalating conflict. The Balfour Declaration that mandated a Jewish Homeland in the
ancient land of Palestine has been the source of that instability. Many attempts
throughout the years have been attempted to rectify the religious and cultural differences
between the Israelis and Palestinians have resulted in an impasse. The objective of this
paper is to document the road blocks that have prohibited a path to an achievable peace.
Impasse at the West Bank: Striving for an Achievable Peace in the
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The heart of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict can be directly attributed to the Balfour
Declaration shortly during the closing days of WWI which in effect promised a Jewish
Homeland in Palestine.

The Balfour Declaration set into place a series of events that added historical precedence
into the destabilization of the region. The other event that caused a rift in the Middle East
was the partitioning of the remains of the Ottoman Empire in the secret Sykes-Picot
between the British and French. In the early days of WWI, the key to the dismantling of
the Ottoman Empire was to support the budding Arab Nationalist movement. In order to
achieve that objective the Arab Bureau of the British Foreign Office dispatched a young
intelligence operative by the name of Thomas E. Lawrence most commonly known
throughout history as Lawrence of Arabia. Sri Lawrence was well suited for this
assignment because he had a degree in Hittle Archaeology from Jesus College, Oxford
and spoke fluent Arabic. In addition, Sri Lawrence participated in several archaeological
digs in both Egypt and Syria as a student which gave him a keen insight into the region’s
culture, languages, customs, and religions.

Sri Lawrence used this experienced and familiarity with the Middle Eastern Region to
gain the trust of the likes of Emir Auda and Abu Tayi in leading a successful Arab revolt
against the Ottoman Empire which set up the Saudi Kingdom and the Emir of Kuwait.
Yet unbeknowest to Sri Lawrence he became the point man for not only the
establishment of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine but also the partitioning of the Middle
East into spheres of British and France influences. According to Dr. John D. Coleman
this was known as “Diplomacy by Deception.” “The British misused the Arabs under Co.
Thomas E. Lawrence to bring down the Ottoman Empire, eventually betraying them and
setting up the Zionist state of Israel, through the Balfour Declaration. This is a good
example of the diplomacy by deception that succeeded. In the period 1909 to 1915, the
British government used Lawrence to lead Arab forces to fight the Turks and drive them
out of Palestine. The void left by the Turks were filled by immigrant Jews flocking into
Palestine under the terms of the Balfour Declaration.” (1995, 33).

Hence came the collision point. The Jews viewed Palestine as their birthright and the
Arabs viewed the establishment of a Jewish Homeland as the start of an imperialistic
invasion to replace them, their religion, and culture. Both were right because both races
had been an integral part of Palestine from the beginning first as Israel in 70 AD and
Palestine thereafter with the suppression of the Jewish Rebellion and the destruction of
Solomon’s Temple by the Roman Army. Sri Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs who was the
governor of Jerusalem during the time of Lawrence of Arab easily disputes the Zionist
claim that Palestine was theirs and that the existence of the Palestinians was an
infringement on their birthrate. “The thesis of Zionism had been in part upheld by the
general ignorance of the nature and conditions of Palestine; which was vaguely imagined
as consisting of hills far away but green until the destruction of the Temple by Titus A.S.
70, after which they reverted TO Desert, still potentially fertile, though practically
uninhabited.” (Storrs, Ronal Henry Amherst, Sri. 1940).

As more and more immigrant Jews flocked to the land of Palestine especially during
WWII, more and more Arabs became displaced which resulted in a backlash against the
Jewish settlers. “The Palestinian opposition to Zionism therefore came on the whole as a
surprise, sometimes almost as an outrage, to the world at large. (Storrs, Ronal Henry
Amherst, Sri.).

The Chief architect to the Palestinian uprisings to the presence of Jewish settlement was
Amin al Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who had known Nazi connections and
personally recruited young Arab men into the ranks of the SS. It should be noted that the
SS Division that the Grand Mufti recruited were responsible for the slaughter and killing
of Serbian Jews. As we have seen in the Bosnian Simulation, it was these atrocities
committed by Muslim SS troops that set in motion the ethnic cleansing campaign
initiated by both Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo
Tudman in the Balkan region. “The division organized by Husseini was responsible for
the murder of about 90% of Bosnia's Jews and destroyed numerous Serbian churches and
villages. These recruits were favorites of SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who established a
special Mullah Military school in Dresden.” (Zionism and Israel-Encyclopedic
Dictionary).

However, the Grand Multi claim to fame was the founding of the terrorist group the PLO
and Yasser Arafat was his most willing disciple. Over the ensuring decades the PLO
under the leadership of Yasser Arafat conducted a campaign of terror, assassinations, and
kidnappings whose targets included both military and civilian. The PLO became popular
with the Palestinian because of the deep-seated resentment of being relegated to refugee
camps in the West Bank Area. Whole parcels of farm land, homes, and businesses, which
had been passed down from Palestinian generation to generation were now in the hands
of Jewish settlers who were not indigenous to the region.

The newly established Jewish viewed the activities of the PLO as part of the overall Arab
Strategy led by Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt (later Anwar Sadat) and Hafez al-Assad of
Syria of dismantling Israel through military conquest and to “drive them into the sea.”
This manifested itself in the Wars of 1948, 1956, 1967, and 73. In all instances the
Israelis were victorious. It was the victory of the Yom Kippur War of 1973 though that
eventually bought the nation of Egypt and later Jordan to the negotiating table. It was at
the historic Camp David Accord that the ideal of a separate Palestinian State on the West
Bank in conjunction with the nation of Israel first gained support. The sticking points
were the recognition by the Palestinians of Israel’s right to exist, a moratorium on Jewish
settlements in the West Bank, and the recognition of Jerusalem as the international capital
of both nations instead of just Israel. The time was right for negotiations because both the
Jewish and Palestinian population grew tired of war. “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has
always had a great attraction for dreamers. Peace initiatives generally go hand-in-hand
with the presentation of visions in which not only the former Mandate territory of
Palestine, but the whole Middle East, will be delivered from its problems. Wars, arms
races, poverty and radicalism will, by messianic decree, disappear and make way for a
future of progress, peace and democracy. The alternative, i.e. no solution of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, will, as the visionaries point out, be catastrophic.” (Kwarten, Leo).

Yasser Arafat and the PLO then took steps towards the establishment of a formal
government structure with the founding of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah which was
the political arm of the organization. Part of the negotiation was for the provision of
trade, infrastructure improvement, money for the establishment of business, material,
technical advise, and training of the Palestinian Security Forces (which the United States
and the EU did provide).

The height of the negotiation for a two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians was
in the 1992 Oslo Accord (Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements or Declaration of Principles DOP) that was negotiated between Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. This historical agreement provided the
General Framework for permanent peace in the region and the establishment of a two-
state nation on the West Bank. Yet the Oslo Accords were doomed to fail and the
repercussions of that failure are still felt this very day.

1. The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a right wing student named
Yigal Amir exposed the deep divisions that existed in Israel between the
Moderate Labour Party who desired dialogue with the Palestinian and the
coalition Likud Party led by the likes of former Ariel Sharon and Benjamin
Netanyahu who represented the settlers and radicalized Zionist. It was this
coalition who viewed all Palestinians as squatters on lands of the West Bank as
well of that of Lebanon as an integral part of Greater Israel (“Eretz Yisrael Ha-
Shlema”). The driving force behind the ideal of Greater Israel was Gush Enunim
which was the youth arm of the Jewish Religious party. “The movement’s
originals goals were wider than simply creating ‘facts on the ground; in order to
bring about Israeli territorial expansion. Its original list of principals included
expansion of national and religious education, unity of the Jewish people, support
for Jewish immigration to Israel, political and economic independence from
foreign powers, and an activist foreign policy. Yet, by the late 1970s the
movement essentially focused on a single mission: settling the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.” (Mookin, Robert H. & Eiran, Ehud, 2005).

2. The corruption of the Fatah as well as that of the Palestine Authority further
undermined any credible notion of the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Substantial evidence has surfaced that foreign aid earmarked for economic
development and the training of Palestinians for jobs were siphoned off by top
officials of the PLO including Yasser Arafat and his eventual successor Mahmud
Abbas. In fact, it was Abbas eldest son who had used that money to set up a
profitable cigarette company that traded with the Israelis which was a direct
contradiction of Abba’s refusal to negotiate with Israel as long as Jewish
settlements were still being allowed to expand into the West Bank.
3. The Second Intifada of 2000 by the Palestinians was a direct protest because of
the Israeli government refusal to live up to the terms of the Oslo Accord. It
represented the frustration of the Palestinian people because of the Impasse that
had taken place in terms of a permanent moratorium the Israeli settlements, the
continued annexation of East Jerusalem in Israel’s quest to turn the whole city
into its capital even though it violated direct UN resolutions, and the lack of
progressive towards the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Intifada also
witnessed the start of suicide bombings and record attacks into major Israeli cities
such as Hafia and Tel Aviv by Palestinian men, women, and children. In order to
stem the tide of the bombings the Israelis set up checkpoints, barriers, and
eventually a maximum security fence that segregated Palestinian neighborhoods
in the same way that Apartheid South Africa did its black townships such as
Soweto. The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) made military incursions into the heart
of the West Bank to target suspected Hamas and Fatah terrorist. The goal was to
demoralize the Palestinian population into passivity. It instead made militant
groups such as Hamas popular with the Palestinian population because they could
closely identify with them as being sympathetic to their plight.

4. The establishment of the terrorist groups Hamas in the Gaza strip and Hezbollah
in Lebanon also scuttled the Oslo Accord. The 2006 elections of Hamas over the
corrupt and problem plagued Fatah posed a problem to the governments of Israel
and the United States. It was Israeli policy not to negotiate with terrorists. Yet
Hamas had become a political entity in the Gaza strip and had to be reckoned
with. However, the Bush Administration’s quest to bring democracy to the
Middle East backfired on them. In the case of the Palestinians, the democratic
process was not allowed to take root over a specific period of time. Key
institutions were not set up and the population was not properly indoctrinated in
the norms of democratic ideals and traditions. The end result was the election of
Hamas. Once in power Hamas eliminated their Fatah counterparts through
summary executions and torture. “The Hamas takeover in Gaza is a dramatic
event that has ramifications for Israeli-Palestinian relations, as well as regional
significance. The forceful takeover by an Islamic movement of an Arab political
entity generates repercussions and shockwaves in the Arab world. The question
that now confronts various players – Israel, the Arab world and the international
community – is how to deal with this new situation.” (Brom, Shlomo, July 1,
2007). The Israelis have been forced to modify their policies and have initiated
dialogue with Hamas.

It is quite evident that the goal of a two-state solution in the West Bank is now
impossibility and the only logical solution is a one state comprising of both Jews and
Palestinians that is multi-ethnic and multi-religious. Yet as logical as it may sound, such a
solution will never to see the light of day because of the powerful political power that the
Jewish Lobby enjoys in Washington, D.C. and the deep-seated distrust of the State of
Israel that authoritarian nations such as Saudi Arabia can play upon in order to keep their
citizens in a perpetual state of poverty and oppression. Then there is the fear that the
Palestinians will ultimately overtake the Jews in terms in numbers (as what is happening
in Europe right because of a declining birthrate) and eventually blur the distinction
between Jew and non Jew. Therefore, organizations and countries such as the United
States, the EU and United Nations must take an active role in bridging the differences
between the Palestinians and Israelis if there is to be a permanent peace in the Middle
East.
References

1. Coleman, John Dr. (1995). Diplomacy by Deception: An Account of the


Treasonous Conduct by the Governments of Britain and the United States. Carson
City, Nevada: Joseph Publishing Company.
2. Storrs, Ronal Henry Amherst, Sri. (1940). Lawrence of Arabia: Zionism and
Palestine. Hammond Middlesex England: Penguin Books. 61.
3. Ibid. 61.
4. Zionism and Israel-Encyclopedic Dictionary. Hajj Amin al Husseini, (Haj Amin
el Husseini) Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (Hussayni) Definition. Retrieved from
http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Haj_Amin_El_Husseini.htm.
5. Kwarten, Leo. The Ritual Dance of Peace and the New Middle East. In Gamble,
Helen (Ed.), In Key to Peace in the Middle East (p. 41). The Netherlands: Damon
B.V.
6. Mnookin, Robert H. and Eiran, Ehud. (2005). Discord ‘Behind the Table’: The
Internal Conflict Among Israeli Jews Concerning the Future of the Settlements in
the West Bank and Gaza.
7. Brom, Shlomo. (July 1, 2007). Israel’s Policy Options after the Hamas Takeover
in Gaza. INSS Policy Brief. 1.

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