Berl Falbaum
Every time I see Gazans dig with their hands to save a child under the rubble, my heart aches and I think of Golda.
I am referring to Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel (1969-74) who, in her book, “A Land of Our Own: An Oral Autobiography” wrote:
“Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”
If only…if only that had come to pass. So many lives of children and adults — on both sides — could have been saved in the 75-year conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, including the present suffering in Gaza, which, given today’s technology, we can watch unfold in real time in our living rooms.
It did not have to be that way. There were ample chances for peace had the Palestinians leadership “loved their children more…” Let’s look at some history and how peace fell victim to rejectionism over more than seven decades.
In 1947, the Arabs rebuffed a partition, drawn up by the United Nations, that would have created a Jewish state and an Arab one, living side by side. The Arabs said “no” and unleashed terrorist attacks against Israel that reportedly claimed the lives of 1,184 Israelis. The Arabs called Israel’s creation, the Nakba (the catastrophe).
Then, in 1948, five Arab countries immediately declared war against Israel after Israel announced its independence, hoping to drive the nascent country into the sea. They lost.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, in a rare moment of candor, acknowledged, in 2011, that rejection of the UN plan “was our mistake. It was an Arab mistake as a whole.”
A so-called “peace process” was launched with the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995 under which Israel agreed to recognize Palestinian interim self-governance in Gaza and the West Bank. In return, the Palestinians were to recognize Israel.
A final resolution was to be reached in five years but, as we know, the Accords unraveled. (Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for signing the Accords.)
Edward Said, a well-known defender of the Palestinians, called the Accords, “an instrument of Palestinian surrender.”
Palestinians’ response: Suicide bombers.
Rabin signed the Accords despite strong opposition from Israeli conservatives. Indeed, some blamed the assassination of Rabin in 1995 on his support for this peace plan.
In 2000, the Arabs were presented with another plan during negotiations at Camp David presided over by President Clinton.
It included a two-state solution, but Arafat vetoed the plan, which offered the Palestinians more than 90 percent of their demands.
Clinton, angered by Arafat’s obstructionism, pounded his fist on the table, yelling: “You are leading the people and the region to a catastrophe.” The talks failed.
Three days before Clinton left office in 2021, Arafat called the president, telling him he was a great man. Clinton replied: “I am not a great man. I am a colossal failure and you have made me one.”
In 2005, Israel voluntarily left the Gaza Strip, which it had occupied since its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel evicted all of the Jewish residents, some by force, and evacuated security personnel from the strip. Eight thousand Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza were relocated. In addition, Israel closed four settlements in the northern West Bank.
Israel left Gaza hoping “its peace offering” would lead to improved relations. Instead, Hamas took over governing the strip the following year and continually attacked Israel with missiles.
In 2008, Israel again offered the Palestinians a peace proposal but Abbas turned it down, reportedly over complaints on land boundaries. It was described as “more generous” than anything offered the Palestinians previously.
In 2009, an Israeli offer for a demilitarized Palestinian state was rejected, and several years later, another proposal by the Trump administration was rebuffed.
So many chances; so many opportunities for peace; so many lives could have been saved; and so much misery and heartache could have been avoided.
As Ebba Eban, the eloquent Israeli diplomat who served as Israel’s second ambassador to the United Nations, observed: “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
And thus, intransigence has led to the present war, Israel’s ninth (including two intifadas) since its founding in 1948. It also has been the victim of 67 terrorist attacks since its founding.
What now? Israel will win the military war, but at what cost? And will that victory assure a peaceful future? Hardly.
The larger questions: What strategies and tactics can be employed to bring peace? How can we get powerful Palestinian decision-makers to love their children more than they hate Israel and Jews?
Let he who has the answers please step forward.
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Berl Falbaum is a veteran political columnist and the author of 12 books.
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