The Israel-Palestine Conflict
In the week following the brutal October 7th attacks on Israel the media was abuzz with the idea that these literal war crimes should be viewed in context.
This disturbed me because the October 7th attack on innocent civilians was inexcusable in any context.
Even so, I understood the idea to be that it was a revenge on Israel for its crimes against Palestine. If this does not excuse the attacks, perhaps it provides an understandable motive (the way Viking blood feuds are understandable if not excusable).
Let’s look at the context and history. I’ve divided this is three broad sections, starting 3000 years ago, 123 years ago, and 18 years ago.
3000 years ago
Antiquity
Thousands of years ago Abraham travels from Ur (in Mesopotamia) to Canaan (the modern lands of Israel and Palestine), settling there. His descendants become slaves in Egypt. Hundreds of years later they return and through a series of military campaigns (as well as cultural assimilation) establish a vast population in many cities throughout Canaan. Sometime in the 11th century before Christ Saul becomes the first king of Israel. He fights the Philistines (Sea Peoples), the word from which later “Palestine” is probably derived. After only two more kings ascend the throne, Israel is split via civil war into two kingdoms (Israel in the north, and Judah in the south).
In a period of only 600 years the Mediterranean and near East is ruled, in turn, by the empires of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks (Macedon), and finally Rome. The Israelites are generally subject peoples, usually oppressed (as is normal in antiquity), but often with surprising levels of autonomy. In particular the Assyrians and Babylonians, when their empires invade Canaan, take captive thousands upon thousands of Hebrews, which are now called the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.” Finally, Rome destroys the temple in Jerusalem 70 years after the birth of Christ; many Israelites flee to far lands.
The Rise of Islam
More than 500 years later, in the year 610 Muhammad founds the religion of Islam. At lightning speed Islam spreads over Arabia (by proselyting as much as by force). Within thirty years the lands we know today as Israel and Palestine have been wrested from the Roman Empire (Byzantium) and are ruled by a Muslim Caliphate. For nearly a thousand years wars virtually never cease between various tribes, kingdoms, and empires of Muslims, Christians, East Asians (Huns, Magyars, Mongols), and more. These wars include, but are not limited to the Crusades.
On the eve of the 14th century the Islamic Ottoman Empire (the Turks) is founded and soon dominates this war-torn piece of the world. Incidentally (or ironically), in the year 1453, the Ottomans are the ones who topple the Roman Empire (the Byzantines), the last empire that intentionally scattered the tribes of Israel.
123 years ago
1880s
The vast majority of the population in the lands we now call Israel and Palestine are Arab Muslims, with minorities of Arab Christians and Jews. However, by 1882 the city of Jerusalem itself has a majority of Jews, and from then to today has always held a majority.
None of the subjects of the Turks have the sorts of rights we enjoy in the West today: but the Arab Christians, Jews, and other minorities have it the worst (don’t believe me, ask the Armenians).
The Russian Empire begins a new wave of pogroms in the late 19th century prompting the creation of what becomes known as the Zionist movement of Jews fleeing to other countries. About 2 million move to the US, others to Ottoman Palestine, their ancient homeland of Israel.
1909
Immigrating Jews purchase a mostly desolate area of sand dunes where they found Israel’s (currently) largest city, Tel Aviv.
1917 (Balfour Declaration)
Near the end of WW1, the British empire declares there should be an Israeli state in a portion of Palestine. Rather than a practical state-building decree, this is really just a tool for the British Empire’s expansion into the Mideast: a weapon against the Ottomans.
1918 (After The Great War)
The Ottoman Empire falls apart at the hands of the allies. The British Empire takes control of Palestine.
About 80,000 Jews now live in Palestine, along with over half a million Arab Muslims. The British empire has no problem with the Zionist project of the Jews who keep migrating to Palestine by buying land and establishing new communities like any mass migrant movement might do (as has happened many times in the US).
The Palestinian Arabs who already live there likewise begin a nationalist movement. Although non-existent under the Turks, once under the British empire, the idea of an autonomous state starts sounding nice. (The 20th century was the century which both destroyed almost all the then-major empires of the world, but also sprouted dozens upon dozens of nationalist movements, hence the world of 1900 had fewer than 80 sovereign countries, and by the year 2000 there were more than 200.)
1920s
The Palestinian Arabs start to occasionally riot against the continuing influx of Zionist Jews. Although the Jews remain a small minority (up to 10% by this time), the Arabs consider them infidels. Increasingly the Arabs use violence against Zionist Jews, and just as often the Jews retaliate in kind.
To explode a common myth, the rising Jewish immigration doesn’t drive Palestinians from the land, but rather draws them in even larger numbers. The Arab population of Palestine increases at faster rates in the interwar period (1918-1939) than the Jewish one: the Jewish population goes up by 470,000 but the Arab population goes up by 588,000.
The bungling British empire, rather than properly integrating the two factions of Palestine (Muslims and Jews), allows for institutional division wherein there is a Jewish civil authority and Muslim civil authority, respectively.
1929 (Massacre at Hebron)
67 Jews in the community of Hebron (where these Jews have lived for centuries) are murdered by Arabs due to fears of the oft-repeated false claim that the Jews are going to destroy Al-Aqsa (which still stands to this day). Many Jewish women are raped on top of blood, many have fingers and hands cut off, eyes gouged out, and one rabbi has his brains removed. Several hundred more are wounded. In a foreshadow of Germany a decade later, some Arabs hide some Jewish friends and acquaintances.
1936-1939 (The Arab Revolt and Peel Commission)
In the thirties the Jews demand of the British a separate Israeli state inside of Palestine. They don’t ask the empire to remove the Arabs, nor do they ask for a state over the entirety of the land. Just a state for them, allowing the Arabs to remain in the rest of Palestine.
The Arabs likewise demand of the British empire a state. Except their demand requires no Jews and no Israel.
From April to October of 1936, Arab workers strike against the British empire in large part to get their sought-after Palestinian state.
Anti-Zionist disciples of al-Qassam (basically the proto-Islamist that many Islamist terror groups can trace their ideological ancestry to) murder two Jews who are then avenged by Jews murdering two Arab workers. After these killings, the Arab strike devolves into violence.
The Empire sends a Royal Commission (the Peel Commission) in 1937 to resolve the rebellion and figure out the best way for the British empire to answer the competing demands of the Jews and Arabs. Although hundreds of pages long, the report basically recommends a small Jewish state of less than 20% of the land (mostly where the Jewish communities largely already exist), with just over 80% of the land to be an Arab state. This is the original “two-state solution.”
The Arabs wholesale reject this (famously on the notion that they reject any idea of an Israeli state, even a tiny one). The Jewish reception is more mixed, but ultimately accepts. This is the first of four times Palestinians are offered a nation state and reject it because the offer also entails a Jewish state.
By 1939 the empire crushes the Arab rebellion.
The official partition decided by the Peel Commission never happens because Hitler invades Poland, and even “the Phony War” is enough to occupy the British Empire.
1945
Nazi Germany is finally crushed under the wheels of Soviet and American tanks on May 7th. The Holocaust of the Jews ends.
Although on the winning side, the British empire is in rags. They throw up their hands and tell the newly established United Nations that they can deal with Palestine.
1947 (UN Partition Plan)
In November of 1947 the UN General Assembly approves a partition plan largely based on the Peel Commission: another two-state solution.
Although this time the Jews are given a slight majority of the land (about 55%), roughly half that land is a desert. Additionally, the argument for giving them more land than in the original Peel Commission is that more Jews would be coming, given that many of the survivors of the Holocaust would want to migrate to this new nation of Israel. In fact, a key rationale of the UN for their two-state solution is that during the Russian pogroms and German Holocaust, there really wasn’t a proper Jewish country to flee to. By contrast, there are a great many Arab countries for Muslims to flee to when oppressed.
To explode another common myth, this area (proposed by the UN for the state of Israel) has about 600,000 Jews, but only 400,000 Arabs: the Israeli state is never contemplated to be placed onto a majority Arab piece of land. That would only be true if you count all the Arabs in the lands not intended for the Israel state (which would be an absurd accounting).
The Arabs once again flatly reject this two-state proposal by the UN. After all, it’s another solution that includes a Jewish state or Jews living in Palestine. This is the second of the four times Palestinians are offered a nation state of their own.
Violence between the Israelis and Palestinian Arabs explodes, with the British barely doing anything about it.
1948 (First Arab-Israeli War; or the War of Independence)
Despite the rejection by the Palestinian Arabs, on May 14th the UN’s mandate of the two-state solution comes into force, with David Ben-Gurion as the first Prime Minister of Israel.
In defiance of the UN mandate, the armies of Egypt, Syria, (Trans)Jordan, and Iraq, allied with the Palestinian Arabs attack Israel which had been sovereign for a single day.
The Egyptians and Syrians both claim they are invading Israel to “save” the Palestinian Arabs, but it is pretty clear they really just want to annex parts of Palestine for themselves. Iraq is less ambitious in this regard. All wanted Israel to be destroyed as a country, but if this couldn’t be achieved, at least territorial prizes can satisfy.
The Jordanian king Abdullah wants to annex much of the Palestinian territory as well. However, he has also made a secret agreement with Israel just before the war such that the Arab parts of Palestine would be under Jordanian rule. Jordan ends up with the West Bank, and utterly kicks out the Jews living there, who move to Israel proper.
Egypt assaults into the Negev Desert but is completely stopped by the Israelis. They also send armor up the coast toward Tel Aviv. This is also stopped, but not routed. This is how the Gaza Strip becomes what it is – it was the portion of Palestine the Egyptians held onto by the end of the war, and thus remained under Arab control.
The attacking nations have a combined population more than 60 times that of the infant Israel. Israel’s major goal is simple survival: they suffer five times as many casualties on a per capita basis than the US does in WW2.
Israel proves resilient and is able to successfully counterattack. While the UN mandate gave Israel 55% of Palestine, by the war’s end Israel has effective control of 78%, emerging victorious.
As a result of the Israeli expansion, about 700,000 Arabs flee (sometimes forcefully by Israeli forces, sometimes advised by their own leadership (with the idea that they could return after the war), and sometimes of their own cognition of living in a warzone). These are the Palestinian Arab refugees often spoken about – this is their diaspora (there are about 6 million Palestinian Arab refugees today – mostly the descendants of these).
At the end of the war there are about 650,000 Jews in Israel. Since the Palestinian Arabs who had fled the territory during the war number slightly more than that, the Israelis forbid these refugees from returning to their homes. Given that the Palestinian Arabs had allied with several much larger Arab states to attack the state of Israel on its first day of existence, they naturally fear allowing half their population to become these same Palestinian Arabs. The state of Israel is a democracy. Their fear of allowing the refugees back in would mean half their population would then literally wish to topple the regime: bloody civil war would be an almost certain outcome.
Regarding this successful independence, Barbara Tuchman has written that Israel is “the only nation in the world that is governing itself in the same territory, under the same name, and with the same religion and same language as it did 3,000 years ago.”
1949
For the first time in 3,000 years the ancient Jewish Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem is completely rid of all Jews, with more than 50 major synagogues bulldozed or blown up by the Jordanians (in the West Bank where Jordan now rules).
Egypt blocks Israel’s access to the Red Sea via the Strait of Tiran (this blockade lasts until the Suez Crisis in 1956).
1952
January 1 – Seven armed Islamic terrorists kill a nineteen-year-old girl in Jerusalem.
1953
April 14 – Islamic terrorists try (and fail) for the first time to infiltrate Israel by sea.
June 7 – a Jewish child is killed and three others are wounded during Arabic shooting attacks on residential areas in southern Jerusalem.
June 9 – Islamic terrorists attack a farming community near Lod; they throw hand grenades and spray gunfire in all directions. Later, another group of terrorists attack a house in the town of Hadera.
June 11 – Islamic terrorists attack a young couple in Kfar Hess shooting them to death in their home.
Sept 2 – Islamic terrorists from Jordan throw hand grenades into the neighborhood of Katamon, Jerusalem.
1954
On March 17, Islamic terrorists ambush a bus traveling to Tel Aviv. They board the bus and shoot the passengers one by one.
1955
January 2 – two hikers are murdered in the Judean desert by Islamic terrorists.
March 24 – Palestinian terrorists throw hand grenades and open fire on a crowd at a wedding in the farming community of Patish. One woman is killed, with eighteen others wounded.
1956 (Suez Canal Crisis)
In the Summer Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser declares he will nationalize the Suez Canal. In response Israel, Britain and France invade Egypt in October. The US quickly demands a cease-fire, and the three allies begrudgingly obey the superpower.
Egypt is able to nationalize the Suez Canal, but Israel gains one of its main military objectives – the freedom of navigation into the Red Sea.
April 7 – Islamic terrorists use grenades and guns in two Israeli cities, killing six.
April 11 – Islamic terrorists shoot into a synagogue full of children in Shafrir. Four are killed, with several others severely wounded.
September 12 – Islamic terrorists kill three Israelis in Ein Ofarim.
September 23 – Islamic terrorists kill four archaeologists and wound sixteen others, near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel.
September 24 – Islamic terrorists kill a girl farming a field in Aminadav.
October 4 – Islamic terrorists kill five Israeli workers in Sdom.
October 9 – Islamic terrorists kill two youth working in an orchard in Neve Hadassah.
November 8 – In northern Israel Islamic terrorists open fire on a train, on cars and blow up several wells. Six Israelis are wounded.
1957
After the cease-fire of the Suez Crisis, Israeli forces remain in the Sinai Peninsula. In March, Israel withdraws completely from Sinai due to international (and importantly, US) pressure. Sinai is officially de-militarized and monitored by a UN peace-keeping force.
March 8 – A shepherd working in a field near Kibbutz is killed by Islamic terrorists.
April 16 – Islamic terrorists kill two men at Kibbutz.
May 20 – An Islamic terrorist opens fire on a truck in Arava and kills a worker.
December 21 – Islamic terrorists kill a man working in the Kibbutz fields.
1958
February 11 – Islamic terrorists kill a man in the Sharon area.
April 5 – Islamic terrorists lie in ambush and shoot and kill two people in Tel Lachish.
May 26 – Islamic terrorists attack Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, killing four police officers.
November 17 – Syrian Islamic terrorists kill the wife of the British air attaché in Israel.
December 3 – Islamic terrorists kill a shepherd at Kibbutz Gonen, then unleash an artillery barrage that wounds 31 civilians.
1959
Yasser Arafat founds Fatah in Kuwait as a militant group to oppose Israel’s occupation of any portion of Palestine with armed struggle.
April 15 – Islamic terrorists kill a guard at Kibbutz Ramat Rahel.
April 27 – Islamic terrorists kill two hikers near Massada.
October 3 – Islamic terrorists kill a shepherd near Kibbutz Yad Hana.
1960
April 26 – Islamic terrorists kill a citizen of Ashkelon.
1962
April 12 – Islamic terrorists shoot at a bus going to Eilat, wounding one.
September 30 – Islamic terrorists again shoot at a bus going to Eilat. No one is wounded this time.
1964
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded in Cairo with the support of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The PLO becomes an umbrella organization representing diverse Palestinian groups that operate from outside Gaza and the West Bank intending to resist the Israeli occupation of both areas.
1965
January 1 – Fatah executes its first attack when it attempts to bomb the National Water Carrier (the bomb is placed but fails to explode).
May 31 – Jordanian soldiers shoot into Musrara (a neighborhood of Jerusalem) and kill two civilians, wounding four others.
November 7 – Fatah operatives blow up a house in Moshav Givat Yeshayahu.
1966
April 25 – Islamic terrorists plant bombs that wound two civilians and damage three houses.
July 14 – Islamic terrorists shoot at a house in Kfar Yuval.
The listing of Islamic terrorist attacks in prior entries is incomplete – just a prominent sampling of what civilians in the infant state of Israel face in its first two decades of existence.
1967 (The Six Day War)
Since 1948 the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Golan Heights are all entirely in Muslim hands (under Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian rule, respectively). No Jewish settler or resident is allowed to live in any of these areas. And Sinai is still de-militarized.
Egypt again blocks Israel’s access to the Red Sea. Then, in defiance of the UN and in a technical act of war, Egypt forces the UN peace-keeping troops out of Sinai while deploying about 100,000 troops and almost a thousand tanks.
In response Israel launches an impressive combined arms attack and takes control of Sinai in a mere four days. Jordan and Syria formally ally with Egypt, but do little more than shell across the border. At the same time Israel also pushes into Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights, taking control of all three areas.
After their defeat at the hands of Israel, the governments of the Arab world (at the Arab League summit) adopt the “Three Nos” policy – no peace with Israel, no negotiation with Israel, no recognition of the state of Israel. The Palestinian nationalist cause is reignited.
1968-9 (West Bank after the Six Day War)
Israel says it will give Sinai back to Egypt and the Golan Heights back to Syria in exchange for a demilitarization of these areas. Egypt and Syria reject the proposal.
Settlers from Israel begin to move into the West Bank. Notably, these are largely the descendants of the people forced out 20 years ago by Jordan (following the War of Independence).
The West Bank and Gaza become military administrations. Israel gives the Arabs the following edict: ‘Don’t do any terror attacks, and we’ll generally leave you be to live your lives.’ Those who aren’t radical and don’t do any terror attacks are, in fact, allowed to prosper – most Arab Palestinians living in the West Bank within a few short years have a much higher standard of living after 1967 than they did before under Jordanian rule.
Fatah becomes the largest faction within the PLO.
1970 (Jordanian Civil War)
By this time many militant operatives of the PLO have moved into Jordan and continue their terror attacks into Israel.
The six year old PLO, led by Yasser Arafat, calls for an overthrow of the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan. A civil war ensues; the Hashemites win. The PLO militants are kicked out and forced to move their headquarters to Lebanon.
1973 (Yom Kippur War or the October War)
On a holy day, the Israelites are surprised by twin attacks from their neighbors.
The Syrians send tank and infantry forces into the Golan Heights, a highland overlooking northern Israel. From there artillery can easily rain upon Israel with near impunity (going up the heights to dislodge them would require heavy casualties for the Israelis).
At the same, the Egyptians send an even larger force over the Sinai equipped with Soviet tanks and new Soviet anti-tank missile systems that initially devastate the Israeli armored forces.
The Israelis counterattack (initially unsuccessfully) and eventually surround the entire Egyptian 3rd Army, cross the Suez Canal into Egypt proper, and hold more than 600 square miles of Egyptian territory west of the Canal.
In the north Israel first stops, then pushes back into Syria. Jordan and Iraq send units to help defend Syria. The UN calls for a ceasefire less than a month after hostilities begin, effectively ending the war.
1974
In January Egypt and Israel sign a separation of forces agreement and Israel removes all units from Egypt proper (West of the Suez Canal). Additionally, Israeli forces withdraw a further few kilometers into Sinai to create a space for UN peace-keeping troops.
This is often considered the first of Israel’s “Land for Peace” policies, a tactic they’ve used in negotiations ever since. (But recall they did try to attempt this after the Six Day War as well, but were rebuffed).
1975
Egypt and Israel sign another agreement for Israel to reduce its hold of Sinai down to only about two thirds of the land.
1978 (Camp David Accords)
Operatives of the PLO in Lebanon infiltrate Israel by sea and murder 35 civilians, including 13 children, wounding 71 more. Israel responds by sending military units into Lebanon, ultimately killing 300 PLO operatives. The clear intent of the terror attack is to derail the peace process between Egypt and Israel that is ongoing.
Later in the year Egypt and Israel meet at Camp David with US president Carter for two weeks. Egypt officially makes peace with Israel, recognizing its right to exist as a state. In return, Israel completely pulls out of the Sinai Peninsula (“Land for Peace”) – some Jewish inhabitants even resist the demolition of their homes by the Israeli army but to no avail.
The Accords also contemplate a process to create autonomy for the West Bank and Gaza. The PLO completely rejects the Accords. For making peace with Israel, Egypt is kicked out of the Arab League.
1970s
From its bases in Lebanon the PLO continues to use guerrilla tactics against Israel.
1981
In Operation Opera, Israel bombs Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, fearing nuclear capabilities could be given to Palestinian terrorists.
1982
Israel invades Lebanon to stem the tide of PLO attacks. A thousand of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards train a new group in the Bekaa Valley birthing the new Islamist organization of Hezbollah. This soon becomes Iran’s most potent proxy in the Levant.
The PLO is expelled from Lebanon by the Israelis, relocating its base to Tunisia.
1987 (The First Intifada)
In a car accident between an Israel Defense Force (IDF) and civilian vehicle, four Palestinians are killed. This lights the match for violent protests, riots, and attacks in Gaza, the West Bank, and even Israel proper.
During the Intifada Hamas is born, emerging to be the main radical Islamist rival to Fatah within the PLO. Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, translated to English it reads Islamic Resistance Movement.
1988
Hamas publishes its “covenant” or charter which states the following:
- “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
- “So-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.”
- “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
- “Death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of [our charter’s] wishes.”
1993 (Oslo I Accord)
Israel and the PLO meet in Oslo, Norway with US president Bill Clinton. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is officially created to be a semi-autonomous governing authority for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. With Yassar Arafat of Fatah the chairman of the PLO, the PLO essentially becomes the PA.
Naturally, almost all Islamic terrorist and militant groups oppose the Accords, particularly Hamas and Hezbollah.
1994
Jordan officially makes peace with Israel, no longer officially demanding the elimination of the state of Israel, but recognizing its right to exist as a state.
1995 (Oslo II Accord)
The Oslo II Accord is signed in Egypt between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It intends to expand the Oslo I Accords by granting further governance powers to the PA in the West Bank.
Hamas again rejects everything about the Accords.
1996
The PLO revises its original 1964 Palestinian National Charter to entail that diplomacy, rather than armed force, should be the primary means of gaining Palestinian statehood.
Hamas, naturally, is not on board with this idea. It will take its revenge on its enemies within Fatah/PLO/PA in ten years time.
2000 (Camp David Summit and Second Intifada)
Israel and the PLO again meet with Bill Clinton, this time at Camp David. Following its previous “Land for Peace” policy, Israel offers Yasser Arafat a Palestinian state comprising 100% of Gaza and 94% of the West Bank, using East Jerusalem as its capital. Arafat rejects this. Bill Clinton said of the meeting, Arafat stayed “here 14 days and said no to everything.”
This is the third of four times the Palestinians are offered a nation state and reject it.
Hamas launches a large series of suicide bombings into Israel, calling it the “Second Intifada.”
Israel withdraws all troops from south Lebanon (which they have held since 1982) without even signing a peace treaty. They just leave.
Hezbollah uses the Israeli withdrawal successfully as propaganda that they achieved a stunning victory against Israel, gaining wider legitimacy in the Arab world as a liberation movement in Lebanon.
2002
Hamas continues the Second Intifada. Terrorists attack the Park Hotel in Netanya killing 30 Israeli civilians. In return Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield against known terrorist infrastructures, seizing enormous caches of weapons and arresting many Hamas operatives.
On May 7, 2002, Elie Wiesel (a survivor of Auschwitz) writes a letter to US President George W. Bush that reads in part:
“Please remember that a majority of Israelis favor a Palestinian State alongside Israel if the terror is stopped, whereas a majority of Palestinians, including Yasir Arafat support suicide killing operations against Israel. Please remember that while Palestinian Terrorists were hiding explosives in ambulances, Israeli reservists in Jenin were taking up collections out of their own funds to repay Palestinian families for the damage done to their homes…Please remember Danielle Shefi, a little girl in Israel. Danielle was five. When the murderers came, she hid under her bed. Palestinian gunmen found and killed her anyway…Please remember that while Israelis mourned alongside us for our nation’s tragedy on September 11th, Yasir Arafat was busy suppressing footage of his constituents dancing in the streets…Years ago, we had hopes that we were entering a new era, an era of peace that would see Palestinians living alongside Israelis, in an alliance that would make the entire area flourish. If the Palestinian leadership can be persuaded to stop the abomination of terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, it may still not be too late.”
18 years ago
2005 (Israel Withdraws from Gaza)
Doing something never done by the Turkish, British, Egyptian or Jordanian rulers of Palestine, the Israelis give the Palestinians their first sovereign territory ever in Gaza by withdrawing from the Gaza Strip unilaterally, asking for nothing in return.
All Israeli citizens (about 8,000 Jews) and Israeli military units and installations are now gone.
The Palestinian Authority gains full autonomous control of the Gaza Strip. This should be a chance for peace in Gaza. Israel is out. The Palestinians now have nothing keeping them from forming a functioning nation-state there.
Writing in 2009, Charles Krauthammer recalls Gaza in 2005 in these words:
“Did the Palestinians begin building the state that is supposedly their great national aim? No. No roads, no industry, no courts, no civil society at all. The flourishing greenhouses that Israel left behind for the Palestinians were destroyed and abandoned. Instead, Gaza’s Iranian-sponsored rulers have devoted all their resources to turning it into a terror base — importing weapons, training terrorists, building tunnels with which to kidnap Israelis on the other side. And of course firing rockets unceasingly.
“The grievance? It cannot be occupation, military control or settlers. They were all removed in September 2005. There’s only one grievance and Hamas is open about it. Israel’s very existence.”
2006 (Last Gazan Election & Second Lebanon War)
Hamas narrowly wins the Palestinian parliamentary election (but not presidency) in Gaza, beating out Fatah by four points. Hamas’ leader becomes the Prime Minister and forms the new government. This was the last election ever held in the Gaza Strip. Like the single parties of many violent totalitarian regimes, Hamas gains power via election and then rules by force ever after.
Political clashes between Hamas and Fatah are violent.
Hezbollah raids into northern Israel intending to kidnap Israeli soldiers so it can make a prisoner swap with Hezbollah operatives in Israeli military prison. This launches a limited war in July (Second Lebanon War). Israel gives warnings to Southern Lebanese villagers before attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon: the Israelis do this knowing it will lose for them the element of surprise and cost the lives of their own soldiers. The war ends after only 34 days.
2007 (Hamas Rules Gaza)
Hamas’ ongoing contentions with Fatah and the PLO culminates in Hamas ruthlessly and bloodily taking full control of the Gaza Strip (the West Bank remains under the control of Fatah/PLO/PA). Hamas executes their political rivals by pushing them out of windows – more than 500 of their fellow Palestinians are murdered by Hamas. Many Palestinians flee to Israel(!) as a result of Hamas taking full control of the Gazan government.
Hamas is totalitarian – they run a police state with the sorts of ideals Al Qaeda and ISIL espouse. There is no longer even the pretense of free speech or politics – they carefully control what the schools teach and what is on tv, particularly for children’s programs (read: propaganda). Their ideology is as absolute as in North Korea.
The West Bank is now essentially severed from Gaza in all meaningful ways. Hamas rules the former with an iron fist, while the West Bank is still under military administration by Israel with a civil authority run by the Palestinian Authority (controlled by Fatah of the PLO).
In reaction to the total control of Gaza by Hamas, Israel installs a blockade and controls the air (the Gazans do not have an air force of any kind). The intent of the blockade is to prevent weapons, munitions, and terrorists to enter the Gaza Strip in order to strike into Israel.
Billions in food and medical supplies are delivered by Israel(!), the US and Arab states annually into Gaza, to sort of make up for the blockade (even though the blockade is purposeful as to strictly those things that could be used by terrorists).
The US, Russia, the UN, and the EU all declare that Hamas, as the rulers of Gaza, must recognize the State of Israel, end terrorist activities, and adhere to all previous agreements, or else international aid will end. Hamas rejects these terms, and international aid is halted.
Also, Israel bombs a nuclear facility in Syria, fearing nukes in the hands of Islamic terrorists.
2008 (Operation Cast Lead)
The new Israeli Prime Minister offers even more land to the Palestinians than was offered in 2000. The answer is unsurprisingly no. This is the fourth and most recent time Palestinians are offered a nation state and reject it for the same reason they did the first three times: they won’t accept a state if Israel exists.
In the first four months alone about 800 rockets are fired into Israel. In the summer Israel attempts to negotiate a cease-fire. Surprisingly, Hamas agrees to this. Except it turns out to be a deception when rocket attacks continue into civilian areas from time to time. In December Israel responds with military operation Cast Lead.
Israel drops thousands of warning leaflets, sends hundreds of thousands of warnings by telephone to civilian residents of Gaza to vacate the areas of attack to help limit civilian casualties. Hamas urges Palestinians to not follow Israel’s request, and in many cases physically prevents them from doing so.
In Operation Cast Lead the IDF strikes infrastructures and tunnels used by Hamas to build and store rockets, as well as those used to plan and execute terror attacks. It successfully destroys the houses of Hamas serious officials Nizar Rayyan and Amrin Nabil where weapons are hidden. If civilians are known to be in a strike zone, Israel will divert or abandon the strike.
While this is ongoing, the two main crossing points into Gaza (one in the north, other in the south), are allowed to be opened by IDF forces to allow humanitarian aid, food, medicine and ambulances to enter Gaza. A special humanitarian operation room in Tel Aviv is set up to transfer humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians. The IDF pauses its military operation for several hours each day and informs the Gazan civilian population when this happens to allow people to buy medicine and food without concern for military fire.
Many Palestinian civilians are killed in the month-long war. To explode a common myth regarding Operation Cast Lead (as well as later IDF military operations), first understand that about half of Gaza are under the age of 18. This means that indiscriminate military strikes by the IDF on civilian populations should yield about half the casualties to be children. Likewise, about half the population is female (but terrorists operatives never are), and so civilian casualties should also be half female. But this is not what we see. While tragically civilian children and females are killed in every war since time began, including the relatively minor wars between Palestine and Israel, less than a fifth of the Gazan casualties as a result of Cast Lead are minors, and only about 15% were female at all. This implies the IDF’s assaults are not indiscriminately on civilian targets, but on Hamas combatant targets. By contrast, when Hamas fires rockets into Israel, the targets are almost always expressly civilian. Gazan organs of government routinely mislabel the deaths of terrorist operatives as “civilians.”
2009
Between 2007 and 2009 6,464 rockets and mortar attacks have been launched on civilian areas of Israel by Hamas operatives. In a telling incident regarding the IDF’s efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, Israeli intelligence learns that a family’s house is being used to manufacture rockets. The Israeli military gives the residents 30 minutes to leave. Instead, the owner calls Hamas, which sends mothers carrying babies to the house. Israel holds its fire. The Hamas rockets that are protected by these human shields are then later used against Israeli civilians.
2010
A Turkish NGO attempts to deliver humanitarian supplies directly to Gaza via a small flotilla. Israel requires that any humanitarian supplies (which routinely get to Gaza from the US, EU, Israel itself, and others) must dock in Israeli ports, be offloaded there, and delivered by the Israelis. This is for security reasons – Israel implements its blockade of Gaza not to disallow food and medicine, but to prevent arms transfers to terrorists. The Turkish flotilla refuses to dock at any Israeli port, and one of the ships is promptly boarded by Israeli naval personnel causing a brief firefight and quite a few of the passengers and crew are killed or wounded. It’s important to note that no Egyptian or Syrian aircraft or vessels even approach the intercept point: they know they can no longer even pretend to challenge Israeli’s military power any longer.
2011
Israel’s Iron Dome defense system becomes operational. On April 7th it successfully destroys a rocket launched from Gaza for the first time.
2012
Hamas shoots rockets into civilian areas of Israel. Israel responds with military operation Pillar of Defense.
Israel asks civilian residents of Gaza to vacate the areas of attack to help limit civilian casualties. Hamas urges Palestinians to not follow Israel’s request, and in many cases physically prevents them from doing so.
The IDF kills Ahmed Jabari, the head of Hamas’ military. 1,500 terrorist sites are struck. For the first time Hamas has long-range rockets that can reach Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv (supplied by Iran), and fires many. Over the eight days of the war a total of 900 rockets from Hamas land in civilian areas of Israel. A further 400 more rockets are intercepted by Israel’s new Iron Dome.
2013
An IDF unit helps an injured Syrian (from the neighboring Syrian civil war that is raging) who crosses into Israel. Shortly after the IDF officially launches its still-ongoing Operation Good Neighbor which is not really a military operation proper, but a medical care effort for Syrian civilians wounded in the Syrian civil-war. Israel officially maintains neutrality regarding the Syrian civil war.
2014
March 5th, the IDF intercepts a huge trove of rockets and arms intended for Hamas, sent by Iran.
In June Hamas operatives kidnap three Israeli teens (civilians) in the West Bank and murders them. The IDF investigates and arrests hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank, leading to riots and clashes with police. In July Hamas shoots 250 rockets into civilian areas of Israel. Israel responds with military operation Protective Edge. Over the course of the ensuing war Hamas fires over 4,500 rockets into civilian areas of Israel.
Israel asks 100,000 civilian residents of Gaza to vacate several border villages. Hamas urges Palestinians to not follow Israel’s request, and in many cases physically prevents them from doing so.
In mid July Hamas operatives fire rockets into Israel from schools run by a branch of the UN – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.
In late July there are eight cease-fires brokered by the US. Hamas violates all but one of these, firing rockets 50 rockets during the first cease-fire alone. The IDF does not fire a single round of ordnance during any of the cease-fires. In the final cease-fire brokered before ground operations, Hamas operatives break into Israel proper via a tunnel, targeting civilians.
At the outset of the ground operation the IDF establishes a field hospital at the gates to Gaza for any Palestinian civilians wounded.
Hamas fires rockets from the Al-Wafa hospital in Gaza.
In August there is a cease-fire.
Then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff says, “Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties.” He also sends a team of US officers to study the IDF’s tactics as to how to minimize civilian casualties.
2019
Israel finds a terror tunnel built by Hezbollah under a civilian building in Lebanon that crosses hundreds of feet into Israel’s sovereign territory. Although few deny that Hamas routinely digs terror tunnels in Gaza to infiltrate Israel, Lebanese officials routinely deny that Hezbollah does the same. The proof in 2019 is now too obvious.
The IDF launches Operation Northern Shield which entails pumping the terror tunnels with water and concrete, as well as blowing them up.
2020
441 separate attacks by Palestinian terrorists are launched into civilian areas of Israel.
2021
Palestinian Arabs living in four buildings in Sheikh Jarrah have failed to pay any rent for decades. They are officially evicted by Israeli judges.
Hamas falsely claims these squatters are unlawfully kicked out.
Hamas also falsely claims that the Al Aqsa mosque is bombed by Israel. It isn’t – it is the location of protests by both Jews and Palestinians, but the building still stands to this day (recall this is the same false charge that incited the 1929 massacre of Jews in Hebron).
Days later, on May 10, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad begin rocket attacks into civilian areas of Israel. Over the next two weeks 4,400 rockets are fired at Israel (nearly 700 of them fail to reach Israel and land in Gaza, resulting in Palestinian casualties).
Israel asks civilian residents of Gaza to vacate the areas of attack to help limit civilian casualties. Hamas urges Palestinians to not follow Israel’s request, and in many cases physically prevents them from doing so.
The IDF destroys 1,500 rocket launch sites, command and control centers, and weapon storage facilities.
2023
In January alone there are nearly 1,500 violent incidents between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the West Bank.
In early October several Israelis in the border communities receive messages from acquaintances in Gaza that an attack would be launched soon. These Israelis tell the IDF. The IDF tells Hamas to not attack (as a formality), but also tells the residents of the border communities not to worry: there is a low likelihood of an imminent terror attack from Hamas.
On October 7th, the worst single day massacre of civilian Jews since the Holocaust takes place.