On October 7, hundreds of Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel while massive rocket barrages were launched at the country.
A total of 1,400 men, women and children were massacred, raped and beheaded. This article is designed to provide background and perspective.
The historical context of the hostilities goes back to the ancient Kingdom of Israel, conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and the Babylonians, who, in 568 BCE, conquered Judah, leading to the expulsion of the Jews from the area. The Jews became a nation without a land. A Jewish diaspora evolved in many countries, including Babylon, Persia, Egypt and across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa.
In 1492, King Ferdinand expelled the Jews from Spain, many of whom sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire, beginning the first migration of Jews back to what became present-day Israel. They lived in harmony with their Arab neighbours until the Ottoman empire collapsed after WWI.
Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, organised the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland in 1897. This united worldwide Jewry in an endeavour to recreate their ancient homeland in Palestine. Zionists believe that the only way to eliminate anti-semitism is to have their own country. Zionism simply expresses the Jewish aspiration to return to their homeland in Israel.
The movement was encouraged by Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917, which stated that they viewed with favour the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. Consequently, a growing stream of Jewish migrants made their way to Palestine, watched with growing scepticism by the local Arab population.
Britain struggled to maintain peace but, eventually, in 1947, desperate over the violent clashes between the Jews and Arabs, they surrendered the Palestine Mandate and left the United Nations to find a solution. This led to a vote in the General Assembly with Britain abstaining but a majority, including the US and the Soviet Union, voting in favour of a Partition Plan, calling for separate Jewish and Arab states in Palestine.
Although this offered the Jews a smaller land than they had been promised, they readily accepted it. After 2,000 years, they had a country again. The Palestinians refused, demanding the entire territory, which would leave the Jews as a defenceless minority in an alien State.
The State of Israel was officially declared on May 14, 1948. Some 650,000 Palestinians had left, leaving approximately 156,000 in Israel and about 600,000 Jews. The following day, the fledgling State was attacked by the combined forces of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The world despaired of Israel’s survival. Miraculously, after four months of warfare, a ceasefire was declared. Israel, surrounded by 280 million hostile neighbouring Arabs, turned its attention to absorbing worldwide Jewish immigrants, many fleeing persecution.
All Jews have the right to Israeli citizenship and the population has now grown to nine million people, pro rata, the largest immigrant absorption in history. Israel is a kaleidoscope of Jews from black Ethiopian Jews to over one million recently arrived Russian Jews, quite apart from millions of Holocaust survivors.
The population of 156,000 Palestinians who remained in Israel has grown to over 1.6 million today. They enjoy full civil rights and are represented in the judiciary, the armed forces and in Israel’s parliament.
Israel has concluded diplomatic relations with Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Saudi Arabia, with one of the largest Islamic populations, has postponed its discussions in view of the hostilities.
The West Bank and Gaza were not taken from the Palestinians. In June 1967, following direct threats, Israel initiated a military campaign against Egypt and Syria that ended in Israel’s victory. The West Bank was taken from Jordan while Gaza was taken from Egypt. Both countries rescinded their claim to the land while voicing public support for the Palestinian cause but effectively doing little for the Palestinian people.
The Oslo Accords – the first serious attempt to resolve the conflict in the 1990s, brought the PLO back to control the territories and led Hamas to commit atrocious attacks inside Israel, mainly by suicide bombers. This led to the collapse of the agreement.
In the 2000s, two Israeli prime ministers worked hard on peace deals. They went as far as giving up 97-99 per cent of the West Bank for peace. The Palestinians, per the US and President Bill Clinton, failed to conclude a deal. Arafat, afraid if he compromised, missed a golden opportunity.
Israel voluntarily pulled out in 2005 by removing army units from southern Gaza and forcing the abandonment of 21 Jewish settlements housing 8,500 settlers. This was an opportunity for the Palestinians to demonstrate their ability for self-governance and to show that they could create a prosperous society.
What happened? Palestinians elected Hamas who took over and ejected the PLO. Hamas had been diverting millions of dollars from the welfare of Gaza’s residents and instead investing in military build-up and weapons. Hamas created an alliance with Iran, the leading fundamentalist enemy of the US and Israel.
The Palestinians are victims of their own poor and irresponsible leadership. Similarly, the Israeli government has been criticised for many years in allowing messianic settlers to harass Palestinian citizens in the West Bank.
Many Israelis disagree with this policy and worry that right-wing extremists in their government have taken the focus away from the military leading to the recent invasion.
Following the horrific atrocities of October 7, Israel cannot risk allowing Hamas to remain on its borders. Most Israelis and Jews wish that the looming invasion of Gaza will minimise the unavoidable loss of civilian lives. Gazan civilians have been used by Hamas leaders as human shields as a common practice, all too often in the past.