Israel Is Fighting For Its Existence Not Land : OIC/Arabs Are Really Seeking Revenge Of The End Of Caliphate In First World War : Even the Two State Solution Will Not Guaranty Peace
Rajiv Upadhyay 
Palestine -Israel fight is often wrongly perceived as about land . It is often stated that Palestine people are fighting for their due share of land which has been usurped by Israel. This is not true !
Israel started with acceptance of a tiny area for a new country and has never initiated any wars be it 1948,1967,1973 nor with Hamas on 7 th October 2023 . It has always been a victim of wars imposed upon it by the neighbouring Islamic countries.
Before the UN resolution on creation of Israel in 1947, in 1922 itself League of Nation had allowed Britain to govern the Palestine / Jordan area which included the Belfour declaration of 1917 about Israel . A committee for creating a nation for much persecuted Jewish people gave only about 25% percent of land to Jews for creation of Israel . Jewish people accepted even this meagre allocation of land as centuries of persecution had made them realise the importance of having a country of their own. But Arabs rejected it as they opposed the creation of Jewish Israel amongst them in the historic ‘ Promised land ‘ of Moses because it was part of the Ottoman empire and muslims were living there.
After the defeat of Ottoman empire in the first world war and the end of Caliphate, a symbol of Islamic unity , all the muslims world over were shocked . In India also a khilafat movement was launched by the Ali brothers in 1919 which was opposed by Jinnah but supported by Gandhi ji . The Ottoman empire was divided between victorious France and Britain . Most of the boundaries of new Middle east nations were drawn by the victors . Britain proposed creation of a state of Israel through a British mandate . So the nation of Israel was really as legal say as Iraq or Syria .
After the holocaust and death of millions of Jews , the guilty United Nations once again passed a resolution in 1947 about partition of Palestine area and thus created the state of Israel with some extra land for likely increase in population due to migration.
Arabs again did not accept it and the Six neighbouring Arab countries attacked it in 1948 . But a handful of Jewish army defeated the mighty Arab armies . A large muslim population of Israel area ran away fearing retribution( Nakba) thus starting the refugee problem. This defeat of historically mighty muslims by a tiny Jewish enemy added to the muslim angst and hurt and they again attacked Israel in 1967 . Once again due to its masterly premptive air attack on Egypt , it defeated the combined Arab armies in this six day war .
Defeated Arabs united once again and attacked Israel on 6 th Nov ’73 . Israel once again defeated the coalition army in a daring move encircling the Egyptian army. This was a war that led to defeated the Egypt and Jordan breaking the ranks with Arab League and negotiating separate peace agreements with Israel in exchange of captured land which they are honouring still. But in spite of regaining all the lost territory by just recognising Israel , president Anwar Sadat was assassinated and Arab league expelled Egypt a move that reflected the popular feeling amongst muslim nations of seeking an endless war.
But right after the 1967 war , Palestine people were offered the west bank as a semi independent area by Jordan and limited citizenship but they instead tried to throw out the monarchy and the King after which they were expelled from Jordan ( Black September ) and they went to Lebanon . Even there, as refugees, they tried to unseat the Lebanon’s Maronite ( mixed Christian Muslim ) government and were expelled from there also and went to Tunisia. Since then Palestine people are denied shelter in any country. They as PLO were the first to use terrorism as a political weapon and invented hijacking of planes . However in a historic Oslo accord supported by President Clinton, PLO and Israel agreed to end hostilities and Israel vacated much of the area it had won in wars . But Palestine people had tasted blood .Yasser Arafat ,the PLO leader ,was immediately challenged by a newly formed more militant organisation ‘ Hamas’ which opposed any recognition or settlement with Israel . They won elections in Gaza in 2006 after Israel handed over the control of the area thus again exposing the uncompromising militant mindset of people.
In spite of prolonged wars , West bank area under Israel is far better governed and developed than Gaza area was under Egyptians or Hamas and West bank area under PLO or Jordan . Hoping for economic integration and lasting peace , Israel gave employment to hundreds of thousands Palestine people after the Oslo accord but it did not win any gratitude and the popular sentiment remained one of defeating Israel some day and getting the whole of Palestine area including Israel .
Some pseudo liberals advocate one combined democratic state based on one man one vote principle. It is often called ‘ One State Solution ‘ It will be suicidal for Israel and surely in twenty years they will be expelled once again from the present Israel too or suffer the fate of Christians in Lebanon and Nigeria due to rabid population rise amongst now the inherently violent Palestine people.
Arabs and OIC now have no hope of winning an overt war so are continuously supporting and funding the proxy war by militant terrorist organisations like Hamas or Hezbollah currently under Iranian patronage . Even after seventy five years of leaving Israel they are still called refugees while Sikhs , Bangladeshis , Uganda Indian refugees do not enjoy any such benefits . Whole world is giving aid to Palestine which is often being diverted to fund terror.
All ambitious and aspiring global muslim leaders make a great public show of supporting Palestine and are currently led by Iran and Turkey’s Erdogan . OIC needs an enemy to unite and Israel is the ideal whipping boy along with India on Kashmir . It makes it impossible for Palestine people to come out of their delusion of eventual victory and accept any pragmatic peace formula like Camp David or Oslo accord . In spite of losing all wars they want to negotiate as victors due to the power of their terrorism in spite of subjecting the Palestine people to life of penury. A Palestine state is not likely to be economically viable and will become hub of illegal activities in the region once the aid is withdrawn as in Afghanistan.
So really it is a question of survival for Israel . Time is running against it as both Hamas and Hezbollah have narrowed the military gap and have given Israel army tough time due to their rocket- missile – drone – tunnel solution against otherwise superior IDF. Israel is right in seeking to destroy the entire terror network in Gaza including hundreds of kilometers of tunnels . Any leniency or defeat will mean annihilation of the Jewish state formed after thousands of years of struggle. People of Gaza who voted for Hamas are responsible for their fate.
Another great danger to survival of Israel will be the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran or Dirty bomb by Hezbollah . Pakistan is already a super market of nuclear technology . Hezbollah can now launch a much more fearsome attack on Israel and IDF may not be adequate to win this war . Israel needs more population of jews but it is unlikely to succeed . Educated Israelis are migrating to USA for more peaceful existence. Like Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon will not recognise the state of Israel and will fight to finish.
So it is really a war of survival of Israel not a war for land as commonly perceived .
