Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) about the Israeli-Arab Conflict

Q:  When Will There Be Peace in the Middle East?

A: The former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said that ‘there will be peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews.’  In today’s language, when Arafat stops training Palestinian children to kill and use their bodies as bombs, Israel will be more than willing to make peace, even at the cost of territorial sacrifices.  In fact, the Palestinians have been offered borders to establish a state many times: in 1936 by the Peel Commission, in 1947 by the UN, and in countless Israeli offers, the most recent one at Camp David in 2000.  As historian Bernard Lewis recently commented, "History teaches us that Palestinian policy is informed by an implicit refusal to accept the State of Israel."

 

Q:  What is the Source of the Conflict?

A: Minutes after the United Nations pronounced its acceptance of the modern State of Israel, the newly formed country was invaded by five Arab armies.  Today, Israel is still fighting for its very existence.  Many argue that Israel’s presence in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (or the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) is the source of the conflict.  However, that reasoning does not explain why Israel was attacked in 1948, 1956, and in 1967 when the West Bank and Gaza Strip were occupied by two Arab countries, Jordan and Egypt.  In fact, the PLO (the Palestine Liberation Organization) was established in 1964, when east Jerusalem and the West Bank were under their control, with the aim of “liberating” the rest of Israel.  No wonder why every single Palestinian map produced by the Palestinian Authority today shows the entire State of Israel as “occupied Palestine.”  However, every Israeli map (from text books to travel brochures) prominently displays regions controlled by the Palestinian Authority.  Once the Arab world is willing to put Israel on its map of the Middle East, then the conflict will be over…

 

Q: How a Country Defends its Citizens from Terror?

A: As US Congressman Jerrold Nadler recently stated (after witnessing firsthand the suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem that killed 11 people including school children on January of 2004), “Israel has responded to what is now a three-year war of sustained terror with incredible restraint.  If these kinds of attacks were being launched against the United States we'd have had the B-52s out.  We wouldn't be building security fences."  Israel has tried to limit its response to the perpetrators of terror.  In addition to attacking schoolchildren and grandmothers, Arab Terrorists hide in apartment buildings, shielding themselves from retribution behind cribs and baby strollers.  Every military measure that Israel has undertaken has been in defense of its citizens, with the prime directive to limit civilian casualties, Arab, Christian, and Jewish.  Even its non-military measures, such as its planned security fence between Israeli towns and Palestinian villages have been unfairly criticized, while it implementations would limit Israel’s need for military actions and multiple checkpoints.  Instead of bringing the perpetrators of the terror to justice in the International Court, the UN and the Arab League brought the victims to trial for defending themselves.  If the Arabs would put down their weapons, there would be no more violence.  However, if the Israel Defense Force would put down its weapons, there would be no more Israel.

 

Q: What Can Be Done to Bring Peace? 

A:  One of primary means to promote peace between nations is educating our children.  In Israeli high schools Arabic is taught as a required language.  Special educational programs greatly emphasize the need for peaceful coexistence with Israel's Arab neighbors.  In contrast, textbooks used in Palestinian Authority schools portray Jews and Israelis in most derogatory and hateful terms.  In summer camps and kindergartens, Palestinian Arab children undergo paramilitary training against Israel.  Some Arab Institutions and parents train children at an early age as suicide bombers.  This educational atmosphere makes peace impossible in this generation, and plants the seeds of hatred among the coming generations of Arab children as well.  This is further exasperated by the media in the Arab world from Satellite Television to radio talk shows that openly encourage martyrdom and Jihad.  Children are not born with hate, they are taught it.  Therefore, by openly protesting this perversion of innocents one can make a difference.

 

Q: What is the Status of Arabs and Muslims in Israel?

A: Most Arab citizens and residents have greater rights in Israel than their comrades living in the 21 Arab and Muslim countries in the region.  For example, the Arab Israeli citizens have equal representation in Israel’s parliament.  Arabic is an official language in Israel and all Holy Sites are protected for all people to worship – Jews, Christians and Muslim alike (pre-1967, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to their places of worship).  Arab citizens and residents are entitled to state-sponsored healthcare, education and utilities.  Even residents living in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority can access these privileges as well; in fact most Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip travel to Israeli hospitals rather going to ones run by the Red Crescent Society in their own neighborhoods. 

 

Q: Who are the Refugees and Where are They Now?

A: Between 1948-1967 about 850,000 Jews and 750,000 Arabs were displaced as a result of the Arab-Israeli wars.  Most of the Jewish populations displaced from the 21 Arab countries were resettled in Israel.  Unfortunately, the Arab league (aided by the United Nations) has never resettled the Arab refugees in their 21 Arab countries in the region.  While, half of the Arab refugees live in such countries as Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, these states deny their fellow Arabs full citizenship.  Even the Palestinian Authority forbids refugees to own their own homes.  The only purpose of prolonging the status of the refugees is to enflame passions in the Arab world against Israel.  In fact, the refugee camps have become a prime recruiting ground for terrorists seeking future suicide bombers.  By dismantling the refugee camps and integrating the refugees into society (as the world did for more than 100 million refugees after World War II), the Arab League and the United Nations can easily solve this problem and subdue ancient hatreds.

 

Q: How does the United Nations Help?

A: Of the 175 United Nations Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.  The United Nations has consistently been one-sided in supporting the 21 Arab/56 Islamic countries representing more than 2 billion people, while it has ignored the human rights violations by these Arab nations in their own countries (to women, minorities and dissenters).  The UN has also remained relatively silent during the slaughter of close to 1,000 Israelis over the past 3 years (rarely is there a Security Council resolution condemning the 20,000 terror attacks against Israel since September 2000).  Yet, the UN’s bias has not stopped Israel’s longing for a lasting peace in the region, negotiating a just peace settlement with its Arab neighbors (e.g., Egypt 1976, Jordan 1994, and the Oslo Accords 1993-2000).

 

Q: Whose Homeland is it, Anyway? 

A: "Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago.  You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store."                                              - Charles Krauthammer (The Weekly Standard, May 11, 1998) 

 

Israel became a nation about 1300 BCE, two thousand years before the rise of Islam and thirteen hundred years before Christianity.  The people of modern day Israel share the same language and culture shaped by the Jewish heritage and religion passed through generations starting with the founding father Abraham.  Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.  In 1948 Jews reestablished their sovereignty over their ancient homeland with the establishment of the modern State of Israel.  On the flipside, there has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians.  There is no language known as Palestinian, or any Palestinian culture distinct from that of all the Arabs in the region.  Palestinians are Arabs indistinguishable from Arabs throughout the Middle East.  Even the Palestinian National Charter adopted by the PLO states this fact in its first article.  

 

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