Articles
Israel at Seventy
Dt: 9/5/18
Israel at Seventy
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
Three score and ten years ago, the state of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948 (5, Iyar 5708 according to the Hebrew calendar). This is one of the 100 new Nation States that were created after the second World War. In 1897 the First World Zionist Congress was held in Basel in Switzerland under the inspiring initiative of Theodore Herzl . It took 50 years for the aspirations of that Congress to recreate the Nation State for Jews to be gathered from all over the world. Jews had been expelled almost wholesale as punishment for repeated revolts of Jews in the Rome’s Province of Palestine. As soon as the Nation State of Israel was announced in May 1948, Armies from five Arab counties, (Egypt, Jordan , Iraq, Lebanon and Syria) invaded the newly proclaimed state. They declared to destroy the new state and exterminate every Jew in the land. The different guerrilla units which the Jewish settlers, the Yeshiva raised to defend themselves from the British and the Arabs both of whom were opposing the immigration of Jews into Palestine came together as Israel Defence Forces (IDF), defeated and drove back the Arab armies. In Jan 1949 there was an armistice and cessation of hostilities between armies. About 200,000 Palestinian Arabs fled from the newly established state.
2. Since founding, Israel was involved in periodic wars in 1948,1956, 1967 and 1973 with Arab States and with the neighbouring armed bands Palestinian terrorist armies of Hijbullah in Lebanon in 1982 and 2006 and Hamas in Gaza in 2004. After the failure of the second Arab war in 1973 to destroy Israel, Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel and established diplomatic relations. The Jewish-Arab conflict settled down to Israel-Palestinian conflict “ No War, No Peace”. Despite the Oslo Accords of 1993 between Israel and the PLO; the accord remains a child who is unloved by either parent. Palestinian terrorists had taken to suicide bombings and the Arabs within Israel had twice staged intifada, rebellions. Israel built a wall to separate it from the Palestinian territory. The wall and electronic surveillance stopped terrorists bombings within Israel. East Jerusalem which was under Jordan’s occupation was liberated in the Six Day War of 1967 and integrated into one city, the capital of Israel.
3. Israel ‘s population in 1948 was 600,000. Nearly 1.5 mln Jews were uprooted from the Arab countries and they had to settle in Israel. About as many Arabs, fled from Israel to the West Bank (Jordan), Syria and a few other Arab/ Muslim countries . None are given citizenship. The king of Jordan drove out all Palestinians from his kingdom, as they became a menace and a law unto themselves. Millions of Jews left the former USSR and the east European countries after the collapse of communist rule there .
Israel absorbed over 200,00 survivors of the Nazi Honocaust. In all Israel absorbd over 5 mln Jews from over 100 countris. Israel was an engineering and human project since the 1930s.
There are about 400,000 Israelis as settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. There are 1.8 mln Arabs within Israel. Just as Muslims in India have the Indian Union Muslim League and the Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslameen (MIM), the Arab Muslims within Israel have a party of their own, Balad, and have one MP in Israel’s Parliament, Knesset. Israel with 8 mln people ( of whom 20% are Arab Muslims ) is a David among 350 mln Arabs and 1500 mln Muslims. Balad’s office is adorned by the photo of Gamal Abdel Nasser, just as AMU’s student’s hall displays Jinnah’s photo. Nasser vowed to destroy Israel in 1967.
4. Israel first exploded its atom bomb in 1966. The facility is located in Dimona in the Negev desert. Israel follows the Begin Doctrine. No Arab or Islamic state would be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and missiles. Those would be destroyed. Israel destroyed the Iraqi nuclear facility coming up with French assistance in June 1981. In Sept 2007 it destroyed the nuclear facility coming up with North Korean assistance in Syria. In 2006, Israel injected a virus into the Iranian nuclear facility which resulted in the self-destruction of the centrifuges separating U235 from U238. The Iranian nuclear programme suffered a huge delay.
5. Israel is a military super power entirely because of science & technology it has nurtured. Can this apparent invincibility last for long? Would not some Muslim States (eg: Pakistan and Iran) develop nuclear weapons and missiles? What would Israel’s position be then ? Israel’s superiority in technology could not destroy the Hizbullah in Lebanon in the 33- day long war; and it was not able to subdue the Hamas in Gaza which had broken off from the Palestinian Authority and has become a second virtual Palestinian state in the making.
6. Turkey is a non-Arabic Muslim country. So is Iran. In initial years of Israel’s existence both these were friends of Israel. After the 1979 revolution, Iran has become the deadliest enemy of Israel publicly declaring that it aims to annihilate Israel. Till a few years back Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Muslim state was also the deadliest enemy of Israel. In fact, in 1967 a few weeks before the Six- Day war, the Saudi ambassador to the UN who later became the Chairman of the PLO declared that “not a single Jew would survive” and Egypt’s Nasser declared that its intention was to destroy Israel and drown the Jews in the Meditarian Sea . The defeat in 1973 of the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan convinced the Arab states that they would not be able to defeat Israel in war. That realisation led Egypt and Jordon to sign peace-treaties with Israel. The intense enmity between Sunni- Saudi Arabia and Shia -Iran is leading to covert friendship between Saudi Arabia and Israel . The Saudi’s may seek Israel’s nuclear shield against Iran.
7. The OSLO accord of 1993 between the Palestrina Liberation Organisation and Israel is like a child who is not loved by both the parents. After Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel the problem has ceased to be between Israel and Arabs. It is now between Israel and Palestinian people . How would the Palestinian state deal with the 400,000 (and increasing) Jewish settlers in Palestine area? Will the Jewish settlers in Palestine and Arabs in Israel be treated as reciprocal hostages?
8. Israelis are introspecting intensively about the security of their state in the long run. Israel’s Ashkenazi Jews of European origin are the well -to -do class and are not committed to Judaism. The Jews that had come from the Arab lands and Africa ( mainly Ethiopia) Sephardim, are poorer compared to the Western origin Ashkenazi. By now, they have become the majority. There is cleavage between these two economically and religiocity- wise differentiated sections of the Jewish population in Israel. Also, the ultra-religious, orthodox Jews who are increasing, refuse to be drafted into the Israel’s armed forces. The Arabs within Israel are growing furiously just as Muslims in India. These Arabs staged twice staged revolts against the State. For how long, can Israel remain a Jewish majority state? Would it become a bi-nation (Jew and Arab) state and not a uni-nation Jewish state ? In India Muslims have the memory of creating Pakistan by asserting that they are a different nation apart from Hindus , Sikhs and Buddhists . Would Israel’s Arab Muslims do likewise? There is also a Peace Now moment in Israel espoused by communists, ultra liberals and Arab residents, just as in India we have the secularists, communists and left liberals who dream of peace with Pakistan .
9. Israel’s National Water carrier:
Israel is a continuing engineering project from the times of the Jewish immigration in the 19th century. One of the greatest accomplishments of Israel is water management.
Even before the establishment of the State of Israel, the Yishuv that is, the Jewish settlements in Palestine drew up a plan for water supply for all the areas it wanted to settle in and ultimately for the state of Israel. In 1939 the mandatory power, England wanting to restrict the immigration of Jews from all over the world into Palestine (present day Israel plus whole of the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority- PA) estimated that it would support only 2 mln inhabitants because of the limitation of all sources of water and so it wanted to restrict the immigration of Jews at 15,000 per year. Today, the total population of Israel ( 8 mln) and Palestine ( 4 mln) is 6 times more than what the scientists and engineers of developed Great Britain said could be supported. Israel established the Israel National Water Carrier in June 1964. Whole of Israel and areas under the Palestinian Authority are served by it. The National water carrier can support a population of 20 mln!
From Lake Galilee in the north to Beersheba in the Negev desert in the south a National Water Grid has been constructed all underground, for security and prevention of loss of water by evaporation, if distributed through surface canals. 12,000 crore gallons per day ae pumped through the network . 62% of the water is manufactured – 27% by de-salination; 21% by reclaiming and refining the sewage water and 11% brackish water; 38% of the water comes from natural sources - 28% from aquifers and 10% from the Sea of Galilee ( an Inland lake). 55% of Israeli’s water is used for agriculture ; 33% for households ; 6% for industry and 5% is exported to the areas under Palestinian Authority and the kingdom of Jordan. The country is crisscrossed by this water carrier and distribution system which extends into the Negev desert which constitutes 60% of the area of Israel. At the peak of construction 7.14 % of the population was engaged in digging, laying pipes, putting the barriers and so on. They spent 5% of the GDP on the national water carrier project. This should be a lesson for us. The GDP spent was 5 %. Israel is now the model for the rest of the world for water production, storage and distribution. Israel is the only country in the world where forests are expanding and deserts are receding .
10. A few days ago, Israel’s cabinet took a decision authorising the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister together to take a decision for Israel to go to war. Prime Minister Netanyahu gave a live power point presentation of the evidence Israel has gathered about the nuclear bomb program of Iran. The US President Trump terminated the “no sanctions” agreement with Iran on the 7th May. On the 14th of May, the USA is scheduled to move its Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem . Put these developments together and let us wait as to what would happen as in 1967, 1981, 2007 or when?
The sword will devour forever
- Moshe Dayan
Of the 1967 Six Day War fame
“….given our history and geography peace is hardly likely.
- Yossi Sarid, a socialistic labour leader & intellectual
The quotes remind us of India-Pakistan relations.
(1,851 words)
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