2018年08月12日
"The Peace on The Horizon - 70 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East"(41)
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Chapter 5: Two calendars (Gregorian & Hijri)
5-5(41) Palestine left behind in paradigm shift
During few years before and after Hijri 1400 (i.e. 1980AD), many big incidents took place in the Islamic world, such as the Egyptian Israel Peace Treaty in1979, the Iranian Revolution by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, too, the outbreak and the termination of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 and 1988 respectively, the USSR invasion into Afghanistan and withdrawal in 1980 and 1989 respectively. And the world history has also been turbulant during the last two decades of the 20th century. In 1980s the socialism regime in the USSR began to tear off. Its indication was appeared in the area between the border of the capitalism and the socialism. The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1987 and the German unification in 1990 symbolized the end of the USSR regime. Thus, the USSR collapsed in 1991. The USSR was defeated by capitalism in European front and by Islamic Jihadist in Central Asian front. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which was born at the Russian Revolution in 1917, boasted that socialism would prevail in all over the world in the near future. But they disappeared into history within less than 80 years. Capitalism, in which the United States occupied the top seat, dominated the world.
In the turbulent history of the world and the Middle East, the Palestinian issue was gradually left behind. After the World War II, Palestinian issue was the first issue of the Middle East for a long time. But the concern about Palestine issue was quickly faded out when Egypt, leader of the Arab countries, signed peace treaty with Israel in 1979. The European countries have got the illusion as if all of the problems were solved permanently by giving Sadat and Beguin the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the occupation of the Palestinian homeland by the Jews was never solved by the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Balfour Declaration of giving Palestinian territory to the Jews had three meanings for UK and other European countries. First, it was a remuneration for Jews who financially supported the UK for the victory of the World War I. In the second, it was an atonement of the Europeans for historical oppression against Jewish people. And thirdly it was the best idea to get rid of troublesome Jews from Europe to distant Palestine. The Balfour Declaration had triple merits for European society.
But for Palestinians it was nothing to do with them that Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty and Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin received the Nobel Peace Prize. It couldn’t solve any problems at all. Jewish people had been shouting the slogan, “People defunct land to landless people”. But it was a selfish idea because the Jews completely ignored the history of Palestinians who had been living in that place for nearly two thousand years after Jewish people had left Palestine and scattered to various areas of Europe as diaspora (great discretion).
After Israeli independence Palestinians fought for construction of the Palestinian state seeking the return of land. The Arab countries actively supported the Palestinians and raised to military action. But the Ramadan War in 1973 was the final one. Egypt left from Arab allies by single peace treaty with Israel. Other Arab countries condemned Egypt, but no country offered help to Palestine. Palestinians were left behind in the paradigm shift of the world and the Middle East.
It was a matter of course that Palestinians were not silent and did not overlook the situation. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), based in southern Lebanon near the Israel border repeated a cross-border attack on Israel persistently taking advantage of dysfunction of the Lebanese government. In response, Israel bombed the PLO Headquarters in the Palestinian refugee camp. The PLO could not match Israel in military operations at all. In 1982, the PLO withdrew from Lebanon and fled to Tunisia.
The Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip had to be kept in cloud on the horizon. However, they did not give up the
resistance movement against Israel. The Palestinians had nothing but a few
weapons and ammunitions. The only one means to show their intention of resistance
was to throw the stones. They threw the stones toward Israel soldiers and their
tanks which suppressed the Palestine demonstration. It was a hopeless
resistance. It was no use kicking against the pricks. It began in 1987 for the
first time and was called as “intifada”. The photo news that Palestinians
resisted tyranny by stone and Israeli confrontation with the latest weapons
have attracted international public opinion. The criticism against Israel was
grown up.
Norway mediated between Israel and PLO. In 1993, both parties signed an Oslo Accords in Washington. It was a historical achievement to recognize the Palestinians’ “legitimate and political rights”. Yasser Arafat, Chairman of PLO, Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister of Israel, and Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. However, in conclusion, Rabin was assassinated by the right-wing Jews in next year and the peace accord ended with no fruits after all. It was a reproduction of the incident that Anwar Sadat of Egypt was assassinated after Sadat and Menachem Begin of Israel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. When talking about peace in the Middle East, the Nobel Peace Prize did not brought permanent peace in the Middle East in any way. It gave only the illusion of the peace of the Middle East for the Western people especially the intellectuals in Europe.
(To be continued ----)
