From 1517-1917 Turkey's Ottoman Empire controlled a vast Arab empire, a portion of which is today Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. During World War I (1914-1918), Turkey supported Germany. When Germany was defeated, so were the Turks. In 1916 control of the southern portion of their Ottoman Empire was "mandated" to France and Britain under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence. Lebanon and Syria were assigned (mandated) to France... and "Palestine" (today's Jordan, Israel and "West Bank") was mandated to Great Britain.
Because no other peoples had ever established a national homeland in "Palestine" since the Jews had done it 2,000 years before, the British "looked favorably" upon the creation of a Jewish National Homeland throughout ALL of Palestine. The Jews had already begun mass immigration into Palestine in the 1880's in an effort to rid the land of swamps and malaria and prepare for the rebirth of Israel. This Jewish effort to revitalize the land attracted an equally large immigration of Arabs from neighboring areas who were drawn by employment opportunities and healthier living conditions. There was never any attempt to "rid" the area of what few Arabs there or those Arab masses that immigrated into this area along with the Jews!
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In 1923, the British divided the "Palestine" portion of the Ottoman Empire into two administrative districts. Jews would be permitted only west of the Jordan river. In effect, the British had "chopped off" 75% of the originally proposed Jewish Palestinian homeland to form an Arab Palestinian nation called Trans-Jordan (meaning "across the Jordan River"). This territory east of the Jordan River was given to Emir Abdullah (from Hejaz, now Saudi Arabia) who was not even an Arab-"Palestinian!" This portion of Palestine was renamed Trans-Jordan. Trans-Jordan and would again be renamed "Jordan" in 1946. In other words, the eastern 3/4 of Palestine would be renamed TWICE, in effect, erasing all connection to the name "Palestine!" However, the bottom line is that the Palestinian Arabs had THEIR "Arab Palestinian" homeland. The remaining 25% of Palestine (now WEST of the Jordan River) was to be the Jewish Palestinian homeland. However, sharing was not part of the Arab psychological makeup then nor now.
Encouraged and incited by growing Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East, the Arabs of that small remaining Palestinian territory west of the Jordan River launched never-ending murderous attacks upon the Jewish Palestinians in an effort to drive them out. Most terrifying were the Hebron massacres of 1929 and later during the 1936-39 "Arab Revolt." The British at first tried to maintain order but soon (due to the large oil deposits being discovered throughout the Arab Middle East) turned a blind eye. It became painfully clear to the Palestinian Jews that they must fight the Arabs AND drive out the British.
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The Palestinian Jews were forced to form an organized defense against the Arabs Palestinians.... thus was formed the Hagana, the beginnings of the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF]. There was also a Jewish underground called the Irgun led by Menachem Begin (who later became Prime Minister of Israel). Besides fighting the Arabs, the Irgun was instrumental in driving out the pro-Arab British. Finally in 1947 the British had enough and turned the Palestine matter over to the United Nations.
The 1947 U.N. Resolution 181 partition plan was to divide the remaining 25% of Palestine into a Jewish Palestinian State and a SECOND Arab Palestinian State (Trans-Jordan being the first) based upon population concentrations. The Jewish Palestinians accepted... the Arab Palestinians rejected. The Arabs still wanted ALL of Palestine... both east AND west of the Jordan River.
Our Palestinian Cousins started the '48 war, and in so doing released the warlike appetites of a nation of survivors, a people with no place to run, who had repressed their rage for millennia, and had now earned full title to it!
On May 14, 1948 the "Palestinian" Jews finally declared their own State of Israel and became "Israelis." On the next day, seven neighboring Arab armies... Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen... invaded Israel. Most of the Arabs living within the boundaries of the newly declared "ISRAEL" were encouraged to leave by the invading Arab armies to facilitate the slaughter of the Jews and were promised to be given all Jewish property after the victorious Arab armies won the war. The truth is that 70% of the Arab Palestinians who left in 1948 – perhaps 300,000 to 400,000 of them – never saw an Israeli soldier! They did not flee because they feared Jewish thugs, but because of a rational and reasonable calculus: the Jews will be exterminated; we will get out of the way while that messy and dangerous business goes forward, and we will return afterwards to reclaim our homes, and to inherit those nice Jewish properties as well. They guessed wrong; and the Arab Palestinians are still tortured by the residual shame of their flight. Their shame is so great because in their eyes running from Jews was like running from women. So much for the blatant lie about Jews throwing out all the [Palestinian] Arabs!
The remaining 30% either (1) saw for themselves that these Jews would fight and die for their new nation and decided to pack up and leave or (2) were driven off the land as a normal consequence of war.
When the 19 month war ended, Israel survived despite a 1% loss of its entire population! Those Arabs who did not flee became today's Israeli-Arab citizens. Those who fled became the seeds of the first wave of "Palestinian Arab refugees."
The Arab propagandists and apologists almost never mentioned that in 1948, Arab armies launched a war against a one-day-old Israel. Instead he focused on the main consequence of that war: the creation of Arab refugees, stating that Israel "short of genocide" expelled 800,000 of them. This not only disagrees with UN estimates of a bit over 400,000 refugees but also ignores the fact that most of the Arabs/Palestinians were encouraged to leave by the Arab World itself!
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The end result of the 1948-49 Israeli War of Independence was the creation of a Jewish State slightly larger than that which was proposed by the 1947 United Nations Resolution 181. What remained of that almost-created second Arab Palestinian State was gobbled up by (1) Egypt (occupying the Gaza Strip) and by (2) Trans-Jordan (occupying Judea-Samaria (a.k.a. the "West Bank" of the Jordan River) and Jerusalem. In the next year (1950) Trans-Jordan formally merged this West Bank territory into itself and granted all those "Palestinian" Arabs living there Jordanian citizenship. Since Trans-Jordan was then no longer confined to one side of the Jordan River, it renamed itself simply "Jordan." In the final analysis, the Arabs of Palestine ended up with nearly 85% of the original territory of Palestine... called Jordan but in reality their ARAB "Palestinian state! But that was still not 100% and thus the conflict between Arab and Jew for "Palestine" would continue through four more wars and continuous Arab terrorist attacks upon the Israeli citizenry. It continues to this very day.
From 1949-67 when all of Judea-Samaria [West Bank & Jerusalem] and Gaza ... were 100% under Arab [Jordanian & Egyptian] control, no effort was EVER made to create a second Palestinian State for the Arabs living there. Surely you do not expect Israel to now provide these same Arabs with their own country when their fellow Arabs failed to do so! And isn't it curious how Arafat and his PLO (formed in 1964) discovered their "ancient" identity and a need for "self-determination" and "human dignity" on this very same West Bank ONLY AFTER Israel regained this territory (three years later in 1967) following Jordan's attempt attempt to destroy Israel! Why was no request ever made upon King Hussein of Jordan by the Arabs living on the West Bank when he occupied it? Is it logical that the PLO was formed in 1964 to regain the lands they would lose three years later in 1967? This sort of logic makes sense only to those who who have not learned that the PLO was formed to DESTROY Israel. And that is STILL their goal! A cosmetic name change from PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) to PA (Palestinian Authority) does not change the stripes on THIS tiger!
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Throughout much of May 1967, the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian armies mobilized along Israel's narrow and seemingly indefensible borders in preparation for a massive invasion to eliminate the State of Israel. The battle cry heard throughout the Arab world was then, as it continues to be... "Slaughter the Jews" and "Throw the Jews into the Sea!" But the Jews of Israel, remembering 2,000 years of being butchered, gassed, burned and skinned (eg. The Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition, the Arab rampages of early Palestine and particularly the Holocaust), planned and executed a perfect pre-emptive strike against Egypt. Within two hours the Egyptian Air Force did not exist... most of its planes destroyed while still on the runways! Unaware that the Egyptians had no more air force, King Hussein of Jordan, launched his attack from the his West Bank into Israel's belly while Syrian troops prepared to descend down the Golan Heights high ground into northern Israel.
Now for some facts about "occupation." Firstly, the Egyptians, Jordanians and Syrians lost Gaza, the West Bank and Golan Heights (respectively) by participating in a failed attempt at genocide against the Children of Israel. Had Israel lost this 1967 defensive war, the Arab-Palestinians and their Arab allies would have raped, butchered or driven out every Israeli they could get their hands on and gobbled up all of Israel. Now, 35+ years later and despite the fact that Israel won a war BROUGHT UPON THEM, the Israelis are still willing to allow the Arab-Palestinians to have a state on much of the West Bank and Gaza if only they will stop sending their suicide/homicide bombers into the heart of Israel! (Talk about misplaced compassion!)
From 1948 to 1967, Egypt ruled Gaza, Syria ruled the Golan Heights, while Jordan ruled the West Bank. They could have set up independent Arab-Palestinian states in any or all of those territories, but they didn't even consider it. Instead, in 1967 they used the Golan Heights, Gaza and the West bank to launch a war that was unambiguously aimed at destroying Israel, which is how Israel came into possession of those territories in the first place.
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After ONLY six days of air, sea and hand-to-hand ground warfare, Israel defeated all three Arab armies along three separate fronts, taking control of the entire Sinai Desert from Egypt, the 37mile x 12mile Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem and its Old City) from Jordan. The God of Israel was surely watching over His children! Most importantly was the return to Israel of its holy 3,000 year old capital city of Jerusalem along the western edge of the West Bank... the same Jerusalem from which all Jews had been denied access for the 19 years (1948-1967) following Jordan's seizure and control over it following the first Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9.
Unfortunately, the world saw things differently and considered Israel an "occupier" of this disputed "West Bank" and the Gaza Strip along with the 850,000 Palestinian Arabs living there. These Arabs would refer to themselves as "refugees" and joined the masses of refugees from the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948-9. Once again Israel was forced to fight a battle for survival and, sadly, once again Palestinian [in reality, Jordanian and Egyptian] Arabs becoming refugees by their own actions, the actions of their leaders and from the actions of fellow Arabs from neighboring states!
ISRAEL SCREWS UP TOO!
Israel was responsible for bringing about some of its own problems. The Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were packed and ready to leave following their 1967 defeat. Suddenly the victorious one-eyed IDF General Moshe Dayan persuaded them to stay. This singular act stunned no one more than the Arab enemy himself who could not believe such an incredible manifestation of Jewish madness! After all, the Arabs knew what THEY would have done to the Jews if they had won! Dayan's plan was to educate them, offer them modern medical treatment, provide them with employment both in the West Bank, Gaza AND inside Israel Proper itself ... living amongst each other in hopes of building bridges to the Arab world. Israel is now paying dearly for this typically naive "Leftist" gesture. That "bridge" led to two Intifadas and world-wide Arab-Palestinian terrorism. From a frightened and defeated enemy, these "Palestinian" Arabs under Israel's jurisdiction turned into a confident, hateful and dangerous enemy now on their way toward forming a terrorist state determined to destroy Israel!
Note: When people say Jordan (first called Trans-Jordan) is an Arab-"Palestinian" State, they are correct! Jordan accounts for 3/4 of Palestine's original land mass. Though they may call themselves "Jordanians," they are culturally, ethnically, historically and religiously no different than the Arab-"Palestinians" on the "West Bank." Even the flag of Jordan and the flag of the proposed 2nd Arab-Palestinian state on the West Bank / Gaza look almost identical. So, if the Arab-Palestinians and Jordanians think of themselves as one and the same, why should WE fall for the lie that the Arab Palestinians west of the Jordan River are any different from the Jordanian Arabs on its eastern shore?
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Usually when one side starts a war and loses both the war AND some territory, no one on the planet would expect the winner to give back anything! This not only sounds preposterous, it IS preposterous! But the Jews (I hate to admit) had such an insane obsession of wanting the world to love them that they were willing to give back the entire Sinai Desert (oil fields, air bases and endless miles of security buffer) to Egypt for a piece of paper. Thus, in 1982 Egypt regained their Sinai and Israel lost a massive buffer against any future Egyptian aggression! Thus far, Egypt has not aggressed against Israel militarily; however, the basest, anti-Semitic vile to come out of Egypt is not unlike the worse of Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda! This 1982 Camp David Peace Accord has to be the coldest peace deal in history!
Israel still occupies Syria's Golan Heights which, prior to the 1967 war, had been by Syria used solely for terrorist incursions into and artillery bombardment upon Israel's northeastern settlements. The Golan should never be given back to Israel's most vicious enemy! And of course, Israel still "occupies" the West Bank with its ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND and Gaza with its EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND "Palestinian" Arabs. Had Israel done to these Arabs what the Arabs would have done to the Jews had THEY won, she would have expelled these hostile Arabs and made it officially part of a Greater Israel! But by remaining an "occupier," Israel set herself up for a campaign of vicious propaganda, the scope and intensity of which the world has never before seen!
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More on "Palestinian Nationalism
and the
Real War Against Israel...
The Middle East war is not now and never was a conflict between Israelis/Jews on the one hand and Palestinians on the other. In fact, the Arab-"Palestinians", while currently the perpetrators of most of the anti-Jewish atrocities, were never a very important part of the conflict. In fact, before about 1970, virtually no one in the world considered the Middle East conflict to be one between Israelis and Palestinians.
The term "Palestinian" itself had referred to Israeli Jews back in the 1940s, and had been slowly deconstructed and redefined to refer to the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza. The Middle East Conflict was always a war by Arabs against Jews, not a conflict between Israelis and "Palestinians." The war was repackaged as a conflict between Jews and Palestinians as a public relations gimmick by the Arab fascist regimes. These regimes had never had any interest in "Palestinians," in creating a "Palestinian" state, or in "Palestinian nationalism" before 1967. That is because Palestinian nationalism did not and DOES NOT exist. The Palestinians were a regional group of Arabs having virtually no cultural nor national distinctive traits separating them from Syrians, Lebanese, and Jordanians. They are all basically Arabs!.
The bulk of what are called "Palestinian Arabs" are members of families who migrated into the Land of Israel beginning in the late 19th century. Palestinian nationalism is a mislabeling of Arab nationalism. Arab nationalism exists, although it is closely bound up with Islamic nationalism and even Islamism. Palestinian nationalism, however, is a phantom. It is nothing more than genocidal hatred of Jews!
The Arab assaults and aggressions against Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1968, and 1973 had nothing to do with Palestinians. The Palestinian terror campaign would itself be easy to suppress today and eradicate if the Middle East conflict were really a Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israel would simply obliterate the terrorists and expel their supporters to Syria and Lebanon. The Middle East war continues because it is really an Arab-Israeli war, not an Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is also in large part a war between barbarism and civilization. In many ways an Islamic religious jihad against the Jews.
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So, what does Lebanon have to do with this?
As with many of the conflicts in the Middle East, the ongoing war along the Israeli-Lebanese border is a part of the longer and larger Arab-Israeli conflict. While originally this cross-border warfare revolved around the goal of the Palestinians to return to land they beleive to be theirs, since the mid-1980s, the warfare against Israel has been dominated by the Shiite Muslim guerilla army known as Hezbollah, which in the Arabic language means "Party of God."
The first part of this page discusses the Palestinian-related origins of the Israel-Lebanon warfare, while the second part of the page discusses the Hezbollah war against Israel.
Origins...
In 1948, five Arab nations, including Lebanon, invaded Israel in a vain attempt to prevent the birth of the Jewish nation on land that the Arabs felt belonged to them. The Arabs called the land occupied by the Israelis "Palestine" and those Arabs living there as "Palestinians." The Jewish inhabitants of this land, and the Jewish immigrants who joined them, called the land "Israel," the name used in ancient biblical times for the original Jewish nation. In 1948, the Jewish inhabitants of British-ruled Palestine declared the independence of the world's only Jewish nation, Israel. Unfortunately, the Muslim Arab Palestinians wanted nothing to do with a Jewish nation, and fighting took place which has lasted, off and on, ever since
As a result of this and subsequent outbreaks of war, thousands of Palestinians fled to neighboring Arab countries. Several Palestinian guerrilla armies formed to fight a guerrilla/terrorist war against Israel. Their attacks on Israeli targets prompted retaliation on the host nations of Jordan and Lebanon. Palestinian power became so great in Jordan, that a civil war was fought in 1970, resulting in the expulsion of Palestinian forces from that nation. At this point, the Palestinian resistance moved to Lebanon, a small nation located on Israel's northern border.
The newly resettled Palestinian forces, led by Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), had two important effects on Lebanon. First, their ongoing cross-border raiding brought violent responses from Israel. These retaliatory raids caused death and destruction for the local inhabitants of South Lebanon. Secondly, the large influx of mostly Muslim Palestinians upset the population balance between Lebanon's Christians and Muslims. These two religious groups fought a civil war in the 1950's, and an uneasy peace had existed since. By 1975, tensions between the Lebanese Christians on one side and the Lebanese Muslims and the PLO on the other side, erupted into a bloody civil war. The Lebanese Army and government dissolved as rival Christian and Muslim militias battled for control of their nation. This conflict caused Lebanon's only two neighbors to intervene in its affairs. Soon after the war's beginning, Syria sent a 40,000 man-strong "peace-keeping" force into Eastern Lebanon. Though officially a force for peace, the Syrians soon took the side of the Muslims and PLO and actively battled the Lebanese Christian forces. Israel began aiding the anti-Muslim forces with weapons and other assistance.
As the Lebanese Civil War raged on, the PLO continued attacks on northern Israel. By 1978, Israel decided to invade Southern Lebanon, which was now almost fully controlled by the PLO.
Israeli Invasions and Incursions into Lebanon
--Israeli Invasion of Lebanon (1978)--25,000 Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon on March 14, 1978 in a campaign to drive the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) out. This attack was in response to PLO raids into northern Israel from their bases in southern Lebanon.
After the 1970 Jordanian Civil War, in which the PLO was driven out of Jordan, southern Lebanon came under Palestinian control, with Yasser Arafat's forces creating a virtual 'state-within-a-state." Their control became so dominint, that southern Lebanon was nicknamed "Fatahland," after al-Fatah, the name of Arafat's main PLO faction.
This Israeli military offensive forced an estimated 285,000 people to become refugees, with over 6,000 homes destroyed or badly damaged. Between 1,100 and 2,000 Lebanese civilians were killed. Twenty Israeli soldiers died, and an unknown number of Palestinian fighters. The PLO forces retreated ahead of the Israelis and continued their attacks on Israel.
Tactically, the Israeli invasion was unsuccessful. Their target, PLO military units, left the area. Israel had failed to prevent the PLO retreat.
As the Israelis withdrew in June, 1978, they turned control of the occupied territory over to the South Lebanon Army (SLA), led by Major Saad Haddad, a renegade Lebanese Army officer who set up his own militia. The SLA served as Israel's proxy in south Lebanon, often engaging the PLO in combat.
An estimated 285,000 Lebanese and Palestininian civilians became refugees due to Operation Litani. Estimates of civilian deaths in Lebanan range from 1,100 to 2,000. 20 Israelis soldiers were were killed. The PLO suffered an unknown number of casualties.
1981--In response to PLO rocket attacks, Israeli forces began heavy bombing of PLO targets in Lebanon. The United States negotiated a cease-fire.
1982-- Operation Peace in Galilee (June 6, Israel began its 1982 offensive into Lebanon in response to two specific terrorist acts; the bombing of a bus in northern Israel, and the assassination attempt on the life of Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov. Calling this invasion "Operation Peace in Galilee," (Galillee is the biblical name for northern Israel), Israel invaded Lebanon up to the outskirts of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
While eventually allowing the PLO to leave Lebanon, Israeli forces remained in control of south Lebanon near the border until 2000, when the troops were withdrawn in order to end the ongoing guerilla war with the Shiite Lebanese militia called Hezbollah.
The "Party of God..."
During the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its long occupation of the southern part of the country, a new Lebanese militia formed with the goal of driving the invading Israelis out. Forming as a means of resistance among the poor Shiite Muslim population of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah gained strong support from both Syria and Shiite Iran, two nations with strong, continueing hostility to both Israel and the United States. In fact, one of Hezbollah's first operations was a suicide truck bombing which killed 241 U.S. Marines at the Beirut Airport in October, 1983.
1993--Israeli Forces launched Operation Accountability (July 25-July 31, 1993), a week-long military campaign directed at Hezbollah ( this conflict is called The Seven-Day War by the Lebanese).
In June, 1993, Hezbollah launched rockets against a settlement in northern Israel, and then in July, 1993, both Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) launched attacks which killed five Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon. Israel decided to respond to these attacks by making southern Lebanon an inhospitable environment for Hezbollah.
During Operation Accountability, Israeli forces destroyed or damaged thousands of houses and buildings, causing some 300,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians from southern Lebanon to migrate towards Beirut and other areas outside of the combat zone. Israeli forces also targeted Lebanese infrastructure, (power stations, bridges, and roadways. This is a tactic that would be repeated in future Israeli attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon. Hezbollah responded with more rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets.
At least 118 Lebanese civilians and two Israeli civilians died during this operation.
1996--Operation Grapes of Wrath (April 11-April 27, 1996) --Israel's massive air and artillery attack on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon which attempted to end shelling of northern Israel by the Iranian and Syrian-backed Lebanese Islamic militia. Israel forces launched 1,100 air raids and fired nearly 25,132 shells at Hezbollah targets during the sixteen-day offensive. A United Nations camp at Qana, Lebanon, was hit by Israeli shelling, killing 118 Lebanese civilians who sought shelter there. Nearly 640 Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel in this time period, particularly the often-hit settlement of Kiryat Shemona. Israel's ally and proxy force, the South Lebanon Army (a mixed Christian and Shiite Muslim militia under the command of renegade Lebanese Major Saad Haddad), also engaged in ground fighting with Hezbollah.
At least 350 civilians were wounded in Lebanon , and 62 Israeli civilians were wounded in Israel.
2006--In response to the killing of three Israeli soldiers and the capture of two others in July, 2006, Israeli troops returned to Lebanon while air forces bombed nearly 40 targets in order to effect the release of the captured soldiers.
PLEASE VIEW THE SOURCES FOR MAPS AND PICTURE TO GO ALONG WITH THE EXPLINATION
2006-08-04 01:46:16
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answer #1
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answered by PurpleFool 2
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