Palestinians could have had their own State for 59 Years!
May 12, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Those of us who were around when Israel became a nation remember quite well that if the Arabs had accepted the United Nation Resolution, then an independent Palestinian State would have been formed without a war, and a refugee problem would not exist today. The Palestinians and bordering Arab nations cut their own throats in 1948, thinking they could easily defeat the pitiful little rag tail Israeli forces with their much greater numbers, as well as more
and better weaponry. But, much to the mass surprise of virtually everyone, including myself, the Israelis smashed the Arab forces like they were flies.
Since that time, as a vet of two wars, I have always respected the Israeli military.
If you were not alive at that time, don’t remember, or have never read about the 1948 War,
the Haaretz article, which follows, covers it from the aspect that the Palestinians seem to act as if the chaos of the last 59 years is the fault of Israel. They will not acknowledge they created this 59 year old mess, and are continuing to cut off their noses to spite their faces.
The article by Shlomo Avineri is the straight skinny of the event as it came down, and I certainly agree with his conclusions.
Begin Haaretz Article
Until They Accept Responsibility
May 10, 2007
Shlomo Avineri (Ha’aretz)
The UN resolution that established the State of Israel on May 15, 1948, also stipulated that an Arab state was to be established. The Palestinians mark May 15 as “Nakba” (“Catastrophe”) Day, as something terrible and evil that happened to them. Yet there is not even an iota of introspection, self-criticism and readiness to deal with the Palestinians’ own contribution to their catastrophe.
If the Palestinians had accepted the UN resolution, then an independent Palestinian state would have risen on part of Mandatory Palestine in 1948, without war and
without refugees.
To this day, no book in Arabic has raised the question of whether the Arabs erred in rejecting the compromise UN partition plan.
There is a complete unwillingness among the Palestinians to acknowledge that in 1948 they and their leaders made a terrible historic mistake by rejecting the compromise they were offered.
It is for this reason that the Palestinians’ customary comparison between the Nakba and
the Holocaust is so outrageous. Did the Jews of Germany and Europe declare war on Germany? Were the world’s Jews offered a compromise that they rejected?
There will be no true compromise between Israel and the Palestinians without a readiness on their part to admit that they, too, are partly responsible for what happened to them in 1948.
The writer, a professor of political science at Hebrew University, is a former director-general of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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