Arab Countries Deserve a Home

Why does the enmity among the Arab nations like Israel, Palestine, Iran and Iraq are seemingly unstoppable?  Does their respective religion sculpted their heart, mind and conscience on violence (unlike the Philippines on corruption)?  What are the motives behind this gruelling episode of their existence as a nation whose stewardship is for the common good than filling one’s anger to the brim?

 “Although Israel does not have a single complete constitutional document,[1] in its statehood the Jewish state has developed an operative constitution of its own, embodied in a set of written texts that reflect the political system on which the state is based, its social content, and an expanding constitutional tradition”,[2] which also talks about independence, if we’ll try to sum it up, their 613 laws ofTorah are summarized in the Holy Gospel when it echoes:

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I no longer call you slaves, because a a slave does not know what his master is doing.  I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my father. (John 15:12-15).

On the other hand, Iranian general principle of its constitution talks on “sovereignty of truth and Qur’anic justice wherein its golden rule states: 

Conversely, Iraq’s fundamental principle of its constitution likewise talks about liberation[3] which suggest humanitarian cause of oneness[4] that is anchored on unity for the country.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Constitution  likewise talks on liberation which evidently suggests a peaceful perspective of governance.

Further, the Arab countries who are believers of Koran are guided by “great jihad” which is the quest to control base instincts such as greed, lust, and cruelty and to seek spiritual purity.

All of these religion from Koran to Judaism down to Christianity are filled with stories of wars and warriors, and these images have been used throughout history by some members of every faith to justify bloodshed than drawing the innumerable good values in it to optimize personal, filial, communal and societal progress.

Let's try to establish how the seemingly inexorable wars in these countries have been in existence, at least in a nutshell because that could equal to a paperback if taken cover to cover, which is significant to determine why there is a need of religious freedom than exclusivity.

Judea which was inhabited by the Jews in ancient times was conquered by the Romans which they renamed it as Palestine.[5]  The latter was later conquered and occupied by Arabs for over a thousand years.  The 

Iraq’s fundamental principle of its constitution movement restored the Jews to Israel and largely ignored the existing Arab population.

In the Gospel, Judea as mentioned was governed by King Herod who desired to kill Jesus out of pre-conceived idea that someone would take his kingship in the future:

Matthew 2:5-7  And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.

Matthew 2:1-3 When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of king Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage. When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Matthew 2:16  When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious.  He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he has ascertained from the magi.

Palestine was granted to Britain as a League of Nations mandate to build a national home for the Jewish people before the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

Jews coming in for land possession infuriated the Arabs causing them a repeated riots and revolted later on led by Grand Muffi Hajj Amin El Husseini. This created a history of hostility between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.

Jewish immigration to Palestine was halted by British but retracted brought by the Holocaust which killed 6 million Jews. 

Israel has been engaged in a number of wars and large-scale military operations[6] which include:

1948 Arab–Israeli War (November 1947 - July 1949)  - Started as 6 months of civil war between Jewish and Arab militias which was turned into a regular war after the declaration of independence of Israel and the intervention of several Arab armies. Later, Israel and its neighbors (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) agreed on through 1949Armistice Agreements (also known as Green Line) to establish armistice lines.

The Arabs refused U.N.’s partition of land into Arab and Jewish states in 1947. The latter prevailed, expanded their state and built a hundred thousand Palestinian refugees.

With constant inadequate resource of water, National Water Carrier has made possible a high population density and standard of living sourcing their water from the Sea of Galilee transporting it to areas in the center, south of Israel and Palestinian vicinity. In one day it delivers the volume of water used in all of 1948, but not enough. The aquifers that supply Israel's central area lie in the West Bank. The Jordan River flows through territory that would be part of Palestine. Both sides need water for survival and development and ensure an ample water supply from the limited resources. Israel has reserved for its own use a large percentage of the water in West Bank aquifers.

Jerusalem was to have been internationalized under the UN Partition plan. Both sides have claims on the eastern part of Jerusalem which is the ancient capital of Judea and site of the Jewish holy temple, of which only the Western Wall remains. It is also the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, regarded by many as the third holiest site in Islam.  Jewish and Arab neighborhoods are closely interwoven and would be difficult to separate.

After the 1948 war which was followed by the creation of Israel, about 726,000 Palestinians fled from their homes.  About 4 million Palestinian refugees lived in crowded refugee camps in poor conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Palestinians insist the refugees’ right to go back to their homes based on U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.  Israelis hinted that approximately the same number of Jews fled Arab lands to Israel in 1948.  The return of the refugees was contested by the Israelis to prevent it to be a mainstream Arab Palestinian which terminates Israel as a Jewish state, which was sided by majority of Palestinians including Fateh.

Arab’s rebuff of Israel’s state caused wars in 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and up to recent years where many terror raids and Israeli retaliation were covered by the news. Each country believes a different picture of the same history pointing each one as the culprit of the conflict than apologize and make a resolution.

Reprisal operations (1950s - 1960s)   - Carried out by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1950s and 1960s in response to frequent fedayeen terror attacks during which Arab guerillas infiltrated from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan into Israel to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. Israel’s reprisal operation demanded a high 'blood cost' against its enemy which was perceived to be significant in order to discourage commission of future attacks.

Suez Crisis (October 1956)   – A military attack against Egypt by Britain, France and Israel to occupy Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal caused by Egypt’s decision of July 26 1956 to nationalize the Suez  after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to subsidize the construction of the Aswan Dam. Although the Sinai invasion was successful, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. forced Israel to retreat. However, Israel was able to re-open the Straits of Tiran and placated its southern border. 

Six-Day War (June 1967)   – Wars between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, and others also contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces. Following the war, the territory held by Israel expanded significantly ("The Purple Line") : The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, Golan Heights from Syria, Sinai, and Gaza from Egypt.

Since the 1967 6-day war, Israel has inhabited the West bank and Gaza Strip about 2,200 square miles) and has constructed settlements of about 220,000 population which is majority in the West Bank.

War of Attrition (1967–1970)  - Wars between the Israeli military and forces of the Egyptian Republic, the USSR, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestine Liberation Organization from which was initiated by the Egyptians to recapture Sinai from the Israelis, which had been controlled since the mid-1967 Six-Day War. The aggression stopped by a ceasefire agreement in 1970 with frontiers remaining in the same place as when the war began.

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