Israel has the Right to Exist

Israel has the Right to Exist, Retaining all its Current Lands*

*note: This was the original title when writtin in 1996. Since then I, along with (I would guess) most of the Jewish People worldwide have shifted opinion to support the limited exchange of land for freedom-from-terror. I don't call this "returning land" as it is so commonly referred to today, for the reasons outlined in the paper to follow.


After 2000 years of exile, the Jews recreated the state of Israel. Yet, their next 48 years would constantly remind them of their harsh years without a homeland. Israel's Arab neighbors repeatedly invaded the country, and fired rockets into rural farm communities. Besides its neighbors, the international community has often criticized Israel and questioned its right to exist. The United Nations and Britain set aside land for the Jews, but the Arabs denied the Jews a peaceful coexistence. Under immense hardship and war the Jews created a society that endorses free thought, equal rights, environmental concern, education, technology, and agriculture. They deserve the land they fought so hard to cultivate, and the homeland that they sought out for two millennia.

British Mandate of 1922

The modern conflict over Palestine began in 1922 when the British maintained control over the area. Only five years after the British and the Arabs took over Palestine from the Ottomans, the British mandated that Palestine be split into a Jewish and a Muslim state. This British mandate legitimized the Jews' possibility for a future homeland. The Jews did not create the conflict, as it was Britain's decision to give them land.

Support from Britain faltered in 1939 when the British published a white paper that gave more than two thirds of the new Jewish land to the Muslims. Pressured by Arab neighbors and settlers, the British cut the size of Israel to limit possible settlement in the area. The Jews now had a small piece of land that they would cherish, but not without future attacks on its size.


United Nations Resolution of 1947
Finally, in 1947 the British decided to give control of the area to the United Nations because the religious conflict was too difficult to handle. The UN assigned land to both the Jews, and the Arabs in Palestine. Although the land offered to the Jews was a mere one fifth of the size that Britain mandated in 1922, the Jews quickly accepted the UN decision. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence from Britain, but independence wasn’t as rewarding as the Jews thought.
The state of Israel was established as of 14 May 1948. At once, five Arab armies, in support of the Palestinians, attacked the new state but were ultimately defeated. At the end of what is known as the first Arab-Israeli War, Israel's victory gave it more territory while Jordan took the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip. (Palestine)

An Arab Internet publication openly acknowledges that Arab armies united to destroy the new Jewish state. The new Israeli leaders had no intention of war or land gains, yet ultimately the Arabs lost land to the Israelis.

Apparently the surrounding Arab countries learned little from their loss in 1948, so in 1967 they decided to attack Israel again.
Israel found itself faced by hostile Arab armies on all fronts. As Egypt had violated the arrangements agreed upon following the 1956 Sinai Campaign, Israel invoked its inherent right of self-defense, launching a preemptive strike (5 June 1967) against Egypt in the south, followed by a counterattack against Jordan in the east and the routing of Syrian forces entrenched on the Golan Heights in the north.
At the end of six days of fighting, previous cease-fire lines were replaced by new ones, with Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Sinai peninsula and the Golan Heights under Israel's control. As a result, the northern villages were freed from 19 years of recurrent Syrian shelling; the passage of Israeli and Israel-bound shipping through the Straits of Tiran was ensured; and Jerusalem, which had been divided under Israeli and Jordanian rule since 1949, was reunified under Israel's authority. (Six Day War, Israeli Foreign Ministry )

The Arabs forced Israel into a death match it did not chose to fight. Ironically the war resulted in a doubling of Israel's land area and the occupation of the strategic and beautiful Golan Heights in the North. Without any provocation Arab countries violently challenged Israel's existence. Only the perseverance and passion of the Jews could win a battle so outnumbered on all sides. After the Six Day War, in which Syria lost the Golan Heights, Syria officially declared that Israel illegally occupied the Golan region, and demands it back. Syria must explain why unprovoked war is legal, and occupation is not, for its demands to be taken seriously. The government of Israel does not have a historical claim on the Golan, however no other country has a more fair claim.

The Arabs were not concerned with the quality of their land, as were the Jews with their new Israel. A United Nations report on land mines revealed that every neighbor of Israel planted land mines in their soil. The UN’s report concisely states, “Israel is not mine affected.” (Land Mine Reports: Israel, UN) Israel has also banned the export of Anti-Personnel mines and agreed to a multinational agreement banning such mines. Although Egypt has over the last two decades begun removing mines from its land, the number of existing mines in Egypt is staggering. The Egyptian report to the UN estimates there are still 23 million land mines on Egyptian soil. The last two countries bordering Israel, Jordan and Syria, both have problems with land mines. The government of Jordan realized the negative impact of land mine use in June 1995 and reported to the United Nations Secretary General that, “They [land mines] have constituted an enormous economic burden and they have also affected development plans, particularly in the Jordan Valley and on the northern front.” (Land Mine Reports: Jordan , UN)

From the early 1900s all through the two wars, the Jews were busy transforming the desert land of Palestine into the agricultural marvel Israel is today.
Agriculture in Israel is a success story of a long, hard struggle against adverse conditions and of making maximum use of scarce water and arable land. When Jews began resettling their historic homeland in the late 19th century, their first efforts were directed towards turning barren land into fertile fields. (Agriculture, Israeli Foreign Ministry)

The pioneers of Israel were not invading, but preparing the land for future settlement. As early as twenty years before the state of Israel was established, the volunteer "pioneers" were busy building kibbutzim, or socialistic farming communities all over Palestine.
Kibbutz Beit Hashita was founded by members of a pioneering youth movement in 1928, twenty years before the establishment of the State of Israel. The collective spirit of such early pioneers resulted in the rapid development of an intensive agricultural sector in Israel, and so Beit Hashita got its start. (Beit Hashita)

The Israelis' first priority in settling Palestine was neither defensive security nor offensive armament. Their “collective spirit” aided the pioneers in the “rapid development of an intensive agriculture sector.” The volunteer youth sacrificed much of their childhood lives to create a lush environment for the future.

One youth volunteer exemplified the desire to create the Jewish homeland that until 1947, never existed. In 1939 Hannah Szenes arrived in Palestine alone, 18 years of age, and ready to build a community in Israel. She studied agriculture at the Nahalal Girls school for two years, and graduated with the highest honors. The best kibbutzim all over Israel asked the skilled Hannah to join their community but she rejected them all.
Hannah rejected the kibbutz in the lush green valleys of the Galilee. She rejected the kibbutz with Hungarian settlers and the kibbutz founded by artists, writers, and intellectuals. She rejected the kibbutz with the fine tractors and chicken coops. Hannah rejected everything that suggested ease, familiarity, and comfort. "I don't want anything ready-made," she told her diary. Hannah wanted more than just to belong to a kibbutz. She wanted to begin one. (pg. 53, Shur)

Hannah would not take the route of an easy assimilation into Palestine. Instead, she would venture to start a new kibbutz. The volunteers who tilled the soil of Palestine took nothing but hard packed dirt away from Arab opportunity, and with it created self sufficient agricultural communities.

“The Hebrew education system was established approximately fifty years before Israel gained independence.” (Education, Israel Foreign Ministry) Even before the kibbutzim were founded, the Hebrew educational system was well underway. Jewish law states that upon entering a new land, one of the first buildings that the Jews build must be a schoolhouse. Israel spares no expense on education, and places it as an utmost priority.
Their children have studied in the Israeli education system, which now provides compulsory education from age 5 to 16. Jewish tradition has for many centuries placed an extremely strong emphasis on education and study as lifelong obligations, a tradition that continues to this day, and is reflected in the fact that almost every third person in Israel studies in a formal education framework. (Education, Israel Foreign Ministry)

The current education system in Israel is very strong in many areas. Modern technology, including the Internet, is available in many schools from kindergartens to universities. This is a stark contrast to the level of technology embraced by Israel’s Arab neighbors. A search on the Yahoo Internet service for Syrian Internet sites yielded several sites with information about Syria, but these sites were located primarily in Saudi Arabia, and Texas. Not one site listed on the Yahoo index was located in Syria. In contrast, Israel has over fifty K-12 schools with current access to the Internet. Every university in Israel has full Internet access, as well as dozens of high tech organizations and companies.

One of the most significant scientists of all time was a passionate Zionist. Albert Einstein supported Israel as a Jewish homeland, and hoped for a peaceful coexistence with the Arabs.
The Jews of Palestine did not fight for political independence for its own sake, but they fought to achieve free immigration for the Jews of many countries where their very existence was in danger; free immigration also for all those who were longing for a life among their own. (Pg. 201, Einstein)

Einstein explained that the Jews of Israel fought not for political gain, but for the right of the Jews worldwide to enter the Jewish homeland. Einstein was in favor of living in concert with the Arabs. He recognized the inherent differences between the Jews and the Arabs, and sought a method for them to come together. At several political conventions Einstein spoke on behalf of an Israel that warmly includes both Arabs and Jews.
One of these ideals is peace, based on understanding and self-restraint, and not on violence. If we are imbued with this ideal, our joy becomes somewhat mingled with sadness, because our relations with the Arabs are far from this ideal at the present time. It may well be that we would have reached this ideal, had we been permitted to work out, undisturbed by others [Britain], our relations with our neighbors, for we want peace and we realize that our future development depends on peace. (pg. 201, Einstein)

He was truly a visionary and recognized the need for peace as an underlying foundation for a political existence. Einstein knew that the Arabs and the Jews would one day, if peace was ever achieved, come together to the point where they could live as close neighbors. The Israeli government upholds these ideals, by offering full citizenship to the Palestinian Arabs, and seeking trade agreements with Arab countries. As a country and a people, Israel seeks a state of concert with its closest neighbors, the Muslims. Until the recent peace efforts the Arabs never, sought peace with Israel. The plan of many Arab countries and organizations was to “push Israel into the sea.” Obviously, the Jews were a more tolerant people willing to compromise and share their new land. Justice can’t allow a people willing to share what land they have to lose that very land to another people unwilling to share, with no more just a claim on that land. Israel is the first country to occupy Palestine that allows freedom of religion and expression. It is only fair that the Israelis should keep governing control over this land.

Surrounded by enemies and terrorists the Jews struggled to build a strong and healthy state. Israel is now the home to over 5 million Jews and nearly 1 million Muslims who share an advanced agricultural and educational heritage. In 1991 and 1992, “Israel attained the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate” (Economy, Israel Foreign Ministry) of any Western country. The Jews have so vastly improved the land formerly known as Palestine that it can no longer be portrayed as a politically transferable, arid desert. The people of Israel have earned a homeland by their incredible struggle to survive under the worst conditions.

Works Cited
Einstein, Albert. Ideas and Opinions. Ed.Cal Seelig
New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1982

Shur, Maxine. Hannah Szenes~ a song of light~.
New York: The Jewish Publication Society, 1986

The Six Day War. Online. Israel Foreign Ministry, Information Division. Internet.
Nov. 20, 1996. Available gopher://israel-info.gov.il.

The Agriculture of Israel. Online. Israel Foreign Ministry, Information Division. Internet.
Nov. 20, 1996. Available gopher://israel-info.gov.il.

The Israeli Education System. Online. Israel Foreign Ministry, Information Division.
Internet Nov. 20, 1996. Available gopher://israel-info.gov.il.

The Economy of Israel. Online. Israel Foreign Ministry, Information Division. Internet.
Nov. 20, 1996. Available gopher://israel-info.gov.il.

The Story of Beit Hashita. Online. Beit Hashita Web Site. Internet. Nov. 20, 1996.
Available http://www.gilboa.co.il

Palestine Home Page. Online. ArabNet Web Site. Internet. Nov. 20, 1996.
Available http://www.arab.net

Land Mine Reports. Online. United Nations Document Retrieval System. Internet.
Nov. 20, 1996. Available http://www.un.org

British Mandate of 1922. Map. Online. Israel Foreign Ministry, Information
Division. Internet. Nov. 20, 1996. Available gopher://israel-info.gov.il.

United Nations Resolution of 1947. Map. Online. Israel Foreign Ministry, Information
Division. Internet. Nov. 20, 1996. Available gopher://israel-info.gov.il.