Israel and The Palestinians

I cannot do justice to this topic in a blog entry, so do not read this hoping to gain a Readers Digest sized understanding of one of the great, intractable squabbles of modern (?) history. I simply want to remind (or inform) readers that while the Jews and Arabs have been at it since the Zionist movement began, there was an excellent chance to reset the issue when the UN issued its mandate in 1947 that created the State of Israel (something modern Arabs don't like to talk about). What is often lost in this debate is the fact that the mandate ALSO created a Palestinian state--but because the creation of Israel was so distasteful to Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, they chose to 1) ignore the Palestinian mandate and 2) declare war on Israel. The infant state of Israel did what they have come to do reliably, and that is, defeat the Gangs that Can't Shoot Straight next door. Subsequent attacks on Israel by these same neighbors (who are happy to use the Palestinians as chess pieces) resulted in Israel acquiring additional territory at its attackers expense to create security buffers (i.e, Gaza, Golan Heights, West Bank of the Jordan River).

So the "two state solution" everyone likes to talk about what enshrined in the 60 year old mandate that created Israel. Only after several (lost) wars and thousands of deaths (and consistent US Support for Israel) has the Arab world come to see a the two-state solution as inevitable.