TOO LATE FOR A PEACEABLE SOLUTION
By Boris Shusteff
We welcome the Jews to live as dhimmis, but the rule in this
land and in all the Muslim countries must be the rule of Allah...
(Sermon on PA TV, 7/6/01). (1)
The Jews have always tried to coexist with the Arabs. Devoid of a
state they were forced to live under a dhimmi status in the
Moslem ruled countries. When the modern Zionism was born the
socialist-minded Zionist leaders believed that they would
peacefully share the land of Eretz Yisrael with the Arabs. More
and more Jews would come to Eretz Yisrael and they would
eventually constitute the majority of the population. The Arabs
would gladly embrace the innovations and the life improvements
brought by the Jews and would happily live in the Jewish state.
The reality was absolutely different. The Arabs did not embrace
their "saviors." They watched with astonishment and
envy how the "newcomers" were transforming the barren
land into an oasis. The idyllic dreams of the socialist Zionists
regarding the Arabs never materialized. The Jews did not
understand the Arabs; the Arabs did not understand the Jews. They
knew each other´s languages, but they were unable to bridge the
differences in their respective mentalities.
For the Arabs the Jews were the dhimmi people. In the
master-slave relationship that they were used to, the dhimmis
were not supposed to become the masters. The Jews on their part
were unable to understand that even their very small
"victory" - another dunam of land that was sold to them
by the Arabs as a wasteland and transformed into a garden, was
another mortal blow for the Arabs. The children of Islam felt
that through these victories the Jews emphasized the Arab
inferiority. The Arab world was stagnating for many centuries and
it was unacceptable for the Arabs that the Jews were the ones to
bring them "progress." They did not need this progress
and they did not need the Jews.
The Arab hostility towards the Jews was not born with Sharon´s
visit to the Temple Mount, it was not born in 1964 with the
creation of the PLO, and it was not born in 1948 with the
establishment of Israel. It was always present and simply started
to grow from the day that the Arabs realized that the Jewish
state is inevitable. Interestingly, the Arabs knew that the
Jewish state would come into existence even before the Jews
themselves started to speak about it. At the time when no Zionist
leaders, with the exception of Zeev Zhabotinsky, spoke about the
creation of the Jewish state, the Arabs where discussing its
"dangers."
Prior to Israel´s creation the Jewish leaders desperately
tried to convince the Arabs to accept the Jews. On September 15,
1947 a secret meeting was held in London between Abba Eban and
David Horovitz, the Jewish Agencies liaison officers with the
United Nations Special Commission on Palestine and Abd al-Rahman
Azzam, Secretary-General of the Arab League. The transcript of
their talks might be taken for a transcript of talks between
Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, and Nabil Shaat and Abu Mazen. The
same topics, the same arguments, the same issues. Eban and
Horovitz then, as well as Peres quiet recently, even said
"that the Jewish state to be was very interested in being
integrated into processes of regional development and in certain
conditions would be glad ´to joining with the Arab States in a
single League´"(2).
The Jewish eloquence was in vain. Azzam told them that the Arabs
"resented [Zionism´s] very presence as an alien organism,
which had come without their consent, and which refused to be
assimilated to their way of life" (2). The next fifty-four
years have been a non-stop reminder to the Jews of this Arab
position. NOTHING has changed since. Zionism is still an alien
organism to the Arabs. The Jews come to Israel without the Arab
consent.
Azzam explained that the Arabs would never accept the Jews. He
said:
"[For the Arabs] you are not a fact at all - you are a
temporary phenomenon. Centuries ago the Crusaders established
themselves in our midst against our will, and in 200 years we
ejected them. This was because we never made the mistake of
accepting them as fact." (2).
The Arab leader told the truth to the Jewish leaders. They simply
did not want to listen to him. The "Jews- Crusaders"
motif and the readiness to wait as long as needed is constantly
instilled in the Arabs by their leaders. In an interview on
December 13, 1981 with the al-Rai al Amm (Kuwait) Hafez Assad
said,
"We view the matter from the perspective of the future of
the nation and not that of the next few hours, months or
years… Let us go back to the crusader invasion. Although
they fought us for 200 years, we did not surrender or capitulate.
They too [like Israel] were a big power and scored victories,
while we had been defeated. After 200 years, however, we
triumphed. Why are we now expected either to score a decisive
victory in approximately thirty years or completely
surrender?" (2)
Twenty more years passed and one of the Palestinian Arab
"moderates" Faysal al-Husseini continued the theme. In
the last interview before his death on June 24, 2001 he told the
Egyptian "Al- Arabi, "We distinguish the strategic,
long-term goals from the political phased goals, which we are
compelled to temporarily accept due to international pressure. If
you are asking me …what are the Palestinian borders
according to the higher strategy, I will immediately reply:
´from the river to the sea.´ Palestine in its entirety is an
Arab land, the land of the Arab nation, a land no one can sell or
buy, and it is impossible to remain silent while someone is
stealing it, even if this requires time and even [if it means
paying] a high price" (3).
It is time to ask all those who keep deceiving themselves saying
that it is possible through negotiations to achieve peace with
the Arabs. Can they explain which of the above excerpts from the
statements of the Arab leaders makes them so optimistic? Is it
not clear that there is no common ground whatsoever between the
Arab position and even the most defeatist Jewish position? Is it
not clear that the Arabs are ready to wait infinitely long since
they "view the matter from the perspective of the future of
the nation and not that of the next few hours, months or
years?"
Where did the appeasers find any hints that the Arabs would agree
to give them something? Do they not understand that the Arabs
will not "accept them as a fact?" How can the Jews
deceive themselves hoping that the Arabs voluntarily through
negotiations will agree to the Jewish state in "Palestine
[that is] in its entirety an Arab land, the land [that] no one
can sell or buy?"
The Arabs gave the answer to the Jewish peace overtures long ago.
Azzam made it crystal clear in 1947 when he told Eban and
Horovitz,
"You will achieve nothing with talk of compromise and peace.
You may perhaps achieve something by force of your arms. We will
try to rout you. I am not sure that we will succeed, but we will
try. We succeeded in expelling the Crusaders, but lost Spain and
Persia and may lose Palestine. But it is too late for a peaceable
solution… You speak of the Middle East. For us there is no
such concept; for us there is only concept of the Arab world.
… For us there is only one test, the test of strength.
…In any case, the problem is likely to be solved only by
force of arms" (2).
It was too late for a peaceable solution in 1947. It is
definitely too late today as the Arab hatred towards the Jews has
increased exponentially. Nothing will be achieved with talk of
compromise and peace. For Arabs there is only one test - the test
of strength. The problem can be solved only by force of arms.
1. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). A Friday
Sermon on PA TV: "... We Must Educate our Children on the
Love of Jihad..." 7/10/01. www.memri.org
2. Efraim Karsh. Fabricating Israeli History: The ´New
Historians.´ Frank Cass &Co. Ltd., London, Portland (Or),
1997.
3. MEMRI. Faysal Al-Husseiny in his Last Interview: "The
Oslo Accords Were Trojan Horse; The Strategic Goal is the
Liberation of Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the
[Mediterranean] sea" 7/2/01. http://www.memri.org
12 July 2001
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Boris Shusteff is an engineer. He is also a research
associate with the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies.