Jews are the Indigenous People in Israel – The Truth Matters

By: Rich Berdan

Israel and the Jewish people often find themselves having to defend their very existence. Centuries ago, the Israeli homeland faced the Babylonian, Egyptian, Roman, and Ottoman empires, and more recently Nazi Germany. The fate of these players is known. Historical trends are not promising for countries and terrorist proxies seeking to destroy Israel. Through thousands of years of turmoil, Israel remains strong. Israel marvelously still exists, and the empires have all fallen.

The agenda is clear -generations of anti-Semitism mired in the depths of hatred. One only has to look back a short time ago when evil raised itself with the death of millions of Jews during the Holocaust to the present-day October 7th barbaric slaughter of innocent Jews by Hamas terrorists,  pro-Hamas institutional demonstrations calling for ‘River to Sea’ or the elimination of Israel, and the significant increase of threatening violence taking place against Jews in cities around the world.

Why was there no global condemnation in support of Muslims when US President Trump crushed ISIS or US President Obama’s indiscriminate killing of Muslims with drone missile strikes on the Afghan-Pakistan border? Obviously, the answer is a double standard when it comes to the state of Israel acting against terrorists killing their citizens.

The 24-hour news cycle depicting the suffering of Gazans followed by the hateful demonstrations across the planet calling for a cease-fire is a protracted effort to blame Israel for a self-inflicted terrorist attack and for the years of misery in Gaza.  This is a next-generation loathing of a diminutive Israeli homeland surrounded by a considerable antagonistic Middle East that ensures the status quo of the Palestinian pawn. Gazans could improve relatively quickly if their governing leadership chose an economic that is tied to Israeli prosperity rather than following opposing tyrannical states across the region. Gaza is purposely repressed in perpetual distress by Hamas.

To understand the complexities surrounding Israel today, it is important to be educated how the Jewish people historically came to settle and live in the land of Israel. The beginnings of what would become Judaism and the people of Israel can be traced back in history to Abraham. The father of Israel, along with his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob are considered the first people to inhabit Israel over three thousand years ago. Jacob had twelve sons and they are known as the Children of Israel. These twelve sons would lay the groundwork for what would become the twelve tribes that would later be united under one nation of Israel.

Joseph, one of the twelve sons, was sold into Egypt and incredibly became a senior advisor to the Pharaoh.  Israelites soon followed to Egypt to escape famine where their numbers multiplied in Egypt. A new Pharaoh ascended to the throne and was unappreciative of the Jewish people and feared their growing influence in Egypt. Due to this fear, he had their rights removed and enslaved them.

Later, a man named Moses, the Hebrew son, led his people out of slavery in Egypt, across the Red Sea into the Sinai Peninsula and formed one cohesive nation around 1300 BC in the land of Israel. Jerusalem then became the Jewish capital during the reign of King David who led from 1010 – 970 BC. Eventually, King Solomon built the Temple to house the Ark of the Covenant which contained the Ten Commandments. Remnants of the Temple exist today in reference to the Wailing Wall where the Muslim Temple Mount was built directly above the Jewish structure.

Long after Israel was established as a sovereign nation, the Babylonian leader Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem in 598 BC and the Jewish people were exiled from Israel into Mesopotamia. Following this exile, the land of Israel was occupied by numerous powers and semi-autonomous administrations. The Jewish people were freed approximately 70 years later by the Persian leader Cyrus, however the Jewish people no longer had a secure homeland. They emigrated into other regions of the Middle East and further north throughout Europe.

During the 1800’s, Jews across Europe faced increasing anti-Semitism and hatred. Many, especially in Russia, flocked to their historical homeland of Israel which was now known as Palestine. Due to this increased anti-Semitism, the First Zionist Congress was formed to “re-establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine.”

This movement received little non-Jewish support until World War One. After Britain conquered the Middle East, they divided the land into two sections: Palestine and Mesopotamia. This new region included the area of modern Israel and Jordan. In 1917, Britain announced the Balfour Declaration in support of the Zionist Movement and their aim to create a Jewish state in the land of Palestine. In 1922, following World War One, the League of Nations explicitly handed the governing authority of Palestine to Britain, creating the British Mandate of Palestine, and stated that the British must work to create a National Home for the Jews.

Furthermore, the League of Nations desired a Jewish Council to be established to govern Jewish affairs within Palestine. In addition to the Palestinian Mandate, Britain was also given authority over the Mesopotamian Mandate. Between the First World War and the outbreak of the Second, political instability and unrest within the Palestinian Mandate led Britain to impose several restrictions on Jews in Palestine such as immigration controls and economic regulations in order to suppress increased Jewish influence and quell Arab opposition. Although almost all remaining Jews had left the Mesopotamian Mandate, many Arabs remained in the Palestinian Mandate. Due to rising Arab opposition in Palestine, Britain formed the Peel Commission which recommended Palestine to be split into two autonomous sections, one for the Jews and one for Arabs.

In 1947, following this agreed portioning of the Palestinian Mandate, increased tensions among many Arabs led the U.N. to propose the Partition Plan, dividing the remaining Jewish territory (the entire region west of the Jordan River) into a Jewish section and large swaths of land to the Arabs. The U.N. Partition Plan created the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Resolution 181 is a General Assembly resolution and therefore it is only a recommendation until both parties agree to the terms, unlike a Security Council resolution, which is binding and absolute. The Jewish delegation signed the document and the Arab delegation refused, therefore Resolution 181, the Partition Plan, is void and not legally binding. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was declared as a country for the Jewish people, but this would not be the end of their struggle for a secure homeland.

In the years leading up to the Six Day War, many Arab leaders had ramped up their anti-Semantic rhetoric and hate towards the Jewish nation. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise summed up the pretext to war by stating, “A combination of bellicose Arab rhetoric, threatening behavior and, ultimately, an act of war left Israel no choice but pre-emptive action. To do this successfully, Israel needed the element of surprise. Had it waited for an Arab invasion, Israel would have been at a potentially catastrophic disadvantage.” With these threats and concrete evidence of Arab aggression, Israel had no choice but to strike.

After the Six Day War, Israel alone had defeated Egypt, Syria, and Jordan: capturing the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem. Because Israel had captured these territories in a defensive war, Israel had the international right to station military personnel in the territories to ensure future security. The actions Israel took in the conflict further proved Israel’s intention of only fighting a defensive war. After only six days of fighting, Israel had the ability to push further and crush Cairo, Damascus, and Amman, ensuring no Arab opposition in the future from its neighbors, but chose not to and signed the cease-fire agreement. After the war was fought and won, Israel immediately began the negotiations to return much of the territories to the Arabs. Israel required a secure, unified capital following the war and therefore refused to return East Jerusalem.

These voluntary concessions demonstrate Israel’s desire for peace more than territory or influence. Since the disputed territories were never part of a sovereign nation, and acquired in a defensive war, Israel has the international right to resettle the disputed territories. Today there is heated debate over the legality and status of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the disputed territories. Numerous treaties conclude that Israel does have the right to populate the disputed territories and the right to govern them as Israel sees fit.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 is often misunderstood and misconstrued when debating the topic. The document declares that Israel is to remain in occupation of the disputed territories until such a time that ‘secure and recognized boundaries’ can be drawn. Resolution 242 is silent on Jerusalem which infers that the last U.N. Resolution, 181, remains in effect. Eugene Rostow, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in 1967 and a drafter of the resolution stated later in 1990 that, “Security Council Resolution 242 rests on two principles, Israel may administer the territory until its Arab neighbours make peace; and when peace is made, Israel should withdraw to ‘secure and recognized borders,’ which need not be the same as the Armistice Lines of 1949.”

That statement declares that the drafters intended the resolution to tell Israel to withdraw from the disputed territories to an area knowingly undetermined. Since both the legitimacy of their claim to these settlements after the Arab rejection of Resolution 181 and the aftermath of the Six Day War, that meant Israel has the right to settlements in the Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem since no agreement has been made and no concessions by the Arab delegations have been presented to Israel.

It is evident that there was little to no intensions by Arab delegations to co-operate. On the contrary, events such as the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars, first and second wars into Lebanon, the 1972 Olympic Games massacre, suicide attacks on Jewish buses and cafes, Saddam Hussein’s scud rocket attacks, the Iranian Leadership’s salvos to exterminate the Israelis, and the recent Hamas massacre are all defining moments that no one can deny.

It takes courageous Arab leaders to change the tone and direction. Anwar Sadat, the former President of Egypt, sought peace with Israel and was assassinated for doing so. Under President Trump, the Abraham Accords Declaration between four Arab countries and Israel recognized the importance of strengthening peace in the Middle East based on mutual understanding and coexistence. It was well known that Saudi Arabia was next to join the accords prior to 10-7. Peace and Israel’s existence is possible.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton convened a summit at Camp David with Yasser Arafat, the PLO President, and then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to shape the details of how a Palestinian state and Israeli state would operate side-by-side. At the summit, Prime Minister Barak offered the Palestinian leader 92 percent of the West Bank and a capital in East Jerusalem. That offer was the most generous offer up to that point in history or since. Arafat responded by rejecting the proposition and did not propose a counteroffer. If Arafat was serious about creating a state for his people alongside Israel, he would have made a counter, especially in the presence of the U.S. President.

After the Camp David Summit, U.S. Envoy Dennis Ross said, “Arafat could not accept Camp David… because when the conflict ends, the cause that defines Arafat ends and the two states can coexist, side-by-side.”

In 1996, while delivering a speech in Stockholm, Arafat said, “We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for the Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion… We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem”.

From 2003 to 2005 as Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, and rocket attacks increased following their departure; leading one to believe nothing Israel can do is good enough to quell aggression from foreign state sponsored factions in the territories. Israel has removed many Jews from Arab territories, save for East Jerusalem in the West Bank. In 2005 Israel removed all Jews from the Gaza Strip and four major settlements in the West Bank to quell Arab opposition. This removal of Jews by the Israeli government from the territories was officially titled “Israel’s Unilateral Disengagement Plan.”

The Jewish people evacuated land granted to Arabs numerous times, first in Transjordan, and then throughout the territories. All concessions in the region by Israel have led to increased violence and hatred towards the Jewish state, indicating the only goal of some authorities is the eventual removal of Israel from the Middle East.

A sovereign Jewish homeland with a territory including all land west of the river Jordan is an undeniable right of the Jewish people. Not only is this land their undeniable indigenous homeland historically, but legally as well. It is clear now, after more than 60 years that no option, except for the removal of Israel, will satisfy the desires of terrorists and in capitals throughout the Middle East. The Jewish people have been unreasonably persecuted throughout the world for thousands of years and require a defensible, and sovereign homeland in the modern world. Concession after concession, the Jewish people have relinquished more and more limited precious land in the hopes of peace and coexistence. These concessions have been without reward for the Jewish people.

Unfortunately, this legal right of the land is not conveyed properly to the general public and therefore this issue becomes a contentious, anti-Israel argument. After reviewing all legally binding treaties, the conditions of concessions, and extremists who have no intension to stop arming, fighting, and killing; there will be no peace; and if Israel stops fighting, there will be no Israel as we know it.

The Jewish people today share a unified common language and traditions that emanates from this Jewish history and their continuous history in the land of Israel.

Now to the West, and specifically the United States and European countries, if the Hamas is not cohesively defeated, it will serve as an inspiration to domestic terrorism. To the uneducated demonstrators being led down a path of devious teaching and propaganda, your freedom and liberties are at risk, including that of women’s rights and equality.

During testimony following the Hamas terrorist attack, the FBI Director Christpher Wray before the US Senate stated, Jews make up two per cent of the population and are victim to over 60% of religious-based hate crimes in America. This statistic should concern all faiths and racial groups hoping to live peacefully, to safely walk the streets, and attend schools and places of worship without fear. And finally, to the terrorists and state sponsors; since 1948 when Israel gained independence, the Jewish nation has never started a war and they have never lost a war.

The Truth matters. Modern civilization is at crossroad where a rotten core must be eradicated just as the world came together to remove the death camps of the Nazi regime. The solemn commitment of ‘Never Again’ must not allow the evil of the past and present to take away the future of our children. Neutrality is not an option. It is a noble burden of courage to stand together in faith and wear your yellow Star of David with the Jewish people in this time of crisis and also find a path forward for the innocent Gazans.