As to the Israelis: --- Oct 7, 2023 came in the 75th year of a continuous conflict with the Palestinians that began with the first of two displacements in 1948 followed by a second in 1967. For those 75 years, Palestinians were controlled by Israel --- sometimes with a velvet glove, sometimes with an iron fist --- but always controlled.
The first of two displacements? That's funny. Here's what really happened:
Nov 29, 1947 - The UN Security Council issues a resolution partitioning the British colony into two sectors - Palestine and Israel - in the first step towards ending colonial rule and establishing two self-ruled States.
Nov 30, 1947 - The Palestinians hijack two buses on Israel's side of the partition, killing the occupants.
One day.
One friggin' day is all it took for the Palestinians to show their true nature. At that moment, they had their own State. And they tossed it all away because killing Jews was more important.
Over the next six months, the attacks continued. Militants from neighboring countries began infiltrating Israel for their chance to kill Jews. By now, it was open season. And the Brits weren't doing jack to stop it. The Palestinians and their allies had encircled Jerusalem and were starving out the Jewish inhabitants.
May 14, 1948 - Israel declares itself an independent State, free from British rule. Palestine makes no such declaration for itself.
May 15, 1948 - British rule ends.
May 16, 1948 - Israel is invaded by troops from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, and volunteers from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.
June 11, 1948 - A UN-sponsored truce takes effect, bringing an end to the fighting. The Arabs reinforce their armies with troops from Sudan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia.
July 7, 1948 - The Egyptians break the truce by attacking Negba.
Over the next week and a half, the Arabs get their asses handed to them by the Israeli forces fighting on their own turf.
July 18, 1948 - The Arabs were granted another truce from the UN.
Over the next three months, Egypt continued to shell Israeli settlements in the Negev. (Sound familiar)
Oct 14, 1948 - The cease fire officially ends with an Egyptian attack against an Israeli supply convoy.
Oct 15, 1948 - Israel launches a counter attack, pushing the Egyptian army out of the Negev.
Oct 22, 1948 - The UN issues a third cease fire, averting (for now) a total collapse of the Egyptian forces.
On the very day the cease fire took effect, the Arab Liberation Army launched an attack against the hilltop overlooking Manara. They laid siege to the settlement, taking sniper shots at civilans on the streets.
Oct 24, 1948 - After two days of inaction from the UN, Israel launches a counter-attack, pushing the Arab Liberation Army into Lebanon.
Dec 22, 1948 - Israel launches an offensive against the remaining Egyptian forces, pushing into Sinai, and encircling their army in Gaza. Israel withdrew from Sinai after receiving threats from the British.
Jan 6, 1949 - Egypt requests an armistice with Israel. Very important: They didn't go snivelling back to the UN like they did the last two times. They recognized the Israeli's right to negotiate for themselves as an independent State. The next day, a direct truce between the States of Israel and Egypt was achieved.
Mar 5, 1949 - Israel launches an offensive against Jordanian troops in the southern Negev. Within five days, it was liberated.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Oh, and what about that free Palestinian State? You know, the one they forfeited in 1947 by going to war against Israel? So it is now 1949. The war is over. Israel has withdrawn its troops. Yet there is not Palestinian State. Gaza is occupied by Egypt. And the West Bank is occupied by Jordan. Did the Palestinians go after them? Why no, they chose to start a propaganda war instead while their people lived in the squalor of camps for the next seven decades.
So let's not lose site of how this really started. Palestine could have been its own peaceful independent State in 1947. But they chose war.
