Re: Canada Should Reject Trump Pronouncement
The U.S. president’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital wasn’t a great idea, as Reverend Juanita Austin recognizes.
Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark went down this same road in 1979 but, unlike Trump, Clark wisely abandoned the idea.
However, Austin’s position that the Palestinians are the victims of Israeli oppression overlooks some relevant facts.
In 1948, attempting to stabilize the region, the United Nations partitioned Palestine, with roughly half going to the Palestinian Arabs, and half to the Jews.
Not only did the Palestinians promptly reject this partition, they launched an attack against Israel.
Israel prevailed, and ended up gaining some 60 per cent of the territory assigned to Palestine.
Despite this 1948 defeat, the Arab dream of annihilating Israel endured. Further attempts followed in 1956, 1967 and 1973. This subsequent aggression also failed, and resulted in the annexation by Israel of still more Arab territory.
Over the years, other Arab violence has plagued Israel in the form of aircraft hijackings, suicide bombings, Syrian heavy artillery bombardments and Palestinian rocket attacks.
In defending itself, Israel built a protective wall, hijacker proofed aircraft, refused to return strategic annexed territory and imposed controls on Arab movement within Israel.
Still, Palestinian Arabs currently hold 18 seats in the Israeli parliament, including one which has been retained by them for over 40 years. Some semblance of democracy prevails.
The Palestinian Israeli peace process remains comatose. Trump’s pronouncement was simply “a tale… signifying nothing.” It won’t impact peace efforts, when the Palestinians demonstrate a willingness to embrace a realistic one.
Oddly, when the topic of mid-east peace comes up, one should remember that when, in 1979, Egyptian President Sadat reached a peace deal with Israel, his military assassinated him.
Sherwood Inglis