When does title pass when a conqueror seizes a people's land. After several expulsions and return the Jewish people rebelled one time too many and the Romans destroyed the Jewish state and expelled the Jews from Judea in the first century of the common era. The Jews never forgot. "Next year in Jerusalem!" The Romans couldn't hold Palestine against Egyptian invaders, who could hold it against the Turks, and the Franks, and ultimately the Ottomans who couldn't hold it against the British when Allenby conquered it during world war I. The British had supported the Arab rebellion and later established the Hashemite kingdoms in Transjordan and Iraq. During world war I the British promised international zionism (especially Louis Brandeis who was a US Supreme Court justice and a leader of international zionism) a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine. The local Arabs were not consulted and tried to restrict immigration of Jews after wwI. The Jews won the war of independence in 1948, and every successive war against the Palestinian arabs and their Arab allies. They conquered additional land, and in the Yom Kippur war 1973 had the Egyptian 3rd Army surrounded at their mercy, might have captured Cairo and Alexandria and might have captured Damascus. The Soviets were humiliated and tried to intervene, but forced Kissinger to make the Israelis withdraw and forfeit the fruit of their victories as a price of US resupply. Repeated American attempts to sponsor some kind of permanent settlement have been defeated by incalcitrants on either side. Likud's support of provocative Jewish settlements in conquered Arab lands, and Fatah's refusal to accept a compromise peace have made a permanent settlement impossible.
The US subsidizes this struggle to the tune of $5 billion a year or more. We give billions to the Israelis, Egyptians, and Palestinians every year. Americans have invested billions in Israel (some of Intel's largest fabs). We share intelligence with IDF and have joint defense projects with them. We have a common market with Israel. We are engaged in the Middle East as a sponsor and guarantor of Israel, and at the same time have chosen to protect the Arab oil producing countries against aggression by Iran and Iraq.
Our threats against the Palestinians and Israelis have little credibility, because our independent action is compromized. Now that the Soviet Union is defunct, why not let the hard-line Israelis pull out the stops, slaughter as many Palestinians as they wish and force the Arab countries to butt out. That would require nuclear blackmail, or the equivalent. The cost to Israel would be very high. Without active American support (bombing Baghdad etc.) it might not even work. It would create a disastrous split in the US. But I believe that continued acts of Arab terrorism directed against the US may make this occur. Clinton has been even handed in his attempt to get a settlement. I have no idea what the next administration will do. |
