Greater Israel, 1967 - 2019
The Six Day War commenced on 5th June 1967, when Israel launched a series of
pre-emptive air strikes against Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian forward air
bases, thereby destroying more than 400 fighter planes. The land war continued
for a further 5 days until June 10th 1967. The Arab armies lost vital
air cover and Israel captured the Sinai desert, the Gaza strip, the West Bank, the
Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Israel claimed a biblical right to Palestine and its
people. Israel, the last colonising nation, increased its territory by a factor of 5. The only Jewish lands mentioned in the Bible are Judea and Samara, the current West Bank. The Jews were expelled to Egypt according to the Bible, so, there is biblical claim. The Arabs refused to make peace. The Khartoum conference August 1967 crucially condemned the Palestinians to live in squalid refugee camps thereby denying them the right to citizenship whilst enduring oppression and grinding poverty.
People assume there are two alternatives: namely the two-state solution and a version of the one-state solution. The third alternative, which is ignored, is the one Israel has been implementing systematically since the 1967 war, that is, Greater Israel, which will be incorporated into Israel proper including a vastly expanded Jerusalem, (annexed in violation of UN Security Council orders) and any other territories that Israel finds useful, excluding areas of heavy Palestinian population concentration and constantly removing Palestinians from areas scheduled for incorporation into Greater Israel. Palestinian leaders will enjoy a Western style Ramallah, with 90% of the West Bank living in 170 'islands' fully under Israeli control. Gaza languishes under permanent Israeli Army siege separated from the West Bank in violation of the Oslo Accords.
Israeli PM Netanyahu, recently re-elected for the fifth time, he is unable to form a government, May 2019, he may face a leadership challenge, claims the UN Security Council is biased against Israel, which includes everyone with a consistent commitment to international law and human rights, this of course excludes the US Congress and very obviously the current US president and his associates. Netanyahu facing 3 indictments for alleged bribery and fraud is vulnerable. Israelis question his suitability for office. Avigdor Lieberman, Yisrael Beiteinu Party openly derides Netanyahu. Is the reign of 'BiBi' at an end? The current US president's son-in-law, an expert on the Middle East, interdicted payments to Palestinian refugees in 2018. An indiscreet government in Israel with far-right tendencies is allied to a nationalist populist administration in Washington spouting Islamophobia.
What is life like for Palestinians in 2019?
In 2005, the former Netherlands PM, three former Ministers, one former French ambassador, one an Auschwitz survivor along with current Irish President Michael D Higgins visited Gaza August 2005, wrote this report: 2 million (2019) Palestinians reside in Gaza, 900,000 are children, 1 million live in refugee camps, two thirds live below the poverty line with 40% unemployment. Children in Gaza grow up hating Israelis.
Gaza is describe a an open prison. Illegal Jewish settlers use 8x more water than refugees per head for swimming pools since this aquifer is below sea level it has been salinated.
Israel has 600,000 (2019) settlers in the West Bank arranged in a horseshoe around East Jerusalem so that Israel controls 60% of the West Bank. This is designed to humiliate the Palestinians. A cadre of settlers are located in Hebron are protected by 5,000 Israeli troops, Palestinians are barred from Hebron city centre.
Settlers enter a house illegally stealing Palestinian houses by knocking down walls and changing the locks. The resulting confrontation ensues and the Palestinians are arrested, ostensibly for their own protection. Settlers have forced the closure of 3,000 Palestinian businesses by such monstrous methods. Settlers occupy the summits of hills. The delegates were pelted with bottles from these settlers.
The 9 metre Wall, judged illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, now encircles Bethlehem.
Since September 2000, 500,000 Palestinian olive trees were destroyed. The olive tree has tremendous symbolic significance for Palestinians.
Greater Jerusalem is now an 80% Israeli majority.The West Bank is divided along its north - south axis by the Wall and will be as tightly controlled as Gaza.
The Israeli government attempted to interdict an investigation for corruption against Israeli PM Netanyahu in May 2019, 80,000 street protestors objected.
The 7 million Israelis, should Greater Israel be realised, would add 4.2 million West Bank Arabs and 2 million Gaza inmates to the total population of Israel. The Arabs could become a majority within a decade. The apartheid system currently in force could not be implemented on half the population. Hebrew, a language invented to accommodate Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Falasha, Hasidic and Ultra-Orthodox Jews (They do not work, serve in the army, have large families and are a burden on the state), was declared the state language. The $3.8 billion annual US subsidy for the Israeli state is considerably cheaper than paying for a standing US Army Corps in the Middle East. Israeli Army veterans question their military service which consists of beating up Palestinians. Since the 2006 defeat of the IDF by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon the much vaunted Israeli Army combat status has been seriously damaged. This past year has confirmed Israel as a pariah nation, the IDF shot dead 62 Palestinians, with impunity, marking their Naqba (catastrophe) and the foundation of the Israeli state May 15, 2018. The very recent rapid resolution of Palestinian rocket attacks met with disproportionate Israeli air strikes on defenceless Gaza confirms the real and immediate potential for political instability in Israel which affects the entire Middle East.
Israel's Dimona Nuclear Site is a cause for concern, has the IAE (International Atomic Energy) every visited it?
The United States is now alone in abstention on the illegal Israeli settlements against the UN Security Council ensuring the United States is even more isolated in support of Israeli crimes.
Sources: Causes for Concern, Irish Politics, Culture and Society by Michael D Higgins, Liberties Press 2007;
New York Times, Gaza Strip; David Miliband, Gaza Politics, Save the Children.