Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 1998, Pages 53, 113

Quatsch Watch

Mythinformation Observed

By Richard H. Curtiss

(The British say "rubbish," Americans say "nonsense," we won't print what the French say, and the Germans say "Quatsch," which rhymes with "watch," which is what this column does.)

How many "Defensive Wars" Has Israel Fought?

QUATSCH: "Israelis...did not attempt to take the West Bank until 1967 when Arab nations were stupid enough to attack again, and lost it all to Israel, and more."—Syndicated columnist A.M. Rosenthal, The New York Times, Sept. 9, 1997.

QUATSCH: "Israel is facing a threat to its existence more serious than the five defensive wars it has fought against Arab aggressors."—Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, Washington Times, March 19, 1997.

QUATSCH: "Ambassador Ahmed Maher El Sayed in his...letter on Egypt's role in the peace process, asserts that 'no solution will be viable unless it includes the return of land acquired by force.' Can he provide an example of land illegally secured by Israel by force? Five times since 1948 Israel had to defend itself against the onslaught of at least five Arab nations. Is self-defense, military victory and subsequent conquest of land by Israel considered 'acquired by force' and therefore to be condemned?"—Letter by E. Magnus Oppenheim in The New York Times of Feb. 17, 1996.

WATCH: Of five major wars between Israel and its neighbors since 1948, three clearly were initiated by Israel.

The 1948 war can be called either way. After the partition of Palestine by the United Nations in November 1947, the Jewish militias that became the Israeli army initiated a number of actions against Arab neighborhoods in towns and cities and against Arab villages (the most famous being the massacre of the population of the Arab village of Deir Yassin in April 1948). The entrance into Palestine of military units from Egypt, Jordan and Iraq on May 15, 1948, which apologists for Israel describe as the beginning of Israel's war of independence, was considered by the Arab countries as an Arab response to the Israeli displacement at gunpoint over several months of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. It subsequently has been revealed that Jordan's Arab Legion, commanded by British officers, had orders not to go into any areas allotted to Israel by the U.N. partition plan. So each side charges aggression.

The 1956 war was initiated by an Israeli attack, subsequently supported by France and Britain, against Egypt and aimed at the Suez Canal. The 1967 war was initiated by what the Israelis called a "pre-emptive attack" which caught both Egypt and Syria by surprise and destroyed the air forces of both countries on the ground. Before it was over Israel had occupied all of Sinai and the Golan Heights. When Jordan, in fulfillment of its treaty obligations to Egypt and Syria, joined in the fighting, Israeli forces occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The 1973 war was a surprise attack on Israeli forces by Egypt and Syria, but both Arab countries made clear that their only goal was to liberate their own lands (Sinai and the Golan Heights) under occupation by Israel, and that they would not enter Israel.

The 1982 war was an attack by Israel on Lebanon. Although initially the Israelis said they would limit the attack to Palestinian positions within 25 miles of the Israeli border, Israeli forces did not stop until they had first surrounded West (Muslim) Beirut and later occupied it and about half of Lebanon.

By any reasonable count, that makes three of the wars attacks by Israel, one an attack by Egypt and Syria, and the 1947-1948 fighting a toss-up.

Why Did Israel Occupy the Disputed Lands?

QUATSCH: "Israel took the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria defending itself in the 1967 Six-Day War."—Writer Sheryl Silverman, Washington Jewish Week, Dec. 26, 1996.

QUATSCH: "The Jewish peace lobby wants Israel to give up all land occupied during the Arab attacks on Israel...One would think that it was Israel that initiated three unprovoked wars."—Letter by Leo Sperling of Frederick, MD printed in The Jewish Week of New York, NY Aug. 15, 1996.

WATCH: East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights all were occupied in the June 1967 war, which was initiated by Israel, not by "Arab attacks on Israel." Further, if "one would think that it was Israel that initiated three unprovoked wars," including "the 1967 Six-Day War," one would be right.

The U.S. and the Six-Day War

QUATSCH: "America's record of truth-telling is not without blemishes, and so Israel should be careful before committing her security to the United States. As former Knesset member Elyakim Ha'etzni noted in a Jerusalem Post column, presidents and secretaries of state in the past have lied to Israel. President Eisenhower promised that an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai in 1956 would mean U.S. safeguards of navigation through the Straits of Tiran. However, when Abba Eban demanded fulfillment of this promise, he was told the Americans 'couldn't trace' the document in question."—Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas in the Washington Times, June 30, 1996.

WATCH: In fact, when Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban made his claim, President Lyndon Johnson sent a State Department official to the Eisenhower Library in Gettysburg, PA, where the existence of such a commitment was confirmed. Johnson so informed the Israeli government and said that while the U.S. negotiated with Egypt to reopen the straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, the U.S. also would prepare an international flotilla of naval ships to open the straits by force, if necessary. Israel's response was to move up the planned date of its 1967 "pre-emptive attack" by one week in order to "pre-empt" both the U.S. diplomatic and military negotiations.

Israeli-Syrian Negotiations

QUATSCH: "They [Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres] offered you the whole damn Golan Heights, and asked only for a promise of peace on paper in return."—Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer in "letter to Syrian Prime Minister Hafez Al-Assad," Washington Post, June 7, 1996.

WATCH: It was Hafez Al-Assad who offered Rabin, Peres, and now Netanyahu "full peace for full withdrawal" from Israeli-occupied Syrian lands. However, Rabin pledged to the Israeli people that Israel would not withdraw from the Golan Heights without first submitting the matter to a plebiscite by the Israeli people. He never did. For his part, Netanyahu has pledged that Israel will not return the Golan Heights to Syria under any circumstances. Krauthammer is simply making up historical events that never happened.

The Palestinian National Covenant

QUATSCH: "Arafat and the PLO have violated Oslo by...failing to change the PLO Covenant."—Advertisement by the Zionist Organization of America in the Washington Times, July 6, 1997.

QUATSCH: "There's the matter of the loathsome anti-Israeli provisions of the Palestinian covenant. The popular perception is that these noxious clauses have been excised. But, according to the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, 'Arafat and company have employed numerous excuses, bureaucratic dodges and temporizing measures to leave the Charter intact.'"—Editorial in the Tribune-Review, Greensburg, PA, March 5, 1997.

WATCH: Yasser Arafat has declared, publicly and repeatedly, that all provisions in the Palestinian National Covenant calling for the destruction of Israel are "null and void."

Sharing Jerusalem

QUATSCH: "Our answer to those who call for us to simply trade Jerusalem for peace comes with resounding clarity. We cannot sacrifice the soul of Israel. Peace means everything to Israel and the Jewish people, but nothing to a people who no longer have a soul. The Jewish soul is Jerusalem."—Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Eliayahu Ben Elissar in an article in The Washington Post, May 24, 1997."

WATCH: No one is asking Israel to "trade Jerusalem for peace." The Palestinians are asking the Israelis to share the Holy City. There are two ways to do this. One is for Israel to withdraw from East Jerusalem so that it can be the capital of the Palestinian state while keeping West Jerusalem to be the capital of the Jewish state. The other is jointly to administer the entire city so that it can be the capital of both states. There have been many such jointly administered cities in history. One current example is the city of Chandigarh, which serves as the capital of two Indian states, Hariana and Punjab.

As for "souls" of peoples or individuals, obviously they are a matter for theologians and philosophers. However, Ambassador Ben Elissar seems to be breaking new ground in both disciplines in apparently claiming that the world's 12 to 13 million Jews collectively or individually possess "a soul" that has no equivalent among the world's billion-plus Christians and billion-plus Muslims, for all of whom Jerusalem also is hallowed ground.