STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU

“The current crisis in the Middle East . . .” is a phrase that has opened more, deadly newscasts in the past half century than any other. We have grown used to it, we have become frightened of it, we have grown tired of it. Jews and Arabs have been killing each other since the founding of modern Israel in 1948 (longer, actually), and it has never been more dangerous than it is right now, or had more global implications.

I thought I knew where I stood on the Middle East till a recent conversation with a young Arab friend forced me to question some of my core beliefs about this struggle, made me realize my ignorance of certain critical facts. I hate when that happens. So, with no formal training in journalism, I turned to the universal source of information, the holy font from which all knowledge flows – GOOGLE!

Everyone wants to root for the right team, but it’s difficult to know which team is right when you aren’t a sports fan. What follows is an effort to define the playing field, the players, and the game in the Middle East. It is a clumsy effort, to be sure, but all the information is there for anyone interested enough who has a computer. First, the playing field.

PALESTINE
The geography of modern day Palestine (I’ll get historical later) was defined by the League Of Nations in the British Mandate at the end of WWI. It encompassed a region of the eastern Mediterranean coast from the sea to the Jordan valley and from the southern Negev desert to the Galilee lake region in the north. The Mandate was, “. . . international recognition for the stated purpose of establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people." I’m not sure everyone saw it that way, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The area of the Mandate was originally 118,000 square kilometers or so. In 1921, Britain arbitrarily took 91,000 square kilometers, three-fourths of the Mandate, east of the Jordan River, and created Trans-Jordan (later, the country of Jordan) as a new Arab protectorate. Exactly why they did this is not clear, but it’s a safe bet that they saw some political advantage in it for England. The balance of the Mandate, approx-imately 14,000 square kilometers (about the size of New Jersey but without the fun of Atlantic City), eventually became the state of Israel, minus the Gaza Strip, which was carved off for Egypt.

PALESTINIANS
Ignoring antiquity for a moment, from about 1920 to 1948, anyone native to Palestine was called a Palestinian, regardless of religion. When Israel was founded, 1.8 million people lived in this area; about 600,000 Jews and 1.2 million Arabs. The Jews became “Israelis,” the Arabs remained “Palestinians.”

All Jews were welcome to become Israelis, especially those fleeing the horrors of WWII. What happened to the Arabs of the region is a matter of opinion. Either they were invited to stay – some did and some didn’t – or they were invited to leave. The truth of the matter is not apparent, it is buried deep in the sand, at least for me, but the result is clear. Over a million Arabs were left without homes and/or a livelihoods and became Palestinian regugees

Next, I’ll look at the players and discuss their historical claims on Palestine. Those are some pretty murky waters, but damn interesting.

One foot on either side.

1 XCZR