Wayne’s Word - Israel/Gaza/Hamas
"The two-state idea has been proposed as a solution to the problems between Israel and Gaza. This, of course, is not possible until all Arab countries recognize Israel’s right to exist. In fact, Gaza and the West Bank are attempts at the two-state solution. Both continue to fail because these two “countries” refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. There is a very recent development – West Bank leaders are negotiating with Israel with a view to no longer recognizing Hamas as its ruler and recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Wouldn’t that be something?"
My wife and I were on a recent trip to Victoria. When we go to Victoria, we stay in the municipality of Oak Bay which is east of Victoria, right adjacent to it, and which is set beside the Strait of Georgia. It is a lovely little community, with upscale coffee shops and restaurants, and to use its own description of itself, “a refined enclave where waves gently kiss the shore…..”. I was therefore surprised on my last day there to come across a pot banging, bell ringing protest, right across from my favourite coffee shop, led by a number of more senior white women. The theme of the protest was “anti-Israel, pro-Gaza, and pro-Hamas.” This got me questioning why people like this would be motivated to do what they were doing, perhaps influenced by watching one sided media. It may be that they thought they were helping the situation in Gaza, but it was obvious that they had very little understanding of what the situation really was. Either that, or they were blatantly anti-Semitic. They had no idea that in Gaza, as women, they would have been the lowest class of person, next to a gay woman, whereas in Israel, the rights of women, and of LGBTQ people, would be protected.
My initial impulse was to confront these ladies and to ask them things like “how does Hamas treat its women?” or “who started the October 7th war?” I could have asked them “why Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and a few other Muslim countries refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist?” Instead, though I realized that people like this are likely ignorant of what is really going on in this area, I therefore decided to write this blog and hopefully begin a process of bringing awareness and understanding to people in the West. We need to know what really is going on through a historical review. Please share this with other people.
Initially some of my resources include media outlets, like National Post, 1440 Daily Digest, Rebel News to a degree, but mainly my own personal study and research over many years, including parts of the Old Testament.
Let me begin by pointing out that Israel did not just come into existence in 1948 through the actions of several nations of the world. Many people think this occurred in response to the killing of 6,000,000 Jews in the 1940’s, primarily by Germany and certain allies – the Holocaust. Rather, the Jewish people, according to the Old Testament, consist traditionally of twelve tribes named after the sons of Jacob. They were the original occupants of the land currently named Israel, along with some other land surrounding it, predating what is now referred to by some as Palestine by over 1,000 years. By my calculation, this goes back at least 5,000 years. The idea then that Israel is a colonialist nation displacing the true original occupants of the land is false. The Jews have returned to their original ancestral land after themselves being displaced by others (eg. The Romans).
The land returned to the Jewish people was also given to a similar number of “Palestinians” who were / are an Arab ethnonational group of people native to this area, but, as I mentioned earlier, subsequent by 1,000 years to the Jewish people. The intention was to have the Jewish people and the Palestinians jointly share and govern this area. However, immediately following the announcement of the formation of this new country, five neighbouring Arab countries, along with many of the Palestinian people themselves, invaded Israel with the intention of destroying the country. Long story short, through miraculous circumstances, the Jewish people defeated the invaders and the Palestinians. Palestinian areas were cleared of the people who were removed to neighbouring countries, with one exception. Cities which agreed to recognize Israel’s right to exist were allowed to retain the Palestinian people and Palestinian rule. These enclaves, which compose Palestine today within Israel include Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, and Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus. (The New Testament). They also include Jericho, where “the walls came tumbling down”, (Old Testament), and others. If you visit these places today, you actually leave Israel and enter a different country through typical processes like passport review and security screening.
Following this initial war, there have been at least half a dozen other wars precipitated by neighbouring Arab countries trying to defeat Israel, and destroy the Jewish people. These include the 1956 Suez Crisis, the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the 1982 and 2006 Lebanon Wars. Israel, a small nation of 10 million people today surrounded by 400 million Arabs, primarily Muslim, prevailed in all of these conflicts.
The main issue, or root issue, of all of these wars is the refusal by most Arab countries to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Over the years, this refusal has been the main stumbling block to a more permanent peace. Time and again, Arab leaders have refused to recognize Israel, including Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, at least three different times. This continues to be THE issue today.
Recently, thanks to Donald Trump, there has been movement on this issue by several countries. President Trump initiated the Abraham Accords, a series of diplomatic agreements between Israel and Arab Nations aimed at normalizing relations. These nations include the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. Egypt and Jordan had done this earlier. The general consensus is that the October 7, 2023 war was started by Hamas/Gaza as a way of stopping Saudi Arabia from signing the Abraham Accord which it was prepared to do.
The two-state idea has been proposed as a solution to the problems between Israel and Gaza. This, of course, is not possible until all Arab countries recognize Israel’s right to exist. In fact, Gaza and the West Bank are attempts at the two-state solution. Both continue to fail because these two “countries” refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. There is a very recent development – West Bank leaders are negotiating with Israel with a view to no longer recognizing Hamas as its ruler and recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Wouldn’t that be something?
A few things about the October 7th war. This sickens me to describe but needs to be done to help complete the picture. On the eve of Israel and Saudi Arabia signing the Abraham Accord, 3,000 Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli settlements. Approximately 1,200 Israelis were killed, 378 at a music festival. One terrorist called his parents bragging that he had killed ten Jews. His mother cried for joy. Parents of two young boys were killed in front of them. One terrorist tried to cut their father’s head off with a shovel. Many women were raped, had their breasts cut off, and women and children had their heads cut off. These were then played with. There are videos/films of these things happening. Greta Thunberg, a renowned Swedish climate activist, was intercepted trying to enter Gaza recently to help feed the Palestinian children. The Israelis wanted her to see these videos, but she refused to watch them.
Is there a solution to all this? Two states? Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, offered one. “If Hamas lays down its weapons,(and stops trying to destroy Israel), we will have peace. If Israel lays down its weapons, it will be destroyed and cease to exist.”
I have one final consideration before I close. A friend of mine says that the only thing that really matters in Gaza is that children are dying from starvation or from Israeli attacks. I understand this. I would do anything to protect my grandchildren from any kind of harm. We do need to think about innocent people first.
Another friend, while not disagreeing with this, had a different perspective. During the Second World War, neither Japan or Germany would lay down their weapons and surrender. There was a determination to fight to the end. This mindset by our enemies at the time forced the allies to take dramatic action to ultimately bring a conclusion to the war. The U.S. bombed Japanese cities with conventional bombs and nuclear bombs. It was estimated that 300,000 – 330,000 civilians were killed. It, along with Britain, did the same with Dresden, Germany, which really posed little threat. Estimates of the number killed in Dresden in 37 hours of bombing have a range from 25,000 – 250,000 , mostly women, children and elderly. (Dresden was a gathering point for displaced German refugees which partly accounts for the uncertainty regarding the number of innocents killed) The bombings were used as an incentive for surrender. The bottom line was that these bombings led to many innocent deaths to prevent an even greater number of deaths of innocent people.
One thing Israel does that no other country has done is that it warns the civilians of Gaza about coming bombings. It drops leaflets and sends out millions of texts telling civilians to vacate target areas. This is never done by other countries.
Again, I urge you to pass this along so that people are made aware of what is really happening in the Middle East.
Post Script – Subsequent to writing this, our new Prime Minister came out with Canada’s latest position on the situation. Essentially, Canada will recognize Palestine as a nation, which means that he endorses the “two state” solution. To reiterate something I have said earlier, Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians to govern as they wished. This was a two-state solution. Twenty years ago, the Palestinians elected Hamas to govern it. They chose an Islamic Resistance Movement to run their country, a movement which rejects any prospect of peace with Israel. In a speech given by a Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas position on a two state solution was made clear – “The State (Palestine) will come from resistance, not negotiation….. Palestine is ours from the river to the sea, and from the north to the south. There will be no concession on any inch of land. We will never recognize the legitimacy of Israeli occupation….. There is no legitimacy for Israel.” This position remains in place to today.
By Wayne Bernakevitch
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