The Palestinians have often asserted that the creation of Israel was the cause of their Nakba (catastrophe). But they have failed to acknowledge that they brought the Nakba on themselves by their own actions and those of their leadership. The same holds true for the forthcoming invasion of Gaza, which will inevitably cause many deaths and heavy damage to the Gaza infrastructure. The Hamas brutality and mass murder of October 7 left Israel no alternative but to invade to stop future massacres.
UN Resolution 180 authorized the establishment of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the land of Palestine. Zionist leadership accepted the resolution. The main Zionist ideological claim was that every person is entitled to self-rule and dignity through sovereignty. However, the neighboring Arab states decided that only an Arab state should exist so they invaded to destroy the Jewish state. They lost the war and never established the Arab state.
Between 1948 and 1967, Jordan possessed the West Bank. During this period, the Arab nations tried in every way to erase Israel from the map but they never set up a Palestinian state.
In 1967, led by Abdul Gamal Nasser, the Arab nations initiated a war to drive the Jews into the sea. The Israelis triumphed in the Six Day War and offered to make peace. The Arab League responded with three NOs: NO recognition (of Israel); NO negotiations (which could have established a Palestinian state), and NO peace.
The single most important factor in the failure to set up a Palestinian state to this day, is that they established their narrative to eliminate the Jewish state first. When the Palestine Liberation Organization was set up in 1964, its charter stated its purpose was to destroy Israel. The PLO adopted a policy of terror and violence to achieve the goal. No people has a right to achieve its national sovereign dignity by destroying another state.
Palestinian golden age: Israeli rule over the West Bank
Ironically, Israel’s rule over the West Bank was a golden age for the Palestinians. The gross national product of the West Bank rose 12.9% a year from 1968-1978. The average per capita earnings in Gaza went from $80 to over $1700 in 25 years. Civic organizations and religious life flourished. There were no universities on the West Bank before 1967 – afterward, seven were set up.
The greatest impact of exposure to Israel and its culture was to stimulate Palestinian identity and nationalism. Thus Israeli control of lands conquered in a war of self-defense turned into an occupation. Gradually, the other Arab nations made peace with Israel or dropped out of the struggle. A powerful Palestinian uprising (the first intifada) forced Israel to consider granting the Palestinians self-rule. The United States offered to negotiate with the PLO if it removed the destruction of Israel goal from its charter.
The Oslo Accords, designed to provide a five-year transition to sovereignty, were established. It was not to be, because the PLO publicly removed the clause in an equivocal manner (or described it as a Hudabaya - a peace agreement that Muhammed made with Jewish tribes. After 10 years – after he had built up his own forces – he repudiated the pact and destroyed the tribes.)
Arafat and PLO leadership continued to secretly support terrorism and use that tactic against Israel. In the 15 years after Oslo, more than five times as many Israelis died from terrorist actions as in the 15 years before Oslo.
THE PALESTINIAN Authority promulgated a culture of hatred and incitement against Israel internally, while allying with Muslim and Communist nations to delegitimize Israel on the international scene. Palestinian economic growth slumped. Instead of building a flourishing economy, Arafat established a corrupt, dictatorial regime.
In 1986, Hamas was formed. Its charter set as a goal the destruction of Israel. It implied a second goal to kill all Jews worldwide by incorporating a hadith (statement) about a final apocalyptic war in which Muslims would kill every last Jew.
In 1999, Ehud Barak was elected prime minister on a platform of making peace with the Palestinians and enabling their state on 90% plus of the West Bank – including east Jerusalem as its capital. Despite President Clinton’s mediation, Arafat never accepted – or responded – to the offer.
Instead, he launched a Second Intifada with suicide bombers and terrorist activities that all but shut down normal life in Israel. This started the electoral downfall of the left – on the grounds that the left was guilty of naivete in failure to properly vet the Palestinian leadership’s readiness for peace and recklessly endangering Israel’s security.
In 2004, Ariel Sharon decided to uproot the Jewish settlements in Gaza in order to separate them from the Palestinians and reduce terrorist incidents. In the next election, the Palestinians responded by a majority voting for Hamas. The excuse was that the PLO was corrupt but the bottom line was that Palestinians voted for a governing party dedicated to destroying Israel. A year later, Hamas seized control of Gaza and proceeded to make life miserable – with periodic rocket attacks – for all the nearby Jewish communities.
In 2009, Ehud Olmert offered Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, 95% plus of the West Bank while offsetting land swaps from Israel to allow Israel to retain the major settlement blocs. Abbas again rejected the offer by not accepting – or even responding – to it. Apparently, he could not bring himself to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
With every passing year, the number of settlements expanded. There are now 500,000 people living there and they are a powerful constituency against a Palestinian state. Furthermore, the ongoing terrorism convinced more Israelis that the Palestinians could never be trusted to have their own state, as they would never live in peace with Israel.
HAMAS’S VILE atrocities of October 7, convinced the entire spectrum of Israelis, that life could not go on by containing Hamas or trying to change its policies with economic incentives. The conclusion: Hamas must be eliminated, whatever the cost. Thus the Palestinians have brought down on their own head the coming losses and suffering.
Nevertheless, having established Palestinians’ responsibility for their statelessness, we must look at the role of their allies and friends in enabling the coming Nakba.
Having fixed their narrative on the elimination of Israel and doomed themselves to failure and Israeli control, how could the Palestinians change direction? The only way out of a culture of hatred and antisemitism was for their allies and friends to give feedback that they must stop the nihilistic policy of terror.
They could only earn their state by creating a better life for themselves, by taking on a peace policy that could – someday – win the trust of Israelis. Instead, the Palestinians’ allies served them badly by excusing their extreme behavior and reaffirming their worst tendencies with silence.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, their main allies were Muslim nations – most of them dictatorships – and the Soviet Union and its satellite nations in the Evil Empire. The Russians supported the Arab delegitimization of Israel – including initiating and passing UN Resolution 3379 that Zionism is racism – that is, that Israel was beyond the pale.
After the Arabs lost their wars against Israel, instead of urging them to learn the lessons of defeat and make peace, the Russians promised them open-ended support and replaced their military losses with new weapons.
Instead of checking the Palestinian culture of hatred, Islamic governments and spiritual leaders confirmed it. They spread antisemitic tropes and blessed unrestrained jihad against Israel and Jews worldwide.
Thankfully, the Global Imams Council, which has hundreds of members, criticized the Hamas atrocities as violating the ethical principles of Islam. But the established governments – even those participating in the Abraham Accords – declined to condemn Hamas’s actions, maybe because they knew that their people mostly identify with Hamas.
The Islamic religious establishment must live with the desecration of Islam’s name, which has become synonymous with a culture of incitement, terror, and death to all Jews.
IN RECENT years, some rogue human rights organizations have labeled Israel as an apartheid state. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) has also tried to define Israel’s standing as equivalent to the old, white supremacist South African government. Never mind the false representation of the Jewish state and the trivialization of the heinous discriminatory program of the old Boer government. The real goal is to place Israel beyond the pale. The rhetoric of human rights is corrupted to reinforce the Palestinian fantasy of destroying the Jewish state some day.
Similarly, the spread on the radical left and in universities of the intersectionality idea, that Israel is the enemy of all oppressed minorities, is continuing. The labeling of Israelis as colonial settlers denies 3,000 years of Jewish rootedness in the land of Israel. The 50% plus of Israelis who are Mizrahim (descendants of local Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa from biblical times to the modern era) and Ethiopian Jews are “whitened” out of existence, while the Palestinians are dubbed indigenous people of color.
The Palestinians are given a free pass for atrocious behavior that only reinforces their policy of annihilation, rather than seeking reconciliation.
The UN, with its endless stream of resolutions condemning Israel, is trying its utmost to demonize the country, as do those who label Israel as a colonialist power. Neither, however, would admit that they are supporting a genocidal policy against Jews. In reality, however, that is what they are doing.
Even the United States and western Europe, which have mainly stood by Israel, have failed to check the Palestinians or give them feedback that they must give up their unholy war on Israel and seek a modus vivendi (peaceful coexistence).
They should have given the Palestinians assurances that they would support a two-state solution, but told them, in no uncertain terms, that any use of terror to achieve their aims would result in the loss of that support.
The US supported Israel, but, with the exception of the idiosyncratic Trump administration, never confronted UNESCO and UNRWA with budget denials for their delegitimization of the Jewish state. When Israel was driven to military action, the typical Allied response was to restrict Israel’s actions and make sure that it did not go “too far.” This allowed Hamas to use international humanitarian help to regroup, rearm, and return to terror every time.
The Hamas pogrom almost two weeks ago was the outcome of these policy failures. Now, the number of deaths on both sides will far exceed that which would have occurred were the matter taken in hand sooner and not allowed to spiral out of control.
Allies of the Palestinian people have failed them by not redirecting them, while the radicals have corrupted them by supporting their policy of victimhood and self-destruction.
The moderate Arab governments and the PA have not condemned the recent Hamas atrocities. Now, all Palestinian allies must put systemic pressure on the Palestinians to renounce terror and work toward a better life and freedom.
The writer is an oleh, was a leader in Modern Orthodoxy in America and is the author of The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism (Jewish Publication Society, forthcoming).