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Don’t trust any Israeli/Palestinian comments without international verification
- If Netanyahu (Israeli PM) said it, that’s not enough evidence
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Remember, reading a biased article in and of itself isn’t bad, you just have to be aware of it. It’s better to read an article you know is biased than to read an article you incorrectly assume is neutral.
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Islamist = “a religio-political ideology. The advocates of Islamism, also known as “al-Islamiyyun”, are dedicated to realizing their ideological interpretation of Islam within the context of the state or society” (Wikipedia)
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Destiny research shit (haven’t read any of this)
Overview of History
- From 1519-1917 the West Bank was under Turkish/Ottoman rule
- It was part of the British Mandate of Palestine for a bit (1920–1948)
- UK gave it to Abdullah I of “Jordan” during this time (technically Transjordan but this is complicated enough as is)
- Abdullah made it an independent kingdom in 1946 (prior to the UN Partition Plan)
- In 1947 the UN decides to divide it into Israel and Palestine
- The 1948 Arab–Israeli War happens and Transjordan gets to keep the West Bank
- “Transjordan annexed the area west of the Jordan River in 1950, naming it “West Bank” or “Cisjordan”, and designated the area east of the river as “East Bank” or “Transjordan""
- This is not important, it’s just really funny to me
- While the West Bank was under Jordanian rule, Palestinians had Jordanian citizenship and half the seats in Parliament
- That lasted from 1948-1988
- The West Bank was chilling under Jordanian rule, doing really well economically. Huge population, lots of money from agriculture, banks coming in
- Before occupation, the West Bank was 40% of Jordanian GNP, 34-40% of it’s agricultural output, and half its output
- Not as much investment though
- Six-day war happens (1967), Israel occupies the West Bank. Not annexes, just occupies
- Annex = Absorb
- Occupy = Military control but no responsibilities
- Big criticism of Israel is that Israel doesn’t want to annex the West Bank so they’re not responsible for the land or her people (eg. they don’t get to vote)
- West Bank’s economy continues to rise
- Occupation meant the West Bank couldn’t export earnings anymore
- In 1974 at an Arab League summit, they decided the PLO was gonna run the Palestine ship
- In 1987 Israel Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussain tried to make a peace deal where Israel gives the West Bank to Jordan, but fucking Shamir (Israeli PM) blocked it
- In 1988 Jordan cut all ties to West Bank, revoking citizenship rights
- Israel calls the entire West Bank area as “Judea and Samaria Area” (literally just another name but I wanted to include the key terms)
- Includes both Israeli and Palestinian land
- Internationally it’s called “Occupied Palestinian Territory”, but Israel quotes the UN and says that only territories captured in a war from “an established and recognized sovereign” are considered occupied
- Didn’t Israel occupy Jordanian land after the six-day war? How is this not occupied??
- What I’m guessing is, in the 1982 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, since Israel redefined their military rule into semi-civil authority, it doesn’t count as an “occupation” anymore
- Israel-Jordan peace treaty of 1994
- Annex I says Jordan will make an “administrative boundary” between Jordan and the West Bank. Basically “we’ll leave”
- 1996 - Netanyahu starts building settlements around East Jerusalem
- King Hussein (Jordan) apparently fell hella bad about the Israel-Palestine conflicts, his wife talked about how he couldn’t sleep over it
Tangent about King Hussein
- Fucking legend
- He was pissed at Netanyahu about Israel reneging, started fighting them on it
- When Mossad agents went through Jordan to poison Mashal (Hamas’ leader) Hussein said it felt like they “had spat in his face”
- He told them they best provide the antidote, and when they refused he threatened to storm the embassy. Israel said that violated the Geneva Convention and Hussain told them that it “do not apply to terrorists”
- King Hussein is fucking lit bro
- I think Israel only caved because President Clinton agreed to intervene, and even Clinton was like “This man is impossible!”
- This man held a grudge for fucking years, almost annulled the peace treaty, and he made Israel not only release Jordanian prisoners, but 50 Palestinian prisoners including Sheikh [[Hamas#Important people#Ahmed Yassin|Ahmed Yassin]]
- When Israel would ask them for favours like “Help us attack Saddam” Hussein goes “Suck my dick”
- I might be embellishing a little
History - 600 BCE to the 2000s
History of Israel - Wikipedia
Summary
- There were some Jews in the region we presently call Israel
- The Jews get kicked out by the Babylonians for not paying taxes, then the Persians take over and let them back in
- Then the Romans take over and make Israel Christian, then the Caliphates make it Muslim, then the Crusades make it Christian again
- The Jews are a minority now
- European Jews try to move to Israel and form their own state but some Ukrainian dude kills 1/3 of them because they’re leaseholders (economic antisemitism!)
- Russian Jews try again with Euro Jew money and it works! (Rothschilds, whoa)
- WWI and WWII happen and more Jews go there
- Jews want their separate state, Arabs want a single Arab-controlled state, UN does the former
- Arabs keep fighting Israel but Israel keeps winning and taking more land
- Now Israel is big and Palestine is small and everyone is mad and we’re at present day
Waaaaay back
- So the Jews started out in Jerusalem, “Kingdom of Judah”
- Different from the Kingdom of Israel! Judah was South, Israel North
- Babylon controlled the area I guess
- Jews stop paying taxes and go to war
- The Babylonians destroy Jerusalem, exile Jews to Babylon (Siege of Jerusalem) (586 BC)
- Exile includes slavery
- The Achaemenid Persians beat the Babylonians and gave the Jews Jerusalem again (Fall of Babylon)
- Alexander the Great comes through because he hates the Persians (ballpark 380 BC)
- Alex dies, Coele-Syria takes over
- 167 BCE, Israel (called Hasmonean Kingdom) exists now (Maccabean Revolt)
- Gets incorporated into the Roman Empire (Third Mithridatic War) (63 BCE)
- Jews rebel, Romans fuck their shit up and destroy Jerusalem again (Great Jewish Revolt) (66-73 CE)
- Lots of Jews die, starve, are enslaved
- Jews rebel again, Romans really fuck their shit up (Bar Kokhba Revolt) (132-136 CE)
- Jews are banned from Jerusalem
- Center of Jewish society moved to Galilee (Israel/Lebanon border)
- Province of Judea is renamed to Syria Palaestina - ** Jews become a minority in Palestine **
- Jerusalem starts getting Christ-y
- Persians take over for a minute before the Byzantines show up. Or many the Persians don’t show up and Rome just fractures? idk
- Now the Muslims show up
- Rashidun Caliphate conquers the area
- Still pretty Christian, but Arabs start moving in (5th century)
- Byzantines start getting dicky, kill a bunch of Christians
- War starts between some random groups, Jerusalem gets destroyed again
- Crusades happen (1099), now we’ve got the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Christianity again
- Eventually the Crusades fuck up the Byzantines (lead to their decline)
- Now there’s less Christians over there
- Ottomans show up, take over
- Egypt fucks around for a bit but nah
- Some guy named Zevi said he was the Messiah, tried to bring a bunch of Jews to Gaza but failed and went somewhere else (Smyrna, West Turkey)
- Believed this guy because Jews were desperate in Europe
- So this Ukrainian military dude leads an uprising and ends up killing 1/3rd of the Jewish population
- The Jews were leaseholders (arendators) so the peasants blamed them for their oppression
19th century and the Zionists
- 19th century, pre-zionist movement
- Seems like most Rabbis were like “Move to Palestine? Nah that’s dumb”
- A lot of individuals were like “Fuck it let’s go”
- 1882 - Some Russian Jews make New Yishuv, seems like shit’s taking off (The First Aliyah)
- Oh shit 25,000 Jews moved over
- Old Yishuv was already there, but this was a huge migration
- Lots of farming starts
- Lots of financial support from Western European Jewish philanthropists
- Oh wtf, Rothschild
- WWI happens
- UK works with the Arabs to kick out the Ottomans
- Notably, worked with Egypt in exchange for Arab independence
- Ottomans were a German ally at the time
- then says “lol fuk u” and divides the area with France (Sykes–Picot Agreement)
- Brits own the area until 1947 when the uprisings get too annoying
- Jews demand their own state, Arabs say “No fuckin’ way”, want a unified country ruled by Arabs
- Balfour Declaration gives Israel to the Jews (Timeline starts here) (TODO: I messed up the timeline, Belford was 1917)
- Arabs immediately attack (like 7 countries), Israelis win and take over way more territory than originally allotted
- Jordan takes the West Bank, Egypt takes Gaza
- 700,000 Arabs fled/kicked out
- Jews start flocking to Israel (Aliyahs), with the fifth happening during WWII
- Lots of Jews in Palestine now
TODO: THE WORLD WARS SEEM PRETTY IMPORTANT
The Arab-Israeli Wars
1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
- Wikipedia
- Under the control of the British administration (since 1920) Palestine was being fought between the Palestinian and Zionist nationalists
- 1936–1939 Arab revolt, happens, British reduce Jewish immigration as a result
- 1939 White Paper
- WWII happens, the Holocaust, Zionists gain sympathy, Jews start fighting against British occupation
- Haganah
1948 Arab-Israeli War (First Arab-Israeli War)
- Wikipedia
- TL;DR: Israel was formed and the Arabs got mad
- Followed the civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final state of the 1948 Palestine war
- Formally began the same day as the Israeli Declaration of Independence
- 14 May 1948 - David Ben-Gurion (founder and first PM of Israel) declared the establishment of a Jewish state, a few hours before the termination of the Mandate
- 15 May 1948 Midnight, the British Mandate was officially terminated
- Several hours later, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria invade the state
- TODO: “What was now Israel had already, from 1 April down to 14 May, conducted 8 of its 13 full-scale military operations outside of the area allotted to a Jewish state by partition”
Suez Crisis (Second Arab-Israeli War) (1956)
- Wikipedia
- TL;DR: Egypt started restricting the Suez Canal and Israel/the West got mad
- invasion of Egypt and the Gaza Strip by Israel in 1956
- Backed by the UK and France
- British and French shareholders owned the Canal until Nasser nationalized
- Aim was to regain control of the Suez Control for the West, and remove Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt’s president)
Six-Day War (Third Arab-Israeli War) (1967)
- Wikipedia
- TL;DR: After the last war, Israel said “Fuck with the canals again and we’re gonna fight” and then Nasser fucked with the canals
- After the Suez Crisis,
Aftermath
- UN 242 adopted unanimously
- Text in full (Short read)
- Principles
- (i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
- (ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”
- Syria conditionally accepted it (after the Yom Kippur War of 1973?), but that’s way later
- “one of the most widely affirmed resolutions”
- basis of peace treaties between Israel and Egypt, and Jordan
- Dean Rusk: “I’m not aware of any commitment the United States has made to assist Israel in retaining territories seized in the Six-Day War”
- Some people think there was indefinitely language that gave a “perceptible loophole” that authorized “territorial revision” for Israel
Yom Kippur War (Fourth Arab-Israeli War) (1973)
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TL;DR: The Arab coalition launched a surprise attack against Israel
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AKA the Ramadan War, the October War, the Fourth Arab-Israeli War
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Israel vs a coalition of Arab states, lead by Egypt and Syria
- Notably not Iran, at least not formally
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Egypt’s goal was to capture the eastern bank of the Suez Canal in order to negotiate for Sinai overall
- ==NOTE: THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WEST BANK OF PALESTINE==
- This is not a name, it’s a literal description. The water bank on the east side of the Suez Canal
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US supports Israel, Soviet Union supports the Arab states
- Part of the Cold War
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Egypt took the Suez Canal (temporarily), but Israel stopped them into a stalemate
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Syria fucked around and got pushed back behind pre-war ceasefire lines
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Egypt kept pushing and then Israel pushed them past the Suez Canal and even pushed for Suez City
- Within 100 km of Cairo!
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The UN brokers another ceasefire and the war chills out
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After this war, Israel starts to chill out with the other nearby countries, eg. the 1979 Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty
Peace Efforts
Camp David Accords (1979)
- Anwar Sadat (Egyptian president) and Menachem Begin (Israeli PM)
- Palestine was not included (condemned by the UN)
- “Framework for Peace”, I think the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty (the direct successor) was more important
1979 Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty
- Anwar Sadat (Egyptian president) and Menachem Begin (Israeli PM)
- Mutual agreement
- Formal cessation of the war (which apparently was ongoing since 1948)
- Israel withdraws military from Sinai
- Egypt promises free movement through Suez
- Was to be the precursor to the Oslo Accords
Oslo Accords (1993)
- Yitzhak Rabin (Israeli PM) and Yasser Arafat (Palestinian leader, PLO)
- 2 interim agreements between Israel and the PLO which aimed for peace based on Resolution 242 (the return of all land gained in the Six-Day War) and Resolution 338 (a ceasefire to the Yom Kipur War)
- 338 didn’t pass when it was initially introduced in 1973
- Lead to the creation of the PLA, who was to govern (though limited)
- Recognition of the PLO as Israel’s partner for peace
- Still having discussions on a potential Palestinian state
2000 Camp David Summit
- Meeting between Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak (Israeli PM) and Yasser Arafat (PA chairman)
- tried to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it’s failure is considered one of the main triggers of the Second Intifada
- There was a 1978 Camp David Accord (under Carter) that worked well between Egypt (Sadat) and Israel (Begin)
Miscellaneous Notes
- What is the Arab Spring?
- Series of anti-government protests/rebellions across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s
- Mostly based on corruption and economic stagnation
- Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain
- Other places too but less so
- This is how Gaddafi (Libya) and Mubarak (Egypt) lost their seats!
- Lots of large-scale conflicts follow this (Egyptian coup, Iraqi civil war, Yemeni Crisis, lots)
- Lots of power vacuums
Notes from Destiny debates
- Goldstone
- operation cast
- 2009 fact finding mission found Israel deliberately killing?
- Lebanon hosts Hezbollah
- Hezbollah wants to eradicate the Jews
- Hezbollah was liked because they fought against ISIS, but approval has fallen dramatically
- Palestine doesn’t want statehood because that requires recognizing the state of Israel
- ^ So then what does Palestine currently call Israel? An occupying body?
- “From the river to the sea”
- Was the “concert attack” fake news? Apparently they were attacking military bases that were in close proximity to it
- which countries recognize Israel? Apparently it’s just Yemen and the UAE? Pretty sure the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty says otherwise
- Israel offered Palestinians citizenship?
- Negev desert
- white paper
- who decided the partition plan? How involved was Israel/Palestine?
- Arab states rejected partition plan?
- in area cnisrael controls everything but in area B they have military control but not civil. Look into this
- Trump peace plan
Was Hamas democratically elected?
Answer: Yes, but no elections since 2006
The rest of this section is tbh irrelevant rambles about Hamas fighting their political opponents
- The Battle of Gaza was a fight in 2007 between Hamas and Fatah after Fatah lost the 2006 election. It basically split Palestine into 2 separate bodies, the PNA in the West Bank and Hamas and Gaza
- In 2004 British Intelligence Services drew up plans to degrade parties opponent to the Fatah-led PNA (including Hamas)
- Note: Yasser Arafat used to be the leader of the PNA, died in 2004 and left a power vacuum
- The Hamas electoral victory was judged free and fair by international observers. but surprised a lot of people (US, Israel)
- So the quartet (US, Russia, UN and EU) basically says “We’ll help you out, but you gotta agree to non-violence, recognize Israel, and accept previous agreement and obligations”, and Hamas says “fuck that”
- The quartet tries to undermine Hamas and tell President Abbas to overturn the election results
- Hamas start to create their own separate armed forces, which is kinda fucky, but Hamas is more powerful, probably because it’s funded externally (Iran, Syria). Meanwhile the US is starting to train PNA military. Egypt Jordan and Turkey start helping the Fatah, who kinda work with the PNA at this point?
- In 2006 the quartet says “make a better government or we’re kicking Hamas out”. Abbas tries to call a new government, Hamas and Fatah say “fuck that”. Though they do sign an agreement to stop fighting in 2007 and form a national united government
- In 2007, Hamas is like “Fuck, the PNA and the Fatah and now there’s US soldiers too??” so they start a battle
- Fatah claimed that Hamas was doing so much damage to civ area that they had to pull back
- This all happens between June 10 and June 15th, at which point Hamas has completely taken over the area
- Pro-Fatah view is it was a planned coup by Hamas
- Pro-Hamas view is that America was arming the Fatah with the intent to forcefully remove Hamas (this one turned out to be right. Yikes)
- Gaza hasn’t really done elections since like 2006? Kinda forms governments without elections now