A War Between Peoples (Part II)

Let’s set ourselves back a few years, shall we? Israel is established. It is a home for a population of refugees who’ve just been slaughtered on a world-unprecedented scale. They agree to a division of land, but the overwhelming reaction from the Arab population is to try to exterminate them (yes, "Arab." The label "Palestinian" didn’t exist as a distinct ethnic group at that time). The fighters include Arab populations from villages and cities throughout the land. This was a peoples' war then – every Jew was a target – man, woman and child.

The initial plan was to overwhelm Jewish settlements and exterminate their populations. A few places and peoples did not engage in this. Most prominent were the Bedouin and Druze who remain a central part of the State today – although as with any nomadic group in a modern society, the Bedouin have challenges. There was also a prominent village on the coast and Abu Ghosh (both populated, interestingly, by generally 'less-Arab' populations). Almost everyplace else - and with everyone else - extermination was the goal of the day. Again, it was a peoples’ war – not a war between armies. Jews near Arab villages were and are routinely attacked and massacred. Those who make the mistake of entering are murdered.

What is a reasonable response? Leave military villages everywhere to attack you at will. Leave your coastline populated by people who want you exterminated and can facilitate men and material from the sea?

No. If you want to survive, you drive some of that population out to establish militarily supportable areas. You have to. The alternative is death. You also establish a deterrent factor – responding to terrorism with a few raids that suggest that there will be a price for supporting genocide. Not a nice thing to do. Arguably unnecessary, but the argument could easily go the other way. Finally, you don’t stop the vast majority who flee (many of whom were told they'd come back to take Jewish lands and property once the massacre of Jews was complete.)

It sucks, but as a Jew in the region who wanted to survive, it was the only viable option. After all, the Arabs declared all Jews the enemy and joined in an attempt to follow up the Holocaust with version II – three years later. One of their leaders was the Mufti of Jerusalem, a confidant of Hitler who whipped the population up in an attempt to carry out his part of the final solution.

By the way, the hatred of peace was so strong that the only village on the coast that was willing to make peace (Jisr az Zarqa) still finds itself completely shut off from the rest of the Arab population, and today suffers very high rates of birth defects because nobody else will marry them.

Did Israel kill all the Arabs? No, not even close. Credible massacre victims number under 200. Did they drive all the Arabs out? Absolutely not. 20% of Israel’s population today is Arab. You will note that 0 – that’s ZERO – Jews were permitted to live in areas controlled by Arabs after 1948. This included ancient Jewish settlements that had had continual Jewish populations since the times of the Romans, like Hebron and central Jerusalem. ZERO Jews. Jews who even walked near the holiest site in Judaism were shot at from across the border. ZERO Jews are permitted to live in Palestinian areas today – but 20% of Israel is Arab.

With enemies like that, Israel was quite moderate in their expulsions. It was quite different than say:

1. Arab expulsions of Jews (99.5% of Jews gone, 100% from Arab-controlled areas West of the Jordan River)
2. Azerbaijani (92% Azeri) and Armenian (98% Armenian) mutual expulsions

Israel’s actions aren’t appalling. If we want to survive as a people – and I fully intend that we survive – we need to be able to protect ourselves from entire populations dedicated to our erasure.

To quote Golda Meir, “If we have to have a choice between dead and pitied, and being alive with a bad image, we’d rather be alive and have the bad image”

She also said, “When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.”

I don’t want this war. We don’t want this war. But peace won’t be the return of millions who want us dead.

Peace will be those millions – and the Arab nations who have refused to integrate them for generations – accepting that Israel will remain. Peace will be when Jews do not have to fear massacre every time they leave the gate open.

If you want Israel to prostrate itself before the Nakba, perhaps the Arab nations could prostrate themselves before the numerous pogroms they conducted over hundreds of years? No? Perhaps Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Egypt could acknowledge their sins in 1948, 67 and 73? No? Of course not, because the blame game only goes one way. The Arabs attempted genocide again and again and they failed. But their pride demands that we ask forgiveness.

My oldest is going into the army in a year and a half. My next three, a year and a half after that. I don’t want them risking their lives to occupy a ****hole like Gaza or Nablus (which was Shechem and houses a major Jewish pilgrimage site, but was renamed Flavius Neopolis by the Romans and drove out its last Jews in 1936). But they will risk their lives to protect their people from those who still dream of our extermination. I would love love love for that to mean that they are never deployed anywhere. But that isn’t going to be the reality. 70% of Palestinians think Oct 7th was the right things to do – not just justified, but the right call strategically. So my kids will risk their lives not because they want to live in Shechem but because they want to live in peace.

This exterminationalist attitude predates the State of Israel and is why Israel has to be so damned aggressive to defend itself.

Predates the State of Israel? Why, yes. Here’s a list of Arab atrocities against Jews during the 1800s. No Israel to blame. When will these countries and peoples acknowledge their sins? If they won’t, then don’t expect us to commit ethnic suicide by beating our chests and inviting them to overwhelm us with their numbers.

(By the way, the Druze committed one of those massacres and we are completely at peace with them today.)

▪ 1800: New decree adopted in Yemen, prohibiting Jews from wearing new or good clothes. Jews were forbidden to ride mules or donkeys, and were sometimes rounded up for long, naked marches through the Roob al Khali desert.

▪ 1805: 1st pogrom in Ottoman Algeria against the Jews of Algiers after a famine. French consul Dubois-Thainville saves 200 Jews by sheltering them in his consulate.

▪ 1805: Exile of Jews from Algiers to Tunis and Livorno.

▪ 1805: The leader of the Jewish Nation of Algiers, Naphthalie Busnach, is killed while riots ravage the neighborhoods.

▪ 1806: Expulsion by fatwa of the Jews of Sali in Morocco.

▪ 1806: Ban on Moroccan Jews wearing Western clothing.

▪ 1806: The janissaries of the dey of Algiers massacre and pillage in the Jewish Quarter.

▪ 1807: Expulsion of Jews from Tetouan.

▪ 1808: 1st massacres in the Mellah ghetto, North Africa.

▪ 1815: The chief rabbi of Algiers, Isaac Aboulker, is beheaded during a riot.

▪ 1815: 2nd pogrom of Algiers, Ottoman Algeria.

▪ 1816: In Algeria, ban on carrying weapons for Jews and Christians.

▪ 1820: Massacres of Sahalu Lobiant, Ottoman Syria.

▪ 1828 : Pogrom de Baghdad, Iraq Ottoman.

▪ 1830: 3rd pogrom of Algeria, Ottoman Algeria.

▪ 1830: Start of the persecution of Jews in Persia, caused by the Russian advance in the Caucasus.

▪ 1830: Ethnic cleansing of Jews in Tabriz, Iran.

▪ 1834: 2nd pogrom of Hebron, Ottoman Palestine.

▪ 1834: Pogrom de Safed, Palestine Ottomane.

▪ 1838: Druze attack in Safed, Ottoman Palestine.

▪ 1839: Massacre of the Mashadi Jews, Iran.

▪ 1839: Forced conversion of surviving Jews from Mashadi.

▪ 1839: Campaign of forced conversions of Iranian Jews.

▪ 1840: Persecution of the Jews of Damascus; ritual murder case.

▪ 1840: Forced conversion of the Jews of Mashadi.

▪ 1841: Massive murders of Jews in Morocco; the sultan is obliged to consider the Jews as his personal property, which helps to protect them.

▪ 1840: Damascus, ritual murders (French Muslims and Christians kidnapped, tortured and killed Jewish children for entertainment), Ottoman Syria.

▪ 1844: 1st Cairo massacre, Ottoman Egypt.

▪ 1847: Dayr al-Qamar Pogrom, Liban Ottoman.

▪ 1847: Ethnic cleansing of Jews in Jerusalem, Ottoman Palestine.

▪ 1848: 1st pogrom of Damascus, Syria.

▪ 1848: Total disappearance of the Jews of Mashhad.

▪ 1850: 1st pogrom of Aleppo, Ottoman Syria.

▪ 1877 : 3rd massacre of Damanhur, Ottoman Egypt.

▪ 1877: Pogrom of Mansura, Ottoman Egypt.

▪ 1882: Massacre of Homs, Ottoman Syria.

▪ 1882: 3rd massacre of Alexandria, Ottoman Egypt.

▪ 1889: After the funeral of a rabbi, deemed too discreet, the Jewish cemetery of Baghdad was confiscated.

▪ 1889: Looting of the Jewish quarter of Baghdad.

▪ 1890: 2nd Cairo massacre, Ottoman Egypt.

▪ 1890: 3rd pogrom de Damascus, Ottoman Syria.

▪ 1891: 4th massacre of Damanahur, Ottoman Egypt.

(longer list here)

There are 2 billion Muslims who control 29 million square kilometers of land. There are 16 million Jews who control 22,000 square kilometers. We are less than 1% of the Muslim population and we have less than 0.1% of Muslim lands. But those 2 billion Muslims want those 16 million Jews and their tiny sliver of land erased because we had the gall to do what we needed to defend ourselves against multiple attempts at genocidal slaughter.

What about the Palestinian side? I've quoted Yellowstone before in saying that evil is wanting to punish the world for what it inflicted on you. The Palestinians meet this to a T. They are angry at the world, punishing everybody right now (notice the global riots), and have contributed almost nothing to humankind aside from terrorism and some local cheese. Palestinian society is sick, it is evil. Justifiably angry, but still evil. But I do believe, as I have written many times, that it can be saved.

Certain contributors here have suggested the Jews are wanting to punish the world for what it has inflicted on us. Well, our track record doesn't support that:

• We are building up peoples around the world in numerous areas including agriculture, communications and health.
• We regularly perform life-saving operations for Palestinians and Arabs from enemy states. Before and after Oct 7th, there have been Gazan cancer and heart patients receiving treatment in Israeli hospitals – to the extent that somehow we’re considered evil if we don’t extend our services to our enemies when they could have easily built their own healthcare capacity. You know, if they decided to establish a functioning society instead of a terror state. By contrast, a Druze auto-accident patient was murdered in his hospital bed in Jenin because they thought he might be Jewish. Honest mistake, you know…
• WE massively expanded that fricking Al-Shifa Hospital. What hospital did the Palestinians or Arabs ever build for Jews? On the contrary, that lovely old Peace Now couple that used to drive Palestinians to medical appointments in Israel were taken hostage by Hamas.
• We both offer and provide aid in earthquake-hit Muslim and Arab countries.
• We aren’t angry at our enemies of the yester-generations (e.g. Germans or Druze).
• Despite having the capability, we haven’t and have no plans to genocide Palestinians.
• We withdrew from Gaza in 2005, hoping they’d actually build something other than the capability to attack us.

If Palestinians believe we are trying to punish the world for everything it did to us, then they are being willful idiots (or, more likely, trying to justify genocide). What we are trying to do is ensure that the world doesn’t get to do what they did (or tried to do, in the case of the Arabs) again.

The Iranian axis is only the latest iteration of those seeking to erase us. Hezbollah has a massive arsenal, Iran wants to nuke us, the Houthis are sending cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at our cities and Hamas has sent 10s of thousands of rockets at our cities. (Those Houthi missiles, by the way, are practice for the Iranians to understand how to get their missiles through.)

I can’t confidently say we’ll survive. Our enemies want us all dead. Me, my wife, my children. My kids’ schools all have an armed guard outside. Now they have 2 because past massacres have targeted school children. We don’t want them all dead. No Israeli – even the craziest right-wingers – want to kill every Arab or Palestinian (although some foolishly believe driving them away will solve things).

But they want us all dead. Not only that, but they may get the means.

And in the middle of this – when we are trying to deal with one axis of this monster in Hamas – the Canadians are cutting off our arms. The Americans are wringing their hands, limiting our access, and buying the Hamas starvation story (Israel is sending over 150 trucks a day with about 1,500 tons a day. A person can get by on 500g just fine, so this is enough for 2.7 million people) and limiting our weapons. We aren’t being allowed to finish the job and end the hard-core military operations so we can pivot to other existential threats and lift the level of disorder in the Strip.

I’m looking at this and saying: Do I really have to argue that my people shouldn’t be genocided? Do I really have to argue that the ridiculous accusation of genocide is just that?

This isn’t some far-off reality. Every city in Israel is within 25 miles of the ‘international’ border. Gaza is under 60km (35 miles) from my home. Hezbollah is 140 kilometers (90 miles) away. 70% of Palestinians think Oct 7th was the right thing to do. Why? Not just because civilians were slaughtered, but because the world is pivoting to support them and they're evil.

So, you better believe I want my army – my friends and my friends' kids – to disabuse them of that notion. No, I don’t want wholesale slaughter – a million Gazans would be dead if that were the goal. However, I do want every single member of Hama and Palestine Islamic Jihad dead. That is about 40,000 people. They are members of a genocidal cult in service to an ideology that wants to kill my children and isn’t so far from being able to do just that.

As far as I’m concerned, they don’t get to live.

Of course, that won’t happen. Israel is taking prisoners and has been since day 1. We are even treating them in hospitals. Maybe somebody somewhere believes some kind of reform is possible.

Are we free from sin? Of course not. Young men in an existential fight aren’t going to act like lawyers. But with October 7th, the mask has come off our enemies – they and their progressive fellow travelers demand ‘from the river to the sea’ and that means all of us, dead. They attack Jews and Jewish sites worldwide and that means all of us, not just those evil Israelis, dead.

The Jewish people will survive them. We’ll watch them swept away into the dustbin of history. The remains of Hadrian’s Wall are just across the river from the Gateshead Yeshiva. Where our enemies of old have crumbling ruins, we have living, vibrant, centers of learning.

We’ll survive them, as a people. But as our history shows, there is no guarantee that we won’t suffer terribly in the meantime. There is no guarantee that they won’t kill millions in the process of their own erasure.

Sometimes I have a hard time summoning up the will to argue. It is all so ridiculous.

Thankfully, parts of the Arab world are waking up. They are waking up to the limits of “no justice, no peace,” and are instead recognizing that you must pursue peace and progress despite injustice, because no justice is perfect (see my prior message). Jews aren’t going to get back what was taken from them in the Arab and Muslim and European worlds – but we moved on and made things that are far more valuable in our place of freedom. It’d sure be nice for the Arab world to follow in our footsteps.

On the messed up scale, the Arab world is one of the most backward places on the planet. With all their oil wealth, they only surpass Africa and South Asia on the Human Development Index. It is my hope that progress, even that represented by the slave-holding authoritarians of the Emirates, will take hold and lift both Arabs and Jews from the burden of this conflict.

I am always looking for a better tomorrow . My hopes, expressed in books like the City on the Heights and multiple pieces on this site like A Truly Free Palestine and A War Between Peoples Part I, are for peace, prosperity and advancement. Unfortunately that will only come when the exterminationalist movement is suppressed and supplanted. In the meantime, Palestinian society is doing whatever it can to make that hopeful tomorrow seem as unlikely as possible.

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If you want more color, check out this piece about a chest-beating Israeli historian of the Nakba who thinks Hamas must be erased and Netanyahu is too much of a wuss to get done what needs to be done.