The connection between Israel, Palestine and Idaho may seem nebulous, but with two US aircraft carriers now in the middle-east (as of Nov 15, 2023), a US submarine has passed through the Suez Canal with 150 cruise missiles on board a few weeks ago, and American F16's already bombing locations in Syria linked to Iran (on Oct 27 and again on Nov 8), it appears the US is preparing to go to war on some level in the middle-east. Idaho would be sending young men and women from the Air Force base in Mountain Home, near Boise, if that happens. It doesn’t take a political science major to see how close to home this “conflict” may become to Idaho families. And if this 'war' escalates, I can see the need to bring back the draft. That would mean young people who graduated from High School this past June in Idaho could be fighting in a war half way around the world.
A BALL OF CONFUSION
Let’s look at this very confusing conflict from a historical standpoint:
With more than 2,000 years of recorded history one can summarize by simply stating Palestine was and is Muslim. Moving into modern history, the Ottoman Empire existed until 1922, with the region flourishing under Muslim rule for over 500 years. But in 1916, Britain and France formed a secret alliance to parcel out the Arab provinces between themselves, and at the end of the war this included the Italians getting a piece.
A timeline with bullets is helpful at this point: I document everything at the end of this post:
1916: Britain and France secretly agreed to divide the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire between themselves when the Great War (WW1) ended.
1917: the Balfour Declaration announced Britain’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, still part of the Ottoman Empire. A minority of the Jewish population lived in Palestine at this time in small colonies but numerous British leaders started the concept of breaking up the area after WW1 ended when the Ottoman Empire was gone. Lord Rothschild drove the concept and was part of the British Zionist community. The declaration protected Palestinian religious rights, but... not political rights. Today's problems started right then, over 100 years ago.
Two years after the end of WW1 in 1920, Britain was given control of this section of the now defunct Ottoman empire and called the area Palestine, as the Romans once did. A League of Nations mandate officially gave Britain control of the area of Palestine and Jordan while the French took control of Syria. Under this mandate, the British oversaw more than 25 years of rising tensions among Arabs and Jews (1920 - 1947) as 100,000 Jews migrated to Palestine during this period, mostly from Europe.
1922 Population in Palestine: 84,000 Jewish - 590,000 Muslims
1945: President Roosevelt assured the Arabs that the United States would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in Palestine. FDR died in April 1945, and President Truman did not fulfill this promise.
1947: The UN recommended the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states and adopted Resolution 181 to do so, ending British rule of the area.
1948 population in Palestine: 156,000 Jewish - 950,000 Muslims
David Ben Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency announced the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Truman had been warned not to ‘recognize’ Israel but he needed Jewish votes in the next election even at the risk of antagonizing Arab states. Arabs could remain in the new Israel territories but had no political power there and about half of their country was taken away. The next day, five Arab nations including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invaded 'Israel' to fight for their land back, starting the War of 1948.
1949: Palestinians fled Palestine after it was renamed 'Israel'.
1949: population in Israel was: 1,203,000 Jews - 167,000 Muslims
- only 167,000 Muslims remained after an estimated 750,000 fled elsewhere or were killed in what is known as the War of 1948. About 600 Palestinian villages were destroyed and village wells were poisoned by the Israelis.
1949-1950: U.S. sympathizers help fund the Jews during this war.
Armistice Agreements: The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria to end the hostilities from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. They also juggled border lines between these countries. The UN, United States, UK and France monitored the terms and actions but in 1952 the results were announced. Every country had 12-20 infractions to the agreements proving peace was high maintenance by others, and rules were broken despite the truce.
1956 The Suez Crisis: Five countries were involved in this clash over water rights and passages through the Suez Canal. The U.S., Britain, Israel, Egypt, and France fought from July, 1956 through March, 1957. A quick recap is that Gamal Nasser nationalized the canal ending previous management by a British and French business known as the Suez Canal Company and fighting started.
1967: The Six-Day War was fought between June 5 and June 10, 1967, by Israel vs. the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Its roots started after the 1956 Suez crisis when Arab nationalists continued to be hostile to Israel’s existence afterwards into the mid-1960's. Egypt expelled UN peacekeepers in the spring of 1967 and announced a blockade of Israel’s access to the Red Sea, which Israel considered an act of war. A month later, Israel launched a surprise strike which began the Six-Day War. Israel defeated all three Arab armies, gained territory four times its original size, and became the preeminent military power in the region. Palestinians who were suspected of being members of the resistance were executed without trial. Egypt and Jordan had occupied the Gaza Strip and West Bank since 1948 but Israel took control after the Six-Day War in 1967 and has maintained control ever since.
1973: Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai and Golan Heights. To help Israel, the U.S. started supplying the Israeli military with aid. This conflict had been brewing since the end of the Six-Days War of 1967. Initially Israel lost battles and ground until the US started support that helped retake lost territory. In the end, Israel once again gained some ground. Arab members of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) organized an oil embargo against the US, limiting oil supply and raising prices at the gas pumps in the US. This situation can be summarized as US military support for Israel that affected US drivers at home.
1987: HAMAS emerged in 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The group is committed to armed resistance against Israel and for the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel’s place. The name HAMAS is an acronym for 'Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyah' (Islamic Resistance Movement).
1993-2000: The Oslo Accords were a pair of agreements between Israel and Palestinians officially recognizing each other. The Accords gave limited self-governance to the Palestinians on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and, also acknowledgment of the PLO. Despite early dialog about creating a definite Palestinian state and Israeli state, this did not happen. Other dialog was about Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem and Israel’s maintenance of control. When Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by a right-wing Israeli, the talks stalled, re-started and stalled again through a cycle of negotiations until failing at a Camp David Summit in 2000.
September, 2000: After the Oslo Accords failure at Camp David, a major Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada broke out in Jerusalem. Palestinians hoped to see the creation of a definite Palestinian state and took to riot when the negotiations failed. 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis died. The problem with the Oslo Accords, of course, was neither side wanted to accept the terms. The Palestinians did not want to accept the Israeli occupation of their land that started in 1948, and the Israelis did not want to give up control or accept an official Palestine forced by the UN.
2006: The 2006 Gaza-Israel conflict known as Operation Summer Rains started after an Israeli soldier was captured by Palestinians. Hundreds of missiles were fired from Israel into Gaza and from Gaza into Israel until it became full scale conventional warfare.
January 15, 2009: Lord Kaufman gave a speech to Parliament (in England), voicing his concerns about Jewish aggression in Palestine, calling "Israel a country born out of Jewish terrorism". He starts his speech explaining he is Jewish; his family is Jewish and he has been to Israel "more times than I can remember". He points out the 1956 Suez Crisis when the Israeli military attacked the Egyptian army to secure Israeli strategic control and started a 5PM curfew in the West Bank. He also points out the 6 days war in June, 1967 when Israel reacted to an Egyptian blockade of the Straight of Tiran by destroying Egyptian air bases, parts of the West Bank, and the Golan Heights while quadrupling its territory size. Lord Kaufman also suggested a total-arms ban on Israel.
Today, 28 countries in the UN do not recognize Israel at all. More than 135 United Nations member countries recognize Palestine as an independent
state today, but the US does not agree with this distinction.
Today, Britanica.com reads: Palestine: area of the eastern Mediterranean region, comprising parts of modern Israel and the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and West Bank (west of the Jordan River).
Oct 7, 2023: Hamas bombed a section of Israel starting the latest war between Israel and the Palestinians. As of today, Nov 25, 2023, over 13,000 people have been killed by the Israelis in Gaza of which over 5,500 have been children. These numbers are currently growing every day as Israel appears to be attempting genocide in Gaza.
Nov, 2023: Countries have started severing ties with Israel over its war on Hamas
November 10, 2023: A US Navy ultra-drome aircraft has been spotted on the Mediterranean Sea on the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier. The X47B has been a billion-dollar, ten-year project created by many manufacturers in the US military industrial complex working together. While the Navy says it can be used for surveillance due to its stealth technology it appears to be built as an unmanned killing machine. It turns quicker than an F16, can be flown into dangerous situations since it has no pilot, has a range of 2,400 miles, a top speed near 700MPH and has the capacity to carry 4,500 pounds of bombs. Why is it now off the coast of Gaza?
November 10, 2023: Prime Minister Netanyahu pushed back today against growing international calls for a cease-fire.
November 10, 2023: Five U.S. Army pilots crashed off the coast of Cypress in the Mediterranean while training aerial refueling in a Black Hawk helicopter. They were part of the U.S.S. Ford aircraft carrier’s fleet. All five died. None were from Idaho but sad situations like this happen when at war or training for war.
November 11, 2023: Pro-Palestine Protest rallies were held all over Europe and North America today. 300,000 marched in London on Saturday, Nov. 11th.
November 13, 2023: A State Department internal memo was leaked that accuses President Biden of spreading misinformation on the Israel-Hamas war and it alleges that Israel is committing war crimes. The five-page memo also says President Biden’s support of Israel has made him complicit in genocide in Gaza. The memo was signed by 100 State Department employees.
November 15, 2023: As of Nov 15, the U.S. has the following military equipment near Israel/Palestine, in the Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea or at military bases in Turkey:
The U.S.S Ford aircraft carrier is now about 200 miles from the Iranian coast
The U.S.S. Eisenhower aircraft carrier escorted by two missile destroyers
Both aircraft carriers have scores of fighter jets
Two B-1B bombers have been filmed flying above Persian Gulf countries
Another Naval Strike group, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit is now in the middle east
A submarine recently went through the Suez Canal with hundreds of cruise missiles
F-16, F-15 and A-10 fighter jets are in Jordan ready for action
Nearly 30 cargo planes have landed at an airbase in Saudi Arabia and shipments to Israel are on-going
November 15, 2023: Hezbollah is located in Lebanon, just 150 miles north of Jerusalem. It sits with “far more missiles than most governments in the world” (U.S. Press Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2010). The Lebanese terrorist organization has expanded and upgraded its stockpile since 2010 (haarretz.com). As of today, Hezbollah and Israel started fighting on the Lebanon border with over 25 rockets fired back and forth. Hezbollah has in inventory (known):
150,000 rockets and missiles most with range far enough to strike Israel
Some of these missiles are considered ‘standoff’, meaning they are long-range that can be fired from far away
Hezbollah has enough missiles to fire 1,500-2,000 per day. Most have GPS so they can be fired with accuracy.
About 2,000 drones that can carry weapons and warheads.
CONCLUSION
When the Israelis started destroying the Gaza Strip mid-October, 2023, they appeared to be attempting genocide with one more push for more Palestinian real estate. Even the U.S. State Department has said this via an internal memo just leaked on Twitter (see Nov 13, 2023 above). This is a fruitless waste of human life. Even if Israeli’s bombing of Gaza wipes out everyone connected to Hamas then what Israel is doing right now is creating a newer, younger Palestinian group to fight Israel again and again, as will the next generation.
The Israel-Palestine conflict has divided people around the world for 75 years. What is different with this round of violence is that the world has finally decided that Israel’s claim to the land of Palestine is up for debate. Has Israel stolen land from the Palestinians? Do the Palestinian people have a right to forcibly throw the Jews off of their land? These are THE questions.
DOCUMENTATION LINKS
The following footnotes document every bullet above. In order:
1 – History of the Byzantine Empire: (palestinianhistorytapestry.org)
2 – History of the Ottoman Empire: (palestinianhistorytapestry.org)
3 - 1916 British and French Agreement: (palestinianhistorytapestry.org)
4 – 1917 Balfour Agreement: (www.aljazeera.com)
5 – 1920 League of Nations: (pbs.org/Timeline: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 1914-1949
6 – Resolution 181: (britannica.com / united nations resolution 181 map)
7 – War of 1948: (https://www.history.state.gov
/ creation of Israel) (https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/museum/ordina1ry-man/recognition-of-israel)
8 – Muslim population reductions: (Reuters/recovering from Gaza fighting, Palestinian’s mark Nakba)
9 – Armistice Agreements: (https://peacemaker.un.org)
10 – Suez Crisis: (https://www.britannica.com/event/suez-crisis)
11 - 1967 Six Days War: (https://wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-1967-six-day-war#)
12 – 1987 Hamas: (https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/hamas_fto.html#)
13 – 1993-2000 Oslo Accords: (history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000)
14 – 2006 Operation Summer Rains: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_gaza%e2%80%83isreal_conf.)
15 – 2009 Lord Kaufman speaks:
16 – 28 Countries Do Not Recognize Israel: (history.com / Palestine)
17 – October 7, 2023 Hamas Bombed Israel (https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestinain-death-toll-in-gaza-strip-rises-to-13-000-since-oct-7/3058854
18 – November 13, 2013 State Dept Memo: (https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13biden-gaza-hamas-policy-state-department-memo)
19 – November 15, 2023 U.S. Military in the Middle East: (https://www.haaretz.com/isreal-news/security-aviation/2023=11-15/ty-article-magazine/aircraft-carrier-offshore-iran)
20 – November 15, 2023 Hezbollah Missile Inventory: (https://www.haaretz.com/150,000missiles)