Friday, March 23, 2012

Israel, Palestine and the Vatican Part 6

Back again with another snippet of our favorite Middle East political quagmire!!!! Woohooo!!!  Hopefully I can get through this series without any distractions as well as other 'important' events circulating throughout the Catholic world and my little diocese.  Soooo, let's put the theology aside,.well our theology anyway and resume our political breakdown with the declaration of Israeli independance!

The year of 1948, was to put in a few words, disturbing.  Violent clashes abounded whereby setting the present day 'tit' for 'tat' scenerio.  The Ben Yahuda street bombing,..whereby the Arabs arrange three cars to blow up,. Then the Jews countered with Nachslon and broke the siege of Jerusalem.  Next up,..the Deir Yassin Massacre whereby the Jews killed up in the offensive between 100-300 Palestinians, among them civilians, women and children.  Sadly, war doesn't discriminate.  As retribution for this, the Arabs counter with the Hassasah medical convoy massacre, killing mostly unarmed doctors carrying patients.  Finally the last majour attack before the expiration of the British mandate came from the Arab forces after a surrender of a Jewish village.  The Kfar-Etzion massacre, saw an entire village wiped out.  The bodies were left unburied until 1949.

The day arrived.  May 14th 1948.  Before midnight came, Israel declared independance and immediately was invaded by Lebanon, Transjordan, Iraq, Egypt and Syria.  The Arab goal was simple, to wipe Israel, and the Jews off the map of the Middle East.  (See Islamic theology earlier within this series..)  Time to tell the truth.  According to Islam, this land was considered Islamic territory and to be subject to Jewish laws,.where the Dome of the Rock was, was considered an afronterie.  This is why people need to understand Islamic theology which plays a vital role in this particular problem.  The newly formed IDF, or Israeli Defense Force managed to defeat the Arab armies in just over one year.  Israel was born and survived. 

Despite their victory, in 1949, the British mandate was divided and saw the land of Israel carved up into two states.  One was the now Kingdom of Jordan (formerly transjordan) and was intended as a home for the Palestinian people.  After the original war for Israeli independance, over 1 million Palestinian Arabs had become refugees.  Still, individual raids continued in 1951-52 and Palestinian infiltrators, killed nearly 300 Jews.  This led to Israel's unit 101, led by Ariel Sharon, who in most recent times was Israeli Prime Minister to carry out a massacre in Qibya (located in the West Bank).  In this massacre, 69 Arabs were killed, two thirds of them women and children... They destroyed houses, a school and a mosque.


Until next time




Our Lady of Ville Marie,............ora pro nobis!


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