rejection

A CENTURY OF REJECTIONISM

Palestinian writer Tawfig Abu Bakr describing

Arafat's performance at Camp David and Taba

To accept Jews as a community within the Ottoman Empire, farming land that they purchased.

Churchill offers limits on Jewish migration; seeks assurance of peaceful coexistence.

Arab uprising of 1936-9 produces limits on immigration and proposal for a tiny Jewish state in Galilee.

UN offers a fragmented Jewish State and an Arab state larger than anything now considered.

Arabs could make a final peace based on cease fire lines or agreed borders.

Jordan and Egypt could have set up a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza.

After 1967 War, Israel would trade “Land for Peace.”

Camp David agreement calls for negotiation of peace for Palestine and Golan.

Barak offers Palestinian state on West Bank and Gaza with minimal and compensated annexations.

Palestinian willingness to negotiate along the lines of Camp David/Taba would convert the process from unilateral withdrawals by Israel into a final peace negotiation.

Arabs follow Haj Amin el-Husseini into total rejection with murder of Jews and moderate Arabs.

Arabs reject compromise and make demands only.

(See WSC comment below.*)

Arabs reject White Paper for allowing any migration and reject a Jewish micro-state proposed by Peel Commission.

Jews accept UN proposal; Arabs reject compromise and attempt a war of extermination.

Arabs refuse treaty; negotiate a cease fire only; begin boycott and fedayeen terrorism.

Jordan and Egypt conduct occupation; form no state and perpetuate the refugee camps.

Arab summit at Khartoum adopts the “Three Noes” to negotiation; recognition of Israel and peace,

Arabs again reject negotiation; denounce Egypt and Sadat.

Arafat refuses to deal and begins second uprising. Terrorism smashes Israeli peace movement.

Palestinians elect Hamas--a terrorist organization pledged to the complete destruction of Israel.

1880-1920: Limited migration of Jews to Palestine, mainly to escape pogroms in Russia.

1921: London Conference with Winston Churchill following first murders of Jews.

1921-47: Growth of Jewish population, increasing with Naziism and Holocaust refugees.

1947: Britain surrenders mandate; UN votes for partition.

1948-9: Israel’s War of Independence. Invasion by five Arab states is defeated. Many Arabs flee, refugee camps set up.

1949-67:Jordan occupies the West Bank; Egypt the Gaza Strip.

1967: Nasser enlists Syria and Jordan; provokes Six Day War and loses heavily.

1973-8: Egypt attacks in Yom Kippur War; loses but saves honor and makes peace.

2000-1: Camp David/Taba negotiations with Barak, Arafat and Clinton.

2005-6: Israel unilaterally withdraws from Gaza and pursues disengagement in the West Bank.

*Winston S. Churchill commented in 1921 after experiencing Palestinian negotiating tactics first hand:

"It is not fair to come to a discussion thinking that one side has to give nothing and the other side has to give large and important concessions, and without any security that these concessions will be a means of peace."

This unfair expectation is exactly what the PCUSA and its allied groups are trying to force on Israel. Their efforts, even if they could succeed, would not produce a negotiated peace. Instead, they would convince the Palestinians that their tactic of rejectionism will ultimately destroy Israel and will relieve them of making the choices and compromises that are required for a bilateral peace.

Content and opinion on this page are provided by Ernest Kelly