By John Burl Smith

The Richard L. Kirksey, Jr. Memorial Foundation's bit of history shows America's role in the search for peace in the Middle East lacks balance as the "honest broker". Many nations and conquerors have fought over the land known as Palestine dating back beyond biblical records. Western designs on the area began with the first crusade of Pope Urban II 1095-99. The concept of a Jewish homeland began to take shape in 1896 when Theodor Herzl published The Jewish State, a pamphlet detailing the goals of Zionism. However, it was The Balfour Declaration, which proposed resettling England's sizable Jewish population in Palestine that gave Zionism legs. In December 1920, the League of Nation gave Great Britain a mandate to oversee Palestine. Moreover, this decision secured a Western beachhead securing an open Suez Canal and protecting the flow of oil.

There was great opposition to imposing a foreign nationality upon those currently living in the Holy Land until WWII and the Holocaust. Guilt among the Allies arising from not acting to halt the German slaughter of Jews and a desire to control Mid-East oil served to reduce concerns for what would happen to people living in Palestine. Rich Jews from around the world bankrolled the Zionist scheme to lay claim to Palestine. Israel became a republic on May 14, 1948. Simultaneously, the Palestinians were deprived of their human rights as people.

The report of the Secretary-General January 4, 1996 addressed the right of people to self-determination and its application to people under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation as it applied to the situation in occupied Palestine. "At its fifty-first session, the Commission on Human Rights adopt resolution 1995/4. In accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions, the Commission call on Israel to comply with its obligation under the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law. It calls on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, and other Arab territories that it has occupied since 1967 by military force.

On November 22, 1967 the United Nations Security Council expressed grave concerns over the situation in the Middle East by issuing Resolution 242. It emphasized the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war. The resolution affirmed the fulfillment of Charter principles requiring the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of the following: (i) Withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied in recent conflict, and (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.

The Palestinian people's suffering at the hands of Israel is synonymous to Native Americans under Manifest Destiny. Following wars instigated against indigenous Americans by white settlers, who were protected by the U. S. Army, peace would be proposed by the United States Government. The price of peace would always be land concessions by Native Americans. Peace treaties lasted only until white settlers wanted more land, then the whole process would begin again. Today, whites have all the land, while Native Americans living on postage stamp reservations in their own country are locked out of the global economy without access to the information highway. The Indian Removal Acts of 1830 & 34, Black Hawk War 1832, Seminole War 1833 and Trail of Tears 1838 are only the most infamous examples of what America's promises were worth to Native Americans.

T.H.I.N.C. about it! Any rational human being must agree, if one has a gun and they are close enough that a rock thrown at them, if it strikes them would cause injury, obviously is too close in a very volatile situation. America claims to support Palestinian rights but its acceptance of "under threat" by Israel to justify killing rock throwers is very myopic. America has always seen Israeli expansion as Manifest Destiny. Beginning with Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower the question has been, "Should a nation which attacks and occupies foreign territory in the face of United Nations disapproval be allowed to impose conditions on its own withdrawal?" Ike replied, "If we agree that armed attack can properly achieve the purposes of the assailant, then I fear we will have turned back the clock of international order. We will, in effect, have countenanced the use of force as a means of settling international differences and through this granted national advantages."

Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson rejected Eisenhower's stance. He granted Israel's demand to impose conditions on its withdrawal. Israel wanted to return the Sinai to Egypt but keep the Gaza Strip. Egyptian Pres. Gamal Abdel Nasser rejected this ploy. He recognized a separate peace would leave Israel in such a commanding position that it would not give up the West Bank or Jerusalem. Nasser felt, "the Sinai was not as important compared to the Palestinians." However, Jimmy Carter found the phraseology to persuade Anwar Sadat to sell the Palestinians out. Carter agreed not to talk publicly about Israeli withdrawals to the 1967 borders and refrain from using the term "a Palestinian Homeland."

Pres. Bill Clinton's phraseology scuttled Resolution 242 in the brokered 1993 peace accord. "The two sides concur that the agreement reached between them on permanent status will constitute the implementation of Resolution 242 and 338 in all their aspects. This statement gutted the promise of a "Palestinian State" and locked the status quo in place. Trusting Bill Clinton, now Yasser Arafat must sell out like Sadat or stand as Nasser, then face his oppressors like Omar al-Mukhtar. From the very beginning, the end game has been about controlling access to the Suez Canal and keeping the oil flowing. In the West, the oil must flow!

(Background information David Paul documents Librarian at Harvard College.)

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