A Durable Peace

by Benjamin Netanyahu

  56. Meinertzhagen, Middle East Diary, p. 166.

  57. Wingate quoted in Israel Beer, Hagana as Britain’s Ally (Tel Aviv: Cooperative Press “Achduth,” 1947).

  58. Shuckburgh quoted in David Pryce-Jones, The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs (New York: Harper and Row, 1989), p. 198.

  59. Abram Sachar, The Redemption of the Unwanted: From the Liberation of the Death Camps to the Founding of Israel (New York: St. Martin’s, 1983), p. 224.

  60. David Wyman, Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938–1941 (New York: Pantheon, 1985), pp. 38–39.

  61. Meinertzhagen, Middle East Diary, p. 171.

  62. Halifax quoted in A. Sachar, Redemption of the Unwanted, p. 225.

  63. Shuckburgh quoted in Ibid., p. 231.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Weizmann quoted in Ibid., p. 240.

  66. Ibid., p. 210.

  67. Ibid., p. 237.

  68. Meinertzhagen commented on this incomprehensible, monomaniacal betrayal: “It is grossly unfair that the Jews are not allowed to bring in their own nationals, when the [Jordanian] Arab Legion, armed, equipped, financed, and officered by Britain, together with Army units from Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are on the move into Palestine to attack them.” Meinertzhagen, Middle East Diary, p. 223.

  69. Pryce-Jones describes the rallying of the Arab leadership to the Germans in Closed Circle, pp. 199–206.

  70. Quoted in Ibid., p. 202.

  71. Husseini quoted in Ziff, Rape of Palestine, p. 111.

  72. Niles quoted in A. Sachar, Redemption of the Unwanted, p. 318.

  73. Crum quoted in Ziff, Rape of Palestine, p. 110.

  74. David Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945 (New York: Pantheon, 1984), p. 159.

  75. Kennan quoted in A. Sachar, Redemption of the Unwanted, p. 201.

  76. Truman quoted in Ibid.

  77. Saud quoted by Associated Press (Jan. 9, 1954). Cited in Henry Atkinson, Security and the Middle East: The Problem and Its Solution (New York: Ballantine, 1955) p. 26; proposals submitted to the President of the United States.

  78. Hints of the land-for-peace discussions even made it into public discussion at the time. A major policy speech in 1955 by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stressed that the armistice lines from the War of Independence did not have to be permanent. Referring to the Negev, he complained that “territory which is barren has acquired a sentimental significance” for Israelis, making concessions unnecessarily difficult. British prime minister Anthony Eden was more forward, calling explicitly for territorial compromise. H. Sachar, History of Israel, p. 476.

  79. Theodor Herzl, Altneuland (New York: Herzl Press, I960), pp. 169–70.

  80. Preamble: “Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind…. Member states have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms….”

  Article 28: “Rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration cannot be enjoyed in a country under a reign of terror, nor in a world at war or in turmoil…. Only in a social and international order that is governed by the rule of law and the principle of mutual respect may human rights be fully observed.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Standard of Achievement (New York: United Nations, 1948), pp. 1, 11.

  81. By a vote of 111 to 25 with 13 abstentions, the UN General Assembly endorsed a resolution revoking the equation. The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 16, 1991.

  82. Frederick Chary, The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution 1940–1944 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972), p. 189; and Marshall Lee Miller, Bulgaria During the Second World War (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), p. 96.

  3. THE THEORY OF PALESTINIAN CENTRALITY

  1. Shimoni, Political Dictionary, pp. 30, 165–66, 311–13.

  2. Ibid., pp. 198, 514, 518–19.

  3. Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, p. 261.

  4. The jerusalem Post , Nov. 1, 1990, p. 4.

  5. Shimoni, Political Dictionary, p. 229.

  6. Ibid, pp. 295, 299.

  7. Assad quoted in Kamal Jumblatt, / Speak for Lebanon (London: Zed, 1982), p. 78.

  8. Shimoni, Political Dictionary, 311–13

  9. Ibid, p. 23, 491–92.

  10. Ibid, p. 230.

  11. Ibid, p. 479.

  12. Ibid, p. 101.

  13. Atkinson, Security, p. 94.

  14. Two hundred thousand Kurdish refugees fled to Iran in 1975 after the Shah of Iran stopped aid to the Pesh Perga Kurdish rebel forces. Shimoni, Political Dictionary, p. 287.

  15. Atkinson, Security, pp. 95, 101.

  16. Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, p. 265.

  17. The New York Times, Sept. 1, 1988.

  18. Saddam poured two million barrels (84 million gallons) of crude oil into the gulf, producing a spill six times the size of the infamous Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989. The Jerusalem Post, March 11, 1991.

  19. Al-Gumhuria, Oct. 19, 1984.

  20. An excellent exposition of the Middle Eastern machinations of the rival British and French empires during World War I can be found in Fromkin, Peace to End All Peace, passim.

  21. Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, pp. 26–27.

  22. Amir Shakib-Arslan, Our Decline and Its Causes: A Diagnosis of the Symptoms of the Downfall of Moslems, trans. M. A. Shakoor (Lahore, 1944). Excerpted in John Donohue and John Esposito, eds., Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (New York: Oxford, 1982), pp. 60–62.

  23. Anti-Defamation League pamphlet, “The Myth of Linkage,” 1990.

  24. The New York Times, Aug. 12 and 15, 1990.

  25. Qutb quoted in Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics (New Haven: Yale, 1985), p. 31.

  26. Faraj quoted in Al-Ahram (Egypt), July 12, 1974. Cited in Sivan, Radical Islam, p. 20.

  27. Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, pp. 27–28.

  28. Persecution of Jews in Arab countries began with the slaughter of the Jews of Medina by Mohammed in the year 625. The countless pogroms and massacres that punctuated the life of Jews under Arab Islam thereafter included those in Cairo (1012), Fez (1032), Marrakesh (1146), Baghdad (1333), Fez (1640), Basra (1776), Algiers (1801), Damascus (1840), Djerba (1864), Tunis (1869), Fez (1912), Constantine (1934), Damascus (1936), Baghdad (1941), Tripoli (1945), and cities across the Arab world in 1948 and 1967. A brief survey of Arab persecution of Jews can be found in Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial (New York: Harper, 1984), pp. 33–71.

  29. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE., this experience was encapsulated in the famous adage of the rabbis that the Jewish commonwealth was destroyed by gratuitous hatred among Jews. Talmud Yoma 9b.

  A dramatic exception to the absence of Jewish political murder was the firing of Hagana troops on the ship Altalena bringing weapons and ammunition to Irgun troops immediately before the declaration of the state, in which eighteen members of the Irgun were killed. Another exception was the murder of Emil Greenzweig at an antiwar rally in February 1983. The murder was forcefully and universally condemned.

  30. Shakib-Arslan, in Donohue and Esposito, Islam in Transition, p. 61.

  31. Abdalla Laroui, Contemporary Arab Ideology (Paris: Maspero, 1967), p. 15, in Donohue and Esposito, Islam in Transition, p. 141.

  32. Shakib-Arslan, in Donohue and Esposito, Islam in Transition, pp. 60–62.

  33. Muhammad Nuwayhi, Towards a Revolution in Religious Thought (1970), in Donohue and Esposito, Islam in Transition, pp. 167–68.

  34. Bitar, symposium of Al-Ihya Al-Arabi, Nov. 17, 1979. Cited in Sivan, Radical Islam, p. 157.

  35. Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, p. 235.

  36. Cited in Ibid., p. 238.

  37. Michel Aflaq, In Remembrance of the Arab Prophet (1972), in Donohue and Esposito, Islam in Transition, p. 111.

  38. Muammar Qaddafi, The Third Way, in
Donohue and Esposito, Islam in Transition, pp. 104–106.

  39. Ghouri quoted in Becker, PLO, p. 18.

  40. Charter quoted by Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Attitudes to Israel (Jerusalem: Keter, 1972), p. 70.

  41. Nasser quoted in Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, p. 253.

  42. Quoted in Becker, PLO, p. 249.

  43. Hussein quoted in Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, p. 214.

  44. Tsurani in Al-Qabas, Oct. 27, 1986.

  45. Arafat quoted in Saudi News Agency, Jan. 2, 1989.

  46. During Henry Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy, Assad welcomed him beneath an oil painting of Saladin’s victory over the Crusaders. Edward Sheehan, The Arabs, Israelis, and Kissinger: A Secret History of American Diplomacy in the Middle East (New York: Readers Digest Press, 1976), p. 95.

  47. By 1963, so many Israeli farmers had lost their lives to Syrian fire from the Golan Heights that armored tractors had become standard equipment on Galilee farms. H. Sachar, History of Israel, p. 618.

  48. Mubarak quoted in The New York Times, Sept. 16, 1990.

  49. Sheikh Saud Nassir al-Sabah, Nov. 5, 1990. Cited in Anti-Defamation League pamphlet, “The Myth of Linkage,” 1990.

  4. THE REVERSAL OF CAUSALITY

  1. Nasser quoted in H. Sachar, History of Israel, p. 633.

  2. Radio Baghdad, May 31, 1967.

  3. Algiers Home Service (in Arabic), June 4, 1967.

  4. Radio Damascus, June 5, 1967.

  5. H. Sachar, History of Israel, p. 633.

  6. Amman Radio, June 7, 1967.

  7. Actual strengths of Arab armies (Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq) versus Israel: artillery 960 to 200; combat aircraft 682 to 286; tanks 2,330 to 1,000. Colonel Trevor Dupuy, U.S. Army, Ret., Elusive Victory: The Arab- Israeli Wars, 1947–1974 (London: Macdonald and Jane’s, 1978), p. 337.

  8. The defense of Israel’s shipping and the prevention of a blockade of the Straits of Tiran was central to the purpose of committing United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) troops to the area in 1957. Dupuy, Elusive Victory, p. 221. Eisenhower confirmed this mission: “We should not assume… Egypt will prevent Israeli shipping from using the Suez Canal or the Gulf of Aqaba. If, unhappily, Egypt does hereafter violate the Armistice Agreement or other international obligations, then this should be dealt with firmly by the family of nations” (Feb. 20, 1957).

  9. Dupuy, Elusive Victory, p. 247

  10. Jonathan Netanyahu, Self-Portrait of a Hero: The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu (New York: Random House, 1980), p. 133.

  11. International Documents on Palestine (1967), p. 62.

  12. Ibid, pp. 62–63.

  13. Ibid, p. 61.

  14. Ibid, p. 100.

  15. Charter of the United Nations, Article 2, Section 4. “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”

  16. Azzam Pasha quoted in Leonard David, Myths and Facts: A Concise Record of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Washington, D.C.: Near East Report, 1989), p. 273.

  17. Filastin, Feb. 19, 1949. Cited in Katz, Battleground, p. 16.

  18. Al-Hoda, June 8, 1951. Cited in Katz, Battleground, p. 17.

  19. AlDifaa, Sept. 6, 1954. Cited in Katz, Battleground, p. 18.

  20. Akhbar al-Yom (Cairo), Oct. 12, 1963.

  21. It is estimated that World War II uprooted 48 million people from their homes in Europe and another 31 million in Asia. Between 1945 and 1957, refugees created by forced population transfers, exchanges, and war totaled another 57 million. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, “Immigrations to Israel, 1948–72,” p. 72.

  The Gulf War is estimated to have displaced another five million people, whose absorption by Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states and other countries is taking place without any delays or fanfare. The Jerusalem Post, Aug. 8, 1991, p. 6.

  22. Speech by Dr. Elfan Rees, reprinted in Newsletter of the Anglo-Israel Association 47 (Oct. 1957).

  23. Atkinson, Security, p. 102.

  24. Ibid., pp. 102–103.

  25. Ibid., p. 102.

  26. Arafat quoted in Saut Falastin, Dec. 9, 1980.

  27. Mohsin quoted in Trouw (Netherlands), Mar. 31, 1977.

  28. Official resolution from the Eighth Conference of the Palestine National Council, Mar. 1971.

  29. Hout on Radio Cairo, May 30, 1967.

  30. Arafat’s speech before the United Nations, Nov. 13, 1974.

  31. Hassan in Al-Destour, Feb. 5, 1970.

  32. King Hussein on Egyptian television, Oct. 10, 1977.

  33. King Hussein in Al-Nahar Al-Arabi, Dec. 26, 1981.

  34. King Hussein in Al-Anba (Kuwait), Oct. 30, 1984.

  35. Abu Iyad in Al-Majallah, Nov. 8, 1988.

  36. Keitel quoted in William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (New York: Ballantine, 1950), p. 572.

  37. Henlein quoted in Ibid., p. 448.

  38. Ibid., pp. 488–89.

  39. Ibid., pp. 524–26.

  40. Ibid., pp. 493, 523–24.

  41. Ibid., pp. 490, 519, 538.

  42. Ibid., p. 489.

  43. Ibid., pp. 522, 526.

  44. Ibid., p. 527.

  45. Ibid., p. 535.

  46. Beneš quoted in Ibid, pp. 529, 564.

  47. Hitler quoted in Ibid, p. 577.

  48. Times editorial quoted in Ibid, p. 518.

  49. Yitzhak Zaccai, fudea, Samaria and the Gaza District, 1967–1987: Twenty Years of Givil Administration (Jerusalem: Carta, 1987), pp. 14, 17, 25, 45, 84, 87, 96.

  50. Quoted in Ze’ev Schiff and Ehud Ya’ari, Intifada (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 18.

  51. PLO Radio (Baghdad), Dec. 10, 1987.

  52. Arafat in Riyadh, on Jan. 1, 1989. Quoted by a spokesman of the U.S. State Department at its daily press briefing on Jan. 19, 1989. A slightly different version was cited by the Kuwaiti News Agency on Jan. 2, 1989, but the sense is the same: “Any Palestinian leader who suggests ending the intifada exposes himself to the bullets of his own people and endangers his life. The PLO will know how to deal with them.”

  53. Leaflets of the Fatah, dated Jan. 21, 1991; Hamas, dated Mar. 5, 1989; United National Command of the intifada, dated Jan. 1, 1992.

  54. Quoted on CBS, 48 Hours, Feb. 9, 1988.

  55. By mid-1992, the total number killed in clashes with the IDF stood at 776, while the number of slayings of Arabs by intifada activists stood at 698. Source: IDF spokesman, Aug. 23, 1992.

  56. The Jerusalem Post, Nov. 27, 1992.

  57. Ibid.

  58. This figure includes all soldiers disciplined for unauthorized or excessive use of force through July 27, 1992, whether or not anyone was harmed as a result. Source: IDF spokesman.

  59. Beirut Radio, Oct. 26, 1954.

  60. AlDifaa, Apr. 19, 1957.

  61. Al-Nahar, Apr. 25, 1963.

  62. Reuters and Al-Gumhuria, Nov. 22, 1966.

  63. The New York Times, March 2, 1987; The Associated Press, May 20, 1988.

  64. The Jerusalem Post, May 3, 1992, p. 6.

  65. The Jerusalem Post, July 22, 1990, p. 4.

  66. “We do not believe there should be new settlements in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.” The New York Times, March 9, 1990.

  U.S. administration reports on settlement activity and the arrival of new immigrants in the territories have included East Jerusalem in their tallies, thus concluding that the 10 percent of Russian immigrants who move into Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem are all “settlers.” Ibid.

  67. Zaccai, Judea, Samaria, p. 50; Department of Geography, Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.

  68. Only an approximate estimate is possible. Source: Plia Albeck, State Attorney’s Office.

  69. Excerpted from Naomi Shemer, “Jerusalem of Gold,” 1967. Translation mine.

  70. J. Netanyahu, SelJ-Portrait, p. 238.

  71. Dayan quo
ted in H. Sachar, History of Israel, p. 674.

  72. I Maccabees 15. Simon not only claimed Judea and Samaria as Jewish land. Replying to the demand to return the cities of Joppa (today Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, which Simon did not consider Jewish land) and Gazara (Gezer), Simon makes the argument from security: “As for Joppa and Gazara, which you demand, they were causing great damage among our people and to our land.” Ibid.

  5. THE TROJAN HORSE

  1. Becker, PLO, p. 38.

  2. Ibid, p. 42.

  3. Official letter of the Bandung Commemoration Conference, April 24, 1985, entitled “Message from His Excellency Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Commander in Chief of the Forces of the Palestinian Revolution, to His Excellency Mr. Soharto, President of the Republic of Indonesia, on the Occasion of the Commemoration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Asian-African Conference.”

  4. Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, p. 199.

  5. Ibid, p. 196.

  6. Ibid, pp. 196–97.

  7. Becker, PLO, p. 25.

  8. Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, p. 199.

  9. Al-Banna quoted in Donohue and Esposito, Islam in Transition,p. 80.

  10. Sami al-Jundi, Al-Ba’th, p. 27. Cited in Lewis, Semites, pp. 147–48.

  11. Becker, PLO, p. 19.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Lewis, Semites, p. 150.

  14. Ibid, p. 158.

  15. Ibid, p. 151.

  16. Ibid, pp. 152–53.

  17. Ibid, p. 152.

  18. Mufti quoted in Ibid, p. 155.

  19. Ibid, p. 154.

  20. Ibid, p. 156.

  21. J. B. Schechtman, The Mufti and the Fuhrer- The Rise and Fall of Haj Amin el-Husseini (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1965), p. 156.

  22. Ibid, p. 157.

  23. Ibid, p. 156.

  24. Ibid, pp. 159–60.

  25. Ibid, p. 160.

  26. Lewis, Semites, p. 160.

  27. Pryce-Jones, Closed Circle, pp. 206–207.

  28. Hans Josef Horchem, “Terror in West Germany” in Conflict Studien, no. 185, 1985. Horchem was head of West Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, whose responsibilities included the monitoring of left- and right-wing extremist groups.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Interviews with Abu Iyad in Der Spiegel, July 17, 1981, and Die Tat, July 19, 1985.