I start from the political-historical reality of the existence of an independent state of Israel, the right of Jews to live in a safe homeland after centuries of persecution, oppression and slavery, culminating in an unprecedented barbaric massacre of Jews in WWII. An unprecedented genocide that was so cruel and gruesome, so well thought out and so massive that it left an indelible mark on Jewish history and the Jewish future.
The promise
The British promise to the Palestinians that they will have their own state. The historical reality is that there was no Palestinian people at that time (an invention of Yassar Arafat in 1964), but the population of the then mandate area consisted largely of Arabs. The reality is also that the British made a clear promise to the Jews at two points in history, namely in 1917 through the Balfour Declaration (the promise of a Jewish national home in the mandate territory) and the Churchill White Paper in 1922. An underlying promise was the appointment of the Jewish Zionist Herbert Samuel as the first governor of the mandate area. Jews and Palestinians agree on the treacherous double role that the British played at the time. The British were not guided by Ben Gurion’s idea, with their naval blockade the British did everything they could to keep out Jewish refugees and survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, they suppressed the Jewish struggle for freedom until the last day and When they withdrew from the mandate area, they did everything they could to ensure that arms and ammunition supplies fell into the hands of the Arabs.
UN Partition Plan
The UN partition plan is not an invention of the Jews or the Arabs. Both groups have advantages and disadvantages in implementing the plan. The Arabs lose territory but are allowed to continue living in their original homes, the Jews gain a vulnerable autonomous state that is difficult to defend and partly consists of the vast but infertile Negev desert. Jerusalem is not part of the Jewish state. Neither the British nor the UN proclaimed an independent state of Israel, but it was a Jewish initiative and the young state was attacked by many Arab neighbors a day after independence. It is these neighboring countries and the wealthy Arab farmers who called on the Arab population to flee, this is the origin of a refugee problem that has been artificially maintained for decades to this day to fuel the fighting spirit against Israel. Arafat and his associates gratefully took advantage of this. For years, Israel was unable (and unwilling) to negotiate with the cruel Arab opponents who were divided into various terrorist organizations; a real political organization did not yet exist. An independent Palestinian political organization does not exist to this day, they are moderate (Fatah) or less moderate (Hamas) outgrowths of the aforementioned organizations that, until the recent past or even now, combined political commitment with terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens and Jewish goals. In more recent history, Fatah has had shrewd negotiators at its disposal (Saeb Erakat et al.) but has committed the historical blunder of always wanting the best possible diplomatic opportunity and has always been defeated. Both Arabs and Israelis agree that with a little more goodwill there would have been an independent and viable Palestinian state long ago. Israel’s willingness to agree to a two-state solution has never been greater, and its willingness to fight against an organization that wants to destroy the state of Israel and kidnaps soldiers is at least as great.
Holy land
Israel is not a holy country that does not make mistakes, dealing with the Arab inhabitants is often difficult. Yet Israel, together with the Arab government, has found a good and constructive solution here, the tax burden for the Israeli-Arabs is low, the facilities in the Arab towns and villages are good, so good that the residents are generally careful not to to join their Arab brothers, let alone emigrate. There is limited self-government (Arab mayors) and Arab, democratically elected representation in the national parliament and the second official language in the country has been Arabic since 1948.
Self defense
Israel has the right to self-defense like any other country. If civilians are attacked, there will be a response. Whether this response is disproportionate is debatable and depends on political preference. If the terrorists are hiding among the civilian population, that is not Israel’s responsibility. Israel also has the ,policy of restraint, and the concept of ,targeted killing, in which the civilian population is spared as much as possible or attacks are even called off. In its right to self-defense, Israel has built a security fence and in some places a wall. Not a nice solution and not uncontroversial, but effective because with the closing of the last gaps, Palestinian suicide attacks have so far become a thing of the past. Israel is not responsible for the economic or political well-being of the Palestinians or any Palestinian state, and the existence of a security fence does not change that.
Israel has, however, withheld Palestinian customs duties for real reasons that the money will be used for arms purchases . Last Friday, Israel transferred $100 million in customs fees to Abbas’s Palestinian authority. Not to Hamas? No, not to Hamas. Israel would be stupid.
A frequently made comparison between today’s Hamas and the Jewish terrorist movements before the establishment of the state of Israel is incorrect. Hamas focuses on Jewish targets (military and civilian), the Jewish movements at the time mainly against the British military power and irregular Arab troops.
The future?
Hopefully the battle between Hamas and Fatah will stop and Hamas will decide to recognize Israel and thus make itself a serious discussion partner for Israel in the long term. Withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the West Bank and implementation of a two-state solution with security guarantees. Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel with protection and accessibility of religious shrines. But above all, a safe sovereign state of Israel.