Truths and Lies in the Middle East by Eric Rouleau Martin Makinson

Author:Eric Rouleau, Martin Makinson [Eric Rouleau, Martin Makinson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789774169069
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press, The
Published: 2019-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

Various other initiatives left me skeptical about the will to make peace that was insistently claimed by Levi Eshkol’s government. As soon as war ceased he announced that the West Bank would thenceforth be called “Judea and Samaria,” as in the bygone days of the Hebrew kingdoms. The term “occupation” was banned, and the territories were described as “retrieved,” “liberated,” or “disputed” if one wanted to push it further. The Zionist state’s currency was in circulation and Israeli banks were opening branches there, while Jewish businesses were relocating to reap the benefits of a much cheaper workforce. Many Arab place names were renamed with Hebrew toponyms borrowed from the Old Testament. All water resources were decreed to be the property of the State of Israel. East Jerusalem was de facto annexed two weeks after the victory (this happened de jure in 1980, and for the Golan Heights in 1981). A little later, the Agriculture Ministry implemented a five-year plan whose aim was to make the West Bank’s economy dependent on Israel’s.

The prewar Jewish state’s borders were erased on newly printed maps. Apocalyptic statements were made to support the decision to expand the state. The vice president of the Council of Ministers, Yigal Allon, for instance, announced that “the restoration of the Golan Heights to Syria would mean the dismantling of the State of Israel.” Abba Eban, chief of Israeli diplomacy at the time and known for his subtleness, nevertheless bluntly proclaimed that “the prewar borders of Israel are those of Auschwitz”—yet these were the very borders that had enabled the Zionist state to be the victor in three successive wars in the space of only twenty years.

Rather than risk what it saw as a “new genocide,” this time perpetrated by the Arabs, Eshkol’s government therefore rejected Resolution 242, which had been unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council in November 1967. General Dayan quite plainly declared: “Whatever one can say, this text would force Israel to return the territories in exchange for peace.” He was quite rightly referring to the preamble of the resolution, which decreed “the inadmissibility of acquisition of territories through war.” Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and then Syria, which had committed themselves to implement this resolution (which implicitly included recognition of the State of Israel), were all accused by Israeli leaders of “hypocrisy” and trying to buy time before taking their revenge.

However, the government in Jerusalem was subjected to strong international pressure and three years later, in August 1970, agreed to abide by the United Nations’ statement, while giving it a peculiar interpretation: it presumed to grant itself the control of any territories of its choice, in violation of the preamble of the text prohibiting any annexation by force. Israel had its own “peace plan,” mind you. It suggested the opening of bilateral negotiations—not multilateral ones, as the other parties to the war wished—making clear that there would be no restitution of territory before the formal signature of a peace treaty. Abba Eban warned that it was only

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