© 2007 The Flaming Torch, All rights reserved.
PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
JAMES M. INHOFF (R-Okla)
March
4, 2002
I was interested the other
day when I heard that the de facto ruler, Saudi Aabian Crown Prince Abdullah,
made a statement which was received by many in this country as if it were a
statement of fact, as if it were something new, a concept for peace in the Middle
East that no one had ever heard of before.
I was kind of shocked that it was so well received by many people who
had been down this road before.
I suggest to you that what
Crown Prince Abdullah talked about a few days ago was not new at all. He talked about the fact that under the
Abdullah plan, Arabs would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for the
Jewish state surrendering the territory if received after the 1976 Six-Day War
as it that were something new. He went
on to talk about other land that had been acquired and had been taken by
Israel.
I remember so well on
December 4 when we covered all of this and the fact that there isn’t anything
new about the prospect of giving up land that is rightfully Israel’s land in
order to have peace.
When it gets right down to
it, the land doesn’t make that much difference because Yasser Arafat and others
don’t recognize Israel’s right to any of the land. They do not recognize Israel’s right to exist.
I will discuss seven
reasons, which I mentioned once before, why Israel is entitled to the land they
have and that it should not be a part of the peace process.
If this is something that
Israel wants to do, it is their business to do it. But anyone who has tried to put the pressure on Israel to do this
is wrong.
We are going to be hit by
skeptics who are going to say we will be attacked because of our support for
Israel, and if we get out of the Middle East – that is us -- all the problems
will go away. That is just not
true. If we withdraw, all of these
problems will again come to our door.
I have some observations to
make about that. But I would like to
reemphasize once again the seven reasons that Israel has the right to their
land. The first reason is that Israel
has the right to the land because of all of the archeological evidence. That is reason No. 1. All the archeological evidence supports it.
Every time there is a dig in
Israel, it does nothing but support the fact that Israelis have had a presence
there for 3,000 years. They have been
there for a long time. The coins, the
cities, the pottery, the culture – there are other people, groups that are
there, but there is no mistaking the fact that Israelis have been present in
that land for 3,000 years.
It predates any claims that
other peoples in the regions may have.
The ancient Philistines are extinct.
Many other ancient peoples are extinct.
They do not have the unbroken line to this date that the Israelis
have. Even the Egyptians of today are
not racial Egyptians of 2,000, 3,000 years ago. They are primarily an Arab people.
The land is called Egypt,
but they are not the same racial and ethnic stock as the old Egyptians of the
ancient world. The first Israelis are
in fact descended from the original Israelites. The first proof, then, is the archeology.
The second proof of Israel’s
right to the land is the historic right.
History supports it totally and completely. We know there has been an Israel up until the time of the Roman
Empire. The Romans conquered the
land. Israel had no homeland, although
Jews were allowed to live there. They
were driven from the land in two dispersions.
One was in 70 A.D. and the other was in 135 A.D. But there was always a Jewish presence in
the land.
The Turks, who took over
about 700 years ago and ruled the land up until about World War I, had
control. Then the land was conquered by
the British. The Turks entered World
War I on the side of Germany. The
British knew they had to do something to punish Turkey, and also to break up
that empire that was going to be a part of the whole effort of Germany in World
War I. So the British sent troops
against the Turks in the Holy Land.
One of the generals who was
leading the British armies was a man named Allenby. Allenby was a Bible-believing Christian. He carried a Bible with him everywhere he
went and he knew the significance of Jerusalem. The night before the attack against Jerusalem to drive out the
Turks, Allenby prayed that God would allow him to capture the city without doing
damage to the holy places.
That day, Allenby sent World
War I biplanes over the city of Jerusalem to do a reconnaissance mission. You have to understand that the Turks had at
that time never seen an airplane. So
there they were, flying round. They
looked in the sky and saw these fascinating inventions and did not know what
they were, and they were terrified by them.
Then they were told they
were going to be opposed by a man named Allenby the next day, which means, in
their language, “man sent from God” or “prophet from God.” They dared not fight against a prophet from
God, so the next morning, when Allenby went to take Jerusalem, he went in and
captured it without firing a single shot.
The British Government was
grateful to Jewish people around the world, particularly to one Jewish chemist
who helped them manufacture niter.
Niter is an ingredient that was used in nitroglycerin which was sent
over from the New World. But they did not have a way of getting it to England.
The German U-boats were
shooting on the boats, so most of the niter they were trying to import to make
nitroglycerin was at the bottom of the ocean.
But a man named Weitzman, a Jewish chemist, discovered a way to make it
from materials t hat existed in England.
As a result, they were able to continue that supply.
The British at that time
said they were going to give the Jewish people a homeland. That is all a part of history. It is all written down in history. They were gratified that the Jewish people,
the bankers, came through and helped finance the war.
The homeland that Britain
said it would set aside consisted of all of what is now Israel and all of what
was then the nation of Jordan – the whole thing. That was what Britain promised to give the Jews in 1917. In the beginning, there was some Arab
support for this action.
There was not a huge Arab
population in the land at that time, and there is a reason for that. The land was not able to sustain a large population
of people. It just did not have the
development it needed to handle those people, and the land was not really
wanted by anybody. Nobody really wanted
this land. It was considered to be
worthless land.
I want the Presiding Officer
to hear what Mark Twain said. And, of
course, you may have read “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer.” Mark Twain – Samuel Clemens – took a tour of
Palestine in 1867. This is how he
described that land. We re talking
about Israel now. He said:
A desolate country whose
soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human being on the whole
route. There was hardly a tree or a
shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the
cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the
country.
Where was this great
Palestinian nation? It did not
exist. It was not there. Palestinians
were not there. Palestine was a region
named by the Romans, but at that time it was under the control of Turkey, and
there was no large mass of people there because the land would not support
them.
This is the report that the
Palestinian Royal Commission, created by the British, made. It quotes an account of the conditions on
the coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea in 1913. This is the Palestinian Royal
Commission. They said:
The road leading from Gaza
to the north was only a summer track, suitable for transport by camels or
carts. No orange groves, orchards or
vineyards were to be seen until one reached the Yavnev village. Houses were mud. Schools did not exist.
The western part toward the sea was almost a desert. The villages in this area were few and thinly
populated. Many villages were deserted
by their inhabitants. That was 913.
The French author Voltaire
described Palestine as a hopeless, dreary place.” In short, under the Turks the land suffered from neglect and low
population. That is a historic fact.
The nation became populated
by both Jews and Arabs because the land came to prosper when Jews came back and
began to reclaim it. Historically, they
began to reclaim it. If there had never
been any archaeological evidence to support the rights of the Israelis to the
territory, it is also important to recognize that other nations in the area
have no longstanding claim to the country either.
Did you know that Saudi
Arabia was not created until 1913, Lebanon until 1920? Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932,
Syria until 1941; the borders of Jordan were established in 1946 and Kuwait in
1961. Any of these nations that would
say Israel is only a recent arrival would have to deny their own rights as
recent arrivals as well. They did not
exist as countries. They were all under
the control of the Turks.
Historically, Israel gained its independence in 1948.
The third reason that land
belongs to Israel is the practical value of the Israelis being there. Israel today is a modern marvel of
agriculture. Israel is able to bring
more food out of a desert environment than any other country in the world. The Arab nations ought to make Israel their
friend and import technology from Israel that would allow all the Middle East,
not just Israel, to become an exporter of food. Israel has unarguable success in its agriculture.
The fourth reason I believe
Israel has the right to the land is on the grounds of humanitarian
concern. You see, there were 6 million
Jews slaughtered in Europe in World War II.
The persecution against the Jews had been very strong in Russia since
the advent of communism. It was against
them even before then, under the Czars.
These people have a right to
their homeland. If we are not going to
allow them a homeland in the Middle East, then where? What other nation on Earth is going to cede territory, is going
to give up land?
They are not asking for a great
deal. The whole nation of Israel would
fit into my home State of Oklahoma seven times. It would fit into the Presiding Officer’s State of Georgia seven
times. They are not asking for a great
deal. The whole nation of Israel is
very small. It is a nation that, up
until the time that claims started coming in, was not desired by anybody.
The fifth reason Israel
ought to have their land is that she is a strategic ally of the United
States. Whether we realize it or not,
Israel is a detriment, an impediment, to certain groups hostile to democracies
and hostile to what we believe in, hostile to that which makes us the greatest
nation in the history of the world.
They have kept them from taking complete control of the Middle
East. If it were not for Israel, they
would overrun the region. Israel is our
strategic ally.
It is good to know we have a
friend in the Middle East on whom we can count. They vote with us in the United Nations more than England, more
than Canada, more than France, more than Germany – more than any other country
in the world.
The sixth reason is that
Israel is a roadblock to terrorism. The
war we are now facing is not against a sovereign nation, it is against a group
of terrorists who are very fluid, moving from one country to another. They are almost invisible. That is whom we are fighting against today. We need every ally we can get. If we do not stop terrorism in the Middle
East, it will be on our shores. We have
said this again and again and again, and it is true.
One of the reasons I believe
the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of
America is that the policy of our Government has been to ask the Israelis, and
demand it with pressure, not to retaliate in a significant way against the
terrorist strikes that have been launched against them.
Since its independence in
1948, Israel has fought four wars. The
war in 1948 and 1949 – that was the war for independence – the war in 1956, the
Sinai campaign, the Six-Day War in 1967, and in 1973, the Yom Kippur War, the
holiest day of the year, and that was with Egypt and Syria.
You have to understand that
in all four cases, Israel was attacked.
They were not the aggressor.
Some people may argue that this was not true because they went in first
in 1956, but they knew at that time that Egypt was building a huge military to
become the aggressor. Israel, in fact,
was not the aggressor and has not been the aggressor in any of the four wars.
Also, they won all four wars
against impossible odds. They are great
warriors. They consider a level playing
field being outnumbered 2 to 1. There
were 39 Scud missiles that landed on Israeli soil during the gulf war. Our President asked Israel not to
respond. In order to have the Arab
nations on board, we asked Israel not to participate in the war. They showed tremendous restraint and did
not. Now we have asked them to stand
back and not do anything over these last several attacks.
We have criticized
them. We have criticized them in our
media. Local people in television and
radio often criticize Israel, not knowing the true facts. We need to be informed.
I was so thrilled when I
heard a reporter pose a question to our Secretary of State, Colin Powell. He said Mr. Powell, the United States has
advocated a policy of restraint in the Middle East. We have discouraged Israel from retaliation again and again and
again because we have said it leads to continued escalation – that is escalates
the violence. Are we going to follow
that preaching ourselves?
Mr. Powell indicated we
would strike back. In other words, we can tell Israel not to do it, but when it
hits us, we are going to do something.
But all that changed in December when the Israelis went into the Gaza
with gun ships and into the West Bank with F-16s. With the exception of last May, the Israelis had not used F-16s
since the 1967 6-Day War. And I am so
proud of them because we have to stop terrorism. It is not going to go away.
If Israel were driven into the sea tomorrow, if every Jew in the Middle
East were killed, terrorism would not end.
You know that in your heart.
Terrorism would continue.
It is not just a matter of
Israel in the Middle East. It is the
heart of the very people who are perpetrating this stuff. Should they be successful in overrunning Israel
– which they won’t be – but should they be, it would not be enough. They will never be satisfied.
Reason No. 7, I believe very
strongly that we ought to support Israel; that it has a right to the land. This is the most important reason: Because
God said so. As I said a minute ago,
look it up in the book of Genesis. It
is right up there on the desk.
In Genesis 13:14-17, the
Bible says: The Lord said to Abram, “Lift up now your eyes, and look from the
place where you are northward, and southward, and eastward and westward: for
all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever . .
. . Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it;
for I will give it to thee.:” This is
God talking.
The Bible says that Abram
removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron,
and built there an altar before the Lord.
Hebron is in the West Bank. It
is at this place where God appeared to Abram and said, “I am giving you this
land,” – the West Bank.
This is not a political
battle at all. It is a contest over
whether or not the word of God is true.
The seven reasons, I am convinced, clearly establish that Israel has a
right to the land.
Eight years ago on the lawn
of the White House, Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with PLO Chairman Yasser
Arafat. It was a historic
occasion. It was a tragic occasion.
At that time, the official
policy of the Government of Israel began to be, “Let us appease the
terrorists. Let us begin to trade the
land for peace.” This process continued
unabated up until last year. Here in
our own Nation, at Camp David, in the summer of 2000, then Prime Minister of
Israel Ehud Barak offered the most generous concessions to Yasser Arafat that
had ever been laid on the table.
He offered him more than 90
percent of all the West Bank territory, sovereign control of it. There were some parts he did not want to
offer, but in exchange for that he said he would give up land in Israel
proper that the PLO had not even asked
for.
And he also did the
unthinkable. He even spoke of dividing
Jerusalem and allowing the Palestinians to have their capital there in the
East. Yasser Arafat stormed out of the
meeting. Why did he storm out of the
meeting? Everything he had said he
wanted was offered there. It was put
into his hands. Why did he storm out of
the meeting?
A couple of months later,
there bean to be riots, terrorism. The
riots began when now Prime Minister Ariel Sharon went to the Temple Mount. And this was used as the thing that lit the
fire and that caused the explosion.
Did you know that Sharon did
not go unannounced and that he contacted the Islamic authorities before he went
and secured their permission and had permission to be there? It was no surprise. The response was very carefully
calculated. They knew the world would
not pay attention to the details.
They would portray this in
the Arab world as an attack upon the holy mosque. They would portray it as an attack upon that mosque and use it as
an excuse to riot. Over the last 8
years, during this time of the peace process, where the Israeli public has
pressured its leaders to give up land for peace because they are tired of
fighting, there has been increased terror.
In fact, it has been greater
in the last 8 years than any other time in Israel’s history. Showing restraint and giving in has not
produced any kind of peace. It is so
much so that today the leftist peace movement in Israel does not exist because
the people feel they were deceived.
They did offer a hand of peace,
and it was not taken. That is why the
politics of Israel have changed drastically over the past 12 months. The Israelis have come to see that, “No
matter what we do, these people to not want to deal with us. ….
They want to destroy us.” That
is why even yet today the stationery of the PLO still has upon it the map of
the entire state of Israel, not just the tiny little part they call the West
Bank that they want. They want it all.
We have to get out of this
mind set that somehow you can buy peace in the Middle East by giving little
plots of land. It has not worked before
when it has been offered. These seven reasons show why Israel is entitled to
the land. U
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© 2007 The Flaming Torch, All rights reserved.
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