The Arab Conundrum

"An Arab is whoever speaks Arabic, wishes to be an Arab and calls himself an Arab." 

 – Sati al-Husri

The term ‘Arab’ and peoples ascribed to it, is a modern-day conundrum that sometimes shirks detestations in international circles especially with recent advent of terrorism fears around the globe. Mainly domiciled in the Middle East where their ancestors originally hailed from in the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabs have expanded to dominate the cultural, religious and political cosmos of nearly all Middle Eastern States and adjourning lands. The reason for this not being farfetched from the origins of Islam among the Arabs in the 7^th Century AD; these originators of the religion set about unifying the diverse disunited Arab clans of the Arabian Peninsula and thenceforth set about empire conquests of adjourning territories and peoples which was inclusive of territories held by the then mighty Byzantine and Sassanid empires of the Levant and Middle Orient.

Source: http://www.mideastweb.org/islamhistory.htm

The earliest peoples designated as Arabs were the nomads of the Arabian Peninsula. The term ‘Arab’ in itself is interpreted to meaning ‘nomad’ synonymous to ‘Bedouin’. Other adjourning non-Arab peoples such as the Arameans, Phoenicians, Assyrians et al were over the centuries systematically assimilated into the Arab culture, thereby in most cases losing their language and distinct cultural identity in most cases.

While the Arabization quest passed on for Arab political dominance of conquered territories during the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphate periods, the advent of the Mamluk and Baibars Sultanate began to pose an existential threat to the indigenous non-Arab populace most of whom were non-muslims. Whilst most non-Arab conversions to Islam entailed a full passage into the Arabization system, it must be acknowledged that some peoples such as the Persians and Kurds retained their distinct cultural affiliations despite being subjugated by the Arabs and then converted to Islam. Nevertheless, whilst Arabization nearly passed on for Islamization for Arabs and non-Arab peoples of the Middle East, there remains ever shrinking pockets of indigenous non-Muslim populations   among Arabs and non-Arabs in the Middle East especially amongst the Ghassanid and Lakhmid Arabs and several non-Arab groups most of which are Christian.

Ancient Delineation of Arab domains
Source: http://www.canadianarabcommunity.com/sevenarabkingdoms.php

The period of Turkish rule inaugurated by the Ottoman conquest and dismantling of the Byzantine empire and by extension rulership over the former Arab Caliphate ignited a new political era in the Middle Orient with the Ottoman Sultanate ascribing spiritual guardianship of the Muslim peoples to the Ottoman Sultan. Hence, for the first time since the advent of Islam, political and spiritual ruler ship of an Arab conquered territories and the established religion (Islam) passed on from Arabs to entirely non-Arabs.

And so, Arab subjugation continued without complaint so long as their domineers were Muslim and held the Arabic language as first choice in communication until a Turkish political revolution in the early 20^th century.  A coup by young Turkish officers seeking to reform and restore the glorious past of the waning Ottoman empire which was dubbed as ‘the sick man of Europe’. Their reforms called for a radical ‘Turkification’ of the Ottoman governance system, a resultant which saw repressions of non-Turkish peoples especially in the Anatolian peninsula. Non-Muslim peoples were worse hit by the policy as it latter saw the expulsion of Greeks from Anatolia and the widely acclaimed ‘Armenian genocide’

Turkish rulership of Arabs was yet loathed despite they being spiritual brethren of most Arabs and in the wake of World War one in which the Ottomans fought alongside the Axis powers, the Allies led by Great Britain took advantage of Arab dissent against the Ottomans to stir the ‘Great Arab Revolt’ of 1916. The Arabs in themselves looking forward to reestablishing the glorious Arab Caliphate from ‘Aleppo to Aden’ rallied under the banner of Sharif Hussein Bin Ali and in serious of revolts and skirmishes against the Turks renounced Ottoman rule. Yet they came under Allied rule with France and Great Britain partioning the conquered territories as spheres of influence under the famous Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916.

The 1916 Arab Revolt was British Inspired by 'Lawrence of Arabia'
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/phyllis0660/te-lawrence/?lp=true

The Balfour declaration of 1917 which granted Jewish rights to a homeland in parts of the conquered Ottoman dominion referred to as historical Palestine added another twist to the Arab conundrum. With the Religious importance of the allotted land to the Jews also claimed by the Arabs, the 1947 UN partition plan of Palestine between Jews and Arabs was rejected by the Arabs. And with the eventual creation of Israel in 1948, the Arab polity united in one voice to crush the nascent State; but after subsequent defeat and territorial loss, the fury of the Arabs turned upon the Mizrahi Jews (also referred to as Arab Jews) who had historically lived in North Africa and the East Levant. As such, Arab Jewry were sacked from their home and properties. Cities such as Casablanca, Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Aden, Aleppo etc which once had hundreds of thousands of Jewry were emptied of their Jewish populace.

Whilst the British floated the idea of a Pan-Arab organization in 1942, the Arab League which was a resultant of that idea only became birthed in 1945, and its first task was to liquidate Jewish efforts of establishing a State within Arab realm. Alongside the Arab league, the rise of the Baath party in several Arab countries also endeavoured to unite the Arab cause. Despite its downside for repressing minority identities especially as pursued in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq against the Kurds and Assyrians, the Baath party in its hay days was a real bond for Arab unity and it even enamoured the short lived union of some Arab Countries in loose confederations.

The Iranian revolution of 1979 reawakened the agelong sharp/bitter religious schism of Islam especially betwixt the Shia-Sunni divide. Whilst there are several Islamic sects aside the Shittes and Sunnis, albeit these two commanding the largest followership now define the deep divisions that exists within the Arab and Islamic world. After the collapse of pro-secular Arab Governments and the Baath party in most Arab Countries, and revival of Political Islam seeking to establish the glorious Caliphate past have reignited the divisive dichotomy that sunk the early Arab Caliphate.

Rallying Arab unity and administering Arab affairs seems a wearying effort. Aside the unanimous denouncement of Israel, the Arab polity never seem to agree on mediative efforts to conflict situations in respective Arab countries and strengthening economic cooperation. This Arab Conundrum is expressed in the Syrian and Yemen conflict. For all the economic prosperity of the gulf states aside Oman and Yemen, Arab Countries of the Levant such as Syria and Iraq are dismantled in conflict situations meleed along Sectarian religious lines. And whilst Western/foreign intervention accounts a great deal as the causative factor, Arab disunity cannot be excused as the Arab league in all these have in the words of Mohamad Bazzi become a ‘glorified debating society’.

It is most disheartening that the Arab polity despite being protegees of the harnessers of mathematical science and the mastery of cultural assimilation are stooping in regressive terms to divisive delineating status of over a thousand years back. While the global polity is bemused with new conflict and humanitarian situations around the globe, the Arab polity will do humanity a favour by seeking steps to resolve theirs from within themselves.

The East - West Global Polity Bipolar Delineation

“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest”....BBC broadcast (“The Russian Enigma”), London, October 1, 1939 (partial text).

Recent events from the unfolding armed civil conflicts in Ukraine and Syria has once again brought to bare issues pertaining to bipolarity in terms of the Eastern and Western bloc in the cosmos of international affairs. Thought to have been buried after the collapse of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in 1991, global polity assumed a unipolar status as charged by the United States, and other nations including Russia followed in the trail. The global unipolarity status got to its heights in 2001 during the 9/11 terrorist attack on USA as the global commune rallied behind the ‘counter-terrorism’ war maxim. For the first time since the end of World War 2, Russia and the United States seemed to form a cohesive bond.

The issue of the ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ confrontation in ideological and political matters can be traced to the ‘Great Schism’ of Christendom in 1054AD; when the Christian church split along Latin and Greek liturgical and  ideological rites resulting in the Western ideological bloc as championed by the Roman Church (Roman Catholic Church) and the (Eastern) Orthodox Church, in which the fault lines followed the East-West delineation of the Roman empire. Though the religious connotation of the East-West delineation has long waned off, it must be worthy of note that Russia’s through Ivan IV ‘the terrible’ acceded hegemony of Eastern Orthodox Christianity following the fall of Constantinople which ultimately liquidated the Byzantine empire to the Ottomans in 1453; while hegemony of Western ideology transmuted from the Holy Roman empire, and after the Napoleonic wars of the 19th Century Europe to Great Britain and then to the United States after the Second World War.

Delineation of the Great Schism of 1054AD
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/aysarchival07/religion-during-american-occupation-and-the-great-schism-in-the-catholic-church

Source:http://www.generationword.com/bible_school_notes/27.html

Away from the religious prelude, the East-West delineation took an socio-economic ideological format with the installation of the World’s first Communist regime in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. Though the delineation was not apparent then, it manifested during the later stages of World War 2. Despite being allies in the fight against Hitler’s Nazism, the Allied powers (USA, UK, France) never trusted the wits of Stalin’s Russia as there was not free access to Russian liberated areas. This made Churchill to make his famous Iron curtain statement in 1946;

 “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” 

http://cyclingmagazine.ca/sections/news/iron-curtain-bicycle-trail-10-000km-history-culture-politics/

Apparent during the Postdam and Yalta World War Two conferences, the seeming East-West bipolarity divide rapidly deepened after the end of World War 2 resulting into what was popularly referred to as the ‘Cold War’ and of course propped up the arms race. Fully aware of the disastrous implications of any ensuing conflict between global bipolar powers which were armed with Weapons of Mass Destructions (Radiological/Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Weapons), the ‘Cold War’  assumed a proxy front as sundry nations around the world aligned to either the ‘East’ (socialist/communist) or Western (Capitalist) ideologies. These moves were wholesomely not peaceful as it portended opportunity for the Global Bipolar powers to scramble and jostle for allies amongst these nations. With Countries emerging from colonial rule especially in Asia and Africa after World War 2, the USA frenzied about the spread of communism in these newly independent states and therefore sought to influence their governance by all means possible. This notoriously fuelled several Coup d’états in South America, Africa and Asia in especially in the 1950’s -1980’s and the of course, civil conflicts such as the Vietnam war and the Korean War.

http://korean-war.commemoration.gov.au/cold-war-crisis-in-korea/korean-war-strategic-map.php

The Korean Peninsula represents the last bastion of the Global Bipolar divisions. It is a relic of the outcome of the Second World War which divided the Peninsula into USSR and USA spheres of control along the 38th Latitude parallel. Unlike divided Germany which later reunited upon the famous collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and then seemingly aligning to the Western Ideology, North and South Korea have stoically represented all what the East-West bipolar delineation stands for and though they were moves by North Korea to forcefully reunite the Korean Peninsula which resulted into the Korean war (1950-1953), neither side do not seem to let down the rhetoric which is now made more sinister with a Nuclear armed North Korea. As such, the Korean peninsula though currently conflict semi-dormant, remains a potent frontline and fault line in any clash between the bipolar powers.

The Chinese regime also remains a flash point in the East-West conflicting sphere of dominance. Resurging after the Second World War, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) swept to power in 1949 as led by the military prowess of Mao Zedong who defeated the Chinese Nationalists led by Chang Kia Chek. The defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan and yet till today still refers itself as the ‘Chinese government in exile’. Though this yielded lots of tremors in international diplomatic polity, the Chinese Nationalists were eventually derecognized as representatives of the Chinese Government by the Western powers and subsequently the government Chinese Communists was recognized and invited to take a permanent sit at the United Nations Security Council in 1971. Nevertheless, there still remains animosity between the Communist Chinese government of Mainland China and the Nationalist Chinese government of Taiwan which is backed by the USA but not granted United Nations recognition due to blockage from the Mainland Chinese government. Nevertheless, the Taiwan straits remain a dormant spot in the East-West bipolar delineation.

After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, International polity assumed a seeming unipolar Status with the USA dictating the trend. However at the turn of the new Millennium in 2000, International polity was reawakened to the hot bed of the East-West delineatory polity, with the expansion of NATO and the EU member states to accommodate ex-Soviet satellite states of Eastern Europe and then, Russian Nationalism renewed a resurgence after an economic battering decade following the collapse of the USSR.

https://www.stratfor.com/sample/image/natos-evolution

Finding dynamism in the Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB (Russian Secret Service) agent who was President and subsequently became Russian Prime Minister, the Russians have seemly assumed a challenging statusquo to USA’s domineering of International polity through the exercise of veto powers at the UN security council and swoopingly taking the first military initiative around conflict spots of interest as seen in Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria.

"One thing I learnt 50 years ago on the streets of Leningrad was that if a fight is inevitable, you need to land the first punch," Vladimir Putin

Buoyed by and economic revival from the oil boom of the mid and late 2000’s, Russia has sought to modernize it’s military and arsenal which has long been held in scorn of being ‘outdated’ by the West.

Russia's Vladimir Putin and The USA's Barack Obama represents all that the EAST-WEST Bipolarity stands for
Source:www.bbcnews.com

Having the knowledge of ‘mutually assured destruction’ in the case of any conflict betwixt the bipolar powers, Russia yet seeks to counter an apparent expansionism of NATO towards its Western borders. Despite an array of ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles), Russia in series of tantalizing militaristic overtures have sent Western/NATO jets of the United Kingdom, Scandinavian and Baltic states scuttling and scamparing to the skies. Indeed whilst the Russian military apparatus is seeing some fighting engagement in Syria, NATO countries (though individually in a separate coalition have joined the fight against the Islamic State in the Middle East) have been having sundry military training sessions across the Baltic and Eastern Europe.

“instead of settling conflicts [the largely unipolar system] leads to their escalation, instead of sovereign and stable states, we see the growing spread of chaos.”- Vladimir Putin

Never since the end of the cold war in 1991 has international polity being heated by divergent bipolarity between the powers. Fuelling and fanning the embers of conflict situations around the globe, it is pertinent for a de-escalation in the aggressive bipolar charge of global powers so that a common understanding and agreement can be reached in sundry problem and conflict situations and issues around the globe.

The Extinction of Christianity in the Middle East

Christianity’s Holy Book, The Bible, is replete with the history and stories of the Jews and other peoples and places of the Middle East from the early civilization period to the early Roman times. Amongst several Biblical serial stories are those of the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, the founding the Church in Jerusalem and the tagging of Jesus Christ followers as ‘Christians’ in Antioch. Aside Biblical history, contemporary history also alludes to the origins of Christianity from the Middle East.

The Syrian flag flying in front of the dome of the Syrian Saint Sarkis Church for Armenian Orthodox in Damascus
Source: http://www.hudson.org/research/11072-isis-captures-christians-piece-by-piece-middle-eastern-christianity-is-being-shattered

As home of Christianity, the Middle East was home to four of the five Patriarchate cities namely: Jerusalem (Spiritual capital of the Church), Antioch (founded by Peter), Alexandria (founded by John Mark), Rome (Political Capital of the Western Roman Empire) and Constantinople (Political Capital of the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire). As such, only the Patriarchate of Rome existed outside the Middle East.

From humble origins in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Christianity first spread amongst the Jewish acquaintances of Jesus Christ from Roman occupied Palestine during the first century AD, and then these initial Jewish converts (Apostles) spread their faith in series of evangelistic endeavours around the Roman Empire. By the Fourth Century AD, despite series of gruesome persecutions of the adherents of Christianity, the Faith was firmly rooted amongst the Copts, Berbers and Carthaginians of North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia and Algeria) and the Arab tribes of the Ghassinds and Lakhmids of Arabia; the Greek and Armenian population of the Anatolian Peninsula (modern day Turkey); and the Assyrians and Chaldeans of the fertile Crescent (modern day Iraq and Iran). At the turn of the 7th Century AD, Christianity was the dominant religion amongst the peoples dwelling in the area spanning West from the British Isles to the foothills Hindu Kush mountains of India in Near East.

The Zenith of Christian domains by the 4th Century AD
Source: http://maryourmother.net/Eastern.html

After the waning threat of persecution from Political authorities especially during the period of the Roman Empire, Christianity flourished at its best though its unity was threatened by doctrinal schisms which delineate Christendom till this day. Starting from the rejection of the outcome the Council of Chalcedon of 451AD mostly by the non-Greek speaking Christians of the Middle East, in which the Monophysite theology of Eutyches was condemned, gave impetus to the founding of autocephalous (self governing) religious communes of the Oriental Orthodox Churches in revolt against the Greek Speaking Byzantine Church. Thus the origins of:

1.     The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (Egyptian Orthodox)

2.     The Syriac Orthodox Church (comprising the non Greek speaking of the Eastern Mediterranean under the Patriarchate of Antioch

3.     The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthox Tewahedo Churches

4.     The Armenian Apostolic Church

Yet there were several schisms in Christendom, the grandest of which was the Great Schism of 1054 between the Patriarchate of Rome and Constantinople thus eternally dividing Christendom along the rites of Latin and Greek Liturgy. Whilst the Roman Patriarchate held sway in the Western world and gave rise to the Protestant reformation that branded Christianity in Western Europe, the Americas and Sub Saharan Africa, the Constantinople Patriarchate administered the spiritual needs of Middle Eastern Christianity, Chiefly among the Greek population. As such, the remaining delineates of Middle Eastern Christianity were:

1.     The Holy Apostolic Catholic Church of Assyrian Church of the East

2.     The Byzantine/Greek Orthodox Church (Basically in Asia minor or Turkey)

3.     The Melkite Church (amongst the Greek and Arab Christians of the Middle East in communion with the Patriarchate of Rome)

4.     The Maronite Church (Phoenician/Lebanese Church in communion with the Patriarchate of Rome)

The encroachment of Arab invaders from the Arabian peninsula in series of conquest and Jihadist endeavours in the 7th Century began an epoch of existential threat to Christendom in the Middle East. Though Christians accounted for over 70% of the populace of the Middle Orient at that time till the Middle Ages, they were derided of political power under an accorded dhimmi status and made to pay the Jizya tax despite being accorded the status of people of the books which require special protection from the ruling Islamic Caliphate. The definitive blow of existential threat to Middle Eastern Christianity was delivered by the advance of the Seljuk Turks from Central Asia to the Anatolian peninsula in the 10th Century AD.

After an initial definitive victory by the Turks over the Byzantines in the battle of Manzikert in 1071 AD, the Byzantine Empire which was the protector of Middle Eastern Christianity began to crumble in bit and pieces in series of defeats and then perished in 1453 when the Ottoman army swept into Constantinople after months of bombardments. From thenceforth, the Hagia Sophia which was the seat of the Bishopric of Constantinople was converted to a mosque. Though the governing Ottoman Empire was initially benevolent to the plight of subjugated Christians under its domain, Christians were nevertheless subjugated to the worse especially during moments of war with Christian empires from the West. To endure series of targeted purges against their populace, most Christian groups retreated to highlands/mountainous areas e.g the Maronites retreated to the anti-Lebanon Mountains and the Assyrians concentrated themselves in the plains of Nineveh and highlands of Sinjar and Zagros mountains. At their interactive best, Christians aligned and actively participated in regimes of secular Middle Eastern governments such as the Baath Movement of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Syria’s Assad and Egyptian regimes of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarek; who were seen as their protectors from Islamic extremists.

In 1900, most of Constantinople’s residents were Christian; today, of Istanbul’s population of some 14.4 million people, fewer than 150,000 identify with any faith other than Islam. The major account for this trend was the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. From the 19th Century, the non Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire (most of whom were Christian) where decimated in series of targeted killings. The Assyrians (despite being once empire holders in ancient times) were decimated into less than half of their populace in the 13th century following the Mongolian invasion of Mesopotamia by Tamerlane. They suffered worse fate under the Ottomans as they were seen to be siding with the British whilst the Ottomans fought alongside the Germans during the First World War. They were pillaged and faced the same fate as the Armenians. By the early 1930’s Christians who accounted for over 40% of the population of (Anatolia) modern day Turkey were extinct as the Greeks were forced to leave in series of population exchanges between Greek and Turkey, over 1 million Armenians and Assyrians were massacred and deported thus leaving the Christian population of Turkey at a meagre 1%!

The Assyrians who were the major Christian population of modern day Iraq suffered similar fate as their Anatolian kinsmen. Denied of their promised State of Assuristan just like the Kurds by the British following the Sykes and Picot agreement of 1916 which guaranteed Lebanon as the only Christian majority nation in the Middle East (60%), the Assyrian population was decimated in waves of Arab attacks and Arabization after the withdrawal of the British in 1922. Though they still numbered about 1.5 million at the turn of the 21st Century, their population has been heavily decimated after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003. Following series of targeted persecutions and assassinations, an existential blow to what remains of the Assyrian peoples and history is being delivered by the Islamic State following the capture of major Assyrian population centres in Mosul (Nineveh) and Quaraqosh. Accounting for 40% of Iraqi refugees, the current Christian population of Iraq is now a few hundred thousand by estimates.

The ''Nasrani" Arabic symbol for Christians used to mark Christian properties in areas under the domain of the Islamic State

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/image/10272014_b3-thomas8201jpg/

Christians in Syria are suffering similar fate under the domain of the Islamic State and are facing an existential threat as the Assad regime loose territory to Islamic extremists. Their population is fast dwindling from 10% of the Country’s 22million pre war population.

In Lebanon, the Christian population is down from the majority 60% in the 1930’s to just over 30% currently.  This was due to the Lebanese civil war between Christians and Muslims and then the influx of Palestinian Arab refugees following the creation of Israel in 1948; whilst low birth rate compared to high birth rate due to the practice of polygamy amongst the Muslim population severed a crucial factor.

Despite the extinction of Christianity amongst the Arab tribes of the Arabian Peninsula following the advent of Islam in the 7th Century, it must be noted that Christianity significantly thrives amongst the indigenous population of Bahrain accounting for 10%. Christian presence in the Arabian Peninsula is driven by the presence of foreign expatriates attracted by the regions burgeoning oil industry.

A damaged painting of Jesus Christ on the ground of Syriac Orthodox Um al-Zinar church in Homs, central Syria, May 12, 2014.
Source: http://www.hudson.org/research/11301-the-plight-of-the-middle-east-s-christians

Though Christianity has faced series of persecutions from its inception in the 1st Century AD, never in modern times has the conscience of the world been pricked to the plight of Christians in Islamic domains as this period. Most saddening is that the fact that Christian adherents of the Middle East constitute the original indigenous populations of these land dating back to over 3000years and their heritage is being wiped out by seeming Arabization and Islamic extremism.

The World owes the indigenous Middle East Christian population a duty to protect their heritage else their extinction.

THE INTRIGUES OF THE ETERNAL CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND ARABS IN PALESTINE

A perpetuating conflict characterizing the Middle East since the inception of the 20^th Century especially since 1948, the once known Arab- Israeli wars has now metamorphosed into a Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Israel-Hamas conflict, Israel-Gaza conflict etc.

It all began with the settlement and the right of return question for Jews to Palestine instigated by the creation of the World Zionist Organization by Theodore Hezerl in 1897. The land in question was that which straddled the Jordan River to its West and East Bank (though the core agitation was majorly for lands to the West Bank of the River Jordan). Adding to this land agitation was the religious and cultural delineation between the Jews and Arabs. The Arabs being predominantly Muslim and the Jews being Judaizers both attest to being custodians of the World’s major religions viz; Islam, Christianity and Judaism and both claiming a common progenitor in Grand Patriarch Abraham.

THE JEWISH AGITATION LINES

The Jews claim rights to Palestine by ‘Divine right’ as stated in verses of the Pentateuch. Nevertheless, following historical lines, the modern day Jews are also regarded as descendants of ancient Hebrews who first settled Palestine or Canaan (as it was then called) by assimilation and conquest from the 12^th century BC? After series of wars and political upheavals, the Hebrews were deported from Canaan by Assyrian and Babylonian rulers and the final rout to Jewish presence in Palestine was delivered by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135AD when a ban was placed on any form of Jewish presence in Jerusalem and Greater Jerusalem (Judea) on the pain of death. These periods is referred to in Jewish history by Josephus as the great Shoah.

Jews has since then lived in Diaspora and clogged around communes with a central identity of a Synagogue. From that time onwards, Jews had distinct referrals to their settlements. Jews of Europe were referred to as Ashkenazi Jews, and those who settled around the Middle Orient and North Africa were referred to as Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. With distinct religious observations, Jews were sometimes targeted for destruction at their various settlement locations such as during the Spanish Inquisitions, several deportation orders from England and other European Countries during the Middle Ages, the Russian Pogroms and ultimately the widely acclaimed Jewish Holocaust attributed to the Nazi regime during the Second World War.

ARAB AGITATION LINES

The Arabs as known to today’s contemporary World are a group of people endemic to the Middle East and North Africa most of whom are largely adherents to the Islamic religion.

The groups of peoples referred to as Arabs are an agglomeration of several nomadic tribes delineated by several clansteads once endemic to the Arabian Peninsula. During the initial spread of Islam upon the death of its founder (Mohammed), a United Arab Islamic Militant force rode out of the Arab Peninsula and conquered far reaching lands as far West to the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal to the steppes of the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan in the Near East. Apart from the massive conversions of subjugated peoples and kingdoms to Islam, there was a growing resentment against Arabization that came with Islamization of these subjugated peoples. This is eminently seen today in the Kurdish agitation in Iraq, Berber discontent in North Africa, the Darfur conflict of Sudan which are all remnants of Arab Muslim vs Non Arab Muslim agitations.

Thus, the Arabs since the 7^th century AD have spread their physical presence from their enclave in the Arabian peninsula to dominate the religious, political and cultural lives of the entire Middle East and North Africa whilst assimilating and wiping off existing cultural identities of these lands.

THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION?

The land referred to as Palestine is that which straddles the East bank of the Mediterranean Sea to the West Bank Jordan and from the sand dunes of the of the Negev desert in the South to the Anti Lebanon Mountains in North.

Anciently referred to as Canaan (the land flowing with Milk and Honey), it was originally peopled by several Semitic groups before it was conquered by wandering Hebrew tribes in the 12^th century BC. After series of conquests and deportations, the land was almost emptied of its Hebrew presence in the 2^nd Century AD before it ultimately conquered by the Arabs in 7^th century AD. From then on, the several heterogeneous peoples that populated the territory became assimilated/ adopted the ruling Arab culture.

The name ‘Palestine’ in itself is the Greek referral of ‘Philistine’- a group of ancient Indo-European peoples who once settled and founded 5 city states along the East Mediterranean coast namely; Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gath. These peoples were ultimately subjugated by serial wars with the Assyrian-Babylonian Empires and ultimately lost their cultural identity through waves of conquest and deportations by the subjugating armies.

The Ottoman Empire succeeded the Arab led Islamic Caliphate of the Middle East. With its capital at Constantinople (Modern day Istanbul), the Ottoman Turks established an empire covering the Hejaz region of the Arabian peninsula in the South, parts of North Africa, the Balkans, the Anatolian Peninsula and Mesopotamia.

THE AGE OF NATIONALIZATION AND EMANCIPATION

Though Sunni Muslims themselves, the Arabs began to resent a weakened, pro secular Ottoman Government and readily accepted Allied promise of emancipation from Ottoman rule in return for an alliance during the 1st World War and followed it up with the Arab revolt of 5^th June 1916 in support of British/Allied effort to dismantle an already waning Ottoman Empire.

With promise of liberation and emancipation at hand, the Arabs pursued this cause vigorously as Allied powers established spheres of influence amongst themselves in conquered territories.

Initial Partition of the Levant according to the Sykes and Picot agreement of 1916
Source: http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm

TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS

An agitation for a Jewish state to solve the looming ‘Jewish question’ in Europe and moves by the Organization evoked the British in making the Balfour Declaration which guaranteed a Jewish homeland in Palestine under the watchful eyes of British trusteeship.

The Allies (Britain, France and Russia), further signed the famous ‘Sykes and Picot’ agreement which partitioned the Levant into Spheres of British and French influence. Thus, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq were created with the first two under French control while the British controlled Egypt, Iraq and Iran.

Revised Partition plan delineating Proposed Jewish and Arab Spheres of Influence
http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm

THE FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF PALESTINE

A wave of Arab Nationalism in the 1920s & 30s saw the independence of most Levantine Countries, except the region referred to as Palestine, which was under UN-mandated British trusteeship. Considering the cultural and political differences of the agitating groups (Arabs and Jews), the UN promulgated a partition plan for two separate countries to emerge on the land referred to as Palestine.

The lands to the East Bank of the Jordan River were designated as exclusively Arab and were called Trans-Jordan (modern-day Jordan). Jerusalem and Bethlehem were designated ‘International Status’ to be administered by the UN due to their religious significance to Jews, Christians and Muslims, whilst the lands to the West Bank of the Jordan River were partitioned between Arabs and Jews for two distinct, separate states to emerge.

The Arabs rejected the partition plan outright. The Jews reluctantly accepted with hopes for lasting peace and unilaterally declared independence, calling their land ‘Erez Y’Isra’el’ (Israel). The Arabs declared war on the emergent Jewish state with the intention of grabbing more land and exterminating the Jewish population of Palestine. The Jews defeated the belligerent Arabs, captured more territory and turned out hundreds of thousands of Arabs into refugees. The Arabs retaliated by expelling over a million indigenous Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews from their lands and confiscating their properties.

UN Partition plan of 1947
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine

UNENDING WARS OF ATTRITION

Ever since the 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli wars, several others have followed in 1956, 1967,1973 and 1982. With the ego of the Arab governments of Egypt and Syria punctured in surprise defeats at the hands of Israeli forces each time at battle, the Egyptian and Jordanian governments signed a peace treaty with Israel and recognized the Jewish rights to Palestine. Other Arab countries have still stood firm on the initial Arab denial of Jewish rights to Palestine.

As Arab governments backed down from an outright direct military confrontation with Israel, Palestinian Arabs have taken up their cause in their own hands ever since with the emergence of militant groups such as Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, etc, to agitate for their independence.

Sporadic wars of attrition have been fought between Israel and these militant groups ever since, each time at the slightest provocative instance, such as stone-throwing Palestinians against Israeli forces, Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, etc.

Israeli Sphere of Influence after the 1947-1949 wars of Independence
Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/v3_israel_palestinians/maps/html/israel_founded.stm

PLACATIVE OPTIONS

Regardless of the side supported, humanitarian emotions are always raised anytime the usual conflict/intifadah breaks out between Israel and Palestinian Arabs. Nevertheless, one cannot neglect the historical antecedents of the conflict. What if the Arabs had accepted the 1947 UN partition plan? Would the world be experiencing any conflict in the Levant? Surely, there was a grave historical mistake by the Arabs.

Both sides, Arabs and Jews, have come a long way in spilling blood for every inch of territory. Palestinian Arabs have been displaced, and so also Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewry have been expelled from Arab lands.

No matter the emotions, the Israeli-Arab agitation will continue so long as there’s blood to be shed unless both parties acknowledge the following:

1.     Jews have come a long way and have sacrificed all their homelands and around the World, including in Arab countries, and so have a right to Palestine.
2.     Noting that there has also been a mass wave of forced emigrations which has altered the 20th-century cultural landscape of the Middle East, such as the Armenian genocide/deportation, the crushing of the Assyrian uprising in Iraq and the Kurdish question, Arab refugees from Palestine, should be allowed to settle in whatever countries they fled to else Arab countries should be ready to be receptive to their kith and kin.
3.    The Jewish State should realise the need for a peaceful coexistence with the Arabs of the West Bank and should realize the human cost in the flesh and blood of any attempt to seize additional territory.

If these facts are not acknowledged by both parties, it will be a continuous warfare of intermittent truce until all the Souls perish in the struggle for territorial control.

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