Shedding light on Israel's decision to annex Gaza: Chuck Stephens

Key topics:Gaza was part of Egypt until Israel captured it in the 1967 warHistory of the Levant shows multiple waves of colonizationJewish presence in the region predates Arab settlement.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Chuck Stephens.For almost two years, I have contributed several articles to the media about the Battle of Gaza, urban warfare and the history of the Levant. I have read literature from both sides, and several misunderstandings seem to be prevalent. I will try to drop some truth bombs on them.First it seems to be generally misunderstood that the Gaza Strip always belonged to the Palestinians. I don’t agree with that. I am old enough to remember the Seven Days War in 1967. Up to that time, the Gaza Strip belonged to – was a part of – Egypt. Along with Sinai, which was also conquered during that war. In combat, during a state of war involving Israel and five neighbouring countries, Israel conquered the Gaza Strip and occupied it. After the Yom Kippur war in 1973, Anwar Sadat’s army won back Sinai, but did not take back the Gaza Strip. It was annexed by Israel.In recent years, Israel has consistently rejected the proposed “Two-state Solution” because of the embedded presence of hostile elements, mostly Hamas, in Gaza. So Gaza never was surrendered or yielded to the PLO, after its unilateral declaration of independence. As far as Israel is concerned, the shelf-life of “the right to self-determination” had already expired by then, due to guidelines issues by the United Nation. The UN’s worry was reduction ad absurdum – where would that right to self-determination ever end? So it was withdrawn and as far as Israel is concerned, it never conceded Gaza’s secession. The Gaz Strip has been part of the state of Israel since it was conquered from Egypt in 1967.Another commonly held misperception is that the emergence of the state of Israel was the beginning of colonization of the Levant, variously called Palestine and Israel over the ages. Some people called South Africa Azania too. Certainly “Azania” was an Arab word used to describe portions of east Africa, but it was never a name for South Africa. It is more of a policy statement to mis-use names like that.The history of the Levant is so long that there are layers of colonization that can be peeled off. Obviously the British assumed responsibility for the Levant after the Ottoman Empire collapsed. South Africa assumed responsibility for Namibia at the same time, when the Germans were defeated. Its colonies were passed to other world powers. Simply put, there was an understanding that Arabs would return to Transjordan (now Jordan) and made did. But the state of Israel did not emerge until much later – in 1948. One of the drivers of that was the holocaust in Germany. At the end of World War II there was a strong sense that Jews needed a space where they could defend themselves.Peeling off another layer, we can see that the Arabization of Palestine began soon after Mohammed. Islam spread right across the Middle East, North Africa, and into the Iberian Peninsula. North Africa was not Arab until that time, not Morocco, not Egypt, not Sudan, and not Gaza. They were colonized. By the Arabs. So the pot is calling the kettle black when Arabs allege that Israel is a colony of the West.The Arabization of Palestine included most of the Levant. Gaza did not escape. But this was not to the absolute exclusion of Jews and Christians. Many converted to Islam out of convenience. But there has been an Armenian presence in the Levant and in spite of the diaspora, many Jews remained in their homeland. Just as America is ruled by the settlers today, while the indigenous people also are present.There were three Muslim empires in a row that ruled the Levant. Egypt took over from the Arabs, then the Ottoman Turks took over from them. Both Egypt and Turkey have long histories in the eastern Mediterranean. It also deserves mention that the Roman Empire that displaced Greece as the super-power eventually divided. So Rome itself only ruled there until the Roman Empire split. The capital city was Caesarea Maritima – where Pontius Pilate governed from. After that, the Byzantines ruled the Levant which was still very cosmopolitan – Greeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians, indigenous people and some from the East as well. One of the great philosophers of that era was Origen, who resided in what we call Gaza today. But he wrote in Latin, which overtook Greek before Arabic became the lingua franca.The etymology of the word “Palestinian” is connected with the Philistines of the Old Testament and the Peleshet, who were Sea Invaders conquered by the Egyptians in the late Bronze Age. Ramses III was ruling at the time these raiders of unknown origin reached Egypt, and he had received advance intelligence reports of these marauders. He had time to prepare. As a result, Egypt was the only civilization that did not collapse when the raided port of the Levant. Egypt first took them on in a land battle in South Lebanon in 1178 BC. It is important to note that Egypt was still the superpower in the Levant up until about this time. But within only a few decades, its loss of tribute and imports caused it to pull back into the Nile valley..Read more:.Trump pushes 60-day Gaza truce deal - Israel agrees.Then there was a famous sea battle in the Nile delta. Ramses III had prepared his forces and won the day. He later built a huge temple at Medinet Habu. In the inscriptions on its walls are detailed accounts - of how he repulsed these sea invaders, who they were, and where they went. The various forces that conjoined into this hit-and-run maritime operation were soundly defeated. Some were eliminated. Some fled. Others surrendered and were re-settled. Notably, a group called the “Peleshet” were re-settled where Gaza is today. There you have it. Egypt forced is vanquished enemy to settle in the Gaza strip. Ever since, it was part of Egypt, right up to 1967. There are certainly Arabs there from the Arabization of the Levant (and beyond). There are still Armenians, Greek, and Christians and some few Jews stayed throughout the diaspora. It has always been a “rainbow nation”. As the archetypical rainbow nation of modern times, one wonder why South Africa has pressed for partition and not for rapprochement. What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander.At one point, the Jews became enslaved in Goshen in the north-east Nile Delta. The story of the Exodus is how they departed – across Sinai and the Gulf of Aqaba – into Saudi Arabia. The famous Red Sea crossing was into Arabia, east of the Jordan River. So the entry into the Promised Land came from the East Bank to the West Bank. This came to be two kingdoms – Judea and Samaria – in Old Testament times. This is verifiable not only by the Hebrew scriptures but also by extra-biblical sources and archaeology. They have even recently located the ancient temple of Melchizadek – from Abraham’s era. Long before the conquest of Canaan by the ex-slaves of Egypt.Palestinian literature is offensive in this regard. When they allege that Kings like David and Solomon (circa 1000 BC) were merely legends, like King Arthur of the Round Table, they show their true colours. The deny even objective truth to argue that Israel has no valid claim to be there in the Levant. That is ridiculous. Certainly ancient Israel was west of the Jordan and in the highlands, while the Philistines (Peleshet) were along the Mediterranean coast in what we now call the Gaza Strip.The Palestinians overstate their claim to that territory, it was conquered by Israel – from Egypt – in 1967. And they also understate the claim that it is the Jewish homeland. Even when the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Egyptians, Turks and British ruled, the indigenous people there from Judea to Samaria to Galilee were Jewish. This is indisputable.

Shedding light on Israel's decision to annex Gaza: Chuck Stephens

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