GUERRILLA WARFARE

It is natural for Arabs who live in Palestine to want to govern themselves as other Arabs have in the Middle East, and to form a state recognized by the world. In recent history the Arabs in that area have always been controlled by others. There has never been a state called Palestine. It is my opinion if the invading Arab armies of the neighbouring states had succeeded in defeating the new Jewish state, they would have just taken over the land and added it to their own land mass. There would have been no Palestine and the Arabs in the area would have accepted the rule of their kinsmen. The Palestine Liberation Army would never have been formed, and if it had, it would have been viciously put down by the occupying Arab nations. The fact that the Jewish state of Israel was formed emboldened the Palestinians to seek control of the areas in which they lived. It is commonly voiced by non-partisan people that the Palestinians are the Jews of the Arab world.

Guerrilla warfare is as old as war itself. Insurgencies of irregular soldiers fought in India with the Moslems fighting a Hindu government, insurgents acted in Cuba with Fidel Castro leading a communist group to power, in Palestine with the Jews wanting to eliminate the British from power, and in Ireland the Irish Republican Army (IRA) fought the British. Since 1775 the average guerrilla war has lasted 7 years and since 1945 almost ten years or longer.

Power, self-interest and hypocrisy govern all human behavious, without exception. There is no ethnic group, religious entity, or race that is exempt. So it stands to reason that by being quiescent, the Palestinians would not have achieved their objective, a state of their own governed by themselves, and with as big a land area as they can negotiate and where they have the majority. The Palestinians of course, would like to eliminate Israel as a state entirely and the Israelis would rather not have to deal with them in any way. Without any resources but small arms, and the lives of their people, they took the only way open and fought a guerrilla war, and killing civilians is the easy way to be troublesome. If they had done nothing, the Israelis would have acted accordingly. They will eventually succeed for a very political reason. The Israelis want a Jewish dominated state but it is crucial that it is a democracy, and that would be impossible with an ever-growing Arab electorate. That is reason enough never to absorb the West Bank. The only unknown at present, is the timing, the borders, and the fate of East Jerusalem.