By Camilo Ezagui Menashe
“The Palestinian people does not exist,” said the military leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Commander Zuheir Mohsen, in an interview with Dutch newspaper Trouw, conducted by journalist James Dorsey on March 31, 1977. “The existence of an independent Palestinian identity is only for tactical reasons,” he stated.
If we add Zuheir Mohsen’s exposure of Arab nationalism as a “tactical” ruse to the alarming statements made by Mahmoud al-Zahar, co-founder of the Islamic Hamas in Gaza, we see a clearer picture of the hidden agenda behind Islamic fundamentalism. In 2022, al-Zahar brazenly declared: “Israel is only the first target. After that, the entire planet must submit to the Law of Islam, and then there will be no more traitorous Jews or Christians”.
THE 2000 TWO-STATE SOLUTION NEGOTIATIONS
It should be noted that Israel has already made significant attempts to achieve peace. In 2000, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat refused to sign the agreement for the immediate creation of a Palestinian State after negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton at Camp David. The proposed agreement offered nearly all of the disputed territories to the Palestinians, including the sensitive area of East Jerusalem. The agreement concluded with the statement that it would “end the conflict.”
Instead of continuing the negotiations, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat abruptly walked out of the Camp David talks. What followed was a brutal wave of suicide attacks that claimed the lives of more than 1,100 Israeli civilians over the next three years. Women and children were among the victims, murdered in marketplaces, restaurants, and public buses by Palestinian suicide bombers. This violent rejection of peace traumatized the Israeli public and contributed to a deep-seated distrust that endures to this day.
PEACE WITH OTHER ARAB NATIONS
Several Arab nations have recognized Israel and signed peace agreements. Egypt signed a treaty in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994. In return, Israel withdrew from territories it had occupied after the 1967 Six-Day War, including the Sinai Peninsula.
On September 15, 2020, the Abraham Accords were signed in Washington. Morocco, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates joined Egypt and Jordan in recognizing the Jewish state and establishing full diplomatic relations with Israel.
Question: Who Started the 2023 War?. Gaza has not been occupied since Israel dismantled its settlements and withdrew in 2005. The Islamic Hamas regime has ruled the Strip since 2007. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, brutally murdering, raping, mutilating, and burning the bodies of 1,200 Israeli civilians in their homes along the border—many of them elderly, women, and children. The attackers injured over 2,400 others and kidnapped 240 hostages. These atrocities received support from Islamist regimes and organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Qatar, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the governments of Syria, and Iran.
See the Amnesty International Report dated October 12, 2023, which condemned the massacre:
