In 2000, Bill Clinton was still the President. It was the year that he held the Camp David Summit with then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and then Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. It has been reported that Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state on 97% of the territory encompassed by the West Bank. Proving once again that the Palestinians had no interest in the establishment of a state, as long as Israel still existed, Arafat made no counter offer. Instead, Arafat walked out on the President of the United States, and returned to Ramallah.
From Ramallah, Arafat began the second intifada (Arabic for uprising or rebellion). The first intifada lasted from late 1987 through September, 1993. Many of you may recall that during the second intifada, Arafat sent so-called suicide bombers (I call them homicide bombers, because they were sent to murder civilians) to kill Israelis. These murderers made no distinction between young and old, men or women, Israelis who may have been sympathetic to their cause or not. They blew up Israelis on buses, in cafes and in malls. They did the same at a Passover Seder. Over 1000 Israelis were killed, with many more injured.
That was the year that I started to watch Fox News. Why? Because Fox actually let their audience know what was happening, often in disturbingly graphic detail. And I could not believe it. It felt like in the year 2000, I was watching yet another evil group of people seeking to annihilate the Jewish people. I was sad, of course. But I was also angry. And I had no patience for my fellow Jews in America, who reacted as if what was happening did not affect all of us, as if it was happening in a "foreign" country. No, these were not foreigners - they were my fellow Jews.
So that was the year I realized that I did not know enough about the history of the Middle East. I started reading up on it. I had to. Because I was determined to defend Israel, and my fellow Jews there, against all the hypercritical, hypocritical and hateful anti-Semitic attacks. Obviously, this was not the first time in history that Jews were being targeted for being Jews. It has happened countless times throughout history. But this was the year 2000.
Publicly, Bill Clinton said: "I regret that in 2000 Arafat missed the opportunity to bring that nation (a Palestinian state) into being and I pray for the day when the dreams of the Palestinian people for a state and a better life will be realized in a just and lasting peace." Privately, Clinton was said to be furious with Arafat.
As a reminder, at the end of World War I, with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire (the Turks), the British had control of the territory now encompassing Jordan, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The area was called Palestine, and under British control, it was referred to as the British Mandate or Mandatory Palestine. When the Jews were eventually given a parcel of that land for their state, they called their country the State of Israel. The Arabs were also given a parcel of the land at the same time, when the United Nations voted to partition the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. But the Arabs would not tolerate the existence of a Jewish state, and made war on the tiny new country of Israel from May 15, 1948 through March 10,1949.
It was on May 14, 1948 that the Jewish people of Palestine announced the independence of the new State of Israel. And it was on May 15, 1948 that the Arab world attacked, in the first effort of many to wipe Israel off the map. But, as many readers know, the Jews had to defend themselves against the Arabs before Israel became a country. The Haganah (the precursor to the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF), has been described as a paramilitary force that operated in Mandatory Palestine well before the establishment of the State of Israel. The Haganah had to defend the Jewish people of Palestine in the 1920's and the 1930's against Arab attacks. After the UN voted partition of the land in 1947, the Haganah again defended the Jewish people of Palestine from Arab attacks.
Dennis Ross was the United States' Middle East envoy under President Clinton. After the failure of the Camp David Summit, Ross said that Arafat wanted a "one-state solution. Not independent, adjacent Israeli and Palestinian states, but a single Arab state, encompassing all of Historic Palestine."
One thing was certain. There could no longer be any doubt - I could not stand with any on the left who sided with the Palestinians against the Israelis. And I was greatly disturbed by my fellow Jews in America who did not feel the same way that I did. If by 1991 I was no longer a man of the left, it was clear to me that I was now a conservative. I was grateful to all those who supported Israel, many of whom were Republicans and conservatives. And yes, one of the biggest supporters of Israel has consistently been Sean Hannity of Fox News.
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