The Ultinate Goal of the Arabs
by Carl Alpert 
August 5, 2001

Haifa - What are the problematic issues which Israel and the 
Palestinians find so difficult to solve?  Establishment of a 
Palestinian state?  Sovereignty over Jerusalem?  The right of 
return to Israel for several million Arab refugees?  The daily 
violence, ranging from suicide bombers to deadly fire at 
motorists on the roads?

There can be negotiations on all of these, but even if every 
one of these problems is faced and settled with some degree of 
compromise where possible, this will not bring peace to the 
Middle East, for each of these is but a symptom of the basic 
problem which many in Israel seem unwilling to face directly.  
The Palestinians are basically and inherently opposed to the
very existence of Israel, and under their present leadership 
will not give up their struggle until Israel disappears from 
the map.

This unpleasant truth has long been known and is given frequent 
expression in the Arabic press and in statements by Palestinian 
leaders, though never openly at international and diplomatic 
forums.

Occasionally this basic Palestinian axiom does find an echo in 
the outside world.  Thus, very recently, Marwan Bargouti, leader 
of the Tanzim, who are responsible for much of the current 
terrorism, told The New Yorker:
"The goal of the current Intifada is a Palestinian state, but 
afterwards, there will be even greater things for which to strive.  
There is no room for more than one state between the Jordan River 
and the Mediterranean."

Amru Nasif, a columnist for the Egyptian paper Al-Usbu', shared 
with his readers the popular belief that "the despised racist 
Jewish entity will be annihilated....I am not ashamed to speak 
about driving them into the sea."

Feisal Husseini, one of the most prominent Palestinian leaders 
until his recent death, and supposed to be a moderate, made no 
secret of the goal. 
In his last interview with an Egyptian paper he was asked what 
was the higher pan-Arab strategy.  He replied: "From the river 
(Jordan) to the sea."  He spelled it out at greater length, as he 
had done many times in the past:
"Our ultimate goal is the liberation of all of historic Palestine 
from the River to the sea, even if this means that the conflict 
will last for another thousand years, or for many generations."

Contemporary Palestinian political literature is filled with 
repetition of the same views.  There's nothing new in it.  
A.M. Rosenthal recently recalled that for decades when he visited 
Israel and asked the Arabs there what they wanted from the Jews, 
he "would get the same contemptuous waving gesture at the sea, 
meaning, we want the sea, and no Jews between us and it."

Every map of the area produced by the Palestinians has ignored 
the existence of Israel and has depicted Palestine as occupying 
the whole land.  These maps have been widely publicized.  Why have 
they been ignored?

In his book, "Does America Need a Foreign Policy?"  Henry 
Kissinger notes that "the Arabs, and especially the Palestinians, 
consider the very existence of Israel as an intrusion into 'holy' 
Arab territory."

What children in Palestinian areas and Syrian schools are being 
taught about Israel and the need to eliminate it, assuring that 
the hatred is guaranteed in the coming generations, has been the 
subject of numerous revelatory studies.

These are the views not only of the extremist Palestinian leaders,
but also of the Palestinian man in the street, who has them 
hammered into him incessantly.  There's nothing new about them.  
I find in a 1988 issue of The Jerusalem Post an interview with 
one Abdel-Nasser, of the Nusseirat refugee camp.  When asked by 
a reporter if he wanted an independent Palestine state in the 
Gaza Strip and the West Bank, he replied: "No.  We want a 
Palestinian state over the whole of Palestine - not only in the 
territories, but also in Haifa, Acre and Jaffa."

Repeated opinion surveys among Palestinians confirm these views.  
A very recent poll at Bir Zeit University drew a 72% response of 
Palestinians supporting the "liberation" of the entire area.

Even more recently, in June, 2001, the official Palestine Authority 
television broadcast a sermon by Sheik Muhammad Ibrahim Al-Madhi in 
which he told all "lovers of Allah" that "we will continue the 
Intifada until the land of Palestine is liberated.  We will not be 
satisfied with the mere establishment of a Palestinian state," 
and he added, generously: "We welcome, as we did in the past, 
any Jew who wants to live in this land as a Dhimmi (second class 
citizen)."

In view of the above, it is clear that any compromise made by 
Israel, any surrender of settlements or territory, merely makes 
easier and brings closer the Palestinian implementation of their 
master plan.

A thousand years, said one of them?  Generations?  But a strong 
and determined and united Israel can progress and develop and 
withstand all attacks.  In the meantime, it is possible that 
there may yet arise among enlightened and intelligent Arabs 
(surely there must be such), a new brand of moderate leadership 
which will realize that the present policies are causing untold 
suffering and loss of life among the Palestinians themselves. 
Surely, sanity may yet prevail, and hostility may be replaced by 
a vision of the two Semitic brothers, living side by side with 
mutual respect, creating a life of prosperity and security here 
for all.  But that will obviously require patience.