As Israel delivers punishing retaliatory attacks from Hamas rocket fire, the world has become engulfed in debate of the underlying issues regarding the causes of violence in the West Bank. Although unbiased information is difficult to come by regarding both sides, it appears that Israel is specifically targeting rocket sites used by Hamas for the launching of Iranian supplied Fajr rockets. Hamas, a Palestinian group labeled as a terrorist organization has been firing the rockets indiscriminately as a reaction to the killing of a Hamas general, Ahmad Jabari.

Israel is in a difficult position at the moment. The results of Arab Spring thus far have not been favorable to the secular democratic state surrounded by hostile regimes. To the South, Egypt has overthrown their recent dictator and given power (democratically) to a majority party composed of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, another group hostile to the Jewish state. Although Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is currently engaged in a bloody rebellion, some are reporting that Assad may contribute to the Palestinian cause using Lebanon as a proxy to attack Israel with Iranian assistance. To the East, Jordan’s King Abdullah II has called for a halt to “Israeli Aggression.” Abdullah went on to state that, “a deal on a two state solution must be reached.”

The fact that the King of Jordan is so eager to create a new Arab state at the expense of the Jewish one is interesting considering his own nation is majority Palestinian. Although there are 21 official Arab states and only one Jewish State, Arab nationalists are intent on creating a new state out of the West Bank and the territories inhabited by Arab people within Israel itself. Although there are claims that Palestine is itself the 22nd Arab nation, the United States, Israel and most Western states do not recognize it as such and the governance of the West bank falls to Hamas, an organization dedicated to fundamentalist Islamism.

In a video shot in 1978, a 28 year old Benjamin Netanyahu debates about whether there should be a Palestinian state created on the West Bank and Gaza. To those who are unfamiliar with the mindset of the current Israeli Prime Minister, this video gives an interesting glimpse into the reasoning why he is against it. Netanyahu argues that it is unfair to again partition Israel for the purpose of creating a new Palestinian state when there are already 21 Arab states in existence and that Arab nationalist leaders have already admitted that Jordan is a Palestinian state. Bibi’s debate held when he was a young man sheds remarkable light into the ethos of Israeli nationalism and the mindset of the Prime Minister. It’s an essential watch for those who are trying to better understand the attitude of the Israeli’s in the current conflict and their reasonings for resisting calls for a separate state.

Questioner: “Do the Palestinians have a right to a separate state?”

Netanyahu: “No I don’t think they do…”

What do you think?

