Howard Epstein – HOW THRICE “NO” BECAME KNOWLEDGE OF INFINITE OPPORTUNITY
In June 1967, before the gun barrels of the victorious army of the State of Israel – that many expected would be obliterated – had cooled, the Israeli prime minister did something if not unique then exceedingly rare. Levi Eshkol, the first Jewish leader in two millennia to preside over a united Jerusalem, offered not so much of an olive branch as a whole orchard of olive trees to those whom Israel had just defeated.
The Six Day War concluded on 10 June. On 19 June, the Israeli National Unity Government voted unanimously to return the Sinai to Egypt and the Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace agreements. The offer was thrice met with one word: “no”.
One would have to be a very assiduous scholar of history to find a parallel. Had the Allies, on entering Berlin at the conclusion of WWII, offered to withdraw to France, England and America in exchange for a peace agreement? Hardly. They had demanded, and after Hitler’s departure from the scene, received unconditional surrender. Had those same allies, following the WWI armistice at 11:00 hours on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, offered the Germany from which the Kaiser had fled, a similar withdrawal if only German would sign up for peace? Not even near. The Paris Peace Conferences, ending with treaties signed at Versailles, St Germain-en-Layes, Nueilly-sur-Seine, Trianon and Sevres, imposed harsh sanctions on Germany and the Central Powers for having drawn them into the Great War which had caused the deaths of millions. The terms were dictated by the victors, and the losers had to accept whatever humiliations were piled on them, under threat of the renewal of hostilities.
Further back in history, did Wellington ask Napoleon for some sort of pacific recognition as the price for his imperial reinstatement? Not exactly. Following his defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815, Boney (as he is affectionately known by the British) found himself, precisely one month later aboard the French corvette “L’Epervier”. He was taken first to Torbay, in England, and on 7 August he boarded the “Northumberland”, for his final voyage, to the island of St Helena from which he did not return to France until after his death.
Following the Battle of Vienna on 12 September 1683, did the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth go chasing after the defeated Ottoman army asking what they would like in exchange for a peace treaty, the eastern suburbs of Vienna perhaps? No. They harried and slaughtered the stragglers, and looted whatever they could:-
Ours are treasures unheard of . . . tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels . . . it is victory as nobody ever knew before, the enemy now completely ruined, everything lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives . . . General Starhemberg hugged and kissed me and called me his saviour (“Letter from King Sobieski to his Wife”. University of Gdansk, Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Philology. Retrieved 4 August 2011.)
So what on earth were the Israelis of that high summer of 1967 thinking? They comprehensively defeat their enemies and then start offering to return their lands to them – and in exchange for a piece of paper, arguably no more valuable than British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s Munich Agreement of 1938: the Peace for Our Time that was good for less than a year.
To recap, Israel offered to return the Sinai to Egypt, and the Golan Heights to Syria, in return for peace agreements. Now we must examine the Arab response to this possibly unique example of post-war winner’s magnanimity. It was, in short, the Three Nos of Khartoum. By 29 August, that is within six weeks after the Israeli offer, which emerged from the fourth Arab League Summit meeting on 29 August 29 Khartoum, the capital of Sudan: No peace with Israel. No recognition of Israel. No negotiations with Israel. So once again God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and once again the Jews would benefit – and wait for the Arabs to catch up with the tide of history.
Sudan’s importance may be seen at a glance. It is located in North-East Africa, sharing borders with (amongst others) Egypt (with whom Israel has had a peace treaty since 1982) to the north, Ethiopia to the southeast, and the Red Sea to the northeast; and it boasts a population of some 45 million souls, covering almost 2 million square kilometres, making it both Africa’s and the Arab world’s third-largest country. Its having been the setting for the infamous Three Nos of Khartoum raises its profile beyond the dreams of Israelis and the greatest fears of the Palestinian leadership. As of Friday, 24 October 2020, Khartoum has confirmed it wishes peace and cooperation with Israel.
Israel and Africa had been here, or somewhere close, before.
From the departure from Africa of the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German colonialists in the late 1950s, Israel was one of the first countries to extend substantial assistance to the newly independent African states. Israel was there in force in agriculture, medicine, defence and infrastructure projects, educational and professional training. Israeli government departments, in conjunction with the Israel Defence Forces and corporations, with some 30 embassies, hundreds of experts from the Israel Foreign Ministry’s Centre for International Cooperation (MASHAV) guided, trained and managed large projects for the local people. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Israel enjoyed good relations with the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
Following the Yom Kippur War, during the oil crisis of 1973, the OAU bowed to pressure exerted by the Arab League and cut off the African nose to spite its face. Israel was out of Africa, taking its world‑beating, and ever-improving, technologies with it. Now, after losing almost half a century of chances, Africa is again beating a path to Israel’s door. They see the benefits about to be bestowed on Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the five other Emirates, plus Bahrain, and say to themselves, “We’d like some of that”; and so into the trashcan of history go the Three Nos, the influence of the Arab League and the hopes of the Palestinian Leadership for Arab and Moslem unity. Determined not to swerve from the dictum of the fabled Israeli diplomat, Abba Eban, they continue on their fixed course never to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Meanwhile, the Palestinian people continue to be treated like mushrooms: raised in the dark and buried under successive layers of muck, whilst the leaders continue (as the widow of Yasser Arafat was open enough to confirm some ten days ago) to line their pockets. While Trump moved the American embassy to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, the Palestinian capital was confirmed to be – where Israel had always said it was – in the Swiss bank accounts of the Palestinian leaders.
It is time for the Palestinians, and equally for the Europeans who continue to fund Palestinian terrorism (if only they could get through several layers of Israeli intelligence with heir ten attempts each week), to face the facts: no one has a greater desire to assist mankind than the Israelis. The Gulf Arabs and Sudan are recognising it today. Tomorrow? Who knows? The sky is the limit for Israeli know-how and beneficence.
© Howard Epstein – October 2020
