An audacious proposal, and the gaping hole it pokes in the Palestinian narrative

...At this point, there is no turning back the clock, and in light of subsequent developments, Eshkol's plan is as unworkable now as it might have been sensible back then. But even after so many decades, it is worth recalling his audacious proposal, if only to highlight where the underlying fault truly lies for the ongoing conflict: with the Palestinians and their defenders.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
19 May '16..

Fifty-one years ago this week, the youthful Jewish state proposed a peace plan that could have altered the course of Middle East history and settled the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all, had it not been soundly ignored by the Arab states and the Palestinians.

And while it might seem pointless to look that far back, it is precisely now, when Israel is coming under increasing international pressure and criticism, that we need to remind the world – and ourselves – about the real underlying cause of the dispute with our neighbors.

It was May 17, 1965, when Levi Eshkol, Israel's third prime minister, ascended the podium in the Knesset to lay out a remarkably detailed plan for regional harmony.

This was before the 1967 Six Day War was even on the horizon, at a time when there was no "occupation," no "settlements" and no "Judaization" of Jerusalem.

There was just Israel, a tiny sovereign Jewish entity struggling to survive in a hostile neighborhood and surrounded by those intent on its destruction.

Eshkol, who was 70 years old at the time and had served in the Jewish legion during World War I and the Hagana's high command in Israel's struggle for independence, was considered neither charismatic nor polished, and spoke Hebrew with a Yiddish accent. But on that fateful summer day, he boldly put forward a comprehensive vision of what peace with the Arab states could look like, if only they were willing to countenance the idea.

He didn't communicate in slogans or catchphrases, as many politicians do today. Eshkol spoke in clear sentences and in no uncertain terms, offering to launch direct talks with Arab leaders with the goal of transforming the 1949 armistice agreements into lasting treaties of peace.

"We propose," he said, "that direct negotiations be conducted between Israel and the [Arab] states that signed the agreements with us, to replace them by pacts of peace. The peace settlement will be made on the basis of Israel as it is."

In other words, despite previous Arab attempts to destroy the Jewish state, Eshkol was willing to accept Israel's 1949 boundary lines if only our neighbors were ready to do the same.

"The four Arab States which have borders with us alone extend over an area of 1.2 million square kilometers," he pointed out, "and Israel has only a sixtieth part of the area in its possession, in other words slightly more than 1.5 percent – 21,000 square kilometers."

The premier then went into great detail about the benefits peace would bring, ranging from economic cooperation to a reduction in the arms race, as well as open borders and freedom of access to holy sites.

He even promised that Israel would provide financial aid toward the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in neighboring Arab countries.

In return, Eshkol made a simple request, asking the Arab states for "full respect for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of all the states in the region."

A resolute upholder of Israeli national pride – especially when clad in pajamas.

...Surrealistically, as the scary siege against Israel intensified, both the State Department and the White House “couldn’t find” copies of America’s ten-year-old guarantees to prevent precisely such a scenario. This was despite the fact that these very much-publicized guarantees were what swayed Israel, under Washington’s aggressive prodding, to withdraw from the Sinai in 1957.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
14 June '13..

In our collective memory Levi Eshkol is perceived as a weak, even a vacillating prime minister. Perhaps this was unjust already back on the eve of the Six Day War, when his image became thus ingrained in our popular lore. Certainly, compared to many of his successors in ensuing decades, Eshkol can be portrayed as a resolute upholder of Israeli national pride – especially when clad in pajamas.

Merely by refusing to change into proper daytime attire, Eshkol struck a plucky patriotic pose. In his humble night clothes he evinced more audacity than most of the wishy-washy variety that followed him in office.

Eshkol took his steadfast stand in the ungodly hours of May 27, 1967, when Soviet Ambassador Dmitri Chuvakhin arrived on the PM’s doorstep and demanded to wake him up to deliver an urgent message from Moscow. The envoy insisted he couldn’t wait till dawn.

Rather than be overawed and flustered, Eshkol chose to deliberately express his defiance of what was surely a bullying superpower diktat. He told his bureau chief, veteran diplomat Aviad Yaffe, that “under no circumstances do I have any intention of getting dressed for him” [Chuvakhin].

Those were the suffocating super-tense days in which the Arabs boasted belligerently that they were about to annihilate the Jewish state, after Egypt had blockaded the Tiran Straits and ignominiously tossed the UN peacekeepers out of Sinai.

Surrealistically, as the scary siege against Israel intensified, both the State Department and the White House “couldn’t find” copies of America’s ten-year-old guarantees to prevent precisely such a scenario. This was despite the fact that these very much-publicized guarantees were what swayed Israel, under Washington’s aggressive prodding, to withdraw from the Sinai in 1957.

Israel seemed alone, callously abandoned by its allies and coldly intimidated by the Russians. Things looked grim. How today’s crop of Israeli politicians would have coped with such extreme challenges is a matter of conjecture. But Eshkol stood his ground in his PJs and in fluent Russian rejected the stern warnings against a preemptive strike delivered by the emissary dispatched to harass him in the middle of the night.

The war, for which Israel is nowadays decried as an imperialist occupier, broke out soon thereafter and Chuvakhin was recalled by his bosses after they had resentfully severed diplomatic ties with Israel for disobeying their harshest admonitions.

For the Real Meaning of Israel Independence Day

Leo Rennert
American Thinker
19 April '10

Jews all over the world will celebrate by the Jewish calendar the 62nd anniversary of Israel's independence this year on April 19. It has become traditional on such occasions to focus almost entirely on the events of May 1948, when a nascent Jewish state, authorized by a U.N. two-state partition vote the year before, faced half a dozen Arab armies intent on destroying it. In the ensuing battles, that Jewish state managed to survive and lay the foundation for a return of Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land.

This year, however, I would argue that while reminiscing about the events of 1948, it would behoove us to focus more on 1967, when Israel again was under siege and marked for extinction by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

Why 1967 more than 1948? Because an exclusive focus on 1948 tends to abet a misleading impression that the events of that year permanently guaranteed Israel's independence. They did not.

Instead, Israel has had to fight for its independence without much respite for the last 62 years -- and at least three times has faced imminent threats of extinction. Such threats, while not imminent today, nevertheless continue into the present , as Iran with its surrogates (Hamas and Hezbollah) now seeks to pick up the mantle of Egyptian President Nasser.

To get a full sense of Israel's repeated and continuing challenges to confront enemies bent on extinguishing its independence, the Six-Day War of 1967 offers a perfect paradigm, if fully and properly recalled. It's all too easy and misleading, when examining 1967, to concentrate only on the totally unexpected and lightning-fast speed of Israel's victory. That's just the triumphant finale. What also needs to be recalled is what Israel actually faced in June 1967, in the days leading up to the Six-Day War.

(Read full article)

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