In 1973 the Likud party was founded by Ariel Sharon and Menachem Begin. You will recall that Begin was the terrorist who had celebrated the massacre at Deir Yassin. In May 1975 Likud formed a government and Begin became prime minister. He refused to acknowledge any right of the Palestinian Arabs to the West Bank and Gaza. He referred to the West Bank by its Biblical names, Judea and Samaria. For Begin, they were an inalienable part of Israel, and he increased the rate of the establishment of settlements in them.
When Egypt became side-lined in the Arab world because of Sadat’s visit to Israel and his singular approach in 1977, Begin’s hand was strengthened. His unsaid goal was to sabotage peace for land negotiations.
The Zionists had agreed to the Peel partition, the UN partition and the subsequent 1949 armistice line, none of which allocated any territory in the West Bank to Israel. While it was clear that many Zionists had agreed to the partition as a thin edge of the wedge, the demand that the West Bank was Israeli territory was an egregious breach of the 1949 border agreement. Furthermore, Ben-Gurion had always thought that the West Bank could not be part of Israel for demographic reasons. Incorporation of the West Bank (and Gaza) into Israel would result in either a non-democratic Jewish state, or an Arab state. The former would attract strong criticism for all quarters, the latter was for Ben-Gurion, off the table. Much later, in 2007, then a former Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert warned that Israel could become an apartheid state.
Days before its election, Likud had published its platform: [1]
The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace; therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the [Mediterranean] Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.
A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a Palestinian State, jeopardizes the security of the Jewish population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel, and frustrates any prospect of peace.
It could not be clearer. Likud did not recognize the rights of the Palestinians to Palestine, nor any part of it. Moreover, a Palestinian State would endanger the existence of the state of Israel. The first statement was simply false. The Zionists had no right to Palestine. The Palestinian Arabs did. The second statement was correct. Absent peace, Israel was an endangered species. It continued:
The Likud government … will spare no effort to promote peace … Directly or through a friendly state, Israel will invite her neighbors to hold direct negotiations, in order to sign peace agreements without pre-conditions on either side … The PLO is an organization of assassins, which the Arab countries use as a political and military tool, … its aim is to liquidate the State of Israel, set up an Arab country instead and make the Land of Israel part of the Arab world. The Likud government will strive to eliminate these murderous organizations in order to prevent them from carrying out their bloody deeds.
Likud said it wanted peace and would negotiate in good faith with any party except the PLO, which is to say, except the Palestinian Arabs, those who held the right to the land. Likud did not say whom it would negotiate with on behalf of the Palestinians. The unsaid agenda was that Likud was not going to negotiate with anyone who claimed the right to Palestine. The conclusion was that Likud did not want to negotiate peace. The platform was ingenuous.
A little later, in December 1977, Begin stated the conditions for autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.[2] The military government would be withdrawn in name, but law and order would remain in the hands of Israel, the IDF and the Israeli police. Elected individuals would have some administrative authority, and Israelis could buy land in the West Bank. Then:
Israel insists on its right and demand for its sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Knowing that other demands exist, it proposes, for the sake of the agreement and of peace, to leave the question of sovereignty in those areas open … We do not even dream of the possibility … of abandoning those areas to the control of the murderous organization that is called the PLO … Let it be known that whoever desires an agreement with us should please accept our announcement that the IDF will be deployed in Judea, Samaria and Gaza … We have a right and a demand for sovereignty over these areas of Eretz Yisrael. This is our land and it belongs to the Jewish nation rightfully.
This is what Likud meant by pre-conditions on either side. Any Likud starting point, and Likud claim, or any Likud condition was excluded from the pre-conditions.
Again, it could hardly be clearer. Likud’s position was notwithstanding it understood that the Palestinian Arbs claimed the West Bank and Gaza as rightfully theirs (and many Palestinians claimed a lot more of Palestine), the West Bank and Gaza were parts of Israel, they certainly were not Palestinian Arab and this was not up for negotiation. A precondition of peace was that those who converted the West Bank and Gaza must give up their claims! Begin made a point of saying that if Israel were to withdraw the IDF from the West Bank and Gaza, then the PLO would control these areas, so for this reason alone, Israel will not remove the IDF. One wonders what Begin thought there was to negotiate. The kind of autonomy proposed by Begin was not autonomy.
[1] The Likud Party: Platform, March 1977, in Walter Laqueur and Dan Schueftan (Eds.), ibid., locn 4568
[2] Menachem Begin, Speech to Knesset: Autonomy Plan for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 28th December 1977 in Walter Laqueur and Dan Schueftan (Eds.), ibid., locn 4835
Copyright (c) 2018, Christopher John Brickill. All rights are reserved, and the moral rights of Christopher John Brickhill as the Author have been asserted by him.
Christopher Brickhill on Palestine 