Its interesting how you all are going off against the Israelis on this forum. And have yet to critique the actions of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq.
When 1948 came around, Jewish leaders accepted the UN mandate of the division of Palestine. ~52% going to Jews, who yes, barely occupied 5% of the land. And the rest to Palestinians who farmed and lived the land for centuries. The Jewish leaders weren't going to say no. In fact would you? In face of a well armed and formidable army of 4 nations, while on paper.
When the Arabs attacked, they weren't fighting for the Palestinians. In fact Syrian artillery attacked Iraqi forces who were on the verge of overrunning Jewish positions in West Bank. Jordan wouldnt let Saudi tribesmen go through their territory. Egypt was pissed off that Jordan had a more formidable army and might take over it's influence in the Arab League.
Here are some interesting quotes, perhaps you failed to read them in wiki. The sources of the quotes are also very interesting reads if you find time.
In 1946–47, Abdullah said that he had no intention to "resist or impede the partition of Palestine and creation of a
Jewish state."
[78]Ideally, Abdullah would have liked to annex all of Palestine, but he was prepared to compromise.
[79][80] He supported the partition, intending that the West Bank area of the British Mandate allocated for the Arab state be annexed to Jordan.
[81] Abdullah had secret meetings with the Jewish Agency (at which the future
Israeli Prime MinisterGolda Meir was among the delegates) that reached an agreement of Jewish non-interference with Jordanian annexation of the West Bank (although Abdullah failed in his goal of acquiring an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea through the Negev desert) and of Jordanian agreement not to attack the area of the Jewish state contained in the United Nations partition resolution (in which Jerusalem was given neither to the Arab nor the Jewish state, but was to be an internationally administered area). In order to keep their support to his plan of annexion of the Arab State, Abdullah promised to the British he would not attack the Jewish State.
[82]
King
Farouk of Egypt was anxious to prevent Abdullah from being seen as the main champion of the Arab world in Palestine, which he feared might damage his own leadership aspirations of the Arab world.
[79] In addition, Farouk wished to annex all of southern Palestine to Egypt.
[79]
The tendency of the Palestinians to dissipate their forces along village and clan lines would be a major weakness of the Palestinian side.
[125] In particular there was a split within the Palestinian community between those loyal to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haji Amin Husseini and those opposed to his leadership.
[79]
Saudi Arabia sent hundreds of volunteers to join the Arab forces. In February 1948, around 800 tribesmen had gathered near
Aqaba so as to invade the
Negev, but crossed to Egypt after Saudi rival King Abdallah officially denied them permission to pass through Jordanian territory.
[144]
The initial Arab plans called for Syrian and Lebanese forces to invade from north while Jordanian and Iraqi forces were to invade from east in order to meet at Nazareth and then to push forward together to Haifa. In the south, the Egyptians were to advance and take Tel Aviv.
[161] At the Arab League meeting in Damascus on 11–13 May, Abdullah rejected the plan, which served Syrian interest, using the fact his allies were afraid to go to war without his army. He proposed that the Iraqis attack the Jezreel valley and Arab Legion enter Ramallah and Nablus and link with the Egyptian army at Hebron,
[161] which was more in compliance with his political objective to occupy the territory allocated to the Arab State by the partition plan and promises not to invade the territory allocated to the Jewish State by the partition plan. In addition, Lebanon decided not to take part to the war at the last minute due to the still influential Christians' opposition and to Jewish bribes.
[72]
:'A combined invasion of a Jordanian and Egyptian army started . . . The Syrian and the Lebanese armies engaged in a token effort but did not stage a major attack on the Jewish state.'
To basically sum all this up, it seems Muslims are pissed off that Israel won the wars. But rather than attempting to understand why they lost they're more concerned about another war and hopefully get even.
Rather than attempting to solidify Muslim political, economic, and human capital power we are more concerned over having more land (Morocco, Algeria), becoming leaders of the "Muslim Ummah" (Qaddafi, Mubarak, Saudis, UAE, Qatar, Iran, Indonesia) or sucking up to nations rich in oil wealth (Pakistan) to such a point that it harms their own national interests.
For fu<ks sake, Fatah(PLO) the Messiah of the Palestinian People are more busy supplying Israel with Concrete to make their settlements in the West Bank. Not to mention the 'Apartheid Wall' built with Palestinian supplied concrete.
The costs to Education Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza, Refugee Camps are paid more by the Western Nations than their Muslim brothers who are more intent on buying shiny new toys.
