When Israel made peace with Egypt, it was based on the concept that Israel return all the land back that was won during the 1948 War of Independence, including the oil wells that Israel developed and desperately needed.
- The Gaza Strip, where the refugee camps are was part of Egypt before the war, and Israel never laid a claim to it; the Egyptians refused to take it back.
- The West Bank, when Israel made peace with Jordan; the king refused to take it back.
Two Moslem nations had a chance to take back Palestine and give it to the Palestinians and refused--this process created 'the new Palestine,' an untenable country made up of few camps and the West Bank (of Jordan), the two lands other Moslems refused to take back.
This story is excerpted from an interview given by Dr. Eldad, an Israeli Jew, to the New English Review in November 2008. Although nine years ago, in 2005, it is relevant today since the Islamic-Judeo-Christian dilemma has persisted over fifteen centuries.
Arieh Eldad is a medical doctor specializing in plastic surgery and a member of Israel's Knesset. He served as the Director of Hadassah Hospital, Ein Kerem's Department of Plastic Surgery from 2000 to 2003 and is the Founder and Chairman of the Israeli Burn Association.
“I was instrumental in establishing the "Israeli National Skin Bank", which is the largest in the world. The National Skin Bank stores skin for every day needs as well as for war time or mass casualty situations. This skin bank is hosted at the Hadassah Ein Kerem University hospital in Jerusalem where I was the Chairman of plastic surgery. This is how I was asked to supply skin for an Arab woman from Gaza, who was hospitalized in Soroka Hospital in Beersheva, after she was injured by a gas tank explosion of which such atrocities happen among Arab families when the women are suspected of having an affair. We supplied all the needed Homografts for her treatment. She was successfully treated by my friend and colleague, Prof. Lior Rosenberg and discharged to return to Gaza. She was invited for regular follow-up visits to the outpatient clinic in Beersheva.”
Newspaper Headline: On 20 June 2005, twenty-one-year-old Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Biss was
detained at a crossing into Israel when something about her gait struck the guards on duty at that post as somewhat amiss. This Palestinian woman was arrested after a search revealed she had been carrying 22 lbs. of explosives strapped to her body. While al-Biss had ostensibly been attempting to enter Israel to attend a follow-up appointment at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, questioning revealed that it had been her intent to detonate the payload she'd been carrying at that institution. It seems that her family promised her that if she did that, they would forgive her. The would-be bomber had been treated there only five months previous for severe burns received after a gas canister exploded on a fire while she was cooking at her refugee camp home in the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Eldad concluded, "This is only one example of the war between Jews and Muslims in the Land of Israel. It is not a territorial conflict. This is a civilisational conflict, or rather a war between civilization & barbarism."
