It’s the struggle of all struggles, the ultimate quagmire, an abyss of hate and death. Palestinians and Israelis, will it ever end? The answer can be found in one simple word, a word that that will lead us to the end by taking us back to the beginning. On Thursday’s Glenn Beck Program, he explored the only question that matters: Why?
“I think this hour will change your perspective. It will also help you understand what’s really happening with ISIS and ISIL… What is the real objective,” Glenn said. “Out of all of the peace accords and the cease-fires and the nonviolent pledges, none of them ever get to the root of the problem, and that is the ‘why.’ Until the why is addressed, the cycle of violence and hate is just going to continue.”
So how do get to the root of the why? Glenn started with a timeline that many have probably seen before. It included the 2014 Israeli/Hamas conflict, the 2012 Gaza conflict, the Second Intifada (2000), the Fist Intifada, the 1968 Six Day War, and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. While most timelines documented the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would end there, Glenn took it a step further – all the way to the beginning of World War I.
“The world is at war for the first time, and it is divided,” Glenn said. “You have the Allied Powers… and then you have in the purple the Central Powers. The Allies: U.S., Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Serbia. And then the Central Powers, the bad guys, if you will, of World War I: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire.”
Below is a map of detailing the Allied (orange) and Central (purple) Powers:
According to Glenn, this map highlights the “root” of the Middle East tensions we have come to know today, and, for the purposes of this show, Glenn was particularly interested in the Ottoman Empire.
“This is the last time the Arab world had a united Islamic state led by a religious leader, the Ottoman Empire, the caliphate,” he explained. “The Allies knew the Ottoman Empire could shut down key shipping routes effectively and then cripple Britain’s economy, France. So they knew the Ottoman Empire was going to be a problem. They had to neutralize it.”
Glenn proceeded to show a map of “Ottoman Syria” – the area that made up the caliphate:
“Here is a map from 1851 of the Ottoman Syria. It encompassed present-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, parts of Iraq and Jordan. This is so critical that you remember this map because this map plays a role today,” Glenn said. “Reestablishing these borderlines, it’s at the center of everything that is happening today.”
Neutralizing the power of the Ottoman Empire was at the center of western strategy at this point in time. Great Britain sent an army officer by the name of T.E. Lawrence to the Middle East to convince Arab leaders to fight against the Ottomans.
“He promised them absolutely everything, the moon and the stars and everything underneath,” Glenn explained, “including one key thing: Rule over a new united Arab kingdom of Greater Syria.”
Lawrence was successful in recruiting forces, but Britain never intended to honor the promises he made. Instead, Britain was busy negotiating with France about how to divide the region. After all, they needed to ensure no united Arab kingdom ever got in way of their economic and societal goals.
Here enters two men who Glenn described as “critical.” Francois Georges-Picot of France and Britain’s Mark Sykes led the negotiations between the two countries that resulted in a whole new set of borders.
On May 16, 1916, Britain, France, and Russia secretly agreed to the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Below is a map illustrating the new borders:
“The Middle East was now fractured, which, if you keep it fractured, the British and their allies in the region can control it. They wanted it that way,” Glenn said. “So new lines were drawn, and these new lines never existed before. There were no countries like this before, but they existed under Sykes-Picot.”
The Arabs were forced to accept the agreement, and, by 1921, modern problems were starting to manifest themselves. To give the Jews facing persecution in Nazi Germany a place to escape to, Britain drew up a two state Palestine.
“Two decades before Israel was officially declared a state by the UN, this was happening. Britain and France set the entire structure up for them,” Glenn explained. “It wasn’t about the Jews, and it wasn’t about the Arabs. They were scapegoats.”
The Arab leaders new the only way to consolidate power once again was to unite around a common enemy, and that enemy was the Jews. Through the 1920s and 30s, there were a string of violent acts carried out against Jews in the region. It culminated in the 1936 Arab revolt against British peacekeeping troops.
The true motive of the Arab world becomes clear once you consider what happened in 1947. With the British mandate in Palestine set to expire, the Palestinians were finally offered exactly what they said they wanted: Their own land.
A two state solution was proposed with 56% of the land going to the Jews and 43% to the Arabs. Jerusalem would be international territory. Below is a map of the 1947 UN Partition Plan:
The Jews accepted the deal. All the Arabs need to do is sign on the dotted line, and the land will be theirs. But, alas, they refuse. Why? Because peace with Israel means the Jewish scapegoat the Arabs were using to cultivate power suddenly goes away.
“If the Palestinian homeland was the goal for the Arab world, not the Palestinians, the Arab world, all they had to do was agree. But remember, the scapegoat goes away,” Glenn said. “If you make peace with Israel, that all goes out the window. So when they were presented with what they said they wanted and always wanted, the nation of their own, they said no. And then all hell broke loose.”
As Glenn explained, there are five key points to keep in mind when considering the history of this conflict:
1. The Sykes-Picot agreement
2. The desire for a united Arab kingdom
3. The quest to regain control of 'Greater Syria'
4. The western desire to maintain economic control of the Middle East
5. The Jewish and Palestinian people are nothing more than pawns in this larger game
After highlighting some of the little known details of the 1948 and 1968 wars, in addition to the dark history of Arab on Arab violence, Glenn drew the all-important parallel between this historical analysis and today’s world.
“I know I read about Sykes-Picot years ago when we were at FOX, and I put up on the chalkboard, and I said, ‘Hey, this is what’s going to happen to the Middle East,’” Glenn recalled. “But it didn’t all fall into place until I learned about ISIS and ISIL and the difference between ISIS and ISIL. Now, it all makes sense to me.”
The ultimate goal of the Arab world is return the Middle East to its pre-Sykes-Picot glory. How do you do that? By destabilizing the region.
“You have to go after the dictators,” Glenn explained. “Our president and all of us have cheered when we got rid of the dictators in Egypt. Yay! A revolution, totally isolated. Libya, yay! A revolution, totally isolated. Iraq, yay! A revolution, totally isolated. Now we’re going after Syria. Yeah, let’s get him! Totally isolated. Who’s next?”
Earlier this week, Glenn explained the important distinction between ISIS and ISIL on his radio program. While ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIL stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. What modern countries make up the Levant? Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and… Israel
“The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, that’s the difference between ISIL and ISIS. The L stands for Levant. It stands for this part all the way down to Egypt,” Glenn said. “They’re doing nothing but remolding the map closer to their heart’s desire and what they were promised 100 years ago. Now is their opportunity to achieve what they’ve always wanted from the very beginning, a return to a unified Arab kingdom—what a surprise, a caliphate, Islamic rule.”
Until this region is returned to Arab control, the fighting will not end. There is no easy or obvious solution, but, now more than ever, it is important that Americans and westerners understand the facts so they can understand the end game.
“Our responsibility is to first tell the truth, because you know what? You know who’s a pawn? It’s the Israelis, the Palestinians,” he said. “And the American people, the Canadian citizen, the British citizen, the French citizen, all the citizens of the world that have shed their blood and their treasure over there for nothing but a mountain of lies. Tell the truth.”
“Please, take this broadcast and spread it,” Glenn concluded. “This is important information. Before we rush into another war, we’d better at least know what this one’s all about.”
You can watch the episode on-demand HERE.
