Fitzgerald: The flight into Israel

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip - Trapped by Israeli tanks and Hamas gunmen, hundreds of terrified Palestinians holed up in a stench-filled concrete tunnel at a border crossing Tuesday, desperate to flee the Islamic militants now ruling the Gaza Strip.

Israel took in two people hit by Hamas gunfire, 24 hours after they were wounded in an assault on the tunnel, but officials remained steadfast in rejecting pleas to throw open the border. Three people wounded in the Gaza fighting last week also were allowed into Israel. -- from this article

This flight into Israel by those dedicated to eliminating the Jewish state, and who spend their time trying to kill Israelis and demonizing them, though they know, in the end, that the Israelis are not the demons they paint them but far milder (always and everywhere) than their fellow Muslim Arabs, also took place more than 30 years ago, during the fighting between Black September and the Jordanian army.

Here is an in-medias-res excerpt:

The fighting began the following day, with the Jordanians laying down an artillery barrage against the PLO stronghold of Zarqa. Within hours similar attacks were taking place throughout Amman, at the strategic Jabal Al Hussein, and against refugee camps such as Al Wahdat (which had been the first to raise the flag of the Republic of Palestine). Arafat used the word 'genocide' to describe what was happening to the Palestinians, while urging his fighters to resist. The Palestinians fought well, but there were already discouraging events in the works. Iraqi army units which Arafat had counted on refused to come to his aid and were seen retreating to a distant safe area.

On September 18th, Arafat's men were still holding out, and the Jordanian army was failing to make any progress at all, let alone the easy victory that was expected. The Arab League issued appeals for a cease to the fighting, but little real action was taken. By the end of the day, poor logistics and disorganization among the Palestinians began to take a toll, and several units were running out of ammunition. By early morning on the 19th of September, armored units from the Palestinian Liberation Army and and regular units from Syria invaded northern Jordan, driving towards Amman. Arafat's propensity for propaganda was put to use as he declared northern Jordan a liberated area.

The fighting in the streets of Amman was bloody. Neither side took any prisoners, many innocents were raped and killed, and much of the city was set ablaze. Following this battle, there were several meetings to attempt to bring an end to the violence between the sides. Despite ever-rising animosity between Arafat and Hussein, a truce was hammered out between the sides by Sharif Nasser. However, immediately after this truce was set, Nasser died suddenly, and the agreement was never observed.

Arafat returned to Jordan after the negotiations and set up headquarters in Ajlun, a city in the north. He sent repeated messages to Hussein professing moderation and promoting a policy of live and let live, but the atmosphere had already become too poisoned for any amicable settlement. The final Jordanian move to liquidate the Palestinian resistance took place in July 1971. The Jordanian army pushed the Palestinian forces to a corner of the country, bordering Israel and Syria, and crushed them there. Arafat's screams of genocide drew Arab protests and led to the closure of the Iraqi and Syrian borders with Jordan and suspension of Kuwaiti aid, but these measures could not alter the fate of the Palestinian fighters. Another three thousand Palestinians died in the next two weeks of fighting. The ferocity of the onslaught forced many of the Palestinian fighters to flee across the Jordan River to seek asylum in Israel. After hiding in a cave for some time, Arafat managed to call in a favor from Munib Masri, a member of the Jordanian Cabinet, and escaped into Lebanon with two thousand of his fighters.

Please note that penultimate sentence: "The ferocity of the onslaught forced many of the Palestinian fighters to flee across the Jordan River to seek asylum in Israel." And so they threw away their guns, waded across the river, into the comparatively benign, and certainly mercifully non-Muslim arms, of the waiting Israelis.

A moment to ponder.

And so is the one right now, the sight of those Fatah-men, trying to escape into Israel.

We have a whole series of paintings called "The Flight Into Egypt."

Who will produce for these kraussian last-days-of-mankind times, paintings called "The Flight Into Israel"?

Posted by Hugh at June 20, 2007 10:15 AM
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