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Published on 04/13/1998 All articles from this issue

Los Altos Morning Forum lecture audience treated to overview of Middle East history

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By Marjorie Kellogg-Van Rheeden

Special to the Town Crier

Ori Soltes gave a spellbinding lecture to the Morning Forum on April 7, as he explored centuries of Middle East aspirations and failures leading to their present situation.

"Survival has been the first accomplishment. While the trauma of one military success after another has rarely led to full-fledged peace, it is more than just a cease fire," he said.

Soltes is the director, B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. and an assistant professor at Georgetown University. His mastery of 21 languages has enabled him to extensively research and compile information that he presents in lectures and seminars.

Soltes explained the historical background of Jerusalem from King Solomon through the invasion of the Greeks, Romans, Christianity, Crusaders and the Ottoman-Turks.

Soltes told of how the Romans conquered Palestine, and drove the Jews from the country. They scattered throughout the world for centuries without citizenship until Theodor Herzl founded the Zionist movement. In Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, Herzl proposed a Jewish national home in Palestine.

In 1917, British Prime Minister Balfour's Declaration pledged British support for Palestine as a Jewish nation. Conflict with the Arabs resulted.

From 1939-1944, the occupying British, who were struggling to keep Arab support because they were locked in another war, allowed only 15,000 Jews to come to Palestine each year, while 10-20 million Jews were at risk throughout Europe.

"In May, 1948 the Jewish state declared its independence and the rest is history," Soltes said.

`He described the 50 years since 1948 as an epilogue. "The essential triumph, along with survival, has been having a place of refuge. But there have been accompanying traumas.

"During the six-day war in 1967, promised aid from the Nixon administration only happened after they had taken a good beating. Egypt wanted the Gaza strip that was populated by Palestinians. The refugee issue, involving ethnic, tribal, political splinter groups, is still unsolved," Soltes said.

"The most overwhelming sense of triumph since 1993 is the peace accords - first with the Palestinians, then Jordan. The downside is whether Arafat can prevent the terrorism that since 1993 has resulted in nearly 300 Israeli deaths.

Soltes said Israel has had many scientific triumphs in areas from biochemistry to astronomy; medical advancements in treating burns and injuries associated with war and terrorism; the preeminence of the Ben Gurion University that in 1996 drew 50,000 Third World students to study areas of irrigation, agriculture and desalination in Israel, are triumphs. The trauma is that you hardly ever hear a positive word from the media of this impact.

"So, too, with the arts - Israeli literature, prose, music, theatre, dance, the visual arts have enriched world culture," he said.

Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. To get on a waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.