Ibrahim Makhous Quotes
Syria refuses to take responsibility for curtailing Palestinians fighting for their despoiled homeland. Palestine is a sacred cause that will never die.
Syria was launching and supoorting Palestenian terror attacks Israel, and then was complaining when Israel retaliated. The American Ambassador, a known pro-Arab, even suggested that the Syrians curtail their support for the terror attacks.
Ibrahim Makhous, *, Syrian Foreign Minister, Statement to American Ambassador to Syria Hugh H. Smythe, April 1967
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There were Arabs living in Palestine since Roman times. However, there was no concept of Palestinians as a separate people from Jordanians or other Arabs in the Middle East. There had never been a Palestinian government separate from the other Arabs in the region and separate from the Kingdom of Jordan. At the birth of Israel, all the Arab Armies of the region attacked the new state, which managed to defend itself but in the process the Arab governments had told the Arabs of Israel to leave the Area so their Armies would be able to attack all others. After the Arab victory, they could return and could have their land and the Jewish land. The victory never happened and the Arabs who left have been refugees outside of Israel and describe themselves as “Palestinians” which have had a quasi government in the PLO. The Palestinians who stayed in Israel became full citizens of the Jewish State. Other Palestinian refugees left the area and emigrated throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.
This was an interview with Reuters News Agency in English. Arab leaders often make English Statements to the Western Press which are completely contradictory to what they say to their Arab constituents and followers. In this case he seems to acknowledge that Hamas and he do not deny the right of Israel to exist and accepts that nation per se. Yet at the same time Meshaal has never made this statement in Arabic and has made no gesture to change the Hamas Charter which calls for the destruction and elimination of Israel or to criticize the Hamas other leaders and followers who constantly call for “Death to Israel” and the destruction of the Jewish state. See {585395} for an eloquent statement of the practice of Arab leaders and politicians.
The PLO and the Popular Front were guests in Jordan but would not submit to Jordanian sovereignty and control. The Palestinians then tried to take over Jordan. As a result, the Jordanians expelled the Palestinians from Jordan.
”Palestine” to the Arabs of the area meant the territory of the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel itself. They wanted to expel the Jews and or take over the whole area as a single state—Palestine—with an Arab majority. With the Israeli Defense Forces successes under Dayan, this notion of Palestine was “finished”. The notion of a Palestinian State which included the West Bank and Gaza but not Israel was then negotiated and these negotiations were ongoing for years. Minorities of Arabs and Israelis did not want to see a any Palestinian state that did not include Israel proper, and they blocked it whenever they could.
One of the characteristic of many Muslim leaders is their willingness to sacrifice the lives of their people for political objectives. This has been supported by a willingness of a significant minority of the Muslim population to sacrifice their lives—especially when the leaders have been skilled enough to link their political objectives to the welfare and survival of Islam.
Ibrahim Makhūs or Ibrahim Makhous or Brahim Makhous and Arabic: إبراهيم ماخوس was a Syrian Syrian Baathist politician who sat on the Regional Command from 1966 to 1970. He served as foreign minister during Salah Jadid's rule.
