You’re Right, It Didn’t Start on October 7 — It Started in 1948. Here’s Why.

Tracing the roots of Israel and Palestine’s conflict back to a rejected UN plan and a refusal of diplomacy

Whatever your views, I stand by laws, principles, and democracy. I believe in the mission of the United Nations as a force for good. Resolutions are opposed all the time, but when they are, we do not then fire rockets or murder innocent civilians. That, for me, is the true beginning of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Arab nations refused to accept a UN resolution and instead took up arms, targeting Jewish civilians.

Every conflict has roots, and we should never ignore them. Why did the 1947 partition plan even exist? Because after centuries of persecution, culminating in the Holocaust, the Jewish people needed a homeland where they could live securely. Their genocide did not begin in 1948; it was the tragic result of centuries of antisemitism.

It is worth noting that many Arab nations supported the partition of India that created Pakistan in 1947, seeing it as a just solution to protect Muslim identity and self-determination. They had no issues with land being carved out of British India to form a new Muslim homeland. Yet when a similar partition was proposed to give Jews their own state after unspeakable suffering, those same nations rejected it. When land was divided in favour of Muslims, it was acceptable. But when the principle was applied to the Jewish people, it became intolerable.

When Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, the day the British Mandate ended, five Arab states: Egypt, Syria, Transjordan (now Jordan), Iraq, and Lebanon, invaded the very next day. Their stated aim was to prevent a Jewish state from being born, with public statements even promising to push the Jews into the sea. While there had been intercommunal fighting between Jewish and Arab militias before independence, it was only after Israel became a sovereign state that a coordinated Arab invasion took place, making clear that the regional goal was nothing less than Israel’s destruction.

When Israel was attacked, it defended itself and gained ground. Some call that a land grab, yet Israel has repeatedly shown its willingness to give up territory for peace. Israel fully withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 after signing a peace treaty with Egypt, yet jihadist terror groups later used the ungoverned parts of Sinai to fire rockets into Israel. In southern Lebanon, Israel withdrew unilaterally in 2000, only for Hezbollah to build up its military power and attack across the border, sparking the 2006 Lebanon War. Even in the West Bank, Israel handed over major cities to the Palestinian Authority during the Oslo process in the 1990s, only to face continuing waves of terrorism from these areas. Time and again, Israel has given up territory in the hope of peace and been met instead with further violence.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, dismantling all settlements and removing its military presence in the hope of reducing conflict. Almost immediately, Gaza descended into violent power struggles between Palestinian factions. After Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, tensions with Fatah erupted into open warfare, with more than a hundred Palestinians killed in street battles and brutal executions. 

By mid-2007, Hamas had forcibly expelled Fatah forces, seizing full control of Gaza and transforming it into a launchpad for thousands of rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Even in brief moments when Israel was no longer their direct occupier, some factions turned their guns on their own people to ensure they could keep presenting Israel as the eternal enemy. Some can see what happened there, while others turn a blind eye.

It is heartbreaking to watch innocent Palestinians living in horrific conditions, facing death and destruction. But we cannot ignore that if their leadership had the same military strength as Israel, many would do exactly the same or worse to Israelis, and have openly vowed to do so.

When people like Bob Vylan scream “death to the IDF,” they are repeating the sentiments of antisemites whose goal has always been to eradicate the Jewish state. They do not want Israel to have a defence, because they want rockets from Gaza and Iran to land on Israeli civilians. These are uncomfortable truths, but they matter.

None of this is to justify the deaths of innocent people on any side. If everyone had respected the UN plan, we would not be here. Look at Brexit: many of us hated it, many believed it was based on lies, but we did not pick up arms and go to war with our neighbours. We fought politically and democratically. The tiny minority who turned to violence, like the murder of Jo Cox, were rightly condemned.

This is where everything went wrong in Palestine. Britain may have made contradictory promises about the land, but ultimately the partition was entrusted to the UN, not a fading empire.

We should also remember the millions of Jews displaced by Islamic and Ottoman conquests over centuries. Conspiracy theorists love to claim Jews invented their identity or are somehow imposters, using every kind of gaslighting to strip them of legitimacy. But they have a documented and preserved history that goes back long before books of antisemite conspiracy theories like Henry Ford, Louis Farrakhan, Richard Spencer and David Icke. 

Many of their supporters, drawn in by anti Jewish propaganda, are easily led to back violent attempts to bring down Israel, but if you live by the sword, you cannot then cry when you are stabbed. If your opponent has a bigger sword, perhaps you should not have drawn yours.

Diplomacy is always the better path, even if it is harder to sell. We only have to look at Ireland to see why. Michael Collins, arguably one of the most, now, admired Irish leaders in history, was murdered by his own side because he realised a painful truth: that sometimes it is better to talk and make peace than to continue costing the lives of men, women, and children. People today still call for Irish reunification, but no amount of car bombs let off against Northern Irish communities will make them want to reunite any sooner. This is the part of politics that nobody seems to learn. I say this as a half Irish and half English Roman Catholic whose roots go back to the Republic. 

People might see the need for resistance, and yes, in Ireland’s case it played its part. But you cannot draw a straight comparison between Ireland and Palestine. That is a false dichotomy. Throughout this conflict, Israelis have simply sought their independence and the right to exist in peace, yet they are painted as the colonial oppressor, while the remains of actual colonial power are there for all to see, surrounding them and seeking their destruction.

No, the conflict did not begin on October 7, despite what many claim. That date is simply another reminder that in this world, some lives are apparently acceptable to butcher, while others are to be mourned, and that double standard is the real tragedy. What makes it even more painful is that some actually celebrated and glorified these attacks. This was not Israelis sending their own citizens to rooftops as political pawns to face incoming rockets and then claim victimhood; these were young Jewish people simply trying to live in peace and enjoy a music festival. 

Yet those waving Palestinian flags often ignore these lives because the numbers are not as high. Those types of results do not match their own casualty counts, but if they did, some might even argue that was a victory. That is the problem with all of this. The entire movement has become a campaign of gaslighting, but if you look and listen closely enough, they speak the truth: when they chant “from the river to the sea,” when they shout “death to the IDF,” when they demand that Israel be disarmed. Very few ever pause to ask why.

It is difficult to be someone like me in this painful existence, because I mourn whenever I hear of any tragic death. When Palestinians suffer, I feel it. When Israelis suffer, I feel it. Yet tribalism will always pitch one side against the other, and the saddest reality is that, for many, a free Palestine equates to an Israeli death, and a free Israel equates to a Palestinian death. 

Those of us who have for years believed in a two-state solution must now face a hard truth: even if Palestine were granted full statehood tomorrow, its current behaviour would not change, it would only be legitimised. It would not be the coexistence we all once hoped for. This war against Israel would not end, no matter how many concessions are offered. 

So you can understand why Israel pushes back: they are trying to survive. The Palestinians are trying to survive too, but they never will without diplomacy. And who, among those who loudly support Palestine, is actually demanding diplomacy? That is the question we should all be asking ourselves. And perhaps the biggest hindsight of all is to wonder: what if the UN plan had been accepted? How different might everything look today.

I have come to the conclusion that many of those who claim to support Palestine are not truly against genocide. They oppose genocide against Palestinians, but they will tolerate or even celebrate it against Israelis. They are not truly against violence, kidnapping, or rape, because they turn a blind eye when these horrors are committed against Jews. They focus only on themselves then complain when Israel focus on themselves. They only condemn such acts when they are directed at their own side. And that tells you something deeply troubling about their moral compass. 

If you ask me, these things are wrong no matter who is doing them. If we truly want peace in the Middle East, then diplomacy is the only way forward. It has worked between Israel and Egypt, and between Israel and Jordan. Even Saudi Arabia is coming to the table. So why are so many still egging this on and supporting terrorists and their aim of causing more death and destruction? Because when you chant “from the river to the sea”, when you wave Palestinian flags in the hope for something other than independence alone, when you condemn military aid given to a country being bombarded by rockets, yet you are perfectly fine and accept and respect Pakistan and their independence, then yes, that does make you an antisemite.