What resulted was the beginning of today’s mess we call the Middle East problem. When the invasion failed to destroy Israel, instead of retreating back into their own countries again, the Arab nations of Jordan and Lebanon held onto the territories that had been ceded to the Palestinian Arabs.
Fully anticipating the eventual removal of Israel, the Arab countries made little or no provisions for the refugees. They were not allowed to move from the area which was to have been their half of the partitioned land, but at the same time they had no control over their government. They had effectively become the stateless people they are today.
From that time forward there have been various wars between the countries. The Arabs were intent upon destroying Israel, who in turn sought to fortify their position. In 1967, they did just that by seizing the land that had been earmarked as being for the Palestinians in the original partitioning of the land.
Most of us are familiar with this territory as being the Gaza strip and the West Bank of modern parlance. The territory that is right now on the point, sometime soon it can only be hoped, of being ceded back to the Palestinians. While Israel will retain control over Jerusalem, the border will be almost identical to that drawn up by the British close to sixty years ago.
Like India before them Israel faces a severe internal test from the more fanatical elements of it’s society. The “settlers” oppose any surrender of territory and back up their demands with violence and the establishment of illegal residences. They have already been responsible for the assassination of Prime Minster Rabin in 1995, who was on the verge of finalizing negotiations with the Palestinian authority.
Recently they have stepped up their activities by trying to provoke Palestinians into retaliatory behaviour by attacking Arabs and encroaching further into their territories.
The government of Ariel Sharon, after cynically using the settlers as a weapon, has finally cracked down on their activities. The army is being used to close down all illegal settlements and securing the borders of the new Palestinian state.
The irony of these settlers is that the majority of them are not from Israel. The first proponents of this activity were the followers of Rabbi Mehr Kahane, a fanatic from Brooklyn who founded the Jewish Defence league. They proscribed to a type of Jewish Nazism advocating that Israel be for those of pure Jewish blood only.
Now the settlers come from all over the world, intent on destroying the hopes for peace so long desired by the people who were born and raised as the first generations of Israel.
Article comments
1 - The Proprietor
An interesting historical tidbit is left out of this discussion - the role of the Mufti of Jerusalem, the notorious Haj Amir Al-Husseini, whose rabid antisemitism inflamed the Arab populace (his infamous quote "Remember, Abbady, this was and will remain an Arab land. We do not mind you natives of the country, but those alien invaders, the Zionists, will be massacred to the last man. We want no progress, no prosperity. Nothing but the sword will decide the fate of this country" was the blueprint for his later actions). Husseini of course instigated the 1936 Arab rebellion which killed hundreds of Jews and Arabs, with the active use of Nazi money and arms. Husseini of course spent the war years in Berlin as the guest of Hitler, who had promised Husseini a vernichtungslager of his own in Nablus once he took Palestine from the British.
This man is revered as a Palestinian national hero and was a mentor to the senior PLO leadership. While there is undoubtedly plenty of blame to be shared amongst the Israelis and Palestinians for many things that have happened, there has been a pernicious, vicious stream of anti-Jewish hatred from the Palestinian "leadership" since the 1930s, (if you ever listen to the original Arabic when hearing a Palestinian talk about Israelis, the word you hear is "el Yahoud" - the Jews, not "the Zionists") it's unsurprising that trust is in short supply on the Israeli side.
2 - Victor Plenty
Shameful prejudices can be found on both sides of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Such "tidbits" can be allowed to poison the negotiation process. They could also be allowed to fade into historical obscurity like the slurs and prejudices common on both sides during the American civil war of the 1860s, or during the European religious wars of the 1600s.
That choice, like the land itself, is shared by both peoples.
3 - The Proprietor
I find the author's comment about "Jewish Nazism" to be both inflammatory and very telling of the author's prejudices, especially considering the Palestinian leadership was quite cozy with the genuine article.
4 - Victor Plenty
Calling Palestinians vermin is no better than calling Jews vermin, and ranting nonsense about "pure Jewish blood" is no better than ranting nonsense about "pure Aryan blood."
There is no "pure blood" in the world, and in fact there never was. If you hate something in another human's ancestry, you have chosen to hate yourself too. That same bloodline is also somewhere in your own ancestry.
5 - theSliver
Palestine was never part of the British Empire, it was administered under a UN Mandate after WWII and under the Treaty of Versailles before that from 1918. The UN Mandate came to an end in 1948, the British had to leave.
As it also happens the notion of a Jewish State as a part of a State of Palestine was defined in the Balfour Doctrine.
Yes the Mufti provoked riots with what he said but its also true that Israelis took over Palestinian property which had been abandoned by fleeing Palestinians, not all of those flights were unjustified.
6 - gypsyman
I would like to thank the silver for correcting me on the specifics of the history, I had honestly forgotten the Belfour decleration and that the Brits were being controled by the U.N. The point I was trying to make was that partition had not been the best solution in India and was a mistake again. Whether it was the Brits or the UN the result was the same. The Brits were still the force responsible for the keeping jewish refugees fleeing Europe out of Palastine, and the occupying army. My impression was that they did what they wanted and were controlled by the League of Nations/U.N. in name only.
As for my positions on Israel do not presume to speak for me... As a person of Jewish descent with family who died in the camps, I have long supported the right and the need for the state of Israel, just because I don't happen to like the form it takes on occasion doesn't mean I'm opposed to it.
My country right or wrong has never been my philosophy about Canada, and it's not going to be my philosophy about Israel.