Selling Israel Up The River

I refer you to Bob Siegel's article in the San Diego Rosta, March 25th. For anyone following the situation between he US and Israel this is required reading. Just to learn the history of modern day Israel will clarify a lot of false ideas.

You can find his longer writing on the subject at: Bob’s Blogs On Israel & Palestine

But for now at least read the article above.

For example did you know:

While working to create new, multiple states, Great Britain (with the cooperation of the League of Nations, an early proto-type of the United Nations) decided they would also offer an opportunity for Jews all over the world to return to their homeland. This invitation was called the Balfour Declaration. Needless to say, grateful Jews responded with terrific enthusiasm. Indeed, many children of Abraham did migrate from Russia, Western Europe and other corners of the globe where they had lived for some two thousand years in ghettos, at the mercy of pogroms or harsh policies of Ant-Semitic governments. A homeland of their own had been a hopeful vision to the Jews for two millennia. The most familiar Jewish toast (common at Passover celebrations) said “Next year in Jerusalem.” But few thoughtthey were reciting much more than a pipe dream. Now they could really, truly return to Jerusalem! Just imagine how this must have felt! The Jews were going to sojourn to a country of their own, and not just any country; the very land of their ancestors, a land where a remnant of Jews had remained since ancient times, living side by side with Muslims and Christians who also had interests in Palestine and who viewed it as their Holy Land too.

What exactly was offered to the Hebrew immigrants by the League of Nations? Everything we would today call Israel, everything we would today call Jordan and most of what we would today call “the occupied territories.”

In paradoxical fashion, the British, after inviting the Jews to return, sold over 75 percent of Palestine to the Arabs,, creating a new country called, Trans-Jordan. This is an extremely important and seldom taught fact. Please catch this: 75 percent of what had been offered to the Jews was sold behind their backs to the Arabs instead! Not only were the Arabs offered a “separate Palestinian state,” long ago, but they have been living in one since the early part of the Twentieth Century. It’s called Jordan, a country three times the size of what remained for the Jews.

The Jews accepted this betrayal, only because they had no choice. After, all a sliver of the promise was better than no land at all. But the Arabs didn’t want the Jews to have even a sliver and fresh controversy broke out over what to do with the remaining 25 percent. To appease the Arabs, the United Nations voted to divvy up the remaining 25 percent between the Jews and the Arabs. The Jews accepted this partition. The Arabs did not.