Alistair... I think I'm being pretty correct here, but feel free to steer me right.
The way I understand the mandate, was that neither the Jews or Palestinians were supposed to impede one another from settling the area. Obviously the British believed they were going to continue to rule in the Mandate for many decades and were seeking to create an atmosphere where Jews would be able to settle uninhabited areas, and/or being able to purchase land from Palestinian owners, but believed that it would always truly be part of the British Empire.
After all, they had just engaged in a bloody war against the Turks and felt they were entitle to claim the territory for themselves. And all of these negotiations about the British Mandate were conducted with every intent of the British retaining sovereign control over Palestine and not permitting independence for any state, Jewish or Arab. (remember.. they wanted an unbroken line of communication from the Mediterrenean to the Persian Gulf)
But in 1922, due to the Nebi Musa riots, as well as a means of preventing Emir Abdullah from proceeding to Syria to support his brother Faisal and causing a confrontation between the British and French, Churchill, along with T.E. Lawrence, proposed creating a protectorate east of the Jordan river in which no Jewish settlements would be permitted, a direct violation of the San Remo accords. This guaranteed that Jewish immigration would be limited to areas WEST OF THE JORDAN.
So Churchill's solution was substituting Arab rule over the Palestinians, rather than some form of shared government arrangement that neither the Jews or the Palestinians desired.
And certainly the Arabs would be subjects of the Ottoman Turks had not the British and French defeated them. So one has to ask what's so wrong about the British doing their best to divide up the region they had just conquered?
No one is ever happy with such arbitraty geographic arrangements and some nationalities always get the shaft... And that's basically what happened with the Palestinians. They were shafted by British, the Jews, and THE ARABS AS WELL...
Palestinians ARE NOT Arabs, yet millions of them are subjects of an Arab King in Jordan.
Why is it that no one cares about them??!!!
This is obviously not a simple problem to resolve. And going back to the British Mandate is probably rather foolish when making arguments about who should have, or shouldn't have, taken a certain course of action.
We can ask why every Arab nation in the region launched an immediate attack upon Israel the very minute they declared their independence from Britain, a status that many of them ALREADY ENJOYED as independent Arab kingdoms.
Again, ALL OF THE NATIONS in the region are artificial BY THE VERY NATURE OF HAVING BEEN FORMED FROM THE REMNANTS OF THE CONQUERED OTTOMAN EMPIRE.
For ANYONE to analyze the Middle East without acknowledging that fact, is to be intellectually dishonest.
That territory was conquered by the British, and they HAD EVERY RIGHT to govern it as they saw fit, including permitting Jewish immigration.
But what we really need to focus upon is the current reality, as framed by the experience of the past 50 years. Israel has been the victim of decades of violence and attacks from the West Bank during the time of Jordanian rule. It is a piece of land that permits any opposing force to target the most heavily populated areas of Israel with artillery fire.
So for anyone to be foolish enough to believe that the Israelis are going to settle for a Palestinian entity that could possibly directly threaten them once again as a militarized sovereign nation, is the height of fantasy.
I wouldn't settle for such a resolution. And I doubt many objective analysts out here would be willing to do so either. It would be tantamount to housing your most hated enemy in the basement of your house and hoping that they won't slit your throat in the middle of the night.
So let's be realistic here (not personally directed toward you Alistair).. The Israelis have EVERY right to ensure the security of their nation. And if that means a demilitarized Palestinian entity forbidden from entering into alliances with other Arab states, or possessing anything beyond a police force, then so be it.
If they don't like it, then let them turn their attention to Jordan.
Just my opinion.
Hawk |
