I believe that the underlining reasons for Israel's existence is anti-semitism.
Yeah.. I guess you could say that... Even though the Zionist movement existed prior to the Holocaust, it was the attempted extermination of Jews from Europe that pretty much accentuated the issue.
And it was not only in Europe that "final solutions" were executed, and or contemplated, for dealing with the "Jewish question".. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Al-Husayni, was a Nazi collaborator who aspired of replicating Hitler's Final Solution policy in Palestine.
Now maybe I've missed something here, but even with all the conspiracy theories that abound about those "evil Jews" controlling the world, I've never heard any sizable group of them ever proclaim an agenda of wiping out the Arabs, or the Christians, or even the Palestinians.
And considering that Jews were prevented from seizing land from Arabs under both Turkish and British rule (they had to purchase it), and the fact that much of the land they obtained was either lifeless or agriculturally worn out, I really don't see what the real beef is with the Arabs?
It's not like any of them actually are any different than the Jews. They are foreigners to the land, having invaded it over 1,000 years ago. There is no Arab country (or Persian, for that matter) in that area that was not ruled for hundreds of years by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. They had no state, or national awareness. They were primarily tribal and it wasn't until the "Great Arab Revolt" that the Hashemites were able to unify sufficient Arab tribes in the area (with considerable British and French assistance) to drive the Turks out of the region.
I think it's dangerous ground to say the Europeans were "dumping" Jews into Palestine. After all, nothing prevented these Arabs from refusing to sell their land to the Jews, and the British commanders governing the area were not particularly favorable to the Jewsish influx.
And it was a policy that the previous Turkish rulers encouraged as well, since the Jews had wealthy benefactors and brought an influx of money, and tangible skills into the region, so necessary for its development.
Hawk |
