Origin of the #IsraeliPalestinianConflict
One of my best fictional works on leadership and Political strategies is the book "animal farm", the book is a classic, it's very easy to understand and gives insights on Some Important aspect of Political leadership; such as the use of Propaganda, mind control, undue Fear, and people Coming together to form Insincere Alliances as a result of having a Created common enemy.
These were the Strategies used by the Palestinian Feudal Lords, tribal heads, and Arab leaders to deceive the Palestinian-Arabs during the first Arab-Israeli war, known in Israel as the War of Independence and which was fought in the territory of Palestine under the British Mandate...It was the first major urban warfare of the prolonged and ongoing Palestinian–Israeli conflict.
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| The Balfour Declaration |
It all started with the Balfour Declaration: A Public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then Palestine was an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population, the declaration was contained in a letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary to Lord Rothschild who was one of the influential leaders of the British Jewish community, The text of the declaration was also published in the press.
The landmass within the geographical location mapped out for the Jewish people was bought by the Jewish Agency for Palestine--paid for by donations made by Jews through the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a Zionist charity founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine (later the British Mandate for Palestine, and subsequently Israel and the Palestinian territories) for Jewish Communities.
The first parcel of land was received as a gift from the Russian Zionist leader Isaac Leib Goldberg.
Early land purchases were then completed in Judea and the Lower Galilee, The JNF also played a central role in the founding of Tel Aviv.
Over a Million Jews in the diaspora, especially wealthy European Jews like the Rothschilds and The Jewish industrialist Johann Kremenezky, As well as influential middle-class Jews such as Yosef Weitz , Russian Born Zionist leader Menachem Ussishkin and Haim Kleinman also made significant donations to the Jewish National Fund.
Unfortunately, the Balfour Declaration resulted in series of Unforeseen but unavoidable Political Crises in the Middle East and Some parts of North Africa, which led to The United Nations Creating a Partition Plan for Palestine.
On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Partition Plan as a Resolution. The resolution recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States and a Special International Regime for the city of Jerusalem.
The Plan also provided for the progressive withdrawal of British armed forces and the delineation of boundaries between the two States and Jerusalem.
Part I of the Plan stipulated that the Mandate would be terminated as soon as possible and the United Kingdom would withdraw no later than 1 August 1948. The new states would come into existence two months after the withdrawal.
The Plan sought to address the conflicting objectives and claims of the Competing Palestinian nationalism and Jewish nationalism (also called Zionism).
The Plan also called for Economic Union between the proposed states, and for the protection of religious and minority rights.
The Plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine despite its perceived limitations, however, the Arab leaders and Governments rejected it and indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division and were bitterly opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state.
On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine to be known as the State of Israel, hours later, a military coalition of Arab states composed of Iraq and neighboring Egypt, Transjordan, and Syria, invaded the newborn state( with Support from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Pakistan).
The Invading Arab Militias immediately attacked Jewish settlements, the Conflict transformed into a war between Israel and the Arab states.
Unknown to the Palestinian-Arabs, the actions of Iraq Transjordan, Egypt and Syria were not because they wanted to support their Arab brothers, rather they all invaded Palestine for Selfish reasons.
The Palestinian Feudal lords, tribal and religious leaders wanted to maintain their control of the Palestinian-Arabs for both Economic and Political gains, they Started the false Propaganda with Support from the Muslim Brotherhood ( A Sunni Islamist Religious, Political and Social movement Which infiltrated the Palestinian and larger Arab Society to propagate sentiments based on Sunni fundamentalism and Implementation of traditional Islamic Sharia law in all aspects of life, the Muslim Brotherhood at some point was considered to be the Most Important, powerful and influential Fundamentalist Islamic Organization amongst Muslims and is the single biggest force responsible for the Spread of Sunni Fundamentalism and Jihadism in the World).
King Farouk of Egypt was anxious to prevent king Abdullah of Transjordan (Currently Called Jordan) from being seen as the main champion of the Arab world, which he feared might damage his own leadership aspirations of the Arab world, In addition, Farouk wished to annex all of southern Palestine to Egypt.
King Abdullah of Transjordan wanted to annex all of Palestine, but he was prepared to compromise.He Secretly supported the partition, intending that the West Bank area of the British Mandate allocated for the Arab state be annexed to Jordan.
Abdullah had secret meetings with the Jewish Agency that reached an agreement of Jewish non-interference with Jordanian annexation of the West Bank and of Jordanian agreement not to attack the area of the Jewish state contained in the United Nations partition resolution (in which Jerusalem was given neither to the Arab nor the Jewish state, but was to be an internationally administered area).
Nuri as-Said of Iraq had ambitions for bringing the entire Fertile Crescent under Iraqi leadership.
Both Syria and Lebanon wished to take certain areas of northern Palestine. Lebanon was later bribed by the Jewish Agency to stay out of the war.
Though the state of Israel faced the formidable armies of neighboring Arab countries, the Palestinian-Arabs themselves hardly existed as a military force, their hopes lay with the British-trained Arab Legion of Transjordan's King Abdullah, Unknown to them he had no intention of creating a Palestinian Arab-run state, since he hoped to annex as much of the territory of the British Mandate for Palestine as he could, King Abdullah was playing a double-game, being just as much in contact with the Jewish authorities as with the Arab League.
The resistance by the body of Jewish residents ( also called the Yishuv) in Mandatory Palestine amidst the growing population of Jews in the region as a result of Aliyah ( which is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Land of Israel) was handled mainly by the Haganah ( which was the main paramilitary organization of the Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine, it was Formed out of previous existing militias and its original purpose was to defend Jewish settlements from Arab attacks, It was under the control of the Jewish Agency).
There were other smaller Jewish militant groups also involved in helping to defend the Jewish population in Mandatory Palestine from the Military might of the Arabs; The Important ones being the Irgun and Lehi.
The Arab military leaders greatly underestimated the Jews, it was said that many Egyptian generals even went as far as boasting to their government that the invasion would be "A parade without any risks" and Tel Aviv would be taken "in two weeks."
Egypt, Iraq, and Syria all possessed air forces, Egypt and Syria had tanks, and all the invading Arab military had modern artillery.
Initially, the Haganah had no heavy machine guns, artillery, armoured vehicles, anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons, nor military aircraft or tanks.
The four Arab armies of the Countries that invaded were far stronger than the Haganah formations they initially encountered.
The objectives of the Jews evolved during the war:
Initially, the aim was just to defend themselves and survive the assaults of the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states.
However as the war progressed, the aim of expanding the Jewish state beyond the UN partition borders appeared:
first to incorporate clusters of isolated Jewish settlements and later to add more territories to the state and give it defensible borders.
A third and further aim that emerged among the Jewish political and military leaders during the course of the conflict was to "reduce the size of Israel's prospective large and hostile Arab minority, seen as a potential powerful fifth column, by belligerency and expulsion".
The Haganah started by successfully launching Operations Yiftah and Ben-'Ami to secure the Jewish settlements of Galilee and Operation Kilshon to create a united front around Jerusalem, The jews dealt with the Arabs without mercy, it was routine for Haganah to advance into an Arab village, summarily execute all the males of military age, force everybody else out, and raze all the buildings.
During this time, and independently of Haganah, irregular fighters from Irgun and Lehi formations massacred a substantial number of Arabs at Deir Yassin, an event that had a deeply negative impact on the morale of the different Arab military and the Palestinian-Arabs, ultimately leading to their defeat.
David Ben-Gurion later reorganized the different Jewish Militias, thereby establishing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) by incorporating the Haganah, Irgun and Lehi into one military under a central command, he also made conscription obligatory, every Jewish man and woman in the country had to receive military training.
The Jews then consolidated their presence in Important Settlements such as Galilee, the Negev, Nazareth, West Jerusalem, Samaria, Tiberias, Haifa, Safed, Beisan, Jaffa, Acre and the Golan Heights....resulting in the flight of more than 250,000 Arabs, the Palestinian-Arab Society was shaken.
After almost 10 months of fighting, several Arab leaders to avert catastrophe secretly appealed to the British to hold on in Palestine for at least another year.
The Invading Arab States then signed separate armistices with Israel; Egypt on 24 February, Lebanon on 23 March, Transjordan on 3 April, and Syria on 20 July.
The Armistice Demarcation Lines, as set by the agreements, saw the territory under Israeli control encompassing approximately three-quarters of the prior British administered Mandate, Israel controlled territories of about one-third more than was allocated to the Jewish State under the UN partition proposal, including the entire Galilee and Jezreel Valley in the north, the whole Negev in the south, West Jerusalem and the coastal plain in the center.
The war culminated in the establishment of the State of Israel by the Jews, and saw the complete demographic transformation of Palestine and the complete destruction of most of the Palestinian villages, towns and cities...more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the war.
Between 400 and 600 Palestinian villages were sacked during the war, while urban Palestine was almost entirely extinguished.
The territory that was under British administration before the war was divided between the State of Israel, Transjordan and Egypt-- Israel captured about 78% of it, the Kingdom of Jordan (then known as Transjordan) captured and later annexed the area that became the West Bank and the Egyptian military captured and took control of the Gaza Strip, a coastal territory on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea( currently controlled by Hamas)
Meanwhile, the Palestinian-Arabs ended up stateless, displaced either to the Palestinian territories captured by Israel , Egypt and Jordan or to the surrounding Arab states; many of them still remain stateless.
The UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine estimated that the number of Palestinian refugees displaced from Israel was in excess of 711,000.
The Displaced Palestinian-Arabs were settled in Palestinian refugee camps throughout the Arab world.
Arab nations refused to absorb Palestinian refugees, instead of keeping them in refugee camps, The Arab League also instructed its members to deny Palestinian-Arabs citizenship.
The greatest Casualties of the War were the Palestinian-Aravs, they were almost completely annihilated....decades later they've still not fully recovered, they entered a war that was not necessary.
Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq and the Muslim Brotherhood deceived them with aggressive Propaganda, they made the Palestinians believe the Jews were the enemies, of which the Palestinians would have benefited a lot if they just agreed to live in peace with the Jews.... Unfortunately this unnecessary hatred for jews is now well established amongst Palestinians and the Arab world.
The Palestinian tribal leaders, Religious leaders and feudal lords with Support from Egypt, Transjordan and the Muslim Brotherhood created a False Common Enemy and used Propaganda as a tool for mind control and to spread anti-Zionist narratives and Vicious hatred for anything Jewish which is now well established in the Palestinian society....they initially started with "false" Arab Nationalism, which then evolved to insincere Islamic Liberation and Solidarity to the level that most Palestinians have this Deep conviction that Fighting the State of Israel and killing or exerting any form of suffering on a Jew is a form of Jihad....many of them believe that dying for the Resistance makes them become Shahida(Martyrs).
As of Today, many ordinary Palestinians and Arab Muslims don't have a logical personal reason for their Vicious hatred of anything Jewish, some of them(especially the children and younger ones ) have never even met a Jew but yet still have this extreme hatred for Jews and anything Jewish...they are born and Nurtured with so much Hate...the Conflict has been muddled up and made unnecessarily complex with many lies, inappropriate, destructive & unnecessary Religious fundamentalism, distorted interpretations of passages from the Koran and hadiths, half-truths and False Propaganda.
It is so bad that an Arab is Considered a traitor just for refusing to commit to the unnecessary and unreasonable hatred of Jews & anything Jewish, a common example is the Mohammed Salah handshake saga, which became a major issue in Swiss football in the build-up to the Champions League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Basel, He had been placed under pressure by public opinion in Egypt and the Arab world not to shake hands with the players of Maccabi Tel Aviv just because the football club is domiciled in Israel ( even though some of the players were not Jews) he and his family received death threats.
The vicious and unnecessary hatred is so bad that many Arab and Muslim Majority countries made it a criminal offense for citizens and residents to put on clothes or display wares bearing Hebrew Names, Jewish Inscriptions, Logo or advertising a Jewish Company or Brand.
Another common and recent example is the different reactions to the Abraham Accord (The Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement); the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) officially lambasted the agreement, Fatah accused the UAE of "flouting its national, religious and humanitarian duties" toward the Palestinian people, while Hamas said it was a "treacherous stab in the back of the Palestinian people" and claimed the agreement was a "free reward" for Israeli "crimes and violations against the Palestinian people, Thousands of Ordinary Palestinians took to social media to protest the deal and some also insulted the UAE.
Furthermore, when Yasser Arafat engaged in a series of negotiations with the Israeli government to end the conflict between Israel and the PLO which resulted in the Oslo Accords, it resulted in him losing his Support amongst Palestinians, Hamas and Fatah denounced him as submissive in his concessions to the Israeli government.
Another instance was the reaction to the Sinai treaty between Egypt and Israel, which was signed by Anwar Sadat, The treaty was extremely unpopular in most of the Arab World and the wider Muslim World, the Arab League suspended Egypt and the League moved its headquarters from Cairo to Tunis, all these just because of a peace treaty...the Peace treaty was also one of the primary factors that led to Sadat's Assassination.
This was similar to the reaction meted out to Jordan when they officially formalized their relationship with Israel in 1994.
It is perplexing that people can become angry and agitated, just because different parties agreed to live in peace, why should you be against people deciding to live in peace.
From birth, the average Palestinian is nurtured to have complete hatred for anything Jewish, which is still very much popular and Established in the Palestinian Society, I'm puzzled as to how a society can be greatly Committed to living with so much hatred....it is disheartening.
#Hamas #Intifada #IDF
The Above write-up was copied.
The illustrative pictures were all downloaded from google.com
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