Misguided Western concepts for the Middle East and hope for Gaza
By Neville Berman
Despite the superb oratory ability of Winston Churchill to rally Britain during the Second World War, the Conservative Party and Churchill were defeated in the 1945 elections. Clement Atlee, the Labour Party leader became Prime Minister and Ernest Bevin was appointed as Foreign Secretary.
Bevin was determined to see to it that the Balfour Declaration, with its promise of a “national home for the Jewish people in Palestine” would not be implemented. He placed restrictions on the number of Jews who could immigrate to Palestine, and implemented a naval blockade to prevent shipments of arms for the Jews in Palestine. In addition, Britain armed, trained, and sent a British general by the name of Glubb Pasha to lead the Jordanian army known as the Arab Legion.
In February 1947, faced with continuing violent opposition by both Jews and Arabs in Palestine to British administration, Britain decided to terminate its Mandate and hand it back to the United Nations to decide what should be done with the territory.
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted on Resolution 181 known as the Partition Plan for Palestine. The plan called for two separate states, a Jewish State and an Arab State. The word Arab and not Palestinian was used as the term Palestinian referred to both Jews and Arabs living in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea at the time.
In 1947, there were 57 members of the United Nations. The Resolution was adopted by 33 votes in favour, with 13 objections,10 abstentions and 1 country, Thailand, not attending. All 10 Muslim countries that were members of the UN voted against the resolution. Cuba, Greece and India joined the ten Muslim countries in objecting. The vote was carried by a 72% majority. The area offered to the Jews was a narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea and the desert area south of Beersheba stretching down to Eilat on the Red Sea. Almost none of the biblical land of Israel was offered to the Jews. Despite this, the Jews accepted the plan. The Arabs rejected it outright.
What is often overlooked is that the Partition Plan included an important third partition. The cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, would be placed under international administration. The intention of this clause was to ensure that the Jews would not control this area and that all the main Christian holy sites would be controlled by international administration. It seems reasonable to assume that the words “international administration” was used as a synonym for European Christian countries controlling these important religious sites.
This clause ensured that the Partition Plan received the approval that it got. Despite the fact that the Catholic Church had established its headquarters in Rome, and other Christian break away movements were also established in Europe, Jerusalem and Betlehem will always remain central to Christianity. With the exception of the Evangelical Christians in America, most Christian churches oppose Jewish sovereignty over the holy sites of Christendom and especially sovereignty over Judea (West Bank) which is part of the heartland of biblical Israel. This position is evident in the latest rush of western countries to support a Palestinian State that will encompass Judea.
The United States of America, led by President Truman, was the first country to recognize the Jewish State. However, the American State Department under George Marshall, was opposed to this decision. He believed that supporting Israel would offend the Arabs and jeopardise Arab oil supplies to America. Marshall refused to supply Israel with a single bullet. This policy continued for the next 19 years. It was only after the Six Days War in 1967, that America began supplying Israel with military assistance.
On May 14, 1948 the British Mandate of Palestine ended. The last act by the British before leaving, was to hand the British built fort at Latrun to the Arabs. The fort controlled the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The British were determined to see to it that the Jewish State would not get Jerusalem.
The same day that Britain withdrew, Ben Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the sovereign State of Israel. Five Arab countries immediately launched a war of annihilation against the Jewish state. Both Britain and America were of the opinion that Israel would not survive more than a month. After that, there would be a huge outcry of crocodile tears proclaiming how sorry the world was for the latest annihilation of the Jews. What they had overlooked was that the Jews in Israel were not alone. Millions of Jews in the diaspora supported Israel. American Jews donated the money needed to buy arms and fighter aircraft from Czechoslovakia. Thousands of Jewish volunteers from all over the world came to help Israel.
In 1948, six hundred thousand Jews were living in Israel. They miraculously managed to repulse the attacks of 5 Arab armies. The Arab Legion took East Jerusalem and Judea, the area now known as the West Bank. Not a single country accused Jordan of occupying East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Jordan immediately expelled all the Jews living in East Jerusalem and destroyed all the synagogues in the area under their control. Israel paid a heavy price for its independence, losing 1% of its Jewish population. After the war, Ben Gurion paid tribute to those Jews in the diaspora that supported Israel. He stated:
“You came to Israel in our greatest hour of need. Without you we could not have succeeded.”
In the years following the war, over 800,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries. All their property and belongings were confiscated. Over 650,000 arrived penniless in Israel. They had lived in the Middle East for thousands of years and spoke fluent Arabic and used Hebrew for prayers. They were immediately granted Israeli citizenship. The beginning of the ingathering and return of the Jews to the land of Israel as predicted by the Jewish Prophets was clearly evident.
After the Israeli victory in the War of Independence, not a single Arab country wanted to accept Palestinian refugees as immigrants. They were placed in refugee camps to be cynically used to threaten Israel. The UN established a special body called UNRWA that has a mandate not to solve the Palestinian refugee problem, but to perpetuate it. Palestinian refugee rights have been extended to all descendants of the original refugees. There are over 100 million refugees in the world. None of them have the rights of Palestinian refugees.
In 1948, Israel did not gain control of all of Jerusalem or Judea. The Christian world could live with that. In1967, President Nasser, the charismatic leader of Egypt promoted Pan Arabism and threatened Israel with annihilation. On the morning of June 5, 1967, Israel in a pre-emptive air force attack, destroyed almost the entire Egyptian air force on the ground. In six days, Israel gained control of all of Jerusalem, the Golan heights, all of Judea, (West Bank) Gaza and the Sinai.
This created a huge problem for the Church, especially the Catholic Church, that had been preaching for over 2,000 years that Christianity had replaced Judaism, and that the Jews were a wandering people without a homeland, and had been forsaken by God. The events that took place between 1948 and 1967 clearly demonstrated that none of this was true. In 1988, Jordan renounced its claim to East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The rush to recognize a Palestinian State by Western countries in the next UN General assembly, will increase the tsunami of hatred and antisemitism that is presently spreading across the world. It will not solve anything. No amount of appeasement will satisfy militant Islamists. They are not interested in co-existence. Their aim is a world dominated by Sharia law. Democracy, the rule of law, human rights and women’s rights are the very opposite of the teachings of the holy Quaran. Militant Islam threatens the very foundational pillars of Western civilization from within. It’s time to face reality. The worst possible decision is appeasement.
There are 22 Arab countries in the Middle East. Creating a non- viable 23rd Arab country called Palestine is not a solution. It will not solve the Palestinian refugee problem. It will provide another base for Iran, Turkey and Russia to spread chaos across the middle east. The situation in the middle east will become even more complicated and explosive. The UN now has 195 member countries. It is obsessed with demonizing the only Jewish State in the world. It has lost all its moral authority. The Palestinians have refused 5 offers of a state living side by side with Israel. The best that the Palestinians can now be offered is autonomy in Area A and part of Area B of the Oslo Accords and autonomy in Gaza.
Surprisingly, Gaza can actually become a success story. There is a high probability of huge deposits of gas off the coast of Gaza. Drilling will cost hundreds of millions and will never take place if Hamas is in control of Gaza. The funding for rebuilding Gaza should start with the confiscation of the billions of dollars that the Hamas leaders living in exile have stolen from the people of Gaza. If gas is discovered, loans and grants to fully rebuild a peaceful and prosperous Gaza will be forthcoming. The return of all the hostages and the removal of Hamas is the prerequisite for solving the problems in Gaza. Without getting rid of Hamas, there will never be progress. Now is the time for the people in Gaza to seize the opportunity that has arisen. They need to realize that a better future is in their hands. They need to help kick Hamas out of Gaza.
About the writer:
Accountant Neville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award. In 1978 he immigrated to the USA to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel. He is married with two children and one granddaughter.
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Please bear with following lengthy but I believe particularly relevant adjunct points:
The 1947 UN Resolution 181 (repartitioning actually illegal at the time per below)needs to be pivotally prefaced in historical context by the League of Nations’ San Remo Accords( 25 April 1920)followed exactly 1 year later (11 April 1921)by their partitioning of ‘Palestine’ outrageously giving 78% of the territory to the ‘Hashemites’ named Transjordan(now Jordan),only a mere 22% ( 8000 sq miles,same size as Kruger N Park) to the reconstituted Jewish State.
Of course this potentially ‘perfect two-state solution’ was accepted by the Jews but rejected ever since for 104+ years by the vast majority of 57 global antisemitic,pro-radical jihadist genocidal Islamic states including 22 MEast Arab-Islamic states, the
viciously antisemitic UN itself & vast majority of deluded &/or ignorant antisemitic Western (non-Islamic) world supportive of the barbaric subhuman,genocidal terror proxies of verminous Iranian mullahs & their IRGC.
Ben Gurion sadly failed by not consulting & bringing experienced legal experts in international law to the UN,outrightly rejecting their illegal plan to repartition ‘Palestine’ in’47,after the written-in-stone ’21 partitioning.Of course mainstream media has never recognised this illegality & accordingly buried it.
Even if rejected the labelling of the illegality of repartitioning /Res.181 would have at least been in the record books.
Therefore:Bottom Line:’Land for peace,two-state solution’ remains an abominable lie,myth,fantasy.Jordan today comprises 70+% ‘Palestinians’.
By far the best & only ultimate long-term solution I believe (& many others) is the financially
incentivised migration of majority of Arabs out of Judea,Samaria & Gaza,as so astutely espoused by Martin Sherman(Founder,Executive Director of IISS) for over 3+ decades. As miraculous as this may seem,all Israelis & global Jewry need to recall & digest the immortal words of Ben Gurion “In order to be a realist one must believe in miracles.”
Best+
Alan