The Creation of Israel - Essay Example

The Creation of Israel The creation of Israel was the culmination of two influencing factors. The Zionist party (a politically motivated minority Jewish group) had been lobbying western countries such as Britain and the U.S. for decades to secure a homeland as a sanctuary for oppressed Jews that had been scattered over much of the globe. Following the Holocaust, pressure from western governments accelerated worldwide recognition of a Jewish state and in 1948; Israel came into existence as the mother country for all Jews (“Country Profile”, 2006). This discussion examines this journey to statehood beginning with a brief history, considering the intertwined contributing roles which Britain, the UN and the U.S. made to Israel’s birth. The shared and self imposed responsibility of these nations had serious political, emotional and cultural implications on a world population still fresh from the horrific effects in the aftermath of WWII. Arab countries maintain that this is stolen Palestinian land and has opposed the objective from its inception, as they do today and probably always will. However, this paper focuses on the western countries, their historical and their continual involvement in the process of Jewish Statehood. For many centuries, those of Jewish heritage have felt a desire to return to what they consider their rightful native soil. “This was first articulated during the Babylonian exile and became a universal Jewish theme after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D” (Wolffsohn, 1993, p. 5). In the last quarter of the 19th century Jews in Europe were generally treated as second-class citizens particularly in Eastern European countries. They were increasingly being subjected to persistent oppressions such as the series of state organized persecution of Jews in Russia during 1881. These actions caused many Jewish populations to begin plans for their escape back to their ancestral holy lands (Taylor & Francis Group, 1983, p. 468). In the 1880s, European Jews immigrated to Palestine to escape the pogrom, the massacre of Jews in Russia and Poland. In 1896, Theodore Herzl began the Zionist movement incorporating support from Jewish idealists in order to create a homeland for Jews. He felt that Jews always had been and always would be victimized and could effectively make a collective stand against oppression only by creating their own nation. He stated, “We shall create in Palestine an outpost against Asia. We shall be the vanguard of the civilized world against barbarism” (Abrahams, 1996). The Balfour Declaration of 1917, which declared the British Government’s support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, gave the Zionist movement added momentum (Meyer, 2006). Leading Zionist Dr. Chiam Weizmann seized on the opportunity to push Britain for a commitment to provide a home for the Jews in Palestine. He garnered the assistance of Judge Louis Brandeis, a leading U.S. Zionist and chief consultant to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, into bringing the U.S. into the war as an ally of Britain in April 1917. This alliance also led to the Balfour Declaration, which was enclosed in a letter on behalf of the Zionist Federation, dated November 2nd, 1917. It stated, in part, “His majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of the object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the existing civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status of Jews in other countries” (Meyer, 2006). Arab countries, of course, were extremely opposed to the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent immigration of Jews onto Arab land (“Country Profile”, 1983, pp. 468-69). The Allied Powers formally allocated the mandate over Palestine to Great Britain under the newly formed League of Nations at the San Remo Conference in April 1920. The stipulations included reiteration of the Balfour Declaration and “provided that an appropriate Jewish agency should be established to advise and co-operate with the Palestinian Administration in matters affecting the Jewish national home and to take part in the development of the country” (Cattan, 1976, p. 16). This touched off an Arab rebellion in 1936 which lasted until the beginning of WWII (“Country Profile”, 1983, p. 469). In the years following World War I, Jewish immigration steadily increased in Palestine under the British Mandate sparking ever increasing acts of aggression between Palestine’s Jewish and Arab population. “Between World War I and World War II, over 230,000 Jews arrived in the area of Palestine from Russia, Poland, and Germany, providing skills and infrastructure for a future Jewish state, but also fueling violence between Palestine’s Jewish community and Arab community who feared displacement” (Meyer, 2006). Because of the rising tensions, Britain had tried to restrict Jewish immigration to Palestine until after WWII when worldwide support demanded that a Jewish state become a reality (U.S. State Department, 2004). This international backing led to the 1947 UN partition plan with the General Assembly voting by a two-thirds majority to “partition western Palestine into a separate Jewish and an Arab state” (Laqueur, 1969). Troubles continued to escalate forcing the British to leave on May 14, 1948. Soon after, the State of Israel was proclaimed and was quickly invaded by neighboring armies of the Arab nations which had ignored the UN partition plan. “This conflict, Israel’s War of Independence, was concluded by armistice agreements between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria in 1949 and resulted in a 50 percent increase in Israeli territory” (Meyer, 2006). Jews began to receive worldwide empathy due to the horrific Nazi practice of exterminating Jews which escalated after the official outbreak of the war. These terrible actions against humanity resulted in Jews from all parts of Europe attempting to escape into Palestine. The British Government, however, was against this mass immigration of Jews because it was against its official policy, in which it was stated in a white paper in 1939 that “Britain would not continue to develop the Jewish national home beyond the point already reached. It was proposed that 75,000 more Jews be admitted over five years and then immigration should cease” (“Country Profile”, 1983, p. 469). By setting these limitations, it would have somewhat pacified Arabs as it would have preserved the Arab majority in the Palestinian government. The population in Palestine in 1947 consisted of 630,000 Jews and 700,000 Arabs (Balabkins, 1971, p. 97). “Zionists and Jews generally regarded the white paper as a betrayal of the terms of the mandate and when the Jewish agency in New York in 1942 held an extra-ordinary conference, it completely rejected the white paper and reformulated its own Zionist policy” (“Country Profile”, 1983, p. 469). This action led to serious problems between the Jews and the Palestine Government during the war and the Jews organized the escape of Jews from Europe while the British Authorities worked to prevent their entry. “The attempt to stop the Jews from entering Palestine however, was a total failure” (“Country Profile”, 1983, p. 469). The UN was established shortly after the end of WW II and played a significant role in creating the state of Israel, “due in large part to the millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust” (Taube, 2005). Over 325,000 Jewish survivors fled Eastern Europe in hopes of establishing a Jewish homeland (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2002). The UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was the first independent committee set up to inspect the Palestine issue. Palestine Arabs boycotted the1947 UNSCOP hearings in Jerusalem. Its report issued on August 31, 1947 proposed two plans: “a majority plan for the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab, with economic union; and a minority plan for a federal state” (“Country Profile”, 1983, p. 469). The plan provided that Jerusalem would be an international zone administered by the UN as a holy city for Jews, Moslems and Christians and divided Palestine into six principal parts, “three of which comprising 56 percent of the total area were reserved for the Jewish state, and three with the enclave of Jaffa, comprising 43 percent of the area for the Arab state” (“Country Profile”, 1983, p. 469). Committee members were motivated, in part, by the dilemma of desperate Holocaust survivors that were being denied access into to Palestine. In July 1947, Ignatiyus Mubarak, the Christian Maronite Archbishop of Beirut, Lebanon, challenged Arab assertions that there was no legal or historical basis for Jewish statehood in Palestine. Mubarak presented a letter to UNSCOP in which he advocated the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. “To consider Palestine and Lebanon as parts of the Arab world would amount to a denial of history. He also declared that Lebanon as well as Palestine should remain as permanent homes for the minorities in the Arab world” (“What was the Role of the UN?”, 2006). The Arabs refused to accept this plan and in the ensuing mayhem, about 1,700 people lost their lives. In April 1948, the Jewish forces launched a full-scale attack on the Arabs forcing about 400,000 Arabs to evacuate their homes becoming refugees in the Arab countries. On May 28 of that year, Israel was officially declared a state by Jewish authorities in Palestine (Cattan, 1976, p. 24-25). Both the United States and Soviet Union accorded it immediate recognition (“Country Profile”, 1983, p. 469). Other Arab nations came to the aid of the Palestinian Arabs, but they were too late and attempts to overthrow the new state of Israel failed. Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria signed an armistice agreement with Israel after the war of 1948 (Cattan, 1976, p. 24-25). Arab nations, continued to assert that the creation of Israel was a theft of Arab lands as the situation between Israel and neighboring Arab States “continued to be tense and explosive and was punctuated by breaches of the armistice” (Cattan, 1976, p. 26). The new state of Israel submitted its application for admission into the UN immediately upon its declaration of Statehood. Israel did not possess a defined territory at that time which Arab state members of the UN body were quick to point out. Despite this issue, in March 1949 the UN Security Council (except Egypt) as well as more than two-thirds of the General Assembly membership recognized the State of Israel. Justifying the recognition without defined boundaries, the US representative on the Security council, Professor Philip Jessup, remarked that “although the classical writers are not in full agreement on the point yet, both reason and history demonstrates that the concept of territory (of a state) does not necessarily include precise definition of the boundaries of that territory” (Adaramola, 1990, p. 173). More than 13,000 Jews immigrated to Israel in 1948. In 1949, the numbers escalated to 20,000 per month. Israel was overwhelmed by the immigrants, but continued to welcome every Jew. “In addition to the Jews in Europe, between 1950 and 1951, over 160,000 Jews went to Israel as a safe refuge from Islamic Arabs” (Central Bureau of Statistics, 1998). Immigration was the chief problem, which resulted in other economic difficulties for Israel (“Austerity”, 1950) leading Israeli political leaders to confer with the United States and Britain regarding reparations payment from the German government.  “Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the President of Israel, sent a letter in September 20, 1945 to Allies for restitution of $8 billion” (Balabkins, 1963). The reason the United States did not help Israel obtain funds from Germany was because “the government was far less concerned about the former enemy than about a possible threat from a new one, the Communist bloc” (Lavy, 1996, p. 206). Jews outside of Israel, such as Dr. Joseph B. Schectman of New York, led Jews in the Diaspora against negotiations with West Germany because he felt Israel should not accept ‘blood money’ in compensation for the six million who died in the Holocaust (Schectman, 1951, p. 7). Many Jews from Israel and the United States shared the belief that West Germany could not possibly pay in currency for the lives that the Nazis took. However, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, the leading Israeli negotiator with West Germany argued that “since the Nazis had looted Jewish property, it would be immoral for the Jews not to claim it back” (Goldmann, 1953, p. 10). The gradual development of the affiliation from friendship to ally could not have been realized without the popular backing of the American public, the majority of which unfailingly empathized with Israel. “Americans see much of themselves in the Zionist struggle. Like the early American pioneers, the Jews who originally settled the land had a commitment to manual labor to build the nation” (Bard, 2006). The U.S. did not supply troops or weapons to help the newly formed nation of Israel and it would take decades, and a sequence of Arab-Israeli conflicts, to produce a U.S./Israel relationship as close as it has become today (Grier, 2001). To the victors go the spoils including the destruction or creation of nations. The western allies that triumphed in WWII created and have sustained the State of Israel all the while in the belief they were pursuing justice for the oppressed and disenfranchised. But as long as this State exists, Arabs will also pursue acts of violence that they believe to be justified. Works Cited Abrahams, Eddie. “Israel: It’s Role in the Middle East.” Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Nos. 134 & 135, (December 1996, March 1997). Adaramola, F. “The Recognition of the State of Palestine: A Score Evened at International Law.” The Calabar Law Journal. Vol. III, No.1, 1990. “Austerity and Enterprise in Israel.” World Today. Vol. 6, 1950, pp. 6-15. Balabkins, Nicholas. “96.” Immigrants on the Threshold. J.T. Shuval, Ed. New York: Atherton Press, 1963. Balabkins, Nicholas. West Germany Reparations to Israel. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1971. Bard, Mitchell. “U.S.-Israel Relations: A Special Alliance.” Jewish Virtual Library. (2006). April 3, 2006 < http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/special.html> Cattan, H. Palestine and International Law. 2nd Ed. London: Longman, 1976. Central Bureau of Statistics. “Migration and Tourism.” Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, 1998. Central Bureau of Statistics. “Immigration to Israel.” Jerusalem Post. Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, December 29, 2002. “Country Profile: Israel and Palestinian Territories.” BBC News. (March 29, 2006). April 3, 2006 Goldmann, Nahum. “Bonn-Israel Claims Settlement Opens Way to Economic Expansion.” Israel Economic Horizon. Vol. 5, I. 4, 1953. Grier, Peter. “The U.S. and Israel.” Christian Science Monitor. October 26, 2001. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.). The Arab-Israeli Reader; A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict. New York: Bantam Books, 1969, pp.113-122. Lavy, George. Germany and Israel: Moral Debt and National Interest. Portland, Ore.: Frank Class, 1996. Meyer, Cheryl. “A Comparative Criminology Tour of the World: Israel.” Crime and Society: A Comparative Criminology Tour of the World. (February 10, 2006). April 3, 2006 Schectman, J.B. “Case Against Negotiations with Germany.” The Jewish Herald. Vol. 15, I. 19, 1951. Taube, Michael. “60 Years Later, UN Doesn’t Get It.” Canoe Network. (January 25, 2005). April 3, 2006 < http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Michael_Taube/2005/03/29/pf-975881.html> Taylor and Francis Group. The Middle East and North Africa. 29th Ed. London: Europa Publications, 1982-83. U.S. State Department. Background Note: Israel. Department of Near Eastern Affairs. (September 2004). April 3, 2006 “What Was the Role of the United Nations?” Palestine Facts. (2006). April 3, 2006 < http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_independence_un_role.php> Wolffsohn, Michael. Eternal Guilt? Forty Years of German-Jewish-Israeli Relations. New York: University Press, 1993. Read More