The Independence of Israel - Essay Example

1948 Israel Independence Prologue. Israel, like Pakistan, is the only other country to have been created and given independence on religious grounds. Similarly, it gained its independence in 1948 – a year after Pakistan did. The Jews, also referred to as Zionists, fled Europe during the Holocaust in World War II to settle in their ancient homeland dominated by the Philistines. What followed years later was a UN-approved British mandated division in the land – about one half for the Jews and the other for the local Arabs (fixedreference.org, 2006). The mandate gave rise to Jewish intolerance and a need to fight for their once-inhabited homeland. The Israeli Independence of 1948 was thus created and remains so today amidst continuous wars with the local Arabs or Palestinians. Pre-Israeli Independence – a history. Unlike Pakistan, almost half a century later, Israel faces persecution from national and international interests due to its continuous struggle for an independent Jewish state. Its history dates back to the times when the Romans expulsed the Zionists around the second century CE. The land was renamed Palestine due to the majority of the Jew’s enemies, Philistines, living there at that time. It was repopulated by the Arabs after the Muslim Caliphate recaptured the land from the Romans in the seventh century CE (wikipedia.org, 2006). The desire for an independent Jewish state remained of little significance until the nineteenth century which then also saw the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora. In Historical terms, the Jewish people have been expelled from Jerusalem and the Promised Land several times and the example of the Babylonian Captivity is the first instance of the Jews being expelled from their holy city. King Nebuchadnezzar is the first person in recorded history, known for removing the Jews from their settlements in present day Israel and sending them to Babylon. Once King Cyrus of Persia had overthrown the long standing authority of Nebuchadnezzar, the Jews returned to their homeland for the first time and began rebuilding their lives (Wikipedia, 2006). Ha’am further reports that: History teaches us that in the days of the Herodian house Palestine was indeed a Jewish State, but the national culture was despised and persecuted, and the ruling house did everything in its power to implant Roman culture in the country, and frittered away the national resources in the building of heathen temples and amphitheatres and so forth (Ha’am, 1897, Pg. 1). Anti-Semitism is commonly said to be the cause which forced the Jews to seek out a separate homeland of their own. This idea is supported by Herzl (1896) who gives several accounts of how Jews were persecuted in his own times and those times which are recorded by history. The keenest memory of anti-Semitic behaviour comes in the form of the German Jews who were persecuted, troubled and harassed by the Nazi regime. The holocaust brought upon by the Nazi regime was a horrifying experience for the European Jews but anti-Semitic feelings also ran to a large extent across Europe and much of America. Isseroff (2006) says that anti-Zionist propaganda is the main reason why some people suggest that Israel was created out of pity for the Jews of Europe after the Second World War. For him the European influence existed already before the events of the Second World War : ‘Israel was created as a result of the League of Nations Mandate of 1922, which granted a mandate to Great Britain to create a "National Home" for the Jews in Palestine’ (Isseroff, 2006, Pg. 1). Even before the holocaust, and in fact, long before the discovery of the new world, there had been calls for a separate Jewish state. Arguments for a Jewish country had been put forward by many Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers who suggested that separating the Jews from mainstream Europe might be a possible answer to the Jewish question. Despite these calls for a Jewish state, there have been arguments against a separate country for Jews (Scham, 2002). These arguments are based on economic and social factors and the debate means that there is more to the story than can be discerned from a cursory glance. Even the historical background of the Jewish persecution and the problems between the Jews and other nations would require volumes of information. The Nazi Movement founded the Jewish Holocaust against the Zionists at a time when they were still fighting for a homeland. Over six million Jews were either, tortured, burned or killed as a result of the Holocaust which made many of them flee to safer grounds. Palestine, already occupied with thousands of Arab settlers, became the refuge for the Nazi victims. The Hurani Riots of 1921, during the finalization of the British-French Mandate, claimed up to 60 Zionist lives in their Hebron community (fixedreference.org, 2006). Anger, frustration and the birth of underground Jewish militia like the Haganah were the driving forces fueling the much-needed completely independent Jewish state. The legality of the existence of Israel may be established de facto but the background story of the creation of Israel is far more interesting. If we examine Jewish sources, then the claim from the bible stands as the earliest instance where the creation of a homeland is promised to the Jews who followed Moses. Israel represents the Promised Land to many orthodox Jews who consider their country to be a gift from God. Before the area was owned by the government of Israel, Herzl (1896) looked upon it with affection when he said: Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. We should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism. We should as a neutral State remain in contact with Europe, which would have to guarantee our existence (Herzl, 1896, Pg. 1). The 1948 Independence. The Israeli Independence was not a one-time freedom fight. Historians date the several phases to the war period before and after the approval of the UN partition plan. The British Army intervened in the first and second phases, but as the attacks by the strong militant Zionist groups such as Irgun and Lehi increased, their assistance grew more reluctant almost down to a halt. The Arab Liberation Army (ALA), supported by the Arab League, enrolled troops from the regular and irregular military as the defenders of an organized guerilla war against the Jewish militia. Operation Nachshon opened the road to Jerusalem proving successful for Haganah (Jewish militant group) in clearing one of the several blockades imposed the ALA. The third phase marked the end of the British Mandate, making Israel an independent state on May 14, 1948 and receiving recognition from the Soviet Union, United States and many other countries (Wikipedia, 2006). During the second phase, factors like the April 9 Deir Yassin Arab massacre, construction of the Burma Road and refusal to live autonomously within an enlarged Hashemite kingdom allowed an immediate Zionist independence. The last phase before the first truce in June 1948 was a true test for the Zionists and Arabs as a total of 35,000 troops on each side fought over several months with a steady increase in strength. The Jewish fighters proved to have greater advantage over their shrinking counterpart groups. The Israelis expanded their military control over their Jewish territories in the same period. The United Nations declared the First Truce Plan effective from June 11, 1948. It proposed an arms embargo counteracted by the Israelis who illicitly purchased Czechoslovakian-made arms. The UN further proposed a new partition plan giving Galilee and Negev to the Israelis and Arabs respectively. Both sides rejected the offer and the Egyptians restarted warfare to begin the fourth phase of war. During the First Truce, the Zionists had three operations planned – Dani, Dekel and Kedem – as part of an offensive strategy against their defensive counterparts. Each operation aimed at capturing at least one city, followed by forced eviction or using armored vehicles like two Cromwell Tanks during Operation Dani (Wikipedia.org, 2006). Even though the United Nations went to great lengths in reaching a peace plan between the Zionists and their enemies, its result severely lacked its intention. A new Transjordan-annexed partition for Palestine and a Jewish autonomous Galilee were proposed of which both sides rejected once again. A day later, September 17, 1948, UN mediator Bernadotte was assassinated by the Lehi group to be followed by his American successor. In the final phase, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 which stated that willing refugees should return home in peace and compensation given for those not returning. The resolution was out rightly rejected by the Israelis. Post 1948 Independence. The 1949 Armistice Agreements were the results of an independent Israeli nation. Israel signed individual agreements between Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan and Syria over a five-month course. It then drew its own borders, taking up 50% more than the original UN agreed plan. The borders have been called the “Green Line” with Egypt occupying the Gaza Strip and Syria taking the West Bank (Answers.com, 2006). Then, in 1967, a brief but intense event took place that has been a direct consequence of present day fighting on Israeli-Palestinian soil. That year saw the Six-Day War between Israel and the tri-Arab nations – Iraq, Jordan and Syria. Hostilities grew between Syria and Israel as a result of Palestinian guerillas using Syrian bases. Misunderstandings and miscalculations resulted in the two countries preparing for a war. Syria appealed to Egypt for support who promptly recalled their UN peacekeeping troops from the Sinai Peninsula to the Syrian borders. Egypt signed a mutual agreement with Jordan resulting in Israeli fears of another Arab attack. It launched a preemptive strike on all three countries on June 5, 1967 capturing the Gaza Strip, West Bank of the Jordan River, Old City of Jerusalem, Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982 but due to insecurity fears, Israel has not returned the remaining lands to them (Oren, 2003). Conclusion. To summarize the 1948 Israeli Independence that has lead to the current Middle East crisis, author Tanya Reinhart states Israel’s accurate system of injuring Palestinians is not an act of self-defense or a spontaneous reaction to terror. It is mainly an act of ethnic cleansing that drives out one ethnic group for the other to control (Reinhart, 2002). The present-day situation has not only escalated tensions between the two religious groups but also has created strong hatred and marked differences between them. Whether the Palestinians were pushed or forced to flee during the pre-independence days or post independence, the truth remains that the once asylum seekers surely reclaimed their homeland under all circumstances put forward. The need for Israel is a generally accepted fact and the state of Israel was not only a demand from Zionist leaders but also demanded from other European thinkers who believe that Israel has a right to exist. In strictly legal times, Israel has existed for many years and accepted by the global powers as a member of the international community of countries. Of course, the Arab countries and other nations certainly object to the presence of Israel but it can be hoped that with time and dialogue, they too will see the need for Israel and accept it as a part of the Middle Eastern landscape (Scham, 2002). One does not ask if France has a right to exist, it is not questioned whether Australia is a legal country or not and even the existence of America was once seen as a rebellion conducted by individuals who were traitors to their king but is now taken as granted. Of all the countries on the globe, only Israel has to justify its existence and justify the need for its creation as a separate state. That in itself can be seen as an injustice and an anti-Semitic evaluation but the study of history demands that the need for the existence of Israel must be examined to know what can be done in the future to ensure that a need for other countries founded because of religious intolerance and prejudice is not present. Given the persecution of Jews throughout their existence and all the suffering endured by this nation, it seems just that they deserve a homeland to call their own. Works Cited: Answers.com. 2006. Six-Day War. Retrieved October 21, 2006 from Answers.com website: http://www.answers.com/topic/six-day-war Fixed Reference. 2006. 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Retrieved October 21, 2006 from Fixed Reference: Snapshots of Wikipedia website: http://fixedreference.org/en/20040424/wikipedia/1948_Arab-Israeli_War Ha’am, A. 1897, Jewish State and Jewish Problem. Retrieved October 29, 2006 from ZionismOnTheWeb website: http://www.zionismontheweb.org/stateproblem.htm Herzl, T. 1896, The Jewish State. Retrieved October 28, 2006 from Wikisource website: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Jewish_State/Introduction Isseroff, A. 2006. Was Israel created because of the Holocaust? Retrieved October 28, 2006 from Zioinism-Israel.com website: http://www.zionism-israel.com/issues/holocaust1.html Oren, Michael. 2003. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Ballantine Books – a member of the Random House Publishing Group: USA. Reinhart, Tanya. 2002. Israel/ Palestine: how to end the war of 1948. Seven Stories Press: New York. Scham, P. 2002. The Two Narratives. Palestine - Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 5-7. Wikipedia. 2006. 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Retrieved October 21, 2006 from Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab-Israeli_War Word Count: 2,208 Read More