History's Bitter Roots: Behind the Middle East Muddle

Above: The battle of Ba’b El-wad in 1947 tragically claimed the lives of many Jewish and Palestinian soldiers, Other photos depict Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the 1930's, prior to Israel's occupation of the area All photos courtesy: nakba.sis.gov.ps

(SALEM) - Most of us fail to recognize that the roots of our present-day Middle East Muddle can be readily tracked to World War I and the then-existing Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans supported the German Kaiser in that fateful war, against the British and French. What's left today is Turkey. There's an old saying, "To the winner goes the spoils". Since the Ottomans bet on the wrong horse, their empire was carved up. Executing the political surgery was the League of Nations, which went out of business in World War II, only to be replaced by our modern-day UN. They were not the same group. In an event, the Ottomans had their real estate taken away. To Britain went Transjordania (now Jordan) and Palestine (now Israel), while France took control of what we now call Syria and Lebanon. It is important to take note that these territories were overwhelming Muslim. The local people felt very deeply betrayed, to put it mildly. It was like awarding the Christian crusaders the very land that had not achieved centuries before in the real Crusades. Palestine and Jordan became British mandates, a fancy term for becoming virtual colonial territories. No self-respecting Arab could be happy in trading the Ottoman (Muslim) rulers for the British (Christian ones) and having now to conform to British laws and traditions. They felt alienated and angry. Meanwhile, the British were beneficiaries of Dr. Chaim Weitzman's invention of TNT as a military weapon. He made a deal to have the Brits use this in their arsenal in exchange for promising to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine, when the British withdrew. Implementation was delayed, due to the start of World War II. In that war, six million Jews were slaughtered by Hitler's forces in the Holocaust. World public opinion was aroused by these atrocities, all of which gave momentum to the campaign to create Israel. After the war ended, many European Jewish refugees took flight to this promised future homeland. The Palestinians were less than sympathetic, instead viewing this as an encroachment. As in all global politics, so much of it is purely subjective. The West, Christian in orientation, took the side of the Hebrew community and supported the 1948 creation of Israel. All of this alienated the surrounding Islamic cultures, who perceived this action as betrayal. Arabs were and still are in the majority in the region. Hence, they felt that Western interests (Christians and Jews) were seeming to team up, at their expense. They strongly objected. World War II brought the Holocaust, the execution of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis. Prior to that war, Dr. Chaim Weitzman had used his scientific prowess to develop dynamite for the British. They in turn promised Weitzman to support having a Jewish state in Palestine once the war had concluded. The UN, with an overwhelming pro-Western majority, endorsed that proposal in 1947. The fallout from Hitler's Holocaust served to speed the momentum. However, Egypt and Syria and other surrounding Arab nations objected. The Palestinian Arabs fled Israel in panic, thinking they would soon return to their homes. That was never to be. The better-equipped Israelis were able to defeat Arab armies, who were humiliated by the outcome. That dramatic loss merely stirred the embers of future conflicts, and so cycles of bloodshed have continued ever since. In more recent times, Syria took political and military control of Lebanon, its smaller neighbor, until forced out my international pressure. When the anti-Syrian former premier of Labanon was assassinated, global fingers pointed to Syria as a key accessory. Into this vacuum, the Lebanese put a relatively untested prime minister, Mr. Fuad Saniora, now pitted against Ehud Olmert, also somewhat untested when he assumed the top post of Israel's prime minister, after Sharon was immobilized by a serious stroke. Where will the fallout next hit? Is Hatred winning the battle? I fear so. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Lee Coyne is a veteran journalist and Salem resident. He served as a UN press officer intern during the 1960's. >>>PO Box 5251, W. Salem OR 97304.

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Good attempt to untangle part of the History. The Balfor declaration (by British Govt promising a homeland for Jews in "Palestine") wasn't just or even mainly because of Wietzman. A major motive was Bible based Christianity which sees the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland as a necessary precursor to the return of Jesus - who was Jewish- to Jerusalem. This 1916 promise also followed waves of Jewish settlement in "Palestine", along with the indigenous jews who were there. Remember the land was very sparsely populated, being denuded of trees and much of it swampland with malaria etc, with no real local ownership. Unfortunately promises of States had also been made to Arab tribes, to get them to fight the Turks, hence the splitting of "palestine"between transJordan "to be devoid of Jewish settlement" (Racist or what!)and "Palestine" (The area called palestine, pre split, was just a general area, formerly part of the Ottoman empire, not a country as such and with various wandering tribes and some small settlements: look at any photo of Jaffa say 1900 or so, or Jerusalem even.) Anyway, as the economy improved under the mandate, partly due to Jewish pioners clearing swamps, planing Eucalyptus trees etc, more immigrants came in, both Arab and Jewish. Yasser Arafat's parents for example, who were Egyptian. There never has been a "palestinian" people, just local groups from various countries, mostly despised by their settled Arab neighbours, which is why Egypt left Gaza to rot between 1950 and 67,Jordan threw out the PLO in 1977 (I think) with many deaths, etc. These waves of immigration and smouldering Muslim resentment led to riots and massacres in the 1930's, which the British initially did little to control - arguably encouraged the Arab side at first - not least because Nazi germany was already courting the Arabs, plus oil interests, plus France always manouvering to increase its Mid East powerbase, plus endemic anti Semitism in parts of British society. The lid was kept on this, more or less, through WW2, but by 1947 the British had had enough, the UN voted on a partition plan (which the Arabs rejected) the Mandate finished in '48 and the rest you know: Arab warfare to destroy Israel (and it certainly wasn't better equipped in 1948, sorry Lee, but the Holocaust survivors etc had nowhere to run and were determined to fight to the death. Cease fire lines in 1949 and 50 (NOT "pre'67 Borders", as if Internationally recognised etc), continuations of the Arab war on Israel in '67, 73, etc, and the present mess, exacerbated by huge population growth, especially the Arabs, notably in Gaza (check the facts)

The Jews were promised a State well before any Holocaust. - The British and UN predecessor- League of Nations- Promised them a larger one in fact.-- When Israel was declared by a UN Vote- there were plenty enough Jews in Israel to Justify the 1% of the Ottoman Empire they (and still had to share nonetheless). --- The British had lopped off 77% of the Mandate and made it Transjordan, later Jordan, NO Jews allowed. - - - --- (Jordan is 70% 'Palestinian'. We're now going for 'Palestinian' state #2, and Arab State #23) - - - - - The Remaining 23% was divided roughly 13-10 for the Jews (ergo the Arabs getting 87% of the Original Mandate). - - - Half of the Jews 13% was the Negev Desert, STATE LAND under the Ottomans and owned by NO Arab-- as was about another 15-20% of what became Israel. - - -- - - The Real victims of the Ottoman Break up were the World's Largest Ethnic Group without a State- KURDS.. but as well know Kurds oppressors are Arab and other bordering Muslim countries so you never hear about 'The Legitimate Rights of the Kurdish People', certainly not until the Iraq war. -- But Kurds opressors aren't JEWS- so there's very little behind that cause. - - Just give Isreal 2 squeare inches of Eastern Turkey and the UN goes into emergency session condemning the "Occupation of Kurdish Land"... And even Tim King then starts getting Behind the "Kurdish" cause.-- Isn't the selectivity of so many on the left perverse and suspect?

Lee, what a great story. I got a great lesson in history today in reading it. Sometimes people forget what has happened in the past and the different aspects of this battle that seems to be getting worse, not better. Thanks for sharing. Am glad you are a part of Salem-News.com

Dear Mr. Coyne, Great article. There is a piece of the puzzle that I would like to add to. My grandfather fought under the Kaiser as a soldier and my grandmother lived through the British Naval Blockade in the winter of 1917 which killed about 750,000 Germans through starvation, disease and cutting off valuable supplies such as fuel for heat during the cold German winter (this blockade of course killed German Jews also.) This is why I always get annoyed when people talk about the terrible Blitz of London which killed very few people compared to what the British did to the Germans in the First World War. Also if you were Jewish and German you were considered German. You also fought for the Kaiser as did my Lutheran grandfather. The Treaty of Versailles set the stage for all that is evil in the rest of the century and you can blame the good old U.S.A.(evil President Wilson)and the other allies, for signing a treaty that caused the collapse of the German Currency, took large amounts of land from Germany in order to create a Poland that did not exist for 125 years. The Poles lived either under German or Russian administration. All of the terms of that treaty were oppressive and many did not want to sign but did so anyway. Also during this period, the Bolsheviks or as we now call them communists were trying to make all of Europe into one communist state. The Germans were doing the right thing by fighting Russia, Lenin and all of those totalitarian idiots who were following the ideology of Bolshevik (communist) philosophers 90 percent of whom were Jewish such as Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and the list goes on. The Jews were not all so innocent in all of what happened to them although I feel that what happened is terrible it is also explainable and terrible things happened to all Europeans including the Jews. Most people killed in these global conficts are civilians and are basically innocent but when a war starts or is close people choose sides. The Jews sided mostly with the ideology of Lenin and Marx and were consider subversives in their own country (Germany). Many of them wanted Germany to be Bolshevik and were considered traitors to follow the left wing ideology of the Russians. Also, after Poland was newly created from land carved out of Germany and Russia. The new Polish currency was very strong as was the Russian currency. The German mark became worthless. Many Poles and Russians many of them Jews rushed into Germany from the east to buy real estate and businesses for pennys on the dollar. This further created resentment toward the Jews because they were seen as opportunistic, traitors and subversives. Also if I have the figure correct about 100 million Europeans died during the WW1(I am going by memory on that one, it may have been more). I know that 60 million dead are the estimates for WW2 and all you hear about are 6 million Jews as if that were the reason for the conflict and the only people that mattered or suffered. The Germans wanted their land back, their dignity and their economy. Wilson got us into the war because he and people like David Lloyd George of Britain and Georges Clemenceau of France were worried that Germany would become the leader of Europe which Germany should have been. They were the great industrialists of Europe. The U.S., Britain, France wanted to knock down Germany from the west out of pure jealousy and wanting to be number one and from the East the Russians and the many Jews that sided with Russia wanted a new economic system latter called Communism. If Germany had been left alone alone during World War 1 and allowed to become the leader of Europe if not eventually the world, there would have been no Hitler, no concentration camps, no WW2 and no 60 million more European dead. The Germans were fighting the same people that we later had to deal with in the cold war and ironically we also took the side of the real mass murderer of all time which was Stalin. In 1933, Stalin removed all of the topsoil from Ukraine, took it back to Russian and consequently 20 million Ukrainians died. Yet all we here about is the dirty Germans and 6 million Jews killed, many of whom(Jews) were on the side of the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union. The excuse to get into the war by the industrialists was the Lusitania which for 50 years was down in history as an innocent ship. In 1970 or 71 life magazine broke the news about the almost 60 year lie. Israel was created because the anti-Semitic U.S. and her allies did not want the Jews here so they let them have their wish to be put in the desert. This was a big mistake to create Israel. You can not blame the Arabs for the resentment. I know that the Jews had their dream but I say tough luck. The allies saved you and you go to the allied countries, but the allied countries (hypocrites) did not want them. Now we will all of these problems until Kingdom Come. The Middle East Conflict will never go away unless you relocate the 7 million Jews there to the U.S. and other places or kill every Arab that is alive, not much of a choice. If I had more time I would get into greater detail. The bottom line is the truth is the truth and the Germans are still the largest ethnic group in the United States and many with English names are German or part German. Isn't that ironic? My heart aches for all people that die and suffer but tell the truth. Even Doris Day was a German American from Ohio. I have listened to the vilification of Germany my whole life and no longer have to remain silent. All wars are about power, money, land and sometimes religion sometimes all of which are intertwined. The Jews belong with the rest of the Europeans, not in the Arab lands. Come to the U.S., Britain, France should be the cry of the day. Again there is alot more to history which has been rarely even talked about for fear of being called anti-Semitic. I know as close to the truth as possible and it is anger producing to hear all the propaganda and politically correct junk that has circulated for the last 100 years. Again, my heart aches for all, Jew and Arab, German, French, British, Irish, should I go on forever? However tell the TRUTH!

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