The New York Times published a blog today by Ethan Bronner, in which he discusses how a journalist is not allowed to write objectively about any aspect of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Mr. Bronner concludes:

The Toughest of Nuts

Some international political problems are, or appear to be, practically impossible to resolve, although their resolution is in the world’s best interests. These include:

• Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Kashmir
• Kosovo
• Northern Ireland
• Palestine

While you may argue that the “troubles” in Northern Ireland are finished, I wonder. I sincerely hope so, but I wonder if the bloodshed and despair have resulted in their dormancy. I hope, again, that this is not so and that the citizens of that region continue to enjoy peace and increasing prosperity.

Of all these, however, the toughest international nut to crack, so to speak, has to be that of Palestine.

The Slick & The Easy

Palestine can be, and too often is, seen through either of two prisms:

• Non-Palestinian Jews capitalized on the reality of The Holocaust to successfully realize the Zionist goal of an independent Jewish state, Israel, at the expense of the Palestinians who lived there and owned the properties from which they were driven, creating a new diaspora.
• Palestinians and Arabs, led by unscrupulous and corrupt men, unsuccessfully fought to eradicate Jews from Palestine and thwart the United Nations declaration on the partition of Palestine.

These two basic explanations of the Palestinian mess, while they both hold germs of truth, are too easy and have been made even slicker by the blood of thousands of Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish men, women, and children since the end of the First World War.

The Death March

Let’s take a look at the time-line that underlies this region and its current problems.

World War I

The Ottoman Empire signed a secret pact with Germany in August 1914. This alliance threatened Russia and its territories in the Caucasus as well as Great Britain’s use of the Suez Canal and its line of communication with its colonies in India and the Far East. In 1915, Great Britain invaded the Ottoman Empire at Gallipoli and began the Mesopotamian Campaign. Conflicting promises were made by British representatives to Arabs (the McMahon-Husayn correspondence) and Jews (the Balfour Declaration):

The British tried to meld these various promises to Arab and Jew by statements, for instance, by their head of the Arab Bureau in Cairo, Commander David Hogarth, who wrote Husayn in 1918, saying:

Further, General Allenby¹, British General Officer Commanding in Mesopotamia, advised his government in October, 1918, that he had given Husayn’s son, Faysal:

These assurances flew in the face of the Sykes–Picot-Sazanov Agreement of 1916, when Great Britain offered to France and Russia a plan to establish separate spheres of influence in the Middle East.

¹General Allenby and his Egyptian Expeditionary Force benefited greatly from the 70,000 Arab troops who participated as part of the Arab Revolt in the Mesopotamian Campaign. Allenby took the title, Viscount Allenby of Megiddo, from his ultimate victory there over the Ottoman Turk army.

Between World Wars

Zionists lobbied hard for the implementation of the Balfour Declaration and Arab/Palestinian leaders pushed back against increased, or any, Jewish immigration into Palestine.

Some Arab and Palestinian leaders, acting on the McMahon correspondence, sought to forge a nation, Greater Syria, to include what is today Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Egyptian Sinai. This movement was frustrated by the British and French mandates established after the war and based upon the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The new League of Nations did not establish these mandates, where France was given what became Syria and Lebanon and Great Britain administered what became Iraq, Trans-Jordan, and Palestine (Israel). The League did authorize them by the Treaty of San Remo in 1920.

The French ended the Pan-Arabist movement by defeating Faysal outside of Damascus in 1920 and expelling him. (see French Mandate of Syria)

Great Britain further frustrated Pan-Arab ambitions by creating the Protectorate of Transjordan and installing Abdullah bin al-Husayn as Emir (Transjordan became an independent state in 1948). This, and most other British acts, were violently opposed by the Arab Higher Committee, led by the British-installed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni. (Abullah I, king of Transjordan, apparently dreamed of establishing a Greater Syria, incorporating Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Transjordan, under a Hashemite dynasty. Abdullah I was assassinated by a Palestinian in 1951 as he entered the Al Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem. His crimes were his failure to support an all-out ware against Israel and for his negotiations with Jews and Israel.)

al-Husayni, who had supported the British and Faysal’s armies in the Mesopotamian Campaign, rapidly turned against Great Britain after learning of the Balfour Declaration. He instigated riots against Jewish businesses and quarters in Jerusalem, primarily over issues related to the Western Wall of the ancient Temple of Solomon and to severely restrict or end Jewish immigration into Palestine. In 1931, he founded and led the World Muslim Conference. al-Husayni had to flee Jerusalem and Palestine several times to avoid prosecution in the Arab Revolt of 1937–1939.

The Second World War

al-Husayni fled Palestine and sought support from Mussolini and, most infamously, from Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. He helped raise troops for the Waffen SS in Bosnia, for instance, and he was a spokesman for Nazism on German radio broadcasts. al-Husayni’s attitude and goals can best be summarized in his own words:

The Yugoslav Supreme Military Court convicted al-Husayni as a war criminal; he escaped in 1948 to Egypt, where he was given asylum. Subsequently, the new Arab League undercut his attempts toward Palestinian self-determination. He was not universally followed by Arabs and Palestinians; most agreed with his goals of restricting Jewish immigration and his complete opposition to the partition of Palestine and creation of a Jewish state. However, many did not support him, personally.

Jewish Immigration

Between 1930 and 1939, Jews fled Germany and Austria, for obvious reasons:

• 90,000 immigrated to the United States
• 60,000 entered Palestine
• Up to 20,000 came into Japanese-held Shanghai

The Alyia Bet ship, Exodus

After the surrender of Germany and the end of World War II in Europe, over 250,000 Jewish refugees were classified by the newly-formed United Nations as “displaced persons.” In Palestine, Jewish leaders established an organization, the Mosad le-Aliyah Bet, with the mission to force the immigration of those refugees to Palestine. The Royal Navy intercepted many ships acquired for this purpose and interned the displaced persons in camps established in Cyprus.

The United States

The US government has often worked, with regard to Palestine, as if its left and right hands had not been properly introduced. In 1920, the Senate rejected the treaty establishing the League of Nations, in part due to Senator William E. Borah’s complaint that:

Borah and the Senate rejected the treaty, and for additional reasons, not the least of which was their distaste for “foreign entanglements.”

Following the Second World War, President Harry Truman had to deal not only with the human issue of the Holocaust survivors and the political issues attendant to the partition of Palestine and creation of the state of Israel; he also had to fight with people in his Administration. Key appointed leaders in the State Department and Department of Defense neither supported increased immigration into the US nor the establishment of Israel. Truman was badgered from all sides, and, while he never allowed his temper to control him, he certainly did not hold back his often biting commentary:

At one meeting in the Oval Office, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland was so agitated that he pounded on the President’s desk. Truman dismissed the Zionist group, saying:

Truman’s administration did neither him nor the nation good service during this. For instance, the US Ambassador to the United Nations announced that the US did not support the partition of Palestine when, in fact, Truman had clearly stated his support for partition. When Truman granted de facto recognition to the newly announced State of Israel on May 14, 1948, that ambassador left his post without saying a word to his staff and went to Washington, D.C., to personally hand in his resignation to the Secretary of State.

Summary

This is a very, very long missive. But, in my defense, the issue is very, very, very complicated. It is extremely simple to partisans of either side but, if you are not directly involved, it is complex. And, there’s no way for a writer to write about it without inviting extremely sharp criticism by one or both sides, who only wish to see their positions gain the light of day. Ethan Bronner’s blog in the New York Times is, sadly, so very true.

It’s also true that this region will never have peace until people on both sides of the conflict sit down and say, “Enough is enough!” When enough blood has been shed and enough hopes and prayers dashed, maybe people will say that.

Maybe.