“The bombing of the King David Hotel was not an act of terrorism – it was an act of combat between warring forces. Shortly thereafter, England decided to leave Palestine, and the Jewish state was born. Mr. Begin and the Irgun laid down arms along with the Haganah upon the rebirth of the rebirth of the Jewish state on May 14, 1948…at 4:32 p.m.” [1] Using theology as a source of history, “Jacob’s name was changed to Israel when he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord” [2] Jacob being the son of Isaac, himself son of Abraham. Israel became an independent state although the Arab countries surrounding city of David wanted to quash it before its rebirth. History has proved that Jerusalem has been tarnished by the catholic crusades in 1099 and the arrival of the Muslims claiming the city for them, it fell into the hands of the Muslims, at the head, Saladin in 1187. The reason why there is still much conflict between Israel and the Arab world is “Not land, money or history. The reason for the continual conflict over the city of Jerusalem is theology.” [3] Coming to one argument about the beginning of the conflict, one would rather blame the British administration for not taking the Arab threats seriously and believing that it would all end peacefully and that the crown government of Great Britain would keep oil rich Arab countries and Israel as a strategic military base instead of accusing Zionists who only wanted to return to their homeland and find rest and refuge from the Nazi persecutions of 1939 – 1945. Britain and the Arab revolt of 1936 – 1939… The implications of the British administration in the Arab revolt. “The British white paper policy limited Jewish immigration into Israel to escape Hitler’s holocaust in Europe. It allowed only five thousand Jewish immigrants per year to immigrate into Palestine. Because they could not legally enter Palestine without proper documentation, and because the five thousand permits that were legally given by the British mandate were virtually gone, most Jews were considered ‘illegal immigrants’ by the British and were rounded up in large numbers and sent back by ship to Hitler and the death camps.” [4] The White Paper Policy discouraged Jewish people to immigrate to their homeland, and at the same time, the British administration was pressured by a new group of frustrated radical Arabs. The latter group wanted the end of Jewish return to Israel and the sales of land to the Jews, and above all, they wanted to establish an Arab government within Israel. With the world financial crisis and Europe at the brink of another possible world war, British found itself forced to focus on the Arab problem and did not realize the degree of hate that dwelled within the Arab world for the Jewish people. The root of the problem back in 1936 – 1939 was the imminent war against Germany. Britain would be fighting the Nazi to gain the American support, and at the same time, would need Arab oil and thus; Arab goodwill. Jews, back in Israel had no choice but to depend on Britain. And this created certain confusion. On one side, Britain wanted Arab support and in return they would ask for autonomy and the departure of the Jews, and on the other hand, it could not do it openly as then, great Britain would be regarded as aiding the Nazis to disseminate the whole Jewish population. Though the British policy adopted in favour of the Arabs, it had changed over time, as successive heads of state were in favour of a stable Jewish state. So the matter became even more complicated when the British chose to apply the policy of appeasement for the Arabs. Now the Balfour declaration was the obstacle for Great Britain – it wanted to get out of the declaration but it was a mandate imposed by the UN and the world wanted to see what would be Britain’s next step. It had two choices to extricate from the declaration. Either requires partition, to get out of its own mess and leave those two nations fight for the land or to stay and improvise. The British had made alliance with many Arab heads of state and this complicated the situation when the peel commission reported that there could not eventually be any reconciliation between the Jews and the Arabs and that the mandate did not prove to be successful at all. The solution proposed was to partition the state of Israel into an Jewish and an Arab state and have a piece of land for the British as ‘compensation’ and so they would always have a share of the Arab - rich oil economy and have their military support from the Jewish part and from the Arab’s part also. The outcome was that one party, the Twentieth Zionist Congress, accepted the partition plan while the Palestinian Arabs nationalists rejected the idea of partitioning. The Arabs even used the Wilson’s point of self – determination against the British and the proposition of division of land. The revolt began in autumn 1937 and the result was that Jewish people went more and more self – sufficient while the Arabs boycotted agriculture facilities. In a certain way, the Arabs ‘fighting’ for the people living in Palestine at that time, did nothing to improve their living standards, but through the revolt showed their weakness and how they pluged the whole country into disarray. The war of independence and the birth of the Medinat Israel (the State of Israel)… How did the war began? The Arabs had rejected the idea of division of land and they had no apparent reason for wanting so. Unless if one would magnify the only reason of sharing Jewish homeland with other peoples as a tragedy, it is difficult to find another viable reason. Can one suggest that the war for independence began much before World War II and that it rooted from the desire of Herzl, the founder of Zionism, to restore Israel as the homeland for the Jews? But obviously, historians would rather recall the freedom fighter, Menachem Begin, founder of the Irgun, an underground military force to counterattack British from sending Jews to Germany. Some regarded him as being a terrorist and he was as even as thorn in n the side of the British at that time where the latter wanted to appease the Arabs by sending Jews to concentration camps and obtaining oil from Arab allies. “Menachem begin was a freedom fighter whose targets always consisted of British military personnel or those who were armed combatants against the Jewish people.” [5] It was after the bombing of the king David Hotel that Britain decided to leave Palestine and. The question that remains is why Britain would suddenly feel inferior to the problem of the Jewish – Arab conflict? The war began when Israel declared its independence on the 14th of May, 1948 at 4:32 p.m. At the Tel Aviv. “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called Israel.” [6] This proclamation was the end of suffering but the beginning of a new conflict between the State of Israel and the Arab world. “Sitting in the throat of the Islamic nations is Israel...” [7] Soon after the proclamation of the State of Israel, five surrounding Arab countries; Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq attacked the newborn state but failed. This was the war of Palestine, but also a war of religion more than that of land. “The real difference between the two religions, however, lies in their basis for belief.”[8] Now one can argue about the reason why would Arab states, who never showed any support for Palestine, before the rise of Zionism, suddenly feel concerned about the fate of Palestine. Was it for interests, because of jealousy or hatred? Analysts would argue that it was because they had been cheated out of their homeland. It was, according to them, a war between a native Arab population and an immigrant Jewish population. The Arabs lost the war due to lack of cooperation and the fact that they had their own ways fighting. The fighting has ever continued till today.
