History of Israel (1 Viewer)

[Bottomfeeder Sports]

Short term impact of the Balfour Declaration

The British were hopeful that Balfour's letter, made public, would galvanize worldwide Jewry and cause them to come to the aid of Great Britain. it certainly did this for Zionists the world over, but at the time that this document was written, Zionists only represented a minority of Jewish opinion. The majority of European Jews, both religious and secular, continued to have allegiance toward the country they lived in. German and Austrian Jews, for example, were highly supportive of the German-Austrian side of the war.

I remember in the late seventies it was commonly stated that the very fact that the working class, the proletariat took arms under the national flag of their bourgeoisie exploiters during WWI should have been proof that "workers of the world" would not unite. That national pride, among other things was just more important. And thus communism was doomed to fail before it was even started. It was the late '70s so lets not get too technical on the anti communism arguments. That being said reading the above I couldn't help but imagine the same argument being applied - You are fighting a war largely defined by and caused by nationalism.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Tim couple things: short term effects should include the reaction of the Arab rebels whom the Brits were using to harass the Turkish flank and underbelly. Also I agree that Israel cannot be viewed as a colonial plant, indeed they were a major independence movement of post WW1 & WW2 in line with India and other places. As I've stated Israel has just as much claim to its borders as the other states created by the French & Brits, the defining characteristic of the opposition to them from the beginning was sheer religious bigotry.

 

[Abraham]

Will your historical narrative start with Abraham?

Apparently not.

 

[timschochet]

Tim couple things: short term effects should include the reaction of the Arab rebels whom the Brits were using to harass the Turkish flank and underbelly. .

] Actually those rebels, led by the Hashemites, we're good with the Zionist movement. In fact in 1918, Feisal, then leader of the Hashemites, met with Weizmann and the two reached an understanding to respect each other's independence movements. The main Arab resistance to the Zionists started a few years later among the Palestinians, which I will try to narrate.

 

[timschochet]

The End of World War I in Palestine

Having garnered Arab support thanks to the McMahon letters, French support thanks to the secret Sykes-Picot treaty, and a moral basis for future occupation thanks to the Balfour Declaration, Great Britain was ready to proceed with the taking over of Palestine. There was just one little detail to deal with- the Turks were still there.

The British forces in Egypt, reeling from the defeat against the Turks they had suffered in Gallipoli, now attempted to invade Palestine through the Sinai desert. Using friendly Arabs to weaken Turkish railway lines (led by T. E. Lawrence, and romanticized in the film Lawrence of Arabia) the British forces began to attack in late 1917. The original plan called for these troops, somewhat limited in number, to be reinforced by excess troops from the western front in France, but the German General Ludendorf's assaults prevented this. Fortunately for the British, they were commanded by Edmund Allenby, who was one of the great forgotten generals of World War I.

Allenby brilliant marshaled his troops (mostly Australians, New Zealanders, and Indians) in dynamic formations far removed from the static positions of the British in France, and the result was victory after victory, in the Sinai, in Gaza, in Beersheba, at Meggido, and finally Jerusalem. The Turks, who had fought bravely and ferociously against the British at Gallipoli and at Kut earlier in the war, crumbled before Allenby's magnificent onslaught. In December of 1917, Allenby's forces entered Jerusalem. Allenby then made a public announcement, promising to protect all of the religious sites of the city.

The corrupt and stagnant centuries of Ottoman rule over the Middle East had now ended. The western powers took their place. The League of Nations would make it official: Britain was given the mandate for Palestine and Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) while France was given the mandate for Syria and Lebanon. The idea was that these mandates would be temporary, until the peoples living in those lands could form their own governments. As we shall see, it didn't quite work out this way...

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Tim gets an A for effort and quality in this thread.

 

[cstu]

Tim, could I get your thoughts on something I read?

Ste answered 4 weeks ago

It is said that Judaism dates from around 1500 BC, but this is inaccurate for many reasons.

Yahwehism, the pre-exilic religion of the people of Judah and Israel was almost ompletely unrecognisable as post-exilic Judaism. So much so that most scholars don't call Yahwehism as form of Judaism.

Zoroastrianism dates from about 700 BC, but Judaism was effectively a religion created by the Persian Zoroastrians after around 539 BC to maintain control of their conquered province of Yehud.

Ezra was a Persian scribe who was commissioned by the Persians to surrepticiously introduce Persian ideas to the Judahite people in order to assimilate them to life in the Persian Empire. He claimed to have Judahite ancestry, but in reality the links were tenuous. In any case, even if he were a Judahite descendant, he was educated in Persia. The Persians used Ezra to spread Zoroastrian concepts into their new province of Yehud, the Persians financed the "re-building" of the Jewish temple (in reality what we call the "Second Temple" was most likely the first temple), and to soften Judahite attitudes toward Persia (one means of which was by having one of her prophets call Cyrus by name in Isaiah 44:28).

Although the history of the Jewish/Judahite people stretches back further than Zoroastrianism, it must be said that prior to the Babylonian exile and the subsequent Persian emancipation, "Judahism" (more accurately called "Yahwehism" at this point) was a monolatrist but polytheistic religion with no central priesthood or temple. Although the figures in the Torah are likely real people, their achievements are almost certainly exaggerated. Archaeology cannot confirm the existence of Solomon's Temple or David's enormous empire.

Some of the claims made in the Torah for the scope of Israel-Judah make it seem as if Israel was richer and more dominant that powers such as Egypt, Assyria and Babylon when in reality both states spent most of their history as vassals to the great powers around them... and it is not well-known that Judah was also a vassal of Samaria (Israel) for several hundred years until Israel was destroyed by Assyria in 722 BC leading to Israelite exiles coming into Judah and the fusing of the two cultures and histories together.

Archaeology confirms that both Israel and Judah already had an aversion to rearing pigs, as no pig bones are found in Israelite or Judahite settlements. It also confirms that Yahweh was worshiped as an equal alongside his wife and consort Ashareh. The hundreds of "tels" in modern Palestine/Israel are the remnant of this Asherah worship.

The earliest stories in the Torah are often obviously polytheistic and many of which were edited by Ezra or others to anachronistically claim continuity. For example, the story of Moses' copper serpent is a clear indication of snake-worship that was later frowned upon. The stories of the serpent in the garden also show that the serpent was once respected as a knowledge-giver who told the truth Genesis 3:22, but these stories were later edited heavily to show the new monotheistic Judahism in a good light, and polytheism in the worst light possible. Modern Biblical scholars and Hebrew linguists can often pick out these editions and late-additions (in much the same way a reference to "Twitter" or "Facebook" in a document claiming to be from 1950 would be viewed with suspicion).

During the period of emancipation, many Zoroastrian ideas crossed over into Judaism. Most Jewish groups took on Zoroastrian ideas, but the most absorbent was the Pharisees (Farsis). Judaism took on certain ideas (but lost some of them) a morally dichotomous divinity, the Messiah, who was simply the king of Judah became the Persian idea of a future messianic saviour or Saoshaynt. Many Pharisaic ideas made it into Christianity such as a reframing of God's right hand man and advocate "Satan" as an evil dragon (Psalm 109:6b, also compare (2 Samuel 24:1 with 1 Chronicles 21:1). Subsequently, Judaism also borrowed a lot of their world view and philosophy from the Greeks and other European and Middle Eastern belief systems to arrive at the many cults of Judaism that exist today (including Christianity and Islam).

So in summary, the Judaism that exists today was first conceived 722 BC when the Assyrians invaded Israel and some of the lost 10 tribes entered Judah and the cultural upheaval lead to rival priesthoods and the initial centralisation of Judahite religion. the second upheaval was the Babylonian invasion of 586 and the Persian emancipation and repatriation of 539 which introduced new ideas and concepts to the nation and changed the face of the Jews forever.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

17 Yemenite Jews secretly airlifted to Israel in end to ‘historic mission’



Only 50 community members remain in war-torn Arab state after covert operation involving Jewish Agency, State Department




The Jewish Agency on Monday brought a group of some of the last remaining Yemenite Jews to Israel in a covert operation, hailing the end of a decades-long “historic mission” to “rescue” the Jews of the country.

The 17 members of the dwindling community were flown in following a year-long secret operation involving the Jewish Agency for Israel and the US State Department.

 
The group comprised the final batch of approximately 200 Yemenite Jews brought to Israel by the Jewish Agency in recent years, the organization said.

Two other members of the tiny community arrived in recent days as well.

Fourteen came from the town of Raydah, while one family of five hailed from the capital, Sanaa, the Jewish Agency said in its announcement. “The group from Raydah included the community’s rabbi, who brought a Torah scroll believed to be between 500 and 600 years old,” it said.

“Some two hundred Jews have been secretly rescued from Yemen by The Jewish Agency in recent years, including several dozen in recent months, as attacks against the Jewish community have increased and the country has descended into civil war,” the agency said, providing rare details on an effort that was kept tightly under wraps for years.

American officials helped coordinate the complicated handover after the group was abused en route to Israel, Channel 2 reported.

Approximately 50 Jews now remain in Yemen, with 40 living in Sanaa in a compound adjacent to the American Embassy. Despite the ongoing civil war, they refuse to leave the country.

“This is a very significant moment in the history of the State of Israel and for immigration to Israel,” Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said in a statement.

“From Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 until the present day, the Jewish Agency has helped bring Yemenite Jewry home to Israel,” he added. “Today we bring that historic mission to a close. This chapter in the history of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities is coming to an end, but Yemenite Jewry’s unique, 2,000-year-old contribution to the Jewish people will continue in the State of Israel.”

A photo of the new immigrants was shared on social media by a Channel 2 reporter.

The operation effectively ends the Jewish Agency’s efforts to bring Jewish immigrants to Israel from Yemen. Similar initiatives in recent years have helped bring the last few remaining members of the community to Israel as the country descended into civil war.

Saudi Arabia and several of its Sunni Arab allies launched an intervention on March 26 last year to support President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Houthi rebels and their allies seized control of large parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa.

The World Health Organization says the conflict has left more than 6,200 dead in Yemen over the last year and the UN has warned of a humanitarian “catastrophe.”

Some 49,000 Yemeni Jews were brought to the nascent State of Israel in Operation Magic Carpet in 1949-50.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/17-yemenite-jews-secretly-airlifted-to-israel/

 

[timschochet]

Thanks for bringing up this thread. At some point, when my sources are a little better, I'll return to it. 

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Israel remembers plight of Jews who fled Arab world


Israel on Sunday marked the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

In a bid to draw attention to their plight, Israel formally marked the event with a state ceremony under a new law naming November 30 as the anniversary.

"Nearly 800,000 came here and the rest (around 56,000) went to the United States, France, Italy and elsewhere," said Meir Kahlon, chairman of the Central Organisation for Jews from Arab Countries and Iran.

Kahlon himself came to Israel as a child from Libya and spent his first years in the Jewish state in one of the tent camps set up to shelter the flood of newcomers.

At the state ceremony, President Reuven Rivlin acknowledged that for Jews from the Middle East, their troubles were not over when they reached Israel, where European Jews had a chokehold on power.

"Their voices were muted, but the words were in their mouths all along, even if they were said in Hebrew with a Persian or Arabic accent, which in Israel were thought of as enemy languages and viewed as a source of shame."

According to Palestinian and United Nations figures, more than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants -- fled or were driven from their homes in 1948.

Finding a "just solution" for the Palestinians who fled during the 1948 war is a key item on the Palestinian agenda and one of the most sensitive issues in final negotiations with Israel.

Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), an international umbrella group of Jewish community organisations, says 856,000 Jews from 10 Arab countries, among them Morocco, Iraq, Tunisia and Algeria, fled or were expelled in 1948 and after, while violent Arab riots left many Jews dead or injured.

Arab historians say Zionist agents encouraged Jews to abandon their Arab homelands to populate the new state.

Although many migrants arrived with meagre belongings packed in a single suitcase, they did not seek formal refugee status from the international community.

At the time, newly-established Israel was struggling to attract migration from the world's Jews and to project its legitimacy as a sovereign state, able to care for its own people.

Its prime minister, David Ben Gurion, would not have wanted Jews returning to their "historic homeland" classed as refugees, Kahlon said.

- Balancing the picture? -

In March this year, Canada -- whose Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a staunch backer of Israel -- formally recognised the refugee status of the Jewish emigrees from Arab countries.

Some of the migrants to Israel say privately that the issue is being promoted to give Israel a bargaining card if stalled negotiations with the Palestinians should resume and the Palestinians submit compensation claims for the property and assets they left behind in what is now Israel.

"The point is to establish symmetry so that the dispute can be closed," one migrant told AFP on condition of anonymity.

But Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said the issue was entirely separate from Palestinian claims for reparations from Israel - and must remain so.

"They can discuss this with Arab countries, it?s not our business," she told AFP.

"They are trying to find every possible means of circumventing and sabotaging the Palestinian refugees? rights."

- Peace fund for compensation -

JJAC executive director Stanley A. Urman said the campaign to seek restitution for Jews from Arab countries was not meant to negate Palestinian rights.

"History, geography, demography don't allow any comparison between the plight of Palestinian refugees and Jewish refugees," he told journalists on Sunday, advocating a multilateral approach.

During the latest round of peace talks, which were shepherded by US Secretary of State John Kerry until their collapse in late April, there was talk about the establishment of an international peace fund, he said.

Such a fund would provide physical infrastructure for a Palestinian state, such as roads and sewers, as well as security for Israel in the form of final borders and the funding to allow for the establishment of security perimeters along those borders, he explained.

Thirdly, it would provide compensation "to all victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Palestinian and Jewish refugees alike."

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/israel-remembers-plight-jews-fled-arab-world-163355652.html