<p>I agree with most of your points except for the way you reference Israel. We are generally in agreement. However, you see that as an excuse to kill people and I view those American actions as a response to that hatred. As for Israel, it would take me way to long to try to explain what happened so I will keep int short and concise and because of that will miss addressing many things.</p>
<p>First lets define some terms. Palestine is a geographic term not a country. It encompasses modern day Israel and Jordan. It can be said that 2/3 of the geographic region Palestine is actually Jordan, the other third is Israel. I will refer to Palestine when I am talking about the time period from when Jews were first kicked out of their country thousands of years ago to 1948.</p>
<p>Jews have always lived in Palestine. Just check out the census figures from when they began to be recorded. The Jewish population often fluctuated because of attacks on them, the earliest earliest being Babylonians, assyrians etc and the latests being Arabs, Turks and Muslims-since Islams formation as a religion. The Jews lived in the following cities: Jerusalem, Hebron, Haifa, Shchem(Nablus), Safed, very small amount in Jaffa. These are some of the oldest cities in the country. Granted, the population of Jews then was not extremely high and other populations were higher in Palestine. Jewish immigration started in mid 1800’s are a religious response and more importantly as a response to anti-semitism. That is anti-semitism in Czarist Russia and Eastern Europe. Ironically, in western Europe which emancipated Jews, the Jews there were not so interested in their own homeland as much as those in Eastern Europe. So there goes the old saying, Zionism was about Americans Jews giving money to the British Jews so that Polish Jews could move to Palestine. Nevertheless, Jewish immigration continued into those regions. The region from the Jordan river to the Med. Sea, which is modern day Israel was essentially a swamp land owned by Arab landlords living in Syria. The people who lived on that land were largely nomadic and Palestine had no viable infrastructure and in reality no infrastructure at all. Mark Twain in 1867 wrote while visiting Palestine. " Stirring scences…occur in the valley of Jezreel no more. There is not a solitar village throught its whole extent-not for 30 miles in either direction. There are 2 or 3 small clusters of Beduin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride 10 miles hereabouts and not see 10 human beings…Come to Galilee for that…these unpeopled deserts, these rusty mounds of barrenness, that never, never, never, do shake the glare from their harsh outlines, and fade and faint into vague perspective; that melancholy ruin of Capernaum: this stupid village of Tiberias, slumbering under its 6 funeral palms…We reached Tabor safelt…We never saw a human being on the whole route. Nazareth is forlorn…Jericho the accursed lies in a moldering ruin today, even as Joshua’s miracle left it more than three thousand years ago; Bethlehem and Bthany, in their poverty and their humilation have nothing about them now to remind one that once knew the high honor of the Saviors presence…"</p>
<p>In 1857 British communique from their consul in Jerusalem said “the country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is that of a body of population” </p>
<p>The Arab population in Palestine was simply decreasing. If anyone asks I will point them to more data and repors by demographers that show that.Jews started to settle and arive in larger and larger numbers. Rishon L’Zion (first zion) was the first settlement and really the first “city” built, but in general since the movement to Israel was either very religious or very socialistic in nature most Jewish settlements were turned into seperate farming communities. As a result of Jewish settlement, Arab nomads and Arab tenet farmers started to find work. Their economy boomed. The Jews offered the Arabs alot of agricultural and medical help. There was alot of collaboration between individual villages in the Jordan, Jezreel, and Beka valleys. Whenever a large scale cooperation was proposed to Arab nationalist leaders it was turned down because of anti-semitism. Nevertheless, Arab avg life expectancy continued to rise and infant mortality continued to drop and Palestine continued to grow as a Jewish homeland. Moreover, Arab immigration to areas near Jews grew because of the economic expansion offered by the Jews. Palestine was one of the most profitable places for Arabs to live by the beginning of WW2 As this was going on the Arabs were also beginning to mobilize. With the start and end of WWI ( I understand, I skipped a huge chunk of history, just not that much time on my hands) Britain and France now controlled the Middle East and they promised to build countries. The Hussien-McMahon correspondance promised a country in Arabia-Basically Saudia Arabia, Qatar, Oman, UAE, and to an extent Iraq. Remember Palestine was a seperate geographic term for todays Jordan and Israel. Then a few years after the Hussein Mcmahon correspondence- the Balfour Decleration (1918) promises Palestine to the Jews. All of Palestine. In 1922, the promise is first broken as Transjordan is created. Most Jews do not really object to much because they understood how little connection they had to that part of Palestine. Interestingly enough, Jordan is considered a Palestinian country with about 80% of the country being Palestinian Arab, but at time in early 1900’s no one even talked of an indpendant Palestinian state. In fact, the “Palestinian” people did not even exist yet. Arab aspirations were to combine a big country-that woudl include Syria and all of Palestine. So Jews continued to build the country well into WWI and after WWI. During the first world war it is important to note that the Jews fought with the British and yes there was some small support from Arabs. (This would not extend into WWII, when the Arabs were categorically against the British. Arab leaders often visited Germany and Germen leadres visited them. Togetherthey collaborated on killing Jews as well as the rest of the allies). Also important to note that after the British recieved their mandate in Palestine, they continued Turkish policy of limiting land for Jews. Jews could only own a certain amount of land and the land they could own was almost all an arrible, swamp, and useless by mostly anybody’s standards except those of the Jews who built cities and farms in rocky hills and deserts. Jews consisteently tried to purchase land. They had to buy from Syrian landlords at very inflated prices. They often paid 5-8 times the worth of a piece of land. In fact 3/4 of the land bought by Jews were boug from huge landowners living in Syria and other countries rather than simple farmers in Palestine. David Ben Gurion, the 1st prime minister of Israel who was never part of Lehi or Stern, instructed Jews to not by land that belonged to local Arab farmers or those who worked on the land. From this point forward Palestine will refer to modern day Israel, and Transjordan to modern day Jordan even though togethey they make up the region of Palestine. Jew continued to build up their national home in Palestine. The first newspaper in Palestine ever was called the Palestinian Post. This was run by Jews. The first radiostation ever was called the Palestinian Voice. This was run by Jews. Note that term Palestinian referred to the region and thus arabs and Jews alike. You were either a Palestinian Arab or a Palestinian Jew. Golda Meir, a later prime minister of Israel and fundamental to the building of the country, had a passport that said “Palestinian” on it. The Jews built schools, government agencies economic boards essentially the works. In the 1930’s huge Arab riots broke out. Many Jews were murdered. This all started when in 1929, in Hebron, sephardic Jews who had been in the city for a very long time. As long as the arabs, in fact, were massacred. 69 of them. The British refused to stop the riots of the 30’s and massacres and they were forced t oarm themselves. The Palmach, Hagganah were formed. They essentially worked to protect the Jews. Unfortunately certain rogue groups attacked innocent arabs. They were usually arrested, and condemned by Jewish leaders. After the riots and massacres died down, the British sent in the Peel Commission to investigate what happened and provide recommendations. The blame was squarely put on the Arab populations and British failure to act. This was in 1937. A Jewish state was already in de facto existance. Haifa was half Jewish, Jerusalem had Jewish majority, Tel Aviv grew and was largest city. </p>
<p>The Peel Commission wrote:</p>
<p>With every year that passes, the contrast between the intensely democratic and highly organized modern community and the old-fashioned Arab world around it grows sharper, and in nothin perhaps more markedly than on its cultural side. The literary output of the [Jewish] National Home is out of all proportion to its size. Hebrew translations have been published of the works of Aristotle, Descartes, Leibnitz, Fichte, Kant, Bergson, Einstein and other philospohers, and of Shakespeare, Goethe, Heine, Byron, Dickens, and the great Russian novelists, and many modern writers…The Hebrew Press has expanded to four daily and ten weekly papers…All in all, the cultural achievment of this little community of 400 000 people is on of the most remarkable features of the National Home"</p>
<p>This is just a testament to the cultural side of the country that the Jews were building. To seea more politcal side, just check out what Winston Churchill said.</p>