And more from RIGHTEOUS VICTIMS (picking up where the post below this one left off -- and this portion includes something about terrorism that I found to be the most eye-opening passage in the entire book): THE SECOND STAGE In July 1937, the AHC rejected the Peel Report and flatly repudiated the idea of partition. The Arabs of Galilee were especially vehement, regarding the prospect of life under Jewish rule or transfer as equally abhorrent.... In September the rebellion was resumed, with new vigor. ... Overall in 1937, the rebels launched 438 attacks....97 persons were killed and 149 wounded. .... Despite its disorganization, lack of discipline, and internal feuding, the rebellion bit hard into British rule of Palestine. .... Britains problems in Palestine were aggravated by the advent of Jewish terrorism. Until mid-1937 the Jews had almost completely adhered to the policy of restraint. But the upsurge of Arab terrorism in October 1937 triggered a wave of Irgun bombings against Arab crowds and buses, introducing a new dimension into the conflict. Before, Arabs (and, less frequently, and usually in retaliation, Jews) had sniped at cars and pedestrians and occasionally lobbed a grenade, often killing or injuring a few bystanders or passengers. Now, for the first time, massive bombs were placed in crowded Arab centers, and dozens of people were indiscriminately murdered and maimed....This innovation soon found Arab imitators.... .... The first Irgun attack occurred on November 11, 1937, killing two Arabs at a bus depot near Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, and wounding five. Three days later...a number of Arabs were killed in simultaneous attacks around the country -- a day that the Irgun thereafter commemorated as the Day of Breaking of the HAVLAGA (restraint). On July 6, 1938, an Irgun operative dressed as an Arab placed two large milk cans filled with TNT and shrapnel in the Arab market in downtown Haifa. The subsequent explosions killed twenty-one and wounded fifty-two. On July 15 another bomb killed ten Arabs and wounded more than thirty in David Street....A second bomb in the Haifa market -- this time disguised as a large can of sour cucumbers...killed at least thirty-nine Arabs in injured at least seventy. On August 26, a bomb in Jaffas vegetable market killed twenty-four Arabs and wounded thirty-nine. (pp. 144-147.) THE END OF THE REVOLT [T]he most important factors in the demise of the rebellion were the enlarged British military presence and its vigorous operations which resulted in the physical destruction of rebel bands, the asphyxiation of their supply routes, and the alienation of the rural population. (p. 153.) THE POLITICAL AFTTERMATH In November 1938 the British announced a basic reconsideration of their Palestine policy. Retreat from partition had been a year in the making. .... On December 8, 1937, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlains cabinet had in effect decided against Peel and partition. In March 1938 a technical committee...was appointed.... .... The commission published its report on November 9, simultaneously with a government White Paper rejecting partition.... .... In a new statement of policy, the White Paper of May 17, 1939, Britain proposed a ceiling of 75,000 on Jewish immigration during the next five years, after which all immigration would require Arab agreement. The White Paper put severe limitations on Jewish land purchasing, completely forbidding it in most districts and proposed an independent Palestinian state with majority rule within ten years, Arab-Jewish relations permitting. At this point the Palestinians made a major blunder....Having failed in the revolt and nonetheless having been offered major political concessions, the AHC turned around and rejected them....The AHC was dissatisfied mainly because the White Paper failed to call an immediate halt to Jewish immigration, and because independence had been deferred and made contingent on Arab-Jewish amity.... Though Whitehalls retreat from the Balfour Declaration...had been years in gestation, the White Paper was a grave shock to the Jews [and] was denounced as illegal, as it contradicted the terms of the Mandate.... While it alienated the Yishuv, the White Paper failed during the subsequent war years to cramp its development. (pp. 155-159.)
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 20:24:10 +0000
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