Brief History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Part 2: Modern History Part 1: The modern history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict starts in the 19th century with the emergence of Zionism, which was a Jewish movement which sought to establish a new nation for Jews in Palestine (or elsewhere sometimes), mainly as a reaction to increasing antisemitism in Europe at that time (see Dreyfus Affair, pogroms of the Russian Empire). This was one of several Jewish responses to this phenomenon, and was by no means the largest for a while, as many Jews throughout Europe were either fairly assimilated into their respective countries, opposed emigration politically (ex. Bundists), and/or thought they could best combat antisemitism by remaining in Europe. This movement was generally most popular among relatively conservative, often Orthodox Jews initially, but gained wider support as the events of the 20th century unfolded. World War 1 served as the first catalyst of Zionism, mainly among the British government, who were afraid Jewish opposition would prevent the US from entering the war (Jews traditionally supported Germany against Russia, who was seen as their main persecutor). To win Jewish support, the British promised to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine in the Balfour Declaration, replacing their earlier offer of Uganda. As Britain took Palestine from the defeated Ottoman Empire, they allowed Jewish immigration to their new territory, though Jews quickly began to clash with the Palestinian majority over land rights, leading to immigration controls (see 1). During the interwar period, Jewish demands for a national homeland were accepted on both sides of the European political aisle as a possible solution to The Jewish Question, with Madagascar, Russian Asia, Poland (These three were offered by Adolf Hitler as initial Final Solutions), Crimea, and Soviet Asia (These being proposed by some Soviet Jews and Stalin, respectively) being proposed. All of these options were stymied by World War 2, which denied Nazi leaders access to overseas territories, and as the expected victory over the Soviet Union failed to materialize, Hitler and his representative in the East Heinrich Himmler abandoned their plans for forced deportation and instead began to adopt a plan of direct mass killing (instead of indirect starvation-induced mass killing, which was the initial Nazi plan). German Jews made up only 1% of the German population at Hitlers rise, and less than 1/4th of the German population by the beginning of World War 2, and most German Jews alive at the beginning of Hitlers chancillary in 1933 lived to see his death(see 4). The abject massacre of European Jews began as the Nazis conquered Central and Eastern Europe, where the majority of the worlds Jews lived (See 2). No written record on a Facebook political discussion group can convey the tragedy this entailed for millions of European Jews (to say nothing of the millions of others who died in similar circumstances), and humankind collectively. But suffice to say that the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust was somewhere between 5-6 million, which were divided between concentration camps, extermination camps, mass shootings, starvation, and forced deportations (see 3), the majority of which involved local cooperation with Nazis to achieve this (Denmark and various areas of the Balkans were really the only areas without large scale collaboration in murdering Jews) (See 5). In almost all of Europe, antisemitism increased or stayed constant after the war, meaning the populations of Europe who had assisted in the murder of Jews had on the aggregate not felt much remorse (see 2, 5). It was in this environment that the demand for a Jewish homeland became understandably more powerful among Jews. The British agreed to fulfill their prior agreements, and by the 3rd of September, 1947 Israel had been created in Palestine as the Jewish homeland. 1.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration 2. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder 3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust#Ideology_and_scale 4. https://mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/snyder.htm 5. Postwar by Tony Judt
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 01:40:09 +0000
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