Friday, August 17, 2007

Mandate for Palestine and the League of Nations

What of the League of Nations and the idea that there is no such thing as Palestine throughout history? Many here in America make no secret of their contempt for the United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations, as weak, ineffective and corrupt. But, that doesn’t deter them from proclaiming that the League’s recognition and endorsement of a “national home for the Jewish people” is validation of Israel’s right to exist. While apparently discounting the fact that the Versailles Peace Conference established the League of Nations and granted the U.K. control of Palestine, which is how the British occupiers, themselves, had referred to this land for many, many years before Israel was recognized as a state.

The only Middle Eastern state represented at the League of Nations inception was Persia. And, unlike an example of a newly created nation state, Montenegro, the actual inhabitants of the territories had no say in the process because they were occupied territories. Yes, they did revolt, violently, and they have never stopped.

Research on the subject reveals that a strong motivation for this entire scheme was the “rise in importance of the British Empire’s South Asian enterprises in the early 19th century.” They believed that the influx of Jewish wealth would be beneficial and would counter “any future evil designs of Egypt or its neighbors.”

The British occupiers took their sweet time relinquishing control of the territories and refused entry to hundreds of thousands of Jewish Holocaust refugees. Much of the immigration during this period was illegal and many Jews died in rickety boats, trying to sneak in. Fighting was intense throughout this period with terrorists groups on both sides.

During WWII, Palestinian Arabs saw a probable axis victory as a way of “wresting Palestine back from the Zionists and the British,” and Avraham Stern, leader of the Jewish Lehi terrorist gang, hated the British so much he was willing to fight on the side of the Nazis.

Menachem Begin, leader of Irgun made the statement that, “The partition of the homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized. The signature by institutions and individuals of the partition is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. The land of Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for ever.”

And Chaim Weizmann said, “(Our intention is to) finally establish such a society in Palestine that Palestine shall be as Jewish as England is English, or America is American.”

The U.S. did not want the Jewish Holocaust refugees, either, and denied them asylum. So, our support for Israel probably has more to do with hegemony than a “right to exist” and a whole lot more to do with our “interests” in the region than generosity. Why the U.S. ever decided to pick sides in this mess is the reason for the troubles we are experiencing today.

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