Israel's Formation and Early History- (now with footnotes!)

[Marc Peterson]

I realized my previous post on the CRC's Palestinian Trip might have been too far afield for any of you to respond to all at once so I will break it down into bite-sized pieces and will hope for open-minded responses to start a dialogue. Let's start at the beginning and please listen to the Arab leaders in their own words...

-Jews had been living in these lands for thousands of years and in increasing numbers since the 1920's even though they were highly restricted by the British rulers. Then came 1948 and the great partition. The United Nations proposed the creation of two states in the region – one Jewish, one Arab. The Jews accepted it even while noting that their portion was quite small and completely indefensible. The Arabs rejected it with a vengeance and declared war. (1 below)


Arab League Secretary Azzam Pasha on September 16, 1947.

"The Arab world is not in a compromising mood. It's likely, Mr. Horowitz (Jewish Representative), that your plan is rational and logical, but the fate of nations is not decided by rational logic. Nations never concede; they fight. You won't get anything by peaceful means or compromise. You can, perhaps, get something, but only by the force of your arms. We shall try to defeat you. I am not sure we'll succeed, but we'll try. We were able to drive out the Crusaders, but on the other hand we lost Spain and Persia. It may be that we shall lose Palestine. But it's too late to talk of peaceful solutions." (2)

Azzam Pasha called for "jihad", saying:

* This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades".

Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, agreed with Pasha:

* I declare a holy war, my muslim brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!

In a letter to the United Nations, the Transjordanian Prime Minister was quoted:

* "Our position is clear, and has been proclaimed on every occasion. It is never to allow the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine and to exclude partition. And our object is to cooperate with the other Arab States in her deliverance. Once this aim is attained, the determination of her future status is the right and concern of her own people. Theirs alone is the last word. We have no other object or aim in view."

Arab leaders urged Arabs to leave the area so they would not be caught in the crossfire. They could return to their homes, they were told, after Israel was crushed and the Jews destroyed. It didn't work out that way. By most counts, several hundred thousand Arabs were displaced by this war – not by Israeli aggression, not by some Jewish real-estate grab, not by Israeli expansionism. Their own Arab brothers told them to get out of the way of the upcoming massacre.


*1. In a formal cablegram to the UN Secretary General on May 15, 1948, the Secretary general of the Arab League declared that the Arab states rejected partition and intended to set up a "United State of Palestine." For a full text of the cablegram, see John N. Moore (ed.), The Arab-Israeli Conflict; Readings and Documents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, abridged and revised edition, 1977), pp. 938-943.

2. David Horowitz, State in the Making, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953), p. 233