What the Fight Between Jews and Arabs Is Really All About

Nadene Goldfoot
Actually, The modern effort to establish a national homeland for the Jewish people began in 1839 with the petition by Sir Moses Montefiore to Sa'id, Khedive of Egypt, for a Jewish homeland in the region of Palestine.


Finally, November 29, 1947 was the day the UN decided to recommend the partition of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state.  The Jewish state would be even smaller than what was later decided by Armistice Lines in 1949, after all the Arab nations had attacked the new-born Israel.   It was only a little more than half of western Palestine, about 15,000 square km or 6,000 square miles and that was including the semi-arid Negev Desert.  In contrast, Egypt has 386,000 sq miles. Today Israel amounts to 7,992 square miles.

 At the time there were already 7 Arab states in the same area:  Egypt, Iraq, Syria Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Transjordan.  The area of land they already had was 230 times larger than the planned Jewish state and had a population 60 times more than the Jews, who numbered about half a million, or pretty close to 600,000.

At this time the Arabs wanted the Jewish land as well.  This is what they fought the Jews about.  There were no "occupied territories" to fight about The Arabs were guaranteed their state out of the Jews' promised Jewish Homeland. There weren't any Arabs living in refugee camps.   In fact, their portion was 7/8 of all of Palestine on both sides of the Jordan River.  All 7 states would invade Israel.  It was a ratio of 7:1.

They even refused to recognize the Jewish claims to the land.  That hasn't changed as we saw on the Geraldo show last night that Palestinian legislator, Dr. Hanan Ashrami vehemently denied Jews any history to Jerusalem or the land at all.

Palestine was quite a large piece of land as known at the time of the British Mandate of 1918 at the end of World War I.  In the map above you can see the Dead Sea.  February 1919 Emir Faisal, the recognized Arab leader of his day was also  in the act of striving for  the creation of an Arab political independence in Syria where he was a king for a brief time and Iraq where he ruled for 40 years.  He signed a formal agreement with Dr. Chaim Weizmann for cooperation between the two over the projected Arab state and the projected reconstituted Jewish state of "Palestine"  Faisal saw the borders proposed as moderate and proper.  The Zionists included what became Mandatory Palestine on both banks of the Jordan as well as NW Galilee up to the Litany River, later included in S. Lebanon, part of the Golan Heights, later included in Syria and part of Sinai.  

What the League of Nations was establishing was separating the  "state of Palestine" from Syria. They had the mandate over the Ottoman Empire that had lost the World War I.  Britain saw that Palestine would control its own source of water power and irrigation on Mount Hermon in the east to the Jordan.  This was of great importance since the success of the new state would depend upon the possibilities of agricultural development. " The mandate formalised British rule in the southern part of Ottoman Syria from 1923–1948."


 " It was recommended the the Jews be invited to return to Palestine and settle there, being assured by the Conference of all proper assistance in so doing that may be consistent with the protection of the personal (especially the religious) an the property rights of the non-Jewish population, and being further assured that it will be the policy of the League of Nations to recognize Palestine as a Jewish state as soon as it is a Jewish state in fact. "


The League of Nations Report said:  "It is right that Palestine should become a Jewish state, if the Jews, being given the full opportunity, make it such.  It was the cradle and home of their vital race, which has made large spiritual contributions to mankind, and is the only land in which they can hope to find a home of their own;  they being in this last respect unique among significant peoples."


Instead of following Emir Faisal's wishes which would have had a good outcome for all, the Arabs followed the advice of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and attacked the Jews instead.  The Grand Mufti was in cahoots with Germany.  " as shown in a memo written November 2, 1943 from Heinrich Himmler to an anti-Balfour Declaration meeting: 


"To the Grand Mufti:
  "The National Socialist Movement of Greater Germany has, since its beginning, inscribed upon its flag the fight against world Jewry.  It has, therefore, followed with particular sympathy the struggle of the freedom--loving Arabians, especially in Palestine, against the Jewish interlopers....." 


The British had compounded the Jewish efforts by doing everything in their power to keep them out of the area.  It was truly a miracle that Israel was pronounced a state as the British Mandate was up and they left on May 14, 1948.


Reference: http://www.colostate.edu/orgs/ESA/general.html
Book: Battleground, Fact and Fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Israel
Book:  From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_for_Palestine_(legal_instrument)

Why Hebron Is So Important to Jews

by Nadene Goldfoot

In the West Bank lies the town of Hebron, where about 500 Jewish settlers live among 160,000 Palestinians today. Just recently Peace Now Israelis of about 200 protesters were there. Even they may not know of the importance of this town to those who chose to live there.

Our ancestor, Abraham, bought a plot of land which had the Cave of Machpelah so that he could bury his wife, Sarah. This came to be called Hebron. Joshua assigned Hebron to Caleb, and it became a levitical city and a city of refuge. King David reigned there for seven and a half years before moving the capital to Jerusalem.

In 1100 CE the crusaders captured the city and expelled the Jews.
By 1260 through 1517 the Mamluks, who were Muslims, expelled the Crusaders from Palestine and made Hebron their capital, and the Jewish settlement was once again restored. Relations with the Muslims were not great. For instance, they decreed that Jews could not enter Me’arat Hamachpelah and could only go up the first seven steps outside. This was strictly enforced until the liberation of Hebron in 1967. Jews had been treated as Dhimmi , a lower caste group of people who were treated badly.

A Jewish community continued in Hebron in the Byzantine Period and under Arab rule. The modern city is situated somewhat to the east of the historical location and was one of the Jews' four sacred towns. The other towns were Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed where I have lived. By 1890 there were 1,500 people living there who had a yeshivot and other religious schools. The great Lithuanian yeshivah of Slobodka was transferred to Hebron in 1925.

On the 24th of August, 1929, the Arabs massacred sixty-nine of the 700 Jews living in the town and the survivors fled. It was a brutal massacre. Included in the dead were yeshivah students from New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Memphis, Canada and Lithuania as well is Israeli born people. About 35 Jewish families returned in 1931. They were threatened by the Arabs and the British showed their dissatisfaction.

Jews heard on the day before the massacre rumors of anticipated riots, but they believed nothing bad would happen to them. They thought they were friends of the Arabs based on the fact that they had years of friendship and shared experiences. Besides that, the Arab governor of Hebron, Abdullah Kardos, had promised the Jews that they would not be harmed. The members of the yishuv actually thought that the British would protect them, also. The leaders of the Jewish community decided to bring in Jews on the outlying community closer to the city center for protection just to be on the safe side.

At 2:30 that Friday afternoon a young Arab on a bicycle, returning from Jerusalem, called out to his fellow Arabs that Jews were murdering thousands of Arabs in Jerusalem. Other Arabs then followed him in cars and also shouted that Jews were attacking Arabs.. What had been happening was that the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, who later would offer help to Hitler, had been preaching strongly against the Jews. The massacre began. Arab mobs with axes, knives and iron bars screamed, "Kill the Jews!"

Then Arab riots occurred again in 1936 which caused all the Jews to leave again.
It’s population in 1967 was 38,310. After the Six-Day War of 1967, a number of Jews again settled in Hebron, establishing the Kiryat Arba quarter east of the city. There were 3,700 people there in 1988.

There have been other attacks on the Jews. One of many was in 1993. A father and son were murdered in a drive-by shooting, the first victims of terror following the signing of the Oslo accords.
The Jews who live in Hebron have a reverence of the Judea-Samaria (West Bank area) and especially the town of Hebron, loving the area for it’s historical significance. Jews were there before the Muslims. They don’t like the way their ancestors were forced out of the area by massacres and intend to stay there, though it has been a dangerous area. They are reclaiming this land and reminding people that it is a part of Israel now. They have a right to live there.

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The Story of Hebron: by Toby Greenwald (75 years from Tarpat in commemoration of the Hebron Massacre of 1929.

Oregonian Newspaper 6/6/2007 page A9