When Britain Almost Lost WWI and Chance of 30 Year Mandate over Palestine

Nadene Goldfoot                                               

    British soldiers in  WWI July 28, 1914 – November 11, 1918

Great Britain was with its Empire the most powerful of the major belligerents, the most politically and socially stable, and the best able to endure the strains of the war of WWI. 

Britain nearly lost WWI due to unpreparedness for large-scale land warfare, immense casualties from early battles like the Somme, and a stretched economy struggling to supply both the British army and its allies. The initial strategy of relying on a small professional army against a large conscripted German army, combined with the immense logistical and financial strain of maintaining the war effort, put Britain in a precarious position.                        

If Britain lost WWI, it would likely have faced no land losses in its home islands, but could have had to cede some of its colonial possessions to Germany, depending on the terms of a negotiated peace. Some historians speculate Britain might have been forced to accept German control over areas like Belgium, leading to greater German influence on the continent, though significant territorial gains at the expense of the British Empire are considered less probable. 

The Arab leader who fought for Britain to help win WWI was Hussein bin Ali, the Sherif of Mecca, who launched the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire with his sons, including Faisal I. Supported by British forces and guided by T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), the Arab Revolt helped disrupt Ottoman supply lines and contributed to their defeat on the Palestinian front.  

King Ali ibn Husayn of the Hijaz on an Arabian steed

Hussein bin Ali did not join the British army; instead, he launched the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire on June 10, 1916, in alliance with the British. His revolt was supported by the British military's Egyptian Expeditionary Force, and his forces fought alongside them against the Ottoman military. 

The Ottoman Empire had held Palestine since 1516.  The Ottoman Empire took over Palestine in 1516 after defeating the Mamluks at the Battle of Marj Dabiq. This marked the beginning of approximately four centuries of Ottoman rule in the region. They were from Turkey .

     Dr. Chaim Weizmann at the University of Manchester

Chaim Weizmann gave his acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation process to Britain in 1in  1915, the same year he patented it. The process was rapidly developed and began large-scale industrial production in 1916 to supply acetone for smokeless gunpowder during World War I. 

Then there was Chaim Weizmann, Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) 78 when he died, was a Jewish  Russian-born  biochemist.  He developed the acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation process, which produces acetone, n-butanol and ethanol through bacterial fermentation. His acetone production method was of great importance in the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants for the British war industry during World War I.  Weizmann's process for producing acetone through corn fermentation was crucial for Britain's WWI ammunition because it solved a critical shortage of acetone, a key ingredient in manufacturing cordite. By providing a domestic and large-scale supply of acetone, his invention enabled Britain to significantly increase its production of cordite propellant, which supplied its ammunition and ultimately helped sustain its war effort. 

                    Weizmann and Feisal in Aqaba with British

Both the Arab and the Jew were indispensable to Britain in winning  WWI. Jewish leaders had been negotiating with Britain  since 1915, and the Arabs joined the British on June 10, 1916, hoping the Allies would win. 

After WWI, Weizmann and Faisal met in Aqaba in June 1918 and later in London in December 1918, which led to the signing of the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement in Paris on January 3, 1919. The meetings were arranged by the British to foster cooperation between Arab and Zionist movements before the Paris Peace Conference. The post-WWI Paris Peace Conference started on January 18, 1919, and formally ended on January 21, 1920. The conference's main outcome, the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, was signed much earlier on June 28, 1919, marking the official end of the war. 

The Balfour Declaration was signed on November 2, 1917. It was a letter from the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, which expressed the British government's support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. 

• The declaration was written as a formal letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to a leader of the British Zionist Federation, Lionel Walter Rothschild. 
Its contents were later adopted by the League of Nations in 1922. 
The declaration is considered a pivotal moment in the history of the Middle East, though its impact and interpretation remain subjects of debate. 


This is what Jews hoped they were bargaining over.  In the end, they were
given 20% of the land only, and that everyone has been trying to take
half of for a Palestine.  


Unless something is written in stone or plastered on walls in pictures, it is 
not held in agreement these days.  We can't believe in promises.  

Ottoman Empire: What Was It and What Happened To It?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

Osman I or Osman Ghazi  died 1323/4) was the eponymous founder of the Ottoman Empire and was from the land of Turkey.  The Ottoman Empire existed from approximately 1299 to 1922. It began with the rise of Osman I in northwestern Anatolia and was formally abolished in 1922, with the Republic of Turkey was established the following year. 

 The Ottoman Empire was (first known as a beylik or emirate). While initially a small Turkoman principality during Osman's lifetime, his beylik transformed into a vast empire in the centuries after his death. It existed until 1922 shortly after the end of World War I, when the sultanate was abolished.

       Notice that Jerusalem and Damascus are in its power

The Ottoman Empire was a Turkic empire founded by Osman I in 1299 that grew to be a major world power, controlling vast territories across three continents until its collapse after World War I.

Jews lived in Asia Minor and had built a synagogue in the old capital of BRUSA when the Ottoman Empire was established there  by 1336.  Bursa is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in  the Marmara Region after Istanbul. 

Under Byzantine rule, The city prospered after the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I built a palace there. the city then became a garrison city in 562, where imperial guards were stationed. Already by the mid-6th century, Bursa was known as a famous silk textile manufacturing centre. 

(Ottoman Empire) captured SALONICA in 1430 and CONSTANTINOPLE in 1453. Many Jews lived in these centers as well.  

After 1492 (when Columbus sailed) the sultans opened the gates of the Ottoman Empire generously to the threatened Jewish refugees from Spain and also to those later from Portugal and other lands .  Throughout the Ottoman period, most Jews resided in Kuruçeşme, Bursa's Jewish quarter, home to three synagogues. Etz Chaim (Eṣ Ḥayyim), the oldest, predated the Ottoman conquest, while the Gerush and Mayor synagogues were established by Sephardic newcomers.

Jews were favored immigrants, regarded as valuable trading and artisans, and also as a counterpoint to the potentially disloyal Christian minorities.  Flourishing centers were Istanbul (Constantinople) Adrianople, Smyrna (Izmir), and especially Salonica where the intellectual traditions of Sephardi Jewry were centered.  

The land named Palestine by the Romans in 135 CE was captured in 1517 and became part of the Ottoman Empire as was Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, etc.  The Sultans applied the normal Moslem code against the Jews but not strictly.  Persons such as Joseph Nasi and Solomon Ashkenazi were able to exercise great influence in the state. It became the 3rd largest country/Empire in the world after Russia and Austro-Hungary, numbering 350,000 in 1900.  Jews suffered from the loss of their power, becoming a part of another land, and they had been 2nd class citizens in the Ottoman Empire!  Discrimination against Jews in the Ottoman Empire included being classified as dhimmi (non-Muslim subjects), which required paying a special tax called jizya and subjected them to certain legal and social restrictions, such as limitations on clothing, housing, and the right to testify in court against Muslims. While the empire offered more tolerance compared to Europe, these regulations established Jews as second-class citizens, though the strictness of these rules varied depending on the time and ruler.  

 Its history is marked by periods of expansion, reaching its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries, followed by a long decline characterized by military losses and internal struggles. The empire was replaced by the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923, founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.                                      

                                Jewish Turks

  That's because they had sided with the Axis in WWI(1914-1917) and losttheir land  to the Allies.  Suddenly, Great Britain and France received 30 year mandates over land of the Ottoman Empire to rule. 

37,000 Jews emigrated to Israel after 1948.  There were 20,000 Jews in the country in 1990, with about 18,000 in Istanbul, 1,500 in  Izmir,and smaller communities in Edime, Brusa, and Ankara. Their distinction, spiritual and cultural, had now disappeared. Some have even found their way to Portland and Seattle, having been in the fish business.  

                    A recent Jewish wedding in Turkey

 There are an estimated 14,000 to 26,000 Jews living in Turkey today, with the majority residing in Istanbul. This population is a mix of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, who trace their roots to different parts of the world. Oh yes, an after-thought;  Turkey has a population of 86,000,000 .TheirMuslim population is 78,000,000-84,400,000 and that makes up 97.8%of the country.  

Turkey has become Israel's enemy, and Erdogen is their leader of it.  As of today, November 9, 2025, relations between Turkey and Israel are at a historical low, characterized by a complete breakdown in diplomatic ties and fierce rhetoric from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan's attitude is intensely hostile towards the current Israeli government, driven primarily by Israel's military actions in Gaza, which he has repeatedly labeled a "genocide" and a "shame of humanity".  as the false claims of the news tell today.  

• Severed Diplomatic Ties: Turkey formally severed all diplomatic relations with Israel on November 13, 2024, and recalled its ambassador. There are currently no ambassadors in either country. Arrest Warrants: The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's office announced on November 8, 2025, that it has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 36 other senior Israeli officials, accusing them of "genocide and crimes against humanity" in Gaza.  Trade Embargo: Turkey halted all direct trade with Israel in May 2024, stating the embargo will only end after a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid is ensured. Airspace Closure: Turkey has closed its airspace to Israeli aircraft. Legal Action: Turkey has officially joined South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 
• Turkey wants to be the country selected to guard the terrorists in Gaza. Of course, they would then have easy passage into the land of Israel for a take-over.  How clever of them!  
• So has Qatar, who aided and abided terrorists to kill Jews through Qara-dawi, Egyptian preacher who  was told to leave and sought a home  in Qatar.
• News snippets indicate that Turkey has historically been a strong supporter of Hamas (which is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States) and does not consider it a terrorist group. Turkey has also expressed interest in playing a role in Gaza's future security arrangements, as have other nations like Qatar, but no such plan as described by the user is in effect or has been officially proposed. 

Resource:

https://www.britannica.com/summary/Ottoman-Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bursa

Palestinian Perversion of Their History

Nadene Goldfoot

So many lies have been told about the Israel-Palestine situation that the true facts have not even reached the UN.  Many follow the path of  least expended energy to find out what the facts are.  

Jews were deprived of their homeland ever since 70 CE because of the Roman Empire invasion.  They suffered from religious persecution for 2,000 years, leading to pogroms in the 1800's in Russia and with the Dryfus Affair in France of 1894, realized they had to return to their native homeland which was up for grabs, being the Ottoman Empire lost in WWI.  The British, holding the mandate and instructed to carry out the promise of establishing the Jewish National Home, double-dealt with them, because they also  were  guilty of this religious anti-Semitism.  

Palestinian leaders have long desired money and power and care little for their people.  It was they who told their people to leave homes in Israel as they were coming to attack the fledgling country and that they'd get their homes back and more when it was over.  They've created such Arabian Nights fairy tales about their history that even they might have started believing it all.  If you believe the following, then you have been duped along with the average Palestinian.

1.  Palestinians identified with the land for over  thousands of years.  
No:   There were very few Arabs living there that were natives.  Most landowners had sold out and were living in Damascus, Paris, and other nice places.  During 19th and 20th centuries Arabs/Arabic-speakers that were migrants wandered searching for food and jobs all over the Middle East.  Palestine was wasteland and peasants had left.  Nothing was there for them.  But, there were also poor Jews who had remained in Palestine even though many left after 70 CE during the Roman conquest.  Jerusalem was still populated by Jews and remained so.

2. Jews returned after 2,000 years in 1948 to displace Arabs because of their new state of Israel.  
No:  Palestine was the former Empire of Israel,  held by the Ottoman Empire for the past 400 years and included land east and west of the Jordan River.  It originally was to be the new Israel according to the British Mandate but had then been pared down to 20% of the land.  The plan was not to displace the Arabs but to live together in harmony.

3.  But it was Arab land.  Arabs were there first.  
No:  There were few Arabs living in Palestine and they thought of themselves as Ottomans, Turks, southern Syrians, Arab people, but never as "Palestinians."  Effendis and the Mufti tried to create Nationalism in them but it didn't take.  T.E. Lawrence tried it also, and he failed as well.  It was an alien idea.  The only non-Jews that were there first were people that Joshua had conquered when the Israelites entered Canaan in about 1270 BCE, people like the Hittites.  They were all killed, but any survivors were emerged with the Israelite people.

4. Jews stole the Arab lands.
No:   After the Dryfus Affair, Jews formed groups to ask Britain about creating a Jewish National Homeland out of the land held by the Ottoman Empire who lost WWI.  It was decided affirmatively in the League of Nations.  Britain held the mandate and were told  to carry it out.  Arabs living there at the time were included in the plan of being citizens along with the Jews.

5. Jewish terrorists forced the peaceable Arabs to flee from Palestine.
No:  Arabs were fed with religious prejudice, so Muslims of Palestine erupted into anti-Jewish violence many times when Muslim leaders called for it which the British called "Nationalism."

6.  Palestine is Israel, and Israel makes up all of Palestine meaning that in 1948 Palestine became Israel.
No:  The bulk of people living in Palestine that were not Jewish were  from east Palestine, Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian and others who were already landless because of feudal type life styles, natural disasters, over-taxation by the Ottomans and loan sharks (people who loan money).  The British gave away state domain lands already designated to be the Jewish National Home to these landless Arabs screaming that they had been displaced by Jews in western Palestine.  Israel got only 20% of land promised to become the Jewish National Home.  That 20% contained mostly all Jews to start with.

7.  Arabs were natives of the land but Jews had to immigrate into Palestine.
No:  Only a few Arabs were natives of the land.  The bulk were poor landless peasants looking for work who came from Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon and further.  Jews had always remained in Palestine and their ancestors were  there when Joshua entered Canaan.  Jews had been coming back to the land through the ages, but noticeable groups started in 1880 with the 1st Aliyah from Russia which continued to bring in Jews suffering from religious persecution.  With European immigrants and the end of the Ottoman Empire, there was opportunity in Palestine for jobs, so Arabs came.

8. There are no places for homeless Palestinian refugees to go.
No.  For 64 years, refugees have been living in refugee camps in Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria which in fact are the homelands of most of these Arabs.  .  The UN has been feeding them and supporting them, even keeping them in UN refugee jobs which enables them.  They are pawns in the fight against Jews held in this condition by their leaders.  They've been brain-washed to remain in this state.  This means 3 generations have lived this way.   Transjordan had taken land illegally meant for the Jews and it was from there that homeless people wound up in refugee camps as well.  Surrounding Muslim states refused to grant citizenship to these Arabs who had left Israel. Jordan had a war with them and did take in many but not all. King Hussein's son, Abdullah II married one.   Today Obama and Netanyahu are planning to have a summit meeting about Jordan being involved with the West Bank where Fatah's PA rules over Arab communities.

9. Jews were living in equality and tranquility with the Palestinian Arabs before Israel became a state, just like Jews had lived in peace and benevolence throughout the Arab world.
In individual cases, this was true.  My neighbor, Mimi Padrow,  told me about living in Tel Aviv where they had orange groves and that the Palestinian workers got along well with them.  But there were many times, such as from 1919- 1929 that rioting was instigated by leaders  like the Haj Amin el Husseini which led to the slaughter of Jews. From August 23 -29, 1929, there was rioting that killed 133 Jews and injured 339.   In the Arab world, all Jews were called dhimmis, 2nd class citizens and were forced to pay higher taxes, and follow regulations that others did not that were slanderous.  They were looked down on due to their Muslim teachings.    True, it was a better state than Jews living in many places in Europe experienced.

10. Arab Palestinians, like other Arabs, have nothing against Jews, only Zionism.
Hatred started with the Koran.  Mohammed tried to convert Jews but failed, and in many instances he converted by the sword and if that didn't work he killed whole Jewish communities who were living in Medina.  So we started off on the wrong foot.  Treated as dhimmis showed how they felt about Jews.  Britain abetted their anti-Jewish feelings by their unfair treatment of Jews, such as restricting their immigration at a time Hitler was about to kill the 6 million. Those Brits stationed in Palestine are guilty of treating the land to be the Jewish National Home as Arab land.  They didn't stop Arabs from entering.  They counted as refugees the itinerant workers from neighboring countries.  All the Arab leaders had to do was speak those Holy Words and tell lies about Jews and they felt hatred.  They were afraid the Jews would treat them like they had been treated as dhimmis.  Actually, Arabs were not interested in creating their own state, even though offered their own in 1948.  It wasn't until 1967 after the Six Day War that they wanted what they never developed.   Now Abbas wants his state next door to Israel but has no money.  What money they were given by other Arab states has gone into weapons to use against Israel.  He expects Israel to accept them when they do not recognize Israel after these past 64 years.

Resource:From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/riots29.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Palestine_riots

Jews Cheated Out of Land to be Jewish Homeland: Facts of History of Palestine and Israel

                                                                                                                                                                                   
Nadene Goldfoot
All of Palestine was designated as a "Jewish National Home."  This was done legally through international law at the end of WWI in the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917.  What happened and how come the Jews wound up with only 20% of land to be theirs once again?  The Jews even had the agreement of King Feisal, king of Iraq and Syria  that it would work out for the Jews to return to their land.  He was one of the leaders who fought against the Ottomans.

"Understanding that Jews and Arabs would have to live together in the Land of Israel, Weizmann strove to create peaceful coexistence between the two peoples. Thus he met in Aqaba with Emir Faisal, leader of the Arab national movement. Faisal expressed sympathy for the Zionist cause, which he felt was similar to the Arabs’ national aspirations."  Weizmann was influenced by Theodore Hertzl, a secular Jewish Austrian reporter  who envisioned a Utopia for Jews.  Hertzl had written "Der Judenstaat" (The State of the Jews) outlining his ideas.

The British held the mandate and were trusted to follow out the rules.  Instead, they gave state domain lands, allocated for the "Jewish National Home,"  to those Arabs who were landless.  They did not own any land, but they claimed they were being "displaced by Jews" in Western Palestine.  The outcome was that land outside the limited Jewish-settled area of Western Palestine was then treated as "Arab" land which was more than 80% of the promised to the Jews' land.

These same Arabs did not think of themselves or even call themselves "Palestinians."  The bulk of all the Arab peasantry in the area came from East Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian and other neighboring states and had been landless due to the feudal-like societal structures of their own native-born people.  That, along with natural disasters, heavy taxation and corrupt loan sharks kept them poor.  It was not the Jews who were native to the land or the Jews who arrived in the 1880's that who made the Arabs landless.

The traditional land of Palestine included land both east and west of the Jordan River.  The few Arabs that lived there thought of themselves as Ottomans or Turks, as the land had been held by the Ottomans for the past 400 years.  Some also thought of themselves as southern Syrians or as Arab people..  None said they were Palestinians.

They were imbued with religious prejudice, and erupted into anti-Jewish violence often whenever their Muslim leaders would incite them.  This happened way before Israel was created in 1948.   After 1917 with the British in the area, they were referred to by the British as being "Nationalistic"-which was in truth subterfuge  to be  anti-Semitic.  The effendis and the Mufti tried to also incite this "nationalism" which meant attacks on Jewish civilians.  T.E. Lawrence did his part also in creating nationalistic feelings among the Muslims, a leftover from inspiring them to fight with him.

The charges from Palestinian leaders of today that the Palestinian people have had an identity with the land that goes back thousands of years is false.  A few nomadic people lived in the land in the 1860's (note Mark Twain's book "The Innocents Abroad".)  It was he and his friends who were the innocents, wanting to visit Palestine who answered the flier saying to join the excursion to the Holy Land and Egypt, the Crimea, Greece, and intermediate points of interest starting in Brooklyn, February 1, 1867.  They took a first-class steamer that would hold 150 passengers.  He gave an excellent description of what he saw.

The charge that alien Jews returned after 2000 years in 1948 to "displace" the Arabs in the new Jewish state is not true.  First of all, Jews hadn't all left in 70 CE.  There were a remnant who remained and were there to greet newcomers who returned throughout the 2,000 years.  Secondly, the plans Chaim Weizmann drew up for Israel included Arabs who were on the land at the time.  It was to be a state second to none as a Utopia. Instead, they were consistently greeted with gunfire.

Palestinians charge that there was no place for them in 1948.  The land to which Arab refugees moved in 1948 included lands that many Arab refugees had only recently left in order to gain the economic  advantages of the small Jewish region within Palestine.  These homelands where they originated included Jordan.  Those who deprived these Arab refugees of homes were the Arab-Muslim leaders.  Neighboring Arab states refused to grant citizenship to those they called their Arab brothers, so they wound up in camps where they reside today.  .  Arab who did not leave when their leaders told them to became citizens of Israel.

Unfortunately, the British treated the land designated to be the Jewish National Home as Arab Land.  The Jews who tried to immigrate during WWII before and after were brutally restricted while the Brits allowed illegal Arab immigration to enter.  Therefore the Brits violated the International League of Nations Mandate by facilitating Arab settlement onto Jewish-settled land and treating the Jews terribly.  (Read "Exodus" by Leon Uris).  They helped to build up the Arab population this way.
                                                           Weizmann and King Feisal

Perhaps King Feisal was not alone in his ability to see that Jews re-entering and developing their homeland would be good for Arabs as well, but these good people have been overcome by religious zealots who have pieced out the anti-Semitic clauses in the Koran and uphold them more than even the Arab countries that hosted Jews for the past 2,000 years as Dhminnis.  All good intentions of Weizmann and other Zionists of his day have been attacked by hatred from the Arab people, except that we see 1.4 million Arabs living as citizens in Israel today and living far better than their neighbors.    Weizmann and Feisal's dreams are working.

Resource: book:  From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters page 392-393.
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~samuel/feisal1.html  about King Feisal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
http://www.mygen.com/users/ufo/Israel_gets_the_Bomb.html
http://suite101.com/article/theodor-herzl-the-dreyfus-affair-and-modern-zionism-a407378