Land and faith

An old wound in the Middle East is bleeding again. Few doubted that this would happen sooner or later. Too many unresolved problems and contradictions remain in this region. Therefore, a new round of the Palestinian-Israeli (and in a broader sense between Israel and the Arab world) conflict was historically and politically inevitable, and at its core, as has often happened, lies the struggle for land and faith.

The Jewish Legion and the Balfour Declaration

For several centuries, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. Everything changed after World War I, when the British, with the help of Arab rebels, defeated the Turks and began to rule what is now Israel and Palestine. In addition to the Arabs, the British were helped in the fight against the Ottomans by the Jewish Legion, a unit of Zionist volunteers who wanted to create a Jewish state in the Middle East. The British authorities gave tit for tat. In November 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a formal declaration called the Balfour Declaration. It reported that ‘His Majesty’s Government is considering with approval the question of establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine and will make every effort to promote the achievement of this goal.”

The Balfour Declaration became the starting point of the modern conflict between Jews and Arabs. In Palestine, they believe that the British thus betrayed the Arab rebels, who were promised lands in exchange for help in the fight against the Ottoman Empire.

The implementation of the Balfour Declaration led to mass immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe to the Promised Land of Palestine. By 1917, about 85 thousand Jews lived in Palestine. From 1919 to 1923, about 40 thousand more immigrants arrived in the country.

The Arab population of Palestine was unhappy with the growth of the Jewish community. Anti-Semitic sentiments in the 1920s resulted in numerous pogroms. With guns in their hands, Arab men killed Jews and women plundered their homes. 

The Gaza Strip is full of hurt today REUTERS

Arab revolt

In August 1929, a new wave of unrest swept the Holy Land, during which ancient Jewish communities in Gaza, Hebron, Nablus and other cities were destroyed.

The British authorities began to investigate what happened and came to the conclusion that the cause of mass discontent among the Arabs was Jewish repatriation and the development of new lands by Jews and the expulsion of Arab peasants from there. 

The commission that conducted the investigation recommended limiting Jewish immigration, prohibiting Jews from buying land from Arabs, creating an Arab-majority legislature, and building up the British Mandate military. 

But all this did not stop the repatriation of Jews. From 1929 to 1939, about 250 thousand Jews from all over Europe moved to Palestine. They fled both from the Nazis, who then came to power in Germany, and from the anti-Semitic actions of the states of Eastern Europe.

In 1936, the Arab Revolt occurred. At first, Arab parties demanded that the British stop Jewish immigration and create a Palestinian democratic government, as well as stop transferring Palestinian lands to Jews. However, in response, the mandate authorities proposed the creation of a council in which the British would have the final say. Both Arabs and Jews were against this. Negotiations stalled, and the Arabs began a general strike. Militant organisations on both sides began a series of murders and terrorist attacks. Italy and Germany actively supported the Arabs.
Nevertheless, the British military was determined to restore order. The practice of collective punishment was introduced by law, and mass executions became the norm. Military courts were launched, the verdicts of which could not be appealed.

During the two years of the uprising, more than 5 thousand Arabs, about 400 Jews and 200 British were killed, about 15 thousand Arabs were wounded.

October 10th, 2023. Israeli soldiers carry out the bodies of victims of a Hamas attack on Kibbutz Kfar Aza. REUTERS

The White Paper and the Road to the Holocaust

In 1939, Britain, interested in good relations with the Arab world, de facto banned legal Jewish immigration to Palestine. There was even a so-called White Paper — a document that established a resettlement quota of 75 thousand people for five years. The further fate of the repatriation of Jews had to be decided by Arab leaders.
That is, Britain, in fact, refused to implement the Balfour Declaration. And this had very sad consequences. 

Restrictions on Jewish repatriation amid the triumph of Nazism in Europe contributed greatly to the Holocaust during World War II. 

Nevertheless, the future co-founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, then said, “We will aid Britain’s war as if there were no White Paper, and fight against the White Paper as if there were no war.”
The Mossad LeAliyah Bet organisation was created to help Jews with illegal immigration. By 1945, the Jewish population of Palestine had grown to 33 percent.

Stages of confrontation

In 1947, the UN adopted a plan for the division of Palestine and the formation of two states — Israeli and Palestinian. The Arab League opposed it. From that moment on, open military clashes began, which lasted for several decades and led to the outbreak of the intifada (the uprising of Palestinians against the Israeli administration) in December 1987.
But before that, in 1967, Egypt, Syria and Jordan called for ‘throwing Israel into the sea’. As a result of the Six-Day War, the Israeli military defeated Arab opponents, occupying many territories — including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In 1973, the Yom Kippur War occurred when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, an important Jewish holiday. The IDF suffered significant losses due to the surprise attack, but was able to repulse the attack.
The current escalation is the most serious in terms of the number of militants involved and civilian casualties. Israel declared a state of war for the first time in 50 years. The situation is very serious. 

Experts do not rule out that the entire Middle East region could flare up as a result of the conflict. The main factor in the confrontation is the American-Israeli alliance. 

The United States actively supports Israel politically, economically and militarily. This fits well with general geopolitical trends. Against the backdrop of the breakdown of the previous world order, the United States and its satellites will strive in every possible way to maintain their dominance on the world stage through destabilising the situation in different parts of the world. 

EXPERT OPINION

Piotr Petrovsky, political analyst (in the ‘Weekdays’ talk show on Alfa Radio), 
“The conflict between Arabs and Jews seemed to have been resolved back in 1947 with the creation of the State of Israel. However, failure to implement the UN decision, failure to respect international law and incitement of a known hegemon from across the ocean to not implement this law is one of the central reasons why the Middle East remains a powder keg of the world. The United States now, instead of bringing the parties to the negotiating table, is inciting them to escalate the armed struggle. This is one point.
The second is that the world has ceased to be unipolar. Look who supported Hamas. These are completely different forces. For example, Qatar, which is a US ally in the region, and Iran, for which the US is the devil in all official documents. This suggests that there is a certain solidarity among the countries of the Muslim world in the need to resolve the issue of providing the Palestinians with real statehood. But the United States does not want to resolve it peacefully. Why? The Middle East is the gateway to South and Central Eurasia. These are ports connecting the West with China and India. And while the BRICS countries and the SCO are trying to unite the continent and solve security problems, the United States, in its desire to maintain its hegemony, creates and manages conflicts in Eurasia in order to divide it. Eurasia is a huge sales market, 70 percent of the planet’s population, a powerful hub and source of the entire periodic table. To control this market, the Americans are using the classic ‘divide and conquer’ scheme, fuelling conflicts in different regions.”

By Yevgeny Kononovich