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Tuesday, August 10, 2021

My Presentation About Jerusalem and The First World War

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

          World War I:  In the Trenches:  A chemist, Chaim Weizmann's  acetone production method was of great importance in the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants for the British war industry during World War I which helped to win the war.

Weizmann met Arthur Balfour, a Conservative MP representing one of the districts of Manchester, during one of Balfour's electoral campaigns in 1905–1906. Balfour supported the concept of a Jewish homeland, but felt that there would be more support among politicians for the then-current offer in Uganda, called the British Uganda Programme.(I simply cannot fathom a Uganda being the Jewish Homeland.) 

Following mainstream Zionist rejection of that proposal, Weizmann, born in Motaĺ, Belarus was credited later with persuading Balfour, by then the Foreign Secretary during the First World War, for British support to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the original Zionist aspiration. The story goes that Weizmann asked Balfour, "Would you give up London to live in Saskatchewan?" When Balfour replied that the British had always lived in London, Weizmann responded, "Yes, and we lived in Jerusalem when London was still a marsh." Nevertheless, this had not prevented naturalization as a British subject in 1910 with the help of haham Moses Gaster, who asked for papers from Herbert Samuel, (Jewish)  the minister.

     Royal cousins:  Kaiser Wilhelm II and King George V went to war (Germany and Great Britain) They were at odds with each other, Germany against England. One aspect of the war upon which she remarks is the close connection among the three principal monarchs of the age, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; King George V of England; and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. In fact, they were all cousins with each other: Wilhelm and George were first cousins, George and Nicholas were also first cousins, and Wilhelm and Nicholas were third cousins.* This was to affect the Middle East's future even more than the West, where more people would be killed thus far in history.
      
Violence erupted in Palestine in April 1936. In that month, six prominent Arab leaders overcame their rivalries and joined forces to protest Zionist advances in Palestine. The Arab High Command, as the group was known, was led by the MuftiHaj Amin al-Husseini, and represented Arab interests in Palestine until 1948.Is this why England allowed Arabs in Eretz Yisrael and kept Jews out when they held the mandate?  Here again, we find that the Bible tells us that Arabs and Israelites were cousins through Abraham having a son, Ishmael by Hagar, an Egyptian, and by Sarah, his own niece, an Israelite.  DNA is also showing the connection.  Perhaps that's why our Jewish leadership thought it possible that Arabs would accept them back in their own land.  Jews actually looked forward to living together in peace.  Emir Faisal looked upon the Jewish return favorably and hoped for his Arab family to learn from them and become uplifted.  He changed later on when threatened by the Grand Mufti. 

The Arab High Command began their protest by calling for a general strike of Arab workers and a boycott of Jewish products. These actions swiftly escalated into terrorist attacks against the Jews and the British. This first stage of the “Arab Revolt” lasted until November 1936. The second stage began in September 1937, shortly after the Peel Commission recommended the partition of Palestine. In this second phase, clashes with the British forces became much more severe, as did the attacks on Jewish settlements.  This was at the same time that Nazis were coming to power in Germany with Hitler and Jews were being persecuted.  

By 1936, the increase in Jewish immigration and land acquisition, the growing power of Haj Amin al-Husseini, and general Arab frustration at the continuation of European rule, radicalized increasing numbers of Palestinian Arabs. Thus, in April 1936, an Arab attack on a Jewish bus led to a series of incidents that escalated into a major Palestinian rebellion. An Arab Higher Committee (AHC), a loose coalition of recently formed Arab political parties, was created. It declared a national strike in support of three basic demands: 1. cessation of Jewish immigration, 2. an end to all further land sales to the Jews, and 
3 the establishment of an Arab national government.                                        
    
In September 1947, the British government announced that the Mandate for Palestine would end at midnight on 14 May 1948.     Here Golda Meir is  announcing the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 to the world.  Five minutes later they were attacked; commencing the War of Independence, a war that actually started on November29, 1947 when Arabs responded with violence to the United Nations resolution on Palestine and lasted until the signing of the armistice Agreements in 1949 . 
                                                                            

    Emir Faisal:  Faisal I bin Al-Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashemi (Arabicفيصل الأول بن الحسين بن علي الهاشمي‎, Fayṣal al-Awwal bin al-Ḥusayn bin 'Alī al-Hāshimī; (20 May 1885 8 September 1933) was King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was the third son of Hussein bin Ali, the Grand Emir and Sharif of Mecca, who was proclaimed as King of the Arabs in June 1916. He was a 38th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad, as he belongs to the Hashemite family.  He's an ancestor of King Abdullah of Jordan.

Evidence of Haj Amin al- Husseini-the Grand Mufti  before the Royal Commission, January 12, 1937:  "Lord Peel...Just one question, then.  You want completely to stop Jewish immigration.  What do you want to do with the 400,000 Jews here at present?  
Mufti:  They will live as they always did live previously in Arab countries, with complete freedom and liberty, as natives of the country.  In fact, Moslem rule has always been known for its tolerance, and as a matter of fact Jews used to come to Eastern countries under Arab rule to escape persecution in Europe.  According to history, Jews had a most quiet and peaceful residence under Arab rule."  In that he was accurate about that history, though Jews did suffer a few times.  They were 2nd class citizens along with the Christians, taxed more than the Arabs with more rules of what they couldn't do that others could.  But Husseini was in cahoots with Hitler against the Jews he wanted removed from "his" land.  
  
Haj Amin al-Husseini, Sherif of Jerusalem in white hat.  Husseini was and remains a highly controversial figure. Historians dispute whether his fierce opposition to Zionism was grounded in nationalism or antisemitism or a combination of both. Opponents of Palestinian nationalism have pointed to Husseini's wartime residence and propaganda activities in Nazi Germany to associate the Palestinian national movement with European-style anti-semitism. Husseini went to Germany to help Hitler decide what to do with the Jews.  

In the talks about creating Israel with the English, Emir Feisal, 3rd born of the king of Saudi Arabia, who later was chosen to be kings of Iraq and Syria, was in agreement, even thinking it a good plan that would help his own Arab subjects to learn and develop.  Along came Haj Amin al-Husseini who was chosen as the Sherif of Jerusalem,(like a mayor)  a Grand Mufti, by a Jewish member, Herbert Samuel, probably the only Jewish one,  of the British mandate group, who didn't know his deep convictions of destroying and ridding the country of Jews, who he saw as competition to his powers. He was following England's preferences, one can imagine.  Husseini was not in agreement with Feisal, either.  Husseini held more power over the people being he was born in Jerusalem than Feisal, who came to the area from Saudi Arabia.  

Al-Husseini was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab notables, who trace their origins to the eponymous grandson of Muhammad. After receiving an education in IslamicOttoman, and Catholic schools, he went on to serve in the Ottoman army in World War I (against England). At war's end he stationed himself in Damascus as a supporter of the Arab Kingdom of Syria (Feisal)

Following the Franco-Syrian War and the collapse of Arab Hashemite rule in Damascus, his early position on pan-Arabism shifted to a form of local nationalism for Palestinian Arabs and he moved back to Jerusalem. From as early as 1920 he actively opposed Zionism, and was implicated as a leader of the 1920 Nebi Musa riots. Al-Husseini was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for incitement but was pardoned by the British.  In 1921, Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner appointed him Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a position he used to promote Islam while rallying a non-confessional Arab nationalism against Zionism. During the period 1921–1936 he was considered an important ally by the British authorities.

Why did Herbert Samuel ever appoint him?  Surely, did didn't take much to see his 
aims.  Was someone higher up pulling the strings?  Husseini had help from the higher
echelon, one would think.  It was like putting the wolf in to guard the henhouse. 
Husseini did a bang up job working up the Arabs into a frenzy against the Jews.  

During its first 25 years, Israel has never known real peace.  From its first day, it has been confronted by neighboring States which refused to accept its very existence, and have forced it to fight 5 major wars and many little ones.  This was the land that G-d had chosen for Jews to live in.  They were the Israelites who entered with Joshua, led there by Moses, the land where an ethical law came from.  Jews had no other choice but to return, a return they had dreamt about and prayed for in the past 2,000 years.  Africa was considered but Jews had no heart-strings for Africa;  only Palestine where they had been abolished from by the Romans in 70 CE.  Swallows return to Capistrano, migrating 6,000 miles from Goya, Argentina to Juan Capistrano in large groups; and Jews return to Eretz Yisrael. After all, they had been there since 1271 BCE.....1,341 years before the destruction of their 2nd Temple. Arabs entered after Mohammad had died in 632 CE.  They had entered in their zeal to convert the world into accepting Islam.   

The First World War , The most deadly we've ever had only 107 years ago.                                                         

  The Empire connected to the border of Bulgaria

By the start of World War I, Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with Germany.  Germany and its allies were known as the Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary, later joined by the Ottoman Empire (Turkey plus the Middle East) and Bulgaria.  Combatants: Belgium; United Kingdom , and eventually all the countries were fighting.  The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I, was around 40 million. There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians.
                                                           
       Wilhelm II, emperor 
His greatest instance of success came with his speech on July 31, 1914, delivered from the balcony of his Berlin palace. "The sword has been forced into our hands," Wilhelm beckoned, and the legend of German wartime innocence was born.   He lacked an overview of strategic planning and was seen as a poor, unqualified tactician. The 55-year-old nevertheless put an emphasis on establishing appearance; his top command officially recognized his status as commander-in-chief, in exchange for the emperor's promise not to meddle in military affairs. General Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke was given the authority to issue orders in Wilhelm's name.
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941),was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918, and 2 days later the war ended on November 11th.  His tactless public statements and erratic foreign policy greatly antagonized the international community and are considered by many to be one of the underlying causes for World War I. When the German war effort collapsed after a series of crushing defeats on the Western Front in 1918, he was forced to abdicate, thereby bringing an end to the House of Hohenzollern's three-hundred-year reign.   On June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allied Nations (including Britain, France, Italy and Russia) signed the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the war.
On the other side stood the British Empire, which "badly wanted to control the Holy Land, to bring it under Christian influence at a time of Ottoman Islamic rule," says Bruce Hoffman, the Director of the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University.
As the war unfolded, there was born what at first appeared an alliance, as Arabs in revolt against their Ottoman rulers found support from the British. 
The British held the 30 year mandate over Palestine, and the British had already made the promise to Jewish statesmen to help create the Jewish Homeland, a promise world-wide known in the League of Nations and again in the United Nations that it became.  Instead, they wound up keeping Jews out in their time of need as WWII was developing and helping the Arabs to enter. 
                                                               
                                          Weizmann, Jewish and Faisal, Arab  
The Faisal–Weizmann Agreement was a 3 January 1919 agreement between Emir Faisal, the third son of Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi, King of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz, and Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader who had negotiated the 1917 Balfour Declaration with the British Government, signed two weeks before the start of the Paris Peace Conference. Together with a letter written by T. E. Lawrence in Faisal's name to Felix Frankfurter in March 1919, it was one of two documents used by the Zionist delegation at the Peace Conference to argue that the Zionist plans for Palestine had prior approval of Arabs, and that was a true fact.                                                              
Britain struck a secret deal with France called the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which "essentially divided [the Ottoman Empire] of the Middle East into a British part, including most of Iraq, Jordan and Palestine, and a French part, which included Lebanon, Syria and part of Turkey," Mourad says.

In the years that followed, the Sykes-Picot Agreement became the target of bitter criticism both in France and in England. Lloyd George referred to it as an "egregious" and a "foolish" document. Zionist aspirations were also passed over and this lapse was severely criticized by William R. Hall, head of the Intelligence Department of the British Admiralty, who pointed out that the Jews have "a strong material, and a very strong political interest in the future of the country and that in the Brown area the question of Zionism… [ought] to be considered."

Click to Enlarge:

Areas of Palestine per the agreement

The agreement was officially abrogated by the Allies at the San Remo Conference in April 1920, when the Mandate for Palestine was conferred upon Britain.

The new agreement made it no easier on Jerusalem. "To a large extent," says Simon Davis, a professor of history at the City University of New York's Graduate Center, "the main outcome of the First World War for Jerusalem was that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute that we know so much about today is really instituted, unwittingly to a degree, by British multiple promises."
Britain accepted the mandate making them the rulers for 30 years.  They favored Arabs over Jews, not surprising considering they had kept Jews out of Great Britain from 1290 to 1655, a total of 365 years, and where many still practiced  anti-Semitism towards Jews. At the time Jews were frantic to escape the madness of Hitler, they turned them away from the land promised to them to be the Jewish Homeland which was their ancient homeland, the land of the Bible and scene of their religion.   
Resource:
From Time Immemorial, by Joan Peters
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/18/middleeast/jerusalem-original-series-faith-and-fury-timeline/index.html
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2013/12/20/the-family-relationships-that-couldnt-stop-world-war-i/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Higher_Committee
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26048324
https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/who-was-involved-in-the-first-world-war-who-was-on-each-side/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II,_German_Emperor
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-sykes-picot-agreement-1916
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-1936-arab-riots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal%E2%80%93Weizmann_Agreement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_I_of_Iraq
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine#:~:text=In%20September%201947%2C%20the%20British,midnight%20on%2014%20May%201948.
http://www.centre-robert-schuman.org/userfiles/files/REPERES%20%E2%80%93%20module%201-1-1%20-%20explanatory%20notes%20%E2%80%93%20World%20War%20I%20casualties%20%E2%80%93%20EN.pdf

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