Previous Mandate Holders, Britain and France, Helping To Free Syria From Isis

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

The Sada News Agency, or SNA, is one of the Iraqi news agencies, one of the media sectors of the Iraqi Media Network is linked directly to the Federation of Journalists of Iraq, its headquarters in Baghdad and has branches and centers inside Iraq only.
                       

Being yesterday was the day of all days with 2 countries; Iran, Venezuela,  in the mix of being taken down, we have SadaNews informing us to add one more:  that the  - British and French fighter jets bombed a site near Palmyra in central Syria late Saturday night that London says was an underground weapons depot previously controlled by the Islamic State.

France held a League of Nations mandate over Syria (and Lebanon) from 1923 to 1946, established after World War I to prepare the former Ottoman territory for self-governance, though France maintained significant control, creating separate states based on sectarian lines, building infrastructure, and suppressing nationalist revolts until full Syrian independence in 1946. Mandatory Palestine: Britain was granted a mandate over the area encompassing modern-day Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Transjordan (now Jordan) in 1922. This mandate ended on May 14, 1948, with the British withdrawal and the subsequent declaration of the State of Israel. Mesopotamia: Britain held the mandate for Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) until Iraq gained independence in 1932.

Coordinated Strike - RAF Typhoon and French Jets

Britain and France conducted joint military operation January 3 2026 striking underground ISIS facility north Palmyra Syria according UK Ministry of Defence. Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4 fighter jets coordinated with French aircraft in combat operation targeting weapons storage facility believed containing explosives and equipment.​

This came in a statement issued by the British Ministry of Defense, which indicated that initial indications suggested the target - located a few miles north of Palmyra - had been successfully hit.

The Syrian Free Army (SFA) took control of Palmyra on 7 December 2024 after clashing with regime forces before going in the direction of Damascus.

The ministry stated that the underground depot is suspected of having been previously used by the Islamic State in Syria.

It added, "Our aircraft used precision-guided 'Paveway 4' bombs to target several tunnels leading to the facility."

The ministry continued, "While a detailed assessment is now underway, initial indicators suggest that the target was successfully destroyed, and there are no indications of civilians being endangered."

Palmyra was an important archaeological site, full of historic art, statues, places, and ISIS had come in trying to destroy it all.  It was the crime of the century.  No one was using these artifacts for their religion;  it had only historic value; and would have been an excellent draw for tourism.  

Resource:

Edited By Abhinav Yadav

Published: Jan 04, 2026, 19:05 IST | Updated: Jan 04, 2026, 20:00 IST

Source: Reuters:  https://www.sadanews.ps/en/news/263541.html

https://www.wionews.com/photos/-joint-operation-british-and-french-fighter-jets-strike-an-isis-underground-facility-in-syria-1767531991818/1767531991819

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra_offensive_(2024)

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

How Middle East Statehoods Came to Be and Are Threatened

Nadene Goldfoot

Israelite  Samson of tribe of Dan, fighter of the Philistines, 1118-1078 BCE,  when Israelites desired freedom from the Philistine suzerainty, here in Gaza and destroyed their temple to many gods. Dan was 5th son of Jacob and  Bilhah, handmaid of Rachel.

King Solomon of Israel (961-920 BCE) using his wisdom to decide on who the mother of the baby was 

Judea was a nation created out of the southern portion of Israel after King Solomon died and was a nation for 1,000 years before the Roman empire defeated it and destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 70CE.  Then they exiled hundreds of thousands of Jews who scattered to the 4 winds, many winding up right in Rome as slaves to then be shipped into exile.
                                                                             

Judea's Aluf Bar Kochba who fought Romans for 3 years, 132-135 CE

In 135 CE Rome renamed the country Palaestina/Palestine supposedly after an ancient enemy of the Jews, the Philistines.  They were an Aegean people who had once settled along the coast, most likely in coming to trade.

Later, the land was referred to by Westerners as Palestine.  This name was only accepted in the 20th century by the Arabs living in the surrounding area.  In 1960 "Palestinians became associated with Arabs more than Jews since the Jews were able to re-create their state in 1948, calling it Israel, the original name before the southern part of Israel, Judah, remained as the vital nation it had become.
                                                                         

   
Empires came and left, but none used Jerusalem as their capital.  Many Jews had remained on the land, and some trickled back from exile throughout the ages.  Finally, as anti-Semitism was reaching an apex of horrors for many Jews in eastern Europe in 1880, they began to return in large numbers, like the swallows of Capistrano, coming back to roost.  Their culture and religion had kept every detail of their lives in Israel and Judah/Judea alive, history that had become like yesterday's occurrence.

The Ottoman Empire lasted for 400 years, with the headquarters in Turkey. The former lands of the Judean Kingdom was broken up by them into various administrators by the Ottoman Empire.
1. Vilayet of Aleppo (in today's Syria)
2. Vilayet of Beirut (Lebanon)
3. Vilayet of Syria
4. Vilayet of Hijaz (Saudi Arabia)
5. Mutasarrifiya of Jerusalem
                                                                           

Jewish exiles returning to Palestine-1860 to 1914.  By 1914 there were 85,000 Jews in the Land.  

 Between 1817 and 1917, Palestine was unimportant.  This empire in 1683 included parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe.  Palestine was separated into small sub-districts inside the large province of Syria and later, Beirut.  During the empire's decline, Palestine was reduced to a barely populated, impoverished and barren area.  .
                               

British soldier of WWI

British soldier WWI 1917

Along came a WORLD WAR in 1914.  This was not any common war.  This involved the whole world, even the Ottoman Empire.  By aligning themselves with Germany, the cause of this war, they were defeated with Germany.  Since the rest of the countries on this planet were involved, it was an accepted world-wide decision that the Ottoman Empire's lands be ceded to the victorious Allies.  This happened in Europe's defeated empires as well.
                                                                           

New nations were carved out of their defeated empires.  Iraq, Lebanon and Syria were created this way.  They also re-drew Palestine's boundaries and OFFICIALLY recognized it as the JEWISH NATIONAL HOME.   In fact, they did it twice after England allowed Abdullah I to take 80% of the land designated for the Jewish National Home.  First, the LEAGE OF NATIONS voted on it and approved the Jewish Homeland.  Then the UNITED NATIONS (UN)  voted and approved in 1948.

What had happened was that the League of nations set up mandates for France and England, appointing them administrators for 30 years giving new states time to prepare for self-government.  The Brits acted as a British Protectorate. Yes, this land was home to many ancient cultures, and the states now on it were independent only recently.  Israel was created on May 14, 1948.

1.  Egypt 1922 partial  ......Egypt 1952 full (British mandate)
2. Hijaz and Nejd 1927.....Saudi Arabia  1932;  mandated in 1916 (Independent-not British nor French)
3. Iraq...1932  (British mandate)
4. Lebanon...1943 (French mandate)
5. Syria...1946 (under French mandate)
6. Jordan 1946 (British mandate; 80% of Jewish Homeland in 1948, annexed it as West Bank)
7. Israel...1948 (British mandate)
    Oman...1951
    Kuwait...1961
    Bahrain..1971
    Qatar...1971
    South Yemen..1967;
   Yemen 1990 unified
    United Arab Emirates 1971
                                                                               

1967 map before Israel was attacked in Six Day War

                                                               

Ceasefire borders were established giving Israel 9 miles at it's center in width.  f on the map shows the 9 mile distance.  a shows an area of Israel only 3 miles in width.  e shows the 1967 Green Line that Obama wanted Israel to go back to.    Their population was vulnerable to military and terrorist attacks.  During the 1950's and 1960's, terrorist attacks from Arabs opposed to Israel's establishment happened all the time, which meant they were ignoring the ruling from the League of Nations and the UN .  They repeatedly launched attacks from Syria, Jordan's West Bank (previously the Biblical Judah and Samaria-Israel) and Gaza.

1967 was when all of Israel's neighbors and then some more mobilized for a full-scale invasion and blocked her waterways.  Israel preempted them after looking out the window and seeing them all amassed and ready to enter and attack.  It was Israel's defensive war.  They fought for 6 days and Israel captured buffer zones:
1. Golan Heights
2. Sinai Peninsula
3. Gaza
4. Judah and Israel (West Bank)

This was indeed a miracle for such a tiny state to overcome so many Arab nations.The Jews knew they could not run anyplace.  Israel was it.  Fight or die and lose the land you would deed to your children.

Israel immediately offered to negotiate with Jordan, Syria and Egypt and return land for peace.
Arab governments refused to talk or RECOGNIZE ISRAEL.  In 1973, Syria and Egypt pulled a surprise attack to destroy Israel on their sacred Jewish holiday of YOM KIPPUR, and again suffered defeat.

Israel again tried for peace by relinquishing the entire Sinai Peninsula, captured in 1967, back to Egypt while in the Camp David Peace Accords.  By 1994, Jordan and Israel signed a Peace Treaty.

Hoping to use this as a model with the Palestinian Arabs, but Arafat began the violent 2nd Intifada in 2000.  98% of these Arabs lived under an autonomous Palestinian government.

No peace partner was stepping forward.  So Israel withdrew unilaterally from Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza and parts of Judah-Israel (West Bank) in 2005.  Attacks continually kept up against Israel and this time also came from Hezbollah who took over Lebanon.

Now ISIS (Islamic State) has taken over ground in Syria and Iraq and calls it a Caliphate belonging to Bagdadi of Iraq, a monster in disguise calling himself a religious leader.  Sometimes he had referred to his Caliphate as ISIL.  The L means Levant, a name for all the land in and around Israel which would include Egypt, Jordan and Israel.  He may covet the land, but has not taken it from these 3 strong states.  Even Bagdadi has stopped calling it thus, and uses IS as the name, Islamic State, telling us of the religious aspect of all of this.  After all, Israel did not call itself "JEWISH STATE."  Israel happens to have 1.7 million Israeli Arabs as citizens.  They are made up of various types of religious outlooks; Christians and various forms of Islamists.
                                                                                   

IS is threatening all the Middle East States. IS, Islamic extremist group in western Iraq and Syria, self-styled as the "Islamic State" was created by

Bagdadi 

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, born as Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri). He calls himself a caliph now.   His capture or death is worth $10 million dollars. 

                                                                           

 Al Qaeda's leader,Ayman al-Zawahiri, is worth $25 million dollars.  

                                                          

Yemen has folded up as a state in a take-over by Houthis, directed from Iran.  "The main fight is between forces loyal to the beleaguered President, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and those allied to Zaidi Shia rebels known as Houthis, who forced Mr Hadi to flee the capital Sanaa in February."  

"It started last September, when thousands of fighters from northern Yemen seized control of the country's capital, Sanaa. The government was weak, its army fractured, and the rebels - called the Houthis - took the city in only four days."

The Shia religious aspect of Islam from the Houthis comes from Iran, which  is the main Shi'a state in the Middle East with about 76,923,300 population of which 98% are Shi'a.  Iran is also an Islamic state.  Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is made up of 27,601,038 of which all are Sunnis and also declares they are an Islamic state.  

Lebanon is actually be run by Hezbollah, another Shia group.  That makes an inroad of 2 states that Iran now has hold of.  We've had the USA and Iran against IS, which is an odd situation.  "In Syria, Hezbollah, the Iranian-supported Shiite militant movement, and the Iranian paramilitary Al Quds force, have kept President Bashar al-Assad in power." So Assad is beholding to Iran.  Make that 3 states that Iran now has hold of.  The Sunnis are losing ground.  IS is neither Shi'a or Sunni.  They seem to come from Salafists, a very extreme offshoot of Sunnis.  

Resource:  Israel 101 by StandWithUs
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29319423
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31907671
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Baghdadi
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/world/middleeast/iran-airstrikes-hit-islamic-state-in-iraq.html?_r=0
http://www.bible-history.com/geography/ancient-israel/ot/aroer.html  beautiful colored map of ancient Israel and all the cities and citing where they were from in Tanakh (Bible).
http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-route-date-chronology-of-judges.htm

How Abdullah I Got Transjordan and More

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                           

What was Britain thinking during the period from 1917-1920 about the Middle East and the mandate they were holding for Palestine?  Most likely oil in Arabia.  A few might have thought of their Arab client states and a Jewish client state coexisting and cooperating under a completely British umbrella.  On December 2, 1917, Lord Robert Cecil had said in London at a large meeting, "The keynote of our meeting this afternoon is liberation.  Our wish is that the Arabian countries shall be for the Arabs, Armenia for the Armenians and Judea for the Jews.
                                                                                               

Chaim Weizmann and Emir Feisal

Emir Feisal 

Our Zionist leaders even helped the Arabs and the British in their diplomatic campaign at the Paris Peace Conference and used their own influence in Washington to urge Arab claims.  Emir Feisal wrote on March 3, 1919 to Felix Frankfurter and said, "Dr. Weizmann has been a great helper of our cause, and I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position to make the Jews some return for their kindness.  In other words, each was helping the other present their case for land.
                                                                     

Abdullah I, brother of Emir Feisal with both being sons of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif - Emir of Mecca, Arabia (Feb 1882-July 1951),.  Abdullah was Emir of Transjordan from 1 April 1921 to 25 May 1946.  "The country's name was shortened to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on 3 April 1949.  Abdullah's family had been defeated in tribal warfare that had taken place on the Arabian peninsula and Abdullah had been left without a Kingdom to rule, as had Emir Feisal.  none of the countries that border Israel became independent until the 20th century. 

 Many other Arab nations became independent after Israel.  Why did Britain care?  Again, most likely the oil situation and having 2 kings that could back them.  

Feisal and Abdullah's  father, Hussein bin Ali, had the throne for a short while in Arabia, from October 1924 to December 1925,  but lost it to the Saud family in 1925.  "He was the eldest son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the first modern King of Hejaz, and a scion of the Hashemite family. "Saudi forces finally overran Hejaz, which they eventually incorporated into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Ali and his family fled to Iraq.

  France wanted to hold the mandate for Syria and Lebanon and was granted control at the Paris Peace Conference.  However, the General Syrian congress offered the throne of Syria to Feisal so he was later installed in Damascus where he set up an administration.  Then the Supreme Allied Council in Paris granted the mandate over Syria and Lebanon to France, anyway.  In return, on July 1920, the French ordered Feisal out of the country.  Here Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab Bureau had worked very hard to get him that crown, so instead Britain offered the throne of Iraq to Feisal.  The Brits had wanted to give Iraq's crown to Feisal's younger brother, Abdullah ibn-Hussein, who now was left without a throne!

So, about Halloween  time of October 1920, Abdullah took some 1,500 Turkish ex-soldiers and Hejaz (Arabia) tribesmen, seized a train on the Hejaz Railway, and entered eastern Palestine which was Jewish territory.  Here he announced that he was on his way to drive the French out of Syria and called on the Syrians to join him.  Nobody replied. The inhabitants of Transjordan didn't heed his call, either, if there were any, that is.

Abdullah squatted in Transjordan waiting.  The British didn't know what to do.  Transjordan was empty territory of 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) that were estimated to be able to hold at the most, 300,000 people.  Most people around there were nomads.  The British were afraid that the French would now be angry and would invade the land.  So they told Abdullah to forget about Syria and instead be a representative of Britain in administering eastern Palestine (Jewish promised land-ancient Judea) on behalf of the mandatory authority.  Abdullah took up office in Transjordan and finally accepted it as a substitute.  Abdullah negotiated with Chaim Weizmann in 1922.

It finally hit the right British bureaucrat  that this was part of the area pledged to the Jews.  So the Brits sneaked in an insertion of an alteration in the draft writing of the mandate (not yet ratified by the League of Nations) which gave Britain the right to "postpone or withhold" the provisions of the mandate relating to the Jewish National Home "in the territories lying between the Jordan and the eastern boundary of Palestine as ultimately determined."  After all the meetings, and thinking everything was sealed and ready, the Brits pulled this change of heart on the Jews without any warning.  Think of it as buying a farm.  The realtor has filled in all the papers, you think you have bought the whole farm, paid the money,  and are just waiting for the deed, and then the realtor at the last minute sells all of the farm to another buyer except one outbuilding which you get instead.   This was not the promise made to the Jewish Zionists.  This was not the deal at all.

The Zionist leaders were stunned.  They just lost from 75% to 80% of their Jewish Homeland to Abdullah!  This was why Britain was granted the mandate for Palestine--to create the Jewish Homeland as voted by all the nations in the League of Nations.  The Brits were pretty sneaky about it, though.  Their government countered with the proposal that, if the Zionists now didn't accept the situation, they would decline the mandate altogether and withdraw her protection from the Jewish restoration.
                                                                         

Chaim Weizmann, Chemist 

What were the Zionists thinking about and considering at this late hour in the deal?
1. Building a country out of a desert
2. Restoring a people, largely impoverish, from the 4 corners of the world
3. Being unequipped with political experience to judge the emptiness of the British threat.
4. Didn't feel strong enough to resist this blow to the integrity and security of the state or faith in the sanctity of compacts at this moment.
5. How they had been tricked by the 2-faced Brits.
6. So in need of their own land-suffering from pogroms in Russia, French anti-Semitism (The Alfred Dreyfus Affair in 1894) and England's expulsion of Jews for over 350 years from 1290 to 1655 and anti-Semitism, that they accepted the crumbs offered to them.  They already had Jews living in Western Palestine.  They would have to make room for more.

The claim to eastern Palestine (ancient Judea) was unanimously reiterated by the Zionist Congress in 1923 and remained part of the program of the Revisionist Party under Vladimir "Zeev" Jabotinsky and of the Socialist Achdut Avodah Party.

Abdullah invaded Israel in 1948 along with all the other Arab nations.  He formally annexed the Arab-held part of Cis-Jordan in 1950 and proclaimed himself ruler of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan.  He tried to reach an understanding with Israel but this was nullified by the growing influence of the Palestinian Arabs.
                                                                           

Grand Mufti Husseini and Hitler

He was assassinated in Jerusalem  in 1951 allegedly at the instance of the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini (1893-1974).  A mufti is a professional jurist who interprets Muslim law.  The Grand Mufti had been apppointed in 1921 in  this position by Sir Herbert Samuel, a Jewish English politician.  Samuel had also made him head of the Supreme Moslem Council.  In 1936 he was appointed as chairman of the Arab Supreme Council.  He is the one that organized the Palestine disturbances for which he was sentenced to exile in 1937.  He escaped to Lebanon and during WWII was in the pro-Axis coup in Iraq before going to Europe where he assisted Hitler and was largely responsible for the liquidation of the Jews in the Moslem areas of Bosnia.  In 1946 he escaped to Egypt.  In 1948, Haj Amin al Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem said, "I declare a holy war, my Muslim brothers!  Murder the Jews!  Murder them all! "  After 1948, he set up a short-lived "Palestine Government " in Gaza and later did it in Cairo.

This is how Abdullah I became king of Transjordan.  The British manufactured the means and filched the land from the Jewish National Home by tearing almost all of it out of Palestine which has always been an integral part of our Jewish history.  From the empty wasteland that became a spearhead of the "Arab" onslaught on the Jewish state--this Emirate of Transjordan later expanded across the river Jordan and renamed the land as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

What are the Hashemites and why are they important?  

1. Hashemite (also spelled Hashimite), is the English-language version of the Arabic: هاشمي‎, transliteration: Hāšimī, and traditionally refers to those belonging to the Banu Hashim, or "clan of Hashim", an Arabian clan within the larger Quraysh tribe.  This is why Abdullah's father, Hussein bin Ali was Sharif and Emir of Mecca.  
2. 
   

    The Quraysh tribe were a powerful merchant tribe that controlled Mecca and its Ka'aba and that according to tradition descended from Ishmael.
3. 
   

   The Islamic prophet, Muhammad was born into the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. Supposedly they also carry the Arab line of the Cohen gene of Aaron, brother of Moses, which is J1 haplotype.  2nd hand information came to me that King Abdullah II has this haplotype. Hashemites claim descent from Muhammad's uncle, Abba bin Abd al-Muttalib, and Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf who died in 511 and was Muhammad's great grandfather.  Although the definition today mainly refers to the descendants of Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah.  The Ydna haplotype of J1 can only be inherited by a man from his father, so the descendants of Fatimah did not get this J1 from her but if they carry it, it would have come from Muhammad's father, or uncles or male paternal cousins.  
4.   In his memoirs, Transjordan's King Abdullah wrote: "It is made quite clear to all, both by the map drawn up by the Simpson Commission and by another compiled by the Peel Commission, that the Arabs are as prodigal (extravagant, squandering, profuse) in selling their land as they are in useless wailing and weeping.  It seems he didn't do much to keep them happy, did he?  They were full of complaints and were leaving.  
5.  Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_Jordan

Battleground-fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz, p. 54-57.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quraysh_tribe
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashemites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_of_Hejaz