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My History Of Israel

Antisemitic groups like BDS like to claim that Jews were given Israel because of the Holocaust. This is untrue.

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On 14 May 1948, Israel proclaimed its independence. Less than 24 hours later, the regular armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded the country, forcing Israel to defend the sovereignty it had regained in its ancestral homeland. (Photo: mfa.gov.il)

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I have read many histories of the beginning of the State of Israel. Jewish publications stick to the dry facts while stories of the Nakba paint a false picture of the self-imposed tribulations of the minority Israeli-Arab population. My history is factual and blatantly emotionally pro-Israel, Jews and Judaism.

The 1882 estimated population of Palestine was 300,000 of which 8% were Jewish. Before World War 2, the area that now comprises Israel and Jordan, including the disputed West Bank (formerly called Judea and Samaria) was a neglected, impoverished area ruled by Turkey.

Large parts of it were owned by absentee landlords living in Syria and farmed by peasant farmers. Turkey lost what is now Israel and Jordan in WW1 to the triumphant French and English. As a result of various negotiations, England was appointed as guardian of the land that is now Jordan and Israel, both parts to be held for the Jewish people. This was called the Mandate for Palestine. 

Even before the Holocaust, everyone with any knowledge of history knew that the area of Israel and part of Jordan was the ancient homeland of the Jewish people and the only place that Jews could live freely, outside of ghettos, and without being subject to periodic pogroms, anti-Semitism and expulsions. However despite this knowledge, in the 1940’s, with Britain’s tacit consent,  the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Has Amin al-Husseini collaborated with Hitler, and instigated anti-Jewish pogroms in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Haifa, in which thousands of Jews were maimed and massacred.

Although England was designated by the United Nations as warden of these mandated lands on behalf of the Jewish people, because of their inability to stop the Arab massacres of Jews, because the local Arabs were the more numerous people, and because Jews were not immigrating in large numbers, they illegally gave the eastern 78% of the land to the Palestinians, and with the consent of the United Nations in 1948 they called that area Jordan.

Instead of exercising their stewardship as directed by the United Nations, it was a legal manipulation but was in fact, an expression of antisemitic and immoral policy by the British, the Palestinians, and the United Nations. 

In 1948 England left the area, thereby ceasing to protect the minority Jewish population. Jews then declared the State of Israel. The United Nations immediately approved it as a State. After Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, the internal fighting intensified with other Arab forces joining in. 

The Arabs launched an air attack on Tel Aviv, which the Israelis resisted. This action was followed by the invasion of the former Palestinian Mandate by Arab armies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Saudi Arabia sent a formation that fought under Egyptian command.

British trained forces from Transjordan eventually intervened in the conflict, but only in areas that had been designated as part of the Arab state under the United Nations Partition Plan and the corpus separatum of Jerusalem. After tense early fighting, Israeli forces, now under joint command, were able to gain the offensive.

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Since it appeared that the Arabs had a sure win, Jordan joined in the battle like a dog seeking the scraps from a kill, and conquered what is now popularly called the West Bank and much of the Old City of Jerusalem. However, the expected extermination of the State of Israel and the massacring of all Israeli Jews, expected in 1948  did not happen. Palestinians who left their homes expecting Israeli Jews to have been massacred could now not return home to a new Israeli state.

By looking at a map or statistics it is easy to see why Jordan thought this would be a quick easy win for the Arabs. Israel, a very small country of about 8630 sq. kilometres and 650,000 Jews was fighting against 4 Arab Nations with about 1,724,000 sq. kilometres of land and 26,557,000 million people. Much to Arab chagrin, consternation and frustration the little nation of Jews was and is a winning force that must be respected. 

To put this in perspective, it is similar to the rest of Canada attacking Prince Edward Island and then losing the war and complaining that Prince Edward Island had treated Canadians unfairly! In Canada, such complaints would have been treated as a joke. In fact, Jordan held the West Bank for 19 years until Israel reconquered it in the defensive war of 1967. 

The BDS movement seeks to make a false equivalency between Israel and South Africa, claiming ‘apartheid’ is the foundation of the Jewish State. (File photo)

Antisemitic groups like BDS like to claim that Jews were given Israel because of the Holocaust. This is untrue.

It is easy to see that if 6 million more Jews were able to go to Palestine from 1940 to 1945, that is if England had not prohibited their entry, England would not have given 78% of the land to the Palestinians, and Jews living in Israel would have required and taken more land in 1948 and in later defensive wars. 

After their defeat in 1967 and their bad experience of permitting the PLO to enter Jordan, Jordan no longer wanted to have West Bank Palestinians on its territory.  It was happy to be rid of them.

And so the West Bank Arabs, led by an Egyptian called Yasser Arafat, set up the idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, a state, like Gaza, that would not be self-sustaining, but exist only to exterminate Israel by conquest or infiltration. Unfortunately by supporting this idea, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has created an atmosphere of violence against Israeli leadership and governance. 

That is the real history of present day Israel. Other claims by BDS and their cohorts that Israel is an apartheid nation and are occupiers of Arab territory are simply falsehoods designed to eliminate Israel and its Jewish people. 

Jonathan Usher was born in Montreal. He graduated from Queen’s Law School in 1963 and moved to Toronto where he has lived since. In the past 20 years of retirement he has become a very prolific and published letter-to-the-editor writer and conservative, social iconoclast.

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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.

We do news differently!

Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.

We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.

But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!

Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.

Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.

We thank you for your ongoing support.

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