I believe that British diplomacy in Palestine was consistently indecisive and hypocritical but at the same time the British wanted to keep their hands in Palestine’s economy and goods. The reasoning behind this statement is because of the events that played out during the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, the Sykes-Picot agreement, and the Balfour declaration.
First, the Hussein-McMahon correspondence was a long-drawn-out exchange of letters between the Sharif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali and British High Commissioner Sir Henry McMahon dealing with the future political status of the Ottoman Empire. The Arab’s were planning on revolting against the Ottoman Empire because of the promise that after the war was over Britain would recognize the independence of the Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire now known as Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and Saudi Arabia. The British encouraged the revolt against the Ottoman Empire because they were allies with the Germans, during World War I. The British also knew that if the Arab’s would get into World War I and if they could overthrow the Ottoman Empire the British would be able to occupy key positions that could give them the advantage over the Germans in the war. Unfortunately, after the war had ended, McMahon and Hussein could not agree on what areas of the territory to recognize the independence of the Arab areas that Hussein had wanted. For a lack of better words this made the relationship between the Arab leader, Hussein bin Ali, and the British High Commissioner Sir Henry McMahon and their people very untrusting of each other and extremely tense.
The Second thing that put a lot of tension on the relationship between the Arabs and the British was the Sykes-Picot agreement...
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...ing colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea?” That being said, I believe this statement effectively paraphrases the source of the tension between Jews and Arab opponents of the creation of the state of Israel.
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Imperialism, Colonialism, and war had a huge impact on the Middle East, and it can also be thought of as the source of conflict. According to the map in Document A, it shows that the size of the Ottoman Empire grew smaller after the first world war, along with this change came new boundaries. These borders were created by the victorious European countries that won World War I, and made different ethnic and religious groups separated and grouped together with others. Great Britain's took over Palestine mandate and developed the Balfour Declaration that promised Jews support in making a home in Palestine. Most of the Palestine land was populated with Arabs. As soon as Jewish immigration increased, so did the tension between the two groups because each felt like they deserved the Palestine land. Zionism began early in the history of Judiasm and it was the movement for the Jews to establish a home in Palestine, and return to their holy land. During the Holocaust, six million Jews were killed and the deep-seeded hatre against them increased
Strayer, Robert W. An Outsider's View of Suleiman I. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 655-57. Print.
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In 1916, The Sykes-Picot Agreement was signed between Britain and France aiming to control and influence the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, who was the sole controller of the region. Followed by The Treaty of Sevres in 1920, new borders were drawn by the 2 European countries for Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Syria among other Levantine countries. However, the Kurdish population who resided among these geographical borders were not given any land for them, but divided within the new borders giving them harder time than before. As for the Palestinian case, both Zionist and Palestinian nationalism movements arose during the late 19th – early 20th century. What raised the Zionist nationalism movements further was the Balfour Declaration in 1917 which supported the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine while protecting the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities. Ever since then the two populations are, with unfortunate luck, trying to be independent nation states.
...of the situation, "The position of the Jews in liberated countries is desperate. The political pressure in Palestine is becoming unbearable. And so is my personal position as President of the Jewish agency. This is the hour to eliminate the British White Paper, to open the doors of Palestine and to proclaim the Jewish state" (Ganin). The British negative attitude gave the militant Zionists who wanted a new policy towards England and for new activist leadership a reason to take action. They felt, "...it's astonishing how fast they forgot about that..." (Silverberg). The Zionist leaders saw that after World War Two, Britain was exhausted economically and psychologically. British power had weakened because of the war. The Jewish community realized that they would not be able to rely on Britain for help and so they turned all their attention to the United States (Ganin).
This marked the beginning of the Palestine armed conflict, one of its kinds to be witnessed in centuries since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1. Characterized by a chronology of endless confrontations, this conflict has since affected not only the Middle East relations, but also the gl...
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Even though Zionist and non-Zionist hearts bleed together at cruelty and mistreatment of Jews, there are many differences such as, the portrayal of Jews. “The basic proposition is that three-fourths of the Jews of the world are living in hopeless misery. Of the ten millions, one-half live in the pale of Settlement in Russia under conditions which have been depicted repeatedly to the horror of civilized mankind. One million are in Galicia, ni...
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