Palestinian Arabs and the Formation of the Jewish State

During World War II, millions of Jews fled from Germany to escape the brutality of Adolf Hitler. A Zionist movement established that all Jewish refugees were to flee to Palestine, a concept founded by The Jewish State, by Dr. Theodore Herzl, in order to unite all Jews in one holy state. The British were convinced in 1917 by Chaim Weizmann that all Jews needed their own territory in Palestine, and in the early 1920s, the British were given a mandate over Palestine by the League of Nations. Palestinians felt threatened by the rise in Jewish presence in their state, causing widespread fighting in order to expel Jews from the Arabians’ sacred Palestinian land. Ben-Gurion (also known as a member to the World Zionist Congress) was leader of the Jewish peoples in 1947, whereas there was no single leader of the Arabs, there were several influential figures to the cause: Haj Amin el-Husseini – grand mufti of Jerusalem, Azzam Pasha – secretary-general of the Arab League, King Abdullah of Transjordan – only leader open to a Arab-Jewish compromise, and Glubb Pasha – commander of the British-trained Arab Legion.

Along with the views of King Abdullah of Transjordan, there had been talks of a compromise between the two, of which the Jews were favoring and the Arabs condemned. In 1947, the United Nations Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) ordered that Palestine be split into two states – one Jewish, one Palestinian. The US viewed itself as a “world role model” in the situation. In order for the UNSCOP order to be enacted, a majority two-thirds vote would be needed from the General Assembly, to which it was awarded in a thirty-three-thirteen-ten decision, sparking an arms race between the now opposing states. Zionists were at a loss at this time, ...

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... place. The Jews and the Arabs fought for sixty years, over something so simple as the Jews wanting to become their own state after they were forcefully expelled out of Germany. To me, that seems like two siblings fighting because one came into another’s room without permission. I know that it was a bigger deal than this, but it could have been resolved in better a better way than fighting for sixty years, and that’s just my opinion. “Oh, you want some of my territory? Well, how does my bringing in outside forces to break you down until you surrender sound?” An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind, right?

“Mankind must put a stop to war before war puts an end to mankind.” –JFK

Works Cited

Stoessinger, John G. “The Fifty Years’ War in the Holy Land: Israel and the Arabs.” Why Nations Go To War, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2005. Print.