A Little History

            Occasionally, you may hear a reference to the nation of Palestine.  This country, as you may well know, was almost directly between Middle-Earth and Narnia, deep in the area commonly referred to as the Twilight Zone.  There has never been a nation called Palestine on this planet.  There was an ancient kingdom of Philistines, but not Palestine.  There was once a British colony called Palestine, which was created in 1922, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, for the express purpose of creating a homeland for Jews.  There was actually a written mandate from the League of Nations, directing England to do exactly that.  Under British rule, the area was home to both Jews, Arabs, and Europeans.

During Hitler’s rule of the Third Reich, he engaged Mufti Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (or Al-Husayni engaged Hitler), who was strongly anti-Semitic, to broadcast radio messages into the Middle East, propaganda in support of Nazi Germany, and calling for their aid in exterminating the Jews.  Now, Al-Husayni was a resident of the British colony of Palestine, and he did not like the idea of Palestine becoming the Jewish homeland.  Quite frankly, judging by the way the British dragged their feet in carrying out their mandate, they weren’t overly thrilled with it, either.  But here we have a mufti broadcasting anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda into the Middle East.  Traditionally, Jews and Muslims had gotten along reasonably well, but by taking certain verses of the Koran out of context to support Hitler’s agenda (or, perhaps simply his own desire to make Palestine an Arab country), Al-Husayni was able to turn a lot of Muslims against the Jews. 

            After World War II, the Allies decided that they should move quickly to establish the Jewish homeland.  If there had been a Jewish homeland prior to Hitler’s regime, perhaps there would not have been as many Jews in Nazi-controlled territories.  It’s difficult to say.  I think that it’s safe to say that Hitler was well aware that there was a fair amount of anti-Semitism in Germany when he became chancellor, and German Jews controlled a disproportionate amount of the wealth in Germany, so it was easy for him to portray them as greedy outsiders who were cheating good honest Germans out of their hard-earned money…  You get the idea.  Perhaps if there had been fewer Jews controlling a smaller portion of the German economy, the Nazis would not have felt the need to try to exterminate them.  Also, if there had been a Jewish homeland ready to defend the rights and well-being of Jews living in Germany, perhaps the Nazis would have been more reluctant to take such drastic measures to rid themselves of these ‘undesirables.’

            So, the Holocaust triggered a ramping up of the long overdue creation of a Jewish homeland.  Unfortunately, a large number of Arab people were living in the land that had been set aside for this new nation (I have no way of knowing how many ‘Palestinians’ were previously Ottomans, and how many were Arabs that emigrated from other parts of the Mideast after the fall of the empire).  Many of them were perfectly willing to move somewhere else (a fair percentage of the people currently living in Jordan identify themselves as Palestinians, in spite of the fact that considerably more time has passed since the colony of Palestine ceased to exist than the amount of time that passed while Palestine existed).  In any case, Israel came into existence, and found themselves in a situation very similar to what King David wrote many years before, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”