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From: Eddie Chumney
To:      heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Chapter 8: Israel: The Fig Tree Blossoms (Part 2 of 3)


                                        CHAPTER 8

                    ISRAEL: THE FIG TREE BLOSSOMS


                      from the book by Eddie Chumney

              "RESTORING THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL"

       
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                                   CHAPTER 8

              ISRAEL: THE FIG TREE BLOSSOMS

                                  (Part 2 of 3)


POST WWII POLITICS IN ENGLAND

Even before the war ended, a significant shift occurred through the British elections of July 1945. Britain still had the League of Nations' Mandate to control Palestine. During the war, Prime Minister Churchill had been strongly supportive of Zionism and gave Weizmann his word that a State of Israel would be set up in Palestine after the war with three to four million Jews. 36 That was the view of both the Labour and Tory parties in their electioneering campaigns.

But in 1945, Churchill's coalition was voted out of office in a landslide. 37 Britain's severe economic setbacks during the war and its shrinking world empire led to the dissatisfaction that produced this ouster. The Labour party of Clement Atlee took over with high expectations from everyone - including the Zionists.

Despite candidate Atlee's pro-Zionist stance, however, his administration soon reversed itself on the Palestine issue. Ernest Bevin was made Foreign Secretary and thus became Czar of the Mideast and its problems. Though a sharp statesman and keenly perceptive of growing Soviet power, he did not share the pro-Zionist sympathies of his colleagues and the former administration. 38 "Bevin repudiated all the pledges that had been made officially and unofficially by Labour speakers for the last ten years, some of which may have helped the Party win the election." 39

Several changes made this reversal of policy the politically prudent course for the new foreign secretary. The Arab world was gaining prestige and becoming a factor to be reckoned with. It had just added several independent states to its number and its oil power was claiming international respect. In juggling interests in the Mideast, Bevin tended to favor the Arabs and downplay the rights of Jews. To this end, Bevin came to fiercely oppose the creation of a Jewish state in the troubled area. 40

Another factor contributing to this reversal was the MacDonald "White Paper" of 1939, an anti-Jewish document that continued in effect throughout the war. Designed to mollify the Arabs, it in fact reduced Jewish immigration to Palestine to a trickle and intended to cut it off entirely. Had the White Paper been fully carried out, the hard-won advantages guaranteed the Jews in the Balfour Declaration would have been nullified. Arabs responded to this British reversal by increasing their opposition to Jewish immigration. Encouraged by Bevin, they boldly demanded that all Jewish immigration be stopped and a new Arab State be set up in Palestine. 41

The irony is that none of these Arab nations (except for Transjordan) supported the Allies in World War II. They remained carefully neutral until the final months when Allied victory was assured. The Palestinian leader (ex-Mufti Haj Amin Husseini), in fact, defected to Iraq before the war and later joined Hitler and Eichmann in Germany in their butchery of Jews. 42 Yet, the Arab states were shown amazing respect by the Allied powers in the postwar era; seven seats were given them in the United NationsAssembly. 43



THE JEWISH RESISTANCE MOVEMENT

When many Zionists began to realize that a political solution to establish a national homeland for the Jewish people (house of Judah) could not be achieved, they saw the need for military action. The main Jewish resistance groups were the Haganah, the Irgun and Lehi.

Arab riots in the land of Palestine in 1920 and 1921 strengthened the view that it was impossible to depend upon the British authorities to defend and protect the Jewish people in the land of
Palestine. Furthermore, the Arabs would disrupt the agricultural settlements set up by the Yishuv. In addition, after initially encouraging the immigration of Jews to Israel, the British now openly banned Jewish immigration. From these events, it became apparent that the British were not interested in providing security for the Jewish settlers in the land. Therefore, the yishuv needed to create an independent defense force completely free of foreign authority.


THE CREATION OF THE HAGANAH

With the help of the worldwide Jewish Agency, the Hagonah was created. In June 1920, the Haganah was founded by the Histadrut (General Federation of Jewish Labor). At the time, it was considered illegal by the British mandatory authorities. The Haganah became the underground defense organization of the yishuv from 1920 to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

As Arab hostilities increased, the members of the Haganah split over the question of how to react to Arab terrorism. Following Arab disturbances in the summer of 1929, a group of commanders and members of the Haganah, led by Avraham Tehomi, decided to split from the main group and set up their own organization to be more active in pursuing the Arab terrorists.


THE CREATION OF THE IRGUN

This new organization was named the Irgun Zva'i Leumi (National Military Organization) also known by the name of Etzel. It was founded in 1931 and became an underground organization that operated in Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s.

Irgun rejected the "restraint" policy of the Haganah. They carried out armed reprisals against Arabs and preferred to use political powers to forward the goal of reclaiming the land. While the armed reprisals against the Arabs provided relief for the Jewish settlers, it was condemned by the Jewish Agency and brought political embarrassment to them. While the Jewish Agency tried to provide an image of the Jew being a good moral person who was being terrorized by the Arabs in order to win support from the non-Jewish world, the Irgun gave it's full support to the settlers.

On December 5, 1936, Avraham Tehomi signed an accord with Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist Movement, making Jabotinsky commander of Irgun. In April 1937, during the Arab riots, the Irgun split. About half its members returned to the Haganah. The rest formed a new Irgun Zeva'i Le'umi (National Military Organization), which was ideologically linked with the Revisionist Movement and accepted the authority of its leader, Vladimir Jabotinsky.


VLADIMIR JABOTINSKY AND THE REVISIONIST MOVEMENT

Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky was born on October 18, 1880, in the city of Odessa, Russia. The pogrom against the Jews of Kishinev in 1903 spurred Jabotinsky to undertake Zionist activity. Jabotinsky was deeply impressed by Theodor Herzl. Jabotinsky was elected as a delegate to the 6th Zionist Congress, the last in which Theodor Herzl participated.

After World War I, Jabotinsky became disenchanted when Great Britain severed almost 80% of the British Mandate originally designated for a Jewish Homeland to create Transjordan (1922). Disillusioned with Britain and angry at Zionist acquiescence to British reversals, Jabotinsky became unhappy with the direction of the Zionist Movement. He was unconvinced that the Turks or the Arabs would accommodate the aims of Zionism. So, he advocated bolder tactics.

Jabotinsky set about establishing a separate Zionist federation based on "revision" of the relationship between the Zionist movement  and Great Britain. This federation would actively challenge British policy and openly demand self-determination or Jewish statehood. The goals of the Revisionist movement included restoration of a Jewish Brigade to protect the Jewish community and mass immigration to Palestine of up to 40,000 Jews a year.

In 1925, the establishment of the World Union of Zionist Revisionists (Hatzohar) was announced with Paris as its headquarters. In 1931, Jabotinsky demanded that the Seventeenth Zionist Congress make a clear announcement of its Zionist aims (a Jewish state) but the delegates refused to do so.

In 1923, the youth movement Betar (Brith Joseph Trumpeldor) was created. The new youth movement was aimed at educating its members so that they would have a military and nationalistic spirit. Jabotinsky was also the leader of this movement.

In 1935, after the Zionist Executive rejected his political program and refused to clearly define that  "the aim of Zionism was the establishment of a Jewish state," Jabotinsky decided to resign
from the Zionist Movement. He founded the New Zionist Organization (NZO) to conduct independent political activity for free immigration and the establishment of a Jewish State.

In 1937, the Irgun Tzvai Leumi (IZL) became the military arm of the Jabotinsky movement and he became its commander. The three bodies headed by Jabotinsky, The New Zionist Organization (NZO), the Betar youth movement and the Irgun Tzvai Leumi (IZL) were three extensions of the same movement.

With the outbreak of World War II, Irgun declared a truce, which led to a second split. Some forces decided to fight with the British against the Nazi Axis powers. This group declared a truce and joined the British army and the Jewish Brigade. The second group led by Avraham Stern was known as the Stern Gang or Lehi. They operated as an underground organization from 1940 to 1948.



THE CREATION OF LEHI

Lehi was an acronym for Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel). The split with  the Irgun was due to disagreement on three main issues:

1) The group's demand that the military struggle against the British government be continued irrespective of the war against Nazi Germany;

2) Opposition to enlistment in the British army, which Jabotinsky supported; and

3) Willingness to collaborate, as a tactical measure, with anyone who supported the struggle against the British in Palestine.

Lehi's goals were:

1) Conquest and liberation of Eretz Israel; war against the British Empire;

2) Complete withdrawal of Britain from Palestine;

3) Establishment of a "Hebrew kingdom from the Euphrates to the Nile."


MENACHEM BEGIN BECOMES LEADER OF THE IRGUN

In December of 1943, Menachem Begin became leader of the Irgun. Begin was a Polish Jew who had escaped a Siberian labor camp in 1943 and made his way to Palestine to join the Irgun.

Menachem Begin was born in Brest-Litovsk in 1913. As a child he was forced to flee with his family  to escape the fighting between the German and Russian armies in World War I. A passionate Zionist from an early age, he joined Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Betar youth movement in his teens, rising quickly to important administrative and leadership positions.

In February 1944, Irgun declared war against the British administration. It attacked and blew up government offices, military installations and police stations. The Jewish Agency and their group, the Haganah responded against the Irgun in a campaign nicknamed the Sezon. The Haganah kidnapped several of the Irgun's members and handed them over to the British.


THE JEWISH RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS BECOME UNITED IN PURPOSE

After World War II, the Haganah realized that the British were not relenting their ban on immigration, nor were they helpful in combating Arab terrorism. In late 1945, the three groups (the Irgun, the Haganah, and Lechi) reached an understanding to coordinate the struggle to fight the British.

The unity of the groups was short-lived. In May 1946 the Irgun blew up the wing of the King David hotel in Jerusalem, which housed the British Palestine Command. The organizations' cooperation broke up following Irgun's bombing because Haganah claimed that the attack had not been coordinated with them.


THE JEWISH RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS ARE MERGED INTO THE IDF

After the end of World War II, the Haganah was the largest and most important Jewish military force operating against the British. On May 26, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel decided to transform the Haganah into the regular army of the State to be called "Zeva Haganah Le-Yisrael" or The Israel Defense Forces (IDF). When the IDF was established on May 31, 1948, Irgun and Lehi announced that its members would join also.

Haganah and Irgun became the Labor and Likud political parties in Israel. The Haganah and the Irgun have had their political differences since they were created to fight against the British in
order that the Jewish people (house of Judah) could have a national homeland. There was an event that took place before they merged themselves into the IDF that highlights the division and tension between these two groups. This division continues to the present day through the modern day political parties in Israel named Labor and Likud whose political roots go back to the Haganah and the Irgun.

The Irgun had a boat, the Altalena, which had supplies and men coming into Jaffa port. The boat was laden with munitions needed by the Jewish defenders. The Haganah wanted to take all supplies. Negotiation between the Irgun and the Haganah ensued. No agreement was forged. The Haganah opened fire on the Altalena, sinking the boat, killing and wounding Jewish lives and destroying supplies. The commander of the Haganah was Yitzhak Rabin. When the nation of Israel was established, the Jewish Agency and its followers took up the leadership of Israel. Today, their political party is known as "Labor." The opposition party, led by the soldiers in the Irgun, became the opposition party to the Haganah and is known today as the "Likud." Still today, these two groups are politically fighting it out between themselves just as they did in the time of the birth of the state of Israel.



THE BRITISH MANDATE IS TURNED OVER TO THE UN

When the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) where the British government kept their office on July 22, 1946, twenty-eight British were killed. By the beginning of 1947, the British had decided they wanted nothing more than to wash their hands of the whole mandate affair. 44

Thus it was becoming more and more evident that British anti-Zionist policy was bankrupt and that a new approach was needed. The fault lay primarily with "Bevin's agonized intransigence on the immigration issue, provoking maximal Zionist demands for Jewish statehood." This "ignited the terrorism, launched the illegal refugee traffic to Palestine, undermined Britain's economy, eroded its international reputation, and finally doomed the Palestine Mandate itself." 45 The Atlee-Bevin government came to see how impossible it was to carry out the British Mandate with conflicting policies toward the Jews and the Arabs. 46

Acknowledging a deadlock on the issue, the British cabinet on April 2, 1947, announced it was referring the Palestine problem to the United Nations General Assembly. This body set up an
eleven-nation investigative board (UNSCOP) to devise a plan of action. After several months of review, they recommended endorsing the principle of independence for both the Jews and the Arabs. However, they were divided regarding who should control what area. The majority voted for "partitioning" Palestine, advocating three divisions, an Arab state, a Jewish state, and an international zone in the Jerusalem area. 47

The General Assembly of the United Nations voted on November 29, 1947, to support partitioning. The vote was thirty-three to thirteen, mainly the Western bloc against the Moslems and Asian blocs. Eleven nations abstained, including Britain. It was to be implemented at the termination of the British Mandate on May 14, 1948. 48

The partition plan vote became UN Resolution 181. In Part III, Section A of UN Resolution 181, the city of Jerusalem was established as a "corpus separatum" under a special international regime and shall be administered by the United Nations. Thus, the plan of the UN was for Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) to become an international city.

The Arabs unequivocally rejected it, perceiving it as another step in Zionist expansionism. To maintain good relations with the Arab League, Britain also rejected it. Joining them, the United
States State Department under Secretary of State George Marshall cautioned against the plan. In May 1947, the Soviet delegation surprised everyone by endorsing partitioning. In October, the Arab League began a troop buildup in Palestine. 49

President Truman chose to disagree with Secretary of State George Marshall on the issue. Truman accused the State Department of having an Arabic mentality. "Like most of the British diplomats," he quipped, "some of our diplomats also thought that the Arabs, on account of their numbers and because of the fact that they controlled such immense oil resources, should be appeased. I am sorry to say that there were some among them who were inclined to be anti-Semitic." 50 He then instructed the State Department to support the United Nations plan of partitioning Palestine. 51

Many commentators believe that this courageous action by Truman received the smile of heaven. That fall, Truman ran for reelection against the highly favored Republican governor of New York, Tom Dewey, and won. Truman later referred to himself as "Cyrus," the biblical Gentile who in Persian times had assisted the post-exilic remnant in returning from dispersion. 52


ISRAEL'S 1948 WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

The Arabs responded to the Partition Resolution by carrying out their oft-repeated threats. Jewish  homes and synagogues in the major cities were immediately attacked while the British stood by. Calls went out for all available forces from the Arabic States to mobilize for war. Arabs saw the British withdrawal as an opportunity to drive out the Jews and settle the immigration question once and for all. The Mufti moved from Cairo to Lebanon to take charge of the Palestinian operation. 53

In the late afternoon of May 14, 1948, the British kept their word and hauled down the Union Jack. Israel proceeded to raise its newly designed flag featuring the Star of David the same day. David Ben-Gurion became Israel's first prime minister. Chaim Weizmann later became the first President of the new republic. Within minutes, President Truman issued a statement extending de facto recognition to Israel as a sovereign state. 54

Before the day ended, Egyptian planes were already bombing Tel Aviv. Most of the Arab states sent men and material to the attack, including Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Additional forces came from North African states. 55

The Arab's initial attack was full-scale on all sides, confident that their sheer numbers and superior armament would quickly overwhelm the ill-equipped Jews. 56 Their plan was to take Palestine's key cities within a few weeks and then quickly "drive the Jews into the sea."

From a statistical standpoint, an easy triumph was practically a given: the Arab's overwhelming power came from seven nations with a combined population of over 140 million; the Jewish remnant they opposed totaled only 650,000 in all Palestine, with no promise of backing from other nations; the Arab Legion of Transjordan was "financed and officiated by the British." 57 However, with divine help from the G-d of Israel, the Jewish people (house of Judah) won the war and the nation of Israel was born.

The UN plan had assigned her 5,500 square miles and the new Arab state 4,500. The spoils of war added additional territory, which gave Israel a total of 8,050 of the total 10,400 square miles in Palestine. 58 King Abdullah of Transjordan acquired 2,350 square miles in the West Bank plus over 750,000 Palestinians. 59

In May 1949, the new nation of Israel was accepted into the United Nations, recognized as an  independent, sovereign nation. 60

On four occasions in the next twenty-five years, Israel was forced to mobilize her troops to defend her borders. Each of these was a traumatic episode in itself, but each also resulted in further
gain that fortified her position in the Middle East. 61


ISRAEL'S 1956 WAR WITH EGYPT

Egyptian General Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt in 1956. From 1948, Egypt had closed the Suez Canal to Israeli ships. Then in 1955, she began a blockade also of the Gulf of Aqaba, cutting off Israel's access to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Responding to this challenge, Israel again mobilized her citizen army in October 1956, striking at Egypt through the rugged Sinai wasteland. That desert campaign became known as "Operation Kadesh." 62 With divine help from the G-d of Israel, the Jewish people (house of Judah) defeated the plans of Nasser and Egypt and won the 1956 war.



ISRAEL'S 1967 WAR WITH HER ARAB NEIGHBORS

In the spring of 1967 following a vast military buildup of Russian equipment, Nasser again closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping and demanded that UN observers withdraw from the
demilitarized zone. By May 17, seven Arabic nations had mobilized armor on three fronts, broadcasting their intentions to "cut the Jews throats." King Hussein of Jordan decided to join the fray, collaborating with Iraqi troops. He hoped to seize the Islamic shrines in Jerusalem for his Hashemite kingdom. 63

When Nasser blockaded the Straits of Tiran and closed off the Israeli port of Eilat, he prevented Israel's only access from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Red Sea, and from  there to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, and it meant Israel's access to oil from the Persian Gulf was cut off. The blockade, considered an act of war by Israel, was provocation of the first order. Israel had already notified the UN Security Council that it would soon have to act in its own self-defense. But, the UN failed to enforce the conditions of the truce that had existed since 1956. 64

The Arabs massed 547,000 troops, 2,504 tanks, and 957 combat aircraft. Israel mustered 264,000 troops, 800 tanks, and 300 combat airplanes. Israeli generals Yitzchak Rabin and Moshe Dayan foresaw that surprise was their only hope. 65 The preemptive strike was decisive. "In 170 minutes Israel's pilots had smashed Egypt's best-equipped air bases and had turned three hundred of Nasser's combat planes into flaming wrecks . The Egyptian air force, the largest in the Middle East, was in ruins." 66 The same scenario was replayed in Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. "By nightfall of June 6, Israel had destroyed 416 planes, 393 on the ground. It had lost twenty-six planes during that time, all to antiaircraft." 67

In two days, the Egyptian army in the Sinai was virtually wiped out, leaving Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip. To the north, after a desperate and costly tank battle, the Syrians were routed and the strategic Golan Heights was taken. Thus ended the long nightmare of Syrian bombardment of Galilean villages. Israel was now secure on her northern border. 68

In the battle with Jordan, Israel gained control of the West Bank and the old city of Jerusalem fell into Israeli hands. By gaining control of the West Bank, the cities of Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, and Shechem as well as Jerusalem came into Israel hands. For the first time in nineteen hundred years, the Jews had control of the old city of Jerusalem. A newly composed ballad, "Jerusalem the Golden," became Israel's popular anthem in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. 69

In the war, "The Arabs suffered 15,000 casualties; Israel's losses were 777 killed, 2,186 wounded." 70 To its previous eighty-five hundred square miles, it added twenty-eight thousand square miles in the Sinai, Golan Heights, and West Bank. 71 The occupied territories proved to be an ideal bone of contention for the Arabs, leading to further conflicts that would dwarf even the monumental battles of Israel's first twenty years of nationhood. 72


ISRAEL'S 1973 YOM KIPPUR WAR

On October 6, 1973 on Yom Kippur, the Arabs attacked Israel once again. They had 750,000 troops, 3,200 Soviet tanks, 860 planes, and the latest Soviet missiles. 73 In the first grim hours at the Canal Zone, Israeli reservists were obliterated. Their token defenses consisted of "precisely 436 Israeli soldiers in a series of bunkers seven to ten miles apart, together with three tanks and seven artillery batteries." 74 Coming at them,  "were five Egyptian infantry divisions, three mixed infantry and tank divisions, and twenty-two independent infantry, commando, and paratroop brigades. With the air force, the enemy constituted not less than 600,000 men, 2,000 tanks, 2,300 artillery pieces, 160 SAM missile batteries, and 550 combat planes." 75

In the third and fourth days of the war, Israel began to win the war. First, Israel was able to defeat Syria in the north. By October 18, Israeli troops headed toward Damascus. In the battle with Egypt in the Suez, Israel gained the upper edge over Egypt. By October 23, the Israeli army was at the Gulf of Suez. As a result, Egypt and Russia demanded that the United Nations Security Council require Israel to pull back to its pre-1967 borders.

As a result of the war, the United Nations demanded that Israel withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip based upon UN Resolution 242. When Israel refused to comply, the council nearly voted her out of the United Nations in the summer of 1975. 76


THE POLITICS OF OIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The 1973 Yom Kippur war highlighted how imported Arab oil has become an important political and economic issue in understanding the present Israel / Arab conflict. The world economy depends on imported Arab oil and the Arab oil producing countries decided to use oil as an economic and political weapon to influence world opinion against Israel. On October 17, 1973, Arab petroleum ministers met during the Yom Kippur War and decided to cut oil production and exports. "It was under the façade of the war crisis . that the Arabs seized the opportunity to launch a drastic escalation of oil prices. Libya announced on October 18 that the cost of its oil would go up 28 percent - irrespective of the war and Israel's misdeeds. Iraq thereupon declared a 70 percent price rise. Kuwait matched this figure." 77

Members of the European Common Market took immediate measures to placate Arab oil barons, making new demands on Israel to give up the occupied territories. Thus an oil-thirsty world forced Israel into a diplomatic ghetto. Though the Arabs suffered a devastating loss in the Yom Kippur war, they discovered a powerful new weapon and found themselves in the driver's seat of the world economy. By a simple turn of oil valves they could further the goals of Palestine. 78

                                        (End Part 2 of 3)

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