British betrayal of the Jews
Introduction
Winston Churchill played an
important role in the history of the twentieth century. For this reason alone,
it is important that revisionists re-examine the beliefs and historical forces
that motivated this lionized British icon. By improving our understanding of
Churchill’s views of and his relationship with the Holocaust and the powerful
Jewish groups that played a decisive role in his career, we gain a more
accurate view of the past and can use these lessons to hopefully make a more peaceful
future for all.
This essay is based upon the
studies of three well-known Jewish historians, and will focus only upon issues
that most mainstream intellectuals ignore or are afraid to deal with. In 1985,
Professor Michael J. Cohen published his obscure but well researched academic
study, Churchill and the Jews. Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin
Gilbert, published his more widely known Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong
Friendship in 2007, which inspired a recent Canadian movie documentary. Finally,
we will be commenting upon some of the material included in Professor Jeffrey
Herf’s “Holocaust classic,” The Jewish Enemy, published in 2006.1
Winston Churchill’s 1920
article, in which he highlighted the predominant Jewish role in the world-wide
communist movement, is pretty well known. What is not discussed is how he
misled his readers in essays and books published many years later. In many
contemporary academic environments, it is held that the concept of
“International Jewry”—groups of powerful Jews who operate on an international
basis and feel that the world-wide Jewish community is united by racial
bonds—is a “neo-Nazi” and “radically anti-Semitic” canard that should be
immediately dismissed. Sir Winston and the British government showed us
otherwise. Finally, it may raise the eyebrows of many when they find out what
Churchill told the House of Commons in August 1946 about his knowledge of the
Holocaust during the war.
Churchill poses for air raid
warning circa 1940
By Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/images/wc0107-04780r.jpg (Library of
Congress) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Jews and Communism:
Churchill’s Duplicity
During the early part of the
twentieth century, Winston Churchill was very much aware of the decisive role
that Jews played in the rise of Bolshevik Communism in Russia . Gilbert writes:
“He was familiar with the
names and origins of all its leaders: Lenin was almost the only member of the
Central Committee who was not of Jewish origin. Neither Churchill nor his
colleagues, nor the Jews, knew that Lenin’s paternal grandfather was a Jew.”
The Jewish historian adds an observation that, if stated by a non-Jew, could
possibly earn him the dreaded “anti-Semite” label: “Churchill had studied the
Bolshevik terror against political opponents, democrats and constitutionalists,
and he knew the significant part individual Jews had played in establishing and
maintaining the Bolshevik regime.”2
In a June 1919 telegram to a
British general, Churchill pointed out the prominent role Jews played in the
Bolshevik regime and the atrocities they were guilty of.3 In a 10 October 1919 letter to Lloyd George, Churchill again noted that
Jews certainly “have played a leading role in Bolshevik atrocities.”4 Gilbert attempts to put this in historical context:
“Not only was there a deeply anti-Semitic tradition in southern Russia and the
Ukraine that had seen pogroms and massacres in both the seventeenth and
nineteenth centuries, but after the Bolshevik revolution in November 1917 many
Jews, hoping for a better break, had thrown in their lot with the Bolsheviks. A
few Jews, whose deeds were much publicized and greatly feared, became political
commissars, charged with the imposition of Bolshevik rule in southern Russia , and carrying out their tasks with cruelty and zeal.”5
Gilbert devotes a long
discussion to Sir Winston’s famous 1920 article, “Zionism versus Bolshevism: A
Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People.”6 Churchill pointed out that left-wing Jews were a
major force behind Communist Marxism in many parts of Europe
and Russia , which ultimately brought horror and suffering to
millions. He discussed:
“the schemes of the
International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men
reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted
on account of their race. Most, if not all of them, have forsaken the faith of
their forefathers, and divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the
next world. This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of
Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia ), Bela Kun (Hungary ), Rosa Luxemburg (Germany ), and Emma Goldman (United States ), this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of
civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested
development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily
growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, a
definitely recognizable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has
been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century;
and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of
the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their
heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous
empire.”7
Churchill specifically stated
that Jewish Marxists were causing major problems in Germany . He wrote:
“The same phenomenon [i.e.,
Jewish involvement with left-wing and Communist movements] has been presented
in Germany (especially in Bavaria ), so far as this madness has been allowed to prey
upon the temporary prostration of the German people. Although in all these
countries there are many non-Jews every whit as bad as the worst of the Jewish
revolutionaries, the part played by the latter in proportion to their numbers
is astonishing.”8
More recent scholarship has
vindicated some of Churchill’s views. Jewish-American political scientists
Stanley Rothman and S. Robert Lichter, and anti-National-Socialist historian
Robert Payne documented the decisive role that Jews played in far left and
Communist movements in Germany prior to World War II, although they may not
believe that Jewish influence was as destructive as Churchill believed it to
be.9
Despite Churchill’s 1920
exposé of the decisive Jewish involvement with Communism, in a November 1935
article he criticized Hitler and the German National Socialists for believing
that Jews “were the main prop of communism.”10 Of course, this is precisely what Churchill had
stated in “Zionism versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish
People,” when he wrote:
“There is no need to
exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual
bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international and for the
most part atheistical Jews. It is certainly a very great one; it probably
outweighs all others. With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the
leading figures are Jews [Gilbert pointed out that Lenin’s paternal grandfather
was a Jew. Ed.]. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes
from the Jewish leaders.”11
Furthermore, in his famous
book, The Gathering Storm, written after the Second World War and widely
regarded as a “classic,” Churchill again misled his readers. He insinuated that
Hitler and his followers engaged in “delusional thinking” when they claimed
that Jews played a major and destructive role in German Communist and Left wing
groups. Describing the alleged fantasies of Hitler in regard to Jewish
influence prior to and during the First World War, Churchill wrote: “As in a dream
everything suddenly became clear [to Hitler]. Germany had been stabbed in the back and clawed down by the
Jews, by the profiteers and intriguers behind the front, by the accursed
Bolsheviks in their international conspiracy of Jewish intellectuals.”12 In fact, there is nothing in this “masterpiece”
about the decisive role that Jews played in German communism, the international
Bolshevik movement, and the threat this posed to Germany and the world, which Churchill had so vividly
complained about in decades past.
On this issue, Churchill was
deceitful. In 1935, he criticized National Socialists for holding beliefs that
he himself had propounded years earlier. In 1948, when criticism of Jewish
influence became taboo, he implied that the National Socialist idea of
Bolshevism being a world-wide conspiracy of left-wing Jews that wreaked havoc
in Germany was all a “paranoid fantasy.” He dishonestly failed
to point out that this is very similar to what he emphatically stated in his
1920 article.
Churchill, the British
Government, and the Reality of International Jewry
In his widely known works on
National Socialist Germany, Jeffrey Herf asserts that the concept of
“International Jewry” is a paranoid fantasy of “radical anti-Semites.” This
allegedly false notion “rested on the belief that the Jews were a cohesive,
politically active subject—that is, a group united on a global scale by racial
bonds that transcended any allegiance to nation-states.”13 Of course, enlightened people of today should
immediately reject this “canard.” The University of Maryland professor insists that Hitler was delusional, as he believed
“International Jewry” to be an “actually existing political subject with vast
power that was hostile to Germany .”14 According to Herf’s politically correct mode of
thought, a world-wide Jewish entity that transcends the boundaries of
nation-states had no existence whatsoever before, during or after the Second
World War. Winston Churchill’s statements and behavior, and that of the British
government, show us otherwise.
We remind the reader that in
his 1920 article, “Zionism versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the
Jewish People,” Churchill referred directly to the “schemes of International
Jews,” their “sinister confederacy” and “world-wide conspiracy.” Historian
Gilbert, relying upon Churchill, defines “International Jews” as “those Jews
who supported Bolshevik rule inside Russia and Bolshevik revolution beyond its borders.”15 (As we shall soon see, this is an incomplete and
inadequate definition of the term, “International Jews.” To cite just one
problem, it does not include international Jewish Zionists who were opposed to
Bolshevism.)
What was the goal of these
“International Jews?” Churchill believed that they were seeking “a world-wide
communistic State under Jewish domination.”16 It is important to note that in The Gathering
Storm, he correctly imputed this very belief to Adolf Hitler. In Churchill’s
description, Mein Kampf promoted the idea that the aim of Soviet communism
was the triumph of international Judaism.17 Of course, Churchill never informed his readers of
the striking similarity between his 1920 article and Hitler’s book on this
issue.
Professor Herf apparently
believes that only “radical anti-Semites” promoted the concept of
“International Jewry”—but Winston Churchill was a philo-Semite and Gentile
Zionist who worked for Jewish interests his entire career, and was accused of
being “too fond of Jews” by his friend and fellow parliamentarian General Sir
Edward Louis Spears.18
In November 1917, the British
Foreign Office issued the Balfour Declaration. It read: “His Majesty’s
Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the
achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be
done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in
any other country”19 Gilbert reveals the beliefs that moved the British
government to issue the Declaration: “The War Cabinet hoped that, inspired by
the promise of a national home in Palestine, Russian Jews would encourage
Russia—then in the throes of revolution—to stay in the war, and that American
Jews would be stimulated to accelerate the military participation of the United
States—already at war, but not yet in the battlefield. To secure these results,
[Jewish-Zionist diplomat] Weitzman agreed to go first to the United States and then to Russia , to lead a campaign to rouse the pro-war sentiments
among the Jewish masses in both countries.”20
In 1921, Churchill reiterated the British government’s
position on the Balfour Declaration. One of the main reasons that it was issued
is because the assistance of Jews from various parts of the world was needed to
induce the nation states in which they lived to enter the war on Great
Britain ’s side.21 A similar agenda motivated Churchill during the
late 1930s: he believed continuing British support for a Jewish home in Palestine would
motivate American Jewry to help bring the United
States to Britain ’s side in
the expected war with Germany . Here is a
quote from a December 1939 Churchill memorandum:
“…it was not for light or sentimental reasons that
Lord Balfour and the Government of 1917 made the promises to the Zionists which
have been the cause of so much subsequent discussion. The influence of American
Jewry was rated then as a factor of the highest importance, and we did not feel
ourselves in such a strong position as to be able to treat it with
indifference. Now, in the advent of [an American] Presidential election, and
when the future is full of measureless uncertainties, I should have thought it
was more necessary, even than in November, 1917, to conciliate American Jewry
and enlist their aid in combating isolationist and indeed anti-British
tendencies in the United States.”22
In order that there is no misunderstanding, we will
quote Professor Cohen:
“[Churchill] believed that the Zionist movement
commanded powerful political and economic influence, particularly in the United
States . As late as in December, 1939, he
lectured his cabinet colleagues on the important role Zionists could play in
mobilizing American resources to the British war effort. He told them that it
had not been for light or sentimental reasons that the Government had issued
the Balfour Declaration in 1917, but in order to mobilize American support. In
1939, Churchill believed that history would repeat itself, that the Zionists,
via their proxies across the Atlantic , could be
influential in accelerating the vitally needed early entry of the Americans
into the war.”23
Churchill’s beliefs regarding “international Jews” had
validity: certain groups of Jews from one continent did engage in political
actions that served the interests of Jews on other continents. As historian of
the American film industry Neal Gabler pointed out in his An Empire of
Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, Jewish screen writers and movie
executives in Hollywood USA were concerned about the plight of their Jewish
brethren across the ocean in Europe.24 These important Hollywood figures
held a meeting in early 1936 during which they discussed what was to be done to
combat Hitler’s Germany . Film
producer David Selznick wanted to fight against Hitler “in the usual Jewish way
of being on the fringes and not letting yourself appear as involved in it.” He
further suggested: “Don’t get too public. Do it quietly. Behind the scenes.”
Apparently, other screen industry figures present wanted to conduct a more open
and straightforward campaign.25
In autumn 1936, the more
conservative Jewish film industry figures began launching “tentative attacks
upon the Hitler regime.”26 Film producer and studio executive Louis B. Mayer
warned that war in Europe was looming, and he urged the United States to join forces with Britain . Before the US declared war following the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941, certain Hollywood Jews were
willing to use their influence to incite a pro-war sentiment in the United States . In a 20 May 1940 memo to President Roosevelt from
studio executive Harry Warner, the latter stated: “[P]ersonally we would like
to do all in our power within the motion picture industry and by use of the
talking screen to show the American people the worthiness of the cause for
which the free peoples of Europe are making such tremendous sacrifices.” A few
months later motion picture mogul Nick Schenck offered to place his entire
studio in the service of President Roosevelt’s campaign for war with Germany .27
Here we have another example
showing the reality of International Jewry, as Churchill would have conceived
of it. Viewing the fight against Hitler’s Germany as in the interests of Jews everywhere, Hollywood executives put their powerful instruments of mass persuasion in the USA in the service of Churchill’s across-the-Atlantic
campaign for war with Germany .28 As Professor Cohen so rightly noted: “Until the
American entry [into the Second World War], Jewish influence was naturally at
its highest premium, as a solid force countering neutralist forces in the
United States [groups that opposed US involvement in a war with Germany].”29
In March 1922, on Churchill’s instructions, the Middle
East Department issued a defense of the Balfour Declaration. They wanted the
Jewish National Home in Palestine to “become
a centre in which Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion
and race, an interest and a pride [emphasis added].”30 Churchill discussed the Zionist desire to build a
Jewish state in Palestine in his 3 September 1937 Jewish
Chronicle article: this political entity would serve as a “rallying point
for Jews in every part of the world.”31
The reader should take special note of the beliefs
that Churchill and his British government acted upon. At the time of the
Balfour Declaration in 1917, the English promise to support a Jewish national
home in Palestine would be used to enlist the aid of Jews from Russia and the
United States to encourage their respective countries to keep fighting the
First World War. In addition, an international Zionist diplomat would travel to
these two nations to arouse pro-war feelings. Similar beliefs motivated
Churchill in the 1930s prior to the Second World War. Supposedly, Jewish
proxies across the Atlantic would help bring the US onto the
British side in a war with Germany .
But just as importantly, the
Jewish National Home would be of interest to Jews on the basis of race and
religion, an entity that would galvanize Jewish support from all parts of the
globe.32Significantly enough, this is very similar to the
viewpoint of German National Socialist Foreign Minister Constantine von
Neurath, who said that a Jewish state in Palestine would provide an
internationally recognized power base for Jews world-wide, like the Vatican for
Catholics or Moscow for international communists.33
Directly refuting Jeffrey
Herf and those who think like him, by enacting policies such as these, Winston
Churchill and the British government clearly realized that many powerful and
influential groups of Jews throughout the world in fact saw themselves as “a
cohesive, politically active subject—that is, a group united on a global scale
by racial bonds.” In other words, the entity “International Jewry” does in fact
exist, although not all Jews should be considered a part of it.34There are Jews from all parts of the world who feel
little or no attachment whatsoever to any world-wide Jewish community.
Nevertheless, this belief that Jews are an internationally organized, racial
entity has survived the Second World War and is still held by many Jewish
groups world-wide, influencing Zionist and Israeli thinking to this very day.
One example should suffice to demonstrate my point.
A convinced believer in the
traditional view of the Holocaust, Dr. Herf claims: “The radical anti-Semitism
that accompanied and justified the Holocaust described Jews first and foremost
as a racially constituted political subject.”35 Well lo and behold! Something strikingly like this
“radical anti-Semitic idea” has led to Israel ’s interest in scientific studies that delineate
genetic/racial differences between Jews and non-Jews.
In an article that appeared
in Natural History of November 1993, renowned Jewish scientist Jared
Diamond discussed the genetic studies on how Jews differ from non-Jews. He made
this astounding statement: “There are also practical reasons for interest in
Jewish genes. The state of Israel has been going to much expense to support immigration
and job retraining of Jews who were persecuted minorities in other countries.
That immediately poses the problem of defining who is a Jew.”36 According to Diamond, Israeli policy asserts that
Jews are a racially constituted political subject: they differ from non-Jews on
a genetic/racial basis, and these biological differences may be used to
determine who will be granted citizenship in the political entity of Israel .
The reader may scratch his
head in wonder, asking: “So why do intellectuals like Jeffrey Herf deny the
reality of International Jewry?” In the Twentieth Century, the Jewish community
has emerged as one of the most powerful elements in the United States and Europe .37 If they become widely viewed as an international,
racially constituted political entity that is separate and distinct from the
surrounding culture, this could create suspicion and distrust in the minds of
the non-Jewish peoples they reside among. Non-Jews might start saying: “Since
certain segments of the Jews are separate and distinct from us and they form a
hostile and alien elite, perhaps they should not wield the power over our
society that they have.” If such ideas ever attained widespread legitimacy, it
might spawn political and social movements that could bring about a marked
reduction in Jewish power and influence. Jeffrey Herf’s denial of the existence
of International Jewry may be based in a desire to maintain the Jewish
community’s elite status in the Western world.
Churchill and Holocaust Revisionism
In June of 1941, British
code-breakers at Bletchley Park were intercepting and reading the most secret
communications of the German enemy. Gilbert claims that decoded top-secret
messages about the alleged mass murder of Jews and non-Jews in the
German-occupied Soviet Union were shown to Churchill. In response, the Prime
Minister emphatically stated in his radio broadcast of 24 August 1941 , that “whole districts are being exterminated,” and
concluded with this judgment: “We are in the presence of a crime without a
name.”38
On August 27, and September
1, 6, and 11, 1941, Churchill was shown German police decrypts reporting on the
execution of thousands of Jews on Soviet territory.39 This information is consistent with the Holocaust
revisionist position. As far back as the mid-1970s, Revisionist scholar Arthur
Butz made the point that this is the one part of the Holocaust legend that
contains a kernel of truth. During the war between Germany and the Soviet Union ,
thousands of Jews and non-Jews were shot by German police units and auxiliaries
of local police in their attempt to stop the guerilla warfare being waged
against them.40 Brutality was practiced by both the Soviets and the
Germans.
On 27 August 1941 , the Bletchley Park code-breakers informed Churchill: “The fact that the
[German] Police [in the Soviet
Union ] are killing all Jews
that fall into their hands should by now be sufficiently well appreciated. It
is not therefore proposed to continue reporting these butcheries specifically,
unless so requested.”41
Gilbert admits there is
nothing in Bletchley Park decrypts about the alleged mass shooting of 33,000
Jews at Babi Yar near Kiev in September 1941. Therefore, should one conclude
that this atrocity never took place? Not according to Gilbert: he says that
German police units in Russia were cautioned by Berlin “not to compromise their ciphers.”42 Gilbert encourages his readers to conclude that
this alleged mass killing took place, although supposedly a top-secret message
about it was never sent out.
Gilbert believes that
Churchill received sufficient details from other sources about the mass killing
of Jews in the Soviet Union , and in response, sent the Jewish
Chronicle a personal message, which was published in full on 14 November 1941 . It read in part: “None has suffered more cruelly
than the Jew,” and he referred to “the unspeakable evils wrought on the bodies
and spirits of men by Hitler and his vile regime.”43
In London on 29 October 1942 , Christian and Jewish leaders led a public protest
against the alleged mass murders of Jews that were supposedly taking place in
the German concentration camps. Churchill, who was in the United States at the time, addressed the gathering by way of a
letter that was read by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It stated in part:
“I cannot refrain …to protest
against the Nazi atrocities inflicted on the Jews…The systematic cruelties to
which the Jewish people—men, women, and children—have been exposed under the
Nazi regime are amongst the most terrible events of history, and place an
indelible stain upon all who perpetuate and instigate them. Free men and women
denounce these vile crimes...”44
In December 1942, Churchill
was shown a report from a Polish Catholic member of the Resistance, Jan Karski.
He claimed to have seen Jews being forced with great brutality into cattle
cars, and then taken to an unknown “extermination location.”45 In response, Anthony Eden of the War Cabinet wanted
to issue a public declaration. “It was known,” he asserted, “that Jews were
being transferred to Poland from enemy-occupied countries, for example, Norway : and it might be that these transfers were being made
with a view to wholesale extermination of Jews.”46 (Notice that Eden said the exterminations “might be” happening, and not
that they were in fact happening. This suggests that he was skeptical of the
“evidence” regarding the alleged mass exterminations of Jews. More on Eden in a moment.)
The Allied Declaration,
supported by Great
Britain ,
the United
States ,
the Soviet Union , and other members of the Allied cause, was published
on 17 December 1942 , and
it had considerable political impact, just as Churchill wished. Its central
paragraph condemned “in the strongest possible terms” what was described as
“this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination.”47
On 19 December 1942 , Polish-Jewish official Samuel Zygielbojm appealed to
Churchill to save the one and a quarter million Polish Jews who were still
alive and were in danger of “being exterminated” by the Germans. As Cohen
points out, there is no record of any reply from Churchill, and no Allied
operation was initiated to halt the alleged slaughter.48
In June 1944, Churchill
viewed a Jewish Agency report on the workings of the alleged “Nazi gas
chambers” in the concentration camps. He sent a memorandum to Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden, asking: “Foreign Secretary, what can be done? What can be said?”
The evidence indicates that Churchill wanted to issue another Allied threat of
retribution, but the Foreign Office said that too many such pronouncements had
already been made.49
On 6 July 1944 , Foreign Secretary Eden informed Churchill of an
appeal he received from Zionist diplomat Chaim Weitzman, that the British
government should take steps to mitigate the “appalling slaughter of Jews in Hungary .”50 We let Professor Cohen pick up the story here:
“Now Weitzman reported
mistakenly that 60,000 Jews were being gassed and burned to death each day at
Birkenau (the death camp at Auschwitz II). Eden told Churchill that this figure might well be an
exaggeration. But on the next day, Eden forwarded an additional report to Churchill,
describing the four crematoria at the camp, with a gassing and burning capacity
of 60,000 each day. Some 40,000 Hungarian Jews had already been deported and
killed there. Over the past one year and a half, some one-and-a-half million
Jews had been done to death in the camp.”51
Cohen, a firm believer in the traditional version of
the Holocaust, still highlighted the exaggerations in the story. Buried in a
footnote he writes; “It seems that the Zionist figure of 60,000 per day, should
in fact have been 6,000.”52 As of the date of this writing, even
anti-Revisionist Holocaust historians would point out that the figure of
1,500,000 Jews being murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau is another exaggeration of
around 540,000 deaths! Robert Jan van Pelt, widely considered to be a
contemporary expert on the alleged mass murder of Jews at this concentration
camp, wrote in 2002 that total number of Jewish deaths at the site was 960,000.53The important lesson here is this: we have evidence from
a respected academic source that, during the war, Churchill was being handed
exaggerated atrocity information, to say the very least.
On 7 July 1944 , Churchill
approved the bombing of Auschwitz by the
British Air Force, but the operation was never carried out.54 Four days later, on 11 July, Churchill issued his
oft-quoted declaration on the Holocaust: “There is no doubt that this is
probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole
history of the world, and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally
civilized men in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of
Europe.”55
At the end of August 1944, Churchill’s son showed his
father a copy of the full report of four escapees from the Auschwitz
“extermination camp,” an official document that had been published a month and
a half earlier by the War Refugee Board in Washington . Before
this, Churchill had only seen a summary version. Gilbert comments: “Not for the
first time, Randolph had alerted
his father to an aspect of the Jewish fate that had not reached the Prime
Minister through official channels.”56
Gilbert points out that in
the latter part of 1944, Berlin
issued a statement denouncing at least some of the reports about the
deportations to Auschwitz , claiming they were “false from beginning to end.”57 Gilbert is unclear on exactly what the Germans were
claiming to be false.
Despite all of the
authoritative declarations Churchill made or supported during the war with
regard to the “reality” of the Nazi extermination of the Jews, when the war
ended he made an astonishing statement that casts doubt on the sincerity of all
of these wartime pronouncements. In a speech before the House of Commons on 1 August 1946 , he emphatically declared that he knew nothing of the
alleged Nazi mass murder of Jews while the Second World War was taking place.
We quote him verbatim: “I must say that I had no idea, when the war came to an
end, of the horrible massacres which had occurred; the millions and millions
that have been slaughtered. That dawned on us gradually after the struggle was
over.”58
As far back as 1985,
Professor Cohen stated the dilemma in these terms. He says it is debatable how
familiar the Prime Minister was with the Intelligence information regarding the
alleged Nazi extermination camps, but by “July, 1944 at the very latest,
Churchill was supplied by the Zionists with very precise details of the
murderous capacity of Auschwitz .”59 In light of this, Cohen asks, how should we
interpret Churchill’s August 1946 denial of knowledge of the mass murder of Europe ’s
Jews during the war?60
The reader should take
careful note of the implications of Churchill’s words. If Sir Winston was not
aware during the war of the alleged mass killings of Jews, and if he and his
associates realized only after the war ended that these supposed mass murders
took place, then all of his “authoritative” declarations we listed above about
the mass murder of Jews taking place during the war were just unconfirmed and
baseless allegations in his estimation.
Bizarre inconsistencies like
this are exactly what the Holocaust Revisionist hypothesis would predict, and
this is why even the most anti-Revisionist reader should consider Churchill’s
statements from a Revisionist perspective. Revisionism states that many of the
wartime claims of the Allies and Zionists in regard to the alleged
extermination of the Jews were simply false propaganda, designed to serve
ulterior Allied and Zionist political agendas.
Churchill was well aware that
representations of the Jewish fate at the hands of the Germans were linked to
plans for a Zionist state in Palestine . Indeed, Gilbert points out: “In Churchill’s mind,
the Jewish fate in Europe and the Jewish future in Palestine were inextricably linked.”61 In his seminal Revisionist work The Hoax of
the Twentieth Century, Arthur Butz made a somewhat parallel point: “”The
Zionist character of the [Nazi extermination] propaganda is quite clear; note
that, as a rule, the persons who were pressing for measures to remove Jews from
Europe (under the circumstances a routine and understandable proposal) coupled
such proposals with demands that such Jews be resettled in Palestine, which
shows that there was much more in the minds of Zionist propagandists than mere
assistance to refugees and victims of persecution.”62
Throughout his entire book,
Gilbert discusses how the unrelenting Churchill, being wedded to Zionist
policy, was up against the resistance of many factions within his own
government and from around the world who were opposed to establishing a Jewish
state in Palestine . They realized it would end in disaster for the
indigenous people of the Middle
East and for British
interests in general.63 In a situation such as this, one can readily see
how “Nazi extermination” propaganda would be useful to Churchill—it would
silence opposition to Zionist aims and create mass sympathy for the future
Jewish state.64 There is evidence that is consistent with this
interpretation. In December 1942, Colonial Secretary Oliver Stanley put the
request to the Prime Minister that 4500 Bulgarian Jewish children, with 500
accompanying adults, be allowed to exit Bulgaria for Palestine , adding that British pubic opinion had been “much
roused by the recent reports of the systematic extermination of the Jews in
Axis and Axis-controlled countries.” Churchill replied: “Bravo!”65
Professor Cohen notes the
strange inconsistency between Winston Churchill’s public statements about the
Holocaust and his lack of action to do anything to stop it: “But against the
frequent expression of his horror at Nazi crimes, one must record the almost
total absence of any meaningful gesture or action by him to save Hitler’s
Jewish victims—either when in Opposition, or in the position of supreme power,
which was his from 1940 to 1945.”66
I ask the most hard-core
believer in the traditional Holocaust story to ponder this dilemma. During the
war, Churchill was making authoritative pronouncements about the
“etched-in-stone” fact of the Nazi extermination of the Jews—and after the war,
he tells British parliament that he had no idea such “exterminations” took
place during the war, and only realized their “reality” after the war was
ended! To say the least, Churchill’s statements are consistent with the point
that Professor Butz made decades ago: the first claims about the “Nazi
extermination of the Jews” made during the war were not based on one scrap of credible
intelligence data.67
Butz’s revisionist hypothesis
is further supported by the fact that even academic “Holocaust experts” will
have to admit that, during the war, Churchill was handed exaggerated data in
regard to the number of Jewish deaths, as we have shown in this essay. Finally,
Churchill’s public outcries regarding the alleged Nazi extermination of the
Jews were declarations that, “coincidentally,” served British and Zionist
military and political agendas.
We will end here with a short note regarding
Churchill’s 1 August
1946 statement that the “reality” of the Holocaust “dawned
on us gradually after the struggle was over.”68 Gilbert points out that Churchill used what was
found at some German concentration camps at the war’s end as “proof” of the
“Holocaust.”69 A thorough discussion of this is beyond the scope
of this short essay, so I refer the reader to the Revisionist studies of the
topic.70
THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER PALESTINE and its violations r1
ReplyDeleteAs stated above, the 1920 San Remo Conference decided to place Palestine under British Mandatory rule making Britain responsible for giving effect to the 1917 Balfour declaration that had been adopted by the other Allied Powers and ratified under International treaty as International law.. The resulting “Mandate for Palestine,” was an historical League of Nations document that laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in Palestine and the San Remo Resolution incorporated the 1917 Balfour Declaration, this validated it as part of international law, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Sevres and Lausanne, together with Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations became the basic documents on which the Mandate for Palestine was established. The Mandate’s declaration of July 24, 1922 states unambiguously that Britain became responsible for putting the Balfour Declaration, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, into effect and it confirmed that recognition had thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country. It is highly relevant that at that time the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and parts of what today is Jordan were included as a Jewish Homeland. However, on September 16, 1922, the British in violation of the Treaty divided the Mandate territory of Palestine, west of the Jordan became Transjordan, east of the Jordan River was for the Jewish State, in accordance with the McMahon Correspondence of 1915 which was not approved by the British Parliament. Transjordan became illegally exempt from the Mandate provisions concerning the Jewish National Home, effectively removing about 78% of the original territory of the area in which a Jewish National home was to be established in terms of the Balfour Declaration and the San Remo resolution as well as the British Mandate.
This action violated not only Article 5 of the Mandate which required the Mandatory to be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power but also article 20 of the Covenant of the League of Nations in which the Members of the League solemnly undertook that they would not enter into any engagements inconsistent with the terms thereof.
Article 6 of the Mandate stated that the Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes. Political rights were exclusively granted only to the Jewish people.
Nevertheless in blatant violation of article 6, in a 1939 White Paper Britain changed its position so as to limit Jewish immigration from Europe, a move that was blatant violation by Zionists as betrayal of the terms of the mandate, and the British became complicit in the extermination of the Jews in Europe, especially in light of the increasing persecution of Jews in Europe. This caused the death of millions of Jews trying to escape Nazi extermination. In response, Zionists organized Aliyah Bet, a program of illegal immigration into Palestine under British rules but not under international Treaties.
CONCLUSION
ReplyDeleteThe frequently voiced complaint that the state being offered to the Arab-Palestinians comprises only 22 percent of Palestine is obviously invalid. The truth is exactly the reverse. From the above history and international treaties, it is obvious that the territory on both sides of the Jordan was legally designated for the Jewish homeland by the 1920 San Remo Conference, mandated to Britain as trustee, confirmed by the 1920 Treaty of Sevres and Lausanne and endorsed by the League of Nations in 1922, affirmed in the Anglo-American Convention on Palestine in 1925 and confirmed in 1945 by article 80 of the UN. Yet, approximately 80% of this territory was illegally excised from the territory in May 1923 when, in violation of the mandate and the San Remo resolution, Britain gave autonomy to Transjordan (now known as Jordan) under as-Sharif Abdullah bin al-Husayn. Further-more, as the San Remo resolution has never been abrogated, it was and continues to be legally binding between the several parties who signed it. It is therefore obvious that the legitimacy of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and a Jewish state in Palestine all derive from the same international agreement at San Remo.
During WWII the British as trustee for the Jewish people in the Mandate for Palestine, violated the International treaty by restricting Jewish immigration and turned back Jewish refugee ships who were escaping from German extermination camps, thereby sending many Jews back to be exterminated. The British went as far as blowing-up Jewish refugee ships destined for Palestine-Israel under "Operation Embarrass".
In essence, when Israel entered and liberated the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Jerusalem in 1967 it did not occupy territory to which any other party had title. While Jerusalem and the West Bank, (Judea and Samaria), were illegally occupied by Jordan in 1948 they remained in effect part of the Jewish National Home that had been created at 1920 San Remo and confirmed by the 1920 Treaty of Sevres and Lausanne, thus, in the 1967 6-Day War Israel, in effect, recovered and liberated territory that legally belonged to Israel. To quote Judge Schwebel, a former President of the ICJ (International Court of Justice), “As between Israel, acting defensively in 1948 and 1967, on the one hand, and her Arab neighbors, acting aggressively, in 1948 and 1967, on the other, Israel has the better absolute title in the territory of what was Palestine, including the whole of Jerusalem. Any resolutions past by the U.N. are only a recommendation and cannot supersede international treaties.
The Arabs have Jordan, which was Jewish territory. The Arabs persecuted and expelled over a million Jewish families from their countries and confiscated all their assets, businesses, homes and Real estate property 5-6 times the size of Israel - 120,440 sq. km. and valued in the trillions of dollars. Most of the expelled Jewish families from Arab countries were resettled in Israel, today over half the population in Israel are the families of the million Jewish families expelled from Arab countries. Let the Arab-Palestinians relocate to those lands and solve the Arab Israel conflict and the Arab-Palestinian refugee problem.
YJ Draiman
“A corollary of the inalienable right of the Jewish people to its Land is the right to live in any part of Eretz Yisrael, including Judea and Samaria which are an integral part of Eretz Yisrael. Jews are not foreigners anywhere in the Land of Israel. Anyone who asserts that it is illegal for a Jew to live in Judea and Samaria just because he is a Jew, is in fact advocating a concept that is disturbingly reminiscent of the ‘Judenrein’ policies of Nazi Germany banning Jews from certain spheres of life for no other reason than that they were Jews. The Jewish villages in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district are there as of right and are there to stay.
ReplyDelete“The right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel was also recognised in the League of Nations ‘Mandate for Palestine’ which stressed ‘the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and … the grounds for reconstituting’ - I repeat, reconstituting ‘their national home in that country.’
“The Mandatory Power was also entrusted with the duty to encourage ‘close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.’”
Balfour Declaration:
ReplyDeleteEmir Faisal Endorses Declaration
Balfour Declaration: Table of Contents | Text of Declaration | Congressional Endorsement
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Chaim Weizmann, wearing headscarf at left as a sign of respect, meets with Emir Faisal (circa 1919)
Emir Faisal, son of Sherif Hussein, the leader of the Arab revolt against the Turks, signed an agreement with Chaim Weizmann and other Zionist leaders during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. “Mindful of the racial kinship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish people,” it said, “and realizing that the surest means of working out the consummation of their national aspirations s through the closest possible collaboration in the development of the Arab states and Palestine.” Furthermore, the agreement looked to the fulfillment of the Balfour Declaration and called for all necessary measures “...to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil.”
Faisal had conditioned his acceptance of the Balfour Declaration on the fulfillment of British wartime promises of independence to the Arabs. These were not kept.
Critics dismiss the Weizmann-Faisal agreement because it was never enacted; however, the fact that the leader of the Arab nationalist movement and the Zionist movement could reach an understanding is significant because it demonstrated that Jewish and Arab aspirations were not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Balfour Declaration:
ReplyDeleteU.S. Congress Endorses Declaration
(September 21, 1922)
Balfour Declaration: Table of Contents | Text of Declaration | Commentary
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled.
That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which will prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected.
Balfour Declaration:
ReplyDeleteCommentary on the Declaration
On November 2, 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration:
His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
According to the Peel Commission, appointed by the British Government to investigate the cause of the 1936 Arab riots, "the field in which the Jewish National Home was to be established was understood, at the time of the Balfour Declaration, to be the whole of historic Palestine, including Transjordan."
The Mandate for Palestine's purpose was to put into effect the Balfour Declaration. It specifically referred to "the historical connections of the Jewish people with Palestine" and to the moral validity of "reconstituting their National Home in that country." The term "reconstituting" shows recognition of the fact that Palestine had been the Jews' home. Furthermore, the British were instructed to "use their best endeavors to facilitate" Jewish immigration, to encourage settlement on the land and to "secure" the Jewish National Home. The word "Arab" does not appear in the Mandatory award.
The Mandate was formalized by the 52 governments at the League of Nations on July 24, 1922.
Balfour Declaration:
ReplyDeleteText of the Declaration
(November 2, 1917)
Balfour Declaration:
The British government decided to endorse the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. After discussions within the cabinet and consultations with Jewish leaders, the decision was made public in a letter from British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild. The contents of this letter became known as the Balfour Declaration.
Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet
His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours,
Arthur James Balfour
History of Jerusalem:
ReplyDeleteTimeline for the History of Jerusalem
(4500 BCE - Present)
Return to History of Jerusalem: Table of Contents
Chalcolithic Period (4500-3200 BCE)
3500 BCE - First Settlement of Jerusalem
Early Bronze Age (3200-2220 BCE)
2500 BCE - First Houses Built in Area
Middle Bronze Age (2220-1550 BCE)
1800 BCE - Construction of First City Wall
Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BCE)
1400 BCE - First Mention of Jerusalem in Cuneiform Amarna Letters
Iron Age I (1200-1000 BCE)
1200 BCE - Jerusalem is conquered by Canaanites (Jebusites)
Iron Age II (1000-529 BCE)
1000 BCE - King David Conquers Jerusalem; Declares City Capital of Jewish Kingdom
960 BCE - David's Son, King Solomon, Builds First Jewish Temple
721 BCE - Assyrians Conquer Samaria; Refugees Flee to Jerusalem and City Expands onto Western Hill
701 BCE - Assyrian Ruler Sennacherib Lays Seige to Jerusalem
586 BCE - Babylonian Forces Destroy Jerusalem and Demolish First Temple
Persian Period (539-322 BCE)
539 BCE - Persian Ruler Cyrus the Great Conquers Babylonian Empire, Including Jerusalem
516 BCE - Cyrus Permits Jews in Bablyonian Exile to Return to Jerusalem; Second Temple Built
445-425 BCE - Nehemiah the Prophet Rebuilds the Walls of Jerusalem; City Confined to Eastern Hill
Hellenistic Period (332-141 BCE)
332 BCE - Greek Leader Alexander the Great Conquers Judea and Jerusalem
332-141 BCE - Ptolemaic and Seleucid Rule in Jerusalem
Hasmonean Period (141-37 BCE)
141 BCE - Hasmonean Dynasty Begins; Jerusalem Again Expands Limits to Western Hill
63 BCE - Roman General Pompey captures Jerusalem
Herodian Period (37 BCE - 70 CE)
37 BCE - King Herod Restructures Second Temple, Adds Retaining Walls
30 CE - Jesus Crucified by Romans in Jerusalem
Roman Period (70 - 324 CE)
70 CE - Roman Forces Destroy Jerusalem and Demolish Second Temple
135 CE - Jerusalem Rebuilt as a Roman City
Byzantine Period (324-638 CE)
335 CE - Church of the Holy Sepulchre Built
614 CE - Persians Capture Jerusalem
629 CE - Byzantine Christians Recapture Jerusalem from Persians
First Muslim Period (638-1099 CE)
638 CE - Caliph Omar Enters Jerusalem
661-750 CE - Jerusalem Ruled Under Umayyad Dynasty
691 CE - Dome of the Rock Built on Site of Destroyed Jewish Temples
750-974 CE - Jerusalem Ruled Under Abassid Dynasty
Crusader Period (1099-1187 CE)
1099 CE - First Crusaders Capture Jerusalem
Ayyubid Period (1187-1259 CE)
1187 CE - Saladin Captures Jerusalem from Crusaders
1229-1244 CE - Crusaders Briefly Recapture Jerusalem Two Times
Mamluk Period (1250-1516)
1250 - Muslim Caliph Dismantles Walls of Jerusalem; Population Rapidly Declines
Ottoman Period (1516-1917)
1517 - Ottoman Empire Captures Jerusalem
1538-1541 - Suleiman the Magnificent Rebuilds the Walls of Jerusalem
British Mandate (1917-1948)
1917 - British Capture Jerusalem in World War I
Divided City (1948-1967)
1948 - State of Israel Established; Jerusalem Divided By Armistice Lines Between Israel & Jordan
Reunification (1967-Present)
1967 - Israel Captures Jerusalem's Old City and Eastern Half; Reunites City
Primary Resources: Declaration of Israel's Independence, 1948
ReplyDeleteA Jewish state is established in Palestine.
The land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and national identity was formed. Here they achieved independence and created a culture of national and universal significance. Here they wrote and gave the Bible to the world.
Exiled from Palestine, the Jewish people remained faithful to it in all the countries of their dispersion, never ceasing to pray and hope for their return and the restoration of their national freedom.
Impelled by this historic association, Jews strove throughout the centuries to go back to the land of their fathers and regain their statehood. In recent decades they returned in masses. They reclaimed the wilderness, revived their language, built cities and villages and established a vigorous and ever-growing community with its own economic and cultural life. They sought peace yet were ever prepared to defend themselves. They brought the blessing of progress to all inhabitants of the country.
In the year 1897 the First Zionist Congress, inspired by Theodor Herzl's vision of the Jewish State, proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national revival in their own country.
This right was acknowledged by the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, and re-affirmed by the Mandate of the League of Nations, which gave explicit international recognition to the historic connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and their right to reconstitute their National Home.
The Nazi holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe, proved anew the urgency of the re-establishment of the Jewish state, which would solve the problem of Jewish homelessness by opening the gates to all Jews and lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations.
The survivors of the European catastrophe, as well as Jews from other lands, proclaiming their right to a life of dignity, freedom and labor, and undeterred by hazards, hardships and obstacles, have tried unceasingly to enter Palestine.
In the Second World War the Jewish people in Palestine made a full contribution in the struggle of the freedom-loving nations against the Nazi evil. The sacrifices of their soldiers and the efforts of their workers gained them title to rank with the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a Resolution for the establishment of an independent Jewish State in Palestine, and called upon the inhabitants of the country to take such steps as may be necessary on their part to put the plan into effect.
This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their Independent State may not be revoked. It is, moreover, the self-evident right of the Jewish people to be a nation, as all other nations, in its own Sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY, WE, the members of the National Council, representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the Zionist movement of the world, met together in solemn assembly today, the day of the termination of the British mandate for Palestine, by virtue of the natural and historic right of the Jewish and of the Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations,
HEREBY PROCLAIM the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called ISRAEL.
WE HEREBY DECLARE that as from the termination of the Mandate at midnight, this night of the 14th and 15th May, 1948, and until the setting up of the duly elected bodies of the State in accordance with a Constitution, to be drawn up by a Constituent Assembly not later than the first day of October, 1948, the present National Council shall act as the provisional administration, shall constitute the Provisional Government of the State of Israel.
ReplyDeleteTHE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be ready to cooperate with the organs and representatives of the United Nations in the implementation of the Resolution of the Assembly of November 29, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the Economic Union over the whole of Palestine.
We appeal to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building of its State and to admit Israel into the family of nations.
In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions -- provisional or permanent.
We offer peace and unity to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all.
Our call goes out the Jewish people all over the world to rally to our side in the task of immigration and development and to stand by us in the great struggle for the fulfillment of the dream of generations -- the redemption of Israel.
With trust in Almighty God, we set our hand to this Declaration, at this Session of the Provisional State Council, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the fifth of Iyar, 5708, the fourteenth day of May, 1948.
WE HEREBY DECLARE that as from the termination of the Mandate at midnight, this night of the 14th and 15th May, 1948, and until the setting up of the duly elected bodies of the State in accordance with a Constitution, to be drawn up by a Constituent Assembly not later than the first day of October, 1948, the present National Council shall act as the provisional administration, shall constitute the Provisional Government of the State of Israel.
ReplyDeleteTHE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be ready to cooperate with the organs and representatives of the United Nations in the implementation of the Resolution of the Assembly of November 29, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the Economic Union over the whole of Palestine.
We appeal to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building of its State and to admit Israel into the family of nations.
In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions -- provisional or permanent.
We offer peace and unity to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all.
Our call goes out the Jewish people all over the world to rally to our side in the task of immigration and development and to stand by us in the great struggle for the fulfillment of the dream of generations -- the redemption of Israel.
With trust in Almighty God, we set our hand to this Declaration, at this Session of the Provisional State Council, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the fifth of Iyar, 5708, the fourteenth day of May, 1948.
History of Jerusalem:
ReplyDeleteTimeline for the History of Jerusalem
(4500 BCE - Present)
Return to History of Jerusalem: Table of Contents
Chalcolithic Period (4500-3200 BCE)
3500 BCE - First Settlement of Jerusalem
Early Bronze Age (3200-2220 BCE)
2500 BCE - First Houses Built in Area
Middle Bronze Age (2220-1550 BCE)
1800 BCE - Construction of First City Wall
Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BCE)
1400 BCE - First Mention of Jerusalem in Cuneiform Amarna Letters
Iron Age I (1200-1000 BCE)
1200 BCE - Jerusalem is conquered by Canaanites (Jebusites)
Iron Age II (1000-529 BCE)
1000 BCE - King David Conquers Jerusalem; Declares City Capital of Jewish Kingdom
960 BCE - David's Son, King Solomon, Builds First Jewish Temple
721 BCE - Assyrians Conquer Samaria; Refugees Flee to Jerusalem and City Expands onto Western Hill
701 BCE - Assyrian Ruler Sennacherib Lays Seige to Jerusalem
586 BCE - Babylonian Forces Destroy Jerusalem and Demolish First Temple
Persian Period (539-322 BCE)
539 BCE - Persian Ruler Cyrus the Great Conquers Babylonian Empire, Including Jerusalem
516 BCE - Cyrus Permits Jews in Bablyonian Exile to Return to Jerusalem; Second Temple Built
445-425 BCE - Nehemiah the Prophet Rebuilds the Walls of Jerusalem; City Confined to Eastern Hill
Hellenistic Period (332-141 BCE)
332 BCE - Greek Leader Alexander the Great Conquers Judea and Jerusalem
332-141 BCE - Ptolemaic and Seleucid Rule in Jerusalem
Hasmonean Period (141-37 BCE)
141 BCE - Hasmonean Dynasty Begins; Jerusalem Again Expands Limits to Western Hill
63 BCE - Roman General Pompey captures Jerusalem
Herodian Period (37 BCE - 70 CE)
37 BCE - King Herod Restructures Second Temple, Adds Retaining Walls
30 CE - Jesus Crucified by Romans in Jerusalem
Roman Period (70 - 324 CE)
70 CE - Roman Forces Destroy Jerusalem and Demolish Second Temple
135 CE - Jerusalem Rebuilt as a Roman City
Byzantine Period (324-638 CE)
335 CE - Church of the Holy Sepulchre Built
614 CE - Persians Capture Jerusalem
629 CE - Byzantine Christians Recapture Jerusalem from Persians
First Muslim Period (638-1099 CE)
638 CE - Caliph Omar Enters Jerusalem
661-750 CE - Jerusalem Ruled Under Umayyad Dynasty
691 CE - Dome of the Rock Built on Site of Destroyed Jewish Temples
750-974 CE - Jerusalem Ruled Under Abassid Dynasty
Crusader Period (1099-1187 CE)
1099 CE - First Crusaders Capture Jerusalem
Ayyubid Period (1187-1259 CE)
1187 CE - Saladin Captures Jerusalem from Crusaders
1229-1244 CE - Crusaders Briefly Recapture Jerusalem Two Times
Mamluk Period (1250-1516)
1250 - Muslim Caliph Dismantles Walls of Jerusalem; Population Rapidly Declines
Ottoman Period (1516-1917)
1517 - Ottoman Empire Captures Jerusalem
1538-1541 - Suleiman the Magnificent Rebuilds the Walls of Jerusalem
British Mandate (1917-1948)
1917 - British Capture Jerusalem in World War I
Divided City (1948-1967)
1948 - State of Israel Established; Jerusalem Divided By Armistice Lines Between Israel & Jordan
Reunification (1967-Present)
1967 - Israel Captures Jerusalem's Old City and Eastern Half; Reunites City
Balfour Declaration:
ReplyDeleteText of the Declaration
(November 2, 1917)
Balfour Declaration:
The British government decided to endorse the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. After discussions within the cabinet and consultations with Jewish leaders, the decision was made public in a letter from British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild. The contents of this letter became known as the Balfour Declaration.
Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet
His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours,
Arthur James Balfour