Back to history: the role of the British
Shashank Joshi has a succinct column on a local UK politcal spat, but provides a short overview of policy on a Jewish homeland. He starts with:
Quote:
When the Ottoman Empire crumbled during the First World War, Palestine – already home to 94,000 Jews – was handed to Britain. As early as November 1914, long before Allenby rode into Jerusalem, the future high commissioner, Herbert Samuel, had suggested creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The idea was dismissed, but British policymakers soon warmed to it: they saw it as a way to persuade Russian Jews to keep St Petersburg in the war after the Bolshevik Revolution, to persuade American Jews to push US President Woodrow Wilson into supporting Britain’s occupation of Palestine, and to avert what they feared would be a pro-Zionist declaration from Germany. The result was the famous Balfour Declaration of November 1917, promising the coveted Jewish homeland.
Link:http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/sh...p-with-israel/
This is getting interesting...
This goes back a while but is now needed around here to balance the furious propaganda being posted:
Quote:
WHO ARE THE PALESTINIANS?
By Yashiko Sagamori.
November 25, 2002
A rebuttal:
If you are so sure that “Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history”, I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of “Palestine”
See here:
Opinion poll on British attitude towards Iraq intervention
A reminder of the "home front" viewpoint, useful as several ex-soldiers have advocated intervention.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bu3hGiaCMAAU8C-.jpg
Richard Dannatt:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...e-in-Iraq.html
Tim Collins and Michael Jackson reported in:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...m-Collins.html
Israel's security after Gaza
A short commentary by Professor Paul Rogers, with a two sentence summary:
Quote:
Israel's military forces have embraced new tactics, weaponry and a network-centric strategy. But the latest conflict in Gaza leaves the country's security problems as intractable as ever.
Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-r...ity-after-gaza
Being a small nation might this have an impact, with my emphasis:
Quote:
The IDF losses have been far higher than in
2008-09, with sixty-four killed and
450 wounded, many of the latter maimed for life.