The Israeli Option in Strategy

[Sean Osborne]

As to solving the Islamist problem I suggest we would not have one if Britain had not sided with the Zionists at the expense of the indigenous Palestinians (thanks Balfour).

JJackson, I find your suggestion that world would not have a “a problem” with Islamists because Britain “sided with” Zionists at the expense of “indigenous Palestinians” to be an over simplification of historical fact and which might be based-upon a pro-“Palestinian” bias at the expense of the Jewish Diaspora which originated in the Holy Land.

What rights were stripped from the Israelite’s by imperial Rome, the European superpower of the first century AD, which a subsequent generation of Europeans sought to rectify through the good offices of Great Britain, France and Italy?

The British government, as a global superpower power in its own right, approved the classified statement of policy (The Balfour Declaration), which subsequently became a component of the Treaty of Sevres with Islamic Turkey (a successor Middle Eastern empire to that of the Romans and Byzantines). The Balfour Declaration included provisions agreed to by all parties which awarded territorial concessions to many indigenous peoples – not just “Palestinians.”

The core text reads:

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours 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".

The critically important statement in bold above includes at lot more than Arabs of the Islamic faith.

Maybe even more important was the 1915 exchange of letters between Henry McMahon and Hussein bin Ali in Mecca which defined an Arab state or states exclusive of the Mediterranean coast. The extent of the Mediterranean coastal exclusion was never clarified.

I would vigorously suggest that the “Islamist problem” arises explicitly from Islamic ideology, and therefore Islam is on the hook to solve this problem. Neither Balfour nor any other non-Islamic individual is the sole source of any “problem.”

The 1922 Churchill White Paper figures very prominently as a clarifier of the Balfour Declaration. It acknowledges both Arab and Jewish indigenous populations in Palestine; that Palestine as a whole should not be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded in Palestine; that “during the last two or three generations the Jews have recreated in Palestine a community, now numbering 80,000;” and that “the existence of a Jewish National Home in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed, and that it should be formally recognized to rest upon ancient historic connection.”

Finally, the “indigenous Palestinians” you cite were not all Arabs. There were counted among them, as can be recovered from many sources, an ethnology of indigenous Palestinians that included Balkans, Greeks, Syrians, Latins, Egyptians, Turks, Armenians, Italians, Persians, Kurds, Germans, Afghans, Circassians, Bosnians, Sudanese, Samaritans, Algerians, Motawila, and Tartars.

While most Arabs would prefer a one state solution, a two state solution might be acceptable if the US withdraws unconditional support for Israel.

This has the proverbial "snowballs chance" of happening anytime soon. American support for Israel comes directly from America's Judeo-Christian heritage. This is the cornerstone of the American policy. Moreover, at this point in time America would no more withdraw unconditional support from Israel than Great Britain would withdraw unconditional support of its immigrants to Australia. Condi Rice is trying like hell, but she is being vehemently opposed at every turn by a fairly large majority of We The People.