Michael Sell Michael Sell Writing and Rhetoric

Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

Research Paper: Effect of Zionist movement on the 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict In the late 1800s a movement known as the Zionist movement gained momentum worldwide: influencing global events and targeting political and demographic issues in the Middle East, especially within the country of Palestine. The Zionist movement was an organization composed of both Jews and Jewish sympathizers whom supported the formation of a Jewish homeland. This mission, and directly through it, the Zionist movement, greatly influenced the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict also known as the War of Independence. The Zionist movements methods of fulfilling their mission were to gain political support from other countries and promote immigrations to Palestine. For the most part, Jews were primarily city-dwelling people in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century and this caused tensions to between the city-oriented Jews and the primarily farm oriented Arabs. Conflicts arose between the differences in fairness and levels of land ownership and the distribution of resources throughout the country. The Ottoman government in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries held Palestine under their rule in the Ottoman Empire, and upon its collapse after World War I, Palestine was given to Great Britain as a mandate. Both of these empires had very little control and influence within the Middle East and this lack of a central power and government enabled the conflicts to escalate to unprecedented levels. For all intents and purposes, two independent communities were developing in Palestine, and in the spirit of rising

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

nationalism, which affected both communities; it was almost inevitable that a clash would occur.1 Zionism was in fact first and foremost a reaction to anti-Semitism that envisioned ethnic-nationalist segregation and regrouping of Jews on a territory of their own.2 AntiSemitism is often associated with Nazi Germany and the rise of Hitler, yet the Zionist movement antecedents are in the Biblical period. Zionism owes its origins to two historical processes, the movement of Jews out of the ghettos that started around the time of the French Revolution3 and the rise of modern, race-based anti-Semitism.4 Zionism supported the notion that the Jews needed a secular state for themselves, one created legally and supported internationally that was free from prejudice and violence. Theodore Herzl recognized this need and in his book The Jewish State stated: The Jewish State is essential to the world; it will therefore be created5 Early Zionists, such as Theodor Herzl, recognized the need for a Jewish homeland due to the pogroms6 in Eastern Europe as well as the relative global mistreatment of Jewish people. Location was of course a controversial issue with varying areas such as Argentina, Uganda and
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Robert O. Freedman, World Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York: Pergamon Pr, 1979), 14. 2 Gilbert Achcar, The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010), 9. 3 Released from forced residence in the ghettos of Western European cities as a result of the French Revolution, many Jews seized the opportunity held out by the tenets of liberalism to assimilate and become full members of their national communities. (Freedman, 5). 4 van Creveld, 16. 5 Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (CreateSpace, 2011), 53. 6 Pogroms- Occurred primarily in Russian-ruled Eastern Europe where millions of Jews lived in poverty, suffered discrimination, and had to fear the pogroms that began with the sound of church bells that called on the Jews gentile neighbors to drop their work, take up cudgels, and beat them. These were used in order to divert the revolutionary fervor of the Russian peasant masses (van Creveld, 17.)()

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

North America7 being brought in as potential focal points for the Jewish homeland. However, only the ancient homeland of the Jews, Palestine, in the Middle East appealed to the Jews on a global spectrum. Palestine was selected because of its religious importance to the Jews. It was home to the great city of Jerusalem and had maintained a Jewish population for over 3200 years prior to the official formation of the Zionist movement in the late nineteenth century. For Jews, Jerusalem is the mountain of the Lord, the very core of the Jewish people. There has never been a time when Jerusalem was not the center of the Jewish consciousness.8 After the repudiation of Theodor Herzls proposed to the British government that Uganda be used a potential, if temporary homeland for the Jews, he came under fire from his opponents who believed that for historic, cultural, and religious reasons only Palestine could provide the necessary mystique for a viable homeland.9 Prior to the nineteenth century, Jews made up a mere 7-8 percent of the population of Palestine.10 Beginning in the fifteenth century, a small trickle of Jewish immigrants moved to Palestine due to Jerusalems location and this trickle increased after 1850 due to the brutal pogroms in Russia. However, once the formation of the World Zionist Organization was solidified in 1897 and the campaign for the formation of the State of Israel began in earnest, immigration to Palestine greatly increased. The three mass immigrations known as the First, Second, and Third Migrations led to the Jews becoming a larger percentage of the population, and by 1914, there were over eighty five
7 8

(van Creveld 17) Marshall Breger, Religion and Politics in Jerusalem, Journal of International Affairs 50, no. 1 (1996): 90. 9 Freedman, 6. 10 van Creveld, 2.

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

thousand Jews in Palestine11. By comparison, these migrations would have contributed an even smaller percentage to the Jewish population had the World Zionist Organization not been founded and the pogroms in Russia not occurred. There are two primary factors contributing to the conflicts between the Arabs and the Jews of the Middle East. The first is the perception of Western influences in Palestine. Jews viewed foreign influences and power as a way to eventual freedom and statehood while the Arabs viewed Western influence as the beginnings of a life full of servitude. It is the second factor, the Palestinian factor that explains the rise of antiJudaism and a concomitant anti-Semitism in the Arab world.12 The World Zionist Organization was founded in hopes of creating the State of Israel and ending the problems and strife beginning to stir in Palestine. The organization was founded in 1897 during the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. The congress was created and organized by Theodor Herzl; who believed that he himself was the man Providence had chosen to lead the movement towards such a state.13 The First Zionist Congress met and discussed the potential creation of the State of Israel. As a result of the Congress the World Zionist Organization (WZO) was created, with Herzl elected as the first President. Herzl, along with the Zionist mainstream leaders from across the world, had a specific objective in mind for the creation of the State of Israel when they met in Basel. The objective was to raise money, purchase property in the Land of Israel, and send settlers who, building their homes there, would prepare the ground for

11 12

van Creveld, 25. Achcar, 110. 13 van Creveld, 19.

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

others to follow.14 This belief would go on to dictate their actions in the interactions and confrontations the WZO had with foreign powers. Understanding the interactions and effects of foreign powers on the Zionist movement is primarily based upon the colonialism that was prevalent throughout all the Middle East until the late twentieth century. Palestine fell under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 through the end of World War I in 1917. In the early stages of Arab Nationalism and Zionism, both nationalist movements sought the aid of the great powers to aid them in realizing their nationalist aspirations15. Both the Arabs and the Jews wished to throw off the yoke of oppression that was seemingly issued from the Ottoman Empire. There is a strong correlation between the increase in foreign developments in the Middle East, particularly with the British and French interest in the area, and the growth of the Zionist movement. The Ottoman Empire was seen as the sick man of Europe and the Western European countries began to seek inroads into their land, attempting to assert their influence over as much of the empire as they could before it collapsed altogether16. World War I brought all these issues to a head. In World War I nearly all the belligerent powers sought to exploit the two nationalist movements, and at the close of the war, Britain and France had succeeded in substituting their rule for that of the Turks over much of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine17. The British increasingly sought to earn the support of the local population as World War I continued, making both the Arab Nationalists and Zionist movements

14 15

van Creveld, 21. Freedman, 1. 16 Freedman, 2-3. 17 Freedman, 2.

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

promises of land in the Ottoman Empire in return for their aid. The Zionist movement was finally offered their own national home18 for the Jews in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration. However, upon the conclusion of World War I and the Ottoman Empires collapse, none of the promises made were kept. The basic result of the peace settlement was the replacement of the Turkish overlords of the Middle East by the British and French.19 Norman Stillman attributes in The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times the deterioration of Arab-Jewish relations to two factors. The first was their divergent responses to Western penetration, which in the Arabs perception led to servitude, in the Jews, to emancipation. The second and more important was the exacerbation of tensions in Palestine, especially after the 1929 riots20 because of the lack of British control. This is where the true decline of Arab and Jewish relations begins. Prior to the initial peace talks for the peace settlements after World War I, there was a great deal of cooperation between the Arabs and the Zionists. The Faisal-Weitzman Agreement21 was signed prior to the peace talks in Europe with Faisal and Chaim Weitzman giving up certain amenities for the advancement of both movements. Faisal however was not entirely trusting of the Zionists and because of this included in the

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The Arab Nationalists led by Sherif Hussein of Mecca were also promised their own independent Arab state upon the British victory over the Ottoman Empire (Freedman, 7.) 19 Freedman, 7. 20 Achcar, 110. 21 The Faisal-Weitzman Agreement was drawn up and agreed upon by Faisal, Husseins son who represented all the Arabs, and Chaim Weitzman, the leader of the Zionists at the time. Article Four of the Agreement is where the main interest lies, with Faisal agreeing to and supporting that all necessary measures shall be taken to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews to Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land; and Weitzman agreeing to taking such measures the Arab peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in their rights and shall be assisted in forwarding their economic development. (Freedman, 7-8.)

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

Agreement a statement disclaiming any responsibility for carrying out the agreement should the proposed Arab state fail to materialize.22 When the British failed to recognize an independent Arab state and instead issued the Palestine Mandate in 1922, Arab-Zionist relations experienced a sharp decline due across the Middle East. Because of British wartime promises, both the Jewish and the Arab communities felt that theirs was the only legitimate claim to Palestine, and any possibility of a compromise diminished rapidly as British rule became firmly established23. It was within Palestine itself that the Arabs rioted not against just the European rule, but against their fellow citizens, the Jews. The Palestinian Arabs saw the Jews who emigrated from Europe after the war not as fellow members of a common race seeking national independence as Faisal had stated, but rather as part of the European imperialist wave that was then engulfing the Middle East.24 British appeasement of the Arabs throughout the 1920s and 1930s led to severe rioting, with the worst rioting occurring in 1929. Massive riots occurred throughout Palestine, targeting the Palestinian Jews who were rumored to have been preparing to take control of the holy sites throughout Palestine. Guerilla warfare then began against the British rule, organized by Hajj Amin al-Husseini,25 and the Arab uprising lasted until 1939. Unlike previously, the Arabs had aid in their guerilla warfare, with funds and
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Freedman, 8. Freedman, 12. 24 Freedman, 9. 25 Husseini was appointed to the position of Grand Mufti by Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner of Palestine in 1921. Husseini was fourth in line to the religious position and also a wanted criminal for his integral role in the rioting against the Jews the year before, yet he was appointed anyways, one of the biggest mistakes made by the British in Palestine. He would go on to organize rioting and guerilla warfare against the British and Jews throughout Palestine. (Freedman, 13-14.)

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

supplies coming in from neighboring Arab counties, particularly Syria and Iraq but also Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. World War II broke out in 1939 and both Italy and Germany began to challenge British control over the Middle East. With the outbreak of World War II came the time to pick sides for the citizens of Palestine. With nowhere else to turn, the Palestinian Jews rallied to the Allied cause and joined the British army in large numbers. The Arabs, however, were either lukewarm to the Allied war effort, or like the Mufti, actively supported the Nazis, and this support was to damage severely the Arab position in postwar diplomacy26. The increasing tensions between Palestinian Jews and the Arabs of the Middle East caused an outbreak of war between the Zionists and the Arab League27. The World Zionist Organization saw Hitlers rise to power as a key opportunity for their global success. They raised their voices to the political leaders of many countries, asking for aid in this time of dire need and through their pleas gained global credence and support in their movement. World Zionist Organization leaders also pushed for many of the now homeless Jewish immigrants to move to Palestine in support of the formation of the State of Israel, and many of them found their way there. German Jews represented one-quarter of all legal Jewish immigrants in 1933; by 1939, the proportion had risen to 52%28. This increase in immigrants strained the already tense atmosphere in Palestine. Holy sites, such as those in Jerusalem, that were already contested between the

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Freedman, 21. Britain molded the Arab states in the Middle East into the Arab League. The intent of the Arab Leagues formation was to put a barrier against Soviet southward expansion (Freedman, 23.) 28 Achcar, 12.
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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

local Arabs and Jews, were now the sources of more conflict between the ever increasingly paranoid Arabs and Palestinian Jews. The Holocaust effects on immigration to Palestine did not stop once the Allied armies demolished Hitlers regime. The World Zionist Organization had succeeded in creating the State of Israel in 1948 with David Ben-Gurions Declaration of Independence and with a Jewish homeland now visible in the near future, the WZO pushed for more Jews to move to Palestine to support Israel. Post-Holocaust movement of Jews to Palestine exceeded the numbers predicted. The foundation of the State of Israel directly served that end; two hundred thousand Holocaust survivors settled there in the year following its creation29. These immigrants would have an even greater influence on the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict than the world believed because over a third of the Jewish soldiers who served in the Israeli military fighting against the Arab League and Palestinians during the 1948 Conflict were Holocaust survivors30. The Arab-Israeli Conflicts are a long-standing area of academic, religious, and political interest. The 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict, or War of Independence was the first major eruption of violence between the Arabs of Palestine and the Jews wishing to form their own state of Israel. The Zionist movement, an organization of Jewish people and Jewish sympathizers, greatly influenced the outbreak and outcome of the 1948 ArabIsraeli Conflict. The Zionist movement began in the late nineteenth century and throughout its years of existence has gained great renown and influence across the globe. Had the
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Achcar, 20-21. Achcar, 19.

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

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Zionist movement not been formally and officially organized under the World Zionist Organization, and the WZO had not sought after a homeland for Jews in Palestine, it is highly likely that the 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict would never have occurred. Word Count: 2,722

Works Cited Achcar, Gilbert. The Arabs and the Holocaust: the Arab-Israeli War of Narratives. New York: Metropolitan, 2010. Print. Freedman, Robert O., ed. World Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. New York: Pergamon Press, 1979. Questia. Web. 8 November 2012. Gilbert, Martin. In Ishmael's House: a History of Jews in Muslim Lands. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2010. Print. Reich, Bernard, ed. Arab-Israeli Conflict and Conciliation : A Documentary History /. New York: Greenwood Press, 1995. Questia. Web. 7 November 2012. Schneer, Jonathan. The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. New York: Random House, 2010. Taylor, Alan R. Prelude to Israel: An Analysis of Zionist Diplomacy, 1897-1947. London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1961. Questia. Web. 7 November 2012. Van Creveld, Martin. The Land of Blood and Honey: The Rise of Modern Israel. New York: Thomas Dunne , St. Martin's, 2010. Print.

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Writing and Rhetoric Research Paper

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Zacher, Mark W. International Conflicts and Collective Security, 1946-1977: The United Nations, Organization of American States, Organization of African Unity, and Arab League. New York: Praeger, 1979. Questia. Web. 7 November 2012.