The Pankian Metaphor 3169

Britain sold the right to settle in Palestine to the Zionists through the Balfour declaration around 1917. There had been a significant population of Jews there for generations, principally AFAIK, in Hebron, as there was in the Arab world generally. At the same time, Laurance promised the Arab chieftins `self-determination' after the war if they revolted against the Turks.. After the war, the British and French divided the area between themselves, Palestine and Iraq to Britain, Syria and Southern Turkey to France. The British allowed the Zionists to settle in Palestine, and the Zionists started to buy up land through intermediaries, to disguise who was actually buying it. Even by 1948, this amount of land was insignificant, and was widely divided so it was really undefendable. There had been considerable resentment among the Arab population between 1920 and 1948 at the eviction of Arabs from the land that the Zionists had bought, and this caused the formation of defence groups in both Arab and Zionist populations. In 1948 and during the period immediatly, there was an attempt to terrorise the British to leave, which they did, and during the following period most of the Arabs living among the Zionist settlements were terrorised into fleeing to areas where they could be protected by armies from the surrounding Arab countries, which is the present Gaza and West Bank. The methods used can be found by googling for `Deir Ybuttin', if you have a strong stomach. (The monster responsible for organizing that was elected Prime Minister of Israel later, and justified it by claiming "We had to show the Arabs we were serious" or similar words).. In the six day war, the Israelis took over the West bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights (source of much of the water supplies for the area), among other areas, and have held onto them in defiance of United Nations calls to return them to the original owners, except in the case of Gaza recently.

-- greymaus Just Another Grumpy Old Man