• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: The Creation of Israel

Israel & the Growth of Nationalism

07 Saturday Jan 2017

Posted by michelinewalker in Exile, Israel, Palestine, The Middle East

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Bar Kokhba revolt, Emperor Hadrian, Exile, Harry S. Truman, Jewish-Roman Wars, Mandatory Palestine, The Creation of Israel, The Middle East

1024px-arch_of_titus_menorah

Jewish-Roman Wars

Palestine

Philistines settled in Palestine in the 12th century BCE, which confirms that Palestine had long been a nation (see Palestine, Britannica). After the three Jewish-Roman Wars, fought between 66 CE and 136 CE, Palestine was renamed Syria Palaestina by Roman Emperor Hadrian (24 January 76 – 10 July 138) after he crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-136, thus named after Simon bar Kokhba (d. 135). The Bar Kokhba revolt is the third of three Jewish-Roman wars, but it is sometimes called the second, the Kitos War being omitted.

  • First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) 
  • Kitos War (115–117 CE)
  • Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136 CE)

Emperor Hadrian renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina, and Jews could no longer enter the city.

800px-thumbnail

Expulsion of the Jews during the Reign of Hadrian

Nationalism

The concept of nationalism was not new to the 19th century. Traits and circumstances shared by a number of individuals such as language, religion, foklore, location, not to mention climate, lead to nationhood. We owe the théorie des climats (the climate theory) to Montesquieu as well as Madame de Staël, the author of De l’Allemagne (1810-1813).  

The Growth of Nationalism

  • the Congress of Vienna, 1815
  • the attrition of the Ottoman Empire
  • balkanization

Although nationalism was not born in the 19th century, the 19th century is nevertheless associated with an unprecedented surge in nationalism.

The Congress of Vienna, held in 1815, but suspended when Napoleon returned from Elba, the Hundred Days, les Cent-Jours, was one of nationalism’s first 19th-century location. France returned land conquered by Napoleon and Prussia returned Alsace-Lorraine to France. However, nations represented at the Congress of Vienna, France, England, Prussia, and Russia, quite shamelessly rearranged Europe. During the 19th century, European countries conquered by the Ottomans, as of 1453, fought wars of independence leading to the attrition of the Ottoman Empire. Also to be taken into account is the balkanization of several states. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, fragmented countries in Eastern Europe were victims of genocidal ethnic cleansing. The term balkanization was coined at the end of World War I.

Zionism

Zionism also grew out of 19th-century nationalism. Its founder was Theodor Herzl (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904). Zionists dreamed of a land of Israel which it lost beginning in the 8th century BCE. The exile was completed in 135 CE, when Roman Emperor Hadrian had the Bar Kokhba revolt crushed. Israeli nationalism seems to be developing into a state and faith nationalism.

The Balfour Declaration

At the time Jewish scientist Chaim Weizmann (27 November 1874  – 9 November 1952) was negotiating the Balfour Declaration (1917), he said the following:

“Mr. Balfour, supposing I was to offer you Paris instead of London, would you take it?” He sat up, looked at me, and answered: “But Dr. Weizmann, we have London.” “That is true,” I said, “but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh.” He … said two things which I remember vividly. The first was: “Are there many Jews who think like you?” I answered: “I believe I speak the mind of millions of Jews whom you will never see and who cannot speak for themselves.”… To this he said: “If that is so you will one day be a force.”[1]

The Balfour Declaration, a letter dated 2 November 1917 from Foreign Secretary James Arthur Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, did not reflect Zionist objectives:

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. (See Balfour Declaration, Wikipedia.)

Chaim Weizmann‘s statement is misleading. Yes, the Jews had Jerusalem a very long time ago, but they had lost their land and had been exiled. As noted above, this process had begun in the 8th century BCE and was complete as of 135 CE, when the Third Roman-Jewish War was fought under Roman Emperor Hadrian. Although several Jews remained in the newly created Syria Palaestina, most left. Assyrians, a Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and an independent state since the 25th BCE, converted to Christianity “[b]etween the mid-second century BC and late third century AD, a period which also saw Assyria become a major centre of Syriac Christianity and the birthplace of the Church of the East.” (See Assyria, Wikipedia.)

Assyrians, who or many of whom had converted to Christianity, were not exiled. However,  in the 7th century in particular (see Muhammad, Wikipedia), countries from Asia to the Iberian Peninsula were Arabised, a process that continued after Constantinople fell to the Seljuk Turks, in 1453. Ottomans were Muslims and conquered several countries in Eastern Europe that fought wars of independence in the 19th century.

201PH2207b

Philistine captives being led away after their failed invasion of Egypt from a relief (Wermer Forman Archive/Heritage-Images) 

Eschatological Connotations

As for Israel, its land of Israel and the dispersal of Jews, may find a correct description in the Encyclopædia Britannica:

Although the term refers to the physical dispersal of Jews throughout the world, it also carries religious, philosophical, political, and eschatological connotations, inasmuch as the Jews perceive a special relationship between the land of Israel and themselves. Interpretations of this relationship range from the messianic hope of traditional Judaism for the eventual “ingathering of the exiles” to the view of Reform Judaism that the dispersal of the Jews was providentially arranged by God to foster pure monotheism throughout the world.[2]

The people of Quebec can understand the relationship between a people and a land, the pays du Québec. Quebec is a province, not a country. It has a Parti Québécois, consisting of Quebec nationalists, but Quebec has now chosen interculturalism, a form of humanist nationhood rooted in Martha Nussbaum‘s Cultivating Humanity.  

Quebecers’ first homeland was its “literary homeland,” or patrie littéraire, a subject I have researched and pondered. One of my articles is online, in French. It is a reading of Antonine Maillet‘s Pélagie-la-Charrette.[3] Metaphors are taken from the Bible, mainly. I have lectured on this subject at the University of Stuttgart.

The Creation of Israel

In 1948, Palestine was a state. However, it had been part of the Ottoman Empire and was divided by the recently established League of Nations, whose blueprint was the Zykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Mark Sykes, for Britain, and François Georges-Picot , for France, were protecting spheres of influence. Therefore, in 1920, Palestine was not free. From a possession of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine was transformed into a protectorate of Britain. As we have seen, in 1917, under the terms of the Balfour Declaration, Britain supported the creation of a homeland for Israel, but its Israel was in Palestine.

When Israel was created in 1948, statesmen may have hoped Israel would be in Palestine. That would have been the two-state solution, but partitioning Palestine made room for a State of Israel that would expand. The Jews had been the victims of various persecutions culminating in the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust then weighed heavily on a collective conscience, so it may have obscured safer resolutions. United States President Harry S. Truman  had befriended a Zionist and may not have foreseen that the partitioning of Palestine could lead to a lengthy conflict and considerable resistance on the part of Palestinians, not to mention decades of resentment on the part of Arabs.

Moreover, it may not have occurred to President Truman and other statesmen that the creation of Israel was an option rather than an imperative. There were options. Many Jews moved to the United States and to Canada. Moreover, after denazification, survivors of the Holocaust could return to their homes if they wished.  As for the creation of a land of Israel, the means were questionable. Given the objectives of Zionists, the establishment of a “land of Israel,” creating Israel, could not be mere ownership of a part of Palestine. After the diaspora and the Holocaust, the land of Israel had acquired mythical dimensions.

—ooo—

On 23 December 2016, 14 members of the United Nations Security Council voted in favour of condemning Israeli settlements and the 15th member, the United States, did not veto their decision. In his Remarks on the Middle East Peace, Secretary of State John Kerry quoted Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations who stated that the United States had not acted according to “values that we share:”

Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations, who does not support a two-state solution, said after the vote last week, quote, “It was to be expected that Israel’s greatest ally would act in accordance with the values that we share,” and veto this resolution. 

If the figures I published on 3 January 2017 are accurate, the financial support  given Israel is staggering and it may have fostered in Israeli a sense of entitlement allowing it to occupy territory that it wasn’t apportioned in 1948. There is practically nothing left of Palestine.

Truth be told, Israel started encroaching on neighbouring territory almost as soon as it was created, and it has yet to return the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem which it conquered during the Six-Day War, in June 1967.

Conclusion

If the United States provides military aid amounting to more than 10 million dollars a day to Israel, Israel is truly privileged and the statement of its representative to the United Nations: “values we share,” is inappropriate. Israel can no longer settle beyond borders not allotted Israel in 1948. If it does, it will endanger its own safety as well as the safety of the United States. The United States stands to be attacked as it was on 11 September 2001 and its support of Israel may encourage terrorist attacks in Europe. It short, Israel cannot spill out of its borders.

Finally, how can the United States refuse to provide social programs for its citizens if the money it collects from taxpayers, the middle class mainly, is used to support a nation that will not respect Palestinians and consider peace.

The two-state solution cannot forever be kicked down the road, nor can time be wasted on agreements that are not implemented. We cannot rewrite the past, but the future is ours and, more importantly, it is our children’s.

Nationalism is fine, but it does not justify encroachment on a neighbour’s territory.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Nationalism and Genocides
  • On the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire
  • The Zykes-Picot Agreement of 1916
  • The Remains of the Past

Sources and Resources

  • https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel
  • Britannica
  • Wikipedia

____________________

[1] Weizmann, Trial and Error, p.111, as quoted in W. Lacquer, The History of Zionism, 2003, ISBN 978-1-86064-932-5. p.188 (See Balfour Declaration of 1917, Wikipedia).

[2] “Diaspora”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 21 Aug. 2016 or
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Diaspora-Judaism

 [3] Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, « La Patrie littéraire: Errance et Résistance », Francophonies d’Amérique, Numéro 13, été 2002, pp. 47-65.

https://www.erudit.org/revue/fa/2002/v/n13/1005247ar.html?vue=resume
https://www.erudit.org/revue/fa/2002/v/n13/1005247ar.pdf

woman_nakba_dress_jug

Woman in Nakba Dress, fleeing Palestine

© Micheline Walker
7 January 2017
WordPress

45.408871 -71.934201

michelinewalker.com

  • Print
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Telegram

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Remains of the Past

09 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Middle East, Migrant Crisis, Terrorism

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bashar al-Assad, Consequences, Protectorates, The Arab Spring, The Creation of Israel, The Fall of the Ottoman Empire, The War in Iraq, Vladimir Putin in Syria

hb_25_83_6

Composite Camel, Bukhara, Islamic Art, 16c (MMA, NY)

A Scam, I think

I believe it was a scam, but I do not leave my apartment unless it is necessary. It offers safety. I’ve had to go out, but my would-be assassin did not have his “boys” at my “doorsteps.” I believe it was a failed attempt to extort money. But the police took the matter seriously.

The Remains of the Past, 1

I have been thinking about the Middle East and North Africa. A nation should never enter a sovereign country. Nor should one people look upon another people as inferior.

Let us be forgiving, but when President George W. Bush entered Iraq, at the instigation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, he blundered. Iraq is a nation. It may have been a case of ingrained Manifest Destiny (1845), except that expansion was not the motive.

The name was changed for war on Iraq to war on Terror or Terrorism, but the war in Iraq remains an illegal war. The attacks of 9/11, which cost their life to a large number of United States citizens, nearly 3,000 in New York, did not justify invading Iraq and killing an even greater number of people: Iraqis and Americans. I will never forget that American soldiers were prescribed antidepressants so they could carry on.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/george-w-bush-delivers-critique-151600273.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3722711/Iraq-families-hit-150-000-target-sue-Blair-just-two-weeks-5-000-members-public-dip-pockets.html

One can understand that panic may have gripped US President George W Bush. President Bush probably felt that he had “to do something.” Those among us who watched the planes fly into the towers of the World Trade Centre and people jumping to a kinder death were shocked. And then one of the towers imploded. Yet, the attack did not warrant entering Iraq. Capturing Osama bin Laden had to be an intelligence operation and it required the special skills of commandos and the sensitive nose of a Malinois dog. His name was Cairo.

Terrorism & the Syrian Civil War

Matters are complicated. On the one side, peace-loving President Obama now leads a coalition fighting terrorism perpetrated by ISIL, the Islamic State. I hate to see President Obama lead the coalition fighting ISIL. He is an unlikely warrior. However, the US was unable to save Jim Foley’s life and, although Jihadi John‘s next victims were not US citizens, there was motivation to fight ISIL. (See ISIL beheading incidents, Wikipedia.) On 5 August 2016, ISIL captured 3,000 Iraqis.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/05/middleeast/iraq-isis-captives/

The Syrian Civil War is the other side. Russian President Vladimir Putin is supporting President Bashar al-Assad. But it is my understanding that the US supports neither Assad nor the “rebels.” Assad, however, crushed the Arab Spring, revolts intended to liberalize Arab countries and introduce more democratic measures. Before the Arab Spring, Assad seemed unlikely to commit crimes against humanity, but, at the moment, his regime is looked upon as an authoritarian regime. What happened? I view Assad as an enigma.

The Remains of the Past, 2

  • the Ottoman Empire
  • protectorates
  • a refugee crisis (W. W. II)
  • the creation of Israel
  • the Six-Day War

Let us look at the past once again, a past preceding the wars of the 2000s. It may be useful to note that after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, or Turkish Empire, targeted during World War I, protectorates were formed by the League of Nations (the ancestor to the United Nations). Syria and Lebanon were both protectorates of the French. (See French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, Wikipedia.) As for Palestine, it was a protectorate of Britain until the creation of a state of Israel, on 14 May 1948. Palestine was partitioned on 29 November 1947, so a home would be given the Israelis.[1]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/truman-israel/

The partition of Palestine and, a few months later, the creation of Israel were offensive to the Arab world. Moreover, the United States played an important role in granting Zionists their promised land. I believe one can suggest that the partition of Palestine may have tarnished the image of the United States in the Arab world. Ironically, it all began as a refugee crisis. Jews had fled to Israel to escape Hitler’s concentration camps and gas chambers.

At any rate, Jews had been victimized and Britain’s mandate for Palestine was about to expire. Therefore, although the British opposed the partition of Palestine, it had allowed it by virtue of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Britain itself had promised Zionists a home in Palestine. Consequently, Israel was created. US President Harry Truman supported the Balfour Declaration and recognized the State of Israel almost as soon as it was created.

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/israel/large/

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel

The creation of Israel remains a contentious issue. I noted that the United States’ initial support for the creation of Israel may have fuelled division between the Arab world and the United States. Moreover, in 1967, Israel waged its Six-Day War. The Israeli annexed the Golan Heights, two-thirds of which was Palestinian territory and one-third, Syrian territory. The Golan Heights have yet to be returned to Palestine and Syria. Israel’s failure to leave the territories it has occupied since 1967 is considered disrespectful and it constitutes an obstacle to peace. (See Golan Heights, Wikipedia.)

http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000362

Conclusion

The above does not explain why a person claiming to be a member of al-Qaeda would want to kill me and, if the letter is not a scam, I do not know who would hire anyone to deprive me of the rest of my life. My would-be assassin wrote that he had been paid to kill.

However, this post may serve to illustrate that US President George W Bush could not enter Iraq after the attack of 9/11. Mr Blair’s advice was injudicious. I will emphasize however that although the war in Syria is a Civil War, the United States is not involved, other than indirectly. The Syrian Civil War has led to a refugee crisis which affects the United States. The refugees are mainly Muslims and certain politicians seeking office would like to prevent refugees from entering their country. These politicians believe all Muslims are potential terrorists. Generally speaking, this is not the case, but certain refugees are resorting to violence. An asylum seeker has been convicted of killing a Swedish refugee centre worker. Despair can lead to violence and violence breeds violence.

http://www.news24.com/World/News/teen-asylum-seeker-convicted-of-killing-swedish-refugee-centre-worker-20160808

Former Swedish PM: Coup in Turkey would have led to refugee disaster in Europe

A Solution

There is of course a solution to the migrant problem, which is to end the Syrian Civil War. This would be for Bashar al-Assad and other Middle East leaders to do. Assad is President of Syria, but Assad is … an enigma. He has managed to survive for several years, but I now wonder whether or not Assad is a free man. He seems an unlikely tyrant. He signs orders, but he may be compelled to do so. Yet, peace is the only solution and he is the President of Syria.

Bashar al-Assad is an Alawite (Shia) Muslim, but he is married to the daughter of Sunni Muslims. Asma al-Assad was born, raised, and educated in London. Sunni Islam  opposes Shia Islam and both sides are divided into factions. Assad is a Shia Muslim, but I doubt that he is the enemy of Sunni Muslims. Moreover, he is westernised. Bashar al-Assad is a medical doctor who met his wife when he was in London, furthering his studies in ophthalmology. He was recalled to Syria when his brother died in an accident.

As I wrote in an earlier post, it is for Islam to determine its future and I cannot see how the refugee crisis can end if Assad does not help make Syria safe. He seems to be attacking his people. In certain European countries, the impact of the refugee crisis is devastating. It is taking a toll on the EU, the European Union, and desperate people are resorting to violence. This seems to be the case in Sweden where instances of violence have been reported.

The refugee crisis saddens me enormously.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36253000

Sources and Resources

  • Palestine-Israel Journal
  • Partition of Palestine; a Lesson in Pressure is an Internet Archive publication
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
  • Tony Blair has created the Tony Blair Foundation
  • Osama bin Laden, History Channel
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Islamic Art

____________________

[1] Kermit Roosevelt,“Partition of Palestine, a Lesson in Pressure Politics,” The Institute of Arab American Affairs, Pamphlet No 7, 1948. Internet Archive.

It has been a long absence.
Love to everyone. ♥

hb_57_51_27

“Portrait of a Sufi,” Bukhara, Islamic Art,  16c (MMA, NY)

© Micheline Walker
8 August 2016
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

michelinewalker.com

  • Print
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Telegram

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,526 other followers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • La Princesse de Clèves, 7
  • La Princesse de Clèves, 6
  • La Princesse de Clèves, 5
  • Dear Friends,
  • Do not despair …
  • La Princesse de Clèves, 4
  • Chronicling Covid-19, 2021
  • About Marguerite de Navarre
  • Dutch Winter Scenes
  • A Merry Christmas

Archives

Categories

Calendar

January 2021
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Dec    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

A WordPress.com Website.

Cancel
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: