Middle East #4: The Formation of Israel

With World War II over, Charles de Gaulle was determined to prove that France was still a “great power”, writes James Barr in A Line in the Sand. One step in that effort was to deny Syria independence or greater autonomy – France wasn’t so weak that it would have to give up its colonies. As a betrayed Syrian populace revolted, France tried to put down them down brutally.

 

Britain was in a bind – they weren’t keen to stay on in most of the Middle East, but they’d look weak if they gave independence while the French held on to their colonies. But military action against France in Syria wasn’t practical – the US and USSR were openly anti-imperialism; and Britain, like all of Europe, needed American money to rebuild after the war’s destruction. So they covertly supported Syrian rebels, who eventually managed to evict France from Syria.

 

A furious and humiliated France wanted revenge – they decided to go pro-Zionist. Hurting the British in Palestine was now official French policy. Another reason for France’s pro-Zionist stance was that a Jewish victory in Palestine would show the growing Arab League in poor light. And a weakened Arab League was critical for France – else, the wave of independence movements might spread to French colonies in north Africa.

 

At the same time, more and more of the displaced Jews from across Europe increasingly felt that they couldn’t ever be safe in Europe. If Palestine was an option, why not go there? The Zionists and the Jews of Palestine actively encouraged this trend. Even better, from the Zionists’ perspective, many of the refugees hated Europeans – they were willing to kill anyone who prevented Jews from going to Palestine. Most European leaders felt it was “morally and politically indefensible to impose obstacles” on Jews wanting to go to Palestine, after the horrors of the concentration camps were out in the open.

 

But of course, this was unacceptable to the British who controlled Palestine. They didn’t want to aggravate the Arabs, and they definitely needed a friendly regime in Palestine to keep the Suez secure. Jewish terrorist gangs arose in response all over Palestine – their target were both the Arabs and the British. Even as the British tried to retaliate, support in the US for Jews began to increase, and Britain was soon getting squeezed by the Americans to let more Jews into Palestine. Where did the Jewish terrorists get their weapons? From whoever would sell them, and the French were willing to look the other way wrt any weapons being routed through France. Anything to spite the British.

 

British efforts to prevent shiploads of Jews from disembarking in Palestine became a publicity nightmare, as you might imagine. Eventually, Britain decided to give in, calling for a partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab regions. Once that happened, the state of Israel was announced, and the US immediately recognized it. A benefit of this was that arms sales to Jews/Israel was now legal (yes, France would be the biggest arms supplier), something the Jews used to ensure the Arabs were chased/killed out of the region.

 

A long tale indeed, with double-crosses abounding, and everyone stabbing everyone else in the back. Since it all started with the dismantling of the fraying Ottoman empire and culminated with the beginning of the end of the British empire, Barr rightly says:

“(The whole Middle East mess is) a thirty-year long last gasp of empire that aggravated the conflict that remains unsolved today.”