Friday, August 19, 2016

Koestler as a Freak Oddity

In his "Promise and Fulfillment", Arthur Koestler, former Revisionist Zionist, former Communist and almost former Jew wrote:

The appearance of the freak-movement of Zionism on the political scene was bound to produce a series of freak-reactions. It culminated in the famous Balfour Declaration, one of the most mprobable political documents of all time. In this document one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third. 

Let's sort this out.

While the Balfour Declaration was a one-nation promise, it was discussed at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference attended by many nations.  It was also the basis of the Weizmann-Faisal Agreement.

It was then adopted at the San Remo Conference in April 1920.  And in July 1922, 55 nations agreed to include the Declaration's text in their decision to award Great Britain the mandate over Palestine.

To compare nations, as if the Jewish history and connection to the Land of Israel is equal to that of a community of Arabs - and note: "Arabs" was never in those decisions, only "non-Jews", and for a very good reason -,  is insulting in addition to be totally in error.

The "country" was only that of the Arabs living in it by force of armed invasion, conquest and occupation and underwent the rule of Muslim Arabs (Ommayads, Abbasids, etc.), then Crusaders, then Mamelukes, then Ottomans.  Never did the Arabs establish a separate identifiable polity in the Land of Israel. 

Freak?

Koestler is the oddity here.

^

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