Monday, September 09, 2019

I Was Asked About the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence

I never like to leave things open-ended, especially when asked a question. 

About a week ago, as I was attempting to provide some historical backdrop to the curent Arab Palestinian narrative, which one of their academics confirmed, I was asked, a bit out of the bue, about the McMahon-Hussein correspondence 



and the intentions of the British early on.

I say "out-of-the-blue" because not only is it quite a convoluted and complex matter but it is one of those items that old-time Arab propagandists trot out to try to fool an uninfrmed audience.

The best study, I think, of the affair is that of Elie Kedourie, here.

Basically, as George Antonius has written, did Great Britain break faith with the Arabs and 'steal' Palestine away from them?

I, therefore, sent off the following material in hopes that the questioner would receive the material that I could not provide on the spot.

1.

The British intended from the start that the Jews should be able to reconstitute their historic national home:

"It is none the less a historical fact that in drawing up the Balfour Declaration, Mr. Balfour did have a future Jewish State in Palestine definitely in mind. That fact is well known to those who were in touch with Mr. Balfour at the time. It was also made public by Mr. Lloyd George himself, who was Prime Minister at the time and who, in the evidence he gave before the Palestine Royal Commission, spoke as follows:


"The idea was, and this was the interpretation put upon it at the time, that a Jewish State was not to be set up immediately by the Peace Treaty without reference to the wishes of the. majority of the inhabitants. On the other hand, it was contemplated that when the time arrived for according representative institutions to Palestine, if the Jews had meanwhile responded to the opportunity afforded them by the idea of a national home and had become a definite majority of the inhabitants, then Palestine would thus become a Jewish Commonwealth."*

* From the Report of the Palestine Royal Commission, Cmd. 5479, 1939, Chapter II, paragraph 20 found in the the Lord Chancellor's Staement on February 24, 1939

2. 

From a speech of Lord Milner in the House of Lords on the 27th June, 1923: —


"I am a strong supporter of pro-Arab policy. ... I believe in the independence of the Arab countries. ... I look forward to an Arab Federation. ..., But Palestine can never be regarded as a country on the same footing as the other Arab countries. You cannot ignore all history and tradition in the matter. You cannot ignore the fact that this is the cradle of two of the great religions of the world. It is a sacred land to the Arabs, but it is also a sacred land to the Jew and the Christian, and the future of Palestine cannot possibly be left to be determined by the temporary impressions and feelings of the Arab majority in the country of the present day."

3.

The following are the terms of the message which Commander Hogarth was instructed to deliver to King Husain when he visited Jedda in January, 1918:
"(3) Since the Jewish opinion of the world is in favour of a return of Jews to Palestine and inasmuch as this opinion must remain a constant factor, and further as His Majesty's Government view with favour the realisation of this aspiration, His Majesty's Government are determined that in so far as is compatible with the freedom of the existing population both economic and political, no obstacle should be put in the way of the realisation of this ideal.
4.

Whatever the exact geographical definition, what is undisputed is that there existed a British intention, as indicated in this section of the correspondence:

"The two districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and should be excluded from the limits demanded." 
that a territory was to be excluded from the area of an Arab state. That area was Palestine. Moreover, there is also the British undertaking that the holy places need be safeguarded and that would not have been necessary if Palestine was not part of the area to be separated from the future Arab state.

5.

Last, in this context, it is obvious from the January 1919 Feisal-Weizmann Agreement that the intention that there would be a Jewish state in Palestine, separate from an Arab state, as for example, in Article II:

"Immediately following the completion of the deliberations of the Peace Conference, the definite boundaries between the Arab State and Palestine shall be determined by a Commission to be agreed upon by the parties hereto."

Taken all together, the above unreservedly indicate there was to be a Jewish national homeland developed under British tutelage in a territory separate from the area that was to become an Arab state.

^

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another point that is often neglected is that, however you interpret the promises exchanged in the McMahon-Hussein correspondence, a very convincing case can be made that the Arabs failed to live up to their side of the bargain during the war. The adventures of Lawrence if Arabia, in print and movie forms, greatly exaggerate the Arab contribution. This point, though, seems to me to be a condition precedent to your analysis.

And, it should go without saying that but for the Sykes-Picot agreement, which Arab partisans roundly denounce as imperialism (without recognizing the irony that their goal was to re-constitute the imperial Arab possessions of the Ottoman Middle East to the detriment of every one of the region's conquered indigenous groups, the Jewish people being among them) and the US intervention in favor of Mandates not colonies, who knows what the post-War settlement would have looked like.

Mr. Cohen said...

Mr. Ali Adi [an Arab who lives in Israel] said:

If you ask any one of them [Arabs] during a casual conversation, even the biggest hater of Israel will tell you honestly that they prefer a conflict with Jews to a conflict with other Arabs, which would naturally result in brutal, unchecked bloodshed.

The Arab citizens of Israel will admit that they prefer the Israeli government to an Arab one, even if from their comfortable positions at Israeli universities they prefer to call it “the occupation.”

SOURCES:
I Embrace My Israeli Arab Identity
by Ali Adi 2019 September 1
www.israelhayom.com/opinions/i-embrace-my-arab-israeli-identity/
www.jns.org/opinion/i-embrace-my-israeli-arab-identity/
www.algemeiner.com/2019/09/02/i-embrace-my-israeli-arab-identity/

Mr. Cohen said...

Mr. Ali Adi [an Arab who lives in Israel] said:

“The truth, which the entire Arab world already acknowledges, that the Israeli army is the more humane and considerate than the Arab armies, fills me with pride.”

SOURCES:
I Embrace My Israeli Arab Identity by Ali Adi 2019 September 1
www.israelhayom.com/opinions/i-embrace-my-arab-israeli-identity/
www.jns.org/opinion/i-embrace-my-israeli-arab-identity/
www.algemeiner.com/2019/09/02/i-embrace-my-israeli-arab-identity/

===================================

Lord Ian Livingston of England said:

“Whilst the Israeli Defense Forces are not
perfect, the obsession of focusing on them
despite being the most moral and professional
army in the Middle East is very strange.”

SOURCE: Ten Baroness Tonge
Pilloried at House of Lords Session She Initiated
on Israel’s Treatment of Palestinian Children

by Benjamin Kerstein, 2019 July 8, The Algemeiner
www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/08/itiated-on-israels-treatment-of-palestinian-children/

Mr. Cohen said...

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PLEASE HELP FIGHT ANTI-ISRAEL MEDIA BIAS:
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www (dot) memri (dot) org

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THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!
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Mr. Cohen said...

Abdul Aziz told Harold Dickson in [year] 1937 [CE]:

“Our hatred for the Jews, dates from God’s condemnation of them for their persecution and rejection of ‘Isa [Jesus Christ] and their subsequent rejection later of His chosen Prophet [Muhammad]...

“Verily the word of God teaches us – and we implicitly believe this O Dickson – that for a Muslim to kill a Jew [in war], or for him to be killed by a Jew, ensures him immediate entry in Heaven and into the august presence of God Almighty.”

Abdul Aziz made this statement to [Harold] Dickson as part of his protest at the Peel Report, Britain’s 1937 plan to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab areas, thereby granting the Zionists the basis for the independent state that they dreamed of...”

SOURCE: The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud
(chapter 29, page 259) by Robert Lacey, published in year 1981 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, ISBN-10: 0006365094 * ISBN-13: 978-0006365099

MICROBIOGRAPHY FROM WIKIPEDIA:
“Robert Lacey (born 3 January 1944) is a British historian and biographer.
He is the author of a number of bestselling biographies, including those of Henry Ford, Eileen Ford and Queen Elizabeth II, as well as works of popular history.”

===================================
Robert Lacey said:

“Arabians are conspiracy theorists, and not afraid to admit it. Just as they believe in an active power for good intervening daily in their lives, so they believe that evil and the powers of darkness are manifest here on earth. A Westerner takes the credit for his own successes and blames himself for his failures. And Arabian thanks God for the good and blames the bad on evil influences beyond his control. It makes for a guilt-free existence. It also makes for deep suspicions, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the Arab attitude towards the Jews.”

SOURCE: The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud
(chapter 41, page 386) by Robert Lacey, published in 1981 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, ISBN-10: 0006365094 ISBN-13: 978-0006365099

===================================
Robert Lacey said:

The world was horrified, but King Faisal was more disturbed by the civil war in Jordan to which the Palestinians’ defiant display of lawlessness led.

“Black September” 1970 saw King Hussein fighting to recapture his own kingdom from Yassir Arafat, and, though King Hussein won, this was at the expense of the Lebanon, where [Yassir] Arafat and his guerillas moved on, soon to provoke the civil war which has brought ruin to that hitherto prosperous country.

SOURCE: The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud
(chapter 41, page 392) by Robert Lacey, published in 1981 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, ISBN-10: 0006365094 ISBN-13: 978-0006365099

Mr. Cohen said...

Robert Lacey said:

“[USA] President [Jimmy] Carter added insult to injury.

No Arab leader he had ever met, he declared, actually wanted to see the creation of a truly independent Palestinian state…”

SOURCE: The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud
(chapter 47, page 454) by Robert Lacey, published in 1981 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, ISBN-10: 0006365094 ISBN-13: 978-0006365099

MICROBIOGRAPHY FROM WIKIPEDIA:
“Robert Lacey (born 3 January 1944) is a British historian and biographer.
He is the author of a number of bestselling biographies, including those of Henry Ford, Eileen Ford and Queen Elizabeth II, as well as works of popular history.”

===================================

Robert Lacey said:

“Of course,” says one Saudi prince, “if God granted us a wish,
we would like the Palestinians to vanish off the face of the earth.

We know that they are only nice to us because they want our money.

They are dangerous men with Marxist tendencies.

But their disappearance would be a second wish.

The first wish is the disappearance of Israel.”

SOURCE: The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud
(chapter 47, page 455) by Robert Lacey, published in 1981 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, ISBN-10: 0006365094 ISBN-13: 978-0006365099

Mr. Cohen said...

Daniel Patrick Moynihan said this 1982 June 18
at a rally at the United Nations:


“Much of the world has chosen to view
Israel’s actions in Lebanon through
the prism of selective morality.

Many were silent when Syrian troops and
armed radical bands occupied the country.

They were silent when Syrian missiles were placed in Lebanon.

They were silent when death and destruction rained down on Israeli settlements.

They were even silent when they Syrian regime destroyed one of its own cities in response to entrenched political and religious opposition.”

“But the world finds its collective voice when Israel sets out to liberate Lebanon from those who would use her as a pawn in their political machinations; and let us never forget that the introduction of foreign troops in Lebanon would never have been possible without the provision of weapons by the Soviet Union.”

SOURCE:
Americans for Undivided Israel USA,
George Topas, co-chairman

===================================

This quote is from
The Abandonment of the Jews
by David S. Wyman:


Popular concern for Europe’s Jews could not develop without wide-spread knowledge of what was happening to them. But the information gap, though extremely important, was not the only limiting factor.

Strong currents of anti-Semitism and nativism in American society also diminished the possibilities for a sympathetic response.

A quieter, more prevalent prejudice, a “passive anti-Semitism,” was another major barrier to the growth of concern.

It was reflected in opinion surveys taken by the [USA] Office of War Information.

They showed that the impact of atrocity
information on the average American was
SEVEN TIMES STRONGER
when it involved atrocities-in-general,
than when it referred specifically
to atrocities against Jews.

SOURCE:
The Abandonment of the Jews:
America and the Holocaust 1941-1945

(chapter 16, page 327) by David S. Wyman,
year 1984 CE, Pantheon Books, New York,
ISBN: 9780394428130, 0394428137, 9780394740775, 0394740777.

Anonymous said...

Last, in this context, it is obvious from the January 1919 Feisal-Weizmann Agreement that the intention that there would be a Jewish state in Palestine, separate from an Arab state,

....


Where does it say Palestine will be a Jewish state as opposed to a Jewish homeland ?