Daily Times

Jews were discriminated against in the West for the longest time. Violent anti Semitic riots periodically occurred throughout Europe and Russia for centuries. Jews were blamed for a great number of things, including the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

This anti-Semetic sentiment, eventually lead to the holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of six million European Jews. In an attempt to save their own lives, many European Jews fled their countries to seek refuge in allied countries, including the US. Many of them were met with hostility and racism in their new homelands as well.

The old Zionist demand for a Jewish homeland gained greater momentum against the backdrop of WW-II. As many Jews did not feel welcome in allied European countries and in the United States, the creation of the new state of Israel in what was considered the old Jewish ‘homeland’ was supported.

In other words, the victorious allied powers decided to rid themselves of their old ‘burden’, and pass it on to Palestine. Indeed, when allowed to live freely, the European Jews were among the most integrated people in their respective countries.

The plight of German Jews during the Third Reich was recreated vividly in a novel I read the other day about the rise of Hitler. The lead character in the novella, titled Reunion, recreates how Jews in the country, like his father, strongly asserted their German character and identity. The narrator writes about his father: “I still remember a violent discussion between my father and a Zionist who had come to collect money for Israel. My father abhorred Zionism. The whole idea seemed to him stark mad. To claim Palestine after two thousand years made no more sense to him than the Italians claiming Germany because it was once occupied by the Romans.”

He goes on, “It could only lead to endless bloodshed and the Jews would have to fight the whole Arab world. And anyway what had he, a Stuttgarter (in Germany), to do with Jerusalem.” Such authentic German identity didn’t save the Jews from Nazi mass murder.

The celebrated American novelist Philip Roth, in his novel, The Plot Against America, builds a powerful narrative which illustrates the horror experienced by American Jews when Franklin Roosevelt losing presidency (fictionally) in 1940 to an isolationist, anti-Jew contender who blamed the Jews for pushing America towards a pointless war with Nazi Germany. The anti-Jew sentiment in the US is shown in great detail in this fictional account, highlighting that in different circumstances, the US might have been just as bad as Nazi Germany.

The point of it all this is that with such anti-Jewish sentiment at home, Europe and the United States didn’t want more Jews in their midst displaced and uprooted during WW-II. And they grabbed the idea of settling them all in the Jewish concept of their ancient homeland of Palestine with Jerusalem as their perpetual capital; without any reference and consultation with the Palestinian people who will be displaced to create a homeland for the Jews.

The Arab world has continued to formally support the Palestinian cause, but because of divisions in its own ranks, support to Palestine has lacked real substance

It is true that the new state of Israel first faced the wrath of the Arab world, but with the US and the Europe behind the new state, the Arab world had no chance. The 1967 six-days war turned the tide decidedly against Palestine, with Israel helping itself to the spoils of the war to further expand its territory and build more settlements in captured Palestinian land. The subsequent Camp David agreement in the late seventies between Egypt and Israel irrevocably divided the Arab world, with Jordan making its own separate peace with Israel. The Arab world has continued to formally support the Palestinian cause, but because of divisions in its own ranks, support to Palestine has lacked real substance.

The Trump administration’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has made this all the more evident. Once again, at a formal level, the Arab world has supported the Palestinian cause. Because of their dependence on the US for their geopolitical goals (particularly their rivalry with Tehran), Saudi Arabia and Egypt remained in the Israeli camp. Indeed, there is now an informal strategic convergence between Saudi Arabia and Israel against Iran, which is regarded as the bigger strategic threat in the region and seems to override any other regional issue, including the future of Palestine.

The Trump administration, in the meantime, has followed up their declaration of recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’ capital, with cutting off financial aid to the Palestinian regime to force them into conducting ‘peace talks’ with Israel on what is left of Palestine. Indeed, during his recent visit to Israel, the US vice-president announced with great fanfare that the US embassy would be shifted from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem quite soon. And all this is happening even as all the relevant international conventions and agreements continue to declare the Israeli land grab as illegal. It seems we now live in an Orwellian world where ‘peace’ has come to mean occupation and dispossession.

The writer is a senior journalist and academic based in Sydney. He can be reached at sushilpseth@yahoo.co.au

Published in Daily Times, January 28^th 2018.