Raise the Hammer

Thank you for your response to my question, Ryan, clarifying your views on the state of Israel.

It is difficult to see how the creation of the state of Israel could be said to be a crime, since it was endorsed by a majority vote of the United Nations General Assembly in 1947. In fact, as early as 1920, the League of Nations ratified the 1917 Balfour agreement which gave the Jews a homeland consisting of all of Jordan and all of the area west of the Jordan river.

Because of pressure from the Arabs, Britain and the League of Nations took away Jordan in 1922.

One of the main reasons for the creation of the state of Israel was to give the Jews, who had undergone unbelievable suffering for centuries, but especially during the Second World War, a country of their own, as a sanctuary. Even the Soviets apparently agreed: In May 1947 … Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko (to the Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP)) said: “The fact that no Western European State has been able to ensure the defense of the elementary rights of the Jewish people and to safeguard it against the violence of the fascist executioners explains the aspirations of the Jews to establish their own State. It would be unjust not to take this into consideration and to deny the right of the Jewish people to realize this aspiration. “ (United Nations General Assembly, First Special Session, May 14, 1947, UN Document A/PV 77.) The area allotted to the new state was only about 11% of the area originally allocated for a Jewish homeland by the League of Nations in 1922. Approximately 60% of the reduced area was desert. This small area was home to about 600,000 Jews and 350,000 Arabs at the inception of the state of Israel. In 2007 this has grown to 5,415,000 and 1,425,000 respectively. These figures do not support a claim of ethnic cleansing. The Arab population would have been much higher, in fact, if more than half a million Arabs had not been induced to leave Israel during the 1948 war of independence by the irresponsible acts of Arab leaders. Instead of accepting the partition plan which included the creation of a separate Arab state co-existing with Israel, these leaders decided to destroy Israel at its birth. After the proclamation of the new state, five Arab countries attacked Israel. Jordan captured Judea and Samaria, which it renamed the West bank. This area was illegally annexed by Jordan in 1950, (only Great Britain and Pakistan formally recognized the takeover) but was recaptured by Israel during the Six Day War in 1967. Israelis were once again in control of an area allocated to them by the international community 47 years before.