The Partition of Mandatory Palestine

November 29, 1947

November 29, 1947 is a very important date in Jewish history. Nevertheless, it is generally ignored because it is forgotten or unknown. We remember May 14, 1948, the day on which Israel declared its independence, as well we should. Yet, November 29, 1947 was at that time regarded as the greatest day in Jewish history since the destruction of the Temple in Yerushalayim by the Romans in 70 C.E.

1877 years had passed when on that day the United Nations voted to partition the so-called Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. This was the second partition of Israel. That meant that after all the years of Jewish exile from Eretz Yisrael there was now once more another independent Jewish state legitimized by the majority vote of 33 members of the UN. Thirteen countries voted against the partition and 10 abstained. There were then only 56 members in the U.N.

When we hear the name of the U.N. today we Jews shudder with disgust at that gang of anti-Jewish haters. Founded in San Francisco on October 24, 1945, it had been hoped that this newer version of the old League of Nations would prevent the horrors imposed on the world by the Nazi haters and that even we Jews, the smallest minority among the peoples of the earth, could find some measure of justice among the nations of the world after one third of the Jewish people had been brutally slaughtered by the European killers.

Yet, today, we know that the United Nations is the direct successor of all those haters of the Jewish people from Rome to Medieval Europe, from the Spanish Inquisition to Nazi Germany. No better proof of that allegation is needed than the so-called “anti-racism” conference called by the U.N. on August 31, '01 at Durban, South Africa. That conference descended into a second Wannsee conference. Wannsee is a suburb of Berlin where the Nazi bosses decided in 1942 to kill all the Jews in Europe. Durban followed that tradition. The Arabs and their Moslem and European friends engaged in shouts of “kill the Jews” as they distributed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other Nazi hate literature. The U.S. delegation and the Israeli delegation walked out even as the haters voted for the destruction of Israel and the murder of the Jews of the world.

Yet, in 1947, the U.N. consisted mainly of European and South American countries. All of these, except England and Greece, voted for partition, thereby acknowledging in a backhanded way the right of the Jewish people to at least part of their homeland.

England abstained. The English had ruled Israel since 1918 when the Turkish or Ottoman Empire lost the 1^st World War alongside Germany and Austria. The Turks had ruled in Israel for 465 years, ever since they destroyed the Byzantine Empire by overrunning Constantinople in 1453. If you have been in Yerushalayim you have seen the wall surrounding the Old City. That wall was built by the Turkish ruler Suleiman in the 16^th century.

Prior to that time Christians governed in Israel and before that the Romans had called the land Palestina or the Land of the Philistines, a people who were no more, not even in Roman days. In short, there was never an independent Arab country called Palestine, nor are the Arabs living in Israel now Palestinians. They are immigrants into Israel who came there, as did the Egyptian Yasser Arafat, to take advantage of Jewish investment, Jewish ingenuity and the fruits of Jewish blood and sweat.

The English had been given a mandate by the League of Nations to govern Israel as a trusteeship. During the First World War, in 1917, the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, issued the famous Balfour Declaration. Balfour had begun his political career at a time when Benjamin Disraeli was prime minister of England, i.e. in 1878. He had at one time been prime minister himself. Now his declaration consisted of a letter written to Lord Rothschild. This declaration said this: “His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object,” etc. In short, the British promised the Jewish People the establishment of an independent home in their mandate.  Yet, in 1921, only two years after the British had become the rulers of almost the whole Middle East, the British government partitioned Israel for the first time. I said before that the partition of 1947 was the second partition of Israel. That is so because in 1921 the British Colonial Office, under Winston Churchill, invited the Bedouin leader Abdullah of the Hashemite family to become king of so-called Trans-Jordan, or Jordan, as it is called today. The British wanted to make sure that no Jews would cultivate the land east of the Jordan river. This partition means that 76% of Israel was given to the Arabs who now call themselves Jordanians.

Now the 1947 partition gave Israel only 56% of the land west of the Jordan. The Arabs screamed that they were given only 44%, ignoring of course that they already possessed all of Jordan.

The British remained in Israel until May 14, 1948 when Israel declared its independence with the famous Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. That day 6 Arab countries, armed by the British, invaded Israel with the purpose of killing the remnants of the Jewish people whom Hitler had not slaughtered.

The leader of that gang was Haj Amin al Husseini, the Nazi Arab who had spent the second World War in Berlin with Hitler. Husseini's nephew, Mohammed Yasser Abdul Raouf Qudwas al-Husseini, now known as Yasser Arafat, has followed in his uncle's footsteps. Seeking to emulate Hitler, he has sworn to destroy Israel and “kill the Jews.”

Today, thanks to our country, Israel is militarily too powerful to be destroyed. The European haters, once more engaged in the persecution of their Jewish population, would love nothing more than the elimination of Israel and all Jews from the face of the earth. Yet, we have friends. We ourselves are only 1.8% of the American population and would normally have little influence on the policies of our great country. There are however, 60 million Christian Zionists in America. These people have direct access to the current president. No doubt he is our friend. Yet, nothing impresses a politician more than the number of votes he can gain in the next election. Here we have 60 million Christian fundamentalists who support Israel for whatever reason. Without that support Israel would be alone in the world. With that support our government upholds the right of Israel to live and to flourish. Therefore we too must support those who support us. We need to keep that in mind next year. As you know, all candidates for the presidency are not our friends. For example, Howard Dean not only supports the aspirations of his friend Arafat, he even demands that the Jews withdraw from the Borsht Belt, which he says should be returned to the Algonquin Indians. Chief Yasser Screaming Hawk, Chairman of the Algonquin Liberation Organization, praised Dean’s remarks and denied any responsibility for the scalping of the Friedman bas mitzvah party last night.

Meanwhile, our friends the Germans are converting Lutherans and Catholics to Judaism because the serious shortage of Jews in Germany makes it currently impossible to blame the Jews for German unemployment.

Of course, we Jews are optimists. We know that history teaches us that despite all difficulties and all the horrors of the past we have survived and will always survive. Now and for all the days to come, Bimhayro v’yomeinoo, now and forever.

Shalom u’vracha.

Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including Grandparents:  A New Look at the Supporting Generation (with Dr. Ursula A., Falk, 2002), & Man's Ascent to Reason (2002).

[ Home ] [ Up ]