Can the British Take Palestine Back? (3 July 2017, 9 Tammuz, 5777)
Quora Question:
Why can't the British government revoke their ancestors' grave mistake of giving Palestine as a gift to the Jews in the diaspora as a gift of return?
Reply:
The Straightforward Facts are that:
At the strictly technical level:
The British did not give Palestine as a gift to the Jews.
They closed the shop, handed over the keys, and left.
The Arabs and Jews then fought it out and the Arabs ran away.
Since we have made that point clear we may now philosophize a little.
The Jewish Religion obligates a Jew to live in the Land of Israel and to develop the settlement of other Jews there..
He is also obliged to make himself independent in government of non-Jews.
Putting the two together you get Zionism.
Of course there exist all kinds of conditions, reservations, modifying factors, etc, on the above.
Nevertheless in broad terms that is what there is.
In Britain for centuries there had existed the Restoration Movement.
These were non-Jews who wanted the Jews to return to their land.
They were visionaries, eccentrics, statesmen, churchmen, soldiers, writers, etc.
The Restoration Movement counted people from all walks of life in its ranks.
Members of the Thinking Elite however were always dominant.
See:
"The Vision Was There. A History of the British Movement for the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine" by Franz Kobler, 1956, London
http://www.britam.org/vision/koblercontents.html
[This otherwise at present unavailable work is now available for free downloading at the above URL.]
The Restoration Movement reflected a need of the British soul that needed to be answered.
It obligated the British to do what could be done in setting up a Jewish State in Palestine.
Once done there was no turning back.
Not only Britian but other nations also produced thinkers who through along the same lines.
These included George Bush, a cousin of an ancestor of Presidents Bush, who in 1844 wrote a work on the subject.
Nevertheless in Britain the Movement most made its mark.
Before World War 1 the Middle East and Palestine were ruled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
The British had effective control of Egypt and the Suez Canal with its passageway to India.
The Ottoman Empire joined forces with Germany and Austro-Hungary to fight against the British and their Empire, the French, Americans, and Italians.
In 1917 the Balfour Declaration spoke of establishing an independent Jewish State in Palestine.
At the insistence of assimilationist British Jews a clause was added that spoke of the right of the indigenous non-Jewish population.
The League of Nations gave Britain a Mandate over the area based on the principles of the Balfour Declaration.
The British helped the Jews develop the land. Jewish settlers arrived from all over the world.
Many Muslims also came attracted by the opportunities for work and increased prosperity.
World War-2 increased the flow of Jewish settlers as well as creating a problem of Displaced Persons in camps in Europe.
Fiction between the Jews, Arabs, and British developed.
The British left.
The War of Independence in 1948 was followed by establishment of the State of Israel.
The United Nations held a vote and recognized Israel.
The British did not therefore give Palestine to the Jews.
They did prepare the land and help the Jews prepare themselves to take it.
[At the last moment there those among them who attempted to renege on their former undertaking. This however is a separate matter.]
The British were in effect fulfilling an internal obligation of their own and returning lost property to its rightful owners.
Once one returns a lost object to its rightful possessor there can be no further claim over it.
So too, the Jews had gone into Exile for 3000 or 2000 (depending on when one begins the count) years.
They had been subject to the whims of their host nations.
The Holocaust ended whatever obligations may have existed.
The votes of the League of Nations in 1920 and the UN in 1948 represented the peoples of the World formally recognizing a freeing of the Jews in case any obligation still remained.
This is analogous to the manumission of a slave.
Once a slave has been freed he is on the same footing as his former master.
There can be no return.
Micah 4 (NASB):
11 And now many nations have been assembled against you
Who say, 'Let her be polluted,
And let our eyes gloat over Zion.'
12 'But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD,
And they do not understand His purpose;
For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 'Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion,
For your horn I will make iron
And your hoofs I will make bronze,
That you may pulverize many peoples,
That you may devote to the LORD their unjust gain
And their wealth to the LORD of all the earth.
In the same way as when the Hebrews came out of Egypt Pharaoh had no right to attempt to bring them back, so too in this case.
Too many non-Jews speak, write, and act as if the Jews in Israel owe them something.
If anything is owed it would be an obligation on the better elements among the Gentiles to find an alternate place of lodging for the Arabs and to help them re-acclimatize there.'