Noggin wrote:Charles L. Cotton wrote:The despicable UN vote condemning Israel's settlements was 14-0 with the U.S. abstaining. Britain voted for the resolution. I'll refrain from further commnent.
Chas.
Hmm! somehow I am not really surprised at this. Historically the UK government has never been as pro Israel as the US. In fact they have always been more friendly with Jordan (the long time King of that country was educated at the same military academy I attended, in addition, one of Egypt's past presidents also had a British military education). It may have been a long time ago but remember when the Brits were in control of that part of the world in was the Zionists who were the terrorists/freedom fighters (depending upon your perspective), remember the King David Hotel bombing. Once the state of Israel was founded the US was quick to recognise it, the UK came along later grudgingly. Some positions among the career mandarins in the UK foreign office are slow to change.
During WWI, the Ottoman Empire was siding with the Germans. Britain was rightfully worried it was going to lose access to the Suez Canal, so it pushed for what became the British Mandate. That gave them control of so-called Palestine as a land bridge. By 1939 when it was obvious that WWII was coming, Britain reascended its prior support claiming it never intended to establish a separate Jewish political state. It did so because it feared alienating the Arabs with a war on the horizon. That fear was very real since the Arabs were already suspicious as a result of Britain failing to honor every promise T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) had made during WWI. From that point on, Britain tried to prevent a Jewish State.
Throughout their control over Palestine, they tried to greatly limit Jewish immigration to Palestine, even when agreements and UN mandates allowed immigration. U.S. requests for increased immigration of Jews to Palestine were rejected, which is rather surprising considering the war dept Britain owed to the U.S. (Rumor has it that the only reason Britain abstained in the final UN resolution vote, rather than voting against it, was because the U.S. threatened to require Britain to pay that debt.) When the UN resolution was voted, Britain abstained. Britain refused to either help implement the resolution or let a UN transition team do so. Prior to leaving in August 1948, Britain confiscated as many weapons from the Jews as possible. They wanted the new Jewish nation to be crushed by the Arabs.
You are right about the bombing of the Kind David hotel in 1946. You are also right about it being either a terrorist act, or the work of freedom fighters, depending upon one's perspective. It was done in response to Black Sabbath, a large scale British operation designed to further disarm the Jews, while leaving their Arab enemies alone and well armed. Pretty much every country that was once under British rule, including the U.S., could be accused of terrorism by the Crown.
As I said before, I'm French/English by blood, not Jewish. That said, King David himself was no more pro-Israel than am I. In 1967, at the ripe old age of 17, I wanted to volunteer for the IDF. My Mom died just a few months later, so I never pursued it.
Obviously, I feel very strongly about protecting Israel and some of my comments may have offended others, especially Brits who are now here in the U.S. For that I sincerely apologize. My comments are directed more toward the British government and its politicians. (I've been very critical of my own government too.)
I've said far too much already, so I'm bowing out of this discussion. I'll leave the final word on this subject to others.
Chas.