This post is part of a long series I plan to report about Palestine as a country, culture, and humans across multiple communities in hopes that I spread the word about Palestine and what is happening there.
The fact that I am an Arab obviously comes with perceived bias which is a perception that I accept considering that most of the people on this platform are not Arabs. As much as I believe it is something I am able to refute using my own history, I prefer to keep the focus of this series on Palestine itself and let the series speak for itself.
However, considering the aforementioned fact of my identity, I have challenged myself and limited myself to use mostly sources that are outside of the Arab world when it comes to facts. Therefore, all the events mentioned here come from non-Arab sources which you will be able to verify yourself by reading the sources below. In fact, I implore you to check out those sources regardless of the series.
You might think after Britain limited Jewish immigration to 15,000 annually a conflict would arise between Zionists and Britain, but, it was the opposite as 15,000 Jewish soldiers joined the British army to participate in the Second World War. This is important information in the context of Palestine because those 15,000 thousand soldiers would get experience that is equal to playing in the UEFA Champions League in football terms. Great experience came to those soldiers because they were trained by the British army and fought against the German army.
Later on, the Jewish militia groups that used to merely do terrorist acts became organized military structures slowly, like the most famous, Haganah, Stern, and Irgun. Haganah turned from merely a gang into an army that owns an air force. According to historian Ilan Pappe, with the Zionist movement owning an organized military force it will start thinking that annihilation was a better choice than expulsion. Why kick out the Palestinians when you can just exterminate them?
Palestinians proved at the time, and still until today, that they wouldn't take this lying down, they wouldn't stop revolting and they wouldn't stop fighting back. Even if the Zionist movement was successful in kicking them out, they'd still demand to return which couldn't work because the land was just for Jews. That's why while the British were fighting, the Zionist gangs were training for a different kind of war.
Orde Wingate, the British General, was the first one to train Jews on the occupation of villages and something called guerrilla warfare. Orde was also the first person to implant the idea of Ethnic Cleansing. So much so that Moshe Dayan described him as the First Master. At that, Zionist gangs would start studying the geography of every Palestinian village, learning of its entrances and exits in preparation for storming it later in order to invade it and "Purify" it. That's what Ilan Pappe referred to as the "Village File Project".
European Jewish immigrants grew up, learned, and had a trained military that could put plans. That's when a feeling started to grow that the British might as well be an ally but the war was hindering the Zionist interest in Palestine. After all, the British had in fact limited Jewish immigration to Palestine.
The Divide
The Zionists saw themselves divided within themselves. There was the David Ben Gurion opinion that Britain is still an important ally despite the immigration limitation. The opposite opinion was coming from the gangs of Argon and Stern and it stated that Britain, by falling to Arab pressure was becoming an obstacle in the way of the Zionist Project.
The tension reached its peak when the French Patria ship decked near Haifa port but was denied entry while having 1,800 Jewish immigrants onboard. That's when Zionist gangs blew a side of the ship, sacrificing 240 Jewish passengers to force British authorities to let the remaining 1560 Jewish Passengers in.
You might think that this is an exaggeration and no one would do that, but this is when you learn that there were even negotiations in Lebanon that occurred between the Stern gang and Nazis for alliances. The same Nazis who made concentration camps, holocausts, and Jewish eradication in Europe. Those same Nazis were met by the Zionist gang Stern and even met in Lebanon. That's how far the Zionists were willing to go.
A Great Empire No More
The Zionist movement realized that even after winning the Second World War, Britain wouldn't remain a great empire. In her book, "El crimen occidental" or "Western Crime", Viviane Forrester said that Europe as a whole was in crisis during the war, to the point that each country reduced the number of Jewish refugees displaced to it. That created what the French author described as "The Hitler Trap". This means that it was European countries who first refused Jewish people refuge and outright contributed to the Holocaust.
On the other hand, the Zionist movement was aware of this situation and realized that if it needed a trustworthy ally, it would need one outside of Europe, specifically, outside of Europe.
In 1942, Zionists held the Baltimore conference to gather support for Zionism in The United States, among its recommendations was that the New World born after the war would need to have the Jewish state as part of it, a state that is open to having all Jewish around the world. Here, the Zionists were trying to find a role in the interests of the greatest empires by offering themselves as a solution to the surplus of Jews in Europe.
It also presented itself as an ally to the single power that wasn't affected by the war, the United States. That's when the question arises, the US was still in the middle of the Second World, so why did decide to become an ally to Zionism? As I said in the third part of this series, the United States in specific can understand the Zionist dream the most.
In her diary, "Hard Choices", Hillary Clinton says that America is mostly made of immigrants who fled their countries in pursuit of a dream in a faraway country. Hillary Clinton said:
In Israel’s story, we see our own, and the story of all people who struggle for freedom and self-determination.
It's true that the Americans won't be the holy and the chosen people, but at least, they can be an ally who will help those people fulfil the dream they once achieved before. That, and it was still in America's interest to have allies in the Middle East like Israel. So, it was a win-win situation.
The new alliance was forged between the Zionist movement and the United States, the latter sent so much fund that the Haganah gang started to have its own armament factories. Of course, the British weren't so happy seeing that as they realized that the historical deal between Britain and the Zionist movement was one-sided.
That's when the division between Britain and the Zionist Movement was at its ugliest phase, Britain gave and gave and even when it asked the Zionist Movement to ease immigration during the war, the latter didn't respond. Also, Stern was negotiating with Nazis, it was a full betrayal, at least in the eyes of the British.
Britain invested in the Zionist Movement just to have an entity present in the Middle East but soon realized that option didn't exist in the Zionist catalogue. Britain raised a monster, fed, and protected it believing that it had that monster on a leash before looking and seeing that there was no monster by its side. The monster Britain created was starting the most violent wave of terrorists against the British themselves. But, more on that in the next and final chapter of the Independence Myth.
Previous Parts
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 1: Tantura
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 2: Protecting The Israel Mythology
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 3: The Israel Foundation Myth
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 4: The "One People" Myth
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 5: The "Zionism is Judaism" Myth
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 6: The "Land Without a People" Myth
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 7: The "Independence" Myth (Chapter 1)
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 8: The "Independence" Myth (Chapter 2)
Follow-up parts
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 10: The "Independence" Myth (Final Chapter
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 11: The "David vs Goliath" Myth (1/2)
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Part 12: The "David vs Goliath" Myth (2/2)
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Final Part: The "Only Democracy in the Middle East" Myth
The Tragic Story of Palestine - Responding to Arguments and Concerns
The Tragic Story of Palestine - "It Was A Hamas Base of Operation"
The Tragic Story of Israel
School Lessons From Gaza
Sources
The Arabs: A History - Eugene Rogan
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine - Ilan Pappe
Ten Myths About Israel - Ilan Pappe
Palestine: ...it is something colonial (Decolonizing the mind)
One hundred questions and answers about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - Pedro Brieger
Tantura Documentary
Executions and Mass Graves in Tantura - Forensic Architecture
Israel’s 55-year occupation of Palestinian Territory is apartheid – UN human rights expert
"Nakba Law" - Amendment No. 40 to the Budgets Foundations Law
Eye Witnesses Statments
Al-Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe - Episode 1 | Featured Documentary
Al-Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe - Episode 2 | Featured Documentary
Al-Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe - Episode 3 | Featured Documentary
Al-Nakba: The Palestinian catastrophe - Episode 4 | Featured Documentary
Anatomy of the Israeli mind
Collusion Across The Jordan: King Abdullah, The Zionist Movement, And The Partition Of Palestine - Avi Shlaim