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Could you clarify your statement that the US sponsored and then executed a plan to create Israel. You may be refering to the same thing I am thinking but with different terminology.
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Again I was expressing the problem through the eyes of the Arab street. The United States with its foreign policy of meddling into Arab affairs is the cause of all these problems. Other countries are somehow left off the table ...
Your post reflects pretty much the situation at the time. Your history class might have left out ...
I think in looking at this from a higher view.
1. WWI Brought French and British influence back into the Middle East not seen since the 11 Century.
2. Harsh economic penalties in Germany set up a multiple class system of "really haves" and "really have -nots" Many famous Jewish people including the famous Rothschild's were untouched by these penalties. It became easy for a madman to point out the differences and create a racial based class envy. It should be noted that the Catholic / Jewish "problem" existed many centuries before and the Inquisition was still fresh in the minds of people. Thus Europe has been facing the "Jewish Issue" for quite sometime.
Well the horrors of WWII happened. Not only in Germany but in many parts of the world Jewish people were persecuted and executed. This created huge political fall-outs and pressures. A push for the Jewish people Though many in the US saw the problems with such a solution, A solution to centuries of conflict had to be resolved and now (1948) seem like the best time. It should be noted that the US had blood on its hands -a story seen in the movie "Voyage of the Damn". This incident provided the political pressure that the US must do the right thing.
The United States and Great Britain came to a compromise of sectioning off a portion of Palestine to create the country of Israel. Jewish people from all over the world would be free to migrate to this new country. The only problem with this solution is that the land had people that disagreed with the plan living on it. Much like the Indian wars of the US where one group of people believes they own the land and an other people deems themselves entitled to that land ... well they would have to be moved. Thus a conflict .. the war of 1948 -- and a series of wars thereafter.
A sort of irony is that Hitler in 1938 instituted a plan to migrate all European Jews to Palestine. In exchange for all your belongings besides the clothes on your back you would be transported to Palestine. That plan was not seen as fair by a lot of people, but much less fair plans lay ahead. The beginning of WWII cut off the ability to move people wholesale to Palestine since Germany was now at war with France/Britain who laid claim to the lands.
Here are a couple of more facts. This is really really key to the current discussion. The Soviet Union saw the Israel / Arab conflict as a huge opportunity to engage the free world in a LIC. They sold arms, intelligence, and provided political cover. Thus a solution was very hard to arrive at with super powers fighting each other trying to keep the conflict going because of the cold war.
(Some of this is still going on today :wink: )
Probably the biggest influence the USSR provided was in 1973 where the US just retreated from Vietnam. The USSR calculated that since the US just got themselves out of Vietnam they would not have the political will to support Israel. Thus they encouraged Egypt and Syria to attack Israel in a MIC. Well ..this almost resulted in WWIII and the UN convinced the sides to make peace.
So ...
The Arab view of this conflict is very very important to understanding how this can be resolved and the intensity in which it is fought. I am not sure we can talk this out since our view and thier view of reality is so far apart.
This is the recepie so well put in Clauswitz On War.
Iran is not an Arab state but they are Islamamic. So ... the conflict now has a new dimension of exapnding the issue to including people from all over the world. North Korea sees this as an opportunity and has calculated the US is too weak to respond .. and .... I hope to God these calculations do not force the US to split atoms.
BTW) Back on the topic of this thread. Kerry exclaimed that if I did not study hard I would end up in Iraq. I did 10 years in the Army. I am very proud of my service. I Possess a BS and a MS degree. I am not an Ivy league scholar but I feel I am not below the 50% percentile either ... :wink: