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As with most issues Churchill was a contrarian thinker when it came to the “Jewish Question”, and the creation of a Zionist State. For 40 years, in the face of media and political criticism, Churchill consistently advocated the necessity of forming in “Palestine”, a Jewish State, and resisted all varieties of appeasement to Arab demands and violence. It is not an exaggeration to state that Churchill’s views and political skills and cunning led the way to Anglo-British support of Modern Israel, and by extension, the guarantee of its very survival. Churchill’s attitudes towards Zionism and Arab culture are still apposite today. Churchill possessed three general ideas about Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish State in the British Protectorate called “Palestine”. These ideas took root during World War One and solidified into a concrete action plan in 1917 after the Balfour Declaration was given, which promised Jews a National Home in their ancient lands renamed “Palestine” but comprising biblical Israel. Churchill’s three main themes informed his 1922 White Paper, when as colonial secretary; he depicted the rationale, and the methods of providing Jews, a national home. This White Paper became the blue-print for the Zionist State. First, Churchill dismissed claims that Arabs had occupied “Palestine” or Israel, before the Jews. Churchill knew that Jewish Semitic Tribes, along with Greeks, Assyrians and Levantine groups had long pre-dated Arabs in the area. Jewish clans, as distinct and homogenous groups, had existed and cultivated Judea and Israel 3000 years before the 642 A.D. Muslim-Arab invasion. Jericho, the world’s oldest village, was built by ancient Jewish tribes circa 10,000 B.C.; Moses led the Jews (or a part of them it should be more accurately stated) from Egypt to Israel (or Canaan) in 1200 B.C. who erected the first great Jewish temple. As a scholar of Moses and Jewish History, Churchill would know all of this, Arab claims to the area were false and specious. Secondly, Churchill had great faith in Jewish culture, finance and intellectual skill, he knew that the Jews would make deserts bloom and develop civilization, where Arabs had built nothing. In a speech in July 1922, Churchill makes this point, “Left to themselves, the Arabs of Palestine would not in a thousand years have taken effective steps towards the irrigation and electrification of Palestine…..letting the waters of the Jordan continue to flow unbridled and unharnessed into the Dead Sea.” From 1918 until 1948, when Israel became an independent state, “Palestine’s” economic growth more than quintupled. In effect, thanks to agricultural, industrial and financial development the Zionists established a Modern State, on Arab wastelands. Thirdly, Churchill supported for political, cultural, and moral reasons, Judaic society. For Churchill Jewish-built Jerusalem and the ethos of Jewish monotheism was as central to Western Civilization as the legacies of Athens or Rome. In his history of World War Two, he comments: “No two cities have counted more with mankind than Athens and Jerusalem. Their messages in religion, philosophy and art have been the main guiding lights of modern faith and culture.” The Jews were than, as central to Western Civilization as the Empires of Greece, Rome or Byzantium. In this calculus why would one appease Arab or Muslim sensibility, when Arabic-Islamic culture has nothing in common with, and is diametrically opposed to Western Civilization and Jewish culture? From the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to 1948, the 80,000 or so resident Jews in Israel grew to almost a million. In the same period Arab demography increased from about 350,000 to some 1.5 million. This rapid expansion of both Jewish and Arab populations was only sustained by Jewish and Western enterprise and genius. Living standards, income and opportunities vastly improved for both groups. As Churchill remarked in 1936 to a British Government inquiry on Jewish immigration to “Palestine” and the rise in Arab violence against Jewish targets, “The Arab population had also risen, almost as dramatically (as the Jewish), to more than a million and a quarter, many of the Arab immigrants attracted by the prosperity that the Jews were creating throughout the Country.” From 1936 to 1939 Arab violence in “Palestine” against Jewish and British assets and people rose dramatically. This had nothing to do with poverty or economic deprivation. Living standards and progress were evidently improving. Arab hostility to Jewish immigration was founded in religious bigotry; racism; and political aspirations. Most British Politicians and media outlets were anti-Semitic and pro-Arab, from 1917 to 1948, (indeed today they still are). During this period Britain was the world’s foremost Muslim power. British protectorates existed in Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Southern Persia, India and Malaysia – all regions containing large Muslim populations. Britain was also dependent on Persian based oil. The reasoning was straight forward, British hegemony depended in large part, on keeping Arabs and Muslims contented or so the theory ran. Churchill knew otherwise. The Arabs and Muslims were weak, divided, backwards and poor. But this only made them more spiteful and intolerant of Western and Jewish control. Only British trade and military power kept their Muslim subjects quiescent. During World War Two Jews fought in Egypt and beyond under British colors; the Arabs in Iraq revolted, the Mufti of Jerusalem was in Berlin beside Hitler demanding the liquidation of the Jews; and Muslims throughout the Middle East cheered Pommel’s near takeover of Egypt. British concern over Muslim “sensibility” availed them naught. Churchill’s clear headed support for Zionism and his dislike for Arabic and Muslim culture and political ideology was vital. It was through the efforts of Churchill and others that Israel came into being and was then protected by Western (and especially American) interests. The Jews are an important part of Western Civilization. We need to protect and enhance the Jewish State against Arab and Muslim hostility and violence. Why anyone would defend Islamic Pagan-Fascism, which masquerades as a religion, while they continue to try and destroy Jewish and Western interests is a question that can never be satisfactorily answered. Churchill possessed three general ideas about Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish State in the British Protectorate called “Palestine”. Visit online resource for Britain and Churchill .
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