by Yoram Ettinger
Unlike the Arabs, Jews are reliable and do comply with agreements. … Zionism is the hope for the reconstructed Jewish homeland; it is also a clear strategic benefit to the British Empire. … The British policy in the Middle East bets on the wrong horse, when appeasing the Arabs."
Col. Richard
Meinertzhagen, the chief political/intelligence officer of the British
Mandate in Palestine, inspired the late Sen. Daniel Inouye,
who laid the foundation for the landmark U.S.-Israel Strategic
Partnership Act of 2014, which was overwhelmingly supported by
Congress. The Act reflects Israel's increasing and unique strategic
contribution to vital U.S. defense and commercial interests, and the
mutually beneficial, two-way-street nature of the U.S.-Israel
relationship.
Col. Meinertzhagen's
Middle East Diary 1917-1956 is as relevant today for the USA as it was
80-100 years ago for Britain, maintaining that a Jewish state would be
the most reliable and effective beachhead of Western democracies in an
area that is vital to their critical economic and national security
interests.
In 1923, Col.
Meinertzhagen stated: "Britain will not be able to sustain its control
of the Suez Canal endlessly. … [Therefore], I've always considered the
land of Israel to be the key to the defense of the Middle East. … When a
Jewish state will be established, Britain shall benefit from air
force, naval and land bases … as well as Jewish fighting capabilities …
which will secure its long-term regional interests. … Unlike the
Arabs, Jews are reliable and do comply with agreements. … Zionism is the
hope for the reconstructed Jewish homeland; it is also a clear
strategic benefit to the British Empire. … The British policy in the
Middle East bets on the wrong horse, when appeasing the Arabs."
In 1920, he wrote: "I
firmly believe that a sovereign Jewish state shall be established in
20-30 years, militarily assaulted by all its Arab neighbors." In 1919,
he assessed that a long-term, and possibly insoluble, clash between
Jewish and Arab nationalism was inevitable. He expected the Jews to
prevail due to their impressive military track record in ancient times.
Jewish quality would overcome the Arab quantity.
In 1920, Meinertzhagen
noted that the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the
Palestinian issue was the Arab obsession with the existence -- not
merely the size -- of a Jewish state, as evidenced by the systematic
campaign of anti-Jewish incitement by Arab leaders, especially the
Jerusalem mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini (the role model for Mahmoud Abbas
and Yassir Arafat).
He noted that while
Zionism was relentlessly determined to re-establish Jewish sovereignty
in the land of Israel, the Arab worldview was dominated by a seventh
century fanatic Islam. Arabs displayed hopeless inter-Arab
fragmentation, intrigues, tenuous regimes and policies, as well as
violent intolerance, featuring ruthless incitement, toward the
Christian and Jewish "infidel," in a region that Muslims perceived to
be divinely ordained only for the followers of Islam.
Meinertzhagen opposed
British policy, which egregiously violated legally binding commitments
made to Jewish sovereignty over (at least!) the entire area west of the
Jordan River, such as the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1920 San Remo
Conference British Mandate, and the 1922 League of Nations
reaffirmation, which was integrated into Article 80 of the 1945 U.N.
Charter. He claimed that British policy was driven by pro-Arab and
anti-Semitic sentiments, discriminating against Jewish aspirations,
thus radicalizing the Arabs and minimizing the prospects of peace.
Meinertzhagen
considered a sovereign Jewish entity a strategic and moral asset, while
the Arabs were defined as a strategic and moral liability, urging the
British government to ally itself with the reliable and grateful party.
The conviction-driven
British clairvoyant was convinced that the Jewish state was destined
for a rosy commercial and military future due to boundless Jewish
tenacity -- as evidenced by the survival of Judaism in defiance of
historical adversity -- and Jewish brainpower, inspired by values that
generated monotheism and Western democracies. Moreover, in 1920,
Meinertzhagen wrote that "the Zionist entity shall provide its Arab
citizens with enhanced economy and security." In 1949, he referred to
the newly born Jewish state as "one of the world wonders, and the only
positive outcome of the Second World War."
Noting in 1937 that "a
secure Jewish state would bolster the regional position of Britain,"
while "a splintered land of Israel would weaken, and possibly,
eliminate, the Jewish state," Meinertzhagen delineated the security
lines of the Jewish state (before the intensified unpredictability,
instability and threat generated by the Arab tsunami): from the Sea of
Galilee to the Jordan River, the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba in the
east; from the Gulf of Aqaba to Rafiah (southern Gaza) in the south; the
Mediterranean in the west; and the Litani River (southern Lebanon) in
the north. Meinertzhagen's map was similar to the map of Israel's
minimal security requirements, submitted on June 29, 1967 to President
Lyndon Johnson by Gen. Earl Wheeler, the chairman of the U.S. Joint
Chiefs-of-Staff.
Against the backdrop of
the 2014 controversy over the Jewish state law, it is instructive to
read that Col. Meinertzhagen indicated in 1932: "It is clear that the
land of Israel will become a Jewish state no less than England is
English."
Yoram Ettinger
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=10817
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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