Shalom all,

Got in late, so this will be short.

At the end of World War 1, the League of Nations (= the forerunner of the United Nations) was entrusted with transferring control of territories formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire and Germany, and gave administrative “mandates” to victorious countries who were members of the Allied forces. 

On July 24, 1922, the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with the Mandate for Palestine. “Palestine” was the name given by the Romans about 2,000 years ago to the area encompassing the present State of Israel and it remained in various forms during the two millenia that followed. The people who lived here were called “Palestinian” Arabs and “Palestinian” Jews. (More on that in a later post.) According to the text of the Mandate, which recognized “the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine,” Great Britain was called upon to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in “Palestine”. Later that same year, the League of Nations and Great Britain determined that the provisions of the Mandate requiring the establishment of a Jewish national home would not apply to the area east of the Jordan River, which eventually became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The British Mandate authorities granted the Jewish and Arab communities the right to conduct their own internal affairs, but the Mandatory government did not succeed in maintaining either the letter or the spirit of the Mandate. Under Arab pressure, Great Britian withdrew from its commitment and restricted both immigration and land acquisition by Jews. 

On November 29, 1947 (76 years ago today), the General Assembly of the relatively new United Nations adopted Resolution 181 to partition “Palestine”, as shown on the attached map.

After the Partition Plan was adopted, the British announced the termination of their Mandate over “Palestine”, which was to take effect on May 15, 1948. One day before the British Mandate ended, the establishment of the State of Israel was proclaimed.

In short, the Partition Plan was accepted by the Jewish people, but it was rejected by the Arabs, who launched a war of annihilation against the Jewish State. Even though Israel was successful in that war, known as the “War of Independence”, the existential war is still being fought today, both with weapons, as well as with the fiery darts of lying narratives by terrorist organizations and nations that oppose the existence of the State of Israel. The United Nations later voted to acknowledge the Israel as an independent State. How would the UN vote today if the question of Israel’s statehood was brought before it?

Thursday, November 29, 2007, The Dry Bones Blog.

Bless, be blessed and be a blessing.

Marvin