<THE YISHUV IN EREZ ISRAEL.
[since
1919: Zionists are now dominant in Jewish settlements in
Palestine because of war experience]
The impetus of Zionist successes brought the quick
reorganization of Jews in Erez Israel, under patterns
suggested by Zionism, in the Keneset Yisrael all-country
structure, through the *Va'ad Le'ummi, and the Chief
Rabbinate, which had as its first head the leading
spiritual personality of Abraham Isaac *Kook.
Circles of the "old yishuv"
opposed this development and refused to participate in the
common organization, basing their argument partly on their
opposition to voting rights for women. They appealed to
the *League of Nations and obtained the right of
secession. They were supported by the Agudat Israel.
Though unpleasant, their secession and opposition could
not hinder Zionist and yishuv
activity in Erez Israel.
Life and development in Erez Israel between the two world
wars were influenced by and decided through a number of
processes and events. Arab national opposition within the
country to the Jews and their enterprise hardened with
every success attained by other Arab countries to achieve
independence or to approach it, and with every success
attained by Jewish settlement and society in Erez Israel.
[[And since that time all books only speak of the Zionists
in Palestine, and the non-Zionists which want peace and no
Jewish state are never mentioned]].
[Arab
resistance against racist Herzl Zionists - British
"diplomacy"]
In a series of violent and cruel outbursts in the years
(col. 757)
1921, 1929, 1933, and 1936-38, the Arabs tried to break
Jewish morale and enterprise. The 1921 excesses achieved
for them the Churchill *White Paper (1922), which gave a
restrictive definition for the concept of the Jewish
National Home, after the closure of Transjordan to Jewish
settlement through the creation of a separate Arab emirate
(later kingdom), there.
Later outbursts brought in their wake commissions of
inquiry, and diplomatic activity which in one way or
another brought proposals of concessions to the Arab
cause.
The history of relationships in the triangle between the
Jews, Arabs, and British authorities in Erez Israel is a
long succession of flat Arab no's to a series of
compromises loaded heavily in their favor. It is also a
chapter in the history of colonial British officials the
majority of whom were drawn to the romantic Arab against
the ordinary European Jew.
Jewish immigration to Erez Israel was limited by various
criteria and formalities; Jewish land acquisition was
hindered in many ways. Only a minority of the British
officials, and only in a limited number of cases and
actions, did fulfill the mandatory power's obligation of
furthering the "Jewish National Home".
[[Supplement:
Jewish and Arab intentions for a "National Home" -
coward British policy
But also the Arabs want a "National Home". So the Zionists
are stuck in the Herzl idea against the Arabs and with
First Mose chapter 15, phrase 18 (Great Israel with the
borderline at the Euphrates). And the British are coward
and are never leading the conflict into a solution though
a big part of the Jews is non-Zionist
at this time and the opportunity for a Jewish province
within a big confederation would be good, but not a
Zionist Jewish state with imperial intentions]].
[Jewry
in Palestine is split: Orthodox - secularists]
Jews were divided among themselves as to the best ways of
furthering their enterprise. In the dispute between
Weizmann and Judge Louis D. *Brandeis there came to the
fore the question of reference for individual initiative
on accepted economic lines or preference for national and
collectivist enterprises, sound from a social and
ideological viewpoint more than an economic one, which
began to occupy Zionist attention from the time of this
quarrel.
Religious *Mizrachi circles complained about the secular
and often anti-religious character of many of the settlers
and settlements. The educational system set up by the new
yishuv was
divided between two networks:
a modern Orthodox one and a "general" one with secularist
leanings.
The ultra-Orthodox circles maintained a network of their
own. The readiness of Jews to come to Erez Israel was
often dependent on the political climate in the Diaspora.
Thus the (col. 758)
great immigration of Jews from Poland in the mid-1920s was
nicknamed the "Grabski aliyah"
after the Polish finance minister who through his
discriminatory taxation policy influenced many to make aliyah.
[1920-1939:
Jewish colonization settlements and industrialization in
Palestine]
Despite these hindrances and vacillations, progress
continued unbroken throughout the period. The number of
Jews in Erez Israel grew in the 1920s about threefold,
reaching 160,000. At the end of this decade there were 110
agricultural settlements (against 50 in 1920), cultivating
700,000 dunams of land. The electrification project of
Rutenberg progressed, and the Potash Company successfully
exploited the resources of the Dead Sea. The Plain of
Jezreel became Jewish; irrigation for Jewish agriculture
was swiftly developed. The new forms of the kibbutz and
moshav proved themselves viable and were much admired by
Jewish and general public opinion.
[[Partly the land was won by drying marshes or cultivating
the desert. The Arabs had nothing to say and were never
integrated in the work]].
In 1925 the first secular Jewish university was founded,
the *Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
[[The name "Hebrew
University" is a war declaration against the Arabs]].
This progress continued in the 1930s, accelerated by the
needs and plight of German Jewry. In 1933 there were one
quarter of a million Jews in Erez Israel, and by 1939 half
a million, 120,000 of whom lived in 252 agricultural
settlements. These included 68 kibbutzim and 71 moshavim.
Mixed agriculture became the main basis of the Jewish
settlements' economy, freeing them from dependence on one
source of income only, though citrus plantations were very
successful. The skills, abilities, and money of German
Jews did much to develop industry and advance technology.
[[Hitler let the German Jews go to Palestine 1933-1939,
and German Jews could establish industry and technology,
but at the end Palestine should be occupied by NS forces
after 1941, and all the work should fall into NS hands]].
[Jewish
overnight settlements against the Arabs - and illegal
immigration]
Even the Arab revolt and frequent attacks on Jewish
settlements and traffic on the road did not succeed in
halting progress. The method of "*tower and stockade" (homah u-migdal) was
invented to erect, overnight
settlements capable of defense. Fifty-five new
settlements were founded between 1936 and 1939. World War
II found the Jewish settlement in Erez Israel strong,
active, and alert socially and economically. By 1939 many
were embittered against the mandatory government which
prevented Jews, then in mortal danger in Europe, from
reaching haven in Erez Israel.
[[But also in Palestine Jews are in mortal danger. So the
Jews were lured from one trap to the next trap, and Israel
was not at all a safe haven because of the Zionist Herzl
policy against any Arab, and racist Herzl is not
prohibited...]]
As other states had already raised barriers in the 1920s
against immigration (e.g., the quota of 1924 in the United
States whose terms prevented the entry of many Jews
there), Erez Israel was at that time the only society
willing and eager to receive them, but for the refusal of
the British. Jews developed a network of "*illegal" immigration
which smuggled tens of thousands of Jews into the country.
Measures taken by the mandatory authorities to suppress
this immigration caused further clashes.
[Jewish
Zionist defense system against the Arabs]
The defense system, strategy, and tactics of the Jews in
Erez Israel were based from 1921 on the underground mass
organization of the Haganah. It had to develop its
training and arms supplies clandestinely. Up to 1945
strategically always on the defensive against the Arabs,
it had to develop under pressure of attack new tactics to
respond to different challenges.
In the meantime there were differences of opinion over the
share of various social circles in the leadership of the
Haganah, expressed mainly in terms of right-wing and
left-wing, different policies as to the methods and timing
of reaction to individual acts of terror, and from the
late 1930s also differences over the question if and to
what degree to oppose by armed force the British
anti-Zionist legislation and measures.
[Right
wing Jewish Zionist guerrilla groups: "Irgun Bet",
"Irgun Zeva'i Le'ummi" - "Lohamei Herut Israel"]
These led to splits in the Jewish forces. A group of the
minority right wing advocating an activist response to
Arab terrorization formed a separate armed underground,
generally named the "Irgun Bet" in the 1930s. In 1937,
after two splits, the *Irgun Zeva'i Le'ummi (I.Z.L.)
emerged and, in 1940, the *Lohamei Herut Israel (Lehi).
From many aspects these were more extreme developments of
the former right-wing "Irgun Bet". (col. 759)
[Rights
wing Jewish Zionist Haganah army against Arabs - and
then in the British army in World War II - militarism
and "the new Jewish society" in Palestine - admiration
for militarism: Maccabees, uprising against the Romans
etc.]
The Haganah attempted with considerable success to form
legal Jewish militia and defense units in cooperation with
the mandatory government. In the personality of Orde
Charles *Wingate it found a devoted British officer who
identified himself with the Jewish cause. On the eve of
World War II a large number of the Jewish youth in Erez
Israel were organized one way or another for defense, and
ready to serve. They supplied the volunteers for the
various Jewish units, and later on the *Jewish Brigade
Group in the British army of World War II was formed.
In this unit, in turn, many who were later to be
commanders of the Israel Defense Forces gained experience
of large-scale training and operations. In the *Palmah,
the Haganah created a striking force of youth trained in
commando style who through close links with social life in
the kibbutzim were emotionally and ideologically devoted
to the new Jewish society.
Consciously and subconsciously all these various military
and para-military organizations and units drew their
inspiration from the conviction, crystallized in Russia at
the time of the pogroms, that human stature demanded
active armed defense by the Jews of their honor and their
life. They were also inspired by historical memories
revived on the soil of Erez Israel: the acts of the
Maccabees, the example of the great revolt against the
Romans (66-70), and the deeply implanted readiness for kiddush-ha-Shem,
which had already assumed a secularist form in sacrifice
for an ideal in the activities of Jewish revolutionaries
in Europe from the second half of the 19th century.>
(col. 760)
[[So the racist Herzl Zionism is tearing all Jews in
Palestine into a militarism spirit against the Arabs. Life
together with the Arabs is not foreseen. That's the trap:
eternal war against Arabs. And rich Zionist groups in
"USA" are financing it. A discussion about a middle course
seems never have been organized...]]
