THE INTERVENTION OF WORLD POWERS IN ISRAEL'S WARS

THE INTERVENTION OF WORLD POWERS IN ISRAEL’S WARS

From the end of World War I, both the US and the UK played a significant role in Israel’s struggle for Independence.

The isolationist  policy which the United States exhibited towards Israel prevented any significant relations being fostered – even before the War of Independence. The exception was the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgentau, who sympathised with the plight of the starving Jewish population in the Old Yishuv. It was due to his efforts that Jewish organisations abroad established a special Fund, which eventually became the JOINT.

Following WWI, and the forming of the British Mandate in Palestine, relations between the US and the Palestinian Jews were weakened even further. The only activities which remained were the Jewish Hadassah medical establishment and the recruiting of funds by the Zionist organization in America.

With the Nazi persecution of the Jews in the end of the 1930’s, the US again showed an interest. They had no intention of intervening in the British handling of the Mandate. On the other hand, in 1938, President Roosevelt made the surprising proposal of transferring a number of the Arabs in Palestine to neighbouring Arab States which had surplus space (transfer!). The British objected strongly to this proposal.

The part played by the British in its relationship towards the Jewish population in the late 1940’s was decidedly contradictory. In spite of the British-initiated Balfour Declaration in 1917, officially affirming the right of the Jews to return to their ancient homeland - in 1939 they produced the notorious White Paper. In addition, they sided with the the Arabs in the ongoing conflict, and even turned a blind eye when Arab hordes massacred Jews in Hebron and Jaffe  (in 1929 and 1936).

The Americans acted the same way, when they refused asylum to Jews before, during, and after, the Holocaust. President Roosevelt also refused permission to bomb the death camps, including Auschwitz, with the absurd excuse that it would distract from the Allies main war efforts.

The two Western powers continued to turn a cold shoulder towards the newly-born State of Israel. It was in its economic interests for Britain to sell arms and planes to the Egyptian, Jordanian, Syria, Lebanon armies. Fully aware  of the severe lack of the Jewish army’s resources, both the U.K. and U.S. took it for granted that the superior Arab armies would easily conquer Palestine.

In every war of defense from 1948 onwards, not only was Israel alone, but the Western powers intervened - invariably to Israel’s disadvantage.