#turkish pogroms

[alwayswiselight]

Yesterday afternoon, I had a dentist appointment in the Central Business District. Afterwards, I visited two favorite antiquarian/used bookstores in the French Quarter and came home with the above volumes.

The beautifully illustrated book on Cyprus was an unexpected but welcome find. The Greek Islands by Laurence Durrell and The Mechanism of Catastrophe by Speros Vryonis, Jr. are replacements for ones that I had to give up when I moved from Asheville to New Orleans. The latter is an thorough and chilling documentation of the destruction of Istanbul's Greek Community by the Turks in 1955.

Of course, I welcomed the hardcover copy of A.W. Lawrence's classic Greek Architecture along with Walter Burkert's Greek Religion. I find Burkert's discussion regarding Dionysus, Orpheus and Pythagoras very enlightening. I'm sure that I'll find the rest of his book the same.

[germiyahu]

Maybe an ethnostate is an inherently dangerous and immoral idea. What has happened when other people tried to establish ethnostates?

Well firstly, Israel is not an ethnostate. There is no equivalent policy of Israelification or Judaification as there was (tbh is) with Russification, or historic and contemporary Arabization, Modi's attempts at Hindutva, Erdogan's extreme backsliding into ethnonationalism, etc.

Israel is a liberal democratic state. Some Arabs rejected citizenship, as is their right to do so on principled grounds. But most other groups who are not Israeli Jews have implicitly accepted the Social Contract of a modern liberal democratic state. They receive equal rights under the Law (which is enforceable), and they're aware that they're not the majority and that not every aspect of their culture will cater to them or center them.

Most of the country coming to a standstill on Shabbat could be a sign of an ethnostate, but if municipalities don't want to observe Shabbat, there are no enforceable laws that allow anyone to stop them from ignoring Shabbat. And if there are/were, they were much more frequently levied against other Jews.

Israel has historically not cared if its non Jewish citizens practice their own faiths, speak their own languages, observe their own cultural traditions. Jews do not proselytize. If Israel truly were an ethnostate we'd see a repeat of the Edomites being forcibly converted by John Hyrcanus. The reason this hasn't happened is not because Jews are "disgusted" by Palestinians, for the record. A majority of Israeli Jews look identical to Palestinians and historically spoke Judeo-Arabic. It's simply not necessary for any government to function to pursue an assimilationist policy. It's not a priority among any stream of Judaism or any sub-cultural group of Jews.

People's discomfort with a Jewish majority state, that utterly and thoughtlessly centers Jewish culture (through symbols, the calendar, the weekly/monthly/yearly cycle, holidays, etc.) is rooted in antisemitism. Because it's abhorrent to see Jews running the show. It's new, it's weird, it's even a little insulting. It's not the Natural Order of things. It's unfair. This is a primal Judenhass gene being activated, and it applies to everything related to Jews. There's an inherent hypocrisy in most people when it comes to Jews.

Even in a country like Japan which is considered by fascists to be an Ethnostate, that belies the diversity of the country. An ethnostate is not a state with a majority or supermajority of one ethnicity, nor is it a state that has implicit biases toward that majority ethnic group. An ethnostate must legally uphold the supremacy of the ethnic group in question and at best make no attempt to extend equal rights to any minorities. At worst, it will attempt to assimilate them or exterminate them.

Secondly, what happens in real genuine ethnostates? Well to name a few examples: the Apartheid system of Imperial Russia, with the accompanying pogroms that led to the collapse of the Pale of Settlement which ushered in the largest Jewish migration in history. The effects of this system are still being felt today, not just by Jews. The whole reason Putin and most Russians feel entitled to Ukrainian land and feel threatened by a Ukrainian identity is because Russification considered Russians Belarussians and Ukrainians the same people (which meant Belarussians and Ukrainians were to be forcibly assimilated by Russians).

Here's another example: Kurds in Turkey are still not considered a legally recognized ethnic group. They can't even spell their own names correctly because they have letters in their alphabet that do not occur in Turkish, and Turkish is the only language of state (Turkey as a modern state was heavily influenced by France and it shows). Kurds are routinely suspected of being PKK members and whole towns were bulldozed to make room for Syrian refugees, as a collective punishment against the Kurdish insurgency (which restarted amid the war with ISIS).

Saudi Arabia is an ethnostate, as are most of the Gulf Monarchies. Citizenship is a privilege only enjoyed by the Khaleeji Arabs, even though they're a minority in most of their own countries. Palestine is also an ethnostate, citizenship and rights are only offered to those who are deemed Palestinians. Nobody else is allowed to live there. The Israelis who illegally live in the West Bank have to be propped up by a military occupation and have to have Israeli laws stretched over the border to encompass them, because they would not ever be allowed to even live in the West Bank, much less be afforded any rights or citizenship. This is not just Palestine's fault, this was a precedent set by Jordan. The oldest of all Jewish communities in Palestine were all cleansed by Jordanian troops, banished from their lands and never allowed to return.

I hope you can see that ethnostates are not very compatible with liberal democracies, as liberal democracies by definition and by tradition have universal human rights (at least in the West). It is authoritarian and totalitarian regimes that typically strive for an ethnostate. There are shades of ethnostatitude in democracies, such as France, which uses civic identity as the privileged "ethnicity," and that civic identity happens to be French, which means everyone must be culturally French and speak French. Though it's not violently enforced there is a state policy of ignoring all minorities and their cultures. And of course Turkey, which has always been a flawed democracy, but is increasingly becoming dictatorial and wouldn't you know, the more authoritarian it becomes, the more Turkishness is a central component of Erdogan's goals and policies.

Are there Israelis who want Israel to be an ethnostate? Why yes, but are they significant or relevant beyond appointing Ben-Gvir as a token gesture to this radical fringe? Not really, though there's an alarming capacity for them to increase their numbers. Is any of that relevant to the daily functions and moral "core" of Israel as a nation? Not at all. If you don't judge any other state by it's worst most obnoxious most supremacist actors, why judge Israel that way? Is it those Judenhass Genes again?

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Phyllis Chesler

Finally, Pierre Rehov’s Pogrom(s): Could America Be Next? will appear on Oct. 7, on major platforms such as Apple TV, Google Plus, Amazon Prime and Tubi TV. 

Rehov’s Pogrom(s), is something of a masterpiece. The footage is extraordinary, as is the music and cinematography. The interviews are poignant, such as the one with Yossi Landau of Zaka, with expert insights from people like Mordechai Kedar (an expert on Islamist groups), Nitsana Darshan Leitner (president of Sherut HaDin), Michael Milstein (head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University) and others.

Rehov also includes an on-camera interview with Yuval Bitton, the former head of intelligence for the Israeli Prison Service. Bitton got to know Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar very well when he was incarcerated and helped save Sinwar’s life. To our credit but also our detriment, this is what Jews do. We save lives.

Rehov’s footage confirms how well Palestinian terrorists, even those with blood on their hands, are treated in Israeli jails. They are well-fed, decently housed, allowed to join each other for prayer five times a day, allowed to have visitors and mail, and are given medical and dental care. This footage makes me a little crazy as I think about how Hamas treats its prisoners, aka our precious hostages.

Pogrom(s) captures the historical hatred and violence against Jews by pagans, Christians and Muslims, which places Oct. 7 in “context.” He reminds us that Muslims were the first to order Jews to wear a yellow patch, and many centuries later, the Nazis followed suit. In the film’s vast sweep of history, Rehov also includes the Turkish Muslim genocide of the Armenians (something that the Turks still refuse to acknowledge); the collaboration of Arabs with Nazis during the Shoah; and the well-funded disinformation campaign about this very history in secular Western universities and in mosques, churches and even in certain synagogues and Jewish organizations for Palestine.  

Rehov’s family had lived in Algeria for 500 years. Still, he heard about, witnessed and endured Muslim terrorist attacks, farhuds against native Algerians, French-born Algerians and Algerian Jews. He lost many relatives in one such Muslim pogrom and, in 1961, together with 250,000 other Jews, Rehov was exiled from his birthplace. He fled to France, where he was met with anti-Algerian and anti-Jewish hatred and was cursed as a “dirty Jew.” Rehov eventually left France, came to the United States and then moved to Israel.

[girlactionfigure]

Pre-World War I, neither #Arabs nor #Jews had their own states; and the #MiddleEast was controlled by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. During the 30 years between the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in 1918 & Israel declaring independence in 1948, there were many opportunities for peace.

1918 - First Meeting Between #Zionist & Arab Leaders

At Aqaba, Zionist leader Dr. Chaim Weizmann first met Emir Feisal (photo below) - son of the Grand Sharif of #Mecca, ruler of the Hejaz, direct descendant of #Mohammed, leader of the #Arab revolt against the Ottomans & by far the most well-known & respected Arab leader of the early 20th century.

Feisal knew that what he called “Southern #Syria” (referred to by the British as “Palestine” & by the Jews as “Eretz Israel”) had become a neglected, largely barren, arid, malarial-swamp-infested wasteland under the Ottomans & felt the #Jewish zeal to revitalize the Land would benefit both Jews & Arabs.

1919 - #Paris Peace Conference

The Paris Peace Conference convened to discuss post-war peace terms & how land of the former Ottoman Empire & Imperial #Germany would be divided.

Emir Feisal represented Arab interests at the Conference

Jan 1919: Weizmann-Feisal Agreement Signed

Dr. Weizmann and Emir Feisal, in Jan 1919, signed an Agreement acknowledging:

“the racial kinship & ancient bonds existing between the Arabs & the Jewish people” and mutually recognizing the Balfour Declaration by declaring “Palestine” the Jewish National Home on which “[a]ll necessary measures will be taken to encourage and stimulate #immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil.”

March 1919: Feisal & Frankfurter Exchange Letters

After a meeting between Emir Feisal & Zionist leader Felix Frankfurter in March 1919, Feisal drafted & signed a letter to Frankfurter with the Arab position:

“We feel that the Arabs & Jews are cousins by race, suffering similar oppression at the hands of powers stronger than themselves, & by happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the attainment of their national ideals together. We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement … we regard [the Zionist proposals] … as moderate and proper … [and] wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home … The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist … there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a real success without the other.”

Frankfurter replied to Feisal in a letter acknowledging the Arab position “with deep appreciation” & stating:

“[W]e knew that the aspirations of the Arab and the Jewish peoples were parallel, that each aspired to re-establish its nationality in its own homeland … The Arabs and Jews are neighbors in territory; we cannot but live side by side as friends.”

Apr 4-7 1920 - Violent Nebi Musa Riots & Their Rejection By Several Arab Leaders

While the policy of the #British government was pro-Zionist & pro-Arab, certain British officers on the ground were deeply #antisemitic & worked to foment Arab violence against Jews.

Specifically, British Colonel Waters Taylor (financial advisor to Military Administration in Palestine), met with Arab extremist Amin al-Husseini & encouraged him to incite a riot during Easter to show the Arabs did not support #Zionism.

For four straight days, al-Husseini’s incited mob of ~65,000 Arabs engaged in a riotous #pogrom against the Jewish community in #Jerusalem.

The mob chanted things like, “slaughter the Jews,” “the Jews are our dogs,” and “we will drink Jewish blood,” as they destroyed & looted Jewish shops, homes, & synagogues and then raped and murdered their way through the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

As horrifying as the riots were, not all hope was lost as Arab sheikhs from 82 villages around Jaffa & Jerusalem (who claimed to represent 70% of the population) published a document fully condemning the Arab riots & violence against Jews & expressly proclaiming Zionism was “not a danger” to Arabs.

April 20, 1920 - San Remo Conference

At the San Remo Conference, Ottoman & German colonies were split into 15 legal mandates awarded to the Allied powers.

One of those mandates was the British Mandate for Palestine (containing all of modern day Israel, #Gaza, the #WestBank, & the country of #Jordan), which expressly required the British to hold the land in trust while encouraging Jewish immigration to the Land on which there would be a reconstituted Jewish National Home.

Feb 1921 - Churchill meets Jewish & Arab leaders in Palestine

Winston Churchill was put in charge of Britain’s Palestine policy by Prime Minister David Lloyd George & he visited the Land to meet with Jewish & Arab leaders in Feb 1921.

Churchill was stunned by the degree to which the Jews had already developed the land & built large, fully-functioning communities over the prior decades; he also marked the groundbreaking ceremony for #Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Days later, Churchill met with Arab leaders - only those with whom he met were led by another member of the al-Husseini clan, Musa Kazem al-Husseini.

Churchill was stunned as he listed to the Arabs read aloud a 39-page memorandum filled almost exclusively with hatred, demonization, & absurd conspiracy theories about Jews and world domination.

Churchill expressed his disapproval & told the Arab leaders in attendance it was “manifestly right that the Jews should have a National Home … [a]nd where else could that be but in this land of Palestine, with which for more than 3,000 years they have been intimately & profoundly associated? … [W]e also think it will be good for the Arabs who dwell in Palestine.”

March 1921 - British Commission Empowers al-Husseini & Terror Ensues

The British Commission in Palestine appointed Amin al-Husseini “Grand Mufti” - a position that did not previously exist (“mufti” existed, but not “grand mufti”), and that gave him lifelong tenure as the most prominent Arab leader in Palestine.

Al-Husseini almost immediately instigated organized “fedayeen” terror attacks against the Jewish community culminating with riots in Jaffa and Petah Tikvah that left 43 Jews dead only three weeks later.

Following the riots, al-Husseini consolidated his power & took control of all #Muslim religious funds, the mosques, the schools, & the courts. He then wrote to Churchill & demanded an end to Jewish immigration & for Palestine to be “reunited with Syria.”

1922 - Mandate made Official & the First Partition of Palestine

By international treaty, in 1922, the League of Nations officially formalized the British Mandate for Palestine, which adopted the Balfour Declaration, acknowledging the Jewish people’s "historical connections” to the Land, & declaring the British requirement to “facilitat[e] Jewish immigration [and] encourage settlement on the land” while acknowledging the “moral validity of reconstituting” the Jewish nation.

Meanwhile, Churchill acknowledged a segment of the Palestinian Arab community violently rejected the Jews, but he also received express declarations from hundreds of Palestinian Arab sheikhs & mukhtars supporting Jewish immigration to improve the industrial development of the land, which they said would improve the lives of Arabs as well.

In an attempt to quell any further violence & Arab anxieties, with the stroke of a pen, Churchill partitioned the British Mandate for Palestine by slicing off 3/4 of the Land (everything east of the Jordan River) to create a new Arab Muslim country called “Trans-Jordan,” to which Emir Feisal’s brother, Abdullah (also widely recognized as an Arab Muslim leader from #Saudi Arabia), was named king.

Jews were irate at the loss of 75% of the territory promised to them, but ultimately decided to accept Churchill’s White Paper in the spirit of good will toward their Arab neighbors.

Al-Husseini (who now had his thumb on the majority of Palestine’s Arabs, especially since most would not dare challenge him lest they be summarily executed) flatly rejected the extremely Arab-friendly partition & said the whole of the land was Arab.

Just one year later, the British were forced to suspend the Palestine Constitution after Al-Husseini refused to participate in the Mandatory government.

And al-Husseini continued to organize ongoing violence against Jews culminating in the particularly barbaric 1929 Hebron massacre, which began as a result of the now oft-repeated & nearly 100-year-old lie that the Jews were attempting to “destroy al-Aqsa mosque.”

1936 - Start of the Arab Revolt

In April 1936 (3+ years after Hitler first came to power & while the situation of Jews in #Europe was rapidly deteriorating), al-Husseini organized a terror attack on a Jewish bus, which was then followed by three years of organized terror between Palestinian Arab clans & by Arabs against both Jews and the British.

Al-Husseini formed the Arab Higher Committee, declared a national strike & made three demands: (1) cessation of Jewish immigration; (2) end of land sales to Jews; & (3) the establishment of an Arab national government in the whole of Palestine.

1937 - Peel Commission & Recommended Second Partition of Palestine

Britain set up the Peel Commission to investigate the cause of the Arab riots & to make recommendations.

One of the Jewish Zionist leaders, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, was interviewed by the Commission, & his words were hauntingly prophetic.

Jabotinsky told the British the Jews of Europe faced “a disaster of historic magnitude … We have got to save millions, many millions … who are virtually knocking at the door [of Palestine] asking for admission.”

As to the Arab population, Jabotinsky was clear there was no Jewish desire to “oust” any Arabs and he further said “Palestine on both sides of the Jordan should hold the Arabs, their progeny, and many millions of Jews.”

Jabotinsky then acknowledged a movement of Palestine’s Arabs to create yet another Arab state in the land, but he said, “when the Arab claim is confronted with our Jewish demand to be saved, it is like the claims of appetite versus the claims of starvation.”

The Peel Commission ultimately recommended a second partition of Palestine - this time leaving the Jews with only an extraordinarily tiny portion of what is today a sliver of the northwest coast of Israel, and giving the remaining 80% of the land for an Arab state.

The Jews felt betrayed. But they understood, at least on some level, the disaster awaiting their brethren in Europe & the immediate need to provide safe haven.

So, the Jews accepted the Peel Commission’s partition, assuming the Arabs would accept it & agree to live side-by-side in peace.

This time, not only did al-Husseini reject the planned partition, but neighboring Arab leaders & states did as well.

A Syrian pan-Arab Congress rejected the Peel Commission’s recommendations & declared its goal to “liberat[e] the country and establish[] an Arab government.”

1938 - Woodhead Commission & the Evian Conference

The following year, Britain established the Woodhead Commission to study Palestine & try to find borders that both the Jews & Arabs could accept.

The Woodhead Commission made three proposals, all of which saw the once large Jewish nation continue to shrink exponentially.

In its report, the Woodhead Commission noted, “Arabs of all parties & shades of political opinion were unanimous in condemning the plan as inequitable & wholly unacceptable.”

The report further noted that the thought that “peace to Palestine” would be brought by any partition that included a Jewish state of any size was something “we cannot venture to hope.”

One Arab witness interviewed by the Woodhead Commission said if partition is set in motion that creates any Jewish state, “you will have to have a barbed wire right right it … with pill boxes every half kilometer … Hostility in our lifetime there will be.”

Another Arab witness said, “There would be a violent reaction to anything which gives any part of Palestine to the Jews.”

One other Arab witness said that even if a tiny Jewish State was proclaimed, the Arabs might stay quiet at first, but they would merely be “bid[ing] their time, that is all” until the Jewish State would be destroyed.

The Woodhead Commission declared the Arab position as making the conflict in Palestine “irreconcilable.”

Meanwhile, also in 1938, the Evian Conference was called by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt in #France to allegedly attempt to deal with the Jewish #refugee problem caused by rise of #Nazi Germany.

All 32 nations in attendance at the Evian Conference refused to permit any significant immigration of Jews to their country.

The #Nazis even mocked the world and their “fake” sympathy for the Jews by declaring in Nazi newspaper headlines, “JEWS FOR SALE AT A BARGAIN PRICE—WHO WANTS THEM? NO ONE.”

1939 - St. James Palace Conference & the White Paper

In February 1939, the British held the St. James Palace Conference in #London to try to find a peaceful solution to the problems in Palestine.

However, the Conference was dead on arrival as the Arab delegates refused to meet with their Jewish counterparts.

Meanwhile, just two months later, Britain (then led by anti-Zionist Neville Chamberlain) was preparing for potential war with Germany, acknowledged its dependence on Middle Eastern oil to win that war (thus requiring Arab goodwill), & decided to appease the Arabs.

The 1939 White Paper was issued, abandoning Britain’s legal obligations to establish a Jewish State in Palestine & shutting the doors to further Jewish immigration almost entirely.

When the British submitted the White Paper to the League of Nations for approval, it was rejected as “not in accordance with … the Mandate.”

But the world was on the brink of war, and the League of Nations had no enforcement power. So Britain ignored the League of Nations’ decision.

The Jewish Agency for Palestine called the White Paper a betrayal in the midst of the “darkest hour of Jewish history.”

Zionist leader (and later first Prime Minister of Israel) David Ben-Gurion called the White Paper “the greatest betrayal perpetrated by the government of a civilized people in our generation.”

Dr. Weitzmann called it, “a death sentence for the Jewish people.”

When war broke out later that year & the Holocaust ensued, Europe’s Jews did not have any place on Earth in which they could seek refuge.

Millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis, but it could be argued they were condemned to their fate by the failure of the Evian Conference and the issuance of the British White Paper.

1945 - End of WWII & the Holocaust

In 1945, the full extent of Nazi atrocities & their systematic slaughter of 6 million of Europe’s Jews (2/3 of the population) was revealed to the world.

Those Jews who survived had no homes to which they could return; & there were multiple violent pogroms against the few Jews who tried to go “home.”

Hundreds of thousands of Jews were homeless #refugees & survivors of #Hitler’s madness; but they could only be put into Displaced Persons camps, which were often in the same location as the Nazi concentration camps in which they had been tortured & where their families had been murdered.

U.S. President Harry Truman was appalled that even in light of the Holocaust & the condition of the surviving displaced refugee Jews, the British refused to end its illegal White Paper policy; and he demanded Britain immediately permit the entry of 100,000 Jewish survivors to Palestine.

Britain, then under the leadership of anti-Zionist Prime Minister Clement Attlee, refused.

1946 - Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry

The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was set up in 1946 to study the Jewish refugee problem & the status of the situation in Palestine and make any recommendations.

The Committee found the Arab intransigence to any Jewish immigration & to any Jewish state remained; but given Britain’s legal obligations under the Mandate & the condition of the Jewish refugees in Europe, the Committee recommended the immediate immigration of 100,000 Jews to Palestine to be followed by further steps to arrange a compromise between the Jews & Arabs.

1947 - Britain Abandons the Mandate & Seeks Resolution by the UN

Foreign Minister of Britain (and well-known #antisemite) Ernest Bevin declared in Feb 1947 his recommendation that the Mandate be abandoned since “there is no prospect of reaching … any settlement which would be even broadly acceptable to the two communities in Palestine.”

Bevin described the “irreconcilable” nature of the conflict to the British House of Commons thusly, “For the Jews, the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of a Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine.”

In May 1947, the UN created the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (“UNSCOP”), & four months later, UNSCOP made its recommendations that included a partition of Palestine into one Jewish state & one Arab state - each on approximately 50% of the Land (which, for the Jews, represented a mere 1/8 of the territory originally set aside for Jewish immigration and a Jewish State).

The Jews accepted the UN’s proposal, but the Arabs rejected it.

Sept 1947 - Attempts to Avoid War

On Sept 16, 1947, Zionist leaders met with the leader & secretary-general of the Arab League, Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha.

The Zionist leaders pointed out the #UN had spoken, but also said they were “genuinely desirous of an agreement with the Arabs & [were] prepared to make sacrifices for one.” Generous compromises were offered.

Pasha, however, responded thusly: 

“It’s likely … that your plan is rational & logical, but the fate of nations is not decided by rational logic. Nations never concede; they fight. You won’t get anything by peaceful means or compromise. You can, perhaps, get something, but only by the force of arms. We shall try to defeat you. I’m not sure we’ll succeed, but we’ll try.”

Abba Eban (later Israel’s first Ambassador to the UN) tried to reason with Pasha, saying he would “welcome any counterproposal from your side.”

But Pasha responded: 

“An agreement will only be acceptable at our terms … We have only one test, the test of strength. If I were a Zionist leader, I might have behaved the way you’re doing. You have no alternative. In all events, the problem now is only soluble by the force of arms.”

Oct 2, 1947 - Zionist Leaders Urge Reconciliation with Local Arabs

The Assembly of Palestine Jewry issued an appeal on Oct 2, 1947 that read: 

“We will do everything in our power to maintain peace, & establish a cooperation gainful to both [Jews & Arabs]. It is now, here & now, from Jerusalem itself, that a call must go out to the Arab nations to join forces with Jewry & the destined Jewish State and work shoulder to shoulder for our common good, for the peace and progress of sovereign equals.”

There was no similar call from the Arab world in response.

Nov 1947 - UN Partition Vote & Outbreak of Civil War

On Nov 29, 1947, the UN voted to approve General Assembly Resolution 181 adopting partition as recommended by UNSCOP.

The Jews celebrated international legitimacy for their State; but, like all UNGA Resolutions, 181 was a mere “recommendation.”

Since the Arabs flatly rejected Resolution 181, there was no means by which the UN could enforce it.

The next day, Arabs attacked a Jewish bus on the Petah Tikva-Lod road, killing five passengers, & Jewish neighborhoods in and surrounding Jerusalem were attacked.

A Civil War had begun.

May 1948 - Israeli Independence

At 8 a.m. on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared independence for the State of Israel.

Ben-Gurion began by stating:

“Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained statehood, created cultural values of national & universal significance & gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.”

But Ben-Gurion also ended by stating:

“In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve the ways of peace & play their part in the development of the State, on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its bodies and institutions … We extend our hand in peace & neighborliness to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all.

Only hours later, the neighboring Arab countries (#Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, #Iraq, and #Egypt) launched a full scale invasion of the nascent State of Israel.

Sec-Gen Azzam Pasha proclaimed, “This will be a war of extermination & momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres & the Crusades.”

Pundits filled the airwaves with talk of a second Holocaust considering the Arab states had a population of 200 million with well-equipped armies, & Israel’s entire population was ~600,000 men, women, & children with no formal military training.

Plus, both the United States & Britain maintained an arms embargo on Israel.

However, in what was a true modern-day miracle, the Jews of the reconstituted Jewish State of Israel, a mere three years after the Holocaust & once again facing extermination, fought back the Arab armies to armistices signed in April 1949.

@CptAllenHistory

[jewish-sideblog]

"Jewish state just means a state with a Jewish majority. It doesn’t mean religious rule. It doesn’t mean ethnostate. It just means self-determination on our ancestral lands." cool, but what if the majority of the people living there weren't Jewish? What would you do then to ensure that jews become the majority?

This is a really great question. Despite that, I think it comes a little late. What if Jews weren't the majority of people living in Israel? That hypothetical used to be reality. It used to be the case because for two-thousand years, dozens of foreign powers ruled over Jews in Jewish native lands. Roman, Arab, Turkish, Catholic, Persian, British-- all completely different rulers, with different faiths and philosophies and histories, and yet they agreed on one thing: Persecute the Jews. Enforced exiles, high taxes, reduced citizenship status, pogroms, massacres, genocides, you name it. All of that happened to us in our native land as it was happening to us in the diaspora. And for a long time, we did nothing about it, because without power we could do nothing about it.

But you might not care about any of that. You asked what I would do to ensure Jews became the majority in our native lands, right? I'd probably start with mass emigration out of the diaspora and back to Jewish lands. I'd probably ask permission to do so from the current government in charge of the territory. I'd certainly encourage mass immigration to Jewish lands if the current government of the region publicly declared that they would peacefully cede territory to us.

I think it'd be even better if the United Nations and the international community at large overwhelmingly voted in favor of Jewish self-determination in our native land. I think it'd be awesome if the UN came up with a plan that allowed the other major ethnic and religious groups in the area to build their own self-determined state, simultaneously, in the same region. With shared control over areas with essential resources and interfaith holy sites. I think that would be a pretty awesome way to ensure that the single most persecuted minority group in history finally gained a say in our own government.

It'd really be a shame if all of that only managed to happen because of international guilt over the world's largest genocide. It would be a super big shame if, mere hours after being reunited with our native lands through cooperation, international support, and the peaceful transfer of power, all of our new neighbors suddenly and jointly attacked us from all sides. It would be a damn shame if they attempted to finish the world's largest genocide before we could even declare our independence.

I'm gonna be so honest with you. What would I do then to ensure that Jews become the majority? I'd do it peacefully and diplomatically, because despite centuries of mistreatment under Islamic imperial rule, they were not the ones who stripped us of our lands. But Never Again started in 1945, and you can be damn sure I wouldn't have let it happen again three years later. I'd encourage nothing but peace, community building, and cooperation in gaining governmental representation for my people. Keeping my people safe from destruction is another story entirely.

[artaxata]

Every time I think about Azerbaijanis pure hatred of Armenians and what a big part it plays in their culture I panic a little. Like just the words “Azerbaijani genocide” turn my stomach. Are they mocking us? Yes, I don’t deny there has been a few instances of violence towards Azerbaijanis by Armenians in the past, but nothing compared to the frequent pogroms faced by the Armenians by them. Like? They teach their children Armenian with the explicit goal of eradicating us, they make a point to bring Armenian flags to weddings just so the whole wedding party can walk on it. Their whole psyche as a people is focused on the eradication of Armenians. If you had a culture that you love, a culture you want to protect from “genocide” or if you have actually faced that “genocide” you would focus on preserving it, not breeding a hateful army bent on eradication. Armenians have faced a genocide and are facing one currently and yet the people who support it are not banned from Armenia. I grew up knowing what the Ottoman Empire did, yet I was never explicitly told to hate the enemy (it was implied yes, but it was never the sole topic of discussion anyway, because we have something to preserve). I grew up with an ear accustomed to hearing Turkish sometimes, not as a plot to destroy Turks, but because both my parents spoke it and so did their friends. The world has turned its back on Armenians frequently so Azerbaijan has gotten away and will get away with what it’s planning. Yet they see themselves as victims because of the twisted history and straight up lies they have been fed. Where’s the culture, the people you want to keep in all this? When it’s only hatred fueling you, that speaks volumes about who is really suffering.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

I used to live in Konstantinoupoli, my family had survived every genocide and pogrom until we had to flee after the 2016 coup attempt. Our house was in our family for many generations. Once when i was a kid, i layed under the coffee table and found my mom and her siblings names written there, so i added mine, and so did my siblings.

There is a new priest in our local greek church, and he found my great great grandfathers journal stored somewhere there (it dates 1912-1923), after reading it the priest decided that he wants to return it to my family, in the journal, the priest found the adress and visited the home to find the turkish family that now lived there. The family told them how long they live here, how the came to acquire the house, and that they know that a greek family lived there before them because their son had found greek letters under the table. The priest asked to take a look at them, and saw the names and matched some of them with the ones in the journals ( we are lucky we pass on our first names religiously in the family).

The church the priest belings to, that we once belinged to too, is right next to a synagogue (the place i grew up was amazing all the religious buildings are in one block, so we the jews and the armenians were extremly tight, as the 'others'). The priest spoke to the rabbi about this, and the rabbi from our home and first names remembered the surname the family survives as today and the city we had said we will move in.

Despite us not being pontiacs, the priest talks with our local pontiac community group, hoping that they will help fellow anatolians, and gives the info he has gathered about us. And they found us indeed! We came into contact with the priest that told this whole tail to our grandma, she now has her grandfathers journal where he talks about how he and his family managed to survive the genocide and stay in their land. All my family cant shut up about it. Its been an emotional month for us since we started reading the journal and how it came to our possetion again. My grandma said somehow still managed to scold her middle aged children plus us for ruining 'her table'. Not sure why i tell this, sorry for the long text, i just wanted to keep sharing this story with people, here in mainland there seems to be the idea that all modern anatolians are only distantly related to the refugees, but our community is still very alive and kicking, and pulling this kind of bullshit to keep surviving our legacies.

That's such a great story! 😭 It made my whole night when I read it, having at least one house my refugee family never returned to. It sounds like a fairlytale - for the positive things, like the family names written on the table, how people tried to find you because of this this little thing, and different communities interacting so that you get this journal!

No matter where we are, we are thriving! Our families have survived so much and we are living proof of their endurance! I'm so happy for you, guys!

(Of couuuurse the yaya scolding was inevitable 😂)

[jewish-microwave-laser]

The impetus for creating a political expression of the longing for return—restoring the Jewish relationship to Zion from time back to space—was dire need. In nineteenth-century Russia, millions of Jews were threatened by regime-instigated pogroms. Many Russian Jews were fleeing their homes and heading west.

The newly created Zionist movement was seeking a solution not just for Jews but for "the Jews"—a permanent solution to homelessness. Still, however desperate the situation, anti-Semitism and the need for refuge didn't define the essence of Zionism. Need gave Zionism its urgency, but longing gave Zionism its spiritual substance.

Zionism was the meeting point between need and longing.

And when need and longing collided—as they did at a crucial moment in early Zionist history—longing won.

In 1903, the leader of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, a Viennese journalist obsessed with saving his people, had exhausted his options. Herzl had been an assimilated Jew who came to Zionism because of Jewish need, not longing. But he'd failed to persuade the Turkish sultan to permit mass Jewish immigration into the land of Israel, then a part of the Ottoman Empire. The pope told Herzl that he couldn't support zionism because Jewish homelessness was Divine punishment for rejecting the messiah. Herzl's movement of impoverished dreamers was virtually bankrupt: Most of the wealthy Jews of Western Europe shunned him, fearing that his plan for a Jewish state would undermine their own efforts to be accepted into gentile society. Good luck with that, Herzl told the Jews of Berlin and Vienna.

Herzl was desperate. The mob violence against Russian Jews was intensifying. Herzl intuited that some unimagined catastrophe, far worse than the pogroms, awaited the Jews of Europe.

Then, the British approached him with an offer to settle territory of East Africa. They hoped to get loyal colonists out of Herzl's desire to create a Jewish homeland.

Herzl knew there would be opposition among Zionists to what became known as the Uganda Plan, but the Zionist movement, he believed, was pragmatic. If Zion was unattainable, then he hoped his fellow activists would accept the possible.

Herzl brought the plan before the Zionist Congress. With a map of East Africa hanging behind the podium, he addressed the delegates. Nothing would replace Zion in our hearts, he said. But he urged them to consider the dangers Jews faced, especially in Russia. Need before longing.

He was greeted by cries of anguish. The most vehement opposition came from the young delegates representing Jewish communities in Russia. The very Jews Herzl was trying to save.

A young Russian woman rushed to the podium and ripped the map of Africa off the wall.

The delegates from Russia—led by a young Chaim Weizmann, later Israel's first president—walked out of the hall. They were mostly secular, socialist rebels from religious homes. But their instincts were, at that moment, deeply religious, The gathered in an adjacent room and sat on the floor, the way Jews do in the synagogue on Tisha b'Av. Some of the young people wept. They were in mourning not for Zion but for Zionism.

Herzl went to them. They received the beloved leader, the first Jew in two thousand years to organize a practical way out of exile, with polite coldness. Uganda, Herzl reassured them, would only be a temporary station on the way to Zion. Herzl managed to prevent a schism in the Zionist movement, but the Russian delegates remained deeply opposed.

In his closing speech to the Congress, Herzl raised his right hand and repeated the words of the Psalms, "If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand wither."

A year later, Herzl died—at age forty-four, of exhaustion and heart failure. His rescue mission had faltered. Catastrophe would not be averted.

After the Uganda Plan, there were other attempts to create Jewish "homelands" in various parts of the world—like Birobdzhan, the Soviet fantasy of a Yiddish-speaking Communist homeland on the Chinese border. But every alternative to Zion failed.

Had the Uganda Plan prevailed, Zionism would have become a frankly colonialist movement. A tragic colonialism, impelled not by greed or glory but existential need. Still, there would be no escaping that hard judgement against Zionism.

But by insisting on Zion—against all odds, no matter the consequences—Zionism affirmed its legitimacy as a movement of repatriation, restoring a native people home.

from "Need and Longing" in Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi, pp 35–38

[metamorphesque]

Operation Nemesis was the code-name for a covert operation in 1920s to assassinate the turkish masterminds of the Armenian Genocide. The secret operation was headed by Armen Garo, Aaron Sachaklian and Shahan Natalie.

After the end of World War I, the ottoman military tribunal condemned to death the principal "young turk" leaders responsible for planning and execution of the Armenian Genocide. However at the conclusion of the trials the condemned were freed. They fled to European capitals living under assumed names. In the early 1920s, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) at their 9th World Congress held in Yerevan approved a secret resolution called The Special Mission to punish the main perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide. Between 1920-1922 the perpetrators were located and felled by the Armenian avengers.

Berlin, March 15, 1921 – Soghomon Tehlirian assassinated principal perpetrator of the Armenian Genocide talaat pasha.

Rome, December 5, 1921 – Arshavir Shirakian killed head of the first office of the young turks saiid halim.

Berlin, April 17, 1922 – Arshavir Shirakian and Aram Yerkanian assassinated cemal azmi, who had ordered to drown 15 000 Armenian children in the sea, as well as behaeddin shakir.

Tiflis, July 22, 1922 – Petros Ter-Poghosyan and Artashes Gevorgyan killed minister of the navy djemal pasa.

May 31, 1920 – One of perpetrators of Baku Pogrom in 1918 nasib yusifbeyli was killed.

June 19, 1920 – Aram Yerkanian assassinated former prime minister of azerbaijan fatali khan khoyski.

Tiflis, July 19, 1920 – Aram Yerkanyan killed hasan bey aghayev, one of the main figures accountable for the massacres of Shushi and Baku Armenians.

July 18, 1921 – Misak Torlakian assassinated behbud khan javanshir, minister of internal affairs of azerbaijan.

enver had fled to Central Asia from Germany. He was assassinated by Armenian Commander of Red Army Hakob Melkumov in Tajikistan in 1922.

Soghomon Tehlirian (1896-1960) is rightly considered to be the most famous figure in the special operational group (operation “Nemesis”) and may be considered as a symbol of Armenian revenge. This is due not only to the fact that his target was that most famous criminal, talat, but also because his trial was widely publicised.

Tehlirian was tried for murder, but was eventually acquitted by the twelve-man jury. The trial examined not only Tehlirian’s actions but also Tehlirian’s conviction that talaat was the main author of the Armenian deportation and mass killings.

The defense attorneys made no attempt to deny the fact that Tehlirian had killed a man, and instead focused on the influence of the Armenian Genocide on Tehlirian’s mental state. Tehlirian claimed during the trial that he had been present in Erzincan in 1915 and had been deported along with his family and personally witnessed their murder. When asked by the judge if he felt any sort of guilt, Tehlirian remarked, “I do not consider myself guilty because my conscience is clear…I have killed a man. But I am not a murderer.”

*In 2023, azerbaijan having completed the long-planned ethnic cleansing of Artsakh by forcing out Armenians, the indigenous population with a history of over 3000 years, named one of the central streets of Stepanakert (the capital) "in honor of enver pasha," - one of the orchestrators of the Armenian Genocide. Now let's imagine how the world would react if someone, anyone dared to "honor" hitler in such a way. Why? Aren't Armenians as much "human" as Jews? Aren't we worthy of the world's attention and of its empathy?

[further reading] [2]

do you want to know how one combats the venomous deafness of the world in the face of genocide? read about operation "nemesis"

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.21 (before 1950)

356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson. 230 – Pope Pontian succeeds Urban I as the eighteenth pope. After being exiled to Sardinia, he became the first pope to resign his office. 285 – Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar and co-ruler. 365 – The 365 Crete earthquake affected the Greek island of Crete with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), causing a destructive tsunami that affects the coasts of Libya and Egypt, especially Alexandria. Many thousands are killed. 905 – King Berengar I of Italy and a hired Hungarian army defeats the Frankish forces at Verona. King Louis III is captured and blinded for breaking his oath (see 902). 1242 – Battle of Taillebourg: Louis IX of France puts an end to the revolt of his vassals Henry III of England and Hugh X of Lusignan. 1403 – Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England. 1545 – The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight. 1568 – Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau. 1645 – Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus. 1656 – The Raid on Málaga takes place during the Anglo-Spanish War. 1674 – A Dutch assault on the French island of Martinique is repulsed against all odds. 1718 – The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed. 1774 – Russo-Turkish War (1768–74): Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ending the war. 1798 – French campaign in Egypt and Syria: Napoleon's forces defeat an Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids. 1831 – Inauguration of Leopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians. 1861 – American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run: At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins and ends in a victory for the Confederate army. 1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown. 1873 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West. 1877 – After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia. 1901–present 1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brillié in Ostend, Belgium. 1907 – The passenger steamer SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, killing 88 people. 1919 – The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people. 1920 – The "Belfast Pogrom" begins two years of violence with the expulsion of thousands of Catholic shipyard, factory and linen mill workers from their jobs. 1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching human evolution in class and fined $100. 1936 – Spanish Civil War: The Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia is constituted, establishing an anarcho-syndicalist economy in Catalonia. 1944 – World War II: Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam, starting a battle that will end on August 10. 1944 – World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and four fellow conspirators are executed for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. 1949 – The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.

[nando161mando]

TURCHIA: IL CALCIATORE DEMIRAL INNEGGIA AI FASCISTI DEI LUPI GRIGI A EURO2024. SCONTRI AL CONFINE CON LA SIRIA

Martedì 3 luglio, durante la partita di calcio Turchia – Austria valida per gli ottavi di finale di Euro2024,, il giocatore turco fascista Demiral ha segnato due gol…”festeggiando” con il simbolo del gruppo fascista turco dei Lupi Grigi. Non sono nuove le presenze di posizione di calciatori, sportivi e personaggi pubblici…

Türkiye: FOOTBALLER DEMIRAL CHANGES TO THE FASCISTS OF THE GRAY WOLVES AT EURO2024. CLASHES ON THE BORDER WITH SYRIA

On Tuesday 3 July, during the Turkey - Austria football match valid for the round of 16 of Euro2024, the fascist Turkish player Demiral scored two goals..."celebrating" with the symbol of the Turkish fascist group the Gray Wolves. The presence of footballers, athletes and public figures is not new...

[massispost]

New Post has been published on https://massispost.com/2024/03/hikmet-cetin-urges-turkey-to-acknowledge-historical-wrongs-apologize-to-armenians/

Hikmet Çetin Urges Turkey to Acknowledge Historical Wrongs, Apologize to Armenians

Hikmet Çetin advocates for Turkey to confront its history, calling for apologies for Dersim pogroms and the events of 1915. A significant move towards reconciliation and healing. SAFAK COSTU https://bnnbreaking.com/ In a recent interview with Turkish Artigercek, Hikmet Çetin, a figure with a rich political background including roles as former deputy prime minister, former head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, and former leader of the opposition People’s Republican Party, made a compelling call for the Turkish government to confront and apologize for the pogroms in Dersim and the events of 1915. Çetin, who played a pivotal role in Turkey’s early…

[stevedeschaines]

Council on American Islamic Relations Los Angeles executive director Hussam Ayloush recently defended Hamas’s barbaric slaughter of 1,200 Jewish, Thai, Filipino, Bedouin, and other men, women, and children. He claimed Israel is “an occupier” that “does not have the right to defend itself.” Only Palestinians have “a right of self-defense,” he said and condemned Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza.

His assertions reflect language in the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Hamas Charters. Israel is “imperialist, colonialist, racist, anti-human,” even “fascist,” “colonizers,” they declare. The “Zionist entity” “occupies” Palestinian lands and denies Palestinians their “right to return” to their homes. The charters call for the “liberation of Palestine” through “resistance,” “armed struggle,” and “self-defense.”

Mobs of students, faculty, and fellow travelers flaunt their ignorance of historic and modern reality by echoing these claims, justifying the October 7 massacres, calling for a “global intifada” (uprising), and demanding the eradication of Israel and its non-Muslim inhabitants “from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.

You have to wonder: How does a group of people achieve permanent “refugee” or “colonized victim” status with a “right of return” that no others have had? What constitutes a “legitimate right” of “resistance” or “self-defense”? 

Particularly across the Europe-Asia-Middle-East mega-continent, human history has been a saga of settlement, invasion, victory or defeat, continuation or disintegration, expansion or dispersion. Those who lost wars were annihilated, lost title to their land, accepted subservient status (dhimmi in Muslim countries), emigrated, melded into the victorious civilization, or otherwise adjusted.

Over their six-thousand-year history, including since arriving in “the Promised Land” that is now Israel over 3,600 years ago, Jews have played all these roles. They defeated the Amorites, Canaanites, Philistines, and Jebusites, created the Kingdom of Israel, fell to Assyrians and Babylonians, lived under Persian and Greek rule, established the Hasmonean dynasty, and were slaughtered, enslaved, and dispersed by the Romans in 70-133 AD (CE).

However, they did not entirely disappear from the Promised Land. Indeed, Muhammed’s Muslim empire hired Jews as administrators after the Arab army arrived in 636. Jewish fortunes ebbed and flowed under Christian, Mongol, and 500-year Ottoman Turkish rule.

Anti-Semitism and pogroms brought Western European and Russian Jews to their ancestral land in the late 1800s. Theodore Herzl’s Zionism increased the purchase of agricultural and other land. Turkey’s loss to the Allies in WWI transferred ownership and control of the area from the Ottoman Turks to Britain.

The Roman term Palestine had applied to the region for two millennia, but there was never a Palestinian state or empire. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern countries emerged as independent nations from British-French-Russian rule over the Ottoman Empire before, during, and after WWII – but no Palestinian nation. Palestinian ancestors were always citizens or subjects of ruling empires.

Jewish immigration and land purchases from local and absentee Arab landlords increased significantly between the world wars. The Holocaust and the end of World War II brought surging Jewish immigration ... and more conflicts. Land ownership in the pre-1947 British Mandate area that is now Israel was roughly 15% Arab, 9% Jewish, and 76% public/Mandate land.

1948, despite Arab states’ opposition, the United Nations made Israel's nationhood a reality. Local Arabs and five Arab countries declared war on the fledgling state. Some 700,000 Arabs fled, emigrated, or were persuaded to leave Israel “temporarily” under hollow promises of victory over the Zionists. After the ’48 war, some 850,000 Jews were displaced, banned, or banished (Hamas charter language) from Muslim countries across North Africa to the Middle East and Afghanistan; most of them settled in Israel.

The 1967 and 1973 wars between Arab countries and Israel also ended in Israeli victory and expansion. Two intifadas (1987-1993 and 2000-2005) brought many deaths on both sides but no gains for Palestinians. The war in Gaza has been far more destructive.

Wars have consequences – now and throughout history. Assertions in charters or speeches do not change that, nor do they convey an “inalienable right” of return, even under some imagined “basic principles of human rights and international law” (Hamas Charter, Article 12). If a new Palestinian nation is created and recognized, there will be a right of return to that new nation – but not to Israel.

Imagine former German-speaking inhabitants asserting a right of return to lands that are now France, Poland, and Russia. Hindus and Muslims returning to their prior homes in India and Pakistan. Berbers and other conquered peoples reclaimed their villages and pastures across the Maghreb in North Africa. Spain regained Gibraltar from Britain. Turkey is regaining Greece, Spain, or its other Ottoman territories. China surrendered control over Tibet and Russia over Crimea.

Imagine descendants of Celts and other ancient peoples across Britain and Europe demanding redress because their ancestors were subjugated by the ancestors of today’s British, French, Italian, Hungarian, Balkan, and other nations. Descendants of the Mongols demanding the return of eastern Europe. Or Israelis demanding the return of Jewish Banu Qurayza lands near Medina.

The history of colonizers and colonized nations is long, complicated, and ill-suited for assertions in self-serving charters. Perhaps Hamas’s elimination as a military and political power in Gaza will clarify that. Perhaps it will finally resolve the matter of Palestinians still being “refugees” 75 years after the ’48 war.

Columbia University defines “colonization” as “a system of oppression based on invasion and control that results in institutionalized inequality between the colonizer and the colonized.” That certainly describes the fate of countless nations and peoples, including those subjugated by Muhammed and his caliphs, European countries, Lenin and Stalin, and Islamists today in Nigeria and Sudan. It does not apply to Gaza.

But Hamas and its allies assert that “armed struggle” is required to “liberate Palestine” from Israeli occupiers (PLO Charter, Art. 9) ... families, schools and mosques have a “national duty” to raise individual Palestinians “in an Arab revolutionary manner” (PLO Art. 7) ... and Palestinians have “a legitimate right” to use “all means and methods” to “resist the occupation” and meet the “demands of self-defense” (PLO Art. 18; Hamas Arts. 25 and 39).

For decades, Hamas terrorized Israelis by firing thousands of rockets at civilian targets, bombing buses, cafes and bar mitzvahs, and shooting or stabbing parents and children. To claim this was “resistance” or “self-defense” is patently absurd. The calculated, barbaric October 7 massacres crossed the line of what any nation can permit.

Hamas terrorists gunned down hundreds of unarmed concertgoers; gang-raped and mutilated scores of women; soaked people in gasoline and burned them alive; beheaded babies or roasted them alive in ovens; cut a pregnant woman open, murdered her baby and butchered her; wiped out entire families as they begged for mercy; kidnapped 240 more – and then hid behind, among and under Gazan citizens.

(Those who can stomach witnessing the atrocities can go here, here, here, here, here, here and here.)

Gaza has smart, capable people and miles of gorgeous Mediterranean coastline. It could be as magnificent and prosperous as the United Arab Emirates. Its people just need to reject Hamas, tear up the PLO and Hamas charters, install a proper government, and build a genuine future for their children.

[amirblogerov]

The US supports the conflict between Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham and Hizbut-Tahrir in Idlib in its own interests

Yesterday, information spread on social networks about protests that escalated into pogroms in the Sarmada and Ed-Dan refugee camps in the Idlib province. Residents of the camps demanded that the pro-Turkish administration provide them with acceptable living conditions. People are forced to stay in tent cities without any amenities. There is no sewerage system in the camps, drinking water is severely limited, and there may be no technical water for several days or even weeks. Hizbut-Tahrir ideologists are using this situation for their own purposes. It was they who provoked the latest riots. Radicals, disguised as refugees, go to the camps and say that the controlling camps of Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham and the pro-Turkish authorities of Idlib are to blame for the current situation. The confrontation between Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham and Hizbut-Tahrir has been going on for quite some time. The main reason is the radicals’ attempt to oust Julani’s supporters from the region and take control of it. The conflict between groups, in turn, is being taken advantage of by the Americans, who also claim control of the Idlib zone and are trying to weaken the influence of Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham in order to prevent their authority from strengthening in the province. It was previously reported that Middle East Institute expert Jeffrey Cohen believes that the United States is now trying to establish its influence in the Idlib zone. The specialist wrote on his Twitter account that returning control of the province to Damascus, as the governments of Syria and Turkey have been talking about lately, is not part of the American plans; it means strengthening Bashar al-Assad’s position within the country and in the international arena. On the contrary, another American-controlled enclave on Syrian territory would become an additional source of destabilization of the situation, which is beneficial to Washington. Therefore, the Americans, on the one hand, support Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham, helping them get rid of Turkish influence in their own interests, and on the other, understanding that, having freed themselves from Ankara’s influence at their expense, pro-Turkish militants can “forget” about the one to whom they owe their new position and no longer need American help, they also support other armed groups of the province in order to prevent Julani from having too obvious an advantage.

[heretic-child]

''At last month’s United Nations General Assembly meeting, Erdogan announced his intention to deport millions of Syrian Arab refugees in Turkey into the Kurdish region of northern Syria. Erdogan wants to destroy the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria as he did when he supported the invasion of Afrin, a Kurdish province west of the Euphrates River. In Afrin, Turkish-backed Islamist Syrian rebels took over and thousands of Arabs from other parts of Syria moved in to take over Kurdish homes.

In a July 2018 report, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) warned that ethnic Arabs occupying homes of Kurds who fled might be “an attempt to change the ethnic composition of the area permanently.” Another U.N. report also found that “displaced civilians attempting to return to Afrin have been frequently barred from their property, often appropriated by armed group members and their families.” Erdogan wants to effectively “Arabize” the region east of the Euphrates inhabited by Kurds, Arabs, Christians, Turkmen and Yazidis.

While the ongoing conflict is often wrongly portrayed as one between Turkey and the Kurds, the Christian minority in Syria opposes a Turkish intervention as much if not more than the Kurdish minority. Christians now living in northeast Syria descend from those who survived pogroms a century ago when the Ottoman Empire disintegrated.

Turkish government statistics also show a majority of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey are not from the northeast of Syria but rather from the northwest, where mostly Arabs have lived. According to Turkey’s Interior Minister, 66 percent of Syrian refugees in Turkey are from Syrian regime-held areas. Only 17 percent are from areas under Syrian Democratic Forces control, while the rest are from opposition-held areas.''

[bobemajses]

My family is from Iasi, Romania and most were killed in the Iasi pogrom. I almost never see it mentioned, even with so many deaths. My great grandparents used to speak so fondly of their memories of Iasi before the war. Someday and I would like to visit and walk where they walked.

You should definitely visit Iaşi sometime! It was the largest and most important Jewish community of Moldavia. The presence of Jews was first documented in the late sixteenth century when Sephardic Jews arrived accompanying the new rulers appointed by the Turkish sultan. In 1551, the Jew “Emanuel” was nominated by the Turkish sultan to be the ruler of Moldavia, however it is not clear whether he actually ruled. In 1622, Prince Stefan Tomşa IX guaranteed Jews the right of residence and juridical autonomy, as well as its legal status as a religious guild (breasla jidovilor), after which there was a large influx of (mostly Ashkenazic) Jews to the region.

They were involved in local commerce and trade with Poland and Turkey (mostly in wine and fish), in the production of local brandy (țuică), as well as in crafts. Contemporary documents also mention several doctors, among them the Venetian Sephardic doctor attending to Prince Vasile Lupu, and a healer by the name of Moise. The number of Jews in Iaşi increased in the second half of the nineteenth century, reaching 39,441 (50.8% of the town’s population) in 1899. In 1876, the first performance of the Yiddish theater, established by Avrom Goldfadn, was given in Iaşi. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Iaşi became a center of Yiddish literature.

On Saturday evening, June 28, 1941, Romanian and German soldiers, members of the Romanian Special Intelligence Service, police, and local residents murdered and plundered the Jews of Iasi. Thousands were killed in their homes and in the streets; additional thousands were arrested by patrols of Romanian and German soldiers and taken to police headquarters. The next day, “Black Sunday,” Romanian soldiers shot thousands of Jews who had interned in the police headquarters yard.

Approximately 4,000 Jews were packed into freight cars and vans. The “death trains” (Trenurile Mortii) were sealed and moved back and forth between railway stations for five days. Most of the Jews died of suffocation or thirst, and others lost their sanity. The death toll among the death trains would have likely been much higher on the trains had it not been for the mayor of the nearby village of Tirgu Frumos and Viorica Agarici, the former president of the Romanian Red Cross, who ordered that the Jewish prisoners were given food and drink and the corpses be removed. The pogrom, that had almost 14.000 victims, was declared a war crime in Romania in 1947, and the members of the military and the local police who had been responsible for it were arrested.

After World War II Iaşi played a prominent part in the revival of Yiddish culture but a wave of anti-Jewish persecution by the Communist regime in the 1960s/70s led to a declining Jewish population. Today there are about 300 to 600 Jews and one synagogue.