Zionism; the ugly truth

William A. Cook(Counterpunch);

"In a heretofore unreleased file housed in the Rhodes archives of the Bodleian Library at Oxford (MSS.Medit. S. 20 (1), the Palestine Government (the British Mandate government) submitted a most secret report to the British Secretary of State through its High Commissioner, Harold MacMichael. The document labeled "Jewish Approaches to the Question of Jewish-Arab Co-Operation during the period 1919-1941" covers the early attempts by Jewish leaders, before the takeover of the Jewish population by the Zionists from Europe, to find accommodation through agreements and assimilation with the much larger Arab population. The report outlines two "schools of thought" among the Jews: a majority opinion that regarded Jewish Agency co-operation as an "instrument, which can be picked up and set aside as needed, for establishing a Jewish state in Palestine," and a minority opinion that regarded co-operation with Arabs as essential to the continued existence of the Jews in Palestine. A side note states that intellectuals, professionals and socialists belonged to this second group. The report mentions three phases of co-operation.

a. Phase one began in 1919 with the Feisal-Weizman agreement, based on idealism and liberal principles for fruitful partnership with the Arabs, an agreement built on the assumption that the two peoples had much in common and could be mutually supportive in the development of a state beneficial to both. The French occupation of Damascus in the following year brought a halt to the continuation of this agreement since Feisal lost his throne and was no longer in a position to affect it.

b. The second phase directed its attention towards a political compromise, i.e. to establish a modus vivendi in Palestine from 1929 until the promulgation of the British "White Paper" in 1939.

c. The third phase, as the report was being written, referred to what existed in 1941-1947 between the Arab Federation and the Jews in Palestine.

The Feisal-Weizman agreement detailed how the Balfour Declaration could be affected and guaranteed, how continuation of Jewish immigration on a larger scale could be accommodated while maintaining the rights of the indigenous population, and how freedom of worship, Moslem control of their holy places, economic assistance by the newly arrived Zionist groups could be achieved, with the understanding, that the agreement would be implemented, contingent upon the claim submitted to the Peace Conference for Arab independence in Palestine. The parties did not contemplate Palestine as either a Jewish or an Arab state but rather a bi-national state associated with other Arab states.

The Feisal-Weizman agreement did not die altogether. Dr. Chaim Kalvarisky, working on behalf of the Brith Shalom, the Kidma Mizrahi, and the Jewish Arab Co-operation groups, and at the invitation of a Feisal advisor, outlined a plan based on the historical affinity of the two peoples that could serve as a foundation for collaboration, that both groups would have opportunities to administer the country, and practical measures for education based on the ideal of close co-operation and freedom of immigration into Palestine by Jews could work. The Zionists wanted a National Home supported, not by the Arab Federation, but by Europe and the United States. This plan was submitted to the Zionist Council in 1936 and was rejected out of hand. That rejection doomed the dreams of Dr. Kalvarisky for a state where Jewish and Arab cultures could develop "side by side in perfect and undisturbed harmony."

The British report notes the Royal Commission had determined by 1937 that Jewish Arab co-operation was not possible, indeed, that the two sides were irreconcilable. "The Jewish desire for a National Home in fact excluded Arabs and this was the main objection of Arabs to further co-operation." It's important to realize that the conclusion arrived at in this report comes after the Zionist organization had taken absolute control of the Jews in Palestine. "The Zionist organization, the whole social structure which it has created in Palestine, has the trappings but none of the essentials of democracy. The community is under the closed oligarchy of the Jewish official organizations which control Zionist policy and circumscribe the lives of the Jewish community in all directions The reality of power is in the Agency, with the Hagana, the illegal military organization, always in the background." (MacMichael, 2).

The report itself, accompanied as it is with documentary evidence from the Jewish organizations detailing their activities, demonstrates that the Zionists had created "(1) a secret army and espionage system, (2) utilized smuggling, theft and the manufacture of arms (3) illegal immigration, (4) violence and civil disobedience, (5) seditious and hostile propaganda, and (6) encroachment upon the civil rights of Jewish citizens to force their will upon the Jewish people and undermine the legitimate government in Palestine." This last item is perhaps the most telling and the least known or understood. The Zionists controlled the Jewish communities by intimidation, coercion, physical harm and even death. (Evidence, based on seized documents from the Jewish organizations, presented in the appendices of the report (see appendices XXXVII, XLb and B among others) reveal these methods of handling uncooperative Jews. "

full text;

http://www.counterpunch.org/cook11232007.html