Tag: Palestine

State of Israel
“No more yielding than a dream.” Camp David, 2000: Israel Prime Minister Barak, President Clinton, Palestine Authority Chairman Arafat pondered the eighth Two-State Solution. It proved no more acceptable than its predecessors. (Wikimedia Commons; the quote is from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”)
Churchill, Palestine and the State of Israel, Part 2: 1945-1951

Churchill, Palestine and the State of Israel, Part 2: 1945-1951

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"The Middle East is one of the hardest-hearted areas in the world. It has always been fought over, and peace has only reigned when a major power has established firm influence and shown that it would maintain its will. Your friends must be supported with every vigour and if necessary they must be avenged. Force, or perhaps force and bribery, are the only things that will be respected.... At present our friendship is not valued, and our enmity is not feared." —WSC, 1958

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Palestine
West Palestine over time. (איתמראשפר Creative Commons)
Churchill, Palestine and Israel, Part 1: 1917-1945

Churchill, Palestine and Israel, Part 1: 1917-1945

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Churchill and Palestine had a long association, spanning two world wars and thirty years. It began in 1917, when British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour promised a “Jewish National Home” in Palestine. Almost simultaneously, Lawrence of Arabia was offering the Arabs sovereignty over a Middle East ruled for nearly half a millennium by the Turks. By war’s end, the Ottoman Empire was a shambles. “At this truly horrendous moment,” Professor Fromkin told us, “Prime Minister David Lloyd George turned to his Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill and said in effect, ‘You deal with it.’”

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Churchill and Palestine
A frail Roosevelt with King Ibn Saud aboard USS Quincy, Great Bitter Lake, Egypt, 14 February 1945 with interpreter Col. William Eddy, USMC. Fleet Admiral William Leahy, the President’s Chief of Staff, is at left. Remarkably, King Saud did not believe religion was the main Palestine problem. It was “immigration from Eastern Europe of people who were technically and culturally on a higher level than the Arabs, [who] had greater difficulty in surviving economically. [That these] energetic Europeans are Jewish is not the cause of the trouble. It is their superior skills and culture.” (Naval History & Heritage Command, Wikimedia Commons)
“Churchill and Palestine”: Richmond, California, February 10th

“Churchill and Palestine”: Richmond, California, February 10th

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Churchill and Palestine had a long association spanning two world wars and thirty years. It began when Arthur Balfour declared Britain's objective of a "Jewish National Home" in Palestine. Almost simultaneously, T.E. Lawrence was promising the Arabs sovereignty over lands in the Middle East ruled for nearly half a millennium by the Turks. A reluctant Britain accepted responsibility for the Mandate of Palestine after the war. East Palestine became Arab-ruled Jordan. West Palestine became the source of conflict that has now lasted over a century.

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Netanyahu
Too many of all faiths have died there already. Winston Churchill with Bishop MacInnes of Jerusalem at a memorial service in the Military Cemetery on Mt. Scopus, northeast Jerusalem, 26 March 1921. (Library of Congress, public domain)
“Jarring Gong”: Benjamin Netanyahu on Winston Churchill

“Jarring Gong”: Benjamin Netanyahu on Winston Churchill

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"The nature of man has remained hitherto practically unchanged. Under sufficient stress—starvation, terror, warlike passion, or even cold intellectual frenzy—the modern man we know so well will do the most terrible deeds, and his modern woman will back him up.... We have the spectacle of the powers and weapons of man far outstripping the march of his intelligence; we have the march of his intelligence proceeding far more rapidly than the development of his nobility." —Winston S. Churchill, 1931

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Zionist
Jerusalem, 29 March 1921. Colonial Secretary Churchill (r) escorted by British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel. (National Photo Collection of Israel, Wikimedia Commons)
When Did Churchill Become a Zionist?

When Did Churchill Become a Zionist?

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"A Jewish State in Palestine is an event in world history to be viewed in the perspective, not of a generation or a century, but in the perspective of a thousand, two thousand or even three thousand years. [But] British postwar policies “led to the winding up of our affairs in Palestine in such a way as to earn almost in equal degree the hatred of the Arabs and the Jews.” 

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Questions
Will it still be there in 100 years? “I’m not even sure Parliament will be there—didn’t Orwell make London the capital of Oceania?” (Photo by Pete R, Wikimedia Creative Commons)
In Defense of Churchill (4): Questions and Answers

In Defense of Churchill (4): Questions and Answers

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Text of my Zoom address to the Chartwell Soci­ety of Port­land, Ore­gon on 10 May 2021, 81st anniver­sary of Churchill tak­ing office as Prime Min­is­ter. “Ques­tions and Answers” are part of an iTunes audio file. For a copy, please email [email protected].

 

Questions and Answers (continued from Part 3)

From Sen­a­tor Bob Pack­wood (who recalls shelling peas with you on a pleas­ant for­mer occa­sion): Every­body asks what Churchill’s posi­tion would be today on the Mid­dle East. It appears that he want­ed to do right by everybody—guarantee the Jews a home­land but respect the rights of the Arabs.…

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Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (1)

Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (1)

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Fate­ful Ques­tions, Sep­tem­ber 1943-April 1944, nine­teenth of the pro­ject­ed twen­ty-three doc­u­ment vol­umes, is reviewed by his­to­ri­an Andrew Roberts in Com­men­tary.

The vol­umes com­prise “every impor­tant doc­u­ment of any kind that con­cerns Churchill, and the present vol­ume is 2,752 pages long, rep­re­sent­ing an aver­age of more than eleven pages per day.” Order your copy from the Hills­dale Col­lege Book­store.

Here is an excerpt from my account, “Fresh His­to­ry,” which can be read in its entire­ty at the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project.

Fateful Questions: Excerpts

Fas­tid­i­ous­ly com­piled by the late Sir Mar­tin Gilbert and edit­ed by Dr.…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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