40. 1929

The Arab-Israeli conflict exploded into its modern manifestation with the Jerusalem riots of 1929, centered around the use of, access to, and ownership of, the Western Wall.

THE PLOT

For several hundred years the Ottoman sultans allowed Jews to pray at the Western Wall in a tacit agreement known as the “status quo”: Jews can have access to the Western Wall but can’t make any alterations to the site. By the 1920s, as the Jewish population grew, more Jews sought access, increasing tensions. 

On Yom Kippur in 1928, the Jews put up a temporary divider between men and women at Wall, per Jewish religious custom. The British forcibly removed it following Muslim complaints. Throughout 1929 both sides ratcheted up their rhetoric. Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini’s anti-Jewish propaganda inflamed Muslim fears (that have persisted to this day) about the Jews destroying Muslim holy sites. He made opposition to the Jews on a religious level a central component of the emerging Palestinian national movement. Leading Zionists responded with their own calls for the Jews to aggressively access the Western Wall to return the site to Jewish hands.

All of this came to a head in August, 1929, when the Arabs attacked the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem, killing several dozen Jews. The attacks spread all over Palestine and in some places were catastrophic. In Hebron the Jews had such good relations with their Arab neighbors that they didn’t think anything bad would happen. Although hundreds of Arabs did indeed hide their Jews neighbors from a rampaging mob, the Jewish community was utterly wrecked, Jews of every age not only murdered but also tortured. All in all nearly 30 Jewish communities were attacked throughout Palestine. Probably more than 130 Jews were killed. Perhaps slightly less Arabs were also killed — a few killed by Jews in self-defense or in a few cases retribution, but most Arabs were killed in fights with the British police and military. It was, without a doubt, the worst tragedy yet in the growing Arab-Jewish conflict.

The British, the Jews, and the Arabs, all drew their own conclusions from the 1929 riots, and acted accordingly.

The British investigatory Shaw Commission blamed the Arabs for the violence. Yet because the Zionists had been allowed so much immigration, and had bought up so much land, the Arabs, said the Commission, were justified in fearing a permanent Jewish takeover of Palestine. Subsequent British waffling on the Balfour Declaration and unrestricted Jewish immigration led to an outcome that pleased no one. Their muddled policy flip-flops had the effect of first raising Arab hopes, then dashing them, and at the same time leaving the Jews confused and outraged.

As for the Arabs, they were learning that violence against the Jews in the name of opposition to Britain’s policies could have the effect of getting those policies changed; the British would cave in to Arab demands.

For the Jews, the 1929 riots crystallized their thinking. For Jabotinsky and his followers, the Haganah’s policy of havlagah, “restraint” from initiating attacks on the Arabs, wasn’t working in the Jews’ defense. The Jews needed to meet violence with violence. They formed a separate paramilitary faction, one that would go on to have a bloody and very controversial history in pre-state Israel. They called themselves the National Military Organization, or, in Hebrew, the Irgun. 

FUN FACTS

The Western Wall back then wasn’t today’s large, visitor-friendly plaza but instead a cramped alleyway behind a neighborhood of homes that backed up to within a few feet of the wall itself.

One single British policeman fought back against the Arab rioters in Hebron, protecting as many Jews as he could and killing as many of the attackers as he could before he ran out of bullets.

During Purim in March 1929, the Graf Zeppelin, the world’s largest airship, floated over Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem. The trip was organized by prominent Jewish Zionists in Germany and Vienna as a celebration of the revival of Jewish culture in Palestine.

 

THE PEOPLE

Amin al-Husseini: Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, he served as both the Muslim religious leader in Palestine, and the political leader, since he was recognized by the British government as the top Muslim representative. He instigated a lot of the violence against Jerusalem’s Jewish community.

THE BIG IDEAS

Since Ottoman times the Muslims preserved Jewish access to the Jewish holy sites in an arrangement known as “the status quo.” This allowed Jews access to their holy sites, like the Western Wall, on the condition that they could make no changes. This prevented Muslim worry that the Jews would gradually take control of the sites if they were allowed to make additions. Some version of the “status quo” remains in effect to this day between the State of Israel and various Muslim authorities.

In 1922 the League of Nations made Palestine a Mandate of the British Empire, meaning that Britain had the responsibility of preparing the colonial territory and its inhabitants for future statehood. They also had the responsibility to protect the rights of minorities living in those territories, since the majority population was supposed to be the one eventually taking over. From 1922 until Israel was established in 1948, Palestine was often referred to as Mandatory Palestine, or the British Mandate. This meant that the British authorities got involved in disputes between Muslims and Jews.

In the context of the 1929 and burgeoning Arab nationalism in the Middle East, Amin al-Husseini injected a fierce strain of anti-Semitism into the movement in Palestine. By inflaming Muslims against the Jews over holy sites, he turned what had been an economic and political rift into a full-blown religious conflict that sparked the anger of Arabs throughout the Middle East.  Anti-Semitism became an official strategic and tactical tool of the Arab national movement: al-Husseini’s hatred of the Jews was made inseparable from Arab nationalism and the cause of opposing the British Mandate. The Arab political parties and paramilitary organizations that he created in the 1930s were thus oriented violently against the Jews, which was to have major consequences later in the decade.

38. Einstein, and Other People Ben-Gurion Didn't Like

The 1920s finds the Yishuv — the Jewish community in Palestine — building up the institutions that would carry it through statehood. David Ben Gurion, Israel’s most famous leader, steps onto the scene. Left wing, socialist, Labor Zionist, Ben Gurion begins to lead the Yishuv as farms, cities, cultural life, academia, and Jewish self-defense are all growing during a time of economic prosperity and more Jewish immigration.

PLOT

Into our storyline steps David Ben Gurion, who ranks amongst the giants of Jewish history. His life mirrors that of the Zionist movement’s pre-state focus, and he will go on to declare the establishment of the State of Israel and serve as its first Prime Minister. 

Born in Poland, he credited his commitment to Zionism to his love for the Jewish homeland, rather than the anti-Semitism of Eastern Europe. His idealism landed him in Palestine in 1906 where he became a committed Labor Zionist, working on kibbutzim around the Sea of Galilee at a time when Zionism was focused on developing the land. He was also active in the nascent Jewish self-defense movement and was deported to Egypt by the Ottomans during World War One. He went to America in 1915 to campaign on behalf of the Ottomans, hoping that if they won they would reward their Jewish support by carving out a homeland in Palestine. But when the British issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917 Ben Gurion fought against the Ottomans. 

Following the war, as the Zionist Movement emphasized institution building, Ben Gurion took on progressively higher Labor Zionist leadership roles. He became the leader of the Histadrut, the largest trade union in Palestine, in the 1920s. He turned it into the central institution of the Yishuv, the region’s largest employer, and a powerful political force. 

Ben Gurion’s focus was on Jewish immigration, which he considered an economic and moral imperative to create a prosperous Jewish homeland. The historian Paul Johnson cites Ben Gurion’s three principles: that Jews should make it their priority to return to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. That this community of Jews in Palestine should be built on a socialist framework. And that the cultural binding of Zionist society must be the Hebrew language. He was Vladimir Jabotinsky’s nemesis, for while Jabotinsky, on the right, believed in the urgent need for massive immigration, Ben Gurion, on the left, was more focused on establishing the necessary socialist conditions for later mass migration. 

The problem was that immigration wasn’t going so well in the 1920s. Global economic prosperity and Arab violence made emigrating to Palestine a less attractive opportunity. Still, tens of thousands came in, comprising what became known as the Third and Fourth Aliyah. The Third Aliyah were Ben Gurion’s kind of people: left, socialist, and idealistic, strengthening his power base. The large influx also angered the Arabs. The Fourth Aliyah were blue collar workers who moved to the larger urban areas, joining the Histadrut in large numbers.

In 1922 Winston Churchill credited the Zionists with a range of accomplishments in Palestine. A quarter of Jews were farmers and farm laborers. There was an elected assembly for domestic concerns, and an elected Chief Rabbinate for religious ones. Hebrew was the vernacular, with a vibrant press. The Yishuv had a distinctive intellectual life and considerable activity. The next few years saw more building: new neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. An airport was built. The agricultural market had matured. Cultural life and the arts were flourishing. And the Haganah defense organization was getting better organized. The Yishuv was burgeoning into a pre-state homeland.

FUN FACTS

The very first scientific lecture at the Hebrew University was given by Albert Einstein on the Theory of Relativity.

Einstein willed all his papers, including his original E=mc2 formula, to the Hebrew University upon his death in 1955.

David Ben Gurion offered Einstein the presidency of Israel in 1952. Einstein reluctantly refused, claiming he wasn’t enough of a people person to do the job well. 

 

THE PEOPLE

Albert Einstein: strongly identified as Jewish and an influential supporter of the Zionist movement, Einstein was skeptical about the need for an exclusively-Jewish state. He believed in the historical and moral case for the Jewish people to have a home in their native land but he worried about the trappings of nationalism. He hoped the state would be bi-national, shared by Jews and Arabs alike. “I am glad,” he said, “that there should be a little patch of earth on which our kindred brethren are not considered aliens.”

Judah Magnes: rabbi from Oakland, California, who became the first chancellor of the Hebrew University when it opened in Jerusalem on April 1, 1925. Like Einstein, Rabbi Magnes was a Zionist but didn’t support the idea of linking Judaism and nationalism. He was determined to use the university to promote equal rights and relations between Jews and Arabs. 

David Ben Gurion: born David Gruen in the Russian part of Poland in1886, his father ensured that Ben Gurion from an early age hit all the Zionist checkboxes — youth movements, advocacy for Jewish workers, immigration to Palestine, and, perhaps most important, a love for the Promised Land. Ben Gurion personified the Zionist Movement’s transformation into the State of Israel and served as its first Prime Minister.

Paula Munweis (Ben Gurion): a Russian-American, she met David Ben Gurion on his first trip to the United States. He later said of her, “she was not a Zionist, she had very little Jewish feeling, she was an anarchist. She had no interest in Israel.” But he convinced her to move there with him, and she remained his closest confidant and advisor for the rest of her life.

Goldie Mabovitch (Golda Meir): born in Kiev in 1898, her family moved to Milwaukee when she was eight years old. A prolific fundraiser for the Zionist cause, she met David Ben Gurion during his 1915 trip to the U.S. Ben Gurion later called her “the best man in government.” Under her adopted name, Golda Meir, she went on to serve as the first, and so far only, female Israeli Prime Minister in the 1970s.

THE BIG IDEAS

The 1920s was an era of institution building in Palestine. The biggest were Hebrew University and the Histadrut, both of which still exist today. The Histadrut was the workers union, but Ben Gurion made it more than that. He turned it into the central institution of the Yishuv and the single largest employer and owner of a wide range of companies. The Histadrut therefore had considerable political and economic clout, ensuring that its left-wing leadership, with Ben Gurion at the top, were also highly influential.

Although immigration slowed compared to the earlier decade, the 1920s saw two waves of immigration from Europe. The Third Aliyah immigrants, about 40,000, came immediately after World War One and were mostly from Eastern Europe. Having received agricultural training back in Russia, these immigrants mostly settled on the expanding kibbutzim, especially in the north. 

The mid-1920s saw another wave, the Fourth Aliyah. These were mostly blue collar workers from Poland, but unlike their predecessors they settled in urban centers like Tel Aviv. They built the Yishuv’s urban economy, joining the Histadrut in large numbers and expanding the organization’s mission to include classic social safety net features. 

37. Building the Iron Wall

Vladimir Jabotinsky advocated for a Jewish “iron wall” to defend against Arab aggression. He believed that the Arabs would never accept a Jewish homeland, and thus the Jews would have to develop an impenetrable system of self-defense to make Palestine their home. His thinking is the foundation of right-wing politics in Israel today.

THE PLOT

Vladimir Jabotinsky was born in Russia in 1880. Having witnessed firsthand the violent oppression of the Jewish community there, he was determined not to see the same fate befall the Jews of Palestine. He dedicated himself to building a strong Jewish fighting force for self-defense. He gained prominence during the 1920 Jerusalem riots, which led him to assume a leadership position in the Zionist movement. But pretty quickly he developed three serious disagreements with the movement’s strategy.

One: the nature of relations with the Arabs. Chaim Weizmann and the “mainstream” movement adopted a “gradualist” approach of patience, restraint, and collegiality with the British and relationship-building with the Arabs. Jabotinsky rejected this as unrealistic. In 1923 he wrote a manifesto titled “The Iron Wall,” arguing that the Arabs would never voluntarily accept a Jewish homeland. The only way they would accept it would be if the Jews were so strong that it would be impossible to defeat them. 

Two: Jewish immigration to Palestine. Jabotinsky was a “maximalist.” He interpreted the Balfour Declaration to allow massive Jewish immigration that was neither gradual or limited. The goal was for the Jews to become the majority population in Palestine, so that the British couldn’t ignore them and the Arabs couldn’t defeat them. 

Three: How much territory should constitute the Jewish national home. Jabotinsky was here, too, a maximalist. He insisted that the Jewish homeland should reside on the land where the Jews were indigenous and where their ancient kingdoms stood. That would include most of modern-day Israel, the West Bank of the Jordan River, today’s Jordan, and parts of Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. 

The Arabs have the whole Middle East in which to live, he figured, while the Jews in Europe were faced with destruction. And so the moral case was clear and urgent, and could not suffer any compromise with the rejectionist Arabs.

Unable to reconcile his viewpoint with the mainstream movement led by Weizmann, Jabotinsky broke off in 1925 and formed a separate Zionist tree branch: Revisionist Zionism. The goal was to renegotiate the Zionists’ relationship with the British to get the British onboard with his three major principles around the Arabs, immigration, and territory.

At the same time, he was open to the idea of bi-national state shared with the Arabs. “I am prepared to take an oath binding ourselves and our descendants that we shall never do anything contrary to the principle of equal rights, and that we shall never try to eject anyone.”

FUN FACTS

In 1903 the Zionist Congress passed a vote to investigate Uganda as a possible Jewish homeland. It was ultimately rejected, but other places considered were Libya, Iraq, Australia, Canada, and Texas. Ten thousand Jews went to Galveston before World War One.

In 1921 the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) pooled together various self-defense units into one central body called Haganah — which means, “the defense.” The Haganah formed the basis of the future Israel Defense Force.

In 1922 there were only 87,000 Jews in Palestine — and 650,000 Muslims

 

THE PEOPLE

Vladimir Jabotinsky: One of the most influential Zionist leaders, he founded the right-wing branch of the Zionist tree. His perspective most clashes with the Arabs, most aggressively seeks as much land as possible for the Jewish state, and sets up antagonistic relations with other branches of the Zionist tree that Israel is still fighting over today. But from Jabotinsky we also get the Jewish self-defense movement to defend Jewish settlements and lives from attack. He was also an advocate for equal rights for Arabs, and for a social-democratic form of government in the Jewish state.

Yosef Chaim Brenner: early pioneer of Hebrew literature. Arrived in Palestine with the Second Aliyah. Aligned with the Labor Zionist tree branch, he maintained a pessimism that Zionism was the solution to the Jews’ powerlessness. He became a symbol of Zionist persistence and hope after being murdered by an Arab mob in 1921.

Chaim Weizmann: leader of the Zionist Movement. He was a moderate to Jabotinsky’s maximalist perspective, and believed in a more deferential relationship with the British. 

THE BIG IDEAS

In 1923 Jabotinsky wrote that the Arabs would only ever accept a Jewish homeland “when there is no longer any hope of getting rid of us, because they can make no breach in the iron wall.” In other words, the Arabs will accept the Jewish presence in Palestine only because they have to, not because they want to. His “Iron Wall” essay espoused an organized system of Jewish self-defense that would see the Jews rely only on themselves for their security. Though aggressive, Jabotinsky viewed this system as purely defensive, not to be used to attack the Arabs.

The Zionist movement debated different ideas for the future territory of the Jewish homeland. If the goal was to be safe from anti-Semitism, then anywhere the Jews could establish a majority of the population to ensure their security would be good enough. The homeland could be anywhere in the world. If Palestine, however, is the essential Jewish homeland, then the territory should encompass the ancient holy sites, which are located in what is today the West Bank and parts of Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. This would not include the coast, i.e. where Tel Aviv is located, because there is no real connection to Jewish history there. But Jabotinsky and his followers believed in territorial maximalism in which the Jewish homeland, under the Balfour Declaration, ought to include anywhere the Jews were indigenous and had sovereignty in ancient times, an area that includes not only modern-day Israel but also the Kingdom of Jordan and other parts of the Near East.

In 1925 Jabotinsky broke away from the mainstream Zionist movement, led by the Labor Zionists, to start his own tree branch called Revisionist Zionism. His intent was to revise the relationship between the Zionists and the British. He wasn’t against the British. He wanted them to interpret the Balfour Declaration as propounding his maximalist viewpoints on the Arabs, immigration, and territory. Revisionist Zionism became the basis for the political right-wing in Israel.

36. So It Begins

The violence we associate with the Arab-Israeli conflict began on March 1, 1920, in a tiny Jewish settlement called Tel Hai, just a few miles south of today’s border with Lebanon.

THE PLOT

The Jewish settlement of Tel Hai sat in the border region between British-controlled Palestine and French-controlled Lebanon. The Arabs were fighting the French and frequently came into Tel Hai to search for French military activity. On March 1, 1920, several hundred Arabs came down from Lebanon, though it remains unclear whether they were looking for the French or were, instead, intent on raiding Tel Hai. A Jewish farmer signaled for help from the nearby village of Kfar Giladi and Joseph Trumpeldor led a group of HaShomer, the Watchman, to respond. A firefight broke out over what both sides later described as a misunderstanding, but Trumpeldor, five other Jews, and five Arabs were killed. The Arabs burned down Tel Hai.

A month later a riot broke out in Jerusalem’s Old City after Arab officials, crying “Death to the Jews!” during a protest, called for Arabs to attack the Jews. The riot resulted in the death of five Jews, four Arabs, and swath of destruction across the city, made worse by the British military’s decision to evacuate its troops from the Old City — what they later admitted was a mistake.

The Arabs were protesting two grievances. They were angry about the failure to obtain an independent Arab empire which had been promised them by the British during World War One. And they were angry about the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the possibility that the majority Arab population would have to live under a minority Jewish rule. They worried that Balfour would lead to massive Jewish immigration to Palestine

Amin al-Husseini, scion of one of the most prominent local Arab families, emerged as the first major leader of the Palestinian Arabs of Palestine. His inflammatory speeches incited violence against the Jews and the British, and he refused to compromise on any point that would, in his view, be favorable to the Jews. 

In an attempt to improve their management of Palestine, under the direction of the League of Nations the British switched from a military regime to a civilian-run administration. It was organized under the High Commissioner, a kind of colonial governor, with Herbert Samuel, a Jew, serving as the first one. He had a mixed record of supporting Zionism but also bending over backwards to appease the Arabs, creating a muddled policy of lasting confusion and conflict. 

In May, 1921, riots broke out in Jaffa, a mixed city of Arabs and Jews. The violence soon spread to other cities. Forty-seven Jews and forty-eight Arabs were killed in a sign that the conflict had spread far beyond the confines of Jerusalem. 

Herbert Samuel mostly blamed the Jews, temporarily suspending immigration to Palestine to appease the Arabs. The British issued the Churchill White Paper in 1922, which limited the Jewish homeland to lands west of the Jordan River and restricted Jewish immigration to the “economic capacity” of Palestine to absorb them. Though it also reaffirmed Britain’s commitment to the spirit of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The Zionists, though disappointed by the White Paper, opted to accept the terms. The Arabs rejected it. 

Finally. Herbert Samuel appointed Amin al-Husseini as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who thus became both the religious leader and political head of the Muslim community in Palestine. His elevation to the leadership of the Arab community guaranteed lasting, bitter, and violent conflict between Arabs and Jews for the next thirty years and beyond.

FUN FACTS

Joseph Trumpeldor, by the age of 39, had been the most decorated Jew in Russian military history, a prisoner of war of the Japanese, and a farmer at Israel’s first kibbutz, Degania.

Trumpeldor’s last words are said to have been, “En davar, tov lamut be'ad artzenu”. “Never mind, it is good to die for our country.”

The largest city in Israel’s north, Kiryat Shmona, or the Town of Eight, is named after Trumpeldor and seven other Jews killed at the beginning of the conflict.

 

NAMES TO KNOW

Joseph Trumpeldor: One-armed Zionist hero from the First World War who formed and led the Zion Mule Corps at the Battle of Gallipolli. He was killed in battle with the Arab at Tel Hai in 1920.

HaShomer (the Watchman): early, local Jewish self-defense group.

Amin al-Husseini: Palestinian leader who led Arab rejection of Zionism, Balfour, and the Jews, forever refusing any compromise. Appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, making him the Islamic religious leader of the city as well as the top political representative of the Muslim community to the British High Commission.

Herbert Samuel: a British Jew, the first to serve as High Commissioner for Palestine. He had good intentions, but appeased Arab violence by conceding to their demands.

Winston Churchill: Colonial Secretary in charge of Britain’s overseas colonies. A supporter of Zionism and Balfour who made a deal with the Arabs to cease their violence in exchange for securing autonomy in Transjordan, which was a part of Palestine.

KEY CONCEPTS TO KNOW

The Arabs worried that the Balfour Declaration would lead to massive Jewish immigration to Palestine, which would give the Jews political and economic power. They were right to be worried because that is what happened, and that was a major goal of Zionism. To ensure the Jewish homeland was a place of safety and revival, the Jews had to be in the majority with a monopoly on power. Jewish immigration was therefore the key to achieving this.

The clashes with the Jews in the 1920s brought Arab nationalism to the forefront. It was based on the idea of establishing a sovereign homeland for the Arabs in the Middle East to, like Zionism, renew Arab culture, language, history, and identity. But they were much younger and less unified than the Zionist movement, and struggled to achieve the diplomatic success of Zionism, which led to frustration and the view that Zionism, with its ties to the British, was a colonialist movement.

The violent Arab protests of 1920 and 1921 resulted in the British limiting Jewish immigration to appease Arab demands. From this the Arabs learned that violence works. This set the stage for a strategy that would continue over the next century, as the Arabs repeatedly employed violence to achieve political results, often with success. The British didn’t seem to appreciate that there was no scenario in which the Arabs would accept the Balfour Declaration, and yet the High Commission kept trying anyway. For the Zionists, this was a key pillar in the development of right-wing Zionism.

35. Lord Balfour Has Something To Declare

In November, 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration. It is one of the key foundational documents of Israel. Yet it was so vaguely written that anyone can project what they want to see. For the Zionists it was the first definitive international support for establishing the Jewish homeland. For the Arabs it was a betrayal of their rights. For Britain, it was the beginning of a thirty-year muddle in the Middle East. Either way, it’s essential to understanding modern Israel. 

THE PLOT

The short text of the Balfour Declaration read: “His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

This was the first time that a major European power had positively acknowledged Jewish national aspirations, a major goal of the Political Zionist tree branch and a huge win for the movement. But Balfour also contained a lot of ambiguities that made it hard to assess just how much of an achievement it really was.

First, Palestine wasn’t a part of the British Empire yet, and the British weren’t in a position to guarantee that it would be, so the promise of territory, let alone a Jewish home, was premature. 

Second, the Declaration doesn’t say that the Jews will get a state but a “home”, making no promises about the Jews having sovereignty over that territory.

Third, the Declaration didn’t define the territorial boundaries of Palestine, so there was no determined border for the future Jewish homeland. 

Finally, the Declaration refers to an understanding that nothing will done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. That demographic comprised about 90% of the total population. The Declaration also doesn’t say anything about the non-Jews’ political rights in the future Jewish homeland, although it does, in the next phrase, talk about protecting the rights and political status of Jews in any other country.

Meanwhile, as the Zionists were happy to use British imperialism for their own ends, so, too, were the Arabs, who had also made a deal with the British to create an Arab empire in the Middle East. The Arabs, led by Emir Faisal bin Hussein, hoped to get Zionist support for an Arab state in exchange for Arab support for the Balfour Declaration. Weizmann agreed, and the two were prepared to present a unified front at the 1919 Paris Conference. But the French were against the Arabs, Weizmann couldn’t go to bat for the Arabs with the British, and the Arabs opposed Balfour — so Arab-Jewish cooperation came to a swift and resentful end.

FUN FACTS

One story goes that when a member of the House of Lords asked Weizmann why the Jews insist on Palestine when there are so many other undeveloped countries that would be more convenient to settle, Weizmann replied: ““That is like my asking you why you drove twenty miles to visit your mother last Sunday when there are so many old ladies living on your street.”

The Jews and Arabs came close to a permanent agreement when Weizmann and Emir Fairsal agreed that Faisal would support the Balfour Declaration in exchange for Jewish support for the creation of an Arab state in the Middle East.

 

NAMES TO KNOW

Chaim Weizmann: he became the British Jewish community’s leading Zionist supporter and a confidant of the highest levels of British leadership. He weathered local Jewish opposition to the Zionist movement to convince the British that it was in their military, political, and Christian philosophical interests to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Emir Faisal bin Hussein: one of the most prominent Arab leaders, who allied with the British in the hopes of securing an independent Arab empire. A cautious supporter of the Balfour Declaration — on the condition that the Jews would support his goals — Faisal fought a war with the French over Syria. He lost, but the British made him King of Iraq in 1921. 

KEY CONCEPTS TO KNOW

There is a challenge in parsing the exacting meaning of the Balfour Declaration’s reference to Jewish political rights and the civil and religious rights of non-Jews. The reference to the Jews was an effort to pre-empt any efforts, elsewhere in the world, to forcibly evict Jews or eliminate their citizenship status once a homeland in Palestine was established. The reference to non-Jews was an effort to clarify, for the Jews of Palestine, that they could not do the same to non-Jews in their future homeland. But in doing so Balfour created a contradiction in prioritizing the rights of the Jews in Palestine (the minority population) over the rights of the non-Jews who formed the majority. 

Although the Balfour Declaration is commemorated as one of the essential founding documents of Israel, reducing the existence of Israel to the colonialist policies of the British invalidates the decades of Zionist development that led to this moment. Zionism wasn’t an outcome of British policies, but a liberation and justice movement organized around the right of the Jewish People to self-determination. The recognition of the Balfour Declaration, while a critical political development, was not the raison d’etre of Zionism, nor its fulfillment. The movement still had a long way to go. 

Emir Faisal, having failed to secure Zionist support for his own dream of Arab independence, was the first in a long line of Arab leaders who would learn the hard way about trying to make peace with the Jews. And Chaim Weizmann, in reaching the limits of what the Jews were able to accomplish within the constraints of British policy, was the first of his people to appreciate that it just wasn’t going to be possible to join in a unified way with the Arabs. Although people on both sides wanted to find agreement, Arabs and Jews seemed destined to continuously find themselves at a disappointing impasse.

34. The British Are Coming

The Zionist movement seized the opportunity presented by World War One — the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the advancement of the British Empire into the Middle East — to ally themselves with the West in the hopes of securing the promise of a territorial homeland in Palestine. They succeeded. But the British also made promises to the Arabs, and thus began a thirty-year struggle.

THE PLOT

World War One was raging and the British were trying to defeat Germany in Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. The British wanted to capture Palestine, which was under the Ottomans and the key strategic territory from which Britain could control the rest of the Middle East. It was essential, then, for the British to recruit the support of the local populations — about 600,000 Arabs, and a bit less than 100,000 Jews, to rebel against the Ottomans. 

The British were particularly disposed to seek the support of the Jews. For one thing, Britain had a longstanding fascination with all things ancient and biblical in Palestine. For the Philo-Semites of Britain — Christians who profess their love for the Jews — there was a religious justification for the return of the Jewish People to their ancient homeland (and the anti-Semites were happy to have somewhere to send the Jews away to). At the same time, being seen to support the Zionist movement would, the British hoped, positively influence the Jews in both the United States and Russia to pressure their governments to also support the British; and make the Jews of Germany think twice about supporting the German war effort.

Chaim Weizmann, the key Zionist leader after the death of Herzl in 1904, was the indispensable diplomat between the Jews of Palestine and the British. Intellectual and charismatic, he was also an important player in the British war effort, having developed crucial military technology the British needed. This gave him access to Britain’s senior military and political leaders, including the Prime Minister and, most importantly, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour.

To secure Jewish support, and to reward them for their loyalty to Britain, the British issued the Balfour Declaration in November, 1917. It was a 68-word letter from Lord Balfour expressing the British Empire’s support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and a pledge to help facilitate it. It tied British government policy to the aims of the Zionist movement.

The problem was that the British also made a secret promise (in 1915) to the Arabs to support the creation of an independent Arab empire in the Middle East, including Palestine, if they started a revolt against the Ottomans. And in 1916 they made yet another secret deal with the French, called the Sykes-Picot Agreement, to divide up the Middle East into British and French spheres of influence. It was a betrayal of the promise made to the Arabs, seen as an imperialist-colonialist agreement that robbed the Arabs of their Middle Eastern empire. And it set up competing claims on the territory of Palestine.

FUN FACTS

Chaim Weizmann defined the foundation of Zionism as “the yearning of the Jewish people for its homeland, for a national centre and a national life.”

Weizmann invented the mass production of acetone, the crucial element needed in the production of cordite, which was the main ingredient for the explosives used by the British military to wage World War One.

Under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the French would get Syria and Lebanon, the British Palestine and Iraq, and Jerusalem would be specially zoned as an international city.

 

NAMES TO KNOW

Chaim Weizmann: successor to Theodore Herzl and one of most eminent Zionist leaders. Originally from Belarus, he was a trained chemist and became the movement’s most prolific diplomat between Palestine and Britain, securing much of Zionism’s support within the British government. He was an advocate for democracy, cultural literary, and the creation of the Jewish National Fund.

Lord Arthur Balfour: Foreign Secretary of Great Britain from 1916-1919, he issued the Balfour Declaration supporting the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

KEY CONCEPTS TO KNOW

In November, 1917, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, a short, 68-word letter expressing the British Empire’s support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It is one of the foundational documents of modern Israel, and one of the great achievements of Theodore Herzl’s Political Zionism. It represents both the first international recognition of Zionism, but also the beginning of an irreconcilable clash with the Arabs over land, as the British made more promises than it could keep.

The British had a long standing interest in the Holy Land from both a religious and geopolitical viewpoint. The violent anti-Semitism that plagued much of Europe was largely absent from Britain, Jews having made much progress in political emancipation, economic prosperity, and assimilation as English citizens. British leaders often exhibited Philo-Semitism, or “love of the Jews” that caused them to look favorably on Zionism. Still, anti-Semitism was still present in the upper levels of society.

Chaim Weizmann developed the Synthetic branch of the Zionist tree. His take on Zionism was to try to blend all the branches together, and to pursue the aims of Political and Cultural Zionism all at the same time. He was invested in the political creation of the state, inspired by the idea of the Jewish homeland becoming the spiritual center of Judaism, and supportive of the efforts to establish agricultural communities in Palestine.

33. To Arms!

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many of the early Zionist pioneers thought it essential that the Jews learn how to defend themselves. But the Jewish People hadn’t fielded an army since the Bar Kokhba Revolt against the Roman Empire in the year 135 CE. As a whole the Zionists had very little military experience. But that all changed with the onset of World War One in 1914, which provided an opportunity for the Zionists to not only get combat experience, but to also demonstrate loyalty to Britain, and, perhaps, get rewarded for their efforts.

THE PLOT

The Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and the Jews were afraid of what the Turks would do if the Jews sided with the British. Paranoid about enemy sympathizers, the Turks began expelling thousands of Jews from Palestine, especially those of Russian origin. They sent around 6,000 Jews abroad, mostly to Egypt, where a few hundred of them banded together to form a Jewish fighting unit for the British.

On March 13, 1915, a meeting was held in Alexandria to determine a response to the Jewish deportations. It was led by Vladimir Jabotinsky, one of the most influential and controversial figures in Israeli history. He believed that since neither Turkey nor the Arabs would ever support Zionism, the only way the Jews would ever get a homeland would be to ally with the winning side in the war: the British. At the meeting he met Joseph Trumpeldor, a kindred spirit with significant military experience, and together they launched a new Zionist project to create a Jewish army. 

Although the British struggled to authorize a Jewish fighting unit, they eventually allowed the Jews to form a supply battalion: a mule transport unit that would carry supplies to British soldiers on the front lines. Thus the Zion Mule Corps was born, with the Grand Rabbi officiating at the ceremony. Their first mission: to support the Allied invasion of Gallipoli. A disastrous campaign for the Allies and the only major military victory for the Ottoman Empire during the war,  the Zion Mule Corps found themselves in the thick of the fighting. They suffered casualties and fought with distinction, impressing the British. Though disbanded in 1916, another Jewish fighting force came into being, called the Jewish Legion, with over 5,000 soldiers who continued to fight on the side of the Allies.

Meanwhile, back in Palestine, a small group of Jews launched a covert intelligence campaign against the Turks. The Aaronsohn siblings and a few friends formed an espionage unit called NILI to gather intelligence against the Turks and report back to the British. Sarah Aaronsohn  ran the show from her home in Zichron Ya’akov, but in 1917 she was caught by the Turks and tortured for information. She committed suicide before being taken to prison for further interrogation, which led to significant controversy over whether she could be buried in a Jewish cemetery. She is today an Israeli national hero.

FUN FACTS

In his spare time Jabotinsky translated Edgar Allen Poe into Hebrew.

Jabotinsky’s famous slogan was, “better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it.”

Trumpeldor lost an arm in battle but after several months of recovery he rejoined his unit. When asked why he continued to fight, he said, “I still have another arm to give to the motherland.”

The Zion Mule Corps refused to unload the unkosher bacon supplies until they received a special dispensation from the Grand Rabbi.

Sarah Aaronsohn, having committed suicide in violation of Jewish law, was only allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery if a small fence was placed around her gravesite. 

NAMES TO KNOW

Vladimir Jabotinsky: Russian journalist from Odessa whose experience of the violent pogroms of the early 1900s convinced him that the Jews needed to learn self-defense. He had a much more antagonistic approach to the Arabs and was focused on aggressive colonization of the Land of Israel. He is the origin of Israel’s right-wing politics. 

Joseph Trumpeldor: colorful Israeli national hero from Russia with numerous military exploits to his name. The most decorated Jewish solider in Russian history, he emigrated to Palestine in 1911 and was one of those deported to Egypt.

Sarah Aaronsohn: One of the founders of NILI, a Jewish espionage unit working against the Turks. At 24 years old she left her marriage to start NILI with her siblings and another fighter whom she fell in love with. She committed suicide in 1917 after capture by the Turks, becoming both a religious and secular symbol of Zionist martyrdom.

KEY CONCEPTS TO KNOW

Outraged by the pogroms afflicting the Jews of Russia, in particular the infamous Kishinev pogrom of 1903, Jabotinsky formed Jewish self-defense leagues with the purpose of arming and training Jews to defend their communities. He believed that the Jews would never establish a homeland in Palestine without being able to defend themselves, and made self-defense the central pillar of his Zionist activity. 

The Zion Mule Corps, and its successor Jewish Legion, were the first Jewish fighting units since the first century CE. They fought for the Allied cause in the hopes that when the British defeated the Ottomans, the Jews would be rewarded for their loyalty with a Jewish homeland in Palestine. They also saw World War One as a learning opportunity to train fighters and develop military skills and experience that could be used for self-defense in Palestine. 

Some Jews in Palestine also wanted to join the fight against the Ottomans by forming controversial espionage units. The most famous was NILI, organized by the Aaronsohn family and a few close friends. But many in the Yishuv were vehemently against such activity, worrying that the Turks would respond with mass reprisals and persecution. In several instances local Jews turned in Jewish spies in the hopes of currying favor with the Turks, and even after the war continued criticizing the NILI for putting the Yishuv in danger.

32. Meet Me at the Kibbutz

The kibbutz is perhaps the most famous Israeli institution, and has its origins in the Labor Zionism tree brach. Labor Zionism’s deep ideological tradition traces back to the socialist vision of Jewish workers in Russia and Eastern Europe. It was the dominant Zionist tree branch in Israel for decades.

THE PLOT

The genius of the kibbutz system is that it exemplified two trends that complemented each other at this moment of Jewish history. One was economic necessity. The immigrants of the First Aliyah — the first wave of immigration in the last decades of the 19th century — largely failed at developing individual private farms. But those of the Second Aliyah realized that they could pool together their resources under the umbrella of a coordinated land purchase from the Jewish National Fund, to create a collective farming community. They called this type of community a kibbutz.

The second reason is socialism, which Jews in Eastern Europe, especially Russia, found themselves attracted to. Zionist and socialist ideology seemed incompatible at first. But for one thinker, Nachman Syrkin, Zionism needed socialism in order to be successful. The Jewish state, he said, should be based on social justice, equality, and secular culture. If Jews were to leave Russia, taking with them their socialist ideology, and merge it with Zionism in the Land of Israel, they would create their own successful Zionist-oriented socialist revolution there. Thus was born the Labor Zionist tree branch. 

The kibbutz was the vehicle for implementing the socialist-Zionist vision. The Labor Zionists looked with disdain upon the impoverished, physically weak Jews of Europe, and determined that the hard work of manual agricultural labor would create a New Jew who was physically and mentally strong.  AD Gordon, the spiritual father of Labor Zionism, called this “the religion of labor.”

To live on a kibbutz was to live by a set of principles around collectivism: communal property, communal care, communal decision-making. Gender equality was a necessary component, since all were required to work to ensure that the community functioned properly. 

The kibbutzim, focused on building the New Jew, didn’t use Arab labor on Jewish land. For one, they wanted to train Jews to defend themselves and so used Jewish guards to protect the kibbutz. Secondly, the point of the movement was to force Jews to do the manual labor of farm work, not to hire anyone else to do it, which would create an un-socialist class division between owners (Jews) and workers (Arabs). So a key feature of the kibbutzim is that they were populated solely by Jews. 

By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the Yishuv was developing apace. There were about 85,000 Jews living in Palestine, spreading out in agricultural communities and coastal cities. But then came 1914, the world went to war, and Palestine all but collapsed.

FUN FACTS

“Ki-betz” is a Hebrew root word meaning “to gather or collect as a group”.

On many kibbutzim parents didn’t directly raise their own children in their home. There was a children’s house where kids lived from toddler to teenager under the watch of workers dedicated to child care and teaching.

The first kibbutz was called Degania, meaning “Cornflower”, and was established on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in 1909 by ten men and two women.

 

NAMES TO KNOW

Nachman Syrkin. Russian Jewish socialist thinker who set forth the founding principles of the Labor Zionist tree branch. He saw a natural merge between Zionism and socialism in which Jewish immigrants to Palestine would import revolutionary ideas to create a Jewish homeland free of class struggle. 

Kibbutz: collective farming community representing the practical expression of the revolutionary socialist ideology that Eastern European Jewish immigrants were bringing into Palestine.

AD Gordon: spiritual father of the Labor Zionist movement. He came from a well-off Orthodox family in Russia and didn’t come to Palestine until he was already in his 40s. But he devoted himself to working the land on a settlement near the Sea of Galilee, practicing the philosophy which he believed would lead to individual and national redemption. 

Ha’Shomer: meaning “the Watchman”, it was a semi-professional Jewish guard force trained to defend the kibbutz.

KEY CONCEPTS TO KNOW

Kibbutz life was hard. Here is how an early pioneer described kibbutz life, as told in Ari Shavit’s book, My Promised Land: “It’s either day or night here. Hard labor at the noon of day and ideological debates into the night. A loving family, a soft caress of a mother’s hand, the stern but encouraging look of a loving father — all the things that make life bearable — are not here.” There was searing heat, backbreaking work, little infrastructure or machinery to help with the labor, swamps and disease, and a rigid ideological structure. To be on a kibbutz wasn’t just to sign up for a life of labor; it was to sign up for an entire way of life.

Labor Zionism, merging socialism with Zionism, said that “in a Jewish state, and only in a Jewish state, can Jews live normal, healthy lives, and develop a community around socialist principles.” This tree branch will be the dominant tree branch for most of Israeli history, responsible not only for much of Israel’s founding ideology but also for many of its founding fathers and later leaders. From Labor Zionism will we get most of the powerful institutions that built the Jewish homeland and then, when the state was declared in 1948, were turned into official government agencies. 

Second Aliyah. The second major wave of immigration came on the heels of the infamous 1903 Kishniev pogrom. Zionism only played a small role in the decision of millions of Jews to leave Europe. Only around 40,000 went to Palestine. Although most left, the ones who stayed were passionate about the socialist revolution, took up modern Hebrew, and set about building the institutions and settlements necessary for the Jewish revival. 

31. In the Land of Poetry

It’s the beginning of the most important theme in Israeli history: Jewish immigration to the Holy Land. Persuading Jews to move to Palestine was a difficult task, and the Zionist Movement was divided over how best to achieve it. The different Zionist tree branches — Political, Cultural, and Labor — approached the task of settling the Land of Israel with different ideologies, motivations, and urgencies.

THE PLOT

Palestine was a rough place to eke out a living in the late 1800s and early 1900s. There was a lack of everything: not enough food, water, infrastructure, jobs, health care, or education. But there was an ample supply of extreme heat and tropical disease. The First Aliyah — waves of immigration to Palestine — brought around 25,000 Jews to the land. They were financially supported by the ultra-wealthy Jewish philanthropist Baron Edmond de Rothschild. He bought up tons of land and funded the necessary services, establishing Israel’s earliest communities like Rishon LeZion and Zichron Ya’akov. But without proper farming skills or capacity to develop the land amidst such hardship, most immigrants left soon after arriving.

It was the Second Aliyah, from about 1900-1914, that found success in developing Jewish agricultural communities, small new towns, and the institutions that would turn the the Jewish homeland into the State of Israel. Their ideological orientation was socialist, and they largely belonged to the Labor Zionist tree branch. Rachel Blustein, a poet, and her sister came with this second wave, brimming less with Zionism than with romantic idealism and a desire to escape European oppression. She exemplified the classic experience of the chalutzim — “the pioneers”: falling in love with an idealized version of Eretz Yisrael, yet melancholy about the extreme difficulties of life there. Rachel the Poetess died young, but her works later made her a national hero in Israel. 

The Second Aliyah immigrants were determined to build more than just agricultural communities. They wanted industries and factories and Jewish neighborhoods and cities, and to move forward with the practical approaches to building the Jewish homeland. The Jewish National Fund was created in 1897 to buy up as much land as possible and to build schools, plan cities, and develop essential infrastructure.

Arthur Ruppin was the man chosen to lead this effort. He believed that the most essential element in the creation of a Jewish state then was to buy land and settle it as quickly as possible by any means possible. It didn’t matter if it was urban or rural, as long as the Jewish settlement could be economically viable, safe, and thriving.

Ruppin got a JNF loan for a small group of people to create a Jewish suburb next to the ancient port of Jaffa. They wanted to create the kind of small city they had left behind in Europe  to be a center for Zionist culture: Hebrew in nature and adopting modern urban aesthetics. Sixty-six families chose plots of land on April 11, 1909 and a year later gave their new town a name that evoked both the ancient past as well as Jewish renewal: Spring Hill — or, in Hebrew, Tel Aviv.

FUN FACTS

Rachel and her sister learned Hebrew by hanging out at the local kindergarten.

To start the Jewish National Fund, the first donation was made in the amount of ten pounds. Theodore Herzl provided the second donation to the organization, and the first tree the JNF planted was in his posthumous honor.

By the 21st century the JNF has planted over 250 million trees in Israel, making Israel the only country in the world to enter that century with more trees than it had at the start of the 20th.

The sixty-six families who gathered on a beach to start Tel Aviv in 1909 drew color-coded seashells to determine who got which plot of land. 

 

NAMES TO KNOW

The Yishuv: the collective term for the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine. 

Rachel the Poetess: one of Israel’s earliest national heroes. She arrived in Palestine at age 19 and went to work at an agricultural school along the Sea of Galilee. Her poetry evoked both the romantic idealism of the early pioneers as well as the extreme hardships they endured to develop the land. When Rachel contacted tuberculosis her kibbutz kicked her out, and she died at the age of 40 in Tel Aviv in 1931.

Baron Edmond de Rothschild: scion of the famous Jewish banking family, his philanthropy paid for the earliest Zionist enterprises in Palestine. A huge supporter of Zionism, he had no patience for Theodore Herzl or other movement leaders, insisting that his Zionist colonies were his to do with as he pleased.

Arthur Ruppin: chief “doer” of the Zionist movement in Palestine, placed in charge of executing the practical necessities of developing Jewish settlement. He created two of Israel’s most famous and lasting institutions: Tel Aviv and the kibbutz. 

KEY CONCEPTS TO KNOW

Aliyah means to “go up” or “ascend” (see Episode 27), and is the term used to mean immigrating to the Land of Israel. The history of aliyah is divided into different eras. The First Aliyah, or major wave of immigration, ran from roughly 1880 to the early 1900s, while the Second Aliyah, considered more consequential, ran from the early 1900s until the beginning of World War One. Tens of thousands of Jews came from Europe, but only a small percentage actually weathered the hardships to permanently settle. Each Aliyah wave shaped the Yishuv's — and then Israel’s — demographics in meaningful ways.

In 1901 Theodore Herzl proclaimed the creation of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an organization to raise money to buy up land in Palestine for Jewish settlement. In 1905 the JNF started planting trees, and also served as a crucial agency for managing water resources, planning cities, organizing education, and researching new agricultural techniques. By the 21st century the JNF had developed over 250,000 acres of land, built a couple hundred reservoirs and dams, built the infrastructure for more than 1,000 communities, and created several thousand parks.

In 1909 the JNF gave Arthur Ruppin a loan for a small community to start a new neighborhood on the beach outside Jaffa. They called this new village Ahuzat Bayit, meaning “homestead,” and they wanted it to be a Hebrew version of the small European towns they had left behind. It began with just sixty-six families, and they soon renamed their town Tel Aviv, meaning “Spring Hill,” which was the Hebrew title given to Herzl’s 1902 book Altneuland, Old New Land.