Hasidic Women in the United States | Jewish Women's Archive
Posted By richards on July 18, 2015
American Jews – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted By richards on July 18, 2015
frum female
Posted By simmons on July 17, 2015
Sometimes its better not to talk too much about one's blessings to others. Sometimes others do not have what you do and it is important to be sensitive to that. I do not mean that one should never speak about the bounty that one does have but maybe don't speak about it all day long. Its nice to know when a friend or relative is engaged. I want to know and I am genuinely happy for them. Do I want to hear about it constantly night and day? Absolutely not. On the other hand I have had stable employment all of my adult life (no I am not rich) . I talk about work but I would not constantly tell this to my friends who do not have mazel in retaining employment. Its really not fair. Often someone does not hold back when talking about the joys of parenthood because they think that just because someone is single that the idea of parenthood is not on their radar . If they had a friend who had been married for many years and did not have children they might not spend all day and night talking about their kids. Its not that someone who does not have children resents someone who does has kids or wishes that their friend was in their boat, they just don't want that to be their only topic of conversation. Once I was at work and someone who should have known better was going on about how once she had children she then knew why women were created This woman was a first time mother at forty. She should have shared this with her mommy and me group instead of in a place full of people she did not know who may or may not ever have kids. Of course being a parent is a beautiful experience but being a single woman without children I may not be the person to share such an epiphany with. There are all sorts of situations in life where one is more fortunate than another person. These just are a few that are foremost in my mind at the moment. I try hard not to make others feel envy when I am successful or have something someone else does not. There is no need to brag , just to have appreciation. Married people get divorced. People lose jobs. Children are fought over in brutal custody battles or chas v'shalom pass away. When you have a bracha just appreciate it because as easily as someone has mazel, they could also not have it.
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frum female
Part IV – Holocaust Studies, Anti-Semitism and Related Topics
Posted By simmons on July 17, 2015
"Forget You Not": Holocaust S urviv ors a nd R eme mbr a n c e Proj e ct - Part IV - TABLE OF CONTENTS . .
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On December 7, 1970, while in Warsaw for a commemorative service honoring the participants of the WarsawGhettoUprising, the German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneels in front of the Monument, in an apparent gesture of apology, repentance, and reconciliation.
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1. Pre-Holocaust Studies
The Israeli Coat of Arms features the Menorah, the candelabra used in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. It, along with other Temple artifacts, was captured almost two millennia ago by the Romans during their siege of Jerusalem. According to the historian Flavius Josephus, a Jew who lived at the time of the Romans, "Most of the spoils that were carried were heaped up indiscriminately, but more prominent than all the rest were those captured in the Temple at Jerusalem - a golden table weighing several hundred weight, and a lampstand similarly made of gold but differently constructed from those we normally use. The central shaft was fixed to a base, and from it extended slender branches placed like the prongs of a trident, and with the end of each one forged into a lamp: these numbered seven, signifying the honour paid to that number by the Jews." (Josephus, The Jewish War, G.A. Williamson, translator, Penguin, 1959.) The Arch of Titus in Rome has on it a carving depicting the spoils of the Temple - including the Menorah - being carried triumphantly through Rome.
Courtesy of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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Part IV - Holocaust Studies, Anti-Semitism and Related Topics
stuff white people do: play the ethnicity card
Posted By simmons on July 17, 2015
Happy St. Patrick's Day. I guess. . .
I'd like to be more celebratory today and somehow honor Irish immigration to my country, but what can I say? I don't have Irish blood, for one thing. And more to the point of this blog -- I can't overlook how the U.S. descendants of Irish people, who often put on and take off being "Irish" like a hat or raincoat, tend to forget what it really means for their ancestors to have traded in their Irish-ness for whiteness. Yes, Irish immigrants used to be oppressed, but their descendants have basically joined the ranks of the oppressors, and thereby gained white privilege, and those benefits still come at the expense of the racially oppressed.
It is true that, as sociologist Jessie Daniels writes,
Once in the U.S., the Irish were [subjected] to negative stereotyping that was very similar to that of enslaved Africans and African Americans. The comic Irishman happy, lazy, stupid, with a gift for music and dance was a stock character in American theater. Drunkenness and criminality were major themes of Irish stereotypes, and the term "paddy wagon" has its etymological roots in the racist term paddy, a shortening of the name Patrick, which was used to refer to the Irish. However, this is also a gendered image and refers to Irish men, specifically. The masculine imagery of paddy hid the existence of Irish women, but did not protect Irish women from racism as they were often more exposed to such racism through domestic jobs. Women typically played a key role in maintaining Catholic adherence, which resonates closely with Irishness and difference. The model minority (if you will) stereotype of Irish-American women is of a Bridget, recognized for her hard work and contribution to Irish upward class mobility.
Simian, or ape-like caricature of the Irish immigrant was also a common one among the mainstream news publications of the day. . . For example, in 1867 American cartoonist Thomas Nast drew "The Day We Celebrate" a cartoon depicting the Irish on St. Patricks Day as violent, drunken apes. And, in 1899, Harpers Weekly featured a drawing of three mens heads in profile: Irish, Anglo-Teutonic and Negro, in order to illustrate the similarity between the Irish and the Negro (and, the supposed superiority of the Anglo-Teutonic). In northern states, blacks and Irish immigrants were forced into overlapping often integrated slum neighborhoods. Although leaders of the Irish liberation struggle (in Ireland) saw slavery as an evil, their Irish-American cousins largely aligned with the slaveholders.
And, following the end of slavery, the Irish and African Americans were forced to compete for the same low-wage, low-status jobs. So, the white negroes of the U.K. came to the United States and, though not enslaved, faced a status almost as low as that of recently-freed blacks.
So yeah, I get that. And I don't mean to downplay or disregard what amounts to racist (and religious) oppression that people from Ireland once faced, nor the hard work that helped Irish immigrants to step up into the ranks of white Americans.
However, I sometimes encounter citizens of the U.S. who claim to be "Irish" instead of white, when anyone looking at them would clearly see them as "white" instead of "Irish." I mean, just how many generations does this sort of "Kiss me, I'm Irish! Don't worry, I'm not white!" card last?
White people still routinely complain about people of color who supposedly "play the race card," but they rarely blame other whites for playing what amounts to the ethnicity card. That card is routinely used to dismiss discussions of today's racism -- "Yeah yeah yeah, my ancestors had it bad too! They were the 'blacks' of Europe, and they even got called black in the U.S.!" And that kind of talk usually leads to this kind of talk: "If my people could do it, why can't they too?" Never mind that those Irish who were called "black" and other slurs didn't have to stay black, and thus didn't have to struggle with all that black and other non-white Americans still have to face.
Do you encounter white people who make these kinds of selective, derailing appeals to the sufferings and hard work of their ancestors?
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stuff white people do: play the ethnicity card
Perry J Greenbaum: Verdi’s Nabucco: Chorus Of The Hebrew …
Posted By simmons on July 17, 2015
"Va, Pensiero" ("Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves") from Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco: Act III.
This is sung beautifully by the Westminster Choir, directed by John Finlay with the NBC Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Arturo Toscanini. It was recorded for a broadcast on NBC Radio on January 31, 1943, in the midst of the Second World War.
************* Nabucco (short for Nabucodonosor in Italian, or Nebuchadnezzar in English) is an 1842 opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi [1813-1901]. The lyrics of the famous choir chorus were written in Italian by Temistocle Solera [18151878], who took inspiration from Psalm 137 of the Hebrew Bible.
It is Verdis third opera and the one which is considered to have permanently established his reputation as a composer. Verdi composed Nabucco at a time when much sadness and grief engulfed his life. having personal losses in successive years, all before he turned thirty. First Verdi's two children had died in infancy: Virginia Maria in 1838, and Icilio Romano in 1839; and then his wife,Margherita, had died of encephalitis at age twenty-six in 1840.
Such might explain the haunting power and beauty behind this opera, and in particular the Chorus, "Va, Pensiero," of Act III, which resonates with humanitya call for freedom in the face of captivity. A freedom that is both corporeal and spiritual.
The setting is 587 BCE in Jerusalem and the defeat of the Israelites and the destruction of the First Temple, by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. The Isrealites are taken captive, with the result that they have been removed from their centre of gravity, the Temple and Jerusalem.
Despite all this, in the famous Chorus, the Hebrew slaves look forward in their despair to a better future, the hope of all people during a time of crisis. Below are the original Italian lyrics. I know there are various other versions, particularly to suit modern sensibilities. But it's always good to view the original. Va' Pensiero
Va, pensiero Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate; Va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli, ove olezzano tepide e molli l'aure dolci del suolo natal! Del Giordano le rive saluta, di Sionne le torri atterrate Oh mia Patria s bella e perduta! O membranza s cara e fatal! Arpa d'or dei fatidici vati, perch muta dal salice pendi? Le memorie nel petto raccendi, ci favella del tempo che fu! O simile di Solima ai fati, traggi un suono di crudo lamento; o t'ispiri il Signore un concento che ne infonda al patire virt!
English Translation:
Fly, thoughts, on wings of gold; go settle upon the slopes and the hills, where, soft and mild, the sweet air of our native land smells fragrant! Greet the banks of the Jordan and Zion's toppled towers. Oh, my country so lovely and lost! Oh, memory so dear and despairing! Golden harp of the prophetic seers, why do you hang mute upon the willow? Rekindle our heart's memories and speak of times gone by! Mindful of the fate of Jerusalem, either sound a song of sad lamentation, or else let the Lord give us the strength to bear our sufferings!
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Perry J Greenbaum: Verdi's Nabucco: Chorus Of The Hebrew ...
Perry J. Greenbaum
Posted By simmons on July 17, 2015
Humanity's Folly
Trinity Test: July 16, 1945, at5:29:45 a.m. (Mountain War Time)
Trinity Site: Alamogordo Test Range, Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death)desert.
Yield: 1921 Kilotons
Image Credit:Berlyn Brixner, LANL.
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
Bhagavad Gita
Only one nation has used atomic weapons; the United States of America; and only one nation has been the recipient of an atomic attack: Japan. The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945 (15-kiloton), and on Nagasaki (21-kiloton), on August 9, 1945. The result was 200,000 dead and injured, although precise figures are hard to obtain, given the ensuing chaos. Five days later, Japan surrenders, and the Second World War is over.
Looking at events from the past, it is easy to second-guess or criticize the decisions made. notably if they led to destructive consequencesthis can be a type of chronological snobbery, a kind of moral superiority, or a kind of rare wisdom. Yet, sometimes it is necessary to do so, if only to see how humanity thinks today, to see, given similar circumstances, if political leaders would arrive at similar or different decisions. These thought experiments remain such; and in the heat of real and genuine battle, the actions might differ from abstract thoughts. Such are the arguments, often valid, of realists.
We do know that there were little public expression of moral concerns then; President Truman and his generals deemed it necessary to end a war that was causing so many deaths to American soldiers. The atomic bomb was only another step in a horrible war, as somebody once put it. It is only later, after the act, that moral concerns come into light, and understandably so. Truman, the devout Christian, saw the only use of atomic weapons as morally justified, saying as much in a radio report on the Potsdam Conference to the American people on August 9, 1945:
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Perry J. Greenbaum
Israeli settlement – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted By simmons on July 17, 2015
Israeli settlements[1] are Israeli civilian communities[i] built on lands occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and in the Golan Heights. Settlements previously existed in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip until Israel evacuated the Sinai settlements following the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace agreement and from the Gaza Strip in 2005 under Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. Israel dismantled 18 settlements in the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, and all 21 in the Gaza Strip and 4 in the West Bank in 2005,[2] but continues to both expand its settlements and settle new areas in the West Bank,[3][4][5][6][7] despite pressure to desist from the international community.
The international community considers the settlements in occupied territory to be illegal,[8] and the United Nations has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[9][10] Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and communities in the Golan Heights, the latter of which has been annexed by Israel, are also considered settlements by the international community, which does not recognise Israel's annexations of these territories.[11] The International Court of Justice also says these settlements are illegal in a 2004 advisory opinion.[12][13][14] In April 2012, UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, in response to moves by Israel to legalise Israeli outposts, reiterated that all settlement activity is illegal, and "runs contrary to Israel's obligations under the Road Map and repeated Quartet calls for the parties to refrain from provocations."[15] Similar criticism was advanced by the EU and the US.[16][17] Israel disputes the position of the international community and the legal arguments that were used to declare the settlements illegal.[18]
The presence and ongoing expansion of existing settlements by Israel and the construction of settlement outposts is frequently criticized as an obstacle to the peace process by the Palestinians,[19] and third parties such as the OIC,[20] the United Nations,[21]Russia,[22] the United Kingdom,[23]France,[24] the European Union,[25] and the United States have echoed those criticisms.[21]
Settlement has an economic dimension, much of it driven by the significantly lower costs of housing in Jewish settlements compared to the cost of housing and living in Israel.[26] Government subsidies to settlers are double those to Israelis in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while settlers in isolated areas receive three times the Israeli national average.[27] On 30 June 2014, according to the Yesha Council, 382,031 Jewish settlers lived in the 121 officially recognised settlements in the West Bank, over 300,000 Israelis lived in settlements in East Jerusalem and over 20,000 lived in settlements in the Golan Heights.[28][29][30] In January 2015 the Israeli Interior Ministry gave figures of 389,250 Israelis living in the West Bank and a further 375,000 Israelis living in East Jerusalem.[31] Settlements range in character from farming communities and frontier villages to urban suburbs and neighborhoods. The four largest settlements, Modi'in Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit and Ariel, have achieved city status. Ariel has 18,000 residents, while the rest have around 37,000 to 55,500 each.
The 1967 Six-Day War left Israel in control of [32]
As early as 1967, Israeli settlement policy was started by the Labor government of Levi Eshkol. The basis for Israeli settlement in the West Bank became the Allon Plan,[33] named after its inventor Yigal Allon. It implied Israeli annexation of major parts of the Israeli-occupied territories, especially East Jerusalem, Gush Etzion and the Jordan Valley.[34] Yigal Allon became Levi Eshkol's successor as Prime Minister in 1969. The settlement policy of the next government, led by Yitzhak Rabin, was also derived from the Allon Plan.[35]
The first settlement was Kfar Etzion, in the southern West Bank,[33][36] although that location was outside the Allon Plan. Many settlements began as Nahal settlements. They were established as military outposts and later expanded and populated with civilian inhabitants.
The Likud government of Menahem Begin, from 1977, was more supportive to settlement in other parts of the West Bank, by organizations like Gush Emunim and the Jewish Agency/World Zionist Organization, and intensified the settlement activities.[35][37][38] In a government statement, Likud declared that the entire historic Land of Israel is the inalienable heritage of the Jewish people, and that no part of the West Bank should be handed over to foreign rule.[39] The government abrogated the prohibition from purchasing occupied land by Israelis; the "Drobles Plan", a plan for large-scale settlement in the West Bank meant to prevent a Palestinian state under the pretext of security became the framework for its policy.[40][A] The "Drobles Plan" from the World Zionist Organization, dated October 1978 and named "Master Plan for the Development of Settlements in Judea and Samaria, 1979-1983", was written by the Jewish Agency director and former Knesset member Matityahu Drobles. In January 1981, the government adopted a follow up-plan from Drobles, dated September 1980 and named "The current state of the settlements in Judea and Samaria", with more details about settlement strategy and policy.[41][B]
Since 1967, government-funded settlement projects in the West Bank are implemented by the "Settlement Division" of the World Zionist Organization.[42] Though formally a non-governmental organization, it is funded by the Israeli government and leases lands from the Civil Administration to settle in the West Bank. It is authorized to create settlements in the West Bank on lands licensed to it by the Civil Administration.[33] Traditionally, the Settlement Division has been under the responsibility of the Agriculture Ministry. Since the Olso Accords, it was always housed within the Prime Ministers Office (PMO). In 2007, it was moved back to the Agriculture Ministry. In 2009, the Netanyahu Government decided to subject all settlement activities to additional approval of the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister. In 2011, Netanyahu sought to move the Settlement Division again under the direct control of (his own) PMO, and to curtail Defense Minister Ehud Baraks authority.[42]
At the presentation of the Oslo II Accord on 5 October 1995 in the Knesset, PM Yitzhak Rabin expounded the Israeli settlement policy in connection with the permanent solution to the conflict. Israel wanted "a Palestinian entity, less than a state, which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank". It wanted to keep settlements beyond the Green Line including Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev in East Jerusalem. Blocs of settlements should be established in the West Bank. Rabin promised not to return to the 4 June 1967 lines.[43]
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Israeli settlement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History of the Israel Defense Forces – Wikipedia, the free …
Posted By simmons on July 17, 2015
The history of the Israel Defense Forces is intertwined with history of the establishment of the Haganah after which the latter disbanded.
Following the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which divided the British Mandate of Palestine, the country became increasingly volatile and fell into a state of civil war between the Jews and Arabs after the Arab residents rejected any plan that would allow for the creation of a Jewish state. In accordance with Plan Dalet the Haganah tried to secure the areas allotted to the Jewish state in the partition plan and the blocks of settlements that were in the area allotted to the Arab state.
David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948. His first order was the formation of the IDF The Israel Defense Forces.
The IDF was based on the personnel who had served in the Haganah and the Palmach and was declared as the only legal armed force in Israel. Another main source of manpower were the immigrants from Europe. Some of them Holocaust survivors and others veterans from World War II.
Following the declaration of independence in 1948, Arab armies invaded Israel. Egypt came from the south, Lebanon and Syria from the north, and Jordan from the east backed by Iraqi and Saudi troops.
In the initial phase of the war, the IDF was inferior in both numbers and armament.[citation needed] Due to a number of reasons, the Arabs never managed to exploit their superiority in numbers. The Israelis managed to successfully defend themselves in virtually all battlefields with the notable exception of East Jerusalem. After the first truce 11 June to 8 July, the Israelis managed to seize the initiative due to new troop enrollments and supplies of arms. Notable achievements of the IDF include the conquest of Eilat (Um Rashrash), Nazareth, and the capture of the Galilee and the Negev.
The war continued until 20 July 1949, when the armistice with Syria was signed. By then the IDF had managed to repel the Egyptians to the Gaza Strip while Jordan took over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
See 1949 Armistice Agreements.
The evolution from several underground militias to a state army is not simple. Many in the Haganah felt it was their High Command's natural role to become the leadership of the new army. The First Law of the Provisional State Council, Paragraph 18, of the Order of Government and Legal Arrangement stated that "the Provisional Government is empowered to set up armed forces on land, sea and air, which will be authorised to carry out all necessary and legal actions for the defence of the country."[citation needed] The sensitivity of this issue is indicated by the delay of two weeks before, on 26 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion, for the Provisional Government, published the Israel Defense Forces Ordinance Number 4. It covered the establishment of the IDF, conscription duties, the oath of allegiance, and the prohibition of any other armed forces. The execution of the Ordinance was assigned to the Minister of Defence, David Ben-Gurion. His priority was the dissolution of military organisations affiliated to political parties.
The army was officially set up on 31 May. This involved renaming existing Haganah and Palmach Brigades and bringing them under one central command. Its officers began to take their oaths of allegiance on 27 June.[1] The Stern Gang and Irgun came under central control in the following months.
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History of the Israel Defense Forces - Wikipedia, the free ...
Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict …
Posted By simmons on July 17, 2015
Contents
The conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Zionist (now Israeli) Jews is a modern phenomenon, dating to the end of the nineteenth century. Although the two groups have different religions (Palestinians include Muslims, Christians and Druze), religious differences are not the cause of the strife. The conflict began as a struggle over land. From the end of World War I until 1948, the area that both groups claimed was known internationally as Palestine. That same name was also used to designate a less well-defined Holy Land by the three monotheistic religions. Following the war of 19481949, this land was divided into three parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip.
It is a small areaapproximately 10,000 square miles, or about the size of the state of Maryland. The competing claims to the territory are not reconcilable if one group exercises exclusive political control over all of it. Jewish claims to this land are based on the biblical promise to Abraham and his descendants, on the fact that the land was the historical site of the ancient Jewish kingdoms of Israel and Judea, and on Jews need for a haven from European anti-Semitism. Palestinian Arab claims to the land are based on their continuous residence in the country for hundreds of years and the fact that they represented the demographic majority until 1948. They reject the notion that a biblical-era kingdom constitutes the basis for a valid modern claim. If Arabs engage the biblical argument at all, they maintain that since Abrahams son Ishmael is the forefather of the Arabs, then Gods promise of the land to the children of Abraham includes Arabs as well. They do not believe that they should forfeit their land to compensate Jews for Europes crimes against Jews.
The Land and the People
In the nineteenth century, following a trend that emerged earlier in Europe, people around the world began to identify themselves as nations and to demand national rights, foremost the right to self-rule in a state of their own (self-determination and sovereignty). Jews and Palestinians both started to develop a national consciousness and mobilized to achieve national goals. Because Jews were spread across the world (in diaspora), the Jewish national movement, or Zionist trend, sought to identify a place where Jews could come together through the process of immigration and settlement. Palestine seemed the logical and optimal place because it was the site of Jewish origin. The Zionist movement began in 1882 with the first wave of European Jewish immigration to Palestine.
At that time, the land of Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. This area did not constitute a single political unit, however. The northern districts of Acre and Nablus were part of the province of Beirut. The district of Jerusalem was under the direct authority of the Ottoman capital of Istanbul because of the international significance of the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem as religious centers for Muslims, Christians and Jews. According to Ottoman records, in 1878 there were 462,465 subject inhabitants of the Jerusalem, Nablus and Acre districts: 403,795 Muslims (including Druze), 43,659 Christians and 15,011 Jews. In addition, there were perhaps 10,000 Jews with foreign citizenship (recent immigrants to the country) and several thousand Muslim Arab nomads (Bedouin) who were not counted as Ottoman subjects. The great majority of the Arabs (Muslims and Christians) lived in several hundred rural villages. Jaffa and Nablus were the largest and economically most important towns with majority-Arab populations.
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, most Jews living in Palestine were concentrated in four cities with religious significance: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias. Most of them observed traditional, orthodox religious practices. Many spent their time studying religious texts and depended on the charity of world Jewry for survival. Their attachment to the land was religious rather than national, and they were not involved inor supportive ofthe Zionist movement that began in Europe and was brought to Palestine by immigrants. Most of the Jews who emigrated from Europe lived a more secular lifestyle and were committed to the goals of creating a modern Jewish nation and building an independent Jewish state. By the outbreak of World War I (1914), the population of Jews in Palestine had risen to about 60,000, about 36,000 of whom were recent settlers. The Arab population in 1914 was 683,000.
The British Mandate in Palestine
By the early years of the twentieth century, Palestine had become a trouble spot of competing territorial claims and political interests. The Ottoman Empire was weakening, and European powers were strengthening their grip on areas along the eastern Mediterranean, including Palestine. During 19151916, as World War I was underway, the British high commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, secretly corresponded with Husayn ibn Ali, the patriarch of the Hashemite family and Ottoman governor of Mecca and Medina. McMahon convinced Husayn to lead an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was aligned with Germany against Britain and France in the war. McMahon promised that if the Arabs supported Britain in the war, the British government would support the establishment of an independent Arab state under Hashemite rule in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine. The Arab revolt, led by Husayns son Faysal and T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), was successful in defeating the Ottomans, and Britain took control over much of this area during World War I.
But Britain made other promises during the war that conflicted with the Husayn-McMahon understandings. In 1917, the British foreign minister, Lord Arthur Balfour, issued a declaration (the Balfour Declaration) announcing his governments support for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. A third promise, in the form of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, was a secret deal between Britain and France to carve up the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire and divide control of the region.
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Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict ...
