India and Israel Against Islamic Terror

CHAPTER
11 THE STRUGGLE AND THE HOME COMING 143
the$e young enthusiasts was defined in 1923 in a statement
that:
”Chalutzim” is not sacrifice but fulfillment; the ”chalutz” is

an ”Individualist” and driven by man’s own desire; the

”chalutz” is the socialist (commune-man) par excellence, and

finally that individualism and collectivism emerge in an

ideological impulse that harmonizes the polarity of Body

and Spirit, Being and Value.”
Joseph Trumpeldor, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War
who settled in Palestine in 1912, was the most articulate votary
of all that ”chalutzim” stood for. He established a Labour Brigade
in the early twenties including a group of ”chalutizists” aiming to
convert the entire country into one great ’Kibbutz’ for agriculture
and industry, operated by its members. The idea, however,
underwent a change as a central authority was established in
Israel and the labours and the enthusiasm of these zealots turned
into making a new nation state. Karl Marx and socialists including
even David Ben Curion modified the model of Russian socialism
into a practical patriotic central national authority, representing
the State. There were many strands of idealism among the early
pioneers and they differed violently on the matters of state,
personal property, commune labour and physical time. But they
had one thing in common-love of the land and to make a
home for themselves with physical work. The Utopian dream of
these commune enthusiasts midwifed many settlements; one of
them Bittania boasted of the most open society, called
comrnunators. Weizmann, one of the founding fathers
^entioned earlier, was fascinated by these communards and
Or>ce remarked that, ”To be a Zionist it is not necessary to be
a
, r° and often primitive. Arthur Koestler, a profound writer of
.Jst|rnes, left his studies in 1926 at the University of Vienna and
”led the commune at Hepbzibah. He was shocked at the
Q^ shackled conditions of the commune which resembled those
j0 ^ poorest in Europe. In spite of differing views, the
tL fktion of the Jewish ideology was laid by the First Aliya in
Blowing terms: (1) the party system- its unique centrality in
144 INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAPTER 11
political life; (2) strong belief in equality; (3) continuing informality

and simplicity in manners, dress, and language; (4) agrarian

ritual; (5) belief in voluntary action; (6) the notion of an official

(Zionist) ”state ideology.”
Although the Jewish society is widely split in its views on

almost everything, from temporal to spiritual and this diversity

has given rise to many political parties from extreme left to ieftof-center,

centre, right and extreme right, the fusion of these

parties in 1965 guaranteed that what began in 1930 will

characterise Israel’s political life for many many years. The political

machine set up by the founding fathers has proved so powerful

and self-actuated that all the differences sink in the overall

national interest. Today Histadrut Labour Union is the most

powerful instrument of social activities and social justice in Israel,

comprising 80 percent of its population. The public transport

system is controlled by a Drivers’ Cooperative under the

Histadrut. So also are the other social sectors of economy

including a vast array of different industries. Construction and

investment companies, mines, banks, credit finance, and foreign

trade comprising 40 percent of the total economy are owned by

the”Commonwealth of Labour” represented by Histadrut under

the benevolent gaze of government. Government controlled

Kibbutz and the cooperative moshavs represent two-thirds of

the total farm population as well as an increasing share of the

country’s manufactured products and cybernetics based
industries.
inUUbllics. . .
Ideology forms the life-breath of the Israeli social l.te

shrewd observer once remarked: ”removing ideology from brae

polities would be more than depriving the traveller ot h*

roadmap, it would mean divesting him of most of the land c

and much of his vehicle as well.... Higher living standard an

re ,-t^ned technocrats are not likely to alter charac^^

are such a basic part of modern Israel s heritage. A basic tho g

thai permeates all sections of Jews ,n Israel rs that dunnfe

Second World War when the greatest calamities had bt ^

the Jewish people in their long and arduous history, ve |f

non-Jews and not a single sovereign state actively came to
CHAPTER 11 THE STRUGGLE AND THE HOME COMING 145
rescue or showed any intention to save them. It is thus not easy

to completely understand the implications of this on the evolving

national temper. Jewish sense of isolation, therefore, is not

unfounded.The terrifying consequences of this feeling against

the background of the holocaust has generated a pessimism of

encirclement and utter loneliness in the world, so aptly described

below:
”When our children under the gallows wept,

The world its silence Kept...”
This Idneliness is the root cause of Israeli’s attitude which seems

unduly stubborn to the outside world. Pious admonishments

from outside onlookers have very little meaning, and they further

drive even the most tolerant Israeli into a quarantine against

foreign criticism. A harassed people under the logic of convulsive

circumstances at last came into their own. A planned orderly

exodus turned into a desperate bid for escape. Always and ever

running away from their historic fate, a total dependence upon

the shifting shades of tolerance of others, Israelis knew no calm

and rest. With conflict staring them in the face there was no light

at the end of the tunnel. Fight for survival seemed to be the fate

that their God had ordained for them. The return of the Jews

to their ancient patrimony is aptly described in the following

three lines, a saying from Talmud, a song of the pioneers, and

a statement by Herzl:
”If I am not for myself, who then is for me?

We came to build the land to be rebuilt by it....

If you will it, it is no fairy tale.”
Be that as it may, the saga of immigration into Eretz Israel ”The

land of Israel” reads like a Creek epic and holds a candle to the

rest of the world as to how a miniscule society of Jews coming

from different lands all over the world converged on to their

promised land in search of shelter and home. They came from

a” sides and by all possible means, openly and under cover,

through small craft boats, merchant vessels, even liners but mostly

stealthily landing at night on inhospitable seashores, policed and

Patrolled by the officials of the British Mandate. Many died in
146
INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAPTER 11
the way, many were sunk in the sea and many starved to death

But those who made it to their land had the burning zeal to

make Palestine their home. There is no example in the world

history where people in driblets from all corners of the world

undertook long sea voyages to reach their distant home. They

came from America, and they came from Germany, Poland,

Central Europe and Russia. The first Jew settler in the Eretz Israel

was Ahron David Gordon, who formed the vanguard of the first

Aliya. Most of these early immigrants spoke Yiddish, a German

Jewish dialect spoken in Russia and East Europe, i.e., Polanc,

Latavia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Bukhara. Along with these were

also the Sephardic Jews coming from Spain, and distant lands.

Wave after wave of this immigration (Aliya) in three distinct

phases, i.e., First, Second and Third Aliya moved into Israel and

this Aliya was not completed till the end of the 30s.
One of the important features of the Jewish migration to

Palestine is the help rendered by Hagannah, the Jewish SelfDefense

Organisation which conducted rescue operations for

the European Jews and smuggled arms inside the ghettos. There

were one million such Jews in Hungary, Romania and

Czechoslovakia. One Hanah Szenes, a daring Jewish paratrooper

in Hungary, paid the price for his endeavours to smuggle out the

Jews. He was caught and summarily shot. Hagannah’s assault

force called Palamach, the youth wing was commanded by Yigal

Allon. Every member of Palamach had to take the following

oath:
”That this weapon which has been entrusted to me by tie
Hagannah in the land of Israel. I, shall fight with for my
country against enemies of my people without surrrender,
without flinching and with complete dedication.”
Though the Jewish immigration in Palestine before 1917 was
resented by the Arabs, they did not actively oppose it till the
inflow increased after 1920s and became a torrent in 1930s,
which made them feel hedged in. The Jewish population in
Palestine before 1840 was a mere 24,000 most of whom were
very poor and lived in small ghettos of Safed, Tiberius, Hebron
and Jerusalem. They subsisted mainly on charitable gifts from
CHAPTER 11 THE STRUGGLE AND THE HOMC COMING 147
abroad and led a pious and dedicated life. The pogroms in

Russia and East Europe in the late 19th century doubled the

Jewish immigration to 50,000, their favoured place being

Jerusalem. Increasing with each successive Aliya, the Jewish

population in Jerusalem city alone rose to 100,000 while Muslims

stood at 40,000 and the remaining 25,000 being Christians of

Arab and European origin. Thereafter, the Jewish population

increased steadily by about 10,000 each year to 174,000 in

1932. However, this was too meager for the consummation of

the Jewish state, since the Jews represented only 23 percent of

the total estimated population of Palestine at 760,000. However,

the flood gates were opened due to mass migration of the Jews

from Europe under the holocaust of Hitler’s anti-Semetic laws

and oppression in Russia. As a result, from 1933 to 1936 the

Jewish population doubled to 370,000 forming 28 percent of

the total. In the next 13 years, the flood gates opened wider

and the Jewish population doubled to 600,000 or 32 percent

of the total population in 1947. While the Jewish population did

increase between 1917 to 1947, the Arab population during

the same period practically doubled from 620,000 to 1,300,000.
After the First World War and the establishment of the

British Mandate, there were three Arab organisations of political

significance in the State of Palestine. The most important was the

Muslim Christian Association (MCA), which stands for Al-Jamiyya

al-lslamiyya al-Musihiyya. They had more than 200 members in

1919 and aimed at firmly opposing Jewish immigration into

Palestine, the idea of Zionism and the creation of a Jewish

National Home on their soil. They demanded unconditional

independence for Greater Syria and internal self-government for

Palestine as part of the broader Syrian State. The other two

organisations were Muntada meaning a literary society, exclusively

Muslim with 600 members. The third being al- Basduak- Arabi

(the Arab Club) also exclusively Muslim and Arab with 500

members, demanded self-goverenment of Palestine under Greater

tyria with minor changes from the demands of M.C.A. Then

there was the Supreme Muslim Council (S.M.C.) which prevented

any land purchase by the Jews by bringing them under Waqf’s

Jurisdiction.
148 INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAPTER 11
^^^^^^•^
Arabs strongly resisted the Jewish influx by force. They had

already rejected the United Nations’ Resolution of 1947 for the

partition of Palestine which was logical and fair to both the

parties. However, the Arabs refused to accept it. In the U.N

resolution both Arabs and Jewish States were to be part of

Palestine while Jerusalem was designated as a ”corpus separatum”

to be governed by an international administration. This satisfied

neither the Jews nor the Arabs. While disliking this geographic

split and award of fertile lands to the Arabs, David Ben-Gurion

was prepared to accept the plan as a price for international

support. The Arabs, however, refused to concede even an inch

of territory and the five surrounding Arab nations prepared for

war. The British did their best to control the events. But the

nationalistic rivalry of the two combatants drained their resources

and they had to leave the country.
British policy in Palestine was born out of their war aim to

defeat the Turkish empire in the Middle East with the help of the

Arabs. While Gen. Allenby was in overall command, a

diversionary attack by the famous Lawrence of Arabia with his

Arab contingent occupied the Gulf of Aquaba. This was the

background of the traditional friendship between the British and

the Arabs to oppose Jewish migration during the ”period of the

mandate. Arab attacks on Jewish settlements, or Kibbitzun as

they were called, continued under the benevolent gaze of the

Mandate authorities. In all propriety, Courts of Inquiry were

held to investigate and punish the guilty But this was a mere

eyewash. The sufferers were always the Jews. While Arab hostility

and active British connivance was aiming to shut the gates for

the immigrant Jews, the pressure from Hitler’s butchery was too

strong to deter the immigrants. To quote Begin:
”Soon any dormant belief that the sealed frontiers of Europe

would prevent their escape was shattered. The Irgun Zvai

Leumi, which in association with the Zionist-Revisionist Party

and the Betar youth organisation, had brought manv

thousands of ”illegal” immigrants into the country, never

halted its activities. The British authorities exerted themselves

to horrify the world by gruesome descriptions of the
””””””TER ^ ’H£ STRUGGLE AND THE