Calculated Maneuver

Yet, this promise clashed with Britain’s earlier commitments to Arab leaders during the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, in which independence was assured in exchange for Arab support against the Ottomans. Thus, the Balfour Declaration sowed the seeds of contradiction and conflict, pledging the same land to two peoples.

It was Christian Europe, not the Muslim world, that persecuted Jews most violently. Yet, in the modern narrative shaped by Zionist lobbying, Muslims are cast as eternal enemies of Jews.

The rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany escalated antisemitism to genocidal levels. Between 1941 and 1945, the Holocaust claimed an estimated six million Jewish lives, though figures are debated. Romania, as noted earlier, was the second-largest perpetrator, with atrocities rivaling those in German-occupied Poland.

For Jews who survived, Europe had become a graveyard of memories. Communities that had existed for centuries were annihilated. Survivors faced hostility even after the war; pogroms erupted in Poland in 1946, showing that antisemitism persisted. Many Jews sought refuge in the United States, where they would gradually build strong influence in media, academia, politics, and business. Others looked towards Palestine, where Zionist organizations had already established settlements and militias.

The Zionist movement, formally launched by Theodor Herzl in the late 19th century, argued that Jews could never be safe in Europe and must establish their nation-state. Theodor Herzl initially considered various locations, including Argentina and Uganda. Yet Palestine ultimately became the focus, framed as a return to the historic land of the ancient Jewish kingdoms.

This historical justification, however, was selective: virtually all modern states occupy land that once belonged to other people. Yet, unlike other nations, Jews claimed Palestine not merely as a homeland but as an eternal right, disregarding the fact that it was already inhabited by Palestinians. Palestine, the site of ancient Israelite kingdoms, was chosen not only for historical symbolism but also because it offered legitimacy to the idea of “return.”

Yet, this claim ignored modern political realities. By the 19th century, Palestine was overwhelmingly Arab in population—Muslim and Christian alike. The logic of reclaiming “ancestral lands” could have been applied elsewhere too—should Italians reclaim the lands of the Roman Empire? Should the English claim Normandy? The Zionist case was unique in that Western powers, seeking to rid themselves of the “Jewish problem,” supported it.

Palestinians, who had no role in Europe’s antisemitism, suddenly found themselves labeled as obstacles to a grand European solution.

After World War II, momentum accelerated. In 1947, the United Nations voted for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. While Jews accepted, Arabs rejected, arguing it was unjust to partition their land to solve Europe’s crimes.

History, however, offers ironies. When Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, it was the Ottoman Empire that welcomed them.

On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence. Within hours, five Arab states invaded. For Israelis, it was a war of survival; for Palestinians, it was the Nakba (catastrophe), in which over 700,000 were expelled or fled. Entire villages were depopulated, and refugees scattered to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and beyond. Thus, the creation of Israel meant liberation for one people but dispossession for another.

The conflict did not end in 1948. In 1956, Israel, alongside Britain and France, attacked Egypt after Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.

During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel launched preemptive strikes against Egypt and Syria, seizing the Sinai Peninsula, West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and Golan Heights. This transformed Israel into an occupying power. In the 1973 Arab-Israel war (Also called the Yom Kippur War), Egypt and Syria attacked to reclaim lost lands. Though militarily inconclusive, it paved the way for negotiations. Following the 1979 Camp David Accords, Egypt became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but Palestinians were sidelined. Each war deepened Palestinian statelessness and regional instability.

As Jewish migration to the U.S. swelled after World War II, Jewish communities consolidated influence across key sectors—finance, media, academia, and politics. Over decades, this influence translated into powerful lobbying, particularly through organizations like AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). Some argue that U.S. foreign policy is no longer entirely democratic but disproportionately shaped by neoconservative elites aligned with Israel. The Iraq War of 2003, justified on false claims of weapons of mass destruction, is often cited as an example of wars fought in Israel’s strategic interest rather than America’s.

In this post-truth era narrative, Arabs and Muslims have been portrayed as existential threats—terrorists, tyrants, or irrational fanatics. The Palestinian cause, once central, has been increasingly marginalized in American discourse. For Palestinians, the creation of Israel meant permanent exile. Refugee camps became semi-permanent settlements in Lebanon, Jordan, and Gaza. Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, justified on biblical grounds, further entrenched occupation. The cycle of resistance and repression hardened attitudes. To Israelis, Palestinian resistance appeared as terrorism; to Palestinians, it was a liberation struggle. The labeling of Middle Eastern leaders as “tyrants” often serves geopolitical ends. Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, and Bashar al-Assad—all were targeted as enemies, yet their downfall plunged nations into chaos. Syria’s destruction and Iraq’s destabilization illustrate the catastrophic human cost of regime-change interventions. Meanwhile, Israel’s occupation and settlement building receive far less scrutiny.

History, however, offers ironies. When Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, it was the Ottoman Empire that welcomed them. In Muslim lands, Jews often thrived as protected minorities (dhimmis). Medieval Spain under Muslim rule saw ‘convivencia’—Jews, Christians, and Muslims coexisting in relative harmony.

It was Christian Europe, not the Muslim world, that persecuted Jews most violently. Yet, in the modern narrative shaped by Zionist lobbying, Muslims are cast as eternal enemies of Jews.

Today, Israel stands as a regional power, backed by the United States, but at the cost of perpetual conflict with its neighbors. The real motive behind its creation was not simply Jewish survival but also Western strategy—an outpost of influence in the Middle East, built on the displacement of Palestinians.

The establishment of Israel was not merely a humanitarian response to Jewish suffering but a calculated geopolitical maneuver by European and later American powers. By creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, Western nations simultaneously absolved themselves of responsibility for centuries of antisemitism and secured a strategic ally in the Middle East. The consequences endure: wars, refugee crises, terrorism, and an ever-deepening chasm between peoples.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is thus not simply a clash of religions or cultures but the product of imperial strategy, dispossession, and selective morality.

The true motive behind the carving of Israel, therefore, was less about justice for Jews and more about reshaping the Middle East in ways that served Western—and later Israeli—interests. Until this reality is acknowledged, peace in the region will remain elusive.