Basic HTML Version
"What
We
Need
Most
Is
Peace"
A
Palestinian
SpeaksOut
F
rom time to time, the editorial
staff of
The Plain Truth
endeavors to bring to the attention
of its audience the views and
opinions of /eading personalities
who have, or wi/1 have, a
significant impact upon the world
in the months and years ahead.
One such individual is Adnan
Abu Odeh, former Minister of
Information and now Minister to
the Royal Court of the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan. Mr. Abu
Odeh is a frequent traveler with
His Majesty King Hussein. The
following vigorous address was
presented in the Ambassador
Auditorium, Pasadena, California,
before 1,200 assembled guests on
the occasion of His Majesty King
Hussein's 1985 visit to the U.S.
1
n my talk l am going to ad–
dress two historical aspects of
the Middle East conf1ict, and
one political.
The historical aspects are related
to the questions: How did the Middle
East conflict arise and how has it
developed? While the political side is
to deal with the situation as it is now.
Why should I go back to history?
Because one cannot really under–
stand the present complex situation
without going back into history.
The 19th century, in the West,
was the golden age of colonization.
Great Britain was spreading all over
the world. The French, the Por–
tuguese, the Spanish, the Dutch,
later even tbe Germans and the Ital–
ians, spread abroad. Al! these ecuo–
tries were Christian.
There was a Muslim country at
that time, wbich was an extension of
the Middle Ages and maintained ls–
lamic domination over sorne parts of
tbe world. That was the Ottoman
Empire. During that golden age of
power, of colonization, strength and
imperialism, the Ottoman Empire
was called Old Turkey.
Turkey at that time was
ruling al! Arab Asia. What
we know now as Israel,
Jordan, Palestine , Leb–
anon, Syria, Iraq, parts of
Saudi Arabia, North Yemen, were
the limits of Turkey's domination in
Asia in terms of geography. In the
previous century the Turks held
North Africa. And, as you know; one
of their sultan's troops reached as far
as Vienna.
Turkey in the 19th century faced
Christian Europe, which had started
the Industrial Revolution. The bal–
ance changed in this world with the
Industrial Revolution and as a result
the Ottoman Empire started to re–
treat in favor of Christian countries.
Any major European country was
able to put an end to the Ottoman
Empire in the 19th century. But be–
cause of the rivalry among the Eu–
ropeans, Ottoman Turkey continued
to live until World War
l.
That's
when what is called Old Turkey
ceased.
During her old age the European
rivals did not choose to put an end to
Turkey until it had been ripe. The
European countries were competing
among themselves over the Jegacy
they would get from Turkey.
Among those wno thought of get–
ting their share of the legacy of
Turkey were the Jews of Europe. In
Christian Europe the Jews were not
always treated well , especially in
East Europe. That is a well known
fact. In thinking of the future their
leading intellectuals sought to find a
place where they could build a Jew–
ish national borne.
The world was spread before
them. Sorne suggested to them to go
to Uganda in Africa, sorne to other
places. But the leaders prevailed
upon the others and insisted that the
place should be Palestine.
It
was
more attractive since there is a his–
torical attachment to this part of the
world. It is mentioned in the Bible as
the promised land. The leaders of the
Jews could mobilize them around
this objective much better than to
mobilize them around a national
borne in Africa or Latín America, for
example.
So they started to work. Their
leaders succeeded in establishing
very good relationships with the
British leadership at that time. Dur–
ing World War 1, when Turkey was
being defeated and retreating to
Turkey proper, the Zionist leaders
were capable of having the British
give what is known in tbe history of
the Palestinian conf1ict as the Bal–
four Declaration. That was on
November 2, 1917.
Tbe Balfour Declaration was tan–
tamount to pledge on behalf of the
Britisb government at that time to
help the Jews build their national
home in Palestine. The British, with
the French, divided the booty of the
war. The British made the point that
Palestine should be part of their
share of the booty. So Palestine, Jor–
dan and Iraq carne under Britisb
mandate. Syria and Lebanon carne
under French mandate.
That's again history. This division
later on was legitimized by the
League of Nations when they gave
the British and the French this right
of mandating these areas.
To make their promises to the
Zionist leaders materialize, the first
one whom the British appointed to
be high commissioner in Palestine
was a Briton named Herbert Samuel,
who was a Jewish Zionist.
With his appointment the British
policy of building a Jewisb bomeland
in Palestine started. As a result of
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