RIVAL CLAIMS TO PALESTINE DATE FROM BIBLICAL TIMES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300060037-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: July 15, 2005
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: June 6, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Rival Claims to Palestine Date Fro 'j V6jhjal cTime
-App-pproved For cleric-2^ ^ 125- -C1.,41 Dp70B00338R00030- -5
By J. ANT$bNY LUKAS Jews felt that the Diaspora was (Arab refugees driven from their fbeen their own. More serious
The war in the Middle East is at the base of their miseries. homes in Palestine. Most of raids followed. Israel embarked
an outgrowth of conflictingj ? They believed that by return- them found refuge in Jordan, on a policy of reprisals.
claims that go back to Biblical ng to Palestine, and regaining' An intensification of raids on
days. Is Truce Units Established
contact with the soil that ave
g both sides resulted in the Israeli
When Abraham was 90 birth to Jewish oreg d, t gonl cu,- The armistice agreements es- invasion of Sinai on Oct. 29,
years ~ture and nationhood, whey could tablished four mixed armistice 1956.
old, according to the Bible, the regain their sense of dignity, commissions, each with repre-
- Lord appeared to him and said: I In 1903, Britain offered the sentatives of the countries in- by BMe inva was ritain sand F ance,ppwhich
"I will give unto thee, and to(Zionists an autonomous terri- volved and a United Nations hoped to use the
tory In Uganda, then a British chairman
thy seed after thee, . However, the com- opportunity
the land territory, but the Zionists missions were unable to keep nationalized yb t he Suez Cavan
wherein thou art a stranger, all Tturned it down, insisting on the peace. 1 y Egypt earlier in
th 1
Isaac, to whom the Jews trace
their origin. According to the
Bible, God confirmed his "ever-
lasting covenant" with Isaac
and through his son, Jacob,
with every succeeding genera-
tion of Jews.
However, Abraham had an-
other son named Ishmael, from
whom the Arabs claim their de-
scent. According to the Koran,
God promised Ishmael that he
and his seed would be dominant.
Today, the descendants of
Isaac and the descendents of
Ishmael are fighting for posses-
sion of the land of Canaan,
which the Arabs call by its Ro-
man name, Palestine, and the
Jews call Israel.
Dispute Between Cousins
This tangled, emotion-laden
dispute can perhaps best be
understood as a rivalry between
peoples who once regarded
themselves as close cousins, if
not as brothers.
According to one historian,
there was a time, not so long
ago, when there was "no such
thing as an Arab-Jewish prob-
lem, when relationships between
the two peoples were as nor-
mal as those between any cous-
ins."
Islam, the religion of the
Arabs, drew heavily on the
Judaic and Christian faiths. In
sharp contrast to the prevail-
ing polytheism of his day, XD-
hammed insisted on a singly.
omnipotent, omnipresent God.
The line of prophetic descent
leading to Mohammed included
not only Abraham and' Ishmael
but Adam, Noah, Moses and
David.
The destruction of the Bib-
lical states of Israel and Judah
by Assyria and Babylonia, in
the Sth to 6th centuries B. C.,
led to the Diaspora, the dis-
persion of Jews through the Old
World.
Jewish communities were re-
established in Jerusalem under
the Persians in the 5th cen-
tury B. C. The Maccabees estab-
lished a new Jewish state in
141 B. C., but yielded to Roman
rule.
Palestine came under Moslem
rule in the 7th century.
Beginnings of Zionism
The Jewish nationalist move-
ment known as Zionism had its
origins in the 19 ky~&diF
Eastern Europe,^q[ r ews
lived under the weight of pe-
riodic Russian pogroms. These
e and of Canaan, for an ever- Palestine. Palestinian refugees often 9The Israeli attack, was a site-
lasting possession" (Genesis As early as the eighteen stole across the borders at night cess. In seven days the Israelis
17:8). eighties, under Zionist auspices, to take fruit and vegetables routing 35000 E
Abraham had a son named Jewish settlers began returning from the fields that had ones ans s>gtian troops
unaer Ottoman rule in the 16th
century.
The Zionists saw their real
chance to regain the Palestine
when the Holy Land became
theater of fighting. Under a
British-French agreement of
1916, Britain was to take c
on-
trol of Palestine and Iraq after
the war while France t
k
oo
Lebanon and Syria.
Long before the war ended,
the Zionists began bringing
pressure on Britain to restore
Palestine as a Jewish homeland.
Balfour Declaration
-~-I01, ('i( tYt(_
The result of these pressures
was the 1917 Balfour Declara-
tion, named after the Foreign
Secretary, Arthur James Bal-
four, in which. Britain said she
would "view with favor the es-
tablishment in Palestine of a
National Home for the Jewish
People and will use their best
endeavors to facilitate the
achievement of this objective."
In an attempt to assuage the
Arabs, the declaration said it
was "clearly understood that
nothing shall be done which
may prejudice the civil and re-
ligious rights of the existing
non-Jewish communities in Pal-
estine."
Under British civil rule, es-
tablished in 1920 under a man-
date of the League of Nations,
Arab extremist attacks on Jews
were often matched by Jewish
terrorism.
Tension rose so high that a
British Royal Commission in
1937 declared the mandate
un-
workable and recomn ended the
partition of Palestine into an
Arab state, comprising two-
thirds of the teritory, a Jewish
state. This formula formed the
basis of the partition plan
adopted ten years later by the
United Nations General Assem-
bly. The Aralbs refused to rec-
ognize the partition.
Israel Wins Independence
As soon as the British man-
date ended and the state of Is-
rael was proclaimed in May,
1948, the neighboring Arab
states invaded Israel. After
several abortive truces, the war
ended Jan. 7, 1949.
Under armistice agree-m
t
en
s,
Israel added 2,380 square miles,
mostly in the Negev and West!
Galilee, to the 5,760 square rnilF~s
&h290&&7Q5 tarEIA-RDP70B00338R000300060037-9
? a ions partition, I