Why did the victors of WWII decide to give the Jews the most historically contentous real estate as a country?

Question

Of all the places... why couldn't they have cut out a chunk of France, Serbia, or Germany even? Why did they have to raid the middle east hornets nest and give them the most valued land? Was their any logic or was it just misguided politics. I'm hoping for a history lesson here but best guesses are welcome too.

Great answers so far - thank you for your responses

Answer 1

Forget about bible stories, this is politics.
Until 1948 there was never a modern state called Israel.
For several centuries up until WW1 Palestine was part of the Turkish Empire and formed the province of Syria together with present day Lebanon and Jordan.
During WW1 when Britain fought Turkey they promised the Arabs in the Middle East political independence after the war in return for their help.
Britain was also in desperate need of financial help to fund the war and turned to the jewish banking community in America and Europe for assistance.
This they received but at the price of another promise.
The people who insisted on this promise were a group of influential religious Jews in Europe who were agitating for a new state of israel based on Jerusalem.
These people were called Zionists and their political philosophy was called Zionism.
This promise was called the Balfour Declaration and promised the Jews a national home in Palestine (not a separate state) as long as the civil and religious rights of the indigenous population were not affected.
The population at this time consisted mainly of muslim and christian arabs, with the jews very much in the minority.
So you see at this time in WW! the british government had already made two separate promises to two groups about land which they didn't even own.
At the end of WW1 Turkey was defeated and the arab forces rode into Damascus which was the capital of the province of Syria.
The arabs were then betrayed by Britain and France who had secretly agreed to carve up the Middle East into their own spheres of influence. This was known as the Sykes-Picot agreement.
This agreement was ratified by the new League of Nations in 1919 and Britain got Palestine, Transjordan (present day Jordan) and Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) - France got Syria (reduced in size) and the new state of Lebanon.
Arabia (present day Saudi Arabia) was allowed to be independent
under King Saud - no oil had been discovered there at that time and it was thought to be of no interest.
The British government did not fulfill any of its obligations to the Jews and Arabs and after WW1 there was a lot of friction between the indigenous population and immigrants from Europe who were Jewish. This was suppressed with force by the British with the arabs usually coming off worse.
After the Nazi holocaust of jews and other minorities in WW2, the pressure of surviving European jews trying to enter Palestine became unstoppable and led to much civil unrest.
The incoming jews formed terrorist gangs, the most notorious of these was the Stern gang, and proceeded to attack the indigenous population and the British forces in an attempt to take over the country.
They carried out many atrocities such as the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem (90 dead) and the taking and killing of hostages.
Land was taken from the local population by force and any objection resulted in the massacre of whole villages.
The British government was unable to stop this wave of terror and eventually withdrew their forces from Palestine.
The jewish terrorists declared the State of Israel in 1948 with many of the people who had taken part in some of the worst atrocities becoming ministers in subsequent governments.
They succeded due to support from the USA who were hostile to British interests in the Middle East and were aware of the powerful jewish voting block during presidential elections.
This support still continues and the original population is now confined to small areas of land in Gaza and the West Bank under constant threat of renewed terror from Israel.
Naturally they do what they can to fight back but they don't have the financial and military advantages of American support.
The Jews base their claim to this land to ancient settlement rights but if the whole world emulated this then we would all have to change our address and displace the present inhabitants.
Few people live where their ancestors lived thousands of years before.

Answer 2

Let me aid you get your info instantly right here... The persecution of the Jews by means of the Nazis began good earlier than 1939. The nature and quantity of the persecution did not turn out to be obvious till after World War II formally began on September one million, 1939, while the Nazis invaded Poland. Hitler's transfer to take over Europe placed Germany beneath so much higher scrutiny. Why did not anybody placed a give up to it? There had been a number of matters occurring. For starters, the European leaders had been reluctant to have interaction in navy movement when you consider that many European nations had been nonetheless feeling the after-results of World War I, so they did not wish to do whatever that would begin a battle that might re-break what that they had re-bulit. Secondly, the Third Reich significantly downplayed the persecution of the Jews, such a lot of in Europe and the U.S. had no notion simply how unhealthy it was once. The last piece of the puzzle is our human nature to feel that some thing just like the Holocaust would certainly not occur. Much of the arena had a "blind spot" to Nazi Germany with ease when you consider that they although this type of horror was once not possible. Too unhealthy they had been unsuitable...

Answer 3

The state of Israel was not born out of WW2. The Balfour Declaration of November 2nd 1917 gave the United Nations the mandate to create a homeland for Jews that were scattered around Transjordan: Israel, Jordan, Palestine and the West Bank. The British government owned most of the land previously.
Boaz.

Answer 4

First, the Jews want to go back to their "holy land".
Second, the Balfour Declaration made during the WWI - supported the right of the Jews to return to Palestine, in return for the Jewish support against Germany & Turkey.
Finally, from the Western Powers' perspective it is giving away something that never belong to them anyway. Unlike your suggestion of giving away a province in Germany or France.

Answer 5

Most valued land??? Until the Jews returned, it was completely desolate. You should read Hemmingways description of it!! No one wanted it until the Jews returned, and the land began to bloom again as promised in scripture. Also, the Jews would not have accepted a home country anywhere else. Jerusalem is so ingrained in their lives, that at Passover they would conclude their sabbath with the prayer.."Next year, in Jerusalem". They did that for thousands of years.

Answer 6

They were given the area becuase it was where they lived 2000 years ago. They did not give them a section of France or another country because no nation wanted to give up any territory. The area was a colony of the British Empire so they forced out the people who had lived there for 2000 years.

Answer 7

To correct to David C, the Muslim Arab population of the area was triple that of the Jews

and to answer the question, mostly because of misguided politics, jewish lobbying, and that Europe wanted the Jews OUT

Answer 8

The Jews were thrown out of what is now called Palestine 2,000 years ago by the Romans. They wanted to go back. We let them.

Answer 9

Because that is where the Jews are traditionally/originally from. Granted, it would have been better to give them New Jersey, but what fun would that be?

Answer 10

perhaps, knowing full well what was more likely to occur than not; i.e. what is currently occuring, it was their "little joke" on the jews. not completely outside the realm of liklihood, eh?