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Al Nakba
Author says, in this alternate history our point of departure is the
Axis victory in North Africa. Subsequently quotations from various sources
include a number of significant changes to reflect this modified reality.
 In
1948 on this day the All-Palestine Government was established in Gaza under the
leadership of the Grand High Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni ~
The decision to form the Government of All-Palestine in Gaza, and the creation
of armed forces under its control, furnished the leaders of the Nazis with the
means of divesting themselves of direct responsibility for the prosecution of
the war and of withdrawing their armies from Palestine. Whatever the long-term
future of the Arab government of Palestine, its immediate purpose, as conceived
by its German sponsors, was to provide a focal point of opposition to Irgun and
serve as an instrument for frustrating the Zionist paramilitary forces ambition
to create a State of Israel
(© Shaim, 2001)
Seven years earlier
al-Husayni met in Berlin with
the architect of the Holocaust
SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer, Karl Adolf Eichmann. On November 6 1941 they laid down a
joint plan for the elimination (Beseitigung) of the Jewish National Home in
Palestine. Of course al-Husayni was no Nazi, and indeed Hitler's racist
philosophies would appear to preclude such an alliance. Put simply, and by
process of elimination alone, the Palestinian leadership turned to the Germans
because the Zionists had - they believed - the British. And the British appeared
to be facing imminent collapse. So through ruthless expediency and desperation,
the Grand Mufti had determined that the Final Solution represented the key to
the struggle for Arab Independence in Palestine. And timing also. Because
even if the Nazis were subsequently defeated, the presence of their forces in
the Middle East offered a unique opportunity for ethnic cleansing, surely the
platform for a future Palestinian state. In reaching this evil conclusion, al-Husayni
was cynically repeating the action of countless local rulers who over five
thousand years had collaborated with occupying forces to build their own future
hegemony.
So when Rommel managed to break through the British lines in Egypt in May
1943, a special corps of Einsatz commandos were dispatched by Eichmann to
exterminate the Jews in Palestine. Al-Husayni commented that ~
Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to
eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler
[pictured] for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem
in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the
scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer
I got was: 'The Jews are yours'
Watch
the Youtube Clip
The response from Zionist paramilitary organisations in Palestine was to
concentrate resources into Irgun, shorthand for HaIrgun HaTzva'i HaLe'umi
BeEretz Yisra'el meaning
National Military Organization in the Land of Israel
.
Irgun was the armed expression of the nascent ideology of Revisionist Zionism
founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He expressed this ideology as
every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter
the Arabs and the British; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state
Over time the focus of their actions shifted from the Palestinian Arabs to the
British and now to the new German occupation forces.
A bitter five year struggle ensued, perhaps symbolised by the Irgun bombing
of the German
Headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem which killed ninety-one
staff on on 22 July 1946.
And now events took an
unexpected turn ~
Transfer - or expulsion or ethnic cleansing - was never an explicit part of the
Zionist program, even among its more extreme elements. The first Arabs who left
their homes did so on their own, expecting to return once the Jews lost or the
fighting stopped. The Jewish mayor of Haifa begged Arab residents to stay; Golda
Meir, then head of the Jewish Agency Political Department, called the exodus
'dreadful' and even likened it to what had befallen the Jews in Nazi-occupied
Europe. While Jewish atrocities - notably, the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin
- were very real, apocalyptic Arab broadcasts induced further flight and
depicted as traitors those who chose to stay behind.
(© New York Times, 2008)
To be continued
Author's Notes
We acknowledge that extensive use of original content has been repurposed
especially from Wikipedia
and linked sources.
Steve Payne
Editor of
Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In
History That Never Occurred Today.
Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit
differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore
that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower,
aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning
his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.
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