On November 2, 1917 the Balfour Declaration was signed promising the Jews a return to their ancient homeland in Palestine after centuries of survival in a mostly hostile Diaspora.
This event was followed by unspeakable British betrayal and treachery.
In 1923 the British deeded 75% of the proposed Jewish Palestinian homeland to form an Arab Palestinian Nation of “Trans-Jordan,” meaning “across the Jordan River.” The remaining 25% of the original Palestinian territory (west of the Jordan River) was to be the Jewish Palestinian homeland. The British turned a blind eye to the ensuing Jihad terror against the Jews of Palestine.
After every violent riot against the Jews, the British would appoint a “Royal Commission”, to investigate ambushes and murder of Jews- ransacking and torching of homes, synagogues and farms, firebombing of buses and markets. Their conclusions always favored the Arab complaints and suggested limiting Jewish immigration. The culmination was Chamberlain’s 1939 White Paper.Desperate Zionists chartered ships to bring Jews to Palestine as their conditions worsened throughout Europe. The British attacked and rerouted most of them.
The most appalling in a series of British duplicity was the sinking of the vessel “Sturma” which was forced itno the harbor of Istanbul where passengers were not permitted to disembark in spite of their horrific conditions. In that episode the ship sank killing 769 passengers of whom 70 were children under the age of 13 and 250 women.
Europe’s Jews were trapped.
On November 2, 1944 Auschwitz began its systematic gassing of inmates and exterminated two thirds of European Jewry- one out of every three Jews in the world.
Only four years later the State of Israel was reborn. The Jews of Israel, aided by organized Jewry throughout the word participated in the epic ingathering of the traumatized Jews – giving them homes, counseling, vocational training, lessons in Hebrew and best of all, the right to say “I am home” and to carry a gun.
November 2, 2014 Today Israel is a thriving, free-wheeling democracy with beaches, cafes, restaurants, concerts, and academic, scientific and artistic institutions that rival the best in the world.