For the 400 years before World War I, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, so it was owned by the Turks, not by the Arabs, let alone by the Arabs of Palestine. Palestine is an old but imprecise geographical term. It remained imprecise because there was never a country called Palestine. Even when—long ago— it was under Arab rule, Palestine was never ruled by its own Arab inhabitants.
So it’s not accurate to say that Palestine was a country, nor to say it was Arab land. Neither the Jews nor the British stole it from the Arabs. The original Zionists came to Palestine without the backing of any imperialist or colonialist power. They bought the land on which they settled. And before Britain invaded Palestine in World War I, the Ottoman Turks had joined Germany and attacked Allied forces. Read more.
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As Israel Targets Iran in Syria, U.S. Officials Warn of Reprisals
Gordon Lubold and Felicia Schwartz
The Wall Street Journal • October 28, 2018
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WASHINGTON—Israel has been conducting an aggressive military campaign across Syria against Iran-backed militia groups, an effort that has been encouraged by the White House but aroused the concern of many U.S. military officials.
While the White House has applauded Israel’s assertiveness against Iran inside Syria, the military officials say they fear it could backfire if Iran’s belief that the U.S. is behind many of the strikes prompts Iran-backed groups to attack American troops in Syria or Iraq. Read more.
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How Israel Is Helping the Worldwide Water Shortage
Oren Peleg
Jewish Journal • October 24, 2018
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…In 1937, before they had a state, Jews in Mandatory Palestine had Mekorot, a national water authority. During Israel's infancy, Mekorot was tasked with diverting water from sources such as the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River in the wetter north to the more barren south.
Nearly two-thirds of Israel is desert. Rainfall is scarce and devastating droughts are commonplace. If Israelis were to thrive, they'd have to provide water security to a people cornered in one of the most arid strips of land on Earth. Read more.
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How an Astonishing Holocaust Diary Resurfaced in America
Robin Shulman
Smithsonian • October 25, 2018
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On January 31, 1939, a 15-year-old Jewish girl sat down with a school notebook in a cramped apartment in a provincial town in Poland and began writing about her life. She missed her mother, who lived far away in Warsaw. She missed her father, who was ensconced on the farm where her family once lived. She missed that home, where she had spent the happiest days of her life.
…Over the course of 700 pages, between the ages of 15 and 18, Renia Spiegel wrote funny stories about her friends, charming descriptions of the natural world, lonely appeals to her absent parents, passionate confidences about her boyfriend, and chilling observations of the machinery of nations engaged in cataclysmic violence. The shock of Renia's diary is watching a teenage girl with the standard preoccupations come to an inescapable awareness of the violence that is engulfing her. Read more.
Image (Left to right): Renia in Przemysl, 1930; Renia in 1936; Renia with her best friend, Nora, in Przemysl in 1938, the year before Germany invaded Poland. (Source: Bellak family/Smithsonian)
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