Monday, December 4, 2023

What Churchill Thought About the Palestinians and Jews


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU5O9zfH9fE

[Nov 21 2023 ]

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in this video I want to discuss Winston Churchill uh Palestine and the

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Palestinians and the Jews now Winston Churchill is a fascinating character

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historically uh a few years ago the BBC did a poll uh called 100 greatest

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Britain and in this TV poll um Winston Churchill came top uh of all of Britains

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throughout time he beat Shakespeare and Darwin and Isaac Newton Elizabeth first

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uh Oliver Cromwell he was number one of course he was Britain's uh prime minister during the second world war

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he's actually prime minister twice and uh is a hero uh to many many people but

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uh to other people uh he is a much more darker figure and just recently I I got

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up hold of this uh interesting book Winston Churchill his times his Crimes

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by TK Ali who's a British writer and he's very critical and there's awful lot

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of dirt unfortunately uh about Winston Churchill is not very widely known and

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um he says on the back cover I think summing up very well the way many people see him the modern Churchill cult is out

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of control closing down historical debate and encouraging support for 21st

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century Wars the man has become a houseold God for many preserving an

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Antiquated vision of Britain tck Ali audits Churchill's crimes both globally

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and at home and shows the celebrated wartime leader to be Britain's most

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Shameless imperialist and uh this book covers many many of his crimes and some of them T

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Ramadan calls them war crimes and indeed it seems to be entirely appropriate description and I'm just going to read

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though from a section of the book uh subtitled Churchill Palestine and the Jews now some of what I'm going to read

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is to Modern ears indeed to many people in the past highly offensive so U just

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there a health warning before uh you listen any further and one of the things

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he doesn't cover in too much detail in the book I think um is the bombing raids

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on Germany in the second world war where Churchill as the Prime Minister uh

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authorized indeed directed uh that bomber Harris you know the head of the RAF Target Civ Ians civilian cities

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Berlin Hamburg dresen Etc uh for bombing and over a million uh Germans were uh

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men women children civilians were obliterated burnt to death they were

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bombed uh and this was uh a war crime obviously and actually the Britain did

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it to Germany first Germany didn't do it to us despite what most people seem to think uh but the historical evidence

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suggests otherwise and there's interesting uh book also the bomb ing War Europe 1939-45 by Professor Richard ovaries

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professor of history at exitor University who meticulously documents

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how Britain came to decide fairly early on in the war that it would bomb um

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German cities targeting civilians and Britain did this first and then Germany

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reciprocated and bombed London Birmingham Manchester Liverpool Etc uh but most people don't know this now of

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course Churchill made decision so that's one of his most famous or inFAMOUS war

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crimes but there were others and I'm not going to go through them all because there's quite a lot of them uh but I

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just want to focus on his attitudes to the Palestinians to non-white people

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this is a really key Point uh and to the Jews and to Israel and Palestine because

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what church said what he stood for still matters today he's he was cited Winston

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Churchill was mentioned in a recent TV interview you might might uh well have seen it where the interviewer Piers

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Morgan I think cited him as one of the great if not the greatest British Heroes

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uh and this uncritical uh what Ty Ramadan will call you know um Cult of

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Churchill is why he wrote this book and the evidence is uh to put it mildly

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horrific anyway this uh this book is still published last year I think uh and

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is still useful background reading to the current attack on the Gaza because

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Churchill's name is still used by many people to justify this anyway I'm just going to read the section then church of

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Palestine and the Jews starting on page 357 it gives a bit of background to

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Churchill uh historical context um and then we will move on to his views about

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non-white people and why he thought it was perfectly justifiable to remove

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Arabs blacks and so on from their land for reasons which will become quite

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clear uh shortly so uh T Ramadan uh sorry T Ramadan tarck ali uh writes as

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follows in the in the post first world war period no this after

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1918 the states to be carved out of former German Ottoman and austr

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Hungarian possessions were characterized by the newly created League of Nations

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like the UN of the day as being either Advanced Nations brackets white

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populations or nations that could not yet stand up for themselves in other

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words nonwhite populations and so required imperialist Tage they had to be

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looked after like children in other words within the latter category a further distinction was made between

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those closest to self-rule and those furthest away way in the Middle East the

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top category included Palestine Syria Lebanon and Iraq hence these were listed

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as states that would ultimately be granted self-rule very kind of the West

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to grant them self-rule of course Palestine on this description was not

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empty land but a functioning Province until self-rule was granted these states

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would be governed by mandates from the leag of Nations awarded to Britain and

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France so these vast areas were awarded to European imperial's powers the

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British had already created Iraq because many people don't realize that the modern Iraq is is created by Britain

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itself it didn't exist before to this day Lebanon remains what it was at the

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time of its birth the artificial creation of French colonialism a coastal

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band of greater Syria sliced off from its Hinterland by Paris once it became

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clear that Syrian Independence was inevitable the French wanted a colony of

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their own everyone has to have a colony in Europe it seems a regional client dominated by a Marite minority that had

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long been France's catspa catp in the Eastern Mediterranean uh T Ali here's

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language is very poetic actually lebanon's confessional checker board has

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never been permitted an accurate census in other words an an accurate census of

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the population of Lebanon has never really happened he says for fear of revealing that a substantial Muslim

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majority is denied due representation in the political system sectarian tensions

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have never disappeared the British demanded and got a division of the Palestinian mandate into two two parts

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the new Jewish Home Inver commers the new Jewish Home and

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Palestine here was the first example of a colonial partition via an influx of

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white settlers in Brackets ashkanazi Jews the war of independence used by

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most official Israeli historians to describe the 1947 to 49 conflict is a

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misn at best it could be applied to the three years 46 to 48 when Zionist interest

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clashed with the Strategic needs of the British Empire in the region Jewish

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terrorist attacks on the King David hotel and the British casualties brought

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Churchill close to a break with Zionism but he hung on the official Declarations

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of Independence were the bow for declaration famously in

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19177 and the Mandate of the League of Nations in 1919 without the consistent political

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economic and ideological support of the British Empire for a Zionist Jewish homeland for over 50 years it is

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unlikely that the foundations of Israel would have been laid and a state as it

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exists at present would have come into existence regardless of the judeo side

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judeo I think he means the Holocaust so in other words he he's arguing that for 50 years the British Empire's support

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for this Zionist project was absolutely essential so Britain's role was that key

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and Churchill's role was that key Churchill was strongly in favor of a Jewish homeland but even before he was

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born the seventh Earl of Shaftsbury and Evangelical Christian was a Tory MP as

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well had in 1838 take taking it upon himself to

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Kickstart the process of sending European Jews off to

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Palestine this is happened that early 1838 and suggested as much to paliston

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the then foreign secretary asking him to ensure great Power Protection Old

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Testament pities were mixed in with Britain's own strategic needs addressing

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Parliament a few decades later shury helping to create the myth that the

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lands were depopulated explained in further detail why a new British colony was almost a

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necessity for the Empire so this is seen as a British colony this Jewish presence in Palestine and he said as a short

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quote from his speech Syria and Palestine will before long become very

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important the country needs capital and population the Jews can give it both

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and has not England a special interest in promoting such

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restoration it will be a blow to England if either of her two Rivals should get

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hold of Syria does not policy there exort England to Foster the nationality

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of the Jews and Aid them to return to England then naturally belongs the role

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of favoring the settlement of Jews in Palestine end quote so the British

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interest is to populate that part of the world and tar Ali continues as early as

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1891 there's a particularly interesting paragraph this and I'm I'm glad T Ali has mentioned it as early as

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1891 the Zionist Pioneer Asher Ginsburg is a Jewish Pioneer visiting Jerusalem

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at a time when Jewish people as individuals owned less than 1% of the

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land can you imagine that in 1891 Jews ear less than 1% of the land reported

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that quote throughout the country it is difficult to find fields that are not

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sewed only sandunes and stonely mountains that are not fit to grow

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anything but fruit trees and this only after hard labor and great expense of

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clearing and Reclamation only these are not cultivated so there's a picture of a

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Palestinian land that is heavily farmed all of it virtually all of it as much as

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humanly possible this is the Zionist Pioneer Asher Ginsburg in 1891 Ginsburg provided a vivid

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description of settler racism and was farsighted in predicting its likely

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outcome so now we have a description in 1891 by a Jew himself of Jewish settler

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racism and of course literally as as we watch this now at this moment we have that going on in the West Bank actively

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going on we've seen this on countless news programs Ginsburg said they treat

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the Arabs with hostility and cruelty unscrupulously deprive them of their

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rights insult them without cause and even boast of such deeds and none

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opposes this despicable and dangerous inclination we who live abroad in other

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words Europe in this case are accustomed to believe that almost all erat Israel

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that's a Hebrew way of saying the land of Israel is now uninhabited desert and

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whoever wishes can buy land there as he pleases but this is not true he says it

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is very difficult to find in the land cultivated fields that are not used for

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planting the Arab like all seites is sharp-minded and shrewd for now they do

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not consider our actions as presenting a future danger to them isn't it

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interesting Palestinians didn't think that this was a threat to them for now they do the Palestinians do not consider

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our actions the Jews as presenting a further danger to them but if the time

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comes that our people's life in erat Israel the land of Israel will develop

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to a point where we are taking their place either slightly or

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significantly the natives are not going to just step aside so easily end quote W

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so this was an incredibly farsighted prediction of the likely outcome of

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Jewish settler uh settling in the land of Palestine and he accurately predicted

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this in 1891 what would happen in the next Century in the 20th century how

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amazingly prophetic that was and then T Ali goes on compare this to Theodore

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herzl's diary entry four years later now Theodore Herzel of course was an Ostro

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Hungarian Jewish journalist and political activist who was the father of

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modern political Zionism and he formed the Zionist organization and actively

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promoted Jewish immigration into Palestine in other words to form uh a

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Jewish state so he he he is absolutely key figure in Zionism and in Theodore

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herz's diary entry just four years later in June 1895 we read where he fantasizes on how

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the future Zionist state will be created so this is the father of Zionism this is

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what he said we shall have to Spirit the penulis population across the border by

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procuring employment for it in the transit countries while denying it any

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employment in our own country both the process of

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expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and

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circumspectly so right at the beginning even before Israel existed

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Zionism envisaged the ethnic cleansing of the inhabitants of that that land the

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Palestinians quite explicitly in 1895 Theodore Herzel fantasized the Jewish

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state would have to do that both the process of expropriation and the removal

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of the poor must be carried out see in other words don't let it be seen very openly try and do it a little bit

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secretly but get rid of them get these people out of their land we want to live there instead and that is from uh the

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complete Diaries of Theodore Herzel volume 1 page 88 to continue at a cabinet meeting in

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1919 balfor this is the British F secretary informed his colleagues that

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the that in implementing the Declaration that bore his name the Bal for declaration there was no need to waste

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too much time bford said in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the

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form of Consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants end quote let me

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read that again this is B who the author of the B the famous B declaration said

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in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of Consulting in

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other words you know the formality of talking to the Palestinians getting their views getting their input talking

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to them we do not propose to go through this formality we do not to consult the wishes of the present the present

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inhabitants so slightly contingent there it's just the present inhabitants not the future inhabitants there was no need

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for this since quote all the four Great powers are committed to Zionism he said

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this was of far greater import he said than the desire and prejudices of the

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700,000 Arabs so what really matters was the four Great Powers obviously Britain

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was one of them that's what really mattered they were all committed to Zionism much more important than the

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prejudices the views of 700,000 Arabs their views did not matter

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at all and I would suggest that is based purely or largely on racism the white

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man British Empire versus the the brown Arab this is very white supremacist

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language Churchill Amplified this further comparing the Palestinian Arabs

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to aboriginals in Australia and Native Americans we're going to come here we're going to come in a second to a quote

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directly from Winston Churchill which is shocking to Modern ears indeed shock people in his time by the way not just a

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a modern sensitivity as many say Well church was racism was common place in

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his day and people didn't object it was It was kind of conventional language but some people didn't object but many did

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on historical record many were outraged by what he said then anyway T Ali

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continues the intentions the intentions of Western imperialism were implicitly

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genocidal from the very beginning of the process so T Ali is not forward Theodore

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herz's language is clearly genocidal from the very beginning of the process

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from the conception from the ideological uh thought itself was genocidal it was the Palestinian

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resistance prior to and post the NABA that prevented such and occurrence so

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was actually Palestinian resistance that stopped the complete genocide he says racism was always an integral part of

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Churchill's political makeup he made no bones about it he didn't he was

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completely open and shames about it unlike some of his colleagues in all the three parties who prefer preferred to

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wear a mask so some kind of hid it behind a mask he viewed Arabs as an

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inferior race compared to Europeans of any stripe in the case of Palestine he

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accused the Arabs of behaving like quote a dog in the manger a view he spelled

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out in his evidence to the peel commission set up in

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1936 to report on the Palestinian Uprising then in motion and which had

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paralyzed the country so this is actually a a very famous um paragraph I'm not going to read uh very very

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offensive um then and now but it tells us a lot about the British government's

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attitude Churchill's attitude to Palestine Zionism Israel Arabs other

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races non-whites it tells us a lot and uh this is a this is the dominant view

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in in his in his time he wrote quote I

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do not agree that the in the manger has the final right to the manger even

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though he may have laay there for a very long time so even though to decode it

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even though the Palestinians may have lived there for Millennia they have no right to it just because they've been

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living there just because it's their land they have no right to it in his view I do not admit that right he says I

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do not admit for instance that a great wrong has been done done to the red

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Indians of America or the black people of Australia I do not admit that a wrong

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has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race a higher grade

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race or at any rate a more worldly wise race to put it that way has come in and

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taken their place and quote and T

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Ramadan understandably says this is the voice of white supremacy a view that was

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reiterated interestingly with remarkable Clarity by Israel's foremost revisionist

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historian the former paratrooper Benny Morris over half a century later

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Churchill would have been delighted by such a display of cander which admitted

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this historian admitted that the the long denied crimes and atrocities

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committed against the Palestinians in 1948 during the so-called war of

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independence today this is the common sense of Jewish Israel from top to

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bottom the ultimate logic of the bow for declaration and a distillation of

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Churchill's own views so Churchill's views the BF for's views summed up in

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that quote about the dog in the manger but now permeate that Society from top to bottom this is the ideological

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structure or substructure of the political life of that uh country

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detaching myths from realities in Palestine became more and more difficult after the ball

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declaration the Palestinian Arabs paid an exorbitant price and are continuing

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to do so the myth still persists that Palestine was almost uninhabited that

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vast tracks of the promised land were thirsting for the new Jewish settlers

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the principal propagators of this lie were the Zionist leaders of the Yu and

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their English backers the fact that Palestinian historians continue to

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produce books demonstrating that this was not the case is in itself an indication of how deep Zionist ideology

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remains within Israel and the diaspora Churchill did not write a great deal on

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his own attitudes uh Zionism and Jewish people in general but from what he did

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write it's clear that his views on the creation of Israel were not always

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consistent his reasoning veered from Pure instrumentalism it would be of used to

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the British Empire in the region filled with such enemies I.E the Arabs to

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civilizational racism with anti-bolshevism playing its part as well

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the Jews were an ancient race the chosen people and iof Factor superior to the

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Arabs this view was spelled out in what appears to be Churchill's lengthiest

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pronouncement on the subject an article published on page five of The Illustrated Sunday Herald in

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1920 the title spelled out programmatic priorities enshrined in the text Zionism

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versus bolshevism a struggle for the soul of the Jewish people some people like Jews and some do

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not Church informs the reader but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that

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beyond all question they are the most formidable and most remarkable race

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which has ever appeared in the world end quote on one level this was surprisingly

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generous since he did not add a qualifi that specified after the English of

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course or words to that effect more importantly the notion itself is

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nonsensical and a throwback to Old Testament literalism surely Churchill

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knew English History well enough why then no mention of the fact that the

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worst pograms and persecution of the Jews in Old Europe had begun in England

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German fascists would would be would have been pleased by the fact that in

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1218 Henry III had announced a Royal Decree the Edict of the badge which made

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it compulsory for Jews to wear a marking badge because that reminds us of course

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of the Nazi Germany where Jews had to wear a star of David but they were doing

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they were required to wear something similar in the 13th century in England amazingly 60 years later pograms carried

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out by thieving Barons led to the killing of over a thousand Jews 500 in

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London alone the so-called Edict of expulsion was issued by Edward I in

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1290 all the Jews were rounded up and expelled their property looted and the

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blood liable charge spread with a Zeal that Geral would have envied a classic

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case of what's ped is prologue some of the Jews fled to France others found a

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Haven in Muslim Spain and Del Lucia of course where they were large and free

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where there were large and free Jewish communities participating on every level

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of the state I'm going to end there I could go on there's much fascinating detail historical detail here but that

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last sentence here after the pograms and persecutions of Christian Europe because

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this is the height of the Middle Ages when people were were God-fearing Christian folk and the church had power

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total power in England in the 12th and 13th century Jews were persecuted

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expelled murdered in vast numbers some fled to France but many found a Haven in

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the Muslim world where there were they were large and free Jewish communities

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free in the Muslim World participating on every level of the State isn't that

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interesting the contrast to the way Christian Europe treated the Jews and how the Muslim World treated the Jews

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anti-Semitism in its proper historic definition is I would argue a Christian

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virus we even see it arguably in the New Testament in the Gospel of John for example uh where Jesus speaks about the

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Jews as if there were some kind of your father Satan you your you Jews your

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father is Satan very kind of extreme language which of course was picked up later in the church

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as it became increasingly anti-semitic in the third and fourth centuries the Jewish uh the Muslim world is very

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different and they welcomed uh Jews and Islam saved jewry to quote from the

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title of a very famous and celebrated article which you can Google by an American Professor Jewish Professor who

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acknowledged how vital uh the Islamic world has been to save the Jews over the centuries and I only stress all this

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historical stuff because how different it is since uh 1948 when uh anti-Semitism well the

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relations between Jews and Muslims have taken a very different turn because of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian and

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the continued attacks on Palestinians up to today and it's just getting worse and worse obviously we know all about this

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so I do recommend this book Winston Churchill his times his crimes he was

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guilty it seems of many terrible war crimes crimes against Humanity in fact

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and many of them are listed and gruesome detail in this book and his legacy endures and influences politics today

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attitudes today towards the Arabs towards the Palestinians and towards Zionism so there's really matters that

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we understand what on Earth's going on with this man Winston Churchill anyway enough said for now until next time