British Palestine

 Several Brits figured all the British Jews should go to Palestine, of whom Rev. Keith was the most famous (but there were many others). After WWI (actually, starting during WWI), the UK and France took all the Ottoman colonies outside Europe and made them UK and French colonies, and the British promised a big chunk of their colonies for UK Jews to get them out of the UK.

Not just that, but, the UK offered Central Power Jews during WWI and Axis Jews during WWII free land in Palestine if they would betray the Central Powers or the Axis. No Jews took the UK up on the offer, but the Nazis used the offer as proof that every Jew had betrayed Germany.

I've read about Jewish terrorists and Arab terrorists trying to get the UK out of Palestine during the '20s and '30s.

But the total number of Jews who went to Palestine remained small until 1948 when the US sent all the Jews in Western Europe to what had been British Palestine (but that ended in 1948 when the UN voted to divide Palestine between the Arabs and the Jews and end UK colonial status).

The US, after 1944, had open admission for Jews, so some of the European Jews shipped to Palestine managed to get US passports and moved to the US (with dual citizenship).

But after the US sent the European Jews to Palestine, many Muslim countries evicted all their Jews for stealing Palestine, and they had nowhere to go except Palestine.

1945 - 1948

 The Red Army was the first to find a German Death Camp in 1945. But the USSR made ethnic groups illegal, hence there were, under USSR law, no Jews, no Aryans, no Slavs. So the USSR recorded more than 26 million Soviets dead, some in combat, some starved to death, some killed in death camps. No record of Jews, since, under USSR law, there was no such thing.

The Allies came across German Death Camps not long after the Soviets. The Allies recognised ethnic groups, and counted 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis out of a total of 11 million Jews in Europe.

After 1944, a bit on the late side, the US guaranteed entry for any European Jew who could make it to the US. An American friend thought the US had done all it could to protect the European Jews. Not quite.

But what to do? The Europeans didn't want the Jews. Their homes had been confiscated by the Nazis and sold, and the new owners didn't see why they should be evicted for the sins of the defeated Nazis.

So the Americans decided to ship all the Western European Jews to Palestine in 1948. The Rev Keith of the UK had suggested back in the 19th century that British Jews should all go to Palestine where, with advanced agricultural methods, they could bring in very good harvests in the Fertile Crescent, providing the UK with grain and tropical fruits. 

After WWI, the UK and France took most of what had been the Ottoman Empire, the Ottomans being among the losers, so they lost their Empire, as did the Austrians and Germans and Russians. The lost Ottoman Empire colonies became French and British colonies.

The British said that the traditional Jewish homeland would be given to British Jews. My Bible has a map, and there were Jewish colonies in Palestine and the Transjordan, and up into what is now southern Lebanon.

Then the Brits decided the Transjordan would be for Arabs, the Transjordan Jewish tribal members in the UK could live in part of Palestine, and not only would the Jews not get Lebanon (which went to France, not the UK) nor the Transjordan, they had to share the British colony of Palestine with the Palestinians. Both Jews and Palestinians wanted rid of the Brits, but the Brits were much too strong between WWI and WWII.

And then, in 1948, the US sent the Western European Jews to Palestine. There was a war between the European Jews and the Palestinians who wanted to keep their land, even though the US and UK said European Jews now had the right to live there. As it turned out, the Arabs managed to hold on to the West Bank and Gaza, with the European Jews getting the rest of Palestine. The Palestinians call this the Nakba.

The years 1933 - 1940

 In 1933, Germany elected a Chancellor who wanted a Judenfrei Europe, a Europe with no Jews. He had laws that made it difficult for Jews to find a place to live or a place to work, so many Jews tried to leave Europe. Only no country outside Europe would take them. The Chancellor wanted to deport Jews, only Britain said the Royal Navy would prevent any such deportations.

So the Jews who wanted to leave Europe could not, and Germany were not allowed to deport them, so there they all were when the war started. The war was declared in 1939, but did not actually turn into a real war until 1940.

And then, with limited resources, the German leadership decided to implement the Final Solution to the Jewish problem.

The Chancellor also wanted a Europe that was Slav-free, and tried to kill off all the Slavs for Lebensraum, so Canada recently honoured a German who worked hard at getting rid of all the Slavs in Europe during WWII: didn't Canada and Germany fight together against the USSR in WWII? The Canadian Prime Minister seems to think so.

My friend on the problems in Palestine

"What do you think?" I asked him.

"Half of them call me a kaffir, and the other half call me a goy, so what do I care?"

"What do you think of the IOF?" I asked him.

"What is the IOF? I've heard of the IDF, but never the IOF."

I told him,"The IOF is the Israeli Occupation Force. That's the term used by those who say Israel does not have a Defence Force, they have an Occupation Force."

Sometimes, the New York Times is partly right

 The New York Times had an article, "An Invasive Mosquito Threatens Catastrophe in Africa". It seems there is a new mosquito that thrives in arid climates and it is invading some African cities. The countryside is wet enough that there are lots of mosquitoes, and the healthcare professionals recognise malaria. But in some of the desert cities, there were no mosquitoes, hence no malaria, and healthcare professionals have no idea what they're seeing or how to treat it.

Where I am, in the Arabian desert (sometimes called "The Empty Quarter" since there wasn't much here when the Brits came), there were no mosquitoes. Until about one or two years ago. Now my apartment building is full of them. I read about flypaper when I was a boy, some 60 years ago, but I never saw any. But then I saw some in the supermarket, bought some, put it up, and it was soon covered with mosquitoes.

So the problem is not just in African cities, as the New York Times warned. This new and improved mosquito thrives in lots of arid places where mosquitoes formerly could not manage.

Before the New York Times article, I put the problem down to development: the town where I live and the African cities where the New York Times reported the problem have a lot more people than 20 years ago, so lots more trash that people put out with liquid in it. The New York Times said a big problem is bottle caps that have a tiny bit of liquid, enough for the new mosquito to breed.

But I'm guessing the New York Times are correct that there is, in fact, a new kind of mosquito that is very resistant to lack of water and these new mosquitoes are establishing themselves in places where mosquitoes formerly could not manage. They've certainly established themselves here.