Churchill and the Jews
Sir Martin Gilbert spoke at a Hall in Netanya on Sunday night at the invitation of the Netanya AACI on the topic "Churchill and the Jews: friend or foe?" As the official biographer of Winston Churchill and author of many books on the subject, particularly the 2007 study "Churchill and the Jews," Gilbert is well qualified to address this subject.
His speech was eloquent, detailed and persuasive. He covered the period from the time that Churchill met his father's friends who were prominent Jews, to his time as a young politican, and then as a Government official between the 1920's to the 1940s. In 1922, Churchill was the British Minister responsible for presenting the British Mandate proposal to the League of Nations in Geneva. This was a landmark in that the British proposed officially to establish a Jewish State in Palestine. This is often overlooked relative to the earlier less official 1917 Balfour Declaration. It was Chuchill's steadfastness and persuasiveness against the often overtly anti-Semitic opposition of his colleagues, that lead to this being passed by the House of Commons and becoming official British Government policy. When Gilbert interviewed many of the participants in the events they still proclaimed anti-Semitic views, not realizing that he is Jewish.
However, Churchill was also responsible for dividing the Palestine Mandate into two parts, the Western Part that remained the Mandate until 1948 and the Eastern Part becoming Trans-Jordan. When challenged on this, Gilbert replied that even the Zionist Federation did not see any reasonable possibility of holding onto that region and had barely enough immigrants to resettle Western Palestine. The British Government needed a way to satisfy the ambitions of the Arab rulers, and this was one way they chose (they also had the Mandate for Iraq at the time).
During the 1930's the British Government in many ways reneged on their commitment to the Jews, as exemplified in the 1939 White Paper that was definitely pro-Arab, and banned all Jewish immigration to Palestine. In this period while out of office Churchill visited Munich and saw for himself what was happening to the Jews in Germany and wrote about it.
In relation to WWII, when Churchill was Prime Minister, Gilbert detailed two examples of how Churchill sought to save Jewish lives, including fighting the often anti-Semitic bureaucracy. In one case he authorized flights that were sent to supplyTito in Yugoslavia to return with Jews aboard, thus saving hundreds of Jewish lives. He also arranged for the quotas of Jewish immigrants that had not been fulfilled before the war to be used for transferring many Jewish refugees from Turkey to Palestine.
When challenged on why Churchill had not arranged for the bombing of the railway lines to Auschwitz and other camps, Organization, of which bombing the railway lines to the camps was the last item! However, the decision whether or not to bomb was under the authority of Gen. Eisenhower. He in turn submitted the request to the Under Secretary of State in Washington, and there it was quashed.
Gilbert quoted from many of Churchill's writings, including one essay written in the 1930s in which he prophesied that one day Palestine might become a Jewish State with 5 million people, that could have a significant influence on the backwardness of the Arab peoples.
Whatever the quibbles, there is no doubt that Churchill was a life-long philo-Semite, a friend of the Jews and of Zionism.
His speech was eloquent, detailed and persuasive. He covered the period from the time that Churchill met his father's friends who were prominent Jews, to his time as a young politican, and then as a Government official between the 1920's to the 1940s. In 1922, Churchill was the British Minister responsible for presenting the British Mandate proposal to the League of Nations in Geneva. This was a landmark in that the British proposed officially to establish a Jewish State in Palestine. This is often overlooked relative to the earlier less official 1917 Balfour Declaration. It was Chuchill's steadfastness and persuasiveness against the often overtly anti-Semitic opposition of his colleagues, that lead to this being passed by the House of Commons and becoming official British Government policy. When Gilbert interviewed many of the participants in the events they still proclaimed anti-Semitic views, not realizing that he is Jewish.
However, Churchill was also responsible for dividing the Palestine Mandate into two parts, the Western Part that remained the Mandate until 1948 and the Eastern Part becoming Trans-Jordan. When challenged on this, Gilbert replied that even the Zionist Federation did not see any reasonable possibility of holding onto that region and had barely enough immigrants to resettle Western Palestine. The British Government needed a way to satisfy the ambitions of the Arab rulers, and this was one way they chose (they also had the Mandate for Iraq at the time).
During the 1930's the British Government in many ways reneged on their commitment to the Jews, as exemplified in the 1939 White Paper that was definitely pro-Arab, and banned all Jewish immigration to Palestine. In this period while out of office Churchill visited Munich and saw for himself what was happening to the Jews in Germany and wrote about it.
In relation to WWII, when Churchill was Prime Minister, Gilbert detailed two examples of how Churchill sought to save Jewish lives, including fighting the often anti-Semitic bureaucracy. In one case he authorized flights that were sent to supplyTito in Yugoslavia to return with Jews aboard, thus saving hundreds of Jewish lives. He also arranged for the quotas of Jewish immigrants that had not been fulfilled before the war to be used for transferring many Jewish refugees from Turkey to Palestine.
When challenged on why Churchill had not arranged for the bombing of the railway lines to Auschwitz and other camps, Organization, of which bombing the railway lines to the camps was the last item! However, the decision whether or not to bomb was under the authority of Gen. Eisenhower. He in turn submitted the request to the Under Secretary of State in Washington, and there it was quashed.
Gilbert quoted from many of Churchill's writings, including one essay written in the 1930s in which he prophesied that one day Palestine might become a Jewish State with 5 million people, that could have a significant influence on the backwardness of the Arab peoples.
Whatever the quibbles, there is no doubt that Churchill was a life-long philo-Semite, a friend of the Jews and of Zionism.
posted by Jack Cohen at 1:18 PM
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