If you expected this article to be about Iraq, turn the page. We’ve already got a plethora of information on that post-Saddam madhouse. No, this piece is about the whole explosive Middle-East, about which most people, I venture to say, are dummies. And I are one.

But since “perpetual” war in the Middle East is affecting the world, knowing how it began, and why it continues, needs exploring.

For seven centuries, that entire region “belonged” to the Ottomans, a remarkable Turkish family that, among other things, transformed poor, run-down Constantinople into the cosmopolitan city of Istanbul.

In 1924, the Ottoman Empire fell and it became the Republic of Turkey. Now here’s where the real intrigue begins. In a 1997 Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, reporter John Cornelius speculates that the major causes of Middle East instability started with “agreements” England made during Word War I.

The British promised the Arabs independence in return for help against the Ottoman Turks, who were Germany’s ally in the war. The Arabs thought they had a deal. Then the British, with their coo-coo buddies, the French, did an about face and took back the land for themselves. This strengthened the British alliances against the Ottoman Empire. Which naturally pissed off the Arabs.

That bit of Indian-giving was bad enough. But then came the Balfour Declaration, a political monkey wrench that has screwed up the region for good.

This English document proclaimed that His Majesty’s Government was in favor of a national home for the Jewish people. With the presumption that the taken-back Arab land would be a good place for Jews to call Israel, and begin homesteading. This helps explain how the tragic squabble between Arabs and Jews got started. Why it continues seems also to be a simple matter: “It’s our land!” “No, it’s our land!” “No, it’s ours!” “No, it’s not!” ad nauseam. 

There are, of course, some mysterious, unanswered questions to this tale of woe. Such as, why did the British commit to the Balfour Declaration, which has caused them grief and apparently given them little in return? And was the Balfour Declaration, as some suggest, England’s reward to the Zionists for their help in bringing the U.S. into the war on Britain’s side?

We may never know the whole truth about the ongoing Middle East turmoil, but one thing is certain. This land grab is another example of people being asked to pay, with their freedom and their country, debts incurred by ambitious politicians for favors received.

What’s my personal take on this territorial grab bag? Jews got the land. Arabs got the shaft. England got the credit. America got the bill. And the world got the headache.

James T. Moore
http://jamestmoore.us/