No offense intended to those that did nothing wrong - and I do sincerely apologize to them.
However, British post-war policy was very decidedly opposed to Jewish independence...until there was enough of a resistance movement to make British policy-makers of the day realize “we have to get the Hell out of here no matter what.” There was no “giving” of independence to Israel - the UN partition vote was only possible because Britain went to the UN and essentially said, “Help us out of this mess, straight away!”
Arms were provided by Britain in massive amounts to the Arabs. Key fortresses and police stations were handed to the Arabs, or “abandoned” by the British Army with notice only to the Arabs. Much of the Foreign Office and British Army was, at the time, virulently anti-Semitic (though, of course, not nearly on the level of Hitler, et al). What the situation is now I cannot comment on, but I think that things have improved a lot as people in your nation have realized that Israel and its people are not Britain’s enemy - any more than Vietnam and its people are enemies of the US. In both cases, the native peoples wanted to be free of foreign domination, and were willing to fight for that essential human right (self-determination). I think that both Britain and the US are better off for having finally realized and understood this...though such offers cold comfort for the thousands or more dead that it took to learn this lesson.
Let’s also not forget the harsh treatment of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust - many beaten, imprisoned and starved, for the “crime” of wanting to get the Hell out of the charnel house of Europe to a place where they would be reasonably safe and among there own people. All that time, a blind eye was turned to Arab immigration, especially immigration of military-aged men and light arms.
Oh, and why didn’t the rest of the British Parliament issue a statement, or vote on a measure, that condemned the 1/3 or so that did vote for this measure? Silence does, in many ways, equal consent.
As for the US “turning up late again” for the fight against Nazism, let’s recap a few things, just so that you know that there’s another perspective:
1) Most Americans of the early and mid-20th Century were either European by birth, or descended from Europeans. Notice that they weren’t in Europe, as either they or their parents, grandparents, etc. didn’t want to have anything to do with that cesspool of a continent that oppressed the Hell out of people for a thousand years or more...that is while its leaders weren’t killing them by the tens of thousands or millions in innumberable wars.
2) The US had nothing to do with European affairs (except trade) in 1914. Your nations over there decided to have a rather nasty fight, and we got dragged in BECAUSE THE GERMANS WERE TICKED OFF THAT WE WERE HELPING YOU. After that, we mobilized 4.7 million of our men and our factories, turned the tide and kicked their arses back into Germany. Note that in approximately 18 months, we lost 53,500 dead and had 200,000 or so wounded, all to settle your fight.
3) Not content with learning the lessons of the prior generation, which consumed over 10 million lives, your wonderful continent decided that a rematch would be appropriate. I guess that learning to live with each other was never viewed as a viable option - validating the decision of millions to GTFO in the decades and centuries beforehand, and to go to the New World. Note that both Britain and France, possessors of the world’s most powerful navy and army of the day, respectively, let a two-bit, half-crazed ex-corporal bsmboozle and intimidate them, thereby allowing another world war to start...and this one resulted in some 40-45 million dead in Europe and Africa. We AGAIN got dragged in, and AGAIN mobilized our men (some 16.1 million had their lives interrupted - not including their families - and our industry was again mobilized to kick Germany’s and its allies’ arses (along with the Russians, primarily). We lost some 291,000 combat dead, and had some 670,000 wounded - again, to fix YOUR continent’s problems. Your vaunted Monty did nothing but hamper a decisive allied invasion in 1944, and definitely was responsible for the war extending into 1945 because his passivity and lack of action allowed tens of thousands of battle-hardened Germans to escape the Falaise Gap, along with a lot of their equipment. FYI, George Patton was on the way to close that gap and either kill or capture those Germans - until, that is, British pressure on Ike forced him to stop. He and the 3rd Army would have defeated the German’s western armies and been halfway into Germany in September, 1944 if Monty hadn’t interfered because he wanted his share of the glory.
Regardless of our differences in opinion, I am glad that you opposed this resolution, and that you otherwise appear to be a “good bloke.” I just wish that the politicians there that are of the same mindset as you would have spoken up, even if just as symbolically as those jackasses that voted for the resolution.
I am sure you understand that my posts were deliberately snide in order to give a ‘measured’ amount of vitriol in return for your post. Now that’s out of the way......
I will not defend the British policy over Palestine, at least not all of it. However I think a lot of the criticism gets OTT where people claim open anti-Semitism (no the British Army wasn’t anti-Semitic, even if we just refer to the army stationed in the land, some officers and commanders may have been, but not the average soldier).
I see the British as a group stuck between two bitter and violent groups, trying to satisfy both and probably failing both. We took that nation ‘on’ only in 1918 and had it for less than 30 yrs, in which we were hated and even murdered by both sides, had to police a country riven by division and rancour. No thanks and much hate.
As to America (again, what I said was a deliberate attempt to wind you up) and the wars, I have to make a few points:
1—Sorry, but whilst I have nothing but love and respect for the American losses in WW1, its a myth that the American entry turned the tide in 1917-18, or that American troops came in and won the war.
It was the BRITISH, along with the Aussie and Canadian troops, as well as Indians, who had to take the brunt of the ‘Kaiserschlact’ in easter 1918, as well as the huge brunt of the ‘100 Day Offensive’ to drive back the Germans to the border.
There were more Canadians in 1918 on the western front than Americans. The Aussies in 1918 did more fighting on the western front than the US. The US didnt undertake a solo major assault until the battle of St Mihiel in SEPTEMBER 1918, just two months from victory.
The US army also in WW1 had no tanks, planes and heavy artillery of its own and had to use British and French equipment. A fact even super-patriotic historian Stephen Ambrose had to admit in his last book before his death. American forces also had to be combat trained by British and French officers at combat schools in France before being sent forward. Also the Royal Navy had to carry HALF of all US troops from America to Britain in 1917, and ALL American troops from England to France.
AGAIN, this is not being at all disrespectful of the great bravery and sacrifice of the Americans who served and who died, all your men were heroes. We are only talking history, so please don’t take offence. BUT I feel I have correct a myth and restore some rightful history to the British/Commonwealth men of 1918.
2—It was MONTY who expanded the original Frederick Morgan plan for Normandy, from one jump and two beaches, to five beaches and two jumps.
3—It was Bradley who ordered Patton to stop. If you also read Monty’s memoirs, he SUPPORTED Patton being allowed to close the gap. Of course he did, as the German resistance in the south of the gap was fanatical and Monty was happy if Patton could move south and close it up and basically leave Monty less to close himself. It was Bradley who got the jitters about US-UK/Can/Pol forces shooting at each other as they moved south and north.
And the reason Monty couldn’t close the gap was more to do with vicious German action. The Canadian and Poles who tried to close the gap, superb soldiers as both were, took very heavy casualties. The late resistance by the Germans to keep the gap open was fanatical. I know this, as my own grandfather fought in it!.
I am sick (nothing personal) of the criticism the British take about Normandy. I really dont think Americans then and even now realise and grasp just what we took on there in order to allow the larger US forces to break out. WE, the British/Canadians/Poles, took on almost all the German armour in Normandy, and almost all the best Wehrmacht/SS units, in order to tie down the Germans in the east so the Americans could break out in the west.
Your reference to the treatment of refugees in Britain is somewhat bewildering given the history, not least of the kindertransport and the subsequent enrichment of British life, particularly its intellectual and artistic life, by so many of those refugees.
There has indeed been anti-Semitism in Britian, as, sadly, there has been in every country of the Western world: but it has always been, and remains, at a far lower level than in any country of continental Europe, and has never been any worse than historical anti-Semitism in the U.S.