ماجنوس والشرق الأوسط
Mange palestinske born blir drepne medan nesten ingen israelske blir det. Kvifor? Fordi vi tar vare på borna våre.
– Shimon Peres
President i Israel og vinnar av Nobels Fredspris 1994
In English:
Many Palestinian children are being killed. Almost none Israeli children are being killed. Why? Because we take care of our children.
( Video: Frå NRK )
So will it be with the English!
The following text is a memorandum translated from Arabic describing the «wicked ways» of the English. It was issued by the Arab Committee of the Pan-Islamic Society and distributed secretly. It was written in a pocket book belonging to a member of a deputation from Emir Faisal in Mesopotamia (Iraq) to Ibn Saud, then the Sultan of Nejd. Ibn Saud handed it over the Mesopotamian authorities from their information. This happened in the first half of 1920 when the future of the Middle East still was not certain and when idea of pan-Islamism was very much alive. It is a pretty interesting read:
[The English is] a most cunning and ambitious people on the face of the earth. They are hypocrites and fanatic for their race and religion. They hope to rule all the world even after generations and to attain this, they have plans and committees which have control and branch offices and employés.
The most important object of the English is to destroy the rule of Mohamedans and afterwards to destroy their faith. Mr Gladstone their foremost leader said «As long as the Koran is believed and respected, civilization is threatened». Lord Salisbury said «What the Cross has taken from the Crescent must not return to the latter, and what the Crescent has taken from the Cross must return to the Cross».
On this principle they declared at the outbreak of the Balkan war [1912-1913], that no victorious Power is allowed to take any territory from the conquered, believing that Turkey will be victorious. But when the Balkan States won the War they allowed them to take a good slice of Turkish territory.
From remote times Britain intended to take possession of the Arabian Peninsular and Mesopotamia. She made agreements with the Arab Chiefs and through these agreements she made them enemies to each other; Hejaz against Nejd and Imam Yehia against Idrisi etc.
Britain divided Mesopotamia and Syria between herself and her Ally, France. Mr Lloyd George declared that the war in Palestine was the last Crusade which is finished by finishing with the rule of Islam for the destruction of which the Crusades were created.
Their (the English) intention by giving Palestine to the Jews, is to prevent the Mohamedans from resuming their authority or rule. They will do the same in Mesopotamia by populating it with millions of Indian Heathens.
Their plan is to make the Arabs fight each other by helping one party against the other until the Arabs are weakened, when they will be desarmed unless they are required to fight for the English some where, as they made the Egyptians open the Sudan for them. When the British rule supreme over Arabia, they will spread Christianity and allow every thing which is forbidden by Islam except aggression against personal liberty, so that a man should not be allowed to prevent his son from becoming an infidel or his daughter from committing adultery.
In short the English are the greatest enemies of Islam and their sole object is to exterminate it. They are the cleverest people, as Bismarck said, to escape of their engagements by misinterpreting them, as they have done with Sherif Hussein and Ibn Saud etc.
The English have reached, after the war, the summit of their political influence; but as they have risen, they will also fall down. The human nature will no more submit to being enslaved. The British provoked all the world against the against Germany by accusing her of waging this war for the love of conquest and enslaving the world. But it has now appeared that it was England which attempted this for herself.
Bolshevism is against Imperialism and colonization and consequently against England and it is spreading in the East and being supported by the Mohamedans, because it is against colonization.
The Germans who are the best organized nation support the Bolshevism and the Moslems in India, Afghanistan, Caucasia, Persia and Turkistan against the English. India is in flames against them. The U.S. of A. is disgusted with their (English) wicked games. Their allies France and Italy hate them and will turn against them on the first opportunity.
It is therefore the time for the Arabs to open their eyes and not lose their opportunity. They must unite against the English who keep no covenant and fulfil no promise.
If they (Arabs) do not benefit by this opportunity of the English being in trouble in Europe, Egypt, India, Russia and the Near East, they will be enslaved for ever and lose everything.
Another equally interesting text follows about «The British ambitions to possess al-Hejaz». After both texts the translator comments:
With regard to the tone of the above articles I can say that they were written with a «pen of fire».
When Ibn Saud gave the text, that is basically praising Bolsheviks as champions of Islam, to the British he discussed it at length and requested British views on the subject. Britain then sent a private letter on the subject of Bolsheviks saying that «there is no sign that they contemplate further activities beyond the limits of Russia». The also added that they regarded Bolshevism «as unlikely to make headway in Mohammedan countries whose social organisation and traditions are alike unfavourable to the spread of views which are contrary alike to their religion and interests and repugnant to common sense».
(The memorandum has by the way a few grammatical errors and spelling mistakes so they can not all be credited to me.)
During the first world war the British forces, under the leadership of General Edmund Allenby, had tried and failed twice to take and hold the area of Transjordan. The goal had been to break the lines of the Ottoman Empire between Damascus and Medina. After two failed attacks with many casualties, Allenby shifted focus. Allenby’s new strategy was take Damascus by breaking the Ottoman lines in coastal Palestine and thereby bypassing the Ottoman forces in Transjordan. The rush for Damascus started in September 1918. The Arab Army, under the leadership of the Hashemite Sharif of Mecca, Hussein b. Ali, had been held in check by the Ottoman forces, but moved camp to Azraq Oasis to participate in the rush. To cover this operation up Allenby came up with a plan to fool the Ottomans:
Allenby feigned a new attack on Transjordan to cover his troop build-up on the coast of Palestine by pitching an empty encampment in the Jordan Valley, making some 15,000 dummy horses out of canvas, and driving mule-drawn sleighs to raise dust.
At the same time the Arab Army draw the Ottoman’s attention away from Palestine by attacking the Hijaz Railway line. The plan worked and the heavily outnumbered Ottoman forced in Palestine were defeated and their defenses collapsed in six days. The Arab Army and Allenby’s forces now raced each other to Damascus, a race the Arabs would win.
This small moment in history is picked from Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire by Eugene L. Rogan. For more detailed information about the campaign see Setting the Desert on Fire by James Barr.
Magnus og Midtausten