| February 1 |  |
Editor says, what if the British Government had refused to recognise Israel? muses Stan Brin. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1949, following the refusal of His Majesty's goverment to recognize Israel's national independence, the Knesset issued a war crimes indictment against Prime Minister Clement Atlee, Foreign Secretary Ernst Bevin, and Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery, chief of the Imperial General Staff.
Double CrossThe British leaders were specifically charged with conceiving and implementing the recent Siege of Jerusalem and the demolition of Jewish Quarter of the old city. The siege cost an estimated six thousand Jewish lives. The intention of besieging forces was to isolate the 100,000 Jewish residents of the city from the rest of the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine and, in the case of the Jordanian forces, to conquer East Jerusalem (including the Old City).
A new story by Stan BrinAside from the large Jewish population, Jerusalem held special importance to the Yishuv for "religious and nationalist" reasons. In particular, the Arab forces tried to cut off the road to Jerusalem from the coastal plain, where the majority of the Jewish population resided. The Arabs blocked access to Jerusalem "at Latrun and Bab al-Wad", a narrow valley surrounded by Arab villages on hills on both sides. The Arabs also fired off shells indiscriminately into West Jerusalem. The breaking of the siege on Jerusalem and the annexation of the captured areas to the Jewish state became primary goals for the Israelis in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The fighting led to the evacuation of the Jewish villages of Neve Yaakov, Atarot, Kalya and Beit HaArava, and the expulsion of the Jewish inhabitants of the Old City of Jerusalem. Before the war, the Jews of the Old City had friendly relations with their Arab neighbors and were sorry to have to leave.
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Stan Brin
© Stan Brin, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Ernst Bevin, Bernard Montgomery, Clement Attlee, Britain, Israel.
~ This would probably drive the British to support Egypt even more than they did; in OTL British pilots flew Spitfires for Egypt against Israel. They'd also pour more help into "Trans-Jordan."
~ As this indictment happened after the ceasefires, further British intervention would be impossible. Besides, by that time, the Arabs were under UN arms embargo and the British were forced to remove their officers from west of the Jordan River. the very LAST thing the British wanted was a breakdown of the ceasefires -- At this time, the Israelis had a virtual monopoly of military power on the ground. All the Israelis needed was an excuse. Perhaps, on the other hand, giving the object stupidity of British policy at the time, I wouldn't put it past them. Israelis would have reached Damascus, Amman, and the Canal within ten days.
~ I find it unlikely that the world at large would have stood by meekly and allowed Israel to overrun much of the Middle east, even assuming it were possibel--and that goes double for the Suez Canal. they'd be spread pretty thin--and at that point in time, they couldn't ave counted on America to come running to their rescue if things went bad. The U.S. State Departent was riddled with people who were certain Israel was a Communist state in the making, both out of fraank anti-Semitism and because Israel had won its war fro independence with the aid of massive Soviet-bloc arms shipments.
Thayt said, I have to wonder whether Israel would bother with war crimes indictments against Attlee et al. What were they going to do--kidnap these people Eichmann-styl to put them on trial? Try them in absentia with the whole world knowing the fix was in and that the verdict would amount to nothing but a propaganda stunt?
~ If the Brits didn't support Israel, and France and/or the US followed suit, then they would have turned to the Soviets for support.
~ Major international waves. I'd see the US being severely split on opinion.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
