Was talking to mom about stuff and she told me her rememberances of how the state of Israel began. I've only seen a couple of brief news clips. Boatloads of Jewish refugees from Europe. They went ashore in Palestine. And they just kept on coming. Claimed title to the land from the almighty and they were just gonna' take it back from the Palestinian stewards who had been running it for them in their absence. Nevermind that Palestinians owned property and storefronts and stuff. How could they possibly own property when the almighty signed it over to the twelve tribes - oh 4-5 thousand years ago? The title was implicit in the deal with Abraham that I mentioned a few days ago for generations of slicing foreskins. I also know that once they came ashore they started blowing up Palestinian governing structures and other little terrorist actions in support of their cause. But they just kept coming. It's a desert land so it didn't take long to outnumber the local inhabitants several times over. This is why you hear all the references that Palestinians want to drive the Jews into the sea. That's where they came from.

At some point they were legitimized by the UN. It solved a very messy problem at the time. What to do with all the Jewish refugees from Europe. Anti-semitism had run long and deep there. Nobody else wanted 'em. And Palestine had only recently somewhat liberated itself from the British (who took it from the Turks), so their fledgling government wasn't prepared to deal with the crisis. Britain was trying to rebuild their own country so they weren't much of an obstacle. There were lots of borders to redraw on maps after WWII so nobody saw any big deal about adding one more. Well, nobody but the Palestinians. It was their houses that ended up on the wrong side of the line.

I'll probably get some accusations of anti-semitism myself for writing this. No - I really don't have issue with any races or tribes. I'm a bit skeptical of zionism as a foundation for a modern country, but won't go so far as to say it's flawed. No it's just another belief system that's incompatible with at least one other. It's only a problem when you're next door to somebody with the opposing belief system. I'm still pretty much convinced that figuring out how to split up Jerusalem equitably will be the most significant event of our lives - should we live that long. Eventually it will have to become a multi-cultural integrated city. But before we get there it will probably have to go through this line-drawing phase a few more times. And of course lives will be lost.

Gee, I just happen to have a World Almanac from 1948 (events of '47). In five seconds I located these entries: February 17 - British capture twenty-second shipload of Jewish refugees trying to smuggle themselves into Palestine, and deport them to Cyprus. March 2 - Twenty-two killed in week-end terrorist attacks by Jewish underground in Palestine. This is just the headlines. I've got the whole story and I fully intend to read it. Wish I had events of '48 as well.

Actually it happened pretty much like I described. The Brits just basically had peace-keeping troops because Palestine had no formal army. When the Jews started bombing stuff and freeing prisoners from jail the Brits told the UN that they better figure something out fast or they (the Brits) were just going to leave. Egypt was complaining about the peace-keepers on its own soil and the Brits were under pressure to just vacate. The UN said OK we'll draw a line here. Jews and Palestinians - in a common economic bond. Note that this is only the second year of the UN so they're on pretty shaky footing and survival uncertain. The Marshall plan just started - and inflation is high. 20 dollar cars are now 79 bucks. The seeds of the cold war are starting so sprout. At least neither of these are communist. The US quickly agreed to the plan. So do the Brits.

Washing the car was a test of Jim's Corollary to Bob's Law. Bob's law is the one that says washing a car will make it rain. Jim's corollary states that it doesn't happen in reverse - i.e. washing your car to make it rain doesn't work. Haha - then washing your car to make it rain leads to sunshine? OK. That works for me.