Last Sunday, we considered the long history and the religious origins of the conflict between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East.
“Middle East Peace: Fantasy or Possibility? Part 1” | Kotok Report,
https://kotokreport.com/middle-east-peace-fantasy-or-possibility-part-1/
We raised the hard question: How realistic are expectations and hopes for lasting peace, given an expanding war ignited this year and a long and difficult history in which interludes of relative peace have proven difficult to sustain?
In Part 2 we are going to focus more narrowly on Palestine. In the extensive list at the end of Part 1 is an item about the Sykes-Picot agreement concluded in May of 1916. The agreement is an important element in the creation of Palestine, as it was an attempt to create a political jurisdiction. It ignored the Ottoman attempt to allow distinct ethnic communities, or millets, to coexist. As we noted last week, coexisting, even at the height of the Ottoman Empire under the millet system, had been a fractious exercise among Ottoman Muslims, Jews, and Christians.
The Sykes-Picot agreement drew lines on a map that would carve up the Ottoman Empire, allocating territorial control among Britain, France, and Russia. The two diplomats who drew the map, one representing France and the other Britain, decided those lines. Neither Sir Mark Sykes (Britain) or François Georges-Picot (France) had ever toured the region. Palestine was created, and the modern era of war commenced.
The agreement represented a shift from promises made earlier to the Arabs. While the British had previously promised the Arabs an independent state, Sykes and Picot had negotiated a deal to divide the Middle East into respective spheres of influence. Palestine was proposed for international administration, directly contradicting the promise made to Hejazi leader Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi.
A five-page resource on the Sykes-Picot agreement, supplied by Saylor University, outlines the diplomats’ plan. (For further detail, we recommend the entire article.)
Britain was allocated control of areas roughly comprising the coastal strip between the sea and River Jordan, today’s Jordan, southern Iraq, and a small area including the ports of Haifa and Acre, to allow access to the Mediterranean. France was allocated control of south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Russia was to get Constantinople, the Turkish Straits and the Ottoman Armenian vilayets. The controlling powers were left free to decide on state boundaries within these areas. Further negotiation was expected to determine international administration pending consultations with Russia and other powers, including the Sharif of Mecca.[5]
(“Sykes-Picot Agreement” | Saylor University,
https://resources.saylor.org/wwwresources/archived/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/HIST351-9.2.1-Sykes-Picot-Agreement.pdf)
In the separate Balfour Agreement (1917), in order to win international Jewish support for the war effort, the British government pledged its support for the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. Conflicting agreements resulted in the British promising the exact same piece of land—Palestine—to both the Arab population that lived there and to the Zionist movement.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the negotiations among European powers who wanted a part of what had been the Ottoman Empire set the stage for the strife in the Middle East today. Finalized in 1922, the ultimate agreement, which followed the principal terms of Sykes-Picot, constituted a turning point. Christians of various denominations; Jews ranging from orthodox to secular; Muslims, whether Shia or Sunni; and all the additional divisions became tribal competitors for land and power. Overlapping land claims resulted from conflicting agreements. The Arabs believed they had secured a promise for immediate national independence and majority rule. Simultaneously, the Zionist movement interpreted the Balfour Declaration as a pathway to establishing a Jewish state or a national home, bringing two competing ethno-nationalist movements into direct collision.
Any attempt at community building was foiled by bad actors. Many invoked their religions and pronounced themselves as the instrument of God’s will. In what was then Palestine, the turmoil worsened.
Palestine became an official jurisdiction in 1923 under the British Mandate. Violence erupted early in the formative years after the WW1 period and after the Ottoman collapse opened a power vacuum. Here’s a curated report:
“The Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Role of the British Mandate: 1919-1948” | SciLeo,
https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0185-19182025000300171
The first deadly event was the Jaffa riots in May 1921. The actual event started as a confrontation between two Jewish groups. It quickly spread and became an Arab-Jewish melee spanning a week. Forty-seven Jews and 48 Arabs died, and more than 200 people were wounded.
“Jaffa riots (May 1921)” | Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa_riots_(May_1921)
The first large, violent massacre of Jews occurred on August 24,1929, in Hebron. Incited by rumors that Jews had plans to seize Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Arabs ransacked synagogues and attacked Jews in their homes, killing almost 70 people. Details here:
“1929 Hebron massacre” | Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Hebron_massacre
The story of this massacre is also ably told by journalist Yardena Schwartz in her 2024 book Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict (https://www.amazon.com/dp/145494921X/).
During this period, Hitler was coming to power (1933) in Germany, and the Nazi regime had already intensified its antisemitic propaganda as Joseph Goebbels gained political stature.
Jews who could do so fled Europe. Thus, migration to Palestine increased as they sought refuge. As a result, tenson between Arabs and Jews only worsened. The massacre of unarmed Jews at the religious school in Hebron was a tipping point. Arab-Jewish strife expanded after the 1929 events into full riots and violence.
Britain officially went to war with Nazi Germany when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain had a treaty agreement with Poland. That invasion followed by only a few days a secret meeting where Hitler’s emissary, Joachim von Ribbentrop, had reached a deal with Stalin.
The Zionist Stern Gang came in later (1940), after the Irgun (1931) broke away from the more moderate British-mandated Jewish defense formation named the Hagenah. The internationally condemned violent massacre of about 100 people in the Arab village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948, stands out as a counterpart to the massacre of Jews in Hebron. Violence and death continued in this region. Before Israel became a state (1948), Menachem Begin was commander of Irgun.
The Menachem Begin Heritage Center details that period:
“December 1943 | Menachem Begin, the Irgun commander appointed” | Menachem Begin Heritage Center, https://www.begincenter.org.il/timeline/menachem-begin-the-irgun-commander-appointed/?lang=en
In 1947, two years after WW2 ended with Germany’s surrender, the UK decided to withdraw from Palestine and endorse UN Resolution 181, which would divide Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. In May 1948, the State of Israel was created, but the Arabs did not agree to the plan the UN put forward, so disputes over borders and other issues remained unresolved, spurring seven major conflicts in the years that followed.
No history of Arab-Jewish relations from WWI to 1948 would be complete without mention of the Arab leader who shaped, from the Arab side, the antagonistic relationships between Arabs and Jews. Amin al-Husseini, whose family traced their origins to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, became the most prominent and influential Palestinian Arab leader of the British Mandate era, and his career helped turn the struggle over Palestine into a highly charged national and religious conflict. He tied resistance to Zionism to religious authority, deepening the rift between Arabs and Jews. As Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, he opposed Zionist immigration and British rule, and British and Jewish leaders saw him as one of the main drivers of anti-Zionist mobilization in Palestine.
Wikipedia details the diverse roles he played from end of Ottoman to end of WW2 and creation of State of Israel (1948):
Husseini was born in Jerusalem, Ottoman Empire in 1897, he received education in Islamic, Ottoman, and Catholic schools. In 1912, he pursued Salafist religious studies in Cairo. Husseini later went on to serve in the Ottoman army during World War I. At war’s end he stationed himself in Damascus as a supporter of the Arab Kingdom of Syria, but following its disestablishment, he moved back to Jerusalem, shifting his pan-Arabism to a form of Palestinian nationalism. From as early as 1920, he actively opposed Zionism, and as a leader of the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, was sentenced for ten years imprisonment but pardoned by the British. In 1921, Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner appointed him Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a position he used to promote Islam while rallying a non-confessional Arab nationalism against Zionism. During the 1921–1936 period, he was considered an important ally by the British authorities. His appointment by the British for the role of grand mufti of all Palestine (a new role established by the British) helped divide the Palestinian leadership structure and national movement.
(“Amin al-Husseini” | Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini)
After the 1936–39 Arab Revolt and growing tension with the British, he left Palestine in 1937. Reaching Germany in1941, he met with Hitler in Germany, made Arabic propaganda broadcasts, and sought Axis support against Britain, Zionism, and Jewish statehood.
The Hitler Archive offers a historic photo of their meeting:
As we conclude Part 2, we remind readers once again of our question. Is peace in the Middle East a fantasy or a possibility? What would it take to get to peace, given the history that preceded the Trump/Netanyahu attack on Iran on February 28, 2026?
Part 3 is coming soon.
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