Arab-Israeli Conflict

Hi Rella, welcome to A2K.

In your studies, what have you learned about the obstacles to establishing an independent Jewish State?

Hi, thanks.

Well, there was the issue of the Middle East being predominantly Islamic. The Arabs, while agreeing to let the Jews co-habitate with them, so long as they adhered to Islamic soveriegnty, did not believe they had a right to their own state. Since the Jews placed the laws of God above the laws of the land, they would not convert to the Isalmic way, and therefore residing with the Muslims would not work out.

Another obstacle was the decrease of Jewish settlers coming to Palestine. The annual number dropped after 1925 to an average of 2,500-5,000, which was hardly enough to repopulate a land and transform its national character.

Then there was the political factionalism among the Jews. The socialist-labor Zionists sought to collectivize the economic activity while judaizing it to Arab labor, placing socialism above the creation of a Jewish state. The Private Jewish Capitalists & Investors were in favor of Arab labor, and critisized the SLZs for favoring socialism. And the Orthodox Jews opposed the establishment of a Jewish state, because they thought it was inconsistent with their spiritualist view of religion.

"Since the Jews placed the laws of God above the laws of the land, they would not convert to the Isalmic way, and therefore residing with the Muslims would not work out."

But didn't the Ashkenazim reside with the goyim in Eastern Europe for centuries, and the Sephardim in Southern Europe and Africa also, and the Mizrahim in the Middle East for millennia?

Which Jews' opinon was it, specifically, that residing with the Muslims would not work out? That opinion doesn't strike me as particularly religious, especially when evoking the laws of God above the laws of the land, in light of the fact that religious Jews had resided with the goyim for millennia.