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Fri 4 Aug, 2006 08:49 am
Last night, PBS' Frontline dealt with Saudi Arabia. It was an interesting and enlightening program.
The fact that stood out from this two hour broadcast was the reportage of the meeting of the first Saudi King, Abdul Aziz, with FDR at the end of WWII.
Roosevelt told Abdul Aziz that many of his constituents wanted to see a homeland for the JEws established in Palestine.
The King answered that what the Germans did the JEws was terrible but that the Arabs were not responsible and should not be punished by having their land taken away from them. He suggested that a nice area of Germany be given the Jews.
Now, the primary objection from the JEws would have been that they wanted what was historically theirs. I feel this is their weakest argument.
I can understand that Germany would have been a repulsive place and that the offer of a piece of Germany sounds like the Ghetto in disguise. Both of those would have been stronger arguments.
Was this suggestion widely known? Did it receive a public airing?
Do you think it would ever have been made a reality?
But it's not their weakest argument. The Cherokee wanted to stay in the Carolinas for the same reason as the Jews wanted to be repatriated to Palestine. What the US did was march them to Oklahoma.
At the end of WWII, I think Europeans welcomed the idea of shipping out the Jews to elsewhere. It didn't matter where, they would be surrounded by enemies wherever they were put. Don't get me wrong. Europe was awash with refugees, industry and the environment was devastated, disease and malnourishment were killing thousands a week and here come the Jews wanting to get out of there. So okay, let's get them out of there, but nothing is easy, especially nation building, especially nation building where there is already a nation.
Maybe FDR should have offered to give them some other place.
I know one.
It was a nice place, a little small for a country but about what they ended up with, and it had a nice coastline, some lakes and a few mountains. The seasonal weather was much like Germany's and a lot of Jews already lived there.
Massachusetts.
Joe(tain't easy, this nation building thing)Nation
Well, it is true that Europe was a mess. WHen I was in Berlin in 1976, there were still buildings in the Soviet sector that hadn't been restored, although another tourist told me that the Berliners had made great progress since her last visit, "ten years ago." We never know if people are accurate when they give dates.
Roosevelt, of course, had already refused Jewish refugees entrance to the US.
Is the part about Massachusetts facetious?
In the meantime, I've been talking about this with people all day. Very interesting conversations.
I met Ibn Saud when I was about 5 yrs old, he gave me a tin of english toffee, he was blind as a bat. He patted my blond hair for luck.
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