The emergence of Israel. Ancient prophecies: the destruction of Damascus and the war in the Middle East

It acquired in 1948, when Ben Gurion announced to the whole world the proclamation of the independent sovereign state of Israel.

Ben Gurion read this statement in the museum building on Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv. Israel's independence was declared one day before the end of the British Mandate for Palestine.

Then, when Israel was created, the Declaration of Independence stated that in November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution according to which the Jewish independent state of Israel was created in Eretz Israel.

The same United Nations declaration emphasized that, like any other people, Jewish people can be independent, has the right to freedoms and independence, as well as to sovereignty in its independent and sovereign state.

Immediately, the sovereign independent state of Israel opened its borders for the repatriation of Jewish people from all countries of the world, with the sole purpose of uniting all Jews scattered around the world. The Declaration of the Founding of Israel also stated that the new state would make every effort to develop the new Jewish state and the welfare of the Jewish people. The main postulate of the declaration was that from now on the political structure of the State of Israel is aimed at the development and preservation of such main democratic foundations as freedom and justice, peace and tranquility, and will also fully comply with all the teachings of the Hebrew prophets.

Main state principles will be: full rights for the citizens of the country, both in political and social matters, regardless of their religion, gender and race. The Declaration on the Founding of Israel stated that every citizen of the State of Israel will be guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, the right to speak their native language, the right to good education, for the preservation of culture and for worthy development.

And yet, the Declaration clearly stated that the new state would sacredly preserve monuments of all three religions on the territory of Israel, and would also adhere to and observe the principles of the UN Charter.

Immediately in 1948, after the declaration of independence of the State of Israel, it was announced that the new independent state would be and is ready to cooperate with the United Nations, with its bodies and representative offices on the implementation of the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 1947 .

And, in addition, the new state will take all possible steps to implement the economic unity of Israel.

At the same time, during the creation of Israel, after the proclamation of the formation of a new Jewish state, the Arab population living in Israel was asked to maintain peace and take part in the construction and revival of a new sovereign state, which would be based on equality. Everyone living in Israel was promised equal representation in all institutions and organizations of the state.

In the year of the declaration of independence of the state, Israel extended its hand for good neighborly relations with all neighboring states, their peoples, and called for cooperation with the people of Israel, with the people who have been moving towards independence on their land for so long.

The declaration also stated that Israel would certainly contribute to the rapid development of the Middle East.

The first state to de facto accept Israel was the United States of America. President Truman announced this in 1948 on May 14, immediately after Ben Gurion's Declaration of Independence. The country that was the first to recognize Israel de jure became Soviet Union. This happened in May 1948, after the founding of Israel and the declaration of sovereign Israel. A year later, the sovereign independent state of Israel became a member of the United Nations.

The creation of Israel was painful and quite difficult. After the declaration of the Declaration of Independence, on the second day of the existence of the new independent state armed armies of Arab states entered its territory: Syria, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt. They started the war against Israel. The purpose of the attack was one - the destruction of the Jewish state, since the countries Arab world did not recognize the new state of Israel.

The Israeli army won its independence with honor; henceforth the war of 1948 will be called the War of Independence. It should be added that the Israelis not only defended their independence, but also conquered part of the Arab lands, thereby expanding the territory of Israel. The war ended in June 1949, only a year later a peace treaty was signed, which stated the cessation of hostilities.

IN hard time, during the war, the formation and creation of Israel as a state took place. The Khagan organization, which existed in a semi-underground position, became, and in 1948 Ben Gurion, who became the first prime minister in the history of an independent state, signed a decree on the creation of the Shai special service, the main function of which was to conduct all types of intelligence: counterintelligence, reconnaissance.

Subsequently, three intelligence departments were created from one service: military intelligence, political intelligence and counterintelligence. All three intelligence services were created in the new state on the basis of the British intelligence services. Today these special services have names - service Military intelligence Israel's AMAN, the General Security Service "Shabak" - this is how counterintelligence began to be called, and "Mossad" - this is the name of political intelligence.

At the creation of Israel, political and government structure countries.

The head of state of Israel is the President. He is elected by Knesset members for seven years by secret ballot. The first president of the new state of Israel was Chaim Weizmann. According to the President of Israel, he does not have the powers of government; rather, he is a representative figure in the political hierarchy. The president is a symbol of the state, his task is to perform representative functions. What can a president do in Israel? In addition to representative functions, he approves the new composition of the government after the next elections, and also provides amnesty to those convicted.

When Israel was founded, the highest legislative body was determined to be the Knesset. This is a parliament consisting of 120 deputies elected by party lists using direct voting. The first Knesset came into existence after the first elections in 1949. The central executive body is the government. The government is headed by the Prime Minister, who is actually the head of the state of Israel. The first prime minister was Ben Guriron.

The highest body of judicial power of the state is Supreme Court, which in Israel is called the High Court of Justice. All major government and government agencies and organizations are located in.

The executive branch during the creation of Israel was also defined - these are city mayors, who are elected locally through direct voting. And yet, it is not separated from the state, and therefore in the cities there are still religious councils consisting of clergy of Israel. The services provided by religious councils relate mainly to religious rites and services, the conclusion of legal acts: marriage, divorce, birth or death.

It is safe to say that if Harry Truman had not been at the head of the United States after World War II, the history of Israel would have been different, and the very emergence of this state would have been in question. Truman, who became in April...

It is safe to say that if Harry Truman had not been at the head of the United States after World War II, the history of Israel would have been different, and the very appearance of this state and tours to Israel in the fall would have been in question. Truman, who unexpectedly became the most powerful man on the planet in April 1945, did the almost impossible to create a Jewish state. It is no coincidence that Israel is still the only country, besides the United States, where you can find not only monuments to Harry Truman, but also schools, hospitals and libraries named after him. In the historical memory of Israelis, Truman ranks with the founders of the nation and country. “These Israelis,” he himself later admitted, “put me on a pedestal next to Moses.”1 However, Truman's role and the details of his political struggle for the creation and legitimization of the Jewish state still remain little known.

The conflict in Palestine has a long history. When Truman became president, Palestine was a British protectorate, separated at the end of World War I from the Ottoman Empire and governed by London under a League of Nations mandate. Adopted in 1917, the Balfour Declaration, named after the British Foreign Secretary, recognized Palestine as the homeland of the Jews and recorded their right to organize their own state there. During the First World War, the declaration was approved by all the great powers. In 1922, it was approved by the League of Nations, which transferred Palestine to the British protectorate. Based on this declaration, the British authorities already in the 20s and 30s allowed Jews to create their own settlements there. However, the declaration provoked sharp opposition from the Palestinian Arabs, who at the time of its adoption did not yet have their own state.

The British government soon found itself between a rock and a hard place - the Muslims of Palestine who lived on its territory, and the Jews who hoped to move there and form Israel. Although in the period between the two wars the Jewish population of Palestine grew from 80 thousand to approximately 500 thousand, the Arabs did everything to prevent the implementation of the declaration. However, the Second world war, horrors of the Holocaust, appearance in different countries huge number Jewish refugees finally aggravated the Jewish question - so much so that it required an urgent solution. At the same time, the Zionist movement acquired an increasingly militarized, aggressive form. Armed Jewish units began to engage in constant clashes with both Palestinian and British forces.

In 1942, at the Zionist conference in New York, it was decided to seek the immediate creation of a Jewish state throughout Palestine and unlimited immigration of Jews from all over the world there. This could not but cause increasing bitterness among the Arabs, who in 1945 created the Arab League of Nations, main goal which began to prevent the emergence of a Jewish state in Palestine. After the 1945 parliamentary elections in England, the situation became even more complicated. Instead of Winston Churchill, who publicly declared: “I am a Zionist!”, the post of Prime Minister was replaced by Clement Attlee, whose government immediately began to develop plans to withdraw from Palestine and Greece and transfer control there to the UN.

From the very beginning of his work in the Senate in 1935, Truman supported the Zionist movement. In 1944, he promised to “help fight for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine”2. With his arrival in the White House, his position did not change. Already on the eighth day of his presidency, on April 20, 1945, Truman met with Rabbi Wise. The President said he was well aware of both the Jewish and Arab points of view on the problem of Palestine, as well as what happened to the Jews during World War II. The United States, Truman said, would do everything possible to help the Jews find a homeland.

By this time, the Zionist movement had become an influential political force in America that neither the president nor other politicians could ignore. In 1946, at a meeting with American “Middle Eastern” diplomats who warned Truman about the decline in US prestige in the area due to the White House’s obvious sympathies for Zionism, the president said: “Please forgive me, gentlemen, but I have hundreds to take into account thousands of those who stand for the success of Zionism. There are not hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my voters.”3 Jews made up a significant number of Truman's supporters in the state of Missouri, from where he was elected to the Senate, there were a lot of them in the state of New York, which gave 45 electoral votes in the presidential election, the financial and political support of the Democratic Party largely depended on them, they played a large role and in means mass media countries.

Let us note that Truman’s religious consciousness, as well as his knowledge of ancient history, inclined him even more towards the idea of ​​​​creating a Jewish state on the territory of Palestine. Truman later admitted that he had always been interested in the history of Palestine and knew that this region was at one time one of the main centers of the world. However, “the Arabs were never able to make the region as strong and influential in the world as it had been before, although certain opportunities for this still remained.” Truman believed “that under Jewish leadership an excellent industrial system could be created, and the productive capabilities of the region could be used by both Jews and Arabs”4.

US leaders, however, were not yet ready for a radical solution to the question of Palestine. When Churchill said at the Potsdam Conference that he would be glad if the United States were willing to replace Britain as the main power in the region, Truman quickly replied, “No thanks.”5 For the first three years after the end of the World War, the conflict in Palestine was a classic example of the failure of US foreign policy, which was carried out by the State Department without taking into account the nuances of the domestic situation in the country. For Truman himself, the struggle for the creation of Israel became a struggle over who determines the foreign policy of the United States - the president of the country or the professional officials and diplomats of the State Department. Already in a conversation with Rabbi Wise, Truman complained that officials “advise me to be as careful as possible, they say that I do not understand anything that is happening in Palestine and that I should leave everything to the so-called “experts” ... Some “experts” State Department think they should make policy. But as long as I am president, I will make policy, and their job is only to implement it. Those of them who don’t like it can quit any time they want.”6

Truman himself was under strong pressure from the Jewish American lobby, where an important role was played by the president’s old friend and his former partner at Truman and Jacobson (a haberdashery store in Kansas City) Eddie Jacobson. However, the president tried to act rationally. In a letter to Senator Joseph Ball in the fall of 1945, he admitted: “I tell the Jews directly that if they are willing to give me five hundred thousand soldiers to fight the war with the Arabs, we can satisfy their desires, otherwise we will wait for now with negotiations. I do not think that you and the other members of the Senate will be inclined to send half a dozen divisions into Palestine to support the Jewish state. I’m trying to make the world a safe place for Jews, but I don’t want to go to war with Palestine.”7 At a government meeting on July 30, 1946, Truman, angered by the growing criticism of American Jews against him, even exclaimed: “Jesus Christ, when he was here on earth, could not satisfy them. So who can expect that I will succeed in this better than Him!?”8.

Finally, Truman settled on a position that US Deputy Secretary of State Dean Acheson described as follows: “first, the immediate emigration to Palestine of one hundred thousand displaced Jews from Eastern Europe; secondly, a complete rejection of political or military responsibility for this decision.”9 That is, it was a position within the “de facto” principle. On October 4, 1946, speaking on the day of Yom Kippur, Truman declared that “the United States will support the establishment of a viable Jewish state controlling its emigration and economic policies in the appropriate area of ​​Palestine.”10 In the eyes of many, this meant Truman's direct support for the Zionist movement. And most Zionists believed that US policy towards Palestine completely coincides with their policy. When they found differences, they immediately accused the White House of being pro-Arab. The Arabs also believed that Truman stood for Zionist positions and treated him with undisguised aggressiveness. However, “our policy,” Truman said, “was neither Jewish nor Arab, but simply American policy. It was American because it was aimed at a peaceful solution to problems in this difficult region. It was American because it was based on the desire to end human tragedy and see promises fulfilled.”

Pressure on the president also grew within the country. In the second half of 1947 alone, Truman received more than 135 thousand letters, telegrams and petitions in support of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. In November 1947, Truman secretly met with Zionism's most respected leader, 74-year-old scientist Chaim Weizmann, who had just lost re-election as chairman of the World Zionist Congress. Weizmann was one of the creators of the Balfour Declaration; they were already familiar with Truman and felt mutual sympathy. Truman believed that “Weizmann was a remarkable man, one of the most wise people, that I have ever met, a true leader, one of a kind... He devoted his life to two things - science and Zionism. He was a man of colossal achievements and exceptional personal qualities.”

At the meeting, Weizmann told Truman about his vision of how the Jews would revive Palestine and turn it into a prosperous industrial power, how they would develop the desert. The new Jewish state, he said, will become an example for the entire region. The guest showed the president maps that suggested possible plans for the division of Palestine and talked about how he plans to organize agriculture in the new state. Truman, who spent many years of his life on a farm in Missouri, not only took an ardent interest in these plans, but also promised Weizmann his support. Immediately after the meeting, the president instructed the American delegation to support at the UN the project of dividing Palestine into two parts.

Truman's only concern was that such a division could be used by the Soviet Union to strengthen its position in the region. Weizmann disagreed: “There are fears that the implementation of our project in Palestine could somehow be used as a channel for the penetration of communist ideas into the Middle East. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our emigrants from Eastern Europe are precisely those people who leave communist areas. Otherwise they would not have left at all. If there had been a serious attempt by the Soviets to spread communist influence through our emigration, they could have easily done so in previous decades. But every election shows that communism has achieved very little popularity in our society. Educated peasants and skilled workers strive for high standards of living, which will never be accepted by communists. The danger of communism exists only in the illiterate and impoverished strata, who are unable to resist it on their own.”11

By this time, the British administration of Palestine had become the main target of the Zionist movement. Violence increased and events became uncontrollable. On July 22, 1946, Jewish terrorists blew up the British military center located in the King David Hotel in Tel Aviv; 91 people were killed. At the beginning of 1947, under the influence of world public opinion and pressure from the United States and European countries England allowed Jewish refugees from Europe to move to Palestine. No longer able to control the situation and maintain order, London announced that it would terminate its mandate on May 15, 1948. The Arab leaders immediately publicly declared that this day would be the beginning of the “defense of Arab rights.” The UN immediately created a special commission to consider the Palestinian issue and, under US pressure, on November 29, 1947, adopted a decision providing for the division of Palestine into Arab and Jewish parts.

The leaders of Zionism quickly saw this decision as their final victory. However, Arab leaders who disagreed with the UN launched direct military action in an attempt to prevent the Jews from establishing control over the part of Palestine they had received. The conflict became increasingly acute; by the beginning of 1948, Arabs and Jews were openly fighting each other. London, without hiding, waited for the end of its mandate and let everything take its course. Truman wrote that the situation was very difficult: “The Jews were for separation, but not all Jews were. The Arabs were against separation, but they did not agree on how much they were against it. The British, apparently, had only one thing in mind: they simply wanted to wash their hands of this whole matter.”12 The practical implementation of the UN resolution on the division of Palestine became increasingly problematic.

At the same time, within the Truman administration itself, voices against division were increasingly heard. Defense Secretary James Forrestal, for example, took every opportunity to criticize the UN decision. “You just don’t understand,” he said, “that forty million Arabs will push four hundred thousand Jews into the sea. And that's the whole point. Oil - we must be on the side of oil"13. In addition to oil, the US military convinced the president that it was impossible to send US troops to Palestine in the event of a full-scale armed conflict breaking out there. Almost all diplomats, as well as State Department employees, as the president himself admitted, were against even the very idea of ​​​​creating a Jewish state in Palestine. Their main argument was that for many years England was able to maintain its position in the region only by relying on the Arabs. Now that England is leaving and transferring all responsibility for the situation there into the hands of the United States, Washington must do the same, because if you do not make friends with the Arabs, they will go over to the camp of the Soviet Union. Truman did not agree with this logic, but it was very difficult to overcome the opinion of the country’s foreign policy elite.

Truman's position was greatly weakened by the fact that the most popular politician at that time, the hero of the recent war, the US Secretary of State, 68-year-old General George Marshall, was opposed to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. According to the American military, the likelihood of a military conflict in Europe was growing every day. In this situation, Marshall was concerned about the possibility of unhindered access to Middle Eastern oil. Therefore, more and more often in the documents of the State Department, the idea slipped through that it was necessary to postpone the practical implementation of the UN decision. The memo Truman received from his newly created Central Intelligence Agency also suggested that the division of Palestine would not solve the region's problems as the White House hoped. All this caused considerable concern among the US Jewish lobby, which further increased pressure on the president. At the beginning of 1948, with a request for new meeting Chaim Weizmann addressed the President. However, under these conditions, Truman decided not to meet with the leaders of Zionism anymore, because such meetings could be misinterpreted by the American and world public.

It was a difficult time for Truman*. The elections were approaching, which he was expected to lose. The President had to keep up with the rapidly changing situation in Europe; the day before he spoke at a joint session of Congress, where he asked deputies to speed up the approval of the Marshall Plan and the universal military training program. Tensions in American-Soviet relations grew rapidly. For the first time in March 1948, Truman openly named the Soviet Union as the only country blocking the establishment of peace: “Since the end of the war, the Soviet Union and its agents have been destroying the independence and democratic character of a number of countries in Eastern and Central Europe. This is a ruthless course, and it is clear that the USSR is striving to extend it to the still free countries of Europe. As a result, a critical situation has developed in Europe today... I believe that we have reached a position where the position of the United States must be clear and clear. There are times in history when it is much more important to act than to wait. We must be willing to pay the price for peace, otherwise we will certainly be forced to pay the price for war."14 It seemed that the world was moving towards a new bloody battle.

Truman's popularity was rapidly declining. According to Gallup polls, the president's approval rate dropped to 36 percent in 1948. Newspapers and magazines published sarcastic materials, proving that Truman could not cope with the situation either in the country or in the world. The Nation magazine, for example, rhetorically asked: “Should Truman be in the White House?” The New Republic put on the cover the phrase: “Truman should resign.” The New York Times wrote that Truman not only does not have the qualities necessary for a president, not only is he too petty and colorless, but he even has difficulty understanding printed text. “The influence of the current president on affairs is weaker than that of any other president in new history“, the newspaper concluded. The split in his foreign policy team did not strengthen the president’s position either.

On March 13, 1948, Eddie Jacobson visited the White House. It was a now rare meeting between two best friends. Truman loved and appreciated Jacobson very much; in his memoirs he wrote that “it would not have been easy to find a truer friend”15. However, at the very beginning of the meeting, Truman warned his friend that he did not want to hear a word about Palestine and admitted that he was very angry with the Zionist leaders who constantly criticized his policies and spoke disrespectfully about the president personally. They, Truman said, “have made me about as anti-Semitic as a man can be.” Truman's old friend simply began to cry in the Oval Office. Chaim Weizmann, he said, has been his personal lifelong hero: “He is the greatest Jew alive. He may be the greatest Jew who ever lived. He is already an old man and very sick. He traveled thousands of miles to talk to you, Harry, and you refuse this meeting. This doesn't sound like you. I thought, Harry, you could handle what they put on you."16 Truman could not see his friend's tears, he turned in his chair to the window, looked at the Rose Garden in the White House courtyard for a minute, turned to Jacobson and said: “You won, you bald son of a bitch. I will meet him."17

Truman later acknowledged that Eddie played a truly decisive role in developing his position on the Jewish question. Jacobson, in his more than 30-year friendship with Truman, had never asked his powerful friend for anything before, and now that he had finally made a request on behalf of the Zionist movement, Truman could not say no to him. The President called the State Department and said he wanted to meet with Weizmann. “You should have heard,” Truman recalled, “how they screamed. The first thing they told me was that Israel is not a country and they don't have a flag at all and they have nothing to fly. I told them that Weizmann was staying at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and they always put something up there when distinguished foreign guests stay. Find out what they posted there for Weizmann, and use it.”

On Thursday, March 18, 1948, a decisive meeting took place between Weizmann and Truman. It lasted 45 minutes. No flags were required, since the meeting was secret; the guest was ushered into the White House through a side entrance. As Truman later recalled, the conversation went well. The US President said that he wants a fair solution to the issue, and without bloodshed. “I explained to him the basis of my policy on the Jewish question and that my main interest was to see justice established, but without bloodshed. When Weizmann left my office, I felt that he completely understood my policy, and I, in turn, understood what he wanted."18 Truman said that he was of the opinion that with the political division of Palestine into two states it would be possible to create economic union and both countries can work side by side to develop the region. The main thing is to prevent bloodshed. “Obviously, little good can be said about the solution to a problem,” the US President noted in this regard, “if it involves the destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives in order for other hundreds of thousands of lives to be saved”19.

Truman firmly promised Weizmann that the United States would support the idea of ​​​​dividing Palestine into two parts. However, the very next day, the US representative to the UN Security Council, Warren Austin, made a statement about the need to postpone the implementation of the plan for the division of Palestine, and instead establish direct international control there. Truman was very angry that in the eyes of the leader of world Zionism he appeared to be a deceiver and even sent a special envoy to Weizmann explaining that the position of the State Department and Austin’s speech at the UN did not correspond to the views of the president of the country20. In his diary that evening, Truman angrily wrote: “Today the State Department simply pulled the rug out from under my feet... This morning I learned that they had revised my Palestinian policy, and this is the first time I have learned about it from the newspapers! Damn it!!! Now I look like an insincere liar... I have never been in such a situation in my life. There are people at the third and fourth levels of the State Department who have always wanted to cut my throat. Finally they succeeded... “21. He called his closest adviser Clark Clifford and said in his hearts: “I promised Chaim Weizmann support?! Now he’ll think I’m an asshole!”22.

Truman's envoy brought a response from Weizmann, where he wrote that he fully trusted the American president, that the division of Palestine was inevitable, moreover, that it had already actually happened. The choice for the Jews in the current situation, Weizmann wrote, is “between the creation of a state and destruction. History and Providence, Mr. President, have placed the solution of this issue in your hands, and I am confident that you will resolve it in accordance with moral laws."23

The idea of ​​international control over Palestine, proposed by the State Department, caused an extremely skeptical reaction from the Pentagon. According to the calculations of US Secretary of War Forrestal, such control would require the presence in the region of at least 100 thousand troops under the UN flag, including at least 47 thousand of them would have to be provided by the United States. This, according to the military, exceeded the country's capabilities in the context of the growing likelihood of a military conflict with the USSR in Europe. Moreover, it was unclear how the American public would react to the inevitable death of its soldiers in Palestine, where the United States has no vital geopolitical interests.

Truman remained true to his word. On the evening of April 11, he invited Eddie Jacobson to the White House and asked him to “very clearly and clearly,” but secretly, confirm to Weizmann that he would ensure recognition of the new Jewish state by the United States. Eddie would later write that it was clear that Truman was wholeheartedly in favor of such recognition, and that the US President had finally made up his mind on this issue. If Truman was ready for some time to discuss the project of establishing a UN mandate over Palestine, it was only to briefly postpone the decisive division of it into two parts in order to better prepare this division. He understood that such a discussion would be perceived by both Arabs and Jews as Washington’s rejection of the idea of ​​​​creating an independent Jewish state in Palestine.

Meanwhile, the situation continued to worsen. By the spring of 1948, Jews had established control over some Arab areas. The leaders of the Jewish armed groups, or, as they called themselves, the provisional government, decided to proclaim an independent state on May 15, 1948, as soon as the British mandate ended, and appeal to the countries of the world to recognize it. In turn, the Arabs were actively developing plans administrative management throughout Palestine, armed forces were being prepared. Military units of the Arab states surrounding Palestine gradually moved into its territory. On May 8, Truman's advisor Clark Clifford told the President that the likelihood of the practical creation of Jewish and Arab states in the very near future was very high, and the United States must be prepared to act quickly in the new conditions. Truman could not entrust this to the State Department, so he asked Clifford, his domestic policy adviser, to prepare preliminary materials on a possible US reaction to the proclamation of a Jewish state.24

On May 12, a decisive meeting of the American leadership on the issue of Palestine took place. Clifford spoke on behalf of supporters of the recognition of the new state, who called on the United States, if a new Jewish state is proclaimed, to recognize it as soon as possible - most importantly, before the Soviet Union does it. Clifford even suggested publicly announcing the White House's readiness to recognize the new state even before its official proclamation. This will be an act in accordance with the President's policy and understanding of humanity, Clifford said. The 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis were the victims of the greatest genocide in history, and every thinking person should accept at least some responsibility for the Jewish survivors who, unlike all other Europeans, have nowhere to go. There is no real alternative to the division of Palestine, there is no alternative to Washington recognizing a new state, Clifford said. The delay caused by the US State Department will not be understood by Jews around the world. “No matter what the State Department or anyone else thinks, the fact is that there will be a Jewish state. To think otherwise is simply unrealistic,” he concluded.

Secretary of State George Marshall opposed it extremely harshly. He was quite dissatisfied with the fact that behind his back the presidential adviser on domestic policy was preparing materials on such an important foreign policy issue. This was General Marshall's harshest speech of his life. It was also the sharpest disagreement with the president that Truman had ever heard from his inner circle. Main idea Secretary of State was that the interests of domestic policy should not determine the direction of foreign policy.

If, Marshall said, looking straight into Truman's face, he followed Clifford's advice, then Marshall himself would oppose Truman in the presidential election next November. According to the recollections of those present, after the Secretary of State’s speech there was a long and heavy silence. Truman showed no emotion. Finally, he raised his hand and said gently that he fully understood the political risk of any decision he had to make on this issue, but he himself would judge the extent of such risk25. The President then suggested returning to discuss this issue again the next day. When everyone left the office, Truman looked at Clifford and said: “Let’s not assume that all is lost just yet.”

The next morning, reporters bombarded Truman with questions about whether or not the United States would recognize the new Jewish state in Palestine. “I will cross the bridge,” he replied, “only when I reach it.” Truman was afraid to say more because George Marshall could resign today, which would be a huge problem for the president several months before new elections. Without Marshall, victory in them seemed much less realistic, and if he opposed Truman, there would be nothing to count on. The President hoped that Marshall would analyze the current situation again and again and perhaps change his mind. On the evening of May 14, the US Secretary of State called the President of the country and said that although he could not support the position that the President had decided to take, he would not publicly oppose it. “That,” Truman said, “is all we need.”26

By order of Truman, Clarke Clifford, together with representatives of the Jewish Agency in Washington, began urgently preparing documents for recognition of the new state. When they began to find out what documents and papers were needed for this, it turned out that no one knew this. The situation was unique - it was necessary to prepare for the recognition of a state that did not yet exist. Finally, some documents were prepared, but the name of the country in them remained empty - no one yet knew what the new state would be called.

At five forty-five in the evening on May 15, information was received in the US capital that at midnight Palestinian time, that is, in 15 minutes, the creation of Israel, the first Jewish state in two thousand years, would be proclaimed. The history of Palestine has changed dramatically once again. Eleven minutes after the proclamation, Truman signed a statement on his actual - “de facto” - recognition and ordered his delegation to the UN to be immediately informed about this. The American delegation, having received a telegram from Washington, decided that this was someone’s joke, and everyone began to laugh, but then, when it turned out that it was all serious, the intensity of indignation at the president’s decision reached the point that the delegates began to discuss the possibility of collective resignation. Future Secretary of State Dean Rusk, at Marshall's request, immediately flew to New York to dissuade them from this. However, the most famous member of the delegation, President Franklin Roosevelt's widow, Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned, and the head of the US delegation to the UN, Warren Austin, simply left his office without leaving any information about where he would be. Many expected that George Marshall would also resign, but he stopped all talk on this topic, saying that a responsible politician cannot resign just because the president, who, according to the country's Constitution, has the right to make decisions, accepted it . However, from that day until the end of his life, Marshall never spoke to Clark Clifford again. He resigned in January 1949 after Truman won the presidential election, citing poor health.

In Washington, at 2210 Massachusetts Avenue, where the Jewish Agency was located, a blue and white flag with a Star of David in the center was raised. In New York, real events took place on the streets of the Bronx and Brooklyn. folk festivals and celebrations. Synagogues across the country held special services. Chaim Weizmann became the President of Israel, David Ben-Gurion became the Prime Minister, and Eddie Jacobson became the first (unofficial) ambassador of the new state to the United States.

Although, as modern historians write, the president’s foreign policy advisers did not allow him to directly become the father of the new Jewish state, he certainly became its “midwife.” Israel's Chief Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog called the US President and said: "Mr. President, God placed you in your mother's womb to make you an instrument in the rebirth of Israel after two thousand years." Truman’s aide, who was present at this conversation, noted that “tears were rolling down the President’s cheeks.”27 On May 25, Chaim Weizmann visited the White House again - this time as President of Israel and received all the honors due to the head of an independent state. On the threshold of the White House, he handed the sacred Torah to a smiling Truman.

The United States was the first to recognize Israel, which ensured that the new state was quickly and successfully recognized by most countries of the world. Later, Truman was much blamed for the fact that other UN member countries recognized Israel under his pressure. “I have never agreed with this practice,” he defended himself after his resignation, “where the strong force the weak to follow their will, both among people and among countries.

We helped Greece. In fact, we practically ensured the independence of the Philippines... However, we did not make these countries our satellites and did not force them to vote with us on the issue of the division of Palestine or any other issue. A policy that is worth calling itself American will never treat other countries as satellites. Democratic countries respect the opinions of others; this is the basis of their structure. No matter how strong or weak, rich or poor, these others may be.”

However, if the United States recognized Israel “de facto,” the USSR immediately decided not only on actual, but also full recognition of the new state, that is, “de jure.” The proclamation of Israel led to a new round of military clashes, which went down in history as the first of the future five Arab-Israeli wars. Already on the first day of the existence of the new state, it was attacked by Syria and Lebanon, and a day later by Iraq. However, when Israel was already under attack by the Arabs, the Truman administration refused for many months to lift its arms embargo on Israel and insisted at the UN that the solution to the Jewish question must be resolved diplomatically, through negotiations and compromises on the part of both Jews and Arabs. .

Recognition of Israel was such a controversial decision by Truman that it not only did not bring him any domestic political benefit, but even complicated the position of the president in the 1948 elections. Truman was accused that recognition of Israel was not US policy, but the policy of the Democratic Party and the personal opinion of the president. In the midst election campaign Speaking in New York, Truman said that “the topic of Israel should not be touched upon at all as a political topic in the framework of the election campaign. My personal responsibility then was to ensure that, firstly, our policy towards Israel coincided with our foreign policy in the world at large, and secondly, I sought to build in Palestine a strong, prosperous state, free enough and strong enough to support and defend itself.

Truman never regretted the decisions he once made. He never regretted his insistence on immediate recognition of Israel. For him, it also meant the final decision on who would determine the foreign policy of the United States. In his memoirs, Truman later wrote: “The difficulty with many career government officials is that they come to see themselves as men who make policy and run government. They look down on elected officials as temporary figures. Every president in our history has faced the problem of how to ensure that career officials do not ignore his policies.

Too often, professional officials carry out their own views, rather than implementing the administration's policies... Some presidents have solved this problem by creating their own small State Department. President Roosevelt did this and personally contacted Churchill and Stalin directly. I didn't want to follow this method. It is the State Department that is created to deal with foreign policy operations, and it should deal with them. But I wanted to make it completely clear to everyone that it is the President of the United States, and not the second or third tier of State Department officials, who makes policy.”28 Truman succeeded, and now he has completely concentrated the development of foreign policy in his own hands.

On January 25, 1949, the first democratic elections were held in Israel and only after that the United States recognized the new state “de jure.” In his letter to President Weizmann, Harry Truman, who had just won an extremely difficult presidential election, wrote in particular: “I understand my victory as a mandate from the American people to put into practice the platform of the Democratic Party, including, of course, support for the State of Israel.”29 Since then, support for Israel has become a permanent element of US foreign policy, and Israel has become a reliable ally of the United States and countries Western Europe. As for Harry Truman himself, today, after half a century, Americans confidently include him among the most outstanding presidents of the country in its entire history.

The date of formation of Israel as a state is considered to be May 14, 1948. On this significant day, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the provisional Jewish government, announced to the world the creation of an independent Jewish state. Chaim Weizmann was proclaimed president, and the capital was Tel Aviv. Already on May 17, the USSR and the USA recognized Israel.

History The history of the formation of Israel as a state

The history of the formation of Israel as a state is long and tragic. We can say with complete confidence that it began at least three thousand years ago. The long-suffering Jewish people had to go through many trials on the way to creating their own state.

Ancient history The first formation of Israel as a state occurred in the 10th century BC in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was called the Kingdom of Israel. But his independent existence was very short-lived. Since the 7th century BC it has been subject to numerous conquests. Since the year of formation of Israel as a state is considered to be 1948, it turns out that the Jewish people lost their Homeland for more than 26 centuries! In 63 BC Kingdom of Israel captured by the powerful Roman Empire. The captured territory caused the Romans a lot of different problems. One of the most acute is religious: Judaism prohibited the exaltation of the Roman emperor as a deity and, accordingly, the worship of him. But this was a necessary condition for citizens of the empire. The path to the formation of the State of Israel was not short.

In 135 AD, an unsuccessful uprising of the local population against the Roman authorities took place in one of the provinces. This event had a radical impact on future fate the people living there. The Roman emperor decided to evict the Jews from his territory as punishment. Other peoples came to the province previously inhabited by them. This is how the first Jewish communities appeared, not only on the territory of the Roman Empire, but also far beyond its borders. Years later, they began to appear on Slavic lands.

After the split of the Roman Empire in 395 into the Eastern (Byzantine) and Western part Palestine went to the first, remaining its province until 619. From 614 to 629, Persia conquered Palestine. Afterwards it again became a province of Byzantium. The Jewish population, due to the constant massacres and persecutions started by Emperor Heraclius, decreased greatly. In the Middle Ages By 636, Muslims conquered Palestine from Byzantium. And for the next six centuries, this territory was controlled either by the Umayyad Caliphate, or by the Abbasids, or by the Crusaders. The year 1099 was marked by the founding of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which arose thanks to the efforts of the crusaders. But by 1260, Palestine was completely conquered by the Mamluk dynasty.

Relatively peaceful times reigned for several centuries. However, already in 1517 the territory modern Israel conquered by the Ottoman Turks. Under power Ottoman Empire the country remained for 400 years, until 1917. During this historical period, Jews had the status of "dhimmi". They had certain civil rights and freedom of religion, but at the same time there were a number of restrictions.

For example, a ban on riding horses and carrying weapons. Prerequisites for the formation of Israel - the Jewish state Only in late XIX century, Jews began to strive to return to their historical lands. After 1881, the first settlers left for Palestine. The next massive wave of immigration occurred in the lead-up to the First World War. In the territories that belonged to the Ottoman Empire, Jews began to create their own settlements without claiming independence. People mostly moved to Palestine based on their religious beliefs. But there were many Jews who planned to build socialist communes on the territory of this country.

The formation of Israel as a state was also facilitated by the fact that on November 2, 1917, Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, wrote an official letter to Lord Rothschild, who at that time was the representative of the British Jewish community. It said that the state government was seriously thinking about creating a national home for Jews in Palestine.

What was the purpose of this declaration?

Firstly, this is the acquisition by Great Britain of the right to control after the war the lands of Palestine, on which the creation of a zone of international control was originally intended.

Secondly, it is the hope that Jews living in America will force their government to enter World War I, thereby supporting the dwindling Allied forces.

Thirdly, this is pressure on Jews living in Russia in order to prevent the spread of Bolshevik ideology and the exit Russian Empire from the war.

Consequences of the Declaration When the First World War ended, Palestine became a British mandate. Jews began to emigrate to it en masse, which became the first step towards the formation of the state of Israel. By the time World War II began, there were 500,000 Jews in Palestine, with another 100,000 added by the end of the war. And they continued to move to these lands, which caused violent discontent among the Arab population of Palestine. The Arabs demanded that the government stop this.

The government met them halfway, despite the fact that world community during the war, it accused the British of preventing Jews from escaping the Nazi regime to the countries of the Middle East. In Great Britain, it was decided to introduce entry quotas for foreign Jews, but these quotas were not always observed.

The situation became extremely tense by the end of the thirties, when a huge number of immigrants from Germany caused an uprising of Palestinian Arabs. And then, from 1939, Great Britain categorically prohibited the migration of Jews to the territories it controlled. During World War II

The path to the formation of Israel as a state was long and thorny. David Ben-Gurion, who was the leader of the Jewish community, decided to begin violent protests against British control of Palestine. Since 1944, Jews began to openly show their disobedience and commit daring terrorist attacks. International Zionist societies, as well as the United States, did not stand aside.

The pressure on London began to intensify. The British government was blamed for the deaths of Jewish refugees who tried to enter Palestine illegally across the sea, but were intercepted by British border guards, who returned the unfortunates to Europe, where they died at the hands of the Nazis. After World War II When World War II finally ended, the formation of Israel as a state became a truly pressing issue. Britain's Mandate for Palestine remained in effect.

In August 1945, the World Zionist Congress, and then US President G. Truman, who succumbed to pressure from the Jewish communities of his country, proposed that Great Britain allow the resettlement of more than a million Jews to Palestine. But London did not accept this proposal, as politicians foresaw unrest in Arab countries. Already in October, representatives of Middle Eastern countries stated that US attempts to make Palestine a Jewish state would inevitably lead to war. Meanwhile, the terrorist attacks continued. In July 1946, the headquarters of the British military administration was blown up by Zionist terrorists.

Almost 100 British citizens died. British government decision Great Britain was economically dependent on the United States and did not want to quarrel. But London did not need a conflict with the Arabs. Therefore, in 1947, Britain refused to control Palestine.

h The lands decided to divide into three parts (42% to the Arabs, 56% to the Jews, and 2% of the lands, which included Jerusalem and Bethlehem, to the UN). The Arab countries did not accept this resolution. Bloody clashes between Jews and Arabs began to occur more and more often. The situation has reached its climax. Arabs began to leave the country en masse. Great Britain, not wanting to get involved in the war, withdrew its troops from Palestine on May 14, 1948 and announced the termination of its mandate. Long-awaited event

Unfortunately, diplomats from other countries were unable to translate the Arab-Jewish dialogue into a peaceful direction. Soon after the formation of the State of Israel and the declaration of its independence, several Arab states started a war with it. But gradually Israel was recognized by almost all countries of the world. The role of the USSR in the creation of the Jewish state The USSR, together with the United States, assisted in the formation of the state of Israel. The most significant role among the Jews of Palestine belonged to emigrants from the Russian Empire. They spread the ideas of socialism. Ben-Gurion was also from Russia. A few years after October Revolution he came to the USSR on a friendly visit. Once upon a time, Jews contributed to the spread of Bolshevik ideology in the Russian Empire. And at that moment, Stalin expected support from the Russian Jews of Palestine in his plans to increase the influence of the USSR on the affairs of the Middle East and oust Great Britain from there. But the loyalty of the Soviet leader was short-lived. Anti-Semitic sentiments began to be encouraged in the USSR, and Jews were no longer allowed to leave the country.

After the collapse of the USSR, Jews began to leave en masse for Israel permanent place residence.

The British Mandate for Palestine was still in force. Implementation " Balfour Declaration» The 1917 announcement of the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine led to the emigration of many Jews to Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s. By the beginning of World War II, the Jewish population of Palestine reached half a million, and by the end - 600 thousand. This caused extreme discontent among local Arabs, who demanded that the British government stop Jewish immigration. The British cabinet had to agree to this, although the liberal public opinion during the war, London was accused of preventing Jews from fleeing to the Middle East from Nazi Germany and the countries it captured.

Areas of Palestine inhabited by Jews in 1947

The leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine, in particular, David Ben-Gurion, decided to switch to offensive tactics in the struggle for the elimination of the British Mandate for Palestine. Since the end of 1944, they launched a broad campaign of civil disobedience, not disdaining terrorist attacks in Palestine against the British.

At the same time, international pressure began to come to bear on London. Zionist organizations, as well as the United States, which sought to strengthen its own influence in the Middle East. In Great Britain, they reacted painfully to accusations of indirect responsibility for the deaths of Jewish refugees who, during the Second World War, tried to illegally enter Palestine by sea, but were intercepted by the British border guards and returned to Europe, where they often fell into the hands of the Nazis who exterminated them.

The secret of the creation of the state of Israel Declassified documents

On August 13, 1945, the World Zionist Congress (WZC) put forward the slogan of resettlement of 1 million Jews to Palestine, and on August 31, 1945, the US President G. Truman under pressure from powerful American Jewish organizations and the Congress, he proposed to the British cabinet to allow the emigration of 100 thousand Jews from Europe to Palestine. According to VSK, this is exactly how many Jews who suffered from Nazism sought to leave for Palestine. Anticipating a political explosion in Arab countries, London rejected this plan. In October, representatives of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq issued a statement to the United States, indicating that attempts to turn Palestine into a Jewish state would lead to war in the Middle East.

The plan for the division of Palestine, put forward in 1937 by the British Peel Commission. Provided for the creation of Arab and Jewish states, as well as a zone ( pink on the map), which was to remain under the British Mandate. After 10 years it was replaced by the UN plan, much more beneficial for the Jews

Terrorist attacks by Jewish militants against British troops in Palestine continued. In July 1946, Zionist terrorists blew up the headquarters of the British military administration in Jerusalem (King David Hotel), resulting in the death of about 100 British citizens.

Economically dependent on the United States, Britain did not want to quarrel with them. But she did not want to complicate relations with the Arabs. London decided to disclaim responsibility for what was happening and on February 14, 1947, announced its intention to renounce the Mandate for Palestine. In April, the British government referred the Palestinian issue to the UN General Assembly, although with the caveat that it would consider any decision only as advisory.

On November 29, 1947, the assembly adopted resolution No. 181 on the division of the territory of Palestine into three parts: Jewish (56%), Arab (42%) and special zone, transferred to the trusteeship of the UN (2%). The latter included the “holy cities” - Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The partition plan for Palestine, adopted by the UN in 1947. The territory of the Jewish state is indicated in light green, and the territory of the Arab state in brown.

The Zionist organizations agreed to Resolution No. 181, but the Arab countries did not recognize it. They pointed out that the territorial proportion of partition (56% and 42%) did not correspond to the proportions of the Arab and Jewish populations in Palestine. The former accounted for two-thirds here, and the latter one-third, and Jewish owners owned only 7% of the land. Most of the territory given to the Arabs was unsuitable for agriculture. Within the planned borders of the Jewish State there would be 497 thousand Palestinian Arabs against 498,000 Jews, and in the Arab State there would be 807,000 non-Jews and 10,000 Jews. (Another 105,000 non-Jews and 100,000 Jews are in Jerusalem and Bethlehem). Meanwhile, relations between Jews and Muslims had already reached extreme tension by that time, and bloody clashes broke out every now and then.

The Arabs continued to insist on the creation of a single Arab state in Palestine, promising to give the Jewish minority full civil rights. However, the actions of well-trained and armed Jewish combat squads in Palestine began to acquire the character of real military operations in scope and organization. A mass flight of the Arab population from Palestine began. Not wanting to get involved in the impending war, Great Britain began to evacuate its troops and on May 14, 1948 officially announced the termination of its mandate. The next day, May 15, 1948, the provisional Jewish government of Palestine, led by David Ben-Gurion, proclaimed the formation State of Israel. Became its president Chaim Weizmann. Tel Aviv became the capital of the state. On May 17, Israel was recognized by the USSR and the USA.

The Soviet Union, like the United States, energetically promoted the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel. The most important role among Palestinian Jews was played by a large community of emigrants from the former Russian Empire. Socialist ideas were widespread among them. Ben-Gurion was also a socialist and a native of Russia, who in the early 1920s visited the USSR on a friendly visit to “strengthen the ties of Palestinian workers and trade unions with communist ones.” At one time, Jews actively contributed to the introduction of Bolshevism in Russia, and now Stalin expected loyalty from the Palestinian community of “Russian immigrants”, thinking of using it to strengthen Soviet influence on Middle Eastern affairs and ousting Britain from the region. But soon the Kremlin leader radically revised his attitude towards the Jewish population of his own country and towards Israel. began in the USSR persecution of Jews, their departure from the country was stopped.

The history of Israel is replete with dates and names, and dates back to the fact that the Jewish people settled in Israel in the 13th century BC. And 200 years later, the 1st Kingdom of Israel was formed, which collapsed in 928 BC. into Israel and Judah.

In 722 BC. The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel in 586 BC. Kingdom of Judah captured by the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

After 47 years, Israel became part of the Achaemenid state. In 332 BC. Alexander the Great captured the country. In the 3rd century. BC Israel became part of the Hellenistic Seleucid state. A century later, the Maccabean Wars began - the population fought against forced Hellenization.

In 63 BC. Roman legionaries conquered Israel. And already in the 6th year of Christ, the country turned into a Roman province - Palestine.

60 years later, the eight-year Jewish War began. The people rebelled against the Romans, but were defeated. Rome continued to dominate the country.

In 395, Israel became part of Byzantium. Subsequently, the conquest of the country by slaves began. In 1099, the total was 1 crusade was the formation of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was defeated by the Egyptians. Israel became part of Egypt. In 1516 the country became part of the Ottoman Empire.

1918 was marked by the entry of British troops into the country. England, under the mandate of the League of Nations, governed the territory of Israel until May 1948,

On May 14, 1948, one day before the end of the British Mandate for Palestine, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the creation of an independent Jewish state on the territory allocated according to the UN plan. The very next day, the League of Arab States declared war on Israel and immediately five Arab states (Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Transjordan) attacked new country, thereby starting the First Arab-Israeli War (referred to in Israel as the “War of Independence”).

After a year of fighting, a ceasefire agreement was adopted in July 1949 with Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan and Syria, according to which the Western Galilee and the corridor from the coastal plain to Jerusalem were also under the control of the Jewish state; Jerusalem was divided along the ceasefire line between Israel and Transjordan.

Since 1952, military cooperation between Israel and the United States began. Four years later, the Sinai War broke out, which was directed against Egypt. The chain of wars continued with the Arab-Israeli war, which began in 1967. Israel occupied parts of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and eastern Jerusalem.

On October 6, 1973, on Yom Kippur (Judgment Day) - the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, when all Jewish believers are in synagogues - Egypt and Syria simultaneously attacked Israel. For the Israeli government, this war came as a complete surprise. The Yom Kippur War ended on October 26. Despite significant losses, the attack by the Egyptian and Syrian armies was successfully repelled by the IDF, after which the troops returned to their previous positions

Six years later, at Camp David (USA), Israel and Egypt sign a peace agreement. Egypt received rights to the Sinai Peninsula and other disputed territories.

In 1993, a peace agreement was signed between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on the creation of the Palestinian Authority. However, the final solution to this problem is still very far from completion.