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A British return to Israel By Tom Segev Tags: Jewish World, Israel News A few months after the British left Palestine and the State of Israel was established, a discussion was held in London about the possibility of the British Army returning and reoccupying the land. This happened as the Cold War was heating up and the Russians imposed a blockade on Berlin, beginning in June 1948. British intelligence services assessed that if war were to break out with the Russians, there might well be a need to go back and reassert Great Britain's presence in the Land of Israel. The discussion was a very odd one. Copies of the documents recording it are in the hands of Dr. Yaakov Nir, a marine geologist from Rehovot, who is researching the Jewish settlement in Cyprus at the start of the 20th century. At the end of 30 years in the Land of Israel, one might have expected British intelligence to know something about what was happening here, but their figures regarding the military strength of "the Jews," as they continued to write - just as they did during the Mandate - were about 10 times greater than the actual numbers; moreover, the British were not yet talking about the Israel Defense Forces, but rather the pre-state paramilitary organizations: the Palmach, Haganah, Irgun and the Lehi. Their political assessments are also strange. Ahead of the proposed return, the British tried to predict how the Arabs and the Jews would react if the British Army returned following a joint operation with the U.S. Army. The assumption was that the Arabs would not be opposed to the move, and would perhaps even agree to the occupation of the West Bank and Transjordan. The British also assessed that the government of Israel would not object to their return, provided that it was a government headed by Mapai, the major precursor of today's Labor Party. In making this prediction, they relied in part on the fact that despite the White Paper of 1939, the Jewish Agency had helped the British during the war. Advertisement At the same time, the British debated among themselves what the Israeli reaction would be if the government were in the hands of Mapam (the United Workers Party). A few of the intelligence people believed that the more left-wing Mapam would bring Israel over to the side of the Soviet Union, and would deploy the IDF against British occupying forces. Another assessment, however, held that a government headed by Mapam would strive to remain neutral vis-a-vis the two powers and would accept the reoccupation as though it had no alternative. The discussion's continuation was postponed to November, and the file does not contain a record of that meeting. Therefore, there is no answer there to a question that sparks the imagination: For how long did the British (and the Americans) intend to remain here? The Soviet blockade of Berlin ended in May 1949. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Celebrities scam Arab world celebrities 'swindled of millions by Egyptian fraudster'. Holocaust denial Vatican: Bishop who denied the Holocaust must recant his positions.

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