Page 156 - Arabs News Today

>> israel didnt have an army. and you have hundreds of thousands of people who are still so -- you have to defend it the same time you are fighting. one of the critical developments during the first arabs/israeli war is you are going to merge with the idea of israeli defense forces and cooperated fully. >> ben gurion did not have any alternatives. the enemy of my enemy are my friends. it is gurions favorite phrase. there is no choice. there is no choice. we either establish it or make it worse. ...

That people believe that they must possess it absolutely. >> the palestinian/israeli conflict that we are experiencing today, youve seen it experienced in jerusalem for thousands of years. >> for the jews, jerusalem is where solomon built the holy temple. >> for christians, this is the place where jesus was crucified. >> for muslims, jerusalem is where the prophet muhammed made the night journey. >> people who are said to have conquered the world have swept through this city. >> no other individ...

To control the holy land. >> the main case of the arabs is against the british government policy in palestine. >> we are the only people in the world homeless and stateless. >> for israelis, the creation of the state of israel is seen as a miracle. and of course for the palestinians, its a great disaster. >> the history of jerusalem, a very complicated story. and if you dont know it in its complexity, its very hard to understand whats going on there today. >> the past is never dead. and if there...

Rebellion was that if you join us, well arm you. were going to help organize you and train you. well both get rid of the ottomans, and then well turn over the show to you. >> but the british have cut a conflicting deal with their allies, the french, which will become known as the sykes pico accord. >> the sykes pico essentially divided that part of the middle east into a british part, and that includes most of iraq, jordan, and palestine, and a french part which included lebanon, syria, and part...

Ottomans rules was it sparks the arabs. >> arabs says screw them, we should be united ourselves. the arabs dont have their own country. >> the rise of arabs, combining all the arabs in one nation. jamal rahar crushed it with brutal force.

Which is the same family as prophet muhammad is from. >> faisal is tall, slim, soulful, a bit melancholic. but he has charm, and he has finesse. >> faisal had this ability to really listen to people and to compromise. >> faisal spoke turkish, spoke english and french, was educated and was being prepared by the ottoman empire to be a turkish ruler in his area, but loyalist to the ottoman empire. yet he harbored extreme resentment against the ottomans and wanted them out. >> faisal was interested ...

>> the arabs dont have their own country. for 400 years, they have been a province. they have been subjects of a turkish sultan, ruled from far away in istanbul. and they begin to want independence. >> so the rise of arab nationalism started with a dream to create some kind of an arab kingdom to combine and unite all the arabs in one nation. >> but jamal pasha despised arab nationalism. he viewed it as a direct threat to his presence, to the ottoman empire, and crushed it with brutal force. >> s...

>> he was very brutal as a general. everywhere he goes, he left behind him trails of assassinations and executions. >> jamal pasha executed so many people that his nickname was jamal the slaughterman. thats not a nickname of a peaceful man. >> general pashas brutal tactics incite the local arab population to rebel against his control. >> so the ottoman empire was seen as corrupt, was seen as disconnected from the needs and wants of the arab population at the time. >> i think one of the great iro...

>> for the jews, jerusalem is where solomon built the holy temple. >> for christians, this is the place where jesus was crucified. >> for muslims, jerusalem is where the prophet muhammed made the night journey. >> people who are said to have conquered the world have swept through this city. >> no other individual changed the landscape in the way that herod the great did. >> saladin was determined to take on the christians and throw them out of jerusalem. >> at a time of ottoman/islamic rule, the...

General allen bee and the british forces captured jerusalem. lawrence is obsessed we have to get to damascus before the british and french do. they go into damascus and set up a provisional government. >> meanwhile in italy, the european powers without arab representation meant to implement the terms of the code agreement. it essentially established the way modern is divided. when it was first made public, a lot of arabs -- everybody was in