Spring 2018 Part 2

Eugenics

In our time, more human beings are rightfully exposing eugenics with great diligence. Eugenics is a scourge and it’s evil. In essence, eugenics is related to racism, classism, xenophobia, lookism, and other injustices. Many folks have believed in that nefarious philosophy for thousands of years. Eugenics is the belief that the human population can improve its so-called “desirable, heritable, and genetic characteristics” by controlled breeding based on class, race, etc. Eugenics believes in the lie that some people are inferior based on background, class, genetics, and race. Some ancient Greeks accepted its tenets too. Eugenics, as we see it today, was formulated by the 19th century in the West. Francis Galton embraced many eugenics style views as well. Eugenics embraced classism to the extreme. Classism is evil, because of many reasons. One is that it perpetrates the lie that the value in society is determination by one’s wealth or class status.

The truth is that the poor and the non-poor are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They are entitled to equality and justice period. Capitalist exploitation promotes classism and that is why we desire an end to the system of exploitation. Ending capitalist exploitation along with other actions are crucially vital in ending classism once and for all. Therefore, the poor doesn’t need demonization or scapegoating. They deserve compassion, resources, opportunities, and economic rights, so they can reach their highest potentials on the Earth. Eugenics is an evil agenda whose goals are about extreme classism, the decrease of populations using wicked means (from forced sterilization to other anti-human measures), violations of democratic rights, authoritarianism, and elitism. Hitler was proponent of eugenics decades ago. Eugenics has no place in the whole Universe. Radical anti-immigration has eugenics ties which have been documented by great authors and scholars as well. We will always stand up and speak up for human dignity and for human autonomy too.

Its early History

Eugenics is based on classism and racism. Its major earlier supporter was a racist and a classist. His name was Francis Galton. He was an English scientist who studied heredity and intelligence. In fact, he was the person who coined the word of eugenics. His cousin was Charles Darwin (who organized the modern theory of evolution) and Erasmus Darwin was Francis Galton’s maternal grandfather. Erasmus was Charles’s Darwin paternal grandfather. His agenda was clear. Francis Galton wanted to use his views to promote eugenics. He defined eugenics as “the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generation, whether physically or mentally.” Galton wanted to promote academics, policies, and other methods to promote eugenics worldwide. Francis Galton made racist comments about Native Americans, black people, etc. In 1865, he wrote the following words, “…Here, then, is a well-marked type of character, that formerly prevailed over a large part of the globe, with which other equally marked types of character in other regions are strongly contrasted. Take, for instance, the typical West African Negro. He is more unlike the Red man in his mind than in his body. Their characters are almost opposite, one to the other. The Red man has great patience, great reticence, great dignity, and no passion; the Negro has strong impulsive passions, and neither patience, reticence, nor dignity. He is warm-hearted, loving towards his master's children, and idolised by the children in return. He is eminently gregarious, for he is always jabbering, quarrelling, tom-tom-ing, or dancing. He is remarkably domestic, and he is endowed with such constitutional vigour, and is so prolific, that his race is irrepressible…” He or Galton was a pervert who did things to African women that I can’t mention here.

His books include: Hereditary Genius (1869), English Men of Science (1874), and Inquiries into the Human Faculty (1883), Noteworthy Families (1906), Memories of My Life (1908) and Essays in Eugenics (1909). He coined the phrase “nature versus nurture.” In essence, he believed that nature has the preeminent influence in the social and intellectual development of a human being. The problem is that all people are created equal and history teaches that human freedom plus intervention can cause humanity to achieve great accomplishments regardless of a person’s environment, color, sex, or class. He promoted fingerprints being used in research. This method evolved into modern day biometrics and fingerprinting databases that are utilized to this very day. He wanted wealthy families to produce more children and poorer families to not produce as much children.

The Eugenics Review, the journal of the Eugenics Education Society, commenced publication in 1909. Galton, the Honorary President of the society, wrote the foreword for the first volume. The First International Congress of Eugenics was held in July 1912. Winston Churchill and Carl Elliot were among the attendees. The Eugenics society changed into the Galton Institute by 1989. Eugenics Society member Lord Beveridge was a British economists who wanted social security and full employment. His problem was that he wanted the government to support those who couldn’t find work, but they couldn’t have children (losing all citizenship rights too including civil freedom). That is fascism.  One heroic opponent of eugenics was Lancelot Hogben. In 1912, delegates from around the world met for the First International Eugenics Congress. The second world eugenics congress met in 1921, and the third in 1932. Nations with eugenics activists included India, Australia, Canada, the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Mauritius, Kenya, South Africa. Eugenics spread rapidly in America. America had the contradiction of saying “all men are created equal,” but its leaders included slave owners, murderers of Native Americans, and other evil people. Also, other Americans fought against these injustices too.

By 1910, the Eugenics Record Office or ERO was found in New York City. By 1916, the Birth Control Review was founded. It was a monthly journal that overtly advocated eugenics. Other groups promoted eugenics too and promoted sterilization. The American Eugenics Society or the AES was the most powerful of early American eugenics groups back then. It was created in 1922. It has a network of people like Madison Grant, Henry H. Laughlin, Irving Fisher, Henry Carmpton, etc. Madison Grant was a white supremacist who wrote books like The Passing of the Great Race and he wrote the preface of “The Rising Tide of Color against White World Supremacy.” He believed that the white “race” was losing power and he wanted white supremacy to control the Earth. He was an enemy of humanity and an enemy of God. Grant wanted sterilization of the people with diseases, those with mental illness, etc. Henry H. Laughlin had been the Superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office from 1910 to 1921; later, he was President of the Pioneer Fund, a eugenics organization that still functions today. So the AES brought together activists from different eugenics groups. Part of eugenics is promoting IQ tests. In fact, modern IQ tests in America are based from eugenicists. Lothrop Stoddard wanted white people to govern the Earth and use laws that restrict immigration, and laws that ban marriages between non-whites and whites.

These racist views weren’t limited to Stoddard or Madison. Woodrow Wilson believed in anti-immigration policies and he was a racist. Woodrow Wilson, during his first presidential campaign, declared on May 3, 1912:

"In the matter of Chinese and Japanese c__lie [a disrespectful term for laborers from Asia] immigration, I stand for the national policy of exclusion. The whole question is one of assimilation of diverse races. We cannot make a homogeneous population of a people who do not blend with the Caucasian race. Their lower standard of living as laborers will crowd out the white agriculturist and is in other fields a most serious industrial menace. The success of free democratic institutions demands of our people education, intelligence, and patriotism, and the State should protect them against unjust and impossible competition. Remunerative labor is the basis of contentment. Democracy rests on the equality of the citizen. Oriental c__lieism will give us another race-problem to solve and surely we have had our lesson."

*The eugenicists had a morbid fear of babies being born in the world, especially babies of color.

Some eugenicists promote forced sterilization laws nationwide in American society. Sterilization by force grew by the 1920’s in the States. As early as 1913, the state of Michigan passed a forced sterilization law and Nebraska passed a sterilization law in 1915. Forced sterilization use methods to prevent a man or a woman from having children. Such laws existed in many states of America and they existed worldwide. Thousands of people were sterilized in America at its height by 1957. Margaret Sanger promoted eugenics too. She popularized the term of birth control. There is a difference between birth control and eugenics.  There is nothing wrong with birth control. There is a serious problem with eugenics. She believed that they both sought to "assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit."  She believed in xenophobic immigration policies, forced segregation of those she deemed “unfit” and sterilization. Ironically, she opposed abortion except to save the life of the mother.

In 1937, Sanger became chairman of the newly formed Birth Control Council of America, and attempted to resolve the schism between the ABCL and the BCCRB. Sanger endorsed the 1927 Buck v. Bell decision, written by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., in supporting forced sterilization of human beings, which was wrong.  She was the founder of Planned Parenthood. By the 1930’s, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study harmed black men when they received syphilis without being told about it in a sick experiment. Many men died or had diseases. It is no secret that many robber barons funded eugenics movements or looked the other way. They include people like Andrew Carnegie, Edward Harriman, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, John Harvey Kellogg, M.D., Clarence J. Gamble, Robert Garrett, and others. Eugenics rates humanity in a sliding scale and that’s wrong since all humans are created equal and have equal value.

The Nazis and Eugenics

It is no secret that the Nazis and including Hitler agreed with eugenics. The Nazis murdered millions of innocent people in Germany and throughout Europe. The victims of the Holocaust include: Jewish people, Gypsies (including Romani), Slavic peoples, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah Witnesses, the disabled, Communists, socialists, Allied POWs, Esperantists, Spanish Republicans, black people, the elderly, those with mental health issues, women, etc. The Holocaust was cruel and totally evil. The Nazis believed in social Darwinism and other racist ideologies. Hitler believed in the evil of Antisemitism and wanted to exterminate Jewish people in the world. Hitler and his supporters were influenced by British and American eugenicists. Hitler believed that Aryans or Northern Europeans were the master ‘race’ destined to rule the world. Many people were neutral towards Hitler early on like Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in England, Marshal Philippe Petain of France, and Charles Lindbergh (who believed in eugenics too. He fathered children among many mistresses. He was a hypocrite. In October of 1938, Lindbergh came into Nazi Germany to get a medal from Nazi Hermann Goering. Many people expressed criticism of him over this.  Yes, Lindbergh was the Director of the American Eugenics Society from 1955 to 1959).

Lindbergh opposed American involvement in WWII until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Back then, many European nations were involved in imperialism. Hitler believed that the “Aryans” were the peak of the human race. Of course, that is a lie. Racists like Arthur Count de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain inspired eugenicists.  Hitler’s Mein Kampf (which blamed Jewish people for everything from syphilis to other things) promoted racism, anti-Semitism, etc. The eugenicist Karl Pearson wanted war to get rid of certain human beings. Dr. Alfred Ploetz and Dr. Ernst Ruden promoted eugenicist, racist policies for the Nazis. The created the Society for Racial Hygiene. Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer worked with Josef Mengele. Mengele (who was of the SS) is known for going into the Auschwitz camp in Poland and sent people to the gas chamber. He enacted brutal experiments on living people. He would inject tuberculosis into identical twins and watch the course of the disease. He would kill people with lethal injections, shootings, beatings, etc. He would do other obscene, sick things. He left and fled into Argentina after the war. The Nazis’  wicked, reprehensible views of the myth of inferior races, the dehumanization of the disabled, and the murder of human beings represent the total essence of how evil eugenics is.

Post-World War II Eugenics movement


After World War II, the eugenics movement evolved. Since the Holocaust, eugenics has been given a bad name worldwide (and rightfully so). Therefore, the eugenics changed their names, some went underground, and some exploited the concepts of genetics as a means to promote eugenics. In England, many people promoted crypto-eugenics. Frederick Osborn was a eugenicist who was slick. He was the President of Pioneer Fund. The Pioneer Fund is a white supremacist group. The Pioneer Fund was created in 1937 by textile magnate Wickliffe Draper, the Pioneer Fund's original mandate was to pursue "race betterment" by promoting the genetic stock of those "deemed to be descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original thirteen states prior to the adoption of the Constitution." The Pioneer Fund continues to exist to this very day.

The first president of the Pioneer Fund was Harry Laughlin, from the Eugenics Record Office in New York. Laughlin had promoted coercive sterilization and racist immigration controls. Population control organizations constantly promoted the myth that the world population was growing so fast that the world would be totally inhabitable (as advanced by Paul R. Ehrlich’s The Population bomb book from 1968. Paul was a professor of biology at Stanford University). That is shown to be false since the world’s population would stabilize and decline by 2040. Many proponents of radical population control and eugenics want a decline of nonwhite peoples, so white supremacy would dominate the globe. It is what it is. In 1950, the UNESCO Statement on Race has shown international scientists taking a stand against racism. John D. Rockefeller III would fund the Population Control and other pro-population control organizations. In 1965, North Dakota repealed its sterilization law. In 1965, Dr. John MacEachran stepped down as Head of the Alberta Eugenics Board. Virginia and Indiana repealed their sterilization laws in 1974. The NSM 200 document (which was adopted as official American policy by Gerald Ford in 1975. It was completed under the direction of Henry Kissinger in 1974) promoted radically anti-population policies in majority nations of color too.  West Virginia repealed its sterilization law in 2013. So, the eugenics movement acted slicker today than during early times.

The Anti-Immigrant/Eugenics movement

It is no secret that the anti-immigration movement in America and internationally have a long history with the eugenics movement. Xenophobia and eugenics are two evils part of the same foundation of bigotry plus anti-humanism. In recent years, tons of scholars have found even more links with eugenics and anti-immigration movements. I have receipts and I will show them enthusiastically in order for all forms of bigotry to be abolished worldwide. To begin with, racism is always linked to xenophobia. Anyone who harbors hatred of any immigrant and anyone by virtue of his or her nationality, skin color, or ethnicity is a racist period. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (or FAIR) has shown their commercials a lot recently even on CNN. They received most of its startup money from the nonprofit Pioneer Fund foundation. The Pioneer Fund is a known group that promotes eugenics and aids researchers who believe in irrational white supremacist causes. The Pioneer Fund also funds anti-immigrant causes.

It is no secret that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ADL criticized FAIR and the Pioneer Fund for its xenophobia and racist policies. Back during the early and mid-20th century, white racist eugenicists wanted northern hemisphere Caucasians to primarily live in America. They didn’t want people of color to immigrant into America in a high number especially. Many of them were anti-Semites. Eugenicists believe that people that they deem “inferior” ought to be controlled and decline their populations via poor scapegoating, sterilization, extreme population control, and extermination. There is nothing wrong with birth control, but eugenicists exploited birth control in advancing classism and xenophobic views. The Immigration and Restriction Act of 1924 was totally racist. The Act curtailed immigration from places like Latin America, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, etc. It had strict quotas and President Calvin Coolidge signed the bill. Harry Hamilton Laughlin was the first President of the Pioneer Fund. He served as Director of the Eugenics Record Office at the Cold Spring Laboratory on Long Island, New York.

Laughlin supported the 1924 immigration law. Hitler praised the racist 1924 American immigration law too. John Tanton was the modern founder of the modern U.S. nativist movement. Tanton wants even legal immigration restrictions. He is far right and believes in the myth that America is witnessing an overpopulation problem when immigration stabilizes U.S. population growth (from America massively declining in birthrates). We have declines in undocumented human beings coming in America. Undocumented human beings deserve basic human rights just like anyone else. Tanton (who wants majority European American culture to dominate American society) wants U.S. English to be emphasized in America when we speak many languages in America (and there is nothing wrong with living in a multilingual society). The first peoples of the Americas didn't speak English at all. The British Peter Brimelow wrote the anti-immigrant book, Alien Nation. He founded the racist website VDare.com. Brimelow wants to limit the immigration of nonwhites into the United States of America.

 

Our strength is found in our diversity as diversity is beautiful. Racists like Jared Taylor write on VDare too.  Negative Population Growth President and FAIR advisory Board Member Donald Mann wanted to deny maternity leave to women who had more than two children in 1996, which is totally evil. Anti-immigrant groups include FAIR, Center for Immigration Studies, Numbers USA Negative Population Growth, US Inc., Progressives for Immigration Reform, etc. Anti-immigration people include Pat Buchanan and especially Tom Tancredo. Tancredo is a notorious coward who questioned Obama’s citizenship and he said many outlandish commentaries for years. He believes in a civics literacy test before voting (which is akin to a poll tax) and he is an anti-immigrant extremist. Tancredo spoke at a meeting promoted by the neo-Confederate League of the South before. Groups like the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Latino Issues Forum, and the Equal Justice Society have fought back against xenophobia greatly. They deserve praise for their heroic efforts.

Conclusion (A Total Repudiation of Eugenics)

I will forever disagree and oppose eugenics thoroughly. It's a notorious evil. There is no need for it. I certainly enthusiastically endorse the dignity of human life. Eugenics regularly attempts to devalue the essence of humanity based on background in order to push an elitist view that only those deemed "worthy of being fit" must thrive socially or economically in the world. Its ideologies are similar to an extreme form of respectability politics. Valorous activists for years and decades have existed to adamantly  object to and fight against the scourge of eugenics. Eugenics is evil, because its basic, nefarious premise is that human beings are inferior if they aren't of a certain class, race, or background. It's evil, because it explicitly denies the fundamental truth that all human beings are born equal regardless of background. Eugenics dehumanizes the poor including those with mental or physical disabilities. It has been utilized by some (in the corporate power structure especially) to enact forced sterilizations, genocides, economic exploitation, and xenophobic immigration policies. The Tuskegee Experiment was part of the eugenic scheme of racists who desired to harm the lives of innocent black Americans. That crime (of black people suffering illness via biotechnological terrorism) has been fully documented by Sister Harriet A. Washington's great book entitled, "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present." Harriet A. Washington is a great scholar. Eugenicists are filled with racists, pro-Nazis, and others of repugnant character. We are here on this Earth and our goal for human liberation remains firm plus unyielding.

Eugenics just doesn't involve bigoted principles involving class (which are deplorable as the poor deserve economic justice excluding scapegoating). It relates to the victims of forced sterilizations, economic degradation, the Shoah (or the Holocaust. Hitler in his Mein Kampf explicitly used anti-Semitic terminology to describe Jewish people in merciless, reprehensible language), and other terrible cataclysms inflicted on innocent human lives. These victims of eugenics are the recipients of the brutal policies that originated from eugenics. The value of human life is sacrosanct as we are all born with dignity plus inalienable value. In essence, our lives should consist of helping our neighbors, standing up for justice, learning truth, and expressing love out of a great sincerity. The power of love is invariably greater than any form of unjustified hatred. My core convictions are still the same after almost three and a half decades since I have been born on this Earth. So, the struggle continues and in the end, we shall overcome. I love human life and I will forever accept the Dream in my heart.

Israel (70 Years Later)

From 1948 to 2018, massive developments have existed in Israel. There have been wars, continued occupations (in Gaza and the West Bank), and constant debates. By 2018, alliances have been formed. Many in Israel have allied with Saudi Arabia in being against Iran. Some Palestinian activists are allied with liberal activists including some members of the Black Lives Matter movement. Some evangelicals and far right Republicans have allied with some of the most far right Zionists in the world like Benjamin Netanyahu. I reject the 2 extreme views of every Israeli being a terrorist and every Palestinian being a terrorist (which are both slanderous lies). From 1948, the Israeli/Arabic war commenced. Many Palestinians were displaced from their lands and individuals among both sides were killed during that 1948 conflict. Israel continued to grow. Afterwards, there were events of the Suez Canal crisis, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the peace agreement with Egypt (whose leader back then was Sadat), the events of the 1980’s, Oslo, etc. These historical occurrences define the early Israeli historical era. Also, the intifada transpired (or an uprising among Palestinians in which they desired their human rights and liberation). To this very day, many Palestinians live in occupation, poverty, and blatant oppression. Peace groups among Israelis and Palestinians desire solutions, but circumstances and policies have made peace extremely distant. Israeli policies have been loved, hated, and debated to this very day. Today, we have Donald Trump trying to make Jerusalem the U.S. embassy capital of Israel. This act has created more tensions in the region, even among Trump allied-nations like Saudi Arabia. In order to get the events of Israel correct or accurate, it is imperative for us to look at the situation from a chronological standpoint. In that fashion, we can witness the truth without bias. We should always be fair and compassionate to humanity too. After 70 years, human beings globally still have their eyes fixed on Israel.

Peace and justice is the aim that we desire.

The Israel/ Arabic War

Immediately after the declaration of the new state of Israel, changes happened. The leading superpower leaders of U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin recognized Israel. At the same time, the Arab League members of Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq refused to accept the UN partition plan. They believed in the right of self-determination of the Arabic people throughout Palestine. The Arabic states marched their forces into what had until the previous day was the British Mandate for Palestine. In that way, the first Arabic-Israel War started in 1948. The Arabic states had mighty military equipment. They initiated the offensive. The Jewish forces were not a state before May 15th and they could not buy heavy arms. By May 29, 1948, the British initiated United Nations Security Council Resolution 50. This called an arms embargo on the region. Czechoslovakia violated the resolution by supplying the Jewish state with critical military hardware to match the mainly British heavy equipment and planes already owned by the Arabic states. By June 11, a month long UN truce was put into effect. After independence, the Haganah became the IDF or the Israel Defense Forces. The Plmach, Etzel, and Lehi were required to stop independent operations and join the IDF.

During the ceasefire, the Etzel tried to bring the private arms shipment abroad a ship called “Altalena.” When they refused to hand the arms to the government, Ben-Gurion ordered that the ship be sunk. Several Etzel members were killed during the fighting. A large number of Jewish immigrants (many of them were World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors) began to arrive in the new state of Israel. Many of them joined the IDF. At first during the Arabic-Israel war, there was a loss of territory by the Jewish State. It was occupied by Arabic armies. From July, the tide gradually turned in the Israelis’ favor and they pushed the Arabic armies out. They conquered some of the territory that had been included in the proposed Arabic state. By the end of November, tenuous local ceasefires were arranged between the Israelis, Syrians and Lebanese. On December 1, 1948, King Abdullah announced the union of Transjordan with Arab Palestine west of the Jordan; only Britain recognized the annexation.



Many Palestinians were displaced by the war and many Palestinians were uprooted from their homes, which has been called by them as the Nabka or the catastrophe in Arabic. Israel signed armistices with Egypt on February 24, 1949, Lebanon on March 23, 1949, with Jordan on April 3, 1949, and with Syria on July 20, 1949. There was no actual peace agreement signed. This permanent ceasefire came into effect. Israel’s new borders were born being called the 1949 Green Line. These borders were not recognized by the Arabic states as internationally boundaries. The IDF overran Galilee, Jezreel Valley, West Jerusalem, the coastal plain, and the Negev. The Syrians remained in control of a strip of territory along the Sea of Galilee originally allocated to the Jewish state. The Lebanese occupied a tiny area at Rosh Hanikra. The Egyptians retained the Gaza Strip. They had forces surrounded inside Israeli territory. Jordanian forces remained in the West Bank where the British had stationed them before the war. Jordan annexed areas it occupied while Egypt kept Gaza as an occupied zone. After the ceasefire declaration, Britain released over 2,000 Jewish detainees it was still holding in Cyprus and recognized the state of Israel.

By May 11, 1949, Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations. Out of an Israeli population of 650,000, some 6,000 men and women were killed in the fighting, including 4,000 soldiers in the IDF. According to United Nations figures, 726,000 Palestinians had fled or were evicted by the Israelis between 1947 and 1949. Except in Jordan, the Palestinian refugees were settled in large refugee camps in poor, overcrowded conditions. In December 1949, the UN (in response to a British proposal) established an agency (UNRWA) to provide aid to the Palestinian refugees. It became the largest single UN agency and is the only UN agency that serves a single people.

The Knesset or the 120 Israeli Parliament met first in Tel Aviv and moved into Jerusalem after the 1949 ceasefire. On January of 1949, Israel held its first elections. The Socialist-Zionist parties Mapai and Mapam won the most seats (in 46 and 19 respectively). David Ben-Gurion was Mapai’s leader. He was appointed Prime Minister. He formed a coalition which didn’t include Mapam, who were Stalinist and loyal to the USSR (another Stalinist party non-Zionist Maki won 4 seats). The Knesset elected Chaim Weizmann as the first (largely ceremonial) President of Israel. Hebrew and Arabic were made the official languages of the new state. Coalitions existed in the government. No majority won a majority in the Knesset. From 1948 to 1977, all governments were led by Mapai and the Alignment, predecessors of the Labor Party. In those years, Labor Zionists (led initially by David Ben-Gurion) dominated Israeli politics and the economy was run on primarily socialist lines. From 1948 to 1951, immigration doubled the Jewish population. It left an impact in Israeli society. During this period, about 700,000 Jewish people settled in the land. About 300,000 arrived from Asian and North African nations as part of the Jewish exodus from Arabic and Muslim countries.

The largest group from this exodus (in over 100,000) was from Iraq. The rest of the immigrants were from Europe, including more than 270,000 people who came from Eastern Europe. They mainly came from Romania and Poland (over 100,000 each). Nearly all the Jewish immigrants could be described as refugees. However only 136,000 who immigrated to Israel from Central Europe. They had international certification because they belonged to the 250,000 Jewish people registered by the Allies as displaced after World War II (and living in Displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy). The Law of Return was passed in 1950 by the Knesset. That granted to all Jewish people and those of Jewish ancestry (plus their spouses) the right to settle in Israel and gain citizenship. Israel in essence is an ethnocentric state.

The 1950's

By 1950, 50,000 Yemenite Jewish people (99% of them worldwide) were secretly flown to Israel. Iraqi Jewish people in 1951 were granted temporary permission to leave the country and 120,000 of them (over 90%) opted to move into Israel. Jewish people fled from Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt too. By the late 1960’s, about 500,000 Jewish people left Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Over the course of 20 years, about 850,000 Jewish people left from Arabic countries (99% of them) relocated to Israel (in about 680,000 people), France, and the Americas. The land and the property left behind by the Jewish people (much of it in Arabic city centers) is still a matter of some dispute. Today, there are about 9,000 Jewish people living in Arabic states, of whom 75% live in Morocco and 15% in Tunisia.  Between 1948 and 1958, the population of Israel rose from 800,000 to 2 million people. During that era, food, clothes, and furniture were rationed. It was called the Austerity Period (Tkufat haTesena).  Immigrants were mostly refugees. They had no money or possessions.

They were housed in temporary camps called the ma’abarot. In 1952, over 200,000 immigrants lived in tenets or prefabricated shacks which were built by the government. America and other nations donated Israel aid. Ben-Gurion signed a reparations agreement with West Germany to gain more finances. There were 5,000 demonstrators gathered during the Knesset debate (to protest such an agreement) and riot police had to cordon the building. Israel received billions of marks in money in return to agree to have open diplomatic relations with Germany. By the end of 1953, Ben-Gurion retired to Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev. By 1949, all education was free and compulsory for all citizens until the age of 14. The state was funded by the party-affiliated Zionist education system. This new body was created by the Haredi Agudat Israeli Party. The remaining Palestinian-Arabic population was educated by a separate body. Many of the parties competed for immigrants to join their educational systems. The government banned the existing educational bodies from the transit camps and tried to mandate a unitary secular socialist education under the control of “Camp managers.”  These managers provided the immigrants with work, food, and housing.

Many in Israelis wanted to force orthodox Yemenite children to adopt a secular lifestyle by teachers. Many Yemenite children had their side curls cut by the teachers. That is wrong and abhorrent. This led to the first Israeli public inquiry called the Fromkin Inquiry. Later, the coalition ended and an election existed in 1951. There was little change in results. By 1953, the party affiliated education system was scrapped and replaced by a secular state education system. There was a state run Modern Orthodox system too. Agudat Israel was allowed to maintain their existing school system. In Israel’s early years, Israel wanted to have a non-Aligned position between the super powers. Later, in 1952, an anti-Semitic public trial was staged in Moscow. This was when a group of Jewish doctors were accused of trying to poison Stalin. A similar trial existed in Czechoslovakia (Slánský trial). This, and the failure of Israel to be included in the Bandung Conference (of non-aligned states), effectively ended Israel's pursuit of non-alignment. On May 19, 1950, Egypt announced that the Suez Canal was closed to Israeli ships and commerce. In 1952 a military coup in Egypt brought Abdel Nasser to power. The United States pursued close relations with the new Arabic states, particularly the Nasser-led Egyptian Free Officers Movement and Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. Israel's solution to diplomatic isolation was to establish good relations with newly independent states in Africa and with France, which was engaged in the Algerian War. In the January 1955 elections, Mapai won 40 seats and the Labour Party 10. Moshe Sharett became prime minister of Israel at the head of a left-wing coalition.

Between 1953 and 1956, there were intermittent clashes along all of Israel's borders as Arabic terrorism and breaches of the ceasefire resulted in Israeli counter-raids. Palestinian fedayeen attacks, often organized and sponsored by the Egyptians, were made from (Egyptian occupied) Gaza. Fedayeen attacks led to a growing cycle of violence as Israel launched reprisal attacks against Gaza. In 1954 the Uzi submachine gun first entered use by the Israel Defense Forces. In 1955, the Egyptian government began recruiting former Nazi rocket scientists for a missile program.  Archaeologist and General Yigael Yadin purchased the Dead Sea Scrolls on behalf of the State of Israel. The entire first batch to be discovered were now owned by Israel and housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum. The Dead Sea Scrolls showed copies of the book of Isaiah. Sharett's government was brought down by the Lavon Affair, a crude plan to disrupt US–Egyptian relations, involving Israeli agents planting bombs at American sites in Egypt. The plan failed when eleven agents were arrested. Defense Minister Lavon was blamed despite his denial of responsibility. The Lavon affair led to Sharett's resignation and Ben-Gurion returned to the post of prime minister.

By 1956, President Nasser of Egypt became more pro-Soviet. He announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal (which was French and British owned). The canal was Egypt's source of foreign policy. Egypt also blockaded the Gulf of Aqaba which prevented Israel's access to the Red Sea. Israel made a secret agreement with the French at Sevres to co-ordinate military operations against Egypt. Britain and France already started to start secret preparations for military action. Some allege that the French also agreed to build a nuclear plant for the Israelis and by 1968, this would produce nuclear weapons. Britain and France arranged for Israel to give them a pretext for seizing the Suez Canal. Israel was to attack Egypt and then Britain plus France would call on both sides to withdraw. When the Egyptian refused to back down, Anglo-French forces would invade to take control of the Canal. Israeli forces were commanded by General Moshe Dayan. Dayan and his forces attacked Egypt on October 29, 1956. On October 20, Britain and France made their pre-arranged call for both sides to stop fighting and withdraw from the Canal area. They wanted them to take up positions at key points of the Canal. Egypt refused and the allies used air strikes on October 31, 1956 in order to them to neutralize the Egyptian air force.



On November 5, the Israelis overran the Sinai. The Anglo-French invasion occurred. This caused an uproar in the UN. The United States and the USSR for once were  in agreement in denouncing the actions of Israel, Britain, and France. A demand for a ceasefire was reluctantly accepted on November 7, 1956. At Egypt's request, the UN sent an Emergency Force (UNEF) made up of 6,000 peacekeeping troops from 10 nations to supervise the ceasefire. This was the first ever UN peacekeeping operation.

From November 15, the UN troops marked out a zone across the Sinai to separate the Israeli and Egyptian forces. Upon receiving US guarantees of Israeli access to the Suez Canal, freedom of access out of the Gulf of Aqaba and Egyptian action to stop Palestinian raids from Gaza, the Israelis withdrew to the Negev. In practice the Suez Canal remained closed to Israeli shipping. The conflict marked the end of West-European dominance in the Middle East. Nasser was seen as the victor of the conflict since he won the political battle. Yet, the Israeli military learnt that it did not need British or French support in order to conquer Sinai and that it could conquer the Sinai peninsula in a few days. The Israeli political leadership learnt that Israel had a limited time frame within which to operate militarily after which international political pressure would restrict Israel's freedom of action. In 1956, the modern orthodox (and religious-zionist parties) of Mizrachi and Hapeol HaMizrachi joined to form the National Religious Party. The party was a component o every Israeli coalition until 1992. It usually ran the Ministry of Education.

Mapai was once again victorious in the 1959 elections, increasing its number of seats to 47, Labour had 7. Ben-Gurion remained Prime Minister.

In 1959, there were renewed skirmishes along Israel's borders that continued throughout the early 1960s. The Arab League continued to maintain an economic boycott and there was a dispute over water rights in the River Jordan basin. With Soviet backing, the Arab states, particularly Egypt, were continuing to build up their forces. Israel's main military hardware supplier was France.


Rudolph Kastner, a minor political functionary, was accused of collaborating with the Nazis and sued his accuser. Kastner lost the trial and was assassinated two years later. In 1958, the Supreme Court in Israel exonerated him.

The 1960's

On May of 1960, Adolf Eichmann (or one of the chief administrators of the Nazi Holocaust) was located in Argentina by the Mossad. He was later retrieved by the Israelis and sent him into Israel. On 1961, he was put on trial. After several months, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged in 1962 being the only person ever sentenced to death by an Israeli court. There were testimonies by Holocaust survivors at the trial and the extensive publicity that surrounded it has led the trial to be a big turning point in the public awareness of the Holocaust. In 1961, a Herut no-confidence motion over the Lavon affair caused Ben-Gurion to resign. Ben-Gurion said that he would only accept office if Lavon was fired from the position of the head of the Histadrut or Israel's Labour union organization. His demands were accepted and Mapai won the 1961 election. There were 42 seats keeping Ben-Gurion as Prime Minister. There was a slight reduction in its hare of the seats.

Menachem Begin's Herut party and the Liberals came next with 17 seats each. In 1962 the Mossad began assassinating German rocket scientists working in Egypt after one of them reported the missile program was designed to carry chemical warheads. This action was condemned by Ben-Gurion and led to the Mossad director, Isser Harel, resignation. In 1963 Ben-Gurion quit again over the Lavon scandal. His attempts to make his party Mapai support him over the issue failed. Levi Eshkol became leader of Mapai and the new prime minister.

In 1963, Yigael Yadin started to excavate Masada. In 1964, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria formed a unified military command. Israel finished work on national water carrier. It was a large engineering project. It was created to transfer Israel's allocation of the Jordan river's waters toward the south of the country in retaliation of Ben-Gurion's dream of mass Jewish settlement of the Negev desert. Arabic people in the region responded by trying to divert the headwaters of the Jordan. This grew conflict among Israel and Syria. In 1964, Israeli Rabbinical authorities accepted that the Bene Israel of India were indeed Jewish and most of the remaining Indian Jews migrated to Israel. The 2,000-strong Jewish community of Cochin had already migrated in 1954. Ben-Gurion quit Mapai to form the new party Rafi, he was joined by Shimon Peres and Moshe Dayan. Begin's Herut party joined with the Liberals to form Gahal. Mapai and Labour united for the 1965 elections, winning 45 seats and maintaining Levi Eshkol as Prime Minister. Ben-Gurion's Rafi party received 10 seats, Gahal got 26 seats becoming the second largest party.

In 1966, black and white TV broadcasts started. There was the first public performance of Naomi Shemer's classic song "Jerusalem of Gold" on May 14, 1947. Syria, Egypt, and Jordan amassed troops along the Israeli borders. Egypt crossed the Straits of Tiran to Israel shipping in 1967 too. Nasser wanted the UNEF to leave the Sinai or threaten war. On May 26, 1967, Nasser said that,
"The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel." Israel considered the Straits of Tiran closure a Casus belli. Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq signed defense pacts and Iraqi troops began deploying to Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Algeria also announced that it would send troops to Egypt. Between 1963 and 1967 Egyptian troops had tested chemical weapons on Yemenite civilians as part of an Egyptian intervention in support of rebels. Israel responded by calling up its civilian reserves. Israel's economy was halted. Israel formed a national unity coalition including for the first time Menachem Begin's party, Herut in a coalition. Prime Minster Levi Eshkol gave a national radio broadcast. Moshe Dayan was appointed Defense Minister. Dayan was sworn in at May 5, 1967. Then, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack as part of the Six Day War in 1967. They first destroyed the Egyptian air force. They destroyed air forces of Jordan and Syria. By June 11, the Arabic forces were routes and all parties had accepted the cease fire called for by UN Security Council Resolutions 235 and 236. Israel gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights,and the formerly Jordanian controlled West Bank of the Jordan River. East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel.

Residents were given permanent residency status and the option of applying for Israeli citizenship. The annexation was not recognized internationally (the Jordanian annexation of 1948 was also unrecognized).

Other areas occupied remained under military rule (Israeli civil law did not apply to them) pending a final settlement. The Golan Heights was also annexed in 1981. On November 22, 1967, the Security Council adopted Resolution 242, the "land for peace" formula, which called for the establishment of a just and lasting peace based on Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in return for the end of all states of belligerency, respect for the sovereignty of all states in the area, and the right to live in peace within secure, recognized boundaries. The resolution was accepted by both sides, though with different interpretations, and has been the basis of all subsequent peace negotiations. After 1967 the US began supplying Israel with aircraft and the Soviet block (except Romania) broke off relations with Israel. Antisemitic purges led to the final migration of the last Polish Jewish people to Israel.

After 1967, Jewish people could visit the Old City of Jerusalem. They could pray at the Western Wall (which is the holiest site in modern Judaism). The first Jewish settlement was formed in 1968 by Moshe Levinger. He led Religious Zionists to do it. It was in a town near Hebron called Kiryat Arba. No other religious settlements existed until after 1974. During 1968, Israeli forces attacked the Fatah or the Palestinian militia. They or the Israeli military came into Karameh, Jordan. The attack was in response to land mines placed on Israeli roads. The Israelis had high casualties and the attack wasn't viewed as a success. The Palestinians claimed victory. The Fatah and PLO movement became famous worldwide by the late 1960's. In early 1969, fighting broke out between Egypt and Israel along the Suez Canal. In retaliation for repeated Egyptian shelling of Israeli positions along the Suez Canal, Israeli planes made deep strikes into Egypt in the 1969–1970 "War of Attrition." In early 1969, Levi Eshkol died in office of a heart attack and Golda Meir became Prime Minister with the largest percentage of the vote ever won by an Israeli party, winning 56 of the 120 seats after the 1969 election. Meir was the first female prime minister of Israel and the first woman to have headed a Middle Eastern state in modern times. Gahal remained on 26 seats, and was the second largest party.
In December 1969, Israeli naval commandos took five missile boats during the night from Cherbourg Harbour in France. Israel had paid for the boats but the French had refused to supply them.

Yom Kippur War

In July of 1970, the Israelis shot down five Soviet fighters that were aiding the Egyptians in the course of the War of Attrition. After this, the U.S. worked to calm the situation. By August of 1970, a cease fire was agreed. New developments came in the 1970's. By September of 1970, King Hussein of Jordan drove the Palestine Liberation Organization (or the PLO) out of Jordan. By September 18, 1970, Syrian tanks invaded Jordan. Syria wanted to aid the PLO. At the request of America, Israel moved troops to the border and threatened Syria. This caused the Syrians to withdraw. The center of PLO activity shifted to Lebanon where the 1969 Cairo agreement gave the Palestinians autonomy within the south of the country.

The area controlled by the PLO became known by the international press and locals as "Fatahland" and contributed to the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. The event also led to Hafez al-Assad taking power in Syria. Egyptian President Nasser died immediately after and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. After the 1967 Israeli victory, there was more Soviet antisemitism and enthusiasm. This caused a wave of Soviet Jewish people to emigrate to Israel. Many took two suitcases to leave. Most Jewish people were refused exit visas and were persecuted by the authorities. Some were arrested and sent to Gulag camps, becoming known as Prisoners of Zion. By 1971, there were violent demonstration by the Israeli Black Panthers. This made the Israeli public aware of resentment among Mizrahi Jewish people at ongoing discrimination and social gaps. In 1972 the U.S. Jewish Mafia leader, Meyer Lansky, who had taken refuge in Israel, was deported to the United States. During the 1972 Munich Olympics, two members of the Israeli team were killed. Nine members were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists.

A botched German rescue attempt led to the death of the rest along with five of the eight hijackers. The three surviving Palestinians were released by the West German authorities eight weeks later without charge, in exchange for the hostages of hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. The Israeli government responded with a bombing, an assassination campaign against the organizers of the massacre and a raid on the PLO headquarters in Lebanon (led by future Prime Minister, Ehud Barak).
In 1972 the new Egyptian President Anwar Sadat expelled the Soviet advisers from Egypt. This and frequent invasion exercises by Egypt and Syria led to Israeli complacency about the threat from these countries. In addition the desire not to be held responsible for initiating conflict and an election campaign highlighting security, led to an Israeli failure to mobilize, despite receiving warnings of an impending attack.

The Yom Kuppur War or the October War took place on October 6, 1973. It was on the Jewish Day of Atonement or the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. It was a day when adult Jewish people are required to fast. The Syrian and Egyptian armies launched a well planned surprise attack against the unprepared Israel Defense Forces. During the beginning, Israel struggle to repel the forces fighting them. Both the Soviets and Americans (at the orders of Richard Nixon. Nixon ironically said anti-Semitic statements on tape in private conversations) rushed arms to their respective allies. The Syrians were repulsed by the tiny remnant of the Israeli tank force on the Golan. Yet, the Egyptians captured a strip of territory in Sinai. Israeli forces crossed the Suez Canal. They trapped the Egyptian Third Army in Sinai, which was 100 km. from Cairo. Over 2,000 Israelis died from the war. It resulted in a heavy arms bill on both sides. Israel was vulnerable. There was superpower tension. After the war, both Israelis and Egyptians were more willing to negotiate. By January 18, 1974,  extensive diplomacy by U.S. Secretary Henry Kissinger led to a Disengagement of Forces agreement with the Egyptian government and on May 31, 1974 with the Syrian government.

The Yom Kippur war caused the Saudi government to initiate the 1973 oil crisis. This was an oil embargo in conjunction with OPEC against countries trading with Israel. The boycott caused severe shortage in oil. The price of oil massively increased worldwide. Many countries later broke off relations with Israel or downgraded relations. Israel was banned from participation in the Asian Games and other Asian sporting events. Elected parties in Israel were state funded. The new system made them independent of wealthy donors. The Knesset members gained more power over part funding. The Knesset were less dependent on existing party structures and able to take their funding elsewhere. Before the December 1973 elections, Gahal and other right wing parties united to form the Likud (led by Begin). In the December 1973 elections, Labour won 51 seats. This left Golda Meir as Prime Minister. The Likud won 39 seats. In May 1974, Palestinians attacked a school in Ma'alot, holding 102 children hostage. Twenty-two children were killed. In November 1974 the PLO was granted observer status at the UN and Yasser Arafat addressed the General Assembly. Later that year the Agranat Commission, appointed to assess responsibility for Israel's lack of preparedness for the war, exonerated the government of responsibility, and held the Chief of Staff and head of military intelligence responsible. Despite the report, public anger at the Government led to Golda Meir's resignation.

Peace among Israel and Egypt

Yitzhah Rabin (or the Chief of Staff during the Six Day War) was prime minister after Meir's resignation. The Gush Emunim movement wanted to settle the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They were made up of Modern Orthodox Jewish people and Religious Zionist followers of the teachings of Rabbi Kook. In November 1975, the United Nations General Assembly, under the guidance of Austrian Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, adopted Resolution 3379, which asserted Zionism to be a form of racism. The General Assembly rescinded this resolution in December 1991 with Resolution 46/86. In March 1976, there was a massive strike by Israeli-Arabic people in protest at a government plan to expropriate land in the Galilee. On July 1976, an Air France plane carried 260 people. They were hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists. The plane was flown to Entebbe, Uganda, who was ruled by Idi Amin Dada back then. The Germans separated the Jewish passengers from the non-Jewish passengers. They released the non-Jewish people. The hijacked threatened to kill the remaining 100+ Jewish passengers including the French crew who had refused to leave. There were distances involved. Rabin ordered a daring rescue operation. The kidnapped Jewish people were freed.

UN Secretary General Waldheim described the raid as "a serious violation of the national sovereignty of a United Nations member state" (meaning Uganda). Waldheim was a former Nazi and suspected war criminal, with a record of offending Jewish sensibilities.

The 1976 Lebanese Civil War led Israel to allow South Lebanese to cross the border and work in Israel. In January 1977, French authorities arrested Abu Daoud, the planner of the Munich massacre released him a few days later. In March 1977 Anatoly Sharansky, a prominent Refusenik and spokesman for the Moscow Helsinki Group, was sentenced to 13 years' hard labor.

Rabin resigned on April 1977 after it emerged that his wife maintained a dollar account in the United States (illegal at the time), which had been opened while Rabin was Israeli ambassador. The incident became known as the Dollar Account affair. Shimon Peres informally replaced him as prime minister, leading the Alignment in the subsequent elections.


The 1977 elections caused Menachem Begin to win and the Likud party to won 43 seats. This was the first time in Israeli history when the left didn't run the government. The victory came about because Mizrahi was angered at discrimination.

Talented small town Mizrahi social activists, unable to advance in the Labour party, were readily embraced by Begin. Moroccan-born David Levy and Iranian-born Moshe Katzav were part of a group who won Mizrahi support for Begin. Many Labour voters voted for the Democratic Movement for Change (15 seats) in protest at high-profile corruption cases. The party joined in coalition with Begin and disappeared at the next election. Begin wanted to heal the Mizrahi-Ashenazi divide. He wanted to heal the Zionist-Ultra Orthodox rift too. Begin liberalized the economy which led to hyper inflation. Israel got US. financial aid. He supported the settlements in the West Bank and occupied territories by Gush Emunim. This would cause huge conflict with the Palestinian population of the occupied territories.

On November of 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke 30 years of enmity with Israel by visiting Jerusalem. He was invited to do so by Israeli Prime Minister Menchaem Begin. Sadat's two day visit included a speech that he gave before the Knesset. This was a turning point in the history of the conflict.  The Egyptian leader created  new psychological climate in the Middle East that Israel and its Arabic neighbors can make peace possible. Sadat recognized Israel's right to exist and formed the basis for direct negotiations between Egypt and Israel. After Sadat's visit, 350 Yom Kippur War veterans formed the Peace Now movement to encourage Israeli governments to make peace with the Arabic people. On March 1978, 11 armed Lebanese Palestinians reached Israel in boats. They hijacked a bus carrying families on a day outing. They killed 38 people including 13 children. The attackers opposed the Egyptian-Israeli peace process. Three days later, Israeli forces crossed into Lebanon beginning Operation Litani. After passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, calling for Israeli withdrawal and the creation of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peace-keeping force, Israel withdrew its troops.

By September of 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter invited President Sadat and Prime Minster Begin to meet with him at Camp David. On September 11, 1978, they agreed on a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt. They wanted a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. They created principles for negotiations. It made guidelines for a West Bank/Gaza transitional regime. This may cause autonomy of the Palestinians living in territory. A peace treaty was signed between Israel and Egypt on March 26, 1979. President Carter was a witness to it. Under the treaty, Israel returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt in April 1982. The final piece of territory to be repatriated was Taba, adjacent to Eilat, returned in 1989. The Arab League reacted to the peace treaty by suspending Egypt from the organization and moving its headquarters from Cairo to Tunis. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by Islamic fundamentalist members of the Egyptian army who opposed peace with Israel. Following the agreement Israel and Egypt became the two largest recipients of US military and financial aid (Iraq and Afghanistan have now overtaken them). Sadat was a victim of racism from racist Arabic people too. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was a brown skinned man and he faced racist, evil insults of not looking so-called "Egyptian enough" (when black people lived in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. Today, many black people have traveled to Egypt and are living in Egypt today) and he was called the term of "Nasser's black poodle" by racist Arabic people. In Sudan, including the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile regions, from 1955 to 2005, it is estimated that nearly 4 million black people were killed or ethnically cleansed. During the Second Sudanese Civil War, about 2.5 million people were killed in attacks widely regarded as racially motivated against black indigenous Africans. This proves that racism wasn't just shown by some in Israel. Racism has been shown by some (not all) Arabic people too. Sadat was a brave man. On December 1978 the Israeli Merkava battle tank entered use with the IDF. In 1979, over 40,000 Iranian Jewish migrated to Israel, escaping the Islamic Revolution there.


By Timothy