World leaders during World War II took positions on Zionism in Palestine that would benefit them at the war's end, renowned historian Gerhard Weinberg said yesterday.
In a speech entitled "World War II Leaders and Their Visions for the Future of Palestine," Weinberg discussed the position of the leader of each major power.
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Weinberg retired from the University of North Carolina history faculty in 1994. He authored the best-selling World War II history work "A World at Arms" and worked for nearly a decade to ensure that captured Nazi documents would be preserved on microfilm.
The first portion of the well-attended speech was dedicated to a discussion of the history of Palestine, starting with its creation as a British mandate in 1917 and continuing until the start of World War II.
Weinberg said that many of the conflicts of the era reflected the dramatically increased Arab and Jewish immigration to the region after Britain declared the region a future Jewish homeland.
The rest of the speech related to the opinions of each World War II leader, starting with Japanese prime minister Tojo Hideki and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek. Both were unconcerned with the Middle East and were more engaged with East Asian regional territorial issues, Weinberg said.
In the European theater, Adolf Hitler wanted German General Erwin Rommel "to kill all the Jews living in Palestine and the rest of the Middle East."
Italian leader Benito Mussolini had no specific plans for the Middle East, but since that area would be his by agreement with Hitler, he was "expected to provide the Arab regions with an equally brutal regime" as in Libya and Ethiopia, Weinberg said.
He added that Russian leader Joseph Stalin opposed Zionism up until 1944, when he saw that the Allies could win the war. Then, thinking to develop the Soviet Union's prospects after the war, he changed his mind, though he suppressed Zionists in his own nation.
Like Stalin, French leader Charles de Gaulle supported a Jewish homeland in Palestine "as a means of subverting Britain's position in the Middle East," he said.
According to Weinberg, British Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill were committed to creating a pro-British Palestine that would protect the Suez Canal.
Weinberg said that Churchill believed in a plan, later dropped, calling for an independent Jewish state that would function within a larger Arabian coalition of nations headed by King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.
President Franklin Roosevelt was committed to Palestine, Weinberg said, providing military aid to the Soviets during the crucial battles of 1942.
Weinberg was optimistic about the long-term future of the Middle East, despite the current crisis. "If they want to, they can handle their difficulties," he concluded.
