Lest We Forget Indeed!

"At 11am tomorrow (Friday), the nation will pause to remember all those who have fought gallantly for Australia on the battlefield... As Jews, we recall the gallant deeds of the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade in the Battle of of Be'er Sheva [sic: Beersheba], which fought to liberate lands from the Ottoman Empire that would one day become part of Israel." (Editorial: Lest we forget, The Australian Jewish News, 11/11/11)

"... which fought to liberate lands from the Ottoman Empire that would one day become part of Israel." Which fought and died.

But what if those deaths could have been prevented?

What if Chaim Weizmann, Zionist supremo and architect of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which gave the Zionist movement its initial, British-backed foothold in Palestine, hadn't deliberately scuppered a peace deal with the Turks that would have seen them out of the war well before the Battle of Beersheba, and so saved the lives of who knows how many Australian, British and Turkish troops?

Those who, for propaganda purposes, would spin Sir Edmund Allenby's campaign against the Turks in Palestine (October-December, 1917), and especially its Australian involvement, as some kind of pre-ordained clearing of the way for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, wouldn't, of course, be interested in such questions. They might find a skeleton in the closet.

Those unafraid to explore the real history of the time, however, will take the trouble to read my 13/11/10 post Diggers Who Died for Israel? Just click on the Chaim Weizmann label below.