Was the creation of the state of Israel imperialism?

by croompets

I've just been reading up on imperialism and the creation of Israel and was wondering if the actual creation of Israel after the British Mandate was actually imperialism.

It seems to differ from the other forms of imperialism that Britain took part in and with what little reading i've done, there doesn't seem to be any economic imperative for the creation of Israel.

Would you say creating Israel is expansionist on the part of Britain? To me it seems they are appeasing a state/landless population of emancipated Jews who survived WW1 and don't seem to be actually creating the state for any obvious gain to Britain.

Or (and i'm just throwing this out there without thinking much about it) could you say the creation of Israel was a result of the influences of zionism on Britain rather than Britain acting in their own interest.

ljak

Britain was probably not acting in its own self interest when creating the state of Israel. There are several reasons for believing this:

  1. The Jews had a history of fighting against the British Mandate in Palestine, and the relationship between Britain and the Israeli settlement was not good. The British had no evidence at the time for Israel becoming a strong ally.
  2. Britain maintained good relations with the Arab states at the time, due to geopolitical interests (oil).
  3. Britain was opposed to Jewish immigration into Palestine, going as far as to deport holocaust refugees against the recommendation of the United States.
  4. The USSR supported the creation of Israel, believing that it would accelerate the decline of British influence on the Middle East (Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (1987) p.527).
  5. Most of the Jewish immigrants into Palestine came from Eastern Europe, and later Middle Eastern countries, not England. Arab historians sometimes lump all of Europe into one political category when discussing colonization, but this obviously is not the case.
  6. If creating the state of Israel was beneficial for Britain, they would have given Israel more land as promised in the Balfour Declaration.