Why did the British carve out land in the Middle East for the Jews after World War II, instead of carving land out of Germany for a Jewish homeland?

by fluffypurplegiraffe

At that point I'd have guessed that the British could make the Germans bend to their every will, so why not take part of Germany and give it to the Jews? Was it easier to take part of the Middle East than part of Germany?

gingerkid1234

This question has a few false assumptions. First, there was not a particularly high number of Jews in Germany. Most Jews killed in the Holocaust were from Eastern Europe (which had a much larger population), and most post-war Jewish refugees were not German. There was no identifiable Jewish part of Germany ever, especially not post-war. On the other hand, Palestine had a large Jewish population, and a majority in some areas. There were also proto-governmental Jewish organizations in Palestine that were not destroyed by the war, which made Palestine the only obvious choice. The reason for that was that the idea of a Jewish state had been thought of and started to be put into practice decades before WW2, which brings us to...

Second, this question presupposes that this was decided post-war. The British announced their intention to create a Jewish state after WW1, not WW2. They didn't do it unambiguously, and they had other conflicting intentions, but that was when the plan was approved from a British angle. The idea of a Jewish state somewhere else was floated in the early 1900s, but it was rejected fairly quickly. A Jewish state in the historic Jewish homeland was able to command a much larger coalition of support from Jewish groups.

Third, the question also assumes that it was the British who carved out the land that was Israel. This is largely incorrect. Prior to WW1, the idea of a Jewish state was common (though not unanimously so) among Jews. The British eventually approved this plan. But in the 20s and 30s, they were forced to face the conflicting promises they made and stalled. Eventually this turned into a violent 3-way conflict between British soldiers, Jewish paramilitaries, and local Arabs. After WW2 political pressure on the British increased to allow a Jewish state. Eventually they turned it over to the UN, who endorsed dividing Palestine into two states (which never actually took place, the Arab portions were divided among the neighboring Arab states or absorbed by Israel). The British did not set borders of Israel, nor did the UN's borders actually get enforced.

Without those things I'm not sure what's left to be answered in the question. There's no reason the British chose to "carve out" a Jewish state in Palestine over Germany post-war, because that's not how it happened. Even if that is how it happened, Germany wouldn't make much logistical sense, without any particular area being particularly Jewish in demographics.

kagantx

The British had already "taken" part of the Middle East in the Sykes-Picot agreement which divided up much of the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The British had previously promised a "National Homeland" to the Jews in a future British Mandate of Palestine in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and there was already a relatively large Jewish community (around 600,000 in 1947) present there by the end of World War II that intended to hold them to that promise. Moreover, there was already a Jewish "Shadow Government" of communal organizations in Palestine, both civilian (e. g. the Jewish National Fund/Keren Kayemet LeYisrael and the Histadrut (Jewish Labor Organization)) and military (The Hagana, Irgun, and Lechi). If the British had tried to move them to Germany, it is unlikely that they would have agreed.

mytimeoutside

Your question, besides ignoring the fact that most Holocaust victims weren't German citizens and didn't speak German, also doesn't to inquire about the determination of the Jewish DP's (displaced persons). When Jewish DP's were asked after the war 'where do you want to go' the vast majority of Jews said they wanted to go Palestine. When Palestine was denied as a first choice, the next choice was often 'crematoria'. The morale of the survivors was incredibly low. Furthermore, in the postwar period, barriers to immigration for Jews to Western countries was still very much in place, making Palestine the only realistic alternative to going back to the place where genocide against you occurred.

https://books.google.com/books?id=jrWKlM5KoSMC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=DP+camps+palestine+or+gas+chambers&source=bl&ots=ALdZ5Jsbnk&sig=rKqe3DFywWqdMLNJxptJVrMDSrE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwia1sDF0dzKAhUIymMKHSqEBmUQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=DP%20camps%20palestine%20or%20gas%20chambers&f=false