Helen Thomas Retires Effective Immediately

[Helen Reyes]

And Sir Bacon's New Atlantis, the Hudson's Bay, Massachusetts and all the other corporations in North America? Please name me one "organic" state. I can counter that every state is an artificial construct. The UN also had little to do with it. The forces of Zionism assembled before the UN was even created. Ben-Gurion made his unilateral declaration of independence before the UN had a chance to declare a two-state formula. From the Zionist perspective they didn't get the UN the satisfaction of co-opting their movement toward a new state.

Ben-Gurion and his supporters were actually a bit disappointed with the partition deal, although it was generous considering they were outnumbered in the region by the Arabs and Christians. They knew they could take more land by force later.

I know BG declared unilaterally but the partition deal gave him the foot in the door he needed. As you say, it was the product of 70 odd years of Zionist activism which predated the UN and the League of Nations.

Right. Again, it's a fine point: any sovereignty "granted" by an entity can be withdrawn by that same entity. It wasn't the UN partition deal that was the Zionists' foot in the door, it was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the British Mandate under the League of Nations and settlers already on the ground during the period of Ottoman rule.

I'm not sure how much force entered into the picture in the early days. I haven't made a good study of the Jewish immigration to Palestine but from what I've gathered the first real center was created by buying up land north of Joffa which later became Tel Aviv.

Was contemporary Zionism allergically opposed to Jerusalem's status as an international city? I don't know.