Historically Speaking | Israel: Nation making

Coming out of World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Britain had put itself in a difficult situation. It had made several promises that would prove difficult to accomplish at the same time. Britain had promised the Hashemite family an Arab kingdom if the Arabs rose up and fought the Ottomans. The Sykes-Picot Agreement promised the French that they would divide up the Ottoman Empire between themselves into spheres of influence. Finally, the Balfour Declaration promised a national home for the Jews in their ancestral land. How to accomplish these three competing goals ultimately fell to the League of Nations. The League of Nations was an international organization established in 1920 as part of the post-World War I peace settlement, largely at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, to promote international cooperation, resolve disputes peacefully, and prevent future wars. As a side note to everything I am going to talk about, America was not part of any of it.

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