Whenever will get or not will get involved, it may be a win-win situation for Korea.
Btw the capital of the DPRK is Seoul or Pyongyang?
The Footprint of Mussolini - TL
Whenever will get or not will get involved, it may be a win-win situation for Korea.
Btw the capital of the DPRK is Seoul or Pyongyang?
Probably Seoul, which was the Korean Empire's capital since the Joseon dynasty (started in XIV century). OTL, North Korea claimed Seoul as de jure capital unitl 1972.
Since Oskar Schindler is nowhere near as famous as he is IOTL, does that mean that TTL's version of Schindler's List will be about John Rabe, the man who ran the Nanking Safety Zone during the Nanking Massacre and helped save thousands of Chinese refugees from being massacred by the Japanese Army?
You know there's no reason why both can't get a movie. Making a movie about one of them, might indeed spark interest in one about the other. Just because that didn't happen in OTL, doesn't mean it can't in TTL.
The more interesting question IMHO, would be who makes it. If Hollywood makes a movie about Rabe, chances are it'll be slightly different than one made as a co-production between a NatChi remnant and Italy.
Probably it would be co-work between Chineses and Americans or Brits. Not sure if Hollywood is going to make that movie alone.
But one possible is movie about defenders of Trieste.
Just wondering would anyone dare make movie about Wallace like Stone made about Nixon? In other hand Watergate would look pretty small thing compared with Wallace and his cabinet.
Schindler won’t get a movie because he never got to show his full heroism, never even had a list.
Making a movie with a serious budget about the exploits of John Rabe will likely depend a lot on when and how there will be an interest in showing that 1: there were good Germans and 2: the heroic deeds of Europeans in China.
That said, with Rommel's earlier whitewashing of reputation, John Rabe could and likely would be used, for goodorand for ill, to show that there were good people who were forced to be card carrying members of the nazi party by the regime.
That said, with Rommel's earlier whitewashing of reputation, John Rabe could and likely would be used, for good
I propose that Rabe becomes the German ambassador to China (South China that is).
Um...their areas of Italy would never have been occupied by the Nazis, so there would be no occasion for them to do their OTL work.
Then maybe they could’ve helped the Jewish women and children in Trieste escape the city during the Nazi assault?
By the way, I have an interesting news which may be important for later developments: a young presbyter of the Archbishopric of Krakow, certain Karol Wojtyla, was completing his studies in Rome, from 1946 to 1948. He should have returned in Poland for the March of 1948. Now, everyone can guess he likely remained in Rome... And you can bet his anti-communist sentiment would be even more deep now.
Also, may be more fascist friendly as well.
Also, may be more fascist friendly as well.
Or maybe he could see more of the Bad side of Facism and firm up his democratic convictions.
Italian is doing rather well so I think he will see that Fascism can indeed work (as of current time).
It’s still a brutal Authoritarian system which cracks down on dissent. He’ll have opportunities to see that as well
It might be the case where when country are oppressive yet able to do well and make their citizen happy enough people will look other way.
Many (not all) of my mainland Chinese friend seem to be fine with all the surveillance and restriction of political freedom.
But for all I know Fascist Italy could be a bit harsher, but they can’t be that harsh since it will piss off ETO.
This. I'm not saying he will or won't have a better opinion of the fascists, but it's entirely plausible he concludes both are terrible systems. The fascists just happen to be correct about the threat of communism, that's all.
'Har Habayit Beyadenu!'
Hey all! Here's the first update (of two) with respect to the First Arabian War.
I'm almost embarassed to clarify this (though in light of how much passion is involved in Israel-Palestine discussion online I felt it would be best to clarify): This update includes biased sources (from TTL perspective) and none of them neccessarily represent my political beliefs. Dictatorship and ethnic cleansing/hatred is bad - period, no matter who does it. I only wish the best for the people of both Israel and Palestine. With that, please don't make this a debate about the morals of either side - just please be interested in the story.
'Har Habayit Beyadenu!'
Memoirs of a Young Girl (1988), by Anne Frank
I still remember the early days of the war. In Tel Aviv, we were cleanly divided into two camps. The ones who thought we were doomed and the ones who believed in divine relief. I hoped for the latter but in my heart I feared the former. There was a remarkable amount of dark humour. I remember one girl saying she was ‘learning to swim’ to prepare for the Arab invasion. I must confess that I was worried. Even the sight of veterans of Trieste marching through the city and to the frontline filled me with dread. I feared they’d come all that way just to perish. The Arabs had quickly seized the Arab majority areas of Palestine and made no pretense that this was going to end up with anything less than our obliteration. Indeed, within days we had already heard tales of Jewish villages slaughtered to the last, pogroms and violence not seen in the Holy Land since our expulsion from Hebron two decades before. We also heard about how they had advanced Soviet weaponry, or even a handful of Soviet troops among them; this mostly wasn’t true, but when existential crises come one after another you tend to imagine the worst. The one good thing that the Arabs accomplished was that it united our whole people together as only those in Trieste could remember. I had been conscripted myself, much to my parent’s fear, and I dreaded the moment I would be told to go into battle. I was told to expect to fight the Egyptians, since they were considered the most advanced Arab country at the time. I hated it – I cursed my parents for taking me from the safety of Libya to have us all die and then I cursed myself for saying such cruel things of my parents. Like all creatures, nothing makes one do foolish things like the belief that very soon there will be no more things at all.
I remember on the night of March 7th in my bunk while the other girls were asleep. We were going through some basic military training. It was hard – it appeared that the tough living of Libya had not sharpened me up as much as I thought. Even still, I was wide awake; I couldn’t go to sleep and I was baffled that everyone else could. Staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, I finally closed my eyes and prayed to God. I asked him, no, begged him to end the war and save us. We’d already gone through such impossible suffering, such monumental evil … how could he let it happen again? Though I spoke with high-minded words about other people, in reality, I was mostly worried that I would die. I wasn’t ready to die – indeed, I’m still not ready to die. To die is to lose the chance of helping and healing others. If I died, I would deprive the people I love. What’s noble in that? I prayed that God would hear my prayer, and save us from obliteration.
I woke up late on March 8th, but I could instantly tell that something was happening … and it appeared to be good news. The girls all had smiles on their faces, hugging and crying a little. Even the commanders seemed fine with the drop in discipline and were acting like the cadets. Baffled, I saw a stack of newspapers just at the entrance to Headquarters. I put my hand to my mouth: Italy had joined the War. Not supplying us, not wishing us well, but had outright joined the War. They had bombed Cairo from their carriers, shelled Alexandria with their navy and swept in from Libya to charge into the heart of Egypt. Furthermore, Turkey had joined the War on our side, having attacked Syria. Mussolini had said that the Italian army would soon be deployed to Israel proper to defend her against the Arabs. He even hinted that other members of the Roman Alliance would join. I was too flabbergasted to say anything … and then I remembered my prayer. Did it do anything? Probably not, since it takes more than a night to plan an invasion, but I chose to believe it. I chose to believe that God had heard not just my prayer, but the prayer of the Jewish people. Now that the final battle hung in the balance, no weapon would prosper against us. The Lord was our shield.
The entry of Italy and Turkey would prove decisive. Though every member of the Roman Alliance would contribute token support (with the exception of the Anti-Semitic Franco, who was never fully comfortable with the bloc’s relationship with Israel despite reluctantly recognizing her existence) Italy and Turkey were the only two who provided significant military support. Italy would land a professional army in Tel Aviv at the end of March, but it was its lightening campaign against Egypt that shocked the world. On the morning of March 8th, the Italians had pulverised Cairo and Alexandria in air strikes with troops in Libya storming over the border. As most of Egypt’s fighting force was concentrated in the Sinai, the Italians were almost totally unopposed. King Farouk had anticipated an easy victory. He didn’t anticipate the sudden invasion of Italy - which he thought the British would never allow. In this, he was only partially right in that Churchill had to be convinced, though he eventually agreed owing to the pressing commitments of the Empire elsewhere. On March 11th, still shocked by the sudden invasion and with the Italians in Mersa Matruh already, Egypt agreed to an armistice with Israel and Italy; this was the first crack in the Arab coalition. It was also a serious point of humiliation for Egyptians, to not only be the first to surrender, but to do so on such a sudden basis, given the waves of propaganda bragging that they would throw the Jews into the sea. Everyone expected an easy victory. To have been so suddenly defeated outraged the population, which would pave the way for the far more destructive Second Arabian War.
Turkey, by contrast, was slower but no less overwhelming. Lebanon had declared neutrality in the war due to the influence of the Pro-Israel Christian population and bribery by the Western powers. Thus, Turkey’s strategy was to race down the Mediterranean and cut off the Syrian state from seaborne resupply. As a significant amount of Soviet supplies came from the sea, everyone knew that to lose these territories would be ruinous to the Arab cause. Of course, at the same time, this was a highly populated area, and not as easy to make strong advances in. This didn’t stop the Turks from taking Idlib on March 17th, Aleppo on March 25th and Lattakia on April 10th. On May 7th, Tartus was seized with the help of the Regia Marina, and by May 20th, the entire coastline was declared secure. In reality, the Soviet supply line had been eviscerated by Roman Alliance blockade long before the shoreline closed, but to Syria’s leaders, this represented the end. On May 22nd, Syria’s leaders likewise capitulated and accepted an armistice. Unlike Egypt, which was granted a white peace, the Turks had no interest in an unadjusted border, but the final terms would be agreed once the conflict was resolved.
In both the Syrian and Egyptian fronts, the Israelis put up spirited but minimal resistance. The vast majority of Israeli strength was concentrated in the Palestine area against a force that mostly consisted of Palestinian Arabs, Jordanians and Iraqis. Needless to say, of course, knowledge that both the Golan Heights and Sinai would be quiet was a significant aid to the deployment of Israeli forces. They suddenly found themselves, contrary to popular imagination, the numerically superior force. This was in small part due to the influx of the Hungarian Jewish fighters. Hungarians would be the plurality of the young state’s immigrant groups and for obvious reasons. The ferocity with which Jewish Hungarians fought at Trieste made them renowned across world Jewry on par with those who perished at Masada – except these Jews had survived, now to undo Titus’s wrath. Therefore, not only did the Jews have obvious technically superiority (owing to aid from the Roman Alliance, ETO and a handful of aid from the United States close to the end of the fighting), they possessed a huge array of soldiers who were battle-hardened and unafraid of the Arabs.
The Arabs, by contrast, were terrified. The speedy fall of Egypt had sent a thunderbolt of fear stretching from the Mediterranean to the Gulf. The treatment of the Jews captured was even more brutal than before, with artillery shelling often completely ignoring troop concentrations to attack Jewish residential areas to lower the Jewish population (indeed, it is estimated 1% of the entire Jewish population of Palestine was killed in the less than one year of fighting that marked the war, with many more wounded). The Arab Coalition, under Jordan’s King Talal, was suffering from psychotic episodes and proved a poor Commander in even his most lucid moments In reality, his already poor medical state was significantly worsened by the disastrous news on the front. Finally on June 2nd, with Jewish forces knocking at the gates of Jerusalem, Talal told his officers to request a ceasefire with Israel. In response, he was placed in a straightjacket and thrown into a lunatic asylum in Amman by his subordinates. Ultimately, the imprisonment became a real breakdown and he was later transferred to Istanbul. There, he was kept blissfully unaware of what befell his country. The officers, by contrast, were being paid off not just by Stalin, but Ibn Al-Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia. To say this was a startling union of forces is an understatement. Nevertheless, the question was now serious. The officers had no credibility themselves, neither the Jordanians or Saudis wanted to increase Iraq’s prestige in the region and they needed someone who could restore Arab pride after a startling string of defeats. Who would be the new face of the Arab forces? For that, an awful answer was the reply.
Of all the most baffling decisions taken by Arab leaders, few could have been more idiotic than to announce on June 4th that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin Al-Husseini, would become the leader of Arab forces. It was done as a way to revive morale, especially among the Palestinian Arab exiles, as he was seen as someone who could inspire confidence into the beleaguered population. It was announced he would lead an independent Palestinian state (with no Jewish state of any kind in the region) after the war was done, though it would be a de facto Jordanian puppet state. At the same time, his role was restricted almost entirely to propaganda and the Mufti would have little actual input on the fighting. This was done because the Mufti had no real military experience (not that he could have done a much worse job of things than the current crop of Arab generals themselves). However, the effect was disastrous on every front. The Mufti had openly supported not only Hitler and Himmler, but the Final Solution on a public basis. He had called upon Arabs to rise up against ‘the Jewish-Colonial brotherhood’, by which he meant Britain, France and Italy (as Germany did not set foot on Arab land during the War). His open Nazi allegiances, coupled with his genuine, material support to the Nazis had made him a wanted man in Britain for war crimes. Word of the Mufti’s ascent made Britain double her contributions – it also allowed Orde Wingate to get an all-clear to openly campaign in Jewish areas of Britain to recruit fighters for the Israeli forces [1]. Though he had failed in the attempt, Italy wanted to prosecute him for attempts to get the Muslim Bosnian population of Croatia to fight the Ustache in the name of Hitler. Of course, for his multiple endorsements of pogroms back in the 1920s and 1930s, Jewish leaders reviled him. Most importantly, Stalin himself may have hated Jews but he hated Hitler far, far more. When word met him that a Nazi war criminal had ascended to the leadership of Arab forces, what little Soviet aid and support that was still coming into the Arabs from North Iran was stopped. Though the material effects were little, the public condemnation of this by Pravda was a wake-up call to the Arab people of the stupidity of their leaders. Ultimately, only Ibn-Al Saud would come out of the conflict with a mostly unblemished reputation, the rest seen as fools or cowards.
To make matters worse, on June 8th, Iraq pulled out of the Arab Coalition. As Iraq was still ruled by a Hashemite monarchy, Prince Regent ‘Abd al-Ilah cut off ties with the Coalition, calling them a ‘collection of murderous cutthroats’ for their killing of Talal loyalists within Jordan. This decision was to lead to disastrous consequences in Iraq in the upcoming years, which closely mirrored the situation in Egypt. By now, the Arab Coalition consisted mostly of Jordanian and Palestinian Arab forces with small numbers of Yemenite and Saudi troops to bulk up the now embarrassingly small numbers. Arab leaders had envisioned an unstoppable mass of people laying waste to a scattering of Jewish settlers. Instead, they faced a numerically and technologically superior foe more dominant in both respects then they could have ever feared.
In terms of command, it wasn’t even close. Arab Coalition leaders proved inflexible to the changing demands of the situation, while Jewish forces – aided by multiple helpers – proved adept. The Soviets took a mostly hands off approach to the war, believing it should only be a matter of supplies. Once the weakness of the Arab performance became clear, Stalin’s opinion of the Arab nations consequently fell as well. Arab and Soviet relations would not truly improve until after his death. Indeed, across the West, many had argued that the Arabs should have been supported, believing that the numerically superior, conservative and religious population made a more natural ally against the Communists. Again, due to the poor performance of Arab leaders, the Arab people would suffer the consequences. Churchill would infamously state, “A few tribes of savage cannibals in the Congo could outperform the Arab world in battle.” This Anti-Arab racism would only grow more acute in the coming decades.
But of course, the worst incidents of Anti-Arab racism happened much more physically. The Lehi, a Jewish-Fascist Paramilitary group that supported Italy and wished to transplant the Italian system to Israel (some members even going as far as to ponder whether Mussolini was their Messiah), would become notorious during the war [2]. They saw Arabs as a lesser race, with some of their literature even demanding their extermination. With such ardor, it can be no wonder about the multiple atrocities they had committed (with no small amount of help from the Italians). Indeed, many thought Lehi would disband when the fighting started and that it would fall under the control of the newly formed Israeli Defence Force (IDF), but Italy’s support for the organisation ensured that it operated on a semi-independent basis. While the Italians ensured that Lehi never attacked third parties, they cared little about the fate of the Arab population. The worst incident would be the fate of Gaza. On March 31st, the Egyptians long having left, the weakened and cut-off remnants of the Arab Coalition made a stand in the town of Gaza. The city was overwhelmed with Arab refugees fleeing Lehi atrocities. Despite this, the city was relentlessly bombed and shelled from sky and sea by the Italians. The Italian Aircraft carrier Il Sparviero parked in the middle of the Mediterranean with almost no protection, ceaselessly sending planes bombing Arab targets; they knew the Arabs had no capacity to respond. The IDF was busy in the Jerusalem Campaign, leaving the Lehi mostly free to mop of the remnants of shattered Arab forces. On May 31st, the Lehi broke into Gaza, and began a campaign that one witness remembered as ‘the visitation of evil on Earth’. The Lehi often simply grabbed any military aged man and flung them against the wall to be shot. The remaining Arab civilians – those who hadn’t fled to Egypt – were rammed into trucks to be thrown over the Egyptian border. It’s estimated that 500 innocent Arabs were murdered by the Lehi in Gaza – they would commit a series of similar atrocities across Israel. Ben-Gurion was disgusted and issued a public denunciation of the Lehi for ‘mishandling’ the situation (though privately he well-knew and despised them as murderers). The rebuke lit off a firestorm of criticism from most of the Provisional State Council (that Ben-Gurion chaired in fear Begin would take the role), Roman Alliance and even Britain, who worried about the diplomatic fallout. This caused Ben-Gurion to think about what he could do to halt the march of Fascist ideology in Israel dead. Ultimately, his fear of dark forces taking Israel would lead him to write an extraordinary letter in its time that would change the course of Israeli history.
Faced with relentless assault, Arab forces found themselves broken and demoralized. Ultimately, when the final attack on Jerusalem began, many simply surrendered out of hand. Ben-Gurion, knowing that the eyes of the world would be on the operation, made especially sure the Lehi would be nowhere near the operation. Instead, he put a surprising figure in charge of the final attack on Jerusalem – one of Moshe Dayan’s recommendation: Erwin Rommel. The German general, at once treated with extreme suspicion upon arrival in Israel, had been praised for a series of incredible victories in the Palestinian desert to the point that the Israeli press began to praise him as ‘Shu'al HaMidbar’, which roughly translates as ‘The Desert Fox’. Given his success, he was quickly called up to more prominent positions, becoming a national hero by seizing the town of Hebron (leading the first Jews to enter the city since they had been expelled in the 1929 Massacre). His triumph at the Battle of Bethlehem was not particularly impressive, but the name itself excited the attention of the Christian West, leading to an outpouring of international praise to the German which completely washed away his alleged War Crimes. With that level of adoration internationally, Ben-Gurion decided to put Rommel in charge of the operation to seize Jerusalem. Begin demanded that only a Jew was qualified to lead the assault, but was eventually cowed. The loftily titled ‘Operation Kingdom’ had begun.
The troops had all been assembled. Myself and the other commanders stood at the forefront. Even now, still thinking about how quickly I had ascended the ranks shocked me. I had seen my fair share of tribulations in Trieste, in Hungary, in Auschwitz, in the Sudetenland and now even in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. From that tiny Hungarian village of my birth I had seen the world in all its beauty and ugliness - all its good and evil. What made the thought all the more incredible was seeing my superior before all of us: Erwin Rommel. He could still barely speak any Hebrew and he had his translator just beside him to speak into the microphone on his behalf. Despite this, he had a presence that left us floored. I felt horrible for my suspicions about him, though he had insisted that he understood and that no feelings were lost. We stood to attention, ready to die for a man many of us had wanted to kill.
“Men,” he said, “I thank you for coming here. I thank you for coming all this way with me. Many of you come from Hungary … or Poland … or Italy … or America … or Britain … or Germany. You came from every corner of the world … all for one purpose: that your children would never live under the heel … of a man like Adolf Hitler.”
We were shocked that he had brought up the subject with such bluntness but continued to listen.
“You may hate us. I understand that. If the German people had gone through the trials and tribulations of Jews, the tribulations we silently watched, we would have hated our cowardly witnesses almost as much as our oppressors too. I don’t know how long the word ‘Germany’ will make you shudder, but it breaks my heart to know that the name of my country could bring pain to any human being. That’s why I stand before you today. Today, we begin the operation that will return to their possession the city that God had entrusted to them. The city of Solomon, of David. Think if no Catholic could visit the Vatican. Think if no Muslim could visit Mecca. Yet the world silently watches as the Jews are cast out of their homeland. For two thousand years, the Jews have been exiled from their homeland. That changes today! Today, the Jewish people shall return to the land of their fathers! And all the Titus’s, all the Tsars, all the Hitlers couldn’t stop them! For two thousand years, they tried to destroy you and every single time they have failed! You are more than any Dictator! More than any monster! You are the Chosen People! And today, you will take your place among the nations of the world! And if a German can help you do this … so that you know we weren’t all like them … then perhaps even if our generation is doomed to the poison of bigotry and vengeance … perhaps our children will do a better job than we did.”
We stood in stunned silence. Finally, I heard a man just beside me clap. I turned around … only to see that he was missing an eye. It was Moshe Dayan! We were stunned to see such a senior Israeli official, let alone giving salutations to Rommel! Soon, in light of his example, we began to follow. One by one, thousands of Jews, some holding back tears, stood tall and began to applaud. I’d seen Rommel in many positive states – I saw excitement, relief and coyness. But I’d never seen him give such a look as I saw at that moment. It was a look of eternal happiness – like he had fulfilled his life’s work and had found unfading joy and purpose. I prayed that our mission would not be in vain.
The final assault on the Old City on July 4th was more motivated by cultural rather than military matters. Extreme caution was exercised to ensure that no priceless religious artifacts were lost in the carnage. With Jerusalem now totally surrounded, it was only a matter of time before the Arab forces in the city surrendered, which they did on July 7th. That night, Erwin Rommel sent his famous message (having relentlessly proof-checked it due to his poor grasp of Hebrew): 'Har Habayit Beyadenu!' It meant ‘The Temple Mount is ours!’ For the first time in 2000 years, the holiest location in Judaism had returned to its original spiritual owners. On July 9th, a pilgrimage of several thousand Jews descended on the Temple, the date declared a national holiday in Israel (Jerusalem Day). Orthodox preachers led sermons to their hearts content both at the Western Wall and the Temple Mount itself. Ben-Gurion and many Socialists had been extremely concerned that Jewish prayer in the Temple Mount would be extremely diplomatically risky, but the Arab states could do little and no one had the political capital to tell Jews not to pray in their holiest location. Internationally the Jewish population of the world was likewise electric. Celebrations filled the streets of New York, London and Rome. After decades of persecution, culminating in the greatest crime in human history, to have triumphed so totally and quickly was beyond the imagination of most people, Jew or not. Unfortunately, they would soon receive a grim reminder of the propensity for human evil.
On July 10th, a telegram was sent to Jerusalem from the Arab powers. In it, a group of Arab officers in Jordan told Israel it stood ready to execute a coup against the Mufti and hardline members of the Jordanian army who wanted a war. The terms were generous: 75% of the Palestine region would be granted to Israel, including all of Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem (with guarantees of freedom of religion for Muslims at their holy shrines). The Palestinian Arab remainder would be annexed to Jordan to present it as a ‘win’ to the population. Ben-Gurion was ecstatic that morning, as he was told the contents of the letter. He felt that he had achieved almost everything he wanted. As he attended the meeting of the state council that morning, he could instantly tell something was off. Begin stared from the opposite end of the room. Ben-Gurion demanded to know what was going on, before being told that he had Begin and the Council had already rejected the letter. Ben-Gurion was even more startled to know that Italian planes had begun bombing Amman and that troops had already began an assault on Aqaba. Suddenly, Ben-Gurion had realised why Begin’s meeting with Mussolini had gone on so long: Mussolini had been sold on Begin’s ideology of Revisionist Zionism. The Israeli state was now not just fighting to exist – it was fighting a war to conquer Jordan … with the Italians to make sure they finished the job. When Ben-Gurion demanded the armistice be accepted, he realised that he was the minority. Ultimately, the small land mass of the Israel he wanted had little strategic depth and that convinced many Israeli leaders of the virtues of Revisionist Zionism. The growing influence of the Israeli Right (who were much more likely to be Revisionist Zionists) had likewise left Ben-Gurion realising he had been outmanouvered.
The die was cast: Israel would continue fighting until she had conquered Jordan - then and only then would the Israeli government ask for peace. The consequences would be gargantuan to the world, and the Middle East in particular. Mussolini had truly stamped his footprint upon the Earth.
[1] Wingate wanted to be among the troops, but it was decided that he was of most value in Britain, influencing the British government. He would be the first ambassador of Britain to Israel, a position he had dreamed of. He would be invaluable in moderating the influence of the Roman Alliance on Israel and keeping Israel and the Democratic West on close terms.
[2] – To the point they declared themselves a neutral party in ITTL WW2 up until Italy’s entry, only not endorsing Nazi Germany due to Italian influence. Just look them up OTL - they were an incredibly odd group - brutal as well.
I'm almost embarassed to clarify this (though in light of how much passion is involved in Israel-Palestine discussion online I felt it would be best to clarify): This update includes biased sources (from TTL perspective) and none of them neccessarily represent my political beliefs. Dictatorship and ethnic cleansing/hatred is bad - period, no matter who does it. I only wish the best for the people of both Israel and Palestine. With that, please don't make this a debate about the morals of either side - just please be interested in the story.
'Har Habayit Beyadenu!'
Memoirs of a Young Girl (1988), by Anne Frank
I still remember the early days of the war. In Tel Aviv, we were cleanly divided into two camps. The ones who thought we were doomed and the ones who believed in divine relief. I hoped for the latter but in my heart I feared the former. There was a remarkable amount of dark humour. I remember one girl saying she was ‘learning to swim’ to prepare for the Arab invasion. I must confess that I was worried. Even the sight of veterans of Trieste marching through the city and to the frontline filled me with dread. I feared they’d come all that way just to perish. The Arabs had quickly seized the Arab majority areas of Palestine and made no pretense that this was going to end up with anything less than our obliteration. Indeed, within days we had already heard tales of Jewish villages slaughtered to the last, pogroms and violence not seen in the Holy Land since our expulsion from Hebron two decades before. We also heard about how they had advanced Soviet weaponry, or even a handful of Soviet troops among them; this mostly wasn’t true, but when existential crises come one after another you tend to imagine the worst. The one good thing that the Arabs accomplished was that it united our whole people together as only those in Trieste could remember. I had been conscripted myself, much to my parent’s fear, and I dreaded the moment I would be told to go into battle. I was told to expect to fight the Egyptians, since they were considered the most advanced Arab country at the time. I hated it – I cursed my parents for taking me from the safety of Libya to have us all die and then I cursed myself for saying such cruel things of my parents. Like all creatures, nothing makes one do foolish things like the belief that very soon there will be no more things at all.
I remember on the night of March 7th in my bunk while the other girls were asleep. We were going through some basic military training. It was hard – it appeared that the tough living of Libya had not sharpened me up as much as I thought. Even still, I was wide awake; I couldn’t go to sleep and I was baffled that everyone else could. Staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, I finally closed my eyes and prayed to God. I asked him, no, begged him to end the war and save us. We’d already gone through such impossible suffering, such monumental evil … how could he let it happen again? Though I spoke with high-minded words about other people, in reality, I was mostly worried that I would die. I wasn’t ready to die – indeed, I’m still not ready to die. To die is to lose the chance of helping and healing others. If I died, I would deprive the people I love. What’s noble in that? I prayed that God would hear my prayer, and save us from obliteration.
I woke up late on March 8th, but I could instantly tell that something was happening … and it appeared to be good news. The girls all had smiles on their faces, hugging and crying a little. Even the commanders seemed fine with the drop in discipline and were acting like the cadets. Baffled, I saw a stack of newspapers just at the entrance to Headquarters. I put my hand to my mouth: Italy had joined the War. Not supplying us, not wishing us well, but had outright joined the War. They had bombed Cairo from their carriers, shelled Alexandria with their navy and swept in from Libya to charge into the heart of Egypt. Furthermore, Turkey had joined the War on our side, having attacked Syria. Mussolini had said that the Italian army would soon be deployed to Israel proper to defend her against the Arabs. He even hinted that other members of the Roman Alliance would join. I was too flabbergasted to say anything … and then I remembered my prayer. Did it do anything? Probably not, since it takes more than a night to plan an invasion, but I chose to believe it. I chose to believe that God had heard not just my prayer, but the prayer of the Jewish people. Now that the final battle hung in the balance, no weapon would prosper against us. The Lord was our shield.
‘Miracle: The History of Israel’ by Joel Hagee
The entry of Italy and Turkey would prove decisive. Though every member of the Roman Alliance would contribute token support (with the exception of the Anti-Semitic Franco, who was never fully comfortable with the bloc’s relationship with Israel despite reluctantly recognizing her existence) Italy and Turkey were the only two who provided significant military support. Italy would land a professional army in Tel Aviv at the end of March, but it was its lightening campaign against Egypt that shocked the world. On the morning of March 8th, the Italians had pulverised Cairo and Alexandria in air strikes with troops in Libya storming over the border. As most of Egypt’s fighting force was concentrated in the Sinai, the Italians were almost totally unopposed. King Farouk had anticipated an easy victory. He didn’t anticipate the sudden invasion of Italy - which he thought the British would never allow. In this, he was only partially right in that Churchill had to be convinced, though he eventually agreed owing to the pressing commitments of the Empire elsewhere. On March 11th, still shocked by the sudden invasion and with the Italians in Mersa Matruh already, Egypt agreed to an armistice with Israel and Italy; this was the first crack in the Arab coalition. It was also a serious point of humiliation for Egyptians, to not only be the first to surrender, but to do so on such a sudden basis, given the waves of propaganda bragging that they would throw the Jews into the sea. Everyone expected an easy victory. To have been so suddenly defeated outraged the population, which would pave the way for the far more destructive Second Arabian War.
Turkey, by contrast, was slower but no less overwhelming. Lebanon had declared neutrality in the war due to the influence of the Pro-Israel Christian population and bribery by the Western powers. Thus, Turkey’s strategy was to race down the Mediterranean and cut off the Syrian state from seaborne resupply. As a significant amount of Soviet supplies came from the sea, everyone knew that to lose these territories would be ruinous to the Arab cause. Of course, at the same time, this was a highly populated area, and not as easy to make strong advances in. This didn’t stop the Turks from taking Idlib on March 17th, Aleppo on March 25th and Lattakia on April 10th. On May 7th, Tartus was seized with the help of the Regia Marina, and by May 20th, the entire coastline was declared secure. In reality, the Soviet supply line had been eviscerated by Roman Alliance blockade long before the shoreline closed, but to Syria’s leaders, this represented the end. On May 22nd, Syria’s leaders likewise capitulated and accepted an armistice. Unlike Egypt, which was granted a white peace, the Turks had no interest in an unadjusted border, but the final terms would be agreed once the conflict was resolved.
In both the Syrian and Egyptian fronts, the Israelis put up spirited but minimal resistance. The vast majority of Israeli strength was concentrated in the Palestine area against a force that mostly consisted of Palestinian Arabs, Jordanians and Iraqis. Needless to say, of course, knowledge that both the Golan Heights and Sinai would be quiet was a significant aid to the deployment of Israeli forces. They suddenly found themselves, contrary to popular imagination, the numerically superior force. This was in small part due to the influx of the Hungarian Jewish fighters. Hungarians would be the plurality of the young state’s immigrant groups and for obvious reasons. The ferocity with which Jewish Hungarians fought at Trieste made them renowned across world Jewry on par with those who perished at Masada – except these Jews had survived, now to undo Titus’s wrath. Therefore, not only did the Jews have obvious technically superiority (owing to aid from the Roman Alliance, ETO and a handful of aid from the United States close to the end of the fighting), they possessed a huge array of soldiers who were battle-hardened and unafraid of the Arabs.
The Arabs, by contrast, were terrified. The speedy fall of Egypt had sent a thunderbolt of fear stretching from the Mediterranean to the Gulf. The treatment of the Jews captured was even more brutal than before, with artillery shelling often completely ignoring troop concentrations to attack Jewish residential areas to lower the Jewish population (indeed, it is estimated 1% of the entire Jewish population of Palestine was killed in the less than one year of fighting that marked the war, with many more wounded). The Arab Coalition, under Jordan’s King Talal, was suffering from psychotic episodes and proved a poor Commander in even his most lucid moments In reality, his already poor medical state was significantly worsened by the disastrous news on the front. Finally on June 2nd, with Jewish forces knocking at the gates of Jerusalem, Talal told his officers to request a ceasefire with Israel. In response, he was placed in a straightjacket and thrown into a lunatic asylum in Amman by his subordinates. Ultimately, the imprisonment became a real breakdown and he was later transferred to Istanbul. There, he was kept blissfully unaware of what befell his country. The officers, by contrast, were being paid off not just by Stalin, but Ibn Al-Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia. To say this was a startling union of forces is an understatement. Nevertheless, the question was now serious. The officers had no credibility themselves, neither the Jordanians or Saudis wanted to increase Iraq’s prestige in the region and they needed someone who could restore Arab pride after a startling string of defeats. Who would be the new face of the Arab forces? For that, an awful answer was the reply.
‘The Arab Tragedy: 1944–1956’ by Abdul Nazim
Of all the most baffling decisions taken by Arab leaders, few could have been more idiotic than to announce on June 4th that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin Al-Husseini, would become the leader of Arab forces. It was done as a way to revive morale, especially among the Palestinian Arab exiles, as he was seen as someone who could inspire confidence into the beleaguered population. It was announced he would lead an independent Palestinian state (with no Jewish state of any kind in the region) after the war was done, though it would be a de facto Jordanian puppet state. At the same time, his role was restricted almost entirely to propaganda and the Mufti would have little actual input on the fighting. This was done because the Mufti had no real military experience (not that he could have done a much worse job of things than the current crop of Arab generals themselves). However, the effect was disastrous on every front. The Mufti had openly supported not only Hitler and Himmler, but the Final Solution on a public basis. He had called upon Arabs to rise up against ‘the Jewish-Colonial brotherhood’, by which he meant Britain, France and Italy (as Germany did not set foot on Arab land during the War). His open Nazi allegiances, coupled with his genuine, material support to the Nazis had made him a wanted man in Britain for war crimes. Word of the Mufti’s ascent made Britain double her contributions – it also allowed Orde Wingate to get an all-clear to openly campaign in Jewish areas of Britain to recruit fighters for the Israeli forces [1]. Though he had failed in the attempt, Italy wanted to prosecute him for attempts to get the Muslim Bosnian population of Croatia to fight the Ustache in the name of Hitler. Of course, for his multiple endorsements of pogroms back in the 1920s and 1930s, Jewish leaders reviled him. Most importantly, Stalin himself may have hated Jews but he hated Hitler far, far more. When word met him that a Nazi war criminal had ascended to the leadership of Arab forces, what little Soviet aid and support that was still coming into the Arabs from North Iran was stopped. Though the material effects were little, the public condemnation of this by Pravda was a wake-up call to the Arab people of the stupidity of their leaders. Ultimately, only Ibn-Al Saud would come out of the conflict with a mostly unblemished reputation, the rest seen as fools or cowards.
To make matters worse, on June 8th, Iraq pulled out of the Arab Coalition. As Iraq was still ruled by a Hashemite monarchy, Prince Regent ‘Abd al-Ilah cut off ties with the Coalition, calling them a ‘collection of murderous cutthroats’ for their killing of Talal loyalists within Jordan. This decision was to lead to disastrous consequences in Iraq in the upcoming years, which closely mirrored the situation in Egypt. By now, the Arab Coalition consisted mostly of Jordanian and Palestinian Arab forces with small numbers of Yemenite and Saudi troops to bulk up the now embarrassingly small numbers. Arab leaders had envisioned an unstoppable mass of people laying waste to a scattering of Jewish settlers. Instead, they faced a numerically and technologically superior foe more dominant in both respects then they could have ever feared.
In terms of command, it wasn’t even close. Arab Coalition leaders proved inflexible to the changing demands of the situation, while Jewish forces – aided by multiple helpers – proved adept. The Soviets took a mostly hands off approach to the war, believing it should only be a matter of supplies. Once the weakness of the Arab performance became clear, Stalin’s opinion of the Arab nations consequently fell as well. Arab and Soviet relations would not truly improve until after his death. Indeed, across the West, many had argued that the Arabs should have been supported, believing that the numerically superior, conservative and religious population made a more natural ally against the Communists. Again, due to the poor performance of Arab leaders, the Arab people would suffer the consequences. Churchill would infamously state, “A few tribes of savage cannibals in the Congo could outperform the Arab world in battle.” This Anti-Arab racism would only grow more acute in the coming decades.
But of course, the worst incidents of Anti-Arab racism happened much more physically. The Lehi, a Jewish-Fascist Paramilitary group that supported Italy and wished to transplant the Italian system to Israel (some members even going as far as to ponder whether Mussolini was their Messiah), would become notorious during the war [2]. They saw Arabs as a lesser race, with some of their literature even demanding their extermination. With such ardor, it can be no wonder about the multiple atrocities they had committed (with no small amount of help from the Italians). Indeed, many thought Lehi would disband when the fighting started and that it would fall under the control of the newly formed Israeli Defence Force (IDF), but Italy’s support for the organisation ensured that it operated on a semi-independent basis. While the Italians ensured that Lehi never attacked third parties, they cared little about the fate of the Arab population. The worst incident would be the fate of Gaza. On March 31st, the Egyptians long having left, the weakened and cut-off remnants of the Arab Coalition made a stand in the town of Gaza. The city was overwhelmed with Arab refugees fleeing Lehi atrocities. Despite this, the city was relentlessly bombed and shelled from sky and sea by the Italians. The Italian Aircraft carrier Il Sparviero parked in the middle of the Mediterranean with almost no protection, ceaselessly sending planes bombing Arab targets; they knew the Arabs had no capacity to respond. The IDF was busy in the Jerusalem Campaign, leaving the Lehi mostly free to mop of the remnants of shattered Arab forces. On May 31st, the Lehi broke into Gaza, and began a campaign that one witness remembered as ‘the visitation of evil on Earth’. The Lehi often simply grabbed any military aged man and flung them against the wall to be shot. The remaining Arab civilians – those who hadn’t fled to Egypt – were rammed into trucks to be thrown over the Egyptian border. It’s estimated that 500 innocent Arabs were murdered by the Lehi in Gaza – they would commit a series of similar atrocities across Israel. Ben-Gurion was disgusted and issued a public denunciation of the Lehi for ‘mishandling’ the situation (though privately he well-knew and despised them as murderers). The rebuke lit off a firestorm of criticism from most of the Provisional State Council (that Ben-Gurion chaired in fear Begin would take the role), Roman Alliance and even Britain, who worried about the diplomatic fallout. This caused Ben-Gurion to think about what he could do to halt the march of Fascist ideology in Israel dead. Ultimately, his fear of dark forces taking Israel would lead him to write an extraordinary letter in its time that would change the course of Israeli history.
Faced with relentless assault, Arab forces found themselves broken and demoralized. Ultimately, when the final attack on Jerusalem began, many simply surrendered out of hand. Ben-Gurion, knowing that the eyes of the world would be on the operation, made especially sure the Lehi would be nowhere near the operation. Instead, he put a surprising figure in charge of the final attack on Jerusalem – one of Moshe Dayan’s recommendation: Erwin Rommel. The German general, at once treated with extreme suspicion upon arrival in Israel, had been praised for a series of incredible victories in the Palestinian desert to the point that the Israeli press began to praise him as ‘Shu'al HaMidbar’, which roughly translates as ‘The Desert Fox’. Given his success, he was quickly called up to more prominent positions, becoming a national hero by seizing the town of Hebron (leading the first Jews to enter the city since they had been expelled in the 1929 Massacre). His triumph at the Battle of Bethlehem was not particularly impressive, but the name itself excited the attention of the Christian West, leading to an outpouring of international praise to the German which completely washed away his alleged War Crimes. With that level of adoration internationally, Ben-Gurion decided to put Rommel in charge of the operation to seize Jerusalem. Begin demanded that only a Jew was qualified to lead the assault, but was eventually cowed. The loftily titled ‘Operation Kingdom’ had begun.
‘Day’ (1990) by Elie Wiesel
The troops had all been assembled. Myself and the other commanders stood at the forefront. Even now, still thinking about how quickly I had ascended the ranks shocked me. I had seen my fair share of tribulations in Trieste, in Hungary, in Auschwitz, in the Sudetenland and now even in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. From that tiny Hungarian village of my birth I had seen the world in all its beauty and ugliness - all its good and evil. What made the thought all the more incredible was seeing my superior before all of us: Erwin Rommel. He could still barely speak any Hebrew and he had his translator just beside him to speak into the microphone on his behalf. Despite this, he had a presence that left us floored. I felt horrible for my suspicions about him, though he had insisted that he understood and that no feelings were lost. We stood to attention, ready to die for a man many of us had wanted to kill.
“Men,” he said, “I thank you for coming here. I thank you for coming all this way with me. Many of you come from Hungary … or Poland … or Italy … or America … or Britain … or Germany. You came from every corner of the world … all for one purpose: that your children would never live under the heel … of a man like Adolf Hitler.”
We were shocked that he had brought up the subject with such bluntness but continued to listen.
“You may hate us. I understand that. If the German people had gone through the trials and tribulations of Jews, the tribulations we silently watched, we would have hated our cowardly witnesses almost as much as our oppressors too. I don’t know how long the word ‘Germany’ will make you shudder, but it breaks my heart to know that the name of my country could bring pain to any human being. That’s why I stand before you today. Today, we begin the operation that will return to their possession the city that God had entrusted to them. The city of Solomon, of David. Think if no Catholic could visit the Vatican. Think if no Muslim could visit Mecca. Yet the world silently watches as the Jews are cast out of their homeland. For two thousand years, the Jews have been exiled from their homeland. That changes today! Today, the Jewish people shall return to the land of their fathers! And all the Titus’s, all the Tsars, all the Hitlers couldn’t stop them! For two thousand years, they tried to destroy you and every single time they have failed! You are more than any Dictator! More than any monster! You are the Chosen People! And today, you will take your place among the nations of the world! And if a German can help you do this … so that you know we weren’t all like them … then perhaps even if our generation is doomed to the poison of bigotry and vengeance … perhaps our children will do a better job than we did.”
We stood in stunned silence. Finally, I heard a man just beside me clap. I turned around … only to see that he was missing an eye. It was Moshe Dayan! We were stunned to see such a senior Israeli official, let alone giving salutations to Rommel! Soon, in light of his example, we began to follow. One by one, thousands of Jews, some holding back tears, stood tall and began to applaud. I’d seen Rommel in many positive states – I saw excitement, relief and coyness. But I’d never seen him give such a look as I saw at that moment. It was a look of eternal happiness – like he had fulfilled his life’s work and had found unfading joy and purpose. I prayed that our mission would not be in vain.
The New Roman Empire – by David Lassinger
The final assault on the Old City on July 4th was more motivated by cultural rather than military matters. Extreme caution was exercised to ensure that no priceless religious artifacts were lost in the carnage. With Jerusalem now totally surrounded, it was only a matter of time before the Arab forces in the city surrendered, which they did on July 7th. That night, Erwin Rommel sent his famous message (having relentlessly proof-checked it due to his poor grasp of Hebrew): 'Har Habayit Beyadenu!' It meant ‘The Temple Mount is ours!’ For the first time in 2000 years, the holiest location in Judaism had returned to its original spiritual owners. On July 9th, a pilgrimage of several thousand Jews descended on the Temple, the date declared a national holiday in Israel (Jerusalem Day). Orthodox preachers led sermons to their hearts content both at the Western Wall and the Temple Mount itself. Ben-Gurion and many Socialists had been extremely concerned that Jewish prayer in the Temple Mount would be extremely diplomatically risky, but the Arab states could do little and no one had the political capital to tell Jews not to pray in their holiest location. Internationally the Jewish population of the world was likewise electric. Celebrations filled the streets of New York, London and Rome. After decades of persecution, culminating in the greatest crime in human history, to have triumphed so totally and quickly was beyond the imagination of most people, Jew or not. Unfortunately, they would soon receive a grim reminder of the propensity for human evil.
On July 10th, a telegram was sent to Jerusalem from the Arab powers. In it, a group of Arab officers in Jordan told Israel it stood ready to execute a coup against the Mufti and hardline members of the Jordanian army who wanted a war. The terms were generous: 75% of the Palestine region would be granted to Israel, including all of Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem (with guarantees of freedom of religion for Muslims at their holy shrines). The Palestinian Arab remainder would be annexed to Jordan to present it as a ‘win’ to the population. Ben-Gurion was ecstatic that morning, as he was told the contents of the letter. He felt that he had achieved almost everything he wanted. As he attended the meeting of the state council that morning, he could instantly tell something was off. Begin stared from the opposite end of the room. Ben-Gurion demanded to know what was going on, before being told that he had Begin and the Council had already rejected the letter. Ben-Gurion was even more startled to know that Italian planes had begun bombing Amman and that troops had already began an assault on Aqaba. Suddenly, Ben-Gurion had realised why Begin’s meeting with Mussolini had gone on so long: Mussolini had been sold on Begin’s ideology of Revisionist Zionism. The Israeli state was now not just fighting to exist – it was fighting a war to conquer Jordan … with the Italians to make sure they finished the job. When Ben-Gurion demanded the armistice be accepted, he realised that he was the minority. Ultimately, the small land mass of the Israel he wanted had little strategic depth and that convinced many Israeli leaders of the virtues of Revisionist Zionism. The growing influence of the Israeli Right (who were much more likely to be Revisionist Zionists) had likewise left Ben-Gurion realising he had been outmanouvered.
The die was cast: Israel would continue fighting until she had conquered Jordan - then and only then would the Israeli government ask for peace. The consequences would be gargantuan to the world, and the Middle East in particular. Mussolini had truly stamped his footprint upon the Earth.
[1] Wingate wanted to be among the troops, but it was decided that he was of most value in Britain, influencing the British government. He would be the first ambassador of Britain to Israel, a position he had dreamed of. He would be invaluable in moderating the influence of the Roman Alliance on Israel and keeping Israel and the Democratic West on close terms.
[2] – To the point they declared themselves a neutral party in ITTL WW2 up until Italy’s entry, only not endorsing Nazi Germany due to Italian influence. Just look them up OTL - they were an incredibly odd group - brutal as well.
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