"Wenn ihr wollt, ist es kein Märchen" - early Jewish State TL

Hello everyone!

I'm a history enthousiast from Europe and I'm happy to be a member on these great forums. :)

A long time ago I wrote an alternate history scenario, but ended up having unsufficient time to continue it. I’ve long wanted to revive / rewrite it and to perhaps even continue it. So now, that's what I'll be doing in this thread. The TL explores the creation of a Jewish homeland in the northern Sinai peninsula as desired by Theodor Herzl and the British Empire IOTL. The POD is very simple: when Egypt declares the plan impractical due to the high expenses, famous Zionist supporter Edmond James de Rothschild offers to cover all expenses to create a safe refuge for the persecuted Russian Jews.

Part I will mostly explore the OTL background story - the POD will be in Part II. Here it goes!






Part I: The Quest for Jewish National Emancipation

For nearly 2 millennia, the Israelite people had lived scattered throughout the world, although the great majority could be found in the shtetls of Eastern Europe. Never in these 2 millennia was Jewish life characterized by transquility. Wherever they went, anti-Semitic Blood Libels followed them. The crusaders drove them out of the Rhineland, the inquisitors drove them out of Iberia, and now the majority of the Jews were trapped under Russia’s anti-Semitic Czarist regime. In 1882 Russian authorities prohibit the establishment of new Jewish communities, while the existing ones are ravaged by a massive government-sponsored wave of 259 pogroms in 1881-1884.

On a brighter note, in Western Europe and the United States, the liberal and humanist values of the Renaissance brought an end to segregation between Jews and Gentiles. In many cases, however, this meant neglecting the Yiddish and Hebrew language in favor of the local languages, and an increasing liberalization of the Jewish religion. For Jewish nationalists like Nathan Birnbaum, this was a frightful development that could lead to the assimilation of Jews into Christian society and thus the disappearance of this unique 3 millennia old culture. To prevent this, he suggested the establishment of a national home in their ancient homeland (Palestine) and the promotion of Hasidic Judaism and Yiddish as Jewry’s national religion and language respectively.

However, organized “Zionism” – as this belief in a return to Palestine became known – emerged with the Austrian Jew Theodor Herzl. His increasing worries about the plight of Russian Jewry were assuaged by the optimistic situation in his homeland and continent – he was himself indeed an assimilated, liberal, German-speaking Austrian. In Herzl’s mind, Russia might one day liberalize too, or the Jews will inevitably move to the liberal West and assimilate there. This bubble bursted on the 15th of October 1894. On that day, Alfred Dreyfus, Jewish officer in the French army, was arrested for alleged espionage for Germany. In the literary newspaper l’Aurore, author Émile Zola publishes the truth on the event: Dreyfus was found innocent, but the French authorities cover it up. Herzl couldn’t believe it. Anti-Semitism was alive not just in Russia, but even in France. France, the land of the liberal revolution, the land of Jewish emancipation.

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[Theodor Herzl]

Herzl quickly started working out his idea for a Jewish entity in his book “Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage” (English: The Jewish State: Attempt at a modern solution of the Jewish Question), in which he declared that anti-Semitism to be uncurable and the only solution being Jewish national emancipation. A Jewish state or province in Palestine, or possibly elsewhere, could provide many of the millions of poor Russian-Jewish souls not only a refuge, but even a home. Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Prague in 1897, hosting Jewish activists and leaders from all over the world. The Basel Declaration is issued, and the newly established “World Zionist Organization” (WZO) pledges to promote Jewish national conciousness and land purchase in Palestine. Furthermore, a Jewish national flag (Degel Zion) and anthem (Hatikvah) are decided upon.

Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, was considered the ideal location for a Jewish homeland. However, the land was controlled by the Ottoman Sultan, who was unwilling to grant a charter for the land. A German nationalist, Herzl approached Kaiser Wilhelm II during the latter’s tour of Palestine with the idea of a German-speaking Jewish protectorate of the German Empire. While the Kaiser was enthousiastic about this proposal, he seemed to have forgotten about it quickly – or maybe he was unwilling to put the good relations with the Sultan at stake.


Part II: A Suitable Land

The next candidate for negotiations was Great Britain, a world power hoping to expand its sphere of influence in the Middle East. Since the British did not have control over Palestine, Herzl proposed Cyprus and El-Arish – both on the Mediterranean – during a meeting with Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain in October 1902. While rejecting the proposal of Cyprus, since the Greek and Turkish inhabitants of the island would likely object, Chamberlain was very supportive of a Jewish buffer state against the Ottoman Empire on the Sinai peninsula. The town of El-Arish, located on the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, was only sparsely settled by Bedouins and thus deemed ideal for colonization by Jews. However, Chamberlain required Herzl to achieve the support of Foreign Secretary Lord Landsdowne and of Lord Cromer, the British Consul General in Egypt. Landsdowne quickly gave the green light during another meeting, but Cromer required Herzl to send an investigating committee to the town, promising his favour if the investigation turns out positively.

Herzl wasted no time and immediately organized a “Zionist Commission to the Sinai Peninsula”, composed of various men, including Jewish British colonel Albert Goldsmid to report on the land; Dr. Zelig Soskin to report on agricultural possibilities; architect Oskar Adolf Marmorek to report on housing possibilities; and physician Dr. Hillel Yaffe to report on climate and hygiene. According to the eventual report, the land was unsuitable for European colonists, although it could support a considerable population in case sufficient irrigation were introduced. Herzl wasn’t too satisfied with the report, but surely, it was better than nothing and it could most certainly have been worse. Sadly, the Egyptian government announced that the water that was to be diverted from the Nile was five times more than the commission had calculated and that building the irrigation works would also be way too expensive. When the whole plan was about to collapse, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, a staunch Jewish Zionist from France and an ardent supporter of the plan, stepped in and promised to cover all the necessary expenses.

Edmond_de_Rothschild.jpg

[Edmond de Rothschild]

At the Sixth Zionist Conference in Basel (August 23rd to 28th of 1903), Herzl introduces the plan for a Jewish homeland in northern Sinai. During a long presentation providing the details of the commission’s report, many religious Jews exit the room crying, calling Herzl a hypocrite and a betrayer for “abandoning Zion and Eretz Yisroel”. Upon their return, Herzl tries to calm them down with the following words: "Gentlemen, I assure you, Sinai is the road to Palestine. Remember when, following our ancestors’ escape from the Pharaoh, they had encamped at 42 stations throughout Sinai before finally reaching the Promised Land? Consider this our 43rd station. The next stop is Eretz Yisroel.” The delegates agree by 385 in favour, 64 against and 122 abstentions. As a result, a 99-year charter for concession of northern Sinai to the Zionists is attained from the Egyptian government, against a large sum of money, most of which is provided by de Rothschild.

With a new, even worse wave of pogroms breaking out in Russia, Herzl immediately headed to Saint Petersburg to meet with Count von Plehve, the anti-Semitic Minister of the Interior, to inform him about the “El-Arish Scheme” and requesting financial aid for the settlement of Russian Jews in the newly attained land. More than happy to get rid of the Jews, which were unwilling to assimilate, von Plehve accepted Herzl’s request, saying: “I congratulate the Zionist movement on attaining this charter, which will favor the interests of the Russian government. We will be more than happy to assist you morally and materially in your efforts to establish a Jewish center in Egypt, so as to diminish our Jewish population and strengthen our national unity.”

Count Witte, the finance minister, also an outspoken anti-Semite, quickly set up a fund with the money raised from Jewish taxes to invest in transports, lodgings and irrigation efforts by the WZO.

Part III: Jewish Autonomous Governorate

On January 3rd of 1904 it finally happened. In a region which Herzl calls “Egyptian Palestine” (i.e. the Sinai peninsula minus the territory along the Red Sea and the territory belonging to the Canal Zone), the “Jewish Autonomous Governorate” (German: jüdisches autonomes Gouvernement, Yiddish: גובערניע אווטאָנאָמע יִדישע yidishe avtonome gubernye) is established as an autonomous province of Egypt and a protectorate of the British Empire. The town of El-Arish becomes the capital and is renamed “Succoth” (German: Sukkot, Yiddish: סוכּות sukes) The Degel Zion (Zionist flag) is raised atop the Castle Arish, which is designated the governor’s residence.

Since both Yiddish as well as Hebrew lacked much of the necessary vocabulary for administration, German is voted by the WZO to become the official language of the province. All major towns are given quickly improvised German names, such as “Herzlija” (Bir Lahfan), “Apfelberg” (Bir el Abd), “Eiledorf”(Abu Ageila), “Ausheimen” (Ayn al Ousaymah), “Hammbach auf Sinai” (Bir Hammah), “Römerburg” (Bir ar Rummanah), “Künzig auf Sinai” (Al Kuntillah), “Nachau” (an Nakhl), “Hasenberg” (Bir Hasanah), “Tamadau auf Sinai” (Bir ath Thamada), and “Jifjaffel” (Bir al Jifjafah).

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[borders of the Jewish Autonomous Governorate]

Yiddish and Hebrew become recognized minority languages alongside Arabic. Furthermore, an institution called the Yiddish Language Agency (Jüdische Sprachagentur / Jüsag) is established to standardize and modernize Yiddish - so that it can replace German as the national language in the near future. Within the Jüsag, different factions emerge – with some linguists wishing to adopt modern terminology directly from German, while others prefer creating neologisms from Hebrew. This quickly leads to the academic “Language War” (1904-1906) which eventually ends in favor of germanizing the Yiddish language.

The establishment of a new province in Egypt means that the governor of Sinai, Admiral Mohammad Aslam Bey, loses a lot of power. Throughout the remainder of his governorate he spreads anti-Semitic propaganda, but it gains little support among the Bedouin tribes that dwell throughout the Sinai - who are known for their hospitality and are fine with Jewish colonization for as long as they lose no land themselves during the process. When the Jewish Autonomous Governorate complains about the hostile attitude of the admiral, the Egyptians (under British pressure) remove him and merge the governorate of Sinai with the Red Sea governorate on the mainland.

Unlike normal governorates in Egypt, in which the governors are appointed by the Khedive of Egypt, the governor of the Jewish Autonomous Governorate is appointed by the Zionist Congress. The office of governership is rejected by Herzl, who is exhausted and wishes to live his last days quietly in his new home in the centre of Sukkoth. Instead, at Herzl’s request, David Wolffsohn, a Lithuanian Jewish businessman and Zionist, is appointed governor of the young Jewish governorate, which at that point hosts a 100% Bedouin Arabic population.
 
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Thanks for the replies people! I appreciate it and I hope I can live up to your expectations. :)



Part IV: Settlement Disasters

On his first day in the governor’s residence, Governor David Wolffsohn already receives a number of telegrams from heads of state and heads of government around the world – which signals a foreign recognition of the new autonomic state. US President Theodore Roosevelt offers him “the deep admiration of his administration and all freedom-loving Americans. The Jewish efforts at building a state in Egypt seem entirely proper and will help advance peace in the world.” More significantly, German Chancellor von Bülow congratulates him on the semi-independence and expresses his satisfaction that German was chosen as the administrative language. Little did Von Bülow know that plans were made for Yiddish to take over.

David-Wolffsohn.jpg

[Governor David Wolffsohn]

Governor David Wolffsohn has many pressing issues to take care of, namely (in order of importance): immigration, accommodation, economy, hygiene, culture and defense. Wells are digged up all over the new governorate, especially on the Pelusian Plains of the northwestern border and on/along the wadi's, and in the meantime, irrigation canals are built with the purpose of carrying water from the Egyptian Nile river to the Sinai peninsula. The Sinai Immigration Office (German: Einwanderungsbüro Sinai, Yiddish: sinay byuro far aynvanderung) is established in Succoth as well as the Jewish Committee for Immigration (German: Jüdischer Einwanderungsausschuß, Yiddish: yidishe komitet far aynvanderung), both in order to help immigrants find a location to settle at. During the first month, over 700 Jews, mainly from Russia, Romania and Austria-Hungary, emigrate to the new Jewish entity. Upon their arrival, they receive land on the groundwater-rich Wadi El Arish (German: Sukkot-Trockental, Yiddish: sukes trukntol). Dozens of settlements are established along the groundwater-rich Wadi El Arish. Building the settlements turns out to be a hell of a work: the soil has to be desalinated, wells have to be dug and protruding boulders have to be removed by hand. Sadly, even after all that work, most of the settlers die during malaria outbreaks and food shortages, which results in only a handful of people surviving inside two settlements: Dophka (Yiddish: Dofke, named after the ancient Israelite station) and Neukischinau (Yiddish: Nay Kishinev). Following these disasters, branches of the Sinai Bank, a subsidiary company of the Jewish Colonial Trust, are opened in Succoth, offering newcoming farmers, the governorship and masonry businesses long-term loans. This allows not only for an even faster construction of irrigation works and digging of wells, but also allows struggling Jewish pioneers to import tools and machinery to drain swamps.

A second inquiry into agricultural possibilities is carried out by Wolffsohn, led by Russian-Jewish agronomist Zelig Soskin. The Soskin Report, published in early 1906, declares that diverting Nile water across the Suez Canal will be even more expensive than expected - and thus suggests limiting its scope to the Pelusian Plains in the northwest of the governorate. Furthermore, the Soskin Report suggests the continuation of well-digging at the wadi's and even provides a detailed plan for the channeling of occasional flash flood water from one of the sub-catchments of the Wadi El Arish (that normally flows into the Mediterranean near El Arish) to the Rafah salient in northeastern Sinai through the construction of a 2 km canal. Since the Rafah salient receives the most rainfall of all Sinai, it'll be the perfect place to stimulate agricultural development. The Soskin Plan is immediately adopted and within a month of preparation, work starts on the canal.

canal.jpg

[Map showing the Wadi El Arish and its sub-catchments in blue, the proposed canal in yellow and the Rafah salient in light green]

To many Jews, the rumors of the so-called “American Dream” continue to sound much more attractive than the hard work that the cultivation, reclamation and irrigation of lands in the Sinai requires. As a result, a majority of the Jewish Russian emigrants head for the United States rather than northern Sinai. Most of 1905's immigrants in the Sinai (known among the already present peasants as ‘shtotlayt’ or ‘city people’) head for the town of Succoth, where they open up shops, businesses, schools, general practices or companies. Other Jews take jobs as construction workers to drill wells on the northwestern plains or build infrastructure in the smaller towns like Apfelberg and Herzlija. It is interesting to note that the Jewish immigrants become Turkish citizens and are bound by Egyptian law. This was because Egypt was an autonomous part of the Ottoman Empire, but was under British occupation since 1882.

Herzl dies on January 2 1906, as a result of pneumonia worsened by his weakened heart – the latter of which was a result of his overworking for the Jewish plight. He is buried in Succoth. His death causes a nation to mourn, but his life saved that same nation from much more mourning. His project was a success, and he had lived to see it.

Part V: Yiddish Golden Age

By mid-1906, many malaria swamps around the major wadis have disappeared and much of the soil along the Sukkot-Trockental and Wadi el Buruk (German: Borech-Trockental, Yiddish: borekh trukntol) has been cleared for settlement. Among the new settlements on and around the Sukkot-Trockental are: Beiß (Yiddish: Yishuv Beys), Hasmona (Hosmoyne) and Neuzion (Yiddish: Nay Tsiyen). Among those on and around the Borech-Trockental are: Jeswolf (Yiddish: Yishuv Olef) and Gneden (Ganeydn).

The Jewish Autonomous Governorate would, only shortly after its establishment, experience a golden era of cultural and economic blossoming, owing to the massive influx of Jews in flight of antisemitism in the countries of Eastern Europe. In early 1906 the world’s first Jewish university is founded in Succoth, the so-called “Jewish University of Succoth” (German: Jüdische Universität von Sukkot, Yiddish: yidisher universitet fun sukes). Many Jewish scholars and public figures attend to the opening ceremony, among them Edmond de Rothschild, Chaim Weizmann and Albert Einstein.

By the end of 1906, Yiddish culture would experience a golden period. Theatres have been established in Succoth, and numerous Yiddish newspapers have been established by the settlers. In 1908 the first film entirely in Yiddish is published, namely “The Yiddish King Lear” (Yiddish: der yiddisher kenig lir), an adaption of an eponymous 1892 play by Jacob Jordin. Many Yiddish books are written by the famous author Sholem Aleichem, who settled in the Succoth in 1905 in flight of Russian pogroms. Within the Jüsag, the governorate’s regulation body for the Yiddish language, a lot of progress is made. Alexander Harkavy, the author of several Yiddish dictionaries, has been made director. Various Jewish writers, Yiddishists, lyricists, lexicographers and linguists would soon head to the governorate to work at the academy in Succoth, among them Leibush Lehrer, Chaim Zhitlowsky, Avrom Reyzen, Zalman Reisen, Sholem Asch, Nochum Shtif and Shimen Dubnov. Alexander Harkavy's "Complete English-Jewish Dictionary" from 1891 and his "Dictionary of the Yiddish Language: Yiddish-English" from 1898, as well as his pocket editions of these dictionaries are mass produced by the governorate. The "Standard Yiddish language” (Hochjüdisch / hoykh yidish) developed by the academy is based on the Northeastern/Lithuanian dialect of Eastern Yiddish, as spoken and preferred by Harkavy and as used by him in his dictionaries. This dialect is the closest to German, allowing for an easy future transition from German to Yiddish as administrative language.

completeenglishj00harkuoft

[Mass produced English-Yiddish dictionary by Harkavy]

The aftermath of the failed Revolution of 1905 in Russia, an attempt at toppling the Czar's regime and establishing a socialist one, saw a massive influx of Jewish social-democratic and communist activists fleeing punishment by the Russian government, including Max Wallach*, Lev Bronshtein* and Adolph Joffe. Many of these activists would establish rural communes while coordinating another revolt against the Czarist regime (in cooperation with non-Jewish Russian communists that fled to other countries). The settlements established by them in Sinai as well as Ottoman Palestine become known as kibbutzim and moshavim. Also established by the socialist immigrants of this era are various trade unions which were to organize economic activities of Jewish farmers. Among the trade unions was the Jewish Association for Laborers (German: Jüdische Arbeitergesellschaft, Yiddish: Yidishe farband far arbeter) which takes care of issues such as housing construction, health care, employment and settlement. Among the settlements established by the socialist newcomers are: Bregteich (Yiddish: Breg Taykh) on the Sukkot-Trockental; Freilich (Yiddish: Freylikh) and Scholaumbeiß (Yiddish: Sholem Bayes) and Wegaheim (Yiddish: Veg Aheym) on the northern coast near Succoth.

Together, the two immigration waves form the "Ershte Aynvanderung" / "First Immigration" (German: Erste Einwanderung), which sees the Jewish population of the ethnically Jewish population of the governorate rising to about 40,000 by January 1907. About 10% of them live in one of the new agricultural communities, about 60% of them live in Succoth (of which half live in improvised huts), about 25% live in other pre-existing towns and the remaining 5% has accepted a nomadic living among the Bedouin tribes.

* These are, indeed, Maxim Litvinov and Leon Trotsky. ITTL they change back to their original Jewish names, since they’re moving to a Jewish country.

EDIT: Thanks to the great input by Jürgen below this post, I was able to add the above paragraph on the Soskin Report & Plan.
 
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Things are going to get interesting once World War I kicks off...

Trotsky's and Litvinov's being in that settlement instead of Russia will have interesting effects on the Russian Revolution...
 
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Part VI: Economic Advancement

By 1910, the Jewish Autonomous Province becomes a major world player (third only to France and Italy) in the export of mullet and seabass, thanks to the various fisheries and fish farms established by settlers along the Lake Serbonis and along the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai. Besides that, each day dozens of crates full of Mediterranean fruits and crops are shipped off to the United States and countries in northern Europe. Thanks to a lot of investments by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, wineries are plentiful around Succoth and wine is exported all over the world, including kosher wine for the Jewish communities throughout Europe and the United States. By the year 1910 the number of spinning and weaving factories in Sinai was about 32, 28 of them in Succoth. The workforce of these factories was a little over 450 people. A textile plant was built in Sukkoth in late 1909, and another was being constructed and was finished by the start of 1911. As a result of the economic boom by the start of the new decennium, construction is started on a Stephenson gauge railway (which is to be known as the “Northern Sinai Railway”) from Neuzion through Herzliya to Succoth in late January 1910. By the end of November it would reach Succoth, allowing for a quick transport of goods from one city to another. Immediately after the establishment of the Jewish Autonomous Governorate in 1903, projects to enlarge the harbor of Succoth were begun. Warehouses were established, by the start of 1912 construction of a new port is finished west of Succoth and by 1914 the construction of another is finished. Thanks to the construction of the Northern Sinai Railway, products from all over the governorate can be brought to the harbour and exported much faster and much more safely.

In mid-1908, the canal to the Rafah basin is completed, and new immigrants from Russia begin colonizing the territory. Furthermore, many impoverished Jews living in the improvised huts of Succoth are able to move east and build new lives there. Settlements such as Yishuv Giml, Moseroth/Moyseres, Machelot/Moykheles, Jotbatha/Yotboyse and Kades/Koydes are established around this period. The irrigation canals from the Nile to the Pelusian Plains finally reach the Suez Canal in early 1912, after 10 years of construction. By 1914, the largest towns are:

1. Succoth with about 45,000 inhabitants
2. New Kishinev with about 12,000 inhabitants
3. Herzliya with about 8,000 inhabitants.
4. New Zion with about 6,500 inhabitants.
5. Sholem Bayes with about 4,000 inhabitants.
6. Veg Aheym with about 2,500 inhabitants.

sinaai.jpg

[Map of major towns in the Sinai]

In 1910, after receiving a report from the Jüsag that the standardized Yiddish language is ready for use in administrative positions, governor David Wolffsohn declares Yiddish an official language alongside German. All over the governorate, German signs are replaced with bilingual ones.

The Jewish population of the Jewish Autonomous Governorate rose to about 117,000 by the year 1914, most of it originating from Russia and Romania, although a smaller percentage originated from Austria-Hungary. The Jews made up the great majority of not only the governorate but also the entire Sinai peninsula. Unexpected by the world, after millenia of statelessness and oppression by the European empires, the Jews hadfinally achieved their position as "a nation among nations" The golden era of the governorate would come to an abrupt end by mid-1914 with the start of World War I.

Part VII: Rising Tensions


During the British occupation, which was a result of Egyptian debts to the British, the positions within the Egyptian government were filled by British officers. Egyptian nationalists argue that the positions could easily be filled by Egyptians and allege that the British didn’t allow that out of racism. The clashes between Egyptian nationalism and British imperialism came to a peak on the 13th of June 1906. On that day, five British officers went pigeon hunting in the village of Denshawai and accidentally shoot the wife of the local prayer leader, seriously injuring her. The Egyptian villagers throw rocks at the officers and they open fire. The end result is many casualties, a large military intervention and the arresting of 52 villagers. Newspapers in the Jewish governorate support the officers’ cause and declare their support for the British occupation of Egypt. Various Ottoman newspapers publish articles describing a “Judeo-British plot to seize and colonize Islamic lands”.

The towns in Sinai are garrisoned by British-led forces consisting of young Jewish men. However, the new settlements are not protected and suffer from frequent raids by the local Bedouin (Es-Suakra) tribes. Thus, in 1908 the Jewish colonists establish the so-called “Jewish Military Organization” / “JMO” (German: Jüdischer Militärverband, Yiddish: yidishe militarishe organizatsye), a paramilitary organization with the aim of protecting the Jewish communities outside of the major towns.

As a result of the rapidly growing Jewish settlement in Sinai as well as the massive industrialization, the land of many Bedouins is seized (especially in the Rafah salient) and many Bedouins are relocated by the authorities, usually either deep inland or in the outskirts of towns. Bedouins refused to register the lands that they lived on, to avoid paying taxation to a foreign state. Since their land was not registered, its ownership belonged to the state according to the land policy of the governorate, which was based on the 1858 Ottoman Land Law. Various nationalist and militarist organisations emerge among the Bedouines, funded by the Ottoman Empire, often clashing with the Jewish Military Organisation and even the British Army. The organisations demand the return of the former lands of the relocated Bedouines as well as greater autonomy for the Bedouine people in the governorate. Some go as far as to call the Jewish settlement on the Sinai illegal, and demanding a Jewish return to Europe.

In late 1912 a crisis occurs between the Egyptian government and the Jewish governorate leadership. Earlier that year Jewish settlers migrated southward outside the governorate, mining for manganese ore in deposits in southern Sinai. The Egyptian government demanded that they leave, threatening to cut off the diversion of Nile water to the northwestern Sinaitic plains. On December 14th 1913, governor Wolffsohn gives the Egyptian government permission for the eviction of the miners. They are evicted by British forces on the following day, not without posing a lot of resistence and causing an international scandal.
 
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Assuming the buildup to World War II occurs similarly to OTL, I can see a lot more Jews fleeing Europe before the Holocaust occurs...
 
I like it very much. But there's some problems. Water from the Nile demand massive infrastructure (it have to cross the Suez canal). I have no doubt they will try to set it up, but there's other agricultural solution.

El Arish are the major settlement in Sinai, because it's where Wadi El-Arish run into the sea

Image_001.png

map 1&2

The Sinai doesn't get a lot water, but this Wadi are the centre of flashflood , where the 60% of the water Sinai get run out to the sea, much of it in flashfloods.

This mean the big agricultural issue are to keep all this water from running into the sea. There's several solution which work together.

One is to build dams in the southern part of the Wadi's watershed (see map 4)

Image_016.png

map 3&4

the mapo also show the use areas where this water should be used.

The second solution are to lead the flashfloods into the triangle east of the watershed, which border Gaza. This area get more rain, have better soil and less salinated groundwater. If the water can can reach this large flat area, it have a good chance to help building up more greater groundwater reserves, especially if mixed with afforesting of the southern part of the triangle, which will also serve to increase rainfall in the region. This project will demand a 2 kilometer long and six meter deep canal, from the Wadi El-Arish watershed to the north western triangle. The canal would be placed near Gebel Halal.
 
Thank you very much for that information, Jürgen. Very interesting. That certainly explains why the works were considered too expensive IOTL. I am definitely going to incorporate this proposal into one of the previous parts, and I'll give you full credit for it in the edit description!!
 
Thank you very much for that information, Jürgen. Very interesting. That certainly explains why the works were considered too expensive IOTL. I am definitely going to incorporate this proposal into one of the previous parts, and I'll give you full credit for it in the edit description!!

Thank you here's some links

First to the site with the maps

http://www.ijser.org/paper/Water-Land-Use-Planning-of-Wadi-El-Arish-Watershed.html

next to the site which suggest a canal to the north east triangle.

http://phys.org/news/2013-06-sinai.html

Also populstat suggested that the Sinai had 5000-20000 people in this period. So you're correct that the Jews would outnumber them fast.

At last I would suggest that you looked into seawater agriculture, the more primitive version used in Eritrea, which mix shimps/saltwater fish, salicornia and mangroves could be easily adopted, you would just need some wind mill pumping the water inland and let gravity pump it out again through the salicornia field and at last through the mangroves.

image-20150602-6997-b5j2rc.jpg


In could be used in the western part of Sinai, where it wouldn't pollute the ground water, but the humidity would still be caught in the central valley.
 
Perfect, thank you very much, Jürgen. I appreciate it very much. I checked out both sites, which were very interesting to say the least. I just added a paragraph in Part IV on the adoption of a scheme, as well as a self-made map that I hope reflects the intent of the author of the second link. :)
 
Perfect, thank you very much, Jürgen. I appreciate it very much. I checked out both sites, which were very interesting to say the least. I just added a paragraph in Part IV on the adoption of a scheme, as well as a self-made map that I hope reflects the intent of the author of the second link. :)

I like the paragraph.

My thoughts in general. Sinai have some problem, but also some strengths, the winds in the area blow along the coast and into Palestina/Israel, which is why that area are so much wetter. This mean that the central valley in get little humidity from the outside, but at the same time the humidity have a hard time escaping the valley too, which mean the more which are trapped the farther up the valley the harder it is for the humidity to escape the peninsula. So the main agricultural goal should be to trap as much humidity in the valley as possible.

Israel have develop some methods to help with this. One is the use of grey water to drip watering cotton in the desert. Another is the Liman irrigation system. But I would suggest the seawater agriculture would also help. In general planting trees are helpful, here a mix of Limans and forest around dams would likely be best.

Next some general thoughts about non-agricultural matters.

Palestina/Israel already had some influx of Jews and I doubt Sinai will stop this, through we will likely see fewer settlers than in OTL. So we will have some Zionist structures in Israel/Palestina, gaining all of "Palestina" will likely also be a major goal for JAG. As the Ottomans enter WWI, the Zionist will likely get promises for Palestina. But the British will likely make the same promise to the Arabs. So we will likely see the same mess as in OTL, the main difference being that the Zionist have a large area they already fully control, which will it make it harder for UK to limit Jewish immigration. Of course I think that UK will likely also have to promise the Zionist control of all Sinai except the canal zone, and a permanent lease. So my guess are that we will see much more massive emigration to Sinai and Palestina through the 20times, making up for the lower immigration in the 1st Aliyah.

A "German" speaking state in Sinai, which Germans can see the European Jews emigrating, will likely also change the German attitude toward Jews, I think we will see less German anti-Semitism and there may be plans in German to make Sinai and Jewish Palestina a German client. I also think German literature of Sinai as a kind of "Wild West", which are remade into fertile agricultural land by German speaker, while fighting the savage barbarians, may serve to give the German nationalist right a view as Germans or near-Germans. In OTL Hitler romanticised the Wild West, so Hitler and the Völkisch movement may be less anti-Semitic, maybe even somewhat pro-Yiddish.

Edit: to make it clear I don't suggest that the Beduins are savage barbarians, just that's how they would be described in European media.
 
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I like the paragraph.

My thoughts in general. Sinai have some problem, but also some strengths, the winds in the area blow along the coast and into Palestina/Israel, which is why that area are so much wetter. This mean that the central valley in get little humidity from the outside, but at the same time the humidity have a hard time escaping the valley too, which mean the more which are trapped the farther up the valley the harder it is for the humidity to escape the peninsula. So the main agricultural goal should be to trap as much humidity in the valley as possible.

Israel have develop some methods to help with this. One is the use of grey water to drip watering cotton in the desert. Another is the Liman irrigation system. But I would suggest the seawater agriculture would also help. In general planting trees are helpful, here a mix of Limans and forest around dams would likely be best.

Great food for thought. I will look deeper into your suggestions for seawater agriculture and humidity capturing soon and try to incorporate them into the post-WWI development of the JAG. Of course you'll receive the deserved credit for your valuable ideas. :)

Next some general thoughts about non-agricultural matters.

Palestina/Israel already had some influx of Jews and I doubt Sinai will stop this, through we will likely see fewer settlers than in OTL. So we will have some Zionist structures in Israel/Palestina, gaining all of "Palestina" will likely also be a major goal for JAG. As the Ottomans enter WWI, the Zionist will likely get promises for Palestina. But the British will likely make the same promise to the Arabs. So we will likely see the same mess as in OTL, the main difference being that the Zionist have a large area they already fully control, which will it make it harder for UK to limit Jewish immigration. Of course I think that UK will likely also have to promise the Zionist control of all Sinai except the canal zone, and a permanent lease. So my guess are that we will see much more massive emigration to Sinai and Palestina through the 20times, making up for the lower immigration in the 1st Aliyah.

You are entirely correct. I imagine many of the OTL Jewish pioneers in Palestine will go to Sinai instead, except for the more nationalist or more religious ones. In general I think we'll see Sinai absorb the Jews looking mostly for a safe refuge, and Palestine absorb those who are looking for an ethno-religious homeland. In the original scenario I did indeed envisage the British viewing Sinai and Palestine a single playground and including the JAG in its various partition proposals. :)

A "German" speaking state in Sinai, which Germans can see the European Jews emigrating, will likely also change the German attitude toward Jews, I think we will see less German anti-Semitism and there may be plans in German to make Sinai and Jewish Palestina a German client. I also think German literature of Sinai as a kind of "Wild West", which are remade into fertile agricultural land by German speaker, while fighting the savage barbarians, may serve to give the German nationalist right a view as Germans or near-Germans. In OTL Hitler romanticised the Wild West, so Hitler and the Völkisch movement may be less anti-Semitic, maybe even somewhat pro-Yiddish.

Edit: to make it clear I don't suggest that the Beduins are savage barbarians, just that's how they would be described in European media.

I like the way you're thinking. On the other hand, the Zionist pioneers in Palestine also fit that description and Hitler was very much opposed to them - solely because of his general opinion on Jews. If anything, I think the fact they're German-speaking will be even worse in Hitler's mind, since they don't fit his stereotype of the German Aryan. The original idea I had was that Hitler would instead be even more paranoid when a Jewish entity declares war on Germany in 1939. In fact, he'll be so paranoid, he'll change his strategy entirely.

Anywho, here's the next part!




Part VIII: Outbreak of War

On the 28th of June 1914, Austro-Hunarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated by Bosnian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, resulting in the July Crisis, a month of diplomatic struggle between the European great powers. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and delivered an ultimatum with ten demands that were intentionally made unacceptable. Indeed, Serbia declined to accept more than eight out of the ten demands, and as a reaction Austria-Hungary declared war on the 28th of July. The complex system of alliances was activated and soon, the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary and Germany) stood together in a war versus the Entente Powers (Russia and France). A German invasion of France through Belgium brings the UK into the war on the Entente side, and this effectively brings the Jewish Autonomous Governorate into the war as well.

The Germans pull the Ottomans into the Central Powers, putting the Jews of Sinai in a terrible position, sandwiched between two powerful nations at war. The Ottomans declare a “Holy War on Christianity and Judaism”: the Russian-Jewish immigrants in Palestine and even the Jews that had lived in the Ottoman Empire for centuries, are declared enemy nationals for their affiliation with Russia and Jewish Sinai. Thousands of Jews flee across the border into the Jewish governorate while others flee to the United States. The remainder of the Jews in the empire are either sent to prison camps in central Anatolia (Russian Jewish immigrants) or drafted into the Ottoman Army (Turkish Jews). Among the Jews fleeing to the Jewish governorate are the Russian-Jewish war hero Joseph Trumpeldor and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Trumpeldor becomes Supreme Commander of the JMO and Jabotinsky encourages young Jewish workers to volunteer for military service. Among underground Jews in Palestine, "Nili", a Jewish espionage network is established to support the war efforts of the British Army and the JMO.

200308trumpeldor1.jpg

[Commander-inchief Trumpeldor]

In August 1914 the British establish the 30,000 men “Force in Egypt” under command of Major General Julian Byng with the goal of defending the Suez Canal. The rest of Sinai (besides Succoth, whose harbor is used by the Royal Navy to launch attacks on Turkish ships) was of little importance and was to be used as merely a buffer between the Ottoman Empire and the Suez Canal. An angry telegram from Governor Wolffsohn to the British Supreme Commander is answered by the hardly comforting explanation that “no force larger than 5,000 men can cross the Sinai desert.” The JMO hardly counted 1,200 men in peacetime, and even after its full mobilization (which started shortly before the Ottoman Empire’s entry into the war) it will be too ill-equipped and badly organized to hold its ground.

Trumpeldor, having received information from the Nili about a planned Ottoman invasion of Sinai in late August, assesses that there are three possible invasion routes for the Ottomans – one along the northern coast, one through Kossaima (German: Koßheim, Yiddish: Koysheym) and another from Al-Auja. As such, he designs War Plan B (German: Kriegsplan B, Yiddish: milkhome-plan beys), according to which the JMO would in the case of invasion immediately fall back to a diagonal defensive line reaching from Succoth to Koysheym and evacuate all Jewish communities to the east of it. This would block the Ottomans from each of the planned routes. In the meantime, an improvised elite unit would enter Palestine along the Gulf of Aqaba and move north there to flank the Ottoman forces and cause enough panic and disorganization to allow the bulk of the JMO to shake the invaders off.

Trumpeldor personally trains a squad of 150 young Jewish men and 25 Bedouin men (who are to be included in the force as scouts) in sabotage tactics and guerrilla warfare. The elite army comes to be known as the “Kanaim” (קנאים), named after the Judaic zealots that incited rebellion against Roman rule in the Iudaea province in the first century AD. A wall of sandbags is built along the strategic locations between Succoth and Koysheym, equipped with light machine-guns and mortars. The five-brigade strong JMO, now counting about 12,000 men with about 3,000 rifles, is deployed near the Ottoman border in late November 1914. The Kanaim are deployed far to the south. Now it was just a matter of time. And luck. Lots of luck.

sinaitrumpeldor.jpg

[Map showing Trumpeldor's military strategy]
 
I like the way you're thinking. On the other hand, the Zionist pioneers in Palestine also fit that description and Hitler was very much opposed to them - solely because of his general opinion on Jews. If anything, I think the fact they're German-speaking will be even worse in Hitler's mind, since they don't fit his stereotype of the German Aryan. The original idea I had was that Hitler would instead be even more paranoid when a Jewish entity declares war on Germany in 1939. In fact, he'll be so paranoid, he'll change his strategy entirely.

I think this is early enough to change Hitler's attitude, he's still a teenager and later a young man in Vienna while much of this are happening, so it may change his attitude to Jews, his attitude to Jews seem mostly have been created in Vienna. Another aspect some people often focus on Jews doesn't fit into the imaginary Aryan physical ideal, of course that can be questionable as there's a lot of pale, blond and blue eye Jews, on the other hand the Turkic people very rarely fit into that ideal, but it didn't keep the Nazi from declaring them for Aryans, while the Slavic East European was as pale, blond and blue eyed as the average Germans.
o large extent the Nazi defined people as Aryan or not, on a whim or stereotypical views of a groups behaviour behaviour. When people discuss Nietzche Will to Power (Wille zu Macht), a subtile meaning which doesn't translate are the similarity between "Macht" (power) and "Machen" (make/create). The Nazi hostility toward the Jews was to large extent because they saw them as people who lived as parasites on other people's societies. The Yiddish takeover of a desert, figthing the local off and create a garden in the desert, will be something which play well into the Völkisch Movement and the proto-Nazi and which can effect their views of the Yiddish Jews, as a people which in Hitler views are able to create, maybe even change the view of them to being Germans who have been kept down by the Slavs, or maybe of them to a mix of converted Germans, Goths and Khazar rather than Semitic immigrants. The Karaite Jews was spared (when the Nazi discovered they wasn't Ashkenazim) by the Nazi, because they was seen as descendants of the Khazars.

Nazism doesn't need to be less horrible in general, they may focus their genocidal ideas on other groups (to large extent than they already did). But the Ashkenazim may simply be seen as Germans being persecuted by the Slavs. While this would spare the Jews from the Holocaust, they will instead be treated like the Volkdeutsche, favourable but fconscripted into the the German army, and deportation to Siberia by the Soviet.
 
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I think this is early enough to change Hitler's attitude, he's still a teenager and later a young man in Vienna while much of this are happening, so it may change his attitude to Jews, his attitude to Jews seem mostly have been created in Vienna. Another aspect some people often focus on Jews doesn't fit into the imaginary Aryan physical ideal, of course that can be questionable as there's a lot of pale, blond and blue eye Jews, on the other hand the Turkic people very rarely fit into that ideal, but it didn't keep the Nazi from declaring them for Aryans, while the Slavic East European was as pale, blond and blue eyed as the average Germans.
o large extent the Nazi defined people as Aryan or not, on a whim or stereotypical views of a groups behaviour behaviour. When people discuss Nietzche Will to Power (Wille zu Macht), a subtile meaning which doesn't translate are the similarity between "Macht" (power) and "Machen" (make/create). The Nazi hostility toward the Jews was to large extent because they saw them as people who lived as parasites on other people's societies. The Yiddish takeover of a desert, figthing the local off and create a garden in the desert, will be something which play well into the Völkisch Movement and the proto-Nazi and which can effect their views of the Yiddish Jews, as a people which in Hitler views are able to create, maybe even change the view of them to being Germans who have been kept down by the Slavs, or maybe of them to a mix of converted Germans, Goths and Khazar rather than Semitic immigrants. The Karaite Jews was spared (when the Nazi discovered they wasn't Ashkenazim) by the Nazi, because they was seen as descendants of the Khazars.

Nazism doesn't need to be less horrible in general, they may focus their genocidal ideas on other groups (to large extent than they already did). But the Ashkenazim may simply be seen as Germans being persecuted by the Slavs. While this would spare the Jews from the Holocaust, they will instead be treated like the Volkdeutsche, favourable but fconscripted into the the German army, and deportation to Siberia by the Soviet.

You make very good points, for sure. The Nazis easily changed their opinion on who was and who wasn't Aryan - and they often did so. Still, the existence of a Jewish community, however sizable, in Sinai does not seem to change the fact that the majority of Jewry is still living in Eastern Europe and that most of Germany's Jews still live in Germany. So Hitler's view that Jews are parasites still applies in his word view, as they're still a "Semitic people of which the majority lives in Europe." The OTL successes of the Jewish settlers in Palestine also did very little to change that - as becomes evident from Hitler's speeches in support of the Arab population of Palestine. Furthermore, even if he changes his mind, Germany will be defeated by the Entente in WWI, and the tiny Jewish nation will be a part of that very alliance. So it'll be even more obvious for him to blame Germany's humiliation on the Jewish people.

Most importantly, whenever the Nazi racial policies were altered it was usually based on Realpolitik, as was the case with the Japanese and the Arabs. In this case, the Sinaitic Jews will be firmly on the British side and the East European ones have nothing to offer the Third Reich (or at least not as much as the Ukrainians or Poles do, but they were not declared Aryan either).

That being said, you raised very good points and indeed, the existence of a Jewish autonomous entity during Hitler's youth will definitely change his views a slight bit. Even if it's only the fact that he would now take its existence for granted (which would not be the case IOTL). I would love to see another timeline further explore the possibility of the Nazi movement viewing Ashkenazi Jews as "Volksdeutsche", as you imply - based on their Yiddish language and their Rhenish origins. Perhaps a TL where Hitler serves on the Eastern Front rather than in France would be a possibility - since they were the only people he could communicate with during his service? :)
 
Part IX: The Judeo-British Counter-Attack

On January 14 1915, a 15-men patrol is sent from Ottoman Palestine into Sinai, and it is slaughtered by the Jewish light machine gun fire, with only 2 men making it back alive. Afterwards, the Ottomans launch the expected invasion of Sinai from Beersheba through al-Auja (apparently having originally wanted to use the coast as the invasion route if the patrol came back unharmed). With the bulk of the Ottoman empire concentrating on the campaigns in the defense of the Caucasus against the Russians and of Mesopotamia against the British, only a relatively small force could be spared for the offensive. The Suez Expeditionary Force, counting 25,000 cavalrists supported by nine batteries of field artillery, leaves Beersheba for an over 140 miles / 300 km long march to the Suez Canal. The German commander of the forces, Colonel von Kressenstein hopes to use surprise as the keystone in the campaign. Little did he know that information of the campaign had reached the Entente, and the Jewish already prepared a counter-strategy.

1518385.jpg

[The Ottoman cavalry charge]

A number of Jewish troops armed with light machine guns remain on the border, while the bulk withdraws to the Succoth-Koysheym defensive line – evacuating the settlers on their way. The Jewish troops on the border are quickly killed and the Ottomans advance onto the Jewish defenses, while the 200 Kanaim (riding on horseback) infiltrate the frontline along the Gulf of Aqaba and set out to flank the Ottomans (i.e. appr. 80 miles), relying on the geographical knowledge of their Bedouin companions. On the defensive line, the Jewish troops respond with light machine gunfire accompanied by mortar fire, halting the Ottoman advances and taking down a great many of them. The Ottomans withdraw, and on the next day, a Jewish brigade chases them down. The Ottomans start attacking with artillery fire, causing 298 casualties on the Jewish side, and forcing the remainder to withdraw back to the defensive line. For 4 days, a stalemate would take place, after which the Ottomans have received reinforcements and launch a larger and better coordinated cavalry charge. A large number of Ottoman troops is eliminated, but eventually the Jewish defensive lines are breached. Massive holes emerge in the Jewish frontline and the Ottomans penetrate them and flank the Jewish troops from behind – leading to massive casualties on both sides. At that point, however, the Kanaim (only 170 of them – the other 55 succumbed to heat, draught and malaria) reach the southern Ottoman frontline. They manage to destroy several artillery batteries and capture 30 Ottomans soldiers. Within several hours of firefights near Auja, Ottoman reinforcements arrive from the Sinai front and the Kanaim are surrounded and the survivors captured.

On the bright side, the JMO has managed to capture Ottoman troops behind Jewish defensive lines, and is now holding the frontline against the rest of the Ottoman army – which lost many troops to the attack by the Kanaim. Reports on the battle situation arrive at the office of General J. Maxwell, leading the Force in Egypt, and he decides to profit from the successful defense by the Jews and launch a British counter-offensive. The Force of Egypt is deployed to the Jewish defense line in early March 1915 and a counter-office results in a reconquest of the Ottoman-Egyptian border. The Ottomans, totally caught off guard, are defeated and forced to withdraw to a new frontline beyond Auja and Rafah – leaving behind their artillery batteries. The British, afraid of a Jewish involvement in the invasion of Palestine, suggest that the JMO reinforce Anglo-French troops on the western front. Trumpeldor declines the suggestion and declares that the Jews “are after Jerusalem, not Berlin”.

In late March 1915, the British forces pierce through the Ottoman frontline and march onto Gaza and Beersheba. By April Anglo-Jewish troops reach Gaza and Beersheba, through which the main defensive line of the Ottomans runs. Beersheba is quickly captured. An eight-day battle ensues between Allied and Ottoman troops and afterwards, as per an attack plan produced by Dobell and his staff, Gaza is surrounded and stormed. Despite strong defence by the Ottomans, the city falls after two days, thanks to superior British artillery. Thousands of Ottoman troops are taken prisoner. An armistice ensues.


Part X: The Arab Revolt

The British find their forces surrounded from two sides by Ottoman forces and thus enter an alliance with Sharif of Mecca Husein bin Ali in May 1915, who declares a major Arab revolt against the Turkish rulers only two months later. Mecca is besieged by the Sharifian Army led by Hussein. Jeddah and various other Red Sea ports are conquered by the Arabs with assistance from the British navy. Immediately, British arms and equipment are rushed to the Arab rebels through the liberated ports, and a British military mission including Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence is dispatched. Also, Egyptian technical specialists and Ottoman prisoners of Arab ethnicity are dispatched to the ports by the British, so that they can support the Arab nationalist cause. Thanks to the British assistance, the Ottoman garrisons in Meccah and Taif are defeated, and the cities are captured by Arab rebels. Following the capture of Meccah, Husein declares himself King of an independent Kingdom of Hejaz. The Arabs commanded by emirs Feisal and Ali, the sons of Husein, are unable to defeat the strong Ottoman garrison entrenched in Medina. It is determined by Faisal and his advisors that Medina should be left unoccupied to keep the Ottomans busy.

The Ottoman Fourth Army sends reinforcements down the Hejaz railway, but Ottoman attempts to recapture the coastal ports fail miserably thanks to Royal Navy intervention. The Arab rebels begin attacking key rail junctions along the Hejaz railway. Sections are blown up and some weakly defended railway stations are even destroyed. After Lawrence confers with Allenby, the latter agrees to supply the Arabs with arms, supplies and warships. The Arab Northern Army, as Faisal’s army is now known, moves northward along the eastern bank of the Jordan in order to protect Allenby’s flank. In early August 1915, Daraa, a chief junction of the Hejaz Railway, is reached by Arab troops and in September the railway station there is destroyed. Meanwhile, the armistice is broken and by September 1915, following Allied victories in several battles in the Judean Hills and a failed counter-attack by the Ottomans against Allied troops in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is surrendered. The Jewish soldiers’ prayers at the West Wall are accompanied by loud outbursts of crying and followed by the singing of Hatikvah, the Zionist anthem. Many would even settle in Jerusalem. A defensive line is established by the Allies from just north of Jaffa to just north of Jerusalem. The flank of the Allied forces is secured by the capture of the port city of Aqaba by Arab rebels led by Lawrence of Arabia in early September 1915. A new, much longer armistice ensues.

8838174.jpg

[British troops enter Jerusalem]

The capture of Jerusalem boosted not only the Jewish morale but also that of the British. It also greatly increased the British government’s idea that the Ottomans should be knocked out of the war first. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) under General Birdwood is sent to Palestine, rather than France, which they were originally going to be sent to. British and French troops reinforcements from the Western Front are also sent to Palestine. The newly sent troops play a big role in the capture of Jericho and Tell’Asur in early 1916. The Ottomans successfully defend the city of Amman against the Allied troops, which are defeated in early February. As a result of his failure, Sir Archibald Murray is replaced by Edmund Allenby in command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In March he leads another assault against Amman, which also fails. However, this time it was done with another goal: keeping Ottoman attention from the Mediterranean coast. He succeeded in making the Ottomans and Germans believe that he would not continue advancing northward until he had secured his right flank. A third of their troops are placed east of the Jordan, leaving their right flank weak, allowing the Allies to make a successful breakthrough of the Plain of Sharon in early June 1916 after a long series of long battles. An offensive is launched across the Jordan. This forces the Ottoman troops to retreat from Amman in order to avoid being outflanked by the Allied troops. Amman is quickly conquered by forces east of the southern Jordan. The Allied troops start a campaign northward towards Anatolia.

From late 1915 to early 1916, French diplomat François Georges-Picot and British diplomat Sir Mark Sykes negotiated the division of the Ottoman Empire between the victorious powers in case of an Allied victory. The agreement is concluded on May 16, and partitioned it as follows:

300px-Sykes-Picot.svg.png

[green = Russia, blue = France, red = Britain]


Part XI: The Russian Civil War

On April 29 1916 the British-Indian garrison of Kut in Mesopotamia surrenders after a successful siege by the Ottomans. General Sir Stanley Maude becomes the new commander of the British forces in Mesopotamia, and he starts training and reorganizing them. The capture of Kut boosted the low morale of the Ottomans, but not enough. As a result of the British successes on the Palestinian front, which drew many Ottoman troops from the Caucasus front, the Russians were able to make several offensives - even capturing Trabzon in April and Bitlis in August. Bitlis was the last defense point for the Ottomans to prevent a Russian advance into central Anatolia and Mesopotamia.

In order to avoid a Russian capture of Mosul, British General Maude receives orders to launch a new campaign to Baghdad. This happens on the 13th of December 1916, as British forces advance along both sides of the Tigris river capturing a number of Ottoman positions along the way. Pasha concentrates most of his troops against Maude near Kut, on the left bank of the Tigris, and so Maude advances along the right bank of the river, bypassing the troops. Kut is captured and by early March, Baghdad is reached. On the Diyala river, the Baghdad garrison, Khalil Pasha tries to stop Maude’s forces but they are outmanoeuvred. The Ottoman defensive positions are captured and Khalil Pasha is forced to retreat. On the 11th of March 1917 the British enter the city, where they are greeted as liberators by the Arab civilians. A large part of the Ottoman army is captured.

Since the beginning of 1917, each day in Russia was filled with workers’ demonstrations, strikes and unrest. The revolutionary movement, demanding an end to the war and to the autocracy, is joined by the poor in cities, towns and villages. Refusing to grant concessions to the masses, the Czarist government mobilizes all available forces in order to suppress the rising unrest. On the 10th of March, revolutionaries take over Petrograd. Even the soldiers in Petrograd’s barracks had joined the communist movement. After escaping to Pskov, the Czarabdicates the throne on March 15, realizing that there is no more hope left for him. A provisional government led by new prime minister Georgy Lvov and the new Czar Michael is established. The new government promises peace, a parliament and democratic reforms. The revolutonaries had no faith in it, and instead established their own councils (soviets). A period of dual-power between the provisional government and the network of soviets ensues. However, in April 1917, the Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin reaches Petrograd where he mobilizes the people against the provisional government. The United States provides Russia with a loan to launch an offensive against Germany, which fails and leads to a huge number of casualties. In the soviets, the workers, farmers and soldiers replace the social-revolutionaries with Bolsheviks. In September 14, a republic is proclaimed by the provisional government. In November, armed workers and soldiers of the Red Guard capture key buildings in Petrograd take over cities and villages all over Russia. The Bolsheviks declare themselves the new rulers of Russia and seize control of the landside. The newly established Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic demobilizes the army and Lev "Trotsky" Bronshtein, upon his return from the Jewish governorate, begins reorganizing the Red Guard into a "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army". The Russian Civil War had started.

Meanwhile, the Allied campaign to the northwest went highly successful and both Damascus and Aleppo were captured by November. Soon, Anatolia is entered from the south by Allied troops. However, in Europe the situation was very grim for the Entente: while the Americans had joined the Entente, little was done by them to help break the stalemate. Much of northern France was under German occupation and the German army started equiping artillery shells with mustard gas. The French army was collapsing and the British were focusing on the Ottomans. The eastern front was collapsing entirely as a result of the communist insurgency against the Russian government. In order to achieve the support of influential Jewish-Americans Jewish-Germans and convince the Jewish governorate in Sinai to send troops to the Western front, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour sends a letter to Baron Walter Rothschild on November 2 1917, expressing the British support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

In early November, with the capture of Nigde and Kaysen by Allied forces, the Ottomans finally decide to beg for peace. An armistice is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Entente Powers. According to the armistice, the Ottomans are forced to withdraw their claims on all territories outside of Anatolia, which - alongside the Straits, Batum and Taurus -come under Allied occupation. Ottoman ports, railways and other strategic points are prepared for Allied use. The Young Turks, which were until then in power in the Ottoman Empire, are forced to flee to the Caucasus. In December 1917 the Russians sign an armistice with the Ottomans at Erzincan as well.

Part XI: The Russian Civil War

The Soviets agree to an unfavorable peace with Germany and cede much of Eastern Europe to the Central Powers. The Germans use their freed up troops from the east to launch a massive attack on the western front (Kaiserschlacht), and capture a lot of (strategically invaluable) territory. Afterwards the French launch a counter-offensive in July 1918 which is soon joined by the British. On the 8th of August the Allies - led by the recently arrived American troops and reinforced by Jewish, Australian and NZ troops from the Mid-East - launch their final campaign. The Germans are pushed back to the Hindenburglinie by early September. Following the collapse of the Hindenburglinie, the German High Command finally accepted that the war was lost. Throughout the rest of October, the Imperial German Army retreated east, back into Germany, abandoning large amounts of heavy equipment and supplies. Prince Maximilian of Baden becomes the new Chancellor of Germany and begins negotiating with US President Wilson, who is expected to offer better terms than the other Allies. The Kaiser is removed from power at Wilson’s request and he flees to the Netherlands. On November 9 a republic is proclaimed in Germany and two days later an armistice is signed between the Entente and Germany. The Rhineland immediately comes under Entente occupation. Earlier, Bulgaria had signed an armistice following the collapse of the Macedonian Front and the proclamation of a republic by rebels, and Austria-Hungary had signed an armistice following swift Italian advances into their territory.

The Paris Peace Conference occurs from January 18 to 21 1919, during which the Entente powers in order to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. During the negotiations, Chaim Weizmann, who had been the governor of the Jewish Autonomous Governorate since 1914 (when Wolffsohn died), brings up the subject of Jewish independence from Egypt as a dominion within the British Empire. According to him, now that the Jordan river was under British control, the Jewish Autonomous Governorate could make use of it for drinking and irrigation water. The mobilization of the population and economy in order to produce soldiers, weapons, food supplies, munition, money and vehicles that were to be used during the war, had great effects on the Jewish governorate’s economy as well as the welfare of its inhabitants. The victories achieved against the Ottoman Empire early in the war as well as the capture of Jerusalem had a huge impact on the national pride within the Jewish Autonomous Governorate and made many believe that the governorate would do just fine as an independent own country. Weizmann swears that he will do everything in his power to convince the British to grant the Jewish governorate dominion-status within the British Empire.

On June 28 1919 the Treaty of Versailles is signed with Germany. Germany faces responsibility for the war, a 15-year long Entente occupation of the Rhineland, huge military restrictions, the loss of many national territories, the loss of colonies and payment of war reparations. International organizations are set up to administer control over the larger rivers in Germany. Similar peace treaties are signed with Hungary, Austria and Bulgaria. On August 10 1920, a peace treaty is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Entente powers at Sèvres, limiting Ottoman territory to a small part of Anatolia. The Jewish Autonomous Governorate (or rather Egypt) receives a strip of land in Palestine including Rafah and Auja as a reward for its war efforts. The Ottoman Empire would soon be overthrown by Kemal Atatürk, eventually leading to the establishment of a republic and a new peace treaty recovering Anatolia. Anglo-French Mandates are established in Syria, Palestine and Lebanon and in the former German colonies. As a result, Jews from the Jewish Autonomous Governorate flood their ancestral land in British Palestine, where they are welcomed by the Yishuv but frowned upon by the Arabic population. Meanwhile, the Red Army has managed to win the Civil War by 1922, proclaiming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

With the war finally over, full support was gained among the Egyptian people by the nationalist Wafd Party. Fearing social unrest, British forces arrest Saad Zaghlul, the leader of the party, in March 1919. A revolution spreads throughout the country. A Commission of Inquiry led by Lord Milner is sent to Egypt in December 1919 and in February 1921 the mission reports that the protectorate status should indeed be abandoned. Upon hearing of the British intentions to end the protectorate and to recognize Egypt as an independent state, Jewish governor Chaim Weizmann, threatening with Jewish disobedience, demands Jewish independence from Egypt. Another British Royal Commission of Inquiry, again headed by Milner, is sent in late 1921 to investigate the situation in Sinai and the rest of Egypt and the potential benefits of separating the Jewish governorate from Egypt. Upon its return from Sinai in late 1922, the Milner Mission declares its support for Jewish independence within the British Empire. It is declared that the Egyptian character of Sinai has been lost as a result of Jewish colonization and that northern Sinai "was now as white as Australia, Canada or even Britain itself and thus ripe for self-government." It is also noted that hostilities between Egyptians and Jews were growing (as a result of the Jews' positive view towards British imperialism as well as the displacement of Bedouins). Another important point pointed out by the mission is that unlike the Jews, the Egyptians don't and likely never will see themselves as allies of the British Empire, and that a strong ally is required to protect the flanks of the Suez Canal against any potential dangers from either direction.

The British government immediately starts preparations for independence of the Jewish governorate as a self-governing White Dominion within the British Empire and for full independence for Egypt.
 

hipper

Banned
Part IX: The Judeo-British Counter-Attack

On January 14 1915, a 15-men patrol is sent from Ottoman Palestine into Sinai, and it is slaughtered by the Jewish light machine gun fire, with only 2 men making it back alive. Afterwards, the Ottomans launch the expected invasion of Sinai from Beersheba through al-Auja (apparently having originally wanted to use the coast as the invasion route if the patrol came back unharmed). With the bulk of the Ottoman empire concentrating on the campaigns in the defense of the Caucasus against the Russians and of Mesopotamia against the British, only a relatively small force could be spared for the offensive. The Suez Expeditionary Force, counting 25,000 cavalrists supported by nine batteries of field artillery, leaves Beersheba for an over 140 miles / 300 km long march to the Suez Canal. The German commander of the forces, Colonel von Kressenstein hopes to use surprise as the keystone in the campaign. Little did he know that information of the campaign had reached the Entente, and the Jewish already prepared a counter-strategy.

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[The Ottoman cavalry charge]

A number of Jewish troops armed with light machine guns remain on the border, while the bulk withdraws to the Succoth-Koysheym defensive line – evacuating the settlers on their way. The Jewish troops on the border are quickly killed and the Ottomans advance onto the Jewish defenses, while the 200 Kanaim (riding on horseback) infiltrate the frontline along the Gulf of Aqaba and set out to flank the Ottomans (i.e. appr. 80 miles), relying on the geographical knowledge of their Bedouin companions. On the defensive line, the Jewish troops respond with light machine gunfire accompanied by mortar fire, halting the Ottoman advances and taking down a great many of them. The Ottomans withdraw, and on the next day, a Jewish brigade chases them down. The Ottomans start attacking with artillery fire, causing 298 casualties on the Jewish side, and forcing the remainder to withdraw back to the defensive line. For 4 days, a stalemate would take place, after which the Ottomans have received reinforcements and launch a larger and better coordinated cavalry charge. A large number of Ottoman troops is eliminated, but eventually the Jewish defensive lines are breached. Massive holes emerge in the Jewish frontline and the Ottomans penetrate them and flank the Jewish troops from behind – leading to massive casualties on both sides. At that point, however, the Kanaim (only 170 of them – the other 55 succumbed to heat, draught and malaria) reach the southern Ottoman frontline. They manage to destroy several artillery batteries and capture 30 Ottomans soldiers. Within several hours of firefights near Auja, Ottoman reinforcements arrive from the Sinai front and the Kanaim are surrounded and the survivors captured.

On the bright side, the JMO has managed to capture Ottoman troops behind Jewish defensive lines, and is now holding the frontline against the rest of the Ottoman army – which lost many troops to the attack by the Kanaim. Reports on the battle situation arrive at the office of General J. Maxwell, leading the Force in Egypt, and he decides to profit from the successful defense by the Jews and launch a British counter-offensive. The Force of Egypt is deployed to the Jewish defense line in early March 1915 and a counter-office results in a reconquest of the Ottoman-Egyptian border. The Ottomans, totally caught off guard, are defeated and forced to withdraw to a new frontline beyond Auja and Rafah – leaving behind their artillery batteries. The British, afraid of a Jewish involvement in the invasion of Palestine, suggest that the JMO reinforce Anglo-French troops on the western front. Trumpeldor declines the suggestion and declares that the Jews “are after Jerusalem, not Berlin”.

In late March 1915, the British forces pierce through the Ottoman frontline and march onto Gaza and Beersheba. By April Anglo-Jewish troops reach Gaza and Beersheba, through which the main defensive line of the Ottomans runs. Beersheba is quickly captured. An eight-day battle ensues between Allied and Ottoman troops and afterwards, as per an attack plan produced by Dobell and his staff, Gaza is surrounded and stormed. Despite strong defence by the Ottomans, the city falls after two days, thanks to superior British artillery. Thousands of Ottoman troops are taken prisoner. An armistice ensues.


Part X: The Arab Revolt

The British find their forces surrounded from two sides by Ottoman forces and thus enter an alliance with Sharif of Mecca Husein bin Ali in May 1915, who declares a major Arab revolt against the Turkish rulers only two months later. Mecca is besieged by the Sharifian Army led by Hussein. Jeddah and various other Red Sea ports are conquered by the Arabs with assistance from the British navy. Immediately, British arms and equipment are rushed to the Arab rebels through the liberated ports, and a British military mission including Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence is dispatched. Also, Egyptian technical specialists and Ottoman prisoners of Arab ethnicity are dispatched to the ports by the British, so that they can support the Arab nationalist cause. Thanks to the British assistance, the Ottoman garrisons in Meccah and Taif are defeated, and the cities are captured by Arab rebels. Following the capture of Meccah, Husein declares himself King of an independent Kingdom of Hejaz. The Arabs commanded by emirs Feisal and Ali, the sons of Husein, are unable to defeat the strong Ottoman garrison entrenched in Medina. It is determined by Faisal and his advisors that Medina should be left unoccupied to keep the Ottomans busy.

The Ottoman Fourth Army sends reinforcements down the Hejaz railway, but Ottoman attempts to recapture the coastal ports fail miserably thanks to Royal Navy intervention. The Arab rebels begin attacking key rail junctions along the Hejaz railway. Sections are blown up and some weakly defended railway stations are even destroyed. After Lawrence confers with Allenby, the latter agrees to supply the Arabs with arms, supplies and warships. The Arab Northern Army, as Faisal’s army is now known, moves northward along the eastern bank of the Jordan in order to protect Allenby’s flank. In early August 1915, Daraa, a chief junction of the Hejaz Railway, is reached by Arab troops and in September the railway station there is destroyed. Meanwhile, the armistice is broken and by September 1915, following Allied victories in several battles in the Judean Hills and a failed counter-attack by the Ottomans against Allied troops in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is surrendered. The Jewish soldiers’ prayers at the West Wall are accompanied by loud outbursts of crying and followed by the singing of Hatikvah, the Zionist anthem. Many would even settle in Jerusalem. A defensive line is established by the Allies from just north of Jaffa to just north of Jerusalem. The flank of the Allied forces is secured by the capture of the port city of Aqaba by Arab rebels led by Lawrence of Arabia in early September 1915. A new, much longer armistice ensues.

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[British troops enter Jerusalem]

The capture of Jerusalem boosted not only the Jewish morale but also that of the British. It also greatly increased the British government’s idea that the Ottomans should be knocked out of the war first. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) under General Birdwood is sent to Palestine, rather than France, which they were originally going to be sent to. British and French troops reinforcements from the Western Front are also sent to Palestine. The newly sent troops play a big role in the capture of Jericho and Tell’Asur in early 1916. The Ottomans successfully defend the city of Amman against the Allied troops, which are defeated in early February. As a result of his failure, Sir Archibald Murray is replaced by Edmund Allenby in command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In March he leads another assault against Amman, which also fails. However, this time it was done with another goal: keeping Ottoman attention from the Mediterranean coast. He succeeded in making the Ottomans and Germans believe that he would not continue advancing northward until he had secured his right flank. A third of their troops are placed east of the Jordan, leaving their right flank weak, allowing the Allies to make a successful breakthrough of the Plain of Sharon in early June 1916 after a long series of long battles. An offensive is launched across the Jordan. This forces the Ottoman troops to retreat from Amman in order to avoid being outflanked by the Allied troops. Amman is quickly conquered by forces east of the southern Jordan. The Allied troops start a campaign northward towards Anatolia.

From late 1915 to early 1916, French diplomat François Georges-Picot and British diplomat Sir Mark Sykes negotiated the division of the Ottoman Empire between the victorious powers in case of an Allied victory. The agreement is concluded on May 16, and partitioned it as follows:

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[green = Russia, blue = France, red = Britain]


Part XI: The Russian Civil War

On April 29 1916 the British-Indian garrison of Kut in Mesopotamia surrenders after a successful siege by the Ottomans. General Sir Stanley Maude becomes the new commander of the British forces in Mesopotamia, and he starts training and reorganizing them. The capture of Kut boosted the low morale of the Ottomans, but not enough. As a result of the British successes on the Palestinian front, which drew many Ottoman troops from the Caucasus front, the Russians were able to make several offensives - even capturing Trabzon in April and Bitlis in August. Bitlis was the last defense point for the Ottomans to prevent a Russian advance into central Anatolia and Mesopotamia.

In order to avoid a Russian capture of Mosul, British General Maude receives orders to launch a new campaign to Baghdad. This happens on the 13th of December 1916, as British forces advance along both sides of the Tigris river capturing a number of Ottoman positions along the way. Pasha concentrates most of his troops against Maude near Kut, on the left bank of the Tigris, and so Maude advances along the right bank of the river, bypassing the troops. Kut is captured and by early March, Baghdad is reached. On the Diyala river, the Baghdad garrison, Khalil Pasha tries to stop Maude’s forces but they are outmanoeuvred. The Ottoman defensive positions are captured and Khalil Pasha is forced to retreat. On the 11th of March 1917 the British enter the city, where they are greeted as liberators by the Arab civilians. A large part of the Ottoman army is captured.

Since the beginning of 1917, each day in Russia was filled with workers’ demonstrations, strikes and unrest. The revolutionary movement, demanding an end to the war and to the autocracy, is joined by the poor in cities, towns and villages. Refusing to grant concessions to the masses, the Czarist government mobilizes all available forces in order to suppress the rising unrest. On the 10th of March, revolutionaries take over Petrograd. Even the soldiers in Petrograd’s barracks had joined the communist movement. After escaping to Pskov, the Czarabdicates the throne on March 15, realizing that there is no more hope left for him. A provisional government led by new prime minister Georgy Lvov and the new Czar Michael is established. The new government promises peace, a parliament and democratic reforms. The revolutonaries had no faith in it, and instead established their own councils (soviets). A period of dual-power between the provisional government and the network of soviets ensues. However, in April 1917, the Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin reaches Petrograd where he mobilizes the people against the provisional government. The United States provides Russia with a loan to launch an offensive against Germany, which fails and leads to a huge number of casualties. In the soviets, the workers, farmers and soldiers replace the social-revolutionaries with Bolsheviks. In September 14, a republic is proclaimed by the provisional government. In November, armed workers and soldiers of the Red Guard capture key buildings in Petrograd take over cities and villages all over Russia. The Bolsheviks declare themselves the new rulers of Russia and seize control of the landside. The newly established Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic demobilizes the army and Lev "Trotsky" Bronshtein, upon his return from the Jewish governorate, begins reorganizing the Red Guard into a "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army". The Russian Civil War had started.

Meanwhile, the Allied campaign to the northwest went highly successful and both Damascus and Aleppo were captured by November. Soon, Anatolia is entered from the south by Allied troops. However, in Europe the situation was very grim for the Entente: while the Americans had joined the Entente, little was done by them to help break the stalemate. Much of northern France was under German occupation and the German army started equiping artillery shells with mustard gas. The French army was collapsing and the British were focusing on the Ottomans. The eastern front was collapsing entirely as a result of the communist insurgency against the Russian government. In order to achieve the support of influential Jewish-Americans Jewish-Germans and convince the Jewish governorate in Sinai to send troops to the Western front, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour sends a letter to Baron Walter Rothschild on November 2 1917, expressing the British support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

In early November, with the capture of Nigde and Kaysen by Allied forces, the Ottomans finally decide to beg for peace. An armistice is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Entente Powers. According to the armistice, the Ottomans are forced to withdraw their claims on all territories outside of Anatolia, which - alongside the Straits, Batum and Taurus -come under Allied occupation. Ottoman ports, railways and other strategic points are prepared for Allied use. The Young Turks, which were until then in power in the Ottoman Empire, are forced to flee to the Caucasus. In December 1917 the Russians sign an armistice with the Ottomans at Erzincan as well.

Part XI: The Russian Civil War

The Soviets agree to an unfavorable peace with Germany and cede much of Eastern Europe to the Central Powers. The Germans use their freed up troops from the east to launch a massive attack on the western front (Kaiserschlacht), and capture a lot of (strategically invaluable) territory. Afterwards the French launch a counter-offensive in July 1918 which is soon joined by the British. On the 8th of August the Allies - led by the recently arrived American troops and reinforced by Jewish, Australian and NZ troops from the Mid-East - launch their final campaign. The Germans are pushed back to the Hindenburglinie by early September. Following the collapse of the Hindenburglinie, the German High Command finally accepted that the war was lost. Throughout the rest of October, the Imperial German Army retreated east, back into Germany, abandoning large amounts of heavy equipment and supplies. Prince Maximilian of Baden becomes the new Chancellor of Germany and begins negotiating with US President Wilson, who is expected to offer better terms than the other Allies. The Kaiser is removed from power at Wilson’s request and he flees to the Netherlands. On November 9 a republic is proclaimed in Germany and two days later an armistice is signed between the Entente and Germany. The Rhineland immediately comes under Entente occupation. Earlier, Bulgaria had signed an armistice following the collapse of the Macedonian Front and the proclamation of a republic by rebels, and Austria-Hungary had signed an armistice following swift Italian advances into their territory.

The Paris Peace Conference occurs from January 18 to 21 1919, during which the Entente powers in order to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. During the negotiations, Chaim Weizmann, who had been the governor of the Jewish Autonomous Governorate since 1914 (when Wolffsohn died), brings up the subject of Jewish independence from Egypt as a dominion within the British Empire. According to him, now that the Jordan river was under British control, the Jewish Autonomous Governorate could make use of it for drinking and irrigation water. The mobilization of the population and economy in order to produce soldiers, weapons, food supplies, munition, money and vehicles that were to be used during the war, had great effects on the Jewish governorate’s economy as well as the welfare of its inhabitants. The victories achieved against the Ottoman Empire early in the war as well as the capture of Jerusalem had a huge impact on the national pride within the Jewish Autonomous Governorate and made many believe that the governorate would do just fine as an independent own country. Weizmann swears that he will do everything in his power to convince the British to grant the Jewish governorate dominion-status within the British Empire.

On June 28 1919 the Treaty of Versailles is signed with Germany. Germany faces responsibility for the war, a 15-year long Entente occupation of the Rhineland, huge military restrictions, the loss of many national territories, the loss of colonies and payment of war reparations. International organizations are set up to administer control over the larger rivers in Germany. Similar peace treaties are signed with Hungary, Austria and Bulgaria. On August 10 1920, a peace treaty is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Entente powers at Sèvres, limiting Ottoman territory to a small part of Anatolia. The Jewish Autonomous Governorate (or rather Egypt) receives a strip of land in Palestine including Rafah and Auja as a reward for its war efforts. The Ottoman Empire would soon be overthrown by Kemal Atatürk, eventually leading to the establishment of a republic and a new peace treaty recovering Anatolia. Anglo-French Mandates are established in Syria, Palestine and Lebanon and in the former German colonies. As a result, Jews from the Jewish Autonomous Governorate flood their ancestral land in British Palestine, where they are welcomed by the Yishuv but frowned upon by the Arabic population. Meanwhile, the Red Army has managed to win the Civil War by 1922, proclaiming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

With the war finally over, full support was gained among the Egyptian people by the nationalist Wafd Party. Fearing social unrest, British forces arrest Saad Zaghlul, the leader of the party, in March 1919. A revolution spreads throughout the country. A Commission of Inquiry led by Lord Milner is sent to Egypt in December 1919 and in February 1921 the mission reports that the protectorate status should indeed be abandoned. Upon hearing of the British intentions to end the protectorate and to recognize Egypt as an independent state, Jewish governor Chaim Weizmann, threatening with Jewish disobedience, demands Jewish independence from Egypt. Another British Royal Commission of Inquiry, again headed by Milner, is sent in late 1921 to investigate the situation in Sinai and the rest of Egypt and the potential benefits of separating the Jewish governorate from Egypt. Upon its return from Sinai in late 1922, the Milner Mission declares its support for Jewish independence within the British Empire. It is declared that the Egyptian character of Sinai has been lost as a result of Jewish colonization and that northern Sinai "was now as white as Australia, Canada or even Britain itself and thus ripe for self-government." It is also noted that hostilities between Egyptians and Jews were growing (as a result of the Jews' positive view towards British imperialism as well as the displacement of Bedouins). Another important point pointed out by the mission is that unlike the Jews, the Egyptians don't and likely never will see themselves as allies of the British Empire, and that a strong ally is required to protect the flanks of the Suez Canal against any potential dangers from either direction.

The British government immediately starts preparations for independence of the Jewish governorate as a self-governing White Dominion within the British Empire and for full independence for Egypt.

I think you have butterflied away the majority Arab population of Palestine, what kind of self Goverment will it be? Does everyone get a vote?
Are Arab christians denyied a vote ?
 
I think you have butterflied away the majority Arab population of Palestine, what kind of self Goverment will it be? Does everyone get a vote?
Are Arab christians denyied a vote ?

It is not in Palestine, but rather in the northern Sinai - which was home to only thousands of Bedouins at the time. Of course, they're not all happy about it, but they are a very tiny minority. As for voting rights, they will probably get it eventually if they remain a minority of the population. :)

Here's the next part!

Part XIII: Dominion of Judah

On October 3 1923, a Royal Proclamation is issued, granting the Jewish Autonomous Governorate Dominion status, under the name of "Dominion of Judah" (Yiddish: dominiyon fun yihud). Yiddish stays an official language, but German is dropped – being spoken by only a small percentage of the total population. German does however become an officially recognized minority language, along with Romanian, Polish and Russian. The Judean Pound is made the national currency, and is regulated and issued by the Sinai Bank, which is renamed the Central Bank of Judah (Yiddish: bank fun yihud). The Royal Judean Police Forces (Yiddish: kiniglekhe yidishe politsey) are established to maintain order in the Dominion.

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[Judaic flag]

Governor Chaim Weizmann is elevated to Prime Minister of the new Dominion. The British monarch, currently King George V, remains head of state, and is represented by a Governor General. The first Governor-General of the Dominion is the British Jew and Zionist Alfred Moritz Mond. The British government also retains control over defence, constitutional amendments and foreign affairs. In order to provide the new Jewish state with direct access to the Gulf of Aqaba, a very thin strip of land is given along the new border with the British Mandate of Palestine, reaching down towards the small Bedouin village of Taba – which becomes known in Yiddish as “Tobe” / "טאָבע". Work immediately begins on the construction of a port and a city in Tobeh and of a road connecting Succoth with Tobeh. The expansion requires a large labour force, which is largely drawn from the local Muzeina tribe. Jewish settlements are established all over the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba (which becomes known within the Dominion as the “Gulf of Tobe”), among them many fisheries.

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[Judaic PM Weizmann]


Immediately after the establishment of the dominion, with the permission of High Commissioner of Palestine, Herbert Samuel, the Judaic Water Planning Company (Yiddish: yidishe voserplanungs gezelshaft) is established with Palestinian-Jewish hydraulic engineer Simcha Blass as its director. The organization receives the objective of planning a system that diverts water from the Jordan river to the Dominion of Judah in order to supply it with water for intensive agriculture, for drinking and for sanitation to support the growing population of Sinai. Simcha Blass designs Project Heron, named after the Jewish ruler who commissioned the construction of the aqueduct at Caesaria in the first century BC. According to the project, a water conveyor is to be constructed at the Jordan River right above the Sea of Galilee, in order to bring water to the Sinai (and also in lesser numbers to the Negev desert). In order to initialize the construction of the conveyor the National Water is established with Palestinian-Jewish hydraulic engineer Levi Eshkol as its director.

The Jewish Military Organization is reorganized, renamed the "Judaic Armed Forces" (Yiddish: yidishe shtraytkreft) or “JAF” and made the national armed army of the new dominion. The service branches of the JAF are the Royal Judaic Land Force, the Royal Judaic Air Force and the Royal Judaic Navy – the “Royal” part in each of the names being added upon the approval of King George V. All three of them consist of a permanent force, a reserve and a volunteer reserve, the latter two being there to be called up in emergency. The Kanaim, well-known for their successes against the Ottomans during the war, form the special operations unit of the JAF. The Military Academy of Judah, the Royal Judaic Air Force Academy and the Royal Naval College of Judah are established in Succoth, as coeducational service academies, providing the training for commissioned officers in the respective service branches. The JAF is unique in that it allows women to equally participate in the army. Mandatory conscription is implemented for all men and childless women between the ages of 18 and 30, making the army the only army on the world to conscript women.

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[Soldiers of the new JAF posing with Defense Minister Zeev Jabotinsky]


Most of the weaponry and aircraft used by the Royal Judaic Air Force is bought from the United Kingdom, until the Judaic Aviation Industries is established by the government and the country starts to build British designed weapons and aircraft itself. In the early 1930s, Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich - who fled Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Governorate when the Civil War broke out in order to continue his education there - establishes the Gurevich Design Bureau (Yiddish: gurevich dizayn byuro / GuDB) and starts designing uniquely Judaic fighter aircraft.


Part XIV: The Second Immigration

During the first three years (Second Immigration / Tsveyte Aynvanderung) of the 1920s, nearly a hundred thousand Jewish immigrants arrive in northern Sinai, most of them fleeing pogroms by the Polish Army. Over thirty thousand of them immediately move from Sinai to Mandatory Palestine. At the same time, about 25 thousand Jews immigrate directly from Russia, Poland and other Eastern European countries to Palestine, where they begin constructing roads, houses, collective farms and even factories. Those who remain in northern Sinai generally move into the already existing towns. The second “Aynvanderung” is followed by the third one in 1924. Polish Finance Minister Wladislaw Grabski imposes serious economic restrictions on the Jewish citizens of Poland during that year, and the United States closed its doors to mass immigration. Tens of thousands more Hungarian and Polish Jews, many of them shopkeepers and artisans, head to the Dominion of Judah and to Mandatory Palestine. By 1926 the Yishuv in Palestine deteriorated financially and many newcomers were forced to leave it and head for the Dominion of Judah.

As a result of the establishment of the Jewish state in northern Sinai and the subsequent Egyptian loss of control over the region, a large resentment towards Jewry spreads throughout Egypt, even among the government. As a result, a third of the Egyptian Jews leave the country, heading to the young state of Judah. Among the Egyptian Jews entering are director, actor, producer and screenwriter Togo Mizrahi, future left-wing policitian Haim Yehuda, future singer Mounir Mourad, future comedy actor Elias Moadab, future fashion designer Gabrielle Hanoka, the parents of future writer Gisèle Littman, the parents of future chemist Raphael David Levine and the parents of future artist and sculptor Gideon Gechtman. The Judaic government redirects most of these lower class Jews from Egypt to transit camps on empty land in northeastern Sinai, among them Ilhamdulilah (Yiddish: Borech Hoshem), "Bettawfiq" (Yiddish: Mazldorf) "Hamal Hayati" (Yiddish: Marokhe), and Beytna (Yiddish: “Mokem"). Most of them eventually grow into Sephardic towns. By far, the largest one is “Bayt Musa” (Yiddish: Bayes Moyshe). Both in the Dominion of Judah as well as the Mandate of Palestine, many hotels, restaurants and factories are built by the European Jewish settlers during the 1920s. Not only the Jewish population but also the Arabic population (especially that of Palestine) increases massively as a result of massive Arab immigration and a larger survival rate among Bedouins, caused by the introduction of western medical services, a demand of a large workforce and the elimination of the threat of malaria.

The Dominion of Judah sees its population rising to about 326,000 by 1926. The massive immigration of Jews to the Dominion during the 1910s and 1920s leads to a great cultural development during the 1930s. Among the many immigrants that contribute to this development are actress Miriam Kressyn, actor and film producer Joseph Green, pianist Severin Eisenberger, and film producer Henry Lynn.

From October 19 to November 22 1926, the sixth Imperial Conference is held by the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and the British dominions, among them Chaim Weizmann. Following the conference, it is declared that the dominions are equal in status to the UK and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The duty of representing the British government in the Dominions, formerly in the hands of the Governors-General, is switched to High Commissioners, which are appointed in the various Dominions throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Part XV: The Third Immigration

On October 29 1929, as a result of a stock market crash on Wall Street in New York City, a massive economic depressions starts and spreads across the world. The crisis had negative result on all countries and on all parts of society. In the United States, thanks to the combination of an increase in the already present anti-Semitism and the increase in unemployment, only few jobs are available to the Jewish middle class. While a large part of the middle class of American Jewry is driven into low-paid factory labor, another large number (1,000 - 2,000 people) decides to head to the Dominion of Judah. Although the dominion is also hit by the economic crisis, the opportunities of getting a construction job there are much higher than in the US. Most of the American Jewish immigrants in Judah are from the Pacific Northwest, especially from the Seattle area. The chaotic environment that emerged in Germany after its humiliation at the hands of the Entente powers results in the heavily anti-Semitic Nazi Party led by Adolph Hitler seizing power. The over 500 thousand Jews in Germany feel threatened by the aggressively anti-Semitic policies of the new government and many of them decide to leave the country. The 1930s see a massive number of Jews, most of them from the German urban areas, heading for the Dominion of Judah and a smaller number heading to countries neighbouring Germany. Among the many German Jews contributing to the cultural development of the dominion are movie directors Robert and Curt Siodmak and Julius Urgiß, writers Stefan Heym and Manfred Georg Cohn, expressionist architect Erich Mendelsohn, composer Otto Klemperer, actor Fritz Kortner, philosopher Richard Rudolf Walzer and painter Arthur Kaufmann. Other important German Jewish immigrants in Judah are the physicians Albert Einstein, Hedwig Kohn and chemist Fritz Haber. Most of the German and American immigrants go to work in the cities although a small minority among the newcomers try their luck on the kibbutzim. Another minority uses this opportunity to move to Jerusalem and Haifa in the Mandate of Palestine in order to help in developing those cities.

On the 25th of August 1933, the “Agreement for the Transfer of German Jews” (German: Abkommen für die Übertragung deutscher Juden, Yiddish: haskome far di aribarfir fun di daytshe yidn) is signed after three months of talks between the Zionist Federation of Germany, the economic authorities of Judah and the economic authorities of Germany, on the initiative of the Polish Zionist Sam Cohen. In accordance with the agreement, over 150,000 Jews are transferred from Germany to Judah. They are forced to give up their possessions, but they are able to transfer them to Judah as German export goods. A similar agreement is signed between Nazi Germany and British Palestine, known as the Haavara Abkommen, in order to facilate the emigration of German Jews to Palestine. While it brings some 60,000 Jews to Palestine, it would prove much less successful due to a British restriction of immigration and falters within several years.

In 1937, after 23 years of construction, the canals diverting Egyptian water to the Pelusian Plains are finally finished. This comes at a perfect timing, as 1938 and 1939 were a record years for the immigration of Jews in the Dominion of Judah - owing to Hitler's annexation of Austria (1938), Bohemia and Moravia (1939). This allows many German-speaking Jews to be settled in new transit camps on the Pelusian Plains (most of them named after the abandoned cities, such as: Neuberlin, Neuprag and Neuwien), so as to avoid overcrowding in the cities/towns. Immigrants from Austria include film producers Jacob and Luise Fleck, musicologist Hugo Botstiber, poet Theodor Kramer, chemist Otto Redlich and polymath Fritz Grünbaum. Immigrants from Bohemia and Moravia include writers Heinrich Mann and Jiří Weil, mathematician Arthur Erdélyi and philosopher Stephan Körner. The situation in Germany worsens in late 1938, when a massive pogrom called "Reichskristallnacht" (Reich's Crystal Night), is carried out. Tens of thousands of Jews are arrested for no reason and interned in concentration camps. From that moment, even the most optimistic German and Austrian Jews realized they were no longer safe and that they had to get out of the country. With the United States, the United Kingdom and many other 'western' countries closing down their borders to Jewish refugees and with the British Empire limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine in order to keep the local Arabs silent, the only option that remains is the Dominion of Judah, even for the most assimilated Jews. Even some Dutch Jews feel the heat and head for the Dominion. Another contributing factor of the increase in migrants to the Dominion of Judah, was the Italian publishment of the Manifesto of Race in July 1938 and the subsequent enactment of the Italian Racial Laws on November 17th 1938, stripping Jews of their Italian citizenship and professions. Among the many Italian Jews that seek and attain Judaic citizenship are physicists Bruno Rossi and Emilio Segrè, linguist Giorgio Levi Della Vida and writers Rudolf Arnheim and Laura Fermi. Another country adopting anti-Semitic racial laws was Hungary, from whence actor Gyula Kabos, conductor Georg Solti, violinist Ilona Fehér and poet György Faludy came to the Dominion of Judah.

Czech componist Hans Krása and librettist Adolf Hoffmeister become famous across the dominion thanks to the Succoth orphanage’s performance of their child opera “Brundibár” (English: the bumblebee) for the Czech community in Succoth in 1940. The opera was originally written by the two men in 1938 for a government competition, which was cancelled as a result of the unfortunate turn of events in central Europe.

Many of the newcomers were fully assimilated into the German and American societies and therefore have to participate in programs (known Yiddish as "programen far shprakh-bildung un asimilatsiye" or "programmes for linguistic education and assimilation") teaching Yiddish and teaching about the culture of the dominion. The programs are organized by schools and kibbutzim and funded by the government.


Part XVI: Trouble in Europe

Ze'ev Jabotinsky visited Poland in September 1936 and publishes the so-called "Ten-Year Plan" or "Jewish evacuation plan" in the Polish daily newspaper Czas, on behalf of his political party, the Union of Zionist Revisionists. According to this plan, one and a half million Eastern European Jews would voluntarily be evacuated to Palestine and Sinai. According to Jabotinsky, the Eastern European Jews were "living on the edge of a volcano which would soon begin to spit its all-consuming lava" and prophecized that they would be victim to "bloody super-pogroms sometime in the near future". Besides saving the Jews from annihilation, Jabotinsky hoped the plan would also allow for the Jewish settlement of both banks of the Jordan river. The plan enjoys a warm welcome from the Polish, Hungarian, Czechoslovak and Romanian governments, each of which regarded their Jewish minorities as harmful to their respective states. With the slogan "Eliminate the diaspora or the diaspora will surely eliminate you", Jabotinsky tries to gain the sympathy of the Eastern European Jews themselves. The attempt ends in failure: the Jewish press in the countries criticize the Ten-Year Plan, which has gained the support of anti-Semites. As expected, the plan is also declined by the British, who are unwilling to provoke the Arab majority in the Mandate of Palestine. The plan is also dismissed by Judaic Prime Minister Weizmann. Although he is sympathetic to the plan, he does not believe the land can sustain large-scale immigration and is unwilling to cooperate with anti-Semitic governments. Weizmann would come to regret his decision later on.

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[Zeev Yabotinsky, designer of the Ten-Year Plan]

From 1936 until 1939 a massive uprising by Arabs occurred in Mandatory Palestine, as a mass protest against mass Jewish immigration and British rule. The British Army and the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary in Palestine, team up in fighting off the Arabs, the latter being heavily funded and even reinforced by the JAF. In the hopes of ending the rebellion, the Peel Commission is sent by the British in November 1936. Despite an Arab boycott against it, the Commission returns in July 1937 proposing the abolishment of the Mandate as well as a second partition of its land, according to which a part of northern Palestine (i.e. the main areas of Jewish settlement) would be assigned to the Dominion of Judah and a small piece of land including the port city of Jaffa and the heavily disputed city of Jerusalem would remain under direct British rule. The rest would become part of an independent Arab state or of the Jordanian Kingdom. An exchange of population might be necessary, according to the Peel Commission. Unsurprisingly, the plan, while beneficial for them, is rejected immediately by the Arab leadership in Palestine, whereas the Zionists are divided over whether to accept it or not. In response to the lack of embracement of the plan, the British government sends the Woodland Commission to examine the technical aspects of implementing the plan. In the end, three modifications were made and published on November 9 1938. The British government declined all of the plans as impracticable and even the Jewish Agency Executive declined, saying that the report "could not serve as the basis for any negotiations." Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald announces that if no agreement would be reached, the government would impose a solution. Chaim Weizmann, PM of Judah demands, as the leader the Jewish Agency's delegation, a fair partition of the land between Jews and Arabs and a continuation of Jewish immigration to the Jewish part of Palestine. When the Arab delegation led by Jamal Husseini made it clear that they would not accept any land in Palestine to become part of a Jewish state, the negotiations were called off. Indeed, the British present their own solution: limiting the total future Jewish immigration to 75,000 people. Despite its protests, the economy of the Dominion of Judah profited greatly from this decision, as it forced many of those persecuted European Jews who would rather head to Palestine to instead head for Judah, which not only welcomed them with open arms but even helped them immigrate and assimilate. While this was the case, Judah continues to help Jews, both newcomers and long-time citizens, illegally cross the border into Mandatory Palestine, usually in cooperation with Zionist organizations in Mandatory Palestine.

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[Woodhead Proposals: green = Jewish, yellow = British, red = Arab]

From 1936 to 1937 the so-called "Great Purge" was launched in the Soviet Union, during which the country was purged of those who were thought by Stalin to be enemies of communism, i.e. servants of Lev Bronshtein (who lived safely in Judah again). The Communist Party, the government, the NKVD (secret police) and the Red Army leadership are purged of potential enemies. While the purge was not directed against Jewry, many Jews fell victim. "Operation Magog", named after the forefather of the Scythians which lived in Russia during ancient times, is launched by the intelligence branch of the Judaic Police Forces in cooperation with the Judaic National Air Services and the Judaic National Maritime Services, in order to save Jewish victims of Stalinist suspicions before they are arrested. As a result, many prominent Soviet Jews are saved and brought safely to Judah, among them writer Isaak Babel, intelligence officers Abram Slutsky, Mikhail Trilisser, Karl Pauker and Sergey Shpigelglas, economist Isaak Illich Rubin and Red Army commanders Grigory Stelmakh, Yan Gamarnik and Iona Yakir. The goal of the operation is to gain the expertise to build up an effective national intelligence service and modernize the JAF. The "Judaic Intelligence Agency" (Yiddish: yidishe zikherheyt-agentur) or "Zohag" is established in May 1938, and is headed by Sergey Shpigelglas. Judah refuses to help Matvei Berman, Genrikh Yagoda and Naftaly Frenkel for their roles in the organisation of forced labor in the GULAG system, and Yakov Agranov for fabricating a conspiracy in order to get more than 85 innocent intellectuals killed.

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[Genrikh Shpigelman, head of the Judaic intelligence]


In May 1939, a German captain, Gustav Schröder, sets sail with the MS Saint Louis ocean liner, hoping to bring some 908 Jews to safety in Cuba. After the long journey, the Cubans refuse to take most of them in because they don’t have valid visas or entry documents. Captain Schröder is similarly turned away from the United States and Canada and he is forced to cross the Atlantic back to Europe. Here, his final stop was Succoth, the capital of the Jewish Dominion: here, too, Schröder is almost turned away, but he manages to convince the authorities there that returning to Europe will likely mean their death. The authorities make a call to PM Weizmann, who informs them “that Judah will not turn away Jews in need. We will not betray our very raison d’être.”

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[The Jewish passengers cheer upon arriving at the harbor of Succoth]

By the late 1930s it had become obvious that the League of Nations, established in 1919 to prevent a new war, was unable to serve its primary purpose. In 1936, Italy annexed Abyssinia and a year later Japan invades China. Little is done by the UN aside from uttering harsh words and proclaiming short-lived sanctions. Hitler took advantage of the West's weakness by expanding his army, economy and territory - but in September 1939 he makes the wrong move by threatening and invading Poland. Quite surprisingly, the United Kingdom and France keep their promise of support to Poland, and declare war on Germany immediately. The rest of the British Commonwealth quickly follows suit. The barely 26 year old Dominion of Judah finds itself participating in yet another major war, but fortunately this time it does not share a border with its enemy.

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[Political situation in Europe at start of war]

EDIT: Thanks to Unknown for convincing me to write a paragraph on the MS Saint Louis. Great idea!
 
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