Jewish Nationalism
The Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine from 1517 until WWI, relinquishing the sovereignty of the territory to the Allies in the Treaty of Sèvres of August 10, 1920. This enabled the Jews to pursue their historic claim to Palestine contends Dore Gold, historian and former Israeli ambassador. The British did not give Palestine to the Jews; “it was a de jure recognition of a situation that existed de facto,” asserts historian Isiah Friedman. They assumed that the Arabs and Jews would be able to live together in harmony and that the Arabs would profit from this arrangement. But the British acknowledged an overriding issue: The Jews had the more compelling and credible case, and that this was sui generis.
















