Possible Palestine Events
Possible Palestine Events:
April, 1936: Background - Balfour Declaration, Jewish Emigration, Ethnic tension, Arab High Commission, start of general strike, IC -1.
10/12/1936: End general strike in Palestine. Peel Commission formed to explore how to resolve issues. Arabs boycott Peel evidence gathering hearings. IC +1, Influence -1.
6/29/1937: UK authorities execute Salomon Ben Yosef, a Jewish terrorist, for murder.
7/8/1937: Peel Commission delivers its report calling for the tripartite division of Palestine. The Jews would acquire a narrow strip from Jaffa to Lebanon along the coast. Britain would hold Jerusalem and a transport corridor to sea at Jaffa from the League, the remainder of Palestine (Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and the Negev) would be united with Transjordan and given independence with Transjordan. Zionist communities agree. Arabs reject the settlement. Influence -1, Dissent +0.1.
8/1937: A series of interethnic terrorist attacks in Palestine. British General Orde Wingate implicated in supplying and training some of the bands. Supplies -10, Dissent +0.3
9/8/1937: Pan Arab Congress rejects the Peel Partition Plan. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi, Egypt -1 supplies to fund Arab Revolt.
9/26/1937: Yelland Andrews, British District Commissioner for Galilee is assassinated by Arab rebels. Widespread revolt. British crack down. Supplies - 10. IC-1
10/1/1937, Arab High Commission arrested for fomenting rebellion in Palestine. Commissioners are exiled to Seychelles. Supplies - 5, Dissent +0.10
10/16/1937: Haj Amin el Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jersualem escapes to Syria, rebellion is radicalized. Syrian dissent +1 Possibly have a "capture Grand Mufti" leg with weakens the subsequent rebellion.
11/24/1937: Pitched battles in Jerusalem between ethnic factions. British set up military tribunals to try rebels found with banned arms or ammunition. British are making progress. Supplies -5 IC+1
3/31/1938: British may chose to A) Crack down in Palestine by appoint Sir Harold MacMichael as governor or B) keep current course with Sir Arthur Wauchope in charge.
A) Supplies -20 (Historical)
B) Supplies - 10, Dissent +0.2
6/1938: Canaris Mission: Admiral Canaris secretly visits the Grand Mufti in Beirut. German aid will be given to the Palestinians to continue to stir up Palestine. German Event. Supplies -10.
8/1938: British Intelligence (20% possibility): British intelligence agencies discover German backing of the Arab Revolt. Whitehall is outraged. Warentry = +5, Dissent = -1. (Ahistorical but possible)
10/18/1938 (historical): In October, the Arab rebellion escalated sharply. There were massacres. Arab forces seized several towns including Tiberias, Bethlehem, and the old quarter of Jerusalem. British forces take each area back from rebels. Dissent = +0.2, supplies -20, IC-1
10/18/1938 (soft line (Wauchope still in charge)): The Arab rebellion seizes many towns in Palestines with great loss of life in due to ethnic fighting. The government determines that massive force will be deployed to crush the rebellion. A British company is ambushed and suffers very heavy casualities, embarassing the crown. Dissent = +0.6, supplies -50, manpower -5 IC-1
11/1/1938 (contingent on Wauchope leg): Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia protest the new crackdown. Dissent +1 in each country, supplies -5 (aid to rebellion), Alignment +5 fascist in each case.
11/9/1938 Historical Woodhead commission concludes that the Peel Commissions plan for a partition is not practical and convenes an Arab/Jewish Peace Conference. Influence -1.
11/20/1938: British forces in Palestine restor order int he cities and towns. IC +1.
???/1939: Woodhead Commission: Player choice:
A) Repudiate Balfour Declaration and conclude that a unitary Palestine should be given independence within 10 years. Jewish immigration will be capped so they do not comprise more than 30% of the population. Regulate land transfers between Arab and Jew to slow down acquisition of property by Zionist immigrants. Effectively ends the Arab Revolt in a tactical victory for Arab radicals. Diplo influence -3.
B) Replace the Peel Report with a more generous partition in favor of the Jews. Explicitly reaffirm Balfour Declaration. Given policies on the continent, extend an open door to Jewish emigration, commit two divisions of the army to peace-keeping. Guarantees continuation of the Arab Revolt indefinately. Supplies -500, diplo influence +3, manpower -20,
dissent +1, Egypt, Saudi, Syria, Iraq, all get dissent +1, give 5 supplies to Palestinians, +10 fascist alignment. Palestine IC -1.
* I need to verify the date on the Woodhead Commission report. I recall it was 1939, but I don't have the exact date handy.
Upon Declaration of War:
If Woodhouse B is chosen, add two militia divisions in Palestine. The Palmach is organized under British auspices as a pro-British constabulary to keep order in Palestine (much like the Black & Tans in Eire before the partition). If Palestine fell to Axis troops, one could expect a horrible revenge on the Zionist settlers by the native Arabs, but that is going into the Forbidden Zone and needn't be explicit.
This event chain doesn't stray too far from history. Essentially, the British have a couple of opportunities to take hard or soft lines versus the revolt. The only way to damp the revolt is to concede, though if you catch a break and get the Mufti, the revolt won't be as severe. Once war breaks out, then martial law puts paid the revolt, although one might add a pro-German Palestinian revolt event as a possibility if the British take Woodhead B.
After the war, the revolt would presumably resume, similar to the historical results, but I'll stop at this point for now.
Chaim Herzog noted that in the war for independence, about 30,000 of the Jewish fighters had prior military experience in one branch or another of the British armed forces. (See The Arab-Israeli Wars). Certainly there additional veterans from other militaries, as well.
. MDow
