AH Challenge: Jewish homeland in Cyprus

According to Wikipedia (or as some like to call it, Armenian Genocide), Theodor Herzl once proposed, among ideas for a possible Jewish homeland, Cyprus.


Your challenge, now, is to make that happen with a POD after 1900.

Go!
 
um the UN dudes: if u jews dont go to cyprus u can forget about ever having a homeland. have a nice day.:)

how bout if the UN said that?
 
^Yeah, that would kinda be a problem. But then again, how many people live on Cyprus, as opposed to Palestine?
 

Nietzsche

Banned
The same drunken monkey that threw a dart in the UN building that landed in Palestine, moves slightly to his left?
 
The same drunken monkey that threw a dart in the UN building that landed in Palestine, moves slightly to his left?
It wasn't so much a UN thing as a British thing. They thought "If we pander to these Jews maybe they will influence their governments to help us win WWI" and then screwed over the Jews and Arabs (who they had a separate deal with) as soon as the war was over. On the OP I think you are going to need a pre-1900 POD because by then the Zionists were pretty well set on Israel/Palestine.
 

Xen

Banned
I agree the Greeks and Turks will have a new enemy, they will understand the others claim to the island, though they don't agree with it, but how do these outsiders get a claim to it?

Perhaps if there was some sort of virus that wiped out the entire population of Cyprus, both the Greeks and Turks will say we don't want it, you take it.
 
It wasn't so much a UN thing as a British thing. They thought "If we pander to these Jews maybe they will influence their governments to help us win WWI" and then screwed over the Jews and Arabs (who they had a separate deal with) as soon as the war was over. On the OP I think you are going to need a pre-1900 POD because by then the Zionists were pretty well set on Israel/Palestine.

Yeah, there were quite a few Jewish immigrants to Palestine before 1948* -- it's not like they all arrived on one boat.

Cyprus is an interesting idea, though. It would lead to a radically different Israel, as you wouldn't have anything like the Six Day War (if Israel was an island nation, they'd have even less ability to get other people to recognize their right to expand). The Greeks and Turks would react negatively, of course, because obviously the current situation there shows that they don't want to leave. It could be an interesting TL, though.

I'm sure that Arab-American, Arab-British, and Arab-Jewish relations would all be better, though. The Middle East would still be a messed up place but not so bad, I think. It'd be interesting to see how Palestine would develop without being occupied, and also how countries like Egypt and Syria would change their policies (less military buildup, for example -- but also it's possible Nasser could've never come to power without the Israeli threat).

*Along with some pretty sketchy British policies such as allowing the Jews to have guns but not the Arabs...
 
Does Cyprus have the resources to support an Israel sized populace? If it is possible you are going to get a -very- different Israel. Without the "We're surrounded by people who want to kill us and have a sizable minority who supports them" vibe you probably are not going to get a state that is as security centered as OTL Israel. Same if your POD averts the Shoah. Then again if you pissed off the Greeks and Turks to found it you may make the security condition worse. Instead of thugs with AK-47s and homebuilt bombs and third world militaries with borrowed Soviet weapons you have first world powers with substantial first world militaries.
 
Does Cyprus have the resources to support an Israel sized populace?

I don't know about that - most of the vegetation was removed a long time ago, except in the Pafos district.

If it is possible you are going to get a -very- different Israel.

Agreed - Larnaca, Famagusta, and Nicosia are going to look VERY different.

Then again if you pissed off the Greeks and Turks to found it you may make the security condition worse. Instead of thugs with AK-47s and homebuilt bombs and third world militaries with borrowed Soviet weapons you have first world powers with substantial first world militaries.

But hey, maybe the guerilla groups like EOKA may be averted? :rolleyes:
 
My bad. My post was supposed to read Weirdest AH Israel location I've seen was Crimea.
How so? Lots of Jews already lived in southern Russia and the Ukraine. Though I'd agree it wouldn't exactly be the safest location for a Jewish homeland (read: big, angry, repressive Russia).
 
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