@D Laurier
These people HAD freedom and independence in 1920, untill they were betrayed, conquered, and colonized by their allies.
The "freedom and independence" they had was being ruled by the British and French mandates. Before that they were under Allied military occupation and before that they were part of the Ottoman Empire. And in case you think that was being "free and independent," that would be to ignore the Arab and Kurdish revolts against the Ottomans in the years before 1914.
They regained freedom and independence in 1948, and managed to miraculously stop a battle hardened invader from stealing everything.
The only description this fits is the Egyptians, who invaded the British Mandate of Palestine on the last day of its existence, accompanied by the armies of the independent Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The Higher Arab Council had rejected any Arab state in Palestine if a single square inch were awarded to a Jewish state there. The Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, who were not that battle-hardened, managed to beat them back. That refusal to entertain the Jews' existence has cost the Palestinians their state for 65 years and counting.
They ran a number of semi-prosperous countrys, where secularism and progress were striven for.
Which also happened to be havens for Nazi war criminals where anyone who wasn't Arab was thrown out. Millions in Israel, France, Greece, the US and many other countries can testify to that.
