The Balfour Declaration
Arabs never tire of repeating, with some historical justification, that many of the ills of the modern Middle East can be laid at the door of the British and their imperialist double-dealing. The most criminal act, according to the Arabs, was the so-called Balfour Declaration.
The declaration that gave Britain's backing for the establishment of a national homeland in Palestine had a curious origin. A leading émigré Zionist who found himself teaching chemistry at Manchester University during the First World War was Chaim Weizmann. By 1916, Britain was running out of natural acetone needed to make ammunition for the Western Front.
Weizmann was put in touch with the British Prime Minister Lloyd George and was hired to find an artificial substitute, which he rapidly did, ending the nightmare prospect that Britain could lose the war for lack of bullets.
The declaration of the foreign secretary Lord Balfour that was to follow on November 2, 1917 was, at least in part, a reward for Weizmann's enterprise.
It also served to encourage Jewish American backing for the US entry into the war at a time when many in America were isolationist. It's worth quoting in full:
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
All well and good. The trouble was, the British made overlapping commitments to the Arabs as a way of getting them to support the war against the Turks. When the Turks were defeated, Britain went back on its word to the Arabs and divided the region up between itself and France.
They finally pulled out in 1948, leaving the Arabs and the Jews to fight it out amongst themselves.
http://www.megastories.com/mideast/glossar...ary/balfour.htm
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