has been on my mind lately, a foundational document for the State of Israel, maybe the foundational document. With the little I know about the workings of the British civil service and Government, the account in Haaretz of the document seems about right: its main purpose was to bring the US into the First World War. More broadly, other commentators have described the purpose of the Balfour declaration as being about securing British interests in the middle east.
Which is not to say that the Balfour Declaration didn't intend the establishment of a Jewish homeland, or that the injustice visited on the Palestinian people was intended.
But it isn't difficult to see that injustice against the resident population was the more or less inevitable result of the endorsement in the letter, and so in historical terms, Britain can be seen as a key actor in the genesis of lasting geopolitical damage through the pursuit of its interests.
Balfour is credited with saying that 'nothing matters very much', but this is clearly not the case. The Balfour Declaration is short - 67 words - written with customary precision with no detail but possibly with a latent clarity of purpose, as if the details were something for someone else to deal with. And as we know it was the people who saw the possibilities of how the detail might work out who took up the running, who were able to shape events leading up to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 in the face of declining British power in the region.
Zionism was/is rooted in nineteenth-century nationalist struggles, and sought to reclaim Judaism from those who wanted to see it as simply a religion. One way of looking at recent history, not necessarily the best way, is to look at the three great Abrahamic religions and the extent to which they have tried to combine territorial and spiritual claims.
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Which is not to say that the Balfour Declaration didn't intend the establishment of a Jewish homeland, or that the injustice visited on the Palestinian people was intended.
But it isn't difficult to see that injustice against the resident population was the more or less inevitable result of the endorsement in the letter, and so in historical terms, Britain can be seen as a key actor in the genesis of lasting geopolitical damage through the pursuit of its interests.
Balfour is credited with saying that 'nothing matters very much', but this is clearly not the case. The Balfour Declaration is short - 67 words - written with customary precision with no detail but possibly with a latent clarity of purpose, as if the details were something for someone else to deal with. And as we know it was the people who saw the possibilities of how the detail might work out who took up the running, who were able to shape events leading up to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 in the face of declining British power in the region.
Zionism was/is rooted in nineteenth-century nationalist struggles, and sought to reclaim Judaism from those who wanted to see it as simply a religion. One way of looking at recent history, not necessarily the best way, is to look at the three great Abrahamic religions and the extent to which they have tried to combine territorial and spiritual claims.
one book
one video
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