The Balfour Declaration: Why It Was So Important

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                     

Finally the Jews had the answer they had worked so hard for.  Britain was for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for Jews.  Arthur James, Lord Balfour (1848-1930) was a British statesman and philosopher who was head of the government with which Herzl negotiated with in 1902-1903.  Later he was very impressed b Chaim Weizmann and his Zionist philosophy.  He was foreign secretary in 1917 when he issued the Balfour Declaration, an official statement from Britain.

                                                                                    Foreign Office
                                 November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
           I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to and approved by the Cabinet.

        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.  

       I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

                           Arthur James Balfour

                           The Balfour Declaration

 This statement finally came about as the result of many long negotiations started by Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow and others shortly after the start of World War I.  Supporting this was Herbert Samuel, Chief Rabbi J.H. Hertz, the Haham Moses Gaster and others.  There was a lot of discussion on two things;  the formula of the Declaration and its timing.    The final decision of the British government was expedited by Balfour's visit to the US  in the spring of 1917 when he met with President Wilson who supported the efforts of the American Zionists who were headed by Brandeis.  

There were British Jews who were afraid that this would endanger the Jews in all countries.  This opposition made the government more cautious, and the wording submitted to recognize Palestine as the national home of the Jewish people and for providing a "Jewish National Colonizing Corporation" for the resettlement and economic development of the country was not accepted.  

When the Declaration had been approved by the British cabinet, it was sent to Lord Walter Rothschild who was asked to take it to the Zionist Federation. On April 24, 1920, it was decided by the Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers at the conference in San Remo that Britain should administer Palestine and be responsible for the implementation of the Balfour Declaration.  

In 1921, Transjordan was detached from the area covered by the British Mandate for Palestine and made a separate Emirate under Abdullah (1882-1951).  First he was an Emir, and then made himself king of Transjordan.  He was the 2nd son of Hussein, sherif of Mecca, so he was from Saudi Arabia.  It was his support of Britain during WWI that led to his nomination as ruler of Transjordan in 1923.  He was credited with a moderate attitude toward Zionism and had negotiated with Chaim Weizmann in 1922, but invaded Israel in 1948 anyway.  His attempts to reach an understanding with Israel were nullified by the growing influence of the Palestinian Arabs, and he was assassinated in Jerusalem allegedly at the instance of the Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, the person who had gone to Germany and had met with Adolf Hitler.    . 

 It was approved by other Allied governments and incorporated into the Mandate in 1922.  According to Article II the Mandatory Power was responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative, and economic conditions as would secure the establishment of the Jewish national home and the development of self-governing institutions;  also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.  

Other articles provided for the facilitation of Jewish immigration by the Mandatory Power, while ensuring the rights and status of the other sections of the community, and for encouraging settlement of the Jews on the land, including unrequired state and wastelands; for enacting a national laws to enable Jews taking up their residence in Palestine to acquire Palestine citizenship;  the recognition of English, Arabic and Hebrew as the official languages of Palestine; and the recognition of the holy days of the respective communities as legal days of rest.  

Article 25 delimits the borders of the country, excluding Transjordan from Palestine. King Abdullah had  renamed it the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1946.  The Palestine Mandate ended on May 15, 1948 with the withdrawal of the British administration.  This is the day Israel was then declared a state with the blessing of the vote in the United Nations.  Right away King Abdullah fought against the new Israel and took over the Arab area of Palestine which was Judah, Samaria and east Jerusalem.  

What the Arab King Abdullah had taken that was to be part of the Jewish Homeland was lost to Israel by his grandson, Hussein, in the Six Day War when all the Arabs had attacked Israel and lost, much to their surprise.  Hussein, born in 1935, succeeded to the throne in 1952.  He removed British officers from his Arab Legion in 1956 and signed a pact with Egypt and Syria but later refrained from joining the fighting during the Sinai Campaign.  His army had to retreat from Eastern Palestine when defeated in 1967.  Then he was threatened by Arab terrorist organizations with whom he had a major showdown in September 1970 with Black September.  In 1988 he renounced claims to the West Bank in view of Arab decisions that the PLO was the rightful authority.  

Transjordan had been the home of some of the 12 tribes of Israel back in c1200 BCE.   Reuben , Gad and half of Manasseh were cattle-keeping tribes and had settled there.  King David (1010-970 BCE)  later had conquered the whole land of what came to be called Transjordan including the rich copper mines of the Arabah.  His son, King Solomon (961-920 BCE)  had lost them or only held temporarily.  W Ammon was held by a Jewish family, the Tobiads for a time.  Then after the destruction of the first Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, it was rebuilt in 538-515 BCE.   The Edomites moved into southern Judah and their place was taken by the Nabateans.   Greek towns were established in hellenistic days. 

In the Byzantine days (70-637 CE) , Transjordan began to decline which was accelerated by the Arab conquest of Mohammad (570-620 CE) .  From the 8th to the 19th centuries, it was mostly left to the Bedouins to occupy except when the crusaders established themselves in Oultre Jourdain.  The first Crusade was in 1096-9.  This is when attacks were made on Jews living in Northern France and especially in the Rhineland where massacres occurred in cites of Mainz, Worms, Speyer, Cologne, etc and other places where Jews had found refuge from the Roman attack in Judah.  Jerusalem was taken by them in 1099 and in that Jews and Karaites were massacred.   Crusades went on with the last being in 1320 with attacks on Jews in southern France and northern Spain.  

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
update: 11:20am http://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2013/10/still-bickering-over-balfour/?utm_source=Mosaic+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=96e25acaf1-Mosaic_2013_10_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b0517b2ab-96e25acaf1-41144429

Jews, The Original Sons of the Land; from King Hussein of the Hejaz

Nadene Goldfoot
Jews came from Israel and Judea which they lost by 135 CE after being there with Moses and entering the land called Canaan in 1271 BCE.  That's almost a 1,500 year history of living there.  Since then, they've not had a homeland for 2,000 years and had lived in misery and suffered from anti-Semitism.  People have lived in America for only 413 years and we know how we feel about our land.

The Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine from 1517 to 1917.  They were on the side of the Germans in WWI which started on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918.  Germany greatly influenced the Arabs throughout WWII as well.  Already in 1916 the Ottoman Empire's southern region was to be mandated by France and Great Britain under the Sykes-Picot Agreement.  France was given the mandate over the  land mass  that became Lebanon and Syria,  and Britain was given the mandate over the land mass that became Trans-Jordan, then Jordan, Israel and Judea-Samaria.

On November 2, 1917, the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration.  This document pledged support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.  They were in sympathy with the Jewish Zionist aspirations and had met many times with the Jewish leaders.  All the allied governments were parties to the antecedent negotiations and approved the Declaration.

 So did some of the main leaders of the Arab national movement such was Emir Feisal, born May 20, 1885,  who is an ancestor of the present day King of Jordan.   He became King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King  of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was a member of the Hashemite dynasty. On January 3, 1919 an agreement was reached between Emir Feisal, also the chief Arab delegate at the Paris Peace Conference and the son of King Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of  Mecca, the Grand Sharif of Mecca which means he was a descendant of Mohammad,  and Dr. Chaim Weizmann of the World Zionist Organization.  This is when he endorsed the  Balfour Declaration  and Palestine was recognized as a separate Jewish entity.  The Arab State would maintain diplomatic relations with them on condition  that Britain and France met the Arab demands in other territories.   The mandate the Britain held was to see to it that this was carried out.

The Mandate extended over both sides of the river Jordan.  Judea and Samaria had existed there.  As early as 1922 Britain divided the Mandated territory in half and established an Arab emirate in Trans-Jordan. Winston Churchill, then the British colonial secretary,  negotiated this in 1922.   This deprived the Jews of any rights to the land east of the river.  Then Britain made it forbidden to Jews to buy land or settle there as well, clearly against the Mandate rules.

At the same time, leaders of the Arab national movement were negotiating with Britain for the recognition of Arab national rights in the former territories of the Ottoman empire throughout the Middle East. Not only did Emir Feisal want to be king of a large piece of the empire but his brother, Abdullah did also.

 King Hussein of the Hejaz, Hussein bin Ali,  was born in 1853 in Istanbul as the eldest son of Sharif Ali ibn Muhammad and his wife, Salha Bani-Shahar. He was the last of the Hashemite rulers over the Hejaz to be appointed by the Ottoman Sultan. As a Hashemite, he was highly respected in the Islamic world. It was his "noble" lineage which granted him the status he maintained in the Hijaz. As a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, even the British, during his period as Emir, recognized this special status. He wrote the following:

"We saw the Jews...streaming to Palestine from Russia, Germany, Austria, Spain, America...The cause of causes could not escape those who had the gift of deeper insight;  they knew that the country was for its original sons, for all their differences, a sacred and beloved homeland."  (Al Qibla, Mecca, #183, March 23, 1918;  George Antonius, Arab Awakening. p. 269)

The British were most ambivalent as to their policy.  At times they allowed Jewish immigration and at other times it was severely restricted and they prohibited Jews from even buying land at other times.  This was pre-holocaust era when European Jews needed to enter Palestine.  It meant life or death.

Today I see college history professors giving the Balfour Declaration a slight glance, telling students that it was not a serious document giving rights to the Jewish people which is completely incorrect.  All the nations, and they belonged to the League of Nations at that time, the precursor of the United Nations, had agreed that the Jews were to have this Homeland and to the land which was involved.  The Jews wound up with only 20% of the  original land promised because of the British finagling.

Chaim Weizmann, Zionist leader, had helped the British to win the war against the Ottoman empire in 1917-1918 with his organic chemical invention relating to the fermentation of acetone-butyl which improved the weaponry used by Britain.  Without it, no matter how many weapons were used, they could have lost the battle.

At any rate, Jewish political rights were restricted.  Arab objectors were often favored if not fostered.  Immigration of Jews were limited.  Jews went ahead anyway and founded new villages,  towns and cities, drained swamps, and planted forests.  Tel Aviv was expanded.  Arabs enjoyed the advantages they were receiving from all this.  However, by 1936 Arab rioting started in which was stimulated by the German and Italian Fascist governments who wanted to embarrass England in the Middle East.  Jews developing the country continued anyway without interruption.  The reaction of the British was to restrict immigration and the rights of Jews.  In the 1920s most of the Jews came from Eastern Europe.  In the 1930s, many Jews had escaped to Palestine from Nazi Germany.

By 1936 there were 384,000 Jews and 983,000 Arabs in Palestine. By 1948 the Yishuv numbered 650,000 Jews.  This was an awesome number as Moses had gone into Canaan with 600,000 men.   Had immigration been more open for Jews, the number would have been much higher.  Most of the Jews lived in the Tel Aviv area which is on the seacoast.  November 1947 was when Britain turned to the new United Nations who said to divide Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states.  Jews said yes to their piece and Arabs said no and have been saying no ever since.  They won't settle for half; they want the whole piece.

Leaders of the Palestinians refused to recognize any Jewish national rights in the land and wanted complete Arab control over all.  They erupted into violence in 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936-39 when 517 Jews were killed  in  terror attacks against Jewish villages and towns.  In 1929 they massacred 67 Jews in Hebron, destroyed their synagogues. Jews had lived there for 2,000 years.  The most influential Arab dissenter was the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.   During WWII, he joined up with the Nazis and spent the war years in Berlin.

Countries today created out of the Ottoman Empire include more than just all the Middle East countries.  Algeria, Bahrain, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territory, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Republic and Yemen were part of the empire.  Arab countries occupy 640 times the land mass as does Israel.  The Arabs outnumber the Jewish state of Israel 50 to 1.  In the world of 6.7 billion people, 1.48 billion are Muslims.  That's 1/4 of the world population.  Jews number 12.9 million which is 0.2% of the world population.  Arabs aren't in any danger of being wiped out, except by each other.  Israel is a tiny but important state that must be recognized by the Arabs as having the right to exist in their ancient land.  

The Jews lived up to their part of the deal with the Balfour Declaration but the British did not.  Emir Feisal had also turned against the Jews, but not because of any action on their part.  Feisal Ibn Hussein  was the eldest son of Hussein, sherif of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.  He had led the uprising of Arabs against Turkey (Ottoman Empire) from 1916 to 1918.  He had been sympathetic to Zionism and hoped to receive help in building his future kingdom from the Jews this way.  Later, after meeting with Weizmann, he was expulsed in 1920 from Syria by the French, who also held the mandate on that part of the Ottoman Empire.  His brother, Abdullah, became King of Iraq on April 1,  1921, so he was rewarded right away by the British.  This Abdullah is the gggrandfather of the present day King of Jordan.  The other Palestinian leaders, influenced by the Germans, who the Ottoman Empire supported in WWI, then influenced Emir Feisal who turned against the Zionists.  Thanks to the French-British connection, all the good plans fell apart that had been reached by Weizmann and Feisal.

When Jordan attacked Israel in 1967, they kissed good-bye to their hold on Judea-Samaria and east Jerusalem.  They had lost that war along with all their Arab neighbors. Israel didn't kick out any Palestinians but Israelis felt freer to move to Judea and Samaria, holy places to Jews.  Since when do countries keep land when attacking another and losing?  Israel gained rights that they should have had in 1948 .  What would have happened to Israel if she had lost that war?  What was the purpose of the Arab's attack in 1967 if not to end Israel?  What is the purpose of the Palestinians not sitting down to make peace with Israel  for 65 years and establish their Palestine in an acceptable manner?

Resource: http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html excellent with maps
Facts About Israel 1973, division of information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_transjordan.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kings_of_Jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
http://www.lookisrael.com/files/justbig.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_bin_Ali,_Sharif_of_Mecca
http://www.jrtelegraph.com/2011/01/ruth-wisse-arabs-and-muslims-demand-6401-odds-over-jews.html by Ruth Wisse.  Ruth R. Wisse is Peretz Professor Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature.

Between First and Second World Wars, What Happened to Jews in Palestine? Time Line for Israel 70 CE-2009

Nadene Goldfoot
70 CE-fall of Jerusalem by Romans, -dispersal of many Jews as slaves

1880: 1st Aliyah of Jews from Russia to Palestine
1893 Zionism coined by Nathan Birnbaum, plan from Babylonian Exile
1894 Dryfus Affair-Jewish Captain, treason
1897 First Zionist Congress with Theodor Herzl

1913  Zionist meeting with Arabs-Cairo,
 June 1913 1st Arab Congress, Paris Meeting
1913 Bahrain-independent state but under British protection until August 15, 1971
         Qatar-British protectorate for pearling, independent on September 1971

July 28, 1914-November 11, 1918 World War I 
November 1914-Kuwait independent emirate under British protection till 1961 from Britain
1961 complete independence from Britain

June 5, 1916-1918 Sherif Hussein-Great Arab Revolt against Ottoman Empire (for Jewish Return) Lawrence of Arabia, leading
 1916 Chaim Weizmann Director of chemical labs, invented acetone for bombs for England
 November 2, 1917 Balfour Declaration: Jewish Homeland , Chaim Weizmann, Balfour

June 28, 1919 Versialles Peace Meeting with Faisal, Lawrence of Arabia, Arab delegation.

June 28, 1919 to May 14, 1945. League of Nations Mandate of Britain and France 

March 1920 Syria-Transjordan awarded to Arabs
April 11, 1921 Transjordan awarded only to Abdullah I, son of Emir Faisal (Hashemite-Jordan)  80% of what was to be Jewish Homeland offered to Arabs by British which was Transjordan.

February 28, 1922 Egypt Independence from British

1922 Balfour Doctrine USA Congress supported Balfour Doctrine, resolution, adopted
June 1922 White Paper from Churchill, excluded Transjordan from Jews
1929 Riots in Palestine-Arabs against Jews

October 1930- White Paper-Passfield- severely restricting land sales,  immigration of Jews

1932 Iraq Independence from Britain
1932 Saudi Arabia-birth of

May 1939 White Paper, British Malcolm MacDonald allowing 75,000 Jews in over 5 years to 1944, restricted-forbid  land sales

September, 1939 August 14, 1945 World War II-6,000,000,000 Jews killed

22 November 1943 Lebanon Independence from French
1944 USA calls for restoration of Jewish commonwealth
August 1945-Jews alive from Holocaust-  placed in Detention Camps, not allowed into Palestine-British decision. Movie "Exodus" with Paul Newman, Sal Mineo, Eva Marie Saint tells of ship with detainees stuck in Cyrus by British, held there, not allowed into Palestine.  

17 April 1946 Syria Independence from France

1947-War of Independence: between Jews-Arabs, (War of Attrition)-1949:   6,000 Jews killed, 15,000 wounded, Movie, Cast a Giant Shadow with Kirk Douglas tells of struggle before announcing birth of Israel-about Israel's first Aluf; American Mickey Marcus
May 14, 1948 Declaration of State of Israel-from British , David Ben Gurion
1956 War, Sinai Campaign
1968-70 War of Attrition
June 1967 Six Day War
October 1973 War, Yom Kippur War
1982 War in Lebanon, PLO’s Operation Peace in Galilee
1991 War Gulf War
 July 12, 2006 -2nd Lebanon War
December 27, 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead, Gaza War

How Jews and Arabs in Agreement Were Thwarted by the British and French

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

         1917 Balfour Declaration-After the fall of the Ottoman Empire

1894 was the year of the Dryfus Affair, where a French Jewish Captain was found guilty of treason when he really was innocent.  Anti-Semitism, something very common in Russia,  had now reached this ugly level in France.  It hit many Jews in the heart that they needed their own state and the only desire was for Palestine.  Besides, Russian Jews tired of pogroms had already started going  back to Palestine in the 1880's to establish a homeland with the First Aliyah.  Uganda was suggested but quickly dismissed.  After all, many Jewish prayers speak of Jerusalem, Zion and the Land of Israel.  Jews are told not to forget Jerusalem, the site of the temple, which is a major tenet of Judaism.  The Jewish calendar, holidays and festivals all originated in Israel and revolve around Israel's seasons.  Jews pray toward Jerusalem and say the words, "next year in Jerusalem" every Passover since 70 CE.  The Jewish religion, culture and history make clear that it is only in the land of Israel that a Jewish state can be built.

In 1913 the Zionists realized that they needed an agreement with the Arabs if they were going to live in Palestine.  Sami Hochberg represented the Zionists in a meeting with the Cairo- Decentralization Party and the anti-Ottoman Beirut Reform Society and reached an agreement which led to the adoption of a resolution assuring Jews equal rights under a decentralized government.  He also got an invitation to the first Arab Congress in Paris June 1913.

They were most receptive to Zionist aspiration.  Hochberg was encouraged by they response.  Abdul-Hamid Yahrawi, the President of the Congress said, " All of us, both Muslims and Christians, have the best of feelings toward the Jews.  When we spoke in our resolutions about the rights and obligations of the Syrians, this covered the Jews as well.  because they are our brothers in race and we regard them as Syrians who were forced to leave the country at one time but whose hearts always bet together with ours, we are certain that our Jewish brothers the world over will know how to help us so that our common interests may succeed and our common country will develop both materially and morally."

Yet when the WWI broke out, Arabs were opposing the Balfour Declaration, convincing the Zionist leadership of the need to work harder to reach an understanding with the Arabs.  First Chaim Weizmann met with Said Shukeir, Dr. Faris Nimr and Suleiman Bey Nassif (Syrian Arab nationalists chosen by British as representatives.  He told them of the need to live in harmony with Arabs in a British Palestine.

Nassif said, "There was room in Palestine for another million people without affecting the position of those already there."  Dr. Nimr used his Cairo newspaper to dispel the misconceptions about Zionist aims.

World War I started on July 28, 1914. The Ottoman Empire sided with the Germans.   The Allied nations of Europe were planning the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire.  Along came the very secret  Sykes-Picot Agreement (Asia Minor Agreement) of November 1915  and signed on May 16,  1916 to control Western Asia  that involved Britain and France with the help of Russia for the results after the overthrow.  They would divvy up the land between the British and the French.  Russia later exposed their secret plan after the Russian Revolution in October 1917.  .

The Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917, saying that the British government favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people was accepted by no other than Emir Faisal (Feisal) ,  a descendant of Muhammed the Prophet, son of Sherif Hussein, the big leader of the Arab revolt against the Turks.  It came about after long negotiations started by Chaim Weizmann,  right after the outbreak of World War I.  In 1918 Weizmann met in Aqaba with Emir Faisal, son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, the leader of the Arab movement, to discuss prospects of reaching an understanding on the establishment of independent Arab and Jewish states.  President Wilson of the USA supported the American Zionists, headed by Brandeis.  The document was approved by other Allied governments and incorporated into  the Mandate in 1922.  Faisal had signed an agreement with Chaim Weizmann and other Zionist leaders when they had attended   the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.  

He had said, "Mindful of the racial kinship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish People, and realizing that the surest means of working out the consummation of their national aspirations is through the closest possible collaboration in the development of the Arab states and Palestine."

Here we have the leader of the Arab nationalist movement and the Zionist movement reaching an understanding.  This demonstrates that Jewish and Arab aspirations were not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Evidently the ending of the Ottoman Empire that came at the end of WWI gave several Arab chieftans the inspiration to have their own statehoods, which now would be independent from the Turkish rule.  There was no immediate need for the Arabs like there was for the Jews, who had been suffering nothing but hardships and death by having to wander amongst the nations trying to find a home that never materialized.  The latest cause of the need came from the many pogroms that were happening in Russia's Pale of Settlement, where Jews had been confined.  The Arabs saw the opportunity after 400 years of Turkish rule and decided that they needed a piece of the action as well.  They were instigated by such as "Lawrence of Arabia,' too..

Here we have two plans running at the same time.  "Lord Balfour wrote a memorandum from the Paris Peace Conference which stated that the other allies had implicitly rejected the Sykes-Picot agreement by adopting the system of mandates.  It allowed for no annexations, trade preferences, or other advantages. He also stated that the Allies were committed to Zionism and had no intention of honoring their promises to the Arabs.^"

The agreement looked to the fulfillment of the Balfour Declaration and called for all necessary measures "to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants on the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil."

Faisal had conditions to accepting the Balfour Declaration and that was depending on the British wartime promises of independence to the Arabs.  As he later saw it, these were not kept, though many were rewarded with it, he felt he was not.  He had been planning to receive aid from the Jews in building his future kingdom and had met Dr. Weizmann in Transjordan in 1918 and Paris in 1919 where they had reached an agreement on mutual aid..  Later, because he was ousted from Syria by the French in 1920, and because of influence of the Palestinian Arab leaders, his attitude to Zionism became hostile.

What had happened in the battle of the Arab revolt (Arab Awakening) of June 5 1916 against the Ottoman Empire was that a Thomas Edward Chapman, brilliant but illigitimate son born in Wales in 1888 came on the scene in October 1916  to be known as Lawrence of Arabia.  Lawrence was the son of Anglo-Irish Sir Thomas Chapman b; 1846, 7th Baronet and his partner, Sarah Lawrence, also illigitimate born in 1861,  a Scottish governess,  and was related to Sir Walter Raleigh.  He met with Faisal and then managed to take the ill-disciplined Arabs and turn them into a fighting force of 3,000 against  50,000 Turks and win.  He and his force were under General Allenby in Palestine by December 9, 1917 when they entered Jerusalem. "

In 1919 Faisal led the Arab delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and, with the support of the knowledgeable and influential Gertrude Bell, argued for the establishment of independent Arab emirates for the area previously covered by the Ottoman Empire.

Lawrence accompanied the Arab delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference June 28 1919,  where they fully expected their reward for helping the Allies in the war - full independence. Britain and France carved up the Middle East into their own zones of influence and the French even ejected Faisal from Damascus."

Even the American Congress felt the public support for the Balfour Doctrine and a resolution  approving it was adopted in 1922.  In 1944 both national parties, Republicans and Democrats,  called for the restoration of the Jewish Commonwealth, and again in 1945, a similar resolution was adopted by Congress.

Faisal, or Faisal Ibn Hussein was born in 1885 in Saudi Arabia and died in 1933.    His father, Hussein, was sherif of Mecca, Arabia.  Faisel had dreams of creating pan- Arab nationalism.  Faisal  was the leader of the rising against Turkey from 1916 to 1918 and then became the king of Syria. only to be ousted by the French in 1920 because  Faisal's Arabs and the French fought each other, ending Faisal's reign quickly. The French then held the Syrian mandate.  He  did become king of Iraq in  1921. 

 Iraqi independence came in 1932, but came with lots of persecution of Jews who lived there, mainly in Bagdad.  Hundreds were killed and wounded in a pogrom in 1941.  Iraq had been one of the nations attacking Israel in 1948.  123,500 of the Iraqi Jews then moved to Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.  All their property in Iraq had been taken by the government.  Only 150 Jews were found there in 1991.

The Arab Higher Committee, a central council of the Arab National Movement in Palestine from 1936 to 1948 were led by the mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin el Husseini.  Their aim was to fight Zionism and the Palestinian Jews.  They were outlawed by the British mandatory  government in 1937 as they organized riots and killings in 1936.  The leaders were exiled to the Seychelles, islands east of Africa.  They re-established in 1945 and again caused riots and killings in 1947-1948.  After Israel was established in 1948 the king of Jordan did away with the committee, but the mufti tried to revive it as the Palestine Government in the Gaza Strip.

Here we had had Chaim Weizmann and his discoveriy and invention to produce acetone. Acetone was used in the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants critical to the Allied war effort.  
Without this, neither the British, French nor Arabs would have won,  along with the extra soldiers provided through Lawrence of Arabia who took Palestine.  Both  the Jews and the Arabs were cheated out of what they had been promised, though the Jews did have a written Declaration over what the Arabs had presumed would be their reward for their outstanding fighting.   In the end the Arabs were given far more of the Ottoman Empire than what they had dreamed of and sooner than the Jews. Suprisingly, they refused more than half of the share offered to the Jews because they wanted it all.

Resource: Myths and Facts by Mitchell Bard and Joel Himelfarb
New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal-Weizmann_Agreement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/lawrence_of_arabia.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_I_of_Iraq
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/weizmann.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann
http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sarah_Junner_Lawrence_(1861-1959)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria
.  

Did Reverend Jackson Let the Cat Out of the Bag?

Nadene Goldfoot
Reverend Jackson just announced that if Obama wins the attitude towards Israel will change completely. The "Zionists" will no longer be in charge. Obama retorted that he is not a spokesman for him and has no business speaking that way. However, Jackson stated that he is a friend of the family. His son is good friends with Obama. He also said that Obama is about change, change in the way America looks at the world and it's place in it. It looks like Israel will not be treated in the same way that it has been by our administration if Obama is in power.

This is exactly what I have been wondering about. What will Obama's attitude towards Israel really be like? Now I am wondering what Jackson knows, or why he said this. I fear that Reverend Wright did not have warm feelings towards Israel. Now I'm also wondering about Jackson. Wright's close association with Farakhan certainly would help in that respect. Farakhan is no friend of Jews in particular or Israel.

Of course, at a time when Obama is trying to convince Jews to vote for him, this statement of Jackson's was bad timing as far as the election goes.

10/15/08 The last reference below is today's answer to the original news yesterday from Obama. He denies saying this.
10/15/08 2:51 Fox News TV had Professor Mark....and James Harris, both Black commentators, speaking about remarks that Dick Morris, former Clinton Advisor and now for McCain just made reiterating the news about Reverend Jesse Jackson's remarks. James Harris believes that Reverend Jackson probably said it. He has been at odds with Obama at various times.
Reference: Fox News: 3:30pm Britt Hume
New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_o_jesse_knows_133450.htm?page=0
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081015/ap_on_el_pr/jackson_israel_2