Only Facts About Israel: The great British betrayal of the Jews-stephen_wise-jacob_de

The great betrayal-stephen_wise-jacob_de_haas-1930-310 pgs-rel-pol

1. GREAT THE BETRAYAL BY STEPHEN S. WISE AND JACOB DE HAAS NEW YORK BRENTANO'S • PUBLISHERS 1930
2.1930 BY BRENTANO'S, INC . Printed in the United States of America by the Stratford Press
3. To NATHAN STRAUS Great Heart, Loyal American Dreamer and Builder o f Zion.
4. This is not a question merely between the Jews and the Arabs, but a question of British honor. The Marquis of Reading, former Lord Chief Justice of England
5. CONTENTS Introduction xi CHAPTER I. The Indictment 3 II. England's First Approach 16 III. Palestine and War Policies 27 IV. England's Original Interpretation 42 V. The Peace Conference 51 VI. The Mandate 79 VII. The Colonial Office Takes Hold 101 VIII. The League Takes Hold 118 IX. The "Crystallization" Process 145 X. We Rest Our Case i 6o APPENDIX i6SI. The Great Adventure II. The Churchill White Paper 173 III. The Mandate for Palestine "i83 ix
6. X CONTENTS IV. V. A Defense o f the Mandate Balfour's Protest zoo 219 VI. The Home Land Claim 221 VII. The Passfield white Paper 238 VIII. Winston Churchill's Views 286
7. INTRODUCTION UPON the issuance of the Passfield White Paper, October zo, it seemed that, after the tumult and shouting of protest should die, it would be needful to set forth the facts lest men forget . The Passfield Paper was seen at once not to be in slight or partial variance with an established govern- mental policy but an appallingly complete annulment of what had been assumed by the nations to have become an unalterable British obligation . Therefore, whatever else might in the first bitter hour of accusation and condemnation be said, it seemed needful to collate and consider the documents in the case. Soon after reaching the decision to set forth a full statement of the facts, I became ill. Forth- with it became needful to choose between postponing the plan to publish and sharing the task with another. I chose the latter course, inviting Jacob de Haas, comrade and biographer of Theodor Herzl, to collaborate with me . After Mr. de Haas' acceptance of the invitation to share xi
8. X11 INTRODUCTION in the preparation of the volume, I became more seriously ill so that the larger part of the work had to be done by Mr . de Haas. The major burden of hurried compilation and preparation of the material thus rested upon him, though the re- sponsibility for the book we bear together. It is a serious, in truth, a grave task to which we set ourselves, the graver because of a life-long reverence and affection for all that is English. We do not indict a people . We do indict a government, which has rendered a terrible disservice to its people by bringing their honor into question . What greater hurt could a government do its people? The moral betrayals of peace-time are no less shameful than the military betrayals of war- time. The aim has been to set forth the case with fullness and clarity in the following pages . No need of anticipating the argument in this prefatory note. Yet it should be said that no deeper wrong can be done to Britain than to aver, as do some faint-hearted Jews and some soft-headed Liberals, that English statesmen designed the Bal- four Declaration to be a bid or lure for world- Jewish support of the Allied war-aims, which lure we Jews in our extremity took too seriously . I am prepared to believe that in the end the Balfour Declaration came for the most part to be implemented by Colonial Office bureaucrats
9. INTRODUCTION X111 in London and in Palestine, as if the Declaration were merely a fleeting war measure, to be emptied of content of ter the Armistice, though not too suddenly or obviously . But who save an invet- erate foe of Great Britain can believe that Balfour and Lloyd George and Smuts did no more than try to trick a people? Passfield and some of his associates shall not rob us of our faith in the bona fides of Balfour and his associates . No more can we assent to the validity of an- other theory less cynically urged,-that the War Cabinet did not encompass the difficulties of a situation which involved appeasement of Arab and Jew alike. Two fallacies underlie this theory, -one, the ascription of lack of intelligence and understanding to the leaders of the British War Cabinet. It seems a rather daring hypothesis that Balfour fumbled in the realm of statecraft, that this disciplined and far-reaching mentality, to say nothing of the astute Lloyd George and the seasoned Smuts, failed to grasp all the factors in a quite patent situation. The Balfour Declaration was in the process of making for nearly two years . Its authorship was not solitary but collective . It was the work, in a very real sense, of the Allied War Cabinets and the American Government. But the attribution to England's war statesmen of failure to under-
10. Xiv INTRODUCTION stand the competing claims of Jew and Arab involves a still deeper blunder . There were no conflicting Arab and Jewish claims in Palestine during the War, any more than there were con- flicting claims in Iraq or the Hedjaz. The British War Cabinet framed its policies on different bases in relation to the two peoples. In return in part for service rendered and to be rendered by Arab groups in Syria, Mesopotamia and the Hedjaz, England undertook to liberate the people of these lands from Turkish suzernity and to safeguard their establishment as national entities. That undertaking, except for French dominance in Syria, has been fulfilled . On a wholly different basis, which at the time seemed to be held with entire sincerity, the decision was reached to reconstitute the Jewish National Home. The conception underlying the Jewish National Home happened to fit into the deepening faith of the nations that Jews, a minor- ity people in all countries, needed a national home . From such a national center in the ancient Jewish Homeland, it was hoped that healing strength and inspiration would radiate to Jews everywhere, and again become an enriching gift to all peoples . The decision to reconstitute the Jewish National Home was inevitable in view of the professions of the Allied Nations that the Great War, begin-
11. INTRODUCTION XV ning with Serbian resistance to the threat of Austro-Hungarian domination, was fought to maintain the national integrity of the smaller peoples, to reconstitute national entities in so far as these had been violated, and, above all, to restore and to safeguard the right of self-determination! It was on these grounds that the Allied Powers were impelled to bethink themselves touching the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, though nearly two millennia had passed since the day of exile of the Jewish people. A further grace was added to the rightful decision of the Allied Powers, with the eager cooperation of President Wilson, insofar as the Christian nations assumed the task of facilitating the estab- lishment of the Jewish National Home in the spirit of reparation to a much-wronged people . Whatever the motivation may have been in war years that led to the three-fold covenant of Great Britain, the Jewish people and the nations today, it is a condition and not a theory that con- fronts men. As a result of Britain's pledge to the Jews and acceptance of the League Mandate, Jews in all parts of the world,-but, above all, politi- cally homeless Jews,-uprooted themselves and took up the march to make a home, a new home, in the old land. One hundred thousand men and women, bravest of the brave, have within a decade
12. Xvi INTRODUCTION settled in Palestine in the spirit of pioneers . Unlike other pioneering settlers, they would not selfishly hold what they have hardly won, but would share it with their brothers who are to follow . They have not pilgrimed in quest of self, nor have they pioneered for less than the most durable satisfac- tions of life that only sacrifice and selflessness can bestow. Even if there had been no Balfour Decla- ration and no League Mandate, it would still be meet that Britain, our country and other nations together consider the tragic facts of Jewish home- lessness and hopelessness in many lands and of the one gleam that shines in Palestine as the land of a reconstituted home and a reborn hope for the Jewish people. Mr. de Haas' almost unique command of the vast documentary material has made it possible for us to trace, step by step, the march from the high promise of November 2, 1917 to the base breach of October 20, i93o,-the descent from Balfour to Passfield. It would be unfair not to state with unmistakable clearness that the Pass- field White Paper was not a bolt from the blue . It was the culmination of a sinister policy rather than its commencement . It was more than cul- mination, it was canonization . For what Colonial Office servants had in part planned and long practiced,-perhaps inevitably, in view of the
13. INTRODUCTION Xvii incongruity of naming Colonial Office admin- istrators in a Mandated area,-they have at last attempted to enact into law under Passfield . I, for my part, am ready to charge the officials of the Palestine Administration, alike in London and Jerusalem, with having so bedeviled a situa- tion as to deepen Arab-Jewish differences, which at the outset were superficial. Statesmanship with good-will could easily have composed a situation which Colonial Office bureaucracy with ill intent has done everything to confound . THE GREAT BETRAYAL deals at some length with the land question, the problem of Jewish self-help, immigration, and, all to briefly with the Wailing Wall issue. It must suffice in summing up to state that the Colonial Office has objected to Jewish expropriation of Arab land, widening that term to include lawful and peace- able acts of purchase at absurdly high rates, plus provision of substitute lands for the sellers . But, it should be added, even this "expropriation" would have been obviated in part, if the Palestine Government had not utterly failed to fulfill the terms of the Mandate with respect to the allot- ment to Jewish settlers of State Lands and the encouragement of close settlements. As for the crime of "Jewish self-help," it has been the finest distinction of the Jewish resettle-
14. Xviii INTRODUCTION ment. That it may be understood, one need but consider the abhorrent alternative, namely that the plowing, sowing and reaping be done not by Jewish owners and settlers but by hired Arab workers. Then in truth it might have been charged that the Jews in Palestine are ready to reap, but are unwilling to sow, as tillers of the soil must be willing. Jewish self-help is only another way of saying that the Jewish settlers felt and feel that by their own toil their land must be redeemed. How they have toiled from the earliest to the latest groups of pioneers is the glory of the tale of Jewish resettlements in Palestine . It is Jewish self-help, not Arab exploitation, that has redeemed the land. The only wrong perpetrated by Jewish self-help,-which has not shut out the employment of thousands of Arab workers,-has been to move the enslaved Arab Fellahin to revolt against the bondage thrust upon them by rapa- cious Arab Effendis. As for immigration, no one can dispute that it must depend on the "economic absorptive capac- ity of the land." But is it necessary to point out that such capacity began with Jewish immigra- tion? It will end when Jewish immigration is barred. Whatever Arab unemployment obtains is not a sequel to Jewish immigration, but largely a "throw-back" to incurable Arab nomadism and
15. INTRODUCTION XiX its four-seasonable non-employment. Jewish im- migration of Palestine gave economic status to the Arab. Its continuance is the only guarantee of continued Arab employment and the enhance- ment of the welfare of all the people. To set up a dichotomy between Jewish immigration and Arab employment is to contradict all the facts in the case. No point more clearly illustrates the political and moral shortcomings of the Palestine admin- istration, culminating in the Passfield White Paper, than the development of the Wailing Wall issue. This has been handled in such fashion as to deny the Jew his right to worship undisturbed and unchallenged at this one remaining Jewish Shrine. At the same time, groups of Islam adven- turers were lured into the hope of making it exclusively what has never before been claimed for it, a super-shrine of Islam. The Wailing Wall of twenty centuries of Jewish suffering, suffer- ing transfigured by an undying hope, is to be con- verted into a memorial of the fancied resting place of the imaginary steed, Burak, of a dream- pilgrimage. That the Wailing Wall issue is before a League of Nations Commission today, is symp- tomatic of a situation needlessly aggravated . The Arabs have been given every reason to believe that whatever the Balfour Declaration and the Man-
16. XX INTRODUCTION date might say, Anglo-Palestine officials would so manage affairs as to make orderly, progressive, continuous Jewish resettlement all but impossible. At the same time, Arab agitators have in every way been led to the hope either of directly repeal- ing the Mandate or of undoing it by such proc- esses of indirection as would bring frustration to the Jewish effort . If the Colonial Office sought to conform to the tenor as well as the text of the Mandate, then it has suffered itself to be overborne at last by its underlings in Palestine and their confederates in London. As for Lord Passfield's White Paper, it has crystallized and even petrified the refusal of Anglo-Palestine officials honorably and fully to discharge the obligations of the Mandate . Until canceled in substance, this will remain a blot upon England. The wisdom and justness of re- warding the Arab massacres of August 1929 by the unconditional Passfield surrender of October, 1930, will ultimately be left for decision not to the pundits of the Colonial Office, but to the con- science of the English people, irrespective of polit- ical parties. In December, 1918, as one of a Commission of the Zionist Organization of America, the writer discussed with Mr. Balfour at some length the implications of the Declaration bearing his name,
17. INTRODUCTION XXl as these were about to be considered by the Paris Peace Conference . It fell to him to acquaint Mr . Balfour with the text of a resolution adopted the preceding day by the American Jewish Congress in Philadelphia assembled . This resolution, expres- sive of the overwhelming will of American Israel, besought the British Government to assume a Protectorate over Palestine . Mr. Balfour replied that it was a great honor to his government and people to be urged by one of the populous and powerful Jewries in the world to assume a trustee- ship over a Jewish Palestine . He added that he hoped, as he believed, that it was within the pur- pose of President Wilson to accept for the United States a parallel trusteeship over a reconstituted Christian Armenia. Subsequently Great Britain accepted a Man- date from the League of Nations to fulfill the pur- pose of the Balfour Declaration . This purpose has not been fulfilled . The White Paper of Lord Pass- field is a betrayal,-it may be that one should name it the climax and culmination of a great betrayal. Israel's, indeed mankind's, appeal is from the White Paper of Passfield to the conscience and honor of Balfour's England. New York City STEPHEN S. WISE. November, 1930
18. THE GREAT BETRAYAL
19. I THE INDICTMENT „ IF THERE is no departure in the policy it is very remarkable that the whole Jewish world should take exception to the British statement," retorted David Lloyd George to Premier Ramsay Mac- Donald, across the floor of the House of Commons on Wednesday, October 29, 1930. The policy relates to the upbuilding of the Jewish National Home, as redefined in an eagerly looked for report on the future of Palestine prepared by Sir John Hope Simpson, and enveloped in a White Paper issued by the British Government on October 20, 1930. There is no question that Lord Passfield is responsible for this unique document. It has the authority of the Colonial Office over which he presides, and we assume, despite the press reports that the Cabinet members either never saw it, or opposed it, that the government is responsible for a document which sets forth a government policy. A British White Paper has turned the Jewish World black with mourning. From October 21st, the Jewish world has been 3
20. 4 THE GREAT BETRAYAL shaken by a surging wave of emotion, an aroused and embittered sense of wrath, that surpasses in its broad sweep, its intensity and its reality every- thing heretofore experienced in Jewish Life in our generation. We Jews-and the writers speak as two Jews who stood at the cradle of the modern political Zionist movement who all their lives have participated in as well as observed the movement of Jewish affairs here in America and elsewhere,-we Jews are in truth capable of protest . We have suffered so many of the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," we have experienced so many indignities, we have had heaped upon us so much of the world's contumely, that our appeals to the conscience of mankind have something of the quality of oft-repeated prayers . Yet it can be said with assurance and knowledge that neither the Dreyfus affair, nor the Kishinef massacre, nor the demand for the abrogation of the United States Treaty with Russia-three epochal events in modern Jewish history,-stirred the same vehemence, or witnessed the instant ingathering of the mass of Jews that is now exhibited in every city and town in the world. A race, which in all the normal aspects of life is as much divided as any other people, has as though by a magnetic attraction been drawn together in response to
21. THE INDICTMENT 5 Lord Passfield's White Paper and has forged a union of unlooked for strength. Why? Every Jew is not a Zionist. Not every Zionist is prepared to settle in Palestine . There are non- Zionists, even anti-Zionists, among us . Yet on every Jewish lips there has formed not only that hateful, poisonous word "betrayal" but the word is uttered with a burning sense of indignation . This people does not claim to be without guile. Having grown old in suffering, it is self-disciplined even in the language of imprecation . Zionism is in danger . The Jew, thinks the non- Jew, moved by racial urge yields to an irridenta over which it is pleasant to sentimentalize. The Jew, thinks the observer, saw himself reacting to the pleasure of possessing a "place in the sun" and he is hysterical because he finds himself lost in the shadows. Perhaps there is a gleam of truth in these suggestions . But a much larger measure of truth rests in the fact that the Jew feels that he has been duped as well as betrayed. He has suffered a violation not only with respect to Zion and his rights in Palestine, but he has sustained the blow at the hands of the British government-a govern- ment in which, as shall presently be made clear, he had complete faith . He has been outraged by, of all British governments, a Labor Government
22. 6 THE GREAT BETRAYAL which, owing to the complexities of the Jewish proletariat in every country, spelled to the average Jewish mind the party of hope, of redemption and justice, and of that equalization of humanity which is the necessary back-bone of the Jewish concept of reasonable existence . Moreover to add to the intensity of the mortification it was assumed to within a few months, that a Labor Government presided over by Ramsay MacDonald, who had said pleasant things of the Jews in Palestine, would of all human forces best appreciate the nature of the sacrifice and the character of the effort being made by the Jewish people in Pales- tine. Is our sense of wrong suffered-hysteria? The voices that answer for us are the voices of the former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, former Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain and former Colonial Secretary Leopold S. Amery : "What we regret is that his Majesty's Gov- ernment would appear to have abandoned that policy-they have discouraged the effort of the Jewish leaders to promote the good feeling which the government itself postulates as a necessary condition of the settlement of Palestinian problems. "Without giving either Jewish or Arab
23. THE INDICTMENT 7 opinion an opportunity to express itself or al- lowing the voice of the British Parliament to be heard, they have laid down a policy of so definitely negative a character that it appears to us to conflict not only with the insistence of the Council of the League of Nations that it would be contrary to the intention of the mandate if the Jewish National Home were crystallized at its present stage of development but with the whole spirit of the Balfour Declaration and of the statements made by successive governments in the last twelve years." The "man in the street," a trifle perplexed and not a little suspicious as to the ways of politicians, suspects that perhaps this is only one of the peculiar methods by which the "outs" in Eng- land seek to overcome the "ins ." So in substantiation of the Baldwin, Chamberlain, Amery view we quote the words of General Jan Christian Smuts who, though one of the foremost statesmen in the British dominions, is at present without office in his own country, South Africa, and is therefore far removed from the play and counter- play that proceed in Westminster. "As one of those who was responsible for the Balfour Declaration I feel deeply perturbed
24. 8 THE GREAT BETRAYAL over the present Palestine policy . The government statement marks a retreat from that Declaration which was a definite promise to the Jew of the world that the policy of the Jewish National Home would be actively prosecuted and its intention was to obtain the powerful Jewish influence for the Allied cause at the darkest hour of the War. "As such it was approved by the United States Government and the other Allies and accepted in good faith by the Jews. It cannot now be varied unilaterally by the British Govern- ment. It represents a debt of honor which must be discharged in full at all cost. The circumstances of the original Declaration were far too solemn to permit any wavering now. I most strongly urge the government to issue a statement that the terms of the Balfour Declaration be fully carried out in good faith and the government's Palestine policy be recast accordingly.„ The English conservative leaders accuse the Government of having "abandoned" a policy. General Smuts describes it as a "retreat ." The connotation of these two words as applied to the act is the same, the difference is as to what may subsequently follow. Smuts is sanguine that
25. THE INDICTMENT 9 the lost ground can be recovered. Baldwin is more pessimistic . Both emphasize a radical change: both admit a breach of faith. These men accuse not the people, but the pres- ent government of Great Britain of disloyalty to principle and of betrayal of policy . Jews voice the same sense of outrage. They formally employ toward the British government's action the words Sir Edward Grey used to describe Germany's violation in 1914 of the treaty which neutralized Belgium. "Contrary to the assurances given by the representative of the British Government to the League of Nations, a statement has been issued by that Government announcing a Policy with respect to Palestine which is a breach of its trust and a defiance of its inter- national obligations. "To this repudiation and violation, the Jewish People will never submit. "We denounce as utterly unfounded the suggestion that Jewish development in Pales- tine has been prejudicial to the welfare of the Arabs. The contrary is the truth. Improvement in Arab life, as the proceedings before the Mandates Commission have conclusively proven, steadily followed in the wake of Jewish effort.
26. 10 THE GREAT BETRAYAL "We declare the professed adhesion of the statement of the British Government to the Jewish National Home policy simultaneously with a denial of the right of immigration and land purchase by Jews as a travesty of that policy and as a violation of the Declaration by a previous Government in 1922, that the Jews are in Palestine as of right and not on sufferance. "We point to the fact that the Palestine Mandate, which embodies the Balfour Declaration, is based upon the explicit recognition of `the historic connection of the Jewish people with Palestine.' We declare this connection unbroken and unbreakable. This connection will subsist despite the present attempt of the British Government to nullify the Palestine Mandate and to reduce the Balfour Declara- tion to a scrap of paper." So declared three thousand Jews, hastily gathered, filling to capacity Mecca Temple, New York City on October 21st. Here, says the critic, speaks the carping, easily-roused mob! Perfervid Zionists with something at stake, if no more than pride in party and in theory, are shouting . Note then that the preceding words quoted from the mass-meeting resolution are an under-statement
27. THE INDICTMENT II compared with what two men of affairs, a banker and an industrialist, men of cautious phraseology, subduers of public emotion say . Mr. Felix M. Warburg, better known as a banker and philanthropist than as exponent of a racial urge, in a long message explaining his resignation from the office of chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency says : "The assurances which Lord Passfield gave me as to the forthcoming recommendations, are at variance with what he has now publicly announced. "At Lord Passfield's personal invitation, I went to London on August 22nd. During a two hours' talk, he authorized us to make certain statements to the Administrative Com- mittee of the Jewish Agency at its forthcoming executive meeting in Berlin a few days later . In the light of the documents just issued by Lord Passfield, I am compelled, however regretfully, to say that I was misled . Lord Pass- field's representations to me made me the innocent vehicle of misstatements to my col- leagues of the Jewish Agency . "With deep regret I must resign as Chair- man of the Administrative Committee . I had a right to place complete reliance upon the
28. 12 THE GREAT BETRAYAL statements made by Lord Passfield on behalf of his Government and through me the Jewish people were misled. Further relations such as the Chairmanship of the Administrative Com- mittee entails, are no longer possible." Simultaneously and with no less vehemence Lord Melchett, the former Sir Alfred Mond, chemist and financier, a British Peer, conveys his flaming sense of wrong. "This grotesque travesty is an insult to the intelligence of Jewry and an affront to the Mandates Commission . It is impossible to dis- cover what rights the Jews in or out of Pales- tine are to have in the future, or in what way they can be made to feel they have any rights at all in that country." Are these men mad? Are they turning to the invective of Isaiah because the frenzy of Zion has gotten into their bones? Or have they for private reasons set out to blast the honor of Mac- Donald, or to destroy the reputation of Lord Passfield? Is the conservative Baldwin seeking to ditch his political opponent? Is Smuts thrusting at anti-imperialistic Passfield? Is capitalist War- burg aiming at the overturning of a socialistic government? Is Melchett seeking revenge on trade unionists? Let us complete the variety of
29. THE INDICTMENT 13 the accusations by adding that of Abraham Cahan, veteran socialist, and seventy year old editor of the leading Yiddish socialist daily in the United States, The Forward: "With a bleeding heart I must ask : How can a Labor Party issue such a policy? "In the present tragedy of England our comrades there have, it seems, lost their or- dinary coolness, common sense and deep So- cialist sense of justice. They believe that the decision which they have made is in the interests of their country, of their people. We, the Jewish Socialists, can only have one stand- point in this sad moment . We must stand by our people, the Jewish people. "We demand our rights in Palestine . We demand that England should keep its word and not break its solemn vow . . . . "Let us hope that the League of Nations will reject the decision of the Colonial Office and demand of England that it fulfill its contract ." There was more of individual drama in Zola's J'Accuse hurled at President Faure and the French General Staff, when the Dreyfus case reached its culmination than in any of these individual statements. But the accumulation of protest before us, beyond listing and overwhelm-
30. 14 THE GREAT BETRAYAL ing in its spontaneity, indicates that a world has risen, a world, that includes men of British birth, against a °`White Paper" of which the venerable Baron Edmond de Rothschild has written- "the principles laid down in that paper are contrary both to the spirit and the letter of the Mandate for Palestine, which is based on the Declaration made by Lord Balfour, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the name of his government." Against this charge Mr. MacDonald in the House of Commons on October 28th, sought to answer all critics by saying : "In the spirit of the mandate and sticking strictly to the letter of the mandate, we are straightening out the differences between contradictory parts of certain declarations . Nothing has amazed me more than the extraor- dinary intentions attributed to the Colonial Office and the government on account of this White Paper." This obtuseness is also characteristic of Mac- Donald's answer to General Smuts, in which he says : "The Balfour Declaration explicitly provided that nothing should be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing
31. THE INDICTMENT 15 non-Jewish communities in Palestine . Since the acceptance of the Palestine Mandate the trend of events, particularly in some methods adopted in the establishment of the Jewish National Home, has tendered to endanger the position of the non-Jewish communities to a degree which, in light of the Simpson report, has given us great concern and has convinced us of the necessity for special measures to ensure that the double obligation of the Mandate be fulfilled." Setting aside motive, restraining emotion in order to put the case before the bar of public opinion, the question remains, has the Labor Government reversed the Balfour Declaration and Palestine Mandatory policy? And if the Government of that people, which assumed "the white man's burden," has been guilty of a breach of sacred trust and of public faith, what is the measure of that breach? What, if anything lies behind it? How deep is the moral delinquency, how great the legal violation of contractual obligations? To answer all these questions we must carry the reader back over thirty years of public Jewish effort to achieve a foothold in Zion, in loyal cooperation with the government of Great Britain.
32. 11 ENGLAND'S FIRST APPROACH ON JULY 9, 19o2,Theodor Herzl, protagonist of the "Jewish State : An Attempt at a Solution of the Jewish Problem," and President of the World Zionist Organization, appeared in London as an expert before the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration, over which Lord James of Hereford presided. The ,great founder of the modern Zionist movement did not hesitate to speak into the British record his clear conviction as to the causes as well as the solution of the Jewish Question. He defined his objective thus : "The solution of the Jewish difficulty is the recognition of Jews as a people and the finding by them of a legally recognized home, to which Jews in those parts of the world in which they are oppressed would naturally mi- grate, for they would arrive there as citizens just because they are Jews, and not as aliens . . . . Give to Jews there their rightful position as a people and I am convinced they would de- 16
33. FIRST APPROACH 1 7 velop a distinct Jewish cult-national characteristics and national aspirations-which would make for the progress of mankind." Herzl in his statement transposed the phrase Jewish National Home, into "a home legally recognized as Jewish," in order to achieve clarity .* Whatever the subsequent course of events, whatever the nature of the interruptions that followed, it is clear from these words of the founder of the Zionist movement, uttered before a Parliamentary body, that British statesmen and British officialdom had in their possession in documentary form, as early as 19o2, definite in- formation as to the objects of Zionism, and the aims and purposes of the movement. There ought therefore in 1930 arise neither bewilderment nor astonishment as to Zionist claims. Nor did Theo- dor Herzl in i9o2 as an individual go beyond the avowed program adopted publicly at the first Zionist Congress, held at Basle, Switzerland in 1897, which thereafter became known as the Basle Program. "Zionism aims to create a publicly secured, legally assured home for the Jewish people in Palestine." * Theodor Herzl, Jacob de Haas, Vol . II, p. 323.
34. i8 THE GREAT BETRAYAL These Jewish aspirations were in themselves not new to Englishmen nor to British statesmen . Sokolow's two volumes on the History of Zion- ism, are in the main devoted to collating the facts of the British interest in the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine from Cromwellian Days . Set- ting aside emotional, religious and mystical interest in the fulfillment of prophecy, it is important to point out that from Moses Montefiore's first visit to Palestine in 18 3 6, and more especially from the date of his intervention in the Damascus incident of 11840, there developed in England a political practice of exercising protection over the Jews in the Orient, which thoroughly warranted the assumption by Jews of the belief that Bible-loving England was fundamentally the power that would second any effort at Jewish restoration . Moreover it is beyond cavil that Lord Shaftesbury, Col . Gawler, Lord Kitchener, Sir Charles Warren, Sir Charles Wilson, Benjamin Disraeli, Col . Conder, Laur- ence Oliphant and a host of others in different ways and at different times, from the Crimean War to 1912 provoked the issue, or deliberately took the initiative in urging the Jewish resettlement as a practical political measure . Herzl in 1902 was mild and circumspect compared to Earl Shaftesbury in 1875
35. FIRST APPROACH 19 Let us not delay . . . to send out the best agents . . . to search the length and breadth of Palestine to survey the land, and if possible to go over every corner of it, drain it, measure it, and, if you will, prepare it for the return of its ancient possessors. . . . I recollect speaking, to Lord Aberdeen, when he was Prime Minister, on the subject of the Holy Land : and he said to me, "If the Holy Land should pass out of the hands of the Turks, into whose hands should it f all?" Why, the reply was ready, "Not into the hands of other powers, but let it return into the hands of the Israelites ." And no Zionist has ventured to say, "Of the modern contribution of the Jewish Palestinian life" what the Chief Surgeon to George V wrote in i9i2.t "The passerby may ask, in the words of the Book of Nehemiah, `What do these feeble Jews? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish?' And the answer is that among the heaps of rubbish, among the piled- up ruins of long ages, among the wreckage left by war, earthquake and fire, there are some who can still see the glow of light on the * Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Report, 1875, p. I IS . t The Land That Is Desolate, an account of a tour in Palestine by Sir Frederick Treves, Bart ., London, x913, p. x16.
36. 20 THE GREAT BETRAYAL stones that mark the spot where the Ark of the Lord had stood." It therefore seemed natural enough that Herzl's spiritual personality, impressive stature and simple suggestion of a wise and humane policy on the Jewish question should have met with almost instant response on the part of the British government. The result of negotiations was that on August 14, 1903, the Foreign Office, cooperating with the Colonial Office over which Joseph Chamberlain presided, issued to Herzl and the Zionist Congress, then assembled in Basle, an offer of a grant of land in East Africa . The scheme involved : The appointment of a Jewish official as the chief of the local administration, and permis- sion to the colony to have a free hand in regard to municipal legislation as to the management of religious and purely domestic matters, such local autonomy being conditional upon the right of his Majesty's government to exercise general control. East Africa is not Palestine . But the general theory underlying the peculiar Jewish need and the national aspiration involved in any Zionist conception is written plain in this document . If British bureaucracy is bemused, it is not for lack
37. FIRST APPROACH 21 of information in its departmental files, nor is it due to confusion provoked by changes of attitude on the part of Jews. The Zionists have held stead- fast to principle since its formulation in the Basle Program. As to Palestine and its local conditions, it is only fair to say that British officialdom knew more about Arab social, economic, agricultural and all other problems than the Jews aspiring to settle there. From the first attempt of the American scholar, Robinson,* in 1837-9 to explore the archeological remains in Palestine in the interest of Biblical research, the British have, through the Palestine Exploration Fund, concentrated upon the study of everything however minute that relates to Palestine . Theirs are the surveys, the compilation of flora and fauna, theirs too the enumeration and localization of the Bedouin tribes; theirs the studies in local conditions, the compilation of customs and excise, estimates of population, speculation as to origins of peoples, observations on everything that relates to the area between the River of Egypt and the cedars of Lebanon. Those prone to speculate upon such matters might detect in the volume of British expert material on Palestine compiled since Lord Pal- * Biblical Researches in Palestine, 3 Vo1s ., x841.
38. 22 THE GREAT BETRAYAL merston's first consideration, in the forties, of the possibility of exercising a British protectorate over Palestine in the Jewish interest, the slow hatching of a political plot. We for our part repudiate all such suggestions . We merely cite the existence of the great volume of material be- ginning with Bownring's report on Syria in 118 3 8, the hundreds of reports, documents and British travel books written from that date to the be- ginning of the World War, as proof to the de- tached reader of what is patent to us, that the British government had at its disposal, at every stage of its association with Jews in the matter of Palestine, if anything a superabundance of data. The psychological as well as the physical problems of Palestine have been fairly stationary since i 902 when the British Cabinet eagerly considered Herzl's proposals . Nothing has transpired in Palestine since the World War which could not be easily foreseen. The new factors, Arab and Jewish immigration with the attendant economic changes that followed, were part of a policy specifically advanced by the British gov- ernment, and even the Arab protests to Jewish claims, as we shall presently make clear, were all part of the conscious knowledge of statesmen who advocated the creation of the Jewish National Home and the obtaining for England of
39. FIRST APPROACH 23 the Mandate for Palestine, on the express condition that it should be her duty to facilitate the establishment and development of that Home. But we resume our narrative. In 19o5 the British East African offer was rejected by the Zionists. After Theodor Herzl's death, a period of non-political effort, of patient colonization effort, followed. The Zionists changed not an iota of their aspirations which could not be realized in organized fashion in view of the seeming in- capacity of the then Ottoman Government for a proper comprehension of Zionist plans and for stability of dealing with the leaders of the movement. The Zionists therefore promoted agricul- tural settlements and the use of Hebrew as a living language. Government reports noted the increase of Jewish population, the development of vineyards and orange groves and the restric- tions practiced by the Turkish government, thus emphasizing the inwardness of the movement and the gradual changes in conditions in Palestine . Yildiz Kiosk for international political reasons was resisting the Jewish advance . Coming under the pressure of the German Drang nach Osten, it dreaded most that alienation of German military support which alone could maintain the Ottoman Empire as against ever-threatening Russian advance. In the fear, finally, of the Rus-
40. 24 THE GREAT BETRAYAL sian political machination whereby every Russian Jew, however persecuted at home, was yet claimed in Palestine as a Russian subject, it issued "red passports" to Jews which limited their stay in the country, and employing many other methods to hamper Jewish effort. When Abdul Hamid was dethroned the Young Turk Party deliberately announced in i9o9 that they closed the doors on Zionist political aspirations in Palestine. The new leaders sought to Mohammedanize all the peoples in the Turkish Empire and would not welcome more Jews. This clash reveals both the steadfastness of the Jewish effort and the means available even to the most stupid bureaucrat of ascertaining the Jewish attitude. If there has been sinning-it has been sinning in the light. Zionist fortunes were at a low ebb at the out- break of the war.* To save what had been created in Palestine was the leading thought of those sanguine spirits hoping for better times . The world Zionist organization in the fall of 1914 naturally fell asunder, redividing its various associations into their original national groupings . The central office was in Berlin-the least numerically significant group of Zionist was in England. It was only in America, that by virtue * For fuller details see Louis D. Brandeis by Jacob de Haas, pp. 56-98.
41. FIRST APPROACH 25 of oceanic separation as well as political neutrality, careful consideration could be given to what might be the aftermath of the war . But all such contemplation of the future was for a time rudely disturbed not only by pressing Jewish distress in the war lands but by the fact that the war alliances ran counter to every conceivable emotion stirring among Jews. To side with England was natural enough to the overwhelming majority, but by siding with England to support Russia, whose every advance spelled devastation and horror to the Jews, seemed impossible. The Germans took ample advantage of this political misalliance both in Poland and in the United States. Without promise or specific prospect, but with an abiding faith in English honor, English justice and the inherent British pro-Jewish interest in Palestine, the attempt was made by lovers of England to win Jewish sup- port for British arms and the Allied cause . Those who aroused this pro-Jewish sentiment including the authors acted under a moral urge . They vigorously pressed upon their fellow Jews what they regarded, in the circumstances, as right- mindedness. The British Cabinet, as post war documents make abundantly clear, regarded Jewish support of the allies as of great importance. Before, therefore, any Zionist approach
42. 26 THE GREAT BETRAYAL was made to the British Government, partly on their own volition, partly instigated by non- Zionist English Jews who sought to rally support for their country, the leaders gave Zionists careful consideration to the method of winning Jewish aid.
43. III PALESTINE AND WAR POLICIES WE UNDERSCORE the fact that the first formal presentation of the Zionist case to the British Government was made in October, 1916, and that the consecutive pourparlers that led to the Balfour Declaration began February 2, 1917. The British Government in its clear understand- ing of the Jewish interest in the creation of the Jewish Homeland in Palestine anticipated the Zionists. Lord Asquith in his "Memoirs" relates that in December, 1914, Sir Herbert Samuel sug- gested to him what the Premier regarded as a wild project for Palestine. The next two important British steps are re- ported in the documents which the Soviet Gov- ernment has published . Therein appears both the British view of the need of Jewish support together with the British official understanding of what kind of a promise regarding Palestine would arouse the Jews. This is not an argument between Jews and British statesmen but a cold blooded 27
44. 28 THE GREAT BETRAYAL political discussion between the British Cabinet and the existing Russian Government . In "A Memorandum * of the British Embassy in Petrograd to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, S. D. Sazonoff," dated March 13, 1919x6and found in the archives of the Russian Foreign Office, we read : ."A Telegram' has been received from Sir Edward Grey, to the effect that the question of settling Jews in Palestine has been brought to the notice of His Majesty's Government . Al- though, as is known, many Jews are rather in- different to the Zionist idea, a very great and most influential part of Jewry in all countries would greatly appreciate the proposal of an agreement relating to Palestine, which would satisfy the aspirations of the Jews . " `If the above view is correct, it is clear that by utilizing the Zionist idea, important political results could be achieved. One of the results would be the conversion of the Jewish elements in the East, the United States of America, and other places to the use of the Allies ; elements whose attitude is at present rather antagonistic to the Allies.' "The British Government, as is known, put * Zionism, Leonard Stein. PP. 138-140 .
45. WAR POLICIES 29 the question before representative Jews of the various sections of English Jewry, asking for their opinion on the question . The Memorandum quotes one of the very moderate replies received from Dr. Lucien Wolf. ""If, as a result of the War, Palestine will come into the sphere of the interests of France and Great Britain, the French and British Governments will not fail to take into con- sideration the historic interests of Jewry in that country. Both Governments will secure for the Jewish population equal political, civil and religious rights with the other inhabitants, municipal rights in the colonies and towns which may appear necessary, as well as reason- able facilities for colonization and immigration. "'The only aim of His Majesty's Government is to find some agreement which would prove an inducement to the majority of Jews and would facilitate the conclusion of an agreement to secure Jewish support . Having this view in consideration, His Majesty's Gov- ernment is of the opinion that a project which would grant the Jews,-when the colonists in Palestine have attained a position which will enable them to rival the Arabs in strength,- the administration of their own internal affairs
46. 30 THE GREAT BETRAYAL in that country (with the exception of Jerusalem and the Holy Places) ,-such an agreement would be a greater inducement for the majority of Jews . His Majesty's Govern- ment does not wish to give any preference to any one form of the solutions of this problem. It is well aware, however, that an international Protectorate would meet the opposition on the part of influential Jewish sections. "'In telegraphically communicating the above, Sir Edward Grey instructs Sir George Buchanan to request the Russian Government to give the question their immediate serious consideration and to ask them to communicate their point of view."' We will not further labor the fact that the War Cabinet, actuated by high British needs were, however, acting with great circumspection . They no doubt knew then, of the existence of preliminary drafts of the Sykes-Picot Treaty, which agreed to a division of the Near East in accord- ance with the imperialistic pretensions of the Allied Powers. Nevertheless, in April, 1917, the British War Department issued the following statement on the War aims in the Near East : "It is proposed that the following be adopted as the heads of a scheme for a Jewish re-settle-
47. WAR POLICIES 3 1 ment of Palestine in accordance with Jewish National Aspiration : i . Basis of Settlement Recognition of Palestine as the Jewish National Home. z. Status of Jewish Population in Palestine Generally The Jewish population present and future throughout Palestine is to possess and enjoy full national, political and civic rights. 3. Immigration into Palestine The Suzerain Government shall grant full and free rights of immigration into Pales- tine to Jews of all countries . 4. The Establishment of a Chartered Com- pany The Suzerain Government shall grant a Charter to a Jewish Company for the colonization and development of Palestine, the Company to have power to acquire and take over any concessions for works of a public character, which may have been or may hereafter be granted by the Suzerain Government and the rights of preemption of Crown lands or other lands not held in
48. 32 THE GREAT BETRAYAL private or religious ownership and such other powers and privileges as are usual in Charters or Statutes of similar colonizing bodies. f . Communal Autonomy Full autonomy is to be enjoyed by Jewish communities throughout Palestine in all matters bearing upon their education, religious or communal welfare." These detailed statements each word of which at this juncture is well worth pondering over, were simultaneously reduced by the Allied War propagandists to five succinct sentences, so all who run might read what England proposed . "Palestine is to be recognized as the Jewish National Home. Jews of all countries to be accorded full liberty of immigration . Jews to enjoy full national, political and civic rights according to their place of residence in Pales- tine. "A Charter to be granted to a Jewish Company for the developments of Palestine . "The Hebrew language to be recognized as the official language of the Jewish province ." The foregoing was the public bait British officialdom dangled before Jewish eyes . Simul-
49. WAR POLICIES 33 taneously the Allied Powers were pursuing three policies in the Near East. The pro-Arab Mac- Mahon arrangement which according to all authorities excluded Palestine ; the division of the Syrian littoral between France and England and the establishment in the Southern area, wherein Great Britain was to exercise suzerainty, of the Jewish National Home . There could be no doubt that the question of Palestine as the Jewish Home- land and as Holy land to three faiths was receiving meticulous consideration. This was so in part because the War had come to revolve around the question of the rights of all the lesser nationalities of Europe. In English and American political circles particularly, both Armenia and Palestine were grouped with Poland, Serbia and Belgium as lands of which the rightful peoples were, wholly or in part, long dispossessed. Their reconstitution became central to the war aims of the Allied Powers. Therefore a detailed record of the progress of events that culminated in the issuance of the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917 is of vast importance. Their mere itemization cannot fail to impress the impartial reader with the truth that despite the exigencies of war the British Cabinet proceeded with great care. England in every respect was preparing, in the language of
50. 34 THE GREAT BETRAYAL the "Research Committee of the Geneva Office, League of Nations Association," to issue a "tre- mendous, though carefully guarded statement" epitomizing "in one sentence long deferred hopes among one people and the impassioned fears of another." On May 24, 1917 the London Times published an impressive protest on behalf of Conjoint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association . These anti-Zionists set forth all their objections to the Zionist theory and particularly to the Chartered Company project suggested in the war aims statement. This protest was further sup- ported by a galaxy of names, great in Anglo- Jewry on May 29, 1917, yet on June 4, 1917 the French Government, through M . Cambon for- mally committed itself to : The renaissance of the Jewish nationality in that Land from which the people of Israel were exiled so many centuries ago. The French government, which entered this present war to defend a people wrongfully attacked . . . can but feel sympathy for your cause, the triumph of which is bound up with that of the Allies. By that date, at the suggestion of the British
51. WAR POLICIES 35 authorities Mr. Sokolow had conferred with the Vatican on the Holy Places, and with the Italian Prime Minister and each achievement was cabled to Zionist Organizations over British controlled cables, and delivered by British War Office of- ficials. In April 1917, the United States entered the war and upon the occasion of the visit to the United States of Arthur James Balfour, the Zionist program was discussed with President Wilson who as early as 1911 and repeatedly thereafter had made known his profound in- terest in the Zionist idea . The field of interna- tional discussion was accordingly widened and all the drafts of the proposed declaration were submitted for approval to the White House . So far we have traced the independent acts of the British Government. A brief sketch of the Zionist effort towards the culmination is in place. Until well into 19 15, the Zionists in Eng- land were content to make propaganda for the cause, which as we have seen naturally linked with British victory. At the end of z915 a group was organized in London to sketch a program, that should serve as a foundation for the official representations which were then in view . In October i 9 i 6, the English Zionist leaders submitted to the British government a formal
52. 36 THE GREAT BETRAYAL "program for a new administration of Palestine and for a Jewish resettlement of Palestine in ac- cordance with the aspirations of the Zionist Movement." This program included the "recog- nition of a separate Jewish nationality or national unit in Palestine" and "the establishment of a Jewish chartered company ." "The 7th of February 1917 constitutes a turning-point in history. . . . Sir Mark Sykes, Bart M.P., had communicated with Dr . Weizmann and the author on the question of the treatment of the Zionist problem," writes Mr. Sokolow.* Sir Mark, in conjunction with a representative of the French Government, M. Georges Picot-the joint authors of the famous Sykes-Picot agreement of May i9i6,-conferred with Dr. Moses Gaster and on February 7th, in Dr. Gaster's home in London, the first round table conference between these two officials and a group of Zionists which included Sir Herbert Samuel took place. The full minutes of this and subsequent sessions were transmitted to the American Zionist Organization by officials of the British War Office. Britain was not romantically undertaking to reward the discoverer of a formula of acetone, in accordance with his heart's desire, by giving * Zionism, Vol. II, P. 5 z.
53. WAR POLICIES 37 him or his people, Palestine. Practical issues were uppermost in all men's thoughts . The memorandum presented by the Zionists just prior to the discussion of the final stages of the negotiations urged that after three years of discussion : The problem be considered in the light of imperial interests and the principles for which the Entente stands. . . . We therefore now humbly pray that this declaration may be granted to us and this would enable us to further consolidate Jewish public opinion in the Entente countries to counteract all the demoralizing influence which the enemy press is endeavoring to exercise by holding out vague promises to the Jews and finally to make the necessary preparations for the constructive work which would have to begin as soon as Palestine is liberated. July 18, 19117, Lord Rothschild submitted a draft text which became the basis of the Declara- tion. The anti-Zionists stormed against it be- cause of the use of the words "National Home for the Jewish People." It is thus abundantly clear as Lloyd George, the great war Premier, said at Cowbridge, England, October 24, 1930: "In War time we were anxious to secure the good will of the Jewish community through-
54. 38 THE GREAT BETRAYAL out the world for the Allied cause . The Balfour Declaration was a gesture not merely on our part but on the part of the Allies to secure that valuable support. It was prepared after much consideration, not merely of its policy, but of the actual wording, by the representatives of all the Allied and associated countries including America, and of our do- minion premiers." The final draft of what became known as the Balfour Declaration was amended by the authors of this book. After consultation with justice Brandeis it was submitted to Colonel House who transmitted this version to President Wilson upon whose agreement and express authority the final text was issued by the British War Cabinet : "Foreign Office, November 2, 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 na- tional home for the Jewish people, and will use
55. WAR POLICIES 39 their best endeavours to facilitate the achieve- ment of this object, it being clearly under- stood 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. "Yours sincerely, (signed) Arthur James Balfour." A Public Covenant openly arrived at . The formula, by which Theodor Herzl's "Jewish State" sought public recognition of Jewish rights, had been achieved and the British cabinet had carefully and thoughtfully, despite the powerful anti-Zionists in London and elsewhere stated in its preamble that it was a "declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist Aspirations ." Both the letter and the spirit were thus apparently fulfilled. Temperley * reviewing the issue of the Declaration says : "Support of Zionist ambitions, in- * A History of the Peace Conference of Paris, edited by H. W. V. Temperley. Published under the auspices of the British Institute of International Affairs, Vol . VI (1920), p. 171-3.
56. 40 THE GREAT BETRAYAL deed, promised much for the allies. . . . That it is in purpose a definite contract with Jewry is beyond question. . . . Before the British Government gave the Declaration to the world it had been closely examined in all its bearings and implications, weighed word by word and subjected to repeated change and amendment ." So much for the origin of a text that spelled new hope for harassed Israel . France approved it. February 9, 1918 and by December 1918 Japan joined with the other principal Allied Powers in supporting the Declaration. In the United States on August 31, 1918, President Wilson allowed publicity to be given to a letter written by him to one of the authors, Rabbi Stephen S . Wise, then President of the American Zionist Organization, in which he welcomed : "The progress made by the Zionist movement in the United States and in the Allied countries since the Declaration by Mr. Balfour on behalf of the British Government of Great Britain's approval of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." At that date and for long after there was no public knowledge of the MacMahon-Hussein correspondence. The Balfour Declaration was a
57. WAR POLICIES 4 1 public pact. The Allies took care to broadcast it . The Germans published it and the German Wire- less issued it in Jerusalem before the capture of the city by Allenby in January i 9 i 8. Temperley * states that when the Declaration was communicated to Hussein in January 1918 "he took it philosophically, contenting himself with an expression of good-will towards a kindred Semitic race which he understood (as his phrase made clear) was to lodge in a house owned by Arabs." * Ibid., Vol. V, p. 132.
58. N ENGLAND'S ORIGINAL INTERPRETATION THE form of the betrayal which has aroused the storm of protests is that the Labor Government, in order to justify its new administrative measures, has inverted the Balfour Declaration, quoting the subordinate clause (see page 39) "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non- Jewish communities" as the basic purpose of the Declaration and the Mandate that followed . We might well argue, and we are certain that lawyers can be found who spreading the eye in a needle to the circumference of the globe, would maintain that the Declaration hangs on its final hinge "nothing shall be done which may prejudice . . . the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country ." We protest against such pettifogging and we refrain from its employment. If great moral rights hang on noth- ing firmer than on inverted interpretation, then 42
59. ENGLAND'S INTERPRETATION 43 we are sure there is no security in any Bill of Rights. Lawyers assure us, and it seems the essence of common sense, that where there is doubt as to the meaning of the terms of a contract, an examination of the state of mind of the parties, at the time of signing the agreement, is forcible and pregnant evidence. We turn back therefore to the fundamental problem. How did British statesmen view this Declaration when they issued it in 1917? How did the British press understand it? The, Spectator said: "A large and thriving Jewish settlement in the Holy Land . . . would make for peace and progress in the Near East, and would thus accord with British policy ." The Nation (London) agreed that "Mr. Balfour's declaration translates into a binding statement of policy the general wish of British opinion." Not a word in hundreds of papers of the reservation upon which the Labor Government now rests its case. Were the British so bemused that no thought was given to the Arabs? At a mass meeting held in London on December 2, 1917, Lord Robert Cecil said, "Our wish is that Arabian countries shall be for the Arabs, Armenia for the Armenians, and Judea for the Jews." Sir Mark Sykes, the original British negotiator, well informed on
60. 44 THE GREAT BETRAYAL every detail said : "For Palestine to be a success you must have a satisfied and tranquil Syria. For liberty to be certain in Palestine, you must have guarantees that no savage races shall return there . . . You want to know the Arab is free, because he is, and always will be your neighbour." The Right Hon. Arthur Henderson, M.P., a member of the present Labor Government sent a careful message to this London mass meeting in which he declared on behalf of Labor : "It trusts that an understanding may be reached at the close of the war, whereby Pales- tine may be set free and form a state under an International Agreement, to which Jewish people may return and work out their own salvation without interference by those of alien race or religion." Herbert Sidebotham, who was Lloyd George's spokesman during the war, says : "There can be no doubt that when the promise was made what was in mind as the ultimate ideal was the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine . That is evident from the caveat attached to the promise that nothing should be done that may prejudice the political status of Jews in other countries . . . that the ideal of statehood was the inspiration of
61. ENGLAND'S INTERPRETATION 45 the promise there is no doubt . Lord Balfour, I feel sure, must have meant that, and I know that Mr. Lloyd George was Prime Minister at the time and was as keen a friend to Jewish aspirations as any one ." But what of the Arabs and their rights? Let us leave the hilarious celebration of the Declara- tion meetings and turn for answer to Arthur James Balfour . Surely he knew what was in- tended by every word of the Declaration which bears his signature. The war was over, the Peace Conference had approved his whole policy . On July 12, 1920, at the Royal Albert Hall in Lon- don, at a public demonstration to celebrate the grant of the Mandate for Palestine upon Great Britain and the incorporation of the Balfour Declaration in the Treaty of Peace with Turkey, Mr. Balfour said : ". . . So far as the Arabs are concerned,- a great, an interesting, and an attractive race -I hope they will remember that while this assembly and all Jews that it represents through the world desire under the aegis of Great Britain to establish this home for the Jewish people, the Great Powers, and among all the Great Powers most especially Great Britain, has freed them, the Arab race, from
62. 46 THE GREAT BETRAYAL the tyranny of their brutal conqueror, who had kept them under his heel for these many centuries. I hope they will remember it is we who have established the independent Arab sovereignty of the Hedjaz. I hope they will remember that it is we who desire in Mesopotamia to prepare the way for the future of a self-governing, autonomous Arab State, and I hope that, remembering all that, they will not grudge that small niche-for it is no more geographically, whatever it may be historically -that small niche in what are now Arab territories being given to the people who for all these hundreds of years have been separated from it-but surely have a title to develop on their own lines in the land of their fore- fathers, which ought to appeal to the sympathy of the Arab people as it, I am convinced, appeals to the great mass of my own Christian fellow-countrymen ." Not a thought here of creating an Arab state on the shoulders of the Jews . We shall return to this address delivered by the English statesman who professed freely that he was a Zionist, in order to consider a document ) prepared by the British Cabinet and solemnly , read to the people of Palestine, July 7, 19zo by Sir Herbert Samuel when he took office in Jeru-
63. ENGLAND'S INTERPRETATION 47 salem as the first High Commissioner of Pales- tine. There is before us a picturesque account of Sir Herbert rising amid a tense standing assem- bly; of his begging all to be seated while he read in English, followed by solemn translations in Hebrew and in Arabic- The King's Message "To the people of Palestine. "The Allied Powers whose arms were vic- torious in the late war have entrusted to my country a Mandate to watch over the interests of Palestine and to ensure to your country that peaceful and prosperous development which has so long been denied to you . "I recall with pride the large part played by my troops under the command of Field Marshal Lord Allenby in freeing your country from Turkish rule, and I shall indeed rejoice if I and my people can also be the instruments for bringing within your reach the blessings of a wise and liberal administration . "I desire to assure you of the absolute im- partiality with which the duties of the Mandatory Power will be carried out and of the de- termination of my Government to respect the rights of every race and every creed represented among you, both in the period which
64. 48 THE GREAT BETRAYAL has still to elapse before the terms of the Man- date can be finally approved by the League of Nations and in the future when the Mandate has become an accomplished fact . "You are well aware that the Allied and Associated Powers have decided that measures shall be adopted to secure the gradual establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people. These measures will not in any way affect the civil or religious rights or diminish the prosperity of the general population of Palestine. "The High Commissioner, whom I have appointed to carry out these principles will, I am confident, do so wholeheartedly and effec- tively, and will endeavor to promote in every possible way the welfare and unity of all classes and sections among you . "I realise profoundly the solemnity of the trust involved in the government of a country which is sacred alike to Christian, Mohammedan, and Jew, and I shall watch with deep interest and warm sympathy the future progress and development of a State whose history has been of such tremendous import to the world." So spake King George V., to the assembled nota-
65. ENGLAND'S INTERPRETATION 49 bles of Palestine. We commend his words to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and to the bewildered Premier. For a few moments we put the clock forward two more years and turn to J. Ramsay Mac- Donald, then a free lance political leader of the labor group. In July 1922 he visited Palestine and wrote: "The Arab population do not and cannot use or develop the resources of Palestine. This is not disputed by any one who knows the country. The total population of Palestine to- day, Sir George Adam Smith has pointed out, is less than was that of Galilee in the time of Christ. Official reports state that `the country is now undeveloped and under-populated', • . . `largely cultivable areas are left untilled' • . . of the twelve thousand square miles fit for cultivation less than four thousand are cultivated. . . . What is cultivated is badly worked. `The area of land now cultivated could yield a far greater product' ; . . . `there are no forests' ; the Jordan and Yarmuk offer an abundance of water power, but it is unused. Already Jewish immigration is chang- ing that. To the older Jewish settlements and agricultural schools are owing, to a great ex- tent, both the Jaffa orange trade and the cul-
66. f0 THE GREAT BETRAYAL ture of vines ; to the newer, agricultural machinery, afforestation, the beginnings of scientific manuring, the development of schemes of irrigation and of agricultural co- operation. Palestine not only offers room for hundreds of thousands of Jews, it loudly cries out for more labour and more skill ."
67. V THE PEACE CONFERENCE WE RESUME the chronological record. The war with its holocaust of humanity and its sacrifice of idealism upon the altar of patriotic propaganda ended. Then Armistice day and the Peace Conference. How stood the promise to the Jews, what turn and twist did it suffer at the hands of the players of statecraft? The Jews knew of no adverse change. If anything some clarity had been achieved. The understanding of the Zionists at this critical juncture as to the intent and purpose of the British policy is abundantly clear. Dr. Wise being in London and in consultation with British officials, the American Jewish Congress which assembled in Philadelphia in December, i g i 8 adopted resolutions to the end That there be established such political administrative and economic conditions in Pales- tine as will assure under the trusteeship of Great Britain, acting on behalf of the League of Nations as may be formed, the development of Palestine into a Jewish Commonwealth, it 51
68. 52 THE GREAT BETRAYAL being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which shall prejudice the civil and religious rights, . . . This interpretation of Jewish National Home into Jewish Commonwealth was cabled by Dr. Wise to his associates in New York at the suggestion of British Officials. The phrase re-appears in a series of interesting documents. In January i 9 i 9 there was with government aid prepared in London a "Memorandum of the Zionist Organization Relating to the Reconstitution of Pales- tine as the Jewish National Home ." The inclusiveness of this phrase is not accidental . The document starts off with the statement that the Balfour Declaration "sought to reach the root of the Jewish problem in the only way it can be reached-by providing the Jewish people with a country and a home." It urged that the Peace Conference, for which this memorandum was prepared, should declare that "Palestine is the home of the Jews" and repeating in substance the American resolution, The Peace Conference is asked to indicate that such measures-political, administrative and economic-shall be taken as will assure the development of Palestine into a Jewish Commonwealth.
69. THE PEACE CONFERENCE 53 The italics are in the original which adds : "The conditions making for an immediate Jewish com- monwealth do not exist in Palestine today." Owing to a difference of opinion as to details in the suggested constitution for Palestine a sec- ond draft was prepared the same month . Then a third draft was made from both and the last was discussed in detail at a session held in the Hotel Meurice, in Paris, in which Dr . Chaim Weizmann, Mr. N. Sokolow, Bernard Flexner and Jacob de Haas participated, Sir Herbert Samuel presiding and acting unofficially for the British government. This "statement of the Zionist Organization regarding Palestine" is dated third day of February nineteen hundred and nineteen, and was formally presented February 27th to the Supreme Council wherein the "proposals to the Peace Conference" were thus summarized : Palestine shall be placed under such political administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment there of the Jewish National Home and ultimately render possible the creation of an autonomous common- wealth, it being clearly understood . . . This document drawn up with the advice of Sir Herbert Samuel, in consultation with British officials outlined in detail the administrative proc-
70. S4 THE GREAT BETRAYAL esses that were then soberly envisaged in the creation of the Jewish National Home . There was to be "a Jewish Council for Palestine" to be elected by "a Jewish Congress representative of the Jews of Palestine and of the world" to "co- operate and consult with and to assist the Government of Palestine in any and all matters affecting the Jewish people in Palestine and in all cases to be and act as the representative of the Jewish people." All to the end that "the Jews . . . take an honorable place in the new community of Nations . It is their purpose to establish in Palestine a government dedicated to social and national justice. . . ." There is no ambiguity here. Had the Arabs been forgotten? On January f, I9I9 in London, Prince Feisal acting for his father King Hussein signed an agreement with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in which he expressly acknowledged the separation of Palestine from the Arab states, though he was anxious that the Jewish Homeland should cooperate with his pro- posed Pan-Arab union of states . The Anglo-Asian adventurer and mystery monger Colonel T . E. Lawrence was present. The meeting was brought about by British officials. In Paris Prince Feisal wrote the following letter :
71. THE PEACE CONFERENCE 55 "Delegation Hedjazienne Paris, March 3, 1919. "Dear Mr. Frankfurter: "I want to take this opportunity of my first contact with American Zionists to tell you what I have often been able to say to Dr. Weizmann in Arabia and Europe. We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in race, having suffered similar oppressions at the hands of powers stronger than them- selves, and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the attainment of their national ideals together. We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organisation to the Peace Conference and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best insofar as we are concerned to help them through. We will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home. With the chiefs of your movement, especially with Dr . Weizmann, we have had, and continue to have the closest relations. He has been a great helper of our cause and I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position to make the Jews some return for
72. 56 THE GREAT BETRAYAL their kindness. We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist; our movement is national and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a real success without the other . "People less informed and less responsible than our leaders and yours, ignoring the need for co-operation of the Arabs and Zionists, have been trying to exploit the local difficulties that must necessarily arise in Palestine in the early stages of our movement. Some of them have, I am afraid, misrepresented your aims to the Arab peasantry and our aims to the Jewish peasantry with the result that interested parties have been able to make capital out of what they call our differences. I wish to give you my firm conviction that these differences are; not on questions of principle but on matters of detail, such as must inevitably occur in every contact of neighbouring peoples and as are easily adjusted by mutual good- will. Indeed, nearly all of them will disappear with fuller knowledge. I look forward, and my people with me look forward, to a future in which we will help you and you will help us
73. THE PEACE CONFERENCE S7 so that the countries in which we are mutually interested may once again take their places in the community of civilised people of the world: "Believe me, Yours sincerely, (signed) Feisal." It has, we hope been made abundantly clear that what England proposed to do for the Jews and what the Zionists sought at the hands of Great Britain and the Allied Powers, was not to create certain minority rights for the Jews in Palestine. Nor had the Zionists sought permission to establish some vague Jewish spiritual center in Jerusalem. Nor had they confined their re- quests to a restricted and limited immigration . Such requests would not have justified the appearance of representatives of the Zionist move- ment before the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference. There was so much more on foot, that one French Jew, Sylvan Levy, offered his protest against it, before the assembled representatives of the Powers . The Jews had no official status at the Peace Conference. The late Secretary of State Robert Lansing devoted himself therefore to the details of the Zionist hearing with great deliberation, because the Powers, by their previous formal ad-
74. 58 THE GREAT BETRAYAL herence to the Balfour Declaration, were anxious amid the formality that attached to the Peace Conference sessions, to make clear that they were about to do a new thing for the Jewish-people . To restrict Jews as immigrants ; to limit their right of purchasing or owning land ; to ring fence them in a percentage norm, is not a new experience for Jews. The sanction of the Peace Conference was not necessary to provide the British Government with the authority so to act . Nor if the concept of either the Jews or the Powers had been that of permitting sufficient Jews to settle in Palestine to make a nucleus around a "spiritual center" would the assent of the Peace Conference have been in point . There are at this time according to cultural predilections, "spiritual centers" of the Jews or of Judaism in Wilna, Voloyshin, Breslau, Pressburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, New York and Cincinnati. We will add that Jerusalem prior to the war was also a spiritual center though of a type different from all the others . Obviously the political Zionist movement was not founded to establish another such center, or a concentration of a number of these in Pales- tine for the spread of some particular phase of Jewish idealism. Obviously two hundred thou- sand Jews would not have bound themselves to-
75. THE PEACE CONFERENCE 59 gether to influence governments in order to establish-to express the idea in concrete terms- a series of garden cities around a Hebrew University. That aspect of Zionism, which has its place in the general scheme of things, needed neither the Balfour Declaration nor the assent of the Powers, nor the petition to the Peace Con- ference, nor the presence of Great Britain in Palestine as the Mandatory entrusted with the task of fostering and developing the Jewish National Home. Titus agreed to it in 70 c. E., Babylon had it for centuries. So did Cordova and Worms. Concord, Massachusetts, America's one time "spiritual center" was not legalized by international law. The Turks raised no objection to the form in which that spiritual center existed in Palestine ; the Arabs would no doubt have ignored it . Yet the problem of the Jewish National Home as presented at the Peace Conference was so closely bound up with considerations of the rights of the Arabs, that Sir Mark Sykes, who was in Syria at the end of the War, hurried to Paris in February, 1919, to report to his chiefs on the political conditions in Palestine and Syria. We quote from his biography : He had motored to Jaffa to meet the Zionist
76. 6o THE GREAT BETRAYAL delegation. He has visited Nazareth and Tiberias on the way to Damascus. He has seen the Emir Feisal before his departure to Lon- don. At Hama, a great reception met him . . . he saluted the Arab flag . . . designed by Mark, himself . At Aleppo he drafted a reform scheme . . . and left for Adama, whence he returned with his old ally Picot . . . . His last speech was made at the Arab Club in Aleppo on January 15. . . . Before he left Damascus, he induced the Arabs and Zionists to meet and discuss their future . Sykes arrived in Paris February i, 1919, "in the midst of the gigantic Conference-intrigue ." We know from the minutes of Sykes' conference with the Arabs and Zionists in Damascus what he must have reported in Paris. Mr. E. W. Lewin-Epstein, former Treasurer of the American Zionist Provisional Committee, and member at the time of the Zionist Commission in Jeru- salem, was present at the Damascus session . His notes, written in Hebrew, show that the Arabs did protest against the obvious political implications of the Jewish National Home . The Arabs made the same claims and the same threats that the Grand Mufti made in 1929 and again in 1930. The Zionists presented their historic rights and the promises of the Powers. The upshot was that
77. THE PEACE CONFERENCE 61 Sir Mark Sykes bluntly told the Arabs to stop complaining and satisfy themselves with what the' flag represented: Black fez for the Abbasids of Bagdad, white for the Omyyads of Damascus, green for the Alids of Herbela, and red chevron for Mud- har, heredity.* Sykes had written Sept. 2, 19 118 to the Premier Lloyd George of "our Arab, Syrian and Palestinian Policy" of "Arab officers, Zionist Agents, and Syrian colonies." Sykes according to his biographer was in grave doubts at the end, as to the wisdom of his Zionist adventure. The reaffirmation of the Jewish National Home by the Peace Conference was made upon full knowledge of the facts. Notwithstanding, a certain measure of retreat was provided for the Conference decisions by President Wilson. Acting under misapprehensions, the malignly anti-Zionist aim of which he was too honest to discern, President Wilson was led to send the King-Crane commission of inquiry to Syria and Palestine . The work of this commission proved abortive as soon as President Wilson understood the spirit of partisan- ship in which the commission had moved . That * Mark Sykes : His Life and Letters by Shane Leslie, New York, 1923, PP. 200-1.
78. 62 THE GREAT BETRAYAL the report of this American Commission was not published at the time, alters in no way what we have constructively proved by documentary evi- dence-that the political issue involved in the creation of the Jewish National Home was a known factor to all the plenipotentiaries who voted for it in Paris in i 9 i 9. We urge, therefore, that the breach planned by the Passfield White Paper is not merely an in- fraction of the Mandatory towards the Jews, but that it is a violation of an agreement with all the powers, including the United States, which participated in the Peace Conference and deliberately voted in i 9 i g for the creation in Palestine of the Jewish National Home. We shall gauge the full measure of the breach, but we insist that, if the comparison between promise and performance proves our contention, then the verdict of the public conscience is as important as the formal decision of some court that may have jurisdiction in the cause. We distinguish, here, as we shall throughout, between acts of government and the will of peo- ples. Also, we draw a distinction between Jewish rights and Arab claims. Whether the Palestinian population in 1914 possessed any tangible political rights it is for those versed in Turkish law to say. In practice, we know that such rights did
79. THE PEACE CONFERENCE 63 not exist, even though the Young Turks had created a paper Parliament. Djemal Pasha ruled in Palestine with an iron hand, as every Turk had done before him though he too may have indulged the people in paper rights. The term Political rights does not appear in the Balfour Declaration . The phrase used is civil rights and as we have made abundantly clear every word of that document was weighed by more than a score of authorities. Even the Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August, 1929, which is fundamental to the Passfield White Paper and the Hope-Simpson report, is vague on Arab rights at the beginning of the war. In this report we read : (page 9) The first few years of the present century were a period of disturbances in Turkish politics culminating in the revolution of 19o8 and the grant of the Constitution of that year . These events were not without their repercussion in Palestine, as is shown by the following passage quoted from a report which the Com- mittee on Local Government in Palestine made to the High Commissioner on the 2nd of June, 1924: "The Ottoman Constitution of 19o8 had
80. 64 THE GREAT BETRAYAL awakened new hopes among the subject races of the Empire . In various provinces, and in Syria and Palestine in particular, a widespread movement took place in favour of decentralisation which had in 1912 assumed such proportions as to threaten to become a dangerous separatist movement . The Turkish Government thought it wise to pass the Provisional Vilayet Law, which was received with peculiar satisfaction and pride. To the people of Syria and Palestine it came, not as a favour granted by a benevolent Government, but rather as a just recognition of their rights and aspirations ; and we think that, in considering the Turkish system of 119113, due attention should be paid to the circumstances which brought about its establishment as well as to the satis- faction with which it was received ." The Provisional Vilayet Law, to which reference is made in the passage quoted above, was modified by a further Ottoman Law of the 16th of April, 1914 and the effect of the legislation as amended, was to confer on the provinces of the Ottoman Empire powers of local government involving real autonomy. The Arab case, apart from the rights that
81. THE PEACE CONFERENCE 65 inhere from living in a country, rests upon a secret correspondence between a British general in command in Egypt and an Arabian Emir, who exercised at the time no political or civil authority in Palestine . We, who urge Jewish rights, would welcome the publication of these agreements. But, we repeat, our Zionist claim in Palestine rests upon no private understandings or secret arrangements, but on public acts, not only of Great Britain, but of the Peace Conference and subsequently of the League of Nations. The good faith of half of mankind is involved in the justice we seek at the hands of the people of the British Empire, and of the nations which in one form of association or another fought beside her in the World War and helped to make the Peace. The Zionists confess to this day that they are novices in diplomacy. They still have abundant respect for the word. New York Jewry still meditates at times, over a promise extracted by Peter Stuyvesant from the Jewish refugees who landed in 1 6 5 5 and promised to take care of their own poor. That pledge is the whip that raises voluntary millions for charity, which might otherwise be legally paid out of the public exchequer. The Zionists assumed in the summer of i 9 i 9 that Britain's word was law to British
82. 66 THE GREAT BETRAYAL officialdom. The contrary, however, was the fact. General Allenby was naturally a member of the military party that scorned all the fine declama- tions of civil statesmen, however high their authority and rank . Palestine was "Occupied Enemy Territory Administration" and under military occupation. The wreckage of war was still visible. Allenby simply ignored the Balfour Declaration. General Money, who was in direct control of Palestine, took his cue from his superior officer. His own subordinates were responsive . They objected to the partition of Syria and the creation of three entities-Palestine, Syria and Trans-Jordan. They feared Haifa was under the guns of Beyrout, so they objected to the French in the North and they calmly ignored the Jews in Palestine. A civil agent of the military Government, a gentleman named Gabriel, busied himself in promoting British commercial interests. His circulars betrayed in culpable language the belief that Palestine was part of the British Empire . Commercial contracts were given British officers seeking advantageous retirement from military life. The American, British and Palestinian Jewish legionaries who had voluntarily enlisted in the British Army for the capture of Palestine, were
83. THE PEACE CONFERENCE 67 treated with contempt. Plenty of portents of storm. Military occupation explained all. The facts were firmly but accurately presented in Paris in August. In a personal conference with justice Brandeis, Mr. Balfour explained the circumam- bulations of bureaucracy, but he ordered, and there was sent to Palestine to Allenby and his subordinates, an official message from the British Foreign office, declaring that the Jewish National Home Policy was chose jugee. We invite the present British Government to exhume that document of August, i9 i 9, from the archives of the Foreign Office . It professed to close an issue which is now all doubt and con- fusion. Military control! The civil administration would change everything. The Zionists trusted and labored. In May, 19lo, to the amazement of the Palestinian Jews and the Zionists throughout the world, riots broke out in Jaifa and Jerusalem. The Jews were thunderstruck. Allegations flew freely. Charges were made that the Military Governor of Jerusalem was implicated . But a strict check was exerted on all Zionists . The National Home was imperiled in other directions . At the London Zionist Conference of July, 19zo, Dr.
84. 68 THE GREAT BETRAYAL Weizmann reported publicly on the adverse con- duct of the military authorities. "What was thought of Zionism in London was ignored willingly or unwillingly by the military administration . . . the English ad- ministration was . . . anti-Zionist and perhaps anti-Jewish." But during that strainful spring of 1920, the British and the French were discussing the boundaries of Palestine. The British Cabinet had no stomach for contesting the delimitations set up by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May, 1916 . These amiable and learned gentlemen, though Sykes was a real authority on the Near East, had drawn a line across Palestine from the Ladder of Tyre to the north of Lake Tiberias . The economic possibilities of the area to the south had not concerned them in the least degree . Political divisions alone, interested them. No Arab Chief, no Grand Mufti appealed to them against a mutilated Palestine. The only party of interest was the Zionist. It was the American Zionist leaders that prevailed upon President Wilson, then on a sickbed, to cable a protest to the British Cabinet, which acted as a "bombshell," to use Lloyd George's description of its effect upon him and his confreres . A few
85. THE PEACE CONFERENCE 69 square miles, particularly the headwaters of the Jordan were recovered for Palestine. The following letter was addressed to President Wilson who immediately ordered it to be sent to the British Cabinet as his personal opinion : "Negotiations in Paris on the Turkish settlement have reached so critical a stage in their effects upon the realization of the Balfour Declaration in Palestine as to compel me to appeal to you. "My associates of the Zionist Organization wire me from Paris that in the conferences on the Turkish Treaty, France now insists upon the terms of the Sykes-Picot agreement-one of the secret treaties made in 1916 before our entrance into the War. If the French conten- tion should prevail it would be disastrous to the realization of the establishment of the Jew- ish Homeland in Palestine, inasmuch as the Sykes-Picot agreement divides the country in complete disregard of historical boundaries and natural necessities. The Zionist cause depends upon rational northern and eastern boundaries for a self-sustaining, economic development of the country. This means on the north, Palestine must include the Litany River and the Water- sheds of the Hermon, and on the east it must
86. 70 THE GREAT BETRAYAL include the plains of the Jaulon and the Haulon. Narrower than this is a mutilation. "If the Balfour Declaration subscribed to by France as well as the other Allied and Associated Powers is to have more than paper value there can be no compromise as to the guarantees by which the Balfour Declaration is to be secured. "I need not remind you that neither in this country nor in Paris has there been any op- position to the Zionist Program, and to its realization the boundaries I have named are in- dispensable. The Balfour Declaration which we know you made possible was a public promise . I venture to suggest that it may be given to you at this time to move the statesmen of Christian nations to keep this solemn promise to the hope of Israel. It is your word at this hour to Mill- erand and Lloyd George which may be de- cisive." Incidentally this letter conveys distinctly the 1920 understanding of what the Balfour Declara- tion implied. This "crisis" having terminated, we need to glance at the San Remo Peace Conference of 1920, when the Mandate was formally awarded to Great Britain, and Sir Herbert Samuel was immediately appointed High Commissioner of
87. ~ ,O-( ry *hit tR.rr ,L.- tAlPlAw."W' see(. ha,• reached so erltioal~ t~'~Lhi~ io~°e nhe T rah sa tt an the Ba1fasr Hambmddmfmu Deolantion n Palestine as to aonpal a to appeal to you. ^ QPA& my assooiatftof the Zionist Organisation eisr ae from Paris that in the coaferoaces on the Turkish Treaty, Trance now in- sists upon the terms of the tyke-Pink earo ent - one of the secret treatise ef6ivl! .;Jr(/ node in 1916 before~ outran. into the War . If "ftemM castaction A should prevail4 it would es•s2f a0veue'LQ t ~r~sal, .isation of the r A of the Jewish Roseland•in-Arleebtne, IaasmuetL~s the Sykes-Pioot~1agreement divides the country in complete disiegard of historiod boundaries an iaietigl necessities . .~pomatty,a1 northern and eastern boundaries Per- o-rGolf-austainind,eeoonamio development of the country . TAILasseze A the north Ah Qs the cost 1t met include the plains of the Jaulon and the Hanron Waamowr I+rrl~I f,vFyeA.v ,I ' t ' than this A msti *tionq//rtr~kerrru"it tMs,il n 1-"t s a'I3ou"r"' Vsolantioo in' eirTh d to by Prince as ea1 ae the ~4, trrertl c r'f(,4 Mar Allied and Associated Powers is to has . ~~Nw Abaur"Off a ,,. rP( our tmi Tr to pe. t. /,'c Ai!tte •I elIVr4( ,vx,~r1(1* ke /1- ,%tc~w/yii! p "-either in this country nor in Paris has there been any opposition to the Zionist program, a fl t Ie 'bdM'r11!e le. The Selfour Deolant,on ns4hl, h -L.er you ands possible,was a public promise . I lecture to suggest that it say be givesto you at this time to sovs the statesaes o" Chrisu6n nations to keep this solemn -LS-ks our word, promise to eha,ho snot Israel . _Tat this hour to Hilterand and Lloyd George eMs^say be decisive . Facsimile of the draft of the letter presented February 1920 to President Wilson, who from his sickbed authorized its cabling to Lloyd George as expressing his own views on the Palestine boundary question.
88. 72 THE GREAT BETRAYAL Palestine. Our interest is first in the words of a resolution which was addressed to Lloyd George then at San Remo .- "At meetings held in London this week the Parliamentary Labour Party, the Executive Committee of the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress have adopted resolutions to remind the British Government of the Declar- ations made on November 2, 1917, that the Government would endeavour to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, a declaration that was in harmony with the declared War Aims of the British Labour Movement, and which was cordially welcomed by all sections of the British people and was reaffirmed by Earl Curzon on Novem- ber 2, i 9 i 9. The National Labour Organ- isations indicated, now urge upon His Ma- jesty's Government the necessity of redeeming this pledge by the acceptance of a mandate under the League of Nations for the Admini- stration of Palestine; with a view of its being reconstituted the National Home of the Jewish people. The National Committee desire to associate themselves with the many similar representations being made to the Government urging the settlement of this question with

2 comments:

UnknownJuly 13, 2016 at 8:27 PM
“A corollary of the inalienable right of the Jewish people to its Ancestral Historical Land is the right to live in any part of Eretz Yisrael, including Judea and Samaria which are an integral part of Eretz Yisrael. Jews are not foreigners anywhere in the Land of Israel." Anyone who asserts that it is illegal for a Jew to live in Judea and Samaria just because he is a Jew, is in fact advocating a concept that is disturbingly reminiscent of the ‘Judenrein’ policies of Nazi Germany banning Jews from certain spheres of life for no other reason than that they were Jews. The Jewish communities and villages in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district are there as of right and are there to stay. Many of those communities were destroyed by the Arabs in 1948 after the massacred the Jews.
“The right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel was implemented at the 1920 San Remo Conference and the 1919 King Faisal Weizmann agreement; also implemented and recognized in the League of Nations ‘Mandate for Palestine’ which stressed ‘the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and … the grounds for reconstituting’ – I repeat, reconstituting ‘their national home in that ancestral country.’'
“The Mandatory Power in Palestine aka Israel was also entrusted with the duty to encourage ‘close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.'”
UnknownJuly 13, 2016 at 9:05 PM
“A corollary of the inalienable right of the Jewish people to its Ancestral Historical Land is the right to live in any part of Eretz Yisrael, including Judea and Samaria which are an integral part of Eretz Yisrael. Jews are not foreigners anywhere in the Land of Israel." Anyone who asserts that it is illegal for a Jew to live in Judea and Samaria just because he is a Jew, is in fact advocating a concept that is disturbingly reminiscent of the ‘Judenrein’ policies of Nazi Germany banning Jews from certain spheres of life for no other reason than that they were Jews. The Jewish communities and villages in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district are there as of right and are there to stay. Many of those communities were destroyed by the Arabs in 1948 after the massacred the Jews.
“The right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel was implemented at the 1920 San Remo Conference and the 1919 King Faisal Weizmann agreement; also implemented and recognized in the League of Nations ‘Mandate for Palestine’ which stressed ‘the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and … the grounds for reconstituting’ – I repeat, reconstituting ‘their national home in that ancestral country.’'
“The Mandatory Power in Palestine aka Israel was also entrusted with the duty to encourage ‘close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.'”

Only Facts About Israel

Friday, September 11, 2015

The great British betrayal of the Jews-stephen_wise-jacob_de_haas-1930-310pgs-rel-pol

The great betrayal-stephen_wise-jacob_de_haas-1930-310 pgs-rel-pol

2 comments: