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Tag Archives: Zionism
The Balfour Declaration
It is no exaggeration that the history of Israel/Palestine for the last hundred years has turned on the seminal Balfour Declaration of November 1917. Loved and loathed in equal measure, this was the letter that changed the future. The following … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Historical, Key Documents
Tagged 1917, Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Christian Zionism, Palestine, Rothschild, Zionism
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U.S. Recognition of Israel, 14 May 1948. Part I: Roosevelt, Truman, Marshall: A Sequence of Contingencies
Part I: Uncertainties See also Part II: U.S. Recognition of Israel, 14 May 1948: Truman’s Belated Support Part III: U.S. Recognition of Israel, 14 May 1948: ‘A Near-Run Thing’ William M. Mathew Abstract Zionism`s two most notable international successes in … Continue reading
Posted in Mandate Period, Zionism Debate
Tagged 1948, Israel, Marshall, Roosevelt, Truman, Zionism
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Book Review: Enemies and Neighbours – Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 by Ian Black
By Tim Llewellyn This is a dispassionate book, written by someone who knows almost everything, about the tragic progress of Britain’s experiment with Zionism in Palestine to the present day’s existential horror. Black does not make judgments. His careful selection … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Zionism Debate
Tagged 1917, British Mandate, Israel, Palestine, Zionism
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“The Jewish Question” in 19th century Europe
By Ian Portman Abstract Faced with increasing antisemitism in Europe towards the end of the 19th century, many Jews chose to join the great waves of European emigration to the United States. Since the high middle ages, most of the … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Christian Zionism, Evangelicals and Christian Zionism, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged 19th Century, Balfour, Dreyfus, Evangelicals, Hechler, Herzl, jewish question, Palestine, pogroms, restorationism, Shaftesbury, Zionism
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Evangelicals, the Balfour Declaration and Zionism
By Roger Spooner When talking about the Balfour Declaration with a pastor from Bethlehem, he commented,’ the problems for the Palestinians didn’t start in 1917, they started in 1840′. Literal reading of the Bible which had developed in the 17th … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Christian Zionism, Current Positions, Evangelicals and Christian Zionism, Historical, Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged 1840, 19th Century, Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Evangelicals, Lloyd George, restorationism, Shaftesbury, Zionism
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The Balfour Declaration, 2 November 1917: A Fateful Improbability
Centenary Lecture to the History Group, The Norfolk Club, 14 September 2017 by William Mathew It is argued here that only a special conjuncture of chance and short-term circumstance made it possible for an effective pro-Zionist policy to be successfully … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Current Positions, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Lloyd George, Weizmann, Zionism
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A calamitous promise
The Guardian’s Long Read of 17 October was headlined ‘Britain’s calamitous promise’. Author Ian Black writes ‘The brief document that bears Balfour’s name is seen as marking the beginning of what is today widely considered the world’s most intractable conflict.’ … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Balfour Declaration, First World War, McMahon Hussain, Palestine, Sykes Picot, Zionism
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Different ways of seeing the Balfour Declaration – BBC Radio 4 “Sunday” 1st October 2017
“The BBC Radio Four ‘Sunday’ programme on October 1st included this very fair and balanced report on the forthcoming centenary of the Balfour Declaration. Chris Rose from the Amos Trust, speaking about the unfulfilled promises to the Palestinian people, echoed … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, News, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Balfour Declaration, BBC Radio 4 Sunday, Palestine, Zionism
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Palestine 1917-2017: Reflections on a refugee’s story, my great-grandfather’s war diary and the legacy of Britain’s actions in Palestine.
Omah Amarah is 84 years old. From the amount of energy which sparks up as he gets started on his story you can sense his tale comes from the heart; this is no dry text book account of history we … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Mandate Period
Tagged 1917, 1948, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, Palestine, Zionism
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The Mandate years: colonialism and the creation of Israel
Charles Glass, writing in the London Review of Books in 2001, reviewed two books looking at the period of the British Mandate in Palestine. Although written 22 years ago it touches on topics that are very little known in the … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Mandate Period, Zionism Debate
Tagged Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, Lord Curzon, Montagu, Weizmann, Zionism
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McMahon, Sykes, Balfour: Contradictions and Concealments in British Palestine Policy 1915-1917
by WILLIAM M. MATHEW Lecture given to the History Group of The Norfolk Club, 14 April 2016 to mark the centenary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement 1916 Abstract These three war-time initiatives are presented as part of a compressed, uncoordinated, two-year … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, Pre-Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Contradictory Promises, Lloyd George, Lord Curzon, McMahon, McMahon Hussain, Picot, Sherif Hussein, Sykes, Zionism
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Rescuing Balfour: Winston Churchill at the Colonial Office 1921-22, By William Mathew
Given the sheer improbability of the Balfour Declaration, its source in temporary war-time contingencies, its activation of inter-communal conflict in Palestine, and its exposure to increasing opposition both at home and in the Levant, the 1917 War Cabinet pledge … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence
Tagged 1921, 1922, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, League of Nations, McMahon Hussain, Palestine, Palestine Mandate, Weizmann, Zionism
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Struggling to Maintain the Mandate’s Iron Cage, 1930 – 1947 by Peter Shambrook
Peter A. Shambrook presents the history of the British Mandate for Palestine in the period 1930-1947, highlighting its very negative outcomes for the Palestinian population. In doing so, Shambrook calls for Britain to accept responsibility for its past wrongdoings as … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1930, British Mandate, Churchill, Palestine Mandate, Palestinian Rebellion, Peel Commission, Ramsay MacDonald, Weizmann, Zionism
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British policy and Arab Displacement in Palestine, 1915-23: Contingency. Imperialism and Double-Dealing
By William M. Mathew, Senior Fellow in History, University of East Anglia Lecture given as part of the Contemporary Middle East Lecture Programme, School of Oriental and African Studies, 28 October 2014 I I should begin by … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Current Positions, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence
Tagged 1922, 1923, Arabs, Balfour Declaration, Hussein Ibn Ali, McMahon, Palestine Mandate, Zionism
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The Palestine Deception, 1915-1923, by William Mathew
In 2015, historian William Mathew published a book consisting of a series of articles from the Daily Mail of 1923. These presented a hitherto uninformed British readership with details of official promises made to the Arabs in 1915-16 of post-war … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence
Tagged 1923, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, McMahon Hussain, Palestine, Sykes Picot, Zionism
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Perfidious Albion: Britain’s broken promises: the Balfour Declaration (1917) and its impact on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: what are our responsibilities today?
This lecture was given by Professor Mary Grey in the URC Church, Crondall, Northumberland for their Peace and Reconciliation centre, 5th September 2014 Here in Northumberland, it is impossible to forget the bloodshed of the Battle of Flodden in 1513, … Continue reading
Posted in Contradictory Promises, Historical, McMahon-Hussein Correspondence
Tagged 1917, 1919, Balfour, Balfour Declaration, George Eliot, Herzl, Lloyd George, Palestine, Palestine Mandate, Shaftesbury, Weizmann, Zionism
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As the Arabs see the Jews, by His Majesty King Abdullah
The American Magazine November, 1947 Summary This appeal to the American people, written by King Abdullah, son of Sharif Hussein and grandfather of the current King of Jordan, appeared in the United States six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. … Continue reading
Posted in Historical, Post-Mandate Period
Tagged 1947, Arabs, Jew, King Abdullah, League of Nations, Middle East, Palestine, Zionism
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Debating Palestine and Israel – Book review by Jeremy Moodey
Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Mary Grey, Debating Israel and Palestine, (Exeter, Impress Books, 2014). It was George Orwell who wrote in his book 1984, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” As with the … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Current Positions
Tagged 19th Century, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Palestine Mandate, Zionism
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Anti-Zionism in London’s Jewish East End, 1890-1948
Anti-Zionism in London’s Jewish East End, 1890-1948 A summary of Chapter 6 with this title in Brian Klug’s: Being Jewish and Doing Justice: Bringing Argument to Life, Vallentine Mitchell (2010) Brian Klug, being a philosopher, approaches this subject from a … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Zionism Debate
Tagged 1890, anti-semitism, Anti-Zionism, Ben-Gurion, Claude Montefiore, Communism, London's East End, Montagu, Zionism
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Britain’s Secret Re-Assessment of the Balfour Declaration. The Perfidy of Albion, by John Quigley
John Quigley* President’s Club Professor in Law, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States of America From the Journal of the History of International Law Revue d’histoire du droit international Volume 13, Number 2, 2011 … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Mandate Period
Tagged !922 White paper, 1923, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, Churchill, Curzon, International Law, League of Nations, Weizmann, Zionism
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Powerful symbols and the British-Zionist alliance: approaching the centenary of the Balfour Declaration by Nur Masalha
Masalha writes that as the centenary of the Balfour Declaration approaches it is timely for a reassessment of the impact of the statement and British policies towards Palestine and its indigenous people. The Declaration is commonly attributed incorrectly to … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration
Tagged 19th Century, Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Christian Zionism, Herzl, James Finn, Lloyd George, Palestine Exploration Fund, Palmerston, restorationism, Shaftesbury, Zionism
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Recommendations of the King Crane Commission
Below is a part of a preface to the publication of the King-Crane Commission Report, published in Editor & Publisher, V.55, No. 27, 2nd Section, December 2, 1922. This is followed by their recommendations on Syria and particularly Zionism. The … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Historical, Key Documents
Tagged 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, Balfour Declaration, King Crane, Palestine, Palestine Mandate, President Wilson, Zionism
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‘Perfidious Albion? The British Legacy in Palestine’ – Prof. Ilan Pappe
Prof Ilan Pappe spoke at the Kenyon Institute in Jerusalem 17th September 2012 on the topic ‘Perfidious Albion? The British Legacy in Palestine’ .
Posted in Balfour Declaration, News
Tagged 19th Century, Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Brightman, Hussein Ibn Ali, Palmerston, restorationism, Shaftesbury, Zionism
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Biography: Arthur Balfour by Brian Klug
From Brian Klug, Being Jewish and Doing Justice: Bringing Argument to Life London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2011, pp. 199-210 There appears to be a conundrum about Arthur Balfour.1 On the one hand, his name is inseparable from the Declaration he signed … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Biographies
Tagged Aliens act, anti-semitism, Balfour, Balfour Declaration, Klug, Palestine, Sykes Picot, Zionism
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Memorandum of Edwin Montagu on the Anti-Semitism of the Present (British) Government
Zionism, said Edwin Montagu, seemed to him “a mischievous political creed, untenable by any patriotic citizens of the United Kingdom.” These words appeared in his memorandum, as Secretary of State for India, submitted to the British War Cabinet, in August, … Continue reading
Posted in Historical, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, anti-semitism, assimilationist, Balfour, Jew, Jewish Legion, Montagu, Palestine, Rothschild, Russian Jews, Zionism
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Chaim Weizmann by Mary Grey
Chaim Weizmann was born in Russia in 1874, in Motol, now Belarus, but then in the “Pale of Settlement”, that area of Russia to which the Jews had been confined since the time of Catherine the Great. From an early … Continue reading
Posted in Biographies, Resources
Tagged 1917, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, First World War, Jew, Palestine, Zionism
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A scrap of paper that changed history
by Donald Macintyre Reproduced from an article: ‘The birth of modern Israel: a scrap of paper that changed history’ in the Independent of 26 May 2005 The term “living history” is a cliché that slips as easily from the lips … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Zionism Debate
Tagged Balfour Declaration, Leon Simon, Montagu, Zionism
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The Balfour Declaration and its Consequences by Avi Shlaim
Occasionally there are topics that have been written about at such length that it helps to clear the air, or to establish the vantage point from which I intend to consider my subject. My aim therefore is to take a … Continue reading
Posted in Balfour Declaration, Current Positions, Post-Mandate Period, Pre-Balfour Declaration
Tagged 1917, Ba, Balfour Declaration, Herzl, Lloyd George, McMahon, McMahon Hussain, Middle East, Palestine, Picot, Rothschild, Samuel, Sykes, Sykes Picot, Zionism
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Britain’s historical mandate. by Natasha Gill
A frank recognition of its past in the Middle East can give Britain a unique role in the peace process The reprimand of Israel by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, resonated sharply in an already difficult week for Israel. But … Continue reading
Posted in Current Positions
Tagged Arabs, Balfour Declaration, British Mandate, Israel, nakba, Palestine, Palestine Mandate, Zionism
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