Israel and Palestine: A Foretold Conflict?

In 1897, the Zionist movement, founded by Theodore Herzl promised a Jewish homeland within Palestine.  This was the beginning of a movement that would forever change the Middle East, and in turn, would forever alter the lives of the Middle Eastern people.  However, the creation of Israel and a Jewish homeland could not have happened without help from Britain, who played a large role in the creation of Israel.  Throughout the early 1900s Britain played a key role in creating not only a Jewish homeland but also a Jewish state, because of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, the British White Paper of 1922, and the termination of the British Mandate in 1948.  These actions led to a chain of events that helped to form Israel: the Balfour Declaration promised a Jewish homeland, the White Paper of 1922 reinforced that promise and the end of the mandate left the United Nations with only one option, creating Israel.[1]  Finally, in 1948, these promises became a reality and Israel was recognized as a state, with Britain having played an important role in Israel’s creation, starting with the Balfour Declaration. Without these essential actions taken by Britain, the Jewish state of Israel may never have been created and Zionism may have been a failed movement.

The first step taken by Britain towards the creation of Israel was the Balfour Declaration, written by Arthur James Balfour, briefly outlining Britain’s position on a Jewish homeland within Palestine.  However, a Jewish homeland was more than just a promise of land. It was a promise for a better life closer to the spiritual capital and a promise for the end of suppression and persecution of the Jewish people as best said by Max Nordau, a co-founder of the Zionism movement: “Others hope for salvation from Zionism… The way to existence wherein the Jew finds at last the simplest but most elementary conditions of life… and assured social existence in a well meaning community.”[2]  Yet this promise did not become a reality until 1917 with the publication of the Balfour Declaration, which gave the Jewish people an initial hope for a homeland.  If Britain had not made this first step, hope for a Jewish homeland may have been lost; however, with only a few sentences Britain began its role in the creation of Israel.  Because of the Balfour Declaration, Britain had unknowingly taken the first step to the creation of not just a Jewish homeland, but also a Jewish state. The Zionist movement now believed they would gain back their homeland as said in the Balfour Declaration: “On behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with the Jewish Zionist aspiration has been approved by the Cabinet: [in] favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”[3] After releasing the declaration Britain had, almost single-handedly, started a chain of events that would lead to the creation of Israel, and would, in forty years be recognized as the start of Israel.  Indicative of Britain’s role in the establishment of Israel as seen by Chaim Weizmann in 1949: “As we proceeded along this path we achieved the Balfour Declaration, this first external recognition of our right to a nation revival in the land of our fathers.”[4]