I have always understood that the Balfour Declaration was between British officials. However, a book that I am reading about Isreali/US relations suggests in irritatingly vague language that the Balfour Declaration involved US officials.

Can anyone explain what the author might be referring to? Was the US at all involved in the Balfour Declaration? If so, how?

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Originally posted by Sarai:
I have always understood that the Balfour Declaration was between British officials. However, a book that I am reading about Isreali/US relations suggests in irritatingly vague language that the Balfour Declaration involved US officials.

Can anyone explain what the author might be referring to? Was the US at all involved in the Balfour Declaration? If so, how?

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The Balfour declaration was addressed from the British government to Lord Rothschild. It's quite brief, short enough to be worth quoting in full:

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

A rather long sentence, but pretty clear. With the Versailles conference at the conclusion of the first world war, this was incorporated into the British mandate to govern Palestine, at which international, and particularly Anglo-French agreements set out what now stand as the borders between Israel and Lebanon (Lebanon was part of the French Mandate territory of Syria) and confirmed the existing border of Egypt, which dated from that nation's independance from Turkey early in the 19th century.

The United States was not consulted in the drafting or promulgation of the Balfour declaration, and in the end, did not join in the League of Nations, and so had little to do with the Mandate government of Palestine, until brought in as an independant arbitrator in disputes between the Zionists and the mandatory government.

Hope that helps to clarify things for you. If you have any other questions, I used to be an expert in this field.

Alan Moore

Thanks, Alan. You've been such a great help in answering my questions.

Your explanation of the Balfour Declaration is essentially as I understood it. However, the book I'm reading (_The United States and the State of Israel_ by David Schoenbaum) seems to suggest that the US played more of a central role. Schoenbaum writes,

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"The backward trail [of US support of an Israeli state] extends still further, for example, to September 1922, when a concurrent resolution of Congress expressed overwhelming support for the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish National Home; or October 1917, when President Wilson assented almost surreptitiously to Britain's Balfour Declaration, the de facto charter of Jewish statehood. Yet these only reflect and confirm the heritage of still earlier experience...

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I was confused by his suggestion that Wilson was somehow consulted or important in Britain's decision. It was my understanding that at that point, the US really wasn't an important player in Middle Eastern affiars, so I'm not quite sure why or how Wilson would assent. Also, I'm surprised to read that Congress overwhelmingly supported the idea in 1922, since I also understood that even after WWII, Congress was not in favor of the creation of the State of Israel (but Truman was).

The reason I'm trying to understand all this is that I've never really understood why the US gives Israel such overwhelming support, so I've decided to educate myself about it.

If you can clarify any of these doubts, I would love it! Thanks!

quote:

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Originally posted by Sarai:
Thanks, Alan. You've been such a great help in answering my questions.

Your explanation of the Balfour Declaration is essentially as I understood it. However, the book I'm reading (_The United States and the State of Israel_ by David Schoenbaum) seems to suggest that the US played more of a central role. Schoenbaum writes,

quote:

---

"The backward trail [of US support of an Israeli state] extends still further, for example, to September 1922, when a concurrent resolution of Congress expressed overwhelming support for the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish National Home; or October 1917, when President Wilson assented almost surreptitiously to Britain's Balfour Declaration, the de facto charter of Jewish statehood. Yet these only reflect and confirm the heritage of still earlier experience...

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I was confused by his suggestion that Wilson was somehow consulted or important in Britain's decision. It was my understanding that at that point, the US really wasn't an important player in Middle Eastern affiars, so I'm not quite sure why or how Wilson would assent. Also, I'm surprised to read that Congress overwhelmingly supported the idea in 1922, since I also understood that even after WWII, Congress was not in favor of the creation of the State of Israel (but Truman was).

The reason I'm trying to understand all this is that I've never really understood why the US gives Israel such overwhelming support, so I've decided to educate myself about it.

If you can clarify any of these doubts, I would love it! Thanks!

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Looking back into my sources, I find that one of the reasons given for issuance of the Balfour Declaration was in hopes of getting the Jews to use such influence as they had to bring the United States into the war (WWI, of course). I'm not certain that I believe this, as the UK policy of assisting Jews to settle in Palestine dates back to the 1830s at least, and the UK must have known that, at that time (WWI), the Jews were not a unified, influential group in US politics.

US involvement in that part of the Arab world also goes back to the middle of the 19th century, when a missionary organization established the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut. This is still one of the world's pre-eminent educational institutions, now called the American University of Beirut, and in the late 19th and early 20th century a lot of Arab leaders got their educations there, many of them going on to serve as very high level officials in the governments established following the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. This is where the Arabs originally got their views of the United States, by and large, and a very favorable view it was. All that changed in the 1930's however, when the United States, not greatly interested in the problems of the Arab world, came down on the side of Zionism. It still took us another 30 years to convince the Arabs that we were not on their side in this particular dispute. I shudder to think how long it will take us to recover the position of leadership there that we voluntarily, and at great expense, renounced.

Alan Moore

Sarai, sounds to me like the reference you quoted is linked to the involvement of the newly formed at the time League of Nations. Of course Wilson was heavily invovled int he creation of that international entity. The interesting part to all this is that a promise was made by the British government involving lands after the war should the Hashemites go to war against the Ottoman Empire. Additionally Britain made promises concerning the same land to France known as the Sykes-Picot agreement. But yes, the Balfour Declaration is a the root of many of the problems today.