The Balfour Declaration: the High Point of British Zionism?

good evening and welcome to beta V high the fame document that is the focus of this evening was accepted by the British government on the 2nd of November in 1917 we find ourselves in the depth of World War one not only at knowing how the war would turn out who would win who would lose what would happen in the in the world the remarkable story of the Belfer declaration the foundation stone to modern Israel like this state had helped to create was also the most incredible of success stories the prominent Jewish intellectual Arthur Kessler repeated a frequent mantra called it one of the most improbable political documents of all time in which one nation solemnly promised a second nation the country of a third the document was written at a time of Anglo zionist intimacy in great britain this evening a joint event of Europeans for Israel the Jewish Historical Society of England Israel chapter the bell for a hundred committee the Zionist council of Israel and beta V High celebrates a centennial of the Belford declaration to discuss the significance of this document as well as the lessons that's that can still be learned we're pleased to present the award-winning journalists and political commentator Melanie Phillips as many of you here I have read Melanie's thoughts for years watched her powerfully present in televised and radio presentations and debates and can readily say that even if you don't agree with her Melanie Phillips Melanie Phillips is a person whose opinions should always be heard as for the other organizations joining us this evening the significance of our work here at bay to be highest found in the renewal of the Jewish people in Zion and it is therefore important to better understand the significance of a document that helped lead to the establishment of the State of Israel to introduce Melanie I'm pleased to present herb Canaan The Jerusalem Post diplomatic correspondent and the author who has lived in Israel for the past 35 years herb thank you [Music] thank you on November 12 on November 2nd 1917 as World War 1 raged on and months after various drafts were submitted and considered Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to the Lord Walter Rothschild to be transmitted to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland that electrified and transformed the Jewish world His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine where the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country and so it began with a single sentence with just 67 words in tweeter parlance that would be 285 characters or just over two screen tweets right the Balfour Declaration became the seminal document that led eventually to the creation the establishment of the State of Israel as you posted the Declaration Centennial it's fitting and timely to look back at the Declaration and try to understand the significance of it then and what relevance it has if any in understanding what's happening now today and to do this I'd like to introduce Melanie Phillips Melanie is we all know is a British journalist broadcaster and author her weekly column which currently appears in The Times of London has been published over the years in The Guardian observer Sunday Times and Daily Mail she also writes for The Jerusalem Post and Jewish Chronicle is a regular panelist on BBC's radios the moral maze and speaks on public platforms throughout the english-speaking world her best-selling book London ston about the British establishments capitulation to Islamist aggression was published in 2006 by encounter in New York she followed this in 2010 with the world turned upside down the global battle over God truth and power also published by encounter an updated paperback edition of guardian angel her personal and political memoir is being published in the US in January of 2018 and her first novel the legacy is due to be published here there in the spring Melanie will speak and afterwards we'll come back and ask a few questions on her presentation melanie barse ah thank you very much indeed herb good evening everybody Arif tov and thank you so much for coming this evening to hear this presentation earlier this year Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May told us that Britain will this year celebrate the centenary of the Balfour Declaration with pride in November the British government will mark it at a ceremony in London to which Prime Minister Netanyahu has been invited it is I think fair to assume that not all British citizens will be overjoyed to see mr. Netanyahu in London nor will they be thrilled to be invited to celebrate the Balfour Declaration with him and Mrs May that's because relatively few people in Britain are supporters of Israel even fewer support mr. Netanyahu and even fewer still know very much about the Balfour Declaration and the way the British subsequently interpreted the mandate for Palestine in 2014 Boris Johnson of whom you may have heard one or two things wrote in his book the Churchill factor that the Balfour Declaration was bizarre a tragic comically incoherent document and an exquisite piece of Foreign Office for Jarama well Boris Johnson has himself now become a piece of Foreign Office Fujiyama as he is allegedly the britain's Foreign Secretary and indeed in a subsequent visit to Israel Boris suddenly discovered that the powerful declaration was in fact a great thing that reflected a great tide of history well that's Boris for you but that profound and towards the Jewish homeland is also Britain's historic story on the very day that the British took Jerusalem from the Turks during the First World War the British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour was helping formulate the famous declaration that bore his name this made the momentous statement that Britain would view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people this epical commitment arose from a unique combination of circumstances which came together in a tiny window that had opened in history which was very soon to slam shut once again the Balfour Declaration was produced by a British government dominated by evangelical Christian Zionists Christians who believed in the redemption of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel among the Jewish people modern political Zionism was kick-started by the writings of the journalist Theodor Herzl these two things the Christian Zionism of the British government at the time and Theodor Herzl x' monumental contribution these two things are generally known less well known is that the genesis of political Zionism itself was itself intimately connected with evangelical Christianity I owe this fascinating information to an absolutely invaluable book the politics of Christian Zionism by Paul Merkley Herzl had had his epiphany about anti-semitism through the Dreyfus Affair in France in 1895 he concluded that the only solution to anti-semitism was Jewish national self-determination as he set out in his book dare you didn't start now this book was read with great excitement by a German raised member of the Church of England the Reverend William heckler he was chaplain to the British Embassy in Vienna Hitler was himself an evangelical Christian Zionist who had been brought up under the influence of the conviction share between then the Church of England and the United Evangelical Church of Prussia that the Jews should be restored to the land of Israel these two churches shared a bishopric in Jerusalem it was the only Protestant activity permitted by the Ottoman Empire and that bishopric originated with a Prussian diplomat called Christian Bunsen when Bunsen learned that the British government had acquired the unprecedented right to build a Protestant Church and schools in Jerusalem he immediately became convinced that God had given Britain responsibility for the restoration of the Jews to the Land of Israel and in 1840 he wrote to William Gladstone to tell him so the following year 1841 the Prussian king sent Bunsen to Britain to set up this project this church in Jerusalem he did so with someone called the Earl of Shaftesbury now Shaftesbury was the man at the very core of the great pioneering Victorian social reform movements of the 19th century these movements were rooted in evangelical Christianity which drew its compassion for the weak and the vulnerable straight from the Hebrew Bible this veneration of the Hebrew Bible made in turn Shaftesbury and his fellow evangelicals zealots for the return of as he would put the tea I say as he described the Jews God's chosen people to the Land of Israel they believed the biblical account of how Zion had been promised to the Jews by God and they further believed that the Jews return would presage the second coming of Christ and the perfection of the world mr. heckler was not himself the kind of evangelical who wanted to convert the Jews to Christianity he was the kind of evangelical who wanted the Christians to understand that their religious requirement was to support the return of the Jews to Israel and he also mr. heckler wanted the Jews themselves to understand their own after reading there you didn't start hella invited Herzl to visit him in his house he laid out before Herzl on the floor a map of Palestine showing Herzl where according to Hitler's calculations the new temple should be located and showing him models of the ancient temple saying we have prepared the ground for you it was Hitler who in a long story opened for Herzl the diplomatic doors to the Germans to the Turks and to others which would eventually lead to the first and second world scientists Congress in Basel and also helped make possible alongside other individuals who were involved Herzl subsequent entree into British government circles well unfortunately the first expression of British sympathy for Jewish self-determination because there was great sympathy for Jewish self-determination because there were so many Christian Zionists at the top of the British government and in British society generally at that time but unfortunately the first expression of governmental British sympathy for Jewish self-determination was when the government of which Arthur Balfour was actually then Prime Minister suggested in 1903 that the Jewish National Home should be created in Uganda at this point hi invites Minh enter the story veidt's Minh who had come to live in Manchester and worked in the University of Manchester as a chemist was to become of very considerable importance to the British government during the First World War through his development of acetone but during the general election of 1905 1906 it was Arthur Balfour who happened to be vitamins local Conservative Party candidate in that general election Weitzman an absolutely passionate opponent of the Uganda proposal and someone who was dismayed by Herzl zone apparent ignorant of the deeper context of Zionism within Judaism Herzl did not emphasize the necessity to build the Jewish National home in Palestine according to veidt's Minh this was a terrible omission Weitzman was brought to meet baltha to explain to baltha why the Jews would return should return only to Palestine why the Jews had been so passionately opposed to being dumped in Uganda as veidt's Minh recorded of this exchange that he had with candidate baltha quote then suddenly I said says Weitzman mr. Botha supposing I were to offer you Paris instead of London would you take it he sat up looked at me and answered but dr. Weitzman we have London that is true I said but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh now Balthus attitude to the Jews was not without its own complications he was brought up by an evangelical mother who would have instilled in him undoubtedly the ideas of the Jews are special the idea that the Jews should return to their ancient land in Israel but he nevertheless had some views that grated for example in 1905 during the debate over the aliens bill which was later to become the aliens act a bill which was drafted principally to keep out Jewish immigrants because Jewish immigrants at that time were perceived to be mainly Bolsheviks during the passage during the passage of the aliens bill in which baltha was intimately involved in which he very much supported he said the following he said quote a state of things could easily be imagined in which it would not be to the advantage of the civilization of the country meaning Britain that there should be an immense body of persons who however patriotic able an industrious however much they threw themselves into the national life still by their own action remained a people apart and not merely held a religion differing from the vast majority of their fellow countrymen but only intermarried among themselves yes Arthur baltha author of the eponymous Declaration was talking about the Jews as a race apart British Jews in Britain and that would be to the detriment of Britain but Balfour was also full of remorse for the way in which Christianity had treated the Jews over the centuries in 1917 he wrote to Harold Nicolson quote they have been exiled scattered and oppressed if we can find them an asylum a safe home in their native land then the full flowering of their genius will burst forth and propagate in July 1918 he wrote to his sister quote the Jews are too great a race not to count and they ought to have a place where those who had strong racial idealism could develop on their lines as a nation and govern themselves close quote and in all this movement of thinking to be much more sympathetic to Zionism as the restoration of the Jews to their ancient land in Israel in all this he had been undoubtedly greatly influenced by vitamin as alpha later acknowledged he said it was from that talk with vitamin during that general election of 1905 1906 it was from that talk with vitamin that I saw that the Jewish form of patriotism was unique well during the war Weitzman met and persuaded to the Zionist cause a number of key people including CP Scott editor of the Manchester Guardian yes when it was in that noble City of Manchester the Guardian was on the right side of the Zionist argument he influenced David Lloyd George and other government figures as a result by the end of 1914 a memorandum on the subject of a Jewish state under British auspices was beginning to circulate in cabinet now the support of two people in particular in that cabinet absolutely crucial one was Lloyd George who's intensely Philo Semitic Welsh nonconformist parents had instilled in him the necessity for the Jews to return to their ancient land and the other was Arthur Balfour when vitamin and baltha met again Balfour said you know I was thinking of that conversation of yours and I believe that when the guns stop firing you may get your Jerusalem in 1917 the Great War was ending with the defeat of the Turks and with Britain and France about to carve up the Middle East between them Britain needed a strategic buffer in Palestine to keep the trade routes open to India it's thought in addition that the pledge of a Jewish National Home in Palestine would rally support by Russian Jews which would in turn encourage Russia to stay in the war so there was a certain degree of rail politique in the decision to promote the idea of a Jewish National Home in Palestine on the other hand I don't think it would have happened had there not been such a solid phalanx of cabinet ministers who were evangelical Christian Zionists after protracted negotiation between the Zionists and the British government the Balfour Declaration was ready it was produced by ten men from the War Cabinet no fewer than seven of them from evangelical Christian Zionist backgrounds such a moment would never be repeated it took the form as you know of a letter the declaration took the form of a letter from Balfour to Lord Rothschild you've heard the text already this evening but I will say it again His Majesty's Government view with favor 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 should be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine all the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in early of a country this was a milestone of enormous significance and yet and yet it did not commit Britain to establishing a Jewish state as the Zionists had wanted the terminology was a the the the establishment in Palestine in Palestine of a Jewish National Home I come back to the ambiguity of this language later in my talk because it's significant well within a month of this letter the British forces in Palestine drove the Turks from Jerusalem in 1919 after the war had ended the Paris Peace Conference accepted the premise of the Balfour Declaration to grant the Jews a national home in Palestine at the request of the Jews Britain became the mandatory Authority for Palestine responsible for implementing this policy in april 1920 the League of Nations mandate for Palestine was ratified in Sanremo under the terms of the mandate the British had a duty to facilitate Jewish immigration and close settlement in Palestine which then included what is now Israel what is now called the West Bank what is now Gaza and what is now Jordan although the boundary of the mandate was at that moment at that point in time left undefined in 1922 the mandates final terms declared that quote recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds of reconstituting their national home in that country this was crucial wording reconstitution their national home the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine these are words that you don't hear today and we should today there is a widespread belief that the British promised Palestine in a kind of double-cross it promised Palestine to the Jews and it promised Palestine to the Arabs and that is said to be one of the reasons why this thing has never been resolved well that's not so the British did not make a double promise in 1915 the Arabs had been promised recognition and support for their independence in the Turkish districts of Damascus Hama Homs and Aleppo but not Palestine and not Jerusalem for their part at that time the Arabs themselves almost unanimously approved of the Jews return to Palestine they called it Palestine the Jews fatherland and spoke of the benefits to themselves they expected from Jewish settlement King Faisal of Iraq wrote a letter congratulating the Zionists and the then mufti of Jerusalem the leader of the cities Muslims even helped lay the foundation stone for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem just fancy that the Balfour Declaration was an epochal event but as David ben-gurion was to caution quote Britain has not given Palestine back to us Britain has made a magnificent gesture she has recognized our existence as a nation and is acknowledged our right to the country but only the Hebrew people can transform this right into tangible fact only they with body and soul with their strength and capital must build their national home and bring about their national Redemption well that was to prove far far harder than even he could ever have thought the reason was this although the British government as I've said contains so many Christian Zionists committed to the restoration of the Jews to their own ancient historic land of Israel the British military Administration in Palestine and its people in the colonial office were horrified by the government's declared policy of resettling the Jews in Palestine not only worth many of these officers fundamentally prejudiced against Jews per se but in the hysteria of the time created by the Russian Revolution of 1917 in which Jews were thought to be disproportionately involved as Bolsheviks these officers along with officials in the colonial office in Whitehall believed the Zionists were just Bolsheviks conspiring to subvert Empire almost before the ink of the mandate had dried the British started to make life as difficult as possible for the Palestinian Jews under their authority first of all they dramatically shrank Palestine itself they locked off some of the most fertile areas and gave them to newly created Syria prompting a protest by the American President Woodrow Wilson in September 1922 the new colonial secretary Winston Churchill then gave away some three quarters of Palestine to the Hashemite dynasty to create another new country Transjordan later Jordan now Churchill was later very well known for his passionate support for the Jews of Palestine but at times his attitude was nevertheless somewhat more ambiguous he hived off three quarters of Palestine to the Hashemites reportedly to buy off Arab opposition to the Jewish homeland which he thought would then be left to arise undisturbed west of the Jordan because Churchill was passionately committed to the restoration of a Jewish homeland well whatever the reason for what he did it was a fact that Britain thus unilaterally shrank by some three-quarters the land which the League of Nations had decided should be the Jewish National home not only that since Britain agreed that not one Jew would live in Transjordan Britain helped create the world's first ethnically cleansed Jew free territory that was however as nothing compared with what was to follow from evidence provided by contemporary observers such as the American writer William Ziff and the political officer charged with overseeing the mandate Colonel Richard meinertzhagen the British in Palestine not only did everything they could to prevent the creation of a Jewish National Home but became accessories to the rise of Islamic extremism and the mass murder of Jews before the mandate was even signed the British suppressed all mention of the Balfour Declaration and even censored references to the jewish legion which had fought gallantly for britain in the great war they proceeded to flood the jerusalem corporation with arab appointees declared they would address jewish delegations in arabic and announced with relish that quote jew baiting had been the sport of kings for centuries and centuries they consciously fermented hostility between arabs and jews to make it impossible to create the jewish national home which britain had pledged to establish deciding the arabs were more malleable than the upstart jews they also set about talking up a mythical pan-arab claim to palestine which they knew perfectly well did not exist in 1918 general louie Bowles was appointed military governor of palestine another military official of the time observed that balls was quote an out-and-out anti-semite who would leave no stone unturned to destroy the jewish national home root and branch close quote his chief of staff Colonel waters Taylor told a well-known Arab agitator named Hodges II a Haj Amin al-husseini that if sufficient violent disturbances took place over that Easter the idea of the Jewish National Home would be abandoned Haj Amin duly instigated a riot the British administration reacted to the riot by withdrawing all Jewish police officers from duty and disarming the Jews while surrounding the old city of Jerusalem to prevent any outside assistance for them the government is with us cried the rioters as they massacred Jewish victims the following year forty-three Jews were murdered in another riot in Jaffa the pattern was to be repeated countless times in the succeeding years Arabs slaughtering Jews British officials and police ignoring warnings and desperate pleas from the Jews for help and disarming them instead a subsequent committee an inquiry which exonerated the Arab attackers and blame their Jewish victims the 1918 atrocity made waves a committee of inquiry was set up it blamed the disturbances on Jewish provocation but colonel mine hurts Hagen reported that the British military had been complicit in the attacks as a result of this rau a civil administration replacing the military one was appointed under an individual called sir Herbert Samuel for the beleaguered Jews of Palestine however this was merely a leap from the frying pan into the fire although Samuel was himself a British Jew he was the kind of British Jew who falls over backwards to appease his tormentors I'm sure none of you knows any British Jew like that Sammy was so surrounded by anti-jewish officials one of whom said after the inaugural rest reception for staff quote and there I was at Government House and there was a Union Jack flying as large as life and a bloody Jew sitting underneath it it was the Craven Samuel who appointed Haj Amin the instigator of the 1918 atrocities as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem despite the fact that hashemian had been sentenced to 15 years hard labor for his role in those events and although he had most mysteriously managed to escape from prison wonder how Samuel pardoned this murderous thug for his crimes and appointed him Grand Mufti even over the protests of local Muslims in 1921 another pogrom took place against the Jews despite patently mounting hysteria amongst Muslims celebrating the nebby Moussa festival the British commander of police responded to this mounting hysteria by conveniently absent in himself while the few Jews in the police force were strangely removed from duty a shout that the mosque's being attacked by Bolsheviks Jews started an orgy of murder and rioting in Jaffa with women raped property pillaged children butchered that spread to other areas and left 95 killed and 290 wounded the subsequent hey Kraft Commission of Inquiry found the Jews guilty of provoking this pogrom against them and within 48 hours Samuel suspended Jewish immigration into Palestine the worst pogrom took place in Hebron in 90 twenty-nine incendiary rumors had been flying that the Jews are planning to tear down the mosque of Omar on the Temple Mount the Jews of Hebron had repeatedly asked for help but were merely told to stay at home violence was reportedly precipitated by the British police themselves who attacked a procession of Jewish mourners carrying the coffin of a young man who had been stabbed to death by Arabs an eight-day orgy of murder and unspeakable savagery then took place not just in Haran but up and down the country while the British police and officials did nothing to stop it once again the cry went up the government is with us kill the Jews the Arabs indulge in a frenzy of murder torture rape and dismemberment against men women and children the British officer in charge in Haran stood and watched the butchery eventually a policeman stopped the violence with but one shot in the air when it was all over 139 Jews were dead and 339 injured across the country half the dead were in her room at the behest of the Arabs the then Acting High Commissioner publicly paraded and disarmed Jews who had been defending themselves and then charged some of them rather than attacking Arabs with murder after the worst massacre in the Holy Land since the Crusades the most severe sentence handed down by the British to any Arab involved in this slaughter was 18 months in jail and in heaven itself one of Judaism's most sacred cities and where a large Jewish population had lived continuously since Babylonian times the British further responded to the massacre by ethnically cleansing the town of Jews protests erupted around the world that Britain's connivance in this slaughter of the Jews in Palestine but in due course the officials involved in handling the pogroms were promoted and yet another official inquiry exonerated the Arabs and blamed the Jews all of this caused Colonel mine hurt Sargon publicly to protest Britain's handling of the mandate never had there been any instance he observed of Zionist progress at the expense of Arab right but incitement of the Arabs lay at the root of evil in Palestine well along with facilitating pogroms against Jews on the ground the British set about also tearing up their obligation to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine in 1930 yet another Commission into the continuing slaughter of the Jews this one headed by Sir John Hope Simpson and replete with anti-jewish smears proposed restrictions on Jewish development such as a stop to irrigation work and confinement of Jews to the cities so that quote the Arab position is not prejudiced by Jewish immigration quick reminder the British were under a binding mandatory obligation to settle the Jews in the land of Palestine in the same year the new colonial secretary in Britain Lord Paz field the former Sidney Webb a noted intellectual issued a white paper which proposed a complete stop to Jewish immigration in direct contradiction of the mandate protests accordingly erupted from governments around the world in Britain itself Lloyd George bitterly observed that quote they dared not kill Zionism but put it in a refrigerator forced onto the back foot the den Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald told try and bite ceman that Britain would not abandon the Jews his assurance was to prove worthless in 1934 one year after Hitler came to power in Germany the then colonial secretary Cunliffe Lister assured the Quakers quote I will not permit Palestine to be filled with Jews close quote as the Nazi persecution of Jews got underway in Europe the British proceeded to unleash a Jew hunt in Palestine as attempted Jewish immigration from Europe rose desperate Jewish refugees said to have entered Palestine illegally were hunted down arrested thrown into jail or deported meanwhile large-scale and on and on arguably illegal Arab emigration from neighboring countries was being totally ignored as anti-jewish riots continued the British authorities did nothing to stop the incitement to violence being promulgated month after month with the Arab press branding the Jews quote the human sexual disease and a menace to all mankind as the Nazis stepped up their persecution of the Jews in Europe Arab stormtroopers marched in Palestine openly shouting Heil Hitler most of the ringleaders of these riots were on the British government payroll in 1936 after the British had again ignored Jewish pleased to prevent what was coming a bloodbath took place in which some 700 Jews up and down the country were mutilated and slaughtered in more than nineteen hundred and ninety attacks under the noses of the Palestine police whose activities were confined as usual to forcibly disarming the Jews in 1937 the peel Commission which was set up ostensibly to investigate the causes of the disturbances recommended partition of Palestine into two states one Arab the other Jewish with mass transfers of population between them sound familiar this was the original two-state solution the crucial point was that it was founded on an absolute betrayal of Britain's international treaty obligation and just as with today's same proposed solution constituted in effect a reward to the Arabs for their murderous aggression in the 1930s Britain was anxious to appease the Arabs because it was worried about the Alliance they'd made with Hitler but instead of fighting this Middle Eastern Nazi front the British decided to reward it by proposing to hand it part of the very land the United Kingdom was committed to turn into a Jewish home and refuge despite an international fury Oriya with appeal proposals in 1939 the British government published a white paper restricting Jewish immigration to a total of 75,000 over five years with any increased subject to the agreement of the Arabs it also proposed turning Palestine into an independent state with a two-thirds Arab majority the pledge to build a homeland for the Jews had been transformed into a commitment to create another state for the Arabs instead there was an outcry Churchill declared the government had violated the Balfour Declaration and abandoned its international undertaking Leo Amery MP told the House of Commons that the government's watchword was now quote appease the Arabs by breaking faith with the Jews close quote and that the white paper was quote a direct invitation to the Arabs to make trouble close quote the League of Nations mandates Commission denounced the policy as a flagrant breach of the mandate but the Commission had no teeth a Murray's words proved all too prescient scenting victory the Nazi backed Arabs of Palestine instituted revolt against the British who as a result began to lose control and as the Holocaust started in earnest the British responded to Arab aggression by closing the gates of Palestine to the victims of genocide at the Evian conference convened by them by the United States in 1938 every one of the 32 countries that participated with the exception of the Dominican Republic had refused to ease their immigration restrictions to accept more than a trickle of Jewish refugees from Europe after the crystal nacht pogrom in Germany Britain however relented sufficiently to admit 10,000 Jewish children into Britain of the Kindertransport but in 1939 it blocked the Jews escape route to Palestine pressuring other European countries not to allow them transit on the grounds that this was illegal immigration this was to stand truth on its head since the mandate explicitly required the British to facilitate the settlement of the Jews in Palestine in flagrant denial of his obligation the British excluded Jewish refugees from Palestine because it was trying instead to gerrymander a two-thirds Arab majority the Prime Minister then Neville Chamberlain said quote if we must offend one side let us offend the Jews not the Arabs the desperate Jews tried to enter Palestine by boat air and land the British blocked them causing ships packed with frantic refugees to be blown up or sunk in turning Sam in harsh detention camps and sending others back to the slaughter in Europe at the end of the war no fewer than 36,000 immigration certificates for Palestine remained unused deliberately withheld by the British if they've been granted thousands would have been saved in 1940 Britain stood alone against Hitler but it did so in its own interests in Palestine shockingly it stood against the victims of the Nazi genocide that year for John chakra of the colonial office wrote of the Jews of Palestine quote this is in 1940 he wrote quote I am convinced that in their hearts they hate us and have always hated us they hate all Gentiles they cannot even keep their hands off illegal immigration which they must realize is a very serious embarrassment to us at a time when we are fighting for our very existence close quote the terrible and unacknowledged truth is that in Palestine Britain the creator of the Balfour Declaration was an accessory to the Nazi genocide even after the Holocaust Britain still denied the remnant of European Jewry entry to Palestine the Labour foreign secretary Ernest Bevin made his prejudices plain when he criticized the supposed Jewish tendency quote to get too much at the head of the queue of the victims of Nazism in demanding help four months previously the outraged American president Harry Truman had demanded the admission to Palestine of 100,000 Holocaust survivors but Bevin who in private had categorically rejected the idea of a Jewish state and believed that the Jews had organized a worldwide conspiracy against Britain and against him personally stated that this would be quote to fly in the face of the Arabs with Zionism now said to the Alaia bility for Britain and with the Arabs becoming radicalized by the fanatical zealots of the Muslim Brotherhood and arming for further violence Bevin decided to dump the whole Palestine problem on to the United Nations when the UN decided on partition the British lobbied against the creation of a Jewish state battle in 1947 hours after the UN voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state with the British abstaining the Arabs launched their war to exterminate the Jewish state at birth still the British stood by while the Arabs attacked the Jews and refused to allow the Jews to arm themselves worth still the British were implicated in a series of atrocities including the bombing of the Palestine post the lynching of four unarmed Jewish resistance fighters and refusing to come to the rescue of the victims of a hospital bound convoy who were attacked and burned alive with 77 doctors nurses and scientists killed the historian Howard Sokka refers to Britain's undisguised partiality for the Arab military effort with the British making no effort to hide the fact they were arming the Arabs it had been in the aftermath of a 1929 riots at the ear gun paramilitary group was formed to provide a more effective defense for the Jews of Palestine along with a Ledge another similar group to go on to fight both the Arabs and the British with dozens of raids on British military targets including the infamous attack on British military headquarters in the King David hotel members of both of these groups however were hunted down and punished by the more moderate Jewish Defense Force the Hagana no such condone action was ever taken by the British against those in their own ranks who connived at the attacks on Jews for within three decades Britain had been transformed from the country that was charged with recreating the Jewish homeland into the country that would go to war with the Jews to thought the creation of that homeland as Churchill observed or the earthly government's desire to dismantle the British Empire but make a last land in Palestine quote Churchill said to abandon India with all the dire consequences that would follow therefrom but to have a war with the Jews in order to give Palestine to the Arabs amid the execration of the world appears to carry incongruity of thought and policy to levels which have rarely been attained in human history in conclusion I would suggest there are three main lessons to be learned from this most troubling history the first is the need for a deeper understanding of past events which will help us bring peace and justice to this region the British undermining of its own Balfour Declaration set a pattern of Arab appeasement which continues to this day it's a story of the utmost perfidy betrayal of solemn treaty obligations bigoted malice and short-sighted pursuit of national interest all of which not only lay the foundations for the Middle East conflict but also turn Britain into an accessory to the greatest crime of the 20th century this is Britain's dirty little secret the most pernicious deeds committed in plain sight but which nobody will acknowledge it is this failure I would suggest to admit and then draw a line under the past which explains why the Middle East conflict appears to be endless even though the Western world attempts uniquely endlessly and obsessively to enforce a solution upon it this is because the approach pioneered by Britain in the first half of the last century which first fanned the flames of aggression and was taken up in turn by Europe and America continues to this day and this betrayal of truth law and justice also lies at the root of the West's current cultural confusion which has made itself so vulnerable to attack this concerted demonization of Israel represents the stunning success of a strategy of warfare which rests upon manipulating the west into punishing the victims of aggression while rewarding their attackers this remarkable situation is not a marginal byproduct of the Middle East conflict nor did the Arab and Muslim world dream it up from nowhere it has its roots deep in Western attitudes which date from the very start of the conflict in the aftermath of the First World War this is why this conflict continues without a solution in order to solve a problem one must first correctly identify what the problem is the Middle East conflict has two crucial characteristics neither of which is generally acknowledged by the world first it is falsely represented as a dispute over the division of land between two peoples with rival claims to that land in fact it is a century-old attempt by the Arab world to extinguish the just and lawful existence of the Jewish National Home in the land second this is the only conflict in the world where for the entirety of this century-old war extermination civilized nations have consistently rewarded and incentivized the aggressors and punished their victims or hung them out to dry all the while purporting to be on their side for what Britain the US and Europe have done in the Middle East since 1918 and continue to do has been to respond to Arab terror by first siding with it then proposing to reward it land promised on the treaty obligation for Jewish settlement and then punishing Israel for objecting to this threat to its own security it is this failure to admit this behavior and worse its continuation which explains the endless nature of the Middle East conflict Western involvement is itself the key to the am pass for rewarding aggression and punishing its victims inevitably encourages and incentivizes the aggressor and that's what the West has done for more than a century the Balfour Declaration was a solemn pledge made by Britain which was then enshrined in a binding treaty obligation in tearing up that obligation Britain did not just betray the Jewish people it also showed its contempt for international law rehearsing the details of this perfidy as I've dubbed this evening is not about bashing the British it is instead all about helping bring about an end to this interminable conflict history tends to be dismissed as irrelevant to today's concerns Israel itself shows absolutely no inclination to excavate the travesty of British policy in Palestine I doubt very much whether you're going to hear mr. Netanyahu tell mrs. May some of the facts of history this is a mistake Israel's identity is defined by Jewish history no solution to the Arab war against Israel can be reached unless the world faces up to what the Balfour pledge represented and the lasting significance of its betrayal the second lesson we have to learn from this story is for the British Jewish community there are of course passionate Zionists among them today as there were in the first half of the last century but in the main the endemic terror among British Jews are being accused of dual loyalty or treachery to Britain has for the past century prevented them from promoting the cause of the Jewish homeland as strongly as they should have done and should now be doing in the light of the unspeakable betrayal of that cause when the idea of a Jewish National Home in Palestine was first circulated in the Lloyd George cabinet the only forceful opposition came from the one Jew in that cabinet Edwin Montagu Secretary of State for India for him the prospect of a national home for the Jews in Palestine raised the dread specter of duel loyalty quote I view with horror the aspiration for a national entity he wrote in 1916 did I accept it as a patriotic Englishman I should resign my position on the cabinet and declare myself neutral in September 1917 he insisted that a pro Zionist statement would alarm the Muslims of India and embarrassed the Jews of England writes Howard Sarkar quote the vehemence of his opposition to Zionism as a mischievous political Creed led the cabinet to Park the matter when it resumed looking at the matter Montague's opposition was even more intense Weitzman wrote later I understand the man almost wept as a result of Montague's opposition the text of the Balfour Declaration was modified the phrase the crucial phrase that Palestine be reconstituted as the national home of the Jews was dropped in favor of the more vague and equivocal statement that we know and which has led to so much constructive ambiguity my personal hope alpha told a friend in 1918 is that the Jews will make good in Palestine and eventually found a Jewish state Balfour understood the point that the Jewish state had not been guaranteed it was a Jewish homeland he knew why but he wanted to make clear that what he wanted to happen was a Jewish state but that was more than the Jewish leadership in Britain wanted Weitzman regarded the attitude of the community leader Lucy and vol wolf with contempt and despair Zionism was in his view wrote Weitzman a purely East European movement with a certain following in the East End of London and beneath the notice of respectable British Jews it was still harder in fact impossible for him to understand that English non-jews did not look upon his anti-zionism as the hallmark of a superior loyalty it was never born in on him that men like Alfred Churchill Lloyd George were deeply religious and believed in the Bible that to them the return of the Jewish people to Palestine was a reality so that we Zionists representives of them a great tradition for which they had enormous respect well I think that's a lesson that too many British Jews still need to learn today being anti Zionist does not in do endear you to the non-jews the final lesson I would suggest is for the Christian churches the Balfour Declaration was the political zenith of the evangelical Christian Zionism which had become dominant in Victorian Britain as a reaction to the religious skepticism of the preceding 18th century yet now we look back we can see that it was at that high-water mark the Balfour Declaration that high-water mark of Christian evangelicalism that not just Christian Zionism but Christianity itself started to decline in Britain the evangelical approach from that moment for from the end of the First World War really shrank gradually to a minority view within the church within England the church which progressively devalued the Hebrew Scriptures for a much vaguer understanding of the divine and now surprise surprise the Church of England is deeply hostile to Israel and as a further amazing coincidence it is also struggling to fill its pews the Church of England is dying on its feet and for a closely related reason that it is lost its essential connection with the Jewish precepts of the Hebrew Bible without which Christianity is nothing and without Christianity Britain as we know it is nothing or at least will become something very different indeed and that perhaps is the deepest lesson of all of the Balfour Declaration that it was the high-water mark not just of evangelical Christianity but also a British decency towards the Jews and that what has drained away ever since then is not just that particular decency but the soul of Britain itself thank you [Applause] okay yeah this is on Melanie what you Chronicle isn't exactly an uplifting tale it's rather disturbing Mike is it on you hear me okay I said that it wasn't the very uplifting tale that we've just heard it doesn't make you absolutely want to go vacation in London what you have is a magic moment night in November 1917 and then essentially British perfidy towards the Jews from then on what lessons should the government of Israel today take from the history that you've you've discussed here and how should it inform the government's decisions going forward well there are many lessons to learn from this history members of the Israeli government particularly the prime minister needs no lesson in this British perfidy other members of his government may be less tutored in this and I would suggest I would think that many Israelis if not most Israelis don't know the details of all of this I would suggest that many diaspora Jews don't know the detail of all of this there are many lessons that can be learned but I think there are two in particular which are related one is to understand that history is not some dead thing in the past which is of no consequence one of the attitudes that I find among Israeli officials and politicians and that kind of person isn't impatience with anything that's not like today's problem and it's understandable because you know today's problems are severe and have to be dealt with and there's a kind of impatience with the past in the past is the past and you know we all know it's a sort of view we all know that you know Britain is full of Jew haters and always has been always will be so why bother with them why bother with it we have to get on now with what's facing us now which is less a understandable but what I think that devalues and dismisses recklessly dismisses is that the world then becomes not just in a state of ignorance about the true nature of this conflict but is liable to believe the propaganda of lies that is energetically coming up them 24/7 and consequently one I think has to go back into history to to this history to explain just why the international community said that Britain that that Britain should settle the Jews throughout Palestine that the Jews should be regarded as being in Palestine not on sufferance but as of right because in Britain and I can really only talk about Britain this country that I know best many people who are perfectly decent people believe because they've never had anything other that the Jews were interlopers into Palestine that the Jews were plucked from the carnage of Europe by a Europe by Europe that was suffused with Holocaust guilt and these European Jews had actually no connection to Palestine were then planted in Palestine where they displaced the indigenous people of the land Palestinian Muslims who had been there since time immemorial people of decent decent people believe that they'd never been told the opposite they'd never been told the truth now you know the international community in 1920 1922 said you know the Jews are returning as of right it's their right because it was their homeland and only that only the Jews were it was it was only ever the Jews for whom the Land of Israel was ever their national their national homeland that in itself would almost overnight transform the atmosphere in Britain at the very least it would mean that people would say what did they say where did that come from is that true it can't be true is it true and at least the very least you have a discussion so and there you know that would be only be the start of the process so I think that you know the first lesson is go back to history to restate truths which are being overlooked today yah-hoo he's very aware acutely aware of history and he speaks a lot about history he does and he's articulate right he doesn't have an accent he speaks well and he makes these points but the world ain't accepting them so the question is what else can you do I was you can you can put down the facts I mean you said I think rather sang quietly that if you just say well what happened in 1922 the British the British community will say hey we got to think about that do you really believe that just by presenting the facts people are actually gonna say hey there's a point there I do and you say why doesn't mr. Netanyahu says all this well he says a lot of stuff which is very good what other people don't say but he doesn't say quite this and I think the reason why he doesn't say it is two reasons first of all Israel doesn't want to upset its allies and it believes that Britain is an ally well you know it is saying with friends like these who needs enemies but it's true Britain is an ally in many respects it has very close military ties it has very close intelligence ties and it's very close trade ties the only problem is at the political level which is a very significant problem actually but so the Israeli government does not want to pick a fight with its friends well it's understandable but the result of that is that by failing to tell essential truths it's allowing the demonization of Israel to proceed a pace and I think that's one main reason another reason which officials have said to me over the years when I've said why don't you start telling people some of the basic truths about this situation for example a basic truth is that Israel is entitled to be here and it has always behaved in accordance with international law and people don't know that people don't understand because no one's ever told them what the law says what treaty obligations say about this mat to which the Israelis say why should we alone in the world be required to justify our existence well okay I get that it's very unfair mm-hmm but nevertheless if you don't do that given that many people in the world and many people in Britain believe that your existence is illegitimate then it's absolutely your duty to tell them why it isn't illegitimate and why if they do support international law and justice and all that kind of stuff they should be supporting Israel the Israeli government doesn't say that it's ready to Cartman doesn't say there's a problem here in the world with law we're on the right side guys let's let's say that when you when you get into these conversations on the BBC and you start going digging back in history I mean don't you hear people say well let's not go back to 1917 or 1914 or 1905 let's talk about how we can solve this now there's a certain tendency to want to block that out and move forward no you make an assumption that I can have conversations like this on the BBC but insofar as I have ever been able to take up the advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you to get in I'm cut off on the basis that this is relevant it's irrelevant and it's all too complicated anyway you can't sort of say it and you know there's a 15-second sound bite it's quite quite demanding but basically there you get no opportunity to say it so you know there is a systematic [Music] suppression of this information platforms do not exist to enable someone like myself to say these things the press itself will not report these things will not initiate them partly because they haven't got the faintest idea that these things are to be said and partly because of ideology they don't want to so the way the only way through that is for is for people to to be saying these things who themselves can't be ignored in other words they make a stink because they are who they are and it requires some creativity it's not easy but it requires above all a strategy and Israel doesn't understand what the word strategy is outside the battlefield it has no strategy for combating this doesn't understand that it has a necessity for any strategy and that's the problem is you pointed out I mean it's in yahoo's gonna go to Britain on November 2nd and take part in the ceremony if you were to write a speech what would you say well I just I would be I would be tactful while putting in the Stiletto I would give the British people the credibility that they deserve for being the people who beyond any other people stand for law and justice and fairness and that they did a great thing with the Balfour Declaration and here's why it was a great thing because it at that point the British government god bless it understood that the Jews alone were entitled to the land and God blessed also the international community endorsed that and this is what the international community said I would read out the chunks that say the Jews alone are entitled at this land that's what I would do I would use the opportunity tactfully to introduce the facts of history so on the balance then I mean on the balance that the Jews Oh a debt of gratitude towards Britain despite it all so are you saying as you asked me I'm asking you yes yes that you are absolutely I mean you know Lord Balfour did his thing he issued his declaration it did kick start everything and you know it wasn't just Lord Balfour it was you know all the members of the cabinet who thought in the same way so one can't gain say that why shouldn't gain say that it was Britain's finest hour insofar as the Jewish people were concerned it had never done anything as wonderful before and it had no and never did anything as wonderful ever since but it was wonderful so we should say that you mentioned that you mentioned that that Israel when the reasons Israel doesn't go into this perhaps it's because it sees Israel sees Britain as an ally is it an ally today and under may and and what impact will brexit have on a relations it's a very complicated it's a very difficult question to ask to answer and I've often asked it of people who are very sympathetic to Israel of whom there are approximately three and a half in Britain in public life and they all say oh that's a really difficult question to answer I can't answer it because as I said before it operates on different levels Britain is an ally Britain understands absolutely that without Israel being Israel Britain would itself be in far greater danger from all the forces that we know Israel is you know in its the forwards salient against all these forces that's number one number two it depends on Israel more and more for all kinds of stuff to do with war and intelligence and the as I understand it the alliance or connections between on the military and intelligence level are exceptionally strong exceptionally strong and trade I mean it trades it trades that the problem is the political on the political level and Israel kind of overlooks that because you know it says look you know BDS is going on but I mean who cares I mean you know trades going up with the European Union so who cares one understands that point of view except it's wrong because you know there's a lot but they could be doing and should be doing Israel so should one regard Britain as an ally yes I think one should regard it in a way like I know the analogy is perhaps not quite right but an uncle that has taken to drink and crime and you love your uncle and he's still your uncle and he's family and you know you're going to the jungle for your uncle and you'll do what you can for him but ultimately he's into drugs and crime and that's not good and you've got to basically get him out of that it's that kind of relationship is it an ally I mean it's more of an ally than mainland Europe is an ally is it a lot of an ally as America where it depends which president happens to be you know in the Oval Office at any one particular time and that's another story how about brexit I mean how's Brad gonna impact they were like Rick sit on the Jews hmm well I don't think Israel's government looks very kindly on BRICS I think everyone's very frightened by BRICS it because everyone likes Britain you know where it can sort of be neatly corralled as part of you know a block which is called the European Union and I think that like many diaspora Jews I think I didn't know quite what the proportion of Israeli politicians think this but certainly some of them to think that only the European Union stands between europe and neo nazism and that you know Britain leaving might precipitate the breakup of the European Union and that will lead to fascism in Europe well hello I have a looked at what's going on in Europe at the moment so this is like absurd and again Israel can't sort of look up from its own navel to see the wider picture in my view which is that if you suppress people's legitimate and natural desire to express their own culture through their own democratically elected parliament which passes its own laws and a parliament and a government which can be thrown out by the people if you prevent people from doing that from expressing their culture through a democracy and if you furthermore rubbish and vilify the desire to be a nation a self-governing Western democratic nation if you vilify that as racism then you do get racism then you get people turning against minorities you get frustration and you get what we're seeing at the moment which is the people and the rule in Europe becoming more and more further apart and it's a very dangerous and unsettled situation so wood bricks it'd be good for Israel actually I think it would be terrific for Israel for this reason alone that one of the reasons why Israel is so vilified by the progressive so-called progressive forces in Britain in the West is that Israel commits three thought three terrible crimes first of all it's a nation secondly it's a Western nation thirdly it's an ethnic Western nation so it's triply damned now Britain's leaving the European Union is similarly damned by the same forces as releasing and as being motivated by racism ethno primitivism nativism and all that sort of stuff it's basically you know you need the European Union you're a Nazi if you want to leave your opinion you're a Nazi right I think if Britain if see I'm slightly pessimistic when Britain at least the European Union and becomes itself a nation then it becomes much more difficult to vilify Israel for wanting to be a nation expressing its own culture through its own laws much more difficult and so from that but for that point of view alone I think that it would actually be a good thing you mentioned the case of the rabidly anti-science Jew Edward Montagu that too is a recurring phenomenon Jews were some of the Zionism ins worst enemies all right I mean how do you explain that phenomena now throughout the decades and I'm not talking here about the about the theological anti-zionism of the car redeem but I'm talking about the the anti passionately rabidly anti scientist Jew who up until this day causes a lot of causes a lot of problems for the country well I do think there's one single explanation there are different types of anti Zionist Jew in Britain it's a matter of simple professional and social self-preservation to be an anti Zionist Jew but you take your life in your hands professionally and socially to be a Zionist Jew yes yes so you know Montagu and his ilk were entirely correct once you stick up for the once you stick up for Jewish peoplehood in their own country then you had it you are a traitor to Britain I've had that said to my face on television in 2002 in front of a baying mob of a television audience who hissed and spat and booed and sneered and laughed as I was called and as I was accused of having dual loyalty as the first time I'd heard it overtly but it's there all the time as soon as you stick up for Israel you become you not we the pronoun changes so it's all correct and so that's one want one reason secondly like many diaspora Jews bit issues are comfortable and it takes a lot to disturb that comfort if you've got the kind of British Jew who lives in a Jewish area you have almost universally Jewish friends your children go to a Jewish school you may work in central London you go on the tube used to can still wear your kippa on the tube no one knocks it off in central London you're pretty safe you work among colleagues who they don't say very much about Israel or the Middle East you don't say very much about is irrelevant is because it's not part of your life you don't actually think about it that much you may have occasional family there you may occasionally go there for a holiday but you don't really think about it very much so when you wake up in the morning you don't think I can't bear to turn on the radio because I know what I'm going to hear you don't think I can't bear to open my newspaper because I know what I'm going to read and it's gonna be a lie and a libel and defamation of his room I can't bear it you don't think that because either you don't your other you you're not interested so you kind of tune it out or you kind of agree with it you kind of say yeah you know if only Bibi Netanyahu were basically to be removed from the human race everything will be fine in the world you might be that kind of Jew or you might be the kind of Jew that says you know if only all the settlers were basically to go and jump in the sea everything will be fine there'll be peace meet two-state solution you could be that kind of Jew and there are many of that kind of Jew in Britain so you have a very nice life if you're the kind of Jew who gets upset by it or who thinks that they're living in a climate of poisonous lies from morning till night which is affecting good and decent people to think evil things to the detriment of at the very least and possibly the threat to the Jewish people then you think very differently but so you can be it's perfectly possible to be a Jew in Britain and not see a problem forgive me for my ignorance of the British truth community I'm more familiar with the American Jewish community the American Jewish community at least at least in the East Coast is very vocal very out there very open very very very strong and effective politically in Britain it seems like the Jews are much more passive why is it is that because these are sociological reasons for that are they well again this is a quite a complicated situation that you're alluding to because the idea that there was their walls and he's no anti-semitism in in America is simply false there has been over those decades a lot of anti-semitism in America the idea of America as a melting pot and there was never in anti-semitism is simply untrue but America first of all is socially very different from Britain it doesn't have a settled culture which was is is was infused by anti-semitism if you're educated in Britain you're exposed to it medieval history literature Chaucer Shakespeare TS Eliot you know you imbibe it and that's the culture that we as Jews when we all arrived at the turn of the last century we're supposed to be acculturated into so it becomes very difficult and that wasn't really the case in America to the same to the same degree so that's that's one thing the other thing is the church the churches it's absolutely crucial Britain is the wrong kind of Christian country Britain is a Christian country where the Christians burn the Jews alive in the Middle Ages and then threw them out and it had two periods of Philo semitism one was under Cromwell who brought them back partly for economic reasons but mainly because Cromwell was an evangelical what we would call an evangelical he was a Puritan and it was course the Puritans who founded America they left Britain because they disapproved so much of the theological underpinnings of the Church of England and so America was founded on the understanding of the Hebrew Bible was the source of civilization and so America to me is a Jewish country and that's not to gainsay the fact that there are rednecks there are people who hate Jews there are people who've beaten up Jews over the city over the decades but it's fundamentally a Jewish country in a way that Britain is not and it remains the case that you know the the red states with you know all these people that were all supposed to hate so much the rednecks they will like Jews they're evangelical Christians and you know the Jewish communities in in the calm the coasts you know they have you have to sort of pass them the smelling salts if you mention evangelical Christians do they say but these people are anti-semites they want to convert us when Jesus returns to earth to which I say well I'll take my chances when that happens frankly but for the moment they are the best friends that the Jewish people have in the world bar none including you and strangely they don't invite me back interesting what about the evangelicals not that kind of situation to what you said during your talk I'm curious as to the reasons for the decline of Christian Zionism in Britain to the crying evangelicalism in Britain at a time when you're seeing an increase in it you know in America I mean the American evangelical Christian Zionism over the last 40 years has just blossomed right so you're going in different directions why is it well first the first thing to say is that unfortunately there has been and I forgive me I do not understand the theology of this so I'm a little hazy about all this but there's been a terrible split within the evangelical movement both in Britain tiny as it is and in America in that the evangelicals as we as we've discussed are Christian Zionists they believe that the Jews are entitled to the land that's where they were that's where they should be bubbeleh but now within the evangelical movement there has sprung up a vicious vicious virulent anti-zionist section and I can't tell you I just don't know how big that is I can just say it's growing it's on the fringe but it's growing that's alarming but the the overall question of why evangelicalism died out basically it's again I be honest I don't know the answer but I would suggest that it's not that evangelicalism died out it was that belief in God died out that after the first world war the slaughter of the First World War almost finished off the church when the church had been reeling on India in the Victorian period in the nineteenth century the church was delivered this tremendous blow from Darwin and the Victorians understood that without the religious underpinning of society society he would basically go smash and so they had to fend off what they feared which was that there was no God that life was meaningless and that human beings descended from apes and consequently they erected religiosity they kind of came to worship religion and they did a tremendous job I mean Victorian England was you know fantastically church-going society bound by a Christian morality and all the rest of it but it was Hollow it was Hollow it was all done to protect themselves or protect the religion from being smashed by the march of secularism First World War happened that was it and then ash whit's also just because there was nothing there there wasn't a solid basis and a so the question is why there wasn't a solid basis and so one answer that was given to me by one of the Church of England's more turbulent priests is this that the question is when the winds of secularism blew why did the churches in America stay okay broadly broadly and why did the Church of England blow over and why did the Vatican take lot of why did Catholicism take longer to be eroded because it did in Europe it to be it's being a roadie but it took much longer why was the Church of England so fragile and the answer was that this man gave to me this priest of the Church of England that the Church of England's basically a kontrick going back to the Wars of Religion under Henry the eighth Queen Elizabeth first basically they all decided that the Wars of Religion just had to stop the people were being slaughtered Christians were slaughtering Christians it was terrible so and this is to has a very long theological story short they created the Church of England as we know it today which was basically doctrinally free that is to say they didn't touch the doctrine the doctrine remained Catholic insofar as the people remained Catholic Henry the eighth broke-broke from rome but he didn't break theologically he broke from rome because he wanted to divorce his wife and then several other wives that's why he broke with room he had no problems of theology so the people were kind of left stranded they were basically still Catholic but they had a king who had taken them away from Rome so we had the rules of religion in Britain and the the the solution which was a work of genius was to avoid the Church of doctrine not to go there so they erected the edifice of religion as an aesthetic experience the Book of Common Prayer was written the Book of Common Prayer is a work of poetic majesty it inspires people and they erected they built wonderful cathedrals wonderful which inspire and that's how they did it and that's what people loved the Book of Common Prayer there's wonderful liturgy the wonderful hymns the wonderful singing the wonderful architecture but there was nothing there so when the real threat came it blew over that was his explanation just a wrap but I here with two two final questions and the first is that the Palestinians have actually threatened to sue their bidders for reparations his a result of the Balfour Declaration there was a campaign that garnered thousands of signatures in Britain asking the government there for an apology well the Foreign Office said that there's not intent to apologize it added in a statement it put out a statement and it said that the document the de bellefort declaration should quote have called for the protection of political rights of the non-jewish communities in Palestine particularly their rights of self-determination good ol foreign office respond to that it hasn't changed in hundred years the foreign office from that point of view it still hates the Jews the fact is the Balfour Declaration which has been malevolently misunderstood not least by the Foreign Office it was very clear in what it left out it's committed Britain to guarantee the the religious and civic or civil rights it deliberately left our political rights and that's been carried out to the letter non Jews in Israel enjoy equal civil civic civil and religious rights they also enjoy political rights an equal political rights insofar as everybody has the vote but it remained it it was phrased in that way so that Israel would be a Jewish country a Jewish homeland that was deliberate and for the Foreign Office to say that it should have been rights for everybody is the Foreign Office saying there should be no Israel because that's what that would mean no Jewish that no Jewish homeland no Jewish country no Jewish state the Jews are not entitled their own country that's what the Foreign Office in its previous manifestation thought then and it's what it thinks now at least some of them do I'm prepared to believe that you know times have moved on there are people who don't think that but that's the kind of corporate view that's the corporate view of the Foreign Office still and lasted for a century it's a long corporate history the final question is the Palestinian like I said the Palestinians are using the Centennial to ask for an apology from the British what should we be asking for what we re asking for we the Jews to end the war of extermination please and we should be asking the world to stop it to stop the war of extermination to understand that this is a war of extermination and to stop incentivizing funding condoning sanitizing and therefore supporting it that's what we should be asking [Applause] thank you thank you Melanie for the enlightening speech in the the lively discussion this is the first event of many events to be happening around the world actually over next next couple months to mark the centennial the Balfour Declaration I want to thank Melanie for coming here I want to thank you for coming here and please attend some more of the events and because these types of things you learn as we shoot a night you learned quite a bit thank you [Applause]

Channel: beitavichaivideo

Views: 14,824

Rating: 4.1052632 out of 5

Keywords: Melanie Phillips, Balfour Declaration, הצהרת בלפור, Balfour, בית אבי חי, בית אביחי, Zionism, Beit Avi Chai, Lecture, Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, Journalism, History

Id: szm-Rxhq4fU

Length: 87min 27sec (5247 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 11 2017