Britain's 遺産／遺物 of 血: How a British 政治家 覆うd the way for a ユダヤ人の 明言する／公表する - and the countless deaths that followed after the 創造 of イスラエル

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A hundred years ago this week, Britain’s Foreign 長官 調印するd a short 声明 that changed the world.

The Balfour 宣言, as it is known today, was just 67 words long. Written on the orders of the 保守的な 政治家，政治屋 Arthur Balfour in the autumn of 1917, it was sent to the 銀行業者 and zoologist Lord Rothschild, a 主要な light in the British Zionist movement, which sought the 設立 of a ユダヤ人の 母国.

For the first time, Britain committed itself to ‘the 設立 in パレスチナ of a 国家の home for the ユダヤ人の people’.

The 1917 Balfour 宣言 at 67 words long committed Britain to 'the 設立 in パレスチナ of a 国家の home for the ユダヤ人の people'

A century on, Palestinian people are still 苦しむing as a result of the Balfour 宣言?

No wonder イスラエル and its 支持者s were celebrating this week, 場内取引員／株価 the 周年記念日 of a foundational moment in their 勇敢に立ち向かう little country’s struggle for 生き残り.

But there is another 味方する to the story.

The Balfour 宣言 点火（する）d a firestorm of 論争 and 暴力／激しさ that saw an entire people ― the Palestinians ― uprooted from their homes and 非難するd to life in squalid 難民 （軍の）野営地，陣営s.

The 宣言 was at once the cornerstone of the Middle East’s most 耐えるing 僕主主義, and the death 令状 for a historic nation. For the Jews of Europe, it 申し込む／申し出d 救済. For the Palestinians of the Levant, it meant 災害.

Since its 出版（物） in 1917, thousands of people have fought and died in an 試みる／企てる to 解決する those contradictions.

And while the 宣言 undoubtedly 代表するs a seminal moment in the life of our 広大な／多数の／重要な friend, イスラエル, it is also a terrible 警告 of the dangers of 皇室の hubris. For a century on, the Palestinian people are still 支払う／賃金ing a 抱擁する price for Balfour’s cynicism.

These history 熱中している人s are 祝う／追悼するing the Australian 機動力のある 分割 and ANZAC 軍隊／機動隊s at the 戦う／戦い of Beersheba in the fight 100 years ago against the Ottoman Empire

The background to the Balfour 宣言 is almost as 議論の的になる as its consequences. To 削減（する） a very long story short, at the turn of the 20th century, the land we know today as イスラエル was part of the 崩壊するing Ottoman Empire (the 核心 of which became modern Turkey).

Then called パレスチナ, it was 支配するd by Arabic-speaking イスラム教徒s. But in the years before the 突発／発生 of World War I, tens of thousands of ユダヤ人の 移民，移住（する）s began arriving from Eastern Europe.

逃げるing appalling pogroms in the ロシアの Empire, they belonged to the Zionist movement, which dreamed of 再構築するing the 初めの kingdom of イスラエル. As one 植民／開拓者 put it, the goal was to ‘回復する to the Jews the political independence they have been 奪うd of for these two thousand years’.

Against this background, Arthur Balfour （機の）カム in.

Born into the aristocratic Cecil 王朝 in 1848, he was a faintly effeminate 人物／姿／数字, known to friends as ‘Niminy Piminy’.

Besides 存在 a 政治家，政治屋, he was also the author of a 調書をとる／予約する on philosophy and cultivated an 空気／公表する of careless indolence , famously 発言／述べるing that ‘nothing 事柄s very much and few things 事柄 at all’. But he was enviably 井戸／弁護士席 connected, and served as an 効果のない／無能な 総理大臣 between 1902 and 1905.

After the 投票者s kicked him out, Balfour remained at Westminster and was made Foreign 長官 in Lloyd George’s 戦時 連合.

Alfred Balfor, with glasses, ?pictured during a trip to パレスチナ is partly 責任がある the problems in the area which have cost thousands of lives?

And in November 1917, hoping to 動かす up international opinion against the Ottomans ― who had taken the Germans’ 味方する in World War I ― he 問題／発行するd his famous 宣言.

It reads, in 十分な: ‘His Majesty’s 政府 見解（をとる） with favour the 設立 in パレスチナ of a 国家の home for the ユダヤ人の people, and will use their best endeavours to 容易にする the 業績／成就 of this 反対する, it 存在 明確に understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and 宗教的な 権利s of 存在するing 非，不，無-Jew ish communities in パレスチナ or the 権利s and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.’

On the 直面する of it, the 声明 could hardly have been simpler. But for every word, thousands would lose their lives.

So why did Balfour do it? After all, Britain did not even 支配（する）／統制する パレスチナ, so he was giving away 領土 that 現実に belonged to somebody else.

The obvious explanation is that with Britain fighting the Ottoman Empire, Balfour saw the 宣言 as a way to 誘発する ユダヤ人の support.

Balfour's 宣言 failed to consider the 衝撃 a ユダヤ人の 明言する／公表する would have on Palestinians?

As historian Jonathan Schneer has argued, Balfour and his 同僚s believed in the 力／強力にする of ‘international Jewry’ and were 納得させるd that the 宣言 would 勝利，勝つ them the support of ‘ユダヤ人の 銀行業者s’ across the world.

Indeed, Balfour himself 予報するd that the 宣言 would make 広大な／多数の／重要な ‘宣伝 both in Russia and America’, which were both our 同盟（する）s in the 広大な／多数の／重要な War. But there were three colossal problems. The first, and most obvious, was that somebody else was living in パレスチナ already: すなわち, some 737,000 イスラム教徒 or Christian Arabs.

They had been there for centuries, tilling the land, raising their families and going about their 商売／仕事.

Nobody asked what they thought. The second problem was Balfour was inexcusably vague. He talked of a ‘国家の home for the ユダヤ人の people’. What did that mean? Would the whole of パレスチナ become a ユダヤ人の 明言する／公表する?

Would there be two 明言する／公表するs, one for Jews, one for Arabs? Or would the Jews just get a home within the 存在するing 明言する／公表する?

The world is still 格闘するing with these questions today. Thirdly, and most unforgivably, the Balfour 宣言 was not the only 約束 that Britain’s 政治家，政治屋s made.

They had already told the leaders of the Arab 反乱 ― a British-支援するd 国家主義者 反乱 led by the Sharif of メッカ against the 地域’s Ottoman overlords ― that they would get パレスチナ as part of a 大規模な Arab-speaking empire after the war.

Palestinians this week 抗議するd against the 周年記念日 of the Balfour Declarati on?

At the same time, the British had also 調印するd a secret を取り引きする the French to carve up パレスチナ between them. In fact, when World War I was over, Balfour and Co grabbed パレスチナ for themselves under a いわゆる League of Nations 委任統治（領） which transferred 支配（する）／統制する of 広大な areas of the Middle East to the war’s 勝利者s.

The French were fobbed off with Syria and Lebanon while Britain snapped up oil-rich Iraq and パレスチナ.

It is too glib to 非難する all the modern Middle East’s problems on Britain’s mapmakers, as the self-loathing, anti-Western Left likes to do. Even so, there has rarely been a more 極悪の example of 皇室の hubris.

For what followed was a 悲惨な mess. By 1929, 奮起させるd by the Balfour 宣言, some 100,000 Jews had joined their brethren in British-run パレスチナ, dreaming of a new 母国. The 地元の Arabs took this very 不正に, and in 1936 開始する，打ち上げるd an 不成功の 反乱 against British 支配する. But by now the 注目する，もくろむs of the world were どこかよそで.

Balfour died in 1930 at the age of 81 but his 宣言 continued to 原因（となる） problems

In 1933 Hitler （機の）カム to 力／強力にする in Germany, 開始する，打ち上げるing the most sickening （選挙などの）運動をする of 憎悪 and 迫害 in human history, which 最高潮に達するd in the industrialised 虐殺（する） of the 大破壊／大虐殺.

Even as European countries hesitated to 受託する 難民s from Nazi Germany, 救済 organisations, 補佐官d by 寄付s from ユダヤ人の groups in America, brought thousands across the Mediterranean Sea to パレスチナ.

So even as Europe’s ユダヤ人の 全住民 was 存在 皆殺しにするd, the reality of a ユダヤ人の 母国 was 伸び（る）ing 勢い. Between 1931 and 1945, the number of Jews in パレスチナ swelled to a staggering 608,000 people, accounting for about a third of the 全住民.Balfour himself was long gone, having died in 1930 at the age of 81. But as a result of the 宣言, his 遺産／遺物 for the Palestinians was 血まみれの indeed.

After the war, as hundreds of thousands of 大破壊／大虐殺 生存者s flooded into パレスチナ, Zionist groups 開始する，打ち上げるd a terror （選挙などの）運動をする against British occupiers, 含むing the 1946 爆破 of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, which killed 91 people.

In 1948, under 圧力 from the Americans, Britain pulled out. The ユダヤ人の leadership 布告するd the 明言する／公表する of イスラエル, while four 隣人ing Arab countries ― Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq ― sent in their own armies to help the Palestinians.

After ten months of bitter fighting, the Arab armies were 完全に 大勝するd. By the spring of 1949, the Israelis were left in 支配（する）／統制する of the 広大な 大多数 of what had 以前 been パレスチナ, with the Arabs 限定するd to 飛び領土s in Gaza and on the west bank of the River Jordan.

This result is seen by most Israelis as 場内取引員／株価 the proud birth of their modern 明言する／公表する. The Palestinians, however, know it as al-Nakba ― ‘the 大災害’.

In the war and its 影響, some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes.

の中で dozens of 大虐殺s, the most 悪名高い （機の）カム at Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948, where ユダヤ人の militiamen 発射, 強姦d and mutilated some 107 Palestinian 村人s, 含むing women and children.

The 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of 衝突s since 1948 含むs the Suez War of 1956, when the Israelis joined Britain and フラン in attacking 陸軍大佐 Nasser’s Egypt; the Six-Day War of 1967, in which the Israelis 完全に 鎮圧するd Egypt, Syria and Jordan, taking over Sinai, Gaza and the West Bank; and the October War of 1973, where Egypt and Syria 開始する，打ち上げるd a successful surprise attack on イスラエル which 結局 ended in 行き詰まらせる.

On 最高の，を越す of all that, there have been two 十分な-規模 wars in Lebanon, two 大規模な Palestinian 反乱s and さまざまな Israeli 急襲s into the Palestinian 領土s in Gaza and the West Bank.

Countless thousands of people have lost their lives. And to pile 悲劇 upon 悲劇, every year has seen new 犠牲者s 追加するd to the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）, whether Palestinians killed by Israelis or Israelis killed by Palestinians.

Perhaps no 衝突 of modern times has 生成するd so much 憎悪 and anguish, or appeared so utterly intractable にもかかわらず the 成果／努力s of 世代s of international statesmen and women.

Every 詳細（に述べる） is contested, and the 周年記念日 of the Balfour 宣言 itself is no exception.

Earlier this week, Boris Johnson （人命などを）奪う，主張するd that it was ‘不可欠の to the 創造 of a 広大な／多数の／重要な nation’, and said he was ‘proud of Britain’s part in creating イスラエル’.

This is surely fair enough. Like all nations, イスラエル has its faults. I find it hard to defend its 政府’s 厳しい 治療 of the 敗北・負かすd Palestinians, or its callous, 冷笑的な 政策 of 拡大するing Israeli 解決／入植地s on Palestinian land.

Ye t for much of the past 70 years, イスラエル has been the Middle East’s only 機能（する）／行事ing 僕主主義 and a 信頼できる 同盟（する） to Britain.

And after all the Jews have 苦しむd in the past millennium ―pogroms, 迫害 and the unspeakable obscenity of the 大破壊／大虐殺 ― what reasonable person would begrudge them a 母国 of their own?

What decent person can かもしれない question イスラエル’s 権利 to 存在する, 解放する／自由な from the 脅し of テロ行為 or 侵略? And who would want to see its 8.6 million people driven into the sea, as Islamist or hard-Left 宣伝 often 需要・要求するs?

Yet as Mr Johnson also 発言／述べるd, it is impossible to 避ける 存在 ‘深く，強烈に moved by the 苦しむing of those 影響する／感情d and dislodged by its birth’.

For while no sensible person would want to see the Israeli people cast out, that was 正確に what happened to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the late Forties.

In Britain, the 悲劇 of the 衝突 is often 減ずるd to simplistic 声明s. You can usually find people on the 権利 muttering darkly about Palestinian テロ行為 and 味方するing with the Israelis, while card-carrying Left-wingers often talk as though イスラエル is the fount of all evil.

I find it very sad to see 恐らく intelligent people 減ずるd to gibbering zealots, 特に on the high-minded, pseudo-知識人 Left.

Only this week, for example, the usual 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs ― academics, actors, 貿易（する） unionists ― put their 指名するs to a typically simplistic, virtue-signalling 控訴，上告 in the 後見人 for the British 政府 to apologise for the 宣言 and its 影響.

Yet it seems （疑いを）晴らす to me, as it probably does to most people, that the story of イスラエル and the Palestinians is a 悲劇の one, with no monopoly on grievance or virtue, and no obvious 解答.

What Mr Johnson calls the ‘奇蹟 of イスラエル’, a nation 設立するd on ‘hard work, self-依存 and an audacious and relentless energy’, is real enough.

If that were the only result of the Balfour 宣言, then Britain would be 正当化するd in feeling proud of itself.

But that isn’t the whole story. For the 宣言 also bequeathed a 遺産／遺物 of 苦しむing and 虐殺（する） which has 毒（薬）d Middle Eastern politics, inflamed Arab opinion and fuelled Islamist extremism for １０年間s.

And it has also 毒（薬）d British politics. You only have to listen to the hard Left today ― which is, of course, enjoying a terrifying renaissance ― to realise how they 偉業／利用する the 衝突 to perpetuate the most disgusting anti-Semitic stereotypes, even caricaturing Israelis as latter-day Nazis.

How sad, and how telling, that their puppet Jeremy Corbyn, so happy to consort with the アイルランド共和国軍 in its bloodthirsty pomp, 辞退するd to …に出席する an 周年記念日 dinner with イスラエル’s 総理大臣 this week ― yet somehow 設立する the time to …に出席する an event organised by the イスラム教徒 group MEND, which has been （刑事）被告 of hosting Islamist preachers with ‘極端論者 and intolerant 見解（をとる）s’.

式のs, this is par for the course in today’s 労働 Party, which has conspicuously failed to 取り組む a 劇の and 率直に 冷気／寒がらせるing 沸き立つ in anti-Semitism の中で its Left-wing 行動主義者s.

In the demonology of the Left, there has always been a special place for the Jews.

And yes, I know the Corbynistas （人命などを）奪う，主張する to be talking about ‘Zionists’ ― who 特に believe in the 存在 a ユダヤ人の 明言する／公表する ― not ‘Jews’, but we all know who they really mean.

It is too glib to 非難する all the ills of the modern Middle East on the West, as so many Left-wing commentators lazily do.

But the re is no 疑問 Balfour, by 干渉 in 事柄s he barely understood, 抑えるのをやめるd １０年間s of 衝突.

What a 悲劇 that his 後継者s ― men such as Sir Anthony Eden, Tony Blair and George W. Bush ― 辞退するd to learn the lessons of his hubris.

The truth, which too many people fail to understand, is that some problems have no 平易な answers. いつかs it is better just to leave 井戸／弁護士席 alone.

So perhaps there is only one sensible way to 示す the centenary of a message that 誘発するd so much hope, 原因（となる）d so much 苦しむing and changed the course of history.

行動主義者s and armchair 専門家s should stop waving the tattered rags of their own virtue, stop pretending they have the 解答s to all the world’s problems, and stop using the 苦しむing of others as a chance to parade their own second-手渡す 原則s.

But if they 港／避難所’t learned that lesson in the past hundred years, I suppose there is not much chance they will change now.