| Topic: | We have met the enemy and he is us | |
| Posted by: | David Ainsworth | |
| Date/Time: | 25/02/26 21:14:00 |
| "Many people, myself included, would equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism." Many people would equate Zionism with racism. The Christian Zionism of Arthur Balfour - he of the Balfour Declaration (1917) - many scholars and contemporaries argue that his support for Zionism was rooted in antisemitic beliefs. "As Prime Minister, Balfour introduced the Aliens Act 1905, Britain’s first immigration law. Critics argue it was specifically designed to block Jewish refugees fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire from entering Britain." "Edwin Montagu, the only Jewish member of the British Cabinet at the time, famously denounced the Balfour Declaration as "antisemitic in result". He feared it would encourage countries to treat their own Jewish citizens as outsiders with a "homeland" elsewhere." Edwin Montagu had foresight. But he lost. "In a letter to Lord Curzon, written in 1919, Balfour insisted: “For in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country …the Four Great Powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires or prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land…in short, so far as Palestine is concerned, the Powers have made no statement of fact which is not admittedly wrong, and no declaration of policy which, at least in the letter, they have not always intended to violate.’" "far profounder import than the desires or prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land". Insouciant and dishonest racism. Balfour was a believer in superior and inferior races. He was prepared to lie in order to cheat the majority in Palestine of their land. He won, the Palestinians lost their land, and, disgustingly, they get the blame for it. The real blame is Britain's. |