The Zionist Balfour Lie

Video Transcript:

In modern Jewish history and I began with three words, dear Lord Rothschild. Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of his majesty's government the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to and approved by the cabinet. Why was it that this letter was sent by the foreign secretary to your great uncle Walter? It's an interesting question because it was primarily a movement from Eastern Europe. But they didn't clarify who was in charge of that movement and in addition it was our throeling great Britain. So they felt that the Rothschild family should be the one to whom it was addressed. And Walter was Lord Rothschild and he was as honest and there's rarely the background reasons. So Walter received the Balfour Declaration and I have a copy here and I wonder if I could possibly ask you to read it for us? Yes indeed. Yeah. I'm going to put on spectacles to make sure I'm read it accurately. His majesty's government, deal with favor, the establishment of Palestine, if a national home for the Jewish people, and reduce that best endeavour 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, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation, the Orzath of Balfour. And here it is, the Balfour Declaration. What do you feel when you see it here? I've genuinely felt it's one of the most extraordinary moments in the history of the Jewish people. I think it took 3,000 years to get to this. And then you say, how did this miracle happen? It was the most incredible piece of opportunism. I mean, if you think you had an impoverished, would-be scientist, Hein Weitzman, who somehow gets to England, meets a few people, including my family, seduces them, he has such great charm and conviction. He gets to Balfour and unbelievably persuades Balfour and Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, and most of the ministers, that this idea of the National Home, though Jews, should be allowed to take place. And it's so, so unlikely. And then he starts to fight a difficult battle with the British Cabinet, and that I guess, through five drops, as you know. And in the end, it comes out as a rather compromising letter. I mean, the essential point is there for the Jewish community to fasten on to. You have the first bit, which promises a National Home, rather than the National Home, and then you have the bit that nothing that's to be done, should in any way harm the Arab community. But you come back to the big point, which is that this is perhaps the greatest event in Jewish life, for thousands of years.