IN OCTOBER 1917, in the depths of the first world war, an expectant Chaim Weizmann was waiting in a London anteroom. Britain’s war cabinet was voting on a document, now known as the Balfour Declaration, that would pledge Britain’s support for Zionists’ hopes of statehood in Ottoman-ruled Palestine. Mark Sykes, a British diplomat, rushed out to share the good news: “Weizmann, it’s a boy!” But the 67-word declaration was vague. It offered a Jewish “homeland”, not a state. Nor did Britain explain how it would be created, promising only “best endeavours” to do so. The Zionist leader’s first reaction was disappointment. The boy “was not the one I had expected,” he later wrote.
A century on, his successors have no such doubts. On November 2nd Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, will attend a dinner in London to celebrate the document’s centenary. Theresa May, the British prime minister, will join him. So will Lord Balfour, a descendant of the man who lent...Continue reading
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