GUEST BLOG: Lois Griffiths – BALFOUR’S SHADOW
A few years ago, I wrote the following book review for the Green Party magazine, Te Awa
BALFOUR’S SHADOW
David Cronin Pluto Press 2017
November 02, 2020 will mark the 103rd Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the short letter that Arthur James Balfour , British Foreign Secretary at the time, wrote to Walter Rothschild,
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s government , the following declaration of symphathy with Jewish Zioist aspiration which has been submitted to , and approved, by the cabinet.
‘His Majesty’s government view with favour 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, 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.
Yours,
Arthur James Balfour
This short letter is seen as the beginning of Britain’s huge role of the formation of Israel .
Why did Balfour make such a commitment for Britain and for that matter under what authority, are two of the questions Cronin’s book investigates. As Chief Secretary in Ireland, Balfour’s violence earned him the nickname Bloody Balfour. As MP , he pushed for a tough ‘alien’s bill’ to allow Britain to refuse entry to Jews fleeing Russian pograms.
Balfour’s Shadow is not just about what took place in 1917. Cronin researched colonial office files, foreign and commonwealth office files. His book follows the history of the relationship between Britain and Zionist groups from pre-mandate times to the present, from the December 1917 British capture of Jerusalem through to Theresa May’s declaration of ‘pride’ in Britain’s role.
David Cronin, who is Irish, explains that he was motivated to undertake his project after being told by a friend that Churchill had sent the ‘Black and Tans’ to Palestine.
The American historian Howard Zinn has explained why reading history is so important. “The past is past, “ he agrees. But, “ The important thing is what does it tell us about today…and about what we might do in the world? There’s a present and a future reason for going into the past.”
In other words, what has happened in the past, casts a long shadow over what is happening today. Hence, the book’s title, Balfour’s Shadow.
Lois Griffiths is a human rights activist
Britain and France were giant wrecking balls, and caused all sorts of ‘difficulties’ around the world after Portugal, Spain and Holland had. These days the US is the prime wrecking ball.
What is different these days from the past is that national leaders now wittingly wreck their own nation’s futures, whereas in the past the wrecking was unwitting.
Sad as we may feel about he fate of the Palestinians, there is no way forward towards resolution of the mess without a lot of deaths, since everything in the system is unsustainable and is moving inexorably towards the point of implosion. The Earth cannot support so many human mouths gobbling up everything.
Israel will be one of the early casualties of the global meltdown, having inadequate water supplies for the huge population that is a product of Balfour’s declaration.
Balfour, Zionist leaders, Churchill and the entrenched Zionist lobby that runs the UK still, are not strangers to corruption. It is their modus operandi.
Churchill was openly bailed out for his gambling by a Zionist backer and he was the instrument in corruptly bribing Franco’s generals using millions from treasury through Spanish sources.
Still the same structures today wreck havoc. Corruption is often not evident till after the event.
The big questions for this weekend evolve around the assassination of the leader of Iran’s nuclear programme, almost certainly perpetrated by Israeli operatives (‘terrorists’, as Iran describes them), and how Iran will respond.
The last tine it was an attack on a US base in the region because it was a US-perpetrated assassination.
The US and Israel are playing with fire, and no longer have a military advantage in the region, as the empire crumbles, rather quickly.