BOOKS: The Life of Zion IN A WAY, ISRAEL OWES 173 not just to the homicidal anti-Semites ‘of Central and Bastern Europe but to the much more gentle and genteel cones of Britain. The latter did not so much hate Jews as fear them, admire them, loathe them, and in other ways consider them to be a people apart— misely: powerful and rich, never mind their almost absolute powerless ness and widespread poverty. It was fo curry the favor ofthese people—a kind ‘of madness, there ever was one—that accounts for why Britain announced in so17 that it favored the establish ‘ment ofa “national home for the Jewish people.” That home would be in Pales fine, an amorphous entity regrettably Jocated ia the midst of millions of pus: led and hostile Arabs. Tt was a deci: sion not without some consequence. ‘the story of how Britain decided to throw its considerable prestige behind a relative handful of Zionists~ ‘most English Jews were not Zionists, and some, the very rich in particulat, viewed Zionism with horror—is the great and rambunctious tale that drives Jonathan Schneer’s new book, The Ralfour Declaration: ‘The Origins of the Arab-tsraeli Conflict. Yt involves some extraordinary figures—Winston Churehill, Lawrence of Arabia, King Hussein of the Hejaz and some more ordinary ones with extraordinary ‘names: Lancelot Oliphant, for instance, or the incomparable Marmaduke Pick- thall, Among the more forgettable ‘ones was in fact Arthur James Balfour, who, fortunately for his posterity, hap pened to be foreign minister when the 20 iJ svoust 26, 2010 government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George decicled to enlist the support of world Jewry in Britain’s fight with the German and Ottoman Empires. Balfour had been prime min- ister himself once (1902-06), but in all other ways he was a run-of-the-mill, upper-class Englishman, which ust ally meant fondness for horses and an antipathy toward Jews. Into this milieu entered the aston- ishing Chaim Weizmann. Born in the squalid and oppressive Pale of Settle- ment—that area of the vast Russian Empire where Jews were compelled to live—he managed by dint of a heroic self-diseipline, stunning intellect, and, above all, phenomenal charm, tomake the ease for Zionism in the chancel- leries and drawing rooms of Europe, particularly Fngland, Weizmann was born lower than a serf, but he wound ‘up president of the very country he helped create. ‘Weizmann was a man of many tal- ents—not the least of them being the ability to harness the raw power of bigotry and enlist it in his cause. 1f Christians believed in vast Jewish wealth, he would not argue. If they believed in the immense and unseen power of this ancient tribe, so be it. If they believed that the Jews could somehow bring the First World War to an end—they were rumored to be the hidden power behind the Young ‘Turks and have immense influence in the Kaiser's Germany, and could yank Russia out of the war if it suited them—thea why would Weizmann disabuse them of such idiocy? Robert Cecil, son of one prime minster (Salis- bury) and cousin to another Balfour), pat it best: “I do not think itis easy toexaggerate the international power of the Jews.” Somehow, he managed. Ofcourse ven the era, anti-Semitism ‘was a relatively minor madness. The world was at war, and by the time it ‘was over, the Russian, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian Empires were gone, and the Prussian one assembled by Otto von Bismarck had not only turned into a democracy but as greatly reduced in size. As a result, the British Foreign Office was a busy place. The machinery of diplomacy was in over drive, amply lubricated by buckets of duplicity. At the very time Britain was telling Weizmann and others Jews that next year they might really be in Jeru- salem, it was also promising much of the Arab world to Hussein Ibn Ali, sherif of Mecca and a trusting soul. All the while, behind the collective bucks of Arab and Jew, the Brits and the French were divvying up the Middle East, signing the notorious Sykes-Picot ‘Agreement, a closed covenant very closely arrived at In the end, much of what Sir Mask ‘Sykes of Britain and Frangois Georges- Picot of France agreed upon eame a cropper. The French could hold neither Syria nor Lebanon. Hussein, given the boot by a tribal chieftain named Iba Saud from up Riyadh way, deeamped for exile. In compensation, Britain drew some lines in the sand and cre- ated Transjordan for one of Hussein's sons, Abdullah, while placing another, Faisal,on the throne of frag. That didn't ast either. If some ofthis sounds like a recap of Lawrence of Arabia, its because some of itis. The story of Balfour and his ‘declaration is really the creation myth of the Middle East. It is an enormous, ‘inemascopic epie, hard to contain in single book. Alas, Jonathan Schneer doesn't even try. The book spravls, the consequential and the inconsequen- tial getting equal time, its margins sprouting invocations, imprecations, and pleas from a vexed me: Stop! Enough cara uote pe oN fete Sane chat arp nee eos ered eh ‘to ee weit anette sane Oden ie a Sas ire Mra fe i ai a ra ‘ore uhnatapece eae already! Schneer tells you of meetings that didn’t matter, the address of the ‘houses where they occurred, and what ‘might or might have been Served for breakfast ("When Lloyd George, per- hhaps leaning over equs, bacon, toast and coffee, informed ...”). He speca- ates repeatedly on why something did or did not happen and when, unac- countably, he takes you into the desert ‘with Lawrence of Arabia, it's the reader ‘who wanders aimlessly, parched for relevance. Lawrence made it out; 1 barely did. Still, this is a work of impressive research and scholarship. Its relevance is obvious. It rebuts the canard, so comforting to Israel's erities, that the Zionists never took the Arabs to consideration—“a land Jews, reduced to tears by Chaim Weiz~ manni’s account of Jewish suffering. He slipped into history as an appendage to his much-more-famous declara- tion, and even that, like the papal bulls assigning various lands to Spain or Portugal, was nullified by reality. Soon enough, the declaration produced a colossal case of seller's remorse. The Jews had an emotionally compel- ling tale—for so many Englishmen, Bible tales come to life~ but the Arabs had all that oil, the approaches to the Suez Canal and, not incidentally, the wholly understandable convietion that the land was theiss. By the late 190s, the Balfour Declaration was a dead letter, and Britain had gone wob- bly om the Jews. A royal com mission had even suggested a without people for a people How the division of the country—the ‘without land,” is the formals- so-called two-state solution tion often cited. But while the SEXY OF Ghat every so, often comes JewsneverthoughtthaPales- Israel around ‘ike a diplomatic Hal. ‘tine was one big, empty place, ley’s comet and gets excitedly and no one of importance CEMCtO rscted as something nev. By urged genocide or anything look a the Iate 19908, though, the even approaching it, they did Jog JjJeq Jewish presence in Palestine think that the people who lived hhad been established: a uni- there didnot matter much, ‘Lawrence a symphony orches: ‘This afterall, wasanerawhea of Arabia? 4, Boubausian metropolis “white European” was not a description but a statement of entitlement, and the Arabs, at any rate, ‘were not their own masters. Palestine ‘was a part of the Ottoman Empize, later given to Britain by the League of Nations, and coveted by tiers, besides Jews. The Arab world was just coalese- ing, tottering on fledging. ideologies ‘and nationalisms, considered incapable of governing by the European powers and, tothe fury ofits own progressives, riven by uribalism, sectarianism, and a still-coalescing political geography. ‘Syria was anything it said it was. Hus- sein in Mecca claimed Damascus in Syria. In this Wild Bast, anyone could stake aclaim. ‘Lord Balfour went from being a gen- tleman anti-Semite to a lover of the pope ns td fon ei mS a i pn ete eGo aac a Se (Tel Aviv), and an increasingly effective militia, the Haganah, What had been an indifference to Zi- onism among European Jews turned hurriedly into a frantic enthusiasm as Hitler set out to murder them all. A Jewish state, as Zionism’s founder, ‘Theotlor Herzl, had foreseen, had become a necessity. The Zionists would have liked Britain’s support, but since that had been withdrawn, they ‘wanted its departure. In 1948 a weary and bloodied Britain complied, struck its colors, and left. Within moments, Israel was born and war commenced. thas yet toend, ‘COHEN is a columnist for‘The Washing- ton Post and the author ofa forthcoming ‘00k on Israel, seni acmmranama. civareereneamenmant emote tee pe wewsweek.com I st