Why Britain Issued the Balfour declaration

In a debate in the House of Commons in January 1949 Labour MP Norman Smith explained why the Balfour declaration, which spelt out the British government’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was issued.

The Balfour declaration was issued in 1917 during the First World War and Smith said that “The Balfour Declaration came at a very critical moment during the First World War. Russia had fallen out of the fight, the Rumanian Army had been dispersed and Italy had suffered the crowning humiliation of Caporetto.*”

He quotes Britains wartime Prime Minister David Lloyd-George speaking in1937, who said that there were no American troops fighting in World War I. “In this critical situation it was believed that Jewish sympathy, or the reverse, would make a substantial difference one way or the other to the Allied cause, In particular, Jewish sympathy would confirm the support of American Jewry.”

Smith goes on to say “The Balfour Declaration was issued at that time in order to get the more active co-operation of America in the war.”

There was a hint of antisemitism in the issuing of the Balfour Declaration by the British government, they wanted to get the support of, as they saw it, wealthy American Jews “who were able to exercise influence by virtue of their wealth…It was wealthy Zionists in the United States whose aid was invoked in the First World War, and that was the purpose of the Balfour declaration.”

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In the same speech Norman smith also says that the Balfour Declaration was “issued in very fishy circumstances, not a credit to this country” adding “My case against Zionism is not only that it is of its nature aggressive, not only that it is of its nature murderous, but also that Zionism in America has used its wealth ever since World War 1 to weaken this country.”

Edwin Montagu, the only jewish member of the British government, opposed the Balfour declaration describing Zionism as a “mischievous political creed”

* At Caporetto (in present day Slovenia) the Italian army  suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of  Austrian-Hungary army.