His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,

and will use their best endeavors 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.

The Balfour Declaration

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

...the 20th century.

... Epis. Episode 154, the Balfour Declaration.

I want to begin today by picking up a narrative thread that I laid down all the way back in episode eight, the story of

Zionism. Zionism, as you will recall, is a political movement that arose in 19th century

Europe to support the establishment of a Jewish homeland. What we mean by Jewish homeland and where

it might lie would remain open for debate,

as there is more than one form of Zionism.

The long and unhappy history of Jewish Europeans has been that they were often treated as foreigners in the nations of their birth.

Zionism is in some sense an abandonment of the ideal that Jewish minorities in Europe

might one day enjoy the same rights and privileges as their non-Jewish neighbors,

and replaces it with a vision of a land where Jewish people would be not merely a tolerated or untolerated minority

restricted to certain social roles, but a people free to take their places in every station of life.

Now, not all Jews were Zionists, and not all Zionists envisioned the same goal. For example,

was this Jewish homeland to be in Ottoman Palestine, the historic homeland of the Jewish people,

and the land promised by God to their ancestors, if you believe Jewish scripture, or would any

...