The Balfour Declaration: 67 Words That Changed the World

Unpacking Israeli History

Unpacked

Judaism, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2020

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a bizarre twist of history, the humble chestnut played a big role in the ultimate creation of the State of Israel. To understand why, Noam Weissman examines the curious origins of the Balfour Declaration and asks why the 67-word letter from a British foreign minister continues to get people riled up more than 100 years after it was published. ~~~~~ The Unpacking Israeli History Podcast series is sponsored by Andrea & Larry Gill ~~~~~ Learn more about Unpacked: https://jewishunpacked.com/about/ Visit Unpacked on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/unpacked Teaching about this topic? Check out our relevant educator resources here: https://unpacked.education/video/what-is-the-balfour-declaration/ ~~~~~ Source links https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/feb/10/zionism-deronda-george-eliot https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-balfour-declaration https://jcpa.org/article/historical-significance-balfour-declaration/ https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2017/11/02/balfour/107251858/ https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2017/11/02/what-was-the-balfour-declaration-of-1917-and-why-is-it-significant/ https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-britain-s-true-motivation-behind-the-balfour-declaration-1.5462518 https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-britain-s-true-motivation-behind-the-balfour-declaration-1.5462518 https://www.islamweb.net/en/article/165587/who-was-balfour https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-balfour-declaration-century https://dailyhistory.org/What_was_the_impact_of_the_Balfour_Declaration_(1917)_on_the_Middle_East%3F ~~~~~ Unpacked is a division of OpenDor Media

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Norm Weisman, and you're listening to unpacking Israeli history,
0:04.0	the podcast that takes a deep dive into some of the most intense,
0:07.6	historically fascinating, and confusing events in Israeli history.
0:12.0	All that in just about 20 minutes.
0:14.6	Yala, let's do this. We the people of Israel are people.
0:25.0	We, the people of Israel are prepared and anxious to meet the representatives of our neighbors without any preconditions.
0:36.0	There are people in Israel elsewhere say it's impossible to make peace within the Arabs in Israel or the Jewish people.
0:45.0	I think they're home.
0:47.0	November 2nd, 1917.
0:53.2	Might not stand out to you, but if you've studied Israeli or really world history,
0:58.2	it's a pretty important day.
1:00.7	It's the day of the famous Balfour Declaration.
1:04.0	Honestly, so much has been written about this event that when preparing for this
1:08.5	podcast, it was easy to get lost in the sea of information.
1:12.0	So I really want to help us stay focused here.
1:15.4	This declaration was a huge moment in the history of the Jewish people and also the Arab world.
1:20.1	It is part of the foundation of the disputes that never seem to go away in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
1:26.5	Basically, the way I see it, if you want to understand Middle Eastern politics,
1:32.1	this episode covers a pretty important topic.
1:36.2	This quote about the declaration I came across says it better than anything else.
1:40.6	Seldom has a single sentence constituting an international engagement provoked so much controversy and so much partisan writing as this brief letter.
1:51.0	It's true. Even today, there are serious disputes about this document. In fact,
	...

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