The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

by Jonathan Schneer

  14. “naturally the moment …” Sykes to Balfour, April 9, 1917, Hull University, Sykes Papers, DDSY/2/13.

  15. “the belief in the power …” Sacher, Zionist Portraits, 37.

  16. Upon arriving in Rome … The British representative was Count T. de Salis.

  17. “Sir M. Sykes’ visit …” De Salis to Drummond, April 17, 1917, House of Lords Record Office, Lloyd George Papers, box 95, folder 2, no. 16.

  18. Sykes sought out too … The British ambassador was Sir Rennel Rodd.

  19. “opened fire on questions …” Rodd to Hardinge, April 12, 1917, CUL, Lord Hardinge Papers, vol. 31.

  20. “I … prepared the way …” Sykes to Graham, April 15, 1917, NA, FO371/3052.

  21. “I laid considerable stress …” Sykes to Sokolow, April 14, 1917, Oxford University, St. Antony’s College, Middle East Centre, Sykes Papers, 42B.

  22. Sokolow quickly assured … I never found Sokolow’s account of this meeting and rely upon Stein’s account in Balfour Declaration, 407.

  23. “he had been pleased” … Rodd to Drummond, May 11, 1917, Hull University, Sykes Papers.

  24. Someone, however … “It was then suggested that I should ask for an audience with the Pope.” Sokolow to Weizmann, May 12, 1917, CZA, Sokolow Papers.

  25. “In spite of my usual …” Sokolow to Weizmann, May 7, 1917, CZA, Sokolow Papers.

  26. “There is the possibility …” Florian Sokolow, Nahum Sokolow, 151.

  27. “But what then …” Stein, Balfour Declaration, 408.

  28. “Your telegram received …” Weizmann to Sokolow, May 9, 1917, Stein, Letters, letter no. 380, 7:405.

  29. “I am extremely satisfied” … Sokolow to Weizmann, May 25, 1917, CZA, Sokolow Papers.

  30. “You were good enough …” Quoted in Stein, Balfour Declaration, 416–17.

  CHAPTER 16: REVELATION OF THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT

  1. “In this sentiment the British …” British reply to Russian note regarding the Allied war-aims, December 7, 1917, NA, FO371/3062/232332.

  2. “It is settled” … Scott to Weizmann, April 16, 1917, WI, Weizmann Papers.

  3. Sacher immediately put … Sacher to Weizmann, April 14, 1917, ibid.

  4. “spoke resignedly …” Scott to Weizmann, April 24, 1916, ibid.

  5. “Apparently the French …” Weizmann to Scott, April 26, 1917, Stein, Letters, letter no. 357, 7:379.

  6. “His answer was that …” Ibid.

  7. “He found this arrangement …” Ibid.

  8. “to Bob Cecil in …” Ormsby-Gore to Sykes, May 8, 1917, WI, Weizmann Papers.

  9. “began by saying that …” Cecil, memorandum, April 25, 1917, ibid.

  10. “We have been lied to …” Sacher to Weizmann, April 28, 1917, ibid.

  11. “our affairs are at a …” Sacher to Weizmann, May 1, 1917, ibid.

  12. “The representatives …” Sacher, memo, May 1, 1917, OUNBL, Stein Papers, box 8.

  13. “the suggested division …” “Notes on an interview which took place at the Foreign Office on Wednesday the 25th of April at 5.30 P.M. with Lord Robert Cecil,” WI, Weizmann Papers.

  14. “Last night … Feisal said …” Wilson to Cairo (Wingate?), May 25, 1917, Cambridge University, Churchill College, George Lloyd Papers, Arabian file, January–June 1917, 9/9.

  15. “I have to say …” Hussein to Wingate, April 28, 1917, NA, FO371/3059.

  16. “The English, my son, are …” Antonius, Arab Awakening, 183.

  17. “The Sharif evidently …” Clayton, memorandum, April 3, 1917, WI, Gilbert Clayton file.

  18. “the signed agreement …” “Notes of a Conference held at 10 Downing Street, at 3:30 PM on April 3, 1917,” WI, Arabs file.

  19. “What we want to do …” Leonard Stein, “Some Footnotes to the History of the War in Asia,” Near East and India, July 9, 1925, OUNBL, Stein Papers, box 130.

  20. “though I did not know …” Sykes, telegram to London, April 29, 1917, WI, material from Mark Sykes.

  21. “The time has now arrived …” Hogarth to Balfour, April 27, 1917, Oxford University, St. Antony’s College, Middle East Centre, Sykes Papers, 41D.

  22. “Unless Arab independence …” Sykes to Wingate, May 5, 1917, ibid.

  23. As the Northbrook steamed … Sykes to high commissioner, May 23, 1917, Oxford University, St. Antony’s College, Middle East Centre, Sykes Papers, 41B.

  24. “I understand … not entirely …” Colonel Cyril Wilson to Cairo (Wingate?), May 24, 1917, Cambridge University, Churchill College, Lloyd Papers, Arabian file, January–June 1917, 9/9.

  25. “He [Hussein] told M. Picot …” Fuad al-Khatib, note taken down by Lt. Colonel Newcombe, May 19, 1917, Cambridge University, Churchill College, Lloyd Papers, Arabian file, January–June 1917, 9/9.

  26. “The King disliked the idea …” Sykes to Wingate, May 23, 1917, Oxford University, St. Antony’s College, Middle East Centre, Sykes Papers, 41B.

  27. “that the relations between …” Note by Lt. Colonel Newcombe, D.S.O., March 20, 1917 [NB: the date is obviously May 20, 1917], Cambridge University, Churchill College, Lloyd Papers, Arabian file, January–June 1917, 9/9.

  28. “we shall examine the matter …” Letters quoted from Antonius, Arab Awakening, 414–27.

  29. His Majesty the King of Hejaz … Sykes to Wingate, May 23, 1917, Oxford University, St. Antony’s College, Middle East Centre, Sykes Papers, 41B.

  30. “formal annexation is quite …” “Memorandum by Sir Mark Sykes on Mr. Nicholson’s Note Regarding our Commitments,” August 14, 1917, Hull University, Sykes Papers, DDSY/2/4/151.

  31. “what we want without …” Sykes to Cox, May 23, 1917, Oxford University, St. Antony’s College, Middle East Centre, Sykes Papers, 42C.

  32. a joint statement on “general policy” … “General Policy,” May 17, 1917, Hull University, Sykes Papers, DDSY/2/4.

  33. “Any criticisms or exclamations …” “Note by Fuad al-Khatib taken down by Lt. Colonel Newcombe.” Cambridge University, Churchill College, Lloyd Papers, Arabian file, January–June 1917, 9/9.

  34. “obviously delighted” … Colonel Cyril Wilson to Cairo (Wingate?), May 24, 1917, Cambridge University, Churchill College, Lloyd Papers, Arabian file, January–June 1917, 9/9.

  35. “On such a reply …” Sykes to high commissioner, May 23, 1917, Oxford University, St. Antony’s College, Middle East Centre, Sykes Papers, 41B.

  36. “it struck me as possible …” Colonel Cyril Wilson to Cairo (Wingate?), May 24, 1917, Cambridge University, Churchill College, Lloyd Papers, Arabian file, January–June 1917, 9/9.

  37. “They have the proclamation” … Ibid.

  38. “Certainly … the large number of …” Ibid.

  CHAPTER 17: BRITISH MUSLIMS, THE ANGLO-OTTOMAN SOCIETY, AND THE DISILLUSIONING OF MARMADUKE PICKTHALL

  1. “The Ottoman Government has drawn …” Quoted in Sanders, High Walls, 58.

  2. “the present regime …” Duff to Grey, January 29, 1915, NA, FO371/2489.

  3. “What we really relied on …” Quoted in Berridge, Fitzmaurice, 216. I rely on Berridge’s account of these first negotiations.

  4. the idea resurfaced in Paris … T. P. to Bertie, July 12, 1915, NA, FO800/181. “An important personage,” a French businessman with interests in Turkey, approached the French foreign minister Théophile Delcassé. He wanted to know “whether he would send someone to talk with Djavid Bey [the Ottoman finance minister currently traveling] in Switzerland as to terms of peace with Turkey.” Interested but wary, Delcassé’s first move was to contact Russia, asking whether the position with regard to Constantinople had changed. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Sazanov, promptly informed him that it had not. The report by “T. P.” to the British ambassador in Paris, Lord Bertie, is dated July 12, 1915.

  5. It resurfaced in California … September 21, 1915, NA, FO371/2489. Vahan Cardashian, Ottoman high commissioner to the San Francisco Exposition, sounded a member of the
British consular staff, Sir Arthur Herbert, on the separate peace, possibly with the knowledge of Talaat Pasha.

  6. Russia tried to bribe … The Russians suggested to their allies that Armenian intermediaries contact Djemal Pasha. If Djemal overthrew Enver and took Turkey out of the war, the Allies would recognize him as sultan of Turkey with a hereditary title and supply him with weapons. The Allies also would accept Ottoman claims in Asia and Arabia. But Djemal must pledge to take steps for the salvation of the Armenians and cede Constantinople and the Dardanelles to Russia. Interestingly, Britain did not reject this plan out of hand, although it would have meant abandoning Sharif Hussein, with whom McMahon was just concluding his notorious correspondence. But the French objected strongly. They would have to give up their annexationist schemes in Syria and elsewhere, which they were not willing to do. The Russian design, like those before it, led nowhere. Leonard Stein, article in Near East and India, July 2, 1925, clipped and kept in Stein Papers, box 130.

  7. “No harm in trying” … minute, telegram from Lord Bertie, June 1, 1915, NA, FO371/2777.

  8. “with ‘discordant yells … ’” Ansari, Infidel Within, 82, quoting Liverpool Review, November 28, 1891.

  9. “Opposition was …” Khalid Sheldrake, Islamic Review, February 1914.

  10. “Your Majesty, May I venture …” Sheldrake to His Majesty the King, December 19, 1914, NA, FO371/2480.

  11. “our brothers and the Caliph …” “Translation of an anonymous letter addressed to H.E. the Prime Minister,” Ronald Storrs Papers, reel 4, box II, folder 3, Egypt 1914–15.

  12. British Intelligence kept … Of Rosher, the War Office spy, noted: “He and his wife are in very straitened circumstances and have pawned nearly everything.” War Office 106/1420.

  13. Joseph King … “Mr. Joseph King MP, Police Report on,” NA, FO371/3121.

  14. “capable of political mischief” … “Mr. Duse Mohammed and the Islamic Society,” British Library, India Office L/P&J/12/752, file 416/916.

  15. “He is so peculiar …” “Note by Mr. Rose, CSI,” ibid. See also Ansari, Infidel Within, 128.

  16. “I don’t think he would …” “Mushir Hussein Kidwai,” British Library, India Office L/P&J/12/752, file 416/916.

  17. Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din … He wrote a pamphlet called Jesus—An Ideal of Godhead and Humanity to demonstrate that Islam did not condemn other religions. He wrote a pamphlet called The Problem of Human Evolution to reconcile religion and science. His two pamphlets The Status of Women in World Religions and Civilisations, and Woman from Judaism to Islam, argue that Muslims recognized women’s rights.

  18. “you would see a black …” Ismail Bey, How Muhammad (peace be upon him!) found the world and how he left it, 293.

  19. “The great Temple of Solomon …” “Muslim Interests in Palestine,” Report of a lecture given by Mr. M. Pickthall, June 9, 1917, NA, FO371/3053. So thoroughly did the British government infiltrate Muslim activist groups during the war, and so much did it fear their possible disloyalty, that by November 1918 it could receive a nearly verbatim account of a meeting held at 71 Talbot Road, London, of four prominent British Muslims who were merely discussing how to bring Muslim issues before the pending peace conference. One of the four must have been the informer. See “Muslims in England, Confidential, November 25, 1918,” NA, FO371/3419.

  20. “an Ottoman Association” … For the founding meeting of the Ottoman Society, see clipping of the African Times, “Xmas 1913,” Somerset Record Office, Aubrey Herbert Papers, DD/DRU/43.

  21. Among the names listed … E. N. Bennett, William H. Leed, Joint Hon. Secretaries, to Herbert, December 13, 1913, Somerset Record Office, Herbert Papers, DD/DRU/33.

  22. the names of Moses Gaster and Lucien Wolf … African Times, June 9, 1914.

  23. at the body’s meetings … Islamic Review, February 1914.

  24. Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, who … Ibid., September 1914.

  25. “We who know something …” African Times, August 4, 1914.

  26. “did everything for it …” Fremantle, Loyal Enemy, 230.

  27. “Our unknown rulers …” Marmaduke Pickthall, New Age, February 18, 1915.

  28. Some nine months … He met Valyi at a meeting at the Cannon Street Hotel organized by yet another well-connected Turcophile, the Reverend H. G. Rosedale. In this company Pickthall had called for a revival of Disraeli’s old pro-Ottoman policy. Afterward Valyi introduced himself and asked for permission to publish the paper. Pickthall agreed.

  29. Fuad Selim al-Hijari … Granville to Grey, April 18, 1916, NA, FO371/2777.

  30. “I am more a philosopher …” Dial, June 8, 1916.

  31. “Philosopher” may not have been … Rev. H. G. Rosedale to Sir Maurice de Bunsen, June 16, 1916, NA, FO371/2777. Rosedale thought Valyi “may be said in some way to represent the [Ottoman] Government & at least has great influence in that direction.”

  32. “I am directed by Sir Edward …” De Bunsen to Rosedale, June 23, 1916, NA, FO371/2777.

  33. “I am a nobody …” New Age, December 30, 1915. For the correspondence between Pickthall and Sykes, see Fremantle, Loyal Enemy, 270–79.

  CHAPTER 18: THE CURIOUS VENTURE OF J. R. PILLING

  1. “the distinction of being …” April 26, 1917, OUNBL, Papers of Sir Horace Rumbold, box 21.

  2. “This is the most …” Rumbold to Lady Fane, February 12, 1917, ibid.

  3. “This country is crammed …” Rumbold to Graham, June 22, 1917, ibid., box 22.

  4. “He had trained …” Harold Nicolson, quoted in T. G. Otte, “Horace Rumbold,” in New Dictionary of National Biography.

  5. “Our … servants did not …” Rumbold to “Mama,” February 18, 1918, OUNBL, Rumbold Papers, box 24.

  6. “What can you expect …” Rumbold to Lord Newton, November 10, 1917, ibid., box 23.

  7. “I always had doubts …” Rumbold to Lord Newton, November 10, 1917, re Russians and February 16, 1918, re Turks, ibid., box 24.

  8. “He is as clever …” Rumbold to Lord Newton, May 19, 1917, ibid., box 21.

  9. “My sole aim …” Parodi to Rumbold, April 27, 1918, ibid., box 24.

  10. Swiss socialists were negotiating … C. French to Sykes, n.d., Hull University, Sykes Papers, DDSY/2/11/59.

  11. “to be really a good …” Hardinge to Rumbold, April 2, 1918, OUNBL, Rumbold Papers, box 24.

  12. “He is not of Syrian …” Rumbold to Ronald Campbell, April 5, 1918, ibid.

  13. “practically a member …” For Mrs. Evans, see Rumbold to Campbell, February 27, 1917, ibid., box 21.

  14. Anglo-Ottoman Society … New York Times, May 6, 1899.

  15. “a ‘sharper’ and of very shady …” For biographical material regarding Pilling, see Gilbert, Sir Horace Rumbold, 149, n1; October 17, 1917, NA, FO371/3057; and Hardinge to Lord Lansdowne, November 24, 1917, CUL, Lord Hardinge Papers, vol. 35.

  16. “long intimate acquaintance …” Pilling to Balfour, November 8, 1917, NA, FO371/3057.

  17. “formed rather a low …” Campbell to Rumbold, March 3, 1917, OUNBL, Rumbold Papers.

  18. “The day following …” Pilling to Balfour, November 9, 1917, NA, FO371/3057.

  19. “rather a muddle-headed …” Rumbold to Campbell, February 27, 1917, OUNBL, Rumbold Papers, box 21.

  20. “Altogether it would seem …” Campbell to Rumbold, March 3, 1917, ibid.

  21. “made proposals to the …” Drummond to Balfour, October 19, 1917, NA, FO371/3057.

  22. “no official status but …” DMI interview with Pilling, April 30, 1917, OUNBL, Rumbold Papers, box 21.

  23. “These free lances are …” Rumbold to Campbell, February 27, 1917, ibid.

  24. “I am afraid you have …” Campbell to Rumbold, March 22, 1917, ibid.

  25. “so securing British interests …” Pilling to Mrs. Evans, May 12, 1917, NA, FO371/3057.

  26. “my other many reports …” Pilling to Balfour, November 9, 1917, ibid.

  27. When
he approached … Hardinge, minute, November 9, 1917, ibid.

  28. another trip to Switzerland … MacDonagh to Campbell, November 15, 1917, ibid. “I hear that Pilling has been worrying the American Embassy for the last four months, and is now trying to secure an interview with the Ambassador.”

  29. “agreed in June last” … Pilling to Balfour, November 7, 1917, ibid.

  30. “Pilling … has been unable …” MacDonagh to Campbell, November 15, 1917, ibid.

  CHAPTER 19: HENRY MORGENTHAU AND THE DECEIVING OF CHAIM WEIZMANN

  1. Germany wanted her Ottoman … Rumbold to Cecil, May 23, 1917, NA, FO371/3050.

  2. speech delivered in Cincinnati … New York Times, May 22, 1916.

  3. “Nothing could be …” Sykes to Gaster, May 22, 1916, CZA, Gaster Papers, A203/227/35.

  4. Morgenthau’s mission … See, for example, Stein, Balfour Declaration, 353–60; Friedman, Question of Palestine, 211–18; Sanders, High Walls, 551–56; Reinharz, Weizmann, 154–66; and Reinharz, “His Majesty’s Zionist Emissary,” 259–77. My account is based on these secondary sources, supplemented by primary sources as noted.

  5. The idea may have … Morgenthau and Secretary of State Robert Lansing discussed the matter on May 16. Twenty-four hours later Lansing reported on that discussion to the president. Nine days after that Morgenthau and Wilson reviewed the idea again, and the president agreed to it in principle. The two men met once more on June 7.

  6. “peculiarly cordial and …” Quoted in Reinharz, “His Majesty’s Zionist Emissary,” 261.

  7. Turks were “nibbling” … Quoted in Yale, “Morgenthau’s Special Mission,” 311.

  8. “If matters took …” Quoted in Friedman, Question of Palestine, 211.