U.S. was wrong to support dividing Palestine in 1947

Guest Opinion: Malcolm Reding

Originally posted on March 14, 2006


At a conference on President's Day weekend at the University of Louisville called "Presidential Moments," a group of presidential scholars was polled to rank the 10 biggest presidential mistakes.

Here are the results:

1. President James Buchanan's failure to do more to prevent the secession of the Southern states during his presidency in the 1850s.

2. President Andrew Johnson's post-Civil War decision to side with Southern whites and not push for efforts to improve civil rights for freed slaves.

3. President Lyndon Johnson's allowing the Vietnam War to escalate.

4. President Wilson's refusal to compromise on the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.

5. President Nixon's Watergate cover-up.

6. President Madison's inability to keep the U.S. out of war with Britain, leading to the War of 1812.

7. President Jefferson's self-imposed embargo of European trade in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars.

8. President Kennedy allowing the Bay of Pigs invasion attempt, for fueling escalation which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

9. President Reagan and the Iran-Contra affair.

10. President Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

However, these presidential scholars seem to ignore history.

Most, if not all 10 of these presidential gaffes, pale in comparison to the damage done around the world by the United States supporting the Balfour Declaration.

Since 1947, thousands of lives have been lost and billions of dollars squandered supporting a country of about 6 million people, totally ignoring the needs, wants and aspirations of the about 1 billion Muslims in the world.

In 1947, President Truman made the decision to support Great Britain's decision to partition Palestine creating a homeland for the Jews. This decision by Britain can be traced back to a letter from British First Lord of the Admiralty Arthur Balfour to Baron Edmond de Rothschild. This letter, which came to be known as the Balfour Declaration, was made on behalf of Chaim Weizmann, a Russian of Jewish descent, by the British government in 1915.

Weizmann, a talented and prominent scientist, developed a process to produce acetone from corn. Acetone is a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of cordite, a propellant used in heavy artillery. As a result of Weizmann's work Great Britain was able to produce large quantities of cordite, which shortened the war.

Lloyd George, British Minister of Munitions, writes to Weizmann in his memoirs: "You have rendered a great service to the state, and I should like to ask the Prime Minister to recommend you to His Majesty for some honour." Weizmann responded, "There is nothing I want for myself." "But is there nothing we can do as a recognition of your valuable assistance to the country?" Lloyd George asked. Weizmann replied, "Yes, I would like you to do something for my people." That was the fount and origin of the famous Balfour Declaration.

In his letter to Rothschild, Balfour stated that the British government would "view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" and to "use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this objective."

In 1957, my high school debate class, on the 10th anniversary of the partition, debated the issue. Our team took the position that this act was wrong, not because we were anti-Semitic, but because we felt it was wrong to displace the Palestinian people just so someone else could have their land.

We further felt that the United States would rue the day it supported the Balfour Declaration.

— Malcolm Reding lives in Fort Myers.

URL: http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060314/OPINION/603140369/1015