Bibi nearly forgot Balfour

ANT KATZ

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu closed last Sunday’s Israeli Cabinet meeting with a point “On the issue of the 97th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration”.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “I thank Minister Silvan Shalom for noting a very important date in the history of Israel, regarding the declaration that in effect recognised the historic rights of the Jewish people in its land and laid the foundations of what was called the Jewish national home but which, in the end, was the state.

“I think that considerable praise must be given to the Zionist leaders at the time, and of course to Dr Chaim Weizmann.

“What is not known are the figures in the British government who worked on our behalf.

“There was a very strong Zionist stream then that included not only Balfour, but also Mark Sykes who is known to you, but whose contribution to the declaration is less known. But today we remember and welcome those people among the nations of the world who have not forgotten history and who remember our link to our land and our right to state of our own.

“This first received concrete diplomatic expression in that same declaration on 2 November 1917.”