Editorial Comment:
SIR – Today marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, one of the most important letters in history, which paved the way for the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.
As Conservative parliamentarians, we join the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary in marking this anniversary with pride, and celebrating the friendship between Britain and Israel.
It is fitting that Benjamin Netanyahu, the democratically elected leader of the world’s only Jewish state, will join the Prime Minister in London today for this landmark moment in our two nations’ history.
At less than 70 years old, Israel has become one of modern history’s most remarkable success stories – a thriving democracy and a hi-tech powerhouse.
As the architect of the Balfour Declaration, Britain retains a key role to play in the Middle East peace process, and we hope that in this centennial year we can finally see progress towards a lasting two-state solution that guarantees security and dignity for the Israeli and Palestinian people.
Lord Polak
Mark Harper MP Baroness Neville-jones Lord Trimble and 100 others; see telegraph.co.uk
SIR – Boris Johnson’s proposals for how we could work towards resolving the deadlock in the Israeli/palestinian state of affairs (Comment, October 30) were well-argued, sensitive and cogent.
He presents the problems clearly, acknowledges the tremendous difficulties and reminds us that compromises will have to be made on both sides. He is also at pains to explain that the rest of the world has a role to play in supporting a two-state solution both diplomatically and financially. I hope that we will see more of this statesmanlike attitude from Mr Johnson in the future.
London SE23
SIR – Boris Johnson imagines his great predecessor, Arthur Balfour, sitting at the desk he now uses in the Foreign Office and dashing off his short letter to Lord Rothschild, as he himself would undoubtedly have done.
This is a fantasy. The letter was composed by Harold Nicolson, then a young rising star in the diplomatic world, in the bowels of the building. He recalled later that the Balfour Declaration “took weeks to draft, and every word was scrutinised with the greatest thought and forethought”. A colleague drew a brilliant caricature of him and a fellow draftsman “as failing octogenarians with long white beards, still grappling, in the basement of the Foreign Office, with the drafting and redrafting of the Balfour Declaration”.
What Balfour himself brought to the task was a passionate commitment to the Zionist cause. He said to Nicolson: “Here is one of the most gifted races of mankind, which mankind has treated woefully. We can provide sanctuary for some of the most unfortunate from places such as Cracow and Galatz. They will acquire dignity.” Lord Lexden (Con)
London SW1