A curate’s egg

I read with interest Greer Fay Cashman’s “‘From Balfour to Brexit’ draws huge crowds” (September 17). She is right that the popularity of the conference was extraordinary, but it was somewhat like a curate’s egg, and very unbalanced.

The core hour-long and amusing lecture by historian Kobi Hubara, to which she refers, managed not to mention or explore the two key factors creating the Balfour Declaration – the Bible and Christian Zionism (seven out of 10 members of Britain’s war cabinet were Evangelical Christians) – nor the anti-Zionism of Edwin Montague, the only Jew in the cabinet and the person who watered down the declaration because of his fears of claims of dual loyalty.

Ms. Cashman plays down the disgraceful behavior of writer A.B. Yehoshua. He insulted everyone and everything, including the Balfour Declaration; the guest of honor, the current Earl of Balfour, who was sitting in front of him; and the Jews, not only for displacing the Palestinians, but for not coming in sufficient numbers. Yehoshua failed to mention that Palestine was malaria ridden (eradicated by the Jews) and poverty stricken. He also might have remembered that in the 1930s, the British placed the odd restriction or two on Jewish immigration.

Ms. Cashman says how supportive the current UK prime minister, Theresa May, is of Israel and the UK’s Jewish community. But she does not mention the chilling analysis of Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle.

Pollard clearly stated the high probability that Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn would be elected the next prime minster and be surrounded by antisemitic advisers and MPs. Pollard said Corbyn was moving to take complete control of the key levers of the party, which we can now write off for 10 years. ANDREW BALCOMBE Jerusalem