I was told that the Balfour Declaration (written to Lord Rothschild) was issued because the Rothschild family helped finance Britain's war effort since the UK was essentially broke. I mean, the British government was issuing promises to anyone with a couple of bucks to spare.
That too. I was just trying to avoid going off into a ton of on a ton of tangents because as a topic, there's a shit ton to explore.
The UK promised the Jews a state, we promised the Arabs a state at the exact same time, pissing off both but they were still more angry at each other than the UK. A ton of cash was hoovered up pre-war by the building of dreadnoughts to keep ahead of Germany (British naval policy was to have a navy
3 times larger than the next two largest combined) so the British finances were already shot even pre-war. It's easy to say the UK was was just beholden to Jews from the outset but like everything it's more complicated. Even in the declaration itself is funny in how shameless it is.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
There were 3 sides to the Zionism debate:
1. Pro-British (Wanted to be ruled under the British rather than try to make it on their own, but the state would primarily be led by Jews - Weizmann went to absolutely anyone and everyone in the UK to get them on board. The British Rothschilds also fell into this camp, the French ones opposed Zionism and the German ones were reduced to a small bank in Austria)
2. Bi-nationalists (Most Liberal-minded Zionists. Wanted a state led Palestinians and Jews, independent from anyone)
3. Jews only Zionists (Most Conservative. Wanted a state led by Jews, independent from anyone)
Fun fact, when Zionism was just starting off (late 1890s early 1900s) the original plan was just to fuck off (and fuck them off) to Uganda:
Uganda Scheme
A.