Trudy Gold
Churchill and the Jews, Part 3

Trudy Gold | Churchill and the Jews, Part 3 | 07.15.21

- So welcome to everybody and welcome back, Trudy, and over to you.

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• Thank you, well, thank you very much, Judi, and good evening from London. And this is the third session on Churchill. What I’ve been trying to do with William, William of course, has given you a very interesting comprehensive view of Churchill, and the point is, the man was so important in certain areas of Jewish history, and today I’m looking at perhaps the most controversial of all the time when he was the colonial secretary for Palestine. And we will talk more about that today. So can I see the first slide? If you don’t mind, Judi.

Here you see the great man. Now, what I’m going to be dealing with today is a terribly complicated, controversial issue that I know those of you who are Jewish and also those of you who aren’t online, it is who are online, it’s one of the most fraught issues in the world today, specifically for the Jewish community. And what we have to do is actually try and make some sense of it. Now, the point is, I’m not a polemicist, I’m a historian. And what I’m going to try and do is present as many of the facts as possible in as objective as way as possible, bearing in mind, of course, there is no such thing as objective history. And if you don’t believe me at the end of this lecture, if you want to scribble down for five minutes what you think I’ve talked about, I guarantee that we’re all going to have different interpretations, why?

Because when we look at something, we look at it through our own prism, our own understanding and the world we come from and all the views we have. And of course, now I’m going to be looking at one of the toughest issues of all. And can we please start, Judi, with the first slide, which is the Balfour Declaration? And I’m going to read it very, very slowly. The Balfour Declaration, which was granted by the British to the Zionist organisation, it was sent in the form of a letter to Lord Rothschild, who was the deputy chairman of the Zionist organisation. Of course, the great Chaim Weizmann was the leader. And I’m going to read it very, very slowly. Many of you know this off by heart, but for those of you who are new to the Lockdown University, I think it’s important that we all take this on.

So I’m going to read it very, very slowly. “I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet. His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.” Thank you very much for that, Judi.

Now have a question for you. I’m going to leave it on the screen. What on earth does that declaration mean? In the First World War certain events happened, which we are still living with today. You’ve got to think now, and I’m going to go over this very quickly because I’ve spent a lot of time in the past talking about this particular subject. And of course there are hundreds of books on it in addition to the fact that you’ll be able to hear my lectures on it once the website is up and running. So what on earth does it mean? Let’s go back to the First World War.

How were the major powers arranged? The British, the French, the Russians on one side, I’m only talking about the major powers. Later on, the Americans, the Habsburgs, the Austria-Hungarian Empire, the German Empire, the Turkish Empire. So those are the major players. Palestine, of course, is part of the Turkish empire. And at this stage, all the boundaries that you know today do not exist. They are created at the end of the First World War by the victorious allies. So the first peg in this particular tale, at the end of 1914, there’s a fascinating memo from the foreign office which states that in, the British main interests will best be served by halting French and Russian Empire building.

Now this is fascinating because if you think about it, they are the British allies. What was Britain like on the eve of the First World War? What was she like at the end of the First World War? You’ve got to remember Churchill was a Victorian, the majority of the people in power were in the mindset of Victorians. They believed in empire, they believed in the power of the British Empire. And the jewel of the British Empire was of course India. What I’m going to suggest to you is that really the end of the First World War is the beginning of the end of the British Empire. It took a long time to die. I think Suez was the last flicker of the lion. But at the end of the First World War, who emerges victorious? It is actually the Americans.

And we’re going to be moving into a completely different kind of political scenario, but certainly in the First World War, this is empire. Now the second part of the game, how do you defeat an empire? Well, you can send the army in and that’s going to happen. But if you can persuade indigenous peoples to revolt against their rulers, then that helps. And then you have McMahon, who is the Viceroy of Egypt, Egypt of course is British now. Back in 1876, think colonial, Israeli had bought the Suez Canal, why? Because it cut the sea route to India by four and a half thousand miles. To protect it, he sent in an expeditionary force. And by the First World War, the whole of Egypt was under British control.

The Viceroy of Egypt sends a letter to the most important family in the Arab world, the family of Hussein, Sharif of Mecca. And he promises him a deal. If the Arabs revolt against the Turks, once the war is over, he promises them land in the Middle East for independent Arab Kingdom centred on Damascus. This is absolutely crucial, and this is in May, 1915. It’s absolutely critical because never forget that the Arabs once created one of the largest land empires the world had ever known, and Damascus was the centre of their greatest empire. A hundred years later, Baghdad was the centre of another great empire. But at the beginning of the 20th century, the Arabs are living under Turkish rule. They are beginning to awake.

And it’s important to think about this because there’s no problem religiously for an Arab to live under the Turks because they’re both Muslims. Once the colonials get involved in the Middle East, is that a problem? Can Muslims live under Christians or Jews in Dar al-Islam? I said to you in a previous lecture, when you think about the Arab-Israeli conflict, one way of looking at it is the religious rights to the land, the historic right to the land, the legal right to the land, the moral right to the land. And as we all know, 90% of the countries come into being by a fifth category, which is invasion war.

So basically religiously, there’s already going to be a problem. Well, the Arabs do revolt against the Turks with the aid of the great Lawrence of Arabia. They keep their promise, they get an incredible amount of publicity, particularly in America. It’s very, very romantic. Now, the next peg is of course a very strange political development. Who is Britain allied to? France, France also has aspirations in the Middle East, the colonies in, think of the colonies in North Africa. Don’t forget that Napoleon got to Egypt. There is a French dream of empire too. And in 1916, in May, 1916, the British and the French do a secret deal. It’s called the Sykes-Picot Agreement. They take a map of the Middle East, take a line in your head about just north of Acre and draw a line. Everything to the north is French. Everything to the south is British.

Okay, 15 months later, you see the Balfour Declaration. And I’ve spent a lot of time in previous presentations looking at the reasons why the Balfour Declaration was granted. Some say it was a present to Chaim Weizmann. who was such an extraordinary man. He had many, many friends in England. He’d also created an invention at the war office, which was incredibly useful to the British War effort. Plus you had Lloyd George and Balfour, both religious, both from minority peoples and who definitely had Zionist aspirations and who believed in the Zionist project. Winston Churchill also believed in the Zionist project, as I think I’ve illustrated, plus, and this is where we turn to characters like Yehuda Bar.

Believe it or not, the majority of people believed in the international power of world jury, whether they were philosemitic or anti-Semitic. And we have all sorts of evidence that the British, believe this or not, they really thought the pro Zionist declaration would help bring America into the war and also would keep Russia in the war, which shows they had absolutely no notion of the politics of those Russian Jews who I talked about yesterday, on Tuesday, who once those Russian Jews became revolutionaries, they threw all their Judaism away. They thought Zionism was retrograde and nationalism. But I’m now explaining how people thought. And Yehuda Bar gives great evidence to this belief.

So for all these reasons, the British thought a pro Zionist declaration, and by the way, the Kaiser was about to put pressure on the Turks to give his own declaration. For all these reasons, the British issue this letter. And what on earth does this letter mean? And then of course, we have to look at events on the ground. It’s a British army under General Allenby which invades the mandate. Now the British army invades the mandate and beg your pardon, invades Palestine. They conquer Beersheba, they move on to Jerusalem, and then they march onto Damascus.

Along with the British army is Jabotinsky’s, who had created the 37th and 38th Royal Fusiliers, Jewish regiments to fight for the liberation of the land. They then move on to Damascus. At the gates of Damascus, the British army hold back and they allow Emir Faisal, the son of Hussein, to enter Damascus at the head of a victorious Arab army. And this sends shockwaves of nationalism through the Arab world. And what the British hoped to do is to create a fait accompli, they don’t want the French to take the north of the Middle East. They want it all for themselves. They already are interested.

If you think about it, the route to India, oil is becoming a very important, they could create this land route to India. And oil is becoming a very important issue. So it’s at this stage that the French, the war is now over, and it’s at this stage that you have the victorious Emir Faisal in Damascus, the Zionists are in Palestine. In 1918, the Zionist Commission goes to Palestine with Weizmann and Israel Sieff. I hope his granddaughter’s online, Ida Simon. And the whole dream, it seems the whole dream will work.

In fact, there is a very interesting letter from the Emir Faisal to Felix Frankfurter. “We Arabs, especially amongst the educated amongst us, look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. We wish the Jews a hearty welcome home. We’re working together for an informed and revised near East. And our two movements compliment one another. The movement is national and not imperialistic. There is room in Syria for us both. I think that neither can be successful without the other.”

And this is what Winston Churchill himself wrote in that article I went over with you on Tuesday. “If it may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan, a Jewish state under the protection of the British crown, which might compromise three or comprise three or four millions of Jews and events will have occurred in the history of the world, which would from every point of view be beneficial and will be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire.”

So this was the hope time. But then you come to the Treaty of Versailles and the San Remo Peace Conference, which is to tidy up the Middle East, the French insists that Faisal evicted from Damascus. And in fact what happens is Faisal has a army at his disposal. Characters like Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem, was fighting in his army. They wanted an empire based on Damascus. And very little mention was made of what was to become the Jewish area. They wanted the empire centred on Damascus. But the French send an army in and the battle of Maysalun, the armies of Hussein are defeated and it’s over and the British have to do something about it. And already there is unrest in Palestine.

What happens is in 1920, the Histadrut was established. The commission was setting up all sorts of structures to facilitate immigration into Palestine because the Turks that expelled a lot of Jews to Egypt as enemy aliens from Palestine. So they were beginning to create the infrastructure of what would be a state. They’d already laid the cornerstone of the Hebrew University. So the belief was because what does it mean, a national home for the Jewish people? And by 1920, the British are beginning to realise that maybe they’ve got a problem on their hands because after the defeat of Faisal, there was unrest in the Arab world and it was stirred up by many officers in the British army.

Now this is very crucial, General Allenby’s army, for two years you have a military administration until the first high commissioner arrives. Many of those officers had been fighting the Red Army. I mentioned on Tuesday that Churchill had been in charge of troops that were fighting the Bolsheviks, the protocols of the elders of Zion was at its height. And these characters arrive in Palestine. The Black and Tans are sent to Palestine and Muslim Christian associations are created. And by 1920 of course you’re going to have the Nebi Musa riots. And there’s a lot of tension in the mandate.

As a response to the Nebi Musa riots, Jabotinsky and Pinhas Rutenberg create the Haganah in Jerusalem. There are deaths and the situation seems out of control. And let me quote to you now, from the seventh Earl of Derby, And this is in Hansa, though this is a letter that Churchill receives from this Earl, “I look upon our mandate for Palestine and the Zionist state is being dangerous in the extreme. In the first place, it has made a lot of bad feeling between us and France, who for sentimental reasons thinks that they should be a preeminent power in Syria. And we are going to create a Jewish Zionist state composed of every Bolshevik Jew who will come from the middle of Europe.”

You see, the other issue, think of the second and the third aliyah, in the main, they are very left wing and already the association of the Jews with Bolshevism. I’m talking now about a very conservative group of aristocrats. Now ironically, Churchill see Zionism as a complete counterweight to Bolshevism. And in January, 1921, he’s going to be absolutely at the centre of the storm because Lloyd George appoints him a secretary of state for the colonies with special responsibility for Palestine and Mesopotamia, Iraq. What happens is boundaries are drawn. The British are given a mandate on Palestine and Mesopotamia, the French mandate on Syria is ratified. And the Syrian, the French divide up Syria into six groups out of which comes Lebanon.

So the French are in the north, the British are in the south. And Britain’s been awarded the mandate at the San Remo Peace Conference of April, 1920. And Sir Herbert Samuel, who is a Jew and Zionist is going to be appointed the first high commissioner. So perhaps Zion is a more triumph because by this stage there is a group of Arab intellectuals very much egged on by British officers who are saying, this is our land. Arab nationalism was a later development in Zionism, but now it is on the march. Now, the foreign secretary at the time was a man called Lord Curzon.

And this is a private letter he writes to Arthur Balfour. “I do not myself recognise the connection of the Jews with Palestine, which terminated 1,200 years ago. It gives them no claim whatsoever.” In March, and remember, he has replaced Balfour in March, 1919 as foreign secretary. And this is what he says at the time, “A Jewish government in any form would mean an Arab uprising. And nine tenths of the population who are not Jews would make short shrift with the Hebrews.” And he says, “The pretensions of Weizmann and company should be checked, and about the British mandate, remember he’s the foreign secretary. Churchill has been appointed colonial secretary. The development of a self-governing commonwealth is surely most dangerous. It’s a euphemism for a Jewish state, the very thing they want, they accept and we disavow. I want the Arabs to have a chance. I don’t want them to have a state.”

So let’s have a look at Lord Curzon, who was Lord Curzon because I think it’s also important to remember the people who are really have huge power in Britain at the time. His dates are 1859 to 1925. He was the eldest son of 11 children, children of Alfred Curzon, who’s baron of Scarsdale. He comes from a family of aristocrats who go back to the Norman Conquest. In fact, he’s born at Kedleston Hall, which is on the site where the family originally were given land by William the Conqueror. And they had lived there since the 12th century, a different house, but that is his roots.

His mother died when he was 16. She’d had 11 children, so obviously exhausted by childbirth. And his father lived for another 41 years. His father was a very distant character. He very much believed that landowners should be on the land and not go a'roaming. His son is going to be quite a roamer. He had very little sympathy for his son, who later on is going to go on many, many voyages before he’s a politician, he goes on many voyages of discovery. You know, I had a fascinating experience a few weeks ago. I was invited to the Cavalry Club by a group of British officers. You don’t need to know why. And this officer said to me, “You’ve got to understand, the English, half of them are shopkeepers and the other half are adventurers.”

And many ways this man is going to become an adventurer. He travelled across Asia, he was one of the most travelled men in the British cabinet. Personally, he was brought up by a nanny who was completely sadistic and it left him with all sorts of psychological problems of combat and control. He’s an interesting character to read a biography on. His education was quite usual. He went to Eaton, he went to Oxford. He was very clever. He was president of the Union and he was also president of the Canning Club, a political club. And because he goes to this, he was so involved in politics, very conservative, he failed to upturn to get a first. But he was a very good scholar. And he received a fellowship to All Souls, Oxford.

In fact, the first Jew to receive, to become a fellow of All Souls, Oxford, was in fact the late great Sir Isaiah Berlin. But that’s not until the ‘40s. Some friends of his made up a dog rule. My name is George Nathaniel Curzon. I am a most superior person. My cheek is pink, my hair is sleek. I dine at Blenheim once a week. And of course, Blenheim Palace, think Churchill. Churchill was the grandson of the Duke of Marlborough. And so Curzon and Churchill are in each other’s set. They know each other very, very well. He enters politics in 1886.

Look, this man is a real aristocrat. He becomes private secretary to Lord Salisbury, who was prime minister. He made a brilliant, eloquent maiden speech, which was too clever by half for some of his colleagues. 1891 to '92, he was the Undersecretary of State for India. And then he becomes Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs. His tours, and I’m going to mention them because the man did under, what the man cared about more than anything else, was British empire and British interests and British politics. He believed that the mandate in Palestine was going to open up a can of worms. He toured Russia and Central Asia. He’d been on a Persian tour. He’d travelled to what was then called Siam, French, Indo China, Korea, Afghanistan.

He published several books on travel. He wrote so many and so well that he was given a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society. He was a great imperialist. And he believed that Russia was a serious threat to India. What he’s all about is protecting Britain. He wrote several articles for the London Times on Persia. He believed that that must be a valuable buffer against Russia. He saw later on the Arabs as a buffer. He wanted them to be part of the British Empire.

His personal life is fascinating. He married an American heiress, a woman called Mary Leiter. She was of German origin, not Jewish. And her father co-founded a department store that many of you in America will know about. It’s the Field and Leiter department store now, but better known as Marshall Field. It became a love match actually. And she died in his arms.

Now, let’s go on to his three daughters because they are fascinating characters. His first daughter, Mary Irene, she inherited her father’s title, he had no sons and was created a life peer in her own right. His second daughter, Cimmie, Cynthia becomes the first wife of a rising star in British politics, a man called Sir Oswald Mosley. The third daughter, Alexandra, who was known as Baba, married a man called Edward Metcalfe, better known as Fruity Metcalfe, who was the best friend, best man, and equerry to Edward the Eighth.

So let’s talk about Mosley. Irene had a fling with him. Cimmie married him. She died of appendicitis. She developed peritonitis and also a very, very broken heart because by this time he was having an affair with a woman called Diana Guinness, previously Diana Mitford. And I mentioned her when I told you that her father wrote the introduction to the first edition of the “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

And by the way, Lord Curzon’s second wife, Grace, also had an affair with Mosley. I mean, yeah, he was quite a character, but obviously Lord Curzon’s family were particularly obsessed with him. He slept with all of the girls, including the stepmother. And later on, of course, goes on to marry Diana Guinness. She divorces her husband Bryan, who is the son of Lord Moyne, who I’ll be talking about in another class on Churchill, because of course he’s also going to become involved in Jewish history.

So this man, the foreign secretary close to Churchill, not necessarily friends with Churchill, but they’re in government together and they’re part of the same kind of crowd. And of course the other character who comes into the story is Sir Herbert Samuel. Can we see Sir Herbert Samuel? Here you see Sir Herbert Samuel, the first high commissioner, 1870 to 1963. He is a strong British politician and he’s also a Jew. And when we look at Sir Herbert Samuel’s career, really the interesting issue of dual loyalty comes up. Can you be both? Can you represent the British crown and be loyal to your own people at this particular time?

Many of the Anglo Jewish establishment of which he is apart, were violently anti-Zionist. The major critics of the Balfour Declaration were in fact, Anglo Jews. His cousin Edwin Montagu was violently opposed to the Balfour Declaration. When it was declared he was about to go to India as Secretary of State. And he actually said, “How can you send me to India representing the British government when you are telling me my home’s at the end of the Mediterranean?”

So, but Herbert Samuel was a Zionist. So let’s have a look a little bit of his background. He was born in Liverpool. It was his great-grandfather, Menachem Samuel, who’d emigrated from Poznan. And his grandfather Louis was born in London. He was the son of Clara and Edwin Louis Samuel, better known as Samuel, he’d founded a bank. So within three generations, the family were very wealthy and his elder brother, so Stuart Samuel, was already a successful liberal politician.

His only sister Mabel married an important ark critic called Marion Spielmann, who came from a banking family. So this is the interconnected Jewish aristocracy that really are running Anglo Jewry at the time, and not necessarily too happy about all the Eastern Europeans coming over where they’re trying to make an English gentleman. He was educated at University College London and at Balliol, Oxford. Sorry, not uni, sorry, made a mistake. He was educated at UCL, the school in Hampstead.

They lived in Hampstead and then he went to Oxford. Up for quite a long time, Jews were educating their children at UC, at University College London, because you didn’t have to swear on the oath, but after 1871, Jews could go to Oxford and Cambridge and swear on the Hebrew Bible. And he went to Oxford. He had a Jewish upbringing at home, at Oxford, he renounced religion. But when he married his first cousin, she wanted it. So they kept the Jewish home and he said he kept the dietary laws for hygienic reasons.

He fought unsuccessfully two campaigns. But finally he’s elected as a member of parliament for the Liberal Party. And in 1909, he joins the cabinet and he goes through various positions. He was president of the local government board, and in fact, he was at one stage, he was in charge of boys who joined the army. And it was fascinating because what he actually, a lot of Russian Jewish boys didn’t want to join the British army. And the Jews, said that if they didn’t, they’d be sent back to Russia. If they didn’t agree to conscription, they’d be sent back to Russia.

However, he did believe in the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. And he circulated a memo as early as 1915, the idea of a protector in Palestine. And it’s very interesting because the majority of the Anglo Jewish establishment were against it. And finally, he is going to be appointed the first high commissioner. Now he’s appointed even before the League of Nations approve the British mandate for Palestine. And this is very important that you understand this because we talk about international bodies, but the British had the army in the country, and Allenby was worried about this because by 1920, as I’ve already said, there’s a lot of disunity.

And he thought that the appointment of a Jew would actually inflame the Arabs. And he said the Arabs would see it as handing the country over to a permanent Jewish administration. Now, from a Jewish point of view, from a Zionist’s point of view, it was greeted with great acclaim because he’s the first Jew to govern the land for 2,000 years. Now, when Allenby message was sent to the foreign office, Lord Curzon, he read the message to Samuel and asked him to reconsider. Curzon goes to his Zionist friends who told him that these are alarmist reports and Muslim Christian associations, which I’ve already talked about, these are the British officers who have set up these Muslim Christian associations, they send a telegram to Louis Bols, who was number two to Allenby.

And they basically, this is what the telegram said, “Sir Herbert Samuel, regarded a Zionist leader, and his appointment is the first step in the formation of the Zionist national home in the midst of Arab peoples, contrary to their wishes. Inhabitants cannot recognise him. And the Muslim Christian society cannot accept responsibility for riots and other disturbances.”

Now, three months after his arrival, this is from the Morning Post, “Sir Herbert Samuel’s appointment as high commissioner was regarded by everyone except the Jews as a serious mistake.” Now, he had a friendship with Weizmann that goes back to 1914. And he had said to Weizmann, you know, if we’re going to make it happen, Jews will have to build railways, harbours and university and network of schools and also a modern version of a temple. And his dream was that Britain should conquer Palestine to protect the Suez Canal against foreign powers. And Palestine will become a home for the Jewish people.

And this is what he wrote. “I am assured that the future solution of the problem of Palestine, which we welcome to the leaders and supporters of Zionism throughout the world, would be the annexation of the country to the British Empire.” And he also emphasised that non-Jews should be, of course, given equal opportunities in the land. So his role, why is it controversial? Who is he going to be loyal to? Is he going to be loyal to the Zionists or is he going to be loyal to the reputation of the English, of the Jews?

So this is the situation that I felt I had to take a little time to go over it with you. And it’s the first decision that Churchill is called upon to make because he is now secretary for the colonies. He’s in charge of the colonies and the first thing, and they set up for him in the foreign office, a department to deal with Palestine and Mesopotamia, to deal with the Middle East. And so John Shuter is the civil servant, and he asks for the famous Lawrence of Arabia, who’s an expert on Arab affairs to also work with him.

And the first decision he has to make regard to Palestine was an application by a man called Pinhas Rutenberg for a concession to harness the waters of Jordan and Yarkon Rivers for electrical power. It would give employment to 800 people, both Jews and Arabs. And the proposal is put to Churchill on the 23rd of February. And he agrees. It enabled the Yishuv to prepare for a substantial urban and rural development.

Now I’m going to talk to you about Pinhas Rutenberg because somebody should make a film of this man. He is one of the most fascinating characters that I’ve ever come across. And he was born in the Ukraine in the Pale, he enrolled at the Technical Institute in St. Petersburg. His dates are 1879 to 1942. So he’s born under Czarist rule. He joins a socialist party very early on. He works as a manager of the Putilov plant, which was a major mechanical engineering plant in St. Petersburg. Don’t forget that Russia towards the end of the 19th century, early 20th century is industrialising in a hurry.

The problem with the czars is there’s no social reform, there’s just industrialization and the lot of the poor is becoming appallingly, it’s just beyond imagination. The revolution was just something waiting to happen. Now the plant was a centre of dissidents. Here you have a working class. What did Marx always say? In order to create revolution, you need a proletariat. And the leader of the dissident groups at the plant was a man called Father Gapon, who becomes very close to Rutenberg. Rutenberg is a mechanical genius. He’s a very strong individual, he’s got huge charisma.

And it is Father Gapon who leads something known as Bloody Sunday in 1905. This is a terrible incident in Russian history where during the Russo-Japanese War, money and equipment and food is sent to the Russian front, which is where? Right out to the east, there’s a one track railway, the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was finished in 1898. The cities are starving and a group of ordinary men, women and children, led by Father Gapon, marched on the Czar’s palace, Summer Palace, begging him for food, he’s away.

The Cossacks turn on the crowd and over 3,000 people are mowed down. And this was the incident that sparked the 1905 Revolution. Gapon and Rutenberg flee abroad, where they meet up with characters like Plekhanov, Lenin. You know, this man is already making noises in socialist organisations. In France, he meets the fabulous French socialist Jean Jaures and also Georges Clemenceau, the famous editor and politician who later becomes president of the republic.

After the revolution, they both returned to Russia and it’s revealed that Gapon in fact is a spy for the Okhrana. He tries to recruit Rutenberg, who reports it to his party officials. And Gapon agrees to meet Rutenberg at a cottage not far from St. Petersburg. A month later, he has found hanged and the characters that Rutenberg had reported the event to, his bosses, they say that Rutenberg killed him, very unlikely that Rutenberg did. And they expelled him from the party. He was forced to em immigrate.

He settles in Italy and he concentrates on hydraulic engineering. And politically he begins to turn to left-wing Zionism. And because look, he’s a brilliant scientist, he’s a huge intellectual. He meets leading characters all over the place. He visits European capitals, he meets many Zionist leaders. And then we find him with Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor. He’s one of the founders of the Jewish Legion. And with Jabotinsky’s backing, he goes to America to promote the idea of the Jewish Legion amongst American Jews. And he gets a lot of support in America from the newly arrived immigrants from Russia.

And together with Chaim Zhitlowsky, he founds the American Jewish Congress. He also publishes his book, “The National Revival of the Jewish People” under the pseudonym Pinhas Ben-Ami, my people’s son. Whilst in the US, he completes a detailed design for utilising the land of Israel’s hydraulic resources for irrigation and electrical power, his longtime dream. He wants to make it happen in a practical way. And he returns to Russia for the revolution of 1917. He supports Kerensky, he’s not a Bolshevik, and he becomes the vice president of the Petrograd municipality.

Within a month, of course Trotsky becomes an alternate force. And Rutenberg works against Trotsky. He’s trying to hold democracy in Russia. He works on something called the Council to Preserve Order and Justice. The Bolsheviks of course prevail. He’s arrested and jailed together with other, quote, unquote, capitalist ministers. He is released, he goes to Moscow and takes a position in the cooperative movement. But during August, 1918, the Red Terror, they are turning against and murdering any of their political enemies.

He escapes to Odessa, which at this time was under the control of the White Army of General Denikin, I talked about him on Tuesday and the French Army. He managed to get hold of a Russian passport and a visa. And he got on board an American ship unto Allied controlled Constantinople, Marseille, Palestine. This man is an adventurer. In 1919, he joins other Zionist leaders in Paris. He’s there for Versailles. He’s a very important, eloquent character. He puts forward the electrification plan and he receives financial support from the French Rothchilds. He also works with Jabotinsky on creating the Haganah after the Arab riots.

And in 1920, and it is to him that Churchill grants him the electrical concessions for the Jaffa and later the Jordan River. And this is the grid that is built that eventually covers Jaffa and Tel Aviv. He dies in Jerusalem in 1942. What an incredible character. I just thought I ought to talk about him with you. Okay, it’s of course the minute that Churchill is in power, he’s having to deal with all sorts of different characters. And on the 18th of the 1921, he saw that the Arab organisations are coming to London to try and deal with Churchill.

They had been to France where they got support from the French, believe it or not, they visited the Pope who also gave them support. And what he decides, what Churchill decides to do, that he’s actually going to have to go to Palestine. He already has received delegations from the Dominions, the Canadian, the Newfoundland, the Australian and the New Zealand Prime Ministers all said it’s dangerous, it’s going to be dangerous because there’s going to be so much problem. And the Canadian Prime Minister actually asked for clarity.

He said, “Does it mean giving, does the Balfour Declaration, does it mean giving the Jews control of the government?” The Archbishop of Canterbury writes to Churchill, a man called Randall Davidson, “I should remonstrate against undue development of a Zionist policy in Palestine, particularly in regards purchase to land.” Okay, and it’s at this stage Churchill decides that he has to go to Palestine. Now can we have a look at some maps, if you don’t mind, Judi?

Yeah, this is during the Ottoman Empire. This shows you the Hejaz Railway. And this is going to be very important in any borders that are going to be created. That had been created under the Ottomans, do you see? It goes from Damascus to Medina in the Hejaz. And I hope you notice there are no boundaries because there are no boundaries in the Ottoman Empire. The Medina in the Hejaz is now what is now Saudi Arabia. And of course it’s the second holy site of Islam after Mecca. You see where it goes? Yeah, now you see it goes through Amman, which is now in Jordan. Now can you go on please, Judi, can we see the net?

Now this is Britain’s promise to the Arabs, that I’ve already mentioned to you, 1915. And you can see that what was promised was Damascus. That grey area is one of disputes. But you’ll notice that nothing is mentioned to do with the South. Thank you, can we go on please? And there you see, yes, let’s have a look at the great Chaim Weizmann because Weizmann is beginning to propose his own vision of Palestine. So can we see what Weizmann wanted? This is the Zionist plan for Palestine.

That’s what Chaim Weizmann wanted. He wanted an area, which of course course is to the east of the Jordan River as well as, so you see, this is the Zionist plan. All these maps come from Martin Gilbert’s book, “The Arab-Israeli Conflict.” It’s history in maps. Right, let’s get on with it now. I’ve already mentioned to you, Churchill’s in Paris on the January the 11th, 1921 when Alexander Millerand, the French president, criticised British support for the Jewish national home and says it’s going to completely destruct the Arab world. So we already know the French who are going to be ensconced in Syria, but they’re playing their own game with the British.

The 17th of January, 1921, Lawrence, T.E. Lawrence, who was very much the hero of the Arabs, but he’s also, and this is important, he’s also a supporter of Zionism. He informed Churchill that he concluded an agreement with the Emir Faisal. The Emir Faisal has been thrown out of Syria and in return, listen to this very carefully, in return for Arab sovereignty in Baghdad, Amman and Damascus, he would abandon all claims to Palestine. The French could not be dislodged from Damascus.

The Battle of Maysalun agreed by the League of Nations that Syria is a French mandate. Churchill wanted Faisal and Churchill comes up with a plan. What if I have Faisal in Baghdad and if I put his brother Abdullah in Jordan in return for Western Palestine for the Jews? Lawrence and Churchill believed. Can we go to the next map please, Judi? Yeah, this is it. Churchill believed that if he gave Iraq to Faisal, he’s disappointed, he’s been thrown out of Syria and his brother is given that grey area called Trans Jordan, then that would enable Western Palestine to go to the Jews.

Now this is where it all begets very, very complex. And I know there’s an awful lot of you now who are probably getting very steamed up and I really want us to be very careful because remember I am trying to put it as clearly and as straightforwardly as possible. Churchill travels to Cairo. He ask McMahon why neither Palestine or Jerusalem had been mentioned in his letters. And this is the McMahon agreement that we looked at. He said he restricted myself to specific mention of Damascus, Homs and Aleppo. These were the places to which the Arabs attached vital importance. So Churchill believes according to McMahon now, that this area that’s going to be mainly to the Jews has got nothing to do with Arab dreams and Weizmann who is with Churchill, he asserts that the aspirations of Arabs, quote, unquote, Arab nationalism centres around Damascus and Baghdad and do not lie with Trans Jordan. And he also asks Churchill to take the southern boundary of Palestine to the Gulf of Aqaba.

Now Churchill is not influenced by this. Although he has great respect for Weizmann, he believes, remember he is a British politician, what he needs is to secure British interests. And already the empire is costing the British a fortune. When he became minister of state for the colonies, he was basically told don’t let it cost too much money, but he does allow the Negev to form part of Palestine. So they meet in Cairo on the 12th of March, Herbert Samuel, T.E. Lawrence and Churchill and Weizmann’s demands for his dream.

Can we go back to Weizmann’s dream? If you don’t mind, can you flip back the map? Judi, can you go back a map to the one of Weizmann, if you don’t mind? No, not the picture. Go back the to the map, that’s it, thank you. That is rejected. Can we go on to the other map now?

Lawrence of Arabia makes a statement. He believes that under a just policy Arab opposition of Zionism will be decreased, if not entirely disappear. And he also believed, I’m quoting that Zionist enterprise would lead the Arabs to both modernity and prosperity. You know, back in November, 1918, he told a British newspaper, “Speaking as a British non-Jew, I look on the Jews as the natural importers of Western leaven so necessary for countries of the near East.”

So on the 23rd of March, Churchill, Samuel and Lawrence leave Egypt for Palestine. And Lawrence had already obtained a pledge from Faisal that all means will be taken to encourage and stimulate Jewish immigration to Palestine. So at this stage, Lawrence believes, and Churchill believes that by chopping off two thirds of the British mandate on Palestine and giving it to Faisal’s brother Abdullah as Emir and closing it to Jewish supplement, he could achieve something with peace in Palestine. Now we need to look at people’s reactions to this.

The Arab leadership in Palestine is not going to be satisfied. The leadership is now concentrated on Hajj Amin al-Husayni who is made mufti of Jerusalem the following year. We are beginning to see, we’ve already had the Nebi Musa Rios. You’re going to see more and more riots and bloodshed as the Arabs become more militant. The Zionists themselves, Weizmann is totally disappointed, but does believe that Churchill will come through. Jabotinsky is absolutely furious. Remember, he’s already been imprisoned by the British. He was let out under an amnesty when Herbert Samuel arrived. And he saw that this was a total betrayal of Zionism, what on earth Zionism mean?

It means to him, it means a Jewish state. And he leaves the Zionist executive in 1923 and gradually the positions are going to solidify. I’m going to finish here. Judi, I’m afraid it looks like it’s going to take at least three more sessions. I’d be grateful to know if you want me to go at this pace because I think it’s such a complicated area and I do believe we have to go slowly. So shall we have a look at questions, Judi?

• [Judi] Yes, go ahead, Trudy. We do have part four on Monday.

Q&A and Comments

• I think we’re going to need a part five. I think we’re going to need part five because Churchill is so important in Jewish history. I need to look at his response to Hitler in the '30s and also remember he’s prime minister during the Shoah. So there’s so much to look at.

Q: Neil, “Would you comment on Churchill’s attitude to refugees?” A: Neil, I really will be doing all of this, but because there’s so much information I won’t be commenting on it today. In the end, look, I’m going to come down on the side of Churchill. Look, he was a giant and he had warts and all. And this is where we have an issue because did Jewish interests coincide with British interests? And when it comes to his attitude in the '30s, you’re going to find it quite sympathetic and all. There is a case during the Shoah, and we will answer it.

Q: “Could you post the early welcoming letter from Syria?” A: Harriet, it’s in the Britain and the Jewish national home border changes. It’s in Martin Gilbert’s book, “The Arab-Israeli Conflict.” It’s history in maps.

Q: “Trudy, other than Churchill, do you think morality was an issue for British politicians? Any morality seems a reaction to witnessing the Holocaust in an act of shame, allowing Israel exist, but hopefully not to affect British power.” A: Oh, this is such a terrible, terrible issue. Romaine, do I believe that? Look, I think Churchill did have morality and, you know, I’m concentrating on the dark side, but there were British politicians, people like Josiah Wedgwood, there were many of them. And I think I should look at some of the good guys as well. But then you have a very difficult question to ask yourself. Is private morality of a different kind than the morality of states? You know, Machiavelli played with his idea when he wrote “The Prince.” Do we expect our politicians to act with the kind of morality we would hope private individuals act? It’s such a knotty, thorny problem. Look, in the end, the British acted in self-interest. What I find fascinating, and I’m going to make a statement of my belief, what I find fascinating is that I think that the state of Israel is expected to act in a much more moral way than we expect for other nations. I’m talking about the UN now. And that’s interesting.

Well, Margaret, thank you. And she says, “I love your biographies. I’d love to hear you in 50 years on our present Prime Minister.” Well, don’t let’s talk politics.

Q: “Trudy, please explain why everyone seems to ignore the contradiction in these words of the Balfour Declaration.” A: You see, this is the problem, Carol, there was a total contradiction. Herbert Samuel said it in 1921. He said, “What does the Balfour Declaration mean?” And yes, it seems the colonial office and the foreign office were working across purposes. Yes, there was total contradiction and confusion. And it’s not helped by the British officers in Palestine, but becoming more and more arabist.

You see that’s, let me go on, I’m going on. I lost my place.

“Thank you for taking time to tease out the strain.” I am doing my best. It’s a very, very difficult task. “I went to a dinner club in London called the Curzon Club.” I can’t answer that, Toby. They were a very important famous family.

Will I repeat the jingle on Curzon and let me just find it. He was quite a character, wasn’t he? Yes, my name is George Nathaniel Curzon. I am a most superior person. My cheek is pink, my hair is sleek. I dine at Blenheim once a week.

Yes, Ms. Gertrude Bell, the British advisor in the Middle East, who was an advisor to Churchill, did not support the Zionist movement. She thought it would be unfair to impose Jewish rule on the Palestinian Arab. You see, this is the problem. The percentage of Arabs to Jews in the west of Palestine at that time was much, you know, there were only 80,000 Jews in Palestine at the time. So, you know, this is the problem. You have two peoples who both claim the same piece of land. What is also interesting though is that this transfer of populations in many other scenarios at the end of the First World War, at the end of the Second World War, and I hope most of you listen to Lyn Julius’s brilliant lecture on what happened to the Jews of the Arab world. Nearly a million of them.

Anna, “I wonder if more economic development such as the project to harness waters, which gave jobs to, might have become a positive factor in coexistence.” It would’ve been wonderful if it had.

Pinhas Rutenberg’s story is fascinating. I will get back to you on that, Denise, isn’t he? He is fascinating.

Rochelle is recommending Martin Gilbert’s book. Okay, you seem to like the pace. I will try.

Q: Who makes Husayni mufti, Husayni? A: Well, the point is David, as I’m sure you know, Herbert Samuel was representing the British government. And what happened, why was a man who was such an Arab nationalist, who later topples from anti-Zionist into anti-Semites? Why is he made mufti? It’s because Herbert Samuel was acting as a British officer, British representative. And he had to do a balance between the two great land owning families, the Husayni clan and the Nashashibi clan. Ironically that, you know, the ifs and buts of history, the Nashashibi were much more moderate. There are so many mistakes on the way, but we can look back with political hindsight and what difference does it make? You know, because this is the facts. This is what happened, which we have to deal with.

A lot of you like this pace. Can I go even a bit more slow? Ooh, if you want to be here in 2050, then I won’t be alive.

“Now much more understanding in marginalisation of Arabs living in Palestine in small past.” Yes, there were Arabs living in Palestine, you know, this is the point in villages.

And then this is Denise talking about what’s going on in South Africa, tragedy.

This is from Calvin.

Q: “Would you, Wendy and Judi consider a series on the land of Israel from Roman Palestine?” A: This is very much Jeremy Rosen’s subject, so I can talk to him about that.

“Please comment on the role of South Africa .” This is not my field of expertise, but Wendy and I will be discussing. Wendy is very keen to do sessions on South Africa and we will be doing that, including the history of it, and we’ll be bringing in some very interesting people to give evening lectures.

Q: “Was Curzon not connected to man Nancy Mitford?” A: Yeah, of course he was. Nancy Mitford was one of “The Reeve’s Tale” girls, remember? They all socialised together. They were part of the same crowd. One of the Mitford sisters though, actually married a New York Jew. Nancy, she went off to Spain, fought in the Civil War. They did have their rebel. He becomes the Viceroy of India. Yes, that was Curzon, yeah.

“I think Harry Sacher referring to the Balfour Declaration’s ambiguity said, ”'Let’s keep it pregnant.’“ Yeah, that’s lovely, Melvin, I like that. It’s very Curzon family heritage, I don’t understand that.

Yes, "Britain wanted to control the oil from Iraq too.” Heidi, yes, of course oil is already entering the pattern, and it’s going to become more and more important in the ‘20s and '30s.

Ellie’s saying, “History is complex and extensive, just looking at the surface, of course.” Yeah, I think one of the things, I totally agree with you on this, Ellie. I wish, I wish, I wish that people who get involved in the Middle East at least had studied it. Because when I hear politicians in this country, I’m only going to comment on politicians in England who make these statements with, and journalists, with absolutely no depth of knowledge of what goes on, and it’s a constant learning curve.

I think that’s it, Jude.

• [Judi] Thank you, Trudy.

• Okay, so Judi, I remember I’ve only got up to 1921, ouch. Luckily Churchill is only going to be Colonial Secretary for a year. So I will continue with that and you and I will talk to get the lectures. I’ve missed half of what I meant to say today, so it’s going to take.

• [Judi] That’s okay, we can add it to Monday. That’s absolutely fine.

• Thank you, Judi. I’ll talk to you offline about that.

• [Judi] Yes, thank you, Trudy, and thank you everybody who’ve joined us and we’ll see everybody in about 45 minutes for Professor David Wolf.

• Thanks, darling, lots of love to everybody, bye.

• [Judi] Thanks so much everybody, bye-bye.