Some Arab countries have been overenthusiastic in welcoming President George W. Bush's statement on the establishment of a Palestinian state. A Palestinian leader, however, compared the American statement to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which paved the way for the founding of a Jewish homeland in the heartland of the Arabs. What the Palestinian leader meant was that making a statement is very easy but its implementation involves long years of delay, even if the promise was made with earnestness.
Despite the apparent Western bias toward the Jews and the Jewish influence in the British government, the Jews had to wait over 30 years to get Balfour's promise fulfilled. The Zionists could prevail upon the British government to end the mandate in Palestine and leave the region for the Jewish terrorist gangs such as Stern and Irgun to have a free rein in terrorizing and driving out as many Arabs as possible.
Being quite familiar with the practice of Western political leaders to make empty promises and statements which serve their own selfish motives, the Jews mobilized all their potential to make the British minister's declaration a valid legal document which the government could not ignore. Under Jewish pressure, Arthur Balfour directed Zionist leaders Lord Rothschild and Weizman to prepare the draft of the document as the first step toward making the declaration internationally legitimate.
The British Cabinet endorsed the declaration in late 1917 and Balfour appealed to the House of Commons to take the political initiative to convince the Soviet Union and the United States of the need to create the Jewish state in Palestine. The Conservative government gave the Zionists the freedom to draw up the document violating the basic rights of the Palestinians and interests of the Arab people.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose Labour Party has been cooperating with the State of Israel over a long time, has recently spoken about the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people. On the other hand, Tony Blair did not specify who was actually behind depriving these people of their basic rights and hurling them into a life of humiliation and repression. The British premier should have, at least, displayed the moral courage to own up to his country's role in the repression of the Palestinian people. It is a paradox that the British Labour Party which has been claiming to uphold the principles of equality, justice and human rights all over the world was so openly and undeniably responsible for depriving millions of Arabs of their basic rights and throwing them out of their homes.
Britain, directly or indirectly, supported Jewish-sponsored terrorism in the Arab lands even before the founding of the state of Israel. Both the Labour and Conservative governments in Britain were well-aware that the Jewish leaders Begin and Shamir were among the top terrorists wanted by Scotland Yard. The two were involved in the murder of the British minister for Middle East Affairs, Lord Meyne, in Jerusalem in 1944. The murder proved that the Jews were ungrateful to those who helped them. It was not long ago that Robin Cook and Jack Straw, foreign secretaries in Blair's succeeding Cabinets, were ill-treated and snubbed by the Israeli government. The Israeli government did not apologize for the humiliating treatment of the ministers of a country which had stood by Israel. The British government, obviously, does not have the courage to demand an apology from Israel because the ranks of both the ruling party and the opposition are filled with people who are more loyal to Israel than to Britain.
