Churchill and Israel
A recent article declares: “Churchill, a Zionist, was the first politician to call for the creation of Israel in 1905.” Where exactly did he say that? —G.H., New York City
Churchill was certainly pro-Zionist by 1905, but I can find no public statement calling for an independent Israel before her actual independence in 1948. Until then he called for a “Jewish National Home,” believing, with what cynics might call incurable optimism, that Arabs and Jews in Palestine could coexist peacefully, pointing to the benefits the Jews had brought in the form of irrigation and horticulture.
In 1921, when setting up the borders of the modern Middle East, Churchill opted not for an independent Israel but what he called a “Jewish National Home” within Britain’s Palestine Mandate, generally coinciding with what is now Israel.…