Solomonia Archive: How the British Left has Changed...

Saturday, September 9, 2006

Jameel finds this editorial from The Guardian (!), 1917:

We speak of Palestine as a country, but it is not a country; it is at present little more than a small district of the vast Ottoman tyranny. But it will be a country; it will be the country of the Jews. That is the meaning of the letter which we publish to-day written by Mr. Balfour to Lord Rothschild for communication to the Zionist Federation. It is at once the fulfilment of an aspiration, the signpost of a destiny. Never since the days of the Dispersion has the extraordinary people scattered over the earth in every country of modern European and of the old Arabic civilisation surrendered the hope of an ultimate return to the historic seat of its national existence...

...Scattered and few, they have still brought with them schools and industry and scientific knowledge, and here and there have in truth made the waste places blossom as the rose. But for all this there was no security...

...The return of the Turk in victorious power would spell ruin; the rescue of this and the neighbouring lands from Turkish mis-rule was the first condition of security and hope. The British victories in Palestine and in the more distant eastern bounds of the ancient Arab Empire are the presage of the downfall of Turkish power; the declaration of policy by the British Government to-day is the security for a new, perhaps a very wonderful, future for Zionism and for the Jewish race.

Via Omri (who has lots of other interesting links), who comments, "Today in Britain, Zionist is an epithet."

Posted by Solomon at 2:18 PM on Saturday, Sep 9, 2006 | Comments (2)
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2 Comments

#1 Michael B | September 9, 2006 2:52 PM

"Scattered and few, they have still brought with them schools and industry and scientific knowledge, and here and there have in truth made the waste places blossom as the rose. But for all this there was no security..."

No exaggeration, that. (Dylan celebrates this spirit and set of historical accomplishments in two or three sets on his Infidels CD.) And again, highly germane here vis-a-vis the corruptions and corrosives of the Left and their Islamicist alliances: Big Lies (pdf).

#2 Cynic | September 10, 2006 9:36 AM

Michael said:
"And again, highly germane here vis-a-vis the corruptions and corrosives of the Left and their Islamicist alliances: Big Lies (pdf)."

Just thought that Judith Klinghoffer's post:
"EUROPEAN LEFT CHOOSES THE ISLAMIST SIDE"
http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/29475.html

"........
In his article entitled We are not above the fray: Neither-nor is not enough" published in the August issue of Le Monde Diplomatique and posted bellow, Jean Bricmont not only makes the leftist choice official but provides a theoretical justification for it.

To appreciate fully the importance of the article, it should be realized that Le Monde Diplomatique is a tightly controlled ideological publication and, hence, the opinion expressed by Bricmont represent the thinking of the European left. What Denis Praeger calls the "decent American left" may not be there yet, but if history is our guide, it will not take it long to get there. Luckily, Bricmont's argument is entirely straight forward.
...............
The left must forget all about democracy, women or minority rights and focus on the main enemy: Capitalism and US hegemony. That means ending the era of moral equivalency and choosing sides against the current world order ......
....... "