Churchill, Palestine and Zionism, 1904-1922 - Douglas J. Feith

258 DOUGLAS J. FEITH
Churchill led the defense of the government's policy. His emphasis was
not so much on the wisdom and morality of the Balfour Declaration as
on the solemnity of the commitment, which implicated the government's
credibility and honor.
Pledges and promises were made during the War ... not only on the merits,
though I think the merits are considerable ... because it was considered they
would be of value to us in our struggle to win the War. It was considered that
the support which the Jews could give us all over the world, and particularly in
the United States, and also in Russia, would be a definite palpable advantage.
Churchill regaled the House by quoting passionately pro-Zionist
speeches that his current critics in Parliament had made when the Balfour
Declaration was first issued. He then drew "the moral" that these members
"have no right to support public declarations made in the name of
your country in the crisis and heat of War, and then afterwards, when all
is cold and prosaic, to turn round and attack the Minister ... faithfully
and laboriously endeavouring to translate these perfervid enthusiasms
into the sober, concrete facts of day-to-day administration." He appealed
to the House to uphold Britain's undertakings "faithfully" and to "interpret
in an honoUf:;1ble and earnest way the promise that Britain will do
her best to fulfil i,t:r undertakings to the Zionists."
In defending the kntenberg concession against the charge that it was
unjust to the Arabs, Chur:hill stressed that such projects would benefit
everyone in Palestine: "[W]as not this a good gift that would impress more
than anything else on the Arab population that the Zionists were their
friends and helpers, not their expellers and expropriators, and that ...
Palestine had before it a bright future, and that there was enough for all?"
He added:
I am told that the Arabs would have done it [i.e., hydroelectric development]
themselves. Who is going to believe that? Left to themselves, the Arabs of Palestine
would not in a thousand years have taken effective steps towards the irrigation
and electrification of Palestine. They would have been quite content to
dwell-a handful of philosophic people-in the wasted sun-scorched plains, letting
the waters of the Jordan continue to flow unbridled and unharnessed into the
Dead Sea.136
Churchill's speech was as persuasive as it was entertaining. The division
that followed produced 292 votes in support of the government's
Palestine policy and 35 votes in opposition.
136 WSC IV 652-6.