Why Balfour Declaration of a Jewish Homeland Didn't Include Judea-Samaria?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                              

Lord Balfour 's Declaration was issued on November 2, 1917.  He was the British Foreign Secretary and declared that the British government favored the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people, and will use their endeavors 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.

This statement was the result of long negotiations initiated by Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow, and others shortly after the outbreak of WWI, with the support of Herbert Samuel, chief Rabbi JH Hertz the Haham Moses Gaster, etc.  In the meantime, pogroms had been taking place in the Russian territories, attacks on Jews, killing, robbing, etc. They could not waste anymore time.

To the Jews, their National Home was always Judah and Samaria, the land of Israel from before  the time of Kings Saul, David and Solomon-since Joshua and the 600,000 some Israelite slaves entered Canaan again, settled, created judges for each clan, to the time of Saul.  It wasn't until there 2nd Temple of Solomon had been burned down along with their capital, Jerusalem in 70 CE, that they were forced out of their land, leaving a segment that were ignored or missed by the Romans, the strongest army in the world,  for they were taking all alive as slaves.  

Judah Judea by the Romans, had been the largest in alotted land through Joshua  and population.  It's the tribe that Jews came from.  They had entered the land according to the 2nd and last census with 76,500 people with Joshua\.  Judah didn't have access to the sea, so was poor compared to Israel.  It had not become involved with Israel's  international rivalries, and led a more tranquil existence.  It was able to preserve their Mosaic monotheism in a purer form than Israel had, due to having the Temple in Jerusalem.  

Samaria (Shomron) in Hebrew was originally the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.  It was founded in 880 BCE by Israel's  6th King Omri (887-876 BCE) who was the  founder of a dynasty.  As Israel's 4th King Elah's general (888-867 BCE) , he directed the operations against the Philistine city of Gibbethon.  He had a 6 year struggle with Tibni.  He forged the Sidonian alliance which exercised a marked influence on the development of the Israelite religion.  He subdue Moab.  The Assyrians called the kingdom of Israel by his name for the rest of its existence.  Omri bought the land himself from Shemer.  The site was on an isolate elevation dominating a wide countryside.  The city occupied 25 acres and had an acropolis with a casemate wall within which was the royal palace in the Assyrian style.  Samaria withstood the siege of the Syrians but fell in 721 BCE to Sargon II of Assyria who resettled it with Cutheans who intermingled with the remnants of the former population and became the ancestors of the Samaritans.  

The name, Samaria,  is also applied to the  entire northern region of the central highlands of ancient Israel.  That's how it's thought of today.  It appears that Samaria's  land lies on the east side of the Jordan River which is now Jordan.  The Judea and Samaria areas are in higher land, mountainous.  

When Solomon had died in 920 BCE, the 12 tribes of Israel had a Civil War over taxation. Only the tribe of Judah-the southernmost land, along with some of Benjamin and  Simeon remained standing with Solomon's son, King Jeroboam (033-912 BCE). this parcel of land included Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish religion.    

The Jewish people by the 1920's were desperate for gaining back their Jewish Homeland.  The Ottoman Empire had lost the 1st World War of 11914-1918 and that meant that Palestine was up for grabs.  The Ottoman Empire would lose it all but be able to keep Turkey, their homeland, and that's it.  After waiting for 2,000 years, the Jews now had a chance to get back their homeland.  

Map of Israel and the Golan Heights with the Judea and Samaria Area (Areas A,B,C West Bank excluding East Jerusalem) highlighted in peach.  Coordinates Coordinates: 31°45′N 35°00′E.  

Little is left for the Jewish Homeland except for the coastline 

and Negev desert.  

                                                                     

Judge Louis Dembitz Brandeis of the US Supreme Court and Zionist Leader (1856-1941)  His parents fled Bohemia in 1848 and immigrated to Louisville, Kentucky.  He became Supreme Count Judge in 1916 by Wilson and served until 1939.  He was honorary president of the Zionist Organization of America from 1918 to 1921,  and of the World Zionist organization from 1920 to 1921, resigning after differing with Chaim Weizmann.  He had scant patience with people who feared the collision of loyalty and feeling in being an American Zionist.  The sternest days of WWII left his faith in Zion unshaken.                              

                                                  

                                                  

Lord Balfour was all for this to happen. He went to the USA and had a meeting with President Wilson, who supported the efforts of the American Zionists headed by Louis Brandeis, Justice of the US Supreme Court and Zionist leader,  and expedited the final decision of the British government. 

However, the British Jews, etc, were afraid that the Zionist aspirations could endanger the Jewish position in all countries.  There were strong protests.  They turned down the Zionist plan of  recognizing Palestine as the national home of the Jewish people and for providing a Jewish national Colonizing Corporation for the resettlement and economic development of the country.

This reminds me of the Biblical section where Moses sent the spies out to view Canaan and it's possibilities.  Only Joshua came back feeling positive that they could settle.  The other spies were afraid. 

The British were afraid of their own positions and not thinking of how this Jewish National Home would save Judaism and millions of lives.  After being kicked out of England from 1290 to 1655,  a total of 365 years, They had been rather successful after their allowed return.  The Englishmen had changed a little. 

 By the 19th century, there existed a Sir Moses Montefiore.  From 1829 onward, things improve and  we see a Lionel de Rothschild to parliament in 1858.        

          Viscount Herbert Louis Samuel, leader of the Liberal Party, who gave the  the coveted  position  of Sherif of Jerusalem to Haj Amin al Husseini, the most anti-Semitic leader of his day.  He also gave him the title, Head of the Supreme Moslem Council. It was in 1936, as chairman, that he organized the Palestine disturbances for which he was sentenced to exile in 1937.  He fled to Lebanon, and during WWII, helped in Rashid Ali's coup in Iraq before going to Europe where he helped Hitler and was largely responsible for the liquidation of the Jews in the Moslem areas of Bosnia.  After 1948, he set up a short-lived Palestine Government in Gaza, and then later in Cairo.   This Grand Mufti, as he was also called, was not about to lose his position and was the cause of many Jewish deaths. 

                    Grand Mufti Haj Husseini and Hitler in Germany

 Although less known than his distant cousin, Yasser Arafat of the PLO, Jerusalem grand mufti Haj Amin al Husseini (1897-1974) played a prominent role in pre-1948 Palestine asking Hitler for help in getting rid of Jews in Palestine as well as helping Hitler..    

Viscount Herbert Louis Samuel (1870-1963) was a British statesman and philosopher, the 1st professing Jew to be a member of a British cabinet from 1909 to hold office in the liberal government of 1905-16. and in the national government from 1931-2.  His memorandum to the Cabinet in 1914 concerning a British trust for the Jewish Home influenced the Balfour Declaration.  A viscount is the fourth rank in the British peerage system, standing directly below an earl and above a baron (Lord of Parliament in Scotland). There are approximately 270 viscountcies currently extant in the peerages of the British Isles, though most are secondary titles.

 From 1881, the older Jewish community in England was strongly reinforced by an immigration of refugees from Russian persecutions.  They adapted to the English Jewish way of life under the Chief Rabbi, Board of Deputies of British Jews, and in London, the United synagogue.  England was the only important European country to escape the Nazi persecutions, but the air bombardment of the principal cities and consequent scattering of the Jewish population changed and, to some extent, weakened the traditional Jewish life.  The Jewish population of Great Britain with N. Ireland was estimated in 1990 as 330,000.

The 1st World War experience for British Jews was scary enough to cause them to be so cautious about their own positions, it loos like.  

Israel had its piece of their ancient land and 15 minutes later, their neighbors attacked them  as  they were embroiled in their 1st War, Their War of Independence (29 November 1947-1949. it had started even before their birth on May 14, 1948.   

            Grandfather to today's King Abdullah II of Jordan                                           

  Winston Churchill, Herbert Samuel, Abdullah bin al Hussein after 1921 in Jerusalem

Abdullah (1882-1951 was an Emir, later becoming King of Transjordan.  He was the 2nd son of Hussein, sherif of Mecca and later King of Hejaz (Arabia).  He needed land to rule and so the British gave him land East of the Jordan River that he called Jordan.  It happened to be 80% of the Promised Jewish Homeland.  

Abdullah had given his support to Britain during WWI.  This led to his becoming ruler of Transjordan in 1923.  He was credited with having   a moderate attitude towards Zionism at first, He negotiated with Chaim Weizmann in 1922, but was one of the neighbors to invade Israel in 1948.   He formally annexed the Arab-held part of Cis-Jordan in 1950 and proclaimed himself ruler of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan.  He tried to reach an understanding with Israel but this was nullified by the growing influence of the Palestinian Arabs, and he was assassinated in Jerusalem allegedly at the instance of the Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini.  So both the Jordanians and the Jews had reason to put Husseini on their hit list.  

Emir Abdullah soon succeeded in loosening the British mandate over Transjordan with an Anglo-Transjordanian treaty. On May 15, 1923, Britain formally recognized the Emirate of Transjordan as a state under the leadership of Emir Abdullah. This angered the Zionists, as it effectively severed Transjordan from Palestine and so reduced the area of any future Jewish national home in the region. The treaty stipulated that Transjordan would be prepared for independence under the general supervision of the British high commissioner in Jerusalem, and recognized Emir Abdullah as head of state. In May 1925, the Aqaba and Ma’an districts of the Hijaz became part of Transjordan.

Seems as if the English were hesitant to rock the boat in England and upset too many Jews, so they just gave 80% of the land to Abdullah, who came from Arabia where they would discover oil.  However, that wouldn't be known about until March 3,  "On March 3, 1938, an American-owned oil well in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, drilled into what would soon be identified as the largest source of petroleum in the world. The discovery radically changed the physical, human, and political geography of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and the world."

 1938.  

Israel's down to 10% of the original land Promised as the Jewish Homeland.  

Resource:

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/oil-discovered-saudi-arabia

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Samuel,_1st_Viscount_Samuel

https://www.brandeis.edu/about/louis-brandeis.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_and_Samaria_Area

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_and_Samaria_Area

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omri#:~:text=In%20the%20Hebrew%20Bible%2C%20the,an%20Israelite%20origin%20for%20thehttps://

n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Samuel,_1st_Viscount_Samuel

http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_transjordan.html

https://honestreporting.com/hitlers-palestinian-ally-grand-mufti-amin-al-husseini/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw6_CYBhDjARIsABnuSzo60CLbCPtKZ4iT5e06nqEFDZOcsYdDxHV-RspyEwRKUpBhI4vdUdEaAsY4EALw_wcB