british zionism

8/14/2019 British Zionism

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British Zionism

Support for Jewish Restoration in Britainhome news peacewatch top stories books history culture dialog links more links donations

British Support for Jewish Restoration

The Balfour declaration, offering Palestine to the Jews, was not issued in avacuum based only on perceived momentary war needs. It reflected a deep-seated philosophical and religious movement for restoration of the Jews that hadbecome rooted in British culture in the 19th century. The Christian world hadlong been inimical to Jewish settlement in the Holy Land. St. Eusebius haddecreed that God would therefore not let the Jews rebuild Jerusalem, aproscription that entered European Christian culture as the Curse of Eusebius.The pagan Roman Emperor Julian began the project of restoring the Jews to

Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple. He fell in battle before the project could becompleted, and subsequent Christian emperors abandoned the project.Christian mythology related that fires, manifesting divine displeasure, greetedthose who attempted to carry out Julian's plan. The Crusaders had expelled theJews from Palestine, and the idea of Jewish control of the Christian holy placeswas certainly anathema to most Christians.

However, the rise of Protestantism and the enlightenment brought a new spiritto Europe. Following publication of English versions of the bible and with therise of the Puritan faith, Hebraicism and restoration of the Jews becameincreasingly popular. Puritans adopted names such as Amos and Obadia and

Isaiah and Isaac and even Habakkuk and Abednego. On the one hand,Protestants in Britain and later those in the USA began to identify themselvesas the inheritors of the Israelites or the lost ten tribes. On the other hand,support grew for restoration of the Jews as the rightful owners of "the HolyLand." This movement was nourished by many sources, not all favorable to theJews. The theology of some branches of Protestantism posits that the secondcoming of Christ would only come only after the Jews were reestablished intheir land, and were converted to Christianity. Anti-Semites believed thatestablishment of a Jewish homeland would be a convenient way to rid Europeof Jews. Imperialists hoped that a Jewish Palestine would be an excuse for aBritish protectorate there, and might serve as a solution for the "Eastern

Question."

The idea of Jewish restoration was not alien to British culture. In 1621, theBritish MP Sir Henry Finch wrote a book entitled "The World's GreatRestoration." He encouraged Jews to reassert their claim to the Holy Land,writing, "Out of all the places of thy dispersion, East, West, North and South,His purpose is to bring thee home again and to marry thee to Himself by faithfor evermore." There were others as well, mostly of the Puritan faith, who had
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written similar books. However, after the suppression of Puritanism, the idearemained dormant in Britain until the 19th century.

In 1799, Napoleon issued a proclamation promising to restore Palestine to theJews, as he was camped outside Acre. Though Napoleon was forced to

withdraw from Palestine, and soon rescinded his proclamation, the idea hadbeen planted and took root in British soil. The successive weakening of theOttoman Empire made it increasingly possible to believe that one day Palestinemight no longer be under Turkish rule, and that it could then be returned to theJews.

Concomitantly, the skepticism of the eighteenth century enlightenment gave wayto a religious revival, perhaps in reaction to the French revolution. Anevangelical version of Protestantism became popular in England at this time, asit did soon after in the United States. In 1808, the London Society for PromotingChristianity among the Jews, familiarly called "The Jews Society," was founded,

and it soon became very popular. The zeal for conversion was based on the ideathat conversion of the Jews would bring about the Second Coming. Many of themembers also believed that restoration of the Jews to "Palestine" was necessaryfor this purpose.

Somewhat later, about 1825, John Nelson Darby founded the PlymouthBrethren, a religious sect with a distinct theology, dispensationalism, whichprofessed that the Jews would have to be returned to their ancient kingdom andconverted to Christianity before the rule of Christ on Earth. Dispensationalismremained a minority view in Britain, but took hold in the Untied States.

For religious, or humanitarian or philosophical or imperialist motives, prominentBritons learned Hebrew, wrote novels about restoration of the Jewishcommonwealth, began settlement and exploration societies and advocatedrestoration of the Jews in public and in private. Among the advocates we mayinclude Lord Lindsay, Lord Shaftesbury Lord Palmerston, Disraeli, LordManchester, George Eliot, Holman Hunt, Sir Charles Warren, Hall Caine andothers.

Lord Lindsay wrote:

The soil of "Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of herbanished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with her agriculturalcapabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever wasin the days of Solomon.( Crawford, A.W.C. (Lord Lindsay), Letters on Egypt, Edom

and the Holy Land, London, H. Colburn 1847, V II, p 71).

Charles Henry Churchill, a British resident of Damascus, also became a zealouspropagator of the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. In 1841 he wrote aletter to the Jewish philanthropist Moses Montefiore in which he stated: "...Iconsider the object to be perfectly obtainable. But, two things are indispensably
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necessary. Firstly, that the Jews will themselves take up the matter unanimously.Secondly, that the European powers will aid them in their views..."

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury was an Evangelical Christian, partof the revival of Evangelical faith that swept Britain in the early 19th century.

Religious motives prompted him to initiate charity works and further sociallegislation, including the ten hour day act. At the same time, he was keen for therestoration of the Jews, and their conversion to Christianity.

Lord Shaftesbury was the most active restoration lobbyist. 'The inherent vitality,'he wrote, 'of the Hebrew race reasserts itself with amazing persistence. Itsgenius, to tell the truth, adapts itself more or less to all the currents ofcivilization all over the world, nevertheless always emerging with distinctivefeatures and a gallant recovery of vigor."

Shaftesbury told his biographer, Edwin Hodder, that belief in the Second

Advent, "has always been a moving principle in my life, for I see everythinggoing on on in the world subordinate to this great even." Privately, he asked,"Why do we not pray for it every time we hear a clock string?" Hodder statedthat since the return of the Jews was required for the Second Advent,Shaftesbury "never had a shadow of a doubt that the Jews were to return totheir own land...It was his daily prayer, his daily hope. 'Oh pray for the peace ofJerusalem!' were the words engraven on the ring he always wore on his righthand.' (Tuchman, Bible and Sword p 178).

Lord Shaftesbury lobbied for the idea of return of the Jews with Prime MinisterPalmerston and his successors in the government and was incidentally

instrumental in the considerable assistance and protection against oppressionthat Britain henceforth extended to the Jews already living in Palestine.

In 1839 the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar and Robert MurrayM'Cheyne, to report on "the Condition of the Jews in their land." Their reportwas widely publicized in Great Britain and it was followed by a "Memorandum toProtestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine."This memorandum was printed verbatim in the London Times, including anadvertisement by Lord Shaftesburyigniting an enthusiastic campaign by theTimes for restoration of the Jews.

In August 1840 the Times reported that the British government was considering

Jewish restoration. It added that "a nobleman of the Opposition" (apparentlyLord Shaftesbury) was making inquiries to determine:

1. Jewish opinion of the proposed restoration.

2. Jewish readiness to live in Palestine and invest their capital in agriculture.

3. How soon they would be ready to go.


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4. Whether they would pay for their own passage, given assurance of safety tolife and property.

5. Whether they would be willing to live under the Turkish rule, protected byBritain, France, Russia, Prussia, Austro- Hungary.

Shaftesbury had indeed caused Palmerston, either prior to or following theTimes reprot, to write to the British Ambassador in Constantinople:

There exists at the present time among the Jews dispersed over Europe, astrong notion that the time is approaching for their nation to return toPalestine...It would be of manifest importance to the Sultan to encourage theJews to return and to settle in Palestine because the wealth which they wouldbring with them would increase the resources of the Sultan's dominions; andthe Jewish people, if returning under the sanction and protection and at theinvitation of the Sultan, would be a check on any future evil designs of Mehmet

Ali or his successors... I have to instruct Your Excellency strongly to recommendto hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return toPalestine. (Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 1988 p 175).

Religious motives had been transformed into motives of state, a theme that wasto be repeated in coming years.

In July of 1853, as the Crimean war loomed and the position of Turkey waschallenged by Mehmet Ali in Egypt, Shaftesbury wrote to Prime MinisterAberdeen that Greater Syria was

a country without a nation in need of a nation without a country Is theresuch a thing? To be sure there is, the ancient and rightful lords of the soil, theJews! In his diary that year he wrote these vast and fertile regions will soon bewithout a ruler, without a known and acknowledged power to claim dominion.The territory must be assigned to some one or other There is a countrywithout a nation; and God now in his wisdom and mercy, directs us to a nationwithout a country. (Shaftsbury as cited in Garfinkle, Adam M., On the Origin,Meaning, Use and Abuse of a Phrase. Middle Eastern Studies, London, Oct.1991, vol. 27).

Thus was born the phrase that eventually became the Zionist slogan of "A land

without a people for a people without a land. At the time, there was no hint ofArab nationalism, and the population of all of what might be consideredPalestine, including districts in lands that are now part of Transjordan Lebanon,probably did not exceed 300,000.

Sir George Gawler, a hero of Waterloo, urged the restoration of the Jews as theremedy for the desolation of Palestine. In 1848 he wrote, "I should be trulyrejoiced to see in Palestine a strong guard of Jews established in flourishing


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agricultural settlements and ready to hold their own upon the mountains ofIsrael against all aggressors. I can wish for nothing more glorious in this lifethan to have my share in helping them do so." Gawler formed a Palestinecolonization fund to help the work of settlement.

In her novel, Daniel Deronda (1876), George Eliot advocated, "the restoration ofa Jewish state planted in the old ground as a center of a national feeling, asource of dignifying protection, a special channel for special energies and anadded voice in the councils of the world."

The restoration movement fed off the nascent Jewish nationalist movement.Colonel Churchill in Damascus was influenced by Montefiore, who had beentrying to secure a Jewish homeland in Palestine from the Mehmet Ali, theKhedive of Egypt. Ali was not opposed, but he was deposed shortly thereafter.George Eliot's Daniel Deronda reflected her thorough grounding in the work ofthe Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz, who believed in national restoration of the

Jews in their own land.

F. Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888), MP and Evangelical Christian, was afollower of Lord Shaftesbury. In 1880 Oliphant published a book entitled TheLand of Gilead, urging the British Parliament to assist the restoration of Jews toPalestine from Russia and Eastern Europe, and advocating that PalestinianArabs be removed to reservations like those of the North American Indians.

The interest of Britain in Palestine expressed itself in the "capitulations" wonfrom the Turks, allowing them to place missions there and to found charitableworks such as hospitals, settlement colonies and exploratory surveys like those

of Conder. In fact, there were over a 1,000 British travelogues and surveys ofthe Middle East in the 19th century. Such exploratory travels, as in the case offamous explorers such as Burton and Livingston, usually preceded Britishimperial involvement in a region. Toward the end of the nineteenth century,British interest in the Middle East increased, because it was consideredessential to guard the route to India and to guarantee the stability of the Turkishempire against Russian and other imperialist threats. Settlement of Jews inPalestine was offered first as a way to bolster the faltering Turks and helpguarantee the security of the Suez canal. The idea which had seemed utopianbecame a more or less respectable and acceptable project.

Bibliography

Christian Zionism

Crawford, A.W.C. (Lord Lindsay), Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land, London, H.Colburn 1847, V II, p 71)

Gawler, George, Tranquillization of Syria and the East, London, T&W Boone, 1845.
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Keith, Alexander, The Land of Israel, Edinburgh: W. Whyte, 1844.

Tuchman, Barbara, Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age toBalfour, Ballantine Books, 1988.

Ami Isseroff

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