The Middle East seems to be forever a flashpoint for instability in the whole of the world. Much of its instability is down to the presence in the region of the state of Israel. It has been for a long time the target of terrorist outrages, including what is possibly the worst in history, the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023. But it is also itself a regional superpower ready repeatedly to wreak terrible violence on neighbours it feels represent or harbour a threat against it.

At the moment, that’s happening in both Gaza and Lebanon.

In this additional episode to A History of England I look at one of the seminal moments that opened the door towards the foundation of that state. That was the British government’s issuing of the Balfour Declaration, backing the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine, on 2 November 1917.

That led to a lamentable history in which Britain tried to administer the territory until it pulled out and the Jewish state was founded there. The fundamental problem, that it was already the homeland of another people that resented being driven from its homes by Jewish immigrants, was never resolved. The present tensions flowed directly from that failure.

Curiously, back in Britain, one and only one minister in the British government that issued the Declaration stood out against it. And on what grounds did he reject it? Why, because he viewed it as anti-Semitic.

What makes that opposition particularly curious is just who – and what – he was.

Illustration: Map showing Eastern Turkey in Asia, Syria and Western Persia. Royal Geographical Society (Map), Mark Sykes & François Georges-Picot (Annotations). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MPK1-426_Sykes_Picot_Agreement_Map_signed_8_May_1916.jpg#/media/File:MPK1-426_Sykes_Picot_Agreement_Map_signed_8_May_1916.jpg Public domain

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License