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British Support for Jewish Restoration The Balfour declaration, offering Palestine to the Jews, was not issued in a vacuum based only on perceived momentary war needs. It reflected a deepseated philosophical and religious movement for restoration of the Jews that had become rooted in British culture in the 19th century. The Christian world had long been inimical to Jewish settlement in the Holy Land. St. Eusebius had decreed that God would therefore not let the Jews rebuild Jerusalem, a proscription 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 be completed, and subsequent Christian emperors abandoned the project. Christian mythology related that fires, manifesting divine displeasure, greeted those who attempted to carry out Julian's plan. The Crusaders had expelled the Jews from Palestine, and the idea of Jewish control of the Christian holy places was certainly anathema to most Christians. However, the rise of Protestantism and the enlightenment brought a new spirit to Europe. Following publication of English versions of the bible and with the rise of the Puritan faith, Hebraicism and restoration of the Jews became increasingly 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 themselves as 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 Holy Land." This movement was nourished by many sources, not all favorable to the Jews. The theology of some branches of Protestantism posits that the second coming of Christ would only come only after the Jews were reestablished in their land, and were converted to Christianity. Anti-Semites believed that establishment of a Jewish homeland would be a convenient way to rid Europe of Jews. Imperialists hoped that a Jewish Palestine would be an excuse for a British 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, the British MP Sir Henry Finch wrote a book entitled "The World's Great Restoration." 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 faith for evermore." There were others as well, mostly of the Puritan faith, who had

written similar books. However, after the suppression of Puritanism, the idea remained dormant in Britain until the 19th century. In 1799, Napoleon issued a proclamation promising to restore Palestine to the Jews, as he was camped outside Acre. Though Napoleon was forced to withdraw from Palestine, and soon rescinded his proclamation, the idea had been planted and took root in British soil. The successive weakening of the Ottoman Empire made it increasingly possible to believe that one day Palestine might no longer be under Turkish rule, and that it could then be returned to the Jews. Concomitantly, the skepticism of the eighteenth century enlightenment gave way to a religious revival, perhaps in reaction to the French revolution. An evangelical version of Protestantism became popular in England at this time, as it did soon after in the United States. In 1808, the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, familiarly called "The Jews Society," was founded, and it soon became very popular. The zeal for conversion was based on the idea that conversion of the Jews would bring about the Second Coming. Many of the members also believed that restoration of the Jews to "Palestine" was necessary for this purpose. Somewhat later, about 1825, John Nelson Darby founded the Plymouth Brethren, a religious sect with a distinct theology, dispensationalism, which professed that the Jews would have to be returned to their ancient kingdom and converted to Christianity before the rule of Christ on Earth. Dispensationalism remained a minority view in Britain, but took hold in the Untied States. For religious, or humanitarian or philosophical or imperialist motives, prominent Britons learned Hebrew, wrote novels about restoration of the Jewish commonwealth, began settlement and exploration societies and advocated restoration of the Jews in public and in private. Among the advocates we may include Lord Lindsay, Lord Shaftesbury Lord Palmerston, Disraeli, Lord Manchester, George Eliot, Holman Hunt, Sir Charles Warren, Hall Caine and others. Lord Lindsay wrote: The soil of "Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of her banished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was in 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 zealous propagator of the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. In 1841 he wrote a letter to the Jewish philanthropist Moses Montefiore in which he stated: "...I consider the object to be perfectly obtainable. But, two things are indispensably

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, part of the revival of Evangelical faith that swept Britain in the early 19th century. Religious motives prompted him to initiate charity works and further social legislation, including the ten hour day act. At the same time, he was keen for the restoration 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. Its genius, to tell the truth, adapts itself more or less to all the currents of civilization all over the world, nevertheless always emerging with distinctive features 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 everything going 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 stated that 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 to their own land...It was his daily prayer, his daily hope. 'Oh pray for the peace of Jerusalem!' were the words engraven on the ring he always wore on his right hand.' (Tuchman, Bible and Sword p 178). Lord Shaftesbury lobbied for the idea of return of the Jews with Prime Minister Palmerston and his successors in the government and was incidentally instrumental in the considerable assistance and protection against oppression that Britain henceforth extended to the Jews already living in Palestine. In 1839 the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray M'Cheyne, to report on "the Condition of the Jews in their land." Their report was widely publicized in Great Britain and it was followed by a "Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine." This memorandum was printed verbatim in the London Times, including an advertisement by Lord Shaftesbury igniting an enthusiastic campaign by the Times 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" (apparently Lord 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.

4. Whether they would pay for their own passage, given assurance of safety to life and property. 5. Whether they would be willing to live under the Turkish rule, protected by Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, Austro- Hungary. Shaftesbury had indeed caused Palmerston, either prior to or following the Times reprot, to write to the British Ambassador in Constantinople: There exists at the present time among the Jews dispersed over Europe, a strong notion that the time is approaching for their nation to return to Palestine...It would be of manifest importance to the Sultan to encourage the Jews to return and to settle in Palestine because the wealth which they would bring with them would increase the resources of the Sultan's dominions; and the Jewish people, if returning under the sanction and protection and at the invitation 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 recommend to hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine. (Tuchman, Bible and Sword, 1988 p 175). Religious motives had been transformed into motives of state, a theme that was to be repeated in coming years. In July of 1853, as the Crimean war loomed and the position of Turkey was challenged by Mehmet Ali in Egypt, Shaftesbury wrote to Prime Minister Aberdeen that Greater Syria was “a country without a nation” in need of “a nation without a country… Is there such a thing? To be sure there is, the ancient and rightful lords of the soil, the Jews!” In his diary that year he wrote “these vast and fertile regions will soon be without a ruler, without a known and acknowledged power to claim dominion. The territory must be assigned to some one or other… There is a country without a nation; and God now in his wisdom and mercy, directs us to a nation without 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 of Arab nationalism, and the population of all of what might be considered Palestine, 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 the remedy for the desolation of Palestine. In 1848 he wrote, "I should be truly rejoiced to see in Palestine a strong guard of Jews established in flourishing

agricultural settlements and ready to hold their own upon the mountains of Israel against all aggressors. I can wish for nothing more glorious in this life than to have my share in helping them do so." Gawler formed a Palestine colonization fund to help the work of settlement. In her novel, Daniel Deronda (1876), George Eliot advocated, "the restoration of a Jewish state planted in the old ground as a center of a national feeling, a source of dignifying protection, a special channel for special energies and an added 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 been trying to secure a Jewish homeland in Palestine from the Mehmet Ali, the Khedive of Egypt. Ali was not opposed, but he was deposed shortly thereafter. George Eliot's Daniel Deronda reflected her thorough grounding in the work of the 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 a follower of Lord Shaftesbury. In 1880 Oliphant published a book entitled The Land of Gilead, urging the British Parliament to assist the restoration of Jews to Palestine from Russia and Eastern Europe, and advocating that Palestinian Arabs be removed to reservations like those of the North American Indians. The interest of Britain in Palestine expressed itself in the "capitulations" won from the Turks, allowing them to place missions there and to found charitable works such as hospitals, settlement colonies and exploratory surveys like those of Conder. In fact, there were over a 1,000 British travelogues and surveys of the Middle East in the 19th century. Such exploratory travels, as in the case of famous explorers such as Burton and Livingston, usually preceded British imperial involvement in a region. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, British interest in the Middle East increased, because it was considered essential to guard the route to India and to guarantee the stability of the Turkish empire against Russian and other imperialist threats. Settlement of Jews in Palestine was offered first as a way to bolster the faltering Turks and help guarantee the security of the Suez canal. The idea which had seemed utopian became 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.

Keith, Alexander, The Land of Israel, Edinburgh: W. Whyte, 1844. Tuchman, Barbara, Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour, Ballantine Books, 1988. Ami Isseroff Main History Page

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