At first Britain was amenable to the idea of a Jewish state. The Zionist argument that, in the hands of the Jews, Palestine would be “an outpost of culture against barbarism,” to quote Herzl—and incidentally a tool with which to further British colonialism in the region—was irresistible. As Arthur Balfour, the British foreign secretary and the namesake of the Balfour Declaration, which promised British support for the state of Israel, claimed, “The four great powers are committed to Zionism, and Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in
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