*Endlessly contested, the November 1917 letter from the British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord James de Rothschild was clear and simple: “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best 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.” See Grose, Israel, p. 65.