A bizarre tweet from UK in the UN:
Wow, what could the other half be?Let us remember, there are 2 halves of #Balfour, 2nd of which has not been fulfilled. There is unfinished business. @AmbassadorAllen #Israel pic.twitter.com/BoAXOcsKdz— UKUN_NewYork (@UKUN_NewYork) October 18, 2017
Here's the full text of the Balfour Declaration:
Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet
His Majesty's Government view with favour 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.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours,
Arthur James Balfour
Balfour explicitly said that a Jewish national home should not be used as an excuse for other states to revoke the rights of Jews in their countries. Yet that is exactly what happened in very single Arab nation. Could that be the other half that the diplomats are referring to?
The tweet cannot possibly be referring to the establishment of another Arab state, since Balfour says nothing about an "Arab homeland in Palestine." And at the time it was written, Palestine included Transjordan, and the initial partition of Palestine into two parts would have taken care of that even if Balfour declared another Arab state.
So what can this tweet possibly be referring to?
Obviously the UK diplomats are referring to the part that says "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." But there is nothing that prejudices the rights of Arabs in the Jewish national home, which is now Israel.
This is an uncalled for slam against Israel and it is in direct contradiction to the UK's principled stand to celebrate the centennial of Balfour rather than apologize for it, as the Israel-haters demand.