clipped from: www.babeled.com The Balfour Declaration
Upon the restructuring of the defeated Ottoman Empire following WWI, the British Cabinet supported establishing a Jewish state within the Palestinian borders. This pro-Zionist sentiment was portrayed in a letter from the British Foreign Secretary, James Balfour, to Lord Rothschild, an active Zionist Briton.
His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours 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.
Brief History on the Arab-Israeli Conflict
The Haganah
The Palmach and Irgun