- A lack of knowledge on both sides of the Torah hashkafah of the issues
- A lack of knowledge on both sides of the REAL history of Eretz Yisrael (especially regarding the contributions of religious Jews in Eretz Yisrael to Jewish life & Jewish settlement)
- An innate bias on the part of the Jew-hater (disguised as "anti-Israel" or "pro-Palestinian/Arab") which frames a question or argument in a slanted (and often inaccurate) way
For example, let's look at discussions of the Balfour Declaration — which include false premises that mislead well-meaning supporters.
What & Who Does the Balfour Declaration Actually Address?
Foreign Office,
2 November 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 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.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour”
Rav Avigdor Miller already stated the following (boldface mine):
You have to know that when reshaim have power, they’re not going to do any good for us. Anybody who is not a shomer Torah is not going to help us. You have to know that beforehand.
So what do you expect of Rabin or all the other people? They’re people, mufkarim.
They have no connection with Torah, with emunah, so all they can do is kilkul.
They can’t help us at all. That you have to know. And they’re doing it very successfully today.
No question that they’re ruining the country. מרשעים יצא רשע – From wicked people will come wickedness (Shmuel Alef, 24:13).
That you have to know. From wicked people, only wickedness can come out. Don’t expect any tovos from wicked people.
And so we have to pray to Hakodosh Boruch Hu that the zechus of all the frum Jews in Eretz Yisroel should protect them, the zechus of all the yeshivos should protect them, the mosdos haTorah.
And maybe the zechus of all the Jews who live in Eretz Yisroel and are doing so much good for the world, maybe b'zechus this Hakodosh Boruch Hu will frustrate all the intentions of the reshaim who are in power who are trying to ruin Eretz Yisroel.
TAPE # E-15 (May 1995)
https://torasavigdor.org/qa/rav-avigdor-miller-on-israeli-politicians/
Yet aside from those Gedolei HaDor, Jews around the world celebrated the Balfour Declaration.
(Most Jews of the time operated under the influence of the Tziyoni movement.)
Why did the Torah Sages retained a mixed response to the Declaration.
What could be wrong?
The Problem with "Zionist Aspiration"
As mentioned several times on this blog, the term "Zionism" did not even exist prior to 1890.
The term was coined by a secular Ashkenazi named Nathan Birnbaum, who intended its use for a movement to create a Zionist state based on Yiddish language and culture. And by Yiddish "culture," he meant the secular aspects.
(Considering the amount of Jews who were Sephardi and religious Jews worldwide of any ethnicity, the initial concept sounds pretty exclusive, if you ask me.)
Side note: I know most people believe Herzl founded Zionism. He didn't. At least not in the way most Jews define it today. In a serious misunderstanding of the causes of Jew-hatred, Herzl initially wanted all Jews to convert to Christianity. To paraphrase that plan: "No Jews = No Jew-hatred!" When he saw most Jews would never agree to apostasy, he then settled on the solution of a bug-out location big enough to house world Jewry. He didn't care where; Uganda was also fine with him.
But most Jews, of course, rejected Uganda as their national homeland.
So to sum up Herzl's ideology: Herzl first wanted to obliterate Judaism via mass conversion. When that notion failed, he sought to build a massive ghetto ("a Jewish state") where Jews could bug out from Jew-hating societies and hang out in a protected area as European secularists. Herzl also welcomed any gentiles who wished to live in his imagined Jewish state. After all, he was pro-intermarriage.
So Herzl's followers settled on the idea of a secular Commie state for Jews in Eretz Yisrael. Birnbaum decided to call it "Zionism." Birnbaum later did teshuvah and regretted all the secular Leftist stuff he'd done, but it was too late.
Now back to the Balfour Declaration:
Unfortunately, the Declaration makes no mention of the Torah aspiration for Jews to settle in Eretz Yisrael REGARDLESS of who's in charge — an aspiration carried out by Jews for centuries prior to the invention of Zionism.
The Declaration direct itself toward the anti-Torah Communist-leaning Zionist Federation, and not Agudas Yisroel or the leading rabbis of Eretz Yisrael or Yerushalayim (who were known to the British authorities of that time).
So this declaration only acknowledged the aspirations of a 27-year-old movement (rather than a millennia-old religious aspiration) and addressed it to an 18-year-old organization (as opposed to any Orthodox Jew, who represents authentic Judaism going back nearly 4000 years to Avraham Avinu).
But what did the Torah Sages say about it?
How Did Rav Meir Simchah of Dvinsk Respond?
Rav Meir Simchah of Dvinsk (1843-1926) author of Ohr Same'ach & Meshech Chachma) acknowledged the Divine Providence involved and even saw this as a nullification of the 3 oaths adjured by Hashem to Am Yisrael and the gentile nations, saying the oath "has been removed by the consent of the world's powers."
(Not all the Gedolei Yisrael agreed with this.)
In light of the nullification of these oaths, the rav further stated in a letter:
...the mitzvah of settling Eretz Yisrael...is again in effect. It is incumbent upon every person to do everything in his power to fulfill this mitzvah.
***
...it all depends on the emergence of a Divine light to insure that all general and communal matters be carried out in a modest, Torah fashion, as was done by the men of the Great Assembly.
Guardian of Jerusalem, page 410
Fulfillment of the opening created by the Declaration needed to come about in a Torah way.
We know he did not support a "Zionist" state because he remained convinced of the correlation between transgression of mitzvot and Divine punishment, as he wrote in his commentary for Sefer Vayikra:
“Modern man thinks that Berlin is Jerusalem, but a fierce storm of destruction will emanate from Berlin and leave but a scant remnant. The survivors will disperse to other countries and Torah will strike new roots and young scholars will produce undreamed of accomplishments."
How Did Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank Respond?
It brought him religious inspiration, causing him to recommend Torah scholars to study the laws of the Temple service.
But again, it's important to emphasize the increase in Torah study for a religious Redemption of Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael, not a secular state and certainly not as a glorified bug-out location for all sorts of heretics and degenerates.
Where Heaven Touches Earth: Jewish Life in Jerusalem from Medieval Times to the Present, page 435
How Did the Belzer Rebbe Respond?
How Did the Chafetz Chaim Respond?
When [the Chafetz Chaim] heard the news, he saw a sort of "Heavenly stirring" toward Redemption. he hoped that a period of Divine grace had arrived, but feared that the people would yet ruin things.
How Did Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld Respond?
(The following is quoted from Guardian of Jerusalem, pages 403-410.)
On one hand, Rav Sonnenfeld viewed it as "the Hand of God."
After millennia of denial and persecution, the new non-Jewish rulers finally acknowledged the right of Jews to our Divinely given Homeland of Eretz Yisrael.
In fact, Rav Sonnenfeld and Rav Yitzchak Yerucham Diskin made their beliefs public 3 years later with a published statement, informing British authorities of the traditional Jewish prayer for the well-being of their government and praised the generosity of the British government, saying (among other things):
We are especially indebted to the enlightened government of Great Britain, which has done us an extraordinary kindness by recognizing the rights of the Jewish nation to its ancestral land, and which has called for the building of our home in our holy land...
I cannot share the great exhilaration. The declaration is not yet the Redemption, nor even a partial one.
Rav Sonnenfeld personally involved himself with the British authorities (who found his arguments appealing), but the anti-religious elements of Tziyonut utilized manipulations (including media slander), subterfuge, and outright violence to achieve their means.
Rav Moshe Blau needed a large police escort to protect him from the secular mob on his way to deliver a shiur one Shabbos.
A gang of thugs attacked Rav Moshe Leib Bernstein.
Rav Sonnenfeld himself came under attack in his own home as he sat learning Torah with his grandson.
The anti-religious Tziyonim belligerently accused him of being a traitor and a moisser (informer to gentile authorities).
Rav Sonnenfeld gazed at them with fearlessness and pity.
Flustered by Rav Sonnenfeld's composure, the five young thugs grew more belligerent and aggressive until Rav Sonnenfeld bared his chest and shouted:
"I am prepared to sanctify the Name of Heaven! Shoot me! Kill me! But I will not budge from the truth even by a hairbreadth! Go and tell those who sent you that Orthodoxy will not be trod upon by wrongdoers. It is true that we have no control over your deeds and actions. But you, too, have no right to interfere in our affairs and dictate our actions. You can go your way and we will go ours and no threats will deter us."
But Rav Sonnenfeld refused to give over any information, not even revealing whether the thugs were Jews.
Some moisser! [sarc]
In fact, it was Rav Sonnenfeld who pointed out the loophole included in the Declaration, which enabled the British authorities to refrain from their pledge to the Jewish people by stipulating: "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."
Rav Avigdor Miller Says It in a Nutshell
As Rav Avigdor Miller summarized it:
Hakodosh Boruch Hu is doing things that have more than one purpose.
In the beginning, Medinas Yisroel served as a place where many Jews came. In the meantime, it became a haven.
But at the same time, it was a test. It’s an ordeal. Had they utilized it properly, it could have been a great gift.
But if it’s misused, so it’s like taking any good thing Hakodosh Boruch Hu gives to you which you could have utilized to do very great things and you didn’t.
So they failed. They failed and today it’s not even a safe haven for Jews.
Today the Am Yisroel is suffering from Medinas Yisroel.
TAPE # 166 (May 1978)
https://torasavigdor.org/qa/rav-avigdor-miller-on-why-hashem-created-medinas-yisroel/
A Glimmer of Redemption Waylaid into a False Omen
Had no Balfour Declaration existed, the British authorities would've remained with more room to allow Jewish immigration when it was needed the most: during the Holocaust.
Furthermore, we also see fulfillment of the rabbinic misgivings in our days:
Most influential positions in Israel's government, military, and media are under the control of the Erev Rav and now the Hamas.
Certainly, none of the Torah Sages, even the ones who also saw the Declaration as a partially good sign, would have approved of the anti-Torah policies, nor the way Israel wages war (which caused and continues to cause the deaths tens of thousands of Jews, plus it places the tiny country in a situation of ongoing conflict, both with enemies outside its borders and enemies from within), and an influx of non-Jewish socialists from Eastern Europe who ended up intermarrying with Jews, fake conversions, plus an influx of non-Jewish illegals from Africa and Asia.
So the Balfour Declaration ended up more of a false omen than anything else.
Don't Get Sucker-Punched into Following the False Premise of the Balfour Declaration
This is wrong (as indicated by the loophole described above).
Furthermore, that inaccurate premise posits the Balfour declaration as good for the Jews and bad for the Arabs, which as shown above, also remains false.
The Balfour Declaration was very good for the Arabs.
Not only did it preserve their rights, but it encouraged Jewish settlement, which has always aided Arab society and economic growth.
Increased social and economic advantages for Muslims living among Jews occurred in every Middle Eastern and North African country — Israel being no exception.
So Arabs needn't have feared Jewish immigration to Israel.
Furthermore, the Balfour Declaration harmed the Jewish people and Jewish immigration to Eretz Yisrael more than it helped.
As stated above, because the British were perceived — and perceived themselves — as having favored the Jews via the Declaration, they later perceived a need to then bend over backwards to placate their Muslim inhabitants, especially when those Muslims rose up with such vehemence and violence.
This, combined with the intensifying aggression of the Erev Rav Tziyoni leadership against the British, plus the Holocaust and the increasing desperation of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael (who somehow perceived the danger in Europe long before Jews anywhere else did) led to the severe curtailing of Jewish immigration to Eretz Yisrael just when the Jews of Europe needed it most.
To Sum Up the Main Points...
It's just to keep us strong in our own minds and hashkafahs.
Many people read so much, and even engage in all kinds of dialogue on line.
It's easy to slip into the quicksand of a false premise, such as the Balfour Declaration, whose critics always present it as: "Oy, the poor little Arabs against whom it discriminated! What more do you big, bad Jews want??!!"
This coerces the Jew into defending something not supported (or not unconditionally supported) by leading Torah Sages and their followers, and therefore, it's not an innately pro-Jewish document.
And the premise also ignores the innate right of every Torah-observant Jew to live in Eretz Yisrael with complete religious freedom and human rights REGARDLESS OF WHO IS IN CHARGE.
It doesn't matter whether there is a Jewish State or not. (And many have always questioned whether Medinat Yisrael is a "Jewish" State, given its role in destroying Torah Judaism and cultivating policies which destroy actual Jewish lives.)
Jews simply have a right to come live in Eretz Yisrael and live fully Jewish Torah lives without suffering any persecution or discrimination.
In summary:
- The Balfour Declaration did not actually grant advantages to the Jews over the Arabs.
- The Arabs did not suffer from the Balfour Declaration's encouragement of Jewish settlement, nor did the Declaration discriminate against the Arabs.
- The Balfour Declaration could have been a glimmer of Redemption, but the anti-Torah Tziyonim stamped out that glimmer.
- The Balfour Declaration ultimately harmed the Jews, mostly due to self-sabotage by the anti-religious Tziyonim.
At most, Lord Balfour basically said, "I kinda sorta agree with what God dictated in the Torah, that Jews can come to live in the Land He promised them — as long as that doesn't bother anyone else. And not all the Promised Land, just designated parts of it."
That's all the Declaration really means.
And just in your own mind for your own self, you should see through the false premises and know the truth about it.