Illustrative image (The Israeli Defense Forces)
It is not often a member of one of the world’s most powerful families decides to speak up on how things are really run behind closed doors, but for some reason, may be the need to show off at an old age or possibly to send a message, Lord Jacob Rothschild decided to tell in details how the Balfour Declaration, which laid the ground for the establishment of the State of Israel, came to be during a 2017 interview.
Jacob, a towering figure in British finance and a staunch supporter of Israel, passed away at the age of 87 on February 26 of 2024.
Born into the Rothschild Jewish banking family, Jacob spent several years at the family bank, N M Rothschild & Sons after studying in Eton College and Oxford University.
In 1980, he established his own ventures, including J Rothschild Capital Management and played a key role in companies such as RIT Capital Partners plc.
Following on the family tradition, Jacob was deeply involved in supporting Jewish communities throughout Europe through his leadership of The Rothschild Foundation “Hanadiv” Europe. He also served as Honorary President of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
Unsurprisingly, Jacob was also an outspoken Zionist. As chairman of Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild family foundation in Israel, he oversaw substantial contributions to Israeli institutions.
The Israeli Parliament building, Knesset, and the Supreme Court building of Israel were both built by the family, which was also deeply involved in the development of the National Library of Israel through Yad Hanadiv.
The family’s long-running involvement with Zionism began with one man, Edmond de Rothschild, the namesake of Yad Hanadiv who earned the title “Hanadiv Hayadua” – the notable benefactor – for his hefty donations assisting Jewish migration to Ottoman, later Mandate, Palestine.
Edmond’s son James de Rothschild, alongside his wife Dorothy, maintained close relations with early Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann.
By connecting Weizmann to their contacts in the British political elite, the couple proved instrumental in bringing about the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which declared support for a Jewish national home in Palestine.
In an interview with Daniel Taub, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom, to mark the centenary year of the Declaration, which was signed by Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, in November of 1917, Jacob described the declaration, which was addressed to his great uncle 100 years ago, as “one of the most extraordinary moments in the history of the Jewish people”.
“You think ‘how did this miracle happen?’ You had an impoverished would-be scientist, Chaim Weizmann, who somehow gets to England, meets a few people, including members of my family, and seduces them – he had such great charm and conviction,” Jacob said.
“He gets to Balfour, and he unbelievably persuades Balfour, and Lloyd-George, the Prime Minister, and most of the Ministers, that this idea, of a national home for Jews should be allowed to take place. I mean, it’s so unlikely,” he continued.
“This is perhaps the greatest event in Jewish life for thousands of years, and it’s a miracle that it took place,” he added.
Jacob did point out, however, that the family was divided in its views on Zionism, with some who “felt it was better to be assimilated into English life, and although they retained their interest in Judaism and Jewish life, they didn’t think it was a good thing that this national home should be established in Israel.”
Nevertheless, James, the son of Baron Edmond de Rothschild from the French branch of the banking family, was an ardent Zionist, as was his young wife, Dorothy.
“I think it was due to him that she became interested. But once she became interested, she became passionately interested,” he said
“And you can read the letters from her to Weizmann and Weizmann to her when she was only seventeen, and what she did, which was crucially important, was to connect up Weizmann with the British establishment,” he added.
Although Jacob described himself as “completely committed to Israel since the early 1960’s”, he said he did not feel any conflict between that commitment and what he said was “huge loyalty to Great Britain.”
During the interview, Jacob noted the part of the declaration which stated “that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
However, since the establishment of the Jewish state, Palestinians have been persecuted both in Israel and their occupied territories.
The re-emergence of Jacob’s interview on social networks came amid one of the most violent episodes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has so far claimed the lives of close to 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
i scrub toilet shekelstein janitor co 37 years for superior jews—now i bitter senile cuz transgender husband reject me
how many thousand years of age was this repulsive beast ?
💩💩💩 = 🇮🇱
zionist evil is age less. the parasites don’t die easily.
zionist evil must be expelled from palestine 🇵🇸 first and then eradicated from the planet.