"In Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country. Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-old traditions, in present needs, in future hopes of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land."-Lord Balfour, 1919.
You have to admire the honesty of the British back then, so very different than the US today.
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I think, at the time, Lord Balfour didn't even know there was anything wrong with what he said. It was "normal" to subjugate the native inhabitants of the lands that were colonized. If you went up to him and told him he was being racist, he wouldn't have any idea what you were talking about.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there was no paparazzi back then, no Twitter, FB, YouTube, etc. You could say stupid or racist or assanine things, and there was a good chance that no one would catch it. Today, politicians & celebs can't burp without it getting "published" somewhere. But, they have "consultants" and "media reps" who feed them what to say or to avoid saying. Makes George W., Dan Quayle, and Sarah Palin look even more stupid - all that help and they still can't hide how dumb they are.