the same district in which Weizmann lived. His name was Arthur Balfour. Balfour was a man of deep Christian faith. His encounter with Weizmann left a lasting impression and a growing conviction concerning the return of the Jewish people to the land.
“Then came the events that would lead to the First World War, which in turn would lead to Weizmann’s appointment to the British Admiralty laboratories and as an adviser to the newly established Ministry of Munitions, the head of which was David Lloyd George. Lloyd George’s knowledge of the Bible had predisposed him to the dream of a Jewish homeland in Israel. But it was Weizmann’s impact on Lloyd George that would be critical in the events that followed.
“At the time of Weizmann’s appointment, British and Allied forces found themselves in the midst of a crisis over the shortage of a chemical vital for the war effort, acetone. Weizmann came up with a process of producing the substance in mass quantities. It would prove a key factor in helping the Allies attain victory. But it was another chain of events that would lead to one of the most critical moments in two thousand years of Jewish history. In December 1916 the government of the British prime minister H. H. Asquith collapsed. The man who succeeded him was David Lloyd George. For his foreign secretary, Lloyd George appointed Arthur Balfour. So the two men who were in favor of a Jewish homeland were suddenly lifted to the heights of world power at that critical moment. If Asquith’s government had not collapsed just when it did, what was about to happen would never have taken place. You see, Asquith was against the idea of a Jewish homeland. And it was only in that small window of time that these things could have come about.”
“So his government had to crumble,” I replied.
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “and had to crumble just at that moment.”
“Why then?”
“Because it was the very end of 1916. 1917 was coming. And 1917 was the year of Jubilee. And it just happened to be the same year that the British Empire would be placed in the position of determining the future of the land of Israel. And as the Jubilee concerns the return of one’s ancestral land, so world history would now turn to the Middle East and to the land of the ancient inheritance.
“As the year of Jubilee began, members of the British government held a conference concerning Palestine. By the middle of the year Balfour called for a draft to be made for a public declaration concerning the land. By autumn the British Cabinet was in discussion over the form the declaration would take.
“But it was determined that the plan wouldn’t proceed unless it had the support of the American president. On October 16, 1917, the British government was informed that the president, Woodrow Wilson, was in favor of the declaration. On October 31 the declaration was approved by the British War Cabinet. Two days later, on November 2, it went forth in the form of a letter penned by the foreign secretary, which included a single sentence that would come to be known as the Balfour Declaration. It declared,
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..."1
“It’s the Jubilee declaration,” I said, “the return of the land to the original owner.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “and it must return in the fiftieth year. So it had to happen in that year, 1917. And so it did, and just in time, as the year neared its end. And in the Jubilee the transference is a matter of law. It has to be recognized in some way by the reigning authorities. And so it was the British Empire, a reigning authority, that issued the recognition. That recognition would be both momentous and historic. It was the first such declaration of any major power since ancient times, the first since the Roman Empire drove the Jewish people out of their land two thousand years earlier.”
“My vision ended with a Roman soldier . . . ”
“Yes, and it began with a British officer riding with a document. The document was the Balfour Declaration.”
“And the other riders?” I asked.
“They represented the powers that had taken the land and occupied it in the two thousand years when the Jewish people were in exile . . . the Ottomans, the Mamluks, the