But still, naivety persisted in me. (Perhaps the word is wrong. We have to decide when and whether to trust our fellow beings. And there is a spectrum between an outright cynicism which can close the doors to our common humanity, and an over-expansive faith in that same humanity which may cause danger to ourselves and others.)
I knew and liked George Thomson, Professor of Greek when I was a young lecturer at Birmingham University. He was a convinced Marxist. Once I fell into conversation with him about the Balfour declaration (1917). This announced British support for the creation of a ‘national home’ for the Jewish people, but also stated that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine’. (The ‘declaration’ was actually a letter to Walter Rothschild, intended for onward transmission to the Zionists.)
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