In 1917, Lord Balfour sent a letter to Lord Rothschild, President of the British Zionist Federation, stating that the British Government would facilitate the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. President Wilson expressed his support for the Balfour Declaration when he stated on March 3, 1919.
The allied nations with the fullest concurrence of our government and people are agreed that in Palestine shall be laid the foundations of a Jewish Commonwealth.
After Wilson left office, his successors expressed similar support for the Zionist enterprise. "It is impossible for one who has studied at all the services of the Hebrew people to avoid the faith that they will one day be restored to their historic national home and there enter on a new and yet greater phase of their contribution to the advance of humanity". said President Warren Harding.
Calvin Coolidge expressed his "sympathy with the deep and intense longing which finds such fine expression in the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine".
"Palestine which, desolate for centuries, is now renewing its youth and vitality through enthusiasm, hard work, and self sacrifice of the Jewish pioneers who toil there in a spirit of peace and soical justice". observed Herbert Hoover.
Congress was no less sympathetic to the Zionist objective. One can look back to the joint Congressional resolutions of 1922 and 1944 that unanimously passed an endorsement of Balfour Declaration. The House Foreign Affairs Committee stated in 1922: The Jews of America are profoundly interested in establishing a National Home in the ancient land for their race. Indeed, this is the ideal of the Jewish people, everywhere, for despite their dispersion, Palestine has been the object of their veneration since they were expelled by the Romans. For generations they have prayed for the return to Zion. During the past century this prayer has assumed pratical form.
Legislatures in 33 states, representing 85 percent of the population, also adopted resolutions favoring thr creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Governors of 37 states, 54 United States senators and 250 congressmen signed petitions to the President. |
