Gilbert Achcar (French and Lebanese socialist academic, writer and a Professor of Development Studies and International Relations, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK): “'Is it an accident that Israel's rulers chose to sign treaties with Anwar Sadat rather than Nasser, and preferred Abbas over Arafat? Or is it a sign of elective affinities between Jew haters and Arab haters, whose vision of the world is the same, only stood on its head?’ and “Statist Zionism is a Janus with one face towards the Holocaust, the other toward the Nakba,” ( Gilbert Achcar, quoted in “Gilbert Achcar”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Achcar ).
Gilbert Achcar on the infamous Balfour Declaration (2017): “Christian Zionists see in the Jews’ “return” to Palestine a fulfilment of the condition of the Second Coming of the Christ, which will be followed by the Last Judgment condemning all Jews to eternal suffering in Hell, unless they convert to Christianity. This same current constitutes nowadays in the USA the staunchest supporter of Zionism in general and of the Zionist right in particular.Indeed, when he was Prime Minister himself, between 1902 and 1905, Arthur Balfour promulgated the 1905 Aliens Act, whose aim was to stop the immigration to Britain of Jewish refugees fleeing the murderous anti-Semitism that was thriving in the Russian Empire. The direct continuity between this fact and the letter of which PM May is proud, could not escape Edwin Montagu’s understanding. The Jewish Minister was particularly aware of the fact that the Zionists were counting on the anti-Semites for the fulfilment of their project of establishing a Zionist state in Palestine.… David Lloyd George’s cabinet tried to assuage [Jewish MP] Montagu’s concerns about the fate of the Palestinian non-Jewish majority and the fate of the Jews who were unwilling to become colonial settlers in Palestine by adding to their pledge to “use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement” of the object of “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” the provision that it was “clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” We know the abysmal record of the British government in keeping with these two provisos that were in complete contradiction with the central pledge of the infamous letter as well as with its true spirit. That PM Theresa May, a century later, could find in the infamous Balfour Declaration a matter of pride while stating her satisfaction at her party’s and government’s stance against antisemitism is indeed a reason for dismay at the low level of historical knowledge of Her Majesty’s present government and their speechwriters” (Gilbert Achcar, “Zionism, anti-semitism and the Balfour Declaration”, Open Democracy, 2 November 2017: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/zionism-anti-semitism-and-balfour-declaration/ ).