A needle in a haystack.

Britain declared its support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. The territory subsequently covered by the Mandate for Palestine included the lands of present-day Israel and Jordan, as well as the West Bank and Gaza. In 1920, the Allied powers met in San Remo, Italy, and agreed to incorporate that commitment into the British Mandate for Palestine. In 1922, the League of Nations formally approved the mandate, explicitly recognizing the Jewish people’s historical connection to the land. This recognition did not create that connection. It acknowledged it. Even the Hashemite leadership acknowledged the Jewish people’s ancestral connection to the land while still ruling Islam’s holy cities in Arabia. On March 23, 1918, Al-Qibla, the official newspaper of Hussein bin Ali, King of the Hejaz and Sharif of Mecca, published an article recognizing that connection. Hussein was a leading figure in the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans, supported by ...