In my short time as British Ambassador to Israel I have come to realise that I carry around with me an extraordinary weight of historical baggage. But there is an issue which carries special salience. As a Jew and as a British citizen, the old accusation of "dual loyalty" has already raised its head.
In that context, the Balfour declaration, signed 93 years ago this month, is instructive - or, rather, the dramatis personae behind it are. I want to focus on just one aspect of the story - the different attitudes of the British Jews involved and how they dealt with the accusation of dual loyalty.
First, there was Walter Rothschild, to whom Balfour's letter was addressed and who was one of the key players in the debate leading up to the Declaration. Rothschild was one of the leaders of Britain's Jewish community, a close friend of Chaim Weizmann, and a late convert to Zionism.
There was Weizmann himself, who became a British subject in 1910. A scientist, his work on acetone helped win the Great War for Britain. He is credited with persuading Balfour to support the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. His Israeli passport as the first President carries the number "00001".
Another hand in the Declaration was Edwin Montagu's, the Secretary of State for India and a British Jew who was firmly opposed to Zionism. He argued against Balfour's Declaration calling it "antisemitic".
We all have multiple loyalties. Jewish duality is not unique
And there was Leo Amery, Political Secretary to the Cabinet. Amery had a Jewish mother and, though he concealed his Jewish antecedents, he used his influence to help Jewish causes. It was Amery who was given the task of amending the draft to accommodate the concerns of Montagu and those in the War Cabinet nervous of Arab opinion.
These four men, all proud British subjects, each had a different role in the drama, and each responded differently to the accusation that they held dual loyalty.
The charge of dual loyalty has been levelled against Jews for as long as we have been a diaspora, starting with the Romans in the first century. The Prophet Jeremiah did us a great favour. Writing to the Jewish community in Babylonia, he said: "Seek the welfare of the City to which I have exiled you, and pray to the Lord in its behalf, for in its prosperity shall you prosper." This was a principle enshrined by the talmudic rabbis, who knew that, for a people in exile, transparent loyalty was a question of survival.
The principle that it is possible to have more than one loyalty in life is an important one. I am a loyal British citizen; I am also a proud Jew. I would do anything to protect my wife and unborn daughter. I am a Londoner through and through. I want Cambridge to win the Boat Race. These loyalties operate on different levels, and they do not conflict. My identity as a proud Jew does not detract one iota from my loyalty as a British citizen.
In fact, I would go so far as to say not only that we can have more than one loyalty in life, but that we must. Imagine a person who has only one loyalty in life. That person is someone we would normally describe as a fanatic. We all have multiple loyalties, and it is a pretence to imply that somehow the challenges of a Jewish duality are somehow either unique or peculiarly problematic.
But has the creation of the state of Israel has changed the equation? As Jews, we have feelings for Israel but this does not mean that British Jews who love Israel, and care about Israel, and support Israel's security and prosperity, are any the less loyal British citizens for doing so.
I think I am typical in this respect. Britain is my country. I am a loyal British subject. I love my country, I take pride in its history, I am moved by its values. My family may not have been in Britain as long as some but, in taking in my grandfather, Britain earned the loyalty of his descendants.
As a British Jew, I love Israel. I take pride in Israel's achievements, I grieve for its lost children, and I yearn for the day when Gilad Shalit is returned to his parents. And there is no contradiction here.
How can I be so confident? Because, if I am wrong, my job here as the first Jew to be British Ambassador to Israel would be impossible.
I am asked what I will do when there are tensions between Britain and Israel, and hence between my loyalty to Britain and my love of Israel. At those times, there can be no doubt and no debate about my role - I am here to implement the policies of my democratically elected government, and to represent my country, and my country is Britain.
So, to go back to our four Jewish characters in the history of the Balfour Declaration, who does that make me? I think the one I am closest to is the one who was secure in his identity as a British subject, but also secure in his identity as a Jew. The one whose loyalty to Britain was unquestioned but who nonetheless supported the creation of the state of Israel. The 2nd Baron Rothschild. Just without all the money.
Matthew Gould became the first Jewish British Ambassador to Israel in September
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