Free Republic

BEERSHEBA, Israel (Reuters) - An “Australian light horse brigade” of history enthusiasts rode through the Israeli desert town of Beersheba on Tuesday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of a World War One cavalry charge that helped reshape the Middle East. The victory by the Australia and New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) in the Battle of Beersheba, a biblical town in what was Ottoman Palestine in 1917, broke a strategic Turkish defense line and led to the conquest of the Holy Land by British imperial forces. Dozens of history buffs, including descendents of the soldiers of the 4th Brigade of the Australian...

The Fatah movement headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas emphasizes its continued adherence to the "national struggle" as a means to counter all the "colonialist" plans which they believe seek to undermine the existence of the "Palestinian people" and their cause. Such "colonialist" plans range from the Balfour Declaration to US President Donald Trump's peace plan. On the occasion of the approaching 102nd anniversary of the statement by former British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour in support of the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people, the Fatah movement called the Balfour Declaration a "historic crime" against humanity...

NEW YORK - A draft of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 document in which Britain expressed support for a Jewish state, is to be auctioned next month. The draft was handwritten by Leon Simon, an English Zionist leader, at a meeting on July 17, 1917, of the Zionist Political Committee at London's Imperial Hotel, Sotheby's auction house said Tuesday in a news release. It is the only known surviving handwritten draft of the declaration, Sotheby's said. Written on hotel stationery and using some abbreviations, it reads: "H(is) M(ajesty's) G(overnment) accepts the principle that P(alestine) should be reconstituted as the Nat(ional)...