From the Balfour Declaration to the Brexit, Britain and the misfortunes of improvisational politics

Both were David and both were prime ministers of Britain, but a hundred years apart, and both made a decision that changed or almost changed the course of history.

They are David Cameron and David Lloyd George, who thinks British historian Gardner Thompson that it is useful to study what they did to take the lesson and move away from "improvisation politics," he wrote in an article published on the site "Open Democracy."

In 2015, David Cameron offered to hold a Brexit referendum to win the support of some members of the nationalist party Jukeb. In 1917 David Lloyd George offered Palestine a "national homeland for the Jews" to win the support of the Zionist movement. Both - David I and II - were short-sighted and thoughtful, as the author put it.

Lloyd George declared his support for Zionism in the "Balfour Declaration" in November 1917, initially a war decision intended to persuade Jews in Russia and the United States to double their support for the Allied war effort. Ultimately, however, Zionist support did not add to the allies' efforts. After 1918, Lloyd George decided not to renege on his pledge and included the Balfour Declaration in the British Mandate for Palestine. His decision to keep his promise in peacetime was far more important than his declaration during the war.

The main criticism of Lloyd George's policy was that it challenged all the facts, arguments, and prophecies that it had warned before 1922, when the Mandate resolution was ratified.

For example, Edwin Montague, the only Jew in the British cabinet at the time, predicted two results of that policy in August 1917: "When the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, you will find people in Palestine expelling their current population and taking the best of At the same time "Jews will be treated as foreigners in all countries except Palestine." In Montague's view, Zionism was a "subversive doctrine," but his fears were not heeded.

Then, in 1919, two prominent Americans, Henry King and Charles Crane, investigated the status of Palestine in favor of peacemaking efforts.

They added that "no British officer consulted by the commissioners considered that the Zionist project could be implemented only by force of arms."

In 1936, Arabs revolted against British rule as Jewish immigration rose. The following year, the report of a commission of inquiry headed by Lord Bell was released and its results were unambiguous. The report confirmed the above-mentioned prophecies. "A conflict that cannot be contained between two nationalities has erupted," he said. "There is no hope of a settlement."

The long-term consequences of Lloyd George's reckless policy were dire for the British Empire and then for the Middle East.

Today, more than seventy years after the founding of the State of Israel, there is no solution in Palestine.

This legacy of Lloyd George should have been a warning to all statesmen afterwards to take account of reality before they intervene in the affairs of distant countries and peoples.

David Cameron's nearsightedness and failure were similar to what he had gone through. Lloyd George has provoked ongoing conflict in distant lands, and Cameron has created a deep rift within his own country.