Page 33 - Balfour100-E

✡ Preparations Battle of Beersheba 33

cided to release the 4th Australian Light At almost the same time as the Light months witnessed more battles as the
Horse Brigade directly at Beersheba. Horse were charging into Beersheba, EEF moved north to capture Gaza, Jaffa,
They had never trained for a mounted the War Cabinet met in London and Jerusalem, Jericho, Jenin, Haifa, Tibe-
assault, as they were mounted infantry, voted overwhelmingly for the estab- rias, Amman, Damascus and Aleppo.
but at about 16:30 hours upwards of 500 lishment of a Jewish National Home An armistice with Turkey finally came
Australian mounted infantry came onto in Palestine. This decision was com- into effect on 31 October 1918.
the plain some eight kilometres east municated in a letter two days later This overall victory set matters up
of Beersheba and, despite being under by Lord Balfour to Lord Rothschild for the official implementation of the
Turkish artillery fire, made their way and henceforth became known as the Balfour Declaration within the Pal-
across the plain, at the trot, then the ‘Balfour Declaration’. estine Mandate which was offered to
canter and finally the gallop. The one vote cast against came from the British by the League of Nations
They rode so fast that they galloped the only Jewish member of the Cabinet, in 1922.
under the artillery guns whose marks- Sir Edwin Montagu. Those who voted Although by the end of the Pal-
men could not adjust the range quickly in favour were all Gentiles, many with estine Mandate period (between
enough. They then cleared the first an evangelical Christian heritage, a 1939-1948), the British Government
Turkish trenches, dismounted and en- product of the Protestant Reformation, had mostly reversed its position on
countered stiff hand-to-hand combat. which it could be said had its official a Jewish restoration, the victory at
Some men also rode directly into the birth exactly 400 years previously. Beersheba and simultaneous issuing of
town and were able to stop a German the Balfour Declaration provided the
engineer from destroying the valuable Conquest of Palestine Jewish people with ample opportunity
water wells. to establish a foundation and begin
By about 18:00 hours Beersheba Indeed the victory at Beersheba on 31 building their National Home in Pal-
was safely in the hands of the EEF and October is one of the most important estine. That home ultimately became
Chauvel had obtained the victory that events in the modern history of Israel, the State of Israel, which was founded
Allenby had requested. Soldiers from for without that victory, the Balfour on 14 May 1948.
Britain, Australia and New Zealand Declaration was just a worthless piece With this perspective in mind, we
(from the uttermost ends of the earth) of paper. Beersheba opened the door can indeed see that the Battle of Beer-
had captured Beersheba, the town as- to the conquest of Palestine, the land sheba on 31 October 1917 was more
sociated with Abraham. of covenant promise. The following 11 than just a military victory.