The Northcliffe Press and Zionism: The Times, The Daily Mail, and the Battle for the Jewish National Home in Palestine, 1917-1922

Abstract

The historiography of Zionism in the immediate post-Balfour Declaration period has correctly assigned much of the credit for the Chaim Weizmann-led movement’s successful quest for legitimacy in Great Britain to statesman such as Herbert Samuel, Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and Arthur Balfour. But the historical understanding of the role played by pre-eminent media figures Lord Northcliffe, owner of Britain’s prestigious and popular newspapers The Times and The Daily Mail, and H. Wickham Steed, editor of The Times, is much less coherent, owing to the fact that these leading influencers initially supported Zionism in their papers before turning against it in an aggressive manner a few years after the Balfour Declaration was issued.

A comprehensive analysis of the Palestine/Zionism-related articles in The Times and The Daily Mail from 1917-1922 challenges several common assumptions about the press’s role in the creation of the Jewish national home, and reveals the crucial contribution that the Northcliffe papers made in validating Weizmann’s early activities in Palestine. While both papers did eventually launch classic Northcliffe-style propaganda campaigns against Weizmann and his cadre, this thesis will argue that Northcliffe and Steed’s earlier efforts in validating the movement in the eyes of the British public was far more impactful and played an essential role in confirming Britain’s sponsorship of the Zionist plan for Palestine.