Palestine – What If

 Balfour Declaration (November 2nd, 1917)

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."  (Source)

What if when the British left Palestine after World War I they had lived up to the words of the Balfour Declaration. What if they had given Palestine back to the Palestinians, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Arab and Jewish, and established a secular government with freedom of religion with the condition that all Jews be allowed to immigrate and gain citizenship and no existing residents be displaced.

There is nothing in the concept of a Jewish homeland that says it has to be a theocracy or religious based state or that it be a segregated or apartheid religious state. What if that Jewish homeland was one where Jews, Muslims, Christians and others lived peacefully together. Even if the population became majority Jewish due to Jewish immigration I cannot help but think the history of the Middle East, and conceivably the world, would have been much different.