For me, the nations leaders take orders from higher up, the unseen hand so to speak (at least to voters).
The wealthy elite, industrialists, their think tanks and so on. And I do think part of that is the royal families, including QE2 and the people around her.
I feel many of them have wanted an Israel to exist for quite a while now, and at the same time there existed legitimate opposition... but as the centralisation of power continued to occur, pressure is applied to any opposition, at least thats my take on it.
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore (or Moses Chaim Montifiore), 1st Baronet, Kt FRS (24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was an English financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London.
He donated large sums of money to promote industry, education and health amongst the Jewish community in the Levant, including the founding of Mishkenot Sha'ananim in 1860, the first settlement of the New Yishuv.
As President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews,
his correspondence with the British consul in Damascus Charles Henry Churchill in 1841-42
is seen as pivotal to the development of Proto-Zionism.
Jewish philanthropy and the Holy Land were at the center of Montefiore's interests.
In 1854 his friend Judah Touro, a wealthy American Jew, died having bequeathed money to fund Jewish residential settlement in Palestine. Montefiore was appointed executor of his will, and used the funds for a variety of projects aimed at encouraging the Jews to engage in productive labor. In 1855, he purchased an orchard on the outskirts of Jaffa that offered agricultural training to the Jews.
In 1860, he built the first Jewish residential settlement and almshouse outside the old walled city of Jerusalem, today known as Mishkenot Sha'ananim. This became the first settlement of the New Yishuv. Living outside the city walls was dangerous at the time, due to lawlessness and bandits. Montefiore offered financial inducement to encourage poor families to move there. Later on, Montefiore established the two Knesset Yisrael neighborhoods, one for Sephardic Jews, one for Ashkenazim, which were even further away.
Montefiore donated large sums of money to promote industry, education and health amongst the Jewish community in Palestine. The project, bearing the hallmarks of nineteenth century artisanal revival, aimed to promote productive enterprise in the Yishuv.
The builders were brought over from England. These activities were part of a broader program to enable the Jews of Palestine to become self-supporting in anticipation of the establishment of a Jewish homeland.
In 1812, Moses Montefiore married Judith Cohen (1784–1862), daughter of Levi Barent Cohen. Her sister, Henriette (or Hannah) (1783–1850), married Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777–1836), for whom Montefiore's firm acted as stockbrokers. Nathan Rothschild headed the family's banking business in Britain, and the two brothers-in-law became business partners. Montefiore retired from his business in 1824, and used his time and fortune for communal and civic responsibilities. Physically imposing at 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), he was elected Sheriff of London in 1837 and served until 1838.
He was also knighted[4] that same year by Queen Victoria and received a baronetcy in 1846 in recognition of his services to humanitarian causes on behalf of the Jewish people.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Montefiore
^ point of me putting that up is to show that the British Royal familiy where knighting proto-Zionists, which indicates to me they supported it.
And I think the British Royal Family (for one) are far from being powerless politically all the way to today, modern times, despite the fact that they make themselves out to be somewhat powerless these days, and the result of this is other nations leaders/representatives being influenced over time.
Along the same lines, a number of members of the Rothschild family involved in Zionism and setting up Israel have also been knighted by the British Royal Family, indicating to me the influential royals support it of course.
In 1917 Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild was the addressee of the Balfour Declaration to the Zionist Federation,[29] which committed the British government to the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.
After the death of James Jacob de Rothschild in 1868, Alphonse Rothschild, his eldest son, who took over the management of the family bank, was the most active in support for Eretz Israel.[30] The Rothschild family archives show that during the 1870s the family contributed nearly 500,000 francs per year on behalf of Eastern Jewry to the Alliance Israélite Universelle.[31]
Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, James Jacob de Rothschild's youngest son was a patron of the first settlement in Palestine at Rishon-LeZion, and bought from Ottoman landlords parts of the land which now makes up present-day Israel.
In 1924, he established the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA), which acquired more than 125,000 acres (22,36 km²) of land and set up business ventures.[32] In Tel Aviv, he has a road, Rothschild Boulevard, named after him as well as various localities throughout Israel which he assisted in founding including Metulla, Zikhron Ya'akov, Rishon Lezion, and Rosh Pina.
A park in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, the Parc Edmond de Rothschild (Edmond de Rothschild Park) is also named after its founder.[33] The Rothschilds also played a significant part in the funding of Israel's governmental infrastructure. James A. de Rothschild financed the Knesset building as a gift to the State of Israel[34] and the Supreme Court of Israel building was donated to Israel by Dorothy de Rothschild.[35] Outside the President's Chamber is displayed the letter Mrs. Rothschild wrote to the then current Prime Minister Shimon Peres expressing her intention to donate a new building for the Supreme Court.[36]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_family
So in summary I think pressure from powerful wealthy elite changed some nations views over time.
I think we all know what happens if a nation
doesnt play ball these days, first comes financial/economic pressure, then last resort is the Lockheeds are sent in and Raytheons fall from the sky. (Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan... Nth Korea next?)
