מאה שנים ל"הצהרת בלפור" האמריקנית: נקודת מפנה בהתגבשות הלובי הציוני באמריקה

In 1922, the American Congress passed a resolution that repeated the Balfour Declaration almost verbatim. This decision – known as the Lodge-Fish decision, after the members of Congress who introduced it – was adopted as part of a political lobbying campaign carried out by local Zionist activists in the middle ranks, against the official position of the World Zionist Organization and its branch in America. The decision held dramatic significance in the political struggle for the ratification of the mandates at a stage when the focus of resistance had shifted to the United States.In this article, the author traces the initiators of the decision, their methods of action, and the political worldviews that guided them. Based on primary archival sources, the author isolates the actors and presents the events as they were. The author proposes to see the Lodge-Fish decision as the “zero moment” of the political relations between Zionism and the United States, since it includes for the first time all the elements that would accompany these relations to this day: lobbying by American Jews, tensions between the legislative arm (Congress) on the one hand and the administration and the State Department on the other, and the transfer of the political center of gravity to the United States as part of the new world order created after World War I. Despite its enthusiastic pro-Zionist rhetoric, the administration adopted a policy that made it difficult for Zionism to be realized due to considerations of oil-related American business interests. This fact makes these events particularly relevant and interesting.