This research paper analyzes the circumstances which led to the adoption by the British government in November 1917 of the Balfour Declaration and discusses its principal consequences, including the relationship between its adoption and implementation and the eventual establishment in 1948 of the State of Israel. The Balfour Declaration grew out of the attachment of certain British governing elites to the Zionist goal of establishing a national homeland for Jews in Palestine (which was sedulously cultivated by able Zionist leaders), British efforts to limit French influence in the Levant and the complex Middle Eastern diplomacy among the Allied Powers during World War I. By late 1917 the British government saw the establishment of a postwar British protectorate over Palestine as in its strategic interest. The establishment of a Jewish homeland there served various British domestic and foreign policy goals. The immediate consequences of the Balfour Declaration included a rallying of worldwide Jewish opinion behind the Allied cause, the legitimization within Britain of its rule over Palestine and recognition by the world community of its Palestinian Mandate. Its adoption led to the expansion through immigration of the Jewish population of Palestine, the flourishing of a Jewish based economy and the establishment of Jewish political and military power in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration directly conflicted with promises made by the British to their Arab allies during World War I and affronted the then embryonic Arab nationalist movement. It led to a growing and sometimes violent opposition to Jewish domination of Palestine by the Arabs in surrounding areas and in Palestine itself which in turn caused the British to limit Jewish immigration and otherwise restrict Jewish influence over Palestinian affairs. Israeli independence would not have been possible without the Balfour Declaration; however, many other factors including the Hercul...