The Balfour Declaration radically changes the status of the Zionist movement.

It promises support from a major world power and gives the Zionists international recognition.

Zionism is transformed by the British pledge from a quixotic dream into a legitimate and achievable undertaking.

For these reasons, the Balfour Declaration is widely criticized throughout the Arab world, and especially in Palestine, as contrary to the spirit of British pledges contained in the Hussein-McMahon correspondence.

The wording of the document itself, although painstakingly devised, is interpreted differently by different people, according to their interests. (Ultimately, it is found to contain two incompatible undertakings: establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jews and preservation of the rights of existing non-Jewish communities, i.e., the Arabs. The incompatibility will sharpen over the succeeding years and become irreconcilable.)