This month, I attended the spectacular centenary dinner for the Balfour Declaration at Lancaster House, with descendants of many of its creators: Lloyd Georges, the photographer Christopher Sykes, grandson of Sir Mark Sykes. The dinner was hosted and organised by Jacob Rothschild and Roderick Balfour, who entered with the prime ministers of Israel and Britain. Jeremy Corbyn refused to attend but sent deputy Tom Watson and shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry. In his speech, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed imminent developments in the peace process; no one was convinced but he was surely hinting at the potential of the new relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Even though the Saudis would love to manipulate Jerusalem into a war against Hezbollah, client of their mutual enemy Iran, Israel is becoming ever more part of the Arab Middle East. One surprise was that Theresa May gave the best, most passionate speech of her career. If she could do it there, why doesn’t she do it more often?
This is an extract from Simon Sebag Montefiore's diary, from this week's Spectator