Editing Balfour Declaration (section)

==== Late 1917: Progress of the wider war ====
[[File:World War I Palestine campaign, Military situation immediately prior to the release of the Balfour Declaration.jpg|thumb|Military situation at 18:00 on 1 Nov 1917, immediately prior to the release of the Balfour Declaration.]]
During the period of the British War Cabinet discussions leading up to the declaration, the war had reached a period of stalemate. On the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] the tide would first turn in favour of the Central Powers in [[German spring offensive|spring 1918]],{{sfn|Zieger|2001|pp=97–98}} before decisively [[Second Battle of the Marne|turning in favour of the Allies]] from July 1918 onwards.{{sfn|Zieger|2001|pp=97–98}} Although the United States declared war on Germany in the spring of 1917, it did not suffer its first casualties until 2 November 1917,{{sfn|Zieger|2001|p=91}} at which point President [[Presidency of Woodrow Wilson|Woodrow Wilson]] still hoped to avoid dispatching large contingents of troops into the war.{{sfn|Zieger|2001|p=58}} The Russian forces were known to be distracted by the ongoing [[Russian Revolution]] and the growing support for the [[Bolshevik]] faction, but [[Alexander Kerensky]]'s [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]] had remained in the war; Russia only withdrew after the final stage of the revolution [[October Revolution|on 7{{nbsp}}November 1917]].{{sfn|Zieger|2001|pp=188–189}}