RSSMore precisely, population displacement. Ashurbanipal would be confused by the efforts to moralize the tragic movement of populations for obvious racial and military purposes, but he didn’t have to deal with the nuisance of criticism through advanced media methods. He instead could leave stone tablets as a testament to his rationale to keep enemy populations impotent by uprooting them and moving them to remote geographic areas where they could not reorganize and attack his army. Were he able to do so, he may have admired Joe Djugashvili for his mass displacement policies that included propaganda and information blackouts, certainly a man aware of the tools of his time, but likely would have despised it as weakness and not an element of proud conquest. Though, one may conclude that Ashurbanipal was more humane than Stalin, and the Israelis of today, because he saw reason to leave them mostly alive to produce weapons, foods, and other economic benefits.
I’m surprised that there’s no reference by Ron to Joe Jeffries’ Palestine: The Reality, which is the best expose on what was going on at that time in the Vilayet of Palestine. Jeffries was a long-time correspondent for the Daily Mail (back when that publication was worthwhile to read) and was on the ground there during those core years. He carefully and scrupulously sets out the facts underlying the McMahon pact and the later arrangement adumbrated by the Balfour communique. He researched thoroughly the declaration, admittedly primarily from the British side as he had access only to those ministers and documents. But still, there’s a lot of material on the communications with Wilson’s people and he goes over each of the drafts that went back and forth across the Atlantic. It’s hard to get a hard cover version but there’s a soft cover new publication one can find on Amazon. If you have a real interest in the topic, it’s the Bible.