Description
On November 2, 1917, Arthur Balfour, then Foreign Secretary, wrote to Lord Rothschild to say that the British Government viewed with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. The consequences of this statement have reverberated throughout the world in a crescendo of bitterness and violence ever since. It interposed a European (mainly Russian) Jewish cultural idea in an Arab land and it led eventually to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Eleven years before his declaration, Balfour had met the passionate Zionist and émigré chemist Chaim Weizmann while electioneering in Manchester. At the centre of Geoffrey Lewis's compelling book is the story of this encounter and the developing relationship between these two men: the Zionist and the Zealot, so different from each other, yet drawn together by forces that neither quite understood, with consequences that were to have a profound effect on the modern world.
Table of Contents
1. Jew and Arab
2. The Dream of Zion
3. Arthur Balfour
4. Chaim Weizmann
5. 'Uganda'
6. England
7. Palestine before the War
8. Messianic Times
9. Placating the French, Inciting the Arabs
10. First Steps to the Balfour Declaration
11. The Turning Point
12. It's a Boy!
13. At the Threshold
14 Epilogue
Author(s)
Geoffrey Lewis,
Geoffrey Lewis is the author of biographies of Lord Atkin, Lord Hailsham and Carson: The Man Who Divided Ireland (Hambledon Continuum 2006).
Reviews
'[A] thoughtful account ... Lewis explores with skill the diverse forces that produced the Balfour Declaration, including Britain's desire to obtain the support of both American and Russian Jews for the flagging war effort, and the fact of Jewish nationalism.' - Standpoint
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'A perceptive, elegantly written and fair-minded book.' - Observer
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'A first-class examination of the origins of the state of Israel' - The Tablet
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"...an interesting book that carefully avoids political and ideological traps and suggests a diverse and fresh perspective on this delicate issue, which has changed the course of Middle Eastern history."
The Middle East in London, October 2009
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